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Kaieteur News

Sunday November 18, 2012

Sale of GT&T’s 20% shares…

Government has confirmed that it received a significant portion of the money from the sale of its 20 per cent stakes in the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T). The amount was touted to be US$25M. The hefty sum has reportedly gone into the accounts of the National Industrial and Commercial Investment Limited (NICIL), a state-owned company that handles Government’s assets.

Earlier this week, Leader of the Alliance For Change (AFC), Khemraj Ramjattan, said that his party which has seven seats in the National Assembly, learnt that the money…between US$20MUS$25M… was released by Hong-Kong-based buyer, Datang Telecom Technology and Industry Group.

Ramjattan accused the government of being secretive despite the hefty sum involved and the importance of the transaction.

He said that the proceeds are reportedly being used to illegally fund the Marriott Hotel in Kingston- something

that Government is not confirming. The money should be placed in the Consolidated Fund, the account for all of Government, the AFC leader said.

According to Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr. Roger Luncheon, the sum collected may be around US$25M. Datang, earlier this year, agreed that it will buy the 20 per cent shares for US$30M, paying US$25M in cash and the rest over a year.

GT&T’s main shareholder, US-based, Atlantic TeleNetwork (ATN) had refused to buy the shares and government determined to release the shares, had placed them on the market.

Although GT&T’s shares were earning Government on an average around $500 million annually, the decision to sell was more swayed by the fact that moves are underway to liberalise the telecommunications sector.

Dr. Luncheon did not deny reports that the money will be used for the Marriott project.

The Marriott Hotel project, which will be located in Kingston, west of the

Pegasus Hotel, has been generating controversy since it was announced under the administration of former President Bharrat Jagdeo.

The controversy had to do more with the fact that Government wants to use almost US$20M of taxpayers’ dollars for the 197-room hotel which will carry the wellknown Marriott brand. It also has to do with objections over the feasibility of the project which would come at a time when there are too many empty rooms in the hotel industry.

Hotel operators, in their objection to the Marriott Hotel, also said it will force them out of business.

However, in recent days, Government-affiliated newspapers and websites have been defending the Marriott Hotel which will also have as added amenities a nightclub, casino and restaurant.

According to the AFC recently, NICIL’s head, Winston Brassington, who has been under fire to account for the millions of dollars that was supposed to be in the accounts of the

Winston Brassington

AFC Leader, Khemraj Ramjattan

Cabinet Secretary, Dr. Roger Luncheon

entity, admitted earlier this year that it had set aside US$20M ($4B) for the Marriott construction.

The difference would have come from private investors.

The accounts of the Atlantic Hotel Inc. (AHI), a local company established by NICIL to manage the project, last year indicated that US$10M ($2B) was handed over to the contractor, Shanghai Construction Group (SCG) for the project

which could cost around US$60M. Now, an additional US$20US$25M from the sale of the GT&T shares has reportedly been placed for Marriott, making it over US$30MUS$35M that is reportedly being spent by government on the project…without any disclosures yet on the identities of the mysterious investors.

Government has also not yet released the feasibility studies on the hotel which

would show data that compelled it to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in the project.

Already, the contractor, SCG, has set up camp and construction is in full swing with some foundation already laid.

The disposal of state assets and private conversation of such sale proceeds may be illegal.

While NICIL may be the custodian of the state assets, (Continued on page 22)

Sunday November 18, 2012

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Overseas-based Guyanese says partner cheated him out of $30M investment Following publication of Kaieteur News story on October 15, last, “Trio on $9M bail for vehicular theft” overseas based Guyanese, Virafree Veerasammy, of Lot 90, Line Path B, Skeldon, Corriverton, Berbice and of Ontario Canada, contacted Kaieteur News with court documents stating that the cars belong to him and not Vinode Pillay who tried to covet the vehicles while he, Veerasammy, was overseas.

Veerasammy is suing Pillay for $10M. He has since filed High Court proceedings through his attorney at law Nigel Hughes against Pillay, Navindai Pillay and Savitree Jainaraine to repossess the vehicles which were part of a fleet of 10 cars and one trailer which he owns.

He had acquired the vehicles to operate a car rental business under the name of Affordable Car Rental at his address at Lot 90 Line Path, B Skeldon, Corriverton, Berbice.

The High Court has since granted an order restraining the defendants or their servants or agents from dealing with mortgaging, renting, selling or disposing of the vehicles in any way until the determination of the court action.

Speaking to Kaieteur News, Veerasammy stated that he owns a business by the name of Affordable Heating and Air Conditioning in Ontario, Canada. As a Guyanese he responded to the call to return and invest in Guyana.

He said that after conducting

…Attorney at law Nigel Hughes spearheads High Court proceedings surveys he decided on a car rental business in his home town.

He contacted Pillay whom he had considered as a friend, to manage and oversee the business in Guyana. He started to remit money to Guyana in December 2011 and between then and last February he sent over $30M, through money transfer, documents for which he produced.

The money was sent to Pillay to purchase ten cars and one trailer in Veerasammy’s name from Tropical Auto Sales on the Corentyne to start the business. Pillay, who is a barber, conspired with the auto sales company and purchased the vehicles in his name. The vehicles were bought between January and March 2012. Pillay then went ahead and established the business in his name.

Veerasammy stated that he trusted the man and never expected to be involved in any skullduggery. All his queries were greeted with “everything is going fine. “ He returned to Guyana in April to see how things were going and to make further plans. He was not prepared for the shock he received; that Pillay had tried to rob him of everything.

“Pillay had bought the vehicles and established the business in his name.” When he questioned Pillay, he was

told that if you are living overseas you cannot own, or conduct business in Guyana, which he considered strange.

Pillay then made him an offer to give him four of the cars; then he would transfer the rest of the business in his name. Veerasammy said that the same four cars went missing and are at the centre of another court matter, which was reported in Kaieteur News.

Veerasammy said that he was downtrodden and did not know what to do. He spent almost the entire April in Guyana trying to recoup his business. He contacted attorney at law Nigel Hughes and commenced High Court proceedings and was granted the order in court. He rushed back to Canada and returned in May. After being back and forth, Veerasammy came to Guyana in October only to learn that the defendant did not comply with the court order.

Now his attorney, Nigel Hughes, has filed another

motion in the High Court which comes up for hearing in the Berbice High court on Friday for contempt of court proceedings asking that the defendants to be committed to prison for disobeying the April 18 order of Justice Brassington Reynolds.

The plaintiff had filed the order claiming that he is the lawful owner of the vehicles PNN 6304, PPP1601, PPP2242, PPP1934, PPP2328, PPP1935, PPP2327, PPP897, PPP1740, PPP2241 and PPP2192 and seeking the repossession of same.

The order is also seeking to compel the defendant to return the vehicles forthwith.

The writ went on to state that although an order was granted restraining the defendants from using the vehicles, four of the vehicles were rented to one Winston Trim.

When contact was made with Trim he told the plaintiff that the vehicles were rented from Pillay. He then chased Veerasammy out of his yard.

Upon returning to Trim’s premises the next day, it was discovered that the vehicles had been taken away to an unknown area.

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

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

Editorial A Just Pluralistic Society Common Destiny Alliance (CODA) is a consortium of US organizations and scholars interested in race and ethnic relations and committed to educational equity. They ask us to “Imagine a nation in which every person has the opportunity to learn from others whose ancestors are the descendants of all the people of the world. Imagine that each person in this nation is treated justly because the people have learned to value the contribution every individual makes to one another and to the nation as a whole.

Imagine that people of this racially, ethnically, and culturally diverse nation are at peace with one another because each person has an opportunity to reach their full potential, assume positions of leadership, and share in the bounty of a democratic society. Now, imagine that these images of a pluralistic, egalitarian nation accurately describe your country. They suggest the following principles for strategies to create such a society. They should be of interest to the ERC, when reconstituted Principle 1: Strategies should address both institutional and individual sources of prejudice and discrimination in the contexts and situations in which the participants in the program or activity learn, work and live. Sources of prejudice and discrimination are often rooted in particular historical and social contexts, and are shaped by institutional structures and practices.

Seeking to change individuals without dealing with these influences or without engaging the specific issues that shape intergroup relations is often futile.

Principle 2: Strategies should seek to influence the behaviour of individuals, including their motivation and capability to influence others, and not be limited to efforts to increase knowledge and awareness. There are two separable but related points embedded in this principle. First, when strategies meant to improve intergroup relations do not specifically include lessons about how to act in accordance with new awareness and knowledge, they are likely to be ineffective in changing relationships. Second, prejudice and discrimination are socially influenced. Thus, altering our own behaviour may require that we enlist the support of others.

Principle 3: Strategies should include participants who reflect the racial, ethnic, and linguistic diversity of the context and should be structured in such a way as to ensure cooperative, equal-status roles for persons from different groups. The best-documented strategy for improving racial and ethnic relations involves the creation of opportunities for positive equal-status interaction among people from different groups.

These strategies are most effective when they organize cooperative activities so as to ensure that people from different backgrounds can contribute equally to the task involved.

Principle 4: Strategies should have the support and participation of those with authority and power in any given setting. People with power and authority send messages more by their deeds than by their words.

Principle 5: Strategies should involve children at an early age, and new entrants to organizations should be continually encouraged and reinforced. There are good reasons to start teaching the importance of and strategies for positive intergroup relations when children are young. People cannot be inoculated against prejudice.

Given the differences in living conditions of various racial and ethnic groups, as well as the existence of discrimination throughout our society, improving intergroup relations is a challenge that requires ongoing work.

Principle 6: Strategies should be part of a continuing set of learning activities that are valued and incorporated throughout the school, college, or other organization. In many settings, improved intergroup relations are the responsibility of a given officer or instructor, and the most common strategy is the episodic workshop or the “introductory” course—short or long.

But there is little evidence that this strategy, in and of itself, is adequate. In some cases, the one-time workshop, course, or learning module that focuses on sources of conflict or on racial or ethnic differences can even reinforce negative predispositions.

Principle 7: Strategies should expose the inaccuracies of myths that sustain stereotypes and prejudices. Many stereotypes and sources of conflict are based on myths and misinformation. It is by confronting these myths directly that we undermine the justifications for prejudice.

Sunday November 18, 2012

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

The system failed Zaleena Bibi Shaddick miserably DEAR EDITOR, Your article on ‘Murder of school girl in Mabaruma’ has set me wondering. There are still no acceptable answers for that girl not being evacuated for premier medical attention. Why was the Medex’s phone turned off after he told medical personnel at the Mabaruma Hospital that he was trying to get a second pilot to do the flight?

How could none of the aircraft owners find TWO pilots to do the flight? How come we are so short on pilots who are IR certified?

Were the aircraft owners even

contacted? Are any of these aircraft operators contracted to do medical evacuations from the interior? If so, which one? Is this the first time that there were no air traffic controllers on duty at Ogle at night?

When there are no controllers on duty at Ogle, and once it is established that there is a medical emergency, could the Tower at Timehri give the necessary permission for the flight to proceed?

When the aircraft owners formed themselves into an association and got the authorities to shut down the

Guyana Airways Corporation, did they not promise to fulfill the needs of air travel to the hinterland?

Did this promise include aiding in the effort to save lives while being paid for the service?

Editor, I would even wonder if the players who could have made the decision to evacuate this CHILD can rest with a clear conscience that they did their best to TRY to save her life.

We owed it to her. Some may say, ‘Oh she would have died in any case’. That was not our call to make. Our concern should not have

been the circumstances under which she was injured.

She was a Guyanese and was entitled to every chance to survive. The Medical personnel at the local hospital did what they could, with the minimal resources they had. They cried out for back up.

She cannot read this but the system failed Zaleena Bibi Shaddick miserably.

Residents from hinterland communities should take note and try to lay away contingency arrangements if such an emergency should strike them. Take heed!

Concerned citizen

Sunday November 18, 2012

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If the Police Force fully supports Rohee, it fully supports and will continue the PPP’s failure on crime DEAR EDITOR, Leroy Brummel’s pronouncement that the Guyana Police Force fully supports Rohee is a suicidal kind of endorsement. It amounts to Brummel saying that the Force is completely fine with incompetent leadership. It is the Force saying that it sees no problem with the manner in which it operates and because of this belief, it will fully back its current leader.

Here is the problem with the Force’s pronouncement for all Guyanese; it guarantees a continued failure on crime. For if the Force fully supports Rohee, it fully supports the PPP that put Rohee there and if it fully supports the PPP, it supports the PPP’s current failed approach to crime. By sanctioning Rohee, the GPF is asking for the status quo to remain because it knows that as long as Rohee remains, the Force will remain corrupt, incompetent, inept, slack and a failure. This is what Brummel is doing when he accredits Rohee. He is ensuring the GPF does not protect citizens, fails to respond to crime, does not impair the drug cartels killing in broad daylight and continues to harass motorists for bribes. I want PPP supporters who continually whine that the Force is a PNC entity to seriously contemplate this pronouncement by Brummel backing a man whom the overwhelming majority of PPP supporters see as a complete failure and a clownish administrator. This so-called PNC entity is telling the entire country it backs a grossly incompetent PPP minister. It is fitting that, as one Berbician recently complained in a letter, when PPP stronghold areas like Berbice are facing a harrowing upsurge of crime and PPP supporters are utterly fed up with Rohee’s ineptitude, that we get the Police Force backing the incompetent. Berbicians crying out because of the punishing increase in crime are now guaranteed more of the same with Brummel’s endorsement of Rohee and the PPP’s insistence on holding onto Rohee.

Armed robberies and murders in this country have increased in the past year under Rohee, yet the weapons continue to be smuggled through our borders by criminal overlords who remain un-touchable.

More guns for more criminals under Rohee. Guyanese under Rohee are facing a

condition where not only are they being robbed, they are now being killed by guns smuggled in by narco-kings and sultans of smuggling.

Nothing sums up the debacle this country has been under Rohee than criminals bringing their own sick justice to those criminals who smuggled the guns in the Lethem bust while the police were a silent bystander. I beg the editor to publish this portion of my letter because it must be said in this country for it is the only way the PPP will listen.

The PPP gets over one hundred thousand votes from Indians in Guyana every election cycle. Forgetting its duty to all Guyanese and focusing on its duty to this constituency that leads it to power, what has the PPP done for Indian security, safety and protection? What has the PPP done to protect Indians and all Guyanese? I want Guyanese and Indians specifically to ask themselves whether the PPP and Clement Rohee have made them safer, more secure and more protected?

How does a party in government get over one hundred thousand votes from one group and yet categorically fails to address and openly ignores their pleas for security, protection and safety? How does one reconcile voting for a party that leaves you vulnerable to the barrel of a gun or the effects of a larceny or the victim of a rape?

Guyana under Rohee has gone from 623 robberies under arms up to October 2010 to 744 such robberies in 2011 to 854 robberies under arms up to October 2012. This is a seriously sick and disturbing trend that has seen armed robberies increase by 37% since 2010.

Jamaica is considered one of the most violent countries in the world. It had 3033 robberies under arms last year for a population of 2.7 million. That equates to one robbery for every 890 persons. At this rate up to October 2012, Guyana will have at least 1024 robberies under arms especially considering Christmas season is high crime time in Guyana. For a population of 750,000, that puts Guyana’s robbery under arms rate at one robbery for every 723 persons in 2012. That is even worse than Jamaica’s and one of the worst rates in the world. If armed robberies keep growing at 18.5% per year we will be at over 2000 robberies under arms in 2016 when the PPP comes

knocking on our doors begging us for our votes while their failed policies have exposed us to criminals with guns. By that time, more will have fled this country and for the 750,000 that remain, a robbery will be committed on one in every 372 persons.

That should firmly put as one of the most dangerous places on earth when it comes to safety, security and protection.

Leroy Brummel may be singing for his supper to get confirmed as full commissioner. Or maybe Brummel has no ulterior motive but actually fully supports Rohee. Either way, this statement by Brummel has to be one of the most

egregious statements issued by a law enforcement officer.

If this is the PPP flexing its muscle and forcing the Force to back Rohee, why hasn’t the PPP flexed its muscle all the time to help Guyanese left helpless in a country riddled with crime? How could the PPP boss around the acting Commissioner to issue a statement saying he fully supports an incompetent failure of a minister but fail to boss around the Police Force for 20 years to get them to bring safety and security to Guyanese? What we are seeing is a truly horrible attitude by the PPP. It will defend Rohee at all costs b u t it won’t defend the Guyanese people and the

Indian constituency that votes for it.

If the PPP could force the head of the police to do something like this, it could have forced the police force in the past 20 years to act professionally to protect the citizenry. But it did not.

Rohee is more important to the PPP than the Guyanese people and the Indians who vote for the PPP. One man is worth the PPP making a fool of the police commissioner while the entire country is being made into a fool.

This mockery the PPP has made of an already mocked police force weakens the Force’s image, standing and ability to convey fear in the

hearts of criminals. A weakened Force means more people will resort to vigilante justice to fix their problems.

More blood will be shed, more lives lost, more drug dealers executed and more police brutality. Clement Rohee will remain insulated even while the entire country falls apart.

At the end of the day, the Pradoville palaces are wellprotected and Brummel’s boys are probably required to patrol those Pradoville streets while Guyanese are being terrorized in their own homes. This is probably why the Jagdeoites inhabiting Pradoville are holding onto Rohee while the rest of Rome burns.

M. Maxwell

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Sunday November 18, 2012

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Brummel is in a position where he has to sing for his supper DEAR EDITOR, The actions by Clement Rohee to function in the capacity as Minister of Home Affairs, after the passing of a parliamentary no confidence motion are sending ominous signals.

Anyone who zealously guards his/her character will not engage in acts that undermine time honoured principles and practices. For the minister to be ‘comforted’ by the apparent coercive statement of ‘support’ issued

by acting Commissioner of Police (COP), Leroy Brummel, is an indication of a man who is tormented by the truth and out of his depth when it comes to management, since the responsibility of operation is not to “support [the] boss” but to implement policies consistent with operational practices.

The Police Force has no responsibility of supporting individuals.

Its responsibilities is to the principles of Service and

Protection outlined in operating procedures consistent with the rule of law to be discharged without fear, favour or ill will. And this goes too for Brummel and the minister, because the Force cannot be behind the minister in whatever he does, as so claimed by the acting COP. An infraction is an infraction regardless of who commits it and we must call it for what it is. Further, that the minister sees this as giving

cover to his stewardship justifies the calls for his resignation for he clearly does not understand the distinction in roles of the minister and that of the police force and therefore putting the officers and Force in an untenable situation.

And any call for the sanction for the acting COP has to be looked at within the context of how this entire issue is being addressed. By Article 210 (4) of the Constitution the President

invited the Leader of the Opposition to “engage in meaningful consultation” for the appointment of a COP. Brummell was acting COP at the time of this meeting and rather than addressing his or any other person’s suitability for the job and conclude the appointment and confirmation, the President and Leader of the Opposition agreed for the appointment of two deputy commissioners of police which was not what the meeting was to address.

The ambivalence by the President and Leader of the Opposition, coupled with the level of subterfuge in the society, place Brummel in a situation to support issues and positions that run counter to the professionalism that is expected in the Force.

Whenever we start wrong, we are going to end wrong, and in this specific case both the President and Leader of the Opposition have abrogated their constitutional responsibility to the Police Force and the Guyanese society.

In this instance don’t blame Brummel, blame the President, the Leader of the Opposition and Minister of Home Affairs for placing him in a position where he has to sing for his supper.

The laws, rules, principles and practices cannot be sacrificed at the expense of any organization or individual’s interest and we the people must see to it. The Private Sector Commission’s (PSC) tongue-in-cheek statement on the opposition’s actions in parliament which this body thinks does not constitute “decorum in keeping with the prestigious office entrusted to them by the Guyanese people” is deserving of attention.

The actions of the current parliamentarians are no different to those that preceded them. Notably, Cheddi and Janet Jagan were the militant opposition parliamentarians of yesteryear and greatly admired for their actions, which included loud heckling, knocking down the mace and law books, and thumping of furniture. The Jagans’ actions were consistent with the desire to be heard and their views respected. The same desire exists today and it must be equally respected.

The PSC has a corporate and moral responsibility to this society, and it includes ensuring the legitimate will of the people is respected, and the Rights of Man and the Rule of Law take preeminence.

Its legitimacy and

respect across the board are hinged on this and the current leadership of the PSC need not forget that on matters of policing and lawful conduct the PSC has been involved in acts of undermining the role of the police; an instance is last elections and the absence of their voices in reigning in a narco-economy Professor Clive Thomas writes extensively on and the international bodies are expressing concerns about this illegality that is undermining the social f a b r i c o f t h e s o c i e t y, coupled with the rampant corruption that undermines governance.

In fact, the society sees the PSC as an enabler of much wrong and would appreciate if it considers grounding its voice by applying international principles as it seeks to address these issues, including the President’s abrogation of his responsibility to the people under the Constitution. The Executive is equally a part of parliament and governance as much as the opposition. And they must be equally held accountable.

The holistic development of this country can only be realized when we hold all by the same standards and all play by the same ruleswhich are outlined in universal declarations, international conventions and laws and the Guyana Constitution.

Money and/or access to the corridors of power allow(s) no one to be contemptuous of the struggle of the people in putting laws and systems in place to avoid the strong and mighty trampling on their rights.

Taking this approach is injurious to the tenets of creating a just and modern society and even threatens the wellbeing of legitimate business and every lawabiding citizen.

And while the opposition’s effort is noted to hold Rohee accountable, such efforts must be buttressed by laying the foundation where principles trump principalities. As such it is expected David Granger, as Leader of the Opposition to give fillip to the current action by delivering the requisite leadership to have the Recommendations in the Disciplined Services Commission Report, that was unanimously accepted in National Assembly in May 2004, be made a reality.

It is further expected that Winston Felix, as former COP and current shadow minister of home affairs, will prepare Continued on page 7

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I will analyse and criticize poet, painter, politician, priest …

DEAR EDITOR, I refer to Mr. Greenidge’s letter, “I acknowledge Freddie’s apology but…”

(KN, Nov 11). In his explanation, Mr. Greenidge accepted my apology then questioned its sincerity after a subsequent published expression of mine. I hold to the apology to Mr. Greenidge because I have no proof that he took advice on how to vote as PAC chairman from Gail Teixeira.

That justifies an expression of retraction.

However, a different matter is if what I said constitutes libel.

I stand by my subsequent position that what I wrote did not make for libel. This is obviously a contradiction here. If I didn’t believe it was libelous then why did I express regret?

Libel does not involve the writer only. The writ also names the publisher and the editor. Then the writer has to secure legal representation. I cannot and will not spend my life asking friends for free representation in court. I have exhausted my welcome in that respect.

Khemraj Ramjattan and Nigel Hughes have been solid rocks for me. If I have a conscience I should not press these two fine, brilliant Guyanese patriots any further.

Also no matter how frivolous is a libel writ the courts will be harsh if you do not respond. The court sees this as an insult. The time running in and out of court is enormous The decision to apologize was mine and mine alone but there was bound to be trouble with the newspaper if I didn’t because the regret

was justified in that I had no proof for my statement. Libel was a different matter. I would like to think the newspaper’s position would be to say sorry and move on. The advice from one and all would be, “Freddie, apologize and let the matter die.” Let us look at libel now.

I state here and now that what I wrote did not constitute libel. I posit that these kinds of things you find in the media all over the world. Politicians live with them and Mr. Greenidge must learn to do the same. What is the fuss about?

I stated that Mr. Greenidge, as chairman of the PAC was advised by Gail Teixeira that he couldn’t vote.

If this is not true is that a libelous statement. I say unapologetically no. I go further and day that no judge would consider that as such.

In a private exchange of e-mails on a particular thread to which Mr. Greenidge subscribes, I expressed that point poignantly. I told Mr. Greenidge that he is going to be harmful to the media because if he could threaten to sue for such petty things then he is going to go to court for every little criticism of his political action.

At the time I withdrew the statement I didn’t know two things. First that the AFC had issued a statement on July 8 published in this newspaper on Mr. Greenidge’s abstention that was far more critical of him than anything this columnist had to say.

Here is the relevant section, “Pressure was brought to bear by the four PPP members, especially Ms. Teixeira, on the four APNU members that the chairman,

Brummel is in a...

From page 6 the requisite documents consistent with Article 171 (1) of the Constitution, to start the ball rolling.

It is time our elected officials to government understand that they have a moral and civic responsibility to the people - those who vote for them or not- in delivering and ensuring a society premised on justice and fair play.

For too long the ordinary man and woman are being taken for granted, given excuses and denied what’s rightly theirs by politicians who are abrogating their responsibility under the social contract, as outlined in the Constitution. Being elected to govern in the interest of the people, it is time to walk the walk.

Lincoln Lewis

Mr. Greenidge did not have an original vote.” Here the AFC is clearly saying that Mr. Greenidge came under some kind of influence by Ms. Teixeira.

This was said since July this year. Why didn’t Greenidge threaten the AFC with libel? Secondly, the Stabroek News wrote that Mr. Greenidge took the advice that he cannot vote from the Clerk of the National Assembly.

Those facts are

conspicuous here. There was pressure by Ms. Teixeira. And Mr. Greenidge did take advice.

Against this background, it is amazing that Mr. Greenidge thought he could get a successful libel suit. He took advice and I named the wrong person the advice came from. How could he claim libel? If a priest stripped in a purple bar in Berbice and I wrote it was a pink bar in Esequibo, how is my inaccuracy libelous?

So why did he threaten me? I believe he wanted to scare me. I cannot understand why Greenidge thinks that given the life I have lived in this country, which is an open book, he can do that. In a private email, I let him know that I will not be deterred.

I will analyse and criticize poet, painter, politician, priest if it is in the public’s interest and I am open to receiving criticism myself. No public figure outside of those

possessing State power, has been more scandalized than this columnist in the history of this country.

When it comes to politicians, they must understand that they will be subject to scathing reviews. Libel is a different m a t t e r. T h a t i n v o l v e s mischief in attacking people’s character. The s o o n e r M r. G r e e n i d g e learns that the better for him as a politician Frederick Kissoon

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Sunday November 18, 2012

The Police Force, too, wants to kill the messenger

By Dale Andrews I almost felt like the Internal Auditor of the National Drainage and Irrigation Board when I read a police response to an article that I wrote two Sundays ago.

The internal auditor was sternly reprimanded for exposing just what he is being paid to expose.

The article I wrote spoke of the paucity of the Police to solve executionstyle murders, and like the auditor, I was attacked by the Guyana Police Force, who failed to see the message that was being conveyed.

Maybe the reference to them being security guards hit the nail on the head. The fact that it took them almost two weeks to respond suggests that the hierarchy of the Force took pains to craft their response, in the same way they would attempt to provide answers to the searching questions that I would pose to them from time to time.

In its response the Guyana Police Force showed its hand when it stated that it is of the view that “it is articles such as these, reporters such as Dale Andrews, and elements of the Editor ’s behaviour that

Crime Chief Seelall Persaud (left) and Commissioner of Police (acting) Leroy Brumell created the perception in many that the Kaieteur News has degenerated into a Tabloid.”

I searched the internet and the description of a tabloid was given as “small newspaper with short articles: a small-format popular newspaper with a simple style, many photographs, and sometimes an emphasis on sensational stories…”

The Oxford dictionary described it as “a newspaper… popular in style with easily assimilable news and features, bold headlines large photographs and pages half the size of those of the average broadsheet.”

Is anything wrong with

this?

Then the police went on to point out that articles published in this newspaper display dishonesty, and reporters hide behind anonymous sources to publish inaccurate information.

Tell that to the “Boss” of the Police Force, who last week virtually begged this newspaper to publish the headline that he was being fully supported by the Commissioner of Police and may I dare add, the entire Guyana Police Force.

Like any other newspaper, the Kaieteur News has at its disposal, as described by the Police in

their response, “a battery of high priced lawyers to represent the management should they be subject to litigation.”

But getting to the crux of the matter the Police referred to two related excerpts from my article upon which they said “a gamut of unprofessional behaviour premise.”

One was “The record will show that the Police can only boast of solving clear cut murders and robberies” and the other “We have never solved any execution style killing in this country… said a Police Officer.”

According to the police had “Dale Andrews wanted to use the Police records, he could have requested that of the Police. Same is readily available at the CID Headquarters. However, those records would not have supported his sensational headline and therefore he resorted to an anonymous “Police Source”, whom the Force is of the opinion does not exist, to peddle his misinformation.”

This is a misrepresentation that is being peddled by the Guyana Police Force ever so often.

To say that the Criminal Investigation Department has information readily available is the biggest insult to my integrity as a journalist.

For one, Crime Chief Mr. Seelall Persaud, for whom I have great respect, is refusing to speak to this newspaper when matters of interest to the nation is put to him by me, claiming that he was

“misquoted” by another journalist attached to this newspaper. So much for professionalism!

The Commissioner of Police (Acting) Leroy Brumell, with whom I also have a good relationship, is hardly ever available for comment.

I do not have to tell readers that since his assent to his present position, he has never held a press conference, despite the pressing matters that are engaging the society in terms of criminal activities.

Despite my constant queries, to date the Police cannot even tell us if they have been able to match the shells recovered from the last two execution style killings in the face of evidence that suggests that they are linked.

There is your readily available information from the police Criminal Investigations Department.

Every month, the police release statistics on criminal activity. I recently attended a United Nations Development Programme Workshop, and one of the facilitators, the learned Professor Anthony Harriot, the lead author of the Caribbean Human Development Report 2012, disclosed that police statistics are only 20 percent of the crimes committed.

I say this because journalists like myself, are never given the opportunity to question the statistics released by the police.

My queries are usually met with “the statistics speak for itself.”

Then the police launched an attack on my editors when it stated in its release, “It may be prudent, therefore, Mr. Editor of Kaieteur News, not to focus only on what the Commissioner and the Crime Chief are presiding over, but also, what you and your management are presiding over.”

I will leave the response to that statement to those it is directed to.

Referring specifically to execution-style murders, the Force said that between 2008 and present, there were 38 execution-style murders.

“The Police have so far laid charges in relation to 10 of those and are on the verge of completing investigations in two others in which charges are likely. Those two do (sic) not include the “Lindo Creek” Murders, the investigations into which have been completed and the file submitted to the Director of Public Prosecutions for advice.”

Taking this information without question, 12 out of 38 is certainly not something to shout about and it certainly is not instilling confidence in the populace.

The Police can do the survey if they want to.

Figures from the UNDP Caribbean Human Development Report indicate that Guyanese have very little confidence in their police force when it comes to crime solving and prevention.

It is instructive to note that Jamaica with all its publicized gang related killings rank higher than Guyana in terms of confidence in the Police.

Of the 10 incidents in which they have laid charges, the police boast of charging persons for the Lusignan and Bartica massacres among others.

But can we classify these as execution style killings?

While the police have never publicly identified a motive for what occurred at Lusignan, the massacre at Bartica was clearly a massive robbery.

Most if not all executions have a mastermind, who orders the “hit”.

When the police want to talk about solving an execution style murder, they must bring the masterminds to justice and not just the persons who pull the trigger.

If this continues, the masterminds will still be around to order more executions as is probably the case at the moment.

Why must we believe that because the police have charged a person that the crime has been solved?

Is it not the police who issue big wanted bulletins for people, besmirching their character and then releasing them without charge?

Is this the type of investigation that our police force is proud of?

The police have phone tapping capabilities, why not use them for criminal activities instead of against political opponents of the government?

Maybe the Force should stop being security guards and engage in a course not only on proper investigations but in public relations to preserve its tattered image that continues its downward spiral, execution after execution.

Sunday November 18, 2012

Kaieteur News

>>>> PNCR Column <<<<

Don’t be fooled by the PPPC’s bogus war on drugs

Ricardo ‘Fatman’ Rodrigues, known to have been an associate of Shaheed ‘Roger’ Khan, the jailed narcotrafficker, was executed by a five-man squad in broad daylight on a quiet Monday afternoon on 15th October in Georgetown. He had been released on bail following his arrest over the discovery of an arms cache in the Rupununi that contained ten automatic and assault rifles, hand grenades, hundreds of rounds of ammunition and other items.

Jean Le Blanc, a Canadian who was shot at the same time as Rodrigues, died mysteriously in hospital on 26th October. Marlon ‘Trini” Osbourne, Rodrigues’s personal bodyguard, was executed on 31st October in broad daylight in the quiet ward of Queenstown, Georgetown by a squad of gunmen.

The link between narcotrafficking and gun-running is clear. It is evident also, that drugs and guns have been contributing to murders

during the People’s Progressive Party Civic’s 20year administration. The Guyana Police Force recorded 114 murders so far in 2012.

Nine of these were ‘executions’ which might have been related to the narcotics trade. Armed robberies, which increased by 15 per cent to 854 – a rate of nearly three per day – are partly the result of gunrunning which accompanies drug-running.

The PPPC administration is fully aware of the threats that drugs and guns pose to human safety. President Donald Ramotar faced with almost weekly drug busts at the international and municipal airports and elsewhere, told the United Nations General Assembly last September that the scourge of narcot r a f f i c k i n g has”…engendered a growth in criminal activity in our region.

The availability of guns in many societies, most of

which is a by-product of the narco-trade, has contributed to the growth of gun crimes and murders in the region and beyond.”

Rohee, also, is on record as having said that the profits of the drug trade are being used to support money laundering and terrorism. He said that the proliferation of drugs in a society affects public health, promotes money-laundering though its profit margin, threatens political stability by exacerbating corruption and affects a country’s national security by financing crimes.

The PPPC administration, for most of its 20-year regime, has been the subject of a series of unfavourable comments by the US Department of State which publishes an annual International Narcotics Control Strategy Report.

Rohee previously attacked the report describing it as “downright deceptive and misleading.”

Rohee, however, in less belligerent moods, changes

his tone when he speaks to foreigners. Addressing an Inter-American Development Bank-sponsored National Crime Prevention Conference, he freely admitted that the country had been faced with “threats from the international and local drug trade, violence that accompanies the drug trade, escalation of violent crimes including murders and robberies, international terrorism and its negative consequences, involvement and exploitation of youth in crime and domestic violence.”

The US Department of State’s annual Report iterates every year, “Guyana is a transshipment point for South American cocaine on its way to North America and Europe.” This country, clearly, has become a warehouse from which Guyanese drug-traffickers export their merchandise to foreign markets. It is clear, also, that the PPPC administration has never been Continued on page 29

Page 9

Dem boys seh

Cheapness and selfishness cost Guyana bad When Uncle Donald get up and talk bout how Guyana going places he only talking wha her hear from Bharrat. He don’t know that fuh go anywhere people got to spend money.

He now find out that Guyana ain’t going nowhere because de money that de country should pay going in people pocket and dem people ain’t going nowhere.

De country got a football team but nuff of de players living overseas. De football federation decide fuh recruit dem people. Dr Frank mek dem lef dem wuk in de States fuh come and play football fuh Guyana.

All over de world professional footballers does get pay but Dr. Frank and Uncle Donald believe that people does do thing fuh love.

Dem boys seh that Sparrow was de man who sing that you can’t make love on hungry belly and that you can’t love without money. Uncle Donald and Dr. Frank refuse to pay de overseas footballers. Imagine bringing dem men and asking dem to play fuh US$12 a day. That is less than dem boys does wuk for in one hour in de States.

De result is that dem overseas boys refuse to play and Guyana get beat up. De country that do so good in de World Cup eliminations can’t even mek de Caribbean team quarterfinals.

Dem ain’t even pass de first round. Dem got people in de government who wouldn’t even bother to thief that because is an insult. Dem does thief in de thousands and sometimes in de millions.

That is why when six of dem went to Leguan fuh meet wid de people de whole of Leguan chase dem out. Dem boys seh that all of dem claim more than US$12 fuh just go to Leguan and sit down.

When people ain’t ain’t got priority and when dem only think bout demself de country does suffer. Everybody now laughing Guyana.

Talk half and try wid de national image.

Sunday November 18, 2012

Kaieteur News

Page 11

Office of Opposition Leader starved of state funding

By Abena Rockcliffe While an Act of Parliamentary provides for an office of the Leader of the Opposition to be funded through the national coffers A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) is claiming that its work is being impeded by the government’s apparent refusal to honor that obligation. Opposition leader, David Granger, stated that it is impossible to cope with the level of work needed to be done under the present conditions.

The Act mandates the government to provide a “rent free office” for the Opposition Leader, and security for both the provided office and the home of the Opposition Leader.

However, that provision is lacking as $1M is owed to a security firm for services offered to the Opposition Leader for the period January-June of the year.

APNU officials noted that security service from the police was not authorized until June hence the need to solicit private services.

Further, reports are that even though the government has been furnished with the lease agreement only half of the monthly rental fee is being paid out of the Treasury.

An APNU official said that there have been “back and forth” correspondence but no money to clear the debt has been forthcoming.

The government’s actions seem like a deliberate attempt to stifle the work of the opposition, the Office of the Opposition Leader said.

Granger, when contacted, said that the issue is one of “high concern” to him. He said that he has been dealing with the matter through the Parliament office and he has been in constant communication with the Clerk.

However, the situation still exists. Granger confirmed that there are numerous other deficiencies at the office.

He explained that the government took the stance that it is only paying half of the rental for the building based on an agreement signed 10 years ago. The government is seemly not willing to renew that agreement. However, even office items that were part of the agreement have not been fully provided. “We were given a small amount of necessary office supplies,” expressed Granger.

Granger said that his office forms the shadow Cabinet and is in receipt of several complaints from citizens all across Guyana.

APNU office “It is becoming harder to meet the needs of citizens with the limited resources.” Granger reiterated that several attempts were made to get the government to pay the monies owed to the security company but those were of no avail.

The leader noted that upon his election as Opposition leader, his party begun to research

“appropriate premises” but found none better that the building it presently occupies.

Granger said that his team is committed to serving the people of Guyana and can’t do so effectively at the moment.

An APNU official told this newspaper that, recently, members were forced to take personal cash just to carry out

duties at an interior location.

Some roles of the main opposition leader include holding the executive accountable, preparing the opposition to become an ‘alternative government’; scrutinizing and ensuring that proposed legislations are in the best interest of the people engaging the government, as

specified by the Constitution, in meaningful consultations on important appointments such as Chief Justice; and adequately representing, in the National Assembly and generally, the interests and concerns of citizens.

“How can the opposition fulfill those obligations with little or no resources?’

Page 12

Kaieteur News

Sunday November 18, 2012

Mentally ill deportees slow mental health development Guyana’s mental health challenge is greater “than our small economy can manage,” said Minister of Health Dr. Bheri Ramsaran, yesterday.

However, he disclosed that earnest efforts are being made to address this dilemma.

But those efforts are currently being slowed by the deportation of derelicts from the United States of America.

“We are exporting our youths and America is reexporting to us, derelicts,” said the Minister who announced yesterday that “we have a lot more people coming back who have no roots in the society and who are potential mental cases. We need to be looking at how many of them are coming back.”

Post partum depression among new mothers has been listed as another factor that lends to mental disorder among the population, said Minister Ramsaran. He revealed that about 50 per cent of new mothers suffer from mental illness with about two per cent of these actually trying to cause their newborns to suffer fatal injuries.

Such cases are however not easily identifiable, since according to the Minister “we

are resource poor. Our response to mental health challenges is very weak so we need to put mental health on the front burner and remove it from the back burner,” said the Minister. He disclosed that currently about 15 per cent of the population is plagued with mental illnesses, a state of affairs which amplifies the need for trained medical practitioners.

The public health system is currently furnished with two veteran psychiatrists and a few younger doctors are their understudies. The area of mental health is also supported by rotating Cuban doctors and a handful of nurses, according to Minister Ramsaran.

Operating privately in this field, too, is Dr. Frank Beckles.

Given the limited quota of mental health professionals, the Ministry is forced to encourage a practice of “visiting clinics” which in fact calls for the need for a wider cross-section of these operatives.

This has caused the Ministry to start looking at ways to incorporate dealing with mental health problems at the primary health care

level, but according to the Minister, fixing the problem does not only mean training more psychiatrists.

Ensuring that mental health is addressed at the primary health care level will in fact require that such a programme is included in the nursing schools’ curriculum.

“That is where we are so the nurses will be coming out with a full package. Just a few weeks back we advertised for another batch of people to come and train in mental health…that is not the way to go because we are training them after they are done training. However the aim is to ensure that it is integrated into their way of thinking,” he asserted.

According to the Minister it is important to sit the patients down and interact with them. “We need to train more nurses and we need to have the people at the health centres who are not intimidated and want to ‘football’ the patients.”

The Health Ministry is seeking to collaborate with its partners to devise a mental health strategy intended to help identify cases of mental health early, Dr. Ramsaran said.

The Minister ’s deliberations were forthcoming yesterday at a

Ms Patrice Ladler hands over a copy of the UNFPA Report to Minister Bheri Ram saran in the presence of (from left) Dr. Janice Woolford, Dr. Shamdeo Persaud and Dr. Shanti Singh.

Cara Lodge, Quamina Street, Georgetown, venued colloquium spearheaded by his Ministry in collaboration with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

The event, which represents the first in a proposed series of colloquiums for the media, was aimed at sensitizing media operatives on a range of health issues in order to solicit their support to raise awareness among the populace.

The issues amplified at the forum included: Sexual practices and challenges among youths and young adults, Emergency Obstetrics and Newborn Care, Safe Motherhood and the way forward, the Millennium Development Goals Four and Five as well as the process of medical evacuations was highlighted.

Presentations were made

by Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Shamed Persuade;

Programme Manager of the National AIDS Programme Secretariat, Dr. Shanty Singh; Director of Maternal and Child Health, Dr. Janice Wool ford and UNFPA’s Mr Derive Patrick.

UNFPA’s Country Representative Patrice La Fleur also presented remarks at the forum following which she presented a copy of the 2012 UNFPA’s State of the World Population Report to Minister Ram saran.

Sunday November 18, 2012

Kaieteur News

Page 13

Burnham’s gardener and maid - Pauline Mahadeo’s story

By Romila Boodram She was 38-years-old, a single mother with five children and no job. Pauline Mahadeo was at her wits end – food had to go on the table, and there were bills to be paid.

Fortunately, her husband had left her with a home.

After her husband’s death, it was imperative that she find a job, and fast.

After a long search she heard about an opening at the Botanical Gardens and went to the office of then President Forbes Burnham to apply for the job.

Burnham ruled Guyana from 1966 until his death in 1985. Pauline recalled meeting the foreman and the administrator for an interview and in less than 24 hours she was asked to turn-out to work.

In 1977, she worked at the Botanical Gardens and would sometimes be asked to go over to Burnham’s house to take care of his plants, and she did so with “pride.”

In those days, everyone admired her work and she was eventually transferred to Burnham’s residence, where she worked taking care of his personal garden at what is

Pauline Mahadeo

now Castellani House.

She would leave her Grove, East Bank Demerara home early in the morning and would return in the nights.

In those days, her village was populated by people of East Indian origin who were very critical of Burnham and his party, the People’s National Congress. So, to avoid trouble with villagers, she told them that she was still

working at the Botanical Gardens.

For Pauline, Forbes Burnham was a “good” man who was great to his employees. She said that his nick name was “Fat Man.” While working with Burnham, she received milk, oil, meat, greens and grocery, which was a “big thing” in those days.

When her husband died, her eldest child was 14, and

her youngest was just six years old. She did not give up on her children’s education.

She worked day and night to send them to school.

Yesterday, a proud Pauline sat on her veranda and recalled sitting with her children in the 1970s and telling them “the right from the wrong.”

“I tell them that I will send them to school and whatever I cook they will have to eat. I tell them if I cook cabbage five days a week, then they have to eat it because I am giving them education.”

With five children to take care of, she worked continuously and tried her best to grab as much overtime as she could. At this time, she was now a handy person, who assisted in the President’s office.

Whenever she was at home, she would attend the Diamond Temple with her five children. It was there that she met a friend who was badly in need of a job.

“She bin deh more bad than me so I tell her that I cannot afford to give her anything but I will help her find a job and she said that yes so I ask the manager and they call her in and give her a job.”

“She work and after she see the job that I was doing

she start mek bad for me because she de want my job.

Within a few weeks, she mek I get transferred to State House and I cried a lot because I know I use to get milk and so when I use to work at the office and if I get transferred to State House I wouldn’t get anything.”

Pauline moved to State House and was appointed as a maid. She got that position because one of the maids was about to migrate. “I use to work at State House and then I used to work over-time at Parliament building and other Government places.”

She recalled what happened while cleaning Burnham’s room one day. “...Oh my God, his room was like heaven. One day the other maid pushed me on his bed and it was the most amazing feeling ever.”

Pauline remembered hearing that her friend who caused her to get transferred to State House was “fired.”

“When I hear that I try to find out what she did and is then when I heard that Burnham does use to send out people to check on his employees background and I heard that my friend had a terrible background that is why they fired her.”

She said that her manager made her “ring” her ears not

to bring anyone here again.

Although, Pauline cannot remember the specifics, she said that the day when Burnham died, he bade his employees good-bye and told them that he was leaving to go do his surgery.

“He tell everybody goodbye and he left and couple minutes later, when I was working, another worker come and tell me ‘Fat Man’ dead but I didn’t believe them (at first),” Pauline recalled.

“When he died, they send home all the workers and the funeral day we had to wear black and white and the morning when I was walking out the street with my clothes, the neighbours them see and they curse me down and stop talk with me but I didn’t care because nobody don’t put rice in my pot.”

She said that when Desmond Hoyte became President, she continued working and was able to send off her children in marriage.

Pauline retired after she was injured when a tree fell on a benab under which she was working. “After the tree fell, Hoyte order all the trees to be cut down.”

Pauline is now 78 years old, and suffers from diabetes.

Her oldest son is in the United States and he has been taking care of her.

Page 14

Kaieteur News

Sunday November 18, 2012

Agricola gets mobile outpost The temporary Outpost at Agricola

In an effort to maintain the peace in Agricola, East Back Demerara, throughout the Christmas season, the Guyana Police Force last Thursday opened a temporary mobile police outpost at the entrance of the village.

According to the Commissioner of Police, Leroy Brumell, the force has realized the urgent need for a Police Outpost in the community hence a temporary one was placed there to

combat any criminal activity during this time of the year.

He said that a permanent unit will be constructed in the community very soon but to acquire the location and construct the building will be time consuming and wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be completed for the Christmas holiday hence the temporary mobile unit was placed there.

The temporary unit is fully equipped with air conditioning, refridgerator,

two beds, toilet, five benches and two tables.

When asked whether it was a new unit, the commissioner said that the unit was purchased a while ago for different purposes such as concerns at the National Stadium.

Four police ranks are stationed at the facility during the day and night.

The ranks will also patrol the area during their working hours.

ECD four-lane expansion ...

Govt. invites bids from new contractors Even with slow progress in the move to transform the East Coast Demerara Public Road into four lanes from Better Hope to Golden Grove, Government has indicated its intention to extending the project to De Endragt.

I n a n advertisement, Public Works Ministry invited contractors to bid to execute works from La Bonne Intention to De Endragt in four Lots. A contractor is not eligible for award of multiple Lots.

According to the advertisement, works slated for Lot Three will be executed from La Bonne Intention to Beterverwagting at an estimated cost of $264,156,500; and Lot Four continues to Triumph at an estimated cost of $241,014,050.

In addition, the contractor who wins the bid for Lot Five would have to construct roadway from Triumph to Mon Repos at an estimated cost of $231,104,500; while Lot

Six continues to De Endragt at an estimated cost of $246,447,500.

The advertisement stated that bidding will be conducted through the National Competitive Bidding procedure specified in the Procurement Act 2003. And, duration of the works is 12 months for each Lot. Construction works on Lot One, from Better Hope to Montrose, of the roadway expansion project has been stalled for months after the Ministry terminated the $468.2 million contract for poor performance by the contractor.

The contractor, Falcon Transportation and Construction Services refuted that his works were shoddy and claimed that his contract was terminated because he failed to give gifts.

In September last, Dr. Roger Luncheon, Head of the Presidential Secretariat, had indicated that works were to resume shortly.

According to Dr.

Luncheon, interests have been aroused among contractors but the Ministry has to assess some technical difficulties before choosing a contractor.

Whichever company will be contracted to execute the project from Better Hope to Montrose has a large task ahead.

Dr. Luncheon said, â&#x20AC;&#x153;We had some difficulties with the quality of work that has been done which for all intents and purposes, suggest that works have to be redone.

When some of it has to be undone and then redone, you can understand how technical will be the process of engaging someone else another contractor to take over.â&#x20AC;?

Meanwhile, construction works being done by Dipcon Engineering Services in Lot Two, from Montrose to Golden Grove, are progressing slowly. According to an Engineer, encumbrances on the roadway have hindered works.

Page 22

Kaieteur News

Sunday November 18, 2012

Chinese national shot, wife crashes car

The wrecked car moments after its occupants were whisked off to hospital A Chinese couple found themselves in double jeopardy last evening as the two became involved in an accident after they were robbed and shot at in front of their Regent Street store.

Reports are that the two, John Tianxiang and his wife Delingxing were attacked by two youths on a CG motorbike as they were about to enter their car after locking up a Regent Street Chinese store in the vicinity of Lucky Dollar.

While it is unclear how many shots were fired, this

newspaper understands that Tianxiang, 24, sustained a single gunshot wound to his left side abdomen.

Kaieteur News learnt that after the shooting, the robbers escaped; and Delingxing helped the injured man in the car and proceeded to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC).

However, on Thomas Street, the two suffered a blown tire which caused Delingxing to lose control of the vehicle.

The vehicle then crashed into a tree then into a

vendor’s stall. Both Chinese nationals were then taken to the hospital.

Reports are that Delingxing escaped the accident without injuries.

However, Tianxiang is listed as critical but stable.

Relatives, friends and other Chinese nationals who congregated at GPHC disclosed that the robbers escaped with both victims’ cellular phone and a bag with an undisclosed amount of cash.

Police sources say that no arrest has so far, been made.

Luncheon confirms money gone...

(From page 2) the disposal must follow protocol that is auditable by the Auditor General. More important than the disposal of state assets is the abuse of proceeds from these sales.

Millions of dollars are garnered from such sales which in turn are converted to private use by NICIL. The Government of Guyana obviously knows and endorses such abuse since the Minister of Finance

heads NICIL’s board. NICIL is yet to produce a set of audited financials for the last 6 years.

Ramjattan bemoaned the obvious disregard for transparency. “While we support liberalization of the telecoms sector and we are also supportive of privatization of certain sectors, the small band of individuals must stop the abuse of state funds.” There is no indication that the

moneys diverted from the state coffers will be accounted for. “This is whitecollar nonsense!” Said one accountant who pointed out that NICIL’s board included Minister of Finance Ashni Singh, HPS Roger Luncheon and Winston Brassington among others.

“The President is obviously fully aware of the misdemeanors and is therefore equally culpable of any deceptive conversion of state funds.”

Sunday November 18, 2012

Kaieteur News

GT&T pulls plug on internet cafes Many Guyanese were happy that Guyana Telephone and Telegraph was successful in launching its submarine cable that allowed for affordable bandwidth. Thousands of persons subscribed to the service because they were promised that with the $10,000 Emagine plan they would be able to access online gaming, conferencing and VOIP. However, two days ago GT&T dashed the hopes of hundreds of internet cafes that depend on their service and who are the resellers of CPoint and Phone Card services. The telephone company blocked VOIP on the DSL lines.

This move by GT&T left hundreds of people scrambling for alternative means to communicate with their families and friends abroad.

“We will find that the only country in the Caribbean where we cannot benefit from great calling features like free talk for fifteen minutes after talking for five minutes to the USA is Guyana. Although we don’t have these options we are still being assaulted when we try to use the alternative of VOIP at internet cafes,” said one of the affected operators.

“Four years ago in 2008 GT&T attempted this very move around the Festive season. This action adversely affected around 7000 persons who were the direct employees or beneficiaries of internet cafes and tens of thousands of others who used these entities to make affordable international calls” Internet cafes that use

Stephen Thompson Wireless services from other ISPs (internet service providers) are becoming increasingly popular and are still boasting of uninterrupted service. The affected people want GT&T to take note of this situation.

“The logical direction is that scores of cafes will move away from the GT&T DSL service to the logical option because lots of these café owners have been doing this business all their lives and have no other alternative.”

“We the members of the Internet Interest Holders Group (IIHG), Inclusive of Stephen Thompson of Netsurf.com, Eton Cordis Talk IS Cheap; Ranfred Williams of weChatting.com, Joseph Hoyte, Sigmund and countless others are petitioning GT&T to revise this drastic move that is taken against Guyanese. WE are prepared to take whatever means necessary to get our voices heard including the Public Utilities Commission.”

Lethem residents frustrated over electricity woes Residents of Lethem, Region Nine, are frustrated at hollow promises by Government officials about fixing the hours of extended blackout that has become a norm to the community several months to date.

According to residents, the community is receiving as little as five hours electricity daily, and on other occasions none. Earlier this year during a meeting between Prime Minister, Samuel Hinds, and his delegation with residents at the Arapaima Primary School, there were complaints over fuel sh ortage and extended periods of blackouts because of a generation shortfall.

However, to date, the situation has been the same.

Amanda Garnett, a businesswoman who owns two butcher shops, said that after visiting the Lethem Power plant to make official complaints she is always asked by representatives, “What you want me to do?”

“I am explaining that all my meat in my butcher shop is constantly spoiling and the power company needs to do something about its supply of power, they keep saying that some parts are to come from Georgetown but nothing ever happens.”

Earlier this year a Caterpillar generator, because of poor maintenance and overwork, went down. The engine was borrowed from Guyana Power Light (GPL) in 2009, for the opening of the Takutu Bridge which links Guyana and Brazil.

However, an older engine that was damaged in the 2011 floods is being serviced with the aim of having it replace the damaged Caterpillar. The erratic power has also affected the supply of potable water from Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI).

Residents also expressed anger at suggestions of an eventual hike in the electricity tariff in Lethem.

Page 23

Brahma Kumaris hosts World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims Most of us may have experienced the shock of losing a relative or friend to road accident. Road accidents today are one of the leading causes of death across the world.

Every six seconds, there is an injury; every 25 seconds one death. Some 60 per cent to 80 per cent of the victims are pedestrians, motor-cyclists, and those riding slow moving vehicles such as bicycles.

Hence, most vulnerable are youth, children, and those from middle and low income groups.

In India, 70 per cent of the casualties are in the age group of 15 to 44 years. With shock, grief, disability, medical burdens, and loss of the breadwinner or young members of the family, the emotional, mental, physical and economical burdens of a road accident are very high.

A study in India and Bangladesh found that at least 50 per cent of families affected by road accidents slip below the poverty line due to such losses.

The human world is gradually waking up to the reality that something needs to be done about this malaise.

Road accidents happen more often with a non-criminal intent.

Our modern lifestyles marked with high competition and material ambitions, fast pace, availability of high speed gadgets, stress and substance abuse has collectively created this increase in road fatalities.

Today, the fatalities are staring back at us through the faces of orphaned children, bereaved parents, physically challenged survivors and lonely spouses. The sirens are ringing “ITS TIME FORACTION”.

Considering the gravity of the issue and the need for global action, the United Nations Road Safety Collaboration (UNRSC) in coordination with the World Health Organisation declared this decade 2011-2020 as the Decade of Action for Road Safety.

To focus attention on this Decade the Brahma Kumaris is implementing a special project on Road Safety. One of the activities under this project is contributing the power of positive thoughts and pure feelings through meditation to the victims and survivors of road accidents.

A powerful way of doing this will be witnessed today by observance of the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims. This day declared by the United Nations Road Safety Collaboration coincides with the International Meditation Hour observed by the Brahma Kumaris on the third Sunday of every month.

Today, students of Brahma Kumaris centres worldwide will collectively meditate especially for Road Traffic victims. Many centres would organize local level events wherein any individual or groups interested in joining this endeavour can

participate. They will be oriented on how to practice ‘traffic control’ of the mind.

The Brahma Kumaris believes that ‘Actions’ for Road Safety need to be empowered by elevated ‘awareness’.

Awareness could be understood here, as a state where the mind is conscious of what is happening both in the inner self and the outside world and hence there is clarity, calmness and control.

Awareness is to recognize the value of lives, the methods to enhance concentration and to be calm whilst walking or driving, the significance of rules, and the people’s potential of creating safer road journeys.

Those who have been injured in road accidents and face physical challenges also need the support of our vibrations of hope and courage.

The survivors, victims and their families all will be benefited by this support from their world family.

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Kaieteur News

“Delgado” jailed again Clement Humphrey, called “Delgado”, 45, of Angoy’s Avenue, New Amsterdam was on Friday sentenced to a total of six years in jail by Magistrate Adela Nagamootoo when he appeared before her at the New Amsterdam Magistrate’s court and pleaded guilty to two charges of break and enter and larceny.

Humphrey was charged on November 1,lastwithbreakingand entering the business place of Sherwin Forde at Tucber Park and stealing a quantity of beverages.

The court was told by Prosecutor Corporal Orin Joseph that Sherwin Forde had secured his beer garden and had gone home. When he returned he noticed that his business was

place broken into. Upon checking he noticed the beverages missing. A report was made and following investigations the accused was arrested. He subsequently admitted to the theft.

Humphrey also pleaded guilty to the charge of breaking and entering the dwelling house of Leslie Mc Auley at Martin Luther King Housing Scheme, between October 2 and October 4 last and stealing a quantity of kitchen utensils. He also stole one DVD player.

In court he admitted to both charges and was sentenced to a total of six years in jail. He will however spend three years in jail as the sentences will run concurrently.

Sunday November 18, 2012

From the Diaspora ...

DISORDER AND DISRESPECT IN HOUSE

By Ralph Seeram Back in my Primary school days, the old All Saints Anglican School in New Amsterdam, had its share of bullies.

Dealing with bullies was part of the school experience; you learnt to deal with bullies.

The way to deal with a bully is not to cower but meet him head on; deep down bullies are cowards, the bravado is really a front.

For my part I had my

own system of dealing with bullies. I picked my battles, and I made sure the ones I picked were the ones I can win, basically that means I made sure I could beat the bully in a fight.

The ones I couldn’t beat, I just had one of my bigger and stronger friends beat them up. It was as simple as that. The important thing was choosing your battles.

As you grow older you start to realize the power of money, and power itself.

Used wisely you can

achieve great success, misused you are doomed for failure. When I owned a store I had a customer whose name was Joe. Joe was an honest hard working guy; he did the dishes at a popular restaurant.

Joe could be described as being on the lower scale of the economic ladder, living from paycheck to paycheck.

Joe and his family were involved in an auto accident and came in for a large settlement. It was probably the largest check Joe ever received in his life.

At the time he was living in a rented trailer, generally considered a poor man’s house.

I am sure my readers are wondering where I am going with this story, but bear with me.

So Joe came to me for some advice on how to spend his new found wealth, note spend not save, I suggested he buy a trailer cash so he can live rent free and save the rent he is paying, save some of the money and possibly buy a used car to move around, actually a car is a necessity in Florida.

I pointed out to him that he may never get another opportunity to own a home.

Long story short in less than a year Joe was broke, and to top it off he was evicted from his trailer.

He could not manage money; Joe fell into the same category of some athletes who made millions of dollars, but ended up broke after they stopped playing.

This brings me to the antics of the opposition APNU and AFC in showing total disrespect for Parliament. These two have been acting like bullies, and have no idea how to use their new found power. Can these two parties show the Guyanese people anything they have done constructively since they achieved majority status in the Parliament?

It’s nearly a year since the last elections. What measures have they introduced in parliament to improve the lives of the ordinary Guyanese?

Banging tables and drowning out a government minister from speaking does nothing for the populace.

It may satisfy their egos, but in so doing APNU and AFC are displaying their inability to use power wisely.

The opposition can’t handle power.

They are picking battles that they can’t win. Does

the opposition really think the PPP will be bullied to r e m o v e H o m e A ff a i r s Minister Clement Rohee? If the PPP gives in to removing Rohee, where will it end?

The opposition fully well knows that the PPP will not give in to its demands under these circumstances.

So everything is at a standstill or so it seems.

I can’t understand this obsession with Rohee. The opposition parties have been shifting their position on why Rohee must go; they want to flex their muscles. Trouble is they picked the wrong fight.

I think the opposition is banking that the House Speaker Trotman does nothing, and so far that is true. However the time is fast approaching when Trotman will have to show if his spine is made of “tabacca stick” What’s with the Speaker allowing this mayhem and disorder in the House? He is fully aware that he has the power to maintain order in Parliament. He does not need to try to compromise.

It’s simple. He needs to have the Sergeant at Arms clear the disruptive elements and let the business of the house continue.

I tell you what, if the Speaker clears the bullies from Parliament and the PPP begins rushing through Bills, you will see how fast the opposition will return to the House in a respectful manner to avoid the ruling party passing its Bills.

Speaker Trotman is either taking sides with his old political friends, or he is being spineless. Either way he is not winning any respect.

The opposition may be getting some respect from their die hard members, but what they should be wondering are they winning any new constituents; after all snap elections are just a few months away.

The PPP is not going to allow itself to be bullied or stymied; it has nothing to lose in a snap elections, and it will most certainly win back the Presidency, with a very good possibility of winning back Parliament.

The recent antics of the opposition in Parliament, Linden and Agricola, are not winning them any new votes. It just makes it easier for the PPP to win the next elections.

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

Sunday November 18, 2012

Kaieteur News

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Sunday November 18, 2012

Kaieteur News

ImmigrationTALK

Job Training & Education Visas in the U.S.

By Attorney Gail S. Seeram The United States provides many opportunities for foreigners to obtain a higher education degree and job training in many professional fields. The Immigration and Nationality Act (Act) provides for the admission of various classification of nonimmigrants, who are foreign nationals having a residence in a foreign country which they have no intention of abandoning, and who are seeking temporary admission to the United States. Three nonimmigrant visas we will focus on are F-1, J-1, and M-1.

F-1 non-immigrants are foreign students pursuing a full course of study in a college, university, seminary, conservatory, academic high school, private elementary school, other academic institution, or language training programme in the United States that has been approved by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to enroll foreign students.

For the purposes of this rule, the term “school” refers to all of these types of DHSapproved institutions. An F2 nonimmigrant is a foreign national who is the spouse or qualifying child (under the age of 21) of an F-1 nonimmigrant.

J-1 non-immigrants are foreign nationals who have been selected by a sponsor designated by the United States Department of State (DOS) (formerly the United States Information Agency (USIA)) to participate in an exchange visitor program in the United States. The J-1 classification includes, among others, aliens participating in programs under which they will receive graduate medical education or training.

For purposes of this rule, “exchange visitor program” refers to all organizations or institutions designated by the Department of State to conduct an exchange program. A J-2 nonimmigrant is a foreign national who is the spouse or qualifying child (under the age of 21) of a J-1 nonimmigrant.

M-1 non-immigrants are foreign nationals pursuing a full course of study at a DHSapproved vocational school or other recognized nonacademic institution (other than in language training programs) in the United States. The term “school” for the purposes of this proposed rule also encompasses all institutions approved for attendance by M-1 students. An M-2 nonimmigrant is a foreign national who is the spouse or

Gail S. Seeram qualifying child (under the age of 21) of an M- 1 nonimmigrant.

Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) was created to monitor students entering the U.S. on F-1, J-1 and M-1 visas.

SEVIS collects current information, on an ongoing basis, from schools and exchange programs relating to non-immigrant foreign students and exchange aliens during the course of their stay in the United States, using electronic reporting technology to the fullest extent practicable.

SEVIS enables schools and exchange programs to transmit electronic information and event notifications, via the Internet, to the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of State throughout a student’s or exchange alien’s stay in the United States.

Currently, for F-1 and M1 students, schools are required to maintain local records on each nonimmigrant student, and to produce such information upon request by the Department of Homeland Security.

In order to enroll a nonimmigrant student, a school, at the time of offering acceptance, must complete and send a multi-copy paper Form I-20A-B, Certificate of Eligibility for Nonimmigrant (F-1) Student Status for Academic and Language Students, or Form I-20M-N,

Certificate of Eligibility for Nonimmigrant (M-1) Student Status For Vocational Students.

A copy of the Form I-20 is maintained by the school, a copy is provided to the nonimmigrant, and a copy is routed to the Service for dataentry into a mainframe database, processed, and then returned to the school for inclusion in its local record.

Through SEVIS, any foreigner who obtained an F1, J-1 or M-1 nonimmigrant visas and is not enrolled in school/training or has overstayed will have their information shared with Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Our office has seen many cases where DHS picks up foreigners in the U.S. and detained them for removal after they have violated the terms of their F1, J-1 or M-1 nonimmigrant visas.

It is important that nonimmigrant students in the United States remain cognizant of their obligations to maintain their status. Past rules, designed to maintain flexibility for the academic community and to make allowance for the youth of some of the individuals in question, appear to have resulted in an atmosphere that could have led some to believe that they could violate their status with little consequence. In fact, such violations can and do have serious consequences.

Gail S. Seeram, LL.M, J.D., BBA, is a Guyaneseborn U.S. Immigration Attorney with offices in the United States. Send your comments and feedback to Gail@Go2Lawyer.com, visit her website at www.Go2Lawyer.com or connect on w w w. f a c e b o o k . c o m / Go2Lawyer. Questions?

Call 407-292-7730 or tollfree at 1-877-GAIL-LAW.

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Don’t be fooled by the...

From page 9 able to bring “the bigger drug lords” to justice in this jurisdiction.

The PPPC, despite Ramotar and Rohee’s admissions, actually has no comprehensive counternarcotics strategy. The two previous National Drug Strategy Master Plans – one under Jairam Ronald Gajraj and the other under Clement Rohee–were both allowed to lapse without ever having been fully implemented.

The essential elements of the Master Plans were to call for the establishment of ten Regional Anti-Drugs Units to provide information which could be passed to the Joint Intelligence Co-ordination Centre and Joint AntiNarcotics Committee. These, however, were never established. The National Anti-Narcotics Co-ordinating Secretariat, also, was never established. The National Anti-Narcotics Commission chaired by the President also, was never established.

It is therefore not difficult to imagine why local intelligence and counternarcotics agencies have been unable to unravel the local network which supports narco-trafficking. The PPPC administration’s energies seem bent on arresting smallscale couriers attempting to take the small amounts of cocaine out of the country, especially through the international airport.

It has never shown the resolve or provided the resources to stop cocaine being brought into the country by the plane load in the first place.

How serious can Ramotar and Rohee be about their war on drugs despite their utterances? They, more than anyone else, ought to explain to the nation why the PPPC administration’s main counter-narcotics strategy “ the National Drug Strategy Master Plan for 2005-2009 – was allowed to expire three years ago without achieving its objectives.

They ought to explain why the Guyana Government has been “engaged in

discussion” with the US administration about the establishment of a United States Drug Enforcement Agency Office in Guyana for over 12 years without reaching agreement while Barbados, Suriname and Trinidad opened DEA offices!

The country’s two existing counter-narcotics agencies “ Customs AntiNarcotics Unit and Police Narcotics Branch – have never been provided with the surveillance aircraft, river and coastal patrol boats, allterrain vehicles and trained personnel needed to secure the country’s main international transit points, coasts and borders. They seem incapable of identifying, much less investigating, the major drug cartels that have the ability to keep the trade going.

While Rohee talks, the cartels continue landing foreign aircraft and even constructing illegal airstrips that can accommodate foreign cocaine cargo planes.

The Guyanese public has had to learn, quite by chance, every now and then over the past 20 years, of illegal flights of strange foreign aircraft; of low-flying aircraft which dropped 20 cartons of cocaine at Loo Lands, on the Demerara River, in June 1993; of the burnt-out aircraft ‘discovered’ on the airstrip at Bartica in December 1998; of another burnt-out aircraft ‘discovered’ at Mabura Hill in July 2000; of the abandoned aircraft at Kwapau airstrip in March 2005 and of the discovery of a burn-out aeroplane on an illegal airstrip at Wanatoba, 130 km upriver from Orealla on the Corentyne River, in December 2007.

The aircraft were suspected of having brought cocaine into the country in all

of these cases. The administration has never done anything to provide the civil aviation and lawenforcement agencies with the resources to detect these illegal flights or to conduct continuous surveillance of Guyana’s airspace. It is usually only when accidental damage occurs and the traffickers attempt to destroy the aircraft that the security forces eventually might become aware of the event.

And so the deception continues. Rohee announced twenty-one months ago, in January 2011, that “arrangements have commenced” for the formulation of a new five-year Drug Strategy Master Plan, to build on the work that commenced under the Drug Strategy Master Plan 20052009. He brazenly repeated the same empty promise, only two months ago in September 2012 that a new drug strategy master plan is being crafted by the government.

This time he told uninformed foreigners that “our country is currently working assiduously to draft a new Drug Strategy Master Plan that would be used to guide our current and future Anti-Narcotics activities.”

The public is fed up with the PPPC’s false promises, failed plans, the rising rate of ‘execution’ murders and the whole bogus war on narcotics-trafficking. This is the reason why the National Assembly expressed its complete lack of confidence in Rohee’s ability to discharge his responsibility for public security. This is the reason why the majority has called on President Donald Ramotar to revoke Rohee’s appointment as the Minister of Home Affairs.

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Sunday November 18, 2012

Book and Arts Review

The Prisoner of Jacmel: A Dramatic Play Reviewer: Dr Glenville Ashby glenvilleashby@gmail.com Haitian author and playwright, Nicole Titus, delivers a telling blow in this psychoanalytical drama that unfolds in her native land.

The Prisoner of Jacmel explores the inscrutable world of Haitian magic, the communal impact of superstition, and the little understood layers of the human mind.

The play opens with an intriguingly complex exchange between the protagonist, Jacmel, and Rameau, an experienced sleuth. In this gripping prison scene, Jaques reveals the events that led to his incarceration.

A single, nondescript city teacher, with failing facial features, Jacmel returns to his hamlet for some quietude. But this moment of poetic reflection is interrupted by jeering village children who gather outside his house.

He is impugned with vicious insults. “Big bat!

Pencil neck! Four eyes! Look at the Big bat! Look at him!” they taunt. He verbally retaliates, threateningly, as he continues to recite the haunting poetry of Lambartine - each line imbued with an invocatory darkness, and an acknowledgement of a primordial force of malignancy.

“You, whom the world is unaware of the true name, Spirit mysterious, mortal, angel, or demon, Whomever you would be, Byron, good or evil genie...Night is your sojourn, horror your domain, Evil’s your spectacle, and man your victim...”

Within a day, sheer panic suffocates the village as children begin to succumb, die. Wailing, desperate mothers approach Jacmel’s house, seeking forgiveness and mercy, offering obeisance and food to appease his damning wrath.

A stunned Jacmel basks in his newly found notoriety and relevance. He seeks not his exoneration, remaining silent. The fearful deification continues.

Alarmingly,

Jacmel’s mother also believes in her son’s magical prowess, bestowing on him the attention and love he has always yearned, unsuccessfully. “...from the bottom of my heart I should thank you. You are indeed a man to be reckoned with...son, I never thought the day would come when I’d say this, but I am so proud of you.” Later, she confronts her husband, who is reviled by the brewing “nonsense.” ”All I am saying is that the peasants revere him and treat him like a king. Only good can come form that...” she argues.

Showing little concern for the death around him, Jacmel welcomes his mother ’s twisted admiration, and assumes the role of the dark magician with the power over life and death. Finally beholden to his mother he prefers incarceration - even death - offering a confession, admitting culpability. ”I have finally done something to please her...something to make her proud. God, from what dark womb did I spring,” he

Haitian playwright delivers twisted portrait of Magic and Love

intones. Rameau listens to Jacmel’s dysphoric dribble, aware of his innocence after a thorough police investigation reveals that the children’s death had little to do with any form of thaumaturgical incantation.

W h a t e n s u e s i s an inventive ploy to protect the warped relationship between mother and son - ensuring that Jacmel does not lose favour with his mother - a woman solely enraptured in a magically omnipotent offspring - a sorcerer.

The Prisoner of Jacmel is an artful rendition - a theatrical masterpiece, that captures the dangers of folkloric extremism, its archetypal hold on the psyche, and its liberating element for those supposedly endowed with esoteric powers. It is sociological rich and equally profound as a

psychological barometer of the human need for validation and acceptance – adding a fresh spin on Freudian psychodynamics. More importantly, it forays into the indigenous, primitive world of totemism, while remaining a convincing body of work for contemporary psychoanalytic and psychiatric studies. Indeed, on multiple levels, Titus offers the

reader a searching, provocative work of art.

Dr Glenville Ashby, literary critic – Caribbean Book Review The Prisoner of Jacmel

by Nicole Titus Available: Xlibris.com www.xlibris.com orders@xlibris.com Rating: Highly Recommended

Sunday November 18, 2012

Kaieteur News

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Ravi Dev Column

Wealth and Divali Last Sunday, after I mentioned the nexus between Divali with the Hindu exhortation to gain wealth, I got some raised eyebrows from individuals who’d only been fed the ‘light overcoming darkness’ line.

So Holi and Divali are the same? Asked to give a talk the following day on Divali at a wonderfully organised program by Pandit Somnath Sharma at Vreed-en-hoop, I expanded on the theme.

“Divali began as a harvest festival. Our foreparents, primarily from North India, would have reaped the crops they had laboured over for so long. It was a time of joy and merriment.

The nights would also have lengthened at this time of the year, as it has here in Guyana, even though we’re not expecting the winter they would have to cater for after

their harvest. The lights kindled would have brightened up the celebrations.

And they gave thanks to the Goddess Maha Lakshmi: the lights now welcome her into our homes. The question is “Why, of the thousands of gods and goddesses, Lakshmi??” Who is Lakshmi?

This is a crucial question. The word ‘Lakshmi’ is derived from the Sanskrit word “Laksya”, meaning ‘aim’ or ‘goal’. Her iconography explains. She is represented with four arms: symbolising the Purusharthas or four aims of human life. The two raised upwards with two lotuses are ‘dharma’ (righteous living) and ‘moksha’ (ultimate liberation) and the right lower in a gesture of giving...with gold coins flowing - artha (wealth of all types) and the left lower,

kaama or sensuous desires.

But Lakshmi is the goddess of wealth and prosperity: Artha. And this is what I want to emphasise tonight. The Hindu view of wealth. Lakshmi is the consort and shakti/power of Vishnu, the Creator: what is created must be sustained by wealth.

You see the British who conquered Bharath, and dumped us here, convinced us that we came from a poverty-stricken place that didn’t produce wealth. In fact that Hinduism was “other worldly”: that we ought to scorn and reject wealth. Even our own people started to believe this. And today, this is why we shy away from the real significance of Mother Lakshmi. But what is the truth?

Hinduism talks of two paths: pravritti (social action) and nivritti (inward

THE BACCOO SPEAKS As the year approaches its end there will be more madness. Not only will the roads become more hazardous, but children of a prominent person are going to tax the resources of the police. One of them is going to be held with a quantity of illegal drugs.

The arrest would not go undetected but parental influence is going to prevent any prolonged detention. This will irk the society because the news is going to be splashed across the news pages. When confronted, the prominent person is going to dismiss the issue as rumour and would even threaten legal

action.

And sadly, the police would refuse to confirm the incident. ** A shocking case of child molestation is going to result in a killing. It would be reminiscent of a photograph that was a hot topic on the internet. It was of a little child

doing the unthinkable with a grown man.

Needless to say that grown man was killed by the child’s father. This is going to be the case in Guyana and the nation would talk about the degeneration in the society. ** We had the electrocution. Now we are going to have another fire started by an illegal connection. But there will be more; a neighbour, fearful for his safety, is going to make a report of an illegal connection. This will spark a series of attacks on the neighbour and the police would be slow to respond.

contemplation). If everybody gave up action and retired to contemplation from youth what would become of society? The institution of the sanyasin or monk who ‘renounced’ wealth of all sorts, came in rather late into Hinduism and in fact was adopted from Buddhism by Shankara, after 900 AD. For the rest of us, it’s the path of pravrittti as a householder: wealth must be sought by dharmic means and should then be used for the individual’s and society’s upliftment. When we reach the fourth stage of life in our seventies or so, we should then proceed on the path of nivritti, to seek moksha/ liberation. Our prior life where we subjected the acquisition of wealth and the enjoyment of sensuous desires to the injunctions of dharma, would have facilitated this move.

Before the Moghul Conquest in 1192 CE, India produced 29% of the world’s wealth – through individual effort. Even though that dropped to about 25% under that rule, it was still enough to make India a place of fabled

wealth. Who do you think produced all those fabrics and other goods that Europeans wanted to import from India and China back in their Dark Ages? And eventually had Columbus risking life and limb to find a new way to India?

By the time the British left India in 1947, her share had fallen to 4.2%. Why??

The wealth hadn’t come by magic: it came from hard work and intelligence.

Lakshmi is always shown dressed in a red sari with a golden border. Red is the colour of Rajas or creative activity.

The golden embroidery indicates plenty.

Hindus were exhorted to work very hard to acquire wealth, for dharma: every text affirms this. The Mahabharat, for instance, teaches that the “growth of Dharma depends on Artha (Dhanat Dharmah Pravardhate) and that “poverty is full of sorrow” (Natah Papiyasi Kanchid avastham).

We know that society and our families cannot be sustained without wealth. But the iconography of Mother Lakshmi also reminds us that

Ravi Dev

we can’t allow wealth to control us. As many are the exhortations to earn wealth, they are matched by warnings not to be carried away with the wealth. The Owl is a Vahana or vehicle of Lakshmi: The owl, a nocturnal bird, sitting on the left side of Lakshmi, where gold coins are falling, represents darkness.

It is very clever but yet can’t see clearly in the daytime. It represents the potential perversion of attitudes by material prosperity that must be countered: it is essential to your survival but it can dull your vision.

Undue attachment to wealth shows ignorance (darkness) and disturbs the economic balance in society.

Mother Lakshmi sits on a lotus, that originates in mud but always rises above and is untouched by it. We must serve society with our wealth.”

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Sunday November 18, 2012

MY COLUMN

Big Brother is watching and listening The electronic age is a blessing and a curse at the same time. I suppose it was the same when the world moved from the Stone Age to the Iron Age. The smarter people would have capitalized on the weaknesses in the Stone Age society and would have done some terrible things.

But it was not all bad when we think of the iron wheels that would outlast anything, the railways that move millions of people, the cars and buses and lorries and bridges that last more than one hundred years.

When I was in the Falklands a few weeks ago, I was taken to the Bodie Creek Bridge, which was the southernmost suspension bridge in the world.

Immediately my mind flashed back to Guyana where we have had a suspension bridge since the 1930s, the Denham Suspension Bridge which is commonly called the Garraway Stream Bridge.

These phenomena are still standing in Guyana and at Bodie Creek, because of the iron that went into their construction. People have iron security grills all around

their homes although the walls of their homes are sometimes made of stone.

The Electronic Age came in a rush and with it, easier communication. No longer did people have to wait weeks to have a few words exchanged between relatives, friends and partners. In fact, people can now sit in their homes and actually see the party with whom they are speaking, regardless in which part of the world this person is.

But even before that came the telephone that was seen as the most revolutionary instrument. It was only the other day that these instruments began to make their way into homes to the point that they are now fixtures and no longer considered luxuries. The telephone became even more invidious when they became smaller and smarter.

The cell phones came on the heels of the computer that has literally changed the world. Every individual wants a computer for whatever reason. Educationists and scientists and reporters use the computer for research; young people use it for social contact and the more

professional people use it to exchange information.

All this is for the good but as always happens, there are smart people who find other uses. Some use the computer to rob banks and to steal people’s identities. They also use it to spy on others. The Guyana Government is no exception. It employs people who could hack into the various computer systems.

Ordinary people now complain that their simple emails are subjected to the prying eyes of people who seem to have a special interest in some people.

Needless to say, there are those other than the government who also pry. An American, former CIA Director David Petraeus, had his correspondence from his computer made public and the world learnt of his affairs.

I suffered the same fate, although my conversations were with harmless people, and I believe that my e-mail has been exposed to people who have an interest in what I do. But that is small when compared to what happens to the phones. Landlines are simple. People go to junction boxes, hook up some gadget

and listen or record conversations between people.

There was a time in Guyana when smart people stole phone lines and charged a fee to those who had no telephones or who wanted to speak to their relatives overseas cheaply. That was a most unsophisticated method, because who did that often removed the telephone lines so that the owner was without a service.

Guyanese thought that once they had a cellular phone then they would have been exempt from such intrusions.

Now they know that their every call can be monitored and recorded. I was not surprised, since I had known that this happens.

Shaheed ‘Roger’ Khan had equipment to do this and he used it to track people he had a problem with. He was not alone. Such technology is beyond me. I hardly know how to open my own telephone when I forget my password.

A few years ago, the government asked the telephone service providers to acquire equipment that would allow for wiretapping. There were the initial objections, but

governments almost always have their own way. There was silence about whether the telephone service providers did acquire the equipment, but I wanted to know.

So when I asked Dr Roger Luncheon whether the equipment was in place and whether the government was making use of it, I was not surprised when he answered in the affirmative. He went further; in response to another question he said that the government has actually acquired recordings of telephone conversations.

What was surprising was the ease with which this could happen. Dr Luncheon said that the courts are almost always amenable to providing the requisite permission for people’s records and conversations to be infiltrated.

I do not profess to know whose conversations have been listened to, although I suspect that mine would be among the lot. What I am amazed to know is that with all the talk about drug lords in Guyana, none has been caught in this trap. Perhaps the government is concentrating on politicians

Adam Harris and its opponents.

There is no record of the government being able to catch gunmen, although these are people who use their phones almost incessantly. Suffice it to say that no one has been charged, although the government has listened to them.

Even this column, I suspect, was monitored even before I submitted it to the newspaper. I would say that there is hardly any privacy on the society. This pushes my mind back to the days when I read a novel by George Orwell, “1984”. The central theme in that book which was completed in 1948, was “Big Brother is watching.”

Big Brother is all over Guyana watching everyone but the right people.

Sunday November 18, 2012

Kaieteur News

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== THE FREDDIE KISSOON COLUMN ==

Is my phone wire-tapped? I know it is Immediately after the funeral service for Mr. Clarence Hughes was finished, after a small chat with Andaiye outside the church, I made a frenzied rush to Kitty to do an urgent favour for my nephew, because I had to return to the church where Cindy Sookdeo of the Region Five office of the Alliance for Change was waiting for us to go to the Georgetown Hospital. That had to be a rush job, too, because I was headed to Region Six for Mr. Hughes’s burial.

While driving in Kitty, at the corner of Stanley Place and Shell Road, two men and a woman yelled out to me that I must go to the mechanic quickly because my car is sounding terrible. I pulled over to get out and my silly nephew told the three persons that the AC is on and that is what is making the sound.

And a fool like me believed him.

My nephew knows absolutely nothing about cars.

I confess that after a restaurant owner substituted synthetic essence (not even fruit concentrate but synthetic essence) for fresh fruits in his ice cream and fooled me that it was real fruits, I am losing my IQ. Why did I listen to my nephew?

As we reached Thomas Street, Kitty, I heard this ugly sound coming from the car and there were all the red icons flashing their warning sign. I knew Berbice was over for me and Cindy Sookdeo would have to make it on her own. I had about five minutes to make it to my mechanic,

“Smally” in Bel Air. The examination revealed that I needed a crankshaft pulley. “Smally” advised that it is better to have it repaired than buy a new one. So he sent me to this workshop which, to avoid any future victimization of the owner, I would not identify.

I walked into the guy’s workshop and he greeted me warmly, said he never met me but always remembered one thing about me. “What would that be?” I enquired. He said he could not believe a government could stoop so low as to clean the trench in front of the homes of citizens and leave my part of the trench uncut.

He told me that was one of the things about the PPP Government that caused him to dislike them. As we chatted, the subject revolved around the government’s dislike for me and his curiosity as to how I cope with it.

Most people in this life, either through correspondence or in person, want to know how I deal with the poisonous attitudes of the PPP Government towards me.

My answer is a standard one. I don’t care what they think; I will do what I have to do for my country. They were in full force at the funeral service. Prime Minister Sam Hinds said hello. I had to pass Neil Kumar who was standing at the door of one of the entrances to the church, so I used another door. I cannot stand that man after what he said to Moses Nagamootoo in Parliament last month.

The funeral attendance for

Barbados govt. minister

knocks Jamaica over IMF deal

MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica — Barbados Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs Christopher Sinckler has criticised Jamaica’s move to re-enter into a relationship with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) after former deals have not been beneficial to the country.

“It’s not unknown to most or some of you that Jamaica is one of the first, if not the first to go into the IMF structural adjustment stimulation programme. Its about 47 years Jamaica has

been in that programme and all of those programmes have had one particular policy programme based on austerity, tax, cut, obliterate,” Sinckler said.

He further noted: “The government of Jamaica is looking in a battle with the IMF over another austerity programme which inevitably will fail”. Sinckler was speaking Friday at the 39th annual Conference of the Caribbean Association of Banks (CAB) at the Montego Bay Convention Centre in St James. (Jamaica Observer)

Clarence Hughes, the father of Nigel, was huge. As expected, I would be asked political questions by those I hadn’t seen for a long time. All of this was on Thursday when both the KN and SN carried stories of the government’s admission that phones are being tapped in Guyana. So I was asked by a well-known lawyer if I think my phone is tapped.

I turned to him and intoned, “What do you think?” His smile was huge.

He said, “Of course, and Mark Benschop’s too.” Only a fool

would be so asinine to think that the phones of people like me, Mark Benschop, Lincoln Lewis, Sharma Solomon and others are not tapped.

If a cabal could be so mentally diseased to order the trench in front of my home to remain un-cleaned, to drench me with a miasmic substance; make an attempt on my life on the stroke of midnight last August, terminate my contract at UG, incarcerate me for three days on a mere traffic offence, ask a judge to commit me to prison for contempt of court, sue me for

libel, and make the 14-year-old Go-Invest job of my wife untenable, then only a moron would believe that such an obsession would not lead to phone tapping.

I know my phone is tapped that is why my socalled “subversive” buddies and I have nuff laughs when we speak on the phone.

I want them to know that I know their “dutty” business.

I know about gay parties around a swimming pool involving ‘big” ones. I know about the homosexual lover of a powerful, little god. I know

Frederick Kissoon whose wife runs a company under a relative’s name and gets governmental contracts.

Yes, I speak about a lot of sensitive things on my phone. I want them to hear.

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Kaieteur News

Sunday November 18, 2012

Workers must demand 10% wage increase Statement by Moses V. Nagamootoo AFC‘s Vice-Chairman/ Parliamentarian It was with utter disappointment that I learned that GAWU has surrendered on the fight for a living wage in the sugar belt by accepting a 5% pay rise in the absence of no production bonus.

Sugar workers should note that mine workers in South Africa have just won pay rises between 1% and 22% plus bonuses.

The cost-of-living and Inflation have gone up by almost 5% this year, so that the increase is zero. Rather

than feeling the groans in the bellies of sugar workers, the union backed down from its 10% bluff, and bowed to what it described as realities facing GuySuCo. What realities? Is the union referring to the reality that GuySuCo has not reduced the cost of producing sugar from 17 cents to an average of 9 cents a pound through sheer mismanagement, incompetence and poor investment? Is the union talking about the “reality” that average cost of production went up to 19 cents a pound in spite of some $47 billion being pumped into the new

Skeldon sugar factory?

The reality is that for a $47 billion investment, production of both sugar and energy is way below projected target.

The union needs to look at the reality of no returns for the nation’s money and sugar workers’ sweat.

The AFC offers the union solidarity in the struggle for fair play and fair pay. Workers, particularly those in Berbice, not only deserve a living wage, they are entitled to reliable electricity, functioning recreational centres and protection from deadly criminal attacks.

Over so many years, I have remained steadfast in support

of both union and workers.

That was why, at the risk of expulsion, I condemned the threat in 2010 from Jagdeo’s cronies to de-recognise GAWU and I demanded a decent pay rise when I urged that we “light a candle for sugar workers”.

We cannot accept as the “reality” that the Chairman of GuySuCo’s Board has to be shuttled here periodically from New York at great costs, whilst a factory worker would not take home $50,000 a month.

We cannot accept the reality that so many ‘fat cats’ are given million-dollar monthly bonanzas and presidents, who no longer work for the people, could have pension and other entitlement of $3 million a month. This, in fact, is a nightmare that ought to disturb the union!

No union should subscribe to the regime’s narrative of bread for the elite and bones for sugar workers!

The AFC has been calling and continues to call for a substantial pay rise for all workers to enhance their chance of improving their

Moses Nagamootoo living standards. There would be enough money for this and increase in pensions as well, when the regime places the billions in dead bank accounts into the Consolidated Fund, and ensures that entities such as NICIL do not fritter away the people’s resources in luxury projects to benefit their cronies. We are disappointed over the 5% pittance for sugar

workers. This is a sellout to those who continue to bankrupt the industry and who have unconscionably squandered $47 Billion on “modernization” of a sugar factory, when they have no viable plans for the future of sugar workers. We in the AFC will continue to demand a 10 percent across-the-board pay rise before Christmas.

Sunday November 18, 2012

Kaieteur News

SUNDAY SPECIAL FBI TO QUESTION EZJET’S FOUNDER The United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has been looking to question the founder/former Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Mr. Sonny Ramdeo, over a number of violations.

The reports disclose that the Department of Transportation (DOT) alleges that the airline contravened regulations by directing travel agencies to deposit sales receipts directly to EZJet’s account instead of through the approved route via accounts at Valley National Bank.

CARIBBEAN AIRLINES TO TAKE STRANDED EZJET PASSENGERS Passengers stranded by the sudden suspension of EZjet’s operations may find some relief with news that Caribbean Airlines (CAL) has agreed to add a number of extra flights while the airfares would remain stable.

The news came even as EZjet Air Services insisted that it has suffered because of a series of unfortunate events including problems with the US company operating the flights for them.

Last week Saturday, top executives of CAL met with

Wanted by FBI: Sonny Ramdeo President Donald Ramotar and Government officials at State House during an emergency session to find solutions.

According to a government statement, CAL agreed to provide short-term accommodation for the stranded EZjet New Yorkbound passengers at the same fare structure.

MONDAY EDITION $10M DEMANDED FOR RETURN OF “KIDNAPPED” SEVENYEAR-OLD

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An unknown caller who claimed to have possession of missing seven-year-old Roxanne McLean has demanded a whopping $10M for her return.

The child’s mother Tova Patterson, told this newspaper that she received the chilling telephone call around 20:45 hours Sunday.

It had been over a week since seven-year-old Roxanne was “kidnapped” from her school.

Police had apprehended a suspect who is very well known to the child’s family.

However, police sources claimed that not enough was found on the suspect to detain him for more than 72 hours.

RAMOTAR PLEDGES $1M IN SUPPORT TO GUYANALEGION The Guyana Legion last Sunday morning hosted at its headquarters at Coghlan House, Carifesta Avenue, its annual observance to mark Remembrance Day and to pay homage to those who lost their lives in the World wars and conflicts after the Great Wars and those who continue to do so today.

At the reception, the umbrella body of World War veterans and other exservicemen was able to raise more than $2.2M in support

Police were called in to quell an angry crowd at EZjet’s Brickdam office

of its cause and this included a pledge of $1M made by President Donald Ramotar who attended the reception.

Also in attendance were Minister of Public Works Robeson Benn, President of the Guyana Legion, retired Colonel Carl Morgan, Chiefof-Staff, Guyana Defence Force, Commodore Gary Best and British High Commissioner Andrew Ayre.

TUESDAY EDITION EZJET CONFIRMS CEO BEING SOUGHT FOR QUESTIONING BY FBI Grounded low-cost charter, EZjet, has confirmed that its founder/former Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Sonny Ramdeo, is being investigated by the US’s Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

EZjet made the disclosure Monday following reports by Kaieteur News that Ramdeo was being sought for questioning by the FBI. The US’s criminal investigative body started making contact with Ramdeo, a Guyanese-born/Floridabased businessman, after revelations that he was alleged to have stolen US$5.4M from a US hospital chain and passing some of the proceeds through EZjet’s accounts, the company said.

Ramdeo resigned one day after news broke that he was being sued. Last Monday, EZjet, in admitting that Ramdeo was being asked questions by the FBI, stressed that he is not being hunted. However, close family members of Ramdeo told Kaieteur News that he had not been heard from for several days.

“First and foremost, the US FBI is not hunting EZjet’s CEO, Sonny Ramdeo.

Following a civil suit filed against Mr. Ramdeo, the FBI asked Mr. Ramdeo to contact them, as soon as possible, regarding matters relating to

Promise Healthcare’s diversion of over US$550M as well as the circumstances surrounding its affiliated company PayTax Serv Inc which was sold in August of 2011,” EZjet claimed.

GOVT. COLLECTS US$20M ON GT&T’S SHARE SALE… The sale of Government’s 20 per cent stake in the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T) is nearer to finalization with a significant sum paid over last week by the Chinese buyer, Datang Telecom Technology and Industry Group. The sum is said to be US$20M ($4B) and this was deposited to the accounts of the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL), the state-owned company which controls public assets.

Around US$10M ($2B) more is outstanding. But it will not be all smooth sailing for the transaction which has been heavily criticized in some quarters.

There have been questions whether government was doing the wise thing by selling the shares. It has been earning them on average around $500M annually. Up until the sale, the government was receiving from GT&T, an annual dividend of US$2.5M, making it the most successful investment ever undertaken by any administration in this country.

Initially, when the shares were placed on the market almost three years ago, employees had offered to buy them, but this was rejected by Government who wanted them to be purchased en bloc.

Then there was the issue of the price. Government agreed to sell Datang the 20 per cent share for US$30M. Accountant, Christopher Ram, earlier this year said that Guyana could have got at least US$40M.

WEDNESDAY EDITION NIS WILL RUN OUT OF FUNDS IN NINE YEARS – ACTUARIAL REVIEW A key assessment on the state of the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) has been completed; its findings are alarming and in keeping with the fears expressed by Government a few weeks ago.

According to the 8th Actuarial Review, an independent analysis of the fund as at December 31st, 2011, NIS is nearing crisis stage and will be exhausted in less than 10 years, unless contribution rates and benefits reforms are done immediately.

The report also criticized the National Insurance Reform Committee for failing to make critical changes that were recommended from the 2007 review.

Among other things, the report is recommending an increase of the contribution rate from 13% to 15% no later than January 2013. The wage ceiling should be increased to $200,000 per month. The pension age should also be raised from 60 to 65 years on a phased basis and there should be a freeze on pension increase for two years until the contribution rate is increased and finances improve.

The reform committee was established to look at the NIS and provide guidelines as to the way forward from the 2007 report.

C’TYNE CARJACKING SUSPECT CONFESSES ABOUT COP’S EXECUTION What started out as a routine carjacking investigation for ranks at the New Amsterdam Police Station turned out to be a major breakthrough in the probe of the execution-style killing of Anti-narcotics rank Detective Jirbahan Dianand, at Corentyne. Detective Dianand’s body was (Continued on page 40)

Page 40

From page 39 discovered in his motor car, PHH 6528, on the Jackson Creek Public Road by a police patrol attached to Springlands Police Station on Friday, September 14, last. He had two gunshot wounds to his head.

Reports are that following the carjacking and shooting of taxi driver, Jermaine Rover, 21, of No. 78 Village, Corentyne on Saturday November 10, police at Fort Wellington Station apprehended two occupants of the car and took them to New Amsterdam Central Police Station for questioning. Under intense interrogation about the carjacking and possible involvement in other crimes in the Corentyne, one of the men reportedly broke and made some startling revelations. A source told this publication that he confessed to being in the company of others – whose names were given to the police – signaling their involvement in the brutal execution of Detective Dianand.

THURSDAY EDITION IRATE EZJET CUSTOMERS STORM GEORGETOWN OFFICE Police were once again summoned to the EZjet office on Brickdam on Wednesday, as angry customers converged at the location demanding immediate refunds. A woman produced her ticket that she purchased on Friday claiming that she wasn’t aware that the airline was “closed down” and was still sold a ticket to Trinidad. Immediately, the already incensed passengers accused the airline of perpetrating fraud. Some of them immediately went to Eve Leary to seek criminal charges against the airline. The United States

Kaieteur News

Department of Transportation recently suspended the operating licence for EZjet.

This effectively barred the airline from landing or operating out of a United States territory.

PRESSURE MOUNTS FOR BOARD TO RESIGN News that the billion-dollar National Insurance Scheme (NIS) fund is in serious trouble continues to raise concerns, with calls Wednesday for its board to be dissolved and a broad-based body of qualified persons established to oversee investments.

The 2011 actuarial report, which reviewed the NIS financial viability through actuarial examination of the years 2007-2011, was released by government last week. The report predicts a gloomy outlook. Benefits could be exhausted in nine years unless drastic measures are taken, the actuary said.

A number of recommendations were made, including putting the pensionable retirement age to 65 and the raising of the wage ceiling to $200,000 monthly. Currently, pension is paid when the contributor attains age 60.

The report also called for the NIS management and government to examine the possibility of introducing measures that will see Government agencies and issuance of licences and permits to be linked to NIS. The report also blasts a special NIS reform body for failing to implement critical recommendations from the 2007 review.

FRIDAY EDITION ‘NIS WILL NOT SINK’ – DR. LUNCHEON Government on Thursday dismissed fears of a collapse of the multi-billion-dollar National Insurance Scheme (NIS), saying that it has planned a host of meetings with the relevant entities to ensure its continued viability.

Admitting that the state of the records at the Scheme is embarrassing despite efforts to have it computerized, Cabinet Secretary, Dr. Roger Luncheon, defended the NIS Board’s performance, saying that not all the recommendations made in 2007 in a routine five-year report could practically be implemented.

Poor returns on investments and dwindling contributions from a workforce are continuing to bog down the fund, which experienced its first deficit (meaning expenses outstripped income) of $371M, last year, in its 43-year history.

A recent five-year actuarial review covering the period ending 2011, warned that the NIS benefits to pensioners could be exhausted in nine years or so, unless drastic measures are taken.

The private sector body, the Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association (GM&SA), has since expressed worry, warning that the workforce would be placed under more pressure if rates are increased. Dr. Luncheon, who chairs the NIS’ Board of Directors, made it clear that government would not sit by idly and allow the entity to fall by the wayside. There have been calls for Luncheon and the board’s resignation.

MABARUMA SCHOOLGIRL SUCCUMBS, BOYFRIEND KILLS SELF

Sunday November 18, 2012

Minutes after leaving Mabaruma on a medivac at around 05:30 hours Thursday, 15 year-old Bibi Zaleena Shadeek who had her throat slit and was virtually disembowelled by her spurned boyfriend, succumbed to her injuries. Reports are that after the teen died, the flight returned to Mabaruma.

Shadeek, a former fifth form student who was preparing for CXC early next year, was viciously attacked by the young man at around 19:30 hours on Wednesday at her home.

The incident occurred at the teen’s home at Kumaka Stretch, Mabaruma, Barima-Waini, Region One. Her attacker was identified as 18year-old Ronnie Ramit, a minibus conductor, with whom she once shared a relationship.

Ramit was found hanging from a tree with a hammock rope tied around his neck early Thursday morning.

However, it is believed that the man killed himself sometime on Wednesday night after the incident ,since he last made contact with his sister via text message and was not heard from again.

In the text message, Ramit told his sister “Tell mommy and daddy bye, I just kill Lena and I going and hang meself”. One of the dead teen’s cousins, Janel Wong, told this publication that Bibi Shadeek had recently tried to sever her relationship with the young man, but he “would not take no for an answer”.

SATURDAY EDITION GPHC DUMPS $49.5M WORTH OF EXPIRED DRUGS – AG REPORT A total of $49.5M worth of expired drugs was dumped by the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) as at May last.

This was highlighted in the Auditor General’s Report 2011.

During a recent inspection at the facility, it was revealed that there were 57 instances where expired drugs were at the facility, waiting to be dumped.

The hospital, in its defence, said that some degree of expiration is inescapable in hospitals.

“We are required to have drugs available at all times so we cannot afford to have a shortage, hence we risk overstocking with some degree of expiration.” However, the percentage of expiry drugs can create arguments about the efficiency of the system.

One doctor said that the system ought to have issued drugs based on expiry dates.

This newspaper had pointed out the Auditor General Reports of successive years that chastised the Hospital and Ministry of Health for accepting late delivery of drugs over the past three years.

EXPLOSIVE THROWN AT SENIOR CITIZEN’S HOME A senior citizen of Rosignol Village, West Bank Berbice, nearly suffered a heart attack after someone threw a bomb, or some sort of explosive device on the roof of his one-flat home on Thursday evening. Wilfred Mangra, 74, the lone occupant, stated that he was relaxing in his home around 6:45pm, “a bomb fall over that side first (another section of the building) and when I came around this side and sit down, another one fell on top here and when I peeped out my window I saw people running.

“The zinc burst up and so and it could have fallen on me.”

He was sitting in a chair, inches from where the device landed on the roof.

The elderly man said that he has received threats from several villagers and it is quite disturbing. The matter was reported to the police who came and took photos and statements. A portion of the roof had been torn opened by the impact of the explosive.

Sunday November 18, 2012

Kaieteur News

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South America pledges support for Iberia, warns on austerity

Dilma Rousseff CADIZ, Spain (Reuters) Latin America yesterday pledged investment opportunities for recessionhit Spanish and Portuguese companies but warned its former colonial masters drastic cost cutting would only deepen their misery.

The economic plight of Iberia dominated a two-day summit of leaders from Spain, Portugal and Latin America in the southern Spanish city of Cadiz - a principle port for Spanish galleons loaded with riches in the days of empire.

In a reversal of fortune, Spain and Portugal are now banking on Latin American markets to get them on the road to recovery.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff was the star of the

meeting because of hopes consumer demand and public building projects in her country’s $2.5 trillion economy will create opportunities for Iberian companies, from energy to retail.

“We have also been hit by the crisis because of the slowdown in international markets but we are widening public and private investment in infrastructure,” Rousseff told fellow leaders at the summit, which ends yesterday.

Latin American countries are all too familiar with the type of fiscal crisis that Portugal and Spain are now going through.

Over past decades they went through boom-and-bust cycles, and devaluations and austerity programmes monitored by the International Monetary Fund.

“Don’t commit the same errors we did,” said Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa, warning austerity may worsen recession.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Spanish tycoons built up business empires in Latin

Hunger strike in Trinidad over highway project P O R T- O F - S PA I N , Trinidad (AP) — A prominent environmental activist in Trinidad has started a hunger strike outside the prime minister’s office to protest a highway project that will cut through a swamp and more than a dozen neighbourhoods.

Wayne Kublalsingh began the hunger strike Friday. He said he won’t end the protest until Prime Minister Kamla PersadBissessar halts construction on the billion-dollar highway

project or re-directs it so that it won’t disrupt families who have lived there for generations.

Kublalsingh said PersadBissessar promised him and a group called the Re-Route Movement that she would create a team to study the project and its possible impact on the Oropouche Lagoon and the people who live there.

Communications Minister Jamal Mohammed however said that Kublalsingh was free to protest but the highway project would proceed.

Visa free travel for several Caribbean nationals ST. GEORGE’S, Grenada CMC - The Grenada government says it welcome a policy decision by the European Commission to allow Grenadians to travel to the Schengen area without needing a visa.

Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Tillman Thomas described the decision as constructive and that it provides Grenadians with the chance to take

advantage of opportunities that may arise from business exchanges and people to people contact.

Thomas welcomed the announcement from Cecilia Malmström, the European Commissioner for Home Affairs that the change is more than “just a symbolic gesture” and is intended to have a direct impact between the European Commission and Grenada.

America in what is known as the “Reconquest.”

Spain’s biggest companies, from banking groups Santander and BBVA to technology firm Indra and Telefonica, are increasingly dependent on Latin American revenue as domestic operations slump.

Angel Gurria, secretary

general of the OECD group of wealthy nations, said Latin America has new opportunities for Spanish investment in infrastructure, technology and education.

But Latin America also holds risks for Iberian firms.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said Spanish companies needed an

environment of legal certainty in Latin America, referring to nationalisations in Venezuela and Argentina.

Argentine President Cristina Fernandez did not attend the summit this year, which takes place during a dispute over Argentina’s nationalization in April of YPF, a unit of Spanish oil major

Repsol.

Leaders of Venezuela, Paraguay, Uruguay, Guatemala, Cuba and Nicaragua were also absent.

Still, attendance at this year’s summit was better than last year when only half of the members showed up, raising serious questions over the event’s relevance.

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Sunday November 18, 2012

Latin America looks to Europe for drug fighting models CADIZ, Spain (Reuters) Latin American countries are turning to Europe for lessons on fighting narcotics abuse after souring on the prohibition-style approach of the violent and costly U.S.led war on drugs.

Until recently, most Latin American countries had zerotolerance rules on drugs inspired by the United States.

But now countries from Brazil to Guatemala are exploring relaxing penalties for personal use of narcotics, following examples such as Spain and Portugal that have channeled resources to prevention rather than clogging jails.

Latin America is the top world producer of cocaine and marijuana, feeding the huge demand in the United States and Europe. Domestic drug use has risen and drug gang violence has caused carnage for decades from the Mexican-U.S. border to the slums of Brazil.

Last week, Uruguay’s Congress moved a step closer to putting the state in charge of distributing legal marijuana. On the same day a

leftist lawmaker in Mexico presented a bill to legalize production, sale and use of marijuana.

While the Mexican bill is unlikely to pass, it reflects growing debate over how to fight drug use in a country where 60,000 people have died since 2006 in turf battles between drug traffickers and clashes between cartels and security forces.

Even top world cocaine producer Colombia, a stalwart U.S. partner in drug crop eradication campaigns and with one of the toughest antidrug laws in Latin America, is hinting at change.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said lastday it was worth exploring the Portuguese model, one of the most liberal drug policies in the world.

“The experience that you have had with drug consumption policies is very interesting to us. The entire world is looking for new ways to deal with the problem. I hope to learn more and more about the experience you have had,” he said on a visit to Lisbon.

Spain’s King Juan Carlos (R) speaks to Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos during the XXII Ibero-American Summit in Cadiz, southern Spain Friday, 2012. REUTERS/Ballesteros/Pool Santos stopped in Portugal on his way to the Ibero-American summit in the Spanish city of Cadiz. Leaders there on Saturday called for analyzing a shift toward regulating drug use rather than criminalizing it.

Portugal decriminalized all drug use in 2001 to combat a

serious heroin problem that had caused an outbreak of HIV/Aids among drug users.

The shift has been hailed as a success story as consumption levels dropped below the European average.

“The positive evaluation of Portugal’s model has taken away the fear in Latin America over reforms,” said Martin Jelsma of the Transnational Institute, which advocates the liberalization of drug laws in Latin America.

Spain - where drug consumption soared in the 1980s after the end of the Franco dictatorship - has tried to fight high cocaine use by emphasizing treatment programs for addicts and declining to prosecute possession of small amounts of drugs for personal use.

Jelsma said cannabis initiatives such as Uruguay’s have built on the experience in Catalonia and the Basque Country, in northern Spain, where the courts tolerate marijuana cultivation for personal use by members of social clubs.

U.S. elections on November 6, when Colorado and the state of Washington legalized cannabis in defiance of federal laws, sharpened frustration among Latin American leaders.

“While in our countries a peasant is persecuted and jailed for growing half a hectare...in those two U.S. states now you can simply grow industrial amounts of marijuana and sell them with complete liberty. We cannot turn a blind eye to this huge imbalance,” Mexican President Felipe Calderon told the Ibero-American summit on Saturday.

Calderon, whose military crackdown on drug cartels set off an orgy of violence in Mexico, expressed fatigue with calling on the United States and Europe to curtail drug use, saying U.S. drug consumers alone fuelled Mexico’s drug war to the tune of $20 billion a year.

He said the legalization of pot in Colorado and Washington marked a paradigm shift.

“We have to ask what alternatives there are.

Perhaps less money and less appetite would be generated if there was another way to regulate drugs,” he said.

Ibero-American Secretary-General Enrique Iglesias said there was consensus in Latin America that the so-called war on drugs was not working, and called for new approaches to the problem.

Bank governor wants more Bajans involved Barbados Nation - Central Bank governor Dr DeLisle Worrell wants to see more Barbadian expertise involved in taking on the challenges now facing the country’s second most important sector of International Business.

The Governor made the call yesterday, as the Central Bank, in collaboration with the Barbados Bar Association, held a special seminar on international business at the Bank’s Grand Salle auditorium.

The seminar, entitled International Business 101, attracted scores of attorneys interested in getting first-hand knowledge of how Barbados’ international business sector works.

Colombia, Peru and Bolivia produce the bulk of the world’s cocaine. Mexico and Paraguay are the two biggest marijuana producers in the world, with the latter largely supplying its neighbors Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay.

The shift in Latin America thinking on drugs dates to a 2009 report by the former presidents of Brazil, Colombia and Mexico who said that billions of dollars poured into four decades of U.S.-led crop eradication efforts had merely pushed drug growing from one region to another.

Calderon’s speech in Cadiz was just the latest in a growing chorus of challenges to U.S. drug policies.

At a summit of American leaders in April, U.S. President Barack Obama faced vocal doubts from his southern counterparts over anti-drug policies.

Guatemalan President Otto Perez has openly proposed decriminalizing certain drugs. Guatemala, Mexico’s neighbor to the south, has been torn apart by drug violence and corruption by narcos has deeply penetrated government institutions.

Ten years ago the United States might have reacted with alarm to the shift in Latin America. But Obama’s administration has refrained from openly criticizing changes in drug laws, partly because U.S. attitudes are also in flux.

Spain was long a gateway for South American cocaine into Europe, although experts suggest cocaine trafficking is now moving through southeastern and eastern Europe, along Balkan routes and into harbors in Latvia and Lithuania.

The European drug monitoring agency EMCDDA said in its annual report cocaine seizures in Europe peaked at 120 metric tons in 2006 and had declined since to 61 metric tons in 2010.

Spain remains the country that reports the highest number of cocaine seizures but they have also fallen there as authorities stepped up policing of the southern coast.

Still, Spain is concerned over the potential for Latin American traffickers to set up European operations on its territory. In August, Spanish police arrested four members of Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel, one of world’s biggest criminal organizations. One of them is a cousin of Joaquin “Shorty” Guzman, the head of the cartel and Mexico’s most wanted man.

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Israel hits Hamas government buildings, shoots down Tel Aviv-bound rocket GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli aircraft bombed Hamas government buildings in Gaza, and the “Iron Dome” defense system shot down a Tel Aviv-bound rocket yesterday as Israel geared up for a possible ground invasion.

Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist group that runs the Gaza Strip, said Israeli missiles wrecked the office building of Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh - where he had met on Friday with the Egyptian prime minister - and struck a police headquarters.

Along the Tel Aviv beachfront, volleyball games came to an abrupt halt and people crouched as sirens sounded. Two interceptor rockets streaked into the sky.

A flash and an explosion followed as Iron Dome, deployed only hours earlier near the city, destroyed the incoming projectile in mid-air.

With Israeli tanks and artillery positioned along the Gaza border and no end in sight to hostilities now in their

fourth day, Tunisia’s foreign minister travelled to the enclave in a show of Arab solidarity. In Cairo, a presidential source said Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi would hold four-way talks with the Qatari emir, the prime minister of Turkey and Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal in the Egyptian capital yesterday to discuss the Gaza crisis. Egypt has been working to reinstate calm between Israel and Hamas after an informal ceasefire brokered by Cairo unraveled over the past few weeks.

Meshaal, who lives in exile, has already held a round of talks with Egyptian security officials.

Officials in Gaza said 43 Palestinians, nearly half of them civilians including eight children, had been killed since Israel began its air strikes.

Three Israeli civilians were killed by a rocket on Thursday. Israel unleashed its massive air campaign on Wednesday with the declared goal of deterring Hamas from

launching rockets that have plagued its southern communities for years.

The Israeli army said it had zeroed in on a number of government buildings during the night, including Haniyeh’s office, the Hamas Interior Ministry and a police compound.

Taher al-Nono, a spokesman for the Hamas government, held a news conference near the rubble of the prime minister’s office and pledged: “We will declare victory from here.” Hamas’s armed wing claimed responsibility for Saturday’s rocket attack on Tel Aviv, the third against the city since Wednesday. It said it fired an Iranian-designed Fajr-5 at the coastal metropolis, some 70 km (43 miles) north of Gaza.

“Well that wasn’t such a big deal,” said one woman, who had watched the interception while clinging for protection to the trunk of a baby palm tree on a traffic island. In the Israeli Mediterranean port of Ashdod,

Israelis take cover as an air raid siren warns of incoming rockets from Gaza, next to an Iron Dome defense system in Tel Aviv, yesterday.

(AP Photo/Oded Balilty) a rocket ripped into several balconies. Police said five people were hurt. Among those killed in airstrikes on Gaza yesterday were at least four suspected militants riding on motorcycles.

Israel’s operation has drawn Western support for what U.S. and European leaders have called Israel’s right to self-defense, along with appeals to avoid civilian casualties.

Hamas, shunned by the West over its refusal to recognize Israel, says its

cross-border attacks have come in response to Israeli strikes against Palestinian fighters in Gaza. At a late night session on Friday, Israeli cabinet ministers decided to more than double the current reserve troop quota set for the Gaza offensive to 75,000, political sources said, in a signal Israel was edging closer to an invasion.

Around 16,000 reservists have already been called up.

Asked by reporters whether a ground operation

was possible, Major-General Tal Russo, commander of the Israeli forces on the Gaza frontier, said: “Definitely.”

“We have a plan ... it will take time. We need to have patience. It won’t be a day or two,” he added. A possible move into the densely populated Gaza Strip and the risk of major casualties it brings would be a significant gamble for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, favorite to win a January national (Continued on page 48)

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Sunday November 18, 2012

Clinton says budget deal critical to U.S. global role, security SINGAPORE (Reuters) U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said yesterday that reaching a deal to resolve America’s budget crisis is critical to its global leadership and national security and would bolster efforts to project U.S. economic power around the world.

Speaking in Singapore during a tour of Asia and Australia, Clinton said that when she was in Asia last year during the height of debate about the U.S. debt ceiling, leaders from across the region asked her if the U.S. Congress would actually allow the United States to default on its debt.

“Let’s be clear,” she said.

“The full faith and credit of the United States should never be in question.”

However, Clinton, who spoke at Singapore Management University, said that with Washington gearing up for another round of budget negotiations, she was “again hearing concerns about the global implications of America’s economic choices”.

Clinton, who says she will step down as secretary of

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gives a speech at the Singapore Management University in Singapore November 17, 2012. REUTERS/Edgar Su state early next year and has ruled out running again for the U.S. presidency in 2016, said she was now “out of politics”.

She said that despite all the differences between the U.S. political parties, “we are united in our commitment to protect American leadership and bolster our national security”.

“Reaching a meaningful budget deal is a critical to

both,” she said. “It would shore up our ability to project economic power around the globe, strengthen our position in the competition of ideas shaping the global marketplace, and remind all nations that we remain a steady and dependable partner.

“For us, this is a moment to once again prove the resilience of our economic system and reaffirm America’s

leadership in the world,” Clinton said, stressing that U.S. leadership depended on its economic strength.

“Global leadership is not a birthright for the United States or any nation. It must be constantly tended and earned anew.”

U.S. President Barack Obama and his Republican rivals are in talks aimed at avoiding what has been dubbed a “fiscal cliff” at the year-end, which experts say could push the U.S. economy back into recession.

If Congress cannot agree to less extreme steps, from January 2, about $600 billion worth of tax increases and spending reductions, including $109 billion in cuts to domestic and defense programs, will begin to kick in.

Both sides are eager to reassure the public that Washington will not see a repeat of the white-knuckle budget standoff that spooked consumers and investors last year, and Republican and Democratic congressional leaders emerged from a meeting with Obama on Friday pledging to find common ground to avert the fiscal cliff.

Clinton said responding to threats would remain central to U.S. foreign policy, but could not be Washington’s only foreign

policy. Maintaining U.S. strength would require following through on a policy of intensified engagement with the Asia-Pacific region and elevating the role of economics in foreign relations.

Clinton said the visit of Obama to Asia from Sunday within days of his November 6 reelection - showed the importance of the region in U.S. eyes. Obama will visit Thailand, Cambodia to attend an East Asian summit, and Myanmar.

“Why is the American president spending all this time in Asia so soon after winning reelection?” Clinton asked. “Because so much of the history of the 21st century is being written here.”

Clinton said the United States was making progress in talks with countries on both sides of the Pacific towards finalizing a TransPacific Partnership (TPP) trade pact, which would lower barriers and raise regulatory standards in a region accounting for 40 percent of world trade.

“We will continue to work with Japan and we are offering to assist with capacity building so that every country in ASEAN can eventually join,” she said, referring to the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Clinton said the United States would welcome the interest of any country willing to meet the standards of the TPP - including China, where some view the pact with suspicion and as a U.S. attempt to contain China’s rapid growth, something U.S. officials deny.

In Beijing, an official said China had not been asked to join. “We have looked at and continue to look at the contents of the TPP,” Liang Wentao, deputy head of the Commerce Ministry’s Asia Department, told reporters.

“We think there are many advanced elements to it we should study. As to whether we should join, we have not been invited.”

The United States, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Peru, Singapore, Vi e t n a m , M a l a y s i a a n d Brunei agreed this year to let Mexico and Canada into negotiations on the TPP, which could reach a c o n c l u s i o n n e x t y e a r.

Japan’s prime minister said this month he wants to enshrine backing for the pact in his party’s election platform.

Clinton said that with the U.S. government working to bring down trade barriers and create a level playing field for U.S. firms, it was also up to them to raise their game ab

U.S. denies visas to Iran officials report for U.N. meeting: DUBAI (Reuters) - The United States has denied visas to Iranian officials hoping to attend a U.N. meeting in New York, Iran’s state news agency reported yesterday.

The Iranian judiciary’s Human Rights Headquarters said in a statement that the United States denied visas to members of an Iranian delegation that planned to travel to a meeting of the United Nations’ Third Committee, which focuses on social issues and human rights, state news agency IRNA said.

“The U.S. government, by not issuing visas to the members of the delegation, wants to ruin the possibility of the presence of the delegation, and prevent its members from conducting their mission of interacting and cooperating with the United Nations,” said the statement, according to IRNA. The judiciary body urged U.N. officials to warn the United States against such

decisions and remind it of its obligations as U.N. host country, IRNA reported.

It did not say how many Iranian officials had applied for visas from the United States or when they wanted to travel.

The Swiss embassy, which handles U.S. consular services in Iran, did not respond immediately to a request from comment. A U.S. State Department spokesperson said it did not comment on visa cases.

As U.N. host country, the United States has a policy of issuing visas for members of delegations, in line with a 1947 pact with the United Nations, regardless of disputes with individual countries.

However, it does sometimes refuse entry to government officials and professionals from Iran with which it has had no diplomatic ties since 1979 and which it accuses of seeking nuclear weapons, a charge Tehran denies.

In September, Iran’s

Fars news agency reported that the U.S. had denied visas to about 20 government officials hoping to attend the U.N. General A s s e m b l y, including two ministers, although President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad did attend and addressed the assembly.

At the time, a U.S. official speaking on condition of anonymity, said: “Visas for foreign officials to attend U.N. meetings in the U.N. headquarters district are adjudicated in accordance with all applicable laws and procedures including both U.S. law and the U.N. Headquarters Agreement, however, visa records are confidential.”

In 2009, as Iranian authorities were crushing protests against the reelection of Ahmadinejad, Iran said a delegation headed by its first vice president had been refused visas to attend a U.N. conference on the global financial crisis.

Sunday November 18, 2012

Kaieteur News

Page 47

Congressional leaders optimistic after meeting Obama WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican and Democratic congressional leaders emerged from a meeting with President Barack Obama on Friday pledging to find common ground on taxes and spending that would allow them to avert an upcoming “fiscal cliff” that could send the economy back into recession.

The top lawmakers spoke to reporters as a group for the first time in more than a year in what aides said was a joint decision to project a message of unity.

Each side at least signaled a willingness to put “on the table” issues dear to the two parties for decades, agreeing on a framework to discuss both tax and entitlement reform next year.

The two Democrats, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, the minority leader in the House of Representatives, said they recognized the need to curb spending.

John Boehner, the Republican speaker of the House, and Mitch McConnell, who leads the party in the Senate, said they had agreed to put “revenue on the table” as the two sides enter what are likely to be weeks of tense negotiations before a December 31 deadline.

Starting on January 2, about $600 billion worth of tax increases and spending reductions, including $109 billion in cuts to domestic and defense programs, will begin to kick in if Congress cannot decide how to replace them with less extreme deficitreduction measures.

Nonpartisan budget forecasters say failure to reach a deal could push the U.S. economy back into

President Barack Obama shakes hands with House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, Friday. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) recession and drive up the unemployment rate.

Both sides are eager to reassure the public that Washington will not see a repeat of the white-knuckle budget standoffs that spooked consumers and investors last year.

“We have the cornerstones of being able to work something out,” Reid said, standing outside the White House after a meeting with Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and other top officials that lasted more than an hour.

The S&P 500 stock index has dropped 4.7 percent since the November 6 election as investors have turned their attention to the uncertainty surrounding the fiscal cliff.

But stocks closed up on Friday on hopes that politicians would find common ground to steer clear of the danger.

The meeting marked the first time Obama, a Democrat,

sat down with his Republican opposition since he won reelection last week.

“I think we’re all aware that we have some urgent business to do,” Obama told reporters at the beginning of the meeting.

Obama says tax rates on the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans must rise, while Republicans say they will not agree to any rate increase.

Republicans are also eager to rein in government health costs, which are projected to explode over the coming decade.

“We’re prepared to put revenue on the table provided we fix the real problem,” McConnell said, referring to Medicare and other government benefit programs.

Obama could agree to allow the top tax rate to rise to something less than the 39.6 percent he wants.

Policymakers, for example, could also agree to limit the tax increase to households

making more than $500,000 annually, rather than the $250,000 cap Obama is demanding.

Republicans have suggested generating more revenue by limiting tax breaks for the wealthiest, rather than raising their rates. Obama has said that would not raise enough money.

While the government may have a little flexibility in softening the full impact of the budget cuts, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told Bloomberg TV on Friday the Treasury Department did not have the authority to delay the tax increases that would take effect at the start of next year if the White House and Congress fail to reach a deal.

Business leaders say the uncertainty is already weighing on the economy as employers postpone hiring and capital expenditures until they get a better sense of the tax and spending environment.

Pelosi suggested two sides might forge a temporary deal that would get them past the fiscal cliff and give them more time to work out a more

lasting solution. Lawmakers will almost certainly not have time to retool Medicare and overhaul the outdated tax code before the end of the year, but a preliminary agreement could provide a framework for doing so later.

Following the hour-long White House meeting, Boehner said he had “outlined a framework that deals with reforming our tax code and reforming our spending.”

A Boehner aide, who asked not to be identified, said later the spending cuts would cover “entitlements” the large federal benefit programs that include Medicare healthcare for the elderly and Medicaid for the poor.

“The speaker spoke about a framework going into next year,” Pelosi said. “I was focusing on how we send a message of competence to consumers, to the markets, in the short run, too.”

Leaders of civic groups who met with Obama at the White House later on Friday, said the president assured them he would use his leverage to cut the best deal

possible.

“He campaigned around tax fairness and the fact that everyone would do their part, and in particular the most wealthy would find a way to make their fair contribution,” said Janet Murguia, president of the National Council of La Raza, a Latino advocacy group.

Boehner faces a delicate balancing act as he will have to sell any deal to r a n k - a n d - f i l e conservatives, many of whom believe they owe it to their constituents to hold the line on taxes.

But after Obama won re-election and fellow Democrats picked up seats in the House and Senate last week, Republicans may be more willing to show that they can balance their ideals with the demands of the country as a whole.

“Going over the fiscal c l i ff , i n m y v i e w, i s a bucket of c r a z y, ” R e p u b l i c a n Representative Peter Roskam, one of Boehner ’s deputies, said at a budget conference.

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Sunday November 18, 2012

Syria rebels say seize airport near Iraqi border BEIRUT (Reuters) Rebels said they captured an airport used by Syria’s military near the Iraqi border yesterday, strengthening their hold on the recently seized border town of Albu Kamal.

President Bashar alAssad’s forces have retaliated by bombing the airport with fighter jets, said Ziad al-Amir, a local opposition activist.

Video published by rebel groups showed fighters patrolling a dusty desert air base in Syria’s Deir al-Zor

province. Plumes of grey smoke rose from some low concrete buildings as fighters examined several abandoned tanks.

Assad has been struggling to put down the 20month-old revolt against his rule, which began as peaceful protests but has morphed into a civil war that has spread to most of the country.

Opposition supporters say more than 38,000 people have died.

Hamdan airport was once used to transport farm

produce but was converted to a base for helicopters and military tanks during the unrest.

The capture of Hamdan means Assad’s forces now only hold one air base in the province - the main military airport in Deir al-Zor city.

The activist Amir, speaking on Skype, said the rebels were able to seize some mortars and armoured vehicles as well as ammunition.

There was no comment from the Syrian government

or state TV on the activists’ claims.

If rebels keep their hold on the airport, then Albu Kamal, a border city of more than 60,000 people, is likely to stay in rebel hands, said Rami Abdulrahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The fighters seized Albu Kamal two days ago but had been unable to take the nearby Hamdan airport, from which helicopters had been taking off and hitting rebel

areas.

“These new captures means that the largest territory outside of regime control is now the region along the Iraqi border in Deir al-Zor,” he said.

But the rebels’ hold of territory on the ground is unlikely to prevent attacks from the sky, in what has become a typical cycle for clashes between the Syrian army and rebels.

Opposition fighters, using improved tactics and equipped with heavier weapons than previous months, are able to capture territory and force out military units but are unable to fend off attacks from the air.

The army often bombs security sites taken by the rebels, perhaps to destroy any useful equipment.

Around 12 rebel fighters were killed in shelling and heavy clashes near the

outskirts of the city after the rebels seized the airport, according to activists.

“Some of the army officers left the soldiers in the airport and fled with three of the tanks and are trying to arrange a rescue, so the fighting has become fierce in the area,” al-Amir told Reuters by Skype.

Rebels have been trying to attack air bases in particular, in the hopes of grounding some of Assad’s air power.

The fighting has increasingly encroached on Assad’s seat of power in the capital of Damascus as well.

Yesterday, opposition activists said that nearly half of the roads and entrances to the capital had been closed except to military vehicles but had given no explanation for the tightened security.

Israel hits Hamas government buildings...

From page 45 election. Hamas fighters are no match for the Israeli military. The last Gaza war, involving a three-week long Israeli air blitz and ground invasion over the New Year period of 2008-09, killed over 1,400 Palestinians, mostly civilians. Thirteen Israelis died.

But the Gaza conflagration has stirred the pot of a Middle East already boiling from two years of Arab revolution and a civil war in Syria that threatens to spread beyond its borders.

“Israel should understand that many things have changed and that lots of water has run in the Arab river,” Tunisian Foreign Minister Rafik Abdesslem said as he surveyed the wreckage from a bomb-blast site in central Gaza. One major change has been the election of an Islamist government in Cairo that is allied with Hamas, potentially narrowing Israel’s manoeuvering room in confronting the Palestinian group. Israel and Egypt made peace in 1979. Netanyahu spoke late on Friday with U.S. President Barack Obama for the second time since the offensive began, the prime minister’s office said in a statement. “(Netanyahu) expressed his deep appreciation for the U.S. position that Israel has a right to defend itself and thanked him for American aid in purchasing Iron Dome batteries,” the statement added. The two leaders have

had a testy relationship and have been at odds over how to curb Iran’s nuclear program.

A White House official said yesterday Obama called Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan to discuss how the two countries could help bring an end to the Gaza conflict.

Ben Rhodes, White House deputy national security adviser, told reporters that Washington “wants the same thing as the Israelis want”, an end to rocket attacks from Gaza. He said the United States is emphasizing diplomacy and “de-escalation”.

In Berlin, a spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she had spoken to Netanyahu and Egypt’s Mursi, stressing to the Israeli leader that Israel had a right to self-defense and that a ceasefire must be agreed as soon as possible to avoid more bloodshed.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is expected to visit Israel and Egypt next week to push for an end to the fighting in Gaza, U.N. diplomats said on Friday.

The Israeli military said 492 rockets fired from Gaza have hit Israel since the operation began. Iron Dome intercepted another 245.

In Jerusalem, targeted by a Palestinian rocket on Friday for the first time in 42 years, there was little outward sign on the Jewish Sabbath that the attack had any impact on the usually placid pace of life in the holy city.

Sunday November 18, 2012

Kaieteur News

Mayor’s birthday Inter-Ward football continues Wednesday at GFC Play in the Mayor Hamilton Green Birthday 7-a-side Inter Ward football tournament continues Wednesday, November 21, at the Georgetown Football Club (GFC) ground with five games starting from 7:00pm.

After Wednesday’s matches, the tournament continues Friday at the GFC and concludes on Saturday at Den Amstel.

Wednesday’s competition will see West Corner clashing with Eve Leary, Tiger Bay oppose Bagotville, Werk-en-Rust play Sophia, West Ruimveldt oppose Kingston and West Ruimveldt Estate take on Kitty.

Friday’s action will see eight games being played starting from 7:00pm featuring the winners from opening night at Den Amstel last Tuesday. Pouderoyen battle Goed Fortuin, Stewartville tackle Kuru Kururu, Uitvlugt tangle with Sara Lodge, Den Amstel face the winner of the West Corner/Eve Leary match, Grove oppose the winner of Tiger Bay/ Bagotville clash, Alberttown take on the winner of the Werk-en-Rust/Sophia contest, Newtown Kitty face the winner of the West Ruimveldt/ Kingston game and Tucville battle the winner of the West Ruimveldt Estate/Kitty match-up.

The winners of Friday’s games will meet in the respective quarterfinals and subsequently winners in the semifinal and final on Saturday at Den Amstel. Among some of the players expected to feature are Ernie Smith and Joshua Kamal of Sophia and Dellon

Joshua Kamal Cadogan of Alberttown.

The winner of the tournament collects $200,000, runner-up $100,000.

Among the sponsors lending assistance to the tournament this year are: MACORP, New Thriving, Busta, Nazar Mohamed, Eddie Grant, Chris Fernandes, Patrick ‘Labba’ Barton, Dr. Colin Watson, Col. Larry London, Tent City, Courtney Benn, BK International, General Equipment and Muneshwar’s.

Caribbean Cup Football...

Guyana lose to Grenada 1-2; French Guiana eyes finals St. George’s, Grenada - In the feature game of a doubleheader on the second day of Caribbean Cup football action at the Grenada National Stadium, the home team ‘Spice Boys’ defeated Guyana 2-1 to snap a 5-game losing streak as they moved closer to qualifying for the finals, knocking Guyana out of contention.

Clive Murray scored in the 81st minute to compliment Kithson Bain’s 46th minute goal, young ‘Golden Jaguar’ Daniel Wilson scored for his country in the 48th minute in a losing effort.

The win was Grenada’s first since a 4-1 World Cup qualifying victory in October

2011, and only its second over 19 games in nearly two years.

Guyana will face French Guiana in their final game today at the same venue with the French only needing a draw to advance to the Caribbean Cup finals for the first time since 1995. In the other game today, Grenada will face Haiti for the fourth time in their history, with the Haitians having won all three previous meetings.

In the first game on Friday, Gary Pigree scored for a fourth straight game and French Guiana moved within sight of the Caribbean Cup finals with a 1-0 victory over the highly

rated Haiti.

French Guiana will start the final day of the group atop second-round qualifying Group 6 with four points, one ahead of Haiti. Guyana, which lost its second straight and has no points, was eliminated.

Two teams will advance to the Caribbean Cup finals in Antigua & Barbuda in December.

Four teams will qualify from the Caribbean Cup for next year’s CONCACAF Gold Cup. Pigree’s goal in the 55th minute was his seventh in four games in the past five weeks of Caribbean Cup qualifying and ended Haiti’s fivewinning streak.

Guyana encounter mixed fortunes in CSV tourney Guyana teams encountered mixed fortunes when the Confederation of South America (Northern Zone) Volleyball tournament continues yesterday at the national Gymnasium.

The competition which is being hosted by the Guyana Volleyball Federation also includes teams from Suriname, Brazil and Trinidad and Tobago and is being sponsored by Tradewinds Tankers, Digicel and Ansa McAl.

Following are some of the results from yesterday’s games: In the senior male category. Young Achievers (Guy) beat Castrol (Guy) 1911, 19-12. Big Sepos (T & T) beat Rollers (Guy) 21-8, 19-12.

Lyzeck (Sur) beat Port Mourant Training Center (Guy) 16-13,14-12. Big Sepos (T & T) beat PMTC (Guy) 1712,17-11. Brazil beat Rollers (Guy) 20-11, 19-8.

Lyzeck (Sur) beat Young Achievers (Guy) 14-16, 15-11,17-

13. Brazil beat PMTC (Guy) 1613,18-12. Castrol (Guy) beat Rollers (Guy) 20-10, 17-15. Big Sepos (T & T) beat Lyzeck (Sur) 21-19, 12-19, 17-16. Young Achievers (Guy) beat Rollers (Guy) 24-14, 18-12.

Brazil defeated Guyana 25-17, 24-26 25-15, 25-16 in the junior female division.

Meanwhile, Up to press time last evening Brazil were leading Guyana 16-10 in the junior male division. The competition continues today.

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Kaieteur News

Sunday November 18, 2012

All roads lead to RCMTC today G Division are GPF T20 champs All roads lead to the Ryan Crawford Memorial Turf Club and Sports Facilities today where thousands are expected to flock the venue to be a part of the action when the RCMTC&SF stages their Banks DIH Classic Horserace Meeting at their Alness, Corentyne Racetrack.

Entries have mounted to well over 95 racehorses including most of the leading runners in the country.

Eight races have been carded for the day. The track which is touted as the best in the country is in the pink of conditions and with all the races filled to capacity with reserves, except one race fans are expected to have more than their money’s worth.

The feature B and showdown has all the ingredients of the race of the year and the lineup is a virtual who is who in the horseracing circle in Guyana. With Guyana leading Horserace sponsor Banks DIH Limited taking charge of the event and a whopping $2M on offer alone for the top placers, with $1M and the Banks DIH trophy going home with the winner.

The distance is 1700M and gives all the animals especially the slow starters a fair chance. The line up reads

The Message, California Strike, the Score Is Even, Mission King, Who So Ever, War Craft, Technology, Night Crescendo, Stormy Flame, Got to Go, Face the Fire, The Bailiff, This Trip on Me, Reina Del Café and Gold Plated will all be looking for the gold and bragging rights in what is expected to be a scorcher.

The other event which are expected to have Turfites on their toes are -The 3yrs old race for West Indies Bred horses with a winners money being $400,000 and trophy over 1600M. The E and lower race with a pole position taking of $350,000 and trophy over 1500M, a top notch field has also been entered for the race for two year the West Indies Bred animals over 1200M with a winners money of $350,000 and trophy.

The G and lower 1200M match up for a winning take of $250,000 and trophy also over 1200M also has a very competitive field. The H and Lower 1100M sprint for a winning reward of $200,000and trophy is also expected to be a scorcher.

The winner of the ‘I2’ and lower event has a chance to take home $150,000 and trophy in the 1200M race and a full gate has been entered,

while $150,000 is also on offer for the winner in the J&K (Division 1 and 2,) clash over 1200M. Among sponsors on board are Banks DIH Limited, Sankar Auto Works, Mohammed “Nankoo” Shariff, General Construction Limited and Racing Stables, Jumbo Jet Auto sales and stables, Trophy Stall Bourda market, the Guyana Tourism Authority, Ashmins Trading, Dennis DeRoop and Simple Royal Racing stable, Delmur Shipping Company, Palace de Leon Suites, Bobby Misir, Serious Off R o a d e r s , Attorney at law Abiola Wong–Inniss and Attorney at Law Rajendra N. Poonai De Quan Trading, Innovative Construction Company, Cush Construction, Yunas Construction and Racing stables, The RYMTC&SF, Net Surf Internet Café and Businessman Hookumchand and family.

Outstanding individual performers including top Jockey, trainer and stable will be presented with accolades compliments of the Trophy Stall, Bourda Market and the Ryan Crawford Memorial Turf Club. Race time is 13:00 hrs sharp.

With so many interesting developments happening on and off the local football field regularly, it is sometimes confusing to keep track, enter the new annual Touchline Football Magazine (TFM) from the Corbin Media Group (CMG) to help put things into prospective.

CMG, known for its portfolio of high quality glossy magazines for the past nine years has received support from a number of companies, organizations and other stakeholders to publish TFM 2013. The magazine will be an all-inclusive publication and does not focus solely on one specific individual, organization, group, team, tournament or company.

The timing of TFM for a December 2012 premiere

couldn’t be better, as every football enthusiast knows that things reach a fever pitch during the Christmas season as two of Guyana’s premier tournaments – the Banks Beer Football Festival and Kashif & Shanghai competition will be in full swing.

Features in TFM 2013 will be provided by an impartial group of top football experts, sports journalists and photographers that offer exclusive insights and analysis that are complemented with exciting photography. The full colour glossy TFM promises to enlighten readers with its unique coverage of the local and international football scenes. Profiles on players, teams, sponsors, tournaments and

administrators and other news will be a part of the magazine. Since TFM will be the only publication for football in Guyana, and judging from CMG’s track record of impeccable standards, it is likely to be well received. Casual fans as well as fanatics of the sport are expected to throw their support behind it as they help to promote the second biggest sport in Guyana and the most popular sport on earth with over 3.6 billion fans.

After its ‘kick off,’ Touchline Football Magazine 2013 will be distributed at the football tournaments.

Additional information on TFM 2013 can be accessed by calling 225-1738 or 226-0540 or send e-mails to football@corbinmediagroup.com.

New Football Magazine to ‘Kick Off’ in December

Traffic Chief\Asst. Comm. Brian Joseph presents the winning trophy to the captain of G Division Kwesie Abrams in the presence of Training Officer, Paul Williams and members of the victorious team.

By Zaheer Mohamed G Division defeated Headquarters by 30 runs to win the final of the Guyana Police Force Twenty\20 cricket competition yesterday at the Police Sports Club ground Eve Leary.

Headquarters won the toss and asked G Division to bat in front of a fair sized crowd. Mustapha Zaman and Ramesh Chattergoon laid the foundation for a respectable total by posting 32 for the opening stand before Chattergoon was bowled by Rawl Haynes for 10.

Kwesie Abrams joined Zaman and took the score to 101 with sensible batting.

Ronald Knights however accounted for Abrams who made 33 (6x4, 1x6), while Lyndon Wilson had Fazeer Khan caught for 1 at 104.

Keron Kumar 18 and Roopnarine Persaud 14 were the only other batsmen that reached double figures as G Division managed 155-8 off their allotted overs. Zaman smashed three fours and two sixes in a top score of 54(3x4,

2x6) as Randolph Knights finished with 3-18 and Lyndon Wilson 2-16.

Headquarters in reply were off to a positive start with Troy Benn and Munilall Persaud adding 56 for the first wicket stand.

Benn however had his furniture disturbed by Aquncy Arthur for 41(6x4, 2x6).

Persaud and Rolston Knights then took the score to 63 before Ravindra Panasar had Persaud caught for 17.

Headquarters found themselves in further trouble when Knights was bowled by Arthur for 14 at 85.

Thereafter it was all downhill for Headquarters with only Eric Angel 16 getting into double figures. H Q were eventually bowled out for 125 in 18.3 overs. Arthur and Panasar were the pick of the bowlers for the winners with 3-18 and 3-19 respectively, while Chain Dhanraj took 2-17.

Arthur was named manof-the-match, while both teams received trophies for their efforts. Speaking at the

presentation ceremony, Deputy Superintendent, Colin Boyce, congratulated both teams and thanked the sponsors.

Meanwhile, A Division overcame C Division in the third place play off which was contested earlier.

In the semifinals which were played on Wednesday at the said venue, G Division defeated C Division by 66 runs and Headquarters got the better of A Division by 8 wickets.

Scores semifinal 1, G Division 175-5 in 20 overs.(M. Zaman 65, Kwesie Abrams 50). C Division 109-9 in 16.3 overs (Esan Hardeen 24, K. Abrams 208, Swain Benn 212, Jeffrey Burnette 2-17).

Semifinal 2, A Division 70 all out in 16 overs (Lyndon Wilson 5-12, Randolph Knights 3-‘16). HQ 73-2 in 12.3 overs (Troy Benn 25, Munilall Persaud 24).

The competition was sponsored by Noble House Sea Foods, Wartsilla, Joseph Lewis and Narainedat Bhikam.

GCA Under-21 Squad called to practice The Georgetown Cricket Association (GCA) has invited the following persons to participate in a practice session tomorrow, Monday November 19, at the Police Sports Club Ground commencing at 15:00hrs.

From this session a squad will be selected to represent the GCA in 2 matches against Berbice under-21 teams which will be played on Wednesday November 21 at Albion Sports Complex and on Wednesday November 28 at a venue in Georgetown.

Persons eligible to participate must be born on or after September 1, 1992. All players must have in their possession proof of date of birth.

The players called are:Names Club Chanderpaul Hemraj ECC Jahron Byron DCC Winston Forrester GCC Charwayne McPherson TSC Sherfane Rutherford ECC Kwame Crosse MSC

Nichose Barker MSC Carlos Larose MSC Andrew Gibson DCC Kemol Savory DCC Omesh Dhanram DCC Shaquille Williams MSC Garfield Deroache GYO Alvin Costello TC Parnell London PSC Amir Khan ECC Chris Surat ECC Steven Sankar MSC Raj Nanan GCC Keon Morris TSC Almondo Doman GCC Kareem Norton MSC Tagenarine Chanderpaul ECC Gavon Charles GCC Orlando Sturge DCC Dexter George DCC Devon Lord GCC Mark Harper (Coach) Shaun Massiah (Manager)

Sunday November 18, 2012

Kaieteur News

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Pegasus Open Tennis Championships...

Adams defeats Lowden to take Men’s 35 title - Miller/Andrews into doubles final

Cuba, Trinidad move nearer Carib Cup finals Bacolet, Tobago Trinidad & Tobago beat Suriname 3-0, while Cuba drew 1-1 with St. Vincent & the Grenadines on Friday to move closer to berths in the Caribbean Cup finals. The results gave both Cuba and Trinidad four points atop Group 8 of second-round qualifying, two points better than St. Vincent. Suriname was eliminated with a second loss.

Cuba will play Trinidad in the final day of the group schedule today, while St. Vincent will face Suriname.

Two teams will advance to the Caribbean Cup finals in December.

Seon Power gave Trinidad the lead in the 35th minute and Richard Roy and Aubrey David added second-half

goals to extend the Soca Warriors’ unbeaten streak to five.

It was a fifth straight victory for Trinidad over the Surinamese, who have not beaten the Soca Warriors since 1985.

In the earlier match, Roberto Linares scored his first goal for Cuba in more than two years, tallying in the 48th minute to equalize for Cuba. Cornelius Stewart gave St. Vincent the lead in the eighth minute, his sixth goal in seven matches for the “Vincy Heat”.

Heading into today’s group finales, Trinidad has won three of past four matches against Cuba since 2007, while Suriname has not scored a goal in 180 minutes.

Carlos Adams continued his imperious form by easily disposing of Berbician Godfrey Lowden to capture the Men’s 35 and over title as the Pegasus Open Tennis Championships continued on Friday, at the Hotel’s Hardcourts.

Adams continued where he left off in his semi-final win over Rudy Grant by beating Lowden in straight sets 6-3, 6-3 for the title.

The champion like his opponent has been playing competitively since the 80’s and he showed that he is still the player to beat at the Over 35 level as he took down the usually tough Berbician easily.

The match started off with Adams establishing a 3-0 lead as he secured a break on Lowden’s generally reliable serve with several well placed shots. Lowden clawed back to 2-3, before Adams consistent game allowed him to pull away and eventually take the set 6-3.

The second set started off

Jeremy Miller (left) and Jason Andrews evenly with both players securing break of serves to tie up the match early on, before a combination of winners from Adams and unforced errors from Lowden ultimately swayed the match and title in Adams’ favour.

In the other match played, top seeds Jeremy Miller/ Jason Andrews enjoying a favorable draw booked their places in the finals with a 6-2, 6-2 triumph over juniors

Gavin Lewis and Benedict Sukra in the Men’s Doubles.

The youngsters despite being outgunned put up a fight and in one game, Lewis even served back to back aces against Andrews who had trouble returning his serve.

Miller/Andrews who have been the dominant doubles team over the years will await the winner of the match between Andre Lopes/Daniel Lopes and Nicholas Fenty/

Carlos Adams Leyland Leacock this afternoon.

Other matches scheduled for this weekend will include the final of the Novices singles where Stephen Bailey takes on Jesus Lamazon in their one set encounter and the Mixed Doubles finals which will be played on Sunday.

The Men’s Doubles final will be on Monday evening and is expected to be explosive.

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Kaieteur News

Sunday November 18, 2012

Test No. 1 - West Indies v Bangladesh - Well done boys! Many questions answered for West Indies!

Colin E. H. Croft Test No. 1 was a great start for West Indies. They certainly showed that determination that made them champions in T-20’s, but this time in the most difficult longest version of the game.

Well done, boys!

Despite earlier reservations, West Indies does have the right bowlers to get the right results, for now. Even as Bangladesh made 556, 1st innings, Tino Best, Ravi Rampaul, Sunil Narine, Veerasammy Permaul, Darren Sammy, augmented by Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels operated well to get this positive result.

There was also much conjecture on eventual West Indies 1st innings declaration at only 527-4. It seemed quite strange at the time. Did West Indies believe that they could have dismissed Bangladesh cheaply in its first dig, or was West Indies taking Bangladesh for granted?

With this result, captain Darren Sammy and coach

Ottis Gibson should be very well pleased with their fateful decision. They have come up trumps!

The end justified the means. Even after being led on 1st innings, West Indies bowled wonderfully well, 2nd innings, especially the effervescent Best, thus justifying that earlier declaration.

Also, pleasingly, like ‘Old Man River’, Shivnarine Chanderpaul still keeps rolling along! After massive, deserved hoopla of West Indies winning WT-20 2012, “Tiger” missing out, it was great for him to come back to international cricket still with that insatiable hunger, attitude and aptitude for runs.

Before Test No. 1, 38 year old Chanders had already played 144 Tests, 10,342 runs at the highly desirable 50.20 average. What tremendous consistency that is. No-one anywhere in cricket likes batting more!

Chanders first double century, also 203no, was made against South Africa, with its

Chanderpaul and Powell complete a run during their 125 run stand (WICB) pace bowling, at Bourda, back in 2005. This second double century for the venerable veteran, again left not out, surprisingly again at 203, v Bangladesh, was a good test of his patience and know-how against fairly good spin.

Australia’s Mark Taylor, who had made 334 no., against Pakistan in a Test in 1998, when he, as captain, also declared, insisted afterwards that he did not want to overshadow the greatest

Aussie batsman, (Sir) Donald Bradman, who had also made that same highest score, regaling the great man with respect.

Cricket produces delicious mysteries!

Did Chanders, like Taylor, decide to keep to his best score ever, to date, and not get yet another ‘highest score’, or was the declaration as surprising to him as it may have been to others?

At least, Chanders, with this 2nd double hundred, keeps piling on the runs!

‘Tiger’ did not have it all his own way in West Indies 1st innings, certainly not the 2nd innings. While the veteran played his standard serene innings, scoring at an acceptable strike rate, it was the youngest player of the touring squad, Kieran Omar Akeem Powell, who actually took the bouquets in both innings.

Everyone recognized 22 year old Powell’s talents when

he came to full public consumption, playing for Nevis in early Stanford T-20 series. By then, young as he was, he had already garnered a reputation of being a “basher.” Hence, his absolute transition to Test opening batsman has been quite admirable.

Chairman of West Indies selectors Clyde Butts would also be silently smiling inside.

He had always suggested that our “KP” was someone special and would eventually come good.

Butts would also know that it has been a very long time since a West Indian opener had made two separate hundreds in a Test!

In 1976, Cuthbert Gordon Greenidge, whose Test record was tremendous – 108 Tests, 7558 runs, avg. 44.72 – completed the great achievement, v England, Manchester – 134 and 101; 2nd and 3rd centuries.

36 years later, it has finally happened again! Records are meant to be broken.

Magnificent!

Brian Lara was actually the last West Indian to make centuries in each innings.

In 2001, Sri Lanka, showing batsmanship as never before seen, he scored 221 (total 390) and 130 (total 262); 3rd Test. Five players made “no score” that second innings as Chaminda Vaas had fourteen wickets in the match.

West Indies lost!

Powell’s twin centuries came in only his 12th Test, having 535 runs, average 25.47 before this 1st Test

Colin E. H. Croft against Bangladesh.

He does have some distance to get to “GG’s” efforts, but with his youth and abilities, it is likely that Powell could play as many Tests, even aspire to be like Shiv; get to 10,000 + runs!

Denesh Ramdin’s 3rd Test century – 126 no. – is also very welcomed. There had been murmurs that his batsmanship; 1663 runs, 47 Tests, avg. 23.42; was not good enough for modern-day wicketkeepers. Even in a West Indies team that is so strong in batting, Ramdin needs to score highly regularly.

Sunil Narine got three wickets, 1st innings, for 148 runs, while Rampaul also had three wickets then, for 118.

Both bowled extended spells, for 32 overs each, a very commendable effort.

Narine’s patience is growing well. As he must have realized by now, and from his exploits earlier this year, Test cricket is not T-20’s.

West Indies have emerged from their 1st Test after winning WT-20 with flying colours. Well done. Enjoy!

Odinga Lumumba intensifies efforts to regularize football President of the Alpha Football Club, Odinga Lumumba has heightened efforts to, as he put it, regularize the state of affairs in the football fraternity.

To this extent he has drafted a petition and plans to have it circulated with an aim of procuring as many signatures as possible.

Thereafter, Lumumba said that he intends to dispatch the signatories to FIFA while suggesting the formation of a third alliance to preserve the integrity of the sport. The correspondence in its entirety appears below.

“We the members of the football fraternity in Guyana, spearheaded by Odinga Lumumba are calling for a speedy resolution to the impasse between the Guyana

Odinga Lumumba Football Federation and the Georgetown Football Association. The impasse has not only impacted negatively on the development of football in Guyana, but also painted a far from impressive picture of our football administrators’ ability

to compromise and lead.

This petition embraces the will of concerned members of the football fraternity in Guyana who believe that after two years of wrangling, sport deserves better. We hereby petition the Guyana Football Federation and the Georgetown Football Association to resolve their differences which would lead to an improvement of football in Guyana.

By signing this petition, we call on the two parties to reach a solution on or before December 31, 2012 or we will be forced to create a third alliance in the interest of and development of football.

We will continue to update FIFA, CONCACAF and the Caribbean Football Union on developments related to this issue.

Sunday November 18, 2012

Kaieteur News

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Rudolph ‘Chow’ Hunte, former Guyana International 1972 - 1976 Statistician Charwayne Walker continues his series of features on Guyana’s World Cup players; today we are pleased to feature Rudolph ‘Chow’ Hunte, former Guyana International 1972 – 1976.

Hunte, was one of the most prolific goal scorers in the then Demico League division-one tournament between 1972 and 1979; in 1977, he was the leading goal scorer with 38 goals.

‘Chow’, as he is familiarly known, is a product of the Bedford Methodist School which was famous for producing some of the most skillful players in the city the likes of Keith Niles, Maurice Enmore, Vibert ‘Durdy’ Butts and Terrence Nicholls.

He started his apprenticeship with the Dorcus Football Club in 1968 into 1969, but the club that made him a household name was the Georgetown Football Club (GFC). His first outing in National colours was 1971 with the Under-19 team to Trinidad and Tobago for a triangular series which also featured Jamaica.

The following year, 1972, after some spectacular performances for GFC in the Demico League, Hunte was selected in an 18-man squad led by Ken Gibbs for three friendly matches against French Guiana in their capital, Cayenne.

He experienced limited time on the pitch in his debut series in Cayenne because, at that time, the experienced Lloyd King, Desmond Morgan, Gordon Forde and Clyde ‘Woolly’ Forde were the preferred strikers.

Hunte played with much more composure in January of 1973 in his fourth and fifth Internationals that Guyana lost to Haiti at the GSC Ground. He produced the pass that Lloyd King scored to give Guyana an honourable draw against Trinidad and Tobago at the GSC. His 8th International was a disappointing 2-1 loss to Trinidad and Tobago in the series finale at the same venue. As Hunte explained, his 9th game was probably the most disappointing game of his International career because Guyana lost to the un-fancied French Guiana side, 0-1 at the Malteenoes Sports Club.

Although ‘Chow’ failed to score in the final game of series, he was the star player for Guyana which won 1-0 to level the series. Injuries caused Hunte to sit out Guyana’s next International

against Hull City in May, 1973 at GCC Ground, Bourda.

Hull won 5-0 and Hunte’s brilliance upfront was extremely missed. The star striker said that his 11th game is the one he will never forget, November of 1973 against Jamaica at GFC Ground under lights.

According to ‘Chow’ Hunte, Jamaica scored first through Carlton Smith with Guyana equalizing when Godfrey ‘Poulis’ Norville hit home a thunderbolt that gave the Jamaican custodian no chance.

After that strike, the Reggae Boyz piled on tremendous pressure on the Guyanese defenders but when it looked like the game was heading for a draw, Hunte outfoxed four Jamaican defenders and scored the goal of his international career that gave Guyana a memorable 2-1 victory.

Please note this was the last time Guyana defeated the Reggae Boyz at the International level. The flamboyant striker’s 12th game was a 2-0 loss to arch rivals Suriname at the GSC Ground, that result sent Ken Gibbs’ men packing from the 1973 CARICOM Championship.

He had to settle for first division Inter Corporation and Inter Sub Association action in 1974 because the then Guyana Football Association failed to enter the national team in any International tournaments.

The next year, 1975, Guyana started World Cup Qualifying preparation and was outstanding in warm up games against Texaco and Bare of Brazil. Hunte scored goals in both series with the National team winning comfortably.

As part of World Cup preparations in 1976, Hunte toured Brazil with the Maurice Enmore led National team where they contested several matches against Club teams.

After the Brazil tour, Hunte’s next International opponents were the Mighty Cubans.

Although Guyana lost the four match series 3-0, Hunte was the outstanding Guyanese striker in the series, he scored in the second and fourth matches. He tormented Sir Alex Ferguson’s Scottish division-one team, St. Mirren Defenders in his 17th and 18th Internationals.

His creativity in the series finale setup goals for Patrick ‘Labba’ Barton and Vibert ‘Durdy’ Butts that led a Guyana to a 2-0 win that

ended Sir Alex’s men unbeaten Caribbean run. As Hunte explained, his next game was the game of his life, July 4, 1976 when Guyana won its first World Cup Qualifying match against Suriname at GCC Ground, Bourda.

It was Hunte’s power strike that rebounded from the Suriname custodian that Butts scored to give Guyana and early 1-0 lead. Buoyed by the energy and enthusiasm

displayed by Hunte, Keith Niles finished off the Dutchmen with a brilliant goal in the 76th minute.

Next up for Hunte and still fresh in his memory, was the ignominious 3-0 thrashing that Guyana suffered in Paramaribo in the return World Cup fixture. Strange enough though, it was Hunte’ final International appearance.

The million dollar question still asked by

Hunte’s fans, is why the most prolific striker at the divisionone level was never recalled to the National team?

In division-one Demico League action in 1977, Hunte scored 38 goals, the most in the Demico League but he failed to win the selector’s nod for the International series against Trinidad & Tobago as well as Barbados.

He was also overlooked the next year, 1978 for

overseas assignments in Bridgetown, Barbados and Trinidad. Hunte played 20 Internationals from 1972 to 1976, hitting the back of the nets on three occasions.

International tours 1971 Trinidad with National Under-19 team 1972 French Guiana 1976 Brazil with World Cup Team 1976 Suriname for World Cup Qualifier

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Sunday November 18, 2012

Asics partners with National Schools’ Championships - Int’l sport apparel brand announces local presence Renowned global sport apparel brand, Asics has partnered with the 52nd Edition of the National Schools’ Championships that will result in them rewarding eight top athletes with either joggers or running shoes as a part of announcing their presence in Guyana.

The National Schools’ Cycling, Swimming and Track and Field Championships gets underway at the National

Aquatics Centre on Tuesday; an official Opening Ceremony will be held later at 5pm on Tuesday at the National Stadium at Providence.

Public Relations Manager at Giftland OfficeMax, which is an authorised distributor for Asics in Guyana, Compton Babb, in a release, said that brilliance, energy and quality usually characterise the Asics brand and those are the characteristics of ‘Nationals’where Guyana’s best

BCB notes another success...

From page 55 commitment and a strong desire to be the best, and the BCB would like to encourage him to remember this formula at all times.

Congrats to the Albion Cricket Club on its achievement of producing its fifth test cricketer, the board said in a release.

The continuous production of test, ODI, ATeam and female cricketers for the West Indies from the

ancient county, is the result of visionary leadership and programmes along with the hard work of everyone involved. We are confident that more test players would emerge shortly as the BCB guides their career along via our numerous cricketing programmes and tournaments.

Once again, congratulations to Veerasammy Permaul and may God continue to bless and guide him on the way to mere success, the release ended.

student athletes will compete.

“We want the characteristics of Asics to be represented at ‘Nationals’ where over 1700 athletes will be vying to be Guyana’s best. There could not be any bigger forum than this to partner with Asics we welcome this opportunity,” Babb said in the release.

Babb believes that having an international apparel brand to partner with Nationals is historic for Guyana. “Giftland OfficeMax is honoured to be chosen by Asics to carry this brand at this level and we will maximise the opportunity to reward athletes,” he added.

The Giftland OfficeMax Public Relations Manager informed that Asics does not want to be on a shelf alone, but wants to engage the Guyanese landscape. As a result, he said that apart from the National Schools’ Championships, Asics will host a signature 5km Road Race and will also aim to partner with the President’s/ Jefford Track and Field

Public Relations Manager at Giftland OfficeMax, Compton Babb displays the Asics joggers and running shoes that will be given to eight top performers at the National Schools Championships this week at the National Stadium.

Classic in Linden.

“We want the nation to know that Asics is here to stay and we will be engaging mega events for athletics in Guyana to promote the brand,” Babb noted. He said that apart from the gifts for eight athletes, those wishing to purchase sport apparel for nationals will benefit from 10% off all items under the brand until month end.

Babb said that Marketing

and Public Relations Manager for the Schools’ Championships, Edison Jefford had worked closely with him on the modalities of the Asics arrangement for the Schools’ Championships and expressed thanks for the opportunity.

In the release, on behalf of the Management Committee for the Championships, which comprises Guyana Teachers Union (GTU) and Ministry of

Education Officials, Jefford thanked first, Asics choosing the National Schools’ Championships to announce its presence formally in Guyana and Giftland OfficeMax for facilitating the arrangement.

Jefford said that the relationship with Asics is a continued effort to raise the profile of athletics in Guyana and by extension lift the image of the National Schools Championships.

Sunday November 18, 2012

Kaieteur News

Page 55

CARIB BEER 1ST DIV. T20 IN BERBICE...

Samaroo (5-5), Seon Hetmyer 67*, Hicks 84 The 2012 Carib Beer first division T20 cricket competition organized by the Berbice Cricket Board started recently with the first round of matches.

Former Guyana Under-19 batsman Seon Hetmyer scored 67 (5x4 3x6) and teammate Sasenarine Sukhdeo 49 (6x4 1x6), the pair putting on 69 for the 4th wicket to steer Young Warriors to 183 for 7 in 20 overs against Police.

Former Berbice off spinner Balram Samaroo had the amazing returns of 5 for 5 runs from 3 overs which ensured that Police struggled to 90 for 9 in their 20 overs.

Delbert Hicks produced the highest score of the round, slamming 84 (8x4 3x6) for Rose Hall Town Gizmos and Gadgets against Port Mourant; together with 47 (2x4 3x6) from Renwick Batson, the two featuring in an opening stand of 136 in 15 overs guided Rose Hall Town to 188 for 5 in 20 overs. Andre Percival took 3 for 26 from 4 overs as Port Mourant could only respond with 140 for 6, Percival contributing 44 not out.

Kemo Gravesande did some hard hitting for Bush Lot United Rising Star, featuring in an opening stand of 33 in 3.4 overs with Brentnol Woolford (5) and then in an unbroken 2nd wicket partnership of 123 in 11.2 overs with the equally hard hitting Asif Khan to steer Bush Lot to 156 for 1 in 15 overs against Cotton Tree Die Hard.

Gravesande ended on 70* (9x4 3x6). Cotton Tree were then bowled out for 70 with Gravesande picking up 3 for 18 off 2 overs and Khan 2 for 12 from 2.3 overs.

Off spinner Parmanand Narine took 3 for 16 from 4 overs as Skeldon Community Centre did well to restrict Albion Community Centre to 116 for 7 in 20 overs. When Skeldon replied, Sherwin Murray batted out of

character and scored a patient 48 (1x4 3x6) to help them to an upset 4-wicket win.

The match between Blairmont Community Centre and West Berbice ended prematurely after 2.5 overs into the Blairmont innings after the new ball became damaged and West Berbice could not produce another new ball or a replacement ball.

The Competition Committee of the Berbice Cricket Board will have to meet with representatives of both teams as well as the umpires to investigate the circumstances.

Collated scores: At Cumberland - Young Warriors locked up Police by 93 runs. Young Warriors, choosing to bat first, 183 for 7 in 20 overs; Seon Hetmyer 67 not out, Sasenarine Sukhdeo 49, Wahied Edwards 25, Andel Doris 3 for 26 from 4 overs, Rocky Hutson 2 for 24 from 4 overs, Philbert Wilburgh 2 for 33 from 3 overs.

Police 90 for 9 in 20 overs; Philbert Wilburgh 30, Sean Jhetto 30, Balram Samaroo 5 for 5 and Gajanand Singh 2 for 7 from 2 overs.

At Rose Hall Town - Rose Hall Town Gizmos and Gadgets beat Port Mourant Karibee Rice by 48 runs. Rose Hall Town Gizmos and Gadgets choosing to bat first scored 188 for 5 in 20 overs; Delbert Hicks 84, Renwick Batson 47, Royston Crandon 25 and Andre Percival 3 for 26. Port Mourant Karibee Rice 140 for 6 in 20 overs; Andre Percival 44 not out; Devendra Thakurdeen 29, Troy McKenzie 23, Eon Hooper 2 for 16 from 3 overs and Royston Crandon 2 for 16 from 4 overs.

At Cotton Tree - Bush Lot United Rising Star beat Cotton Tree Die Hard by 86 runs, the game was reduced to 15 overs-a-side due to late preparation. Bush Lot United Rising Star, losing the toss and sent in to bat first scored 156 for 1 in 15 overs; Kemo Gravesande 70 not out and

BCB notes another success story The remarkable success of Berbice cricket over the last few years continues with the test debut of Veerasammy Permaul for the West Indies during the first test vs.

Bangladesh. Permaul became the 17th Berbician and the sixth since 2004, to represent the Caribbean at the test level. The Albion Cricket Club has produced four of those

players- Permaul, Narsingh Deonarine, Devendra Bishoo and Sewnarine Chattergoon with Brandon Bess and Assad Fudadin being the others.

The BCB salutes Permaul on his test debut and wishes him a successful tenure on the international level. His journey to the top has been based on sheer hard work, discipline, (Continued on page 54)

Asif Khan 60 not out.

Cotton Tree Die Hard 70 in 10.3 overs; Agneedeo Sukhall 3 for 17 from 3 overs.

Kemo Gravesande 3 for 18 from 2 overs, Asif Khan 2 for 12 and Ravi Gossai 2 for 15 from 3 overs.

At Skeldon - Skeldon Community Centre got past Albion Community Centre by 4 wickets. Albion Community Centre, winning the toss and batting first scored 116 for 7

in 20 overs; Devendra Bishoo 36, Sasenarine Chattergoon 29 and Parmanand Narine 3 for 16. Skeldon Community Centre 117 for 6 in 19.2 overs; Sherwin Murray 48, Gudakesh Motie 3 for 27 from 4 overs and Sasenarine Chattergoon 2 for 18 from 3.2 overs.

At Edinburg - Bermine defeated Edinburg by 21 runs.

Bermine, choosing to bat first, scored 173 for 5 in 20 overs; Eugene LaFleur 38, Romario

Shepherd DeJonge 36, Joemal LaFleur 25, Damien Vantull 24 and Ralph Chakalall 2 for 33.

Edinburg 152 in 19.3 overs; Shafeek Khan 28, Shazam Azeez 24, Zaheer Hussain 22 and Damien Vantull 3 for 14 from 4 overs, Eugene La Fleur 2 for 11 from 3 overs and Stephen Latcha 2 for 19 from 3.3 overs.

At Blairmont - the match between Blairmont Community Centre and West

Berbice ended without a decision. West Berbice won the toss, took first strike and reached 158 for 9 in 20 overs; Raffel Estriado 51, Sherwin McPherson 24, Keith Fraser 22, Deveshwari Prashad 2 for 18 from 4 overs, Derick Narine-Lalsa 3 for 29 from 4 overs, Shazam Ramjohn 2 for 10 from 2.3 overs. Blairmont Community Centre were 17 without loss after 2.5 overs when the game ended.

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Sunday November 18, 2012

‘Serving’ up benefits for young people Titans Table Tennis Club forging ahead with table tennis aspirations Former national table tennis star, Godfrey Munroe, has recently assumed the helm of the Guyana Table tennis Association following the death of its President, former Commissioner of Police, Henry Greene.

The latter individual had employed shrewd strategies that changed the fortunes of local racquet wielders and Munroe will naturally find that he will be required to remain committed if only to level the performance of the late top cop.

The club is one of the most important units in the developmental scheme of things and it was with this understanding that on October 1, 2011, two stalwarts of the sport, Dwain Dick and Patrick Couchman, teamed up to form the Titans Table Tennis Club (TTTC), an entity situated at the Red Cross

building, Barrack Street Kingston.

Dick is a table tennis enthusiast and International Table Tennis Federation Certified Coach, while Couchman, a former player who has competed in the 1987 World Table Tennis Championships in New Delhi, has been bequeathed patron of the institution.

Mr. Dick said that the club evolved from an ambition to cater for the recreational and other needs of those youngsters with lots of energy but no place to release it. He said that this could prove to be dangerous so he decided to form the TTTC to alleviate the stresses that come with inactivity. “The pivotal aim of our institution is to teach, and captivate our players through a wide variety of group games, fun skill building exercises and

motivational activities, Mr. Dick revealed.

He said that when the club started there were only 5 players but has now expanded to more than 40 persons playing at various levels. Among them are the likes of National Men’s Champion, Nigel Bryan, National U-18 female champion, Akeicia Nedd and U-15 school’s champion from Bishops High School, Reon Miller.

The club is also home to Miguel Wong, Priscilla Greaves and Anae Joao among others. The ages range from the youngest at 4 years old to the oldest at 72. The players commence training sessions at around 16:00hrs on weekdays while they engage in training sessions between 13:00hrs-19:00hrs on Saturdays. Mr. Dick explained that the programme incorporates table tennis as well as lessons in leadership

The lifeline of the club, Dwain Dick (left) and Patrick Couchman shortly after a training session

skills, fitness, teamwork, and fair play. “We have a well rounded programme that is intended to c r e a t e a rounded individual,” Mr. Dick exhorted.

The coach is ably assisted by an assistant coach, a manager, with approximately 40 players in the novice, intermediate

and advanced levels, under their tutelage.

The club business is conducted through monies obtained from subscription and donations from well wishers. Mr. Dick said that he would be happy if members of corporate Guyana could pitch in with donations

towards the development of the youngsters. His plans for expansion are simple, “I would soon embark on a mission to incorporate the sport into as many schools as possible with an aim of creating more opportunities for interested players,” he said.

Phillip George Legacy Basketball Championships...

Ravens, Pacesetters off to winning start Georgetown’s top two seeded teams, Ravens and Pacesetters were both off to winning starts on the opening night, Friday, of the Phillip George Legacy Basketball Championships on Burnham Basketball Court with Ravens narrowly escaping.

Ravens opened the night against Pepsi Sonics that put up a spirited effort after being down big in the game. It was until Sonics got tough on both ends of the court that they managed to compete with Ravens, which eventually won 56-51; Ryan Stephney scored 14 points for the Ravens with Jason Squires putting up 12 points for Sonics in the contest.

Pacesetters had a more comfortable win against Guardians in the feature game after some early jitters that had them trailing. However, the second ranked Georgetown team staved off whatever challenge to win 7660; point guard, Travis Burnett scored 26 points for Pacesetters with Enoch Mathews scoring 16 points for Pacesetters.

Guardians had an excellent offensive start with nippy former junior national guards, John Fraser and

Ryan Stephney

Travis Burnett Marlon Chesney supporting Mathews, who tormented forward, Royston Siland and Jermaine Hamilton on the inside as Guardians took a 104 lead early in first quarter.

The Plaisance-based Guardians showed cohesion and early chemistry on the offensive end but it was not too long before Pacesetters asserted their superiority.

Point guard, Hugh Arthur finished a coast-to-coast layup to put Pacesetters up 13-12 at end of the first period.

Burnett entertained patrons at the Burnham Court with a neat spin move away from the defender to start second period as Pacesetters went on a relentless offensive

onslaught. Loncke landed two consecutive three-pointers to extend an 8-0 run.

However, Guardians remained within striking distance at halftime with Pacesetters up 37-34; the momentum was clearly in Pacesetters favour. They went up 42-34 early in the third quarter with an aggressive individual defensive plan and fast-paced offense.

Pacesetters were unrelenting, and forced Guardians out of contention with consistent offensive plays.

The tournament continues tonight with Ravens taking on Eagles and Guardians versus Republic Bank Nets in a must-win game for them. The Division I competition is split into two groups of four teams with the top two teams from each group moving on to the semifinals. (Edison Jefford)

Sunday November 18, 2012

Kaieteur News

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COURTS PEE WEE FOOTBALL COMPETITION...

Marian Academy, Tucville set up dream final

Action in the clash between Marian Academy (yellow bibs and West Ruimveldt yesterday.

Whatever the result of the final which will be played next week Saturday, Tucville’s star player Simeon Hackett has to be the overwhelming choice for Most Valuable Player of the Tournament after producing another heroic performance to help his team reach the final of the Courts Pee Wee Football Competition.

In their semi-final clash

against a worthy North Georgetown unit, Hackett and teammate DeAndre Linton netted in the penalty shootout to lead their team to a 2-1 win after regulation and extra-time failed to separate a 0-0 deadlock and then returned between the uprights to make a terrific save that gave them victory.

It is the second time in

successive weeks that Hackett has proved to be the hero for his team both in open filed and between the uprights.

Tyrese Prescod was the lone scorer for his team who will now have to play West Ruimveldt for the third place.

Earlier, Marian Academy was made to fight hard for their 1-0 triumph over West

Tucville players and supporters celebrate shortly after their win on penalty kicks over North Georgetown yesterday, at the Thirst Park ground.

Ruimveldt with Shemroy Holder’s cracking volley from about 25 yards out in the 32nd minute, proving to be the match winner.

In other results of the day, Enterprise through strikes from Izaunah Rogers (18th) and Leon Chesney (24th) led them to a comfortable 2-0 win against Sophia.

St. Sidwell’s then beat

Success by a 1-0 margin with Kwayance Henry’s 27th minute effort making the difference in the contest.

St. Gabriel’s then squeezed past the high touted Redeemer 3-2 with Teon Forde (5th and 27th) netting a brace, while Raynard Bandhu (8th) completed their tally.

Shemar Dover (15th) and an own goal (40th) accounted

for Redeemer’s tally.

St. Pius then cruised past F.E Pollard by a 3-0 margin with Bevney McGarrell (4th, 24th and 40th) netting all three goals.

St. Margaret’s gained a walk over from Ketley after the latter failed to show up, while South Ruimveldt benefitted from a similar result from Green Acres.

t r o Sp

Best haul gives WI victory in first test

Man-of-the-Man Kieran Powell (WICB) (Reuters) - Tino Best picked up his maiden five-wicket haul in tests as West Indies fought back to beat Bangladesh by 77 runs in the first test in Dhaka on Saturday.

The home side caved in under pressure and were all out for 167 runs in their second innings, having been set a target of 245 runs in a maximum of 78 overs to win on a fifth day track.

Best provided the killer blows to finish with a career best five for 24 as Bangladesh lost the test match despite scoring 556 in their first innings replying to West Indies’ 527 for four declared.

Bangladesh had the upper hand when a six-wicket haul by debutant off-spinner Sohag Gazi helped them dismiss the visitors for 273 in the second innings.

Gazi took all four West Indies wickets in the morning after the visitors resumed on 244 for six and returned with figures of six for 74 in the innings for a match haul of nine scalps,

Tino Best is congratulated by his team-mates after a strike (AFP).

the best ever by a debutant for Bangladesh.

West Indies clawed their way back to reduce Bangladesh to 44 for two before lunch and maintained the pressure after it as they shackled the batsmen.

Best began his haul with the wicket of opener Junaid Siddique (20) after Ravi Rampaul made the first breakthrough by dismissing the other opener Tamim Iqbal for five.

West Indies captain Darren Sammy said they had seen something in the pitch during the last session of the fourth day that made them believe they could bowl the hosts out cheaply.

RICH HAUL “There was something for the spinners and also our guys are much quicker, so I backed my bowlers to go out and put the ball in the right areas,” Sammy told reporters. “It was a hard fought test match. Obviously winning brings a good feeling in the dressing

room. To see that we battled and came out victorious definitely boosts our confidence.”

Right-arm pacer Best had a rich haul in the second session when he took the wickets of Shakib Al Hasan, Shahriar Nafees and Mushfiqur Rahim to leave Bangladesh limping at 85 for five. Shakib (two) got a snorter which bounced awkwardly from good length to take the edge for wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin to complete the catch.

Shahriar Nafees (23) was the next to go offering Best a return catch before the bowler trapped Bangladesh captain Mushfiqur Rahim (16) lbw to dampen the hosts’ chances of a win.

Bangladesh’s remaining hopes were over when debutant left-arm spinner Veerasammy Permaul dismissed Naeem Islam lbw for 26 and bowled Nasir Hossain for 21.

Gazi (19) tried to counter attack with some lusty blows but Permaul ended the fight when he had him caught out by substitute

fielder Narsingh Deonarine at mid-off.

Shahadat Hossain survived only two balls as Best returned to take the final wicket of Mahmudullah, the top scorer for Bangladesh in the second innings with 29, to complete his five-wicket haul and the victory that left the hosts dejected.

“It’s really disappointing to see how we batted in the second innings against the same attack, who gave us 556 runs in the first innings,” said Bangladesh captain Mushfiqur Rahim. “We could have at least got a draw from that position if not a win.”

West Indies opener Kieran Powell was adjudged man of the match for his centuries in both innings. Khulna, a new venue, will host the second and final test from Nov. 21.

Scores: West Indies 527 for 4 dec (Chanderpaul 203*, Ramdin 126*, Powell 117) and 273 (Powell 110, Gazi 6-72) beat Bangladesh 556 (Naeem 108, Nasir 96) and 167 (Best 5-25, Permaul 3-32) by 77 runs.

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