Kaieteur News

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September 08, 2012 - Vol. 6 No. 34 - Price $80 kaieteurnews@yahoo.com Website:http://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com Guyana’s largest selling daily & New York’s most popular weekly

Henry Greene,

child die in threeSe es on tories p. 3 an and d pi cen ctur tre es

vehicle smash-up Dead: 10-year- old Shaffiya Jamaluddin

Henry Greene being assisted out of the wrecked vehicle

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Kaieteur News

Saturday September 08, 2012

Saturday September 08, 2012

Kaieteur News

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Former Commissioner of Police, child killed in three-vehicle crash - Eight others injured

By Latoya Giles Former Commissioner of Police Henry Greene and 10year- old Shaffiya Jamaluddin were killed at around 09:10 hrs yesterday following a three vehicle smash-up on the West Coast Demerara Public Road near Harlem, seven kilometers from Vreed-enHoop.

Reports are that Greene, 58, was driving a white Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) PLL 7411 east along the West Demerara Public Road when he collided head-on with a car PJJ 4812, which was transporting six persons, including ten year old Shaffiya.

He then crashed into the Bakewell Distribution truck GJJ 9067. The truck in turn slammed into the car that Greene struck. Greene and the young child reportedly died before receiving medical

attention at the West Demerara Regional Hospital.

The other injured were identified as Victor Persaud, who was employed as a driver with Bakewell; Shalim AliMohamed and Dharmendra Prashadmisir who are porters with the company; Rahim Kaleem, 45; his wife, Zairoon Hussein; Reaz Kaleem, 18; Shaimoon Kaleem; and Fawaz Kaleem, 15.

Kaieteur News was told that Zairoon Hussein sustained head and chest injuries and is still in an unconscious state. Fawaz Kaleem sustained facial and head injuries, Reaz Kaleem is nursing injuries to the head left eye while Rahim Kaleem suffered a broken leg and lacerations to his face.

They were all treated at the West Demerara Hospital before being transferred to the

Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC). Kaieteur News was told that Shaimoon Kaleem who is the mother of the dead 10-year-old, sustained a broken jaw and was in an unconscious state.

At the scene yesterday morning none of the residents could say how the accident occurred. One shop owner, Savu Danchand, said that she was in her shop with her son when she heard a loud impact.

Danchand said that her son rushed outside and saw the vehicles.

Another neighbour told Kaieteur News that after the vehicles collided persons immediately rushed to render assistance.

Greene and some of the other victims were momentarily pinned in their vehicles. The fire service and other police traffic ranks

Freddie vs Jagdeo libel case stalled - Jagdeo’s lawyers absent The libel case brought by former President Bharrat Jagdeo against Kaieteur News columnist Freddie Kissoon was yesterday stalled when Jagdeo’s team of lawyers was not available.

Race relations expert, Dr David Hinds, was flown into the country Thursday evening to be the first witness for the defense in the libel case. However, Jagdeo’s lead attorney Senior Counsel Bernard DeSantos had to attend a Court of Appeal matter and thus asked to be excused. Jagdeo’s other attorney Sase Gunraj, said he had no instructions to stand in the absence of the senior counsel.

Freddie Kissoon’s attorney Nigel Hughes wanted to commence the defence. Justice Brassington Reynolds was also willing to proceed with the case for the defence.

After adjourning the matter to September 27, the judge tried to get Senior Counsel De Santos on phone to inquiry whether the court could proceed in his absence, but he could not. The absence of Jagdeo’s other lawyer

Dr David Hinds compounded the issue.

Jagdeo wants $10 million from outspoken columnist Freddie Kissoon, the newspaper’s publisher Glenn Lall, and editor in chief Adam Harris. The subject of the libel case is a column written by Kissoon. It charged that the former President exercised ideological racism in performing his function as president.

Jagdeo’s team had closed its case on July 5. And now it’s time for Kaieteur News to lead its defence and it intends to go the whole nine yards to

prove that Jagdeo’s term in office was characterized by a racist ideology.

The defense team plans to call more than a dozen witnesses, with Dr David Hinds being the first.

Dr David Hinds is Assistant Professor of Caribbean and African Diaspora Studies at Arizona State University.

He has written two books on race relations in Guyana Former President Jagdeo launched the libel case claiming that Kissoon’s article suggested that he is a racist and that “by extension, the State and Government of Guyana, practice racism as an ideology, dogma, philosophy and policy.”

Dead: Henry Greene arrived shortly after at the scene and they assisted in getting the injured persons out of the twisted wreck that was once their vehicles.

According to reports, the first ambulance that arrived were not equipped for first aid.

Kaieteur News was told that after the injured persons were rushed to the hospital, the response by staff was overwhelming.

This newspaper understands that about 20 Cuban-trained interns offered their services at the Accident and Emergency Unit.

Greene was born on April 6, 1954, and received his early education at the Dolphin Government School and later Queen’s College. He joined the Guyana Police Force on February 15, 1974, and moved up the ranks. He first served in ‘E’ Division, as it was then, and worked at Wismar and Mackenzie Police stations until 1976. He was promoted to the rank of Corporal in November 1976. Two years later, was identified and appointed a Cadet Officer.

He subsequently worked in several divisions, serving

at Police stations across the country. In 1986, he was posted to Headquarters as Head of the Research and Planning Unit until being appointed Commander of ‘C’ Division in 1990.

Later that year he returned to Headquarters as Head of Staff and subsequently Assistant Commissioner ‘Operations’ in 1991.

The following year, he was again made the Head of Staff and then moved to the Immigration Department in 1993 where he worked as the Deputy Chief Immigration Officer. The year 1994 saw him commanding ‘A’ Division and the following two years as Head of Research and Planning and Assistant Commissioner ‘Operations’, both for a second term, until 1997 when he was posted as Commander ‘A’ Division for another period.

Greene returned to the University of Guyana in 1997 to pursue studies in law, and then moved on to the Hugh Wooding Law School. He was admitted to the Bar in Guyana in October, 2002. Henry Greene returned to Police Headquarters as Assistant C o m m i s s i o n e r ‘Administration’ in 2002 until he was asked to head the Criminal Investigations Department in 2004, a position he held until 2006 when he was put in charge of the Force.

But scandals marred his career. There were allegations of his involvement with drug cartels and of surrendering his independence to the government of the day.

Greene was confirmed as

Police Commissioner by then President Bharrat Jagdeo at the end of 2008. At the time of his appointment, Greene served as acting Police Commissioner for almost two and a half years. Greene took up the job when Winston Felix resigned in 2006.

Foreign governments, especially the United States, tried to convince Jagdeo that Greene should not be appointed commissioner, owing to allegations that he was benefiting from the drug trade. Mr. Greene himself had vehemently denied those allegations.

Jagdeo defied diplomatic pressure, and appointed Greene, saying later that the US had not brought forward the evidence. In what was a major embarrassment for Greene, the Police Force and the government, the US government revoked Greene’s visa. Without those scandals, Henry Greene’s story might have been phenomenal.

The one scandal that drove him out of office was a nasty sex scandal which was never definitively settled. In December last year, a 34-yearold woman alleged that the (continued on centre)

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Kaieteur News

Saturday September 08, 2012

Letters... Where your views make the news Printed and Published by National Media & Publishing Company Ltd. 24 Saffon Street, Charlestown, Georgetown, Guyana.

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

EDITORIAL

The flawed policy of sacred cows When someone dies in a road accident the nation takes note because the roads are supposed to be safe and drivers are supposed to be careful. When the victim is a former police commissioner who once headed the people who vowed to keep the streets safe then one is left to wonder at how safe the roads really are.

The initial reports state that the former police commissioner may have initiated the accident that involved three vehicles—a car, a delivery truck and his own vehicle which was a sports utility vehicle.

In addition to the former commissioner, a child died. All told 10 people were involved.

The vehicles were heading in opposite directions. The rules of the road insist that people stay in their lanes. If people adhere to that basic principle then everyone would enjoy safe passage on the streets. Vehicles heading toward each other should never collide unless one of them develops some malfunction that would force it into the opposite lane.

There could also be a collision if one of the drivers suffers some ailment that would render him incapacitated.

There have been numerous such cases.

In this case the eyewitnesses say that the former police commissioner swerved into the path of the car that was heading west along the public road. Close behind the car was the delivery truck. The former police commissioner reportedly struck both.

The former police commissioner was no stranger to accidents. He had repeatedly been involved in a number of accidents, some of them minor. However, there have been some major ones. Recently, he crashed into a horse drawn cart and a vehicle operated by the Demerara Harbour Bridge.

He was unhurt. This episode was not publicised because the former commissioner had been embroiled in some unsavoury incidents. The view was that he should not be held up to more public scrutiny.

This accident now raises some serious issues. The police had some time back, spoken about re-testing drivers. In many countries drivers are tested constantly, especially after they have reached a certain age. The older the driver the more likely is that person to be involved in an accident of his own making.

In Guyana where people still treat the roads as a playground because the penalties are not severe enough to make people sit up and take notice of their actions, there is need for more rigid inspections of drivers.

The roads are not as wide as many would like them to be and because of this, the speed limits have been duly calibrated to match the condition of the road. Yet, as can be expected, people exceed the speed limits by huge amounts.

Some of those nabbed are prosecuted while others succeed in perverting the course of justice by paying the arresting ranks. The former commissioner would have been operating outside the pale. For one, no rank would have dared to arrest him for a vehicular incident. He would have been presiding over them not so long ago.

This would have meant that he was above the law and beyond reproach.

He would not have been subjected to any further test and for certain, his driver’s licence would have been renewed without his presence. He would have been one of the dangers on the road.

It is time that the police and those responsible for safety on the roads cast aside the policy of sacred cows. A child died and several persons were injured in this case.

There is more to this accident and the death of the former commissioner. At issue here is the loss of skills. The former commissioner, Henry Greene, was not only a treasure house of knowledge of the police operations; he was also a legal mind having pursued legal studies at the height of his career.

Those things have been lost to the nation forever.

What is Peeping Tom really smoking? Donald Ramotar destroyed the PPP organization DEAR EDITOR, These PPP illusionists like Peeping Tom refuse to tell the truth. Peeping Tom states Donald Ramotar was never given a government position by the Jagans because he was earmarked for handling party affairs. He said that Ramotar was the hand that steadied the PPP. What is Peeping Tom really smoking? He ain’t fooling me or anyone else.

Donald Ramotar was never seen as fit for government. He was seen as fit for party organizing, a lesser task in the mind of the PPP hierarchy.

Any honest assessment of Ramotar’s performance since he became General Secretary of the PPP in 1997 shows he failed and failed badly. The PPP since 1997 has fallen from grace. Every election has brought less and less votes. The PPP grassroots organization is in shambles. The PPP has been a party in decline under Ramotar’s rule. The PPP

eventually got humiliated in 2011 exactly when Ramotar became the PPP’s presidential candidate. Not only it got a minority government, it lost its aura with the Indian vote which was always unshakable in its support of the PPP. Indians in Berbice of all places rejected the PPP. Everything Ramotar has done as President mirrors what he has done as PPP General Secretary; nothing. Just like corruption, crookedness, banditry, incompetence and mismanagement continue untouched and rewarded in the PPP government under Ramotar, these tragedies met a smiling, yielding and comatose Ramotar within the PPP. Corruption gained its summit in the PPP under Ramotar and he turned a blind eye. The spectacular decline of the PPP that occurred under Donald Ramotar is just like the decline of Guysuco and the fall of sugar that occurred

under his watch as director of Guysuco and the Omai rape of this country that took place while he served as OMAI director.

Donald Ramotar did not stand up for the PPP when the vagabonds invaded and started taking over. When the Jagdeoites started flexing their muscles and demanding they control both the government and the party, Donald Ramotar had the option of defending the party and resisting them using democratic involvement of its membership or colluding with the Jagdeoites for the flowering of dictatorship and despotism. We now know which route Ramotar took.

Whether to save his own position or to seek personal power or whether guided by some belief he is serving his party by doing so, Donald Ramotar became a yes-man to the marauders who seized and hijacked the PPP. In doing so, Donald Ramotar was part and parcel of those who excluded

the regular rank and file PPP members and supporters from the party.

Donald Ramotar was part and parcel of the decision to suspend the constitutionally required congress in 2011, which denied the PPP members an election and which enabled the Jagdeoites to handpick Ramotar for the presidency. The PPP is an organization reviled even by its own supporters. Its leadership is shunned. By no measure, even those uttered by a measly apologist and denier like Peeping Tom, is Donald Ramotar anything but trouble for the PPP. Donald Ramotar’s destruction of the PPP does not end there. His abject and dismal performance as president since November 2011 has further weakened the PPP. More supporters are leaving, while the entire Guyanese nation is fed up.

Every infant in this country sees the handprint of the (Continued on page 5)

What we have is not an Office of the President but a branch office of Freedom House DEAR EDITOR, Soon after Dr David Hinds of the WPA announced to the media that he and his family were experiencing harassment, The Office of the President, without time for investigation, was able to “dismiss”his claims.

It did not discourage the actions complained of, “just in case” any hothead supporter was involved. It was eager to discredit the person complaining, not to discourage such tendencies.

Political activists should, like David Hinds, know that they will be followed by the Special Branch.

However, when it comes to calling the activist’s home and trying to scare his daughter, things get scary.

Instead of calling on the general public to leave such things out of the political responses, the Office of the President gives the impression that it will be ready with political denials against such conduct.

Showing another alarming level of meanness, the offenders invented an assassination plot and informed Hinds’s university that he was involved.

It is public knowledge that the PPP moved against academics at the University of Guyana and had them dismissed, some of them for life. It follows the policy of “our academics” and “those other academics”.

There are no academics, as such. In what ways are these rulers better than those

they succeeded?

The Office of the President, which, of course, is entitled to freedom of expression, is not noted for condemning the offences of those who act in support of the government.

I am assuming, and it is a safe assumption most of the time, that attacks against the government critics or opponents are carried out by supporters of the government.

I have never been an academic, just a primary school and high school teacher. When the US police “harassed” Dr. Randy Persaud, I protested. All I know about him is that he is Guyanese and a PPP person.

It cost me nothing to protest.

My friends did not even question me.

Dr. Hinds, whatever his suspicions, did not accuse the Executive party, but is there another political force in Guyana that will have that kind of interest in endangering Dr. Hinds’s employment? Has the Office of the President noted that Hinds’s university responded to the accusation it had received by email, and stated that the University “does not infringe on free speech” and that it does not discourage lecturers from “activist work” nor manage their private time?

The offenders had also sent the University transcripts of comments allegedly made by Hinds in Guyana. With all this thorough dedication to

cutting an activist’s throat, a little housing cooperative on the East Coast has had to write letters to the press begging the government to do its duty.

There is a more serious aspect of this whole business. In effect, the Office of the President in its response to the complaints made by Dr Hinds has dared to withdraw official protection, under the common

law and Article 31, from a Guyanese citizen living abroad. Look out, citizens.

What we have is not an Office of the President but a branch office of Freedom House.

Any citizen who uses his or her freedom of expression in a way not pleasing to the PPP can expect the Office of the President to withdraw its obligation to protect that citizen at home and abroad.

Eusi Kwayana

A view of wildness DEAR EDITOR, Those of the citizens of Georgetown who did not know themselves as ‘Townies’ must wonder how come ‘Wild Coast’ author found out immediately on his arrival. Nevertheless his early view of the people and their city was wildly complimentary.

The following are excerpts from his description: “From the court a beautiful city, as light as feathers, fluttered off down the coast. Perhaps – like its people – Georgetown didn’t truly believe it belonged here, and so it hovered over the water. Nothing was firmly attached. It was all built on canals and breezes, a city of stilts and clapboard, brilliant whites, fretwork, spindles and louvres. The streets were as wide as fields, and the cathedral seemed to drift endlessly upwards, reputedly the tallest wooden building in the world. One area was even called Lacytown, as

though, at any moment it would simply take off and drift away, home perhaps.”

“The forest was constantly trying to creep back into this city, along with the mildew. Even concrete rotted here, and cars seemed to moulder. By day the canals were silky and green, and by night they were operatic with frogs. ‘Why? Why?’ they’d sing, which made the dogs all howl. Nature, it seemed, was gradually reclaiming its inheritance.

Amid this riot of parrots and flamboyants, the Townies could still be fleetingly British. They’d talk about things like ‘spring’ and ‘autumn’ while the weather remained doggedly hot. They could even be a little archaic, with children peeing in ‘posies’ and having ‘tennis rolls’ for tea.”

And we are only at page 16 of 163 pages on Guiana/ Guyana.

E B John

Saturday September 08, 2012

Kaieteur News

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Letters... Where your views make the news Letters... Where your views make the news

Support for the recent Community Elections at Kwakwani DEAR EDITOR, I write to express support for the Community Elections at Kwakwani on 5th September 2012.

The fact that there has been no Local Government Elections since 1994 in Guyana is an indication that the Ministry of Local Government & Regional Development has no interest in Local Democracy.

Since the results of the 2011 National and Regional Election in Guyana, the Ministry of Local Government

and Regional Development has launched an all-out assault on all of the institutions of Local Democracy.

They put into place a relentless plan of suppression of the Neighbourhood Democratic Councils by forcefully reassigning Overseers. It has been alleged that Senior Officers of the Ministry including elected officials have blamed the Neighbourhood Democratic Councils’ nationwide lack of

performance, for the PPP/C Government’s loss of control over the National Assembly.

The stigma of blaming Neighbourhood Democratic Councils for loss of National Electoral support has seen or ushered in a new dispensation, whereby the Ministry assumed the role of employing Overseers for Neighbourhood Democratic Councils. This they believed provide the key to selecting handpicked lackeys and friends of the Ministry and by extension supporters of the

What is Peeping Tom really...

From page 4 Jagdeoites all over the presidency and they are disgusted.

The PPP under the lameduck presidency of Ramotar will likely suffer the ignominy of defeat in the upcoming 2016 election (or earlier snap election) or the following election. That will be Ramotar’s most tarnished legacy.

Ramotar’s biggest failing as the PPP’s General Secretary is not accepting that he would be out of his depth as the president. He failed in refusing to accept he is unqualified for the presidency and as General Secretary failing to ensure a better candidate of the party got the post. His acceptance of the presidency when he knew and those who were setting

him up knew - he was never capable of competently performing it, threatens to destroy the party, which is losing support every single day because of him and his continuation of failed policies.

Donald Ramotar has made himself a scapegoat for those seeking to cement their power.

They knew he would fail because they knew he lacked the skills, qualifications, independence of mind and intestinal fortitude for the presidency. They knew he would be heavily reliant on the Jagdeoites for advice, because he is not intellectually sure-footed.

Once he fails, they will use that failure to force him from power, but more importantly, to position one of their henchmen into the presidency, claiming anyone

is better than Ramotar. They will use Ramotar’s shortcomings to prop up their own incompetent.

Donald Ramotar never kept the PPP party machinery intact. It is the worst it has been after declining steadily under his watch. It is the most corrupt political entity in the history of Guyanese politics.

It got that way after Donald Ramotar became its General Secretary.

M. Maxwell

PPP to be in control of the affairs of the Local Administration decisions and Work Plans within the Village Councils, Re – Neighbourhood Democratic Council.

At the commencement of the Village movement in 1839 all matters of political decisions on Local Development Plans have been the responsibility of the Local Elected Leaders and Overseers.

With the advent of Act 14 of 1945, under the British Colonial Government, a structured Local Government System was evolved to derive

by Law an executive administrative frame work to preside over the management of collection of Rates and Taxes to be used in the maintenance of the community infrastructures such as, roads, bridges, canals, dams, kokers and Community buildings.

Act 14 of 1945 also known as Cap. 28:02 was actually established to be the legal framework for Governance of Village, County, Rural

districts and Local Authorities and made provisions for the charging of Rates and Taxes on property owners.

The Colonial Government relationship with the Local Government bodies was generally for oversight and guidance. As such, employment of Overseer and other staff were the decision of the Village Council with a provision for the Minister to approve the appointment. However, the provision of Cap. 28:02 does not suggest that the Minister could or should refuse to approve the decision of the Council.

Underlying the strength of the Local Government system is the provision of the Law to have Local Government Elections every three (3) years for the entire Council and internal elections

every year for the position of Chairman and Vice Chairman. The provisions for such elections offered a check balance or review of the performance of the elected officials.

Incompetence and under performance would be dealt with by the democratic process on a regular basis so there would be no entrenched perpetual inefficiency and corruption.

I support the decision of the people of Kwakwani to elect their own Local Government Leaders/ Representatives. The boldness should be emulated throughout all Local Government Districts in Guyana. Recentralization must be discouraged.

Clement Corlette Regional Chairman Region # 4: Demerara/ Mahaica

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Education Month officially kick off ... President Ramotar takes place on prestigious UN Committee In fact, the President is set to leave Guyana on September 26 to attend a meeting in this regard.

This announcement was made by Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand, yesterday during a “Rally for Education” held at the Queen’s College Auditorium. The rally which was preceded by a march officially marked the start of the 2012 Education Month of activities.

President Ramotar who addressed the rally, yesterday, said that his invitation to sit on the United Nations Committee has to do with the tremendous work that is being done in the local education sector.

He expressed his conviction on the importance of investment in education. “I believe very strongly that if we are really going to accelerate social and economic development in our country and if we are going to put an end to poverty, education has a key role in that struggle to bring equality to all people.

“There is no better investment than (those) made in education and if you look at our budget the biggest spending goes to the social sector of which education is the number one sector,” President Ramotar noted.

He stressed, too, that

investments in education is in fact a move to invest in the future of the country.

Also emphasising the importance of investment, Minister Manickchand insisted that the current state of education is the best it has ever been in the history of Guyana. She nonetheless noted that the Ministry does not intend to remain stagnant but will work towards even greater achievements.

“We cannot be satisfied with a 30 per cent pass mark;

importance of including the special needs population in the education system.

“In Guyana, today, we are happy to say when we speak of inclusive education we are speaking about accomplishments, having achieved gender parity and geographical parity, because we have achieved what many countries are still trying to do...” said Minister Manickchand.

This development, she assured, was no accident. She said that the government has put measures in place to expand the delivery of education even as efforts are

As Education Month gets underway Head of State, Donald Ramotar, has been invited to serve for one year on a Group of Member State Champions for the ‘Education First’ initiative.

This is a United Nations entity. we must strive for better and we will strive for better and with this government you have a friend in education... you have a leader and people who have the will and desire to see our country develop,” she asserted.

INCLUSIVE EDUCATION The Education Month of activities is being observed under the theme “Transforming the Nation Through Inclusive Education.” The theme was strategically chosen by the Minister to emphasise the

being made to realise universal access to secondary education.

“We are on our way to universal access to secondary education and this comes from a deep desire in our hearts to ensure that all, irrespective of race, get equal access to educational resources.”

In this quest she noted that efforts must also be made to ensure that special needs individuals are not left out.

Also speaking at yesterday’s rally, was Chairman of the Guyana Council of Organisations for Persons Living with Disabilities, Mr Leon Walcott.

He amplified the importance of teachers’ involvement in the promotion of special needs education.

The rally kicked into motion with opening remarks

by Chief Education Officer, Mr Olato Sam, and continued with a rendition of a National Song – Let Us Cooperate – followed by a dramatised poem by Queen’s College students.

The event also included a steel pan performance by students of the North Georgetown Primary and an exhilarating dance by female members of the Deaf in Guyana Association.

A section of the gathering yesterday.

Immigration TALK: Questions & Answers By: Attorney Gail S. Seeram, Gail@GailLaw.com Through this “Question & Answer” column, our goal is to answer your immigration questions. Many of you have questions on backlog time and eligibility – we seek to clarify these issues and more.

We appreciate your comments and questions. If you have a question that you would like answered in this column, please email: Gail@GailLaw.com.

Question #1: M y daughter, a U.S. citizen, is sponsoring my husband and me.

How long is the processing time?

Answer #1: As a U.S. citizen, your daughter (assuming over age 21) can file a sponsorship petition for her biological or adoptive parents.

Assuming you are outside the U.S., the processing time is about nine months to one year. Note, a separate petition must be filed for each parent

– one for her father and one for her mother – it cannot be combined.

Question #2: I was wondering how I could find out about my mother’s case. I recently turned 18 and want to know about my mother’s immigration file. She never explained to me why she decided to leave the U.S. in 2008. Is it still possible for me to obtain a copy?

Answer #2: Due to various privacy laws, only your mother can request a copy of her immigration file.

We can prepare a Freedom of Information Act request but she would have to consent for her file to be released. The processing time is about 6-9 months to get a copy of an immigration file.

Question #3: If a petition was filed for me by my mother in 2008, and I would still like to apply for a visitor’s visa, would my chances for being granted a visa decrease (because of the petition that

Gail S. Seeram was filed)? If yes, why?

Answer #3: Yes. The main requirement for a visitor visa is to show you have no intent to remain in the U.S. With a pending immigrant petition, the Embassy may not be inclined to give you a visitor ’s visa since you already have immigrant intents (based on the pending petition filed by your mother).

This same issue may arise upon a visitor visa renewal once the Embassy becomes aware of a pending immigrant petition.

Question #4: My mom is a US citizen and filed for me in 2009 as Family 2B preference.

She got the approval letter in 2010 so how long more do I have to wait before I get to the U.S.?

Answer #4: According to the April 2012 visa bulletin, for Family 2B, visas are being issued for petitions filed on or before January 15, 2004. So, you have about a 5-year wait from today.

Question #5: Has the threshold age at the U.S. Embassy really changed from 21 to 25?

Answer #5: No. To qualify as a “child” you must be under age 21 at the time the visa is available at the Embassy.

Saturday September 08, 2012

Kaieteur News

Canada closes embassy in Iran, to expel Iranian diplomats OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada has suspended diplomatic relations with Iran, closing its embassy in Tehran and giving all Iranian diplomats in Canada five days to leave the country, Foreign Minister John Baird said yesterday, calling Iran the biggest threat to global security.

Baird, in Russia for an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting, said Canada’s actions were not linked to growing speculation that Israel might launch an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

“Unequivocally, we have no information about a military strike on Iran,” a spokesman quoted Baird as telling reporters.

Canada’s Conservative government has long had very poor relations with Iran, archenemy of close Canadian ally Israel.

Baird cited Iran’s nuclear program, its hostility toward Israel and Iranian military assistance to the government of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, which is locked in civil war with rebels. He also said Iran is a state sponsor of terrorism.

“Canada views the government of Iran as the most significant threat to global peace and security in the world today,” Baird said in a statement.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised Canada’s action, calling it a bold leadership move that sends a clear message to Iran and the entire world.

“The determination shown by Canada is

of great importance in order for the Iranians to understand that they cannot go on with their race toward nuclear arms. This practical step must set an example of international morality and responsibility to the international community,” Netanyahu said in a statement.

Israel, believed to be the only nucleararmed state in the Middle East, sees the possibility of Iran developing an atomic bomb as a threat to its existence and has said it may use military means if diplomacy and sanctions fail.

Baird accused Iran of showing blatant disregard for the safety of foreign diplomats.

Britain’s embassy in Tehran has been closed since it was stormed by protesters last November.

“Under the circumstances, Canada can no longer maintain a diplomatic presence in Iran,” he said.

Canada’s 10 diplomats in Iran have already left Tehran, according to the Canadian foreign ministry.

There are currently 17 Iranian diplomats in Canada, the Canadian foreign ministry added.

“Iranian diplomats in Ottawa have been instructed to leave within five days,” Baird said in his statement.

The Paris-based National Council of Resistance of Iran, an Iranian dissident group, urged European and Middle Eastern nations to follow Canada’s initiative.

Bombardment, blasts rock Syrian capital BEIRUT (Reuters) Syrian forces bombarded a crowded Palestinian refugee district in Damascus yesterday, killing at least 10 people according to residents, while other parts of the city were rocked by apparent rebel bomb attacks.

The main focus of the fighting is now in the economic centre, Aleppo, but rebels fighting to topple President Bashar al-Assad continue to attack government forces and buildings in the capital.

Five security personnel were killed and several others

were wounded in a “terrorist” blast caused by explosives attached to a motorcycle in the Rukn al-Din district of Damascus, state television said.

A car bomb also exploded between the Information Ministry and the main Damascus courthouse, it said, giving no details of any casualties.

In the south of the capital, rockets rained down on Yarmouk, a densely populated Palestinian refugee camp. A woman living nearby counted at least 11 strikes. Video uploaded by activists

showed clouds of grey smoke curling into the air.

“At least 10 people have been killed and 15 wounded since they resumed shelling,” the woman said by telephone, asking not to be named for her own safety. “There are several burned corpses and limbs, so no one is sure of the total death toll.”

Residents across the city said they had been hearing heavy blasts and sporadic gunfire since early on Friday morning.

“I can count at least 10 columns of smoke coming from the southern neighborhoods around the camp,” said activist Samir alShami, speaking on Skype. He said tanks and troops had been brought in to conduct raids on some southern neighbourhoods.

Quakes kill at least 64 in mountainous a rural region building construction and SW China provinces, where some of China’s propensity for landslides were blamed for the relatively high poorest people live.

BEIJING (AP) — Twin earthquakes and a spate of aftershocks struck southwestern China yesterday, toppling thousands of houses and sending boulders cascading across roads. At least 64 people were killed and hundreds injured in the remote mountainous area, and more than 100,000 residents were evacuated.

Damage was preventing rescuers from reaching outlying towns, and communications were disrupted after the midday quakes hit along the borders of Guizhou and Yunnan

The first 5.6-magnitude quake struck just before 11:30 a.m. and was followed by an equally strong quake shortly after noon, joined by dozens of aftershocks. Though of moderate strength, the quakes were shallow, which often causes more damage.

Hardest hit was Yiliang County, where all but one of the deaths occurred, according to the Yunnan provincial government’s official website. Another 715 people in the area were injured. Yiliang’s high population density, shoddy

death toll.

China Central Television showed roads littered with rocks and boulders and pillars of dust rising over hilltops from the landslides. One image taken just as one quake struck showed people running out of a supermarket as the ground shook.

Other footage showed several hundred people crowding into a school athletic field in Yiliang’s county seat, a sizable city spread along a river in a valley, as well as soldiers carrying injured people and rescue materials.

Page 7

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Kaieteur News

Saturday September 08, 2012

Prominent Jamaican lawyer Bolivia says Washington cautions against joining CCJ won’t extradite former leader KINGSTON, Jamaica - CMC - A prominent Jamaican attorney is cautioning Caribbean governments against replacing the London-based Privy Council with the Trinidad-based Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ)as he claimed regional judges were not capable of delivering judgments that are on par with their British counterparts.

Attorney Hugh Wildman urged regional governments to be careful they were not trying to replace the Privy Council “just for the notion of decolonisation”. “(Just) to say that we have replaced the Queen”. What is important is that at the end of the day, the people would want to know that if you are going to replace the Privy Council, you are going to replace it with a court that is on equal standing or close to being equal, not an inferior court.

He referred to the decision by the Trinidad and Tobago government to retain the Privy Council as the final appellate court in criminal matters as a sign that “they are not comfortable with the CCJ as the final court” in those cases.

Aid groups fear resurgence of cholera in Haiti PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti - CMC - A number of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and aid agencies say they fear a resurgence of the cholera epidemic following passage of Tropical Storm Isaac last weekend.

They say the storm which killed at least 24 people in the earthquake-ravaged Frenchspeaking Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country, has reignited fears that the floods and rains could accelerate a peak in cholera deaths and infections, according to aid agencies.

Even worse, they say the deadly diarrheal disease could spread to the sprawling tent cities in the capital, more than 300,000 homeless people live.

“Today with the situation in the camps, it is clear they are most at risk,” said Yolette Etienne, Oxfam’s programme director, while Oliver Schulz, the country manager of the Paris based Doctors Without Borders said “we can assume there is going to be an increase in patients”.

Hugh Wildman

Wildman, who was worked in several regional countries, told the Gleaner Editor’s Forum that he is not “confident or comfortable that we are going to replace the Privy Council with a court of equal standing in terms of erudition.

“It is my considered view that the quality of the judgments given by the Privy Council are far superior to what we are seeing in the region and for that matter what we are seeing coming out of the CCJ,” said Wildman, a former director of public prosecutions (DPP) in Grenada and deputy DPP in Jamaica.

“As it stands now, when one looks at the quality of the judgments coming out of the region, including Jamaica, I cannot say if we were to replace the Privy Council (with the CCJ) that we would be attaining that level of competency,” he added.

The CCJ was established in 2001 to replace the London-based institution as the region’s final court. But while most of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries have signed on to the Original Jurisdiction of the CCJ that also acts as an international tribunal interpreting the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas that governs the 15-member CARICCOM grouping, only Barbados, Guyana and Belize are signatories to the Appellate Jurisdiction of the CCJ. But Attorney General Patrick Atkinson dismissed Wildman’s position regarding the local jurists, saying the standard of justice here matches favourably “with any one of them”.

Opposition Spokesman on National Security and Justice Delroy Chuck also said he did not support Wildman’s views, noting that “indeed some of the judgments out of the Caribbean Court of Justice are quite good judgments”.

LA PAZ (Reuters) Washington has refused to extradite a former Bolivian president to the South American country to stand trial over political violence that forced him from office nine years ago, President Evo Morales said yesterday.

Former leader Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada is accused of corruption and responsibility for the deaths of 63 people killed in clashes between security forces and anti-government protesters in October 2003.

“Yesterday (Thursday), a document arrived from the United States, rejecting the extradition of people who have done a lot of damage to Bolivia,” leftist Morales, an outspoken critic of U.S. foreign policy in Latin America, said in a speech.

Calling the United States a “paradise of impunity” and a “refuge for criminals,”

Evo Morales Morales said Washington turned down the extradition request on the grounds that a civilian leader cannot be tried for crimes committed by the military.

Sanchez de Lozada, a U.S.educated mining magnate who embraced free-market policies, quit during the bloodshed of 2003 and fled to the United States 13 months into his second term as president of the impoverished Andean

country.

Bolivia’s demands for the extradition of Sanchez de Lozada and several of his ministers have aggravated prickly relations between Washington and La Paz. The countries agreed to normalize diplomatic relations late last year but new ambassadors have yet to take their posts.

Morales, a former coca farmer who has reversed the privatizations pursued by Sanchez de Lozada, expelled the U.S. ambassador and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents in 2008, accusing them of plotting with his rightist enemies.

Washington responded by sending Bolivia’s ambassador home soon afterward.

Sanchez de Lozada’s extradition was also demanded by opposition leaders in Bolivia and they criticized the U.S. decision.

Govt. awards $3.3B in contracts for pharmaceuticals Jamaica Information Service - The Government of Jamaica has awarded 43 pharmaceutical contracts, valued at $3.3 billion, for two years supply of essential drugs for Jamaicans through the public health facilities.

The National Health Fund (NHF) signed the contracts with the local and international suppliers Thursday.

Minister of Health, Hon. Dr. Fenton Ferguson, in his remarks at the signing ceremony, informed that the

contracts will cover some 894 items on the Vital, Essential and Necessary (VEN List) of pharmaceuticals.

Included are items needed for the Jamaica Drugs for the Elderly Programme (JADEP), and for the treatment of virtually all routinely seen conditions presented at the public health institutions, such as cancers, chronic kidney disease, and analgesics for pain, among others. The Health Minister stated that the number of pharmaceuticals being provided and the money being spent “is signal proof that we are committed to providing quality health care for the Jamaican people.”

He noted that the approximately 900 drugs

covered on the VEN list, far exceed the World Health Organisation (WHO) essential list of pharmaceuticals, which contains just over 200 items.

The figure is also an increase over the 700 items in 2008, moving from a base of over 300 pharmaceuticals in 2004.

In addition, the $3.3 billion far exceeds the approximately $400 million spent some 10 years ago, he stated.

Chairman, Board of Management, NHF, Sterling Soares, informed that in the coming months, the agency will be upgrading its warehouse and inventory management system, as well as the delivery of pharmacy services in its hospitals and selected health centres.

Saturday September 08, 2012

Kaieteur News

Page 9

CORRUPTION IS NOT EASY TO PROVE Corruption is harder to prove than Pythagoras Theorem. It is easier to prove murder than to prove corruption.

With murder you have a body, suspects with possible motives, persons who may lack an alibi. When you put all this together with eyewitnesses and forensics, you may have a better chance of proving murder than you have of proving that some took a kickback or did something financially wrong within the government for personal benefit.

The main reason why corruption is so hard to prove is because witnesses are not easy to come by. Do you believe that a contractor who gives a public officer a kickback is going to come forward and confess that he did that? Very rarely that is going to happen!

Some people say that if you follow the trail you will find something. Following to trail will get you lost in the woods and literally swamped in paperwork and the perpetrators will smile at you while the paper trail leads you to a cul-de-sac. By the time you reach to the end of the trail, you may forget what the original investigation was about.

In tracking corruption, you have to stick to a few cases. You do not need to try to trace a hundred transactions; one is enough for a conviction.

But even this one may

present headaches and lead you to a dead end.

Something may look like corruption; it may smell like corruption; it may feel like corruption. And hell, it may even taste like corruption. But to prove that it is corruption goes beyond outward appearances or senses.

There are many people out there who, perhaps even with good cause, want to see a police probe of NCN. They believe that there is corruption and they want persons to be made examples.

It is not that easy. Before the police can be called in there has to be basis for a criminal probe. In respect to NCN, and based only on what is being reported in the newspapers, no such basis exists at the moment.

The accounting investigation that took place pointed out certain irregularities but at best these at this stage amount to abuse of power.

What has been reported seems to suggest that person or persons used their positions within the stateowned entity to solicit work for themselves.

Now this may be unethical; it may amount to abuse of power but it is not yet criminal unless it can be established that company’s resources were used in undertaking the private work.

So far what we have are reports that someone issued an invoice in their same for the provision of services to a

Dem boys seh ...

Uncle Donald ain’t know if he standing or sitting There is a saying that is better fuh keep you mouth shut and mek people think you is a fool than to open you mouth and remove all doubt. Dem boys don’t believe that Uncle Donald is a fool but dem believe that he don’t know if he deh pun he head, he foot or he behind.

Dem seh that dem don’t want fuh disrespect he but he putting heself in a position fuh people disrespect him. Imagine de man tell a crowd that dem don’t have evidence of corruption.

Ralph tell de world that dem have corruption; Papa Cheddi daughter tell everybody in Berbice that dem have corruption and even Uncle Donald heself seh that he know dem have corruption and he tell he party people that he wouldn’t tolerate any of dem if dem get tie up in de corruption that taking place.

Well dem boys want know how this man can seh that dem ain’t got no corruption in Guyana. When a government give a man like Fip who never build a toilet US$15.4 million fuh build a road and then lef he fuh walk away wid US$ 6 million that is corruption.

When dem give dem contractor more money than a project cost and then accept shoddy work that is corruption. What was going on at Hen See Hen was corruption. People tekking de money fuh de company and putting it in dem pocket. But Uncle Donald seh that he ain’t see no evidence of corruption.

Dem boys seh that he not only disappoint dem, he let de whole nation down.

Talk half and pray fuh poor Uncle Donald.

client of NCN. Payment was received from the private company not in the name of NCN but in the name of a private individual.

This individual in turn paid another firm because that firm had done some work in relation to the same transaction.

What this indicates thus far is that someone or persons may have simply used their position at NCN to solicit a private job.

Unless, therefore, it can be established that NCN’s resources were used to deliver the service, fraud cannot be proved.

This sort of thing happens all around. There are teachers who use their positions in the classroom to solicit students for extra lessons. There are legal clerks in this country

who work for lawyers but who have their own private practice on the side.

You want a document from the court and these legal clerks will get it from you without you have to approach the lawyer. They say they do it on their own free time and do not use their boss’s resources.

There are hairdressers who work with established salons and while some of them are doing your hair they befriend you and advise you quietly that you can go by their home and they will give you the same hairstyle for less than you are paying their employer. This is called a sidebusiness There are goldsmiths in this country who have employees who do their private work on the side and

most of the customers of these employees are persons they would have met while they were working for their boss.

This is not fraud; this is abuse of one‘s position.

It can, however, become fraud however is certain things are present. If the client felt he was dealing with the lawyer and the lawyer’s letterhead is used in obtaining the document but payment goes to the legal clerk, then there is a basis for a fraud investigation.

If the hairdresser takes home the salon’s shampoo and dye without permission and uses it to do private work on client, this is theft.

One has to be careful when one therefore makes a charge of fraud.

What may look, smell and taste like fraud may not in a

court of law stand up to the litmus test of fraud.

However perhaps those who are making out that there was fraud in NCN may know something that is not yet reported. Perhaps this issue with NCN has a few more twists and turns.

Perhaps, who knows, Kaieteur News may discover a much more intricate web than what was originally thought and perhaps it may break that story.

Who knows, perhaps it may break that story tomorrow. You never know.

Linden Hospital staff lauded for professionalism during protest Minister of Health, Dr Bheri Ramsaran, has described the actions of the Chief Executive Officer and the health workers of the Linden Hospital Complex as “quiet, professional and well organised” in the face of the aftermath of recent protest action.

The Minister’s remarks came hours ahead of visiting the mining town on Thursday to meet with Chief Executive Officer, Dr Farouk Riyasat, and his team of health workers along with the recently inaugurated hospital board.

The Minister during an interview with this publication Thursday said that not only did Dr Riyasat keep in constant contact with the Ministry of Health throughout the difficult period but he “kept his team together and maintained a good moral standard and so I have to note the excellent work that was done there.”

The Minister also lauded the support that was rendered by the Chinese and Cuban

medical workers who, according to him, were on the job and working although they were subsequently withdrawn from the area for security reasons. They were returned after the protest action subsided, the Minister said.

The Linden protest action which commenced on July 18, last, had fatal consequences when police allegedly shot live rounds into a gathering of protestors killing three.

According to the Minister, the Ministry during that period was able to airlift some 3,000 pounds of supplies including medication, at the request of the CEO. “We were even able to get blood in through the blocked bridge within the first hours of the protest so we were able to keep the facilities there supplied.”

However Minister Ramsaran said that his Ministry’s effort would have been of “no consequence” had there not been a strong, stable and mature leadership which was exemplified in the

person of Dr Riyasat. “He did well and no doubt his support staff did well too and I have to personally thank the doctors who worked there especially the young Guyanese doctors who stuck to their guns during this period,” the Minister added.

The outstanding mode of operation at the Linden Hospital was effectively backed by the response of health workers in Georgetown through the likes of Dr Irv Chan, Director of Regional Health Services, Minister Ramsaran said.

“He helped to keep things moving...in a jiffy they were able to get the suppl i e s needed to keep the hospital going on that particular fatal day and of course Dr Riyasat did well with keeping the patients who came out of the conflict well and we were quickly able to airlift one particular patient within 40 minutes of the final decision by a professional team at the hospital....there was no intervention by the Regional Executive Officer or

the Chairman for that matter; it was solely a decision by Dr Riyasat’s team and within 40 minutes of that decision the patient was already at Camp Ayanganna (Georgetown).”

Linden, according to the Minister, has benefited from the ‘Visionary Enlighten Policy’ of the government through which a national cadre of graduate doctors was created. Some of these doctors, the Minister said, are now specialising in a number of areas.

At present Linden has a complement of these young doctors, a quota which sufficed even when the foreign medical workers were withdrawn as a security precaution during the course of the protest action, Minister Ramsaran said.

Minister Ramsaran added, yesterday, too that several members of the community even at the height of the unrest had kept in communication with the Ministry to indicate their satisfaction with the operation of the hospital.

Page 10

Kaieteur News

M&CC workers agree to resume work Monday

By Abena Rockcliffe After one week of strike action, workers attached to the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) have agreed to return to work on Monday.

This decision was taken during a critical meeting between the Ministry of Labour, the representing unions and the Town Clerk (ag), Carol Sooba.

This newspaper understands that a “terms of resumption” agreement was signed. A meeting to address a reported 10 existing grouses is to be held Tuesday at City Hall.

The cash-strapped City Hall, responsible for the upkeep of Georgetown, has been battling corruption accusations and in-fighting amidst growing unhappiness by residents. Garbage woes have been on the front burner for some years now.

Mayor Hamilton Green, at a press conference Thursday, stated that he is backing the workers on strike, as it is a “struggle” for the betterment of the City. He said that the many issues at City Hall stems from way back and cannot all

Town Clerk (ag): Carol Sooba

Mayor Hamilton Green

be easily corrected.

Green repeated claims that City Hall has been stifled by the government since 1992, noting that the Council receives no financial support from them.

There have been rumblings by the City Council over the government appointment of Town Clerk (ag), Carol Sooba. The argument is that she is not qualified. Government has insisted that it is none of the business of M&CC. During the past few days of the strike, workers were accused of using alcohol on

the premises and of verbally abusing Sooba. The workers are now being asked to give statements.

The workers from several sections of the M&CC began taking industrial action against yet another month of late payments. However, though cheques were issued since the day the strike began, the protest continued with more issues being raised; including a call for the removal of acting Town Clerk Sooba.

While workers say that they are also protesting against non-payment of overtime and uniform

allowances, Sooba’s removal seems to be on the top of their request list Yesterday, Sooba said that she is forced to have security with her at all times because she feels “harassed” by workers.

“Every time I go out, every time I come in, they are there in my face shouting ‘Sooba must go, Sooba must go.’ It is ridiculous.”

Sooba disclosed that yesterday morning she noticed some workers consuming alcohol in “those quarter bottles.”

“One come in me face and saying, you is sober but I drunk, but I had to go to a meeting with the Minister so I didn’t bother with him.”

“I really don’t know why they striking, it simply means that they wouldn’t get pay, but I don’t think they are thinking about the long run.”

A Union representative has since disclosed that the man who confronted Sooba while consuming alcohol is a former employee. “We encouraged discipline,” stated the representative.

Saturday September 08, 2012

NICIL and Guyana Stores court battle…

Brassington borrowed money on Guyana Stores before sale - letters Yesterday the matter involving Royal Investment (Guyana Stores) and National Industrial and Commercial Investment Limited (NICIL) was called again in the High Court before Justice Roxanne George-Wiltshire.

During the hearing more startling discoveries were made and shown to head of NICIL Winston Brassington who was again called to the witness stand where he was crossed examined by Senior Counsel Rex Mc Kay. Royal Investment Inc. is headed by proprietor Tony Yassin. NICIL is being represented by Rafiq Turhan Khan, while Yassin is being represented by Senior Counsel Rex Mc Kay, Edward Luckhoo and Mr. Sasenarine.

Royal Investment Inc. has been sued by the Privatisation Unit/ NICIL for failing to pay the balance of US$2 million for the 70 million shares in Guyana Stores which the company acquired for US$6million.

As Mr. Mc Kay continued his cross-examination of Mr. Brassington, he asked Brassington if he recalled stating to the buyer that there would be no encumbrance of the assets. To this Mr. Brassington answered in the negative.

“I take it that you understand the meaning of encumbrance,” Mr. Mc Kay enquired.

Mr. Brassington told the court that he is well aware of the meaning. He stated that NICIL would not encumber the fixed assets of the Company, GSL. Mr. Mc Kay then enquired from Brassington if he recalled a loan being taken from the Republic Bank to pay a dividend and Mr. Brassington

replied in the positive.

The Senior Counsel also asked Brassington if he had since looked at the section of the Companies’ Act, Section 50, which dealt with the payment of a dividend. The NICIL head responded that he had no time to look at it.

“Would you take it that according to Section 50 of the Companies’ Act, that dividends can only be paid out of profits?” Mr. Mc Kay asked NICIL head.

Brassington responded in the affirmative.

It was also put to Mr. Brassington that he attempted to switch a property which was being held as security.

Mr. Mc Kay then asked Mr. Brassington if he recalled writing a letter dated May 8, 2000 addressed to Mr. Raymond Changlee from a commercial bank. To this Mr. Brassington said that he has no reason to doubt that he did. The letter was tendered as evidence as it was pointed out to the court that the letter was asking Mr. Changlee to remove the building at 13-15 Water Street as being part of the Guyana Stores sales package.

Brassington said that the building at 13-15 Water Street – the Garage Building – was owned by Property Holdings Inc. Mr. Mc Kay further put to Mr. Brassington that the building was used as security at the Bank for the loan. Mr. Changlee was asked to take it off and to substitute same with Building at 19, Water Street, Georgetown.

A letter dated May 25, 2000 (NICIL #18) written Mr. Changlee as response, was shown to Mr. Brassington.

Referring to that letter, Mr. Mc Kay noted out that Mr. Changlee after very careful consideration, refused the request. Mr. Brassington said that he had no doubt that he received that letter.

The matter will be called again on September 14.

Saturday September 08, 2012

Kaieteur News

Page 11

Page 14

Kaieteur News

Saturday September 08, 2012

BK Int'l $200M lawsuit ...

Walter Willis submits defence to High Court Walter Willis, Technical Advisor to Public Works Minister, yesterday submitted his defence prepared by Rex MC Kay Snr. Counsel to the High Court against actions initiated by Managing Director, Brian Tiwarie of BK International Inc. Willis contends that Tiwarie is not entitled to any damages whether general, aggravated or exemplary.

Mid last month the contractor moved to Court against Willis seeking damages in excess of $200M for a letter written by Willis, which accused Tiwarie of fraudulent practices.

In his letter which was sent to Minister Ganga Persaud, Minister Norman Whittaker, Permanent (continued on page 16)

Walter Willis submits his defence to the High Court against $200M lawsuit

Saturday September 08, 2012

WANTED Canter Driver $ 25,000 Weekly, Porter $17,000 Must be from W.C.D, Call: 684-8231 One experience Graphic Artist. Call: 233-2725/2332439 Upholstery workers, sewing machine operators, joiners.

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Reputable Taxi Service seeks contract cars and drivers Call: 231-0250, 2310260 Computer literate person, Apply at Trophy Stall Bourda Market.

Kaieteur News

WANTED Driver /salesman with clean lorry driving record, security guards. Call: 266-4427 1 male to look after layer birds in the interior Call: 688-0197 1 Part time cook, for variety of dishes; restaurant experience an asset. Call: 2251787 for interview Attractive live in waitress to work in bar, age 18-30 years, attractive salaries Call: 3270252, 674-4665 Reputable Transportation Service is seeking experienced drivers and dispatchers also contract vehicles Call: 645-0025 One live in Domestic, Call: 658-9495 Required: One Maid, should be good in cooking. Contact: 227-4799, 223-5451 1 experienced cook, must be over 35 years, 2 waitresses, contact: 638-3925 1 General Domestic- Must know to cook also, East Bank area, call: 614-4358 Dispatchers, Cleaners, wash bay attendant ( apply) Sheriff Taxies Service. Call: 6551717/638-8452

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1 Handyboy to work in the interior Call: 688-0197

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Attractive females who are interested in becoming waitresses and bartenders Call: 226-7054

VACANCY Vacancy exist for Internet café assistant, Call: 686-4004

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Survival Shopping Complex, 173 Sheriff Street needs supervisors, evening cashiers and cleaners Call: 227-5286-90

Land and building for rent 13,000 ft at Peter’s Hall Public Road Call: 233-6161, 651-8870 One business Place and House, tel: 276- 0818

Driver for party rental service, within the vicinity of Parka to V/Hoop, must be able to work flexible hours.

Tel # 638-1627

Property Lot 15 New Heaven, Bel Air for US$2,500 and Lot 198 Lamaha Gardens, Bel Air for US$2,000 Call: 600-4664, 644-1300

Be part of our world class customer care team . Phone: 220-0401-3 or email: recruitmentguyana@ qualfon.com

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One trainee/refrigeration technician Call: 231-0655,6838734

Apartment Near Grove Public Road $40,000-45,000 Tel: # 644-5151

Vacancy exist for: Security, Cook, Kitchen Assistant, Delivery man. Contact # 2185120, 218-5121, 218-5122

Paulines Hair Salon, 177 Charlotte Street, Hairdressers barbers chairs & nails tables to rent Call: 679-1579, 680-1969, 233-5495

1 Kitchen assistant, 1 cleaner to work in restaurant on W.C.DCall: 269-0045or686-8640

Coolers for rent Call: 622-4271

Couple to live in and work at Resort in Essequibo River Call: 226-0240

Office space South Rd $3500US, Town to country 627-7390, 225-0854

One gardener/handyman to work in Georgetown residence Call: 226-0240

Diamond $25,000, $50,000 Call: 225-0854, 686-9888

Live in couple, driving an asset Call: 610-2978 after 6pm.

One nanny Call: 677-7123 One porter, one Sales Clerk, Call: 225-2313 Drivers and Porters, apply at Survival, Lot 10 Vlissengen Road

Family to live and work on farm, near East Bank Public Road. Free House Call: 6117777 or 226-0011

Live in waitress, age 18-25 yrs, salary $50,000, boarding & lodging free Call: 610-5043

One Salesman with driver’s license, salary plus commission. Call: 641-4626 / 220-1500

PARTY RENTAL Trampolines and Bouncy Castle Call: 225-2598, 6410784

Massey Ferguson Tractor 290. Full working condition.

Just overhauled & sprayed; tel # 618 – 7530.

FOR SALE 1 225 KVA Generator, 1 Hiace Canter, Premio, 3 light towers, car batteries Call:624-2000

10 acres of lease land at Kuru-Kururu suitable for Poultry Farm, call: 692-6239

Roofing Shingles 15-15-15 Fertilizer Call: 266-2711, 6094594

Leading Technology, Toshiba Laptop-wholesale & retail Call: 648-6600

Lighting plant generator (5500W), (5000W), ($175,000), ($165,000), 2 Diesel tanks 275 gallons each, prices negotiable Call: 678-0224 258-0070

FOR SALE

Brandnew American made Crosely 10.5 cu ft Refridgerator for sale $75,000 Call: 697-5677 Dachshund with terrier mix Call: 680-0192, 216-3408 New Generac 2700 PSI & Honda 3100 PSI Power pressure washer Call: 6148564, 680-0862

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Learn to do hand embroidery smocking, honey comb, cross stitch & other crafts. Call: 604-5381 8:00am to 4:00pm.

Public Road Herstelling bedrooms, $70,000 furnished $100,000 Call: 612-8879, 6782918

Introduction to Esthetic course. Pedicure, Manicure & Facial. Basic makeup application by overseas therapist starting Sept. 17th.

Call: 696-2295 / 618-8536

3 bedrooms, 1 laundry room apartment, fully furnished all amenities US$1,200, Unfurnished US$900, Location Granville Park ECD Call: 609-6890

Going cheap 1400x20R foreign used truck tyre Call: 648-2413

Pallet jacks 2.5 ton, power tools, car mats, car seat covers etc wholesale & retail Call: 614-8564, 680-0862

Tibetan Terrier mixed with dachshund puppies, 6 weeks old Call: 225-5486

4 Bedroom house next to new, A/C, Hot/Cold, large parking US$1,800 Monthly, Happy Acres ECD Call: 2317839 8am-4pm.

Imported Umbrellas 10ft & 12ft Call: 645-0870

Games for PS2 $900, PSP $900, Xbox360 $2,600, PS3 $2,600 Call: 265-3231, 6722566

Top Flat $70,000, Subryanville US$1500, Water Street US$40,000, Ogle $100,000 Diana 227-2256, 626-9382

One 2 bedrooms furnished apartment, parking & Wifi & Short term for foreign Call: 222-7891 or 609-9202

Toyota Starlet EP71 Call:6482075

Massey Ferguson tractors model 188, Honda ATVS model 500,2012 Call: 6886274 or 691-3851

65 kVA, 1 ph Deutz air cool gen set. Tel 622-3940

One live in/ live out Maid 668-3985, 253-3149, 264-3356

Experienced drivers, Apply @ Hack’s Halaal Restaurant with written application, 5 Commerce Street between 911am.

One salesgirl, one cleaner/ packer for shop on E.C.D, Age 17-24, salary negotiable Call: 615-8121

FOR RENT Taxi Base rental at a popular West Side Hotel Call: 638-1627

Page 15

L 15 HP Yamaha ( Long Foot), Tel: 689-5254/643-0332 G-Touring Wagon PLL series price $ 1.280, call: 629-5727 Plant for Sale OAK ( Casuarina) Call: 638-5191/ 219-0604 Exotic Hibiscus, Roses, Mussaenda, B/Ville, Ficus, Marigold, Periwinkle, Petunia, Herbs, Vegetable seedlings, A.K Plant Shop.

Call: 260-0005 Pioneer car deck with Bluetooth and drive port $2900 up Acer laptops $90,000. Call: 661-6793 / 6672482 Energy saver bulbs, call: 6411127

1 Auto Darkening welding helmet, New Chicago power tool, belt sander “4 x 24”, tel: 627-9825 Land tillers Honda new $160,000, Shredding machine with 11 HP Honda battery start $400,000 Call: 678-0224, 258-0070 Dell computers complete with 17&19 inch LCD from $50,000 Future Tech 2312206 19Ft Bass tracker, boat with trailer in excellent condition Call: 223-0943 Mon-Fri 9am4pm Craftsman weeders with 4 stroke engine (new) $50,000, 1-4 HP Yamaha outboard engine (new) $280,000 Call: 678-0224, 258-0070 Newly open Nokia Store, selling all types cell phones with all accessories in Vreeden-Hoop, Call: 661-4875 Massey Tractors- 265 $2,800,000, 275 $3,000,000, 285 $3,200,000, 298 $3,200,000, 399 $5,800,000, Welding generator $380,000 Call: 678-0224, 258-0070 1 400lb Ice machine, 2 polar freezers, 1 complete music set Call: 609-8260, 690-1864 Caterpillar backhoe low hour 426c Model, double jackhammer compressor, briggs, straighten roller compactor Call: 233-6161, 651-8870 ATV Yamaha Raptor 450, fully race ready Call: 6156600 Earth delivery at spot also bobcat & excavator rentals Call: 626-7127 (Continued on page 20)

Page 16

Kaieteur News

Wanted bulletin for alleged $80M house lot scam mastermind Police have issued a wanted bulletin for a man suspected to be the mastermind behind the $80M house lot scam.

A release said that Prem Persaud, also called Prem Rampersaud, is wanted for questioning in relation to obtaining by false pretence.

Police have given his last known addresses as Lot 6 Herstelling, East Bank Demerara; and Prospect, East Bank Demerara.

Anyone with information that may lead to the arrest of Prem Persaud called “Prem Rampersaud” is asked to contact the police on telephone numbers: 225-8196, 225-2227, 225-6411, 226-7065, 911 or the nearest police station.

Police had reportedly attempted to arrest Persaud at a Grove, East Bank Demerara house that he had been renting. Two other people who were allegedly involved in the house lot scam have since been charged and remanded.

On Thursday, Denita Griffith, 19, and Balkran Lillie, 25, faced three charges of obtaining money by false pretence when they appeared before Chief Magistrate Priya Sewnarine- Beharry.

They are likely to face 18 more criminal charges.

Police allege that between May 23 and June 30, and between May 1 and June 5, and again on June 5, the two

Prem Persaud accused obtained from Latchmie Manbodh the sum of $380,000; from Benna Stanislaus $660,000; and from Ramkumar Rajban $250,000.

The police are alleging that the two collected money from house lot applicants under the pretext that they would receive land. The duo reportedly tricked persons into believing that they had connections with staffers of the Ministry of Housing who would facilitate them in acquiring house lots.

It is alleged that on different occasions the accused would approach persons going to the Housing Ministry for land and engage in conversations pertaining to them acquiring land at a faster and cheaper rate.

The police stated that the number one accused, Lillie, would wait as persons entered the Ministry of Housing

compound and inform them that he was able to obtain a letter approving them for house lots since he had a connection inside. The police information revealed that Lillie would contact number two accused Griffith on a cell phone, and in the presence of the unsuspecting house lot applicants he would make arrangements with his accomplice to have the letter of approval ready.

At another date, the house lot applicant would return to the Housing Ministry where Griffith would emerge from the Ministry purporting to be one of the Ministry’s staffers.

Money would allegedly be handed over, with the house lot applicant believing that he/she would speedily receive a letter approving them for house lots in the Little Diamond area.

But eventually complaints started to pour in at the Housing Ministry where victims reported difficulties in obtaining the house lots. This led to police and officials of the Central Housing and Planning Authority launching an investigation. Griffith was arrested on Sunday at a popular highway resort after a victim spotted her and informed the police. Lillie was detained the following day.

The accused are to return to court next Friday when the police are expected to have made contact with additional scam victims.

Saturday September 08, 2012

Education Minister’s message to Mark International Literacy Day September 8 has been designated International Literacy Day by the United Nations and Guyana like the rest of the world is set to commemorate its significance today.

In this regard Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand, has issued a message amplifying the importance of what she describes as “the global gift of literacy.” Her message is as follows: There is much reason to celebrate. Close to four billion people the world over are currently blessed with the gift of literacy; and if there are those who are still to be reached, those numbers still amount to an achievement worthy of global celebration.

We in Guyana have always boasted a consistently high level of literacy. We have won international recognition for the job which our education system has done in producing a highly literate population and that is a feat which we celebrate today.

The theme for International Literacy Day 2012 – Literacy and Peace – was adopted by the United Nations Literacy Decade (UNLD) to draw attention to the role which the condition of literacy can play improving the quality of human life.

If we pon d e r f o r a moment the nexus between literacy and peace what we will find is that the facility of being literate not only brings people closer to attaining individual freedoms but also

contributes to a better understanding of our world, our region, our country and our community.

That understanding, I submit, contributes immeasurably to both preventing and resolving conflict. More than that, one only need take a cursory glance around the world to discover that it is much more difficult to establish or sustain a literate environment in unstable and conflict-ridden societies.

In this context I wish to make two points about the way in which the theme of this year’s International Literacy Day might relate to Guyana.

First, I believe that the fact that we have been able to retain such a high level of literacy is a tribute to the political stability and absence of conflict in our society.

There is no doubt in my mind that these conditions have helped to create an enabling environment in which to sustain a high level of literacy.

My second point has to do with the importance of we, as Guyanese, recognizing the good fortune of being a highly literate population.

Sometimes one is inclined to wonder whether, over the years, we have taken sufficient advantage of the gift of our literacy in the pursuit of dispute settlement and conflict resolution.

As we celebrate International Literacy Day 2012 all of us would do well to ponder the enlightening perspective of the

significance of literacy proffered by the Director General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Irina Bokova who declares that “literacy is the foundation of all learning.

It provides individuals with the skills to understand the world and shape it, to participate in democratic processes and have a voice, and also to strengthen their cultural identity.

The UNESCO Director General’s pronouncement is as elegant a description of the essence of literacy as it is a precise articulation of the nexus between enhancing literacy worldwide and improving the quality of human life.

We in the Ministry of Education recognize and take seriously our own particular role in continually enhancing the level of literacy in our society.

Let me say, however, that while we will continue to do everything in our power to continue to improve the capacity of the school system to raise literacy standards even higher, the job does not belong to the teachers in the formal education system alone.

It falls to all of us, individually and collectively to contribute to the task of enhancing literacy levels in our country. It might interest the literate amongst us to know that there are some United Nations-recommended initiatives that we can take, (continued on page 17)

Walter Willis submits defence to High ... High Court orders ‘Fip’ to collect Local Government and Re- are agreed during the contract From page 14 non-functioning equipment Secretary Collin Croal, Ms gional Development to de- period.”

“The contractor failed to Karen Ehret and Marcello sign, execute and operate the Basani, Willis had accused Tiwarie of producing fraudulent results of Surface Water Samples.

While Willis has admitted in his defence to the court that he circulated the letter to the above mentioned persons, he denied that the letter was intended to portray the plaintiff as a “fraudster and corrupt person and is an unfit person to whom Government contracts should be awarded.”

The Government Engineer said the letter was sent in his capacity as the Project Manager of the Project Execution Unit- Georgetown Solid Waste Management in pursuance of a legal, social and moral duty in the protection of a legitimate interest to persons with a like duty or interest to receive it.

In November 2009, BK International Inc and Puran Brothers Disposal Service in a joint venture, entered into a contract with the Ministry of

works known as the construction and operation services of Haags Bosch Sanitary Landfill.

Under the contract BK International has an obligation to monitor the environment and submit reports to the Unit in a timely manner. These include results of analyses of all data collected on leachate, groundwater, surface water and landfill gas.

As Project Manager, Willis stated that he has a duty to report the progress of the work of the contractor to ensure compliance with the terms and conditions of the contract and to report to the persons named in his letter of July 18, 2012 who have a like duty to receive same.

Willis is contending that under Clause 10.1 Volume 11, the contract provides that “the contractor shall comply with the Operation Management Requirements as provided for in the contract and any revisions thereof which

observe the ground water leachate monitoring daily, monthly, quarterly and annually. The last time the contractor submitted an IAST (Institute of Applied Science and Technology) report was in April 2011.”

Tiwarie claims that he had obtained those results lawfully from the Institute of Applied Science and Technology.

According to Tiwarie, the letter by Willis was maliciously and irresponsibly written by the defendant, and is calculated and designed to brand Tiwarie as a fraudster and a person whom the Government of Guyana and other agencies should have no dealings with.

Tiwarie is contending that the said letter conveys the meaning that he carries on his business in a deceitful, crooked, corrupt, dishonest, illegal, improper manner and is calculated to reflect on his business reputation.

The High Court has ordered the Public Works Ministry to return a number of vehicles to Synergy Holdings Inc (Makeshwar ‘Fip’ Motilall). The vehicles were seized earlier this year when Government terminated its multi-million-dollar Amaila Falls road project with Synergy Holdings.

Government on January 12, last, announced the cancellation of the US$15.4M road contract it signed with Synergy Holdings Inc, headed

by Motilall. The termination came when Motilall failed to secure a Performance Bond.

According to an official at the Ministry, engineers are currently reviewing a long list of vehicles- operational and non-operational- which were seized by Government. Many of the pieces of equipment are non-operational and it is said those are the equipment that the Court has ordered to be returned to Motilall.

The Works Ministry said

Makeshwar ‘Fip’ Motilall that it does not mind returning the non-functioning pieces of equipment because it was proving to be costly to be providing security of them.

The official related that several pieces of equipment are being used to carry out works on the Amaila Falls road. The non-operational pieces are also in the interior.

Government had alleged that Motilall had sabotaged the equipment following the termination of this contract.

Senior personnel attached to Synergy Holdings had described the equipment as ‘junk’. Motilall had conceded to using some of the US$1.5M to purchase equipment and to ship them to Guyana.

The equipment purchased are said to value the same amount as the shipping costs.

The alleged faulty equipment was blamed by the overseas personnel for several accumulative months of delays as almost each day some of the equipment had broken down.

Earlier this year when Motilall went to remove the seized equipment from the area he was stopped by security personnel.

The official said that the matter between Motilall and Government is still ongoing.

The return of the pieces of equipment is one aspect of the court matter.

Saturday September 08, 2012

Kaieteur News

Page 17

Armed bandits chopped, Policemen charged for brutalized Court clerk assaulting businessman …hold gun to eight-year-old son’s head Armed masked bandits invaded the home of Kuntie Persaud, called “Swarsatie” 35, of Lot 111 New Area, Adelphi, East Canje, Berbice, around 23:50 hrs on Thursday evening.

Persaud, a typist/clerk at the New Amsterdam Magistrate’s Court, brutally chopped and beat her before robbing her of hundreds of thousands of dollars in jewelry.

During the attack the three bandits armed with a gun, a cutlass and an axe threatened to shoot her eight-year-old son, Andy, by placing a gun to his head. The woman was chopped twice on her left hand, once on her right and twice on her fingers.

The woman who, despite being chopped, was putting up a resistance. She decided to concede when she saw the bandits emerge from the room with a gun to her son’s head.

The bandit by then had taken all the jewelry the woman was wearing and were demanding more.

According to information the woman was at home with her son. They were in bed when she was suddenly jolted from her sleep by the sound of breaking glass. The men had scaled the fence before mounting the steps, breaking and ripping out the glass windows and wooden bar,

Kuntie Persaud and barging into the house.

Once in the house the culprits fired a shot from a shotgun that ripped a large hole in the roof. They then grabbed the woman and started to beat and broadside her, taking her into the hall as they made their demands.

They took what she was wearing at the time and aimed some chops at her body, even as she fended them with her hands.

The woman left hand was almost severed, as were her right hand and the fingers on both hands. The bandits had cut the telephone cords and discharged rounds to ward off neighbours, who might have

tried to come to the woman’s aid.

The bandits, who were wearing hoods, smashed the downstairs light before scaling the fence and escaping through the nearby cane fields. The police were informed and arrived on the scene but by then the men had long gone.

Severely wounded and bleeding profusely, the woman who had collapsed by then, was rescued by neighbours and rushed to the New Amsterdam Hospital where she was admitted and underwent surgery.

Her husband, Yadram Persaud, who works in Suriname, was informed and started travelling immediately to be with his family. He arrived home around 10.15 hrs and the police had not arrived to take statements.

The man and his family were very upset that up to about 11:30 hours the police had not returned to do any follow up work. The place was in a mess and reeked of blood and the family was told not to enter the house, by the police, despite their desire to clean the place.

Investigations are ongoing into the matter and so far three suspects are in custody as the police hunt two others.

The damaged window and roof on her house caused by a bullet

Education Minister’s message to ...

From page 16 either as individuals or groups, outside the formal school system to improve literacy levels in our country.

You can contribute to enhancing literacy levels by: donating books and other reading material to your local school, library or community centre; setting up a Reading Club in your community;

volunteering to teach a literacy class in your community; mentoring one or more non-literate persons; in the final analysis literacy is much more than an educational tool.

It is an instrument – and a critical one at that – that helps to craft the quality of life in our neighbourhoods, our communities, our country, our

region and in the world as a whole.

We in Guyana, whether we are within or outside the formal education system, must commit ourselves to the furtherance of the noble goal raising the levels of literacy in our country. It is not only about raising the standard of education but improving the quality of life in Guyana.

Four policemen have been charged for assaulting a businessman. The four officers, Kevon Smith, Jermaine Scott, Marlon Gonslaves and Wilwert Watts, appeared before Acting Chief Magistrate Priya SewnarineBeharry yesterday, on an allegation that they physically assaulted East Bank Demerara businessman, Neezam Khan, on July 14 last.

The assault allegedly occurred in the vicinity of his place of business during a confrontation over a traffic violation.

The policemen all denied the allegations.

Police Prosecutor, Gordon Mansfield, told the court that the ranks were on mobile patrol on the East Bank Demerara Public road during

a traffic build up. The officers noticed that Khan was in breach of one of traffic regulation and went to caution him when he drove away.

The officers reportedly followed the virtual complainant to his business place and without telling the reason for their visit one of the officers dealt him several slaps about the face.

The other ranks joined in and administered additional “blows” to the businessman.

Khan was then taken into custody and placed in a police vehicle where the officers reportedly continued to beat him on his way to the station.

The man reportedly sustained swelling to various parts of his body, according to a medical report.

Attorney-at-Law Patrice Henry, who was at the service

of the four accused, requested that the men be placed on their own recognizance since they are active members of the police force.

In his application, the lawyer claimed that he was instructed that the allegations against his clients are inaccurate in that the businessman, who made these false accusations, lodged the report one week after the alleged incident, since he is associated with a senior officer of the Guyana Police Force.

Prosecutor Mansfield made no objection to the lawyer’s submission and the Magistrate ruled that the four officers be released on self bail. The men are scheduled to make their next court appearance on October 22.

Woman remanded for marijuana in Pringle tins A woman who was caught with a quantity of cannabis concealed in three ‘Pringle’ tins was yesterday refused bail after she faced Chief Magistrate Priya SewnarineBeharry (ag) yesterday on a charge of possession of narcotics for the purpose of trafficking.

Reports are that on September 5, Nicola Abrams, a mother of one and a resident of Seafield, Leonora, West Coast Demerara, had in her possession 25 grams of marijuana secreted in three Pringle tins while at the

Timehri prison. Abrams pleaded not guilty to the charge.

Attorney -At -Law Paul Fung -A -Fat represented Abrams in the case. The lawyer requested bail for the defendant and argued that his client collected the bag which contained the narcotics from one of her husband’s relatives.

Fung-A-Fat affirmed that the narcotics did not belong to his client.

However Police prosecutor Evelyn Sampson recommended that Abrams be

remanded to prison since on the day of the incident, the defendant was visiting her reputed husband who is incarcerated at the Timehri prison. The prosecutor said that the woman took a bag with items for the inmate.

A routine search was carried out on the bag and a quantity of leaves seeds and stems suspected to be cannabis was discovered hidden in three separate Pringle tins. Abrams was later cautioned and told of the offence before being arrested and charged.

Taxi debt for “road trip” lands man in court Phillip Mattai, 20, who hired a taxi to transport him during a “sporting spree” landed in front of Acting Chief Magistrate Priya SewnarineBeharry at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court yesterday after he was unable to pay the bill which amounted to over $35,000. Mattai told the court that he is guilty of the offence.

He was legally represented by Attorney -At –Law, Paul Fung –A-Fat. The lawyer asked that the court be lenient with his client who is young and was intoxicated at the time of the incident.

Fung A Fat said that Mattai had hired a taxi to take him places he’s never seen before while he splurged his money on his friends, “the trip that caused him to end up at the Lebanon House of Exotic Pleasures,” where he realized that he could not pay for the ride.

The lawyer told the court

that the defendant’s brother, who was present in court, will pay the taxi driver the amount owed.

The lawyer then requested that his client be given a minimal fine.

Police information is that on August 29, Mattai obtained credit by fraud in that he utilized the service of Cecil Pollard, a taxi driver to take him to Splashmins Resort on the Soesdyke/Linden Highway.

The taxi waited while the defendant and friends spent a lengthy time at the Resort.

The taxi brought Mattai and

his friends back to Georgetown where they made frequent stops at various night spots before making a final drop at the Rocky Hotel in Alberttown.

There the “wasted defendant” who occupied the back seat told the driver that he did not have money to pay.

The complainant then drove his taxi to the nearest police station, where Mattai was taken into custody.

After Mattai’s relative paid the taxi bill in open court, the Magistrate reprimanded and discharged him.

Page 18

Kaieteur News

Saturday September 08, 2012

Absence of Magistrates stalling Protest action nets emergency court proceedings in Berbice repairs for Bartica/Potaro road - two magistrates have to serve 10 courts and 11 districts

By Samuel Whyte The absence of magistrates in the various courts in Berbice is severely affecting the dispensing of justice in the Ancient County.

At the moment only two magistrates are serving 10 courts and 11 magisterial districts, from the Upper Corentyne to Berbice River.

This dire situation has come about because two of the four magistrates, Magistrates Adela Nagamootoo and Fabio Azore, are currently on leave.

The two remaining magistrates have to take up the slack. In many cases matters are postponed. The situation is at a crisis level according to some legal minds.

Magistrate Robby Benn serves on the West Berbice district and currently supervises courts at Blairmont, Fort Wellington and Weldaad while Magistrate Krisendat Persaud serves on the Upper Corentyne. The two magistrates have to double up and supervise the other courts.

A look at the court schedules for Berbice will show that sessions are scheduled for Springlands on the Upper Corentyne on Mondays, Tuesday Thursdays and Fridays. The No 51 Magistrate’s Court on the Upper Corentyne has sessions on Wednesdays.

Whim Magistrate’s Court are in sessions on Mondays,

Wednesdays and Fridays.

The Black Bush Magistrate’s Court which has been abandoned, due to neglect will see those litigants attending sessions on every first and third Tuesdays at the Whim Court. The Albion Magistrate’s Court has sessions on Tuesdays and some Wednesdays. The Reliance Magistrate’s Court in East Canje sits on Wednesdays.

The main court at New Amsterdam is expected to have sessions on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays with special sessions being held on Thursdays. The remand centre in New Amsterdam is also held on Thursdays at the Prison Officers’ club.

The Berbice magistracy has to take care of the Kwakwani court which is more than one hundred miles up the Berbice River. There sessions are held every third Friday. The East Bank Berbice District which has a court at Sisters village has not operated in years. Efforts were made to resuscitate that court, but those have now falled through. Matters listed for Sisters Village are heard at New Amsterdam.

Some outspoken attorneys and prominent individuals in Berbice have said that the government is making a mockery of the situation, because it is refusing to appoint magistrates. One prominent

attorney stated that the situation is very unfair especially to defendants who have to languish in jail, due to no fault of theirs.

“There is simple no magistrate to try their cases.

It is tantamount to justice delayed being justice denied, since many persons on remand have to wait longer for their matters to be heard.”

Residents expressed their disappointment as hundreds turned up at the various courts on requisite days only to be turned away and to be told that their matters have been postponed because the magistrate is on leave.

Residents stated that with all the money being spent on the improvement of the justice system in Guyana at least the court system could do better.

There are thousands of cases waiting to be heard; some are indictable while others date back more than 10 years ago.

Additionally, the situation poses a problem for Prosecutors.

“Whenever a case is dismissed for the lack of prosecution because witnesses don’t turn up, you hear all kinds of talk about bribery. This is unfair to us because we try our best in dire straits like these. But because of the delays in the court system, witnesses are fed up and don’t turn up. There is very little that can be done.

GuySuCo investigates Blairmont worker sugar vessel explosion - one injured The management of the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) is insisting that it conducted gas tests on a vessel docked at Blairmont, prior to and after an industrial accident that happened on August 31, last at that Berbice estate.

Refuting earlier newspaper reports, the state owned sugar company said that investigation are still ongoing but indications are that there was no loud explosion on the vessel while there was some work ongoing.

A worker, Zaheer Yacoob, was said to be injured.

According to the corporation, on August 31, around 07:00 hours, Yacoob and three co-workers were assigned to clean the No. 1 Evaporator on the vessel. While cleaning the vessel, they heard a loud noise, so they stopped working and exited the evaporator to enquire.

GuySuCo, in a press release, said that the staff reported that they saw nothing and as a result, resumed working.

Shortly after, they heard a second loud sound and everyone exited the

evaporator with the exception of Yacoob.

“After the co-workers realized that he (Yacoob) was absent they re-entered the evaporator and found him in a state of shock and assisted him out of the evaporator. Mr. Yacoob had no visible injuries but was transported to the Blairmont Primary Health Care Centre where the staff nurse, Ms. S. Beepat, examined and administered oxygen to him to assist (his) breathing.”

According to GuySuCo, Yacoob at the time was in a conscious but non-responsive state. He was referred immediately to the New Amsterdam Public Hospital for further examination and treatment. He was admitted and held overnight for precautionary observations.”

He was discharged the next day and granted seven days leave by Dr. Ramsackal, who diagnosed him with second degree shock injury.

Yacoob had complained that GuySuCo paid him little attention following the accident. But GuySuCo had this to say: “The Shift Manager from the Factory

visited Mr. Yacoob at his residence on 03.09.2012 and was advised that Mr. Yacoob was convalescing at home.

“On Tuesday 04.09.2012 Mr. Zaheer Yacoob submitted his medical certificate to the Human Resources Department. He indicated to the Estate Health and Safety Officer (EHSO) and Industrial Welfare Officer/Community Development Officer (IWO/ CDO) of improving but still with a slight back pain.”

According to the corporation, it should be noted that all the necessary safety precautions were taken. These include gas testing for carbon dioxide gas was done prior to entry and a follow-up after the accident.

“During both tests no dangerous gases were detected. Checks after the accident revealed that an electrical industrial fan which was mounted on a five feet platform was found on the ground and may have accounted for the noises heard. The final investigation is in its completion stage, pending the return of Mr. Yacoob to normal duties.”

Delegation standing on Stelling Square just in front of the RDC office.

A delegation from the Four Miles Housing Scheme Bartica/Potaro Road, and the Bartica Minibus Association on Thursday, around 10:30 am, participated in a peaceful placard-waving protest against the deplorable surface conditions of the Bartica/Potaro Road.

They staged the protest at the Bartica Stelling Square , outside the Regional Administrative Office building located on First Avenue Bartica.

More than 60 persons, mainly women, chanted, ‘ We want good Roads from One to Five Miles, and no more promises”.

In not so friendly weather conditions , the spokes persons and negotiators for the delegation, Micah Williams and Godfrey Marshall, were in a meeting at the said time with the Region Seven Administration and an Engineer from the Ministry of Transport , Works and Hydraulics on the issue .

After that meeting Micah Williams and Godfrey Marshall then informed the protesters about what was achieved from the discussions. Williams then declared that rehabilitation works will commence

immediately , and an Engineer will be immediately visiting the Road to make an assessment of what has to be done immediately.

Godfrey Marshall has been identified as the Delegation’s Representative to oversee that proper works are being done. He will also be in possession of a copy of the Contract to ensure that all of the requirements are met.

He then advised the gathering to give the Ministry a chance to do their part and also for the Regional Administration to put the

agreed conditions into a document of common mutual agreement.

Micah Williams again then led discussions with the delegation where they consensually agreed that the Minibus strike will continue until the promised Memorandum of Understanding on all of what is agreed on is documented and presented to them.

Micah Williams declared to the gathering that their cries have been heard because the strike has been effective.

(Edward A Persaud )

Gunmen hit High Street gas station Gunmen made off with an undisclosed sum of cash last evening after robbing two pump attendants at the Princes and High Streets Texaco gas station, in Georgetown.

According to reports, the incident occurred at around 21:00 hours while the female pump attendants were about to close off their night shift.

This publication was told that the two men were seen earlier in the night lurking around the gas station but no one paid

them any mind.

One eyewitness said that when the men noticed that there was no traffic in the gas station, they pounced on the two attendants and relieved them both of a large amount of cash. Reports are that one of the men pulled his jersey over his face during the act.

The men then fled the scene on foot before an alarm was raised.

Up to late last evening, the two pump attendants were with police giving statements.

Police scramble to recover $M owed in traffic fines The police are scrambling to recover millions of dollars owed to the government by errant drivers who have simple refused to pay their traffic tickets, after being fined by the courts and given time to pay.

Fines owed at the New Amsterdam Magistrate’s Court alone accounts for over $2M. If one takes the other courts into consideration then the amount skyrockets to several millions.

Since the passage of the

new traffic Act earlier this year, the onus is on the traffic department and more so, the subject traffic rank who issued the ticket, to make sure that the errant drivers pay their fines.

A failure to make sure that the fines are paid can also see the traffic rank being disciplined and the driver being further penalized.

A recent check at the New Amsterdam Magistrate’s Court showed that over 350

drivers are in default. The court has since issued arrest warrants for those errant drivers. These warrants can see them being placed in custody until the fines have been paid.

The ticketed charges are varied and include all types of infringements. Some of these are obstruction, driving without seat belts, speeding, talking on cell phones, overload and dangerous driving.

Saturday September 08, 2012

Kaieteur News

Page 19

Top golfers showcase their wares as El Dorado golf tournament gets underway today The Lusignan Golf Club, Lusignan ECD, will come alive when the nation’s top golfers convene at that facility for the El Dorado golf tournament this morning starting at 09:00hrs.

Activities will be sponsored by Demerara Distillers Ltd under the El Dorado label and competition is expected to be fierce.

The rainy season has abated somewhat and the current weather conditions are conducive to a great tournament. Top golfer, Joaan Deo has been in impressive form recently and had clinched the honours in the most recent championships staged at that venue last

week. Several other players have also been in great form including Brian Hackett, Christine Sukram, Patrick Persaud and Fazil Haniff.

The latter player had clinched the prize for the player with the best gross in the last championship. Many more talented players will be on show.

Meanwhile, Brands Manager (DDL), Maria Munroe handed over the sponsorship package to the organizers, while reminding that this is the second year that his company has been performing such honours. She also committed to the continuance of such chivalry over the coming years.

“The management of DDL recognizes golf as a growing sport in Guyana and we remain committed to its development,” said the Brands Manager.

She also noted the involvement of young people and noted that their involvement is indeed a pleasing development.

Ms Munroe further issued a warning to Ms Deo that she (Munroe) is contemplating her involvement in the sport and the golf queen ought to be circumspect of such an eventuality. The sponsors will also be offering a complimentary drink dubbed, ‘Chairman’s Special’ to the players and fans. Mrs.

Munroe also wished all the players well in the tournament.

Club Secretary David Mohamed expressed gratitude to the DDL executive and assured that the gift will go a far way towards the success of the tournament. Trophies will be presented to the first three players with the best gross, the player with the best net, the player closest to the pin and the player that accomplishes the longest drive. Renovations to the golf course have resulted in improved playing conditions with the greens and fairways in immaculate condition while the tee boxes and rough areas are nicely cut.

(From Left) Club Secretary David Mohamed witnesses El Dorado rep. Maria Munroe (centre) presents Club Member Joaan Deo with the sponsorship as Club Captain Rawle Moore look on during the presentation.

“We want to deliver something...

Saturday September 08, 2012 ARIES (MAR 21 - APR 19): If you want to move, look in an out-of-the-way neighbourhood. You could find a dream home at a very reasonable price and although you’d prefer to live in the thick of the things, you can’t argue with a deal that puts money in your pocket and beauty in your life. *********************************** TAURUS (APR 20 - MAY 20): Taking a class in writing, negotiating or sales could have fantastic benefits. Not only will these lessons improve your job prospects, they will also put you in touch with some very important people. *********************************** GEMINI (MAY 21 - JUN 20): Your financial position has been a source of strain for the past two years, but you finally see a light at the end of the tunnel. *********************************** CANCER (JUN 21 - JUL 22): Your hard work could pay off in the form of a degree or luxury holiday and while you are too exhausted to enjoy the fruits of your labour now, don’t make light of your accomplishments. *********************************** LEO (JUL 23 - AUG 22): Breaking a bad habit or conquering an old demon opens your eyes to new possibilities. There’s no reason you can’t have a fulfilling relationship, rewarding career or improved health. *********************************** VIRGO (AUG 23 - SEP 22): For the past two years, you haven’t had much time to socialise. Maybe the constraints of a career have forced you to put in long hours at the office. Perhaps a new baby has kept you at home.

LIBRA (SEP 23 - OCT 22): As far as your career is concerned, you’ve been forced to take what is offered, rather than make your own opportunities.

Now you’re being rewarded for your humble attitude. *********************************** SCORPIO (OCT 23 NOV 21): You could get the nod to begin a writing project that requires lots of diligent research. It’s possible that you will be penning a book or starting a thesis paper and while the road ahead will require some sacrifices, the ultimate rewards are enormous. *********************************** SAGITTARIUS (NOV 22 - DEC 21): Serious investments will improve your domestic situation. If you want to buy a house, apply to a lending institution today. You could be given a great rate on a mortgage. *********************************** CAPRICORN (DEC 22 JAN 19): The opportunity to heal a troubled relationship could arrive today. Perhaps you are taking a more compassionate view towards your spouse or business partner. *********************************** AQUARIUS (JAN 20 FEB 18): You’ve been heavily burdened with work for quite some time. Don’t think your superiors haven’t noticed all of your toil and sacrifice. In fact, you may be presented with a handsome bonus or a beautiful gift as thanks for your efforts. *********************************** PISCES (FEB 19 - MAR 20): Developing your creative talent puts you in the spotlight today. Don’t be surprised if you are singled out for an award or prize.

From back page components. Phase I started in December 2010, and was expected to last six months, but the facility is still undergoing works in that phase, which is what prompted investigations from the media.

Courtney Benn Contracting Services Limited was awarded the contract for Phase I of the project. Phase I included drainage and irrigation works, construction of two culverts, main access road to the facility among other land preparation works, which are all completed.

Courtney Been had won the award for Phase I after submitting a $124, 960, 227M bid. Phase I of the facility also included the foundation works to accommodate the actual laying of the synthetic track. It is at this component of the Phase that several challenges arose.

“We encountered some legitimate problems that caused us to lose some time.

We had a situation with some flooding from Guysuco when they release water along with the high tides that stopped us for a while from getting 18 inches off the ground,” Pitt explained.

However, those foundation works were able to be completed, but when German company, BSW Regupol vis-

ited the facility, they raised several questions about the platform for the track, DCSL Director said, forcing them to do further geo-technical foundation work.

To get those geo-technical works completed, the contractors were forced to go outside of Guyana to the United States-based Tensar International to get the base up to the required standard, before the German-based Regupol commence Phase II, which is laying the track.

“We had to go to Parliament to get monies released

for all this. When we got the permission to proceed (from Parliament in December 2011), we learnt that Tensar was closed for the holidays, so there was a period where the works could not be touched,” Pitt noted.

He could not give definite dates for the completion of the entire facility, stating that that would it would depend on the completion of the various sub-lots within the three Phases; he said the track will cost US$5M, and of the proposed locations, Leonora was most suitable.

Page 20

(From page 15)

PROPERTY FOR SALE One wooden and concrete building situated at 250 Coldingen E.C.D $5.5M Neg. Call: 229-6577, 654-9767 Prospect $12M, Eccles $20M-30M, Lamaha Street $22M, Queenstown $79M120M Diana 227-2256, 6269382 Nandy Park Luxury home, pool, jacuzi, master bedroom, $1M US. Call: 6727390 / 225-0843 Transported land, wooden & concrete house situated at Lot 18 Zeskendren Mahaicony East Coast Demerara Call: 221-2737

Kaieteur News

SERVICES Permanent &Visitors Visa Applications Professional Immigration Consultant Sabita - Room E-4 Maraj Building 225-6496/ 223-8115/662-6045.

Mahadoe’s Construction, reliable services for your building, contact Tony Tel 618-3523, 669-7376. For free estimates and plans.

Canter for sale GPP Series, very good condition Call: 682-4224

PERKINS ENGINE Foreign used, direct from England, 4&6 cylinder also 6 cylinder cummings Call: 653-7654

1 Allion, 1 IST, 1 Rav4, 1 45150 Leyland Daff, 1 55-210 Leyland HIAB Call Archie 624-1343, 664-2755

UK, USA, Canada Visa Application services Call: 694-7221, Family discount available Vreed-en-Hoop opposite Police Station upstairs.

SAMSUNG CHRONOS 7 LAPTOP INTEL CORE i5, 8GB MEMORY, 750GB HDD, 14'’ LED HIGH DEFINITION, WINDOWS 7.

NEW / SEALED $180,000.

TEL: 683-3161

Unregistered Tundra tt 100 and Tacoma Call: 265-2103, 645-9860

Online research services for research / long paper assignment etc. Contact: 6694257

One 150 Jailing Scrambler, Price $140,000 Call: 642-1305, 264-2954

Marriage, Visa forms & other legal documents Call: 2253070, 686-4994

T.B Designs Inc, we offer: Engineering drawings, house plans & estimates.

Contact: T. Boodhoo on 6259883 / 675-9296

Happy Acre luxury home $55.5M, South Ruimveldt 2 storey $10M Call: 672-7390, 225-0854

Repairs to refrigerators, gas stoves, washing machines, A/C units Call: Lindon 6411086, 694-2202 We refill HP cartridges for $1800 Call: 650-7699 Buying, selling, renting & constructing. Call: 672-7390 / 225-0843 Selling your home, Land, renting, then call Shawn at GME Realty 231-2200, 618 7483 anytime.

Pure breed German Shepherd pups, one German shepherd mixed wit rotweiler 5 months old Call: 682-2148, 655-8674

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VEHICLES FOR SALE 1 AT 192, 17’’ Rims, Alarm, CD Player, Mint Condition $1.3MCall:613-7553or664-5594

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Scrabble Players resume itinerary in GASP Open C/ships tomorrow morning

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Saturday September 08, 2012

One 4 doors Hilux pickup (Toyota) and one mini Cooper Call: 263-7166, 6601269, 616-6007 Spacio New Model, unregistered, $2.5M Call: 6210956 1 Toyota Verossa, Excellent condition, low mileage PPP series Call: 678-0456 1 Toyota Harrier $3.5M, 1 RAV4 2002 Model ACA21, 4 doors $3M Call: 231-7837 8am-4pm 1 EP71 Starlet, 1 Toyota 192, 212, Ceres, G-Touring wagon, AT 150 Corona, 1 Nissan E24 Van , Alteeza PMM Call: 6445096, 697-1453 One Honda CRV PKK 9384 (Grey). First Owner; call: 6125356

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The Caribbean Scrabble Championships are now a thing of the past and so too is the fact that Guyana has failed to dethrone defending champions, Trinidad and Tobago. However, the local word formers could take conciliation in the fact that they had placed second in the three nation championships and had inflicted a severe beating on the defending champs in the first round of the championships.

With the smoke now cleared, the local players will resume their local itinerary when the Guyana Association of Scrabble Players (GASP) stages an open tournament at the Malteenoes Sports Club tomorrow morning starting at 10:00hrs.

As expected, the top seeds will attempt to stave off the challenges of the young players who are all turning in improved performances.

Those among the top ten that will be matching skills include, national champion, Abigail McDonald, her predecessor, Fred Collins, Leon Belony, Moen Gafoor and James Krakowsky among others. Aspiring champions the likes of Grace Hercules, Ruby Cummings, Wayne Cave and Michael Benjamin will be keen to present some trouble for these players which obviously would present an interesting scenario.

Lucrative prizes would be awarded to the top three finishers while and the best player out of the top 10 will receive a special prize.

Players are reminded that the cost of registration $500 and those activities commence at 09:30hrs. The first tile would be placed at 10:00hrs. Late comers would have their clocks activated in their absence.

Saturday September 08, 2012

Kaieteur News

Page 21

Director of Sport extends condolences following sudden passing of Henry Greene Director of Sport Neil Kumar in reflecting on the life of Former Police Commissioner Henry Greene, has offered condolences to all those associated with him, whether family, friend or associates.

In the tribute, Kumar noted Greene’s association with sport, mainly table tennis over the years and his sterling contribution to the improvement of that game over the past two years. Here is the full text of the message: “Mr. Henry Greene, Former Commissioner of Police and President of the Guyana Table Tennis Association died in the early morning of Friday, September 7, 2012 on the Harlem Public Road, West Coast Demerara.

His death was as a result of a three vehicle accident.

Mr. Greene was elected

President of the Guyana Table Tennis Association on July 31, 2010, an Association which at the time was experiencing severe managerial difficulties and was unable to carry out its mandate.

As a consequence, he used all his experience and put systems in place to ensure the proper and effective forward movement of the association. He led by example and motivated his executives to emulate his very high standards.”

“His interest in the players was unquestionable.

He encouraged them to be committed, dedicated, strive for success at the highest levels. His concerns for the development of the players and the game were obvious in the implementation of attractive incentives for players and his presence at

Neil Kumar

Henry Greene

competitions.”

Under his presidency, the Guyana Table Tennis Association accomplished much; - Decentralizing the game to many parts of the country including Berbice, Essequibo Coast, Bartica, Linden, West Demerara, Mahdia, East and

West Bank Demerara.

- Distribution of Tables to schools in various areas, Regions 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 and 10, Georgetown and the University of Guyana (Turkeyen and Berbice) - Resuscitation of the National Schools Teams Tournament, the Inter Organization Teams Championship and the National Championships.

- Was Awarded the Most Improved Sports Association and Best Association of the Year.

- Introduced the Umpire ITTF Basic Coaching Course and training programmes for players overseas.

- Organized a number of level I Coaching Courses while increased and strengthen

Hundreds receive schoolbags from BCB, RHTY&SC and DTV-8

the local training base.

- Three ITTF Level I Coaches attended the ITTF Level II Coaching Course in Trinidad and Tobago.

- Increased the financial base by way of regular well organized fundraising activities.

- Raised the level of the local competitions.

- Was able to attract adequate sponsorship for local and overseas competitions.

- Successfully hosted the 53rd Senior Caribbean Table Tennis Championships.

- Participated in Pre Cadet, Cadet Junior and Senior Caribbean Championships, Commonwealth Games in India, Latin American Championships in Mexico.

“Mr. Greene, as President of the Guyana Table Tennis Association established a very close working relationship with the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport/ National Sports Commission, the Corporate Community the Caribbean Regional Table Tennis Federation and the International Table tennis Federation.

He also promoted a family atmosphere among the Executives, players, parents, coaches fans and the public at large.”

“He touched the lives of many with his democratic

management style. He was a leader by example, committed to the cause and honest in his dealings. This Stalwart will truly be missed by those with whom he came into contact.”

“The Guyana Table Tennis Association will definitely miss a President, Father, Mentor, friend and a Leader of quality.”

“Just a few hours before his demise, the Executive body of the Guyana Table Tennis Association met, discussed and agreed on the activities for the remainder of the year, such as the national Tournament, the Inter Organization Teams Tournament, the schools teams tournament, the Latin American Pre Cadet Championship in Venezuela and the North America Championship in the United States of America; the preparation for the hosting of the Caribbean Pre Cadet Championships in July 2013.”

“The Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport/National Sports Commission expresses sincere condolences to his immediate and extended family, the Guyana Table Tennis Association, the sport fraternity and those to whom he would have near and dear.

May his soul Experience Eternal Rest!”

GFSCA Nationwide Male/Female Softball Cricket competition continues tomorrow

Some of the students pose with their school bags Hundreds of students preparing for the new school term received schoolbags valued at the cost of $400,000 from the cricket teams of the Rose Hall Town Youth & Sports Club, Dave Television Station (DTV-8) and the Berbice Cricket Board (BCB) last Thursday.

The Club, the Berbice Cricket Board and DTV-8 in a joint project used Television advertisements to encourage Berbicians to donate schoolbags to assist less fortunate students to stay in school and obtain an educational background.

The teams from the Rose Hall Town Youth & Sports Club involved in the projects were the Rose Hall Town Farfan & Mendes Under-15, Bakewell Under-17 and Second Division, Pepsi

Under-19, Metro females and Gizmos & gadgets Under-21 and First Division teams.

Chairman of the Berbice Cricket Board Special Events Committee and Club Secretary/CEO Hilbert Foster at the presentation ceremony stated that the cricket teams, Berbice Cricket Board and DTV-8 want all youths in Berbice to understand the value of education and most importantly poverty should not affect their pursuit of it.

He advised the grateful youths to stay away from drugs and crime and to get involved in sports.

Peer pressure, Foster stated is one of the main problems among youths today and he urged them to choose their friends carefully.

He praised the members of the Club’s cricket teams who

worked overtime to make the project and also expressed thanks to the Management and staff of DTV-8, especially managing Director Anita Rambarran for their cooperation. Gratitude was also extended to members of the general public and the business community who supported the project by donating schoolbags.

Captain of the Farfan & Mendes Under-15 Team Daniel Lewis and Vice Captain of the Bakewell Under-17 team Arif Chan urged the youths to use the schoolbags for the intended purpose and promised that the different cricket teams of the Rose Hall Town Youth & Sports Club would continue to invest heavily into educational programmes in the future.

The Guyana Floodlight Softball Cricket Association (GFSCA) tournament sponsored

by Mike’s Pharmacy, Ariel Enterprise, Trophy Stall, Survival, Ramchand Auto Spares, Motor Trend, and Petama Enterprise, continues tomorrow with several matches.

Fixtures for the scheduled games are as follows: In Demerara: Cyril Potter College ground: 9:30am-El Commandante vs Flashers.

11:30am-Trophy Stall A vs J & J Bengal Tigers.

1:30pm-Better Hope vs Enterprise Stars.

Carifesta Sports Complex: Pitch 1: 9:30amFloodlights vs Dynamic Security Force.

12:30pm-Jaguars vs Tornado. 2:30pmHerstelling vs Cena X1. Pitch 2: 9:30amWellman vs Front Liners. 12:30pm-Success

Warriors vs Super Street. 2:30pm-Rafman X1 vs Princess Hotel All Stars. Ogle Community Centre: 9:30am-Trophy Stall B vs Rockaway.

11:30am-Challengers vs Young Guns. 1:30pmSavage Master vs Success Masters.

Parika School ground: 1:00pm-Bedi Ramjewan Masters vs Defenders.

Berbice: Canje Welfare ground: 10:30amYoung Achievers vs Memorex/Celebrity Times. Bananaland ground: 10:30amOldendroff vs Bananaland Triple Star. 1:00pmMemorex/Celebrity Times vs Bananaland Triple Star.

Persons on the Essequibo can contact Khalid Baksh at 618-1908 for fixtures in Essequibo and Robby Saywack at 660-0049 for fixtures in West Berbice/Mahaicony.

Frontline and Success Masters record victories Frontline and Success Masters recorded victories as the Floodlight Association’s countrywide Over-40, 25 overs softball cricket competition continued on Sunday at Parika\Mora community ground on the East Bank of Essequibo.

At 10:00am Frontline defeated Cornelia Ida by 75 runs. Frontline batted first and scored 176 all out in 24 overs with R. Rajiv topscoring with 34. R. Narine and E. Lovell also contributed 26 and 23 respectively as Neil Vieira bagged 5-29 and Robin Deochan 2-15.

Cornelia Ida in reply managed 101 in 15 overs.

A. Ally made 41 and former national batsman Ravindra Seeram 30. R, Narine, L. Persaud and G. Macai claimed 3 wickets each for Frontline.

At 1:00pm Success Masters overcame Parika Defenders by 8 wickets. Parika Defenders made 123 all out in 19.4 overs after taking first turn at the crease. Kavesh Persaud got 38 as Ram Nauth and Keron Samad took 3-12 and 2-13 respectively.

Success then responded with 126-2 in 14.4 overs. Hakim (only name given) led with 54, while Vikey Baljit chipped in with 37.

(Zaheer Mohamed)

Page 22

Kaieteur News

Saturday September 08, 2012

Aries Merritt sets new 110m GTTA mourns loss of its President hurdles world record in Brussels The Guyana Table Tennis Association (GTTA) is mourning the death of its President, former Commissioner of Police, Henry Greene, who died yesterday morning at Harlem in a vehicular accident on West Coast of Demerara. Below is their full statement: “The Executives and General Council of the Guyana Table Tennis Association wish to express heartfelt condolences to the family and relatives of serving President of the GTTA. Being an ardent fan and a former player, his zeal and passion for the sport was truly amazing; he had a consistent presence at tournaments from the commencement to finish.

Upon his ascension to the helm of the sport, he brought an unprecedented level of enthusiasm vigor and vibrancy to the sport and truly lifted its profile and propelled the sport to new heights.

He truly embraced the strategic vision of the sport and worked assiduously to point the association in developing the institutional structures, which would lay the foundation for the progression of the sport in the future.

He was passionate about development of human resource, players and structures that resulted in high level training for our elite athletes, which saw Nigel Bryan, Trenace Lowe, Joel Alleyne, Priscilla Greaves and Edinho Lewis benefiting from training at the Lily Yip Table Tennis Training Centre in the USA last month.

He was a firm advocate in incentives and rewards for athlete’s efforts and a believer that this was a key driver/ motivator for the sport One of his legacies would surely be the drive for the decentralisation of the sport, which saw several committees being setup across Guyana that led to many more players participating in tournaments and being able to access the game.

He was a firm advocate for capacity building with his advocacy for Guyana’s hosting of two International Table Tennis Federation Level 1 Courses, which saw over 40 coaches being trained and certified in addition to three Level 2 coaches being accredited and Guyana hosting an international referees’ and umpires course for over 24 umpires.

He was instrumental in Guyana hosting the 53rd Senior Caribbean Table Tennis Championships in 2011, which saw him being recognized by the Caribbean Regional Table Tennis

Federation for his excellent organising skills and the organising of the tournament.

This paved the way for Guyana to be given the status to host a Latin American Championships or World Junior Circuit event in 2014-2015.

He was a key driver in the association revenue generation planning for which committee he chaired as President; he always felt that revenue was key to the realization of the association plans and programmes and work very hard with members of this committee.

Last Thursday at the GTTA’s council meeting, he was working until 10pm with members to finalise plans for National Table Tennis Championships, The National Schools Table Tennis Championships, The Ministry’s Corporation and Business Entity Championships and for other key international engagements for our cadets, and commencement of initial planning and formulation of committees for Guyana’s hosting of the 2013 Caribbean Pre-Cadet Championships in July 2013.

He was very methodical in his leadership and would always implore upon his Executives and council members to go the extra mile.

Undoubtedly the sport made great leaps and bounds under his stewardship and he would have surely left a void to be filled. He would be dearly be missed by members of the table tennis fraternity”

BBC Sport - Aries Merritt stole the limelight with a stunning new 110m hurdles world record of 12.80 seconds in the final Diamond League meeting in Brussels. The American Olympic champion took a huge seven hundredths of a second off the previous record of 12.87 set by Cuban Dayron Robles in Ostrava in 2008.

Jamaican star Usain Bolt clocked a modest - by his standards - 9.86secs to win the 100m despite a slow start.

Compatriot Yohan Blake ran the ninth fastest 200m ever, winning in 19.54.

“I came off the turn and I felt it [the world record] was there for me,” said Blake, who ran 19.26 seconds - the second fastest 200m ever - at the same stadium last year. “I wanted to push more but when I felt no-one was beside me, it wasn’t really there. But I have finished the season getting better and better and I will come back stronger next year.”

Merritt could say the same after becoming the first man to run eight sub-13 second races in the same season, smashing his own previous personal best of 12.92 in the sprint hurdles. “I can’t believe I ran that fast I’m in shock,” the 27-year-old told BBC Sport. “I was focused on running under 13 for one last time to cap off a really good season, and I obliterated it. “When I crossed the line and saw the time I was still in shock. I think

Aries Merritt stole the limelight with a stunning new 110m hurdles world record. it was almost the perfect race.

I had a good reaction out of the blocks and I just kept going.

“I’m so happy I’m finally living up to my potential after all this time with injuries and hamstring tears and so many people telling me I should throw in the towel and get a normal job.”

Britain’s Lawrence Clarke, who finished last in 13.71secs, was in the next lane to Merritt.

“I was just watching him, he was 15m head of me. I completely forgot about my own race.”

Bolt, who made history by defending his three Olympic titles in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay in London, admitted he was “drained” at the end of a stunning season. “I just went through the motions pretty much,” he told BBC Sport. “It

was an OK race, I didn’t lose, that is the most important thing. I am just happy to get through the season injuryfree. “I came here for fun, for the fans, because an Olympic Games drains you physically and mentally.”

Britain’s Perri ShakesDrayton produced another sub-54 second 400m hurdles and her third fastest time of the season - 53.89 - to finish second behind Diamond League winner Kaliese Spencer of Jamaica, who won in 53.69. “I am very pleased, I wanted to end on a high and it is another progression for me,” said Shakes-Drayton. “I didn’t do as well as I wanted at the Olympics, so I am hungry, even more than before.”

Chris Tomlinson finished fourth in the long jump with a best effort of 7.96m, while

Martyn Rooney came fifth in the men’s 400m behind Belgian Kevin Borlee, who pipped his brother Jonathan to win in 44.75.

Lawrence Okoye finished fifth in the discus with a best throw of 64.67m, Estonian Gerd Kanter taking victory with 66.84m. The 20-year-old Briton will now contemplate whether to continue in athletics or take up a place reading law at Oxford University.

“I have got to sort my life out and chat to the pople at Oxford when I get back,” he said.

“There is no doubt in my opinion that if I carry on in athletics, I will be the best.

Another year under my belt and I can target gold at the World Championships in Moscow next year. I just have to weigh everything up.”

Sterling Products sponsors Home Affairs Ministry 6th Anniversary Sports Programme The Minister of Home Affairs 6th Anniversary Sports Programme commences tomorrow with Inter County King Dominoes Competition which is scheduled to commence at 09:00hrs at the Police Recreation Hall, New Amsterdam and is sponsored

by Sterling Products Ltd. Prizes will be awarded to the winner; 1st runner up, 2nd runner up, most sixes and first love. A representative of Sterling Products yesterday presented some of the trophies and medals on offer for the outstanding performers to Dennis Pompey of the Ministry.

A strong Demerara contingent comprising Motilall Ram, Jagnandan Persaud, Elroy Richards, Rasheed Mohamed, Shaheed Ramsaywack, Clauduin

Alinsworth, Chadwick Mc Garrell, Collin Chance, Trevor Sawh and Telmano Torres will travel to Berbice to do battle against Hector Douglas, Teron Douglas, Dale Prince, William Donald, Noel Douglas, Stephen Totaram, Glemore De Abreu and Glenroy Fraser.

The Minister took office on 9th September, 2006 and is the seventeenth Minister to serve in that office. The first was Honourable Balram Singh Rai who served from September 6th, 1961 to June 15th, 1962.

The programme includes an inter- agencies Dominoes Competition, Softball Cricket and Athletics, involving the Guyana Police Force, Guyana Prison Service, Guyana Fire Service, Community Policing Organization, Liaison Officers and the Stray Catchers Unit.

A Representative of Sterling Products (right) hands over the trophies and medals to Ministry official Dennis Pompey in the presence of Ministry staffers.

Saturday September 08, 2012

Kaieteur News

Cricket icon, Shivnarine Chanderpaul honourably acknowledged by CGX Inc

H

e has traveled all over the world in pursuit of cricketing accolades and in the process has given yeoman service to his country and the entire Caribbean region. In recognition of such a momentous contribution, top officials of the CGX Resources Inc presented Guyanese and West Indies cricket icon, middle order batsman, Shivnarine Chanderpaul with a portrait o f h i m s e l f i n commemoration of the c r i c k e t e r ’s s t e r l i n g contribution to Guyana and the Caricom region.

Two representatives of the oil conglomerate, Dr Kamal Dookie and Suresh S Narine were on hand to hand over the gift to Chanderpaul and both expressed delight at being afforded the opportunity of honouring the cricket icon.

Mr. Narine said that his company regards Chanderpaul as a true sports ambassador and wanted to acknowledge this fact in a tangible way. He fondly remembered the top batsman’s feats ever since he made his entry onto the international cricket scene and said that the Chanderpaul has truly distinguished himself among his peers.

Mr. Dookie echoed similar sentiments saying that the top batsman represented the epitome of Guyana’s sports aspirations.

He said that congratulations are in order. “I wish to encourage others to follow in his footsteps,” concluded

Shivnarine Chanderpaul

Mr. Dookie.

I n r e s p o n s e , Chanderpaul expressed deep

gratitude to his benefactors and said that he will place the portrait in a special corner of his home as a reminder of his many cricketing exploits.

The portrait was commissioned by English artist, David Skinner at the behest of prominent Guyanese diplomat, Sir Shridath Ramphal. It was mounted, stretched and framed at Castellani House.

Page 23

t r o Sp Serena Williams beats “We want to deliver Sara Errani, to face Victoria something proper...”

Ninvalle says on synthetic track Azarenka in US Open final Azarenka overcomes Maria Sharapova in semis

Serena Williams (Getty Images) BBC Sport – Serena Williams thrashed Italy’s Sara Errani 6-1 6-2 to reach her sixth US Open final, where she will play top seed Victoria Azarenka.

The 14-time Grand Slam champion, who won Olympic singles gold at London 2012, dispatched 10th seed Errani in just 64 minutes on Arthur Ashe Stadium.

Williams has lost just one of the 26 matches she has played since her French Open first-round defeat on 29 May. She will bid for a fourth New York title against Azarenka tomorrow.

The Belarusian world number one came from a set down to beat Maria Sharapova in Friday’s opening semi-final. Azarenka will hope to cause a huge upset with victory over Williams, who goes into the match as overwhelming favourite.

The American has dropped only 19

games in six matches so far and is hoping to avenge her loss to Sam Stosur in the 2011 showpiece.

Her win against Errani looked likely from the moment she broke serve with a forehand winner for a 2-0 lead in the first set. Another stinging forehand sealed the double-break as Errani, the first Italian woman to reach the US Open semi-finals in the Open Era, struggled to get her racquet to the ball.

Victoria Azarenka produced a spirited fightback to overwhelm Maria Sharapova and reach her maiden US Open final. In a noisy but high-quality encounter, Azarenka came from a set and a break down to stun 2006 champion Sharapova at a scorching Arthur Ashe Stadium. The Belarusian, who also beat her third-seeded Russian opponent to win the Australian Open, won 2-6 6-2 6-4.

Victoria Azarenka (EPA)

Director of Design & Construction Services Limited (DCSL), Patrick Pitt (left) addressing the media yesterday in the Presence of MCYS Deputy Permanent Secretary, Steve Ninvalle and DCSL Civil Engineer, Devi Prashad.

By Edison Jefford The Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport (MCYS) yesterday addressed recent concerns raised in the media relative to the timely completion and location of the synthetic track and field facility at Leonora and its importance to the landscape of sports in Guyana.

Deputy Permanent Secretary within the Ministry, Steve Ninvalle, admitted that there was not enough emphasis on engaging the media on various developments at the

facility and that may have led to some concerns and criticisms on whether it will be timely completed.

As a result, Ninvalle said that the Ministry will be keen on updating the media every two months to keep them in the loop. “I would want a track now, but we want to deliver something proper. It is not that we are holding the people of Guyana at ransom,” Ninvalle said.

On the subject of delivering “something proper” and keeping the media updated, Director of the oversight company,

Design and Construction Services Limited (DCSL), Patrick Pitt, agreed with Ninvalle, then went on to explain what caused some timeline setbacks.

“I want the media to understand what it takes,” Pitt stated, adding that “this is not a road we are building.

Athletes have to run on this track. If it takes a little time to get it right then we have to take that time. This is our first track and we have to get it right.”

The synthetic track has three main phases with several sub-lots or (Continued on page 19)

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