Kaieteur News

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Online readership yesterday 97,131

January 27, 2013

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

Govt. stages late night walkout…

Motion passed to establish National Commemoration Commission Linden Hospital Police play crucial role, accounts staff 10th body recovered Mazaruni River crash…

arrested in $25M

fraud probe

What's this sign about?

Can anyone read the sign here outside the Sparendaam Police Station? While the police are busy apprehending motorists for all kinds of infractions, a thought should be spared for this road sign just under their noses.

iza n a Sh aniff H

Community-minded role model,

Ouditnarine Tejpertab, is a 'Special Person'

Execution in hotel yard…

Killer suspected to be known 'hit-man'

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Kaieteur News

Sunday January 27, 2013

Intensive efforts being made to improve GPHC service – Dr Derkenne The capacity of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) has been significantly bolstered through various residency programmes all geared at helping to foster continuous medical education and by extension lend to improvement of the level of health care offered.

Among those rendering their expert assistance to this cause is Dr Ruth Derkenne who has a wealth of experience in Family Medicine, as well as Obstetrics and Tropical Medical Medicine and Public Health.

She has for the past three years been attached to the GPHC along with her husband Dr Nicholas Foget who was invited by the officials of the Public Hospital to direct the Emergency Residency Programme there which started a few years back.

Armed with a wealth of skills, last year Dr Derkenne was asked to take up the post of Assistant Residency Director of the GPHC’s Residency Master’s Degree Programme in Obstetrics and Gynaecology.

During an interview,

yesterday, she said that she and her husband made the decision to come to Guyana “because we both have an interest in global health and using the skills that we have to improve the capacity of doctors and nurses in countries.”

But even before embracing the Residency Master’s Programme, Dr Derkenne was involved in other training programmes for other levels of health workers such as the VIA cervical cancer screening programme, HIV training with a focus on the prevention of Mother-tochild transmission of the disease, Emergency Obstetric training as well as family planning training.

Her efforts also included a move towards helping to improve the overall delivery of health care which was taken a notch higher when the hospital decided to collaborate last year with the Case Western University in the United States to help establish the GPHC Residency Programme in Obstetrics and Gynaecology.

According to Dr Derkenne this move was engaged following the

Dr Ruth Derkenne recognition of the powers that be in Guyana that a number of short programmes that were offered could only help but for a little while.

“What Guyana really needed was a long term sustainable programme to train specialists who would then stay in the country and care for the women of Guyana...”

Although the four-year training programme has started on a small scale, with six doctors currently in

training, expert support is certainly not lacking. In fact the programme is currently on par with that offered in the United States and other countries.

Dr Derkenne said, yesterday, that for the first time Guyana has been asked to participate in the Council on Resident Education in Obstetrics and Gynaecology (CREOG) examinations. The examination was administered over the past weekend by the Vice President for Education at the American College of Obstetrics and Gyneacology in the United States, Dr Sterling Williams.

“With our residents participating we will be able to compare how our residents are performing compared to residents in the US and many

different countries around the world,” said Dr Derkenne.

According to her, the need for collaboration is essential since there are not enough specialists in Guyana to provide the intensity of training that is required for the Residency Master’s programme.

Every month at least one physician from the United States is invited to lecture to the residents in a particular area of the course.

Those undertaking the Residency programme are regarded as well established doctors with some having as many as 15 years medical practice in the local health sector.

But although the programme is slated to span

a period of four years, Dr Derkenne insisted yesterday that “we certainly don’t need to wait four years to see results. In fact we have seen the standard of care improved already in the 10 months that the programme has been running and it may not be as obvious to the public because there are still occasions of bad outcomes but it takes a long time to completely change the system.”

She noted too that while the public may not be aware, there are great things that are happening at the GPHC. According to her there are intensive efforts “coming from different supporters and changes are happening; things are improving and we hope that the public will be able to see that too.”

Execution in hotel yard…

Killer suspected to be known ‘hit-man’ The tall, slim gunman who brazenly executed businessman Intaz Roopnarine in a West Ruimveldt hotel yard is believed to be a paid killer who is known to the police.

This was disclosed yesterday by a senior official who said that investigators came to this conclusion after repeated viewing of surveillance video which showed the killer chasing Roopnarine.

Kaieteur News understands that while the killer’s face is not clearly visible, the man’s build and posture fit those of the suspect.

“He is known for that sort of thing but we have not located him,” the official said.

Sources who viewed the video also said that the manner in which the execution was carried out suggested that the killing was the work of a professional.

The official who spoke to Kaieteur News said that police have searched a North Ruimveldt residence and other places that the man frequents but have failed to find him.

A warhead recovered at the scene indicated that the killer used a .32 revolver, but police have been unable to match the warhead to any firearm.

According to reports reaching Kaieteur News, Roopnarine, had booked into Room Seven at the Cool Square Hotel during the early hours of Thursday.

Some passersby later

observed the gunman, with white cap pulled down, sitting on a culvert some 50 metres north of the hotel some time after 05:00 hrs on the morning of the shooting. The man was also using his cell phone.

One of the hotel security guards also observed the strange man lurking near the hotel and became suspicious.

Around 05:30 hrs, Roopnarine and his female companion exited their room and went to the front gate, which was locked. They then stood at the gate waiting for their taxi to arrive.

The security guard, according to sources, informed the businessman of the stranger’s presence and repeatedly cautioned Roopnarine to remain in the hotel.

However, Roopnarine reportedly drew his firearm, waved it in the air, and told the guard that he was “the baddest man around.”

Some minutes later, a taxi arrived for the businessman and his companion.

The hotel guard then unlocked the gate and the woman exited. According to sources who viewed the camera footage, Roopnarine was about to follow his companion when the tall gunman scaled the hotel fence. The guard and Roopnarine immediately took evasive action.

Kaieteur News was told that the gunman discharged a shot at his fleeing target but missed and struck one of the hotel windows.

According to sources, there were several open rooms in which Roopnarine could have taken cover.

Instead, the apparently panicstricken man fled down a passageway leading to a dead end at the back of the hotel compound. There, the gunman shot him in the head.

According to a source the killer ran to the front of the hotel, scaled the high hotel fence again and fled in a northern direction. At that stage, a white car drove slowly in the opposite direction.

The driver then stopped outside the hotel, and reversed in the direction the killer had fled.

It is believed that the killer escaped in that vehicle.

Roopnarine was reportedly wearing several pieces of expensive jewellery at the time and Kaieteur News understands that one of the slain man’s gold bands and a gold chain were missing.

However, investigators are convinced that robbery was not the motive, since they feel that the gunman could have escaped with more of the victim’s valuables as well as with Roopnarine’s firearm, which was left near the corpse.

There is no evidence that the gunman took any piece of jewellery.

There are reports that hours earlier, Roopnarine had been partying at the Edge and at Palm Court. He reportedly got into a confrontation with someone at one of the nightspots.

Sunday January 27, 2013

Kaieteur News

CARIBBEAN OPTOMETRISTS RECOGNIZED INTERNATIONALLY.

Dr. John Randall (USA), Dr Jillia Bird (Antigua), Dr. Nigel St. Rose ( Trinidad and Tobago), Dr. Michele Ming ( Guyana).

Dr. Michele Ming, President of the Guyana Association of Optometrists (GAO), has been elected President of Caribbean Association of Optometrists (CARIOA) for 2013-2014.

The Caribbean Association of Optometrists (CARIOA) recently held its delegates meeting in Port-ofSpain, Trinidad. Immediate Past President, Dr. Jillia Bird, of Antigua was recognized by the World Council of Optometry as the International Optometrist of the Year. The award ceremony is scheduled to be held in Malaga, Spain in April,

2013. Nigel St. Rose, of Trinidad was elected to the executive of the Latin American Association of Optics and Optometry (ALDOO) as the Caribbean representative and one of the three representatives to the Governing Board of the World Council of Optometry (WCO). This is the first time that someone from the English speaking Caribbean has been appointed to the WCO Governing Board.

Dr. John Randall of USA, a senior Optometry lecturer at the University of the West Indies - Trinidad was elected to the executive committee of

CARIOA. Last October, the Optometry School in Trinidad was moved from the Faculty of Agriculture and Health to the Faculty of Medical Sciences. The programme has been accredited and the first batch of Optometrists will be graduating in Trinidad during 2013.The Optometry programme at the University of Guyana has not yet received accreditation.

The Guyana Association of Optometrists and the Caribbean Association of Optometrists became members of the World Council of Optometry in 2007 and 2009 respectively.

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Mazaruni River crash…

Police play crucial role, 10th body recovered Yesterday, the search and rescue team in the Mazaruni River recovered yet another body which has been identified as that of Ricky Boob of Barr Street, Kitty.

This latest recovery has taken the death toll to ten.

On Friday the team recovered the bodies of, Kevon Ambrose of, Vergenoegen, East Bank, Essequibo; Deon Moses, 33 of Norton Street, Georgetown; Keanu Amsterdam, 17, of Barr Street Kitty; and Francisco Alves a Brazilian national.

The team had earlier recovered the remains of Jermaine Calistro, 27, of Boodhoo Housing Scheme, East Bank Essequibo (EBE); Ulric Grimes, 39, of Salem, EBE; Christopher Narine, 21, of Parika, EBE; and Zahir Baksh, 34, of Kaneville; EBD, Christopher Narine, and 52year-old Jewan Seeram.

With the death toll reaching ten the team has said that it is still searching for other victims.

Initially there were reports that nine persons were

missing following the deadly mishap.

The search for the other missing persons is continuing with the involvement of the Joint Services, Maritime Administration (MARAD), miners and public-spirited individuals of the community.

Little known and hardly talked about has been the role of the police.

They were integral to the search and recovery. A source said that some media houses credited the Coast Guards with finding bodies when in fact the discoveries were made by the police.

Initial reports are that one boat carrying passengers was coming out from one location while another laden with fuel was heading in the opposite direction.

The incident occurred at a ‘blind turn’ in the vicinity of Crab Falls.

Transport Minister Robeson Benn had reported that the two boats, one with 12 passengers and another, collided around 12:30 hours

on Tuesday.

Several other persons were treated at the Bartica Regional Hosp i t a l f o r injuries. These included 40-year-old Francisca Helena Rodrigues, a Brazilian of Bartica; Marion Ferreira, 19, of Parika; Aubrey Bowen, 29, of Parika; Donita Daniels, 22, of Parika, and Devon Thomas, one of the boat captains.

The other boat captain has been identified as Kobesh Persaud.

It has since been known that both vessels could have seen each other even before they entered the turn at the Crab Falls. One of the vessels should have yielded.

Another shortcoming was the absence of adequate lifejackets. Many of the men were probably macho and refused to wear the vests.

At the same time, there were not enough in the boats.

These vests could have severely reduced the number of fatalities one of the operators said.

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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

DRAMA IN THE HOUSE

Our system of governance seems to be slowly unravelling under the pressure of the ‘new dispensation’ in our National Assembly. Faced with the unique situation (for Guyana) where the government did not have a majority in the House, rather than fostering consultation and cooperation between the government and the Opposition as most citizens had hoped, chaos appears to have been unleashed. This does not bode well for the future of our country.

The present contretemps appear to have been precipitated calls by the combined Opposition for Minister of Home Affairs, Clement Rohee, to be dismissed in the wake of the Linden shootings. It was claimed by the Opposition that Rohee was directly involved in giving orders for the police to open fire on protesters.

While the appointed Commission of Inquiry has yet to pronounce definitively on the issue, it became evident during the testimonies that Minister Rohee did not actually give such orders and that the police might not have even fired the fatal shots.

Using their majority, the Opposition by that time had passed a no-confidence motion against Minister Rohee in the Legislature. But they took a different tact when the courts pointed out that only the President could dismiss a Minister: they broadened the rationale for censuring the Minister by claiming that his entire stewardship of his Ministry had been abysmal.

They then prevented him from speaking as the Minister in the National Assembly by making so much noise that he could not be heard.

The drama then bifurcated. In the House, the Speaker ruled that the question of whether Mr. Rohee could speak as a Minister would be determined by the Committee of Privileges, of which he was Chairman. In and of itself, this was a remarkable turn of events since first, legal advice sought by the Speaker had declared unequivocally that the Minister could not be ‘gagged’.

Additionally the Speaker himself had declared that Minister Rohee had violated no privilege offered to him in the Assembly.

Out of the House, the Attorney General sought refuge under the Constitution by resorting to the Courts to pronounce on the question of the Minister’s right to speak in the House. It has been accepted by all that while the Assembly can regulate its own behaviour and that of its members through the Speaker’s interpretation of its Standing Orders, it cannot interpret such Orders in a manner that violates the strictures of the Constitution. The Courts, it is also accepted, are the arbiters of the Constitution.

Matters have now come to a head since the Chief Justice ruled that Minister Rohee has an absolute right to speak in the House since he was elected as a Representative of the people who voted for him to do just that.

The Opposition, however, has countered that while Mr Rohee might speak as a ‘representative’ i.e. as an ordinary member of the House, he cannot speak as a Minister. This however, appears to be a distinction in search of a difference.

On one hand, if Mr. Rohee must be allowed to speak in the House, it is not clear how he loses that right because he is a Minister. All the Chief Justice did was to show where Mr Rohee’s right to speak emanated: from existentially being a ‘representative of the people’. The right was not in any way limited to that role.

On the other hand, if the Opposition accepts that only the President can fire his Ministers, it is also not clear how the same end can be allowed through this manoeuvre.

This latest twist has been the resignation of Mr Rohee from the Committee of Privileges – but not to remove himself from being in the anomalous position where he would have been sitting in judgement of himself.

The Attorney General wrote the Clerk of the House that the meeting of the Committee of Privileges scheduled for tomorrow be “either aborted permanently or adjourned indefinitely” since it would be acting in contravention of a ‘pronouncements’ of the Courts.

Let good sense prevail.

Sunday January 27, 2013

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

Here is more evidence why Rohee is not leadership material DEAR EDITOR, You are a leading banker, and you are the friend of a Cabinet Minister. When you were in Barbados, you made three calls to him. The Minister then becomes the subject of an inquiry. You are called as a witness. Now, when you made those three contacts you spoke about absolutely trivial matters. On one call, you spoke about the weather. Another talk was about your discovery that a good friend was living in Babados. The last call was that the whole of Barbados turned out to see Rihanna performed Why if you are on the witness stand, you would deny that you spoke to the

Minister? You have nothing to hide if the tapes are produced because you said nothing of value. The fact that you lied that you did not call the Minister meant that those conversations were not about the weather and Rihanna. Let me now quote from my July 26 column, 2012 titled, “Is it the end for Rohee?” Before I do that, the context should be given. In response to criticism that he gave orders to the police on July 18 when three Linden protestors were shot dead, Rohee denied speaking with the police in Linden with the explanation that it was not possible to have communication between Linden and Georgetown on radio set

It was the most asinine thing to say for any person who holds a Cabinet position in a government in the 21st century. Here is what I wrote in response to Rohee’s clownish words; “Guyanese must be laughing at Rohee since he opened his mouth to speak of radio communication. Why in this modern world would a Minister need a radio set to speak to high ranking officers? Has Rohee heard about cell phones?” We know now that Rohee used his cell phone to speak to Commander Hicken in Linden on July 18 Here is compelling, graphic evidence that Mr. Rohee was not being truthful

when the criticism began to swirl around him about his contacts with police officers on the day of July 18 when the protestors were killed.

Since he admitted that he couldn’t access a radio set and didn’t confess that he called on his mobile, then the six conversations Rohee had with HIcken (which came out of the inquiry) could not have been on inconsequential matters.

This newspaper blared out in its headline that Hicken lied. Obviously he did because he testified of not talking to Rohee on July 18.

But what about Rohee?

Rohee openly said he could not have communicated with (Continued on page 7)

Sunday January 27, 2013

Kaieteur News

Kaieteur M@ilbox

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Kaieteur M@ilbox

Response to Peeping Tom: I’ll take the man on horseback over the men with the horsepower DEAR EDITOR, Forbes Burnham has been dead for 28 years, but aspects of his rule and life are routinely exhumed by PPP leaders and their cohorts whenever they sense a waning of support among PPP supporters or want to distract from the vexing, senses-numbing corruption in our country.

I guess that it won’t be long before a séance becomes necessary to get Mr. Burnham to give his side of the story each time bad deeds are attributed to him.

Peeping Tom wrote the latest exhumation piece on Mr. Burnham (The Man on Horseback, KN, January 21, 2013), anchoring it on a caricatured view of Burnham’s penchant for riding horses and demonizing him with the usual claims about his dictatorial actions and concomitant disdain for Guyanese civil servants.

I am not sure how these exhortatory exhumations are viewed by Guyanese voters, most of whom have spent their lives under PPP rule; but if the election results of November 2011 are a guide, then the Peeper and other PPP propagandists have a difficult

task ahead as Indo-Guyanese are finally beginning to realize that the clear and present threat to their well-being is a corrupt and undemocratic PPP, and not any distant deeds that are attributed to Forbes Burnham or the PNC. But why should IndoGuyanese be afraid of a dead Forbes Burnham or of the PNC? After all, it is obvious that a dead man can do no harm and, as things currently stand, an Indo-Guyanese has a better chance of competing to run for the presidency of our country as a member of the PNC because most members of the PNC are free to compete to be its presidential candidate, who is elected by a vote of all the party’s members.

The PPP allows no such opportunities because its presidential candidate is selected by a small oracular group that adheres to the politically obsolete but selfserving notion that only a few persons are smart enough to select a presidential candidate. It is this and other realities that the Peeper and other PPP propagandists hope that Indo-Guyanese will never fully awake to, hence

their frequent exhuming of the distant deeds of Forbes Burnham.

Barack Obama is the president of the United States, having competed as the presidential candidate of the Democratic Party. History shows that up until the 1920s, the Democratic Party did not gladly welcome AfricanAmericans, so they voted for the Republicans.

Today we have an African-American who became US president, running as a candidate for a party that once loathed African-Americans. IndoGuyanese can follow this example and try to fully reform the PNC simply by joining it in large numbers and competing for various positions, including being the party’s presidential candidate.

That may have been anathema a few years ago, but duty to our nation demands it now. And whenever the PPP chooses to democratize by allowing its presidential candidate to be elected by all of its members, AfroGuyanese can in large numbers join the PPP and attempt to fully reform it. So in my view, our country’s

Tax Payers Are Paying A Heavy Price For Poor Governance DEAR EDITOR, Brazil has been deploying the latest satellite imaging technology for some years now to protect the country’s pristine rainforest. But their commendable efforts seem to be coming under strain from the unrelenting onslaught of illegal mining and forest destruction in the Amazon.

The threat appears to coming from small scale deforestation and which, does not show up in the imagery. This should also be of concern to Guyana.

Imazom, the research institute that tracks deforestation in Brazil said in their recent report that, ‘destruction in the world’s largest rainforest climbed for the fourth consecutive month in December. In the last five months of 2012, Imazon detected clearings of 497 square miles (1,288 square km) of woodland – a Los Angelessize total that is more than twice as big as the combined areas detected in the last five months of 2011. (SN, Jan 24, 2013).

Brazil has a policy of seek and destroy mining camps and confiscating equipment, whenever and, wherever they are found in protected areas;

unlike the clueless and inept GGMC in Guyana. The GGMC capacity for enforcement seems woefully limited to the issue of ‘cease-work orders’.

Such orders were recently issued when, Brazilian dredges were discovered operating illegally in Itabili near the Essequibo River (SN, Jan 21, 2013). Their dredges were allowed to remain in situ until the illegal miners can show they can get work permits. This allows them to bide time and, wait for corrupt practices to kick in and, to circumvent any and all hopes of securing protection against deforestation, illegal mining and environmental degradation.

Despite the indiscriminate waste of public money to sending a team to Curacao, the Minister of Natural Resources and Environment and the GGMC are still ‘unable to shed any light on the Curacao heist gold’. (SN Jan 25, 2013). It is obvious that bandits are far more competent than the Minister in seeking out and tracking movements of illegal gold shipments without any difficulty.

Furthermore, the long, porous border with Brazil is a

welcoming invitation to any and all illegal miners, especially those displaced from Brazil. This open-door policy means holding Guyana’s tax payers to ransom, while nationals as far as China, are able to get a foothold in the country to rape the natural wealth of the country with a vengeance.

The Amerindian communities are now being forced to pay the heavy price. With govt and GGMCs’ connivance, law suits are being pursued to attack vulnerable communities and to force them out of their ancient ancestral home lands.

Govt seems more far adept at attacking its own people and to deprive them of any decent standard of living and, to sentence future generations to a life of poverty and misery. This is clearly evident from govt’s inane failure to give any account of gold smuggling out of the country. It is a known fact that vast amounts of gold revenues are being siphoned off and smuggled abroad, while tax payers suffers and, bears the heavy burden.

Yours faithfully Mac Mahase

eventual liberation depends on the internal democratization of all of our political parties. Once this internal democratization occurs and Indo- and AfroGuyanese choose to join the PPP and the PNC in large numbers, policy will eventually replace race as the major factor in which party gets our vote. And our nation would be spared propaganda of the type engaged in by the Peeper.

Propaganda pieces like the Peeper’s, however, allow an informed or thinking person to compare and contrast the alleged deeds of Forbes Burnham and his PNC with the known deeds of the PPP and its governments.

Forbes Burnham, the Peeper’s man on horseback, lived in a Belfield, East Coast Demerara home right next to working class people and rode horses, just as many Guyanese have been doing for as long as horses have been in our country.

And I’m quite sure that many Guyanese were gratified that a slow-

moving horse allowed them a better view of their leader. I’m also sure that those horses at full throttle did not constitute any threat to the safety of our citizens or to the integrity of their homes. Many other working class Guyanese also counted most PNC/ PNC government officials and ministers as neighbours, and owned bigger and better looking cars and homes than those officials/ministers.

However, PPP/ PPP government officials and their cohorts drive vehicles that are way too costly for the salary they earn and with horsepower way too much for our roadways.

In fact, many of our citizens may be killed and/or their homes rattled or collapsed if PPP/PPP government officials ever place their high horsepower vehicles at full throttle.

Many of those same officials, including Bharrat Jagdeo, also live in secluded communities, away from the working class, in palatial mansions that are the unreachable dreams of high-

level government officials, ambassadors, and ministers from/in developed countries such as the United States, France, Canada, Great Britain, Australia, Norway, and others that pour grants/loans into our country.

By the time the undemocratic PPP and the corruption under it are done with Guyana, our people will come to realize that the Peeper’s caricatured man on horseback could not have been as bad as the PPP officials and their cohorts who live in palatial mansions and drive vehicles with enough horsepower to wake Forbes Burnham and his horses from the dead.

So when all is said and done, for the sake of our nation’s treasury and as my contribution to the fight against corruption and unjust enrichment, I’ll always recommend any man who prefers to be on horseback over the men currently displaying their mansions and horsepower.

Lionel Lowe

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Kaieteur News

Kaieteur M@ilbox The public must have a clarification of the Caribbean Press

DEAR EDITOR, Minister of Sport and Culture, Dr Frank Anthony must be acknowledged for his ability to muster representation for his administrational hiccups [A] he was able to conscript Ivor Thom who attributed powers and authority to himself and become the uneasy spokesman for the misplaced 1823 Monument, a direct responsibility of the Minister.

Now Dr. David Dabydeen has come in defence of the esoteric ‘Caribbean Press’.

But since Dr. Dabydeen is by no means the Oracle of Delphi or of Manoa, his letter must be contained within its content and clarified as describing the most bizarre publishing arrangement I have so far been exposed to in principle.

I have had published and self published for over twenty three years, but never in my years of self publishing have I attributed a Logo or Trademark to the cover of my publication that did not pay for its existence. It’s unthinkable, unless the

Minister was seeking some kind of credibility and legitimacy using the said Logo; as I said ‘Bizarre.’

The Minister must step forward from his inner sanctuary, proceed beyond his sect of Viziers and engage the local writers and explain why a tax payer funded publishing arrangement is treated as if it is a private sector company designed to facilitate the specific agenda of its financiers. The public must have a clarification of the Caribbean Press, [A] who is its Chairman [B] Who decides what is ‘Literary Culture,’ what constitutes a peer reviewed Press? [C] Is its mandate truly elitist and democratically void as its secret existence implies.? [D] Now that Ruel Johnson has responded to Dr. Dabydeen’s pronouncement about giving up his honorary position as editor and has volunteered his own participating services, the next step would be to lower the bridge and open the gates, to come clean on the Caribbean Press, I too am

completely interested in engaging the procedures of its Mission Statement.

Some years ago we waited breathless for the release of Anna Benjamin’s book on the 1763 Rebellion, I approached her constantly on its release.

I must confess the lady seemed as bewildered as I was about the release of this publication. It was mentioned in Dr. Dabydeen’s letter Tuesday Jan. 15 Stabroek News, I have not yet seen it in the section reserved for the ‘Guyana Classics’ since I have purchased many of those republished editions, which I must now assume is the Caribbean Press corner at Austin’s Book store. I think that I am vindicated when I publically stated that there is need for a separate Ministry of Culture; open and Managed by persons who have persevered in shaping the post independence decolonization of Guyanese Culture, and who know the landscape.

Barrington Braithwaite

Sunday January 27, 2013

Kaieteur M@ilbox The Lusignan families are still grieving alone with little support from people outside their community DEAR EDITOR, On January 26, 2008 around 1: 00 A.M, in the village of Lusignan, terrorists murdered six adults and five children while they slept. How can this happen in Guyana?

Five years later, why did less than ten black people attend the Interfaith Service? It is sad and painful what happened here in Lusignan five years ago, but it is even sadder and more painful today to see how few black people came out to show their support and solidarity with these families who are still grieving years later.

As a black man standing so outnumbered in that crowd, I felt a great shame for my people. The men, woman, and children died alone with no help or protection from the police. Today, these families are grieving alone with little

support from people outside of Lusignan.

Who is evil enough to commit such an act? What would push someone to commit such an act as happened in Lusignan?

When are the black people going to put race aside and show some solidarity with the other Guyanese races; or are we so selfish as to not care about them? Where were the police during the tragedy?

Why do these evil terrorist acts happen? How do we prevent this from happening again? Five years later, still no one has any of the answers.

I couldn’t help but notice during the service that the road where the service was held needed repairs badly.

You would think that the leaders of the service would have insured that the road’s

repairs had been done before the service; with the high ranking officials due to show up for the service, it would have been an opportune time to get the government to fix the roads.

I hope the Prime Minister will make sure the road is repaired before the next event.

Something else Guyanese happened during the service.

In the middle of a song during the service, there was blackout. Not only is it a tragedy what happened to these people but it is embarrassing that their loved ones must endure this humiliation on this fateful day.

But this is Guyana, in the midst of a time to grieve and heal life goes on and a blackout does too.

DEAR EDITOR, ‘Eye-pass, gross eyepass’, I thought, when I read the recent letter headed ‘A prisoner in my own home’. Of course, conditions such as those described pose “a significant health risk”.

Human nature being what it is, such piles of ‘ junk and disorder’ will act as a magnet, inviting passersby to dump their rubbish, making a bad situation worse.

No consideration or respect for others. I have personally witnessed this in a neighbourhood in London.

In the mid-1970s, when rubbish-stuffed black binbags started to pile up nearby, I noted the anxiety caused to

residents, so, on behalf of my elderly neighbour on one side and another (non-Englishspeaking) with a retarded young daughter on the other, I wrote to the local borough council, pointing out the likely invasion of rats and the impact that could have on vulnerable residents’ health.

The situation was corrected swiftly.

Relief all round. Recently, around the UK, when people euphemistically described as ‘travelers’ - tinkers really started to blight the lives of local communities, by parking their caravans on open spaces, living out of them, littering, thus forming untidy, unsightly ‘sub communities’, residents of one such

community decided to take positive action.

They complained to the authorities and, when they failed to receive a positive response, they decided to withhold payment of local taxes and let the authorities know that they would continue to do so until the ‘traveller problem’ was solved.

A solution was quickly found. Cheaper than taking them all to court, or risking a widespread backlash.

Perversely, the bulk rubbish may be a deterrent to wouldbe burglars. Ironic that the letter was from a “Frustrated taxpayer”!

Anthony Pantlitz

Support for ‘prisoner in own home’

Geralda Dennison

Sunday January 27, 2013

Kaieteur News

Kaieteur M@ilbox

Page 7

Kaieteur M@ilbox

The THD has rendered us dependent on guess work as how to make travel arrangements with our vehicles DEAR EDITOR, We the residents, vehicle owners and businessmen of Wakenaam wish to draw the public’s attention to a problem with the Transport & Harbours Department (THD) which is now becoming intolerable.

The THD has rendered us dependent on guess work as how to make travel arrangements with our vehicles and also passengers from Wakenaam to Parika and vice versa.

Although we have voiced our opinions and made representations on numerous occasions our voices have fallen on deaf ears.

We are now seeking an urgent redress to this intolerable situation.

Our major concerns are: a. When the M.V Malali leaves Wakenaam on the midnight schedule, it, on most occasions goes to Leguan and waits until 6:30 hours.

Why do the vehicles and passengers have to go to Leguan and wait until 6: 30 hours, when we had boarded the vessel at midnight? This

we consider intolerable. b. The M.V Malali also does this (above) on the 5:00 hours and 6:00 hours departure from Wakenaam.

When we arrive at Parika at around 9:00 or 10:00 hours, how is it possible to travel (drive) to Georgetown and return after conducting our business, which is hardly ever completed, and return in time for a 16:00 hours return ferry. It is really NOT possible. c. There is no fixed schedule now.

N.B: Last year we had a month to month printed schedule. On many occasions vehicles do not return in this time so the vehicles have to make a booking for the next day’s steamer to Wakenaam.

This is costly as many owners of vehicles have no relatives of anyone closely to stay for the night. d. The majority of persons who would like to use the M.V Malali’s service are forced to use the speedboat service which is five times as costly and many can ill afford to pay the price of

the speed-boat. e. It now happens that we have to await the arrival of the M.V Malali at Wakenaam to find out from the captain as to when the boat will depart on the next run to Parika. The clerk-incharge is unable to do this although it is his portfolio. f.

Businesses and services that have been seriously affected are: 1. Availability to medical facility at Suddie 2. GTT services to Wakenaam from E/bo.

3. Police services from Anna Regina to Wakenaam.

4. Guyana water inc. services 5. Banks D.I.H services 6. D.S.L services 7. M.K Baksh (wholesaler and retailer to Wakenaam) 8. Hanoman Bajnauth (fish vendor to Wakenaam) 9. Nato (wholesaler and retailer to Wakenaam) 10. Guyoil services 11. Other individuals who would like to come from E/bo Coast to do business on the island and vice versa.

This inability to cross from one side to the other occurs from Monday to Friday of each week. We the businessmen and other commuters using the M/VB Malali would very much like to see the situation return to

normal where the ferry used to leave from Parika thence to Wakenaam thence to Supenaam and return via the said route to Parika.

Could relevant authorities please take note and kindly assist us to return to

normalcy. We do agree that our travelling public is not comparable with that of the Essequibo Coast but we do need the services and facilities that we used to enjoy before.

Residents of Wakenaam

Here is more evidence...

From page 4 the police in Linden for two reasons. One is that the distance between Linden and Georgetown would not allow for radio communication. The other as that he had no access to the police in Linden because he couldn’t walk into a police office in Eve Leary and instruct officers in Linden There was not even a hint

by Rohee that he contacted police officials, if even for a fleeting moment. Rohee answered his accusers by saying that he could not have spoken with police ranks in Linden on July 18 because radio communication didn’t have the band width to allow such contact. The nation and the wider world know that Hickens and Rohee spoke.

The question that must be asked is what did they discuss?

It is a frightening question because it involves the curiosity as to why they would want to deny a few minutes of harmless chat. The fact that there is an evasion it means that Rohee and Hicken discussed serious business.

But what is the content of this sensitive dialogue? We will never know if the two men continue to refuse to tell the Guyanese people because the phone companies do not record telephone calls unless a specific request is made by state security One thing is certainRohee and Hicken cannot say that for the times they spoke to each other on July

18, the exchange was not of importance. Could a charge of perjury be recommended in the findings of the Commission due anytime now?. As the headline of this newspaper put it – “Hicken lied” It is difficult to see how Rohee and Hicken could survive career wise after what came out of the hearing. Of the two men, Hicken is likely to suffer more. He does not have the political firepower that Rohee has. Ramotar and the PPP will not follow modern types of governance and discipline and prosecute colleagues for lawless and abominable behaviour in public.

Frederick Kissoon

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Kaieteur News

Sunday January 27, 2013

BK international retenders lower bid for Providence well construction After B.K International was the lone bidder November last at the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) for the supply and construction of a potable water well at Providence, East Bank Demerara, the Guyana

Water Incorporated (GWI) retendered for the project for a wider scope of bidders.

However, Tuesday last GWI having retendered for the projects, received a wider scope of bidders for the supply and construction of potable water wells at

Providence, Uitvlugt and Better Hope.

The bids were divided into three lots.

The engineer’s estimates for the projects are: $107, 443,715 (Lot 1); $94,335,837 (Lot 2), and $116,037,957 (Lot 3).

Under GWI bids were also opened for the supply and delivery of water treatment chemicals.

These were also divided into three lots. The engineer’s estimates were Lot (1) $93,150,000, Lot (2) $16,711,110 and Lot (3) $40,837,500.

Berbice sweeper/cleaners still without pay Sweeper/Cleaners in Berbice have not yet been paid for January. To their surprise, too, their names have been removed from the respective schools’ pay sheets and they were told that manual pay sheets would be prepared.

No timeframe was given by the Regional Accounting Unit of Region Six for the payout to the employees.

Sweeper/ Cleaners are contract workers.

Their names would usually appear on the teachers’ pay sheets and they would receive salaries.

This month, this did not happen.

When head teachers turned up to uplift the pay sheets at the Accounting units, the names of the sweeper/cleaners attached to the various Berbice schools were not included.

Additionally, the head

teachers were told that a payout would be forthcoming but no date was given.

As a result, the sweeper/ cleaners are furious.

They have taken the issue of their late payments in salaries to any willing ear and they now say that they need representation by some kind of trade union.

“I am not comfortable with our names taken off the pay sheet. We have our children depending on us and you have to wait for this money that cannot really benefit the family.

“I would quit the job and find something else to do”, said one angry cleaner.

The cleaner believes they need representation “because we are not represented in any way and then, working for such small amount of moneyyou have to pay National Insurance Scheme (NIS) out of that [and] feed

children. Sometimes, we don’t get paid, like in August and July. That is real bad, the way we are being treated, not like humans—we are being treated like animals”.

Another cleaner, said, “You have children to look after—you have to find money to buy textbooks and such to come to school and you have bills to pay out of that small amount of money that they paying you.

And this work is very hard; we try our best to do the work and still they take off we names from the pay sheet and they are not treating we the right way they supposed to”.

Kaieteur News understands that the sweeper/cleaners did not benefit from the five per cent pay out to public servants in December. Several efforts to contact the Chief Accountant of Region six proved futile.

Sunday January 27, 2013

Kaieteur News

Page 9

Page 10

Kaieteur News

Sunday January 27, 2013

Farmers’ groups share $10.3M

Hon. Dr. Leslie Ramsammy, Minister of Agriculture, Alli Baksh, Minister within the Ministry of Agriculture along with farmers’ representatives with their Cheques.

Five groups of farmers received $10.3M funding from the Ministry of Agriculture’s READ project on Friday.

At the presentation

ceremony, Mr. Ramesh Persaud, Chief Executive Officer of Institute of Private Enterprise Development (IPED) highlighted the need for farmers to be united.

He spoke about training for farmers. He added that IPED would not want farmers to simply form groups to access finance f r o m t h e P r o j e c t . M r.

Persaud called for farmers to be united and cooperative since it leads to greater success.

Mr. Tapping, a farmers’ representative from the

Region Ten Farmers Association (RFTA) extended thanks to the Ministry for this support and also thanked the Ministry for capacity building training that was given to them.

Alli Baksh, Minister within the Ministry of Agriculture, said that he was happy to see so many women involved in these groups and agriculture as a whole. He is also happy that persons are taking more education to better themselves as farmers.

And, “I am even happier to have committed persons in these groups which indicate that the groups will be sustained”.

Minister Baksh noted that several other groups are in the making and it is the intention of Government to keep engaging all stakeholders in the process.

Minister Baksh said that sustainability is the name of the game for these groups and this type of funding is being handed to persons who are serious to have things happen. He noted that some persons only form groups to access money and after the money is done, the groups fall apart.

Hence, Sustainability of projects means a lot to the Ministry. He noted that the Ministry is everyday looking for new and emerging markets to absorb our produce.

Dr. Leslie Ramsammy, Minister of Agriculture said that the Integration of small farmers into large scale agriculture is not just an option but an imperative and

a priority.

Dr. Ramsammy noted that Government never embraces initiatives that engage subsistence livelihood. In some countries, it’s a goal, but our goal as a government is not to keep people in subsistence livelihood, it is to create wealth and encourage investment.

Dr. Ramsammy said that putting in labour and energy, which is money, will be done by the farmers, and in this case the Ministry is assisting these groups plus more, with the finance as seed money where they will continue to generate funds through profits to sustain their business. He noted that there is no guarantee that there will be additional funds since this money was bargained for by the Government of Guyana.

Minister Ramsammy told the group that farmers should not be talked about as peasant, “We have to change that reality; farmers a r e b u s i n e s s m e n ” . “ We must become entrepreneurs and business people”.

We have to add value to our products and although we are a food secure country, we cannot continue to be producers alone.

Minister Ramsammy congratulated the groups and urged that wealth generation comes from exports and value-added.

“Our aspiration should be to have our produce meet on the shelves of s u p e r m a r k e t s i n t e r n a t i o n a l l y, ” he declared.

Police nab trio with cocaine and ganja in drug house Placed on $125,000 bail each Police raided a drug house at St John Street in New Amsterdam and nabbed three men who were in the house, reportedly with cocaine and marijuana.

The men Gordon Bruce, called ‘Joe’, 26, a father of two, and of 18 St John Street, New Amsterdam; Christopher Chatterpaul, 25, a taxi driver of Smythfield, New Amsterdam; and David Leung Awah, 36, of 18-6 Kent Street, New Amsterdam, were on Friday each placed on $125,000 bail by Magistrate Adela Nagamootoo when they appeared before her at the New Amsterdam Magistrate’s court.

They pleaded not guilty to two charges of possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking, and possession of marijuana.

Corporal Orin Joseph told the court that on

January 16, last, the police raided a house at St. John Street, New Amsterdam and found the trio in a room.

The room was searched and a whitish substance suspected to be cocaine was found wrapped in a plastic bag in a corner.

Further search unearthed what looked like leaves, seeds and stems of the marijuana plant.

The men were arrested and taken into custody.

The items were tested and weighed and found to be two grams of cocaine and two grams of marijuana.

In court the men were placed on $100,000 on the cocaine charge and $25,000 on the marijuana charge.

They were represented by attorney at law Charrandass Persaud.

They will return to court on February 15.

Sunday January 27, 2013

Kaieteur News

Page 11

Govt. stages late night walkout… Canada to continue to fund

Motion passed to establish National training for GDF in Jamaica Commemoration Commission

MPs from the government walking out on Friday evening.

Government staged a walkout from the National Assembly Friday evening after the Opposition refused to defer a motion for the establishment of a National Heritage Commission.

Earlier, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) agreed to an 11 th hour proposal by Government to change the name to the National Commemoration Commission.

It was shortly after 22:00hrs that Government after requests to defer the debate pending more interparty talks, walked out. By then too, Speaker Raphael Trotman, had left as he had another engagement.

The motion for the Commission, according to APNU Leader, Brigadier (ret’d) David Granger, was spurred by several instances of discriminations and unilateral decisions by Government on critical cultural issues.

These include the renaming of the Timehri International Airport to Cheddi Jagan International Airport in 1997 despite protests by especially the Amerindians.

In arguing for the motion to be given full support, Brig Granger said that there seems to be lack of a cultural policy.

Even a request for the holding of a separate holiday for the indigenous people in September was denied.

He said that the Commission would allow for a more inclusionary approach that would see commitments for national unity.

He warned that attempting to resolve cultural and other identity issues by a majority decision could have costly consequences.

He listed the recent controversy to place a

monument next to the seawall instead of somewhere else as an example.

He said that based on a letter sent by the Ministry of Culture on Friday, APNU had accepted that Government remains the ultimate policy maker but that the commission will make recommendations to improve culture in Guyana.

With separate holidays for Indians, Africans, Muslim, Christians and Hindus, there has been a clamoring for Amerindians to have more recognition too. Already, the Amerindians have their own month of celebrations.

G a i l Te i x e i r a , C h i e f Whip for the government benches, urged for a deferral and meetings to discuss more on the matter.

She admitted that culture in Guyana needs to blossom, pointing out that government has been doing its part in ensuring its development.

The Amerindian Act, Environmental Protection Agency, Kaieteur Parks Act, and housing legislations are part of the parcel designed to ensure the development of culture.

APNU’s Amna Ally in arguing for the Commission,

said the issue of cultural development is a national one and that government had enough time to make its inputs. However, it was not until Friday morning that they signaled intentions to have the matter deferred pending talks.

A P N U ’s Sydney Allicock, noted that Amerindians have serious concerns over problems with lands and the Commission would be the forum to deal with the issue.

Cathy Hughes, of the AFC, in supporting the motion, too insisted that the all important issue of culture should not be left to a few to decide but all Guyanese should have a say. She regretted that government had chosen to walk out.

Among other things, Granger’s motion asked for a resolution that will see the commemoration of event and the establishment of memorials which will not only celebrate cultural and racial diversity, but would eliminate discrimination.

The motion was carried in the absence of the government Members of Parliament.

Residents of Cummings Lodge, East Coast Demerara, are calling for the installation of street lights in the area in the face of numerous robberies and murders in the area.

Recounting the latest incident, residents noted that last Tuesday, 25-year-old Dolwin Khan who is a University graduate was stabbed while walking home

after buying dinner. He is a patient at Balwant Singh Hospital.

Khan was attacked by two men on a bike. One of them hit him on the head and stabbed him four times.

“Just the other day a taxi driver was murdered by two men on a bike…We need street lights and nobody is helping us in the area.”

Cummings Lodge residents appeal for street light

Canadian Defence Attaché, Colonel Yvan Boilard paid a courtesy call to Chief of Staff Commodore Gary Best, at his office at Defence Headquarters, Base Camp Ayanganna on Tuesday.

It was Colonel Boilard’s first visit to the Guyana Defence Force. At the meeting with the Chief of Staff, Boilard and Commodore Gary Best mulled likely areas of cooperation between the Guyana Defence Force and the Canadian Armed Forces.

They also initiated points of contact to facilitate easier communication between the two Forces.

Colonel Boilard is resident in Brazil and bears responsibility for his government’s military affairs across South America.

Among the proposals made by Commodore Best, was the possibility of Canadian support for Coast Guard officer training and certification, with such certification being enabled through the services of a retired Canadian naval office.

Colonel Boilard agreed to explore that possibility and reiterated that Canada will continue to fund the five places awarded annually to

Commodore Best and Col Boilard the GDF at the Caribbean Junior Command and Staff course which is held in Jamaica.

Commodore Best also sought to engage Canada’s involvement in providing training for GDF personnel in the areas of Anti-Piracy strategies and Security for oilrig platforms. The benefits and means for the

enhancement of State Partnership programmes also formed part of the discussions. Commodore Best also extended an open invitation for the Attaché to return at any time to visit the GDF. Guyana has benefited from diplomatic and military cooperation programmes with Canada over several decades.

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Kaieteur News

Sunday January 27, 2013

Linden Hospital accounts staff Woman recalls abduction, arrested in $25 Million fraud probe murder attempt

Linden Hospital Complex Three staffers attached to the accounts department at the Linden Hospital Complex have been arrested following allegations of a multimilliondollar fraud.

Kaieteur News understands that the three were arrested on Friday after a $25M million fraud was uncovered.

Reports so far indicate that several senior officials from the Criminal Investigation Police

Headquarters in Georgetown traveled to Linden on Friday to effect the arrests. The persons suspected to be involved in the fraud were brought to the city for further questioning and remain in custody.

Police sources said that the probe is being done entirely by police headquarters, Eve Leary.

Police officials from Linden were unaware of the probe and were never asked to be

involved in the investigations.

Reports also indicate that the probe would uncover several alleged fraudulent activities in the accounts department, including payments still being made for nurses who have migrated, changed jobs and even some who have died. Those arrested are only being questioned at this stage and the probe could widen by Monday.

Lilawattie Das, the injured woman, whose lover William Johnson, stabbed her five times in her back, is being carefully monitored as doctors continue to extract contaminated blood from her body.

Das, speaking from her hospital bed, said that doctors have inserted a tube to drain out the contaminated blood that was discovered in her body.

The woman who sounded in high spirits added that apart from the current procedure undertaken by doctors, her condition does not appear to be life threatening.

Police responding to an

abduction report on January 20, at Queenstown, Essequibo, successfully rescued Das, who was being held captive by Williams.

Williams, the report added, abducted Das earlier and lured her in the back lands at Queenstown. Das, who resided with her motherin-law, Mala Sookra, at Queenstown was confronted

by Williams Saturday morning.

Das recalled that she woke around 5:00 hours Saturday and was heading to the outhouse when she was confronted by Williams who was said to be carrying a knife and a cutlass.

The mother of one related that Williams lured her into

the backlands to his cousin’s camp. There he prepared a meal of cook up rice.

But Das said she was stabbed the moment police converged on the scene. She said that Williams warned the police not to pursue him before inflicting stab wounds to her back.

Williams had since been charged with attempted murder, unlawfully and maliciously setting fire to a house and threatening and abusive language.

To the charges he pleaded not g u i l t y a n d w a s remanded, however he was granted bail by Magistrate Sunil Scarce for threatening and abusive language.

Sunday January 27, 2013

Kaieteur News

Page 13

GPHC Residency programme very impressive – Veteran Gynaecologist Administered by veteran Gynaecologist, Dr Sterling Williams, the prestigious Council on Resident Education in Obstetrics and Gynaecology (CREOG) examinations was this past weekend delivered to the inaugural batch of doctors undertaking the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC’)s Residency Masters Degree Programme in Obstetrics and Gynaecology.

Dr Williams along with a team has during the past week been rendering their expert assistance to the programme.

According to Dr Williams, who is the Vice President for Education at the American College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology in the United States, during his stay he delivered several lectures and administered two examinations as part of his assistance to the residents

undertaking the programme.

The CREOG examination is the annual exam taken by all US Ob/Gyn residents as a benchmark of their progress and competency and is now being offered to the local doctors participating in the GPHC Master’s programme.

Yesterday, Dr Williams said that he has learned that while there are cultural differences in a lot of things done in the health system here that are similar to what is done in the United States. “There are best practices in medicine and in my country and this country we both strive to do the best we can for the patients; that has been a very interesting and pleasant revelation.”

He said that he is particularly impressed with the “brand new” Residency Masters Degree Programme.

He added that the progress

Another miner buried alive as pit caves in The gold fields of Guyana have claimed another life; this time that of 44-year-old Mark Wilson of Supply, Mahaica, East Coast Demerara.

Wilson was pulled from a mining pit at Puruni after the walls came crashing down, pinning him under tons of rubble early yesterday morning.

His body was brought to the city late yesterday afternoon, and is now lying at the Lyken Funeral Parlour, where more than a dozen relatives and fellow villagers greeted it with loud wailing.

Wilson, a father five, who has been in the mining business for several years, had returned to the interior a week ago after spending time with his family.

His mother, Lena Wilson, told Kaieteur News last night that her last contact with her son was very emotional.

“He come and kiss me and say ‘Mommy ah going’ and he tell me that I must pray for he,” the woman said.

She stated that yesterday morning she was speaking to one of her daughters-in-law when the woman’s phone rang. “I hear she saying ‘who? Mark dead?’ Then she left and go and tell his wife,” the dead man’s mother recalled.

Wilson’s wife, Paulette, was among those who flocked the parlour to get a glimpse of his body.

Through her tears she told this newspaper that Wilson and his brother were working in the same area when the incident occurred.

“He brother call his girl and tell her to tell me what happen,” Paulette Wilson said.

She explained that from the report she received,

Dead: Mark Wilson Wilson saw the walls of the pit coming down and tried to take evasive action.

“He was trying o run with the jet and didn’t make it. The land come down and lash he pon he back and pin he down,” Paulette Wilson stated. A frantic effort was made to free Wilson from under the rubble but by the time he was reached, it was too late.

Several miners have been killed as a result of mining pit accidents within the past six months. In October, in what can be described as one of the worst mining pit accidents in Guyana, three miners, 25-year-old Deonarine Singh called ‘Chubby’, and cousins Elson Singh called ‘Papa Johnny’, 47 and Devon Barry, 22 were buried alive in a Cuyuni mining pit.

And earlier this week another miner, Errol Bennett, 38, of port Port Kaituma was killed after the walls of the mining pit he was working in at Arakaka caved in on him.

Last year six persons died as a result of mining pit accidents.

that has been made in less than a year can be considered very gratifying.

The Programme commenced in May of last year.

Dr Williams pointed to the fact that the six doctors undertaking the programme are of varying qualities but they all have the same desire to provide better women’s health care thereby allowing for improvement of the health system.

This past week, too, Dr Williams met with Minister of Health Dr Bheri Ramsaran, and other top officials associated with the Residency Programme at the Public Hospital. These officials, he said, had in fact alluded to a number of obstacles to improvement.

However, he noted that together they can put economic and political pressure upon whoever needs to have pressure brought on them. “They all seem to agree that these things are necessary and are not negotiable and by working together they will get what they need; individually it would be a very difficult challenge.

“That is one of the things that I have learned; they are not only willing to work together but they have found it necessary in order to accomplish their main goals.”

Dr Williams also pointed to the fact that the health sector in Guyana, in the United States and other countries around the world are in need of many things to facilitate improvement. He said that there are many opportunities but there are not always necessary resources to bring them about.

From left: Dr Tia Milton, Dr Sterling Williams, Dr Ruth Derkenne and Katie Might.

“We have to set priorities and what I have seen this week is the setting of the appropriate priorities so that they can put their scarce resources in the right thing that everybody agrees on and that would be helpful.”

He noted that while there is a need for expensive equipment there are also other smaller needs that can be fulfilled n o w, t h u s t h e n e e d f o r priorities and timetables to be put in place.

According to Assistant Director of the Residency Master’s programme, Dr Ruth Derkenne, with the four-year residency programme it is expected that doctors at the GPHC will be in a better position to not only treat and care for their patients, better, but it should also allow for a decrease in maternal and neonatal mortality.

“These are the big things

that we want to see...the big changes, the big impacts and even more immediately is that the women who come to the Georgetown Public Hospital should feel more comfortable with the care they are getting; they should feel like they are having more specialised and concentrated care.”

Another visiting expert, Dr Tea Melton, an Assistant Professor of Reproductive Health at Case Medical Centre, also in the United States, said that once the programme comes to an end there will be a group of people who will hopefully stay in the system and go to some of the countries’ rural sites to share their knowledge.

“The expectation from our standpoint is that they do a lot of lifelong learning activities and that they remain as teachers and not just as practicing physicians; that they have

a sense of responsibility to educate those younger than them and even to do community education,” said Dr Melton.

Another member of the visiting team Katie Might was tasked with undertaking needs assessment of the programme with a view of ensuring that future grants and fund raising activities and donors are streamlined to ensure that the programme is sustained over time. Might is the Programme Coordinator of WONDOOR. WONDOOR (pronounced “one door”) is a new and innovative global health residency programme that grew out of the concept that women should have the same opportunity to enter the same door to quality health care whether they are “living abroad or right outside our own back doors.”

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Kaieteur News

Sunday January 27, 2013

Sunday January 27, 2013

Kaieteur News

Engineers meet on City Hall restoration

On Wednesday, Mayor Hamilton Green, convened a special meeting on the restoration of City Hall. At that session, which a number of well known engineers including Bert Carter, Berkley Wickham, George Jardim, Bobby Hussein, and Guyana’s Cultural Icon Eddy Grant attended, the Mayor said that he wanted to focus on restoration and not rehabilitation of the building.

He noted that over the years, he had tried to persuade the Council to move forward with a plan to restore the building but that there were and are some technical difficulties associated with such restorative works.

He said that a few years ago, he had approached the Cubans and the Venezuelans for assistance but certain changed and changing circumstances delayed such support.

He observed that a cursory look at City Hall will reveal that it is collapsing, and

that he was aiming at developing a new system and a way of thinking that will identify the way forward to attain the objective of restoring City Hall.

Deputy Mayor, Patricia Chase-Green, who was present along with other councilors and city officials and representatives of the National Trust, said that, the meeting was an important one, and that it brought together a diverse group of qualified and very knowledgeable individuals, who have an interest in the effort of the municipality to restore City Hall.

Mr. Bert Carter said that from his quick observation of the building, its foundation seems to be intact but that the Council needed to move forward urgently to begin the process of restoration.

Mr. Eddy Grant expressed a passionate concern for the restoration works to protect the cultural and architectural integrity of City Hall.

He suggested that the Council put in place an education system that will provide knowledge of local woods and other building materials and the various applications for which these can be used, particularly as it relates to buildings of historical and cultural significance, to our young people. He expressed the view that the works must preserve the spirit and grace, which was imbued in it by those who worked to design and construct it in 1889.

The meeting concluded with an understanding that the City Engineer’s Department will furnish the team with all information including drawings, photographs and other materials on City Hall.

Another meeting will be convened next Wednesday, to appoint a special technical committee, to begin the work of putting together a credible and useable document on the building.

Page 15

ImmigrationINFOTM Immigration News For Our Community

NEW Provisional Waivers Allow Illegals to File Waivers in U.S. (Part 1) Beginning March 4, 2013, certain immediate relatives of U.S. citizens who are physically present in the United States will be allowed to request provisional unlawful presence waivers prior to departing from the United States for consular processing of their immigrant visa applications.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) anticipates that these changes in the rule will significantly reduce the length of time U.S. citizens are separated from their immediate relatives who engage in consular processing abroad.

Effective March 4, 2013, the new law will benefit the following individuals: (1) crewman (or jump ships) who married US citizens, but do not have the benefit of Section 245(i); (2) people who entered the US without inspection (EWI), who married US citizens, but do not have the benefit of Section 245(i); and (3) people who entered the US on a K-1 fiancée visa, but did not marry the American who petitioned them, but instead married a different American; and (4) immediate relatives of U.S. citizens with an approved Form I-130 found ineligible to adjust status in the U.S. What is the current process for filing an unlawful presence waiver?

An unlawful presence waiver is required for individuals who depart the

Dem boys seh...

Jagdeo tun reporter now Imagine that dem parliament got big story bout who should get special day and who should get special treatment. Nearly ten years ago de same parliament vote fuh de nation celebrate Arrival Day. De thing did start off as Indian Arrival Day but when people start fuh talk bout African Arrival Day and Amerindian Arrival Day and Portuguese Arrival Day and Chinese Arrival Day and all dem day de government get smart and change de thing to Arrival Day. Well dem people seh that dem ain’t falling fuh de bait, that all of dem want dem own day. Well all de government got to do is move de date from wheh it deh now and pick any day then tell all of dem is dem day.

Dem can call it All Man

Day an if dem woman get vex, pick another day and call it All Woman Day. But then that may got its own problems. Dem might have to find a Gay and Lesbian Day, commonly called de Bee Bees Day when people like Kwame can stage a parade.

Well if dem did do that de government wouldn’t have to walk out of parliament. De walkout was easy and dem boys hope that is just suh easy Brazzy, Bar Bee and all dem Bees gun walk out of Guyana and lef de people money.

De only thing is that Bar Bee, Brazzy and de King Bee, if dem walk out of Guyana is straight to jail in some other country. And because dem boys always talking bout jail dem does get vex. Is vex he get mek Jagdeo tun reporter and writing in de Hard Times paper. He expect to get

another doctorate, this time in journalism. But to get that you got to write different things. Jagdeo does write de same thing every day. Dem got plenty things that he can write about. He can write about he pension, he can write about he life as a president. Dem boys want he write bout all dem scampish deal that he enter into secretly.

He must write bout de Marriott, de airport deal, de hydro deal and de deal wid Bar Bee and Gee Pee See, All of that he must write about.

People only know bout dem deals when dem done sign.

Dem boys seh that since he was Finance Minister he was cutting deal and he start wid de drugs fuh de Ministry of Health sixteen years ago.

De people know. He must write why he never knock off

anybody who thief. But he can’t write about decency.

Anybody with li’l decency and shame woulda accept all wha people talking bout he pension. Decent people woulda done seh “Boy me ain’t want that pension and benefit package, and chuck it in. But not Jagdeo. He tell the people yaaal decide something reasonable fuh me. And put on other benefits.

Wha is reasonable fuh he is a fortune fuh anybody else.

Reasonable fuh he is millions.

Is Bar Bee encourage him fuh tek so much as he pension.

Dem boys seh that in de long run when people create a nice package he, Jagdeo, mek up he own pension and benefits. That is how decent he decent.

Talk half and keep you eye pun Jagdeo and Bar Bee.

U.S. after remaining illegally in the U.S. and trigger a three-year or tenyear ban from returning to the U.S. Under current law, individuals identified in the above paragraph would not be eligible for lawful permanent resident status in the U.S. if a petition was filed by their U.S. citizen relative.

Instead, these individuals would have to return to their native country, attend the immigrant visa interview, file the unlawful presence waiver at the U.S. Embassy and wait (sometimes one to two years) for a decision from the U.S. Embassy.

If the waiver is granted then the individual can return to the U.S. with an immigrant visa but if the waiver is denied then the individual can submit an appeal (which can take two to three years).

What will be the NEW “provisional unlawful presence waiver” process?

The new waiver process will allow eligible immediate relatives to apply for a provisional unlawful presence waiver while they are still in the United States and before they leave to attend their immigrant visa interview abroad.

It is anticipated that this new provisional unlawful presence waiver process will significantly reduce the time that U.S. citizens are separated from their immediate relatives.

The approval of an a p p l i c a n t ’s p r o v i s i o n a l unlawful presence waiver prior to departure also will allow the U.S. Embassy abroad to issue the immigrant visa without further delay, if there are no other grounds of inadmissibility and if the immediate relative is otherwise eligi b l e t o b e issued an immigrant visa.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will be rolling out a new form, Form I-601A, for this new process.

Can I benefit from the NEW “provisional unlawful presence waiver” process if I am in removal proceedings?

DHS has decided to limit eligibility for the provisional unlawful presence waiver process to individuals whose removal proceedings are administratively closed and have not been recalendared at the time of filing the Form I-601A. If the Form I-601A is approved for an alien whose

Gail Seeram proceedings have been administratively closed, the alien should seek termination or dismissal of the proceedings, without prejudice, by Immigration Court. The request for termination or dismissal should be granted before the alien departs for his or her immigrant visa interview abroad.

Applicants who leave the United States before their removal proceedings are terminated or dismissed may experience delays in their immigrant visa processing or risk becoming ineligible for the immigrant visa based on another ground of inadmissibility.

Can I benefit from the NEW “provisional unlawful presence waiver” process if I have a final order of removal?

No, the NEW provisional unlawful presence waiver process will not include aliens with final removal orders.

Generally, aliens who have outstanding final orders of removal may be inadmissible on a variety of grounds other than unlawful presence, such as criminal offenses and fraud and misrepresentation. In addition, any alien who is subject to a final order of removal, decides to leave the United States, and subsequently seeks admission, is inadmissible as an alien with a prior removal.

Part 2 of this article will be published in next Sunday’s papers and will continue to address common questions about the NEW “provisional unlawful presence waiver” process.

Before deciding to proceed with the NEW “provisional unlawful presence waiver” process, speak with an experienced immigration lawyer who can assess your unique situation and conclude you will benefit from this new law and new process.

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Sunday January 27, 2013

Sunday January 27, 2013

Kaieteur News

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Justice delayed, justice denied - the drug scandal that won’t go away Dr Roger Luncheon must have a very low opinion of the intelligence of the Guyanese public. I wrote once that the good doctor has outlived his usefulness.

I suggested that the doctor retire and spend the rest of his life taking care of his health and enjoy the declining years.

Take it from someone who has had heart surgery. After all when you hit sixty, it’s downhill from there. His judgment is being clouded.

As the spokesperson for the Cabinet he is doing a very poor job at defending the Government. Maybe it’s because he is trying to defend the indefensible. Every time he gives an answer, he opens up more questions.

Look at his latest attempt to defend Government’s justification to give New GPC the exclusive supplier of drugs to the Government on a non competitive basis. His explanation, compared with another drug supplier, the GPC prices were more competitive. Dr. Luncheon thinks that Guyanese must be

pretty stupid.

I would like to let the doctor know that whether in the Diaspora or in Guyana, Guyanese are very good at comparative shopping. What he is saying is company A (GPC’s) prices are better than company B, so you buy from company A. What he is not telling you is that company C could be cheaper than company A and B. What’s more, company D could be cheaper than all the others.

But company C and D never got the opportunity bid.

Dr Luncheon must think Guyanese are really stupid.

However they are not stupid as he thinks. The 2011 elections proved that. Did he ever wonder why the PPP lost Parliament? It’s because of all the corruption within the Government.

His explanation for single sourcing billions of tax payers’ dollars to the New GPC is just a load of hogwash. Enough has been written in the newspapers about the contract so there is no need for me to repeat the details.

Suffice it to say that Guyanese

are very aware of the improprieties surrounding that contract.

Can you imagine advancing hundreds of millions of taxpayers’ money for drugs not received?

I said before that I hope that the opposition keeps pressing this issue. It reeks of fraud. When the final word is written on this episode I would hope some of the players are wearing prison stripes.

It may not happen while the PPP remains in power, because the DPP is a political hack (pardon the pun) but as we can see happening in other countries politicians are being brought to trial years after they have left office.

I can say with great certainty that if a similar situation had existed here in the United States, a lot of folks would be wearing orange suits. Fraud and Fiduciary.

Yes justice may be delayed for the Guyanese taxpayers, but it will not be denied. It’s just a matter of time.

Speaking of justice delayed, I read this week of a case that was just concluded after 13 years. Yes, you read right— 13 years. Now what kind of a justice system you

have that takes 13 years to finish a case? Recently at the end of an Assize session only twelve of two hundred cases were tried. Now if my math is correct it probably would take about 16 sessions to finish these cases.

If there are two sessions a year we are talking of an eight-year wait, and we are not talking of probably

another 200 new cases.

President Donald Ramotar recently announced that he was appointing another eight judges. That won’t even make a dent on the back logs. Mind you we are not even talking of civil cases. The system at the moment is archaic, a hangover from the British.

What is needed is for

continuous sitting of the criminal and civil courts— I mean year round, 365 days of the year. Together with more judges this kind of backlog can be erased and bring justice to those prisoners who may be languishing in prison waiting years to prove their innocence. After all justice delayed is justice denied.

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Sunday January 27, 2013

Thousands march for gun control in Washington WASHINGTON (AP) — Thousands of people, many holding signs with names of gun violence victims and messages such as “Ban Assault Weapons Now,” joined a rally for gun control yesterday, marching from the Capitol to the Washington Monument.

Participants were led by Mayor Vincent Gray and other officials yesterday morning, and the crowd stretched for about two blocks along Constitution Avenue. Police blocked off half the road.

Participants held signs reading “Gun Control Now” and “Stop NRA,” among other messages. Other signs were simple and white, with the names of victims of gun violence.

About 100 residents were expected from Newtown, Conn., where a gunman killed 20 first-graders and six teachers at a school in December. The rally was organized in response to that shooting.

Once the crowd arrived at the monument, speakers called for a ban on militarystyle assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan told the crowd it’s not about taking away Second Amendment gun rights, but about gun safety and saving lives. He said he and President Barack Obama would do everything they could to enact gun control policies.

“We must act, we must act, we must act,” Duncan said. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D.C.’s non-voting representative in Congress, said the gun lobby can be stopped. The crowd chanted back, “Yes, we can.”

Norton said the nation didn’t act after previous mass killings, but she said “we the people,” won’t give up this time. “We are all culpable if we do nothing now,” Norton said Participant Kara Baekey of Norwalk, Conn., said that when she heard about the Newtown shooting, she immediately thought of her two young children. She said she decided she must take action, and that’s why she joined the march.

“I wanted to make sure this never happens at my kids’ school or any other school,” Baekey said. “It just can’t

Gun rights and gun control advocates demonstrate in the Pennsylvania Capital building. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke) happen again.”

James Agenbroad, 78, of Garrett Park, Md., carried a handwritten sign on cardboard that read “Repeal the 2nd Amendment.” He called it the only way to stop mass killings because he thinks the Supreme Court will strike down any other restrictions on guns.

“You can repeal it,” he said.

“We repealed prohibition.”

Molly Smith, the artistic director of Washington’s Arena Stage,

and her partner organized the march. Organizers said that in addition to the 100 from Newtown, they expected buses of participants from New Jersey, New York and Philadelphia.

Others are flying in from Seattle, San Francisco and even Alaska. While she’s never organized a political march before, Smith said she was compelled to press for a change in the law. The march organizers support President Barack Obama’s call for a ban

on military-style assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines as well as for universal background checks for gun sales. They also want lawmakers to require gun safety training for all buyers of firearms.

“With the drum roll, the consistency of the mass murders and the shock of it, it is always something that is moving and devastating to me. And then, it’s as if I move on,” Smith said.

“And in this moment, I can’t move on. I can’t move on.

“I think it’s because it was children, babies,” she said. “I was horrified by it.”

After the Connecticut shootings, Smith posted something on Facebook and drew more support to do something. The group One Million Moms for Gun Control, the Washington National Cathedral and two other churches eventually signed on to co-sponsor the march. Organizers have raised more than $46,000 online to pay for equipment and fees to stage the rally.

Lawmakers from the District of Columbia and Maryland were scheduled to speak Saturday. Actress Kathleen Turner was expected to appear, along with Marian Wright Edelman of the Children’s Defense Fund and Colin Goddard, a survivor from the Virginia Tech massacre. Smith said she supports a comprehensive look at mental health and violence in video games and films. But she said the mass killings at Virginia Tech and Aurora, Colo., and Newtown, Conn., all start with guns.

Sunday January 27, 2013

Kaieteur News

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Could Kerry, Hagel drive reboot in US-Cuba ties?

HAVANA (AP) — The nominee for U.S. Secretary of State, Sen. John Kerry, once held up millions of dollars in funding for secretive U.S. democracy-building programs in Cuba. Defense Secretary hopeful Chuck Hagel has called the U.S. embargo against the communist-run island “nonsensical” and anachronistic.

Both men are now poised to occupy two of the most important positions in President Barack Obama’s Cabinet, leading observers on both sides of the Florida Straits to say the time could be ripe for a reboot in relations between the longtime Cold War enemies — despite major obstacles still in the way.

Kerry’s confirmation hearing was held last Thursday, with Hagel’s likely to begin next Thursday. In a

day marked by platitudes and praise from his longtime colleagues, the Massachusetts Democrat up for top U.S. diplomat sidestepped two questions on Cuba without giving any hint of his opinion on bilateral relations.

Yet Kerry’s record has showed some openness to relaxing the tough U.S. stance on Cuba.

“I think having a secretary of state and secretary of defense who understand and are willing to speak publicly that isolation is counterproductive is a very good start,” said Tomas Bilbao, executive director of the nonpartisan Cuba Study Group, which advocates using engagement to spur democratic change. “I’m optimistic about the opportunity.”

Carlos Alzugaray, an exCuban ambassador to the

John Kerry

Chuck Hagel

European Union and the author of several studies about Cuba-US relations, said that if both men are confirmed, no Cabinet since the Carter administration would have such high-level voices in favor of rapprochement.

At the same time, the composition of Cuban-

Americans in Florida is evolving, with younger voters less emotionally attached to the issue than their parents and grandparents. Exit polls showed 49 percent of CubanAmericans in the state voted for Obama, roughly the same percentage as four years ago, an indication the group no longer plays the make-orbreak role it once did in presidential politics.

The atmosphere is changing in Cuba as well.

Alzugaray noted that the island has taken many steps that would normally be welcomed by Washington such as freeing dozens of political prisoners, opening the economy to limited capitalism, hosting peace talks for war-torn Colombia and eliminating most restrictions on travel for its own citizens.

“Cuba is changing, and it is changing in the direction that the United States says Cuba must change,” Alzugaray told The Associated Press in an interview in his Havana apartment.

The greatest obstacle to better ties is undoubtedly the continued imprisonment of U.S. contractor Alan Gross, who is serving a 15-year sentence for crimes against the state after he was caught setting up clandestine Internet networks as part of a U.S. Agency for International Development democracybuilding program.

Havana has insisted the 63-year-old Gross will not be released unless Washington considers freeing five Cuban agents held in the United States. One is out on supervised release but was

Syrian militias target civilians in Homs, opposition says AMMAN (Reuters) More than 20 people were killed in the Syrian city of Homs yesterday, a doctor said, as fighting raged around a road junction on a supply line to government forces in the interior of the country.

The opposition accuses shabbiha militia loyal to President Bashar al-Assad of killing some 200 Sunni Muslim civilians in Homs in massacres over the last two weeks, but a Syrian ban on most independent media makes such reports difficult to verify.

In a video statement from a makeshift hospital in the city, Mohammad Mohammad, a doctor who has been treating the wounded underground for months, displayed the bodies of five people whose remains had been charred to unrecognizable bits.

“They are the Uzam family.

The father, mother and three children - the shabbiha burnt them completely, as part of the annihilation the regime is bringing on the area of JobarKfar Aaya,” Mohammad said, referring to districts of Homs.

“We are here surrounded.

We have more than 20 dead today. They have been documented by name.” He said the victims had died in fighting, bombardment and summary executions.

At least 60,000 people have been killed in Syria’s civil war. Mostly Sunni Homs, a commercial and agricultural hub 140 km (90 miles) north of Damascus, has been at the heart of the 22-month uprising against Assad.

Syrian authorities have not commented on the latest fighting in the city. In the past, official media have described army operations as designed to ‘cleanse’ Homs from what they described as terrorists.

Speaking from Istanbul after visiting Homs, Mohammad Mroueh, a member of the Higher Leadership Council of the Syrian Revolution, told Reuters: “The rebels are holding their ground but the shabbiha are getting to the civilians.

“It’s hard to describe what’s happening in terms other than ethnic cleansing of Sunni districts in the way of Alawite supply lines,” said Mroueh, who was in Homs earlier this week.

The Alawites, who follow an offshoot of Shi’ite Islam and comprise about 10 percent of the population, have dominated Syria’s power structure and its security apparatus since the 1960s.

Assad and most of the ruling elite are Alawites.

A highway that passes near Homs has been used to supply Alawite forces deployed on hilltops in Damascus from bases in the coastal cities of Tartous and Latakia, which have a sizeable Alawite population, according to opposition sources.

Sunnis fear that the city could become part of an Alawite enclave stretching to the coast, where major military bases are located, if Assad was forced to leave Damascus.

“The massacres are

increasing and Bashar alAssad has began to draw borders of this mini-state and associate the Alawites more with blood so that they have no other option but to join him,” wrote opposition campaigner Fawaz Tello in an article published on All4Syria news website.

Syria’s conflict has grown more sectarian, deepening the Sunni-Shi’ite divide in the Middle East which burst into the open when Shi’ites gained political ascendancy in Iraq following the 2003 U.S. led invasion that deposed Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein. A statement by an insurgent group, the Syrian Revolution against Bashar alAssad, said neighborhoods of southern and western Homs were being hit with battlefield artillery and barrages from rocket launchers.

Activists in Homs said at least 120 civilians and 40 opposition fighters had been killed in the past week and that rebels from the nearby town of Qusair on the border with Lebanon were trying to relieve pressure on the western neighborhoods.

The armed opposition has been weakened in the city after a drop in ammunition supplies in recent weeks and after Assad’s forces tightened a siege on western areas, according to opposition sources. A counter-offensive by rebels two days ago in the western sector pushed back Assad’s forces slightly, but they continued to pound the area with artillery and from the air, the sources said.

ordered to remain in the country, and the other four are still incarcerated.

Critics of engagement, including several prominent Cuban-American legislators, say none of the reforms Cuba has made brings the island closer to being a democratic state after 54 years of rule by brothers Fidel and Raul Castro.

Dissidents are still detained and harassed, they say, the Cuban news media is not free, elections are restricted to approved candidates and the Cuban parliament acts as little more than a rubber stamp for decisions made by the island’s aging leaders.

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Havana-born Florida Republican and staunch critic of the Castros, told the AP she was deeply concerned about both Cabinet nominees.

“I think both are bad for strengthening the U.S.-Cuba embargo,” she said. “They would work for an appeasement policy. They would work to normalize relations. That is their philosophy. But they won’t be able to achieve it.”

Ros-Lehtinen said she hoped Kerry’s likely replacement as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Cuban-American Democrat Bob Menendez of New Jersey, would block any attempt to take a softer line.

As committee chairman in 2011, Kerry held up millions of dollars in funding for the same program that Gross was involved in, out of concern that it was ill-conceived and a waste of money. He later cut a deal with Menendez to free up the money. At the hearing on Thursday, Kerry said that as secretary of state, he would support such programs worldwide, but did not mention Cuba.

Hagel, a former Republican senator from Nebraska, has termed the 50-year-old trade embargo an “outdated, unrealistic, irrelevant policy” and said the U.S. should engage with the island, just as it does with other communist countries such as Vietnam and China.

In his first term, Obama eliminated restrictions on the number of times CubanAmericans can visit their relatives on the island, and

the amount of money they can send back in remittances. He also has made it much easier for American travelers to get licenses to visit the island on cultural, educational and religious exchanges, though tourism is still barred.

Since 2009, the number of Americans traveling to Cuba has nearly doubled from 52,000 per year to 103,000 in 2012, according to statistics compiled by the firm the Havana Consulting Group.

Trips by Cuban-Americans to visit their relatives rose from 335,000 to 476,000 a year during the same period. The surge puts the United States second only to Canada as the source of travelers to the island.

But just as American officials have met Cuban reforms with lukewarm indifference, Cuban leaders have dismissed Obama’s overtures as windowdressing, saying he has in many ways strengthened the embargo by going after companies that do business with the island. Cuban officials have been reluctant to talk about the Kerry and Hagel nominations for fear their words will be used by opponents. But a progovernment Web site, Cubasi, published an opinion piece Thursday detailing both men’s past opposition to America’s Cuba policy.

“Chuck Hagel has no problem with Cuba,” wrote the author, well-known columnist Nicanor Leon Cotayo. “On the contrary, he has demonstrated common sense to do away with one of the White House’s most anachronistic foreign policies.” Cotayo added that Obama has “real and legal options to maneuver and diminish tension in bilateral relations.” Others say they are not holding their breath for any change.

Alzugaray, the longtime Cuban diplomat, threw up his hands and shrugged when asked why he was not more optimistic that the stars would align for better relations this time around.

“That dog has bit me several times,” he laughed.

“I’ve often thought that now is the time, the possibilities are there, but always something has complicated things.”

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Sunday January 27, 2013

Singapore ruling party rebuked in by-election as disquiet rises SINGAPORE (Reuters) Singapore’s long-dominant People’s Action Party (PAP) lost heavily in a single-seat by-election yesterday, a barometer of how the government is dealing with discontent in the wealthy Asian country over immigration and the high cost of living.

The result in the Punggol East ward - 54.5 percent of the vote for the Workers Party and 43.7 percent for the PAP, with the rest split by two others - does not alter the balance of power in parliament, where the ruling party will still hold 80 of 87 elected seats.

But the rebuke in the relatively young and affluent constituency sends a signal to the PAP about the level of dissatisfaction in the citystate of 5.3 million people that is a hub for banks and multinational companies.

“I want a difference,” said Nita, a woman in her 30s. “If the Workers Party can do well in Punggol East, the other constituencies are also watching.”

Some analysts had expected the PAP to eke out a victory, especially if the three

opposition candidates diluted the anti-government vote.

The next general election is due in 2016.

The seat in Punggol East, won by the PAP in 2011 with 54 percent of the vote, was vacant after the speaker of parliament quit in December over an extramarital affair.

Other recent scandals include last year’s arrest of the civil defense chief and head of the police anti-drug unit on corruption charges.

“I respect the choice of Punggol East voters,” Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said in a statement. He called on people to refocus on national issues including the 2013 budget and a new population and immigration plan the government is preparing to deliver.

“The PAP will continue to improve the lives of Singaporeans, and present our report card for voters to judge in the next general elections,” he said.

The PAP - founded by Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s first leader for three decades and father of the current prime minister - has won every national election since independence in 1965,

transforming the postcolonial port into a major financial center by keeping the economy open and society regimented.

But the 2011 election was its worst showing ever, prompting the government to engage more openly with increasingly vocal citizens over their concerns about property prices, public transport and immigration.

Foreigners now make up about 38 percent of the population, up from about 25 percent in 2000.

Rolling out measures to help Singaporeans, it has raised the levy on foreigners buying property and boosted spending on housing grants, subsidized childcare and cash gifts for babies to try to raise one of the world’s lowest fertility rates.

But as yesterday’s byelection shows, many people expect more from the government, or at least a bigger say for the opposition.

“The PAP forgets us after the elections - only gives candies during elections and terms and conditions after,” said Daniel Chua, a 58-yearold consultant. “The Workers Party has the heart to serve.”

People’s Action Party candidate Koh Poh Koon arrived at the poll counting center during the Punggol East by-election in Singapore yesterday. REUTERS/Edgar Su

Sunday January 27, 2013

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Dozens reported killed in Venezuela prison riot CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan authorities promised a highlevel investigation yesterday into a deadly prison riot that reportedly left dozens of people dead when National Guard soldiers clashed with armed inmates.

Vice President Nicolas Maduro called the violence tragic while speaking on television early yesterday and said Prosecutor General Luisa Ortega Diaz and National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello would lead the investigation. He and other officials didn’t give a death toll from the riot Friday at Uribana prison in the central Venezuelan city of Barquisimeto.

“The prisons have to be governed by law,” Maduro said.

Humberto Prado, an activist who leads the watchdog group Venezuelan Prisons Observatory, said inmates’ relatives and media accounts put the toll at 55 killed and 88 injured.

The Venezuelan newspaper Ultimas Noticias and the television channel Globovision reported more than 50 killed, both citing Ruy Medina, the director of Central Hospital in the city.

Relatives wept outside the prison during the

violence, and cried at the morgue yesterday as they waited to identify bodies.

Penitentiary Service Minister Iris Varela said Friday that the riot broke out when groups of inmates attacked National Guard troops who were attempting to carry out an inspection.

Varela said the violence had affected a number of prisoners and officials, but said the authorities would hold off until control had been re-established at the prison to confirm the toll.

She said the government decided to send troops to search the prison after receiving reports of clashes between groups of inmates during the past two days.

The death toll provided

by Medina rose late Friday after he had initially reported four killed and dozens injured.

Ultimas Noticias reported that the victims included a Protestant pastor and a member of the National Guard, as well as inmates.

Opposition leader Henrique Capriles condemned the government’s handling of the country’s overcrowded and violent prisons.

“Our country’s prisons are an example of the incapacity of this government

Relatives of inmates react outside the Uribana prison in Barquisimeto, Venezuela. (AP Photo/Roger Varela/El Informador) and its leaders. They never solved the problem,” Capriles said on his Twitter account.

“How many more deaths do there have to be in the prisons for the government to acknowledge its failure and make changes?”

The Venezuelan Prisons Observatory said in a statement that in 2007 the Costa Rica-based InterAmerican Court of Human Rights had ordered the government to seize weapons

that inmates had in their possession at Uribana prison and to take measures to avoid deaths in the facility.

The group called for the government to release a list with the names of the dead and wounded in Friday’s violence, as well as details about weapons seized in the search.

“No one doubts that inspections are necessary procedures to guarantee prison conditions in line

with international standards, but they can’t be carried out with the warlike attitude as (authorities) have done it,” Prado told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. “It’s clear that the inspection wasn’t coordinated or put into practice as it should have been. It was evidently a disproportionate use of force.”

Prado’s group says

Uribana prison was built to hold up to 850 inmates but currently has about 1,400.

It was the latest in a series of bloody riots in the country’s severely overcrowded prisons where inmates often freely obtain weapons and drugs with the help of corrupt guards.

Venezuela currently has 33 prisons built to hold about 12,000 inmates, but officials have said the prisons’ population is about 47,000.

I n A p r i l a n d M a y, a prison uprising in La Planta prison in Caracas blocked authorities from going inside for nearly three weeks. One prisoner was killed and five people were wounded, including two National Guard soldiers and three inmates.

Tw o m o n t h s l ater, another riot broke out at a prison in Merida, and the Venezuelan Prisons Observatory reported 30 killed.

In August, 25 people were killed and 43 wounded when two groups of inmates fought a gunbattle inside Yare I prison south of Caracas.

Chavez’s government has previous pledged improvements to the prison system, but opponents and activists say the government hasn’t made progress.

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Sunday January 27, 2013

Violent crime very high in T&T, says Williams Trinidad Guardian Acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams admitted Friday that violent crime was “very high” and reducing that fear was a big challenge for the Police Service. And, he said, one of the goals of the police this year was to decrease serious crime, including murder by 23 per cent.

Williams was speaking at a breakfast meeting hosted by the American Chamber of Commerce, at the Hilton Trinidad and Conference Centre, Port-of-Spain. “A very contentious statement is that crime in T&T is comparatively

Stephen Williams very low.

“Unless we can impact violent crime in a significant

way, especially on murders, we will be unable to get people to focus on the reality of the situation, which is, crime, generally being low in T&T...people will never see the low levels of crime unless we take their gaze away from violent crime. And to take their gaze away we must get rid of violent crime.”

He said, “No matter what you do, no matter what you say, no matter what numbers you put out, no matter what form of statistics you present, there is a perception that those numbers do not match up to the real thing in T&T. “So the perception, as some

say, is the reality. It is the reality for me that even though the numbers are generally low with crime, the perception is that crime is high.”

Close on the heels of violent crime were road fatalities, as 191 road deaths were recorded last year, Williams added. But the police could only do so much, as the Government played a great role in reducing crime by making intelligent decisions to benefit the people, Williams said. What had “strangled” the Police Service over the years, he said, was a negative culture within the

organisation.

“Officers must recognise that while they are entrusted with tremendous power and authority, they must be able to manage the power and authority to the best benefit of the citizens.” Williams said since 1999 there had been an increase in the homicide rate, which triggered a fear in the population and a lack of confidence in police.

Saying it was critical to get firearms out of the hands of criminals, Williams said a gun was the weapon of choice used by criminals in 80 per cent of murders. He said offshore patrol vessels (OPVs) were not the solution to ensure coastal areas were properly protected.

“OPVs would not secure our porous borders. It has nothing to do with which political party took the decision to purchase OPVs

and which party took the decision to cancel the purchasing of OPVs. “The OPVs will operate in distant waters of our porous borders. What we need to do is find a mechanism to enhance our 360-degree radar coverage, but also to enhance the capacity of the Coast Guard to secure the borders. Then we can properly address the problem of firearms and the criminals.”

What was also critical, he urged, was forging a positive relationship between the police and the public. Speaking on the tenets of effective policing, Williams said this entailed aggressive acquisition of resources, reconstituting of the Police Service, great execution of strategy and change in the negative culture of the Police Service.

PM fires minister in St Kitts

BASSETERRE, St. Kitts CMC – Less than 72 hours after Prime Minister Dr Denzil Douglas warned two senior Cabinet ministers that they should either resign or submit their resignations if they intended to oppose the government policies, he has fired Senior Minister Dr Timothy Harris.

In a radio and television broadcast Friday night, Dr Douglas said that Harris, who is also the Chairman of the ruling St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party (SKNLP), had been dismissed because of his opposition to two recent government-sponsored legislation, including one to increase the number of senators in the National Assembly.

In addition, he said Timothy, who is also expected to be stripped of his party chairmanship position when the SKNLP holds a special convention, had refused to indicate how he would vote on the national budget and on an opposition inspired motion of no confidence in the St. Kitts-Nevis government.

“Specifically Senior Minister Harris has refused to support the Governmentsponsored...Vesting of Certain Land Act. He has indicated to the Cabinet and to the entire country that he will not support the Government-sponsored Senators Increased of Number Bill.

“He has consistently refused to confirm to the Cabinet that he will support the budget when it comes

Dr. Timothy Harri before parliament for approval, and he has refused to confirm to Cabinet that he will vote against a Motion of No Confidence in the Government of which he is a Senior Minister,” Douglas said in his broadcast.

On Tuesday, during his radio programme “Ask the Prime Minister”, Douglas had warned that he would not tolerate Cabinet ministers not supporting the government’s policies and also that the ruling party would take strong objection to people elected to the parliament on its slate and then seeking to undermine it.

While he did not name anyone, it was apparent he was referring to Timothy and Deputy Prime Minister Sam Condor, who in recent months have openly opposed government policies, including forcing a postponement of the presentation of the national budget last month.

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Venezuela VP: ailing Chavez in ‘best moment’ CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s condition has improved and he is now optimistic as he faces more treatment following cancer surgery, his vice president said yesterday.

Vice President Nicolas Maduro said after meeting with Chavez in Cuba that the ailing president is now “in the best moment we’ve seen him in these days of struggle” following his Dec. 11 cancer surgery. Chavez hasn’t appeared or spoken publicly since before the operation, and his government has said he suffered complications including a severe respiratory infection but has recently been improving.

Maduro spoke on state television early yesterday after returning from Havana to Venezuela. He said he was leaving shortly for a summit meeting in Chile with a written message from Chavez.

“We’re taking a message prepared by the president, and we’re going to turn it over to heads of state who attend the CELAC summit. He makes fundamental

proposals,” Maduro said, adding that the message was in Chavez’s handwriting.

Maduro said Chavez also sent a message for Venezuelans, including that he was “very optimistic” about his treatment. Maduro said Chavez is “hanging on to Christ and to life.”

Maduro said Chavez also urged his supporters in Venezuela to be alert about opponents seeking to do harm to his socialist-oriented “revolution.” However, Maduro didn’t elaborate.

The vice president, whom Chavez designated as his successor before the operation, spoke on television surrounded by officials including Defense Minister Diego Molero and Information Minister Ernesto Villegas.

Chavez has undergone repeated surgeries, chemotherapy and radiation treatment for an unspecified type of pelvic cancer. He has undergone much of his treatment in Cuba.

The 58-year-old president won re-election in October, and lawmakers indefinitely

Supporters of Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez shout slogans during a rally in Caracas, Venezuela, yesterday. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano) put off his inauguration earlier this month in a decision that was condemned by opponents but upheld by the Supreme Court.

The vice president said that Chavez “has reviewed and evaluated reports on different areas and has made

decisions.”

He said Chavez evaluated the country’s economic situation and budget and made decisions about gold reserves, funding for public housing projects and “social investments and economic

development.”

Maduro didn’t give more details but said the actions approved by the president were intended to “guarantee the country’s economic growth, infrastructure, housing.”

Maduro said that one of

the documents signed by Chavez dealt with the selection of his socialist party’s candidates for mayoral elections later this year.

The vice president showed the signature in red ink on one of the documents.

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Women Miners’ organization gains Man gets 4 yrs, six strokes for support from US, Canadian missions felonious wounding charge The dream of a woman to have equal opportunities in Guyana’s mining industry is slowly becoming a reality, thanks to the Guyana Women Miners’ Organisation (GWMO).

For decades women who dare to enter the “gold bush” to earn a living have been exploited, abused and labelled as whores. Against this background, Simona Broomes, a miner, formed the GWMO with the assistance of three other women miners.

The organization was launched last January with 45 members and Broomes as its president. The organisation’s membership grew to over 400

by December 2012 and represented women from every Administrative Region.

GWMO is growing and its original mandate of expanding opportunities for women miners has broadened. Help is given to the abused; hope is reassured to the prostitutes, and unemployed women are encouraged to join the mining sector in a meaningful way.

The GWMO does not operate in isolation. Its partners include the Government--particularly the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment-, US Embassy and the Canadian High Commission.

For an organization that focuses on women in the mining industry and encounters many social woes such as human trafficking, its relationship with the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security is yet to be strengthened.

Simona Broomes is hoping that 2013 will see a closer working relationship with Government since it is quite

costly to travel in Guyana’s interior locations. She saw the presence of Prime Minister Samuel Hinds at the body’s first anniversary celebration on Friday last as a positive sign for 2013.

It is hoped that some of the challenges that prevent members from reaching their true potential would be eliminated. However, the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment and the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) have important roles to play in this regard.

According to Broomes, GWMO was unable to acquire a seat with voting rights on GGMC’s Board during its first year. The body will continue to engage those in authority since it is pertinent that women be involved at the policy level.

The body was unable to facilitate training for women in the industry. The provision of skills for life training would make women more marketable in the sector. Broomes said that many Commercial Sex Workers are looking forward to engage in these training sessions to liberate themselves.

The organization was promised a mining block.

This is in its nursery stage and according to Broomes with the block women could be trained to earn a living.

Broomes said that despite the numerous challenges GWMO remains strong because of the “many cries”.

“The fact people are reaching out to us we know GWMO has a purpose. Every woman has their own terrible

experiences and we understand and that’s what keeps us strong,” she said.

Within one year the cries of the abused, misused and the trafficked were heard.

The GWMO was skillful in rescuing several young girls from the jaws of sexual slavery. In fact, Government which once dismissed human trafficking as a social problem in Guyana has accepted that it exists.

“While enough is not being done to prosecute the offenders, on the flip side nothing is being done to help victims. The GWMO is advocating for a shelter to be built for victims of trafficking in persons and for women who have been exploited by unscrupulous employers and may be facing difficulties.

“These women should not be placed in homes for battered women...,” she stressed.

Broomes further recommended that shops should not be allowed to operate at any location operators deem unfit. Many illegal activities are conducted at those shops.

Another achievement of the body is the sensitization of women and men in every Administrative Regions about the GWMO. This was very effective since many times GWMO was able to help victims because citizens inform members of women being exploited and help was given.

Stronger and more experienced, the GWMO is ready for the new year.

Representation of women miners and other women in the sector is the ultimate goal.

A 33-year-old man is battling for his life at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC)’s Intensive Care Unit (ICU) after he was shot in his abdomen by gunmen on Thursday.

Injured is Rajindra Singh, a Driver at BK International, of Lot 14 ‘T’ Drive, Enterprise East Coast Demerara (ECD).

According to reports, Singh had gone by his neighbour for a drink and was on his way home when he was shot.

Singh’s wife, Linda Persaud, said that their house is shared by her in-laws. “We live downstairs and my brother-in-law was upstairs alone so my husband called him and told him that he was leaving to come home to keep his company because he

alone was at home.”

The 16-year-old was on the phone when three bandits entered the yard.

They had reportedly come from the line-top. One of the robbers went to the veranda and struck the p h o n e f r o m t h e t e e n ’s hand.

The bandits then took the 16-year-old inside the upper flat. The two accomplices also entered the upper flat, and took turns lying in the hammock. Singh’s wife was unaware of what was going on.

Singh who was also unaware of what was happening, entered the yard and was about to go upstairs when one of the robbers shot him.

Although wounded, Singh managed to go

upstairs, where he confronted another robber in the front bedroom. The bandits had already tied up the teenager with a sheet.

The wounded man and the bandit struggled. The younger sibling managed to free himself and came to his brother ’s aid.

However, the robber drew his firearm and forced the two brothers to retreat. The gunmen then fled.

The shot man came downstairs to check on his wife and collapsed on the front stairs.

Neighbours heard the wife’s screams and came to the family’s assistance. They then took the wounded man to the GPHC where he underwent surgery but is said to be in a critical condition.

Shot Enterprise man battles for life in ICU

A man who pleaded guilty to a charge of felonious wounding has been sentenced to four years’ imprisonment together with six strokes.

The man, 17-year-old Eric Nurse was charged on January 4, last, at the Providence Magistrate’s Court, by Magistrate Leslie Sobers.

It is alleged that on January 1, at Diamond Housing Scheme he wounded David Alphonso so as to cause him grievous bodily harm. When the matter was first called the accused pleaded guilty and the date for sentencing was set for Friday January 25.

The court was told that on the day in question Alphonso was driving his motor car when he turned into Thirteenth Avenue, Diamond Housing Scheme.

The accused, Nurse, was sitting on a culvert at the corner of the road. As the car passed he decided to spit.

According to the prosecution’s case some of Nurse’s saliva landed on the virtual complainant.

Further the court was told that Alphonso stopped his

car and approached Nurse.

An argument started and developed into a scuffle. During the scuffle Alphonso was stabbed nine times and sustained a punctured right lung.

After Nurse’s guilty plea, the Magistrate before handing down his sentence, asked him if he had anything to say. Nurse first asked the Magistrate

to be lenient with him, but went on to state that this would not have been the end result if Alphonso hadn’t pushed him.

Nurse was sentenced and then cautioned that he should have apologized and walked away since he had that option, and that it was rather surprising how he chose to deal with the situation.

Robbers shoot dance instructor in Sophia Bandits shot a 24-year-old dance instructor around 20:30hrs Friday during a robbery attempt in ‘A’ Field Sophia.

The victim, identified as Reyan Baird, of East Ruimveldt Housing Scheme, was shot in his right side during a confrontation with two men on bicycles who were attempting to rob him and one of his female students.

The student, Giovanni De Roche, told Kaieteur News that Baird was following her to ‘C’ Field Sophia where she lives, when two men on bicycles confronted them.

She said that one of the men drew a gun and ordered them to h a n d o v e r t h e i r valuables.

De Roche said that she and Baird turned to escape when one of the men shot the dance instructor. The young woman said that she managed to take refuge in a relative’s yard.

Baird was rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) where he was scheduled to undergo surgery. Sources said that his condition did not appear to be life threatening.

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60 world leaders in Chile for summit The Santiago summit, which opened yesterday, between the European Union and the new Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, will bring together leaders from 60 countries in the two regions.

President Donald Ramotar is leading the Guyana delegation.

The summit, which ends today, comes at a pivotal moment for both sides.

The global economy has been going through difficult times and both regions can play a key role in restoring strong and sustainable growth worldwide.

A statement from the EU reported, “We are turning a corner in the financial crisis that has seriously affected the European Union’s economy.

Our response to the crisis has been decisive and competitiveness and confidence are being slowly restored.

“We have taken the tough but necessary decisions to prevent similar problems from occurring in the future.

Countries are undertaking unprecedented structural reforms and we are overhauling our economic governance at the Union

level.”

Despite this crisis the European Union remains the largest economy in the world and an indispensable partner for the international community in promoting peace, democracy and the respect of human rights as well as development, eradication of poverty and the protection of the global common goods such as climate. The way forward is for more integration and this is the path we have been charting for the last two years.

Latin America and the Caribbean are also living through profound changes, albeit of a different nature.

Governments and citizens are facing choices that will shape their countries’ future development path for decades to come. For much of the region, the last few years have brought robust economic growth. Nearly 50 million people have been lifted out of poverty. Democracy has been further consolidated and the region’s voice in international affairs has also been strengthened.

Yet there are still huge challenges in terms of poverty, inequality, security

or environmental issues.

Abundant natural resources have proved an asset for some countries, but only a more diversified economic model will sustain growth in the longer term.

Against this backdrop, the Santiago summit comes at a time when the relationship is more important than ever.

Its central theme is both a challenge and a call: an “alliance for sustainable development: promoting investments of social and environmental quality.” This focuses attention on a crucial pillar of the relationship.

The European Union accounts for no less than 43 per cent of the total stocks of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Latin America and the Caribbean. And despite the difficult economic situation, in 2011, annual FDI flows from the European Union to the region reached record levels.

How many people realise that European FDI in Latin America and the Caribbean is in fact higher than in Russia, China and India combined?

But it is not just about quantity. It is also about quality. For development to be sustainable, it must be inclusive – creating decent

jobs. For Latin American and Caribbean countries pursuing a more sustainable and inclusive growth model, European investment stands out in terms of quantity and quality.

It is already contributing in various ways to more competitiveness and social development.

Highly diversified, it is certainly not confined to the resources s e c t o r.

European companies are at the origin of almost twothirds of all R&D investment projects in the region. Investments in sectors like electric power help deliver essential public services to large parts of the population.

European companies in the region often lead the way in terms of private-sector commitment to environmental protection and labour standards. And ways of promoting further cooperation on Corporate Social Responsibility will be an important aspect of the discussions in Santiago.

But the summit in Santiago will also cover other issues beyond investment.

This reflects the fact that our long-standing partnership has always embodied a genuine community of values – in terms of human rights, democracy and social cohesion. Gender equality will be discussed, and become a new pillar of the common action plan that guides our cooperation between our biennial summits.

We will seek ways to work closely together on security challenges – for instance, how best to support the regional strategy developed

by Central American countries. European and Latin American or Caribbean partners also have a common interest in finding ways of working together closer and more effectively in multilateral organisations, for instance on climate change and sustainable development.

The European Union remains strongly committed to supporting economic and social development in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The region’s impressive economic progress means that with some of its more dynamic economies, we will be discussing new forms of cooperation to replace the donor-beneficiary relationships of the past.

Mexican poet Octavio Paz famously once said that (Latin) America is “not so much a tradition to be continued, more a future to be made into reality.” This saying also neatly captures the potential and dynamism of our partnership between the European Union and the new Community of Latin American and Caribbean States.

This partnership also reflects a shared conviction t h a t , i n t o d a y ’s i n t e rdependent world, on a range of common challenges both sides benefit from working together and can learn from each other.

This should be the guiding principle of our discussions in Santiago, whether on investment, economic and social models, democracy or development.

Speaker to probe “lying” reporting by online news outfit Speaker of the House, Raphael Trotman, is probing reports of unfair reporting by an online news outfit on Friday night, during a sitting of the National Assembly.

Moses Nagamootoo, Parliamentarian for the Alliance For Change (AFC), accused Inewsgy.com, an anonymous online news site reportedly with close links to government, of breaching the privileges of the House.

He complained to the Speaker.

The report accused him of lying during the debate on an opposition-tabled Bill to slash the benefits of former Presidents.

Inews said that Nagamootoo lied when he said that he did not vote in 2009 when the Bill allowing the benefits was passed in the previous Parliament.

Nagamootoo said that he admitted that he had voted for the Bill in 2009, but this is a far cry from lying as Inews was saying.

He said that according to the privileges of the House, the reporting must be fair, balanced and contemporaneous. It was neither fair nor balanced and the media outfit may have lost its immunity.

It is not known who the operators of Inews are although sources are indicating that the website is managed by a team from the state owned news agencies and a number of others closely aligned to government.

Speaker, Raphael Trotman

AFC’s Moses Nagamootoo

Minister of Legal Affairs, Attorney General, Anil Nandlall, during the session on Friday produced Parliamentary records that Nagamootoo did vote.

The Parliamentarian had said during his presentation that even if he did back the Bill in 2009, that situation has changed now.

According to the Speaker, he has seen the report and was concerned; it did not reflect what went on in the National Assembly.

It was the same “outfit”, the Speaker said, that sought to “malign” him two weeks ago. “I have ideas…to the origins of the outfit.”

The Speaker said he will be raising the issue with the Clerk of the Assembly, Sherlock Isaacs.

“I will not permit anyone

to make such a ridiculous, lying statement of any member. I will be speaking to the Clerk about a possible course of action.”

The Speaker said that he has spoken about the issue just a few days ago.

The original report by Inews was sent out but was later corrected with the word “lying” being taken out.

The Opposition, which controls the National Assembly by a one-seat majority, has been complaining about biased reporting from the state media.

APNU has presented a report where the Government Information Agency (GINA) consistently was slanted towards government.

Last y e a r, the Opposition voted to slash GINA and NCN’s budgets.

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THE PAC SHOULD EXAMINE THE PREQUALIFICATION SYSTEM All is not well with the procurement of drugs in the local health system. All has not been well for some time now.

However, instead of the government attempting to treat the aliment, its defence is to say that it has administered the right medication in accordance with the prescribed regimen and therefore it has acted properly.

The government is convincing very few with this sort of defence. The public by and large are not impressed by the attempts of the government to persuade them that the administration has not over the years favoured the New Guyana Pharmaceutical Corporation (New GPC) when it comes to the procurement of medicines.

The government is disingenuous in trying to have the public believe that because presently its sources supplies from the New GPC under a system of prequalification, that this proves that there is no favouritism towards that entity.

The government has a history of favouritism towards the New GPC; this is borne out by the evidence presented in the annual reports of the Auditor General.

Those reports have revealed a worrying pattern of breaches by the government of the Procurement Act and all done in furtherance of granting huge contracts to the New GPC. In 2008, the Auditor General in his annual report noted that the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation paid the New GPC some 539.3 million dollars. Approval for payment was made utilizing the old Ministry Of Health Cabinet approval dated 25 November 2003, and there was no evidence to indicate that the relevant tender procedures were followed.

In 2009, the Auditor

General reported that the Ministry of Health expended 1.884 billion dollars to purchase medicines and medical supplies. Of this, 1.414 billion was paid to the New GPC. The Auditor General observed that “The awards were however made on the basis of sole sourcing and not competitive bidding occasioned by public advertising. This therefore could not justifiably consider being in fulfillment of the tenets of the Procurement Act (2003)”.

In his 2010 report, the Auditor General noted that the Ministry of Health expended 1.546 billion for drugs and medical supplies.

Of this sum, 1.252 B was paid to the New GPC. The awards, the report stated, were made on the basis of sole sourcing.

If these reports are not sufficient to establish the government’s favouring of that company, then the world is flat.

Faced with mounting criticisms about its procurement policies in the health sector, the government moved in 2011 towards prequalification of bidders for the award of contracts for medicines and medical supplies. And guess who ended up winning the prequalification process?

The New GPC. It is for the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the National Assembly, which is presently examining the Auditor General’s Report in relation to the procurement of medicines, to determine whether the prequalification process was biased towards the New GPC. That is something that needs to be closely examined, because the more you look at the historical data, the more two things stand out.

The first one is that the New GPC has over the past four years held a virtual monopoly on the supply of medicines to the health sector. The Public Accounts

Committee should be worried about this, because for one company to enjoy such a dominant standing in the health sector means that there can be dire implications if that company for some reason should go bankrupt or encounter problems in meeting its contractual obligations to the government.

The second thing that stands out is that the system is clearly not engendering

competition, because one company enjoys an overwhelming dominance in the sector.

As such, the PAC needs to closely examine the prequalification rules to see whether these unfairly discriminate against other bidders. In making such an assessment, the Public Accounts Committee needs to question why it is necessary in the first place for a company to have a

manufacturing capability in order to be prequalified to supply medicines. Why is that a precondition for prequalification?

Why should any company, local or foreign, be denied or be disfavoured in the prequalification process, simply because that company does not have manufacturing capabilities? What does manufacturing capability have to do with the ability to import the medicines at

competitive prices? And how many pharmaceutical companies in Guyana have manufacturing capabilities and are into tendering for the supply of medicines?

The answer is not hard to gauge. Nor is the truth surrounding this whole issue of the supply of medicines to our local health system.

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Illegal Brazilian-operated river dredges ordered to cease operations

SUNDAY SPECIAL DRUGS PURCHASES SCANDAL…BILLION $$$ PAID TO NEW GPC UPFRONT As the National Assembly continues to assess disclosures that one pharmaceutical company deliberately lied about millions of dollars for the rental of a storage bond, there are questions now whether Government may have broken the laws.

Ministry of Health officials, testifying before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament about the Ministry’s 2010 deals, last week disclosed that it paid hundreds of millions of dollars in full and in advance to New GPC for deliveries.

They even continued the same arrangement in 2011.

This was despite the fact that New GPC may not have delivered $222M in drugs ordered in 2010. Now, both Members of Parliament (MPs) of the Opposition and at least one drug importer are calling for investigations.

Businessman Lloyd Singh, proprietor of International Pharmaceutical Agency (IPA), who is fighting what he said is an unfair playing field for importers of pharmaceuticals, claimed that his company and others were consistently sidelined. As a matter of fact, government’s admission that it may have paid New GPC fully while not yet collecting all the drugs ordered is indeed strange.

ILLEGAL BRAZILIANOPERATED RIVER DREDGES ORDERED TO CEASE OPERATIONS The Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) on Saturday, January 19, last, issued cease work orders to three dredges operating without the requisite documentation in the Essequibo River near Itaballi, Region Seven.

The immediate cease work orders were issued following a surprise visit by Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment, Robert Persaud,

and a team of senior officers from the GGMC. The dredges were being operated by Brazilians.

According to a GGMC official, recognizing the breach of operating the river dredges without a licence, the Commission was mandated by Minister Persaud to take necessary action in accordance with the Mining Act and Regulations, such as the issuance of the cease work orders. Further investigations will be conducted to identify additional breaches and instituting the prescribed penalties.

Kaieteur News also understands that the Minister has instructed the GGMC to conduct a series of monitoring and surveillance within the various mining districts to ensure all mining operations comply with set guidelines for sustainable and environmentally-friendly mining practices.

Government has tightened its monitoring of illegal mining with restrictions on the level of river mining activities. High gold prices have seen a rush into the hinterland by both local and foreign operations, putting GGMC under strain, in terms of monitoring.

MONDAY EDITION COPS STAGE DRAMATIC RESCUE…ARSONIST ABDUCTS, STABS REPUTED WIFE IN BACKLANDS

A man who had torched his reputed wife’s home last December emerged from hiding at around 05:00 hrs Sunday to abduct and stab the 32-year-old woman in the Queenstown, Essequibo backlands, but quick action by police saved the day.

Lilawattie Dass was rescued from the Queenstown backlands shortly after being stabbed five times.

She was admitted to the Suddie Hospital, while the suspect, identified as Linden Johnson, has been detained.

Police said that Johnson had been in hiding after torching Dass’ home on December 14, 2012. She has been staying at the home of her stepmother, Mala Sookra.

Speaking to Kaieteur News from the Intensive Care Unit, where she underwent surgery, Das said she and Johnson had been living together for the past five months. The mother of one explained that at around 05:00 hrs last Sunday, she went outside to use a washroom which is situated on the bottom flat of her stepmother’s home, when Johnson, who was armed with a knife and cutlass, confronted her. Dass said that she attempted to run away but Johnson overpowered her and she was forced to accompany her estranged reputed husband to the Queenstown backlands.

Fortunately, police had

received a report about the abduction and ranks from a mobile unit cordoned off the area where she was being held.

It is alleged that the suspect stabbed Dass when he realised that the police were closing in on him.

TWO DEAD IN HIGHWAY CRASH Two men were killed almost instantly at around 22: 00 hrs last Sunday after the car they were in slammed into a utility pole near Long Creek on the Soesdyke/ Linden Highway. The victims have been identified as 33-year-old Safraz Ali of Sara Johanna, East Bank Demerara and Joe Mohammed of Dora, Soesdyke/Linden Highway.

Reports are that Ali, who is a taxi driver, went to Dora to pick up Mohammed and the men were heading to Georgetown when the driver apparently lost control of his vehicle. One eyewitness told this publication that when they raced to the scene, Mohammed was already out of the car and Ali was climbing out of the car.

“Like the impact pelt the other man out the car but Ali climb out the car and as soon as he reach out he fall down and left right deh.”

The badly injured men were placed in the back of a pick-up and transported to the Diamond Diagnostic Centre where they were both pronounced dead on arrival.

Sunday January 27, 2013

TUESDAY EDITION PARLIAMENT’S SPECIAL COMMITTEE TO INVESTIGATE DRUGS PURCHASES IN DETAIL Parliament’s largest Opposition group, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) says it will be asking a special committee to investigate Government’s decision to unfairly grant one company billions of dollars in drugs contracts under unclear circumstances.

For years, one company was consistently grabbing up the contracts with other importers now breaking their silence saying that they were sidelined but will no longer keep quiet.

In early 2010, the Cabinet of Ministers, under former President Bharrat Jagdeo, made a decision to allow New GPC, a company with which he reportedly has close ties, to be granted hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts.

It was the same year that New GPC may have failed to deliver $222M in drugs.

Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which examines the Auditor General’s annual report on how state funds are spent, was told last week that attempts are now being made… two years later… to determine how much drugs the New GPC did not deliver.

New GPC, through its principal, Dr. Ranjisinghi ‘Bobby’ Ramroop, in recent months has attacked the independent media houses Kaieteur News and Stabroek News. Kaieteur News, especially, has been sued several times for hundreds of millions of dollars by New GPC for questioning the contracts.

CONSTABULARY OFFICER STABBED, FOILS BREAK AND ENTERATTEMPT A City Constabulary officer is counting his lucky stars after being wounded by bandits who attempted to break into a Bourda Market stall early Monday morning.

Constable Samuel

Scotland is in a stable condition, nursing a single stab wound to his upper right chest at the Georgetown Public Hospital.

The 33-year-old Nabaclis, East Coast Demerara resident, was caught off guard when he stumbled upon an attempted burglary during his regular patrol of the premises at Bourda Green.

Scotland told Kaieteur News that around 02:30hours he was making his regular rounds of the market when he heard a noise emanating from one of the stalls.

“I hear de noise and I say that ain’t sound like no cat or no rat. I say it sound like somebody doing something on a roof.”

Scotland said he then proceeded to the area from where he heard the noise and saw a man standing on top of the stall when he shone his torchlight. The rank said he raised an alarm while his eyes remained fixed on the man on the roof. During this time, Scotland said he assumed that the assailant could not have seen him as the man kept looking around.

“He keep looking around and peeping to see wheh I deh, but he couldn’t see me cause I stay in de corner,” Scotland said. “But den he jump down on de same side where I was and same time I lash he wit de piece of wood I had.”

WEDNESDAY EDITION ONE DEAD, EIGHT MISSINGAFTER BOATS COLLIDE IN MAZARUNI RIVER Coast Guard ranks have recovered the body of one man and are searching for eight more people, who are feared dead, following a twoboat collision in the Mazaruni River at around 12:30 hrs Tuesday.

The accident, which took place in the vicinity of Crab Falls, 25 miles upstream from Bartica, has also left several persons nursing injuries at the Bartica Hospital, a report from (Continued on page 41)

The new $495 drugs bond at Diamond, East Bank Demerara

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Ravi Dev Column

Interventionist Industrial policy The Minister of Finance and his Budget team are putting the finishing touches on this year’s budget as they take on board suggestions from the Opposition and other stakeholders.

Quite commendably, the government has been able to buck the regional tide and generate a positive growth rate - promised next year to be around 4%.

But the government would concede that since we were starting from such a low base, occasioned by the destruction of the economy in the 1980s, we need doubledigit growth rates to catapult us up to the living standards enjoyed by, say T&T, within the next decade.

The problem for the Minister is that given the overarching economic model that he is forced to operate within, there is very little room for him to make that dramatic impact on our growth rate.

In his model, the core tools available are monetary, fiscal and exchange rate instruments – but they can

only be used to satisfy some arbitrary “macroeconomic fundamentals”.

With the first option, the central bank could lower interest rates on its T-bills and also reduce the statutory reserve requirements in order to encourage banks to up their lending.

Increased money in the hands of businesses and consumers would then spur spending and demand and ultimately, growth.

In Guyana, the monetary policy tools are technically in the hands of the Bank of Guyana (BoG).

However, even though the BoG has reduced its T-Bills rates, it has not gone all the way to zero as in the US, because the model warns that this action will be “inflationary”.

So we have a situation in which the commercial banks are awash in liquidity (and profits) even as consumers and businesses are starving.

And the economy trundles along.

We have long pointed out

that in an underdeveloped economy such as ours, inflation rates even in the mid-teens range would not be dangerous – once the easier credits are directed towards businesses that invest in productive sectors that generate exports and foreign exchange.

But this means, of course, that the government would have to craft and deploy an industrial policy (IP) extracted from the insights of, say, the National Development Strategy and the LCDS. Unlike the present laissez faire approach, in which the government creates an ‘enabling environment’ through broad macroeconomic policies that is supposed to attract investment, we advocate very interventionist sectorspecific industrial policies.

However, we have to be realistic to accept that even if our banks, through some miracle, offered cheap money, our local business community is to too parochial and risk adverse.

THE BACCOO SPEAKS I hear the awe in people’s voices as they remark on the happenings. There have been the boat accidents that claimed many lives and people know about the deadly fire.

Well all the bad things are not yet over because there are too many guns out there and too many people willing to accept pay to use them.

The shooting outside a city hotel will reach a climax when people in pursuit of the gunman will attack the wrong person. This is going to cause some confusion

because this wrong person would indeed be closely related to the gunman. ** Another strange thing is going to happen. There have been many accidents in the city with cars ending up in

waterways. This one is going to see a car destroying a public facility and creating much inconvenience for people in the vicinity.

The snapped lamp pole would bring down live wires which but for luck would have extinguished the life of people in the vicinity. ** Lookout for the schoolboy who will tell a tale of molestation and people saying that the boy concocted the story.

The police are going to demonstrate much interest.

The recent announcement by expat Bai Shan Lin is very encouraging, but we will have to see how it pans out.

Over the last two decades, government spending on infrastructure and social services have been the major investment in the economy – and creating deficits.

While necessary, we know that the strategy has not delivered the requisite double-digit growth and it is for this reason that we are proposing the IP-driven model.

The governmental spending in that vehicle will create a greater number of jobs and create a virtuous cycle in generating increased jobs, taxes and foreign exchange.

Fiscal policy, therefore, must follow monetary policy, in being directed towards an industrial policy to be of any help.

Furthermore, in our view, the Government has to throw off the yoke of the IFIs’ dogmas and become directly involved in public-private ventures.

This is the way Japan with MITI and South Korea etc. identified strategic opportunities and exploited

them in the early days. China is doing it now.

After the ventures become established, the government can decide as to the level or nature of its involvement.

We appreciate that there will have to be cooperation across the aisles to dampen accusations of ‘favouritism”.

In the exercise of its fiscal prerogative, the state can reduce taxes while increasing governmental spending – while, of course, always running the risk of increasing the fiscal deficit.

The first exercise would place more money into the hands of consumers and businesses and theoretically, increase spending in the economy.

But experience has s h o w n that lump sum disbursements are more effective in fostering economic growth than the small increases in income consequent to tax cuts.

The latter has a psychological impact, however, which cannot be ignored – and so maybe a nominal decrease in the VAT may be helpful.

Ravi Dev

Finally, the foreignexchange rate policy option did not offer the Minister any help in stimulating the economy. Typically, to stimulate growth, a government would not want its currency to be too strong so that its products would be cheaper in foreign markets.

It is for this reason that President Obama’s Treasury Secretary has (alarmingly) accused China of deliberately intervening to keep its currency undervalued.

Our major products – rice, sugar and gold are all bullish and bauxite’s fall is demand, not price, driven. No stimulus opportunity here.

We commend, therefore, the urgent adoption of an industrial policy by our government. We need not just a stimulus, but an engine of growth.

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Sunday January 27, 2013

An Integrative Nation The PNCR column this week presents an edited version of the address by Brigadier David Granger, Leader of the Opposition on the Motion to Establish a National Commemoration Commission that was passed by the National Assembly on Friday 25th January 2013.

The sight of scores of Amerindians protesting in front of the National Assembly in April 1997 was unforgettable. Three organisations – the Amerindian People’s Association, the Guyana Organisation of Indigenous Peoples and The Amerindian Action Movement of Guyana – congregated there to express their opposition to what they perceived to be an affront to their dignity.

Their entreaties were ignored and our International Airport – first named in homage to our first people – was renamed to honour a single person. The Timehri International Airport (Change of Name) Act of 1997 was assented to subsequently.

The Public Holidays Act was amended to designate a particular day as ‘Arrival Day.’ The decision to make the change was greeted with silent disapprobation by those persons who knew that their forebears had arrived on different dates. The request by some Indigenous people for a separate holiday to be observed as ‘Heritage Day’ in September, similarly, was denied.

The sight of scores of African-Guyanese, more recently, protesting against the proposed

erection of a monument near to the seawall, was yet another indication of an administrative misstep. It suggests that decision-makers once again might have failed to fathom fully the feelings of persons who feel offended by the action being taken. The lessons of earlier cultural blunders seem not to have been learnt.

The controversies surrounding the renaming of the airport, the creation of new national holidays and the erection of the monument are not meant to be a measure of the merit of the arguments, or of the rights, of the respective ethnic groups.

They arose out of the absence of a clearlydefined and publicly-known national cultural policy. They could have been avoided by a more inclusionary approach to governance and a fervent commitment to national unity.

The advantage of an inclusionary approach is inestimable. That was the approach taken by the former National History and Arts Council which, within a year of Independence in 1967, devised new national holidays to observe the Hindu festivals of Phagwah and Diwali and the Islamic festivals of Eid-ul-Adha and Youman Nabi in addition to the existing Christian festivals of Easter and Christmas. These measures have remained essentially undisturbed for decades.

Attempts to resolve questions of culture and identity by majority decision or, worse, by minority decree, could have costly and unanticipated consequences. There can be only

one majority, but there are many minorities.

Discrimination diminishes our humanity and erodes national unity. Bruises, small at first, fester to degenerate into gangrenous abscesses. A single spark of resentment can become a raging inferno of hatred which can take a generation to extinguish. People may love in haste but they hate at leisure.

Guyana is made up, largely, of the descendants of migrants from other continents. The National Assembly has an obligation to provide the leadership to unite our peoples. It has a duty to prevent the deliberate falsification of facts or the invention of a version of history that venerates one group while it vituperates another.

It must forestall any folly that might prolong the nightmare of insecurity and disunity or that can lead us down the path of deeper distrust and disorder.

Our identity is the single most important factor in national integration. Our identity reinforces our sense of self-worth, self-esteem and self-confidence. Our identity determines whether we want Guyana to be merely a geographical expression or to evolve into a community of people working together for our common good.

The Constitution of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana is our supreme law. It declares, at Article 35, that “The state honours and respects the diverse cultural strains which enrich [the] society and will seek constantly to promote national appreciation of them at all levels and to develop out of them a socialist national culture for Guyana.”

Culture is made up of the ideas, customs and practices that are passed on from parents to their progeny. Culture is learned from the stories that elders and parents retell to their children – in the home, the mandir, the masjid, the church and the school.

Culture is also learned through information and, sometimes, misinformation, purveyed by the government, especially one that most menacingly, controls major television, radio and print media.

Guyana needs a cultural policy in order to explain that our heritage is fundamental to our identity as a nation and to our success as a society. That policy must be based on an understanding that an integrative nation fosters an inclusive society and a confident citizenry.

No one benefits from the absence of a

Opposition Leader David Granger national cultural policy. Doling out dollops of cash to one or two ethnic groups one or two times a year is not a clear articulation of a coherent cultural policy.

Public money must serve the public good.

It should be expended to ensure equity, to educate everyone and to establish standards of excellence in the arts. It must enrich our national heritage by making it easy for everyone to be exposed to work that encourages integration, enhances our solidarity, energises the young, and enriches the quality of human life.

The National Assembly, for these reasons, is urged to establish a National Commemoration Commission that is inclusionary in its composition and is integrative in its ideology. Such a Commission must be charged with the responsibility for making recommendations for the promulgation of a National Cultural Policy which, in the words of our Constitution, “honours and respects the diverse cultural strains which enrich [the] society and will seek constantly to promote national appreciation of them at all levels.”

Let us not sleepwalk into separateness.

Let us take this opportunity to promote national unity. Let us look forward to enjoying a good life, together, in this land of our birth.

Sunday January 27, 2013

Kaieteur News

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== THE FREDDIE KISSOON COLUMN ==

IS PRESIDENT RAMOTAR CHANGING HIS OPINION OF ME? A strange thing happened in the Chronicle last week that may be interpreted as President Ramotar changing his negative opinion of me.

We will come to that thing which I didn’t know about until a police prosecutor, Enrico Woolford and Mark Benschop, told me about it.

But first, the 2011 analysis of President Ramotar of my character On December 15, 2011, Reuters carried a report by Brian Ellsworth, edited by Kieran Murray on Guyana in which the Jagdeo libel case against me was featured.

President Ramotar was interviewed by Ellsworth and in the story, the following line appeared, “President Ramotar describes Kissoon as a sick man.”

Of course I wasn’t bothered by Ramotar’s remark. I expect the worst things to be said of me because of my political activities and critical analyses.

Did you look at MSNBC during Obama’s second inauguration? Commentator, Chris Matthews, enumerated all the sordid things said in the press and from the mouths of Republicans about Obama, including the description of being America’s first gay president.

Of course the entire world knows Obama is not gay.

When I read the Reuters report I thought that Ramotar’s remark on me makes him the third president to come from the medical profession. Dr. Jagan was a dentist, Mrs. Jagan was a nurse and now it looks like Ramotar did studies in psychiatry.

I am still unmoved about Ramotar’s analysis of my mind but what I can’t help thinking is if Ramotar sees as sick, some of the people in high positions in government.

Am I sick? I do not molest male teenagers for sex.

Am I sick? I never exported dolphins to Eastern Europe where I am told they were cooked and sold as delicacy.

Am I sick? I never accompanied the President to an international boxing match and in front of him and foreign diplomats got into a violent brawl with a member of the audience.

Am I sick? I never put my wife out of the marital bedroom a week after we got married and after that let Guyana believe for the next eight years that I was legally married.

Am I sick? I never beat a teenager with a gun in his

head in a rum shop over a woman. Am I sick? I was never in a domestic quarrel and my wife committed suicide in the confusion. Am I sick? I never sold American visas and because of that the US Embassy suspended my visas.

Am I sick? I never participated in a homosexual orgy in a swimming pool. Am I sick? I never took money from the OMAI gold company and the same company imported marble walls from Italy for my mansion.

As the recipient of Mr. Ramotar ’s psychiatric evaluation, I think I am entitled to ask him about the state of the mental health of people around him. But we should move on from harbouring grudges over what was said in the past during political battles.

If the Chronicle thing is a n indication that Mr. Ramotar does not see me in venomous terms anymore, then I would not refuse his invitation to talk. But I will not keep secret what I discussed with him. I will never do that.

I will tell the Guyanese people what I said on their behalf. Vic Puran wrote in the KN a month before he died that we should try to engage Mr. Ramotar because he, Ramotar, wants to have advice and friends.

Let us return to the Chronicle thing. I met lots of policemen during my frequent court appearances.

Two police prosecutors are always joking wildly with me and Mark Benschop.

So last week with an Atlantic smile on his face, one of them congratulated me for becoming a columnist with the Chronicle.

He indicated that he saw an article of mine with my byline on the crime spree in Buxton in the current issue of the Chronicle. I knew he was joking so I didn’t bother to engage him.

Hours after I went to the office of Enrico Woolford, he and Mark Benschop told me about the Chronicle column.

So it was true, but the Chronicle didn’t have the decency to seek my permission.

The Chronicle editor would never feature Freddie Kissoon without seeking the advice of the Freedom House kings, particularly President Ramotar.

I am so sorry we are not in an election campaign so I could go to Indian villages and show them my independent mind and what I wrote about the

Buxton-based gunmen and my strong condemnation of the murder of East Indian citizens at that time.

How un-strategic of the Freedom House fools.

Together with persons like Ravi Dev, they tell their constituencies that I don’t like East Indian people.

But the article that they reproduced in the Chronicle last week shows the nature of my mind, heart and soul. I am

not pro- or anti-Indian.

I believe in human rights and my condemnation of the violence in Buxton originated from my human rights physiology.

Whenever there are the local government elections, I will take that article the PPP found to have so much intellectual integrity that they could print it in the Chronicle in 2013, and read it to the rural folks.

During the time I did the series of articles on Buxton, my home was shot up, and a bullet missed by wife’s head by inches. All those details have been written on before, so no need to dwell on them here.

I am glad the Freedom House kings gave the Chronicle permission to print my intellectual analyses.

I have a weapon to campaign with whenever

Frederick Kissoon elections come around. In the meantime, De Donald or Uncle Donald or President Ramotar may want to issue a second opinion on my mental health.

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Sunday January 27, 2013

Book Review: Absorption Corporate Greed and Altruism collide in futuristic saga

By Dr Glenville Ashby Absorption is a multilayered, almost prophetic scenario projected unto a society already bedeviled by environmental rape.

Guyanese-American journalist, I. Cush’s work is rooted in human redemption, altruism, and a theological foundation that cannot be dismissed.

In metaphorical terms, the sanctity of the environment is starkly explained: “Every

day we affirm to our GodAmon-Ra - that we have neither taken milk from babes nor deprive nursling livestock of their fodder.”

A Sci-Fi thriller with its fair share of futuristic wonders, Absorption remains unswerving in its lucid message, shunning cryptic, abstruse and extraneous details.

Testament to its social relevance, the book has already been adapted into a movie with sheer cinematographic appeal.

Cush’s strength is rooted

in his deft ability to juxtapose and interplay human attributes. Yes, there is avarice but more importantly is the atonement of a putrid soul, the book’s arch-assassin.

Compellingly, Absorption paints a pernicious world where capitalism is unbridled and human decency is compromised. Under the guise of eradicating criminal behavior, corporate behemoth, Trojan, devises the Absorption technology. Its ostensible mission is “to reduce the earth’s

carbon footprint,” in order to conserve the fast depleting natural resources.

It’s a paradoxically sinister ploy, as human life is deemed expendable. Innocent people are “absorbed” and swaths of lands with exhaustive mineral appropriated.

Duplicity; paranoia; cronyism; and profligacy, create a quisling type atmosphere that infects political leaders, willing to kill their own for the lure of jaw-dropping riches.

That the continent of

Africa, rich in minerals is a sure target for Trojan is hardly surprising.

Here, Cush’s relinquishes the subliminal, in exchange for a tone far more exigent.

Neo-colonialism of contemporary societies in that troubled region is laid bare. “Do you think General Savimbi gives a &%*# about these villagers in the Congo,” a Trojan executive bellows?

Surely, greed can become contagious, consuming.

Everyone becomes a potential victim, even Americans. The words of another Trojan employee are steely cold: “We live in a post racial world, a post nationalist world now.

Africans, Asians, Americans, Europeans, it does not matter.

We now have a global corporate class whose interests transcend all that bull-. Understand this. You are no longer fighting for American capitalism; you are fighting for global capitalism.”

He continues: “What we do is in the corporate interest, not the racial or national interest.”

There is resistance, though, to Trojan. Sentinel Earth, an environmental

group must obtain damning evidence to thwart approval for Absorption’s purported mission before the Security Council. “We believe that we can save the earth and ourselves, “Sentinel” argues, with “discipline and frugality in our consumption patterns.”

Here, the two parties square off. Murder, arson and paranoia are rife. The plot thickens, intrigues, gripping the reader till “the final curtain falls.” Would Trojan emerge victorious?

Cush milks the clock, artfully holding his hand.

Undoubtedly, Absorption provokes the conscience.

It is an ontological undertaking, ever invoking the perennial debate on free will, while delivering a grave adhortation on human excess. glenvilleashby@gmail.com, Follow me on Twiter@glenvilleashby Absorption by I.Cush RTK Publishing (publisher@readto knowledge. com) ISBN978-0-9772603-2-4 Available: amazon.com https://www. youtube. com/ watch ?v=y RQVTTQPZgc Rating: Recommended

Sunday January 27, 2013

Kaieteur News

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MY COLUMN

When is too much too much?

Many years ago I read a short story entitled ‘How much land does a man need?’

It was during the days when I was in training to become a Science teacher.

Thus began my relationship with the famed Russian writer, Leo Tolstoy.

These days when certain things happen that story comes to mind.

For example, I would ask myself ‘How much money does someone need?’

American business magnate Bill Gates and his wife found that they had way too much money. What did they do?

They gave away the bulk but left enough for each child to be comfortable.

They began to spend their money to help the world’s poor and sick; they funded research into cures for some Third World diseases and things like that.

They were not the only people to do the giveaway thing. Perhaps there are those who do the same thing but do not seek publicity.

On Friday, the National Assembly met to discuss the benefits to former Presidents.

They found that a Bill passed in 2009 actually gave the former presidents so much money that surely they could not spend most of it, even if they tried.

The political opposition, during the debate on that Bill, voiced objections to some of the clauses, but the government with its majority passed the Bill despite objections.

I am a firm believer that no President or Minister of the Government in this country should spend their last days as paupers.

Indeed, during the days of the Forbes Burnham presidency or even during the Desmond Hoyte presidency, no Minister became rich.

The argument by these leaders was that they were there to serve the people and not to enrich themselves at the expense of these people. Dr Cheddi Jagan and his wife held the same view.

During their tenure the Ministers got comfortable by saving and by doing other things, including those things that they did before they became Ministers.

By no stretch of imagination would someone consider Sam Hinds, or Robeson Benn or Harripersaud Nokta rich.

Clinton Collymore is certainly not rich. But the same cannot be said for some of those now serving. They became filthy rich merely by being Ministers of the government.

This is being extended to the presidency. The Bill stipulated that the president be paid seven-eighths of what a serving president would get. Then there are the allowances which the opposition members feel should be capped.

In the case of President Jagdeo these are openended. The opposition parties claim that they exceed what could be considered reasonable. That is why this new Bill moved to cap those benefits.

The government side spoke of spite and all manner of things. But there was one member who told me that he agreed that there should have been a cap on the benefits.

In fact, he said that most of his colleagues believe that

there should be a cap, but they all put up their backs because there was an amendment before the Parliament Select Committee.

I found this strange and I do agree with Moses Nagamootoo when he said that a country with a bicycle economy was paying money befitting a Mercedes economy.

Barack Obama will go down as one of the poorest presidents in United States history.

While some of the others had millions of dollars Obama probably has no more than US$5 million.

There are Guyanese with much more money than that.

Some of them are Government Ministers.

Obama publicly declared his income and assets, but he did something more.

He gave away some of that money because he recognised that the people were paying him to serve them.

In Guyana, no one has even attempted to publicly declare his assets.

When Burnham died it was

found that he had something like $800,000. People scoffed but the truth still stands.

How many security guards does a former president need? The last time a newspaper reported on the number around President Jagdeo, the Guyana Times claimed that the newspaper had placed President Jagdeo’s life under threat.

I watched Hoyte walking in the mornings after he had demitted the presidency. He had one fellow behind him.

He was never attacked although he walked on his own along a public thoroughfare—Homestretch Avenue.

Janet Jagan and Cheddi did not have much money.

Such was the case that their daughter came out publicly to criticize the present crop in power. If Gail Teixeira should face reality, she would recognize that as a longserving member of the People’s Progressive Party and a Minister who served this country well, her pay is less that Jagdeo’s pension.

She earns $800,000 a month; Jagdeo’s pension is

Adam Harris about $1 million.

Many others are in the same boat and I am certain that they cannot be too happy knowing that they still have to work.

The truth, though, is that Jagdeo’s pension and benefits will not be affected by this new Bill if assented to

by President Ramotar.

The laws are never applied retroactively. So why the anger? It must be a case of people not knowing how much money a person needs and of being greedy.

I wish I could get $300,000 a month and no other benefits just to stay home.

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Sunday January 27, 2013

National Security and Crime - taking back our communities The issue of crime and security continues to be uppermost in the minds of most Guyanese citizens.

Today, the AFC offers the following recommendations as first outlined in our Action Plan of 2011.

We look forward to seeing the Government’s current plan as referred to by the Minister of Home Affairs and hope that in the coming months all Guyanese – women suffering domestic abuse, miners in the fields and many more, might begin to feel safer at home.

Extract: Crime solutions are vital to the revival of the nation.

Crime is stifling genuine investment opportunities, affecting the well-being of our working people and is one of

the principal contributors to skilled human capital migrating from Guyana.

The increase of deadly crimes under the current administration has seen very few criminals brought to justice and levels of domestic violence are now out of control.

General Strategies The AFC plans to confront organised crime and redress the breakdown of law and order by: 1.

Increasing substantially law enforcement officers’ salaries; 2. Giving the DEA permission to set up a local facility; 3. Re-engaging the British, USA and other friendly Governments for technical and financial

assistance to reform the Joint Services; 4. Removing corrupt officers from the Joint Services; 5. Mandating a jail term of life in prison after three convictions for violent felonies; 6. Extraditing drug kingpins and terrorists; 7. Putting more police officers on the street by hiring civilians for desk work; 8. Boosting the efficiency, operation and powers of the Police Complaints Authority to ensure that all complaints are brought to finality and make it accessible to citizens; 9. Facilitating a system that would allow members of the Joint Services to work in the administrative region of their choice where practical; 10. Establishing a Group of Forensic Auditors to reduce corruption and white collar crimes and facilitate civilian oversight.

Strategy Number One: Empowering Agencies and Institutions 1. Establish a Ministry of

Justice and National Security (MJNS) to better coordinate all aspects of public safety, border security, and public order; 2. Develop a National Security Strategy (NSS); 3. Appoint a specialised Anti-Crime Unit (ACU) comprising GDF and GPF personnel in all Police Divisions and to be headed by a GDF officer on secondment to confront violent and armed criminals; 4. Establish a unified Drug Enforcement and Control Agency (DECA) to coordinate and execute drug enforcement policy between the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU), the Police AntiNarcotics Unit (PANU), DEA, INTERPOL and other agencies; 5. Establish a specialised Law Enforcement Academy (LEA) to train officers in crime investigation, intelligence gathering and forensics; 6. Create a special office within the Chambers of the Director of Public Prosecutions for the use of Special Prosecutors, to

prosecute persons accused of certain categories of offences; 7. Start the Police/Schools partnership programme by assigning a dedicated officer to each school with whom they can work on “Get to know the Police” workshops, etc; 8. Construct a modern prison with new, appropriate and humane facilities for women, juveniles and remand prisoners outside of the city; 9. Allow more prisoners to do community work and provide a nominal stipend at the end of their term; 10. Develop rehabilitation programmes in prisons and provide academic education, vocational and technical training for prisoners to better prepare them for reintegration into society.

11. Review the station bail and remand system and procedures.

Strategy Number Two: Legislation 1. Introduce legislation to legitimize and regulate Community Policing and establish Citizens Protection

Units (CPUs) in keeping with best practices globally; 2. Review and consolidate all criminal law and criminal procedure-related legislation; 3. Implement an amnesty programme for the surrender of illegal weapons, which will be backed by a “Voluntary Weapons Collection” programme; 4.

The Amnesty programme will be accompanied by a special fund to provide alternative opportunities for training, development of incomegenerating projects, credit etc. for youth at risk and sports, scouting, and other cadet-like schemes for youth in schools and religious organizations; 5. Pass Legislation to establish neighbourhood justice panels of village elders to adjudicate on petty matters such as anti-social behaviour and family disputes to free up the court’s time for more serious matter More of the AFC’s recommendations for improving National Security and Crime next week.

Sunday January 27, 2013

Kaieteur News

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President Obama: The man unveiled

By Sir Ronald Sanders The speech may have been directed to a domestic United States audience, but in its boldness, its frankness and its inspirational quality, it was a speech to the citizens of the world.

In the inauguration speech on January 21 marking his second term as president of the United States, Barack Obama returned to the liberal thinking that summoned people to his support and marked him out as a leader who could take the entire world to a higher place than the religious intolerance, racial bigotry, international suspicion, and discrimination against vulnerable groups in which it has languished.

Many people all over the world dare to hope again that he will make a difference this time around.

He is the first president to identify discrimination against homosexuals and lesbians as an infringement of their rights and a wrong that cries out for correction. “Our journey is not complete”, he declared, “until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law, for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal, as well”.

Obama made this statement against the background of the fundamental rights set out in the US Constitution and the famous speeches of American Civil Rights hero, Dr Martin Luther King Jr. Recalling that all Americas claim to subscribe to the selfevident truth that all men are created equal, and that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, and among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, he emphasised that “history tells us that while these truths may be selfevident, they’ve never been self-executing. That while freedom is a gift from God, it must be secured by his people here on earth”.

There could be no clearer call to action for an end to discrimination against gays and lesbians, who also have a right to live in peace and to contribute to their society.

It is a call that requires to be heard in every country of the world where people suffer intolerable abuse everyday because of their sexual preference. He also identified discrimination against women as an offence that must end.

In one remarkable sentence, he summed it up. “We are true to our creed”, he said, “when a little girl born into the bleakest poverty knows that she has the same chance to succeed as anybody else because she is an American,

she is free, and she is equal not just in the eyes of God but also in our own”.

He said “a little girl” drawing particular attention to discrimination against women. Such discrimination exists in workplaces where women are paid less than men for doing the same job, where women are denied promotion because they are also mothers.

But, the discrimination is worse in some countries where girls and women are raped with impunity; where they suffer genital mutilation, and where laws still exist that make them culprits even though they are victims.

Obama spoke up for women not only in America, but all over the world. As he moves in this second term to address that scourge on humanity, hopefully the tide he creates will drift to other shores and lift other leaders and societies to enlightenment.

And, he made a significant point about the balancing of spending by governments on developing young people and protecting the elderly.

“We reject the belief that America must choose between caring for the generation that built this country and investing in the generation that will build its future.”

This is a balance that confronts not only the United States, but every country in Europe, Japan and increasingly the nations of the developing world. There is great appeal in Obama’s ministry that “we recognize that no matter how responsibly we live our lives, any one of us at any time may face a job loss or a sudden illness or a home swept away in a terrible storm. The commitments do not sap our initiative. They strengthen us”.

Despite controversy in the US over climate change, Obama also returned to it in this speech. Just two months before, Hurricane Sandy had killed more than 100 people, destroyed whole communities in coastal New York and New Jersey, left tens of thousands homeless, crippled mass transit, triggered paralyzing gas shortages, inflicted billions of dollars in infrastructure damage and cut power to more than eight million homes. It had left a similar path of destruction in many Caribbean countries, and future storms will do so again.

It was a welcome relief to hear President Obama say, “We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations.

Some may still deny the overwhelming judgment of science, but none can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires, and crippling

drought, and more powerful storms”.

Amen and a sigh of relief to that. Perhaps, the world can now look forward to the US taking a meaningful leadership role at climate change conferences where, in the past, it has retarded progress on this deadly issue. The Obama before his first presidency had argued for more international cooperation and less unilateralist action by the US in addressing global conflicts. Throughout his first presidency the use of drones under his personal command has been a blot on his tenure.

Many innocent people, including children, have been the “collateral damage” of those drone excursions.

But Obama knows that better than anyone else. The greyness of his hair and the lines in his face tell their own story of the anguish that any president must face in the tough decisions he makes, but especially this man whose stated instincts are for cooperation and peace, not confrontation and war.

He encouraged the hopeful, the peacemakers, and the well-thinkers around the world when he declared: “We

will show the courage to try and resolve our differences with other nations peacefully.

Not because we are naive about the dangers we face, but because engagement can more durably lift suspicion and fear.” If Obama intends to claim an enduring place in the minds of all mankind as much as in the annals of history, he must push in this second term to be the man he so convincingly unveiled in this rousing speech. In this, he will have great support.

(The writer is a Consultant, former

Sir Ronald Sanders Caribbean Diplomat and Visiting Fellow, London University) Responses and previous commentaries: www. sirronaldsanders.com

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at the time and Kaieteur News understands that one of the slain man’s gold bands and a gold chain were missing.

A police release stated that the perpetrator is believed to have fled with the victim’s personal jewellery, which seemed to confirm reports by family members that robbery was the motive. Police recovered the businessman’s firearm near his body. A female friend who was with Roopnarine at the time escaped unhurt. She was questioned by the police.

Despite viewing footage of the attack, police said that they were yet to make an arrest.

From page 32 the Government Information Agency (GINA) said.

Kaieteur News understands that the body of a man identified as Jermaine Calistro, 24, (reportedly of Parika, Essequibo, and Lethem) was found trapped in the stern of one of the vessels at around 18:30 hrs.

Kaieteur News was told that the vessels collided at what one source described as a ‘blind turn’ near Crab Falls.

Minister of Public Works, Robeson Benn, the Maritime Administration Department officials (MARAD), and other Government officials travelled to the location late Tuesday to assess the situation.

Minister Benn told GINA that two boats, one carrying 12 persons and the other carrying nine, collided at around 12:30 hrs.

Only five persons, three men and two women, were immediately accounted for and they were treated at the Bartica Hospital for minor injuries and sent away.

HEALTH MINISTER FLIP-FLOPS ON $90M NEW GPC PAYMENTS The Ministry of Health says that it has ceased paying the New Guyana Pharmaceutical Corporation (New GPC) tens of millions of dollars for the storing drugs at one of its bonds. New GPC’s head Dr. Ranjisinghi ‘Bobby’ Ramroop, time and again, had said that his company was providing free storage.

No mention was made of the $1.5M monthly rent until it was raised in the Parliamentary committee.

Minister Dr. Leslie Ramsammy, who now has nothing to do with the Ministry of Health and with the Georgetown Public Hospital, has joined the attacks. He went on the television station owned by Ramroop to talk about free

storage. Health Minister Dr. Bheri Ramsaran also claimed that there was no rent paid, then he flip-flopped on the issue.

“Neither the government nor the Health Ministry has ever paid any rental fees for the storage of medicines (at the New GPC Bond).” In the same breath he said, “Not wanting to lose the facility that we had, and in view of the need to continue storing and managing medication for Guyanese patients, the Guyana Government decided to accelerate the construction (of the Government bond) and we then had to take over the payment on monthly rents.”

Ramroop’s own newspaper noted, “The rent per month was just over $1 million and although the ministry had continued to utilize space at the Farm location after it took over, payments were still outstanding.”

were already extinguished by fire fighters. There was a huge crowd of neighbours and other villagers around the property. Police were also conducting their investigation. The first-time mother was standing traumatised at the back of the burnt-out building. \ “I left to go to the shop and before I could have reached back I hear somebody holler ‘fire, fire’. When me come, me see the entire place in fire. Me tell me husband to go save me baby but he seh when he reach at the back door the whole place was in flame.” She had only moved to the property the previous Friday.

Boodram said Wednesday that it was the first time that she had ever left her baby alone. “Me never left me baby alone. This was the first time and look what happen. Just so how me left she, me come meet she dead and lay down…”

THURSDAY EDITION NEW YEAR’S DAY BABY PERISHES IN STEWARTVILLE BLAZE It was a night of horror for a mother who returned home to see her house in flames and her 23-day-old baby trapped in the burning building at Lot 116 Second Street, Stewartville, West Coast Demerara (WCD). The property was occupied by two families and also housed a furniture workshop.

Dead is Alisha Samantha Boodram who was born on New Year’s Day. Reports are that around 20:30hrs, the mother of the infant, 18-year-old Samantha Boodram, left the baby under the supervision of a six-yearold child to go to the shop.

Upon returning, she noticed that the entire house was engulfed in flames. The infant was trapped inside.

When Kaieteur News arrived at the scene, the flames

FRIDAY EDITION BUSINESSMAN GUNNED DOWN IN HOTELYARD A gunman dressed in a white tee-shirt and black pants chased 37-year-old businessman Intaz Roopnarine to the back of the Cool Square Hotel in Marigold Street, West Ruimveldt, at around 05:30 hrs Thursday, and then shot him dead.

Roopnarine, called ‘Bobby’, of 169 Mandela Avenue, collapsed and died near a septic tank. There was a bullet wound on the dead man’s head. The attack occurred just as Roopnarine was leaving the hotel.

Police sources said that surveillance footage shows Roopnarine, with his licenced firearm in hand, and a security guard, fleeing for their lives, with the alleged killer, gun in hand, in full pursuit.

Roopnarine was reportedly wearing several pieces of expensive jewellery

APPEAL COURT RULES IN FAVOUR OF TOUCAN SUITES OWNER The matter involving Norman Trotz, owner of Toucan Suites Guest House, which was located in Eccles, East Bank Demerara, the Attorney-General of Guyana, the Commissioner of Police and the Chief of Staff of the Guyana Defence Force, was heard by Chancellor Justice Carl Singh, Justice B.S. Roy and Justice Yonette Cummings-Edwards.

The court ruled in favour of Trotz, ordering that, “It is by consent ordered that the Terms of Settlement dated the 7th day of January, 2013, by and between the parties herein be and is hereby deemed an order of this court.”

Back in 2008, Justice Jainarayan Singh Jr. presiding in the High Court, awarded judgment in the sum of $125M with six percent interest to Norman Trotz, the owner of the Toucan Suites Guest House, which was destroyed by the Joint Services during the final hours of a confrontation between the army, the police and Linden London called ‘Blackie’ in February 2000.

The judgment was handed down in October 2008

following lengthy submissions by the then Attorney General Doodnauth Singh representing the state, and attorney at law Andrew Pollard, counsel for N&R Co. Limited, owned by Norman Trotz. The Government appealed that decision, but a ruling has now been made in favour of Trotz.

But even before the appeal, Attorney General Doodnauth Singh had consented to judgment in favour of Trotz. He so advised the Bharrat Jagdeo government.

On February 8, 2000, members of the Joint Services went to the property to apprehend notorious fugitive Linden ‘Blackie’ London who was hiding there in one of the apartments.

SATURDAY EDITION HOUSE VOTES TO SLASH BENEFITS FOR FORMER PRESIDENTS The National Assembly on Friday evening passed a Bill to slash benefits to former Presidents, but it is unlikely that President Donald Ramotar will put his signature to it and make it law.

The government voted against the Bill, with Parliamentarians of the ruling PPP/C arguing that it strips former presidents of their dignity, and that it was a vindictive act, targeted at former president, Bharrat Jagdeo.

Jagdeo was the first to benefit from the handsome retirement package.

MAZARUNI RIVER CRASH… DEATH TOLL RISES TO NINE, FINAL COUNT UNCERTAIN Questions are now being asked about the number of passengers who were actually on board the two vessels which collided in the Mazaruni River as a search and rescue team fished out the ninth body. According to reports the team yesterday recovered

the bodies of Kevon Ambrose of Vergenoegen, East Bank, Essequibo; Deon Moses, 33, of Norton Street, Georgetown; Keanu Amsterdam,17, of Barr Street, Kitty, and Francisco Alves, a Brazilian national.

Already the remains of Jermaine Calistro, 27, of Boodhoo Housing Scheme, East Bank Essequibo; Ulric Grimes, 39, of Salem, EBE; Christopher Narine, 21, of Parika, EBE; and Zaheer Baksh, 34, of Kaneville, EBD, Christopher Narine and 52year-old Jewan Seeram have been recovered.

With the death toll reaching nine, and with Ricky Bobb still missing, persons are wondering how many persons in all may have perished.

Initially there were reports that nine persons were missing following the deadly mishap. In the meantime, the search for other missing persons is continuing with the involvement of the Joint Services, Maritime Administration (MARAD), miners and public-spirited individuals of the community, among others.

Initial reports are that one boat carrying passengers was coming out from one location while another laden with fuel was heading in the opposite direction. The incident occurred at a ‘blind turn’ in the vicinity of Crab Falls.

Transport Minister Robeson Benn had reported that the two boats, one with 12 passengers and another with nine, collided at around 12:30 hours on Tuesday.

Several other persons were treated at the Bartica Regional Hospital for injuries.

These included 40-year-old Francisca Helena Rodrigues, a Brazilian of Bartica; Marion Ferreira, 19, of Parika; Aubrey Bowen, 29, of Parika; Donita Daniels, 22, of Parika, and Devon Thomas, one of the boat captains. The other boat captain has been identified as Kobesh Persaud.

Sunday January 27, 2013

Kaieteur News

Page 47

The Abigail Column Seek help to deal with unrequited love hard at carving out this job, which is very meaningful to me.

Tormented DEARABIGAIL, I’m in love with my married boss. I thought it would get better with time but it’s getting worse. We had two minor physical encounters about a year ago, decided it was a bad idea, and returned to our just-professional relationship.

My personal life has been a mess since then, and I know it’s because the way I feel about him makes it impossible to date anyone else meaningfully. Please help.

I’ve worked incredibly

Dear Tormented, Have you gotten any counseling? Counseling could just turn into paying someone to hear you talk about your lovesickness, but it could also help you see why you’re so hung up on one person — and maybe even why you’re hung up on this person. Or, if you’ve done this before, hung up on one idea, that everything will be solved if you’re with X. It could be that you have fears or doubts that are expressing themselves in your

pining for things you can’t have. It could be this man fills a perceived need in ways that you never fully realised, and figuring that out will enable you to address the need and at least weaken your attraction to him.

Even if that doesn’t turn out to be true, talking to someone can help you figure out some creative alternatives to resigning yourself to this fate.

You’ve decided that you can’t have the man, can’t move on and can’t leave the job. I count two “can’ts” that involve choices, and that right there is room to maneuver, and room to improve.

Sunday January 27, 2013 ARIES (Mar. 21–Apr. 19) Your social life is taking off and you’re ready to go for a ride. However, a voice of caution may arise from your subconscious. The attraction toward new experiences is so strong now that it will likely win, but don’t just ignore your inner guidance.

TAURUS (Apr. 20–May 20) There has been a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, moving you out of your imagination and into reality.

GEMINI (May 21–June 20) You may be dreaming of far-off lands and distant galaxies today, even if there isn’t a realistic way to reach these fantastic destinations.

Thankfully, you don’t have to go anywhere special to be happy.

CANCER (June 21–July 22) If you’re involved in a deeply meaningful relationship, you still must balance your need for intimacy with an unusual amount of emotional distance.

LIBRA (Sept. 23–Oct. 22) You’re at the leading edge of a creative wave now, enabling you to express ideas that have been developing in your fertile imagination. Even if you recently faced restrictions that prevented you from having fun, the landscape is shifting today and the party is arriving at your doorstep.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23–Nov. 21) Your emotions and logic might be engaged in an internal struggle now, yet this dance between the heart and the head can be quite constructive. It is very simple; you need to practice holding two positions simultaneously.

SAGIT (Nov. 22–Dec. 21) You may want the security of a personal relationship, yet you could be unwilling to give up your freedom today with the bodacious Leo Full Moon stimulating your 9th House of Adventure.

CAPRI (Dec. 22–Jan. 19) Re-evaluate everything you think you know because you may be overly confident about all the wrong things today.

LEO (July 23–Aug. 22) The relationship axis of your chart continues to be in the spotlight, making it difficult to avoid romantic cues from others now. However, it’s also very easy to misread the signals, setting you up for an unwanted surprise.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20–Feb. 18) You feel the excitement in the air as sexy Venus connects with wild Uranus, your key planet. Although you might not actually fall in love, your senses are more receptive than usual.

VIRGO (Aug. 23–Sept. 22) You may be having unusual desires now that amorous Venus in your 5th House of Romance is aligning with eccentric Uranus.

PISCES (Feb. 19–Mar. 20) It could be very challenging to separate your real life from fantasies, now that your imagination is inspiring you so intensely.

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Delivery 12:30 hrs. Movie: Kids World 14:05 hrs. Movie: The Pirates! Band of Misfits 15:40 hrs. Movie: That Thing You Do! 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 (Repeat) 22:00 hrs. Movie: The Makeover 00:00 hrs. Sign Off

Guides are subjected to change without notice

Sunday January 27, 2013

Kaieteur News

Page 49

2nd Trophy Stall / WDFA U-17 League Launched Uitvlugt Warriors maul Young Achievers 8-1 The second annual Trophy Stall sponsored West Demerara Football Association (WDFA) Under-17 League was officially launched yesterday at the Den Amstel Community Centre Ground.

Representative of Trophy Stall Leroy Jack in an invited comment said that the entity was very pleased to be back on board for the second successive year noting that Manager Ramesh Sunich who was unavoidably absent was committed to the development of young people.

Sunich was so impressed with the standard of competition last year that he rewarded Den Amstel Porknockers, the winners, with a complete set of uniforms. Mr. Sunich he said will continue to support and invest in empowering the youths and he wishes all the teams the very best this year.

Also present at yesterday’s opening was President (ag) of the GFF Franklin Wilson who thanked Trophy Stall for their continued investment and support of the game over the years.

President (ag) of the WDFA Jevon Rodrigues was also on hand and congratulated the clubs who will compete for silverware. Secretary Chevon Monchoir and Treasurer Dennese Lovell were also present.

Meanwhile, in the lone game played yesterday, Uitvlugt Warriors sounded an ominous warning to their rivals when they hammered Young Achievers 8-1 on the back of a hat-trick off the boot of Robert Christiani who banged the nets in the 8th, 26th and 35th minute.

The game was controlled from start to end by the team that had to settle for the runnerup spot in the inaugural competition, last year.

Dyron Giddings backed up with a brace (83, 86) while there was one each for Keith Duke (40), Keyon Duke (43) and Shomol Smith in the 69th minute. Young Achievers got a consolation goal in the 36th minute via the penalty spot; converting was Nathan Allicock. Competition will continue on Saturday.

Four of the Captains competing take a touch of the Champions trophy with Trophy Stall Representative Leroy Jack (right). From 2nd left is Clem Brotherson (Eagles FC), Shawn Brower (Uitvlugt), Aubrey Greene (Den Amstel) and Nickel Chetram (Wales FC).

Page 50

Kaieteur News

GCA\Hadi’s 1st division 2 -day tourney

Ramdass slams ton, Alphonso, Jacobs star with ball as Police, MSC grab 1st innings points Opener Ryan Ramdass slammed an attractive 150 as Everest Cricket Club plied up 306-6 declared off 75.5 overs against GYO as play in the Georgetown Cricket Association\ Hadi’s First division 2 day competition continued yesterday.

Ramdass shared in an opening stand of 2 4 1 w i t h Ta g e n a r i n e Chanderpaul before the latter was run out for 79 inclusive of six fours. Chanderpaul Hemraj was the next best scorer with 22. Ramdass innings contained fourteen fours and three sixes.

Joseph Shivgobin took 426 for GYO who closed on 26 with out loss in 13 overs.

Christopher Deonarine is on 15 and Shivendra Hemraj on 04.

At DCC, the home team were 125-3 at stumps in reply to GCC first innings total of 261. Trevon Griffith is

unbeaten on 77 which included twelve fours and with him is Andrew Gibson on 05. Christopher Barnwell made 23 while Leon Johnson has so far taken 3-22.

Earlier GCC won the toss, batted and posted 261 before being bowled in 65.3 overs.

Johnson led the scoring with 59 (8x4,1x6), while Gavin Charles 52 (5x4,2x6), Raj Nanan 34, Vishal Singh 22 and Elon Fernandes 21; Griffith was DCC best bowler with 4-92 while Barnwell snared 3-63.

At Eve Leary, Police took first innings points from TSC. Police won the toss and mustered 206 all out in 69 overs with Ryan Rajmangal 63 (9x4), Shameer Fazal 58(4x4) and Jason Heyliger 23 being their principal scorers. Off spinner Jonathan Alphonso bagged 7-39.

TSC were skittled for 90 in 29 overs in reply, Charwayne Mc Pherson got 21 as Heyliger

claimed 4-12, Parnell London 3-22 and Randolph Knights 340. TSC after being asked to follow on finished the day on 44 with out loss. Mervin Cato has 22 and Mc Pherson 17.

At GDF, Malteenoes Sports Club claimed 1st innings honours from the host. GDF were bundled out for 93 after taking first strike.

Steven Jacobs was the pick of the bowlers with 5-20 and Seon Daniels took 3-33.

MSC in their first innings managed 143 all out in 35 overs.

Orin Forde made 45 and Devon Mc Ewan 43 as Jeremiah Harris and Paul Castello captured 3 wickets each and Travis Blyden 2.

With a deficit of 50 GDF in their second turn at the crease finished on 56-4 to take a 6 run lead. Blyden is not out on 16; Jacobs took all three the wickets to fall.

(Zaheer Mohamed)

Sunday January 27, 2013

Warner knock in vain, Sri Lanka beat Australia in Sydney T20

Thisara Perara and Angelo Mathews celebrate victory (Getty Images)

David Warner led Australia’s charge (Associated Press)

(Reuters) - David Warner’s unbeaten 90 went in vain as Sri Lanka beat Australia by five wickets in the first Twenty20 International on Saturday to go 1-0 up in the two-match series.

Shot-making was not easy on the drop-in pitch at Sydney’s Olympic Stadium but Warner blasted an unbeaten 62-ball 90 in a brilliant display of controlled aggression to power Australia to 137 for three wickets.

Kushal Perera (33) and captain Angelo Mathews (35 not out) shone with the bat for Sri Lanka before Thisara Perera (19 not out) clobbered back-to-back sixes to see the visitors home with seven balls to spare.

Melbourne hosts the second and final match on Monday. Australia were reeling at 53-3 in nine overs after opting to bat first on a tricky surface before Warner

added 84 runs in 11 overs with Adam Voges (25 not out) to give the bowlers a decent total to defend. The hosts lost opener Aaron Finch (one) in the second over when Kushal Perera took a diving catch at short cover after Nuwan Kulasekara had induced a thick leading edge.

Shaun Marsh (six) was sent back by Tillakaratne Dilshan’s direct throw while Australia captain George Bailey (11) did not last long either, leaving the onus on Warner to put up a fighting total.

Warner hit Kulasekara for a boundary to bring up his fifty before hitting Mathews for a four and a six in an eventful over in which Kulasekara dropped him at mid-wicket when the batsman was on 69. In contrast, Sri Lanka were off to a flying start with openers Kushal Perera and Dilshan (16) adding 46

runs before departing in successive overs.

Dilshan was soon in his elements, bending down to play that audacious scoop shot off Mitchell Starc that sailed over the wicketkeeper’s head for a six.

Two overs after playing the “Dilscoop”, the righthander sustained a nasty cut over his right eye but batted on with a bandaged eyebrow until Ben Laughlin ran backwards to take a spectacular diving catch and send him back.

Glen Maxwell removed Kushal Perera and Dinesh Chandimal to trigger a midinnings collapse but Mathews stayed put while Thisara Perera struck successive sixes off Laughlin to score the winning runs.

Scores: Sri Lanka 5 for 138 (Mathews 35*) beat Australia 3 for 137 (Warner 90*, Voges 25*) by 5 wickets.

From page 54 continuing ODI’s, after being annihilated in the Test series.

However, Michael Clarke’s men are the architects, starting from the era of Mark “Tubby’ Taylor’s captaincy, of four and five runs per over in even Test innings, nearly 400 runs in a full day in Test cricket.

It is not entirely impossible that Australia could continue, as they seemed to have been doing these last five years, to always try to score at least 350, if not nearly 400, in every 50-over game. Their aggressive nature is always prevalent, with the set objective to overwhelm oppositions with massive scores!

Yes, West Indies are

World T-20 2012 Champions, but 50-overs cricket is a very different ball-game altogether, pardoning that pun.

It takes much more strategy, and longer concentration, to get through 50 overs per team, possibly 100 overs in one day.

Intensity here may not always be that obvious, but it is immense!

In the not too distant past, when West Indies were dominant in Test cricket, some opposition Test innings did not last as long as 50 overs - 300 legal deliveries.

One has to put into proper perspective how difficult it is, in this era of T-20 games, how much more pin-pointed thoughts must be for 50 overs!

Later this year, in England, ICC holds it final Champions Trophy competition, the only other world cricket championship that runs 50overs, to go with ICC’s overall Premier Competition, its 50overs World Cup. These games in Australia, then a similar series, v Zimbabwe, next two months, should assist West Indies men in understanding where they as regards that possibility of holding both ICC T-20 Championship and, hopefully, ICC Champion Trophy, all in about one calendar year! Can we all be dreaming here?

West Indies men and women travel with our best wishes. May they be highly successful! Enjoy!

“Travelling West Indies teams...

Sunday January 27, 2013

Kaieteur News

Page 51

Daley’s daily routine leads to Egypt football: Death sentences great results with bat and ball over Port Said stadium violence Shanel Daley

Mumbai, India – Allrounder Shanel Daley believes she is in the best form of her cricket career and is going all out to make the most of it when she puts on the Number 31 shirt for West Indies in the upcoming ICC Women’s World Cup. Daley, an experienced left-handed middleorder batter and left-arm spinner, has so far played 41 One-Day Internationals and 45 T20 Internationals since her debut in 2008. She was named Player-of-the-Series in the Twenty20 Series win over South Africa at Beausejour Cricket Ground last week.

“I had a good series against South Africa and that has given me a new kind of confidence with the World Cup starting in a few days. I have a big role to play for West Indies as an experienced player,” Daley said.

“Things have been going well for us in the team. We beat India and Sri Lanka at home last year and also did well in Sri Lanka at the World T20 last October. We bounced back brilliantly to level the (One-Day International) series against South Africa and then we outplayed them in the T20s.”

Daley said she made some significant changes in her game and overall approach which have paid dividends. Acting on the recommendation of Head Coach Sherwin Campbell, she switched from left-arm mediumpace to left-arm spin and is now in the Top 10 bowlers in ODIs and at Number 2 in T20s.

However, it was Campbell’s advice about improving her fitness which led to a careerchanging “total makeover” for the hardworking Jamaican.

“My game for the past four years that I have been representing West Indies has

improved a lot. When I started my fitness was really poor...I was not up to the standard to play at the international level and to perform on a consistent basis,” Daley said.

“The coach spoke to me and I had a chat with the trainer Shannon Lashley and she gave me a programme which I follow on a daily basis. It has helped immensely, you need to be very fit especially when you’re out there batting as well as when you’re in the field for long periods. It all comes down to fitness – the fittest of the fittest will survive,” she said.

Daley, who celebrated her 24th birthday on Christmas Day last year, is the daughter of former Jamaica allrounder Aaron Daley. She has made 687 runs at an average of 22.9 runs including three half-centuries in ODIs. She has also taken 51 wickets at 18.13 runs each, including best figures of 4-29. She backed the West Indies bowling attack to do very well on the pitches in India.

“We have some really good spinners...we also have a very good pace attack, but the spinners tend to dominate in women’s cricket at the moment. We talk about what we want to do as a group and we back each other to execute,” Daley noted.

“We always get together and plan –how to bowl to a particular team as well as to players within that team. It is paying off for us, we have been doing very well in the last few years. We have grown a lot as a team in a very short space of time, but there is a lot more work to be done. We will continue this and take that kind of spirit into the World Cup as we face some of the ‘bigger’ teams.”

Daley is one of the most versatile members of the Windies squad and has been used in every batting position – from Number 3 to Number 8. She has also bowled the new ball as well as at the ‘death’.

“I like the challenge of performing both roles in the team. It’s not really pressure on me, it’s more rewarding the faith the coaches and my team-mates have placed in me. I enjoy bowling at the top and bowling to the best batters in world cricket. I enjoy batting in India and I did well with the bat the last time we played here. I will look to do well again. I always look to bat for long periods and build an innings. With the ball, I look to build pressure on the batters and force a mistake.”

The West Indies had a full training session on Saturday and will have another session on Sunday at 1 pm. They will play their first unofficial warm-up match against Australia on Monday. West Indies are in Group A alongside defending champions England, hosts India, and Sri Lanka. Group B will include Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan and South Africa.

The verdict sparked fresh deadly violence in Egypt An Egyptian court has sentenced 21 people to death over football riots that killed 74 last year, with the verdict sparking fresh deadly violence.

The riots - Egypt’s worstever football disaster - began after a top-league game at Port Said stadium. The ruling caused anger in Port Said, where eight people died as supporters of the defendants clashed with police.

The new violence comes after a day of unrest on the second anniversary of the uprising that ousted Hosni Mubarak. Thousands of people took to the streets on Friday to voice their opposition to Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, accusing him of betraying the revolution.

At least seven people were killed and more than 450 wounded in unrest across Egypt.

Last year’s football riots led to the suspension of the league. They began minutes after the game in Port Said.

Fans of local side al-Masry invaded the pitch, hurling stones and fireworks at visiting supporters from Cairo club al-Ahly. The violence in Port Said sparked riots in Cairo during which a further 16 people died. A section of al-Ahly supporters, known as

the “ultras”, played a prominent role in the protests against ex-President Mubarak.

Some accused supporters of the toppled leader of instigating the Port Said violence. They also accused them of doing little to prevent it.

All 21 defendants sentenced to death on Saturday were alMasry fans. When the verdicts were announced by a judge in the Cairo court, relatives of victims cheered.

However, the ruling sparked violence in Port Said, Supporters and relatives of those sentenced tried to storm the prison where the defendants are held. The eight people who died in the clash included two policemen, officials say. Army units were deployed on the city’s streets following the violence.

Families of those given death sentences were seen weeping and fleeing tear gas outside Port Said jail. Seventy-three people, including nine policemen, were tried over the stadium clashes.

None are al-Ahly fans. The judge said he would announce verdicts for the remaining defendants on 9 March.

ECONOMIC ‘COLLAPSE’ Friday saw a big antigovernment rally in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, with opposition supporters clashing with police.

There was also unrest in 12 out of 27 of Egypt’s provinces. At least six of the deaths occurred in Suez.

In Ismailia, protesters set fire to the headquarters of the Freedom and Justice Party, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood. The city’s governorate headquarters was later also stormed.

The liberal opposition accuses Mr Morsi of being autocratic and driving through a new constitution that does not protect adequately freedom of expression or religion.

The government is also being blamed for a deepening economic crisis.

One of the demonstrators at Cairo’s Tahrir Square, Momen Asour, said he had come to demand an end to President Morsi’s rule.

“We have not seen anything, Neither freedom, nor social justice, or any solution to unemployment, or any investment,” he said.

“On the contrary, the economy has collapsed.”

President Morsi and his allies have dismissed the claim, saying they have a democratic mandate following recent elections. The constitution, drawn up by an Islamistdominated body, was approved by referendum last month.

Page 52

Kaieteur News

Sunday January 27, 2013

Jeffrey captures cycling season opener Raynauth Jeffrey started the year in fine fashion, carting off the season opening feature event in the 11-race programme at the inner circuit of the National Park yesterday.

The teenager won the race of the 20th annual Ricks and Sari Agro Industries sponsored programme in convincing style, as he continued the impressive form he displayed last year.

He clocked one hour, 16 minutes, 56 seconds (01h: 16m: 56s) to win the feature 35-lap School Boys and Invitational race.

The talented Jeffrey, who crossed the finish line unchallenged, collected a trophy, a hamper consisting

Representatives of Ricks and Sari Agro Industries and national coach Hassan Mohamed (third right) pose with the riders after the presentation. of products of Ricks and Sari Agro Industries, as well as claiming three prime prizes during the course of the race.

Jeffrey’s Team Coco’s Guyana teammate, Raul Leal, Orville Hinds, John Charles, Akeem Wilkinson and Rastaff O’Selmo rounded off the top six finishers in that order.

In the other events, Raphael Leung won the BMX Boys 12-14 years race ahead of Britton John and Keon Harris respectively.

Rashedi Ceres won the Boys 9-12 years, three-lap race ahead of Shemroy Grannum and Thuran Gharbarran. The experienced Junior Niles rode off with the Veterans Under-50 first place trophy and the prime prize, beating Stephen Fernandes and US-based Berbician, Wilbert Benjamin in that order.

Makel Diaz captured the three-lap BMX Boys Open

race ahead of Adrian Sharma and Khemraj Sanichar.

In the 12-14 Boys and Girls, three-lap race, Alfie Sonaram, Hazina Barrett and Leung were the top three finishers in that order. The lone prime prize also went to Sonoaram.

The five-lap Veterans Over-50 race saw Virgil Jones winning ahead of Lancelot Rose and Dwayne Ramsey respectively.

Maurice Fagundes took the Veterans Over-60 years’ race, beating Harry Lall.

Fagundes and Lall were the only two riders in that category. Leal won the Juniors and Juveniles 10-lap race in a time of 25 minutes, 12 seconds ahead of Alonzo Ambrose and Akeem Arthur.

The race for Upright cyclists was won by Ozia McCaully. Keon Thomas placed second and Stephano Husbands third.

Second semi of Banks Classic Inter-Club Basketball competition on in Berbice today The second semifinal in the inaugural Banks DIH Classic Inter-Club Basketball competition will be played today at the Fyrish Hard Court in Corentyne.

Home team Fyrish Black Sharks will be looking to use their home advantage to devour Rose Hall Town in a game which is expected to be keenly contested when action get started at 16:00hrs.

The winner will book a place to contest the final against

Central New Amsterdam who defeated arch rivals Smythfield Rockefeller in a keenly contested semifinal 50-49 last Sunday at the Smythfield Basketball court.

The date and venue for the finals will be decided shortly.

The top team and runner up will receive attractive prizes, while outstanding individual players will also be recognized with trophies and other incentives.

Raynauth Jeffrey is all alone across the finish line during Saturday’s race.

The two-lap BMX Boys 69 race was won by Jeremiah Harrison with Isaiah and Christopher Sahadeo taking second and third places respectively.

Organiser and National Coach Hassan Mohamed, speaking at the presentation ceremony, said riders can look forward to a busy year, as a number of events are planned for 2013.

Mohamed also announced that the National Sports Commission will sponsor an 11-race programme next Saturday, as well as a 40-mile road race the following day from the Demerara Harbour Bridge to Bushy Park and back.

He indicated that he has already secured sponsorship for races in February and March.

Sunday January 27, 2013

Kaieteur News

Page 53

‘Heartrending’ Djokovic bids for third straight development as Dorway... title at Melbourne Park MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Novak Djokovic will bid to extend his Australian Open reign to a third straight year today in the final against Andy Murray, who will aim to end Britain’s 79-year wait for a men’s champion at Melbourne Park.

World number one Djokovic holds a 10-7 career record over fellow 25-year-old Murray, including beating him in the 2011 final at Melbourne Park.

Third seed Murray, however, edged Djokovic in five-sets at the U.S. Open last year to win his maiden grand slam title after failing in four previous finals.

Djokovic, who will bid to become the first man to win a hat-trick of Australian Open titles in the professional era, survived a five-set scare against Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka in the fourth round, but has otherwise barely been pushed in his run to the final.

The five-times grand slam champion heads into the Murray clash after a straight-sets demolition of fourth seed David Ferrer.

Murray motored into the semi-finals without dropping a set but was taken to five by second seed Roger Federer.

The Scotsman will try to become the first man in the professional era to win his second grand slam immediately after his first.

Novak Djokovic of Serbia speaks during a news conference at the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne January 26, 2013.

Djokovic will play against Andy Murray of Britain in their men’s singles final match on Sunday.

REUTERS/Toby Melville

Bryan twins break record for grand slam doubles titles MELBOURNE (Reuters) American twins Bob and Mike Bryan became the most successful men’s pair in grand-slam history on Saturday when they won their 13th doubles title together at the Australian Open.

The 34-year-olds beat the Dutch pairing of Robin Haase and Igor Sijsling 6-3 6-4 to break the record of 12 grand slams they had shared with Australians John Newcombe and Tony Roche.

“Obviously it feels really good to have that record and to be a part of history feels really special,” Mike Bryan said.

“We weren’t thinking much about it on court but once we look back on our careers it will be fun to see what we have done. It’s a big record.”

The left-handed Bob Bryan served out for victory to seal their sixth Australian

Open title together.

It was the brothers’ 84th career title and their second

consecutive grand-slam triumph, after their win at the U.S. Open in September.

The third edition of the Rose Hall Town Committee Development Organisation (RHTCDO) monthly road race, which is being held to help resuscitate athletics in Berbice, will be staged today.

The 5KM event will begin from07:30 hrs and will be held from No1 Road, staring from in front of the Krishna Jagdeo

Construction and end at Rose Hall Town Arch.

The organisers, who are undertaking the venture with the aim of revive road racing in Berbice, is also looking to use a different route every month. The event which is open to all Berbicians will see participation in both the male and female categories and will

be sponsored this month by Banks DIH Limited and Universal DVD, New Amsterdam branch. Close to 50 participants are expected to take to the starting line as the event gets more popular.

The top participants will collect cash, trophies and other incentives. Godwyn Allicock is the coordinator.

Bob and Mike (L) Bryan pose with the trophy after defeating Robin Haase Igor Sijsling in their men’s doubles final match at the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne, January 26, 2013. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj

Monthly Athletics road race continues today in Berbice

From page 56 Dorway’s heart was just not in it.”

Subsequently, the card was reduced to a three bouts affair with the Orland Rogers/ Richard Williamson bantamweight 6 rounder elevated to main bout status.

The fight hardly fitted the bill with the latter pugilist pounding out a lopsided unanimous verdict over the former.

Williamson’s professional career is merely three fights old while Rogers, a veteran of the sport has been involved in combat for a number of years, albeit with dismal results.

He had trained Williamson during his amateur tenure and at the pre-fight press conference had promised to teach his student a thing or two in the fistic sport.

Well, depending on how one is willing to examine such boasts, Rogers might have accomplished his mission; he might have taught Williamson the improvised art of blocking punches - with his face.

The judges agreed in unison that Rogers had no right being in the same ring with Williamson by dint of their scores. Trevor Arno scored it 60-54, while Clairmont DeSouza and Bernard DeSantos saw it 5955 and 59-56 respectively for Williamson.

Dilan Allicock and Charlton Skeete had much to say to each other during prefight promotional activities with each promising the vilest

treatment to the other.

It turned out that Skeete failed to back his chat, while Allicock conformed to his predictions. Both fighters went after each other in the first stanza but it was Allicock who commanded respect early in the round.

He delivered several telling body shots that had Skeete backpedaling but not for long as Skeete, the self proclaimed ‘Fighting Raja,’ quickly asserted himself and matched his opponent’s volleys. Sensing something special, the small crowd settled to enjoy the action as the second bell sounded.

Barely one minute into this stanza had expired when they were rewarded. Allicock, fighting out of a southpaw stance, rushed out and dealt the fleet footed Skeete several salvoes and though he was hurt, he refused to quit.

Shortly afterwards a wicked combination sent him toppling to the canvass.

Skeete rose and managed to beat the count yet the referee inexplicably waved off the proceedings.

Several members of the audience raised their voices in indignation forcing the ‘third man’ to revert his decision and the boxers were allowed to continue.

In the end it really didn’t matter as, upon resumption, Allicock turned up the heat and sent Skeete drifting with several three punch combinations.

An especially vicious

right hook decked Skeete where he stayed for the full count at 2:05secs into the 2nd round.

Anson Green and Derick Richmond engaged in a delightful catchweight match with both giving as many punches as he received.

Richmond drew first blood when he decked Green early in the first frame but the latter boxer bided his time and eventually returned the favour late into the 4th round after landing a wicked right hand.

In between, the two boxers were extremely circumspect as each unleashed vicious, punches to each other’s body and head.

The fight seemed to be headed to a close finish when Green came up with a killer blow that landed on his opponent’s temple and he crashed to the canvass.

Richmond’s fate was sealed long before the referee started counting and the act merely served as one in futility; Richmond refused to, or more appropriately, was unable to respond and only rose to a sitting position after the medical team had attended to him. The time of the stoppage was 2:45secs of the 4th round.

Fans trooped to the venue to witness 26 rounds of fistic fury but had to contend with only 12 rounds that lacked the promised fireworks.

Indeed, it was a heartrending experience.

Page 54

Kaieteur News

Sunday January 27, 2013

“Travelling West Indies teams to Australia and India need to continue recent upward mobility!”

Colin E. H. Croft West Indies senior men’s tour to Australia, for a series of One-Day Internationals and T-20-I’s, could not have come at a better time, given that euphoria we experienced in Caribbean T-20 2013.

Similarly, West Indies Women, having just done excellently against higherranked South African Women, tying the ODI series, beating the Lady Proteas in both T-20-I’s, must become even more focused, to try to emulate their male counterparts, by winning ICC Women’s World Cup 2013 in India!

Dr. Julian Hunte, President of West Indies Cricket Board, was correct in hailing our ladies “superb.” Coming from two games down, to tie that ODI series, took tremendous gumption, marvelous cricket too, from our female representatives! They really were that good!

Having beaten South

The West Indies Women's team with Board Presidnet Dr. Julian Hunte (WICB) Africa in T-20’s and tying at 50-over games, WIW must not complacently think that

they might easily manage outsiders India and Sri Lanka, even if they lose to World

Champions England in Group stages of the longer WWC 50-overs format.

Cricket is never played that way, in any format! Every game involving WIW is crucial to their progress in this 2013 competition!

Charlotte Edwards, England’s present captain, leading a team that has won ICC WWC three times, last in 2009, has already signaled team intention to be ruthless: “As International cricketers, this is the ultimate

prize for us. This England team is used to high expectations being placed on us.

Since 2009, this expectation is something we have had to deal with, something that has spurred us on. We relish it. ICC Women’s World Cup 2013 is a real challenge!”

West Indies captain Merissa Aguilleira will have to lead with similar aplomb, as present v South Africa, if West Indies Women are to progress well in this competition. She would be depending much on senior lieutenants, Stephanie Taylor, Deandra Dottin and Anisa Mohammed!

Oh, in passing, not surprisingly, Trinidad & Tobago won Caribbean T-20 2013, seemingly the only team to have been properly prepared, even if they did have home advantage for half of the competition.

It should be noted that playing at home does bring on its pressures. Windward Islands, led by West Indies present captain, Darren Sammy, no less, played at “home” too, in St. Lucia, yet could not even make the semis! Playing at home is not always a blessing!

Also, as you would have read here, I had named T&T and Guyana as joint favourites before the competition started, so it was not surprising to me that they

Colin E. H. Croft met in that unbelievably poor final.

Where exactly was Guyana that day? Where were their supposed superstars, especially Ramnaresh Sarwan?

To compound his abject failure in CT-20 2013 by selecting him in that team for Australia was a great an insult of evolving cricketers as me making a comeback! Sarwan did not deserve his Australian selection!

Anyway, those six ODI’s and solitary T-20-I that our senior representative men will play v resurgent Aussies will give us a general overview of where West Indies men are as regards one day cricket overall, not just for T-20’s.

The extended one-day format allows for so many variables, all correctable!

Australia does have its hands full with Sri Lanka now, with the Tigers holding their own well, carrying the furious fight to their hosts in the (Continued on page 50)

Unique Entertainment/Banks Premium Beer Futsal Classic kicks off tonight in Linden - $500,000 first prize up for grabs

Tonight all roads lead to the Mackenzie Sports Club Hard Court in Linden for the start of the Unique Entertainment, Banks Premium Beer Futsal tournament.

Over a Million dollars is up for grabs in cash and prizes, with 32 teams contesting for the winner ’s purse of $500,000. Second place finishers are set to pocket $300,000 and fourth place $150,000 while fans can also cash in on the nightly give-aways compliments of Banks DIH. Several Banks DIH officials will be making the voyage to Linden to declare the tournament open, following the official march past of the competing teams.

Four games will be played tonight; in the opening game, Hard Knocks and Sharp Shooters will do battle, Retrieve Unknowns and Canvas City All-Stars will play the second, Young Ballers and Barsonal are down to collide in the third game and the night’s final clash pits Amelia’s Ward Russians against Vipers.

Already having a rich sporting history, the Organisers are banking on a huge crowd support.

“We’re anticipating a great tournament and hope that people will come out and show support to the players.

Most of these teams are coming from the various communities within Linden, so with that, I know they

would want to cheer them on,” said the Organisers.

Beverage giant Banks DIH is the events major sponsor and they have fully committed to the event being one of the most talked about sporting activity in the mining community. Meanwhile, several other businesses have also come on board in aiding to make the event successful, including Mohammad’s Enterprise, Bosai Mineral Inc, Bolo Variety Store, Tom Beverage Depot, Corporate Supply Limited, Bella’s Lumber Yard, L&J Shipping, Bernard’s Variety Store and Bobby Noel’s General Store.

Games will be played every Friday and Sunday at the same venue, until February 17 for the grand Final.

Sunday January 27, 2013

Kaieteur News

Page 55

Azarenka keeps her eye on the prize to retain title

Boxing SA suspends boxers’ contracts with promoters and managers

MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Victoria Azarenka kept her eye firmly on the prize despite a host of distractions to rally from a set down and retain her title with victory over Li Na in a dramatic Australian Open final on Saturday.

The Belarussian had to block out an often blatantly hostile crowd, sit through two lengthy timeouts for Li’s injuries and bide her time as a firework display lit up Melbourne’s skyline before she finally extinguished her Chinese rival’s hopes with a 4-6 6-4 6-3 victory.

Li twice needed treatment after heavy falls - the second time blacking out momentarily after banging her head on the court.

Azarenka looked stunned and then relieved at the end of the 160-minute contest when she realized had won her second grand slam title, ensuring she would retain the number one world ranking to boot.

Even in her moment of triumph, however, the lukewarm response of the crowd on Rod Laver Arena was a reminder of the controversy surrounding her semi-final win over Sloane Stephens.

“This one is way more emotional,” she said. “It’s gonna be extra special for me, for sure ... you’re the only one who knows what you’ve been going through these two weeks.

“So it’s definitely an emotional one and it’s going to be special.”

It was a second loss in a Melbourne Park final in three years for Li but the Chinese had been more concerned about her health after the second fall. “I was a little bit worried when I was fell down, my head hit the floor and for two seconds I couldn’t really see anything. It was totally black,” she said.

“So when the doctor and the physio came out on to the court, I sat up, but it took a long time to fully come around ... I could hear this ringing in my ears.”

If the 16 service breaks and a high unforced error count - Li had 57 - meant the match was not one for the real purists, there were some fine rallies and it lacked nothing in incident.

Azarenka’s controversial medical timeout in her victory over American Stephens - which left the Belarussian fending off allegations of gamesmanship - clearly won her few friends in Melbourne and there was no doubt who was the crowd favorite.

Former French Open champion Li had been roared on to court like a local hopeful and every point she won was greeted with huge applause, even on the many occasions that it derived from a Azarenka error.

Mixed with the traditional Chinese sporting war cry of “jia you”, one voice from the crowd shouted: “C’mon Sloane”, while another responded to the Belarusian’s trademark grunts by shouting: “Quiet please, Azarenka”.

“What happened with Sloane, it was a big deal, for sure,” Azarenka said referring to the criticism she received for taking a lengthy timeout immediately after blowing five match

Victoria Azarenka retains her World No1 status (EPA) points against Stephens. “But I take it as a great learning experience and just try to live the moment and take the best things out of what happened and move forward.”

REAL INJURY Li double-faulted on her very first serve and was broken immediately but that only set the pattern on both sides of the net for the first set.

The Chinese recovered to dominate the opening stanza, ramping up the forehand that was once her weakness and hitting some blistering winners with her backhand.

Azarenka had raced out to a 3-1 lead in the second set when Li took her first tumble, turning on her left ankle and crashing to the ground. The Chinese had the joint strapped and came out firing to get back to 4-4 before Azarenka upped her game again and leveled the match up when Li went wide with a forehand.

It was Li’s turn to go ahead in the third set and she was 2-1 up when play was called to a halt for 10 minutes for a firework display in honor of Australia Day. Li took her second fall on the first point after resumption and lay prone on the floor receiving attention.

“Listen it was a real injury!” she said to laughter in her news conference. “Maybe if I hadn’t fallen down, it would have been another story. You never know. But the reality is I fell down, so nothing can change.”

Azarenka quickly grabbed what turned out to be the decisive break and dominated the rest of the match, ensuring she would retain her title when another Li forehand sailed long.

“In these kind of matches you always have to take the opportunity of the important moments,” Azarenka said. “In the second set, in the third set, that’s what I was doing better.

“In the first set, she was really on top of me, I think, she was really going for her shots and making everything happen.”

With two locals in the boys’ final for the first time since 1994, the home crowd was guaranteed at least one celebration for Australia Day. Nick Kyrgios beat Thanasi Kokkinakis 7-6 6-3 to take the honors, while 15-year-old Croatian Ana Konjuh was too good for Czech second seed Katerina Siniakova and took the girls’ title with a 6-3 6-4 victory.

USADA sets deadline for Armstrong’s full cooperation (Reuters) - The United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) has set disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong a February 6 deadline to fully cooperate in the investigation into cycling’s darkest episode in return for a possible reduction of his life ban.

In excerpts of his interview with the CBS network scheduled

for Sunday broadcast, USADA CEO Travis Tygart said he had written a letter to Armstrong with the offer.

Armstrong, 41, admitted in an interview with Oprah Winfrey last week that he had cheated his way to a record seven Tour de France titles with systematic use of banned, performance-

enhancing drugs. Last year he was stripped of his titles after being labeled a “serial cheat” by the USADA. Tygart also disputed Armstrong’s claims of a clean comeback in 2009.

“His blood tests in 2009, 2010 ... one to a million chance that it was due to something other than doping,” Tygart said.

Business Day Live BOXING SA (BSA) has temporarily suspended the long-term contracts that bind boxers to promoters and managers, director of operations Loyiso Mtya announced on Monday.

BSA recognised that boxing is a business and that promoters are businesspeople and have a right to have a level of control over their investments, but the governing body also recognised that there was a crisis with the contracts that boxers are made to sign.

He said BSA had implemented the moratorium to give itself time to analyse how it dealt with contracts.

Mtya said BSA had made a long-overdue decision. “A decision of this nature was long overdue. This after the contract had successfully developed the careers of a few boxers, but eternally destroyed the careers of the majority of boxers, as well as put BSA in never-ending dispute situations between aggrieved boxers, and

especially promoters,” he said.

BSA was taking a cautious approach because some long-term contracts were successful and BSA wanted to avoid confrontation with those who worked comfortably within the status quo. “The contract, especially if done in writing, creates a legal obligation for both parties to honour. The BSA contract, therefore, was meant for boxers to train in full comfort, knowing that they had a guaranteed line-up of fights,” Mtya said.

“The promoter or manager could plan ahead to make his or her investment a reality without having to deal with competitors for the services of the boxer. BSA would regulate the contents of the contract and mitigate where necessary.” But since the introduction of those contracts, some boxers have been left idle without fights for periods as long as the twoyear term of the contract.

Mtya said everyone who could sign a promising boxer

had done so, even without the promoter having the capacity to deliver on the deal.

“Even big-time promoters failed more than they succeeded. Boxers could not obtain the agreed number of fights, while champions were stripped of their titles as they failed to meet the deadlines to defend their titles.”

However, Mtya praised the promoters who had brought international fights to South Africa. “Such fights have matched anything that you see on TV produced by the likes of Las Vegas, Atlantic City, London or Germany.”

Mtya said a road show last year found boxers across the country complaining about how they were treated after signing contracts. “They told how they had little or no say in even the amounts of money they had to fight for, just for the simple fact that they were under contract and could not listen to other promoters offering better purses or opportunities.”

Page 56

Kaieteur News

Sunday January 27, 2013

‘Heartrending’ development as Dorway/ Austin middleweight title fight aborted

By Michael Benjamin The executive of the Guyana Boxing Board of Control (GBBC) had, less than two weeks ago, released its ratings of local boxers and had intimated a desire to fill the void in all of the divisions in an effort to prepare local pugilists for the international transition.

In keeping with this projection, Gladwin Dorway and Mark Austin were scheduled to face off for the national Jnr/middleweight title in the January edition of the Guyana Fight Night boxing card at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall (CASH), Friday evening last.

Things went awry when less than one hour before the boxers were scheduled to square off, medical practitioners directed that the bout be cancelled after one of the principals, Gladwin Dorway, was ruled medically unfit to fight after he was found to be constricted with

Williamson (right) holds a high guard to ward off Rogers’ two fisted attack a heart deficiency that placed his life at great risks.

President of the GBBC, Peter Abdool was somewhat dismayed by the turn of events and has issued a directive to his officials to

have the issue ventilated for possible remedy and to minimize a future recurrence.

He disclosed that, as is customary, Dorway had been subjected to medical checks earlier in the week and the

Rogers (left) backs his former charge in one of the neutral corners but was unable to neutralize him. doctors discovered that his heart rate, which should have been 55- 60 beats per minute,

was a fraction off, at 43 beats per minute.

He said that the doctor

withheld approval for the fight and advised that Dorway submit to a similar check at the fight venue. When the situation failed to undergo the requisite change, the doctors advised GBBC officials to cancel the match.

The GBBC President further informed that following Dorway’s prognosis, boxing officials conducted background checks and discovered that the boxer’s condition appears to be hereditary as several other family members were stricken by similar problems.

He said that he will seek medical advice to ascertain whether his organization could help in corrective procedures.

One boxing official jocularly summed up the situation, “The bout had all the trimmings of a classic but (Continued on page 53)

Quintyne and Campbelle believe in Windies dream Mumbai, India – Two of the youngest members of the West Indies team will both have crucial roles to play at the upcoming ICC Women’s World Cup in India. Shemaine Campbelle, the lively allrounder, and Shaquana Qunityne, the baby-faced legspinner, are eager to get onto the fields in Mumbai and show their star qualities. Both were key to the Windies’ recent good showing against South Africa in the five-match ODI Series and the two-match T20 Series.

Campbelle, the Guyana captain, was given the chance to bat at Number 3 and made a stroke-filled 47 in the final One-Day International at Windsor Park in Dominca. She added a record 117 for the second wicket with Stafanie Taylor, the leading player in the women’s game.

“I’m quite comfortable batting one-down (Number 3) as that is something that suits me fine. I am not a big-hitter so I always look to spend time at the crease and accumulate my runs,” said 20-year-old Campbelle, who is also a steady slow bowler and backup wicket-keeper.

“Before when I was batting down the order, things used to get a bit hectic.

Against South Africa I was happy to get a chance to move up the order and that helped me to settle. I felt I

Shemaine Campbelle

Shaquana Qunityne played quite well, especially in the last match which was a must-win situation.”

Looking ahead her second ICC Women’s World Cup tournament, Campbelle outlined her game-plan. “The first thing is to get used to the conditions, the climate

and the atmosphere. Battingwise, my approach will be pretty much the same as usual. The key is to build an innings and put down a foundation for the team.”

Quintyne, the schoolgirl from Barbados who turned 17 earlier this month, is in her second year on the world stage. She was the leading Windies bowler in the series, with nine wickets at just 13.11 runs per wicket. This included career-best 4-14 in the crucial third ODI at Windsor Park in Dominica.

“I am feeling really comfortable and relaxed with the World Cup coming up. I know it is a big tournament for us and everyone is talking about it, and once I stay settled I know I will do very well for West Indies,” Quintyne said.

“I have been receiving a lot of support from my teammates...they are always encouraging me. I know I have a main role but they don’t put any pressure on me. I just enjoy playing the in this team.

She added: “I did a lot of work at the Sagicor HPC before we played against South Africa and that worked well for me. I bowled a lot slower than I did before and I worked on a few variations, including a change of angles against different batters. I was happy with the way I bowled and will look to keep it up in India.”

Sunday January 27, 2013

Kaieteur News

Quincy Boyce registers lone knockout as Guyana Fight Night amateurs clash Several gyms were represented when the Guyana Boxing Association (GBA) fielded a team of eight boxers to participate in the January edition of Friday Night Fights at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall (CASH), Saturday evening last. Those include Young Achievers (YA), Harpy Eagles (HE), Forgotten Youth Foundation (FYF), Essequibo Boxing Gym (EBG), Rosehall Jammers (RHJ), Pocket Rocket (PR) and the Guyana Defense Force (GDF). Quincy Boyce (GDF), fighting in the 119124lbs class, outshone the others when, in a display of aggression and power punching, he disposed of

David Moore (RHJ) shortly after the first bell had sounded. Boyce started at a brisk pace and connected with several crunching shots that pushed Moore backwards.

Shortly after, the referee instituted a mandatory eight before ordering the resumption.

Boyce rushed across and dealt his opponent several unanswered punches which forced the referee to wave the proceedings off. Jaimi Kelman (YA) started the proceedings in the 55-59lbs class with a close 2-1 victory over Kevin Mullings (HE) shortly before John Moore (FYF) pounded out a lopsided 3-0 verdict over Shaquille Simon (PR) in the

70-74lbs division.

Tyron Lashley (RHJ) also chalked up a decisive win over Cordell Walcott (EBG) in their 90-94lbs bout. All of the boxers were recipients of attractive food hampers donated by furniture giants, Courts. The next edition of Friday Night Fights will be staged at the same venue on Friday February 22.

The programme is a presentation of the Guyana Boxing Board of Control in collaboration with the Guyana Boxing Association (GBA), National Communications Network (NCN) and the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports.

Ivory Coast on cusp of quarter-final

Striker Emmanuel Adebayor is congratulated by his teammates (Getty Images) RUSTENBURG, South Africa (Reuters) - Ivory Coast reinforced their status as tournament favourites with a display of strength as they bulldozed Tunisia 3-0 on Saturday to move closer to a place in the Nations Cup quarter-finals.

Yaya Toure crowned a towering performance with an 87th-minute goal after Gervinho had given the Ivorians the halftime lead and Didier Ya Konan added the third just seconds after coming on as a substitute.

It was a marked improvement on Tuesday’s limp start when the Ivorians needed a late goal to beat Togo 2-1 in their first match of the tournament.

Captain Didier Drogba was dropped for the first time, although he came on for the final 25 minutes, and Kolo Toure was also left out by coach Sabri Lamouchi as he attempted to kick-start the campaign for the muchfancied Ivorians.

The victory means the Ivorians, the only side in the competition with a 100 percent record, could be the first team through to the

knockout stage if the second Group D match at the Royal Bafokeng Sports Palace between Algeria and Togo does not produce a winner.

“This is really the start of the tournament. I’m very satisfied with my players and their reaction. How we played is a reflection of what we have been working on in training,” said coach Lamouchi.

But he did not directly address questions about the talismanic Drogba being dropped to the subs bench.

“Those who were fielded were the ones who I believe were ready to face Tunisia from the first minute of the game. I don’t see great players, only a great team.”

Gervinho finished off an audacious interchange of passes with Lancina Traore in the Tunisian box to score the first goal in the 21st minute at the end of a sustained period of pressure.

It took until the final three minutes for the Ivorians to add more. Toure, playing a more forward than usual and revelling in his new role, got a superb second with a shot from just outside of the penalty box.

Ya Konan had just a couple of touches before he tucked away the third in the 90th minute from almost the same position as the Ivorians stormed all over the Tunisian defence.

Meanwhile, Togo put themselves back in contention in Group D at Algeria’s expense, after beating the Desert Foxes in an engaging contest in Rustenburg.

Striker Emmanuel Adebayor put the Togolese ahead in the first half, coolly slotting under onrushing Algerian goalkeeper Rais Mbolhi. Substitute Dove Wome doubled their lead in extended injury time, after referee Hamada Namplandraza added 13 minutes.

Algeria had dominated for long periods but were unable to find an equaliser.

The result leaves the North Africans unable to progress and ensures Ivory Coast’s progression, after their earlier 3-0 win over Tunisia.

Togo, meanwhile, go into their final group game with the Elephants in a good position to qualify for the knockout stages for the first time.

Page 57

GCA\ Noble House Sea Foods 2nd division competition

UG take 1st innings from MYO, Surat bags 5-wkt haul for Everest University of Guyana took first innings honours from host MYO, while Everest are 9 runs away from taking first innings points against Police as the Georgetown Cricket Association\ Noble House Sea Foods 2nd division 2 day competition continued yesterday with two matches.

At MYO, the home team were bowled out for 124 in 35 overs after batting first.

Zulfikar Ali was their leading run scorer with 30, while Richard Latiff made 21, Abdool Kadir 19 and Imtiaz Pooran 17. Omesh Dhanram grabbed 4-13, Dwayne Dudson 2-3, Royston Alkins 2-32 and Suresh Dhanai 2-47.

UG then responded with 199 all out in 42.3 overs.

Clevon Hyman slammed eight fours in a top score of 60 and got valuable support from Frederick Pestano 52(9x4) and

Riyad Sattaur

Christopher Surat

Alkins 27. Shafeek Ishmile claimed 4-59, Pooran 2-20 and Parmanand Parsram 2-42.

MYO were trailing by 35 in their second innings as they closed the day on 40-1 with Zamal Khan on 28 and Ashraf Ali 02.

At GYO, Everest were 1837 in 39 overs in response to Police 1st innings score of 191.

Sheldon Agard stroked

52(8x4,1x6) while Collis Cort chipped in with 34 and Amir Mohamed and Munilall Persaud 28 each for Police who were bowled out in 40.2 overs. Christopher Surat snared 5-33 and Garfield De Roche 2-24. Riyad Sattaur is unbeaten on 51(8X4) while Yogeshwar Dhanraj made 42 and Rishi Heeralall 27. The competition continues today.

t r o Sp

Milo U-20 Secondary Schools Football Competition...

Action in the clash between North Ruimveldt and St. Winefride in the Milo U-20 Schools Football Competition yesterday.

North Ruimveldt, Lodge,Dolphin in winners’ row

G

oals off the boots o f t h e diminutive pair of Carl Griffith in the 20th minute and Jeremy Garrett in the 41st steered North Ruimveldt Secondary to a hard fought 2-1 victory over a stubborn St. Winefride Secondary in the latest Milo U20 school fixtures which continued yesterday, at the Ministry of Education ground.

After the routine undertaking of support by captains was appropriately accorded towards the fight against gender violence, the players took to the field in what could best be described as one of the most competitive days of the tournament to date.

The first half opened on a cautious note as both teams wrestled for the early ascendency. Tentative play by both camps was conspicuously apparent as broken plays and ill-timed passes plagued the early exchanges, hampering the free flowing nature of the game. Tefon Daly playing in the traditional ‘enganche’ position started to dictate proceedings with his crisp passing, energising the o ff e n c e a s t h e N o r t h Ruimveldt unit began to find their attacking rhythm.

Gaining confidence from their new found domination, a wonderfully worked move in the 20th minute was expertly finished off by Griffith sending the North Ruimveldt faithful into jubilation. The nature of the game changed as both teams attacked feverishly to try and consolidate their contrasting positions. North Ruimveldt almost added to their lead on the stroke of half time only to be found wanting in the attacking third.

The second half started in a frenetic fashion with St. Winefride throwing bodies forward in search of the all important equalizer. North Ruimveldt through the marauding runs from full back Garrett as they constantly found space in the wider areas. The back and forth action continued with the boys from Mandela adding to their lead in the 61st minute compliments of a brilliant solo run and finish from the rampaging Garrett to send the small mass into a frenzy. Impelled by their vocal throng, St. Winifred pulled one back in the dying stages compliments of a Andrew O’Daneghue spot kick in the 88th minute after a reckless challenge by the North Ruimveldt unit in the penalty area setting up a

tense final minutes. Robust defending by the North outfit backline ensured the lead stayed intact as the final whistle sounded sending mixed emotions through the respective camps.

In the opening fixtures, powerhouse Lodge Secondary defeated David Rose Secondary 4-2 compliments of Travis Simpson double in the 37th & 59th minutes, Kevin Butters in the 18th and Sherwin Joseph in the 32nd, while Roshawn Nicks was on target in the 63rd and 68th minutes in a losing cause and Dolphin Secondary hammered an wretched Guyana Education Trust College 7-2 thanks to a Shamar Wilson hat-trick in the 59th, 65th and 67th minutes, while admirable support came from Daniel Griffith, Leon Richardson, Toquwan Clarke and Milton Henry in the 14th, 33rd , 50th and 54th minute respectively to conclude the day’s scheduled fixtures. The competition continues today with another triple header, commencing from 12:00 hrs.

In the day’s fixtures: Carmel takes on Brickdam; New Campbellville tackles Spohia Special School and Richard Ishmael engages Central High.

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