Kaieteur News

Kaieteur News

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

Publisher: GLENN LALL Editor: Adam Harris Tel: 225-8465, 225-8491. Fax: 225-8473, 226-8210

EDITORIAL WALKING A TIGHT ROPE The past two years have not been the best of times for the administration even though it managed to defy initial predictions that it was unlikely to survive beyond a year as a coalition.

The fact that it had to contend with a smaller than usual parliamentary majority of just one seat and an economy in serious trouble has left it hardly any comfortable room to maneuver economically and politically.

While some of the economic challenges were influenced by external factors due to international pressures, others were clearly of domestic origin.

Based on feedback from the various media and from the man in the street, people accustomed to lax tax measures and to officers accepting a bribe to allow under invoicing what passed for profit and made people happy was generally a loss to the poor taxpayer, a greater burden, because he was without some basic amenities.

Even though there has been some improvement, today, there are a few who are of the view that they are worse off today than two years ago.

They are being challenged by a new entrepreneur who is offering a new set of products at a drastically lower rate.

The result is that the new businessman is attracting a foreign crowd that descends on Guyana twice every week to do shopping.

These are the people who complain that the conditions for business have changed for the worse. But who can expect to see change without adjusting?

Yet they are the ones who are blaming the government.

Since no government relishes the thought of losing an election, especially in Guyana where it could be in opposition for twenty or more years, the current administration may be tempted to change course in the last minute.

This would be nothing new in the historical context of our politics.

Guyanese like most other voters are often described as having short memories, so election goodies, whether in the form of tax relief or higher government spending to inject more money into the economy, can have a favorable effect on the government.

However, with a huge fiscal deficit, the reality is the government’s hands are tied and even if it is tempted to pursue its election promises, it does not have the resources to do so. It is giving itself some breathing space by taking decisions that should have been taken a long time ago in relation to sugar.

It has closed some sugar estates and thus saved the nation billions of dollars at a time when money is needed for other projects. It stands to reason that the national interests should always come before the ruling party’s interests. As such, the government is required to do what is best for the country.

The critical question at this time is when and how does the government intend to solve the problems. The truth is that the government has not communicated its policies effectively to the people. Perhaps the government believes that its deeds should be seen and not heard. Guyana is one place where the people are slow to see. This has been a fact of life from almost immediately after the last general election.

Georgetown and coastal Guyana have undergone a dramatic change but the people have not seen these. Some chant, floods no more but being shortmemoried they may have believed that this has been the case for much longer than the government has been in office.

But the government still has a lot going for it.

And of course, there is oil on the horizon.

Sunday July 16, 2017

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

Living in Guyana is not for people with vision who are thinkers DEAR EDITOR, I rested my pen for a while to enjoy a much deserved vacation and further direct my energy to a considerably more fruitful vocation. However, in the light of a few recent disturbing national events, and a mindboggling personal experience, my fingers compelled me to do this composition.

Living in Guyana can be very challenging, especially for those who are forward-thinking, objective or constructive.

The challenge is compounded by arrogance, laziness and backwardness in many sectors. The level of backwardness, I believe, is so endemic and broad based that it threatens to destabilize this country and undermine its sovereignty. It is entrenched among many who are even highly academically qualified or otherwise elevated, and has been embraced as a standard of Guyanisation.

In a comment on the recent catastrophic fire and unfolding fiasco at the Georgetown Prison, the Head of State commented that the occurrence was “an accident waiting to happen”. That comment raises a few of many underlying questions. Did the Prison authorities underestimate the magnitude of what was festering?

Was the intellect of those incarcerated ever considered or were they merely taken for granted? Among those highlighted in the bulletin issued on the most dangerous escapees is a

former policeman. The Guyana Police Force commemorated its 178th Anniversary with a route march the day before the riotous escape. Invariably the day following such an activity would be treated as a rest day, when the Force is not at full strength. What a coincidence!

Guyana gained independence in May 1966, but this country still has a clot of colonial mentality. Most people tend to think that all solutions are extrinsic and not intrinsic. There is a distinct gap between actions and consequences. In most instances that gap is only often bridged by punitive measures as against an overarching appreciation and proactivity to enable stop-gaps.

That type of mentality tends to fertilize grandstanding my some who are mere incompetents. Things only get done as a consequence of some extremity or reproof from international sanctionative bodies. I will cite two examples. Guyana did precious little to curb Trafficking In Persons (TIP) until it was faced with international sanctions. The same situation applied to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and Caribbean Action Task Force (CFATF) regulatory chastening due local lapses on Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism prior to 2016.

There are some persons in authority who will not (Continued on page 5)

Sunday July 16, 2017

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Kaieteur News

Kaieteur M@ilbox

Kaieteur M@ilbox

School’s out; watch your children Living in Guyana is not for people...

DEAREDITOR, The July/August term break is here. Children will be on vacation for the next 49 days. Many parents will take this opportunity to send their children to visit relatives or various summer camps.

Parents therefore need to take serious precautions as they make plans for their children during the holidays in order to protect them from possible abuse. When a parent allows their child/children to visit and stay over at a relative, they need to be clear who will protect them in their absence, considering all of the risk factors of communities and all those individuals who will have easy access to their child/children. Parents need to have important conversations with their children about topics such as “good touch/bad touch”. Let the children know that they should be cautious with everyone. A common misperception that many have is that abuse is usually committed by a stranger. The truth is, the abuser is more likely to be a close family member trusted by both the child and the parents.

Children should be guided to play in open areas where they can be easily monitored by their parent or guardian and adventures to creeks and secluded areas must be supervised by a responsible adult. ChildLinK has

dealt with many cases of child sexual abuse referred to us where the perpetrator monitored the child’s activities and followed him/her to a secluded area to commit heinous acts. If the parent is at home during the holidays, monitor your children as fre uently as possible.

During the holiday period, parents can make a greater effort to strengthen their relationship with their children. Take the time to do some low cost activities together. A game of snakes and ladders, for instance, can be fun.

This should build rapport with your child/children and help them to be aware that they can approach you to disclose any information without fear of judgment or punishment. Perpetrators usually threaten the child after abusing him/her. The threats of the perpetrator coupled with fear of judgment, punishment and even shame, prevent children from disclosing information. This is especially important because when a child is sent to a summer camp or a new environment, that child will inevitably meet new

people and become familiar with them. This increases the possibility of encountering an abuser as there were over 700 reported cases of sexual abuse in 2016.

Working parents, do ensure that arrangements for your children who have to be at home are protective and do check in on your children during the day where possible. Take advantage of available communications technology and, if possible, video call your children and make this fun since children enjoy using their gadgets. Finally, parents observe your children for possible changes in behaviour, their changes in development, making new friends, losing friends, going to a new school and interactions with new teachers. These are all areas where children need guidance on how to deal with the changes. And to the general public, we can also be a good neighbor and ‘keep an eye out’ for other children as well.

Hasani Tinnie Communications Officer Child Rights Alliance

From page 4 budge to address certain issues or act on proposals by genuine local nationalists, but will snap into intense hyperactivity like a child who is stung by a wasp on a mere hints by any representative of the American, British or Canadian (ABC) countries on any matter. More amazingly, they do the full dance once Guyana is cited for any form of recalcitrance in ABC or International reports. This is a clear indication that we are not as independent as we promulgate.

I recently went to the Brickdam Police station to have my vehicle certified for fitness. The prescribed time for that exercise is from 09:00 to 11:00hrs, Mondays to Fridays. That was the same timeframe for the past 25 years when there was just a quarter of the vehicle population.

That time period is the same when most working class persons, and by extension vehicle owners, are contributing

to the economic growth and development of this country.

Most people use a friendly connection or other method to get vehicle fitness outside of the prescribed process. I was fortunate to obtain my certification of fitness through the right, yet laborious process. I spoke with a Senior Police Officer who was empathetic with my observational analysis, but merely responded by saying that “this is the system”.

I respectfully believe that the current system employed for certifying vehicle fitness is archaic and backward.

There are real solutions that I will not detail here. Solutions that would be vehicle-ownerfriendly, ensure that vehicles are meritoriously certified, negate under-table induce-

ments and corruption, thereby ensuring public safely and true compliance with the Traffic Laws.

Our policy makers ought to be realists, who embrace greater public consultation and feedback. True sovereignty of a country is reflected in the way its policies and systems align to meet the needs and protection of its citizenry. Ironically, in Guyana, most of those who make policy and enforce systems never have real interface with what they create and are often oblivious or overlook the associated challenges faced by the masses. This distortion often contributes to many of the lamentable ills in our country. I will reserve the other half of the story.

Orette Cutting

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Sunday July 16, 2017

Kaieteur News

Kaieteur M@ilbox DEAREDITOR, It was quite shocking, sad and worrying to read about the corruption or alleged corruption by the GFC Monitoring unit and LandAllocation unit staffers with possible or in collusion with the respective supervising officers (KN Saturday July 8th under the Caption ‘Corruption Returns to the GFC’).

This type of illicit or nefarious behaviour by staffers put in positions of enforcement is quite common in a lot of revenue agencies like customs, police, mines commission etc. We have not started producing oil so this should be a wakeup call for the authorities to carefully select the best staff to work with the agency that will be monitoring and managing the oil and gas sector.

However, it is what it is and it was only time that a brave stakeholder sums up the courage and bring it to the attention of the relevant authorities. Stakeholders mainly from community logging groups are feeling the

Kaieteur M@ilbox

There is rampant corruption in the forestry sector squeeze and pressure from certain “rogue monitoring officers” with perhaps direction from their superiors. Apart from turning a blind eyes and refusing to act on reports of illegality if you are not prepared to go in your pocket then you and your group become the target. Also communities and able producers are starved for lands. This is not the GFC we want.

I say sad that the events alluded to occurred after much effort was done by the new administration of the GFC Board to free up the forest sector and make it a transparent, clean and lean sector. I speak of the efforts that have been made to regularise and recapture lands that were under the control of some big Asian tigers/companies.

Things were moving along smoothly - good forest planning and governance. But it seems a few rogue elements

within the monitoring and land management departments have hijacked this effort and are turning the sector upside down.

Not only is the State losing thousands or possibly millions in revenue but it is reversing good progress. Not so long ago the Minister himself boasted of having a good forestry sector with strong guidelines and a robust system of monitoring. It doesn’t take long to dismantle what took years and efforts to build.

Rome was not built in a day.

At a minimum I would like to see the institution of polygraph tests for all staffers (staff and supervising officers) of the land administration and forest monitoring departments of the GFC. As a matter of fact all revenue and enforcement agencies (CANU, Police, customs, mines, oil and gas and of course for-

estry) should adopt the polygraph test as a standard means to gain employment and undergo it perhaps annually. This will I believe weed out corrupt officers that are being exposed at the GFC. I am being told it very easy to get a load of wood passed at any of the stations particularly at nights; just make the call and they guys will tell you when to come through. It’s all part of a racket to defraud the state of revenue and enrich the pockets of the few cabals in the enforcement section. These systematic breaches are evidence of a weak monitoring system.

My other worry is that one must bear in mind that the government signed the EU pact for Forest Law Government Transparency Trade Program (EU FLEGT). This is a like a Standard Operating Procedure Program to do business with the EU. It all rests on good forest systems. What we are seeing here now in Guyana is a weak forest monitoring system and

hence it puts the entire EU FLEGT program under serious threat and jeopardy. The EU is serious business and hefty fines are imposed for noncompliance. One needs to just look at Brexit and see how challenging it is to get out of the EU system.

Our weak monitoring system is a recipe for disaster and we should pause for a while and reflect whether we are ready for the EU. After all Guyanese are no wiser about the EU program; there has not been a single national public education awareness conference on EU FLEGT. Who is really in charge of the program? The public is in the dark, a miserly text message was received a few weeks back on the program and that’s all the public has been informed of. We need an overhaul of the FLEGT program and have people with the right skills and expertise take it forward, otherwise we will be shooting ourselves in the foot. Why

not get our own Dr. Janet Bulkan, a respectable international expert to lead it off. It’s an international program so Dr. Bulkan can also give advice on how to overhaul and strengthen our forest monitoring and allocation department and systems. I am sure she will be more than happy to contribute back to Dear Guyana.

Finally like the other writer, I heard the GFC board is in capable hands of environmental and social activists. Madam Chairperson we call on you to bring sanity to this lawlessness that is taking place in the monitoring systems, lands management and has begun spreading to the FLEGT program. Why don’t we have a national workshop to get ideas on best practices and also form a national steering body give advice? The stakeholders are your friends; and is the best way to obtain information on the ground. Otherwise sitting in offices in GT will get us nowhere; only issues similar to what has been mentioned by Mr. Williams in the media last week, will crop up.

P.Wong (Forestry Expert/ Consultant)

Sunday July 16, 2017

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Kaieteur M@ilbox

Kaieteur M@ilbox

Large numbers of Guyanese visited the US last year

Reshuffle Ministers Ramjattan and Jordan

DEAR EDITOR, United States Ambassador to Guyana, Mr. Perry Holloway has reportedly said that 7000 immigrant visas were issued and 72,000 applications for non-immigrant visas were processed last year. This is a significant number representing nearly ten percent of the country’s population who have indicated an interest in visiting the United States.

What is particularly heartening to learn is the fact that an overwhelming majority of those who obtained non-immigrant visas to the United States returned home well within the stipulated time which speaks well to the political and socio-economic health of our society. This is why it is so important that we

preserve the democratic fabric of our country and accelerate the pace of economic development. There can be no doubt that we have come a long way since the days of authoritarian rule when Guyana was seen by the international community as a ‘pariah’ state.

The United States has the largest number of Guyanese, who for whatever reason, departed the shores of Guyana and have started a new life in that country. The vast majority of them are doing well and in the process contributing meaningfully to the growth and development of their adopted homeland. I take this opportunity to congratulate the United States on its 241st anniversary of independence.

Hydar Ally

DEAR EDITOR, The citizens of Guyana should not expect the Honourable Minister of Public Security, Khemraj Ramjattan, to resign after the horrific jail break. Ministers in Guyana do not resign for corruption, mismanagement or when there is public outcry on their performance. Instead Ministers are “reshuffled”.

Should a reshuffle be imminent I would like to make two recommendations for two cards in the pack.

Minster Ramajattan be

removed with immediate effect and a competent person preferably with a military background given the task of transforming the Ministry of Public Security.

Retired Major General Joe Singh comes to mind. He has a sound military background and experience with management within the private sector.

Minister Jordon has tried to justify taxing education for our nation’s children when over fifty percent of students cannot pass the National Grade Six

Assessment exams. Our political future looks dim and now the future of thousands of children looks even dimmer. Honourable Minister Carl Greenidge who overlooked the transf o r m a t i o n o f G u y a n a ’s economy in the late 1980s will be my preferred choice.

Marcus Craig

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Sunday July 16, 2017

Kaieteur News

Senior GRA official sent home following late night shakedown of businessman An Assistant Commissioner of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) is in deep trouble and could find himself without a job in the new week.

The official, from the Law Enforcement and Investigation Division (LEID), was sent on leave Tuesday, pending an investigation, GRA sources disclosed yesterday.

The same officer was sacked in 2010 by former management for inefficiency. He was accused then, of taking bribes. He was rehired by the new Governing Board of Directors in 2015 when the Coalition Government took office, receiving more than $500,000 per month in salary.

Kaieteur News was told that the official, who has responsibilities for enforcement in the various Regions for GRA, apparently angered a Berbice businessman after a driver of LEID was recently sent late one night, to the home of the businessman to uplift cash. The businessman reportedly made contact with senior GRA officials who launched an investigation.

The Assistant Commissioner was sent on leave Tuesday. A decision on his future is likely as early as next week.

According to other complaints, the Assistant Commissioner even requested two 50-inch television sets as a bribe from another businessman. Some GRA employees were aware that the officer was sent off but were tight-lipped on the issue.

According to officials, the Assistant Commissioner was sent packing in 2010 by former Commissioner General,

Khurshid Sattaur, for a “history of corruption”.

However, a senior LEID official and a member of the Governing Board of Directors insisted that he should come back. According to a highranking official, this latest incident is a worrying situation for GRA. “If you can’t trust the people at the enforcement level, who can you trust?

These are the people who are the gatekeepers.”

GRA, the country’s premier revenue collection agency, had been grappling with corruption for years now.

Customs officials have been known to be on the payroll of businessmen for turning a blind eye on shipments and containers that come in.

Some of the scams include under-invoicing and declaring one item but really bringing in another high-valued item. As a result, annually, Guyana has been losing billions of dollars in revenue because of corruption at wharves and check points.

GRA has placed security cameras on the wharves and has announced zero tolerance on corruption in its ranks but the incidents have continued. The administration on assuming office in 2015 had announced a major shakeup at GRA, sending home longserving Commissioner-General Khurshid Sattaur and a number of senior officials.

A new Board of Directors, under accountant Rawle Lucas, was appointed.

Also hired as the new Commissioner-General was Godfrey Statia, who has years of experience in tax collection in Guyana.

Sunday July 16, 2017

One down, five....

Dem boys seh...

Some people drink fuh glutten pun Soulja Bai birthday Soulja Bai just celebrate a birthday and was a quiet day.

Long time people use to send birthday card to people. Dem boys believe that birthday card did gone out of style until dem find out that de post office had to deliver a huge stack at State House.

People who never talk to Soulja Bai send him birthday card and dem mek sure that he could read de signature. Bee Kay send a big one. Some restaurant send food AND cake.

Dem send so much like if Soulja Bai was keeping a party.

But he had some friends who visit because dem know Soulja Bai don’t drink but he don’t skimp de likker. Li’l Joe and Moses and Rum Jattan visit de man at he home. De likker flow and de food wouldn’t run out because Sandra didn’t have to cook.

Night ketch some of dem sporting. It also mek some one of dem nearly dead. Dem boys don’t want to call name but one of dem Ministers and people can guess is who, walk through de gate to go home. He so high that he could find he car. He see a car coming and when it passing him he notice that it look like it slow down.

This Minister jump inside and sit down in de front seat.

He nod off for a bit and when he wake up and he look at de driver he ain’t see nobody but de car driving. He shut he eye and when he look back he see a hand come through de window and turn de steering wheel.

De Minister belly knot up and he bladder get weak.

By this time de car reach near de Bank of Guyana and he jump out. He land in de canal. He fly out wid one speed and run up de road. He didn’t stop till he reach Palm Court.

He start fuh tell de people how he end up in a car that a jumbie was driving. He tell dem how he couldn’t see no driver and then he see a hand come through de window and turn de wheel. Just then three men come running up.

“Is not this mad man who jump in we car when we was pushing it?”

Talk half and wish Soulja Bai a happy birthday again.

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Kaieteur News

on him by inmates at the prison. His colleague, Hubert Trim, who was the Duty Officer at the time, is in a critical state having sustained chop wounds to

Desmond James

From page 3 guarding the compound.

It is suspected that two other escapees might have slipped away while they were being transported to the Lusignan Prison.

During the unrest, prison officer Odinga Wickham succumbed to gunshot wounds inflicted

the head.

Prison officers Simeon Sandy, Errol Daphness, Drexel Gonsalves, Jason Maltoy and Dominic Mingo were also injured.

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Sunday July 16, 2017

Kaieteur News

ExxonMobil is a major funder of EITI - Pt. 5 The government is trying to accelerate Guyana’s application to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI)—a global body whose noble objective is to ensure the open and accountable management of a member state’s extractive resources.

The reason behind Guyana’s move to fast track its application to EITI is the massive oil discovery by US oil giant, ExxonMobil. But this very company is one of the major funders of the EITI. According to the EITI webpage, over 80 of the world’s largest oil, gas and mining companies have chosen to become EITI Supporting Companies.

On EITI’s website, it states, “To be considered a supporting company, a company has to make a minimum contribution. The oil and gas sub-constituency is required to contribute US$20,000, US$40,000 and US$60,000 depending on market capitalization.

The recommendation for the mining companies is the

same. Mining companies are recommended to make the same contributions as the oil and gas companies and must contribute at least US$15,000.

“All companies are encouraged to make greater contributions.”

There is no information available on EITI’s website about the contributions it receives from Exxon and other contributing companies. EITI, however, has a plethora of information about the funds it receives from its members and the purposes for which it is used.

ExxonMobil in a published statement on EITI’s website noted that since the global body was established in 2002, it has represented a coalition of governments, companies, and civil society that aims to strengthen governance by improving transparency and accountability in the extractives sector.

ExxonMobil acknowledged that EITI sets forth global principles for companies to report what they pay to governments and for govern-

ments to disclose what they receive from companies.

The USA oil giant also noted that it has served on the EITI Board since 2006 and rotated off the Board in 2009, so that another international oil and gas company could serve. ExxonMobil says that it continues to serve as a Board alternate for EITI. TWO-FACED In a statement published

by ExxonMobil on EITI’s

extractive sector; protect proprietary information; and respect the laws of a host government or a company’s contractual obligations. We support initiatives such as the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), the Group of Eight (G-8) Transparency Initiative, and the United Nations Convention Against Corruption.”

The company continued, “As part of our commitment

website, the USA oil giant made a number of supporting statements as it relates to transparency and accountability in the extractive sector.

Exxon said, “We believe transparency initiatives should apply universally to all companies – publicly traded, private, and state-owned – with an interest in a country’s

to honest and ethical behaviour, we offer our assistance to countries seeking to implement greater transparency and disclose financial information.”

It added, “We have been actively involved in helping to establish transparency agreements to disclose government revenues in the countries in which we have significant investments. (See entire statement by clicking this link: https://eiti.org/supporter/ exxonmobil) ” But according to w w w. r e u t e r s . c o m ,

ExxonMobil had declined to provide data about its U.S taxes with EITI, even though it has given its verbal and monetary support to the entity.

The article said, “The company discloses tax and royalty information in many countries but will not say what it pays the Internal Revenue Service, according to EITI findings...” (http:// www.reuters.com/article/usatax-exxon-mobilidUSL1N13K1H720151202 ) Another report by the Global Witness also exposes how Exxon refused to release information about its tax payments in spite of its pledge to EITI to do same.

According to the media outfit, it was in 2015 that the USA sought to release its maiden report after joining EITI. In its report, the Global Witness reported that it was perhaps disappointing for Americans to learn that companies like ExxonMobil took the decision to not disclose information regarding their tax contributions.

Senior Legal Advisor to the Global Witness, Zorka Milin, is quoted as saying, “US citizens deserve to know how much money they are putting in state coffers, as do

citizens in resource rich countries throughout the world.” ( h t t p s : / / www.globalwitness.org/en/ press-releases/exxon-andchevron-keep-us-tax-payments-secret-undermine-government-transparency-push/) Local authorities are nonetheless “optimistic” about the benefits to accrue from Guyana becoming a member of EITI especially as it relates to receiving help with the notoriously corrupt oil and gas sector.

EITI on the other hand makes it clear on its website that even if a country is found making satisfactory or meaningful progress with the body, it does not indicate whether there is corruption in the country or not.

“It simply means that the country has put into practice significant aspects of all EITI Requirements and thus has sufficient mechanisms of public disclosure of natural resources.”

The organization stressed that countries use the EITI as a tool to identify and address weaknesses in the management of their natural resources.

It insists that it is not a silver bullet to solve all corruption issues in the country, but it might help.

Sunday July 16, 2017

Kaieteur News

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Sunday July 16, 2017

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China’s modus operandi around the world mirrors events in Guyana Pt 1 Kaieteur News, in previous years, unearthed and exposed significant shenanigans of foreign companies and how they raped Guyana of its natural resources. This led to action taken by the APNU+AFC Party shortly after it came into office.

The Government tightened several areas for the protection of the nation’s patrimony. Efforts in this regard were commended.

But while it is true that the duty of a government is to protect the country’s human and natural resources; a government is only made up of human beings, not supernatural all-knowing creatures.

So it is also true that the government may not always known the danger the country is facing.

With that in mind, when Kaieteur News heard of ExxonMobil and its modus operandi around the world, a decision was taken to enlighten ordinary citizens as well as politicians about who ExxonMobil really is. The research was detailed and the newspaper did a series called “What Guyana needs to

know about ExxonMobil”.

The country is still digesting the four articles within that exposé.

Like ExxonMobil, China has a patterned way of operating in various countries around the world. Again, Kaieteur News did its research and will over the next few days, present you with the facts on how countries are now, in local parlance, ‘feeling the squeeze’ as a result of blind partnership with China.

It is important to note that this newspaper is in no way anti-China, anti-ExxonMobil or anti-investment. This newspaper is pro-Guyana.

Kaieteur News finds it imperative that people pay keen attention to Guyana’s natural resources, with the aim of securing a bright future for the children and grandchildren of the future. Indeed, like the British oil expert, Dr. Perry Stanislas pointed out, decisions made now will impact generations to come.

Guyana, like the rest of the world, is experiencing difficult economic times. That is why the country needs to pay keen attention to the manage-

Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport (photo taken from http:// www.aecom.com/projects/mattalarajapaksa-international-airport/)

ment of its natural and financial resources.

Guyana already owes China US$152M. Indeed, this is a huge sum by Guyana’s standards. More money is to be disbursed from China to Guyana before the year is out.

Therefore, the debt will be higher in a few months.

However, there are countries around the world that have racked up much larger debts with China. Countries like Sri Lanka, Angola, Nigeria, Sudan and several Caribbean jurisdictions owe China billions of US dollars and are struggling to repay. Forbes, BBC and other reputable media have reported on the “debt trap” that China has set for these countries.

Does Guyana want to find itself in such a trap? That fate has to be decided by the poli-

largest lender and trading partner, more than US$8B. China made the interest rate on some monies it lent to that nation to be as high as 6.3 per cent. The interest rates on soft loans from the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) are only 0.25–3 per cent.

While China continues to call Sri Lanka a “friend” the people of that country are not smiling. In fact, they are beginning to curse the day their government took a penny from the superpower to fund the failed projects. The first

recall the then Minister of Public Works, Robeson Benn saying that Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) will be used as a hub too? He gave this as a reason for the US$150M CJIA modernisation project. The only difference is that Guyana’s airport is supposed to be used as a hub for African airlines. On to now, CJIA’s website has it that the airport, after modernisation will be used as an “international hub for aircraft movement.”

Did the Sri Lankan airport

“The story as to how this airport rise and fell is a dive into a quagmire of national politics, geopolitical manoeuvring, raw corruption, and the hunger of China to invest in massive infrastructure projects along.”- Forbes ticians.

LET US NOW LOOK AT WHAT CHINA DID TO SRI LANKA Sri Lanka relied heavily on China for loans to execute many infrastructural projects, most of which have proven to be a waste of money.

Sri Lanka owes China, its

project to be scrutinized in this series is Sri Lanka’s second international airport. The Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport (named after the former President) was marketed to be used as a hub for Asian airlines. Does this sound familiar? Guyana was sold a similar story. Can you

become a hub? No! Not even by a stretch of an imagination.

The BBC reported that just about five flights leave the Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport on a weekly basis serving just a few hundred passengers a year. This is a far cry from the just over (Continued on page 72)

Sunday July 16, 2017

Kaieteur News

China’s modus operandi...

From page 12 a million passengers that the airport was built to serve.

According to Sri Lankan government data, in 2014, roughly 3,000 flights to the airport served just 21,000 passengers, a rate of just seven passengers per plane. The government lost big time.

Forbes described the airport as “the world’s emptiest.”

It has become a burden to Sri Lanka with a high maintenance cost. Only China benefitted and is now set to take over the airport. Guess which company erected the Sri Lankan airport? It was China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC). That is the same company that is working on the expansion of CJIA. The airport has a 12,000 square meter terminal building, 12 check-in counters, two gates, and a runway long enough to handle the largest commercial jets. It has everything, except passengers.

Forbes reported that other than the absence of passengers, the airport was fully operational, “despite the lack of a viable reason for it to be.” The airport’s original 600 person staff has been cut down to 300.

Forbes said “The story as to how this airport rise and fell is a dive into a quagmire of national politics, geopolitical manoeuvring, raw corruption, and the hunger of China to invest in massive infrastructure projects along.”

The modernisation of CJIA was also smeared in corruption. The APNU and AFC opposition voted against billions of Guyana dollars allocated for it in 2013 during the reign of the PPP/C. The budget cut resulted in a stall of works.

Eventually, the PPP forged ahead and continued construction of the project and so the CJIA expansion project was inherited by the APNU+AFC govern-

ment which had no choice but to continue the project.

After several delays, the CJIA expansion project is expected to be completed by year end.

However, based on lab work done by the Ministry of Public Infrastructure, this newspaper reported that CHEC is using substandard material on the airport.

According to Wikipedia, just about US$209M was spent on the Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport with $190 million provided by the Chinese government via the Exim Bank of China. The source of US$130M for Guyana’s US$150M CJIA modernisation project was also the Exim Bank of China. Experts think that the costs for both the Guyana and the Sri Lanka projects were overstated. This calls to mind the expensive toilet bowls scenario. Kaieteur News reported on a section of the contract Guyana signed with CHEC that indicated that 69 toilet bowls were needed for the new terminal building. Each would cost US$2,121.06 or $424,212 each. This worked out to US$146,353.14 or over $29M for the 69 bowls. The then government issued a statement on the report by this newspaper. It said that the contract signed was a “lump sum” one for that section of the contract.

The government said that the stated costs of the bowls included the costs of the sewer lines and cubicle doors.

Is this the sort of corruption that Forbes spoke about as in the case of Sri Lanka?

Now that Guyana is burdened with the US$130M debt, the question is, will this country end up like Sri Lanka?

To be continued...

Information was sourced from: BBC, Forbes, East Asia Forum and Airport Technology websites

A replica of the Cheddi Jagan International Airport expansion project on display

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Sunday July 16, 2017

Kaieteur News

FINANCIAL LITERACY:

Understanding Credit Reporting Systems Financial literacy and credit reporting systems Financial education without financial inclusion is of limited value. That is why strong financial literacy programmes improve not just the knowledge of participants but also their financial behaviour and when necessary, their access to financial products, services and markets.

To have access, financial infrastructure must be in place to offer financial services to all citizens including, the underserved segments of the

population and the economy.

Therefore, full inclusion, which includes reaching new and underserved markets, must include effective credit reporting systems.

Credit reporting systems are very important in today’s financial system. The World Bank reports that, “Creditors consider information by these systems a primary factor when they evaluate the creditworthiness of data subjects and monitor the credit circumstances of consumers. The information flow enables credit markets

to function more efficiently and at a lower cost than would otherwise be possible.”

In fact, the Center for Financial Inclusion suggests that, “Effective credit reporting systems enable financial institutions to learn about the past behaviour of prospective clients efficiently and from reliable sources. When that information includes people who are relatively new to formal financial services, financial institutions are enabled to provide them a

deeper array of product offerings or even to serve them for the first time. In this way, credit reporting systems can contribute significantly to financial inclusion.”

Credit reporting systems in Guyana The Credit Reporting Act of 2010 set forth the guiding principles that govern the manner and means of the operation of a credit bureau in Guyana. As a result, the Bank of Guyana licensed Creditinfo to operate a credit bureau on July 15th, 2013 and is its designated supervisory authority.

According to Creditinfo, “a credit bureau is an independent organization that collects, stores, and organizes credit information about consumers and businesses.

This information is sourced and collected from lenders such as banks, credit unions and microfinance organizations, as well as providers of various alternative type of credit.

Alternative credit information includes data from hire purchase c o m p a n i e s , telecommunication companies, and utility

companies such as Guyana Water Inc. and Guyana Power and Light Company.

All data collected is then subjected to rigorous process of matching, cross checking, merging and analysing before it is used to create credit reports.”

Your credit bureau and you, what you need to know Listed below are a set of frequently asked questions that are documented in Creditinfo’s pamphlet, “Your Credit Bureau and You, what you need to know.” · What is a credit report?

A credit report is simply a summary of all credit related and public information that the bureau has collected and stored on a particular data subject i.e. individual or business. This means that when someone applies for some form of credit, the prospective lender can check to see what kind of borrower they have been in the past and can use this information to determine how diligently they are likely to repay in the future. · What kind of information is shared in my credit report? A typical credit report contains detailed biographical data and,

Dr. Terence Smith, Deputy Governor, Bank of Guyana depending on the various credit obligations of the borrower, will provide comprehensive details of payment patterns on credit facilities such as loan accounts, overdraft facilities, credit card accounts and hire purchase accounts, as well as telecom facilities and utilities accounts. In addition, the credit bureau may include information on any guarantees that exist, as well as information that are publicly available from court registries and other statutory entities. · What is a credit score?

A credit score is a statistical estimate of the creditworthiness of a prospective borrower. It also contains a predictive component that, together with the score, offers an Continued on page 69

Sunday July 16, 2017

Kaieteur News

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Kaieteur News

Sunday July 16, 2017

Police corporal battles for life following Soesdyke/Linden accident A 33-year-old police corporal is battling for his life at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) following a horrific accident on the Soesdyke/Linden Highway which resulted in the death of three persons.

The accident occurred around 19:30 hrs on the Kairuni Public Road, Linden Highway.

Rayon Wilson sustained injuries to the head and suffered some broken limbs. Up to press time, he was in the recovery unit at the hospital, waiting to be transferred to a ward.

Those who perished in the accident have been iden-

Dead: Malroy Ross tified as Malroy Ross, 31, of Lot 27 Canvas City, Wismar, Linden; Keaton Bollers, 20, of

Kara Kara, Linden and Vallon Bowen, 60, of 29 Fair’s Rust.

Junior Hutson, 29, is nursing his injuries at the Linden Hospital Complex.

The accident involved an articulated lorry bearing registration number GPP 2993 and motorcar with registration PHH 9398 in which the deceased and two injured persons were travelling.

The police said that the driver of the motor lorry revealed that he was proceeding south along the eastern side of the road when his vehicle developed mechanical problems, causing him to stop on the public road—there was no reflector light on the back of the truck.

Kaieteur News was informed that whilst in the process of effecting repairs under the front of the lorry, the driver heard an impact at the rear and upon checking, discovered that a car had collided with his vehicle.

With the assistance of passersby, the victims were all rushed to the hospital where three persons succumbed.

The policeman was the driver of the vehicle.

The wrecked remains of the car

Sunday July 16, 2017

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Kaieteur News

Guyana’s potential oil prosperity and IMF’s words of caution The International Monetary Fund (IMF) in its 2017 review of Guyana’s economy was keen to focus its attention on the nation’s potential oil wealth.

This is understandable as the oil and gas sector is one which could ultimately alter Guyana’s fiscal landscape, ability to access to concessional financing in the future, and its debt management portfolio.

From its report, (which all are free to have a read of by clicking on this link: http:// www.imf.org/en/publications/cr/issues/2017/06/28/ guyana-2017-article-iv-consultation-press-release-staffreport-and-statement-by-the45010), it is clear that the IMF is already issuing cautionary words when it comes to oil and its murky nature.

COMPREHENSIVE FRAMEWORK Once all goes well with ExxonMobil, Guyana is expected to become an oil-producer by 2020. In 2015, ExxonMobil made a significant oil discovery offshore, which is conservatively estimated to hold between 800 and 1,400 million barrels. Commercial production is planned to commence by mid-2020, with an output of 100,000 barrels/day.

On that premise, the Directors of the Fund were encouraged by the Government’s expressed intention to create a “comprehensive framework” to manage oil wealth.

The Directors said that it is important that this framework be in place prior to the 2020 budget.

They said, “As a new oil producer starting from scratch, Guyana is in a good position to put in place a framework that limits pro-cyclical spending and attenuates the impact of oil price volatility on the budget and the economy. Other fiscal structural reforms related to public financial management, procurement, and investment are important, to ensure that the oil wealth is used efficiently.”

Indeed, a “comprehensive framework” will be necessary as the IMF, which has years of experience in reviewing oil-rich nations, under-

stands the importance of nations arming themselves with strict and regimented rules to ensure transparency before the oil starts pumping and the revenue starts flowing.

As simple as those statements appear, they are extremely important to the nation’s future with oil. Just think about it for a few seconds: Is there any sector in Guyana which has benefitted from a “comprehensive framework” that has allowed for transparency and the proper management of the wealth that was garnered?

In fact, the lack of a comprehensive framework for managing the wealth from Guyana’s other natural resources has left it decades away from the kind of meaningful development it could have achieved today.

Indeed, what the local authorities will be attempting here will be no easy task.

While the rest of the citizenry wait to hear of the details of the Government’s “comprehensive framework” for the oil sector, one can assume for the time being that the plan is one which entails the establishment of a Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF), the strengthening of fiscal frameworks and systems at the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) and amendments to the relevant legislation.

Additionally, the local authorities have informed the IMF that they are working on other key elements of the fiscal regime, including drafting the Petroleum Law and establishing a Petroleum Commission.

They intend to use future oil revenue to help meet key development objectives, based on a transparent and rules-based framework.

The authorities also reiterated their plans to anchor future oil wealth management in a comprehensive legal framework.

TRANSPARENT SPENDING The International Monetary Fund was careful to stress on the importance of the Government putting in place, mechanisms to ensure the transparent spending of the oil revenue to come.

In this regard, Directors

attached to the global organization emphasized that sound fiscal practices suggest saving a share of the oil revenue for future generations. They said, “Oil-financed spending should be transparent and channeled through the budget toward projects that enhance the economy’s physical and human capital”.

On a related note, the IMF commended the local authorities for drafting a Natural Resource Fund legislation and requesting the Fund’s technical advice on this topic.

IMF Staff still stressed the importance of transparency and good governance in the management of the oil industry and even welcomed the authorities’ plans to join the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative and adhere to the Santiago Principles for Sovereign Wealth Funds.

GDP VS. GNP Based on its projections, the IMF is of the view that oil will have a large impact on Guyana’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). (GDP is the monetary value of all the finished goods and services produced within a country’s borders in a specific time period. ( h t t p : / / www.investopedia.com/ terms/g/gdp.asp) On the other hand, however, the IMF noted that the oil sector will have a much smaller impact on the Gross National Product (GDP).

(GNP is an estimate of total value of all the final products and services produced in a given period by the means of production owned by a country’s residents. ( h t t p : / / www.investopedia.com/ terms/g/gnp.asp.)

The IMF’s estimates and projections are based on data as currently compiled, but with a conservative ad hoc inclusion of oil production from 2020 onwards.

The Fund believes that the main direct effect on the domestic economy will be through fiscal revenue.

The revenue-sharing agreement sets the government’s share at 50 percent of “profit oil.” With 75 percent of total oil revenues

The Baccoo Speaks The police would get a report of a sighting of one of the prison escapees. This would spark a fevered reaction to a location on the East Bank. There would be the sound of gunshots and the community would hold its collective breath.

In the end, one of the escapees would be caught to the relief of the people in the area. **

The holidays always bring with them some disaster. A

group of boys would leave home for the traditional swim when one of them would disappear. A search would recover the body. ** A fire would break out in an office. A worker would smell smoke and initially, take it for nothing but the smoke would trigger an alarm. The fire would be the result of a frayed electric wire. No damage would be done.

initially allocated for “cost recovery,” the government’s share is only 12.5 percent, but will increase significantly after Exxon Mobil and partners recover their initial upfront investment.

ECONOMIC DIVERSIFICATION The Fund projected that the development of oil resources and public investment will support mediumterm growth.

Its officers noted that economic growth is also expected to hover around 3½3¾ percent during 2017–19, driven by an increase in public investment, continued expansion in the extractive sector, and a recovery in rice production.

“This assumes that oil production starts in mid-2020 at 100,000 barrels per day for up to eight years, before gradually declining. The pros-

pects of other fields (Liza-2, Payara and Snoek) are still in the exploration stage and could substantially increase oil production and proven reserves.” The Fund noted that the long-term outlook for the nation hinges on the government’s ability to improve the business climate and use the oil windfall to increase potential growth through productivity-enhancing reforms and economic diversification.

The organization also stated that inflation is expected to be around 2½-3 percent over the medium term.

LOSING CONCESSIONAL LOANS According to the IMF, oil revenue is expected to amount to 2.6 percent of GDP in 2020 and will rise to about 4.6 percent in 2021, which is the first full year of oil production.

The Fund believes that the shares of fiscal revenue and expenditure in GDP will decline, due to the larger increase in the latter with the start of oil production. It said that the oil is exported with 50 percent of Exxon’s (and its partners) proceeds repatriated through the current account and the remainder through the financial account.

“Several countries experienced competitiveness problems in other sectors after they became oil producers.

These Dutch Disease considerations should be manageable given the magnitude of the windfall.”

With the aforementioned in mind, the IMF cautioned that as Guyana gets richer, there will be a loss of access to grants and concessional loans. They are assumed to taper off with the start of oil production.

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Sunday July 16, 2017

Kaieteur News

The unusual disappearance of little Nordex Wilkinson - Does an unmarked grave in Pattensen contain her remains?

By Michael Jordan There have been some rather unusual disappearances over the past few years.

There is Michael Harris, the 58-year-old Linden contractor who vanished from his home on Christmas Day in 2008, leaving his breakfast of blackcake and pepperpot on the dinner table. There is US citizen Kwame Rumel Jobronewet, who disappeared in July last year while visiting relatives in Buxton.

And then there is the disturbing case at Pattensen, Turkeyen, on the East Coast of Demerara, of a little girl who vanished thirteen years ago.

There is genuine fear that somewhere in that community lies an unmarked grave containing her remains.

Her name was Nordex Wilkinson. She was just eleven years old, but from all reports, her brief life was one of misery. Her parents, Nadia Wilkinson and Victor Simmions, had separated after an acrimonious relationship.

The mother lived at Bartica while Nordex and her two other sisters, Keasha, aged nine, and eight-year-old Kimberly, lived in Pattensen, Turkeyen, with their father.

Keasha would later tell detectives that they were constantly starved, beaten and even stoned on occasions.

It was on Tuesday, May 18, 2004, that little Keasha contacted her mother and an aunt, and told them a disturbing tale.

The child informed her relatives that she had run away from home. She alleged that a few days before fleeing the home, her father had come home while they were attempting to prepare a meal. He had reportedly flown into a rage and began to beat them with a piece of wood. According to the child, the man had grabbed a pair of scissors and slashed Nordex’s throat.

According to Keasha, her elder sister was bedridden after the beating and Keasha was forced to take care of her.

She alleged that a few

Vanished: Victor Simmions

Missing, believed dead: Nordex Wilkinson

days after, she saw her father fetching the badly injured Nordex out of the house.

He reportedly arrived home later that night and told her that he had sent Nordex out of the country. The child said that the father told her to say the same thing to anyone who asked about her sister’s whereabouts.

But she also said that when some relatives visited the home and asked for Nordex, the father would tell

them that the child had returned to her mother.

Keasha said that after her sister disappeared, her father took her out of Redeemer Primary School, which they had attended, and transferred them to a school in Sophia.

The girl and her younger sister, Kimberly, were later taken to a female relative’s home at Yarrowkabra, on the Soesdyke/Linden Highway.

Eventually, on May 18, 2004, Keasha ran away. She

took a bus and traveled to Philadelphia, Essequibo, where she contacted an aunt.

Fearing that Nordex might have been the victim of foul play, the relatives contacted detectives at Timehri in an attempt to locate the missing child.

Detectives at Sparendaam Police Station joined in the investigation.

But by now, the children’s father had also vanished.

Relatives placed photographs of the child’s father in several areas in an effort to locate him, but still he remained missing.

Detectives also briefly detained a male relative of the missing man.

In June 2004, police, apparently convinced that Nordex was dead, dug up behind the family’s Pattensen, Turkeyen home in an attempt

to locate the child’s remains.

They found nothing.

Eventually, the fate of the missing child faded into the background as more sensational cases took precedence.

To this day, the fate and whereabouts of Nordex Wilkinson and her father, Victor Simmions, remain a mystery.

If you have any information about the whereabouts of Nordex Wilkinson and her father, Victor Simmions, please contact the police.

You can also contact Kaieteur News by letter or telephone at our Lot 24 Saffon Street, Charlestown.

Our numbers are 22-58465, 2256458 and 22-58458. You need not disclose your identity.

You can also contact Michael Jordan at his email address mjdragon@hotmail.com.

Sunday July 16, 2017

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Kaieteur News

This country has lost its humanity; there will be tragedies I live in a home overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. It is my routine to have my breakfast alfresco-style. Many mornings I would gaze upon the mighty Atlantic and wonder what has become of the nationality known as Guyanese. I don’t need to see the depressing news in the papers that lie next to my coffee cup on the table to cause me to look towards the ocean.

I do it because I know in my heart that as the morning wears on, I will continue to be angst-ridden, and in my angst-driven moods, I will look toward the Atlantic for explanations and solace.

I have a special rendezvous with the Atlantic. It will never end, because the Atlantic reminds me of a poor, luckless chap, named Harry Kissoon. He was my father.

He worked right next to the mighty Atlantic as the groundsman for Saint

Stanislaus School ground. I missed primary school at Saint Thomas More on Durban Street to be with him. There was nothing to do at Saint Stanislaus ground when my father was working, so I roamed the seawall and the beach from Camp Road to Vlissengen Road.

I would spend endless mornings gazing at the Atlantic and on returning to the ground, my father would have waiting for me, some of his milky, barley porridge that my mom made for him each morning. My dad made a real mess of his life, and the Atlantic was there to remind me that I should avoid the pathways of my dad. I did. Once there is the Atlantic, there will that voice coming from it warning me not to make the same mistakes of my father.

Life moves in mysterious ways. I built a home overlooking the place that holds spe-

cial memories for me.

I did look out at the Atlantic on the many times when the customary, tragic news emblazoned the front pages of the newspapers. I did that on Monday, the day after the horrific arson at the Camp Street jail. I asked myself what next? And I know more tragedies are coming, because this country has lost its humanity. Any country without humane understanding of the pitfalls of human existence will be a heartless one, and will never know moments of mental peace.

I sit on the verandah in the evenings and I watch the endless procession of vehicles going to the various events at the Giftland Mall. It is as if you are in a European capital.

Fancy people in fancy cars so much glitter on the outside, but maybe nothing on the inside. There are times I would be driving home and encoun-

ter the starry aura of the glitterati leaving an embassy function. There would be women whose clothes you know cost a fortune and maybe their husbands’ SUVs were specially imported. And I would wonder – so much outside, but is there anything inside?

If we had anything inside of us, then we would have the values of humanity and empathy. We have neither. This is a society where the most horrific, indescribable, physical injury could visit one of our citizens, and our fellow Guyanese would be totally oblivious to its tragic nature.

This is a society where the most demonic injustice could be committed and no one gives a damn. No one could be bothered with the savageries, bestialities, and inhumanities that stalk this nation every moment of its existence.

Even the tiniest nation on

Planet Earth has human rights interests. Even the most controlled country on the globe has people who would react to man’s inhumanity to man, but not in Guyana. I looked at the violent confrontations between German citizens and the riot police last week in Hamburg at the G20 summit, and there were thousands of Germans in designer clothes, some in brand name joggers, pelting firebombs at the police in a post-modern city, and the philosophical contrast ran through me like bolts of lightning.

Here were people who have it all, enjoying postmodern luxury, but found the time to invoke conscience, humanity and empathy, and protest the inequalities of life in industrial, rich countries.

Yet in poor Guyana, people have lost the human capacity to distinguish between right and wrong.

Frederick Kissoon I end with a little story in the National Park last week. I was entering my car, when this super-rich Guyanese woman said hello. I replied, “Did you pay that woman her money?” This was in reference to a death at the lady’s company. She said she did. As I drove away, I said to her, “I am too old and experienced to be deceived.” I only identified her to one person – Leonard Gildarie of this newspaper.

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Sunday July 16, 2017

Kaieteur News

COMMUNITY RADIO IN THE HINTERLAND There is a revolution taking place in Guyana’s interior and hinterland communities.

It’s a quiet one going almost unnoticed on the coastland where over 60 percent of Guyana’s population lives.

Over the last two years, radio resumed the popularity it used to enjoy in Guyana decades ago, i.e. before the advent of television and GTV, the trailblazer producer of local TV programming in the 1980s.

NCN (radio and TV) is the descendant of two of Guyana’s first radio services, Radio Demerara, founded in 1951, and British Guiana Broadcasting Service (BGBS) founded in 1958. The former was British-owned so its license required the station to broadcast BBC programmes for 21 hours a week. Local content on BGBS was primarily sports and the coverage of special events.

Two years after Independence, the Government took over BGBS located on High Street, Werk-en-Rust, and renamed it the Guyana Broadcasting Service (GBS). Radio Demerara was acquired in 1979 and the 2 stations were

merged into the Guyana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC). Twenty-five years later NCN was born, made up of GBC and GTV. This is the nation’s Radio.

In 2011, on the eve of general elections, radio licences were selectively handed out to private citizens, government officials, their families and supporters. Yet privately-owned radio has not extended their broadcast radius beyond the coastland.

Up to 2015, thousands of people living and working in Guyana’s vast hinterland regions were still outside of the information loop, cut off from the administrative centres. It used to be particularly painful to listen to residents of Kamarang and Ekereku, or Monkey Mountain and even Lethem say that they don’t feel like they are Guyanese.

So the sitting Government (at the time in Opposition) gave a commitment to bridge the long existing information gap (and other inequities) between the coastland and the hinterland. Minister of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs, Sydney Allicock, gave the assurance to Toshaos and

other indigenous leaders (NTC 2016) that radio stations will be established in several locales including Aishalton, Region 9; Moruca, Region 1; and Orealla, Region 6.

“Sometimes you travel to the hinterland and it’s like you are in a different country.

This is why Government is ensuring that we make connections across this country, because we believe that knowledge is power,” Minister Allicock stated.

He assured the Leaders that the radio project is the beginning of an extensive programme that also includes connecting hinterland communities as far south as Gunns Strip with internet capabilities. In fact, the Ministry of Public Telecommunications is preparing to start implementing in September a GRIF-funded project to connect certain (identified) poor, remote and hinterland communities all across Guyana to the worldwide web.

THE RADIO CONNECTION Radio Paiwomak located at Bina Hill in Annai, Region 9 is Guyana’s first community radio station. Its long serv-

ing administrator, Virgil Harding, and a small team of broadcasters work under the guiding hand of the North Rupununi District Development Board (NRDDB).

Paiwomak is heard in quite a number of villages in the North Rupununi.

Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo had been integral to the establishment of Radio Paiwomak in 2000 while he served in the PPP administration. He described it as “unfinished business” since the effort was stalled for 15 years, for reasons best known to the PPP. After one year with the APNU+AFC government, the Prime Minister teamed up with one of Guyana’s best in Broadcasting, Dr. Rovin Deodat, the current coordinator of the Community Broadcasting Project. Together they piloted the first two community radio projects in Lethem and Mabaruma.

RADIO LETHEMAND RADIO MABARUMA These stations were commissioned in May and June 2016 with broadcast schedules containing community programmes and news feeds

from ‘master control’, NCN. The team intends to introduce programmes in indigenous languages in the near future and they insist that these community stations will remain non-political and nonpartisan. Free training is also being provided to any resident who is desirous of becoming a broadcaster.

Radio Mabaruma went off air for a period last year after its transmitter and equipment on Broomes Hill were hit by lightning during a heavy storm. It was back on air within weeks. Residents within a 25-mile radius of each station agree that both stations have enhanced their lives since they are able listen to radio 24 hours a day, and are kept up to date in real time with all that is happening in the city and the rest of the country. The ICT connectivity programme that will soon connect them with stable internet services, will also open up the worldwide web for them, and provide another medium for information – online radio. By the end of 2017, we expect two more radio stations to go on air in Bartica and Mahdia. When

this is accomplished, there will be an historic seven community radio stations affiliated to the National Communications Network (NCN) and broadcasting on the national frequency. They would also represent a long overdue government investment of over $200M. A recent visit to Aishalton, South Rupununi by the NCN’s technical team already has the community abuzz. Information Director, Imran Khan noted, “It is rather easy for the significance of a radio station to hinterland residents to be lost on us hyperconnected coastlanders. However, it has proven to be an important facet of life for people who have for years been shut out from access to simple, basic information and communication services, neglected for decades”.

For our brothers and sisters who can now listen to the radio all day and all night and hear their own community broadcasters presenting programmes, it is transformational and empowering.

Quietly, without fanfare, pomp or ceremony, life is getting better for thousands beyond the coastland.

Sunday July 16, 2017

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Kaieteur News

My column

What is Guyana really getting from oil?

The coming of oil has exposed Guyana’s underdevelopment. For one, it has no one with the academic or engineering skill to decipher what is happening at this time.

For decades there has been exploration and on one occasion, oil actually came to the surface.

Hunt Oil was operating on shore in Guyana’s hinterland back in the 1970s. It struck oil that initially gushed to the surface at about 400 barrels per day but then that petered out and there was nothing more. But there was always the belief that Guyana had oil, given that the black gold has been found in all the countries surrounding it.

Then a couple of years ago, after intensive exploration, ExxonMobil announced that it had found a large deposit offshore. Immediately there was euphoria in Guyana; it was as if all the country’s problems had been solved. The news kept coming. There was indeed a huge deposit, perhaps the largest in this hemisphere.

From then there has been a mad scramble to capitalise.

The education system was never geared for an oil economy, so there were no trained engineers. There were

also no trained analysts.

ExxonMobil placed the discovery at a few billion barrels, but now new experts are saying that the find is much larger. They base their opinion on the fact that often when companies make a prediction that prediction is off the mark by a lot.

This bit of information has sparked suspicions in certain quarters. Some would say that the volume of the find is deliberately under estimated for the benefit of the oil company making the discovery.

However, this would be exposed once production begins. The country would actually see how much oil is coming to the surface.

But Guyana for its part needs to play catch up. It must begin to channel its education in the direction of oil.

The University of Guyana must begin to train the engineers. At the same time, other sections of the community must begin fashioning their programmes to cater for oil.

Those on the rigs must eat, so agriculture production must be geared to provide for the rigs. The eating habits would be somewhat different from Guyanese so there would have to be the necessary adjustments. But at this

time there is no indication of enhanced agricultural production.

No one has invested in storage, but some companies are seeking to invest in helicopters to shuttle between shore and the rig. Harbour and port facilities will need to be constructed, and again this is where local engineering talent should come to the fore.

But there are other aspects to the programme.

ExxonMobil has developed the kind of reputation that no company wants. It has been accused of hurting the country in which it has found oil.

In one case it was accused of withholding the taxes. In another it has been accused of corrupting the leaders.

Guyana is now being looked at in this light.

ExxonMobil has a lot of money to pour around, and, at this time, given that the last government was enmeshed in corruption, there is the suspicion that some in this government are not beyond reproach.

ExxonMobil is not facing the local media to answer questions that need to be asked. For example, Guyanese are not clear about what the country will get. There is an agreement which says that

the oil company will pay a two per cent royalty and offer the country fifty per cent of the profits. These profits would depend on the expenditure.

The oil company says that it is spending a lot, but there is no indication that the government can keep tabs on the expenditure. It is not clear whether the oil company provides a tab sheet of the expenditure to the government.

Not so long ago, the company announced that it was preparing to spend some $800 million.

The government is going to be asked if it is aware of the amount of money being spent during this oil exploration phase because, in the end, the country must be in a position to determine whether it is getting a fair share of the profits.

For now, the government is not saying a lot. Perhaps there is not much it can say, since it does not have the necessary knowledge of a lot of what is going on. Yet opportunities should be provided for questions to be asked.

A few private non-governmental organisations have been holding sessions, trying to educate the population to what is going on, but most of

what they say can only be speculation, based on what information they have been able to glean.

Even the opposition is not saying much, leaving the suspicious-minded to believe that some money has been spread around in the correct circles.

Yet the general view is that no company in this global environment would risk anything untoward and create a scandal of monumental proportions.

Then again, ExxonMobil is a public shareholder company which is always under the scrutiny of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Perhaps this is enough for the government to believe that there are enough eyes to monitor what is going on.

The expert hired by the government has also not been around for any questions in this day when the buzz word is transparency. I am sure that the nation would like to know how he is going about his work. Has he been able to determine what is really going on?

I, for one, have no knowledge of what is going on, because I know nothing about oil and gas. I have heard that Guyana would get its share of the profit in oil, which it

Adam Harris could chose to sell to ExxonMobil or refine for its own purposes.

At the end of a certain period there should be a balance sheet of the progress being made at this time, but then again, will I understand what I am seeing? I doubt it.

Yet there are people in our midst who would be able to interpret the information for my benefit.

Two weeks ago, Minister Joseph Harmon said that Government has set up a team to spearhead all discussions and programmes in the oil sector. Perhaps the team has been provided with the wherewithal to appoint the necessary experts who would keep the team members informed.

PAGE 30

Sunday July 16, 2017

Kaieteur News

CSME is an essential element of Caribbean regional integration The Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME) is an essential element of Caribbean regional integration.

The declaration by Member States of readiness to participate in the Single Market in 2006 was a critical juncture in the evolution of the Community since the signing of the Treaty of Chaguaramas in 1973, which gave birth to the CARICOM. In his address to the 38th Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community, President Granger said; “The Grand Anse Declaration and Work Programme for the Advancement of the Integration Movement paved the way for the creation of a single economic space – the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME). It was here in Grenada in 1989 that we agreed to deepen the integration process in response to the emerging geo-political order.

The CSME is the Community’s best response to the inevitable changes in its traditional markets in Europe, the prevalence of eco-

nomic liberalization and the emergence of economic blocs. The CSME is still the best vehicle to allow small states to compete in the global economy while promoting economic and social development.

The CSME is the most ambitious project attempted by the Community; it must not become its most ambiguous.

The CSME, especially given the present uncertainties facing the Region’s international relations, must be accelerated in order to create a single economic space”.

These remarks by President Granger were timely, but CSME can only function if there is stakeholder buy-in at all levels in the private and public sectors, Pan-Caribbean businesses, the media and immigration officers.

There must also, of necessity, be political will by member states.

The CSME creates the framework for increased competiveness of our goods and services. The CSME is about closer cohesion within the Caribbean Community.

Stakeholders as beneficiaries

of CSME have a vital place in helping to build the platform facing the onslaught of Globalisation.

GLOBALISATION Globalisation is a process of interaction and integration among the people, companies and governments of different nations, a process driven by international trade and investment and aided by information technology. This process has effects on the environment, on culture, on political systems, on economic development and prosperity, and on human physical wellbeing in societies around the world.

Globalisation is not new.

For thousands of years, people and later corporations have been buying from and selling to each other in lands at great distances, such as through the famed Silk Road across Central Asia that connected China and Europe during the Middle Ages. Likewise, for centuries, peoples and corporations have invested in enterprises in other countries. In fact, many of the features of the current wave of globalisation are similar to

those prevailing before the outbreak of the First World War in 1914.

Globalization is a complicated issue. Supporters of globalization argue that it has the potential to make this world a better place to live in and solve some of the deepseated problems like unemployment and poverty. On the other hand, the general complaint about globalization is that it has made the rich richer while making the non-rich poorer.

“It is wonderful for managers, owners and investors, but hell on workers and nature.”

Globalization poses significant challenges to small developing economies such as those in the Caribbean, which are already dealing with a number of issues in their pursuit of sustainable development.

The reduction of trade barriers and the increasing openness of these economies have not led to a significant increase in intraregional trade or helped them to obtain a growing share of the extra-regional export market; as a result, these countries’ growth potential has been limited.

CSME was intended to achieve a much broader and deeper integration than had been possible under the ex-

isting treaty and, through the development of economies of scale, to increase the competitiveness of CARICOM in the global economy.

The creation of CSME was also meant to enhance the bargaining position of CARICOM countries in international negotiations such as those at the level of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the future Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).

Its objectives included the free movement of goods, services, capital and persons; more intensive coordination of macroeconomic policies and economic relations; and the harmonization of laws governing trade and other economic activities within the common market area. It also provided for full application of the Common External Tariff (CET).

This entailed simplifying the CET structure and reducing its level, with a view to diminishing its protectionist content.

The small size and open nature of Caribbean economies as well as their susceptibility to external shocks render them vulnerable to confront the myriad challenges and developments of the twenty-first century as separate disjointed entities.

The CSME, if implemented and operated prop-

erly, can provide a solid platform for Member States to act in concert to address issues at the national, regional and international levels, especially at a time when lines separating what is national, regional and international are increasing l y b e c o m i n g blurred.

The CSME also promises to be of tremendous benefit to peoples and businesses throughout CARICOM. Instead of looking at the free movement of people in a negative light, the truth is that it creates an avenue for the region to share skills while simultaneously facilitating those seeking improved standards of living and better employment prospects. Businesses also have access to a much larger market than their national markets would allow therefore, the potential to generate additional revenue and increased profit margins.

The CSME can also act as a vehicle through which the region can rationalize its production of goods and services as more Member States can now become involved in the production process.

Therefore, the region can share its expertise, technology and resources to greater effect.

Sunday July 16, 2017

PAGE 31

Kaieteur News

Scabies: The itching that is persistent

By Dr Zulfikar Bux Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine From time to time, I would see a patient who itches all over and they cannot get rid of it. Some persons may think their scabies is an allergy and treat it as such. Scabies is a mite infestation of the skin that can trigger allergic itching. When a person catches scabies, pregnant female mites dig burrows in the skin and lay eggs along the way. After three to eight days, the eggs hatch and the young mites travel up the burrows to the skin surface. There they grow to adulthood and mate, after which the females become pregnant and continue the skin infestation.

Once a female mite finishes laying her eggs, she spends the rest of her 2-month life span at the deep end of her tunnel. Mite tunnels may be visible in the skin of a person who has scabies, although intense scratching often distorts their appearance.

HOW IS IT TRANSMITTED?

Scabies mites can be transmitted by direct skin-toskin contact with an infected person or by using clothing, blankets, sheets, towels or furniture that has touched an infected person’s skin. Scabies easily spreads during the close physical contact of sexual activity. However, scabies also can be passed from person to person in various nonsexual settings in which people live in close quarters, including hospitals, nursing homes, prisons, day-care centres and homes.

Anyone can catch scabies, including doctors, nurses, teachers, toddlers and elderly people in wheelchairs.

Having scabies is not a sign that someone is dirty, careless or sexually promiscuous.

Worldwide, approximately 300 million new cases of scabies occur each year in men, women and children of all ages and races. Groups that are especially vulnerable to catching scabies include: · People who have multiple sex partners · Anyone who lives in crowded conditions

· Patients and health care workers in hospitals and nursing homes · Students, teachers and other caregivers in day-care centres · People who live or work in institutions or prisons WHATARE THE SYMPTOMS OF SCABIES? Symptoms of scabies include: · Intense itching– This itching is often worse at night, and it can involve any part of the skin, not just areas that have rash or nodules. · A rash– The scabies rash typically affects the following skin surfaces: the hands, especially webbed skin between the fingers; skin folds at the wrists, knees, elbows, underarms, waist or buttocks; the genitalia; the breasts, especially the dark area around the nipple; and the shoulder blades.

In adults and older children, the scabies rash often looks like tiny red bumps that are similar to small insect bites. In infants, it can appear as tiny vesicles (small fluid-

filled blisters). Also, the rash can extend to the neck, head, palms and soles of the feet in babies who are younger than two years old. · Red or brown nodules (larger skin bumps)– In some cases, a person with scabies develops skin nodules rather than a rash. These nodules can be up to five millimetres (one-quarter inch) wide, and they usually occur on skin that is covered by clothing, such as the trunk and upper legs.

HOW IS IT DIAGNOSED? Most often, the diagnosis is made based on skin findings and known exposure or possible exposure to scabies.

The doctor looks for bumps between the fingers and toes and for burrows. The doctor also may scrape an area of rash gently to look for the mites or their eggs.

HOW LONG CAN IT LAST? With proper treatment, the rash and intense itching of scabies usually begins to subside within one to two

days, although some milder itching can persist for a few weeks. Without treatment, scabies can be a long-term infestation that can spread to other people. During the course of the illness, persistent scratching can lead to chronic crusting of the skin or to painful secondary skin infections caused by bacteria.

CAN IT BE PREVENTED? Yes. To help prevent scabies avoid sharing clothing and towels. If someone in your household has been diagnosed with scabies, wash his or her clothing, bedding and towels in hot water, and dry these items in a hot dryer.

This should kill all scabies mites and eggs. Clothing that cannot be washed should be sealed and stored for approximately one week, because scabies mites die within one to four days if not in contact with human skin.

WHEN TO SEE YOUR DOCTOR? Call your doctor if you have symptoms of scabies or if you have been exposed to someone with scabies. Also,

Dr. Zulfikar Bux contact your doctor if you have been diagnosed with scabies and your symptoms have not improved significantly within one week after completing treatment. Treatment is usually in the form of creams that kill the scabies mite. Your doctor may also prescribe medications to help you with your itching.

If you follow your doctor’s directions for using scabies medication, the prognosis is excellent. In most cases, you stop being contagious within 24 hours, and your major symptoms should improve noticeably within two days.

PAGE 32

SUNDAY GECOM’S DECISION TO PULL ADS FROM K/NEWS…ADS SHOULD NOT BE USED AS WEAPONS TO SILENCE MEDIA HOUSES- HARMON – COLUMNIST SAYS ISSUE COULD IMPACT FAIR ELECTIONS Government has warned against state agencies using advertisements as a weapon to silence media houses.

Responding to questions during a post-Cabinet media briefing, Minister of State, Joseph Harmon, also admitted that the situation is a difficult one when it involves an independent state entity.

However, the issue appears to be one that goes deeper, affecting GECOM’s mandate to properly educate the populace.

The minister was responding to queries over a recent situation where it was discovered that the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), which manages general and local government elections in the country, suddenly halted placing its ads in Kaieteur News, the country’s largest newspaper.

The pulling of those ads would have come after a series of investigative reports by Kaieteur News which unearthed worrying cases of fraud in the procurement system at that entity. The Opposition has been expressing worry about GECOM and

Kaieteur News

its management.

The Audit Office of Guyana, following those reports of alleged fraud, had started a probe into several of GECOM’s transactions, including one with a $100M purchase of unserviceable communication radios in 2015. Those radios were purchased the day before the elections and were never used. Auditors are reportedly preparing to recommend a police probe.

GECOM, clearly upset about the newspaper’s reports, in January, suddenly stopped placing its ads with officials stating that the instructions came from high up in the organization.

GECOM has not come out with any statements to defend itself.

According to Harmon, while GECOM is an independent agency, it is not a situation with which the Government agrees. Advertisements should not be used as a weapon against anyone. ”We believe that Guyana enjoys the status of free press. We believe that the media should be allowed to do its work but at the same time we cannot direct an entity where to place it ads but as a general principle, we do not believe that the use of advertisements should be used as a tool against anyone.”

However, while Harmon and the administration may be reluctant to talk to GECOM about the issue, at

least one newspaper columnist believes that the matter goes deeper that the mere placement of ads.

COP, RURAL CONSTABLE ADMIT INVOLVEMENT IN ATTEMPTED BANK ROBBERY A police constable who has been in the Guyana Police Force (GPF) for the past three years and stationed in ‘A’ Division confessed to being a part of an attempted robbery at Republic Bank, Water Street, Georgetown.

A Rural constable who was held with him has also admitted to being involved in the planning and execution stage of the attempted robbery.

Crime Chief, Wendell Blanhum, has confirmed that while investigating, they were pointed in the direction of the policeman and rural constable. Another bank employee was also held.

Kaieteur News learnt that it was a bank employee, Jamal Haynes, who hijacked the car that was used in the attempted robbery.

The owner for the vehicle told the police that there were three men but he could have only identified 24year-old Haynes.

Haynes’s accomplice, Elton Wray, an agronomist was shot dead during the attempted robbery while Keron Saunders was

Sunday July 16, 2017

arrested.

MONDAY CAMP STREET JAIL RAZED, PRISON OFFICER KILLED In what could best be described as a horrific unfolding that starkly eclipsed any previous inferno at a prison facility in Guyana’s history, the Camp Street prison was reduced to rubble. For the first time since its construction more than one hundred years ago, last Sunday night was the first night it did not hold any prisoners.

And not for the first time a prison officer was killed on the job.

The prison unrest broke out at the nation’s main correctional facility shortly after 17:00 hours.

It was during this period that an apparent escape and breakout plan took effect, resulting in seven prison officers being shot and brutally chopped. Countless prisoners and prison officers were injured, while others were held at gunpoint under siege. Most were lucky to escape with their lives.

Mere minutes after the uproar started flames billowed from at least three buildings simultaneously, including the ones along Camp, John and Bent Streets as well as the block for condemned prisoners along D’Urban and John Streets.

This was even as several prisoners were seen in the security tower that they had commandeered at the corner of J o h n a n d D ’ U r b a n Streets. When Kaieteur News arrived at the scene firefighters and armed police ranks dotted the location but their every attempt to extinguish the growing inferno was rebuffed by prisoners who had grown to more than fifteen in the security tower.

One man who looked like a prisoner officer was in a choke hold as the prisoners shouted angrily and lobbed chunks of stone over the prison walls.

Police re-enforcement soon arrived in battle gear backed up by soldiers whose primary objective was to thwart any escape attempt while securing the facility.

Those who were in the hut shouted as their other colleagues continuously lobbed missiles, “We

ain’t coming out, we want justice; today is freedom day for us and this place bunnin’ down today.”

As the blaze grew consuming the wooden structures, the temperature rose, and the protesting prisoners’ shouts changed to cries for “Help, alyuh open de f***ing gate and leh we come out. We ain’t want dead.” But that obviously was not what they really wante, as was evident from their actions when further attempts of rescue were made. Despite the continued missiles, some soldiers arrived in an ambulance and swung into rescue mode. Two struggled with a ladder that was placed along the D’Urban and John Street side of the prison wall.

But no sooner had an attempt been made to mount the ladder to offer help than it rained bricks causing the ‘would be rescuers’ to retreat.

BARTICA, LUSIGNAN MASSACRE KILLERS WERE PLANNING PRISON BREAK SINCE FEBRUARY Bartica massacre killer, Mark Royden Williams called “Smallie” reportedly started the fire at the Camp Street jail last Sunday as a distraction to escape. And he did escape.

Williams was among five high profile inmates who held a prison warden hostage and escaped from the prison shortly after 17:00 hrs.

The other known escapees are Stafrei Hopkinson Alexander, who was charged for the April 4, 2015 murder of businesswoman Shevon Gordon, who was shot near her One Mile, Linden home during a robbery.

Uree Varswyck, an ex-policeman was charged for the December 2014 murder of Sterling Products Limited security guard, Wilfred Stewart and the execution-style killing of GGMC engineer, Trevor Abrams in 2015.

A fourth prisoner could not be immediately identified. The escapees are armed.

The men reportedly hijacked a burgundy car on Bent Street, Georgetown and made good their escape.

Williams might have been planning his escape from the prison since February, last. A woman, Kelly Ann (Continued on page 33)

Sunday July 16, 2017

Kaieteur News

(From page 32) Martin, was arrested after trying to smuggle a grenade in to him. Williams was recently handed the death sentence after being convicted on eight counts of murder over the February 17, 2008 Bartica Massacre.

Kaieteur News learnt that the fire was set at seven different places inside the prison shortly after 17:00 hrs before the prison warden was held hostage.

Head of Prison, Gladwin Samuels, said that as of Sunday morning there were 1,018 inmates at the prison. However, as of Sunday night, it could not be determined how many prisoners were accounted for.

Prisoners were being transported to the Lusignan Prisons after they opted to leave the burning compound.

They were first taken to the Prison Officers’ Sports Club across from the prison. Not long after that building was also set on fire.

Prisoners could be seen jumping from the balcony of the building to the ground below.

When that blaze was extinguished the prison authorities transported them to the Lusignan prisons in large trucks.

conda” was picked up on the camera leaving with the escapees, but he ran back into the jail shortly after.

There were two inmates whose faces were covered with clothes— one is an Amerindian man yet to be identified and there is some confusion as to who the other prisoner might be.

The police had indicated that the individual was Sherwin Nero but his lawyer, Nigel Hughes late Monday night confirmed that his client was at the Lusignan Prison. ”When these men turn on Bent Street, the camera didn’t pick up anything else. The only thing we see was Anaconda running back into the prison,” a source said yesterday.

He said that the police received information that the men hijacked a burgundy car and escaped with the driver. ”We don’t know for sure which direction they went, but we are hearing is all five of them went into the car with the driver, but the person who was with the driver is saying that four of them circle the car… but she might be confused,” the source opined.

It is unclear what transpired inside the prison since Hubert Trim, the guard on duty that day, is in a critical condition.

TUESDAY ESCAPEES CAME OUT WITH GUNS, CUTLASSES …PRISON CAMERAS REVEAL

NO IDEA WHERE THE GUNS CAME FROM

Just before 17:00 hrs on Sunday, the Camp Street prison’s surveillance cameras picked up six prisoners exiting the facility and making their way towards Bent Street, Georgetown, while opening fire on Tactical Service Unit (TSU) ranks—guarding around the compound.

The Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras picked up Mark Royden Williams and Ex-cop Uree Varswyck with cutlasses in their hands. Stafrei Hopkinson Alexander was one of the escapees armed with handguns.

Dennis Williams called “Ana-

At this time, the police and prison service officials are still trying to determine how the escapees managed to get their hands on the firearms. ”We have no idea where the guns came from. We are still trying to determine that,” the source said.

The police are trying to determine whether the weapons might have smuggled into the prisons or whether they came from inside the jail.

NO HUMAN REMAINS FOUND When a count was done yesterday, three other prisoners could not have been accounted for. Up to press

PAGE 33

Matthew Shivtahal time, the authorities could not determine the identities of the inmates.

Two searches were conducted in the compound at the Camp Street prison but no human remains were found.

A second count will be done and if the three persons are not found, then it will be assumed that they might have escaped as they were being transported.

ABDUCTED DRIVER RELEASED IN E.C.D. BACKLANDS Twenty-two year-old Matthew Shivtahal on Monday night told detectives a harrowing tale of how he walked through thick bush and plunged through mud to get to safety. Shivtahal of Kaneville, East Bank Demerara was abducted by four prison escapees and held hostage.

The young taxi driver said when he was hijacked, the men drove to North Ruimveldt where they abandoned the vehicle.

Kaieteur News was informed that from there, the men spent several hours walking to the Annandale, East Coast Demerara backlands.

Shivtahal was allowed to leave sometime between 22:00 hrs and midnight on Sunday. The escapees directed him how to get to the main road.

The taxi driver told the police that the men didn’t eat and kept walking. Three of them were together chatting, while one of the escapees was guarding him—so

he did not hear what they might have been planning. It took a lot of begging before he was freed.

The escapees that were with the driver are believed to be Bartica massacre killer, Mark Royden Williams called ‘Smallie’; Stafrei Hopkinson Alexander, U r e e Va r s w y c k a n d a n Amerindian man – the quartet that broke out of the correctional facility as it was being razed.

According to reports, Shivtahal was driving motor car PKK 4103 and was in the company of a female and five children – all below the age of 12 – when they were pounced upon by the men in Bent Street, between Camp and George Streets.

The woman who was in the car with Shivtahal, said that the young man was forewarned by a pedestrian before he arrived at Camp Street that ranks of the Guyana Police Force (GPF) and prisoners were trading bullets, and that he should be careful. ”I tell him to turn back and he tell me and my children to duck down in the car. When we reach the corner (Bent and George Streets), he give a man (another driver) a pass, and by then, the men surrounded the car. Dem block off the four doors.” She said.

The woman, who requested anonymity, said that the men began “chucking out” her children barking orders for them to get out of the vehicle.

The woman said that she and her children complied and were let out safely. However, the shaken Shivtahal was not allowed to leave the vehicle, despite offering the keys to the men. ”He give dem de key, but they didn’t take it. Dem tell he that he have to drive them. I didn’t see which direction they went in, because I was running to get help,” the woman recalled.

She said she didn’t know why Shivtahal would choose the ‘town route’ to get to Grove on the East Bank Demerara when he would have picked up his passengers from the East Coast of Demerara. ”I don’t know why he drive through town. I thought he was using a shortcut,” the woman said.

The woman confirmed one of the men to be Bartica massacre killer,

Mark Royden Williams.

WEDNESDAY ‘BARTICA MASSACRE KILLER SAVED MYLIFE’ – HOSTAGE REVEALS –“HE EVENALLOWED ME TO KEEP MY WEDDING RING” With swollen feet and bruises about his body, 22-year-old Mathew Shivtahal, who was held hostage by four high-profile prisoners on Sunday, recalled how he begged Bartica massacre suspect, Mark Royden Williams, to spare his life so that he could see his one-yearold son again.

“I say ‘Rasta, I got a one-yearold son, and I don’t want him to grow up without a father’ and he (Williams) said just because I tell him that, he will allow me to go,” Shivtahal recounted yesterday during an interview with this newspaper.

As much as the young man was scared of being with the four criminals, he tried his best to maintain his composure and even addressed the men as “Soulj” and “Soulja Man” as he pleaded with them to free him.

After seven hours of trekking through thick bushes and swimming across trenches with the escapees, who assisted him over the water, Shivtahal was allegedly given direction and was informed to run without looking back if he wanted to remain alive.

It was the Bartica massacre killer who allowed the young man to leave and go to be with his son.

Shivtahal was freed when the men were at the seven-door sluice in the ba c k l a n d s a t L a n d o f Canaan, East Bank Demerara (EBD). He was trekking through the bushes with Stafrei Hopkinson Alexander, ex-cop Uree Varswyck, Williams and an Amerindian man yet to be identified.

Shivtahal said he was planning to have a quiet Sunday evening with his wife, Rohanie Shivtahal and son at the Kitty seawall when a woman he had dropped off at Industry, East Coast Demerara, earlier in the day, called and asked that he return for her.

The young man left home at Kaneville, Grove, East Bank Demerara, telling his wife that he (Continued on page 34)

PAGE 34

(From page 33) would be back to take them to the seawall.

After picking up the passengers and while on his way back to the East Bank, as fate would have it, he decided to drive through the city, since he thought it might have been too congested on Mandela Avenue.

“I come down Camp Street and I hear two gunshots and the police vehicle come and say go from here…I drive and before I turn on Bent Street, I stopped and was checking to see if any other vehicles coming, when I see the four men. They come and pull out the passengers,” he recalled.

The survivor recalled that upon realizing what was taking place, he quickly got out of the vehicle and told the men to take the car— a burgundy Toyota 212, PKK 4103, which was later found abandoned at North Ruimveldt.

“After I come out, one of them tell me ‘no, we taking you,’ before pushing me into the backseat with Alexander and the Amerindian man,” he recalled.

Williams was sitting in the front passenger seat armed with a gun while Varswyck was driving the vehicle. In the back seat, Alexander was armed with a gun too.

BUS DRIVER SHOT DEAD TRYING TO SAVE PASSENGERS FROM BANDITS – AGRICOLA TWINS AMONG SUSPECTS A Route 32 (Parika/Georgetown) Minibus driver is now dead after he was shot trying to save his passengers from three bandits yesterday.

The dead man has been identified as 38-year-old Tedroy Neil James of Suddie, Essequibo Coast.

The shooting occurred in the vicinity of Middle Street Mc Doom, East Bank Demerara sometime around 11:30hrs.

According to reports, James was driving minibus BTT 976 north along the East Bank

Kaieteur News

Demerara Public Road – presumably heading to Georgetown – when he was instructed by a male passenger whom he had picked up on the West Coast of Demerara, to stop at Middle Street Mc Doom.

As the male passenger was about to disembark the vehicle, two male suspects, one armed with a handgun, pounced on the unsuspecting passengers and began to rob them.

Ja m e s u p o n n o t i c i n g t h e ruckus, attempted to drive away, apparently to create some distance between the robbers and his passengers. The father of two was fatally shot by one of the men in the process.

The suspects then made good their escape by hopping the median before running into a nearby street.

Public-spirited citizens subsequently took James to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

The police in a press release stated that James was shot in the back.

The release also stated that one of the suspects is in police custody.

Kaieteur News was later informed that two men were being held in connection to the shooting.

Sunday July 16, 2017

The dead man’s sister, Aniki James, said that her brother was a hard worker and would have recently procured the minibus.

She said that her brother ’s death came months after she would have lost another sibling.

THURSDAY SWAT TEAM, SOLDIERS COMB BUXTON BACKLANDS FOR ESCAPEES Up to late Wednesday, Soldiers and members from the Guyana Police Force (GPF)’s Spec i a l We a p o n s a n d Ta c t i c s (SWAT) team were combing the backlands at Buxton, East Coast Demerara, after receiving information that four of the eight prison escapees might be hiding

out there.

When this newspaper visited the scene Wednesday, residents related that the soldiers had been in the area for some time, combing the

backlands.

The team opened fire on a mentally ill man who ran after seeing them.

He is presently in police custody.

Residents said that the lawmen fired at least three gunshots into the thick vegetation.

They were looking for Bartica and Lusignan massacre killer Mark Royden Williams, Ex-cop Uree Varswyck, Stafrei Hopkinson and an Amerindian man.

The men broke out of the Camp Street Prison on Sunday after setting fires to distract the police. They took taxi driver, Matthew Shivtahal with them and released him at midnight on Sunday.

Meanwhile, the police Wednesday issued another wanted bulletin with the names of three additional prisoners who are on the run.

They are Desmond James, 24, of Hotoquai Creek, North West District; Cornelius Thomas, 32, of Lot 36 Guyhoc Gardens and Cobena Stephens, 26, of Buxton.

Kaieteur News was informed that there were a total of eight (Continued on page 35)

Sunday July 16, 2017

Kaieteur News

PAGE 35

(From page 34) prisoners missing from the prison.

LAWYERS AND DOCTORS TOP LIST OF PROFESSIONALS NOT PAYING PRACTICING FEES It is required by law that professionals practising for a reward must pay related fees. However topping the list of such persons failing to apply for payment of such fees are lawyers and doctors.

Commissioner General of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) Godfrey Statia, made this disclosure on Monday when he appeared on behalf of that entity before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to discuss matters raised by the Auditor General in his audit report for 2015.

Chairman of the PAC, Irfaan Ali had brought paragraph 147 of the report into question which stated that with respect to Professional Fees, amounts totalling $5.79M were collected at the end of 2015, as compared with $6.9M at the end of the previous year.

The report added that “the Conservatory Order instituted in October 2003 restraining the Guyana Revenue Authority from assessing and collecting increased fees from all professionals was still in effect and the matter had not been finalised.

As a result of the restraining order, the Department was barred from collecting an additional sum of $48.34M in professional fees.”

It was recommended by the Auditor General that GRA follow up with the Courts to bring closure to the matter, and a reconciliation of certificates printed and issued as per location should be prepared and submitted to the Audit Office.

Addressing the reduction in fees between 2014 and 2015, the Commissioner-General said that it was due to less persons applying to professional fees at that time.

However, he said that the amount is up this year as there are ways and means in getting persons in the professional fields to apply for fees.

”We know that the persons who did not apply here are centred around two professions. They are the lawyers and the doctors.”

Statia said that it was suggested that GRA write the relevant associations on this matter. However, the Commissioner-General said that in some countries there is a Department of Professional Regulations.

He said that such a department should be established in Guyana so that it can police these persons to ensure they comply with the law.

He added that in Trinidad and Tobago, lawyers that fail to pay their professional fees are barred from representing clients in the courts. ”After a time what we have found is that because of the legal fraternity, lots of aiding and abetting in not paying is actually done on a continual basis.”

Statia said that he would have

asked that the court matter, which began in 2003, should have been brought up at least twice. He said that he would have had discussions with the past Chancellor of the Judiciary, Carl Singh, on the matter for a date to be set for hearing.

He said that he could not understand why there were so many exparte injunctions on these matters.

He said that the issue is of national interest and should therefore be inter partes, since the parties which include the GRA and the professional bodies involved are available to participate in the hearings.

When asked how the GRA would have arrived at the $48.340M, Statia said that the rates would have changed from $10,000. In 2003, changes were made to the fiscal Amendment and Accountability Act and the

fees for the various categories of professionals had increased.

For Category A, rates increased to $250,000; Category B, $150,000 and Category C, $75,000.

Statia said that there were certain professions that were not a part of the 2003 Conservatory Order by virtue of not being able to afford the new costs, such as pharmacists.

FRIDAY CAMP STREET PRISON FIRE/ JAILBREAK…TOO EARLY TO DETERMINE COLLUSION; INMATES’RECORDS BEING RECONSTRUCTED- OFFICIALS Officials have dismissed “speculations” that Sunday’s orchestrated jailbreak and fire at Camp Street jail could have been avoided.

Six dangerous prisoners are on the run and sparking an intelligenceled manhunt focused in the city and the backlands of Demerara.

During a press conference Thursday at the offices of the Ministry of Public Security, Brickdam, it was made clear that even the best plans in place would have been severely challenged.

Police ranks who for several years now have ringed the perimeter of the Camp Street men’s facilities, as an extra layer following the Mash Day jailbreak of 2002, would have been focused on prisoners attempting to scale the walls and not so much on what was happening at the front gates - which is supposed to be controlled by prison officials.

Five prisoners, armed with two handguns, managed to breach the front gates, but not before a prison officer, Odinga Wickham, was shot five times. Several other officers were injured in a coordinated attack as prisoners set at least four fires to wooden buildings in the compound.

It was confusion all around.

This was according to Minister of Public, Khemraj Ramjattan, Police Commissioner, Seelall Persaud, and prison chief, Gladwin Samuels Thursday.

Ramjattan admitted that the situation was a testing one that involved putting out the fires, controlling the inmates, and shuttling them to the Lusignan prison. The fact that records were burnt further compounded the situation. Using other records, including warrants which were stored separately and saved, officials were able to eventually ascertain the prisoners who escaped.

During the interim, there was uncertainty as to how many prisoners actually escaped. The situation was worsened by the fact that the almost 1,000 inmates taken to Lusignan, were not cooperating, making a head count difficult. As of Thursday, the officials said, they were able to determine that six persons, dangerous criminals- including one from Death Row- were at large.

According to Minister Ramjattan, several prisoners were moved from Lusignan to New Amsterdam and Timehri prisons.

Some 90 were shuttled to New Amsterdam, Berbice, while 48 were taken to Timehri. Early releases were granted to 57 while six magistrates visiting the Lusignan, East Coast Demerara facilities earlier this week allowed 26 persons on self bail. Another eight prisoners on remand managed to raise their bail money.

MASSIVE EXTENSION OF MAZARUNI PRISON ON THE CARDS – FEASIBILITY STUDY ALREADY COMPLETED Sunday’s riot at the Camp Street Jailhouse, which resulted in sections of the facility being burnt (Continued on page 36)

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(From page 35) to the ground, would be the second such incident in 16 months.

Questions have begun to surface over the implementation of recommendations that came out of the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) report, into the first fire in March 2016, which resulted in the death of 17 inmates.

Minister of Public Security, Khemraj Ramjattan, said Thursday that despite talks of not much being done to implement these recommendations, “a lot” has been done with some measures already in the chute.

He then revealed Government’s plan to construct a new prison at Mazaruni as part of an extension programme.

This project was initiated months ago with the award of a contract to carry out consultancy services for the design of the new structure.

This is being done in keeping with the CoI recommendations, he pointed out.

The Minister noted that $276M was budgeted in the 2017 National Budget, to initiate the first phase of the construction.

He said that immediately after accessing the funds, the government advertised for consultancy services for the design of the structure.

This service Kaieteur News understands was funded through a grant from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

This project however, hit a s n a g a f t e r, a c c o r d i n g t o R a m j attan, no local company “qualified for the project”. This reportedly set back the overall objective to construct the new facility.

The project was later retendered internationally and a Trinidad company, VIKAB Engineering Consultant, won the contract.

Ramjattan said that the company has already submitted its design – which was subsequently given the green light from the President, David Granger.

The report submitted by VIKAB, Ramjattan explained, entails the specifications that are needed to guide contractors, who will be desirous of submitting bids to construct the facility. ”This consultancy report will

Kaieteur News

be submitted next week to commence the tendering process for contractors to commence construction…We want four contractors to work simultaneously on this project because it is a major, m a j o r p r o j e c t t h a t w e want done within the shortest and fastest time possible,” he noted.

Shifting back to the first phase of construction, Ramjattan expounded that the $276M will be spent to carry out the foundation works.

Additional funds will be allocated in the 2018 budget to carry out another phase, which will entail the construction of walls.

SATURDAY ATTEMPTED ROBBERY ON REPUBLIC BANK… SERIAL-ROBBING BANK EMPLOYEE GETS SIX YEARS FOR GUILTY PLEA -COP, RURAL CONSTABLE AMONG FOUR REMANDED It was almost a two-hour long court hearing when five men accused of attempting to rob Republic Bank’s Water Street, Georgetown branch appeared before Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan.

The botched robbery attempt on the financial institution left 25-year-old Agronomist, Elton Wray, dead. He was shot and killed during an exchange of gunfire between his accomplices, police and guards attached to the Professional Guard Service (PGS).

Those appearing on Friday in the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts were Republic Bank employees, Jamal Haynes, 24, of 4 Norton Street, Wortmanville, Georgetown; and Shawn Grimmond of 137 Pike Street, Kitty, Georgetown; Police Constable Anfernee Blackman, 21, of 65 Laing Avenue, West Ruimveldt, Georgetown; Rural Con-

Sunday July 16, 2017

stable Gladstone George, 24, of 55 Princes Street, Lodge, Georgetown; and Keron Saunders, 24, of 59 Burnham Boulevard, Mocha, East Bank Demerara.

Saunders is a cousin of Wray.

Haynes, who was said to have been working at Republic Bank for the past seven years, struggled to walk due to gunshot injuries he sustained to the feet. He was shot during his failed attempt to rob the bank.

Haynes was jailed for a total of 10 years on charges of attempted robbery under-arms; illegal firearm and ammunition possession and unlawful restraining.

It was alleged that on July 4, at Water Street, Georgetown, while armed with guns they attempted to rob Republic Bank. Haynes pleaded guilty and was jailed for two years.

The others pleaded not guilty and were remanded to prison until August11.

Attorneys-at-Law Dexter Todd, Roger Yearwood and George Thomas petitioned for bail on behalf of Grimmond, George and Saunders respectively.

Another jail sentence was handed to Haynes after he admitted to being in possession of an illegal 9MM pistol and a single round of 9MM live ammunition.

He was jailed for four years for possession of the illegal gun and another four years for the illegal ammunition. However, the prison terms will run concurrently.

He was also fined a total of $180,000.

Haynes will serve six years since the concurrent four-year jail terms he got on each of the illegal arms and ammo charge will run consecutive with the two years jail sentence imposed on him for attempting to rob the bank.

Haynes was also charged for shooting at a Police Constable and hijacking the motorcar used to transport them to the scene.

It is alleged that on July 4, at Water Street, Georgetown, he discharged a loaded firearm at Police Constable Lawn Joseph, with intent to maim, disable, disfigure or cause grievous bodily harm. It was further alleged that on July 3, at Sparendaam, East Coast Demerara, while armed with a gun, he robbed Ryan Myers of a motorcar valued $2.9M, a cell phone valued at $25,000 and $19,000 cash.

An unrepresented Haynes denied the allegations The latter matter was transferred to the Sparendaam Magistrates’ Courts for August 10.

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Sunday July 16, 2017

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QC NY Alumni Association Leads 2017 Math Institute Summer Camp at QC Brooklyn, New York: - For the second consecutive summer, the Queen’s College of Guyana Alumni Association (NY), Inc. (“QCAANY”) will be hosting its Queen’s College Summer Maths Institute (“QCSMI”) for two weeks beginning tomorrow at Queen's College, Camp Street.

The institute will run Monday through Friday from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM, with daily lunch and snacks provided at no cost to participating students.

The target group of this programme is rising third and fourth form students from Queen’s College, Tutorial

High School, Bishops’ High School, and Saint Stanislaus College.

The institute aims to sustainably implement a developmentally–appropriate and culturally resonant middle school learning environment that engages Guyanese students in a

cognitively rich mathematics learning experience.

That experience is intended to affirm and align with their cultural and social identities and places them securely on pathways to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) excellence.

The programme uses a developmentally appropriate approach that combines significant mathematical content with a setting that encourages a sense of discovery and excitement about maths through problem solving and exploration.

The objectives of the QCSMI are to: • Attract high school students in Georgetown Guyana to mathematical sciences and to motivate them to excel in the subject, • Introduce high school students and their parents to the notion of mathematics as theory.

• Sensitise students and their parents to futures linked with mathematics, including but not limited to careers as mathematicians, math educators, research scientists, computer scientists, economists or business leaders.

A number of field trips are planned as complementary activities which are integral to the QCSMI experience.

Among these are trips to GuySuCo’s Uitvlugt Sugar Estate, the University of Guyana's Faculty of Health Sciences, and Banks DIH Ltd. The field trips are intended to demonstrate the use of mathematical principles in realworld scenarios. Additionally,

local professionals in STEMbased disciplines will speak with students about STEM career options.

This year, like the founding year 2016, the programme will be led by mathematician, Dr. Terrence Blackman, Dean of the School of Science, Health and Technology at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn, NY. Dr. Blackman will be joined

by Mr. Cleveland Waddell, Doctoral Candidate in Applied Mathematics at North Carolina State University and former Queen’s College alumnus. Their efforts will be supported by Ms. Karen Wharton, President of QCAANY and systems engineer at Thomson Reuters; and Ms. Shindy Johnson, QCAANY member, science educator, teacher trainer, and author of “Learning about Science Volumes I and II”, a textbook for adult learners in South Africa; Ms. Ede Tyrell, Queen’s College alumna and University of Guyana lecturer who specializes in Microbiology in the Department of Medical Technology of the Faculty of Health Sciences; Ms. Delon Ogle, Queen’s College teacher and chair of the Agriculture department; Ms. Shannon Woodruffe, Queen’s College 2017 Valedictorian, as well as other Queen’s College friends and supporters.

This year’s programme is made possible through sponsorships from JHI Associates of Guyana and Queen’s College alumnus, Dr. Edris Dookie. Air travel sponsorship is being provided by Fly Jamaica Airways; beverages are provided by Banks DIH Ltd; and mathematics-based software is being provided by Maplesoft.

In addition to the QCSMI programme, QCAANY has consistently supported sci-

Terrence Blackman ence-oriented students and programmes at the school.

Since 2000, it has awarded through its Vernley Ward Bursary, scholarships to first and second year students enrolled at UG who have distinguished themselves in the area of chemistry while at Queen’s College.

QCAANY helped create the school’s first computer lab in the late 1990s and continues to collaborate with other alumni chapters to refurbish and upgrade equipment in the computer, physics and biology labs.

More recently, QCAANY has focused on funding enrichment programs and social services to students. Student conferences have been held each academic year since 2014.

The conferences are supplemented throughout the year by a small and informal virtual student mentorship programme.

The welfare of students is not forgotten, as the group funded the annual salary of the school’s first social worker who provided badly need services to students at the school.

Broadly stated, the organization’s mission is to contribute significantly to the advancement and improvement of education in Guyana.

Sunday July 16, 2017

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Kaieteur News

TOOTH JEWELLERY – Blinging up the Pearly Whites

By Dr. Neromini Fagu The world of beauty and aesthetics is ever changing, and this applies to fashion as well as dentistry. Aesthetics has become very important in dentistry and has led to the development of newer materials and techniques.

Everyone wants whiter, brighter teeth and, even then, some choose to add more bling with their own visual style. There has been a rise in the trend of dental jewellery, with pop stars leading the way.

But blinging up the pearly whites has been around a long time. Research indicates that nearly 2,500 years ago native Americans displayed their wealth and status by drilling pieces of precious gems into the surface of their teeth. This practice was not limited only to the wealthier classes. The dentists in those days seemed to have had a good understanding of dental anatomy and they were able

to place gemstones into the teeth without interfering with the dental pulp.

Some of these dental artists used a tool made of a very hard stone, obsidian, to puncture tooth and bone, much like today’s dental drill.

Ancient texts suggest that herbal anesthetics were commonly used before dental work was performed. Special adhesives made from natural resins and crushed bones were used to affix the jewels into teeth.

Over the years, there have been many other ways to include teeth in fashion. The practice of drilling into the tooth to set in precious stones made way for gluing the stones directly on to the tooth without damaging the tooth.

Other types of adornments included the fabrication of “grills” to cover sets of teeth.

This dental fashion was made popular by hip hop artists like Nelly and Lil Wayne, with the latter reportedly spending an astounding US$120,000 on

STANDARDS IN FOCUS

Gem studded teeth of an Ancient Mayan

Crystals bonded to teeth his.

Another practice in the past has been gold caps.

There are many older Guyanese, and some younger ones, today sporting this

Rice-specification and its importance to Guyana’s Rice Sector The cultivation of rice in Guyana dates back to the eighteenth century when it was first introduced by the Dutch. Since its introduction, rice cultivation has improved and increased tremendously over the last few decades. Despite a decline in production last year by 12.7 %, due to El Niño weather conditions, Minister of Agriculture, Noel Holder, anticipates that there will be a production increase of 1.3% this year.

With vast stretches of land in Guyana, and the commitment to implementing good agricultural practices and standard requirements, rice production can increase immensely, putting it among the top foreign exchange earners.

In today’s advanced world, the use of improved technology, knowledge in rice production and marketing have given developed countries an edge in the world market, but Guyana has the potential to expand its market share to become one of the top rice producing countries.

However, it is a fact that local rice producers and exporters are facing heavy competition in foreign markets especially with numerous trade barriers, such as tariffs, quotas, standards and licensing requirements.

Standardisation continues to be one of the most critical barriers and the Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS) has opted to play a critical role in ensuring that Guyana is among the top countries involved in the exportation of rice.

Recognising the importance of rice cultivation and exportation and their value to Guyana’s economy, the GNBS has adopted the Guyana Standard “Rice- Specification” (GYS211: 2014) as a national standard. This standard was developed to improve the quality of rice produced and sold in the Caribbean Community and other overseas markets.

Additionally, the standard outlines specific requirements for paddy grades, cargo rice, milled rice; cargo parboiled rice and milled parboiled rice. It also covers packaging and labelling along with the conditions for sampling and the various factors used to

determine rice quality. The standard is available for use by farmers, millers, exporters and any related personnel and its implementation will result in improved quality of the commodity for both the local and international markets.

The Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) facilitates training on the regional standard for stakeholders, such as millers and exporters. Effective implementation of the requirements of this standard can reduce errors in grading and the rice milling processes, thus making operations more effective. The standard allows personnel to perform to their highest levels, which results in quality output and ultimately when a quality product is produced, customer satisfaction is guaranteed.

This allows millers and exporters to maintain their market shares and profits. The Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) certifies graders annually and ensures that competent graders are available in all regions and millers also have access to certified graders.

It should be noted that the rice industry was boosted with the accreditation of the Central Laboratory of the Guyana Rice Development Board in 2015. This facility provides grading certificates which accompanies batches of rice exported and has boosted confidence in the quality of rice exported from Guyana.

Increased production of quality rice will always be a plus for Guyana, providing buyers with the confidence they need at the time of purchase. With rice being one of the world’s most popular choices of meal, it is assured that the demand for rice around the world will increase and the GNBS through standards and verification of weighing and measuring devices used in the rice sector will continue to support the industry in meeting market requirements.

With this support, Guyana can once again work towards reclaiming its honour of being the bread basket of the Caribbean.

For further information, please contact the GNBS on telephone numbers: 219-0065, 219-0066 or visit the GNBS website: www.gnbsgy.org

fashion trend. Of course with the price of gold being what it is now, this type of

embellishment might not be so affordable. Additionally, the damage to tooth structure in grinding it down to make room for the gold cap is not advisable.

The popularity of using tooth gems is growing, especially as today’s technique involves bonding the stone directly to the tooth without the need to remove tooth structure. This dental trend belongs to all age groups but is most commonly worn by 18-35 year old hiphop artists and disc jockeys in order to amplify their performance and to get an extra spark to their smile while interacting with the audience.

While teeth aesthetics can enhance a person’s selfesteem and self-confidence, it is not suited for everyone.

Tooth jewellery should be indicated only in patients with good oral hygiene maintenance as the attachment area of the tooth gem is highly prone for plaque accumulation. If you

Dr. Neromini Fagu are considering this form of body art you should be aware of the potential risks involved. Some of the risks include tooth sensitivity, aspiration of the gem, allergy, and chronic injury to the adjacent teeth/ mucosa, including tooth fracture and gum recession.

Complications may sometimes lead to the eventual loss of the tooth.

For more information contact OMNI DENTAL at 295 Quamina Street, Georgetown Tel: 227-0025, Parika Tel: 260-3133 or send emails to nerominifagu@hotmail.com.

PAGE 68

EDUCATIONAL I.A.E – Registered now for full-time secondary school, lessons, CXC/CSEC classes, adults, students, repeaters.

Call: 683-5742/621-7365 SERVICES PLANNING AN EVENT? BIRTHDAY PARTY, GRADUATION,WEDDINGS, ANNIVERSARY,ETC.-CALL DIAMOND TENTS: 2161043; 677-6620 Visa Application: U.S.A, Canada & UK; Guyana passport application. Graphics design, advertisement. Tel: 6267040; 265-4535.

INNOVATIVEMARKETING & PUBLISHING INC –TEL: 600-4212: We create A/ works, logos, busi ness cards, posters, etc, placements of ads included.

Passport, permanent & visitor visa application, Professional Immigration Consultant – Sabita Immigration Services. Call: 225-6496/ 662-6045 Repairs to refrigerators, gas stoves, A/C units, washing machines. Call Lindon: 6411086/ 694-2202 Eagle’s: Re-gas -$8,000, Washing machine repairs, Gas Stove, Plasma flat Screen, computer repairs & more.

Call: 697-2969/646-0966 Repairs at affordable prices: fridge, air conditioner, washing machines, dryers, TV, microwaves & freezerCall: 610-5846 or 661-8158 Mason, experienced and reliable, available for casting block work and plastering.

Call: 619-3296

WANTED 1 Accounts Clerk, preferably from E.B.D – 5 subjects CXC minimum @ gtcareers592@gmail.com Wanted urgently @ C a m p b e l l ’s Wa s t e Management: drivers for garbage truck & labours.

Call: (592)670-7920/ 2317012 Waitresses wanted @ 50/50 sports bar & lounge, Vreeden-Hoop, Age 18-25, 2pm2am. Call: 647-4491 Urgently needed 1 electrician, must be able to work with minimum supervision. Contact Lawrence: 644-9084/ 664-9635 Live in family, husband duties (driving, mechanic), and wife (domestic). Private cottage.

Good rates- Tel:227-1830 1 live in domestic- Call:6741767

1 – 3 bedrooms house in Samatta Point Grove, EBD, 3 vehicle parking space, overhead tank, telephone, master room -$70,000. Call: 697-6591 Furnished 2 bedrooms airconditioned apartment to rent in G/Town. Call: 6786690

Summer Classes: Phonics, Reading, Language, Mathematics, Art & Craft & fun day (4-12yrs) July 17th- August 11th @ Roxanne Burnham Gardens-Tel:218-2076; 619-4355 INSTITUTE OFACADEMIC EXCELLENCE: Registration commenced for I.A.E Secondary school, forms 15, termly fee -$30,000. Call: 683-5742/621-7365 Summer School ages 4-14, Rising Star Academy, Phonics, Reading, Mathematics, Science; Register Early. Call: 677-0296 Personal Tutoring: Maths, English, Social-Studies, Office Administration, History, Reading & Accounts. Excellent Results guarantee. Call: 610-6087

Experience taxi and bus drivers at Princess taxi service. Call: 616-5419 Do you owe housing and want to sell your land? We pay it off. Call: 651-1969/6117223 Experienced taxi drivers and dispatcher. Call: 622-6413/ 667-9013

CAR RENTAL PROGRESSIVE CAR RENTAL: SUV FOR RENTAL- $4,000 & UP PER DAY- CALL: 677-7827, 6435122 ,EMAIL:PRO_AUTO RENTAL@YAHOO.COM

Space- excellent for spraying, repairing to vehicles, trucks. High ceiling building light manufacturing- Tel: 227-1830

Summer Classes for slow learners in Maths, Phonics, Reading, Spelling and much more. Call: 675-4379

Hire car driver with valid license. Call: 225-3234

Do you owe housing and want to sell your land? We pay it off. Call: 651-1969/6117223

TO LET 1 Two bedrooms bottom flat at Patentia Housing Scheme,W.B.DCall:646-2120or603-3119

Sunday July 16, 2017

Kaieteur News

DOLLY’SCARRENTAL-CALL: 225-7126/226-3693 DOLLYSAUTORENTAL@ YA H O O . C O M / W W W. DOLLYSAUTORENTAL.COM WING’S CAR & PICKUP RENTAL: LOW DOWN PAYMENT, CHEAP RATES,SPECIAL OFFERS! .

CALL: 690-6494 AIDAN’S CAR RENTAL:PICKUP,9-11 SEAT MINI BUS, GOOD FOR AIRPORT & FAMILY OUTINGS, CHEAPEST RATE . Call: 698-7807 FOR SALE Fluffy puppies.

Tel: 619-6086/699-7077

FOR SALE

FOR RENT PLANNING AN EVENT? BIRTHDAY PARTY, GRADUATION,WEDDINGS, ANNIVERSARY, ETC. CALL DIAMOND TENTS: 216-1043; 677-6620 Property for rent - 2 storey house at Republic Park, E.B.D $1200USD. Call 647-1773 Fully furnished luxury apartment to rent 2 & 3 bedrooms, long and short term stay. Call: 665-3505

One big two bedrooms top flat house at Phoenix Park, lot 20 West Bank Demerara. Call: 643-9286

La Parfaite Harmonie - $1.3M, way up front, already clean, all legal fees paid. Call: 6511969/ 611-7223 MINING BLOCKS FOR SALE @ OMAI & CUYUNI NEAR BUCKHALL GY$2,500,000 EACH. CALL: 622-7563

VEHICLE FOR SALE Allion, Primo, Fielder Wagon, Spacio, Bluebird, 212 Carina, NZE, Honda CRV, Toyota IST, RZ & Pit-bull – Call: 650-7501 (2) 2010 Vitz - $2.2M negotiable each, 2010 Suzuki swift & Nissan March - $2M negotiable each (all unregistered). Call: 649-7771/690-7155

German shepherd puppies.

Call: 220-2277/220-8904/6291471/639-5466

(2) RX8 black ported powered engine, red no engine. Both $2.2M neg. Tel/ whatsapp- 680-3298 serious inquires only.

Greenheart wooden building only complete with all accessories, sliding door, windows & grills etc.

Bargain! Price negotiable.

Call: 227-4285 1 Set of used magrims, 4 holes 17". Call: 685-6874/653-2477 Fluffy puppies (Tibetan Terriers) 6 weeks old, dewormed. Call: 668-9021

House lots in Blankenburg $3.5M. Contact-6500402\603-1402 Farm New Scheme (East Bank) 100ftX50ft- $2.5M (deal) all legal fees paid. Call: 667-1960/656-0701

New model, Toyota IST, late PVV series, female owner $2.65M. Owner Migrating.

Call: 686-8985/621-3072

Sale @ The warehouse, Lot 1 Melanie Public Road, E.C.D. Tyres: 445, 65, 22.5, 1400/20 new, 295, 80, 225. Call: 698-5203

La Parfaite Harmonie $1.6M, $1.4M, $1M, $2M, Eccles - $5.5M, Herstelling $3M, Tuschen - $1.2M, $5M. Call: 604-6724 or 686-9608

1 Fully furnished apartment at Victoria Avenue Eccles, E.B.D, inclusive of: parking, cable, internet & 2 bedrooms (oneAC). Call: 667-2536

LARGE QUANTITIES OF HIGH PURITY MERCURY (QUICK SILVER) 99.99995% PURITY$19,000 PER POUND CALL: 592-227-4754.

Paint Sale! Until supplies last!

Coloured latex paint, 50% discount. Call: 265-3541/ 6954785/616-3411 One Diesel welder, excellent condition, owner leaving country. Call: 699-4300/ 2282734

House and land for sale.

Latest Toyota Tundra and Tacoma Parts. Tel: 646-8594.

LAND FOR SALE La Parfaite Harmonie (main road) - $2M, $1.6M, $1.4M, $1.8M, Herstelling -$3M, Tuschen - $1.2M, Farm $3M. Call: 666-2326

1 Toyota Vigo, 4 wheel drive immaculate condition, make an offer. Call: 225-3234 2006 Audi – A4 PRR series$3.1M. Call: 623-3839 Pitbull bus super GL with magrims and music. $2.4M negotiable- Call: 667-5681

Just in from UK Leyland DAF 145, 150 Flatbed 7.5 tons, immaculate condition. Call Terrence: 698-5203 1 Extra cab Hilux pickup, 5L Diesel GVV series, test drive offering. Call: 673-3335/6043275/233-6218 FOR SALE/RENT

2 ½ Acres riverside land, 5 Acres land with 5,000 sq.ft building, Brickery, East Bank Demerara. Call: 653-2477/6856874 Prime land to build that dream home. Not far from Princess, New Thriving, Massy, HJ water world $13M neg- Call: 669-8397 East ½ 84 David Street, back lot for sale- Contact: 84davidstreet@gmail.com Land at Well Street Ogle, E.C.D, back lot, 65feetX105feet - $12M. Call: 625-1514

Cleaner/Janitor Shakoor’s Seafood, Eccles. Call: 233-2546/ Male fish cleaner @ Shakoor’s Seafood Eccles. Call: 233-2546 Security guards, apply manager @ Herdmanston Lodge, 65 Peter Rose & Anira Streets, Queenstown.

One experienced female Accounts Clerk- Apply in person to Alabama Trading, 65 Robb Street Bourda.

One female general domestic apply in person to 65 Robb Street Bourda.

Male with experienced in poultry farming to work on chicken farm in the interior, age 25-45yrs. Call: 680-2702 Experience Tutor/ nanny to read, teach & care for 2 years old from 12:00hrs to 5:30pmCall: 623-1615 One experienced legal computer clerk. Call: 624-7087/ 226-4283/ 2 5 8 - 0 2 1 3 / e m a i l : h us a i n s a p h i e r @ yahoo.com 1 Experienced pharmacist for our new location in Regent Street. Apply at Mike’s Pharmacy, Lot 1 Bel Air Farm worker, interested person only. Call: 265-3586 GARDENER, SUPERVISOR FOR INTERIOR, TRACTOR OPERATOR, ATTRACTIVE SALARY. CALL: 220-2878

Uitvlugt New Scheme, first street, 100X50ft with 20ft reserve -$2.5M. Call: 667Cook/ Baker for interior.

1960/656-0701 Applicants must be DRESSMAKING experienced. Call: 618-2020 Studio 87 Designing/sewing classes: special course in power suits and business jackets. Canadian trained teacher. Call: 676-6312

ACCOMMODATION Journey Inn apartment rental, short term with AC & Kitchen, as low as -$15US. Call: 642-1783/ 646-3011634/ 718-2301695

Large 3 bedrooms house upstairs/downstairs @ Parfaite, Recht- Door-Zee, for sale or rent 40,000 monthly. Call: 690-5061 or 667-0022 1 furnished liquor restaurant & bar for sale -$20M or rent, location: E.C.D, 1AT192 Carina $575,000 for sale- Call: 600-7228

VACANCY Office clerk, apply at Survival Lot 10 Vlissengen Road, Newtown, Kitty.

Accounts clerk with 5 Subjects or more @ Trophy Stall Bourda Market.

SALON - Make-up Courses with Mac, Bare Minerals, etc.

-CosmetologyCourses:$120,000 - Technician Course: $45,000.

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C. Persaud & N. Outar Driving School formerly Soman & Sons Driving School @ Maraj Building- Call: 644-5166; 6222872; 615-0964; 689-5997 (affordable packages).

Continued on Page 69

Sunday July 16, 2017

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CONSUMER CONCERNS

NOISE POLLUTION - A Danger to Health

By PAT DIAL It was reported in the media last Friday that the Ministry of Public Security had taken the initiative of establishing an Inter-Agency Task Force with the intention of eliminating noise nuisances from the Society.

The Agencies which would form part of the Task Force are a number of Government Departments together with the Mayor and City Council of Georgetown.

The coordinator of the Task Force is Mr. Deonarine Ramaroop.

Mr. Ramaroop outlined the activities in which the Task Force would be engaged.

Quite professionally, Mr. Ramaroop declared that all the Agencies

which form part of the Task Force would be collaborating to ensure that all the Laws and Regulations governing noise nuisance would be enforced.

Actually, it is failure to enforce these Laws that has led to the unchecked spread of loud noises everywhere and at all times of the day and night.

In addition to enforcing the Laws, Mr. Ramaroop went on to identify some of the other areas of activity of the Task Force. These would include the loud music and other noises which proliferate the minibuses and other public transport. It would also include curbing of random and spontaneous open air and roadside “boom

Understanding Credit...

From page 14 approximation of the probability that this borrower will default on any credit facility offered in the future, based on information, data trends and other characteristics available in the vast store of information collected by the credit bureau. · How safe is my credit information collected by Creditinfo? Creditinfo has ensured that all its data will always be one hundred percent safe from unauthorized access. · Who can see my personal information? The Credit Bureau has very strict operational guidelines and policies regarding confidentiality of data. No one can walk off the street and request a credit report on anyone but themselves.

Alternatively, only designated lenders identified under the credit Reporting Act can do so with the consent of the data subject. · How can I get my credit report? Creditinfo will provide one free credit report every 12month period to individual consumers. Any additional report thereafter is available at only a nominal fee per copy. · How can I improve my credit score? The Credit Report and score reflect credit payment patterns over time with more emphasis on recent information.

General principles and effective oversight Credit reporting is a vital part of a country’s financial infrastructure and is an activity of public interest.

According to the World Bank, “The key considerations concerning credit reporting systems can be broadly grouped around the following topics: i) data; ii) data processing; iii) governance arrangements and risk management; iv) legal and regulatory environment; and cross-

border data flows.”

Concerning oversight, creditreporting systems should be subject to appropriate and effective regulation and oversight by a central bank, a financial supervisor, or other relevant authorities.

Current issues and challenges According to the Center for Financial Inclusion, credit reporting around the world has grown significantly over the last several decades.

Despite this growth, credit reporting remains underdeveloped in many counties. Many markets are evolving from a past in which credit reporting may have been limited to commercial banks, offered by only one service provider, with data only on loan defaults of blacklisted clients and updated infrequently.

Client information must first and foremost be protected, requiring that necessary legislation curtail the potential exploitation or misuse of client information by actors with profit-seeking interests. In fact, client data privacy must be respected with rules that give clients some control, such as access to their records, a way to correct errors, and some say over third party use.

Because of the multiple interests involved, the process of establishing a well-functioning credit reporting system requires sustained coordination among different types of actors. The World Bank and the International Finance Corporation have taken leadership as multinational donors to support this work.

Next week we will discuss Cash Flow Planning and Retirement. Thanks for all your comments and support.

As usual, please send your comments or questions to deputygovernor@ bankofguyana.org.gy

boxes”; loud music emanating from motor vehicles; motor cyclists who remove noise controllers from their machines so as to make loud, deafening noises when they ride; and shops, especially in downtown Georgetown, which place a boom box in their door way or on the adjoining pavement to blare loud and raucous music all day.

The Task Force will enforce the Silent Zones around the Parliament when in session, the Law Courts and the Hospitals; they will also address industrial noises; and will be pioneering in Guyana the use of the available technology to establish and measure noise levels for the purposes of compliance and prosecutions.

It is expected that the Task Force will be properly staffed and funded so it could acquire noise-testing equipment and have a desk, or at least facilities, where members of the public could phone in and report any noise nuisances which could be dealt with immediately.

Noise Pollution which used to be called Noise Nuisances in the very recent

past, is an Environmental factor which insidiously damages the health of both Man and Animal. Noise is measured in decibels or DBS. A level of 80 DBS or lower is safe to live with, but above that one could bear it for some time only before it begins to harm. One could stand 85 DBS for 8 hours; 100 DBS for 15 minutes; and 115 DBS for only 30 seconds.

The most obvious damage of noise pollution is impairment of hearing, eventually leading to deafness. An example of this could be seen in the regular minibus drivers and conductors whose buses play loud music non-stop throughout the day. They cannot easily hear when commuters give them instructions and they all seem to speak louder than normal.

Loud and disparate noises damage one’s psychological health. People who work in industrial establishments which generate a great deal of noise are often in a state of some mental confusion and are often in stress.

Excessive noise leads to cardiovascular effects and increased incidence of coronary artery disease.

Many people who have heart disease could have contracted it from noise pollution.

Loud noises is one of the causes of Hypertension or Blood Pressure and many people would intuitively understand this since loud noises often lead to headaches and the feeling of being “unnerved” One of the worst effects of noise pollution is that it results in poor sleep quality.

If one is not able to sleep well this could affect one’s health in a variety of ways including a drain of energy.

Education was not mentioned among the Task Force main activities.

Educating the public as to the dangers of noise pollution is a key factor in the success of the Task Force. We would therefore enjoin the Task Force to work out a comprehensive programme of education of the dangers of Noise Pollution.

The Guyana Consumers’ Association would like to congratulate the Ministry of Public Security on its establishment of the Task Force and to offer its support to coordinator Deonarine Ramaroop.

From Page 68

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Sunday July 16, 2017

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Guyanese can now access faster internet …as GTT launches ‘+Blaze’ high speed service The Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GTT) yesterday launched its spanking new internet service under the name “Blaze” high speed internet. The new service is being offered in three packages, ‘Ignite’, ‘Flaming’ and ‘Inferno’, with each having its own cost and advantages.

The new service was launched at the Guyana National Stadium, Providence.

Speaking with the media, GTT’s Chief Executive Officer, Justin Nedd, said that the new initiative is an investment in Guyana and that it did not just start with the fibre optic service powering the new ‘Blaze’ high speed internet.

He explained that GTT would have come to Guyana in 1995 and that internet in those days was distributed using satellites. He added that in 2010, the company landed the first submarine cable.

With that cable the company was given the capacity to provide internet to the entire country.

Nedd said that the cost for that project seven years ago was US$25M to US$30M. According to him what the ‘Blaze’ internet is doing is taking the capacity from the shore, removing copper and inserting fibre then moving that capacity into the homes of Guyanese.

He said that so far the cost for the new internet is within the vicinity of US$20M to US$25M. “Many times I

hear people talk about one million and two million US dollars; this is real money.

This is GTT investing in Guyana.”

He said that the cost so far only covers the first phase of the initiative and that additional phases will naturally take the cost up.

Nedd explained that his company contemplated affordability. The installation cost for the new system is

$12,000. With that, customers will receive a high quality device along with an Uninterruptable Power Supply (UPS). He said that these two items coupled with the cost to get GTT staff on the ground to install the items is actually close to US$500.

With that in mind, Nedd reiterated that the ‘Blaze’ high speed internet is indeed an investment which is built (Continued on page 72)

PAGE 72

Acting Deeds Registrar gets October trial date The trial of acting Deeds and Commercial Registrar, Azeena Baksh, who was charged in May for allegedly obtaining monies by false pretence is scheduled to commence on October 23, next, before Magistrate Leron Daly in the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts.

She was in the last trimester of her first pregnancy during her last court appearance.

The charge against her states that while being a member of the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) between May 1, 2014 and January 31, 2017, with intent to defraud, she caused or procured valuable securities to the sum of $4,534,480 to be delivered to her bank of Nova Scotia account #281469; or to her own use and benefit by falsely pretending she was a

Sunday July 16, 2017

Kaieteur News

contracted employee of the Deeds and Commercial Registry Authority.

Baksh, 30, of 343 Eccles, East Bank Demerara, has been released on $250,000 bail.

She is being represented by Attorneyat-Law Nigel Hughes. She was ordered to lodge her passport and report to the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) Headquarters every Friday until the determination of the matter.

The matter was called on Friday when Magistrate Daly fixed the date for trial.

Baksh was absent and her lawyer requested that she be excused.

It was staffers at the Deeds Registry that called upon the Ministry of Legal Affairs to investigate their complaints of alleged financial improprieties

committed by Baksh.

The complaints were referred to the CID Headquarters through C r i m e C h i e f We n d e l l Blanhum. According to the M i n i s t r y, t h e H u m a n Resource and Accounting Departments complained that as Head of the Budget Agency and sole person in authority to approve and sign off the payroll of the Deeds and Commercial Registries Authority and one of the main signatories on the Authority’s Bank Account, the Registrar unlawfully paid herself gratuity.

It is alleged that she did this knowing that she was a pensionable employee, having been appointed by the JSC. “Registrar Baksh further unlawfully paid herself a higher salary than was approved by the

JSC.” The Ministry of Legal Affairs stated that the Deeds Registry officers have disclosed that these payments started since 2014 and continued up to early this year.

The Deeds Registry has also laid over with the Ministry of Legal Affairs, documents revealing that Baksh, out of revenue due, owing and payable to the Authority in or around the sum of $8.5M, unlawfully waived the sum of $7M upon the request of an Attorney-at-Law, who paid only the sum of $1.5M. Baksh is the daughter of Ali Baksh, former Junior Agricultural Minister under the previous administration of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic. She has been a public servant for the past eight years, according to her lawyer.

Guyanese can now...

From page 71 on the belief that every Guyanese deserves fast internet.

He said that the plan to bring this new service was not birthed a few days ago.

Rather, it was in the making to bring it into being years ago. The cable needed to be ordered, shipped to Guyana, installed and then the company had to plan the marketing strategy to reach out to the customers.

Nedd announced that GTT technicians have already begun installing the service to a number of customers who have signed-up. He said that there are about 1000 persons that have the new service.

“This is not something we’re launching and now doing a trial. This is something that we at GTT have installed and tested and we’re receiving testimonials from real customers, not paid, that really say that they enjoy the quality of internet.”

In addition to launching the new internet service, there were a number of companies on display yesterday,

showcasing services which will be enhanced with the new internet service. Companies participating in the event were CAME Automatic Gates, Ditec Automatic Gates and Doors, Innosysgy, Payments.gy, RadioShack, Starr Computer, Moviestar, Richards Wilcox – Garage Doors.

The cost for the ‘Ignite’ plan is $8,999, ‘Flaming’, $10,999 and ‘Inferno’, $13,999.

The Ignite plan affords customers up to five megabytes per second (Mbps) download speed and two megabytes Mbps upload speed. It works best for browsing and streaming content.

For the Flaming plan, the download speed is 20 Mbps and eight Mbps upload speed which allows for browsing, streaming, gaming and multi-device use. As it relates to the Inferno plan, which is the fastest; customers can receive up to 50Mbps download speed and 15Mbps upload speed which performs best for browsing, streaming, gaming and using multiple devices.

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Trump campaign paid lawyer now representing son $50,000 in June WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Donald Trump’s campaign paid $50,000 to the law office now representing Donald Trump Jr. a little more than a week before news surfaced of an unreported meeting with a Russian attorney that has prompted new accusations of

collusion.The payment to the Law Offices of Alan S. Futerfas, dated June 27, was disclosed in a filing with the Federal Election Commission yesterday. It was described as covering “legal consulting” fees.

Trump Jr. admitted to

meeting with a Russian lawyer in New York City during the 2016 presidential campaign after he was told she might have damaging information about his father’s rival, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

The payment was made to

Futerfas’ firm days before the story about the meeting broke, whi c h c a u s e d a scramble inside the White House and Trump Tower to contain it.

The disclosures do not say who Futerfas was hired to represent. Spokes-

men for Trump’s re-election campaign and Futerfas did not respond to requests for comment.

Futerfas was revealed as Trump Jr.’s lawyer on Monday after a New York Times report detailed meetings between the

president’s eldest son and the Russian lawyer. Futerfas has not said when he was hired.

Separately, the campaign also paid more than $538,000 to Jones Day, the law firm that represented Trump’s campaign during the election.

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Merkel tells voters: Brexit, French poll changed my view on Europe ZINGST, Germany (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel told voters yesterday that Britain’s decision to leave the European Union and France’s election of President Emmanuel Macron had changed her view on the bloc, adding it was worth fighting for a stronger Europe.

Merkel’s comments, made in a speech in the Baltic Sea resort town of Zingst two

months before a federal election, underline her personal determination to deepen European integration if she is reelected for a fourth term.

Calling European Union membership one of Germany’s biggest strengths, Merkel said last year’s Brexit decision and elections in France and the Netherlands, in which pro-European parties defeated populist candidates, had changed her perspective.

Iran blames Trump for instability, rejects ‘rogue’ label DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran yesterday blamed what it called Donald Trump’s “arbitrary and conflicting policies” for global security threats, rejecting the U.S. president’s description of Tehran as a rogue state. Tensions between Iran and the United States have heightened since the election of Trump, who has often singled out Tehran as a key backer of militant groups. “(Trump) ought to seek the reason for subversion and rebellion in his own arbitrary and conflicting policies and actions, as well as those of his arrogant, aggressive and occupying allies in the region,” said foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi, quoted by Iran’s state news agency IRNA.

President Trump said last week that new threats were emerging from “rogue regimes like North Korea, Iran and Syria and the governments that finance and support them”. Senior Iranian officials have blamed U.S-allied Saudi Arabia, Iran’s Sunni Muslim regional rival, for instability and attacks in the Middle East, including last month’s assaults that killed 18 people in Tehran. Saudi Arabia has denied involvement in the attacks which were claimed by Islamic state. While Trump has kept up his criticism of Tehran, a senior U.S. official said that the president was “very likely” to state that Iran is adhering to its nuclear agreement with world powers although he continues to have reservations about it.

“For many people, including myself, something changed when we saw the Britons want to leave, when we were worried about the outcome of the elections in France and the Netherlands,” Merkel told

v o t e r s , s o me of whom wore straw h a t s w i t h black-red-and-gold hatbands, the colours of the German flag.

The centre-right chancellor admitted that the EU was far from perfect and

that Brussels sometimes was too bureaucratic.

“But we have realized in the past few months that Europe is more than just bureaucracy and economic regulation, that Europe and living together in the Euro-

pean Union have something to do with war and peace, that the decades of peace after Wo r l d Wa r Tw o w o u l d have been completely unthinkable without the European Union,” Merkel said to applause.

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PAGE 77

Scott’s 72 spurs St Joseph’s to 3rd win (From page 79) Ramsammy on a day in which many of the games were affected by adverse weather condition on 166sq Miles Island, including the game between Oakville Academy of Canada and Sir Everton Weekes Centre of Excellence U-17 which was abandoned at the Gall Hill ground.

St Joseph High’s eightwicket win was their third in four matches as they reached a reduced target of 115 in 30 overs after Queen’s College were bowled out for 145 in 33.5 overs.

Ajani Waterman top-scored with 48 but only Kyode Miller (16) and Dijon Hunte (11) managed to reach double figures as Evan Blair 3-21, Kennard Moonsammy 3-25 and Stephon Wilson 2-25 did the damage with the ball for the Georgetown School.

St Joseph High got to 117-2 in 13.1 overs with Kennard Moonsammy 20 and Quentin Sampson, with an unbeaten 15,

supporting Scott. DiquanAlleyne took 2-33 for QC. At the Windward ground, another First-Class venue in Barbados’ Country side, French Verandah St Vincent Community College beat School of the Nations by 102 runs after they fell for 97 in 30 overs chasing a revived victory target off 200 in 30 overs.

Ramsammy (40) and Suresh Jainarine (20) were the only Guyanese to offer fight as Jeremy Layne (4-12) and Jeremy Haywood (2-10) bowled well for the Vincentians who had earlier made 247-6 in 37 overs.

Romando Browne 82, Zivon Walker 70, Dillon Douglas 37, Rayon Williams 19 and Jeremy Layne 11, all reached double figures.Ariel Tilku (3-51) and Christopher Kowsilla (2-39) were the most successful Guyanese bowlers in a losing effort.

At the Gall Hill ground, the contest between Sir Everton Weekes Centre of Excellence U17 and Oakville CricketAcademy

ended in a no-decision after rain stopped play with the Bajans on 191-5 in 36.4 overs. Hans

Campbell 81, Naje Bishop 34, Damel Evelyn 19 not out, Karim Cozier 17 and Azan Holligan 11,

were the main scorers.

The tournament which attracts teams from all over the

world will resume tomorrow with 10 fifth round matches.

(Sean Devers)

Winston George smashes....

(From page 80) Guyanese Emmanuel Archibald (10.64).

Junior Carifta and South American Youth Championship gold medalist Compton Caesar placed last in heat 2 as he was nursing a niggling injury but wanted to be a brave soldier but it didn’t work out as he limped to the line visibly distressed.

Like George, representing Soca Land, Semoy Hackett won two events, she dominated the Guyana Olympic Association Women 100m and Douglas & Associates 200m races. Hackett was consistent as she won heat 2 of the 100m before storming to victory in the final in 11.16 comfortably

ahead USA’s Tawanna Meadows (11.33) who had won heat 1.

Taking the bronze medal was another T&T athlete, Reyare Thomas (11.34).

Guyanese Brenessa Thompson did not enjoy the best of days as she placed last in the final in 11.87 and this was after finishing second to Hackett in heat 2.

Hackett followed up with victory in the 200m, while setting a New Meet record with a time of 22.79 erasing Thompson’s 2016 mark of 23.08.

Hackette’s countrywoman Thomas took the silver in 23.45 with Bajan Jade Bailey copping the bronze in 23.49.

Hamilton Green Cup now set for Saturday...

Sunday July 16, 2017 ARIES (Mar. 21–Apr. 19) Fitness or weight loss programs will help your self esteem. Update and review your personal investments.

You should be getting into self-improvement projects.

TAURUS (Apr. 20–May 20) Do your best, but don't make too many promises or you may exhaust yourself. Make sure that you get legal matters checked out thoroughly.

Plan events like camping or white water rafting.

GEMINI (May 21–June 20) Health problems may prevail if you haven't been getting enough rest. The experience will be good. Use your creative talent in order to accomplish your goals.

CANCER (June 21–July 22) Be aggressive and colorful, and you will get your way.

Pleasure trips should be on your agenda.

LEO (July 23–Aug. 22) You may blow situations out of proportion when dealing with the one you love. You may find that doing odd jobs around the house will be successful and appreciated by loved ones.

VIRGO (Aug. 23–Sept. 22) Try not to hurt your partner's feelings. If you can mix business with pleasure much can be accomplished. Tempers may flare if you haven't been completely honest about your intentions or your whereabouts.

LIBRA (Sept. 23–Oct. 22) Be cautious while traveling to foreign countries. Listening can be more valuable than being a chatterbox. Think twice before you speak.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23–Nov. 21) You can make money through solid investment plans. Difficulties with older females in your family may turn out to be quite trivial after all.

SAGIT(Nov.22–Dec.21) Do things with your children and avoid situations that make you feel as if you've neglected the ones you love.

CAPRI(Dec.22–Jan.19) Work quietly at your own goals and forget about situations that you can do little about. Depression may put a damper on your day. Your intellectual charm will win hearts and bring opportunities that you least expect.

AQUARIUS(Jan.20–Feb.18) You must use discretion when it comes to lending money or making donations. Learn some new skills that will increase your income. You are best not to nag or criticize.

PISCES (Feb. 19–Mar. 20) Make residential changes that will lift your spirits. Don't overextend your self in order to add luxury items to your entertainment center. Curb any jealous fits if your partner has been flirting with someone else.

(From page 77) of matches.

Other game dates are fixed for August 16 (Leonora Sports Facility), 18 (MSC), 20 and 27 (Leonora Sports Facility).

Amon g t h e s p o n s o r s lending valuable corporate

support so far are: The Ministry of Culture, Youth & Sports, Macorp, BEV Processors, IPA, Techno Mills, Alfro Alphonso, EN e t w o r k s , TCL, Dennis Edwards and the Sparta family, EC Vieira, Prettipaul Singh, Ready Mix, Col

Larry London, BK International, Tent City, Winston Rambarran and Clive Bharatt.

The final of the tournament, which has been sanctioned by the GFF, is fixed for Sunday August 27 at Leonora Sports Facility.

20th Hearts of Oak Masters Annual Holiday...

(From page 76) youths better able to appreciate the rules and regulation of the game, improve their knowledge and skills and understand general sportsmanship and have a better human relationship with others and improve their discipline generally.

The organisers this year is looking to do a few things differently, like offering incentives as a form of encouragement for outstanding performances during the programme.

Certificates and other memorabilia are expected to be given to the participants at the end of the activity.

The HOOMFC is expecting a good response as school is out and the programme has now become a part of the youths annual out of school package.

During the sessions a number of prominent persons are expected to visit and impart their knowledge with the participants during the packed programme.

Once again the HOOMFC is seeking the support of the general public and the business sector for assistance, especially footballs, to make the programme the success it usually is.

Interested persons can make contact with any mem-

ber of the Hearts of Oak Football Club.

However, despite its longevity and tremendous benefits to society, there have been no words of support

from The Guyana Football Federation (GFF) or the National Sports Commission, unlike what is done in Georgetown the organisers informed.

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Kaieteur Sports Week in Review town of Corriverton after moving off from Dundas’ Arch in #74 Village and concluded at Black Wa t e r i n L i n e P a t h E a t Immamdeen’s residence where the ceremony took place.

Leading the officials in attendance was Mayor of Corriverton, Krishenchand Jaichand along with former Mayor Ganesh Gangadin, Town Clerk Monesh Sookram, Winston Roberts - Chairman of the Town’s National Events Committee, Coach of Total Fitness Gym Egbert Jackson as well as Councillors of the Corriverton Town Council and scores of villagers.

Sports Week in Review Despite the present inclement weather affecting some sporting events, the past week still had its full share of events both locally and overseas where Guyanese athletes impressed. As is now customary, we look at the highlights of those making the news.

B’DOS HALT GUYANA’S WINNING STREAK REGAIN TEAM TITLE AFTER 13 YEARS Playing at the Georgetown Club, venue for the Digicel 2017 CASA team tournament, Guyana’s 12 year run came to an end after a rampaging Barbadian unit dominated both the Boys and Girls categories to take the overall title away from the host and defending champs.

The Guyanese Girls were crushed 5-0, while only Caribbean U-15 Champion Shomari Wilshire, who played unbeaten in the tournament, won a match for the Guyanese Boys who were humbled 4-1 by Barbados.

The team from the land of the flying fish began their dominance on South American soil when they captured six of the 10 individuals with Guyanese Taylor Fernandes taking the U-19 Girls crown and Shomari Wilshire showing why he is regarded as the best U-15 squash player in the Caribbean to give Guyana their only two titles. T&T and Cayman Islands took the other two Individual titles.

The Bajans then put the icing on the cake with their team performance.

The next tournament is scheduled for Jamaica.

‘BIG’ JOHN EDWARDS ENDS WITH A BANG WITH MORE GOLD AND RECORDS Big’ John Edwards saved the best for last as the lasting warrior of no mean proportion brought more glory for Guyana at the powerlifting event in Orlando, USA when he cantered to three gold medals and a silver medal.

On the final day of the 16th North American Powerlifting Federation (NAPF) and 32nd South American Powerlifting Federation (FESUPO) Equipped Championships at the Hyatt Regency, Orlando International Airport, Edwards, competing in the 120kg Masters 11 50+ and Open categories was in even more ripping form in the EQUIPPED segment. He powered his way gold medals in the South American and Pan American Masters category.

He also won gold in the South American Open, but had to settle for silver in the Pan American Open c o m p e t i t i o n .

In the two championships, RAW and EQUIPPED, “Big’ John ended with a total of 5 golds and 2 silvers

Edwards proudly displaying the Golden Arrowhead during the medal presentation. t o l e a d G u y a n a ’s h i s t o r i c performance in terms of the most medals ever at an international championship, 33 inclusive of 19 golds.

On his way to dominance, John once again rewrote the record books by setting a new Commonwealth Benchpress record of 220kg, erasing the old mark of 210kg.

The competition featured strongmen and women from 20 nations, from teenagers to lifters bordering on four score years, male and female. Guyana’s young brigade and the others on the team had earlier done well with Edwards closing out an impressive showing.

Players Association/Cricket West Indies held annual awards ceremony in Jamaica.

The Guyana Under-19 and Senior teams were named teams of the year at the awards. Both sides claimed the respective Regional titles last year and were outstanding.

On the Individual list, batsman Roston Chase, who has had an impressive showing recently, copped the lion’s share of the awards (4). Stafanie Taylor shone bright for the ladies. (CMC)

MENDONCA, PERSAUD, PHANG, BAKSH AMONG GT MOTORSPORTS GRAND PRIX CHAMPS

The Community Development Committee of Corriverton in the Ancient County of Berbice, on Sunday last, held a well attended and supported motorcade to honour one of its own, Arif Immamdeen who returned to Guyana with 3-gold medals and one bronze on debut at the 16th Annual NAPF/FESUPO PanAmerican Powerlifting Championships held in Orlando Florida, July 3-8, last.

Competing in the 66kg – Men’s Junior and Open class, Immamdeen lifted his way to gold medals in both categories of the FESUPO competition, gold in the Junior Pan American and bronze in the Open segment to end a successful reign in his first international outing.

He had a best squat of 210kg; bench pressed 117.5kg and deadlift 215.0kg for a total of 542.5kg. In recognition of his outstanding performance, the Corriverton Community Development Committee (CCDC) led by Mr. Linden “Easy’ Murray organised a motorcade and reception for Immamdeen after he arrived back home.

The well attended motorcade, which saw the Guyana Police Force providing escort, went through the

The GT Motorsports last weekend hosted another Georgetown Grand Prix, which showcased the top Karters in action at the GMR&SC. Following much intense rivalry in the 21 races carded for the night, seven competitors were crowned champion drivers for the night in the various categories as the young brigade of motor racers shone forth.

Those coming out tops among the performers on the night were: Paige Mendonca 60CC, Mikhail Persaud 125 CC Juniors, Matthew Phang 125 CC Seniors, Raymond Baksh Easy Cup Rookie, Jean Claude Jeffrey Easy Cup Light, Shan Seejattan Easy Cup Heavy and Carlos Mendonca Shifter Karts.

The event as is usual was well attended.

GUYANESE TEAMS CLAIM TOP HONOURS AT WIPA/CWI ANNUAL AWARDS Guyanese teams claimed top honours when the West Indies

IMMAMDEEN HONORED

BY CORRIVERTON CDC; MAYOR ATTENDS

KEEMO PAUL REPLACES SHIMRON HETMYER IN AMAZON WARRIORS SQUAD The Management of the G u y a n a A m a z o n Wa r r i o r s announced that West Indies Under19 World Cup Champions player Keemo Paul has replaced Shimron Hetmyer ahead of this year’s CPL. Hetmyer, who was initially selected by the Guyana Amazon Warriors as the West Indies Youth Player, will be on West Indies Senior Team duties and as such Paul has been chosen as his replacement.

Paul, who was Hetmyer’s deputy when the West Indies Under-19 team won the Youth World Cup in 2016, made his List A debut in January 2015 playing for the West Indies Under-19s in Tobago.

GAW Operations Manager, Omar Khan said on Keemo’s selection: “We welcome Keemo to the Guyana Amazon Warriors Team for this year’s CPL. He is a very talented and promising player with lots of potential and his allround ability brings more value to our team. This is another of giving young Guyana players opportunities to be part of the biggest party in sport, the CPL, and showcase their skills and talent to the world.”

PAUL IS FIRST V-NET BRAND AMBASSADOR

The Mutilated Kemo Paul was made the first ever brand a m b a s s a d o r f o r V- N e t Communications and according to CEO of V-Net, Safraz Sheriffudeen his Company has been sponsoring Paul since he first saw him in Wakenaam where Sheriffudeen hails from.

Kemo was born on February 21, 1998 to David Paul and Rita Hendricks and grew up in the beach Community of Saxacally in the Essequibo River where he became interested in cricket as a three yearold.

The naming of Paul as Brand Ambassador was done at company’s head office in Delph Street Campbellville. Sheriffuden said his company had made a commitment to Paul many years now to always assist him to develop his game both on and off the field.

V-Net provides satellite internet to remote communities in Guyana and offers a satellite phone service as well and their new brand ambassador will among other duties proudly promote and market the company’s products and services.

In response, the 19 year old Essequibo cricketer said he was overwhelmed to be chosen as brand a m b a s s a d o r o f V- N e t Communications. He thanked the company for the support over the years and said “the bond we share makes us like family.” Paul pledged to represent the company to the best of his ability and to be a good role model for the youngsters through continued hard work.

LTI (BOYS) & MARIAN ACADEMY (GIRLS) TAKE U-19 SCHOOL B/BALL TITLES MARIAN ACADEMY WIN U-14, KWAKWANI TAKE U-16 DIVISIONS The 12th annual National Schools Basketball Championships concluded last weekend at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall with three Boys and one Girls final and when the dust had settled Marian Academy (Continued on page 75)

Keemo Paul (left) accepting the responsibilities of V-New Communications Brand Ambassador from Safraz Sheriffudeen.

Sunday July 16, 2017

Kaieteur News

PAGE 79

Kaieteur Sports Week in Review

Andrew Murray (right) scored five Goals to lead Western Tigers 13-0 win against Black Pearl at GFC on Wednesday night.

(From page 74) (U-14), Kwakwani (U-16), Marian Academy (Girls) and Linden Technical Institute (U-19) were all crowed Champions.

The feature games were the Boys U-19 final involving Marian Academy and LTI and Girls matchup between last year’s finalists Marian Academy and President’s College.

Playing in the last match of the well organsied tournament which was sponsored by Edward B Beharry and Companies Ltd, the National Sports Commission, John Fernandes Ltd and Sterling Product Ltd, LTI got the better of Marian Academy 52-48, in a keenly contested game.

Jada Mohan was virtually a ‘one girl show’ for her team as she had a game high 14 points to help Marian Academy beat President’s College 17-11 to reverse the result of last year’s clash between the two sides.

Marian Academy claimed the U-14 title when they beat Mackenzie High 34-30 with a high quality performance from Marian Academy’s Captain Jether Harris who led his team with 20 points, 13 rebounds and three steals.

Mackenzie High’s best player was Cy Walker who scored 11 points, 4 rebounds.

Kwakwani comfortably won the U-16 title; defeating Marian Academy 42 to 20 points.

Kadeen Dover scored a game high 13 points and defender Nicholoud Lowden had 11 rebounds and five steals, while Isaiah Hintzen top- scored with 10 points, 11rebounds and five steals for the team from Kwakwani.

Josiah Daniels contributed eight points, eight rebounds for the losers.

Director of Sports Christopher Jones made the presentation of Medals and Trophies to the teams in the Girls and Boys U-19 finals.

SEVERAL TEAMS MAKE GOOD START TO NOBLE HOUSE GOALS GALORE INDOOR HOCKEY The Noble House Goals Galore Indoor Hockey Championships saw more high-scoring performances as the Bounty GCC

men and Pizza Hut GCC ladies both made their first appearances with convincing wins, while the Pepsi Hikers continued their dominance to the top of the table.

The opening match of the evening produced high drama for the excited fans as Saints HC beginning with +12 goals needed to hold off the unbeaten GCC Spice (+4) in their debut match.

It took Spice 15 minutes to add to their goal tally but once the breakthrough was made they seemed destined for victory with two more in the half.

As the Spice raced against the clock to close the goal deficit on Saints, national striker, Tekeisha DeLeon drew the loudest noise from the crowd in her heroic defence for Saints, blocking several Spice shots and keeping her team’s hopes alive.

With a hat-trick from Vanessa Pires, doubles each from Tricia Fiedtkou and Tiffany Solomon and a final goal from Dominique DeGroot, GCC Spice managed to draw even with six minutes remaining.

The final buzzer however beat Spice to the line as Saints erupted in jubilation at holding the pool leaders to a 12-12 draw. In the other ladies clash of the evening, the most senior side in the tournament, Pizza Hut GCC boasting a litany of national players got past the babies of the tournament, Spartans by 1713.

The always entertaining Pepsi Hikers strolled to a 17-12 victory over SHC New Tricks in the opening men’s match of the evening.

With New Tricks beginning on a plus 12 goal advantage, the Hikers dominated from end to end and gave a masterful demonstration of hockey to their young rivals.

Bounty GCC had a productive evening, winning both of their matches, first, a 19-14 win over the HHC Recruits followed by a 17-12 triumph over SHC Old Dogs.

The young Old Fort Warriors created the upset of the evening in their men’s clash against veteran’s GCC Vintage. With the Warriors enjoying a handicap of 20 goals to t h e Vi n t a g e ’s 6 , t h e y {Warriors}had to use their youth and speed to hold off their

experienced opponents to less than 7 goals per half. Vintage were able to score four goals in the last ten minutes of the match but still fell two goals short of catching the Warriors which went on to celebrate a 20-18 victory.

‘TIGERS’ DEVOUR BLACK PEARL 13-0; CAMPTOWN NEEDLE GFC; POLICE TROUNCE BEACONS 14-1 The Petra organised Top Brands Corona Invitational football competition at the Georgetown Football Club (GFC) ground saw Western Tigers, led by five goals from the crafty Andrew Murray, devouring Black Peal 13-1 and Police Football Club overpowered Beacons 14-1 in one-sided games, while Camptown squeezed past host GFC 1-0 in the other match.

Tigers were ruthless in ripping Black Pearls to shreds. The boys in yellow and black dominated possession and fired shots to goal at will as they roared to a 7-0 lead at half-time.

Black Pearl spent most of the opening stanza in their own half and even when they managed to get the ball they quickly lost it as the West Ruimveldt based Tigers demonstrated far superior skill and

ball control in soggy and slippery conditions.

The second half began just as the first half with the Tigers’ Goalie at times sitting on the ground with nothing to do.

The second match was keenly competed as Camptown got past GFC 1-0. Oziel Small found the back of the nets with four minutes to half time.

The feature match saw Police FC romping to a huge 14-1 win over Beacons who were down 8-0 at half time. Quincy Holder scored four goals (7th, 37th, 39th, 45th) in the first half while Athio Wallace netted in the 21st minute and three in the second (47th, 70th, 78th), Dwain Jacobs (72nd, 81st), Jermaine Granderson (13th) and Stephan Ramsey (34th, 84th, 42nd) doing the damage for Police.

CALVIN MING PODIUMS IN IOWA Calvin Ming continued his good performances with another one at the Iowa Oval Speedway last weekend.

Starting in second position, Ming held the position for over 40 laps in the USF2000 Series.

However, in the process of passing some back markers he chose the high line, while his teammate Rinus

Girls champs Marian Academy with Director of Sports Christopher Jones. (Sean Devers photo)

VeeKay was on the lower inside line which provided him with the opportunity to overtake Calvin going into turn one.

Oliver Askew won ahead of Rinus VeeKay in second with Calvin Ming third.

GTT PROVIDES SUPPORT TO FRUTA CONQUERORS FC YOUTH FOOTBALL CAMP GTT made a donation of 20 footballs to the Fruta Conquerors Football Club (FCFC) which is hosting its 10th Annual Football Youth Camp.

The presentation of the balls followed a request made by the club to the company. GTT’s, Public Relations Officer, Ms Alison Parker said that the presentation of the balls is a demonstration of the company’s support for initiatives at the grassroots and community levels which provides the platform for the energy and talent of youths to be channeled in a positive direction.

In accepting the balls on the club’s behalf, Secretary, Mr. Daniel Thomas expressed thanks to GTT for supporting a programme that engages the youths of the several communities in a productive manner.

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Sunday July 16, 2017

Kaieteur News

20th Hearts of Oak Masters Annual Holiday Football camp starts tomorrow The Annual Hearts of Oak Masters Football Club (HOOMFC) “teach them Young� football School Holiday camp will be staged this year from tomorrow to Friday 18th August 2017.

The activity which is arguably one of Guyana

premiere School holiday activities will be held at the Scot Church ground, Princess Elizabeth road New Amsterdam and the nearby Prison Officers Sports Club and the All Saints Primary School.

The programme, which

is in its 20th year, will be held five days weekly from Mondays - Fridays from 09:00hrs -13:00 hrs.

T h e o rg a n i s e r s a r e catering for youths from age six years and up and will be targeting both boys and girls.

During the camp the

youths will be taught the finer points of the game which included both theory and practical. The programme also caters for the developing of their interpersonal skills and relationship.

The practical sessions

will entail showing the youngsters the various ways in receiving, passing, shooting, taking, dribbling, goalkeeping and throwing the football among other points. The youths are also expected to be schooled in discipline, etiquette, good

table manners and general education which will also include session on HIV and AIDS. Physical fitness will also be an integral part of the sessions.

The main aim of the programme is to have the (Continued on page 73)

Sunday July 16, 2017

Kaieteur News

PAGE 81

Hamilton Green Cup now set for Saturday July 22 kick off The Hamilton Green Cup Knockout Football tournament has now been set to kick off on July 22 with a double header at the Victoria Ground on the East Coast of Demerara after the original start last weekend was reset.

Coordinator Lennox Arthur, the former National footballer and Coach, informed that despite a few setbacks things are going ahead. He is still seeking corporate support even as a few persons and entities have come forward.

Arthur noted that the

Lennox Arthur winner of the tournament will receive the Minister of Citizenship Trophy and $500,000. The runner-up

claims $250,000 and the Busta Trophy, third place $150,000 and the John Fernandes Trophy and fourth $100,000 and the Cummings Electrical Trophy.

The MVP will receive the Prime Minister’s Trophy; the Best Goalkeeper collects the Sterling Products Trophy, while winners will be presented with Hampers from Ricks and Sari products.

Opening action on July 22 at Victoria pits Mahaica against Santos at 6:00pm in the curtain raiser, while the

Guinness ‘Greatest of the Streets’ National Playoffs

New king was expected to be crowned last evening; Money Team eliminate Sparta Boss

Quarter Final rivalry as it unfolded on Friday night at the Pouderoyen Tarmac.

Despite having more entries that any other zone, no Georgetown team will be in the reckoning for any of the prize monies after suffering defeats in the latest r o u n d o f t h i s y e a r ’s Guinness ‘Greatest of the Streets’ National Playoffs which continued on Friday evening, at the Pouderoyen M a r k e t Ta r m a c , We s t D e m e r a r a .

The biggest upset came when defending champion Sparta Boss was eliminated by the Money Team, going down 1-0 in a penalty shootout after regulation time ended 0-0. The Money Team employed a defensive strategy that paid off in the end, creating very few chances in what was a clear approach to send the game into penalty kicks.

T h e y, h o w e v e r, w e r e outhustled by Hustlers in the quarter-finals, losing 2-0 which in effect ruined their dreams of moving on to the business end of the competition. Earlier, the other Georgetown entrant

Back Circle, who were the inaugural champions, also exited the tournament following a 2-0 loss to H u s t l e r s .

In the other preliminary games, Plaisance survived 32 in a penalty shootout against Broad Street after their clash finished 0-0 in regulation time, while West Demerara champions Showstoppers stopped the advance of Bartica champions River View by defeating them 3-1.

In the first quarter-final, Showstoppers cruised past Plaisance 3-0 with an own goal, Marvin Josiah and Kayode King accounting for the team’s goals in the 9th, 15th and 24th minutes. In the other quarter-final, Hustlers led by strikes from Anthony Sancho in the 10th and Jahal Greaves in the 15th beat M o n e y Te a m 2 - 0 .

Hustlers and Showstoppers joined Dave & Celena All Stars and Swag Entertainment out of Linden in last night’s semi-finals and final at Demerara Park,

Thirst Park. The winning team will receive $550,000 and the coveted trophy, runners-up $300,000 and trophy, while third and fourth placed finishers will take home $200,000 and $100,000 respectively. riday night’s full results: Plaisance 0 versus Broad Street 0: Plaisance won 3-2 on penalty kicks.

Showstoppers 3 vs. River View 1: Showstoppers scorers - Marvin Josiah 2nd, 21st, Stephon Jupiter 30th.

R i v e r Vi e w s c o r e r Shaquille Hopkinson 10th.

Money Team 0 vs Sparta Boss 0: Money Team won 10 penalty shootout.

Back Circle 0 vs Hustlers 2: Hustlers scorers - Kwame Holder 10th, Own Goal 24th.

Quarter-finals: Showstoppers 3vs Plaisance 0: Showstoppers scorers - Own Goal 9th, M. Josiah 15th, Kayode King 2 4 t h .

Money Team 0 vs Hustlers 2: Hustlers scorers - A. Sancho 10th, J. Greaves 15th.

nightcap will see Ann’s Grove challenging Pele.

The tournament continues the very next day at the same venue and times with Golden Grove battling Uitvlugt to be followed by

Buxton Bakewell against Den Amstel.

Action swings to the Mackenzie Sports Club (MSC) in Linden on July 26 from 6:00pm with Milerock opposing Police and Silver

Shattas tackling Western Tigers. On July 28 again at the MSC ground, Winner’s Connection face Kuru Kururu, while Eagles battle GFC in the opening salvo (Continued on page 73)

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Sunday July 16, 2017

Kaieteur News

Regional U17 cricket

Ali grabs 6-9

Trinidad and Tobago romp to 8-wkt win over Guyana at Queen’s Park Oval

By Zaheer Mohamed in Trinidad and Tobago In association with V Net Communications, Mike’s Pharmacy, 4R, Regal Stationery and Computer Centre and Ramchand’s Auto Spares.

Guyana batsmen did their talent a terrible injustice as they were skittled for a paltry 38 against Trinidad and Tobago who remained at the top of the points table with an eight-wicket win at Queen’s Park Oval as the regional U17 50-over tournament continued yesterday.

The pitch wasn’t bad, nor the ball did anything extraordinary, but the lack of application was the main

reason for their downfall as they were bowled out for 38 in 22.3 overs; the lowest total ever by any Guyana team at the youth level.

Opener Alex Algoo stroked pacer Jayden Seales through cover for four to get the innings going after Guyana decided to bat. But Trinidad and Tobago struck in the second over as Sachin Singh edged pacer Ronaldo Forrester to wicket-keeper Leonardo Julien to depart without scoring. Algoo was then caught at gully off Jayden Seales for five as Guyana were reduced to 6-2.

Junior Sinclair and Kevlon Anderson took the score to 25 with Sinclair taking consecutive boundaries off Forrester.

Sameer Ali (2nd from left) is being congratulated after taking another wicket.

Leg spinner Sameer Ali and left arm spinner Nicholas Ali came on after 10 overs and shared eight wickets between them as Guyana were bowled out before lunch.

Anderson, the only batsman to reach double figures, became the first of

Sameer Ali’s victim for 15 before Alphius Bookie was lbw to Nicholas Ali without scoring.

Kevlon Anderson was then caught at first slip for four off Sameer Ali as Guyana were reduced to 265.

The batting woes continued as Kevin Christian (04) played back to Nicholas Ali and was lbw, while Lance Roberts was taken at slip without scoring, leaving the score at 34-7.

Skipper Ashmead Nedd was

dropped by Sameer Ali but played back the very next ball and was bowled for six.

Gevon Schultz (01) and Qumar Torrington (00) soon followed as Sameer Ali finished with 6-9 from 6.3 overs, Nicholas Ali 2-5, Forrester 1-11 and Seales 113.

Nedd and Kevin Umora shared the new ball for Guyana; Nedd had Julien taken at the wicket off the second ball without a run on the board.

But Mbeki Joseph and

Michael Amband added 30 for the second wicket before Joseph, who struck Sinclair and Umroa for boundaries, was caught at short midwicket off Sinclair for 23 off 29 balls. Amband remained unbeaten on 12, w h i l e Av i n a s h Mahabirsingh made four not out as Trinidad and Tobago finished on 39-2 in 17 overs.

Nedd took 1-16 off nine overs. Guyana will now play Jamaica at the said venue today.

Sunday July 16, 2017

Kaieteur News

PAGE 83

GTT sponsored Tapeball competition bowls off with East Coast Zone

Some 60-teams will be involved in the GTT sponsored Tapeball cricket competition which bowled off yesterday at the National Park Tarmac with teams from the East Coast of Demerara battling for four places in the next round.

GTT CEO Justin Nedd bowled the ceremonial ball to signal the start of what is anticipated to be a keenly fought competition as teams would not get a second chance to shine since it will

be played on a knock-out f o r m a t .

Nedd, in brief remarks following the bowl off, informed that the competition signals his company getting back into the community with this tournament that kicks off the CPL 2017 season reminding that his company is the proud sponsor of the Guyana A m a z o n Wa r r i o r s .

He said that over $350,000 in prizes will be at stake for the top performers in the

GTT CEO Justin Nedd (center) officially bowls off the competition in the presence of the East Coast Teams and GTT staff members yesterday at the National Park Tarmac. competition which will continue today at the same venue with the Georgetown Z o n e m a t c h e s .

”I encourage all to enjoy, have a good time, clean fun, s u p p o r t t h e Wa r r i o r s , support GTT, this is GTT

Kaysan Ninvalle is Table Tennis’ special talent Kaysan Jamil Ninvalle is not your usual 12-year-old.

He is big boned (5’5 “and 145 pounds), a big eater and can already find his way around while alone in a vehicle. Though he tends to be reticent when among the media, those who are familiar with the Taurusborn Ninvalle would tell of his gabby and humourous side.

But those traits are not what the pre-teen is known nationally for.

In fact if you mention pre-cadet table tennis in the English speaking Caribbean his name is bound to come up. Ninvalle has been creating waves ever since he picked up his first racquet some seven years ago.

To d a y h e i s t h e Caribbean 11-Under champion, won a bronze medal in the World Hope Camp and is now preparing to spar with the best 13Under in the Caribbean next month.

“I love playing tennis. I play almost every day and I don’t get fed up,” Ninvalle had said in a previous interview.

So enthusiastic and fearless is the big hitting raising star that he is known to frequently roam between the Under-15 to Under -21 categories is search of competition.

Back in 2009, Kaysan’s elder brother Khalil was a hot commodity on the precadet scene and so the former involvement in the sport became a natural progression. In view of their obvious passion the boys were rewarded with a new tennis table by their parents.

Sibling rivalry was

Kaysan Ninvalle settled on the table from then on and even though Khalil would have the upper hand in the first two years, his younger brother improved with every game. Soon after Kaysan, a pupil of Mae’s School at that time, was winning competitions held at the school and at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall.

Coached by “Sir Muniram” he made easy work of the novice category and sounded a warning when, as the youngest member of Team Guyana, he copped a bronze medal at the Caribbean Championships held here in 2013.

Better things were yet to come.

In 2016, at just 10 years old, the offensive player won the national 11 and Under and National 13 and Under titles.

He narrowly missed out on making the triple after having to settle for runner up in the 15 and Under category.

For that exploit Ninvalle was rechristened ‘The Baby Faced Assassin’ in one section of the local press. He

soon after travelled to Jamaica and won two silver medals in the Team 13 and Under category and polished off a sublime performance by winning Guyana’s only singles gold medal at the tournament.

For this he was offered a full scholarship at Chase Academy. So impressive was his showing in Jamaica that the local Table Tennis ‘Assassin’ became the first Guyanese selected for the prestigious World Hope Training Camp which was being held in Peru.

Battling the best in Latin America, the young Guyanese returned home with a hard-earned bronze medal even though he fell and injured his knee the night before the competition.

His coach of years Linden Johnson believes that Ninvalle has special talent.

“Kaysan is one of our brightest prospects. He is one of the smartest and disciplined players around.

He learns fast and is a quick thinker. He also listens attentively when being coached,” Johnson said. “We are now looking to move him up to the next level and prepare him for the 2022 youth Olympics, but first he will have the Caribbean Championships in Jamaica,” Johnson disclosed.

Ninvalle, a first form student is not about sport alone.

He has managed to stay focused on his academics also and last term achieved an 80 percent average. “My parents always tell me about the importance of being rounded so even though I train for tennis I also have to

do my studies,” the national athlete stated.

“I just try to do the best I can. I train very hard; sometimes six days a week.

Tennis means a lot to me and I want to be the best,” the Caribbean champion declared.

Highly animated and vociferous when in competition mode, young Ninvalle acknowledged that his crowning moment was when he was voted 2016 Junior Sports Man of the Year. He was still 11 years old at that time and became the youngest to have received that award. “I was going up against several big names so I was a bit nervous.

I almost couldn’t believe when my name was called,” he opined.

He admitted that the pressure has stepped up since he won Guyana’s only Gold at the Caribbean Championships but is confident that there is nothing himself and coach Johnson are unable to handle.

“Right now I am preparing for Jamaica (Caribbean Pre-Cadet) but my goal is to represent Guyana at the Olympics and win a medal. I think I can do that,” the `Baby Faced Assassin declared.

Ninvalle credited his success to the inputs of father Steve and mother Noel, coach Linden Johnson, his brother Khalil, and his grandmother Claire, uncles Andy and Cassius and Aunt Pamela Evelyn, Mayfield Rodrigues and Michelle (Gail Ann) Robinson who have always been there in times of need.

d o i Each seven overs

n g m o r e . ” team comprises of (7) players in the 5competition which

will continue next Saturday and Sunday and conclude on Sunday July 30.

(F. Wilson)

Sir Garfield Sobers International schools cricket

Scott’s 72 spurs St Joseph’s to 3rd win School of the Nations lose again Playing at the Foursquare ground, a First-Class cricket venue in rural Barbados in overcast conditions, Guyana’s St Joseph High School were spearhead by a delightful 72 from Jeremiah Scott as his school successfully chased down the paltry 115 made Queen’s College of Barbados on day four of the 31st annual Sir Garfield Sobers 40-overs I n t e r n a t i o n a l S c h o o l ’s cricket tournament on Friday.

School of the Nations, the other Guyanese School in the tournament, did not fare as well; losing to French Ve r a n d a h S t Vi n c e n t

Mark Ramsammy Community College despite 40 from the consistent Mark Continued on page 73)

t r o Sp Winston George smashes national 400m record, also wins 200m 2017

T&T’s Semoy Hackett wins Women 100m, 200m; Bajan Codogan upsets Collins & Callendar Bajan Olympian Levi Codogan (10.24) beats fellow Olympian Kim Collins (10.28) to the gold medal in the Men 100m final and a new meet record; Antiguan Tahir Walsh (10.29) took bronze. (Franklin Wilson photo)

T&T’s Semoy Hackett (4th left) powers to the gold medal in the Women 100m final in 11.16 ahead of the USA’s Tawanna Meadows (11.33) and countrywoman Reyare Thomas (11.34). (Franklin Wilson photo) -

George coasts to the gold medal, a new national and meet record of (45.16) in the 400m.

(Franklin Wilson photo)

By Franklin Wilson O l y m p i a n Wi n s t o n George proved yet again that he is a fierce competitor on home soil when he smashed his own National record enroute to a commanding victory in the Quality Plus 400m yesterday when the 2nd annual Aliann Pompey Invitational Track and Field Meet came off at the Leonora Track and Field Facility on the West Coast

Demerara.

Urged on by a fair sized and appreciative crowd which included Minister of Education the Honourable N i c o l e t t e H e n r y, w h o declared the Meet open and representatives of the many sponsors, George, competing in Heat 1 of two in the 400m cruised to victory and the gold medal in 45.16, a New National and Meet record.

George, who is set to

a t t e n d t h e Wo r l d Championships in London in a few weeks, easily crossed the line ahead of fellow Guyanese Stephan James (46.73) and Jamaica’s Jonia Mc Donald (47.02s) who had to settle for the silver and bronze; both athletes also ran in Heat 1.

George was still hungry for more success and returned to further underline his class when he stormed to victory in the final event of

the Meet; the James Wren Gilkes sponsored 200m in 20.41s.

So commanding was George’ win that he relegated T&T 2017 National champion and fellow Olympian Emmanuel Callender to the silver medal with a time of 20.77, while Barbados’ Nicholas Deshong held on for the bronze medal in 21.23 just ahead of Stephan James who placed fourth in 21.29s.

The eagerly anticipated Banks DIH Men 100m saw a dark horse in Barbadian Olympian Levi Codogan upsetting pre-race favourites and fellow Olympians Kim Collins and Emmanuel Callender to win the showdown not in a sub-10 time but a new Meet record of 10.24 to erase last year time of 10.25 which was set

by Phil De Rosier.

Collins had to settle for the silver medal with his

time of 10.28s, while Antigua and Barbuda’s Tahir Walsh sneaked in to take the bronze medal along with Callender who both clocked 10.29s.

In the 100m heats, Callender had won the first in 10.33 ahead of Tahir (10.43) and Bermudian Tre Houston (10.53), while Collins had headlined heat 2 in a time of 10.37 trailed by Codogon (10.48) and (Continued on page 73)

Guinness ‘Greatest of the Streets’ National Playoffs

New king was expected to be crowned last evening; Money Team eliminate Sparta Boss Printed and published by National Media & Publishing Company Limited, 24 Saffon St.Charlestown, Georgetown.Tel: 225-8465, 225-8491 or Fax: 225-8473/ 226-8210