Daily Archive: Friday, November 2, 2007

Greetings to my regulars. And to the occasional, the curious and even the critics.

Guyana Energy Agency (GEA) prosecutor Anil Nandlall laid over his written response to the defence no-case submissions, as the Buddy’s fuel trial continued at the Providence Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday.

Thirteen persons including teenagers were yesterday charged with walking across the road without adhering to the traffic lights.

Across Latin America and the Caribbean, there are a couple of leaders, like Cuba’s Fidel and Brazil’s Lula, who are instantly recognizable by their first name alone.

In a move that points unerringly to DIGICEL’s determination to sustain its public criticism of the monopoly on international voice and data traffic held by the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company, Chief Executive Officer of the local DIGICEL operations Mark Linehan told media representatives on Tuesday that the monopoly continued to serve as a disincentive to investment in the Guyana economy.

A local aviation industry official has told Stabroek Business that passengers travelling in and out of Guyana were likely to experience continued flight delays and cancellations because of the constraints facing carriers providing a service to Guyana.

Last Friday Stabroek Business published an article based on an interview with a city businessman in which he expressed a number of views about the role which he believed employees play in robberies committed on business places.

NULL

Purchasing Power: By definition the purchasing power of a dollar decreases as the price level rises.

For more than a year the monopoly enjoyed by the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company in international voice and data transmission has come under scrutiny and attracted comments from government officials including President Bharrat Jagdeo.

What appears to have been a brief internal power struggle for control of the Guyana Scrap Metal Dealers Association (GSMDA) has ended with the removal of Malik Cave as the Association’s Technical Director and the re-election of scrap dealer Percy Cole as Chairman.

The quality of passenger service by the various service agencies operating out of the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, Timehri is “in urgent need of considerable improvement” if visitor arrivals to Guyana are to increase, according to a local aviation official.

GASCI (www.gasci.com/telephone N

Notes 1 – Interim results 2 – Prospective EPS: earnings per share for 12 months period to the date the latest financials have been prepared.

The US dollar continues to fall against other major currencies and, if the trend continues exporters could soon feel the squeeze.

Over 150 bankers from Suriname, the Caribbean and North America will be in Guyana for the Annual General Meeting of the Caribbean Association of Indigenous Banks (CAIB), a statement from the Local Organizing Committee (LOC) said.

An entertaining unbeaten 48 (43 balls, 6×4) from young Vishal Singh piloted Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC) to a six-wicket victory over Rose Hall Town Windies Sports Bar in their Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) Neal and Massy nation-wide semi-final encounter at the GCC ground Bourda yesterday.

The National Stadium at Providence was yesterday officially handed over to the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport by Minister of Transport and Hydraulics, Robeson Benn, in a brief, simple mid-day ceremony.

The vacuum created by the uncertainty over this year’s Kashif and Shanghai football tournament could probably be aptly filled by the President’s Cup knockout tournament for which the Georgetown Foot-ball Association (GFA) has submitted a proposal and which could feature the top eight premier teams in the city and the top two first division Georgetown clubs along with teams from Linden, Essequi-bo and even Orealla.

The transfer of two players to Trinidadian Club Caledonia AIA has led to a standoff between the Guyana Football Federation (GFF), which is responsible for all of football in Guyana, and the Georgetown Football Association (GFA), which overseas city soccer.

Team Rahaman figures to be a major force at this weekend’s Guyana Motor Racing and Sports Club Race of Champions meet.

Unstoppables table tennis team comprising Anthony Niles and Ronaldo Bharrat failed to live up to their name going down 0-3 to the Golden Girls team of Trenace Lowe and Michelle John in Division B action when play in the Dennis Patterson memorial table tennis team competition got underway on Saturday at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall.

Jacob Thompson, Chairman of the Jamaica Rugby Union, has been awarded the 2007 IRB’s Development Award, the highest such honour world-wide this year.

Guyana’s Clyde Duncan has been nominated by the West Indies Cricket Umpires Association to serve as instructor for an umpiring workshop in Peru later this week.

Dear Editor, I refer to a letter by Dr David Hinds captioned “Opposition parties in the Caribbean are victims of democratic exclusion” (07.10.31).

Dear Editor, I read with growing concern about the impasse between Mr Ron Robinson, Producer/Director of Link Show and the manager of the National Cultural Centre.

Dear Editor, I fully understand Everall Franklin’s call that ” A Natural Resources Audit be conducted despite the expense.

Dear Editor, Mr Al Creighton’s response in his letter captioned “The Guyana Prize judges elected not to give Mr Mc Watt two prizes” (07.10.05) to my queries arising from the widely published reports of the short-listed and winning entries of the Guyana Prize for Literature, 2006, confirms the perception of many readers that prizes are ‘shared out’ among friends and not necessarily awarded on the basis of merit.

Dear Editor, After reading the news about Mr Elton Shepherd who was killed in such a brutal way; many concerns arose in my mind.

Dear Editor, I am at my wit’s end as I read your letter columns and find that persons are still treating with VAT as responsible for the increase in the price of some basic consumer goods, especially where there is no VAT.

Dear Editor, I refer to the editorial captioned “A grouse for Mr Naipaul” (07.10.30).

Dear Editor, Ethno-racial voting patterns in Guyana since 1955 have been taken as a given by most observers of the country’s politics.

Dear Editor, If I had a dollar for every time one of Satyadeow Sawh’s ‘killers’ was murdered I would have raked in more than the Government did in VAT revenue.

With continuing crime and an alarming rise in road deaths the National Assembly last evening passed a motion for the appointment of a special select committee to oversee the implementation of a British-funded security plan which promises sweeping reforms including the setting up of a special firearms support team.

By next year the government is hoping to construct a technical and vocational institute in Region Three, Education Minister, Shaik Baksh said while addressing a gathering at the commissioning of the $82M Greenwich Park Primary School on Wednesday.

Police from Suriname are expected in the country this morning and will be viewing the two bodies which were found on Thursday and Saturday in Corentyne, Berbice, since there are reports of missing men in the neighbouring country, local police said yesterday.

Though a warrant was issued for the arrest of the main witness to testify in the Number 60 Village wedding house murder trial, he failed to show up in court on Wednesday and Justice William Ramlal upheld no-case submissions.

The National Assembly last night approved a motion acknowledging with appreciation the Guyana Government for having the courage and wisdom to take the Guyana claim on the Suriname maritime boundary to the UN International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS).

The Guyana Power and Light Company (GPL) in its determination to recover outstanding revenue and reduce losses due to electricity theft is speeding up the system improvement and loss reduction work to standardize the network in the West Ruimveldt area.

Secretary-General of the Organisation of American States (OAS) Jose Miguel Insulza is reportedly facing an allegation that he unduly pressured the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to reverse a decision to fire its Freedom of Expression Rapporteur.

The historic inaugural meeting between Secretary-General Edwin Carrington, Heads of CARICOM institutions under the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas, and other regional institutions, concluded in Georgetown with a commitment to maintaining a continuing dialogue.

The Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) has launched an investigation into an allegation levelled against one of its officers by a Greek national who said that he was forced to give the officer US$20.

Town Clerk Beulah Williams said yesterday that the striking workers have been paid their October salaries and garbage collection in the city has resumed.

The Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) says it is working to restore service to the St Mary’s Secondary School.

The Guyana Forestry Com-mission (GFC) is refuting the Forest Products Association’s (FPA) charge that there was little or no stakeholder consultation on the new lumber yard and sawmilling regulations and standards set to come into force in January.

President Bharrat Jagdeo encouraged youths at the launching of Tourism Awareness Month yesterday to set a target of contacting one million persons through social networking sites like hi5 and Facebook and spread positive news about Guyana.

The Ministry of Human Services and Social Security says 2008 old age pension books are available for a number of areas.

The man discovered dead on the Georgetown seawall on Wednesday afternoon has been identified as 55-year-old Mohamed Haroon Alli of North Grove, East Bank Demerara.