Kaieteur News

Sunday June 02, 2013

Kaieteur News

Page 3

Questionable $3.6M TVG contract…

National Assembly to hear details on Learning Channel The establishment of the country’s Learning Channel and a questionable multimillion dollar contract that was granted to broadcast its programmes, is being investigated by Parliamentary Opposition party, the Alliance For Change (AFC).

AFC Member of Parliament Catherine Hughes has written Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand, asking for related information.

In the letter dated May 20th, Hughes asked the Minister to provide the National Assembly with a copy of the agreement or contract between the Government of Guyana and Television Guyana Inc. (TVG) pertaining to the use of TVG’s teleport/transmission facilities to broadcast the Learning Channel.

TVG is owned by Dr. Ranjisinghi ‘Bobby’ Ramroop, best friend of former President, Bharrat Jagdeo, who has been at the centre of controversy over a number of lucrative government contracts and concessions to his companies.

The Opposition has said that the Learning Channel, being broadcast on Channel 80, was launched in April 2011, and since then $3.6M monthly has been paid for TVG to air the programmes.

But there seems to be no indication that the government attempted to find out whether any other companies also had the capacity to air the programmes.

Government had said that NCN was not interested in the offer by the Learning Channel, also a state company, to transmit the programmes.

Hughes, in her letter, requested information on when the tender for the provision of broadcasting services was advertised and in which media.

She also asked: “How much money has been paid over to Television Guyana Inc. (TVG) to date for the provision of these services?

AFC MP, Catherine Hughes

Education Minister Priya Manickchand

Dr. Ranjisinghi ‘Bobby’ Ramroop

Former President Bharrat Jagdeo

What is the duration of this contract/contractual arrangement - yearly, monthly or indefinite?”

The AFC officials also wanted to know the number of staffers of the Learning Channel and specific information on which communities they are from.

“Does the Learning Channel (the Company) possess its own satellite receivers/dishes? If yes, in which geographical location/ communities are they located? If yes, when were these purchased? From whom were they purchased and at what cost? Would the Honourable Minister provide copies of such purchase agreements?”

AFC also demanded answers on the number of antennas in use by the Learning Channel and details of the geographical areas that these are located.

There were also questions whether the Learning Channel was utilising equipment of Digicel

or GT&T or “any other network for the broadcast of its programming”.

In April, Jaipaul Sharma, a Member of Parliament of A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), the largest Opposition bloc in the National Assembly, queried the operations of the Channel.

Minister Manickchand later disclosed that TVG was being paid $3.6M. “The Guyana Learning Channel has the use of a teleport that was created at the time of its set-up since there was no other teleport capable of up-linking video signals in existence in Guyana before or since,” Manickchand said in response to questions raised

by Sharma.

According to the Minister, every wireless communication device utilises electro-magnetic spectrum and the Learning Channel has minimised use of the electro-magnetic spectrum by reusing the same channel in different regions of the country such as Channel 3 in New Amsterdam, Lethem, Mabaruma and Ituni; and Channel 10 in Kwakwani, Orealla, Linden and Port Kaituma.

She said that for the Learning Channel to send the signal to the satellite, it would have had to set up a commensurate service that would have required an initial capital outlay of US$150,000 (Continued on page 13)

A mini health check is the first step to donating blood

Page 4

Kaieteur News

Kaieteur M@ilbox

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

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

Genetically Modified Foods We must thank the anonymous individual who alerted us to the rather discreet ad placed in the “Independence” issue of our newspaper by the EPA, under the aegis of the Ministry of National Resources and the Environment, inviting “views on the Draft National Biosafety, Biotechnology & Biosecurity Policy”. As the writer pointed out, this is a matter of such importance, that surely the two institutions could have used a more publicised route, such as a press conference, to make its request.

Be as it may, as the perspicacious writer also noted, it does seem to be rather late in the day to begin consultations on a document evidently prepared since 2005 and which is supposed to form the basis of “Guyana biotechnology vision 2015”. Much water, not to mention the genetically modified (GM) organisms living in that water, has flown under the bridge since 2005. For instance, in the US, which is the epicentre of the drive of GM foods into the production chain, their FDA is expected to imminently approve a genetically modified salmon for sale in stores. The salmon has some genes from a different type of salmon but also one from another species altogether - an eel - that will make it grow faster and larger than regular Atlantic Salmon.

Two days ago, the huge Target chain in the US joined fifty-eight other large retailers that have refused to sell the salmon if approved by the FDA. In the meantime, a Congressional committee is reviewing a Bill that would outlaw GM salmon entirely. The major concerns about the super-sized salmon are that its bioengineered genes could enter the natural environment and outcompete the natural species and kill them off. However, if the fish is approved, the salmon could be the first of some 30 other species of GM fish under development, including tilapia and trout.

Researchers are also working to bring GM cows, chickens and pigs to market. While there has been GM corn, soya beans, cotton and canola oils in the market for years now, the salmon would represent the first animal product to enter the food chain. However, in the US, unknown to most of the public, about seventy percent of their processed foods now contain elements of GM foods, and this statistic is behind the movement to have such foods be labelled.

The U.S. government insists that GM crops are safe, resist disease better, and can provide much-needed food in starving nations. But interestingly, the EU holds that the risk of genetically modified foods to health and the environment outweigh the benefits, and they are determined to keep them out.

The EU maintains that only the multinational biotech companies will benefit, dominating the world food supply and squeezing out traditional farmers. It is not coincidental that the U.S. is the largest producer of genetically modified crops, led by companies such as Monsanto.

The risks identified by researchers from GM foods include the introduction of allergens and toxins to food; accidental contamination between genetically modified and non-genetically modified foods; antibiotic resistance; adversely changing the nutrient content of a crop and the creation of “super” weeds and other environmental risks.

On the other hand, the boosters of GM foods boast that the new crops have increased pest and disease resistance; are drought tolerant and will increase the food supply.

All of the benefits claimed have been challenged, and cynics point out that the major beneficiary of the assertions of pest and disease resistance has been Monsanto, which created the GM products as well as the herbicide Roundup which can now be applied in higher dosages, allowing farmers to remove weeds without harming the crop. Unlike what Monsanto promised, US use of Roundup rose by 10% since its introduction. Guyana has long been using Roundup and we can see that there will be pressures to use Monsanto’s GM corn and Soya seeds in the projects to develop our intermediate savannahs’ agricultural potential. There is now an urgent need for a debate on our Biosecurity policy.

Sunday June 02, 2013

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

Jagdeo’s theory is pure nonsense DEAR EDITOR, As a person who grew up in dirt poverty, I would be the last person to criticize someone who did not achieve a sound university education.

I would never go in that direction. But if Bharrat Jagdeo had skipped his mediocre exposure to learning at Patrice Lumumba University in the USSR and entered a programme in Guyanese history he would never have uttered the appalling absurdity that the colonial system didn’t want Guyanese Indians to send their children to school It could not have been a historian that told Jagdeo that. No Guyanese who

passed through a course in Guyanese history would utter such nonsense as Jagceo did at the funeral service of Reepu Daman Persaud.

Going back to slavery, many plantation owners exposed their house slaves to the arts, literature and music.

Quentin Tarantino’s screenplay of Django in which Samuel Jackson played a house slave with privileged access to his owner’s resources is in fact a historical portrayal of how special was the treatment given to many house slaves. There were plantation owners who wanted to make their house slaves the inheritors of western culture.

So abominable is Mr. Jagdeo’s theory that the colonials rejected schooling for the children of the locals that UG’s History Department should have call on him to apologize. The colonials brought Christian missionaries with them to teach English and Christianity to the colonial subjects, in other words, to indoctrinate them in the epistemology of western culture. One may choose to disagree with the proselytization of the Christian missionaries but the effect of this conversion was the education of the colonial subjects Thirdly, it made no sense keeping the children of the colonies out of school

because the colonial rulers wanted an educated civil service that would run the lower rungs of the colonial bureaucracy. It made life easier for colonial bureaucrats who would prefer the locals to do the more menial tasks in the civil service. It is a horrible demonstration of ignorance of Mr Jagdeo’s part to say that the colonials didn’t want to have Indian children go to school when they in fact set up the prestigious Queen’s College at which a poor Indian boy, Cheddi Jagan, got his break.

In contrast to the civilizing mission of the Christians in the Third World, India is where (Continued on page 5)

Sunday June 02, 2013

Kaieteur News

Kaieteur M@ilbox

Page 5

Kaieteur M@ilbox

Enough is enough. Stop the mayhem on our roads!

DEAR EDITOR, For the past two months driving everyday in Guyana, I have had the opportunity to witness the reckless, irresponsible way most drivers here abuse the privilege of having a driver’s license. On a weekly basis, photographs of vehicular accidents dominate the pages of the print media, and much too often, innocent passengers on minibuses and pedestrians are the victims.

How many more road fatalities must this country endure? How many more grieving families must suffer the loss of a loved one? How many more children must grow up without a mother or father?

Enough is enough. It is time to stop the mayhem on our roads.

My sincere condolences

to the family of the latest tragedy: Xue Fang Feng, who was killed last Friday afternoon by a speeding taxi, as she attempted to cross Mandela Avenue.

I am appalled at the reckless way some motorists drive with total disregard for the safety of pedestrians, many of whom are forced to walk on the street because the sidewalks are taken over by the vendors.

Over the years, I have followed the plight of commuters who depend on minibuses for transportation.

And now, I have seen the intimidation and abuse of passengers by drivers and conductors as they aggressively pack their buses, and race recklessly through traffic. Although the Police Traffic Department is well aware of this violation that

risks the lives and safety of passengers, more traffic cops are needed on the roads to deter drivers from speeding and operating overcrowded vehicles. How many more road fatalities and injuries involving reckless driving; speeding; and driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI) must we endure before the Police Traffic Department declares a “No Tolerance” for such behavior, and deal severely with those who seem determined to violate these laws?

The following suggestions will greatly decrease severe accidents that usually result in death and injury: 1. All main roads must be properly marked with reflector paint to separate lanes, and to clearly identify both edges of the road.

2. Appropriate guard rails must be constructed at all dangerous turns, to prevent vehicles running off

Dog fighting is a crime DEAR EDITOR, I was appalled and disgusted to read the article in the Kaieteur News on May 27, regarding the dog fighting incident. Had it not been for one of the perpetrators being killed, this horrible crime would not have been brought to light. Dog fighting is a crime and should be treated as such by the proper authorities and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. It is a tragedy that these innocent animals have

to endure such pain, suffering and even death because people engage in this blood sport for financial gains or to satisfy their sadistic urges.

Hurting animals for human pleasure or gain is despicable.

These defenseless animals have no choice and cannot protect themselves from these monsters, mainly living isolated on chains or locked in cages.

How can anyone with a shred of decency watch a couple of innocent dogs fight

for their lives and not feel an ounce of remorse. Dog fighting is morally wrong, cruel, inhumane and unacceptable. Aren’t dogs supposed to be man’s best friend? Is there no empathy or compassion left in mankind towards animals? For God’s sake stop torturing the dogs.

One is left wondering, who are the real animals...... the creatures inside the ring, or the creatures outside the ring.

Joyce Gomes Vancouver, BC, Canada

Jagdeo’s theory is pure...

From page 4 Mr. Jagdeo’s theory is more visible. The Indian caste system shut out education for the lower castes who they considered too dark to be civilized.

In fact, the Indian caste system frowned upon the education of the lower castes especially dark skilled Indians because ideologically the upper caste categories would have viewed these people as being unfit to be educated. One of the criticisms of Mahatma Gandhi was his acceptance of the caste system.

The Dalits, who belong to the lower caste groups, never forgave Gandhi for this attitude of his Sigmund Freud was at work in the mind of Mr. Jagdeo when he addressed his East Indian audience.

Instead of painting a picture of education denial by the colonials, it was Mr. Jagdeo’s ancestors in India who rejected an education for the lower classes. One of the

mistakes Kean Gibson made in her book, “The Cycle of Racial Oppression” was to apply the morbidities of the caste system to the PPP without modification.

The book should have been applied to the East Indians in Guyana not specifically the PPP This was the sad weakness in her book. Her scholarship on the Indian caste system as contained in two of her books (the other being “Sacred Duty” are great scholarly material on the Indian caste system. Where she went wrong was to say that the acceptance of the caste system by the PPP has allowed the PPP to see Africans as an inferior race to be extirpated The PPP evolved

differently from the way Gibson portrayed it.

There was never a specific Hindu hegemony in the PPP but an Indian domination mentality. So there were Muslim and Christian leaders in the PPP who saw African Guyanese with the same contempt and venom as Hindus in the P P P t h a t practiced the caste system.

Gibson’s theory that the Hindu caste system was the essential biology of the PPP played into the hands of Janet Jagan because Gibson’s paradigm would not have included Mrs. Jagan who in fact was the de facto head of the race ideology in the PPP. Mrs. Jagan was neither Hindu nor East Indian Frederick Kissoon

the road resulting in serious injury to the occupants or to pedestrians.

3. Install adequate street lights and signs on all main roads.

4. Impound all animals found roaming the streets, and impose a heavy fine on the owners.

5. Increase the presence of traffic officers armed with radar guns on long stretches of roads, where motorists are more inclined to exceed the speed limit.

6. Introduce a progressive fine for motorists found guilty of speeding. For example: If the current fine for a motorist exceeding the speed limit is $10,000, he/she will pay that amount if the speed limit is exceeded by one to eight KM. The fine goes up to $15,000 if the offender’s speed exceeds the limit by eight-16 KM, and to $20,000 if the speed is exceeded by 16-24 KM. Speeds in excess of 24 kilometers carries a mandatory fine of $20,000 with the suspension of the offender’s license.

7. Introduce a

“points” system for Moving Violations. A “moving violation” is when a traffic offence is committed while the vehicle is moving; such as speeding, failing to obey a traffic sign, or talking on a cell phone while driving. Points are added to a motorist’s license in increments of two points depending on the severity of the traffic offense committed. When a motorist is reckless enough to have 10 points accumulated on his licence, his/her driving privilege is suspended.

This points system will form part of the motorist’s driving record, which will be used to evaluate the motorist’s safety record for insurance and employment purposes.

The onus is on the motorist to use the roads responsibly at all times, and this points system will act as a deterrent for anyone getting the urge to be reckless.

8. Of course, the above suggestions, even if implemented, will produce zero result until and unless traffic officers are made to suffer severe consequences for

accepting bribes in lieu of issuing a ticket. As such, a system should be in place to monitor these rogue traffic cops periodically.

9. Drunk driving is an epidemic in Guyana that must be dealt with decisively.

Anyone found guilty of driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI), should have their licence suspended. A second DUI conviction will have the motorist’s licence taken away, and would require the offender to complete an Alcohol Abuse and Driver Education Program before he/ she can reapply for a new driver license.

Driving a vehicle in a reckless way is as dangerous as a firearm in the hands of a lunatic.

And the same diligence must be given to those applying for driver licenses to ensure they are competent enough to drive a vehicle responsibly.

There are still those unqualified persons who can easily obtain a license for the right price. This practice must stop.

Harry Gill

Page 6

Kaieteur News

Sunday June 02, 2013

Sunday June 02, 2013

Kaieteur News

Kaieteur M@ilbox

Page 7

Kaieteur M@ilbox

Minister Anthony has chosen to play politics instead of instituting a national cultural policy DEAR EDITOR, In the wake of the Minister of Culture, Dr Frank Anthony’s recent call for help with the Caribbean Press, I have indicated via e-mail to Permanent Secretary Alfred King my willingness to meet with the Ministry in the company of other stakeholders to discuss the way forward, an e-mail which was acknowledged as received by Mr. King. I look forward to this engagement considering the many outstanding issues related to the Press and its management.

I’ll ignore John Mair’s characteristically inane and transparent intervention on behalf of Dr. David Dabydeen (SN May, 31), except to correct two key things: one, that his glib remark about what has been done ‘right’ by the Press, conveniently ignores the issues of what is blatantly wrong as raised not only by yours truly but several other citizens of Guyana including Barrington Braitwaithe, Nadia Sagar, Gideon Cecil, fellow Guyana Prize winner Ryhaan Shah and respected parliamentarian and intellectual Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine.

Secondly, no one is disputing the usefulness of some of the publications under the Guyana Classics series – but what was supposed to be only 36 titles (originally 30), as promised by Dabydeen and Anthony, has expanded into an unknown number that all we know is less than 60. This is glaring in the context of what has been an utter failure to stick to even their own shifting goalposts on publishing emerging local writers, the original raison d’être of the Press in the first place.

In the months leading up to Carifesta 2008, the Ministry of Culture under Anthony invited submissions for a special anthology of poetry to be released at the event – this publication is yet to surface, with no explanation given.

Three years ago, in March of 2010, we learnt via Stabroek News that “while the Publishing House was currently republishing works which belonged to the Guyana Classics Series, the intention was to publish fresh works written by local writers. Dabydeen noted that in the past there had been limited opportunities for young writers to showcase their work, but that this would change with the establishment of this new publishing entity.” (SN, 10-

March-2010) In May of 2010, a handing over of eleven Guyana Classics books to secondary schools was the occasion for a launch of a short story and poetry competition. We were informed that: “The closing date of submission of entries should is July 15 and must be sub m i t t e d t o P e t a m b e r Persaud c/o Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport.

The stories and poems will be published in an anthology by the Caribbean Press.” (SN, 15May-2010) In September of that year, with no reference whatever to the results of the previously announced competition, we were to learn that a “[young writers’]workshop is being held at the Carifesta Sports complex and at its close outstanding pieces produced would be published in the Caribbean Press.” (SN, 4September-2010) In May of 2011, about ten writers (not “a broad call” as disingenuously claimed by the Minister) were sent an email by Petamber Persaud asking for submissions to be considered by Dabydeen for inclusion in a national anthology of poetry to published later that year. I was the person, not Dr. Anthony, who insisted that any national anthology had to have benefited from a wide public call for submissions

and workshops with those selected, something which was never undertaken – I have all the e-mails saved in case the Minister’s memory needs further refreshing. I offer an excerpt of one that I sent to the group: “I haven’t ruled out engagement - what I have done is conditioned my engagement, as a matter of personal moral policy, upon a process which sees as wide as possible a casting of the net to include poets who are out of the present network and who are awaiting discovery, and a mechanism which allows for the development of their work.

This would ensure that any anthology coming out of this effort would not only have the best of contemporary poets, but also their best possible work. I don’t believe that’s a tall order.” (17-May2011) None of this was done, and nothing came out of any of those promises. On the contrary, in May of 2013, five years after the initial commitment to publish local writers, four years after the Press was launched, two years after the poets met with the Minister, and 24 titles after the scheduled 36-book limit on the Guyana Classics, only two emerging resident writers have had books published, both without any history of [exemplary] publication, and both of whom have direct ties to the Press.

When I first raised the issue in January of this year, the Minister’s initial response was to send me a lawyer’s letter threatening to sue me for libel.

I have held my ground and from that time to now, not a single additional title has been launched, and especially none of the books that we were assured since January were at the printers, the anthologies of short fiction and poetry by resident Guyanese writers and poets. Indeed, neither Dr. Anthony nor Dr. Dabydeen has offered a definitive timeline for the launch of these books, although I r e c e n t l y r e c e ived from Dabydeen a list of the names of the poets said to have been published; the vast majority of them needed the workshops and editorial guidance that I have campaigned for time and time again. We still don’t know who the fiction writers are.

As a country, we are now faced with the particular embarrassment of a great deal of taxpayer money having been committed five years ago to establish a press to publish resident emerging writers and nothing to show for it at either the Inter-Guiana Cultural Festival (French Guiana) in July, or at Carifesta (Suriname) in August.

So, it is not that Ministry has not been offered

engagement, nor that good, sound ideas have not been proffered – it is simply that Minister Anthony has chosen to play politics instead of instituting a national cultural policy. Now

that he seems finally open to good advice, and considering that I have made clear my intention to assist, I hope that the Minister’s offer has been made in good faith.

Ruel Johnson

Page 8

Kaieteur News

Sunday June 02, 2013

Sunday June 02, 2013

Kaieteur News

Page 9

Alleged phone thief Author’s second book targets racism in Guyana shot by plainclothes cop “The peoples of Guyana sit on top of a known, restless, threatening volcano. It is called RACE. There is no way to sugarcoat, ignore, or dismiss this prowling, mindless monster in the midst… This nation has endured its share of the occasional racial eruption, the rush of consuming lava, the sweep of threatening peril; but these have been explosions in miniature, and only a precursor of greater dangers currently harnessed, and still ahead. Still, the burns and scars and memories are painful to the flesh, and irremovably embedded.”

Gabriel H. K. Lall, exposes the dangerous manifestations of racism in all its parts in his second publication titled, Sitting on a Racial Volcano (Guyana Uncensored).

His first publication, Guyana: A National Cesspool of Greed, Duplicity & Corruption (A Remigrant’s Story) had been unashamedly truthful about the deep-rooted issue of corruption in Guyana from prominent institutions.

This one is no different.

The publication, which was launched at a simple gathering at Marian Academy on Friday last, introduces the subject of race and its repercussions on modern day Guyana.

Speaker of the National Assembly, Raphael Trotman, at the launching stated that “our colonial predecessors effectively manipulated and used the issue of race and competition and rivalry to divide the Government.

However, while we are not guilty of starting this rivalry, we are certainly to be condemned for continuing it”.

Lall asks in his book, “Who are we? Where are we?

Where are we going? As a society, as a nation, as a

Gabriel H. K. Lall hoists a copy of Sitting on a Racial Volcano (Guyana Uncensored) people?”

According to the author, racism has long since caused people to retreat, to shelter and even to hide rather than to bring the issue to full public view.

He described the issue as a volcano, with a future that “threatens” and “endangers”.

The unashamedly scrutinising Lall brings to the fore the relationship existing between the two major races in Guyana; the East Indians and the Africans, identified in the book as “Indian” and “Black”, underlining the differences in perceptions between the two groups and mixing the preferences in political factions, primarily on the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) and the People’s National Congress Reform (PNC/R).

The publication made reference to tragic events in Linden and Agricola as “manifestations of the bubbling, heaving volcano.”

Guns were referred to as “the final solution in Guyana”, the determining factor of peace,

the only option to equilibrium.

Evidently, change is emphasized as “the only way left”, the needed element to eradicate the deeply entrenched root of separation between the people of our nation. More importantly, change must come from the “top”, change that has thus far been involuntary.

Essentially, unless the issue of race has been dissolved, progress will be obscured.

Lall said that change has to come from those who are willing to tread in new and different paths and to inculcate hope. He urged all to put their heads together and stand up for each other, to take back our society and to look for the common good.

The publication is now available for purchase at the Austin’s Book Store.

(Tiffanne Ramphal)

A 25-year-old man is nursing a gunshot wound to his l e f t f o o t a t t h e Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC).

Injured is Orondel Williams of Lot 83 Leopold and Breda Streets, Georgetown. Williams was reportedly shot by a plainclothes policeman at around 22:15hrs on Friday in the vicinity of Lombard and Leopold Streets.

Speaking with this publication, Williams, a b a k e r, s a i d h e w e n t t o purchase food from a vendor in front of Demico H o u s e and was heading home when he noticed three persons at a corner on Lombard and Leopold Streets

fighting.

“After I see them fighting, I tried to pull in a corner and then I hear ‘pow’ and my foot feel weak, weak and I fall down,” Williams recalled.

He explained that after he fell to the ground, he was approached by a man who identified himself as a police and was pointing a gun at his (William’s) head.

The man wanted to know “where the other two deh.”

“When he point the gun to me, I see when the men run

away and this man didn’t show me any identification or anything. He just say he is a police,” the wounded man claimed.

H o w e v e r, a p o l i c e source told Kaieteur News that Williams allegedly tried to rob a woman of her cellular phone and was shot by the rank.

“That is not true, I didn’t rob anyone, I buy food and I was going h o m e,” Williams told Kaieteur News yesterday.

Page 10

Kaieteur News

Sunday June 02, 2013

Police accused of withholding ‘Cobra’ reward money On September 1, 2010, notorious wanted man Tyrone ‘Cobra ‘Rowe was handed over to police, and almost three years later, the police are still holding on to the $1M reward that they had offered for information leading to his arrest.

Cobra’s arrest was negotiated by Social Activist Mark Benschop who plans to contact Commissioner of Police (ag) Leroy Brumell on the matter.

‘Cobra”’who police had linked to a number of high profile crimes, was handed over to the police in the presence of the media, ending months of a massive manhunt that stretched from the city to the West and East Coasts of Demerara.

This was after a desperate move by the police who issued a wanted bulletin with a $1M reward.

One week after the reward was offered Benschop received a telephone call from a relative of the wanted man, telling him that Rowe was fearful for his life, since it appeared that “the police

“surrender” would be done with the full involvement of the media. Several media houses, including this newspaper were contacted, and a rendezvous was arranged for the corner of D’Urban Street and Louisa Row. As soon as members of the media turned up, the wanted man emerged from his hiding place and Benschop introduced him to the journalists.

After ‘Cobra’ was briefly interviewed by the media, Benschop made contact with operatives at the Brickdam Police Station, informing them that he was ready to hand the wanted man over to them.

As usual the police took a while before they reacted and it had to take a call to the then Commissioner of Police Henry Greene from a senior journalist from this newspaper who was at the scene to activate the police.

Within minutes of that call, a few ranks arrived and took the wanted man into their custody.

“We cannot have an institution of the state reneging on its agreement with the people because there will be no further cooperation”- Mark Benschop. wanted to kill him.”

Benschop advised the relative to have Rowe contact him directly, which he subsequently did the following morning.

“I got a call from someone who identified himself as ‘Cobra’ and my advice to him was to let me take him in so that his life could be spared,” Benschop recalled.

Benschop said that while Rowe was reluctant to be placed in the hands of the police, fearing torture or being killed, he was subsequently convinced that his

Greene was reminded about the reward, but he indicated that he was not “dealing with Benschop, and promised to communicate with the journalist who had contacted him.

A few days later, the then commissioner informed that he was awaiting a report from the Crime Chief Seelall Persaud with respect to the circumstances surrounding Cobra’s arrest before a decision could be taken on whether to pay the reward or not. Pressed further by this newspaper, the

Commissioner raised the issue with the Crime Chief who informed that the question of the reward did not exist since Rowe had surrendered and it was not a case of anyone providing information that led to his capture.

However, Benschop has flatly challenged that position. “Cobra never wanted to surrender. I am the one who encouraged him to do so….If indeed Cobra was armed and dangerous as the police claimed, he would not have given up without a fight. What I did saved his life and maybe those of some policemen,” Benschop retorted. “ The police issued a notice to pay the money to anyone who could provide information leading to Cobra’s capture. I think in good faith, the Guyana Police Force should hand over the money. We cannot have an institution of the state reneging on its agreement with the people, because there will be no further cooperation,” Benschop stated.

Recently, a number of persons on the social network, Facebook, advised that the state should be sued if they refused to pay the reward.

Rowe, now 20 years old is still on remand facing murder charges.

Controversy has always surrounded the payment of reward for the capture or elimination of wanted men.

In 2008, then President Bharrat Jagdeo announced that the $50M reward for the killing of Rondell “Fine Man” Rawlins went toward the “general well being of all of the members of the Joint Services.”

Following his death at t h e h a n d s o f t h e Joint Services, it was announced that the entity would receive the money an d a s s u c h t h e National Assembly approved the sum of $50M

This 2008 photo shows Tyrone Rowe called ‘Cobra’ being taken into police custody.

for the payment of the reward.

Twenty million of that money went to the Guyana Police Force whilst another $20M was handed over to the Guyana Defence Force.

Another $10M was entrusted to the Defence Board for disbursement.

It is believed that this $10M would have been paid to the informant who provided information which led to the slaying of ‘Fine Man’ and his cohort Jermaine ‘Skinny’ Charles

for whom a $2M -and later upgraded to $10M - reward was announced.

To date, it is unclear whether this money was paid to the informant.

And controversy also surrounded the reward that was announced for the capture or killing of Neil Bovell. On December 27, 2006, the three-year manhunt for Bovell ended when he was gunned down by the police at Inner Stanleytown, West Bank

Demerara.

The police had received a call from someone in the area that Bovell was at his father’s house.

Th a t i n f o r m a n t h a d reportedly declined to accept the money, advising instead that it should be given to the ranks who had risked their lives to capture Bovell.

However, on several occasions the ranks had complained that they had not received a single cent.

Woman accepts reputed husband’s proposal in court after assault charges dropped In what seemed like an episode from those happy ending novels, an East Coast Demerara man stunned the Vigilance Magistrate’s Court when he openly proposed to his reputed wife seconds after

they both dropped assault charges against each other.

The man Keevil Hatton begged his reputed wife Frankalia Halley to marry him in a packed Vigilance Magistrate’s Court on Thursday.

The two, who are living together at Mahaicony, first appeared in court on April 21st, charged with assaulting each other. They both pleaded not guilty and were told to return to court yesterday.

During that period they must have talked things over and each had a change of heart because when their

matter was called, they both declined to proceed with the matter.

When everyone thought that that was the end, Hatton shocked the entire court when he knelt down and loudly blurted out, “Frankalia, will you marry me?” and she replied “Yes honey, I will!”

Their actions left Magistrate Zareena Ali smiling and the rest of the courtroom ‘oohing’ and ‘aahing’ in congratulatory manner.

The couple was sent on their way with the admonition that they will keep their word to each other.

Sunday June 02, 2013

Kaieteur News

Page 11

Page 12

Kaieteur News

Sunday June 02, 2013

AFC demands Public Procurement Commission, revocation of radio licences …at meeting with President on political deadlock One day after meeting with representatives of A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) to stave off a brewing political crisis, President Donald Ramotar on Thursday met with leaders of the Alliance For Change (AFC) with the latter demanding that the administration take a hands-off approach on government contracts.

There are indications now that Government may be willing to make a few concessions to the Opposition.

While there was no official word from Government on the talks which would centre on the budget cuts earlier this year and the stalemate over the non-passage of critical legislation in the National Assembly, the AFC yesterday outlined several demands it made during Thursday’s

meeting with the President, who was accompanied by his Chief Advisor, Dr. Roger Luncheon, and Political Advisor, Gail Teixeira.

APNU, in its statement, did not go into details.

AFC’s Leader, Khemraj Ramjattan was head of the team from his party that included General Secretary David Patterson and Treasurer Dominic Gaskin.

According to the AFC, President Ramotar wanted a “direct communication line with the leaders of political parties so as to express his views on the major political and economic matters of concern, and also to hear very directly the views of the political parties on these issues.”

The AFC said it made it clear that the party, which controls seven seats in the

National Assembly, did not want this new development to become a talk-shop with an excess of political chatter.

On the issue of the Public Procurement Commission (PPC), which would oversee government contracts, the AFC did not agree with the President’s stance that the administration’s Cabinet should maintain its no-objection role in the tender process.

NO CABINET INVOLVEMENT “The AFC maintained our position that there should be no Cabinet involvement in the tender process, that the PPC must be established under the existing legal framework.”

The Commission, despite legislation for a number of years now, has not been established and the Opposition has been blaming its absence for perceptions of corruption in the procurement process of public contracts.

“It was finally agreed that Dr. Luncheon would put their (Government) arguments in writing to which we could then

respond in writing with a view to narrowing down precisely where we differ. The positions will then be made public.”

On the issue of the stateowned National Communications Network (NCN), the AFC said it wants the company to operate along the lines of the BBC, the wellknown British-owned news outfit that is independent. The AFC said it did not buy the President’s argument that “the bias” on the part of some of the private media was justification for the bias displayed, in Government’s favour, by NCN. ”Our team argued the case that NCN should be run on lines like the BBC. He requested that AFC write to them on what AFC wants, which we will do.”

The Opposition party said that the National Insurance Scheme was also discussed.

According to Dr. Luncheon, the fund, which is a main source of pension for Guyanese, has come under fire from the Opposition.

“The President wants an

AFC Leader, Khemraj Ramjattan President Donald Ramotar AFC financial nominee to the NIS Board. AFC asked how early will the Board members be removed and recommended that the entire board of NIS be replaced.”

However, Government is adamant that Dr. Luncheon will remain as Chairman, with new members assisting the board. A key document on NIS’ state of affairs will now be shared with the party.

REVOKE RADIO LICENCES With regards to the controversial issuance of radio licences by former President Bharrat Jagdeo, the AFC said that the President ”avoided discussion on whether or not Jagdeo acted in bad faith”.

Rather, the Head of State blamed the Leader of the Opposition, saying that the delay in naming a nominee to the Guyana National Broadcast Authority essentially prevented the early commencement of the new Broadcast Act of 2011.

Eleven radio licences were controversially granted by Jagdeo in 2011, days before he left office, sparking widespread anger and a number of court cases. Most of the licences and a majority of the frequencies went mainly to close party supporters, giving the administration total control over the airwaves. Several private media houses were overlooked and the matter has been criticised by the diplomatic community and local and international media groups.

The AFC said that it made it clear that it wants a “cleanslate start, with the revocation of the grants made in 2011 and a reversion of these by the NFMU (National Frequency (continued on page 52)

Sunday June 02, 2013

Kaieteur News

Page 13

Top Cop promises Sophia Inclusion is a crucial factor in residents swifter responses realising disability framework

During a telephone interview yesterday, Police Commissioner (ag) Leroy Brumell, promised that complaints made by Sophia residents to the police will see swifter responses.

The Top Cop said the Inspector who was in charge of the safety of Sophia residents has been replaced, and that during a meeting with his subordinates, certain measures were put in place to ensure that ranks respond promptly. They were also equipped with an additional vehicle.

Brumell’s assurances came following an open letter that was published in this newspaper on Tuesday last, where the residents of Sophia described the frustration that led to the murder of an alleged home intruder on May 8.

In the letter, the residents of Sophia said that they have had enough, and will no longer tolerate the failed attempts by the police force to ensure their right to security.

“Many households are traumatised by gunmen and thieves in the area. People cannot sleep at nights because of fear of the unwelcomed guests coming into your home and robbing you, beating you and

Commissioner of Police (ag), Leroy Brumell

Dead: Nigel Roy Lowe

threatening to take your life if you don’t give into their demands. We the residents of Sophia have had enough!”

In the same letter, the residents acknowledged that while the beating to death of the mason is unacceptable, it goes to show their level of frustration.

Earlier last month, the news of a brutal vigilante killing in Sophia shocked the country. Nigel Roy Lowe, a 41year-old mason, was stripped naked, tied to a utility pole at ‘B’ Field, Sophia, and beaten to death by a group of residents.

Prior reports indicated that Lowe had gone to his mother’s house in ‘A’ Field

Sophia to use her latrine, but the woman was not at home.

Observers reportedly mistook the Sophia resident for one of the “regular” home intruders, and raised an alarm.

Villagers became so angry, that without hearing an explanation, they stripped Lowe, dragged him over to ‘B’ Field Sophia, where they tied him to a utility pole, and beat him to death.

“We are hard working people. Who would we entrust to protect us when the police are themselves scared, Mr. Commissioner? We are our neighbours’ keepers and we will protect ourselves if the police cannot protect us,” the residents warned.

N o n e t h e l e s s , Commissioner Brumell is hoping that the changes made will see positive results.

National Assembly ...

(From page 3) plus monthly recurring costs of over $4M in bandwidth rental and associated services.

The Opposition, based on the Minister’s answer, had reportedly said that the entire setup seemed suspicious as there appeared to be insider knowledge, in that the setting up of the teleport system by TVG coincided with that of the Learning Channel.

She added that because the Learning Channel’s bandwidth is bundled with the bandwidth of TVG, government was able to

negotiate better rates from the satellite operators.

In recent years, government contracts and the systems of procurement by government have been coming under severe scrutiny as accusations of corruption became more frequent.

The Opposition, which effectively has a one-seat voting control of the National Assembly, has been calling for tighter accounting systems by government and for the regulatory, Public Procurement Commission, to be established at the soonest to monitor the systems.

Promoting inclusion and fairness for children with varying forms of disabilities is a crucial factor in plotting the way forward for a suitable disability framework. At least this is the deduction of the 2013 State of the World’s Children Report.

The Report was last week officially launched by Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand, who underscored that while much has been done in Guyana to address the prevailing challenge, there is still much more to be done.

According to the Report, in addressing concerns involving disabled children, it must be ensured that children with disabilities should not be treated or regarded simply as the recipients of charity.

“They have the same rights as others – among these, the right to life and to the opportunities that flow from good health care, nutrition and education, the right to express their views and participate in making decisions, and the right to enjoy equal protection under the law,” the Report outlines.

Moreover, it highlighted the point, which was supported by the Education Ministry’s Planning Officer Evelyn Hamilton, that children with disabilities belong at the centre of efforts to build inclusive and equitable

- UNICEF societies, not only as beneficiaries, but as agents of change. It is the view of the United Nations Children’s Fund-authored Report, that children are the ones in the better position to comprehend their own needs and evaluate their own response.

As such it was noted that in any effort to promote inclusion and fairness, children with disabilities should be able to enlist the support of their families, disabled people’s organisations, parents’ associations and community groups.

Additionally, it was amplified that this vulnerable section of the population must be able to count on allies further afield.

It was emphasised that Governments, for instance, have the power to help by aligning their policies and programmes with the spirit and stipulations of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and other international instruments that address or affect child disability.

It was noted, too, that international partners can provide assistance compatible with the Conventions, even as

Education Minister Priya Manickchand Corporations and other entities in the private sector seek to advance inclusion, while at the same time attracting the best talent by embracing diversity in hiring.

Against this background, the Report pointed out that the research community is working to improve data collection and analysis.

“Their work will help to overcome ignorance and the discrimination that often stems from it.

Furthermore, because data help to target interventions and gauge their effects, better collection and analysis helps in ensuring an optimal allocation of resources and services,” the Report adds.

However, it was asserted that decision-makers need not (continued on page 53)

Page 14

Kaieteur News

Sunday June 02, 2013

Sunday June 02, 2013

Kaieteur News

Page 17

Sunday June 02, 2013

Kaieteur News

Page 21

Ravi Dev Column

Back in 2003, when Dr Henry Jeffrey was Minister of Education and I was a ROAR MP, I was in his office discussing the travails of my son, who, at the age of three could read, write and do ‘rithmetic, but could not enter primary school. In the midst of our conversation, an employee entered on some presumably urgent matter.

When he left after Henry signed a piece of paper, the Minister smiled ruefully, shook his head and said, “The Regional Education Officer is supposed to take care of that matter, but these fellows in Georgetown will never let it go.”

I remembered the incident as I read Henry’s disquisition as to why federalism will not help Guyana. Like almost every serious politician in Guyana, Henry accepts that there are severe problems with our centralised form of governance. And because of this he reaffirmed that “the way forward for our multiethnic society must contain substantial devolution”. All we need discuss, according to Henry, is “the appropriate degree of decentralisation”.

But “federalism” is irredeemably inappropriate. In

There is going to be another river accident and again there will be cause for sorrow. Alcohol will play an important role in this one.

A man is going to be having a drink at a river location before heading home. His arrival will be delayed. ** Just when people believe that road accidents are on the decline there is going to be yet another. This one will be caused by a young and

fact, he concluded definitively, a federal system “does entrench racism” and will lead to “the ethnic Balkanisation of Guyana”.

And why does he conclude this? Because this is the problem with America, which has a federal system.

And why choose America as his model?

Because even though he accepts that “federalism comes in many forms and the relationship between states and central governments are also most varied,” he chose the US “because it is the one best known to us”.

This I found to be most odd, especially when he also pointed out that the US variant of federalism “was not conceived in connection with race elections”. I mean if Henry is going to illustrate his contention, would it not be best to select an example that fits your subject?

But Henry is mistaken when he says that US federalism “was not conceived in connection with race relations”. In fact, everything that constituted the US system of government then and now has to do with race relations - specifically white-black race relations.

When the US issued its famous Declaration of Independence, Blacks were officially defined as only three-quarters a human being. The federalisation of the Republic explicitly operationalised this point of view by differentially facilitating the economics of production.

Henry would remember also that in the US expansion, each “territory” had to achieve a white majority before it qualified for “statehood”. Which is why Puerto Rico never became a “state”. Federalism in the US was always intended to perpetuate racism. So for Henry to use the US example of federalism to show that federalism writ large entrenches racism, does stack the deck a bit too obviously.

He could have easily picked Canada or Switzerland as his model, because their federal systems were designed specifically to deal with the challenges of groups that have distinct identities of which race/ethnicity is a subset. I would say that they have done pretty well on inter-group relations and equity, all things considered.

In the post-WWII era, almost

pompous man who believes that he and his parents can do no wrong. The real sufferers will be those who were going about their business.

** The police are again going to be on the ball when some petty thieves strike.

The young criminals would be armed with a gun and they would have been following their victim. The police are going to be just a step behind but they would recover quickly. One of the young men would be a repeat criminal but his parents would offer an excuse and blame his plight on bad company.

every country that has been forced to deal with plural societies (and they had to deal with that problematic sooner or later, as we will) have adopted federalist approaches. Most recently, after Kenya experienced severe inter-ethnic violence following their 2007 elections, they instituted constitutional changes that reversed the unitary state innovation of 1969. They divided the country into 47 “counties” and constitutionally mandated at least 15 per cent of national revenue be sent directly to the counties, giving local leaders greater a u t h o r i t y i n m anaging resources. Each county will have a County Executive headed by a county governor elected directly by the people and a county assembly elected with representatives from wards within the county.

Federalism by any other name... Not incidentally, they also moved to make their

Police Force more representative of the ethnic groups in the country. I have long tried to grapple with the reflexive dismissal of the federal option to address Guyana’s ethnic challenges, compounded by its absolutist traditions. Because in the details, the only difference between the proposals for “deep devolution” rather than “federalism” is the latter’s constitutional demarcation of “competences” or exclusive powers. But this is the only mechanism to challenge the imperative of central bureaucrats to hog power (if the politicians are uncharacteristically shy about doing so) as Henry saw with his subordinate back in 2003. To pretend otherwise is to ignore Henry’s citation of Madison’s observation on human nature: “if men were angels, no government would be necessary”. As Henry also pointed out to PM Sam Hinds, we’re not talking about

Ravi Dev

creating Utopias. But at least we should not ignore constants immanent in our “crooked timber”. I’ll close with an anecdote about what I think is the real reason why some oppose federalism. I was walking with Andaiye some years back, from a GHRA discussion on Constitutional change, where I spoke on Federalism for Guyana. Andaiye said that when she saw those lines on the map of Guyana, “it was as if her body was being divided.” Many still have fears that federalism means “partition” rather than a form of balancing autonomy with integration.

Page 22

Kaieteur News

Sunday June 02, 2013

Sunday June 02, 2013

Kaieteur News

Page 23

== THE FREDDIE KISSOON COLUMN ==

The night I took Lincoln Lewis to dinner Lincoln Lewis and I have been friends a long time, so I know he would not be unfair to me to deny that the evening I took him to dinner, I paid the bill, but I did ask that the dish I ordered be shared in two.

The owner is my friend so he did oblige. The place was Julian’s at the junction of Church and Cummings Street, but more into Cummings Street. We ate cook-up rice and fried fish.

I recall that Lincoln and I were the guests of Mark Benschop so after we left, I said I wanted to talk to him about Ramon Gaskin. So we stopped a Julian’s. I asked Lincoln how long he knew Gaskin. He said in the nineties.

I responded that I knew Gaskin since I was a scrawny, emasculated, hungry eighteen-year-old from Wortmanville, knocking around politics. That was how long I knew Gaskin. I grew up, went to universities abroad and came back to serve my country and was better able to analyse people like Ramon

Gaskin and Miles Fitzpatrick.

Gaskin, Fitzpatrick and Rupert Roopnaraine were never my cup of tea, because all three are deeply flawed and opportunistic political actors.

I know the philosophical (as opposed to ideological) nature of these people.

Nobody talks back to Fitzpatrick. So consciously elitist and aristocratic is Miles Fitzpatrick that you don’t dare disagree with him. And who was I, a little dark-skinned creature from nowhere, to talk back to Fitzpatrick. He never forgave me. I honestly believe that if you ask Fitzpatrick to name an individual on Planet Earth he truly dislikes, it would be me. As if I could be bothered, and certainly not now as I am passing into old age.

I gave a biography of Gaskin to Lincoln. About eighteen years (yes, eighteen) ago, I did a Stabroek News column warning readers about his politics now that he was back in Guyana. Ramon Gaskin is philosophically tied

to the PPP. Not to Jagan, Teixeira, Luncheon or Ramotar, but to the PPP. Once there is a PPP, Gaskin will support it. Ideology and philosophy are completely different forms of knowledge.

Philosophy is about ontology.

Ideology is false consciousness. It can be enduring or it can be fleeting.

Philosophy is about the essential being of a person.

Gaskin, will flirt around every opposition group. That is his nature, but he will never be loyal to any except the PPP. This explains his extreme closeness to BK Tiwari. I watched Gaskin defending communism in his interview with Yesu Persaud. Strange!

A communist faithfully and loyally serves one of Guyana’s richest capitalists.

An agnostic like me should become a priest. Sex accused UG lecturer, Evan Persaud, chose Gaskin to defend him at his disciplinary hearing rather than a lawyer. Gaskin and Evan Persaud are buddy friends. I told Lincoln Lewis

and Mark Benschop I will not function in the same organization with Gaskin because of concern for my security.

There are times in this country that I climb into a spaceship, go way into the skies, look down upon my country and laugh at its people. I have the last laugh of course.

In the WPA, I never sought any relationship with Roopnaraine. Over the years, even the WPA has come to question whether Roopnaraine has any political loyalty to any organization or ideology. But don’t let’s go there, because some in the WPA leadership are my personal friends and I will always protect them. It was the gr e a t J o c e l y n D o w, partner of Roopnaraine, who through Miles Fitzpatrick requested that Stabroek News drop me as a columnist. David de Caires, a decent man, called me in and said. “Freddie I am under pressure, rest up for

three months.” I guess you know what I told David.

Yes, I always have the last laugh. Fourteen years ago, I began to make critical remarks on David Dabydeen. No one supported my evaluation.

Now look at the criticism of Dabydeen fourteen years after.

I am laughing. I knew Dabydeen was no scholar or had any political qualities. At the Pegasus, on the occasion of the conferring of a doctorate on Yesu Persaud from Warwick University, I refused to shake his hands.

Glenn Lall and others (including John Mair aka Bill Cotton) insisted that I do and I did.

Moses Nagamootoo is someone that I believe has integrity, so he would not deny that I constantly ask him why he keeps a close friendship with Dabydeen.

Dabydeen was plucked from academic obscurity by President Janet Jagan and has remained faithful to the PPP since. But Dabydeen has no

Frederick Kissoon keen mind.

Dabydeen is a figure of amusement like his friend Rickey Singh and like his very close buddy, Prem Misir. Misir announced to Guyana that North Lancashire University has awarded him the title of professorship.

This was the first time in history that a man served in another country as a public servant for twenty years and a university he doesn’t work at, in both research or teaching, conferred a professorship on him. But I was told the very university will soon award Kwame McCoy a professorship too.

Page 24

Kaieteur News

Sunday June 02, 2013

Book Mike Alleyne’s Encyclopedia of Review: Reggae - A literary treasure sounds off

By Dr Glenville Ashby Mike Alleyne’s Encyclopedia of Reggae is more than just glossy, voluminous and picturesque.

Living up to its pedagogical title, this is an archival document of anthropological and socio-political depth. It is

a literary and photographic compilation that leaves no stones unturned as it chronicles a markedly transformational musical expression. The sheer magnetism of this work is hardly debatable.

Alleyne’s work validates the over arching power of

music. Reggae, more than any form of music in modern time, transcends popular culture, leaving an indelible imprint, globally. It is more than hypnotic riffs, scintillating percussion and cadenced drumbeats.

Alleyne’s painstaking research reflects an existential art form that

ricochets unto a multi-layered platform where politics, economics, history, and religion are indistinguishable.

There is that distinct interplay between lyrical content and cultural dynamics.

Embedded in reggae’s expression is a cultural exuberance that is therapeutic.

Paradoxically, its potential for angst, for “Raising Cain” is worth studying. Its ability to probe, provoke and challenge listeners is unmistakable. As Alleyne points out, every art form evolves, evoking the ire of traditionalists. Dancehall music turned the incorruptibility of reggae on its head, in the same way that soca trampled the sanctity of calypso. Many believe that rap music perverted....desanitized America’s R&B. Alleyne hits the proverbial nail on its head when he commented that “popular music always has grey areas that don’t lend themselves to easy definition or identification.”

He delves into the blurred boundaries of reggae which emerged with strong influence from ska and rock steady. It is a musical cross-pollination evident in all musical genres.

Understandably, Alleyne’s complex and exhaustive work has the potential to ruffle feathers.

Despite his best efforts and his use of qualitative and quantitative methods for accuracy, he concedes some shortcomings.

“It has to be emphasised that in reggae literature, sources still vary widely on precise facts such as when or where an artist was born, or the year in which a given album was released.” Further, he writes, “there was also no evidence that record sales were consistently tabulated” or, the more damning report by a national newspaper that chart-ranking is compromised by bribery.

Alleyne seemingly covers every imaginable reggae artist and producer, from the hugely popular, to the obscure.

And although Bob Marley has become synonymous with reggae, Alleyne’s undertaking is bigger than a single artist. Not that he doesn’t give Marley his due. He begins his biography with the following: “No artist had a greater effect on reggae’s long–term international profile than Bob Marley…” That Marley, who died at 36, was given a state

funeral, unprecedented for a Rasta, is testament to his importance to the Jamaican people, according to Alleyne.

The author deftly highlights the most compelling quotes by artists, allowing for a greater philosophical understanding of their music.

Marley’s: “I no have education. I have inspiration.

If I was educated, I’d be a damn fool,” is rivaled only by the words of an equally significant megastar, Jimmy Cliff: “I grew up economically poor, spiritually rich. Even though I had this condition, that kind of balance made me always take the downside and put an up to it.”

Alleyne is strongest in his survey of Jamaica’s centuries old musical landscape. He showcases a mélange of musical styles and rhythms originating with the indigenous peoples, that include the drumming of the legendary maroons.

Alongside photos that ably captures maroon life and culture, Alleyne’s account is concise, informative and nostalgic. Clearly, a multidisciplinary approach is needed to understand Jamaica’s contemporary sound. He writes: “African oral tradition, including storytelling in song have contributed directly to the DJ culture and what some have termed, “sing-jay” style, in which performers use vocal style that blends talking and singing.” Throughout, the author aptly lays bare the disparate, yet inextricably connected elements of reggae. Alleyne later discusses religion and the impact of Revivalism, characterized by African and Christian practices.

“Listening to the polyrhythmic percussive syncopation of

revivalist drumming, it is easy to hear how reggae echoes its punctuation and emphasis.”

The rare photos of Kingston - Chestnut Lane, Trenchtown – the embryo of reggae are accorded due acknowledgement. “The Dungle and Trenchtown sections became the province of squatters but also produced artists whose work was infused with survivalist urgency,” Alleyne writes, adding that, “it was the core of Jamaica’s creative explosion in popular music, aided by the cluster of major sound systems on which “dubplates” (soft wax acetate pre-release discs) could be tested on audience.”

The indissoluble connection between reggae and Rastafarianism is yet another example of reggae’s religious underpinning. The cries for repatriation to Africa, the chanting of Biblical verses, bestowing prophetic attributes to Pan Africanism, and the crowning of an African King, as the redeemer - God in flesh - are reflective of redefining one’s identity, religiously and culturally.

The Encyclopedia of Reggae boasts an irresistible mosaic of existential musical expression, while undressing its complexity. The result is an incomparable musical gestalt, befitting of Alleyne’s meticulously detailed authorship. glenvilleashby@gmail.com, Follow me on Twitter@glenvilleashby The Encyclopedia of Reggae

by Mike Alleyne with Foreword by Lowell “Sly” Dunbar Sterling, New York www.sterlingpublishing.com ISBN: 978-1-4027-8583-2 Available: Amazon.com Ratings: *****( Essential)

Sunday June 02, 2013

Kaieteur News

Page 25

My column

The flu has struck and men are crying All over the country over the past few weeks I have been talking to people who sound as though they have either been doing something with their throat or they have something pushed up their nostrils. Many of those I happened to meet either have red rheumy eyes or a bad case of the cough. And even the cough seemed to be so horrendous that they clutched their chest and bent over.

Right now I have joined those ranks. I am under the weather and quite frankly I have never felt worse.

I am not sure how long this thing started but during the past two weeks a lot of my friends developed these symptoms. To a man –and woman—they all cried “flu”. I am now crying.

In the 1960s I got hit by what was known as the Hong Kong flu. I never found out whether the flu originated in Hong Kong or it got the name because of the proliferation of Chinese movies that were shown then.

These were the karate movies such as Enter the Dragon, Praying Mantis, The Jumping Master and Kung Fu. Everything that came to the cinema appeared to have been Chinese so it was no

surprise that Hong Kong flu came.

The next year there was the Asian flu and it was equally bad. Since those times there have been all kinds of flu, some of which never came to Guyana. There was the Avian Influenza or Bird Flu and Swine flu. I am not sure, too, whether, Guyanese actually died from the flu that came here but I do know that many bodies were so wracked that people prayed for death.

Speaking from experience - and this present one takes the cake - opening one’s eyes becomes a major chore. I am currently experiencing clouded vision.

The mere sunlight is cause for headache. My taste buds have taken a vacation and my stomach has simply rebelled against food.

Yes, the flu is back. This past week some of my colleagues simply collapsed.

They started sniffing and sneezing. Then they coughed and suddenly, there was the

fever. They had got married in a union from hell. My association with them left me vulnerable. I am now paying for my ill-advised bravado.

I have often believed that nothing would faze me, but in all honesty I have been essentially reduced to a baby.

Yesterday, I could not even get out of bed and being a man who can’t seem to remain in one place for too long it was a surprise to many that I had no objection to lying in my bed and moaning. I know from my few treks to the United States that the authorities always ensure that they place announcements in the various newspapers and on television advising people to get their flu shots.

In Guyana there is no such programme.

I heard of people going to the various hospitals in their numbers and to the pharmacies, but the experts all say that there is no cure; that the flu has to run its course. It usually lasts for a few days

and it spares no one.

Amazingly, babies and very small children seem to cope better than adults. I have seen sick little children and I remain amazed at how well they react. Yes, they are cranky at times, but I look into their eyes that tell a whole story and apart from some bouts of crying, they bear their trials. Women are slightly better but the men are the worst.

Adult men cry out for everything. They want more attention than the babies and quite frankly, today I am no different.

On a serious note, Guyanese have developed immunities to almost everything, from salmonella typhi to some poisons. It must

be the water they drink and the food they eat. Indeed, visitors who try to drink water from the taps in the city are confined to the lavatory and bed. With homegrown Guyanese, no such thing.

There is on record, the first time the Europeans brought the flu to these shores. The story is that they came into contact with the Amerindians and the flu spread like wildfire.

It decimated entire villages. That is not going to happen again because the natural immune system is going to fight anything like flu.

That may be the reason why the authorities never worry about flu shots and things like that. Yet it would

Adam Harris be interesting if the Ministry of Health would issue warnings because this time around, the flu has developed into a pandemic.

One thing must be said, I have taken a vow on my sick bed to be more respectful of the flu virus in future.

Page 26

Kaieteur News

Sunday June 02, 2013

Only when Government tighten up, are we going to lighten up!

(An excerpt of Leader and MP Khemraj Ramjattan’s Budget Speech 2013) Our growth in the early 1990s saw levels unparalleled in this country. Our politicians, if they be honest to themselves, cannot compromise that fact. I had watched and I had expected us by virtue of growth rates of 7%, 6 1/2 % and 8% per annum in those early years and with that economic direction and trajectory, to go into the middle income bracket, nearing a Latin American and Caribbean economic heavyweight. Sad to say we were only, in a sense, seeing a mirage.

Why has that not happened, Mr. Speaker? I want to suggest that it was and will remain a problem of our politics which has got in the way! And that politics is, in a sense, dragging us down.

Politics in Guyana is deeply fragmented and makes consensus hard to come by. The perception by the community out there of us politicians is that we are scamps and thieves. We have grown ten-fold times worse in terms of accountability and transparency as against the

Dr. Jagan era. As a result we are seen as deeply inefficient when not incompetent, and we are seen as most self-serving.

This reality has undermined and eroded the immense authority which is associated with being accountable politicians, who would have brought a servant/exemplar status to our vocation.

This decline in quality of political leadership has occurred largely because there was a series of scandals commencing from early 2000s to this day. There were and are sweetheart deals for construction contracts and for privatisation arrangements and the granting of real-estate development-rights in exchange for very profitable consideration, and more recently including the grants of radio licences to friends and favourites, and even families, in a most outrageously deceptive manner.

Where there once was a Bookers’ Guyana, today we have the Big B’s Guyana. This kind of political leadership, with its gaze being on other things like pensions and other benefits, has lost sight of its supervision of a whole range of institutions, from the Police Force to the court systems,

khemraj ramjattan our public service, the NIS and GuySuCo and even the army. All of which now leave these institutions of integrity in tatters. The political leadership of this country, rather than recognising these failures and working to restore moral order, has evaded responsibility. I want to say that Guyana’s moral universe is shrinking. Graft and greed have caused it. This has resulted in economic and political dysfunction. The PPP’s political leadership then, if I may be permitted to use this term, ‘scapegoats’ this dysfunction to the one-seat majority of the Opposition.

Yes, it blames this one-seat Opposition majority as the

culprit. We have to damn that fiction, as it were, Mr. Speaker.

It is not the majority Opposition that is the cause of this dysfunction. Rather it is the management and governance style of that political leadership over there, and its subordinate bureaucrats. That leadership is characterised by that management style, that governance style, which sees huge unfettered discretion, a stifling centralisation and, worse still, a staggering secrecy. I want to give some examples of that huge discretion. I endorsed the view that Government must have discretion. It is a tool and an asset for a Government that must be made available to it.

In Guyana, however, everyday, more and more, the PPP/C Government is never good at justifying its use of this discretion to constituencies affected by such decisions.

We have seen that for some time now. Remember President Jagdeo and his grant of duty-free exemptions to Queens Atlantic. What was his justification? When this grant was then criticised by an icon of industry, Dr. Yesu Persaud, he was said to be ignorant of the laws of Guyana. But Yesu was vindicated when certain laws were brought to the attention of President Jagdeo.

Indeed we had to come here to legalise an illegality. Of course, of more recent vintage is Dr. Luncheon’s justification for the grant of radio and TV licences. He justified the discretion to grant these licences to the present holders on the ground that it is in keeping with a commitment to break a monopoly. Laughable, as you may say, Mr. Speaker, but this brings tears to those who ought to have been granted, and with tears there is a vexation of the spirit. I need not tell you what that could bring.

As regards centralisation and secrecy, as two components of the management and governance style of this political

leadership, I want to say this.

The admixture of these two, centralisation and secrecy, has caused me to coin a term in this National Assembly called “control-freakism”.

We have some control freaks around the place. This term was wrought out of my experience of seeing how this PPP leadership, across there, loves to control everything.

Even when I was a Member of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), and sitting at that side, the control of scholarships was a regular thing to be noticed - so, too, the attendance of people at international seminars.

Moreover, the public purse it wanted and still wants to control entirely. And even the Assembly here. Everything...from apples to zebra. It controls and still wants to control the local government process. Hon. Member Mr. Ganga Persaud, you want to control the subvention amount for NDCs. You never want to enhance decentralisation which could see more people, with more ideas, making even better decisions. This is what brings on a paralysis in our country’s governance and management at every turn and at every point and whatever the forum.

This is the reason why on the Access to Information Act, the Hon. Member Ms. Gail Teixeira can say - to quote her from the Stabroek News “Information is being furnished and disseminated.

Hence, there is no urgency to operationalise the Act.” Further, it was only until Hon. Member Cathy Hughes, AFC member, asked the questions about radio licences earlier this year, that it became known that they were allocated since November, 2011. Until then that was a state secret. In somewhat similar terms that is how we knew of the Cheddi Jagan International Airport expansion project. It was only out for the first time through the Gleaner newspaper from Jamaica and then Kaieteur News reprinting it here. Even the India Times had to tell us

about the big forestry investment in Guyana by an Indian entrepreneur - I think the name is Coffee Day, out of India. There is so much more that is hidden, which, perforce in the coming days and months, will be fathomed and discerned and unearthed by this one-person majority Opposition. It will be in the interest of this country that we do that job of bringing all these sleight of hand deals to the public fore. It is for these reasons, too, why the political leadership of the PPP/C seems not to want to have the operationalisation of a Public Procurement Commission.

The genuine, professional operationalisation of this Procurement Commission will be the scourge of the PPP in this the second decade of the 2000s, just as the operationalisation of the Auditor General Office under the Hoyte administration was the scourge of the PNC in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

If we the politicians love our people we must love scrutiny and we must learn to live it. We must give the people out there that charge to blow the whistle when they see corruption and cronyism.

We must not do what was done to that young auditor, Pablo Singh, at NDIA. When he found certain things going wrong and put those wrongs in his internal auditor’s report he was chastised and abused. What are we going to be left with when we stifle all of these technical personnel with instructions that their reports must only be Governmentfriendly? Mr. Speaker, the Government did not want us to incorporate our points into this Budget. So the reconfiguration of this 2013 Budget, which could have occurred during a more sincere dialogue process, is now not there. Therefore we have to do what we have to do to ensure that that Government across the floor comes to its senses.

Only when it starts tightening up, are we going to start lightening up.

Sunday June 02, 2013

Kaieteur News

Page 27

Minister urges contractors to produce better work

Some of the potholes in Third Avenue, Diamond Housing Scheme, with road material pushed to the side and piled up at the corners.

Only contractors who produce quality work with adequate, proper and relevant equipment would be awarded contracts so as to have quality finish projects in a timely manner, says Juan Edghill, Junior Finance Minister.

Poor quality works and limited equipment were some shortcomings of local contractors highlighted by Edghill at the just concluded

Procurement Symposium.

He was at the time addressing members of the private sector including contractors, investors and commercial banks at the Guyana International Conference Centre, Pattensen.

According to the Minister, contractors and builders must abide by rules and regulations. As such, he will ensure that contractors

who are awarded projects are those who produce quality work and have “proper” equipment.

Edghill said that based on a report he was preview to, some contractors only deliver roads with ¼ of the required thickness, according to the scope of the works. This, he suggested, could be the cause for fast deteriorating roads in Guyana.

For years, citizens across

Guyana have been complaining about shoddy works executed by contractors.

They continuously question how contractors who deliver shoddy works were awarded additional contracts. They also questioned the abilities of Government’s Engineers and Clerks of Work in indentifying poor quality works.

Only recently, a female

resident of Third Avenue, Diamond Housing Scheme, East Bank Demerara, told this publication that her community road, which was rehabilitated about six years ago, had developed massive potholes. And, a contractor was seen removing building material from the surface of the road leaving a trail of red sand.

“The men dem come in about two weeks ago and started to clear off the road pushing everything in a corner. After they done the lil red sand wuh been lef ’ underneath the road and they smooth it out”, the resident noted.

She added that owing to the current inclement weather, construction on the road halted.

“I don’t get it at all why these people bent on wasting taxpayers’ money. They clear the road, smooth it out and now when the vehicles pass and the rain come down it got potholes again and they gonna have to spend more

money to clear it”, the woman said.

A male resident said that the workers “wasted time” and allowed the rainy season to destroy what was already done.

“I mean we thankful for what they did because when the rain fall is a messed-up situation but they wasted effort, money and production.

We ended up right where we started and that don’t make sense,” the man said.

He added that after the original road material was removed, it was obvious why the road had deteriorated in the first place. “De previous men dem did sloppy work, I tell the neighbours dem this road finish too quickly. When they lift off the road it was clear that they just put a cover over it.”

When this publication visited the location, broken road material was seen stored along the shoulders of the road, and the recently graded stretch has several potholes.

Page 28

Gocool Boodoo, Guyana’s Chief Elections Officer (CEO), is probably the single most experienced manager of national and regional elections in the country.

He has been involved in elections management for nearly 20 years. He has functioned as CEO for three general and regional elections – in 2001, 2006 and 2011.

Boodoo first started working for the Guyana Elections Commission – GECOM – in 1993, the year after the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) entered office. He served first as Divisional Registrar, then as Deputy Registrar, Regi s t r a r and Senior Manager (Administration, Human Resources and Finance) and, with effect from 1st August 2000, Deputy Chief Elections Officer and Deputy Commissioner of National Registration (Administration).

It was from this propitious position that he was ‘catapulted’ into the office of Acting Chief Elections Officer on 22nd January 2001 – less than two months before the National and Regional Elections on 19th March – following the sudden tragic death of his predecessor, Stanley Singh.

He was confirmed in that position in April 2002. Boodoo is not a novice; he is no dunce.

He had been granted a Commonwealth scholarship to study in the United Kingdom and holds the degree of Master in Education (1982) from the University of Manchester. He also earned the Bachelor of Education degree from the University of Guyana (1978) and a Certificate in Education, also from University of Guyana (1976).

He is a trained Teacher who taught in the education system for several years and served as a Lecturer at the Cyril Potter College of

Kaieteur News

Education, before his appointment as Head of the Department of Foundations and Administration of the School of Education of the University of Guyana. He knows and understands simple arithmetic.

It was a surprise, therefore, for Dr. Robert Stephen Surujbally, Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission, six months after the 28th November 2011 General and Regional elections, to publicly admit that Chief Elections Officer, Gocool Boodoo, had made “a human error” in his preparation of an incorrect declaration of the election results. What Surujbally did not say was that this was not Boodoo’s first “human error.”

The Chief Elections Officer is required to bring his final calculation of the allocation of seats in accordance with the national and geographical lists to the Guyana Elections Commission after voting concludes on Election Day. It was clear that, despite the long delay of nearly 72 hours after the close of poll, B o o d o o ’s ‘ c a l c u l a t i o ns’ indicated, implausibly, that the PPPC, with nearly 9,000 votes fewer than the combined A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and Alliance For Change (AFC) tally, was about to be awarded the majority of seats in the National Assembly.

Vincent Alexander – an opposition-nominated commissioner – quickly pointed out the mistake in Boodoo’s arithmetic.

The Commission intervened.

The PPPC was, eventually, correctly awarded 32 seats and declared the winner of the Presidency. It lost control of the National Assembly to the Opposition APNU with 26 and AFC with 7 seats.Boodoo’s blunder, had it escaped the Commission’s scrutiny and been left unchallenged, would have remained in

effect unless and until overturned by the High Court. The AFC would have been forced to file an election petition in the High Court to attempt to reclaim that single seat on which Guyana’s parliamentary democracy depends today.

The AFC, however, had been burnt by a similar blunder by Boohoo five years earlier when he supervised the flawed 28th August 2006 General and Regional Elections.

The AFC discovered, at least by the day after the declaration of the election results, that the returns oddly ‘omitted’ the votes of several polling divisions.

Khemraj Ramjattan, then AFC Chairman, went to see Boodoo to express his party’s concerns, indicating which divisions’ results were missing. Boodoo’s response, as recorded in the newspapers at the time, was that the presiding officers “made a lot of mistakes and they [the AFC] should not worry as everything would be alright.” Nothing happened and the PPPC retained the seat by default. Raphael Trotman, AFC Leader at the time, complained bitterly that such a decision had obviously been taken by a “conniving and calculating mind or minds…

This only goes to show what we are dealing with when we talk about the ability of GECOM to be credible and trustworthy enough to be able to produce any free, fair and transparent elections. The nation can judge for itself.”

The AFC, waiting for Boodoo, allowed valuable time to elapse before moving to the High Court to file an elections petition in its bid to gain the geographical seat it claimed to have won.

The entire record of the pleadings in the hearing to determine whether the AFC or the

Sunday June 02, 2013

PPPC was the winner of the disputed seat mysteriously disappeared. The charade concluded when Chief Justice Ian Chang dismissed the AFC’s petition on the grounds of a procedural flaw.

Boodoo’s record of performance as CEO for the 19th March 2001 general and regional elections had set a new standard for electoral bungling.

The reports of every major foreign and local observer mission were splattered with adverse comments.

The Carter Center, Caribbean Community, Commonwealth, European Union and Organisation of American States with one voice complained about the badly flawed voters’ list which resulted in the disenfranchisement of eligible electors.

Observer missions wrote of the confusion, irregularities and complaints about names missing from the Official List of Electors – OLE – used at polling stations, although the names were recorded on the final voters’ lists.

Many citizens, despite possessing the statutory documentation, were unable to vote.

The very suspicious sources of confusion were traced to variations between the Preliminary Voters’ List, Revised Voters’ List and the Official List of Electors that were generated by GECOM’s Information Systems Department. The blunders which marked the 2001, 2006 and 2011 General and Regional Elections were avoidable. Gocool Boodoo’s twenty-year tenure of office at GECOM ended with the expiration of his last contract on 30th April 2013. He should be allowed to proceed on retirement. Guyana needs a more competent manager to administer this country’s elections.

Page 38

Kaieteur News

Sunday June 02, 2013

Hagel warns China on cyberattacks SINGAPORE (AP) — Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel delivered a twopronged message to Beijing — holding out hope for a slowly improving military relationship with the Asian giant while issuing a stern warning on cyberattacks coming from that country.

But he was met with immediate skepticism from the Chinese delegation in the audience, who questioned America’s role in the Pacific.

Speaking yesterday at a security conference in Singapore that he helped to form more than a decade ago, Hagel said: “The United States has expressed our concerns about the growing threat of cyber intrusions, some of which appear to be tied to the Chinese government and military.” While he is not the first U.S. official to publicly blame China for computerbased attacks that steal data from U.S. government and corporate networks, he delivered the rebuke in China’s backyard, with members of Beijing’s government in the audience.

His comments triggered a wry response from Maj. Gen. Yao Yunzhu, director of the Center for China-America Defense Relations, at the

U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, center, poses with Japan’s Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera, left, and South Korean Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin, right, pose for photographers before their trilateral meeting on the sidelines of the International Institute for Strategic Studies Shangri-la Dialogue, or IISS Asia Security Summit in Singapore, yesterday. (AP Photo/Wong MayeE) People’s Liberation Army’s Academy of Military Science, who c h a l l e n g e d h i m t o better explain America’s intentions in its building up of the military across the region.

“Thank you for mentioning China several times,” she told Hagel, minutes after he concluded his remarks, and began taking questions from the audience.

As an audible murmur and some quiet chuckles rose from the crowd, she added that America’s new shift to the Pacific has been widely interpreted as an “attempt to counter China’s rising influence, and to offset the increasing military capabilities of the Chinese PLA. However, China is not convinced.”

She asked Hagel how he can assure China that the increased military deployments to the region are part of an effort to build a more positive relationship with Beijing.

“That’s really the whole

point behind closer militaryto-military relationships,” Hagel responded. “We don’t

want miscalculations and misunderstandings and misinterpretations. And the only way you do that is you talk to each other.”

He said the U.S. welcomes a strong a n d e m e r g i n g China that takes on responsibilities for security in the region, and that Beijing and Wa s h i n g t o n h a v e t o b e inclusive and direct with each other. “I think we’ve made continued progress,” he said. “And we’ll make more progress.”

Defense officials said Hagel also broadly raised the issue of cybersecurity in a brief, informal meeting with Lt. Gen. Qi Jianguo, PLA deputy chief, on Friday evening.

The officials, who s poke on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to publicly discuss the content of the meeting, said it was one of several subjects that were touched

on in the session and that Hagel mentioned plans for the formation of a cyber working group.

In his speech, Hagel said the U.S. is determined to work closely with China and other nations to establish appropriate standards for behavior in cyberspace.

And the U.S. will also be looking to China for help in resolving ongoing problems with North Korea, which in recent months has ratcheted up tensions in the region with a series of rocket launches, an underground nuclear test and threats of nuclear strikes against the U.S. and its allies.

Noting America’s longstanding tensions with China, Hagel said: “The key is for these differences to be addressed on the basis of a continuous and respectful dialogue.” The two nations, he said, must build trust in order to avoid military miscalculations.

Turkish PM Erdogan calls for end to protests as clashes flare ISTANBUL/ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan made a defiant call for an end to the fiercest antigovernment demonstrations in years yesterday, as thousands of protesters clashed with riot police in Istanbul and Ankara for a

second day.

The unrest was triggered by government plans for a replica Ottoman-era barracks housing shops or apartments in Istanbul’s Ta k s i m S q u a r e , l o n g a venue for political protest, but has widened into a broader show of defiance against Erdogan and his Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP).

Police fired teargas and water cannon down a major shopping street as crowds of protesters chanting “shoulder to shoulder a g a i n s t f a scism” and “government resign” marched towards Taksim, where hundreds were injured in clashes on Friday.

A police helicopter buzzed overhead as groups of mostly young men and women, bandanas or surgical masks tied around their mouths, used Facebook and Twitter on mobile phones to try to organize and regroup in side streets.

“If this is about holding meetings, if this is a social movement, where they gather 20, I will get up and gather 200,000 people. Where they gather 100,000, I will bring together one million from my party,” Erdogan said in a televised speech.

“Every four years we hold elections and this nation makes its choice ... Those who have a problem with

government’s policies can express their opinions within the framework of law and democracy,” he said.

Police later pulled back from Gezi Park in Taksim, where the demonstration started peacefully on Monday with people pitching tents in protest at trees being torn up for the redevelopment.

Waiters scurried out of luxury hotels lining the square, on what should be a busy weekend for tourists in one of the world’s most visited cities, ferrying lemons to protesters, who squirted the juice in their eyes to mitigate the effects of tear gas.

“People from different backgrounds are coming together. This has become a protest against the government, a g a inst Erdogan taking decisions like a king,” said Oral Goktas, a 31-year old architect among a peaceful crowd walking towards Taksim.

Stone-throwing protesters also clashed with police in the Kizilay district of central Ankara as a helicopter fired tear gas into the crowds. Riot police with electric shock batons chased demonstrators into side streets and shops.

Protests also broke out in the Aegean coastal city of Izmir late on Friday.

Sunday June 02, 2013

Kaieteur News

Page 39

Page 40

Kaieteur News

Sunday June 02, 2013

Sunday June 02, 2013

Kaieteur News

Page 41

GraceKennedy eyes Haitian market Jamaica Observer GRACEKENNEDY has its sights set on entering the Haitian market, as the Jamaicabased conglomerate continues on its mission to grow its international footprint.

“Haiti is on our radar. In fact I have gone into Haiti to look at opportunies,” GK Foods CEO Michael Ranglin told shareholders on Wednesday at the company’s annual general meeting in Kingston.

“That project is still being developed; there are certain things that you have to get right when you are going into Haiti,” Ranglin said.

However, the GK Foods boss noted that the priority overseas markets targeted for

growth remain Ghana, the US and Canada.

“We are looking at where the big bang is going to come from — Ghana, the US and Canada,” he said. “Those are the areas that we are focusing on now. In another two years or so you will hear a lot more about other areas that we are going in.”

Grace aims to become a global consumer group by 2020, targeting to earn 50 per cent of proÞts from outside of Jamaica and 15 per cent of revenues from each of three continents — North America, Europe and Africa.

For the 2012 financial year, total revenues were five per cent higher at $61.3 billion, with sales up across all the group’s major segments —

T&T Asphalt Company signs agreement with China Trinidad Express - The ties between Trinidad and Tobago and China are set to get stronger as State-owned asphalt production company, Lake Asphalt, Friday signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Chinese firm Beijing Oriental Yuhong Waterproofing Technology Co Ltd.The MOU will be the first step in negotiations between Lake Asphalt and Yuhong to possibly establish a manufacturing plant in La Brea, near Lake Asphalt’s operations, the company’s chief executive Leary Hosein told the Express.

The signing ceremony was held at the Hyatt Regency (Trinidad), Port of Spain as the country prepared for the arrival of Chinese President Xi Jinping Friday for a three-day official visit.

The decision to go into these negotiations was first considered after a Lake Asphalt delegation visited China and Yuhong’s operations, and observed the way the firm used the raw asphalt material in creating refined products.

“This MOU positions Lake Asphalt on a global stage through a partnership with one of the largest waterproofing companies in the world. It fits into the government’s strategy of diversifying the economy, growing foreign exchange earnings and spurring employment,” Lake Asphalt chairman Ashley Taylor said.

Yuhong’s chairman Li Weiguo said this project will set the company on track to become the largest waterproofing company in the world.

“Yuhong will make full use of T&T’s asphalt and share our waterproofing technology. These plans will be subdivided into three phases (for establishment).

After that sales revenue will be estimated at $1 billion and the plant will employ 1,000 local workers,” he said.

While Hosein said a cost and timeframe would be too early to determine just yet, Li said that once the plant beings manufacturing, Trinidad’s products will be used by customers all over the world, including Brazil, as they prepare to host two of the world’s biggest sporting events — World Cup 2014 and the Rio Olympics two years later.

Yuhong is engaged in research, manufacture, distribution and technology consulting of new construction waterproof materials. Its products are classified into waterproof membranes and waterproof coatings, including styrenebutadiene-styrene (SBS) modified asphalt membranes, atactic polypropylene (APP) modified asphalt membranes, self-adhesive modified asphalt membranes, compound polymer membranes, sealing materials, solvent rubber asphalt waterproof coatings and water type rubber asphalt waterproof coatings, among others. The company also involves in undertaking of waterproof projects. It operates its businesses primarily in the domestic market.

Lake Asphalt is a wholly owned State enterprise under the purview of the Ministry of Energy and Energy Affairs of Trinidad and Tobago.

food trading, retail and trading, banking and investments, insurance, and money services. Pre-tax profit increased marginally to $4.1 billion during the year compared to 2011.

The firm reported that 37 per cent of profits came from outside Jamaica, up from 26 per cent the year prior. North America represented 12.7 per cent of revenues, Europe accounted for 15.2 per cent and the Caribbean was 5.8 per cent.

“Africa is not on the map yet, and that we believe presents a lot of growth opportunity for the GraceKennedy group,” stated Don Wehby, GraceKennedy Group CEO. Last year the company expanded on the African continent, more specifically in Ghana where it has a number of food products, including the popular Tropical Rhythms drinks. In 2012, revenues in Africa grew by 233 per cent over the year prior.

“The revenues for the first four months of 2013 has already exceeded total revenues for 2012 in Ghana,” Wehby told shareholders.

Meanwhile, Wehby lauded outgoing GraceKennedy chairman Douglas Orane for his outstanding leadership of the company over the years.

Orane will be replaced by Professor Gordon Shirley as chairman in January, marking the first time the conglomerate will have an independent non-

executive chairman in its 90year history.

Orane retired as GraceKennedy Group CEO on June 30, 2011. He served as executive chairman for a period of one year to June 30, 2012, after which he was appointed non-executive Board Chairman for the period July 1, 2012 to December 31, 2013. He will remain on the GraceKennedy Board after he vacates the chair on December 31, 2013.

Page 42

Kaieteur News

Sunday June 02, 2013

Sunday June 02, 2013

Kaieteur News

Mariah Carey, Nicki Minaj leaving ‘American Idol’ Pop singer Mariah Carey and rapper Nicki Minaj will leave “American Idol” after just one season as judges on the singing contest show, following on the heels of longtime judge Randy Jackson who left amid a TV ratings slump.

“Thank you American Idol for a life changing experience!

Wouldn’t trade it for the world! Time to focus on the Music!!!” Minaj said on her Twitter page on Wednesday.

Carey’s departure was also announced on Twitter by her public relations firm PMK BNC, which said the singer “says goodbye 2 idol” as she prepared to embark on a world tour.

Carey, 43, joined the judging panel with Minaj, country singer Keith Urban and Jackson, a music producer, for the show’s 12th season.

Carey reportedly earned $18 million while Minaj’s salary was reported to be $12 million and Urban’s was at $8 million for the season.

Carey and Minaj, 30, grabbed headlines throughout the season for

their on-camera arguments and off-camera feuding, with Carey saying in January that she had hired extra security following threats reportedly made against her by Minaj.

Despite the added star power of Carey, Minaj and Urban, the show’s ratings slumped to the lowest in 12 seasons, with the May 16 season finale of “Idol” drawing 14.2 million to see vocal powerhouse Candice Glover win the competition.

Jackson announced this month he would not return to the show next season. It was unclear whether Urban would. Pop singer and actress Jennifer Lopez and Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler left “Idol” in 2012 after two seasons and used their increased visibility from the show to relaunch their music careers.

Fox, which is owned by News Corp, will also lose reality programming chief Mike Darnell, who said last week he would leave at the end of June. Darnell shepherded “American Idol” into a ratings juggernaut since its debut in 2002.

Oprah Winfrey Earns Honorary Degree From Harvard, Thanks ‘HArrrrrvard’ on Instagram

Media mogul Oprah Winfrey received an honorary degree from Harvard University on Thursday, and showed off her brand-new diploma on Instagram in a way that will probably piss off every kid who was ever rejected from the top-rated American college.

Oprah was honoured as one of America’s most respected and influential public figures who rose from humble roots to create a global media empire and became a “beloved television icon and philanthropist.” The 362nd commencement (as convocations are called in the

US) at Harvard saw a total of 7,321 degrees and 44 certificates being given in a ceremony replete with American pomp and show at the famous Harvard Yard attended by over 32,000 people, who included students, professors and families and friends from the world over.

Harvard’s John F Kennedy School of Government - one of the university’s 13 schools- saw the passing out of 562 graduates and postgraduates from 78 countries, making it the most globally diverse academic programme at Harvard University.

Page 43

Page 44

Kaieteur News

Sunday June 02, 2013

Take care with what your young children eat

By Krista Brooks Nursey was caring for a young child the other day and was trying to guess his age.

“Aww, you must get 2 years or so,” she said. When she looked at this little boy’s chart she couldn’t believe it, “this child hasn’t reached a year as yet, eh eh!”

Children are supposed to grow plenty in their first year of life, but this was a bit too much. She said that parents need to make sure their children get the right foods because it helps them grow properly and makes their mind strong. Also, good eating habits help children to stay healthy and go see Nursey less. If they eat well as a child, they will also eat well later on in life.

Nursey told me that a young baby/child’s stomach is about the size of the baby’s fist. In other words, it is very small, much smaller than bigger people.

This means that their belly gets full quickly. So if they are eating foods that aren’t too good for them, they will be full and won’t have enough room for other foods that have the things they need to grow big and strong.

Young children need to eat different kinds of foods in order to get enough vitamins, minerals, and nutrients for their bodies. Vitamins, minerals, and nutrients are all things in food that help your children grow and develop properly.

Especially important are vitamins A, B, C, D, Iron, Calcium, and Potassium. All of these are found in a variety of foods such as greens, fruits, milk, eggs, cheese, meat, legumes, and staples/ starches. This is why it is important to give your child different types of food so they can get all the vitamins and minerals that they need.

Babies will always benefit by being breastfed exclusively (only) for the first 6 months. Breast milk provides all of the important nutrients your baby will need.

After 6 months, you can still breast feed, but it is a time when you can introduce some soft foods such as porridge or mashed up fruits or greens.

Small pieces of meat, eggs, and starches can be introduced at 8 months. It is important to go slow when introducing new foods and it is encouraged to also keep giving your child breast milk, but in smaller amounts.

Remember that Guyana has plenty of fresh fruits.

Don’t give your child too

much bottle or boxed fruit juices. Make your own fresh juices and try not to add too much sugar.

The sugar that is found in boxed juices or sodas can fill your children up and cause them not to be hungry for good food. The sugar can also cause their teeth to rot and hurt other parts of the mouth as well as make them want sugary foods more over foods that are better for them.

You can also have fruit and greens already chipped up so you can give them to your child easily as a snack.

Having healthy options around will make your child get used to eating in a healthy way. If your child is a picky eater, don’t give up.

Sometimes it will take a child ten or so tries before they end up liking something.

Remember that children also watch very carefully what mommy and daddy do. If you are drinking sodas and eating a lot of chips and snack food, they will want the same things. Try to eat healthy around your children and it will help both them and yourself.

As Nursey says, “take care with what your young children eat.” Their growth and development depends on what they are fed. If you feed them Chubby and Cheese Puffs, you might see your child with too much size and some health problems later on.

They can have these things once in a while, but it is good at a young age to start them off liking their fruits and greens first.

I will be back next time to tell you more interesting things that Nursey says. Until then!

If you have any questions about child nutrition or any other health issues please e-mail nurseysaysguyana@gmail.com.

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

Sunday June 02, 2013

SUNDAY EDITION FOUR FEARED DEADAS BOAT CAPSIZES IN CUYUNI RAPIDS Last Saturday a rescue team made up of persons from the Maritime Administration and the Guyana Defence Force combed the Cuyuni River for four persons who disappeared after a boat they were in, capsized. According to the police, the boat was captained by Junior Lyte, 19, of Batavia, Cuyuni, assisted

by Clive Welcome, 19 years, of First Avenue, Bartica. At Aranka, Cuyuni, they collected Shawn Robinson, William Patoir, and David Prass, 26, all of New Amsterdam, Berbice, along with Junior Bandhu, 35, of Tuschen, East Bank Essequibo and Maurice Hopkinson of Second Avenue, Bartica. Those rescued were Lyte, Prass and Hopkinson; those feared dead are Bandhu, Patoir, Welcome and Robinson. The incident occurred in the Matuk Falls, Cuyuni, about 10:30 hours. According to a statement from the Ministry of Public Works, the vessel, laden with supplies, was heading to gold mining operations upriver. A relative of one of the survivors related that as the boat was navigating the rapids which led to a waterfall its engines stopped.

DON’T USE DIFFERENCES TO STALL GUYANA’S PROGRESS; WORK WITH ME – PRESIDENT RAMOTAR APPEALS As Government and the Opposition continue a standoff over passage of a number of critical pieces of legislation, President Donald Ramotar on Saturday evening promised to pull out all stops to ensure progress continues.

The Head of State, during 47th Independence celebrations at the National

Kaieteur News

Park, also appealed for trust.

He said that he is willing to work with all stakeholders.

“On this the 47th anniversary…I appeal to our political leaders to join me in creating conditions of improved political trust that would allow us to work together, in spite of our differences, to build this country of ours and to make it truly great, so that we can take a bigger part in resolving regional and global issues.”

He was convinced that despite the current challenges, all Guyanese share the common desire for an end to poverty and a modern country, in which all can prosper in an environment of peace and unity.

“I believe that at this time when our economy is doing better, we are well positioned to move closer towards achieving this vision. We should not let this moment pass; we should not squander this opportunity. I implore all of our political leaders to join me in working to build a grand future for all of our people.”

MONDAY EDITION MAN SHOT IN HEAD NEAR BOURDA DRINKING SPOT - BIZARRE DRAMA RECORDED ON SURVEILLANCE CAMERA A 41-year-old man was shot to the head and a young cricketer who is his close friend was taken into custody, following a bizarre incident outside a Bourda drinking spot early Sunday morning.

Shawn Nelson of 63-64 Joseph Pollydore Street, Lodge, was rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital at around 06:30 hrs, after being shot in the left side of the head, allegedly by an associate who is a member of the Demerara Cricket Club. He

was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit and sources said that his prognosis was poor.

The entire incident was recorded on a surveillance camera located near the Orange Walk Bourda drinking spot where the shooting occurred.

BODIES OF TWO CUYUNI RIVER VICTIMS FOUND The bodies of two men, who were among four feared drowned in Saturday’s boat mishap in the Cuyuni River, were recovered late Sunday evening after army and maritime personnel intensified the search for the missing passengers. The victims were identified as Junior Bandhu 35, of Tuschen, East Bank Essequibo and William Patoir of New Amsterdam, Berbice.

Kaieteur News was told that the bodies were found a few miles from the area where the accident occurred, after additional search teams were deployed to find the four missing passengers.

However, sources confirmed that the bodies of Shawn Robinson and Clive Welcome were yet to be found.

TUESDAY EDITION DOMESTIC FRIDGE TRANSFORMED INTO MORTUARY - HEALTH MINISTER PROMISES TO LAUNCH PROBE Employees at the Leonora Cottage Hospital, West Coast Demerara, got a shock of their lives when they found out that the fridge they use to store their eatables was turned into a temporary mortuary two Wednesdays ago. On the night of May 15, last, midwives at the hospital delivered a 28-weekold stillborn boy.

The dead infant was placed in a black plastic bag and stored in the freezing section of the fridge until the following day when it was taken to a mortuary. Medical

Page 51

staffers claimed that the dead child was removed from the fridge at 06:00am on Thursday, May 16, and no one bothered to clean the fridge or inform the other employees who would have taken over from those who worked the night shift.

“It’s those staff who got friends that worked the night shift told them what really happened. We would have continued to use the fridge as if nothing happened and they didn’t even inform anyone to clean the fridge,” a staff who preferred to remain unnamed said. Minister of Health, Dr. Bheri Ramsaran, when contacted for a comment Monday said he was not aware of the fridge incident.

He promised to launch an investigation, while adding that the Administrator at the facility is having some challenges.

LEOPOLD STREET MAN BEING SOUGHT FOR DOGFIGHT FATAL STABBING A man identified as ‘Mice

Man’ is being sought in connection with Sunday’s evening stabbing to death of an ex-policeman. Adrian Richmond, 31, called ‘Pinky’ was pronounced dead at the Georgetown Public Hospital, Sunday, after he was stabbed at Industry, East Coast Demerara.

A source close to the investigation revealed that ‘Mice Man’, another identified as ‘Roger’ and a third man, are being sought for the incident which resulted in Richmond’s death.

The dead man’s brother told Kaieteur News that he and his brother were betting on a dog fight and that those who placed their bets on one dog that lost, became angry and started to create problems.

“The problem wasn’t with me brother. The people started cursing at me, and somebody said that they gon chop off me neck, so me brother start telling them that they overreacting and that it didn’t call fuh all ah that.” He added that before he knew it, a scuffle began, and about seven men pounced on his brother.

“One ah de men did stabbing me brother during de scuffle, but we didn’t know. Is only when he get up and walk about two feet away and he collapse.” The man’s brother said that in making arrangements for the injured father of three to be transported to the hospital, the perpetrators, who are not known to the family, were able to make good their escape.

The man’s body reportedly bore several stab wounds that seemed to have been inflicted with an ice-pick or similar instrument.

WEDNESDAY EDITION SAWMILL SUPERVISOR’S BODY FOUND WITH THROAT

SLASHED, HEAD BASHED IN - TRIANGULAR LOVE AFFAIR SUSPECTED MOTIVE A bitter rivalry over a young woman is the suspected motive behind the brutal murder of a 22-year-old sawmill supervisor, whose body, with throat slashed and head bashed in, and was found at 14:50 h Tuesday at Land-of-Canaan, East Bank Demerara.

Thandu Singh, also called Kemraj Singh, was found lying on a bed in a shack at his employer ’s Land of Canaan sawmill. His throat had a gaping wound and he had been struck repeatedly to the head. A bloody hammer was found at the scene.

Information provided by the slain man’s family has led police to believe that Singh was killed by a young man with whom he had a bitter dispute over a 17-year-old woman that both youths wanted to marry.

GRA DISMISSES FEMALE STAFFER FOR BOGUS DRIVER’S LICENCE RACKET - SAYS CHARGES LIKELY FOR APPLICANTS ALSO The Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) says it has terminated, with immediate effect, the services of a female employee of its Licence Revenue Department, after it was discovered that she fraudulently facilitated the issuance of an undisclosed amount of drivers’ licences.

“The employee responsible for the nefarious acts along with the person(s) who solicited the commission of the various offences are now likely to face criminal charges as the GRA has handed the matter over to the Guyana Police Force for (Continued on page 60)

Page 52

Kaieteur News

Sunday June 02, 2013

‘The Lioness of Poetry’: Plum Park residents accuse KAMADYAH YISREAL cops of indiscriminate shooting - “Poetry can be a platform for positive change”

By Kiana Wilburg Over 30 highly regarded poets across Guyana, who have either heard one of her CDs or witnessed her live performance, stated that she is an excellent poet.

With this in mind, come June 4, The Upscale Restaurant and Sports Bar, located at Regent and Hinck Streets, will be featuring American-born Kamadyah Yisrael, who is known to many as the “Lioness of Poetry.”

Yisrael came to Guyana when she was just nine years old. She attended Sacred Heart Primary and later progressed to The Bishops’ High School and University of Guyana (UG) where she majored in History. She later moved on to the University of Georgia where she acquired a Masters degree and now lectures at UG The 27-year-old told this publication during a very candid interview that though she aspired to be a lawyer, that changed when her desire to have a family grew as well.

“I may consider practicing in the future but for now my focus is my family,” said Yisrael.

She said that she found her passion for writing poetry when she was about eleven or twelve years old, but she was never fond of sharing her

work. However, it wasn’t until her first performance at church which transformed the shy young lady into a powerful, spoken word poet.

Today, with over 100 pieces, Yisrael is seriously considering the prospect of publishing an anthology (a collection of poetry).

The ‘Lioness of Poetry’ who has toured the USA performing as a spoken word artist, related that she currently has three recorded CDs and is in process of recording her fourth.

Faithful fans of the poet begged this publication to ask Yisrael to start a blog where her work can be followed. The humble poet simply blushed saying that a blog is in the making along with videos that will be available on You Tube.

However, to her fans and those who will be attending the Poetry night, Kamadyah will have her CDs on sale.

Yisrael related that her most popular topics in poetry are “love, relationships and God,” all of which are explored thoroughly.

When she was asked what influences her work, The University Lecturer laughed heartily and said “My husband, but I’m also inspired by the simplest things around me.”

Though the mother of two is working towards becoming

a Def Jam Poet, she describes poetry as being very important to her. She explained that poetry is her outlet and she writes for the purpose of inspiring and evoking thoughts in others. “It’s a platform for change if used correctly,” she said.

When this newspaper asked Yisrael to comment on her style of poetry, she said, “I can’t be the soft spoken poet though I appreciate that style a lot.”

Nevertheless, through thorough investigations it was noted that Yisrael undoubtedly owns the stage and commands your attention. It is said that “she captivates her audience effortlessly.”

Moreover, the poetess shared with me that her favourite local poets are, “Randolph Critchlow, Juanita Critchlow, Rochelle Christie, Jaime “Suru” Mayers, Mark Luke Edwards, Yerrodin Akeel Bowen and Yaphet Jackman… although he hasn’t performed in ages.”

As for her favourite International poets, she named “Black Ice, Lauryn Hill, Poetic Prince and Afic.”

Yisrael finally stated that, “I never sit down and plan to write, poetry simply happens to me and with each piece I evolve.”

Police yesterday arrested four young men in Plum Park, Sophia, after saying that they were behaving in a suspicious manner. But relatives and residents are claiming otherwise, saying that the police behaved in a dangerous manager, shooting indiscriminately.

According to the police, the arrest was made around 14:25hrs on Friday.

“As police ranks approached a group of men who were acting suspiciously at Plum Park, Sophia, one of them pulled out a firearm and discharged rounds in the direction of the ranks. The police returned fire and the man threw away the firearm and surrendered. No one was injured.”

However, residents of the area and persons claiming to be witnesses to the police’s operation had a different story to tell. Prior to the release of the police statement, residents of the area, including the mothers of two of the arrested young men and eyewitnesses, visited

Kaieteur News to express their concerns over the incident.

One of the eyewitnesses claimed that around 13:00hrs, she was standing at her doorway when about five or six men dressed in civilian attire exited a yellow taxi with “big, big guns”, and started firing shots everywhere.

She added that residents were terrified, thinking that the men were on a rampage to create massacre.

“These men just jump out a yellow taxi with big, big guns, fire about two or three shots in the air, and then they start chasing them li’l boys in the area and shooting at everything. They just run in people yard just so and shooting everywhere. People did begging them to stop, because small children were playing in their yards and so,” the woman said.

The Plum Park area was reportedly surrounded by both the men who arrived in a taxi, and another group in a pickup truck.

The residents maintained that there was no immediate evidence

that the men were police officers.

The mother of one of the arrested teenagers told Kaieteur News that even if the police had some evidence against the boys, the approach by the police was ridiculous, and could have cost innocent people, including children, their lives.

The police statement said that the officers were able to retrieve an unlicenced .38 special revolver, the gun that was used to shoot at them. But one “eyewitness” said that she saw when one of the men “pull a silver gun out from his crotch” and placed it on the ground.

“The police tell we that one of the boys shot at them, but that’s a lie. Everybody did running for dem lives. I see one of the men pull out a gun from he pants crotch and put it on the ground.

The boy who dem seh shoot at them, the boy hand ain’t good. He still recovering from a gunshot. He hand can’t even move properly.

Somebody did rob he earlier this month and shoot he.”

AFC demands Public Procurement ...

From page 12 Monitoring Unit. Everybody should apply fresh to a new Broadcast Authority.

With regards to the $5B budget cuts to GPL’s subsidy earlier this year, the Opposition party said it pointed out that the real cost

of fuel this year has reduced by eight per cent than the anticipated costs, due to a fall of world oil prices. This meant that GPL will have additional monies.

“AFC made it clear that the GPL Board be sacked.

More monies will be saved almost instantaneously.”

NOAMAILA $$$ UNTIL… On the Amaila Falls project, the AFC said it will not be restoring almost $20B, representing Guyana’s stake in the 165-megawatts project that was slashed off the National Budget this year. The “AFC team assured him (President Ramotar) thatAFC will support this once the IDB due diligence approves the project.

The President mentioned that lack of approval might send the wrong signal to IDB. We begged to disagree.”

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) is currently carrying out its financial due diligence on this and there is worry that a deadline for financial closure may not be met. Guyana could end up paying millions in penalties to the Chinese contractor and the hydro power developer if financial closure is not met in time.

The AFC said it was advised that Government is unable to force the Berbice River Bridge to lower its tolls since it is a private company.

Rather, the Opposition party was urged to make representations to the company directly.

Meanwhile, the sore issue of the non-assent by the

President on two Oppositiontabled bills was also discussed.

“The President was adamant he would not give his assent to these bills as they are unconstitutional.”

The AFC said it made it clear that it will not back a critical Government Bill on new anti-money laundering legislation before a November deadline, unless he assents to the two from the Opposition.

“We indicated that he should assent and let his litigious AG (Attorney General) take it to Court for that body to pronounce on the unconstitutionality of the Act.” On the appointment of the Chancellor of the Judiciary, the AFC said that the President does not want to advertise for the position, which is being asked for by the Leader of the Opposition. “He asked the AFC for its thoughts which were given.”

The AFC said the meeting was cordial and discussions were indeed “very frank”.

The Ramotar administration has been facing an uphill battle in the National Assembly after the ruling party lost its majority voting power by one seat. The Opposition gained more control, electing Raphael Trotman, the House Speaker from the AFC. In addition to two consecutive cuts to the National Budget, starting last year, the Opposition has been tabling motions and asking questions with an aim to tighten spending and reduce what it sees as widespread corruption on government contracts.

Sunday June 02, 2013

Kaieteur News

Page 53

Independence Day killing…

Mahdia Arcade vendors come under attack after order Relatives call for thorough made to remove squatters investigation into miner’s death

By Javone Vickerie On Wednesday, members of the Mahdia Arcade Committee came under attack by squatters during a demolition campaign to remove shacks from the area outlined for the marketplace.

The demolition campaign was in the making for the past two years and was supported by the Regional Democratic Council (RDC) of Region 8.

In 2010, fire destroyed two dozen buildings in the Mahdia commercial zone. The Ministry of Housing has since regularised the area and created a neat layout for the erection of 28 stalls. But, the area is now a squatter settlement.

Government on that occasion provided $20M towards rebuilding the arcade and an additional $5M to clear an area for a new housing scheme. Based on reports, the land for the housing scheme has been cleared and persons are now identifying plots.

Chairman of the Mahdia Arcade Committee, Floyd Herman, told Kaieteur News on Thursday that a notice was sent out to the squatters giving them a deadline of May 30 of this year to remove from the spot.

He said that “sending out notices is not enough since some squatters are determined not to remove”.

Herman explained that after the devastating fire, squatters used some of the debris along with theirs which were in their possession and started to build shacks where they sold a number of articles; without paying stall rent.

According to Herman, there was not full support of the police who accompanied them, attired in “plain clothes” for the demolition process.

He said that during the demolition on Wednesday, the squatters began to threaten and attack the workers who were hired to evict them.

He also made mention that “to think that with the presence of the police it would create a sense or law and order, it was like they were not even there”.

“The people started to pick back up the bits and pieces and started to rebuild.

We need a solution to this, because it is going on for way to long”, Herman noted.

He added that during the period between Wednesday evening and Friday morning, the illegal squatters were seen rebuilding the shacks which had been demolished. Herman noted that 28 “registered” stalls are in the arcade with an additional six who vend illegally.

Some $11.4M was used to clear debris from the burnt arcade area, and to erect five

proper concrete walkways and washroom facilities. Another $8.6M was used to purchase and transport building material including cement and steel.

However, when contact was made with Regional Chairman Mark Crawford, he explained that Minister of Housing Irfaan Ali had requested that the then REO Ronald Harsawack oversee the rebuilding and rehabilitation process.

Crawford also made mentioned that after some time, the six persons who took up residence were issued notices to “voluntarily” remove from the premises but like all other occasions, the occupants did not adhere to the instructions and as such continued to take up residence.

On that same occasion back in March 2010, Minister Ali then gave the illegal squatters a six-week ultimatum to remove from the premises - a request which they refused to heed.

Crawford believes that the occupants took refuge of the area due to the fact that a former REO had given vendors the opportunity to “temporarily” sell at the location but instead they took up permanent residence, due to the fact that a time frame of their stay was not mentioned.

Inclusion is a crucial factor in realising disability framework From page 13 wait for better data to begin building more inclusive infrastructure and services “as some have already found, inclusion involves and benefits entire communities and its elements can be applied to new projects across the board.”

It has therefore been highlighted that all that is needed is for these efforts to remain flexible so that they can be adapted as new data is uncovered.

It is expected that before the end of the year, the Education Ministry will have in place a working Disability Action Plan. However, Minister Manickchand had last year spoken of that Action Plan which is geared at addressing the needs of children with disabilities, even stressing that it was well on its way to becoming a reality.

She was hopeful that it would have been in place since last year, but that ambitious goal had not materialised. The Minister had nevertheless assured that “I can promise

you that before my term is up we are going to have an Action Plan in place, with a view to making sure that the needs of our disabled children are met.”

This development, she said, will see the Ministry seeking to look at how it can improve its process of teaching as well as to better train teachers and facilitate better remuneration in order to ensure that teachers are encouraged to venture into the area of special needs education.

“We want teachers to come into this field, but we also know that it is harder than being a regular teacher,” the Minister noted, as she highlighted areas the Action Plan is expected to address.

These features include

issues such as the accessing of several geographical locations for some disabled children and the importance of ensuring that parents do not only understand the importance of sending their children to school, but also ascertaining whether they can afford to send them.

“It is a holistic approach in attempting to meet the needs of our disabled children. I can tell you even before we begin that it is an uphill task, simply because of the very attitudes that exist,” the Minister disclosed.

She noted that there is a need to ensure that the disabled are offered all services available even as she added that “without that inclusion we cannot develop as rapidly as we deserve…”

Relatives of Glenbert Boston who was killed at Black Water Backdam, Mahdia, on Independence Day, are calling on law enforcement officials to thoroughly investigate the circumstances under which the miner met his demise.

On May 26, last, the 34year-old Lethem resident, was stabbed once under the left ribcage, in the region of the heart, and succumbed before receiving medical attention. He had been transported out of the Black Water district with an All Terrain Vehicle (ATV), but upon arrival at the Mahdia Hospital he was pronounced dead.

The father of one worked at a mining camp in the Mahdia district with his brother. His sister, Penny Boston, said on Tuesday last that she received a phone call from a contact in Lethem where the family grew up that one of her brothers had been killed in a stabbing incident “One carried long hair and the other short hair. They said the one with the long hair get stabbed and was supposed to be on his way to Georgetown.

I told my sister in the Diamond Housing Scheme to check with the Mahdia Police Station to inquire whether she heard of any death involving Glenbert Boston,” she recounted.

“My brother in law then called also to inquire and was told that the information received was that Kerwin Johnson was the person who

Dead: Glenbert Boston died and not Glenbert Boston, so the information was passed down in the family that it was not my brother that was killed.”

Adding that on the same (Tuesday) she was subsequently told by another brother that it was confirmed that it was Glenbert Boston who was killed, the woman noted that upon visiting Sandy’s Funeral Parlour her worst fears were confirmed.

“I don’t know where this Kerwin Johnson name came about from and how the police could have made such a mistake from the inception,

because the person that first called me gave the right description of my brother and later when we inquired, the police said was somebody else. How can this happen?” the woman asked.

Penny Boston further added that she learnt that the cause of the stabbing was due to an argument between her brother and his assailant popularly known as ‘Ghetto’ while they were having a few drinks last Saturday night into the morning of Independence holiday on Sunday.

“Eyewitnesses were saying that after receiving the stab my brother ran. He was found by my older brother who was looking for him after he did not return to camp.

On Independence Day he was found alive lying next to a shop. My older brother then arranged for him to come out with others when Glenbert died on his way out.” She explained.

Claiming that the police are well aware of whom the perpetrator is, the woman said the assailant is a known hustler on the landings and was even previously accused of killing another person in another mining district but escaped.

The woman said on the same day of the killing “the hustler house was burnt down and he fled with two other persons hiding out in the mountains… My brother will be buried Tuesday coming and we are seeking justice for my brother’s killing.”

Page 60

From page 51 further investigation into the offences owing to their nature,” the agency said in a statement Tuesday.

GRA said it carried out a “thorough investigation” after it was revealed that over a period of several months, the staffer facilitated the issuance of a number of fake (new and duplicate) licences to drivers and received cash in return. The employee, a Clerk 1, reportedly confessed her involvement in the matter which was committed between August 2012 and February 2013, the GRA said.

THURSDAY EDITION GUYANAAVERTS SANCTIONS …MUST PASS ANTIMONEY LAUNDERING LEGISLATION BY NOVEMBER The government has been successful in buying more time from the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force to amend laws against financial crimes, therefore avoiding being put on a financial blacklist. Speaking in Port of Spain Trinidad, Wednesday, President Donald Ramotar confirmed that Guyana now has until November to bring up to speed, laws governing the financial crimes of money laundering and financing of terrorism.

Ramotar had dispatched Attorney General Anil Nandlall to Nicaragua where the country was expected to inform the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force about Guyana’s progress in countering financial crimes.

The Head of the Financial

Kaieteur News

Intelligence Unit, Paul Geer, was leading Guyana’s delegation, but with the government failing to rush the opposition to make amendments to various pieces of legislation, Nandlall was added to the team to plead for more time. The government wanted the amendments to the AntiMoney Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (Amendment) Bill 2013 (AML/CFT) passed before it faced the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) review panel in Managua. The Task Force is an arm of the International Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an independent intergovernmental body that develops and promotes policies to protect the global financial system against money laundering and terrorist financing, among other financial crimes.

ALARM OVER POSSIBLE FORGERY OF TELCOR LEGAL DOCUMENTS Questions of forgery have arisen regarding Telcor Broadcasting, the company which was granted five radio frequencies by then President Bharrat Jagdeo in 2011. The company is linked to Minister of National Resources and the Environment, Robert Persaud.

Documents seen by Kaieteur News indicate that the incorporator of the company is Ruth Baljit, the sister of Minister Persaud.

However, the signature on documents submitted to the Deeds Registry looks completely different than the one on Baljit’s New York Identification Card, which

was also seen by Kaieteur News. The Criminal Law Offences Act states that everyone who forges “any instrument whatsoever” that is deposited or recorded in the Deeds Registry “shall be guilty of a felony and liable to imprisonment for fourteen years.”

Baljit is a United States citizen, whose address is the Bronx, New York.

Apart from Baljit, the other director of the company is Kamini Persaud, the niece of Jagdeo and the wife of Minister Persaud. Minister Persaud’s Permanent Secretary Omkar Lochan was the Company Secretary.

Lochan has since resigned as Permanent Secretary of the Ministry. The licence to Telcor Broadcasting was among 11 radio licences granted by Jagdeo in

November 2011.

FRIDAY EDITION ANTI-MONEY LAUNDERING LEGISLATION…REGIONAL BODY THREATENS SANCTIONS IF NOV. DEADLINE NOT MET A regional body overseeing the implementation of counter measures to halt the flow of dirty money has warned Guyana of sanctions if the country fails to meet a revised deadline of November.

Guyana was this week allowed an extension by the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF), after the National Assembly failed to pass key legislation in time for a critical evaluation meeting in Managua, Nicaragua.

A statement by the 29state organization sends a clear message of how serious

Sunday June 02, 2013

the legislation is to help countries track illegal money.

“If Guyana does not take specific steps by November 2013, then the CFATF will identify Guyana as not taking sufficient steps to address its AML/CFT deficiencies and will take the additional steps of calling upon its members to consider implementing counter measures to protect their financial systems from the ongoing money laundering and terrorist financing risks emanating from Guyana, and at that time CFATF will consider referring Guyana to the Financial Action Task Force International Cooperation Review Group (FATF ICRG),” the regional body said.

CRICKETER CHARGED WITH ORANGE WALK MURDER A 23-year-old man accused of fatally shooting a friend of his on Orange Walk, Bourda, appeared Thursday before Magistrate Sueanna Lovell at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court where the indictable charge of murder was read to him.

It is alleged that on May 27, last, Carlyle Barton, a wellknown cricketer, murdered 41year-old Shawn Nelson. The details of the police reports were not revealed in open court. Attorney at law, Mark Waldron represented the defendant. Waldron first stated that Barton has a fixed place of abode at 39 Hadfield Street, Georgetown. The lawyer then advanced that due to the facts that all statements were filed and all investigations were completed, an early date be fixed for trial.

Prosecutor Bharat Mangru then stated that investigations are still ongoing, but agreed with the lawyer’s application for an early trial date. Barton was remanded as Magistrate

Lovell added that the matter will be transferred to the Chief Magistrate Priya Beharry’s court on June 7 for report and fixture.

SATURDAY EDITION CHIEF JUSTICE UNAWARE JAGDEO GRANTED RADIO LICENCES The case of new radio stations became a bit more curious Friday when Chief Justice (ag) Ian Chang said he was unaware that any licences were granted by former President Bharrat Jagdeo. At least one of those persons touted as receiving a licence has said he has none, but rather what he has is a document from the Office of the President.

Chang will on July 15, begin hearing arguments in the legal challenge filed by the publisher of Kaieteur News Glenn Lall and the Guyana Media Proprietors Association (GMPA).

The parties want the court to quash the decision by former President, Bharrat Jagdeo, to hand out 11 radio licences and two cable licences.

When the matter came up before the Chief Justice on Friday, Attorney General Anil Nandlall begged the court for a month to file an affidavit in response to the challenge filed by Kaietuer News and the private media houses which make up the GMPA. The respondents in the case asked for a further 14 days to reply, if this is needed, putting the case to July 15.

One of the Attorney’s for the applicants, Roysdale Forde, was seeking interim relief by way of an order that the National Frequency Management Unit (NFMU) be prevented from issuing any new licences until the determination of the case.

It was at this point that the Chief Justice said he was unaware if indeed any licences were granted.

Sunday June 02, 2013

WANTED Business property for rent in Central Mackenzie- Tele: 444-5883/687-9992 One live-in maid to work in Georgetown- Call: 697-6747 One female experienced cook and kitchen assistant to work in home in InteriorCall: 697-6747

Kaieteur News

WANTED Barber to work at Grove E.B.D- Call: 609-6952 1 Nail Technician, 2 Barbers: Address: 1 Smyth & Durban Street, Werk-en-Rust. Call: 674-8555 Attractive live in waitress.

Call: 327-0252/ 674-4665

One Live-in Babysitter for Georgetown age 18-30- call: 697-6747

One seamstress to share space: must have clients: Heavy duty machines available- call: 622-4386

Contract Cars wanted: City Taxi Service- call: 660-1100

1 General Domestic for East Bank area- call: 614-4358

Live In Live Out Babysitter Domestic - Call: 225-6070

1 Live- in maid to do general house chores- Call: 626-7040

Wanted!

Experienced salesgirls: Visit 140 Regent Street with written application One Office Worker: Computer Research skills, excellent customer service: Inquire at 223-1233 or 6422028: Deadline June 3rd.

1 Experienced Hair Dresser and 1 Nail Technician to rent station at Alicia Hair Expose Beauty Salon - Call: 6811685/614-6869 One Bus Driver: Route 44 zone: Contact number: Home 220-5916/ Cell 698-4102

VEHICLE FOR SALE

LARGE QUANTITIES OF HIGH PURITY M E R C U R Y (QUICK SILVER) 9 9 . 9 9 9 9 5 % PURITY - $20,000 PER POUND CALL:604-6108

Original games for sale call:265-3232

1-55-210 DAF Lorry GPP 2673: In excellent condition: 1 yr old: Owner leaving country.

Call: 680-2095/261-5401

2002 FORD E350 VAN, FULLYLOADEDWITHA/C &OFFROADSUSPENSION: UNREGISTERED- CALL SAMMY 604-0020

RABBITS $2,000 EACHCALL: 650-0814 15-15-15 Fertilizer in damaged bags, large quantity available- call: 266-2711/609-4594 Games for PS 2, $900,PSP $900, Xbox360 $2600, PS 3 $2600, call:672-2566 2 Air Conditions- Call: 6956499/671-2018 Pig feed, Duck feed & Shrimp meal- call:266-2711/ 609-4594

1 Lincoln 225 amps welder generator set- Call: 641-0600

1 Welder Fabricator. Call: 668-1319

PLAYSTATION 2 & 3 SYSTEMS, Games, Memory Cards, Controllers etc. Call: 609-8132/672-8569

Guards, Males & Females, Land of Canaan: Accommodation Available for Males. Salary $15,000+ per 6 day week- Call: 266 4427

Dell laptops & desktops complete computers from $55,000 Futuretech. Call: 231-2206 1- 4 inch Chine Land Dredge and all of its components: Price $900,000- Contact: 2653586 Purpleheart panel doors $28,000: Sizes (30", 32", 34", 36") × 80- call: 688-9712/ 6390501

TO LET Four Bedrooms, fully furnished: Situated in Central Amelia’s Ward, Linden- Call: 649-6837 Fully furnished short term apartments, Eccles. Call: 6896668

Handy Boys: Apply to Shanta’s @ 225 Camp & New Market Streets

One bedroom apartment in Parfaite Harmony. Call: 6680306/694-7817

Office Clerk: CXC English/ Mathematics- Call:225-0188/ 225-6070

Two bedrooms apartment @ South Ruimveldt- call: 6956499/671-2018

Urgently wanted 1 house lot to buy in Parfaite HarmonyCall: 615-5566

Diamond $45,000-$75,000: Have Properties to rent or sell? Contact Diana 2272256/ 626-9382

3 Tons Bedford dump-truck, Scania long wheel base with Hyab and drop-tail- Call:2704485 Pure Rottweiler pupscall:220-6879 Rottweiler, Brazilian, German Shepherd puppies: Hunting dogs (Pointers) fully vaccinated- Call: 682-2148/ 655-8674 Brand new Asus desktop computers for just $100,000call: 645-9459 Live/pluck chicken call:6504421,220-9203 1- Used M.F 285 Tractor, 1Used JCB Back Hoe, 1Concrete Ransom ½ cubic yards- Contact: 670-7235/ 697-7967 Electric Snow cone machines- call:266-2711/6094594

One experience Driver, gear & automatic: Apply @ Hack’s Halaal 5 Commerce Street.

MATURE SALES GIRL FOR A BUILDING MATERIAL COMPANY: EXPERIENCED ONLYAND POLICE CLEARANCE CALL: 231-8529

VEHICLE FOR SALE

Two bedroom apartment in or around G/T- call:601-0582

One experienced general domestic, must be honest & know to cook tasty Indian & Creole dishes- Call:656-6388

Are you selling your land in Parfaite Harmony or Schoonord? globonetinfo @yahoo.com Call: 675-7292

FOR SALE

Land to buy in Parfaite Harmony. globonetinfo @yahoo.com, call: 672-9292

Ford Ice Crème Van Driver: Ages 40yrs-50yrs: Over 10yrs experienced & recent police clearance: Serious calls: contact 218-3021 Sales girls apply in person with written application @ Best Buy Food Supplies: Middleton & Dennis St. Campbellville

FOR SALE

Spare for washing machine, microwaves, fridges, stoves, timers, gearbox, pumps, etc call: 225-9032, 647-2943

One Male Shop Assistant to work in Interior- Call: 697-6747

Male Enhancement Viagra: 4 in a Pack For $3000- Call: 6426664/ 638-1627 CAKES & PASTRIES Courses in cake decoration, pastry making & cookery, Call: 670-0798. Also Wedding dresses for sale

Page 61

Used Massey Tractors- MF 165, 175, 275, 1100, 1130, Ford 500, Yanmar Vegetable Tractors: Affordable PricesCall: 675-9314

Fuffy pups: 642-6664 New Automatic Spice/ Powder Packing Machine, Adjustable Filling, Date Coding. Taiwan Made Price GY$2.5M #690-7593 Lister pitter generator from UK 10KVA, with tank and exhaust system $950,000call621-4000, 690-6000 Chicken hatchery robbins 26,000 eggs capacity with trays, racks, complete system, sold as a package, call:621-4000,690-6000 Riding Mower, 6500 watts Honda generator, large refrigerator & tools- call: 2612988 IPhone 4s-$110,000; Blackberry Bold4 -$69,995; PSP with games-$59,995; PS2 with 10 games-$54,995call:225-4631 Asphalt Roofing Shinglescall:266-2711/609-4594 Precision built 16" Bore Trailer Pump: New- Call: 2271830 1 Flock sheep and goats and flock Rams- Call:696-8103 1- 500 Ton Cargo Ship with contract- call:687-6174 Live Ducks in large quantities.

Call: 691-5851 or 671-2008 Terrier Puppies for sale- Call: 649-4247 Bayliner Boat 18ft with Trailer inboard mercury, 10 seater $2.4M- call: 694-1584 Mr. Rampershad/681-8795 Mr. Hardatt Clark Forklifts 2,000; 3,000; 4,000 lbs lifting capacity: Needs minor repairs, sold as is $375,000- call:621-4000/ 690-6000 SDMO Generators, diesel, silent with tank 28 KVA: Not working, sold as is $375,000call:621-4000/690-6000 22" Chrome rims (6 holes) with tyres, set of 4 $400,000call:621-4000/690-6000 Cheap Earth delivery to spot ECD & EBD call:627-9977, 698-0182

Mini bus RZ BLL Series: Excellent work conditionTele:622-3384/223-9955 HILUX SOLID DIFF Pickups, AC, 33×12.50 MT tyres, Unregistered, Excellent Condition- Call: 691-2077 Toyota Alex & Fielder: Never registered- Call: 269-0432/ 686-0323 We buy & sell vehicles for cash & we also do trading-in of vehicles- call:680-3154 1 Honda CRV 2004: PMM series- Call: 681-8378/6238174 1 Toyota Hilux Surf: 20" Rims, Crystal lights, Sunroof ect.

Contact: 220-7922 and 6256303 One Toyota Wills $1.7M, Toyota Surf $2.2M- Call:2317805/618-7483 Cheapest- Premio, Spacio, Hilux, stick gear buses. Call: 616-7635 Suzuki Swift Car, working condition-$350,000Tele:616-5424/ 641-6217 or 220-4818 Toyota car, PGG series: A/C, alarm, excellent condition: Price $800,000 negotiablecall: 690-3995 Mercedes Benz S300 armored, powered, leather seats, Auto, 19" rims, CD player, sound system $3.5M cash call:621-4000, 690-6000 Mitsubishi 3000GT, 3000cc sports car, CD player,18" rims, very fast, must see. Price neg.

Call: 621-4000, 690-6000 Hummer H2 SUT model, 22" rims fully leather, sound system, lots of up-grades call:645-9977 Cherokee Jeep, automatic, mag wheel, projection, LCD lights, transmission needs checking otherwise perfect. $1.2M cash call:621-4000, 690-6000 Mercedes Benz 190E fully powered, flair kit, mag wheel, needs repairs, sold as is $500,000, call:621-4000

Clean Garden Earth builders waste, also Bobcat rental, excavating, clearing & leveling. Call: 616-0617 or 663-3285

Is your car TV getting error “insert map disc”? Software reload available. Call: 6436565

Cannon IR 400 photocopying machines.

Call: 649-0956 Pitbull pups for sale (7 weeks)- Call:650-3327

3 RZ Mini Bus, 1 Sunny Nissan car: All ‘G’ series: In working condition- Call:6631792/653-2216 between 16hrs-20hrs

FOR SALE/RENT

1-55 Leyland DAF excellent working condition, price $4 Million negotiable- call:6568346

American Pool Table - Call: 277-0578

Cruiser Auto Sales: Unregistered: Toyota Fielder, New Raum, Noah, Mazda, Axela- call:603-9700 1 Toyota Land-cruiser Prado PMM series- call:225-0188/ 225-6070 First Class Auto (03 & 06) Allion, (03 & 04) Spacio, (01) Carina, (07) Axio, VerossaCall:609-8188/226-2689 Axio, Blue Bird, Pitbull: Going cheap- Call:697-0294 Leading AutoUnregistered: Allex, Runx, Spacio, IST, Allion, Premio, Tacoma (06), F150 (06)- Tele: 677-7666/ 610-7666 Massey Ferguson 6140: 4×4 Turbo: $3.2M negotiableCall: 688-6274 or 691-3851 LEYLAND DAF single axle, new gear box and new engine. Call: 613-6615/ 2161315 Honda ATV 500 4×4: New $2.6M- Call: 624-5000 Toyota Vitz 1300cc, 4 Disc Brakes, Mags, Fogs, Black Interior- Call: 269-0432/6860323 Unregistered Toyota Sienta 1500cc: 7 Seats- Call:6175536 Toyota- 4 Runner Surf, AT192, AT212, AT170, Ceres, EP82 & 71 Starlet, Solid DEF pickup, Nissan E24 van- call: 644-5096 1-2005 Nissan Titan $3.5M negotiable- Call: 622-1957 Anthony 2 New shape Avensiscall:698-0674 RZ mini-buses BMM & BNN series, AT192, 212, AT170, Tacoma, Canters, NZE & cheap cars- call:680-3154 1992 Toyota Camry- Call: 657-4114 AT 212 New model: Private, fully powered, mag, CD player, Alarm system, AC: Price negotiable: Call: 6212215/674-7828 Unregistered Tundra 4×4 fully loaded $2.750- Call: 615-9314 1- New Model 212: Excellent condition, Alloy rims, CD player: Price $1.550M negcall: 601-0706/656-9990 1- Unregistered 2003 Toyota Tundra: Fully accessorized, Crash Bar, Steps, Alloy Rims: Price $3.150M neg- call: 6010706/656-9990 (Continued on page 62)

Page 62

(From page 61)

PROPERTY FOR SALE

Kaieteur News

SALON Make Up Courses, Artist Trained & Certified in Trinidad. Call: 660-5257, 6471773

Electronic Course- PracticalBeginning 3rd June: Limited space available: Abdul Electronic, 226-6551/ 225-0391

New classes Cosmetology: Nails, Wigs, Designs, Make-Up, Hair-Styling; call Abby 216-1950, 6665241, 619-7603

Imperial College- Register Now: CXC 2014 fulltime/ lessons/adults classes: Excellent results-call: 6835742/227-7627 Learn to bake and icing cakes- call: 231-1360/ 6819461

At Clifton Port Mourant: Prime location on public road- Contact:905-970-0210/ 613-6795 or /624-8799 Norton Street, Wortmanville- 2 flat 5 bedrooms front bldg $19.5M neg: B & G’s Realty- 2274125/ 617-9717/682-4094 202 Camp Street, formerly Club Blue Note: Size of land 232×76- Call: 647-1626 or 2274921 Two business properties @ Whim public road; 1 House & Land 4th street Whim, Corentyne: Price negotiablecontact: 231-5171/ 619-7134

LEARN TO DRIVE B & C Driving School, pick up & drop off, call:2250150,229-7258,680-6826 Soman & Sons Driving School , First Federation Building Call 225-4858, 6445166,622-2872,615-0964

Property for sale. Contact: 699-9926

B & G’s Realty- 227-4125/ 617-9717/682-4094 Corner lot House and Land: 54 Stanley Town New Amsterdam, Berbice: Seven Million, Non-negotiableCall: 223-5641 South Ruimveldt Gardens 5 bedrooms concrete 2 stories $35M- 225-0853, 225-0854, 672-7390 2 House in yard, 4 bedrooms Good location on Ben St, $27M neg- 25-0853, 2250854, 672-7390 Diamond/ Grove: Newly Built 3 bedroom, First Bridge Big Yard- 6727390, 2250843, 225-0854 Newly built 5 bedrooms, house in Eccles and land $35M and $17M- 6727390, 2250843, 225-0854 Newly built concrete 3 bedrooms house in Parfaite Harmonie $19M, $17M, $8M- 672-7390, 2250854, 225-0843 Diamond main road property 5 bedrooms flat house $37M -225-0853, 225-0854, 6727390 Hugh Factory E/C US $700 Neg- 672-7390, 2250854,2250843 Lodge H/S 2 Stories Concrete (needs repairs) $14M neg- 672-7390, 2250854, 2250843

Enid’s dressmaking certificate classes from Elementary to advance: 66 Sixth St. Alberttown: 2239106/695-3876: sewing done here Diploma in Computers for 2013 CSEC students: 9 courses $35,000: MicroGraphics Vreed-en-Hoop 264-3057: Register now!

Computerized Accounting Packages For 2013 CSEC Students: Quickbooks, PTree, etc. Micro-Graphics Vreed-en-Hoop 264-3057 Summer Computer Classes: Ages 5-13 starting from $6,500: Micro-Graphics Vreed-en-Hoop 264-3057: Register now!

Lot 39 West Ruimveldt: Seven Bedrooms $26Mcall:694-5371 House and Land @ D’Edward- Call: 689-2973/ 698-3703

EDUCATIONAL

PROPERTY FOR SALE Diamond/Grove 2 Stories Concrete Newly Built, Automatic Gate/ Garage:Spacious Kitchen& 4 Bedrooms $36M- 6727390, 2250854, 225-0843 4 Land Together, 2 House: Concrete 2 Storey fence 1 Land 50 x 90 for parking: Must be sold $148M6727390, 2250854, 2250843 Flat House,2 Bedroom $8M Neg (Mon Repos)- 6727390,225-0854,225-08433 Newly Built 5 Bedroom Selfcontain: Double Garage, New Kitchen, Super Condition W/C/D $69M6727390, 2250854, 2250843 2 Storey Concrete House, Alexander St Kitty 60x80 Land $47M- 6727390, 2250854, 2250843 Huge House/Huge Land Facing seawall, Subryanville, Super location: Concrete downstairs, wood upstairs $US750,000- 6727390, 2250854, 2250843 Diamond Flat House Newly Built $17.5M- 672-7390, 2250854, 2250843 2 Storey- 2 Family on Guyhoc main road $29M, house and land- Tele:264-2154 Queenstown, Middle Road Cornelia Ida, Camp StreetCall: 667-7659/225-3427 Property in East Coast Berbice: 20×30- call: 697-2417 or 679-3918

Sunday June 02, 2013

VACANCY

FOR RENT

CAR RENTAL

1- Hairdresser who knows to do everything, fully certified: 1- Nail Technician: 1- Tattoo Artist: Contact Odessa: 6136068

2 Storey concrete 5 bedrooms with A/C, hot & cold, generator @ Happy Acre E.C.D call: 647-1569

Progressive Auto Rental cars from $4000 per day. Call 643-5122, 225-8711; email w w w. p r o g r e s s i v e a u t o rental. com

Female to work in Internet Café in Kitty: 18-28 years oldCall: 696-0298 (8am-6pm) Career Opportunity: Exciting Career Opportunity exists for 1 Hotel Manager: Accommodation ProvidedContact: 226-9768/ 642-7963 Pump Attendant @ Shell Service Station Providence E.B.D: Must be able to work shift: Email: shellramsburg@ gmail.com, Tele:265-7305 Vacancy exists for carpenters and porters: Apply at Alabama Trading Georgetown ferry stelling Stabroek

We repair fridge, freezer, AC, washer, dryer call:2310655,683-8734 Omar We Refill HP cartridges for $1800 call: 650-7699 House plans & estimatescontact T. Boodhoo: 6259883/675-9296 Service & Repairs for Jet Skis, Jet Boats, ATVs, Inboard & Outboard (2 & 4 strokes) engine- call:694-7949

Rooms /Apartments available: Furnished - Call: 646-5147

Regent Street- Call: 667-7659/ 225-3427

LAND FOR SALE Are you living overseas and want properties to buy? Call Ron’s Real Estate. globonetinfo@yahoo.com.

Call: 675-7292

Fish Cleaners: Eccles- Call: 233-2546

7 Acres cultivated with house, 2 Acres cultivated, 2-1 Acres cultivated. Contact: 226-7968 House lot for sale: Friendship EBD & drafting of house plans. Call: 223-0733, 223-0730 Garnett Street, Newtown Kitty: 4,588 sq foot -Call: 6471569

Get help: Muscle Pain, Stiffness, Circulation, Swelling, Diabetes, Numbness & Cramps. Call: Sally, Qualified Therapist @649-4227

House lots 50’×118’ New Hope E.B.D: Negotiable prices- - call: 266-2711/ 6094594 Parfaite Harmony $1.3M. globonetinfo @yahoo.com.

Call: 675-7292 Prime Residential Land, Schoonord Garden $2.8M, $3.2M. globonetinfo @yahoo.com. Call:675-7292 Soesdyke- Land 166.00’X 131.98’ $4M neg: B & G’s Realty- 227-4125/ 617-9717

HOUSE PLAN DRAFTING FOR ONLY $10,000CALL:694-9843/227-2766

Grove/ Diamond $5M, $5.5M, $4M, $6.5M, $3.5M672-7390, 225-0854, 2250843

Ribbon printing and favors for any occasion- call:6169201/227-2766

Eccles New Scheme 50 x 100 $5.5M- 6727390, 2250854, 2250843

Permanent & Visitors Visa Applications, Professional Immigration Consultant Room D5 Maraj Building Call: 225-6496, 662-6045, 223-8115 Technician specialized in repairs & servicing to washers, dryers, fridges, A/C units & stoves: Home Servicing available. Call: 661-5099

SERVICES Brian Moe @642-3543: Computer Technician: FB/ Brian.Moe.165: Home and Office visits at your comfort!!

Payroll, Data Entry, Purchasing (Interior & within Hometown) – Call:679-3662, shexpeditors@gmail.com

Premio, Vitz call: 689-6668

FOR RENT Upper Flat three bedroom house at 321 Prashad Nagarcall:685-7822 or 225-1137 Diamond 5 bedroom house, Ogle big property farm $60,000 and more- call:2312199/673-8148/618-7483

Immediate Vacancies: Security Officers/ Drivers: Apply Monday- Friday: Security Alliance: Barrack street, Kingston (upstairs FedEx)

The Gent’s spa: Come be pampered by beautiful sophisticated masseuses four hands special - call: 657-5979

Adian’s car Rental/PickupTele:698-7807

Space to Rent: Internet purpose: Diamond H/S, Main road- Tel: 697-5566

Receptionist: Must be computer literate with minimum of 1 year experience.

Call: 672-1239

MASSAGE American Style massage services- Call:609-4036

First Choice Car Rental: Cars from $5,000 per dayCall: 694-7817/668-0306

House to rent in FriendshipCall: 266-0163

Vacancy exists for 1 Driver for Tristar motorcycle- Call: 662-3415/626-2360/231-4832

SERVICES Repairs, sales & spares air conditioning, microwaves, washer, fridges & stoves. Ultra Cool. Call:225-9032,647-2943

Rooms - Call: 225-3234 Farm with house at Yarrowkabra, Linden Highway: Water, light, chicken & pig pens: fully fenced- call: 686-7180

Double Lot 35 x 140 (Da Silva St)- 672-7390, 225-0854, 2250843 Land for Rice, Sugar, Cattle etc: More than 600 acres on East Coast Demerara- Call: 678-1454 Granite Quarry Blocks North West US$650,000- contact Shawn:231-7805/618-7483

Sunday June 02, 2013

Kaieteur News

Page 63

The Abigail Column

Still Thinking

that he was not ready to make a commitment. The problem is that whenever, he skillfully changed the subject. Do you think there is hope!

Grace DEARABIGAIL, Prior to being together my boyfriend said he was thinking of getting married.

Three years later, he is still thinking. The last time we discussed this issue he said

Dear Grace, There is hope providing that you have the patience to wait until your boyfriend makes up his mind. The big question, however, is when will that be. I am sure he was done so and has decided he

is not ready.

Better he re-evaluated he feelings monogamy before than after you have made a commitment.

Avoid bad – nagging, pleading of growing ultimatums. Such tactics are irritating and will probably, drive him away forever.

Alternately, if you feel very strongly that he is not decided, tell him so and consider the relationship history.

Sunday June 02, 2013 ARIES (MAR 21 - APR 19): It’s hard to assert your own ideas when everybody else is trying to make you conform. Try separating yourself from the crowd, if only for a short time. Stay away from familiar haunts and keep a distance from people who are especially controlling. ************************ TAURUS (APR 20 - MAY 20): The more experience you get, the better choices you will make, especially with regard to your career. It’s possible you will be drawn to working with the public in some way. Providing valuable services gives you a sense of pride and accomplishment. ************************ GEMINI (MAY 21 - JUN 20): Don’t assume everybody else is more qualified than you or be focusing on your weak points; concentrate on your strengths. Emphasise them when you go on job interviews or make work proposals. Exuding an air of confidence is half the battle today. ************************ CANCER (JUN 21 - JUL 22): Helping a friend become more self-sufficient requires some restraint on your part.

Although you want to protect this person from dangerous situations, it may be better to let him or her fend for themselves. ************************ LEO (JUL 23 - AUG 22): Getting organised is essential if you’re going to meet your goals. If your surroundings are cluttered and chaotic, it may be because you’re unwilling to face the work ahead. Consider what will happen if you let this situation continue. ************************ VIRGO (AUG 23 - SEP 22): You’ve never been a fan of confrontation, and that’s especially true today.

However, if you’re going to conquer a stressful situation, you’ve got to face off with the person who is creating it.

LIBRA (SEP 23 - OCT 22): Staying informed makes you a valuable asset in the work place. You may want to subscribe to your industry’s trade papers. If you’re in a dead-end job, start researching your desired field.

Learning new software programs and mastering emerging technologies can keep you ahead of the pack. ************************ SCORPIO (OCT 23 NOV 21): Your ‘never say die’ attitude helps you make impressive breakthroughs.

While everybody else is playing it safe, you’re pushing the paper. Go ahead and sign up for a course, take a trip or explore some unknown creative territory. ************************ SAGITTARIUS (NOV 22 - DEC 21): Usually, you’re the life of the party, but today you’re shy and withdrawn. This may be because you are attracted to someone who doesn’t seem to appreciate you. Don’t let this person’s daft attitude stop you from having fun. ************************ CAPRICORN (DEC 22 JAN 19): Fight the urge to get drawn into a predictable routine, or your love life will suffer. It’s hard to cultivate romance when you’re uninspired.

Even the simple act of taking a different route to the office can work wonders for you. ************************ AQUARIUS (JAN 20 FEB 18): Working with young people feels like a breath of fresh air. If there’s anything you hate, it’s cynicism.

Watching kids play could remind you of some of your favourite childhood activities. ************************ PISCES (FEB 19 - MAR 20): Never underestimate your creative potential, even if your family underplayed your artistic inclinations. Your sensitive nature can guide you towards projects that will uplift and inspire you.

GSCL\Digimax softball set for today at Everest The Georgetown Softball Cricket League (GSCL)\Digimax Twelve\12 competition will be played today at the Everest Cricket Club ground.

Teams in the male open category will vie for the first prize of $200,000 while the runner up will take home $100,000. The victorious teams in the female and over-35 categories (male) will cart off $100,000 and runner up $50,000 respectively.

For more information teams can contact the organising secretary Samuel Kingston on 614-9536.

Hassan, Allie, Jeffrey...

From page 65 performance, Hassan said he was, but pointed to the camaraderie within the team as pivotal to providing him with the energy to go out on the track and do well.

According to him, all the guys were very supportive and that was impetus enough for him to go out there and do his best.

Jeffrey, who campaigns with the ‘big guns’ in the marquee Group 4 category was able to place second to champion driver of the day Jamaican Doug Gore, who drove unbeaten, winning all three CMRC races.

The venue for the second leg of the CMRC has not been decided due to Bushy Park, Barbados set to undergo a major overhaul.

Page 64

Kaieteur News

Sunday June 02, 2013

Sunday June 02, 2013

Kaieteur News

Page 65

‘Come on, West Indies, make our days!

Win the final Champions Trophy!!’

Colin E. H. Croft West Indies can certainly win the final Champions Trophy ever, as International Cricket Council continues to engineering its schedules and competitions, to accommodate the more lucrative T-20 series everywhere, and, as suggested last week, to also hope for a return and influence of Test cricket.

In its group, West Indies have to play three 50-overs juggernauts; Pakistan, India and South Africa. Either, can also win the tournament outright!

Pakistan won World Cup 1992, while India are defending 2011 World Cup champions. South Africa are always promising, but never, so far, delivering in major competitions. This could be their tournament!

In cycling terms, this is “Devil takes the hindmost!”

Every game played in group stages of this short competition has immediate consequences; winners will probably advance to semifinals, losers will, more likely than not, go home after the group matches! When, being ultra-positive, West Indies gets to semi-finals, experiences from the two warm-up games, against

Australia and Sri Lanka, also past World Cup winning teams, will become even more important.

Luckily, most of West Indies players were either involved in Indian Premier League 2013, or in County Cricket, while others are supposedly well practiced, so, overall, West Indies should be in good shape!

West Indies are also fortunate with the first two official fixtures; v Pakistan, Friday 07 June, then v India, Tuesday 11 June; both to be played at the Oval. It is that actual venue itself, absolutely well-known Kia Oval, in London’s Borough of Lambeth, which has so many unbelievably wonderful memories for West Indians of all ages. The cricket arena for the first Test ever in England, 1880, was “The Oval”, with the hosts beating Australia by five wickets; legendary Dr. W. G. Grace making a century on debut.

While Lords is always seen as “Home of Cricket”, the Oval was more “Home of the Working Class”, for so many West Indians who had migrated to the UK during and immediately after World War II. Attending games at “The Oval”, beautiful when the sun comes out, probably the most

You’re no threat!

Neymar rubbishes England’s World Cup chances -as Three Lions prepare for Maracana test Daily Mail - Brazil striker Neymar believes England are unlikely to be contenders for World Cup glory next summer.

The Barcelona-bound 21year-old, who will leave Santos this summer, is preparing to face Roy Hodgson’s side in a friendly at the Maracana this evening.

He claims England’s players are high achievers at club level but pose little threat in the international game.

And with Brazil hosting the 2014 World Cup and looking to win the tournament for a sixth time, he cannot envisage the Three Lions mounting a challenge.

Speaking in The Sun, Neymar said: ‘I have respect for a lot of the England players as they have achieved great things at their clubs. ‘But, as a national team, I don’t look at England and think they are going to

Plenty to smile about: Neymar is set to move from Santos to Barca this summer (AP) be a real threat at the World Cup. ‘We want to win the World Cup in front of our home fans and the two nations I look at as a real threat are Germany and Spain. ‘After that it’s a group including Argentina, Holland, Italy and one or two more. But England I don’t even think about.’

Michael Holding in action in England.

noisy cricket arena anywhere except Trinidad & Tobago’s Queen’s Park Oval or Australia’s Melbourne Cricket Ground, always presents West Indians with a profound sense of nostalgia!

1976; The Oval; Michael Holding destroyed England with that unprecedented spell of fast bowling on that always flat batting pitch; 14 wicket for 149;, which augmented (Sir) Viv Richards’ majestic 291.

West Indies won by 231 runs, and the Test series 3 – 0.

That was also a series with mythical connotations, noted in “Fire in Babylon”, after

England’s captain Tony Greig suggested that his team would make West Indies grovel!

1979; World Cup semifinal ; the Oval; Pakistan, always a tremendous threat, in the guise of Majid Khan and Zaheer Abbas, were beating West Indies to a pulp, putting on 166, to get within shouting distance, before yours truly managed three quick wickets, to change the game to a West Indies win!

2004; the Oval; West Indies played England in Champions Trophy final.

The visitors were down but

not fully out, before wicketkeeper, now selector Courtney Browne, and always level-headed mediumpacer Ian Bradshaw, put on 71, to come back from the brink.

The Oval has always been special to West Indies, cricketers and supporters alike. When India and Pakistan meet West Indies there later this competition, “The Oval” will be rocking!

Pakistan is the dark horse in this tournament. Much of their possible eventual progress will depend on the moods of captain Misbah-ulHaq and wizened veterans Abdur Rehman, Shoiab Malik, Mohammed Haffez, Mohammad Irfan, Saeed Ajmal and wicket-keeper Kamran Akmal. They all have to perform!

India, conversely, must be at least joint favorites, even if they do not normally play well in England. Mahendra Singh Dhoni has done a great job of honing individual-minded players into a team.

Confidence, even impudence, of batsmen Murali Vijay, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina and Rohit Sharma have destroyed many oppositions’ psyches, while bowlers Irfan Pathan and Amit Mishra are quite useful.

South Africa is still very much an enigma. They always play excellently, and have all of the proper personnel to beat the world in competitions. To date, though, they have not won

Colin E. H. Croft anything substantial.

The Proteas are rated as Test champions now, holding that ICC Championship mace, but that was more from accrued performances over months, as opposed to instantly winning a one-off competition.

Graeme Smith, the normal captain, will certainly be missed, but AB De Villiers is a good lieutenant, and with Hashim Amla and JP Duminy, will provide the necessary concrete for their batting, while the best fast bowler in world cricket now, Dale Steyn, will lead their attack. Time will tell if this would be enough!

Both West Indies new ODI captain, Dwayne Bravo, and Head coach, Ottis Gibson, have said that they know that West Indies can win, even if not actually predicting victory, but one day cricket is so fickle.

So, to paraphrase the incomparable movie stardirector Clint Eastwood, who turned 83 on May 31, “Come on, West Indies, win Champions Trophy 2013, again, at the Oval. Make our days!” Enjoy!

Guyana’s performance at Regional Under-19 tournament in St. Kitts (1977) Statistician Charwayne Walker, this week and in the coming weeks, looks at Guyana’s performance during Regional Under-19 cricket in the lead up to this year’s event. In a recent article, Walker had pointed to Guyana’s dominance when playing in St Kitts, the venue for this year’s tournament.

In today’s look, Walker highlights to stats of the 1977 outing.

Guyana first played Jamaica at Warner Park and won by 8 wickets in that game.

Scores: Jamaica 213 All out Donovan Malcolm 40 Marlon Tucker 27 Bowling for Guyana Deryck Kallicharran took 3 for 48 Guyana first innings 230 All out Ramrattan Jagnarine 38

Gregory Edwards 36 Orrin Gordon 35 Deryck Kallicharran 22 Bowling for Jamaica R. Leslie took 6 for 53 from 16 overs Jamaica second innings 110 All out Earl Whitley top scored with 53 Bowling for Guyana Shubert Cappell took 4 for 20, Jerry Angus supported with 3 for 34 Guyana set a target of 94 for Victory lost only two wickets in the process.

Gregory Edwards top scored with 43 Skipper Mark Harper finished off things with 27.

Guyana next played the Leeward Islands and lost by 99 runs.

Leeward Islands All out 205

Shirland Williams 45 Skipper Austin Whyte 38 Mike Joseph 25 Bowling for Guyana Shubert Cappell took 3 for 43, Jerry Angus 3 for 66.

Guyana first innings 171 All out Deryck Kallicharran 67 Mark Harper 37 Bowling for Leeward Islands - Austin Whyte 3 for 46, Conrad Bartlett 3 for 35 Leeward Islands Second Innings 199 All out Shirland Williams 83 Mike Joseph 26 Bowling for Guyana Deryck Kallicharran took 4 for 59 and Godfrey Edwards 3 for 22.

Guyana set 234 for Victory were dismissed for 134.

Andrew Lyght 39 Mark Harper 32 Deryck Mangal 22 were the

Principal scorers.

John Archibald and Earl Thompson took three wickets each for the winners.

The 1977 National Under-19 team that represented Guyana in St. Kitts: Mark Harper - Captain Andrew Lyght – deceased Roger Box Hill Shubert Cappell – deceased Deryck Kallicharran Jerry Angus Tyrone Etwaroo Gregory Edwards WKT Godfrey Edwards Deryck Mangal Abdool Gafur WKT Ramrattan Jagnarine Orin Gordon Glendon Gibbs – Manager.

Walker will continue with information on the other outings by Guyana in St Kitts over the years.

Page 66

Kaieteur News

Sunday June 02, 2013

Truncated boxing team leaves for Roberto Balado/Cardova Cardin tournaments in Cuba Several weeks of intense training in the intricacies of boxing boiled down to naught for 5 members of the local boxing team that were scheduled to engage strong teams from several countries at the Roberto Balado and the Cardova Cardin boxing tournaments scheduled for Cuba from Tuesday June 4 next.

Officials blame the unavailability of adequate funding which resulted in the team being downsized to just three pugilists; Guyana Police Force, middleweight, Dennis Thomas and bantamweight, Imran Khan along with Guyana Defence Force representative, Eon Bancroft. They are expected to depart Guyana tomorrow morning for the Spanish speaking country amidst confidence of the executives of the Guyana Boxing Association (GBA) that they will do well.

Those failing to make the grade are GDF representative, welterweight Ron Smith, light/middleweight Bert Braithwaite and light/weight, Clairmont Gibson, featherweight, Delon Charles

(FYF) and lightweight, Stephon Gouviea (HE); these boxers have been affected by the lack of funds. The team will be managed and coached

by Terrence Poole with assistance from Cuban coach, Francisco Hernandez Roldon.

President of the GBA, Steve Ninvalle, was disappointed by the turn of events that forced his executive to downsize the team but extended much praise to Director of Youth and Sports, Neil Kumar for his input which was responsible for the three boxers attending the tournament.

Mr. Ninvalle further expressed deep gratitude to the Commissioner of Police (ag), Leroy Brummel, for his unselfish donation of two airline tickets for Thomas and Khan. Chief Executive Officer of Sterling Products Ltd, Ramsay Ali also came in for high praise after donating the airline ticket for Bancroft. The team also benefited from Government largesse in the form of tax exemptions and other support from several corporate entities including B K International and the National Sports Commission.

Yesterday afternoon, the three boxers, accompanied by the two coaches, convened at the Andrew Lewis Boxing Gym to collect their uniforms, while Mr. Kumar and Mr. Ninvalle gave them a pep talk.

The Director of Sports said that he is truly heartened by the efforts of Mr. Ninvalle in the advancement of his charges. He also intimated that the GBA boss is the only sports executive to have conformed to the request of Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports, Frank Anthony, to submit a 5 years projection of the boxers’ itinerary up to the 2016 Brazil Olympics. “I would have liked if Guyana could have enjoyed a larger representation but financial constraints precluded this possibility,” bemoaned Mr. Kumar. Nevertheless, he remained confident that the selectees could uphold the pride of this nation at the impending tournament and he wished them well.

Mr. Ninvalle also expressed remorse that the team eventually had to be downsized but remained confident that those selected will uphold the proud tradition

Director of Youth and Sports, Neil Kumar (extreme left) and President of the GBA, Steve Ninvalle (3rd left) pose with boxers Bancroft (2nd left), Khan and Craig (2nd & 3rd right) during the brief ceremony. Also in photo are coaches Hernandez and Poole (extreme left and right back row), GBA Secretary, Shawn Richmond (centre back) and Dexter Patterson (right back) of their predecessors and do Guyana proud. He reminded the boxers of the toughness of the tournament and urged them to stay focused.

Several other countries

would be participating in the tournament which, in reality, could be viewed as a mini Olympics. Russia will send two squads to take part in the traditional tournament, while

Argentina, Barbados, Brazil, Chile, the Cayman Islands, Canada, Kazakhstan, China, Jordan, Algeria, Mongolia and Australia will also participate.

Epsom Derby: Ruler of the World wins for Aidan O’Brien BBC Sport - Ruler of the World, a 7-1 shot ridden by Ryan Moore, won the Epsom Derby to give trainer Aidan O’Brien his fourth success in the race.

The favourite Dawn Approach never settled and despite taking the lead up the hill he faded badly and finished well down the 12strong field. Libertarian (121) came second for trainer

Elaine Burke and jockey William Buick, with Galileo Rock (25-1) third.

“He was unbeaten coming here and is a great horse,” said a delighted O’Brien.

Ruler of the World came into the race after only two previous runs - a comfortable victory in the Chester Vase last month and a maiden win at the Curragh. But his lack

of racecourse experience did not show as he picked up the pace smartly to race clear of the field and give Ryan Moore a second win in the Classic after Workforce’s success in 2010.

His stablemate Battle of Marengo, Galileo Rock and Ocovango all chased strongly but it was Libertarian who put in a late run to close with every stride and finish a

length-and-a-half behind the winner.

Dawn Approach, who was running over the mile-and-ahalf distance for the first time, struggled with the lack of pace early on and jockey Kevin Manning brought him to the front.

But he struggled for stamina and was beaten a long way from home.

Moore, who had also

partnered Ruler of the World in his Chester success, said the three-year-old had improved from his performance around the Roodee.

“I wanted to be a bit closer, but I just didn’t get away very well and it was a very messy race,” said the former champion jockey. “I had no option but to go on when I did. I knew he’d stay

the trip very well but I got there a bit soon and he was very green. He’ll get further.

He’s got a really likeable attitude.

“I knew the others were coming because I’d gone too early, but he really toughed it out and showed a very good attitude. “I’m very lucky to be in this position and on these horses. This is the most important race for me.”

GAPF Intermediate & Claude Charles Fudadin looking to make Memorial C/ships on today @ UG the most of A -team series All roads lead this morning to the University of Guyana, George Walcott Lecture Theatre where the Guyana Amateur Powerlifting Federation (GAPF) will host its National Intermediate and Claude Charles Memorial Championships.

Fans will be able to witness an event that promises to be explosive as athletes, who were part of the federation’s Novice’ competition earlier this year, will be taking their game up a notch while those who did not make the cut at Novices will be afforded the opportunity to make amends this time around.

Male and female Athletes have been hard at training for today’s contests and apart from individual glory the overall title is up for the taking. Also on today will be the Claude Charles Memorial Championships which will showcase among other athletes, World Masters II Champion and Dead Lift record holder Winston “Little Master” Stoby coming up against 2011 World Masters I Bronze

medalist and 2009 Pan American Open Heavyweight gold medalist ‘Big’ John Edwards.

Also competing will be the indefatigable Errol “Powder for Power” Henry.

Athletes will use this event as warm up for the upcoming Pan American Championships as well as the World Masters Championships scheduled for later this year.

Guest lifters are Osmond Mack and Colin ‘Mr. Clean’ Chesney, the latter lifter will be aiming to execute the squat under the scrutiny of the judges to fine tune his technique which caused him to fail at two previous International Championships.

Weigh in time today is 07:30 – 08:30hrs with warm up time set for 09:00 – 09:30hrs.

Competition time is 10:00hrs.

Sponsors on board are Ansa McAl under their Lucozade brand, International Pharmaceutical Agency’s Clear Waters and Fitness Express and New GPC’s Codal.

Left hander Assad Fudadin said he is looking forward to the West Indies Ateam home series against Sri Lanka –A which is scheduled to start next Wednesday at Warner Park in St. Kitts. He told Kaieteur Sport that he is confident he will perform well in the tournament.

“I want to make the most of the opportunity and get back into the West Indies senior team. I am looking to occupy the crease for long periods and help support my teammates as well. We have a good team and can win the series, as long as the guys play as a unit we will be very hard to beat,” said Fudadin.

He stated that he fell short

of his goals in the recently concluded first class season.

“I definitely would have liked to score bigger but nevertheless I had some good performances in a few games and I will take the positives from it and move on.

I didn’t get to practice much recently due to the rain but I must thank the Gandhi Youth Organization for allowing me to use their facility for net sessions. I also did some training in the gym,” he added. Fudadin is among the four Guyanese selected for the West Indies A team, the other being Leon Johnson, Narsingh Deonarine and Veerasammy Permaul.

The Rose Hall Town

Assad Fudadin Youth and Sports Club allrounder also said that one of his goals is to win matches for the region at the highest level. The team will be captained by Kirk Edwards and will face Sri Lanka-A in the first four-day “Test”, starting next Wednesday at Warner Park in St. Kitts.

Sunday June 02, 2013

Kaieteur News

Brydens Super Classic...

Old Fort, GCC treated spectators to spectacular duel Old Fort and GCC treated the spectators of the Brydens Super Classic Indoor Hockey Championships to a spectacular duel as the teams battled in the lone Kellogg’s Men’s first division match of Friday evening. When the dust settled it was GCC who would emerge victorious by a tally of 4 goals to 2 to place them in firm position for a spot in the final today.

GCC took the game to Old Fort with some aggressive attacks early in the game but fine goalkeeping for Old Fort

by Tony Cole kept the score at zero until the fourteenth minute when Stephen Xavier managed the breakthrough from a field goal. Captain Devin Hooper added a second for GCC in the very next minute. Just as Old Fort seemed about to fade, Jason DeSantos pulled off one of his trademark bullets when he sent a penalty corner shot sailing high into the GCC net to get Old Fort off the mark.

Young Omar Hopkinson scored Old Fort’s second goal just on the resumption after the half time break and sent the Old Fort supporters into a frenzy. GCC’s midfield maestro, Kevin Spencer however would reply with a goal of his own and Dwayne Scott added a skillful penalty corner deflection to put the game away and earn the 4-2 victory for GCC. The lone Tetley tea

competition game of the evening saw the GCC Tigers take apart the inexperienced Revelation by 7-1. Rene James put in a good performance once again for Revelation and Latacia Chung managed to score their first goal of the competition, but the Tigers never seemed troubled throughout the encounter.

Marzana Fiedtkou and the diminutive Shania Riley led the score sheet for the Tigers with two goals each, while Aaliyah Gordon, Ashley DeGroot and Kerensa Fernandes added one each.

The surprise result of the evening was produced in the Mr. Toppers second division competition when Old Fort managed to upstage pretournament favourites the Western Union Hikers by 21. Hikers got ahead in the 26th minute. Omar Hopkinson managed to produce an equalizer for Old Fort three minutes later, but Old Fort produced another tremendous penalty corner strike to seal the victory and keep hope alive for a shot in the final.

Ol Skool managed to defeat GCC in a tough battle that ended with a 4-2 score line. While Trevon Smith was first to score for GCC just four minutes from the opening whistle, a double strike by Philip Fernandes and singles from Dexter Wyles and Alan Fernandes put the veteran side up by three at 4-1 for Ol

Skool. Newcomer Kareem McKenzie managed to score a second for GCC in the dying minutes but time would expire before GCC could make any further impression.

The final second division match saw Saints cream a severely depleted All Greys 11 - 1. WithAll Greys clearly missing some of its main players, Saints would exploit their weaknesses and make good on their many opportunities. Kwesi Lewis led Saints with a hat-trick, while Kevin Edwards added a double.

Teammates Yonnick Peters, Leroy Jack, Ezekiel Springer and Shemar Boston added one each for Saints.

Azad DeAbreu managed the lone goal for All Greys.

The Cadets lead the Kellogg’s first division pool with 6 points going into the final day of pool matches, followed by GCC on 4, Hikers with 1 and Old Fort trailing without points. In the Tetley tea ladies pool, Spice sits on top with 6 points followed by Hikers Divas and GCC Tigers both with 3 points, while Revelation bring up the rear with zero points.

Ol Skool are surprise finalists in the Mr. Toppers second division competition which awaited the outcome of yesterday’s matches to determine whether they face the Western Union Hikers or Old Fort in the final.

The finals are scheduled for today starting from 4PM.

Knockouts galore as National Intermediate Boxing Championships get underway It was truly a night of unbridled fistic fury when the curtains went up on the National Intermediate Boxing Championships under the auspices of the Guyana Boxing Association (GBA) at the Andrew ‘Sixhead’ Lewis Boxing Gym, Independence Boulevard, Friday evening last.

Several abbreviated bouts characterized the proceedings from the very first bout where Junior/ welterweight Elite boxer, Jamal Evans (GDF) forced the referee to halt his contest against Delon Mac David in just 48secs of the first round.

However, Evans’ celebrations were shortlived as he also suffered a similar fate in his second fight of the night against his gym mate, Aquincy Harvey, who forced him to retire in 2:48secs of the second frame.

Andel Douglas (GDF) also suffered a similar fate in his Elite jnr/flyweight bout against Tyrone Lashley, of Rose Hall Jammers (RHJ) after the referee stopped that bout in 2:55secs of the 2nd round. Kevin Ting-a-Lee (GDF) was also in a no nonsense mood and disposed of his gym mate, Stevon Mangra, in 54secs of the 2nd round.

The jnr/welterweight bout between Kellon King (FYF) and Republican, Kurt Kendal (REP) ended in favour of the former boxer when the referee waved off the proceedings at 2:42secs of the first stanza while another jnr/ welterweight, Kevon Fordyce (GDF), emulated

the act with a clinical display that forced the ‘third man’ to halt the proceedings against his gym mate, Jermaine Pollard, in just 1:36secs of the first frame.

Republican middleweight boxer, William Hendricks, restored some pride to his gym when he scored a technical knockout over GDF representative, Jamal Cambridge, in 1:31secs of the first round moments before another Republican, Colin Martin, forced Quee Brotherson to retire in 1:56secs of round two of their light/heavyweight bout.

Quincy Boyce (GDF) was gifted with a walkover after his opponent, Keon Junior (FYF) failed to show up for their 118-125lbs bout, while Levi Fraser (GDF) also failed to take the ring for his middleweight bout against Kevon Rodney (REP).

In between, middleweight, Jamal Cambridge (GDF) won his bout against Republican, Troy Burnett on points moments before Essequibo boxer, Quincy Wright took care of Moses Oxford by points in their 50-54lbs shindig. Odeny Moore also represented the Essequibo Boxing Gym well when he scored a points decision over Kenny Amsterdam (PRBG) in their 90-94lbs bout.

Klus Daniels (REP) fought his heart out but just could not get past Linden Daniels in their welterweight bout. The action concluded last night with several additional bouts.

Page 67

Hassan, Allie, Jeffrey score points for Guyana

Three members of Team Guyana (from left)- Afraz Allie, Kevin Jeffrey and Syed Hassan pose for a photo op in Jamaica.

Local motor racers Syed Hassan, Afraz Allie and Kevin Jeffrey kept the Guyana flag flying high after registering outstanding performances during the first leg of the Caribbean Motor Racing Championship (CMRC) which was staged last weekend, at Dover Raceway in Jamaica.

Hassan and Allie driving in the Group 2 category ended the Meet on 34 and 37 points respectively, while Jeffrey, who finished second in the Group 4 Division returned home with a total of 20 points.

Allie, speaking with Kaieteur Sport via telephone on Thursday, said he is currently positioned third overall in the Division and feels confident that with two more legs to be completed in the Series, he is in a good spot to vie for the title.

“I qualified at 1:32 seconds and drove through the pack to secure some vital

points for Guyana,” Allie disclosed.

Describing the day’s performance, the local speedster spoke of having to negotiate heavy traffic to work his way into the second position in one of the races, before losing that spot to fellow Guyanese Syed Hassan which according to him was not so bad, but due mainly to the abrasive track that severely affected the tyres performance.

He also spoke of how difficult it was to get through traffic during the race because there were three groups competing in the same race making the track very congested and a challenge for the competitors.

“It was a scenario where the driver at the front of the pack was not necessarily the person leading the group since the race consisted of the Local MP2 Group from Jamaica, the CMRC 2.0L group and the 1.6L group.”

Team Guyana’s Syed Hassan seen during one of the CMRC races at Dover Raceway in Jamaica.

Allie, who drives a Red and white Toyota Starlet extended thanks to the following sponsors Banks Power Stout, Classic Printing Supplies, Prem’s Electrical, Ink Plus, Mike’s Copy Centre, Martina’s Cambio, Ready Mix, Mohamed’s Enterprise, Cellphonix, Annan Ramchand Wrecker Service and Tulshi Machine Shop.

Meanwhile, this newspaper was also able to catch up with Hassan via telephone and he too exuded excitement about his personal and the team’s performance, adding that the next two legs will be very interesting.

“We are very confident that we could overhaul the current deficit and secure the title for Guyana. I think we are in a good position to do so and we are confident as well,” Hassan stated.

Asked whether he was satisfied with his own (Continued on page 63)

Page 68

Kaieteur News

Sunday June 02, 2013

MCYS / NSC / Al Sport Primary School Windball C/ships...

Edinburgh, St. Therese, Betsy Ground, Massiah, all win titles A number of zones finals were completed when the Ministry of Culture, Youth & Sport (MCYS) / National Sports Commission (NSC) / Al Sport & Tour Promotions Primary Schools Windball Cricket Championships continued at various venues across the country.

Over in Region #6, at Welfare Centre ground in the New Amsterdam ZoneDefending New Amsterdam & Region #6 champions Edinburgh boys defeated All Saints in a super over after the final ended in a tie. All Saints invited to take first strike scored 37-4, with Shaquan George 10. L. Sanichara took 3 wkts.

Edinburgh in their turn at the crease made 37-6, with Avinash Nanda 12, Carlos Campbell 10. Bowling for All Saints, Keron Mc Andrews took 4 wkts.

In the Super over, Edinburgh made 7. All Saints reply with 5.

In Girls action- St. Therese beat Edinburgh by 8 wickets.

Edinburgh 33-3. R. Schewirs took 2 wkts.

St. Therese’s reached the target, ending on 36-2 Fellion Gladstone took 2wkts.

In the Canje Zone- Besty Ground Primary won both the Girls and boys titles.

In Region #6 at No. 71 ground in the Upper Corentyne Zone, No.48 (Girls) and Massiah (Boys) retained their respective titles Girls- No. 48 defeated Corriverton by 10 wickets.

Corriverton batted first and made 30-6, Luanna Dan

10. Waheeda Hossain grabbed 3 wkts, Amita Harrichan 2 wkts.

No. 48 in reply, made 31-0 with player of the final W. Hossain 11.

Boys- Massiah beat No.56 by 1 run.

Massiah batted first and scored 29-8. Bowling for No.56, player of the final, Nickey Reece picked up 4 wkts.

No. 56 in reply was restricted to 28-5. Charran Singh 2-7.

At Bush Lot Farm ground Central Corentyne ZoneMcGowan Primary returned to its glory position winning both the Girls & boys.

Girls- McGowan (The school that West Indies player Shamaine Campbell started her cricket career) after being invited to bat first made 60-1, with Player of the final Lashanda Punch 47 not out 5x4s and 2x6s, Tessa Fraser 10.

Kildonan, in reply made 57-4, Malissa George 20, Abehola D’Aguiar 18. T. Fraser and Tiniffia Pestano bagged 2 wkts each.

Boys- McGowan once again sent in to bat made 582, Shamar Campbell 20. Carlos Leitch 2wkts.

Defending champions & Region #6 No. 2 team Auchlyne reached 52-4, Haresh Lawrence 10. Ryan Saul 2wkts & Shimron Ram 2wkts The Lower Corentyne zone is still to be completed.

In Region #3 at Uitvlugt ground-(Girls) - Leonora batted first and made 36-0.

McGillivary 37-1, Kimberly Basdeo 14.

Schools from the Corentyne Zone takes a photo op shortly before the start of play recently.

Boys- Leonora retained their title, McGillivary 33-1.

Leonora replied with 34-1.

Player of the final, Kemar Ferrier slammed 28 not out, 3x4s.

Region #5 inaugural tournament finals played at the Seafield ground. (Girls)No. 5 batted first and scored 43-1 with Gangada Sebarat 15, Chelsea Garraway 14, and Jenille Mc Donald 14.

Ithaca in their turn at the wicket made 43-0, Player of the final Yetunde Grant 21, Nickola Benjamin 14. The two teams were declared joint winners.

Boys- Seafield made 38-2, Euanic Sampson 17, Dequan Solomon 12.

Novar replied with 39-8, Onel Bradford 14.

Marian blowout GTI to win NSBF G/town Conference - PLAISANCE BEAT UG TO CLINCH EAST COAST Marian Academy inflicted a sound beating on Government Technical Institute (GTI) yesterday in the Under-20 category on their home court to win the Georgetown Conference of the National Schools’ Basketball Festival (NSBF).

Forward, Selvaughn Moseley had an excellent all-round game, scoring 19 points and grabbing six rebounds to lead Marian to what became an easy win, following some close finishes in their other preliminary games of the tournament.

Tequain Vieira scored 12 points while Dominique Vincente had 10 points and nine rebounds to ensure that last year’s runnersup are back in the national playoffs. GTI, once a basketball force in Georgetown, were completely out-played.

It took a total team effort from Marian that distributed the ball well in transition and kept an up-tempo pace throughout the game. Their shooters did not disappoint, even Jason Ray Khalil got in on the action from downtown,

adding depth off the bench.

Turnovers, coupled with an inability to convert possessions into points, reeked havoc in the GTI camp. The team scored their first points in the game after 10 minutes had elapsed in the first 20-minute half, which told the story of their offensive ineptitude.

Notwithstanding, centre Lassar Richards continued to demonstrate his potential in the paint with four massive block shots. Richards had six points in the game, which was the highest individual score for the team.

Meanwhile, Colts Division I back-up guard, Nikkoloi Smith enforced his seniority for Plaisance Secondary School that defeated University of Guyana (UG) 54-36 in the East Coast Conference Finals.

Smith dropped 36 points, eight of which were from three-point range, grabbed 14 boards and had seven steals for Plaisance.

Quincy Easton was the leading scorer for UG with 14 points. Easton also had 12 rebounds and six steals.

Darren Bravo back but Windies lose first warm-up to Australia CMC - CARDIFF, Wales – West Indies played well in patches but could not withstand an imperious century from opener Shane Watson, and slumped to a four-wicket defeat to Australia in their opening warm-up match of the ICC Champions Trophy here yesterday.

Opting to bat first at the SWALEC Stadium, they rallied to 256 for seven off their 50 overs, with elegant lefthander Darren Bravo top scoring with 86 and rookie opener Johnson Charles cracking 55.

Left-arm seamer Mitchell Starc picked up four for 29, while medium pacer Clint McKay supported with three for 34.

Speedster Kemar Roach then produced an incisive burst, claiming two wickets in his first over to leave the Aussies tottering at four runs for two wickets in the second over of their run chase.

However, Watson unveiled a commanding 135 off a mere 98 balls, while Adam Voges hit 43 and 21-year-old all-rounder Mitchell Marsh slammed a 19-ball, unbeaten 39 at the end, to see Australia to an easy victory with more than ten overs to spare.

Roach finished with two for 44 while new ball partner Tino Best claimed two for 51.

Playing their first of two warm-up matches before their official campaign begins next Friday, the Windies were given a breezy start by

Charles who put on 28 off 26 balls with left-hander Devon Smith who made seven.

When Smith was taken behind off Starc in the fifth over of the innings, Charles and Darren Bravo entertained with a 65-run, second wicket stand, that put the Windies back in charge.

The right-handed Charles faced 63 balls and counted four fours while Bravo hit ten fours and two sixes off 99 balls.

McKay claimed Johnson lbw in the first over of a new spell but Bravo anchored two consecutive partnerships to deny the Aussies further success. He put on 49 with Ramnaresh Sarwan who hit 22 and a further 53 for the fourth wicket with his older brother and captain Dwayne Bravo who scored 20.

Dwayne Bravo was finding his touch when he was prised out by a catch at the wicket off McKay in the 39th over at 195 for four. His dismissal sparked a slide which saw West Indies lose their six wickets for 51 runs.

Wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin’s 25 from 29 balls proved precious before he was eighth out in the penultimate over.

Roach then lifted the Windies, knocking over opener David Warner and Philip Hughes without scoring within the space of four deliveries, to catches at the wicket by Ramdin.

However, Watson singlehandedly snatched the game

away from the Windies.

Unfazed by the clatter of wickets around him, he crunched 15 fours and four sixes, to lay waste to the West Indies attack. He posted 68 for the third wicket with George Bailey who scored 21, before killing off the game as a contest in a 125-run fourth wicket stand with Voges, who counted five fours in his 57ball knock.

Together, they combined to take 20 runs from Roach’s sixth over – the 30th of the innings – as Australia stepped on the accelerator with victory in sight.

Best accounted for both in successive overs to reduce Australia to 205 for five in the 33rd over but the untried Marsh, who lashed eight fours, and Matthew Wade (15), stunned the Windies with a whirlwind 49-run fifth wicket partnership off 36 balls.

West Indies take on Sri Lanka in their final warm-up match on Tuesday at Edgbaston.

Summarised Scores: WEST INDIES 256 for seven off 50 overs (Darren Bravo 86, Johnson Charles 55, Denesh Ramdin 25, Ramnaresh Sarwan 22, Dwayne Bravo 20; Mitchell Starc 4-29, Clint McKay 345).

AUSTRALIA 259 for six off 38.5 overs (Shane Watson 135, Adam Voges 43, Mitchell Marsh 39 not out, George Bailey 21; Kemar Roach 2-44, Tino Best 2-51).