Daily Archive: Friday, February 29, 2008

This is a Friday I wanted to use as time-out. To do a “cop-out” from the stress and challenges of these Guyana times.

A news item in the January 21 edition of Stabroek News referred to the damage that has been done and continues to be done to the seawall embankment along the Rupert Craig Highway by the large, unregulated Sunday gatherings.

Illegal “hookups” and other forms of electricity theft across the country are costing the Guyana Power anf Light Company (GPL) more than two and a half billion dollars in lost revenue annually and according to the company’s Chief Executive Officer Bharrat Dindyal stamping out a problem which he says is strangling the electricity generation sector is not as simple as it may appear.

Stabroek Business has been informed by an aviation industry source that Prime Minister Samuel Hinds and Transport Minister Robeson Benn were passengers on the Air Services Ltd.

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The long-awaited report on the reform of the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) is now completed and while the details of its contents are yet to be made public, some of its key recommendations – including the recommendation that the age of retirement be upped from 60 to 65 are already known.

Last week I had the immense pleasure of attending the Game Developers Conference held at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, California.

Overview: The low coastal plain represents the main area agricultural activity in Guyana which lies 1.5m-1.0m below sea level and extends from Pointe Playa to the Corentyne River.

The Guyana Power and Light Company (GPL) has fingered a gang that is linked to the theft of transformers and other metal-based materials from its Sophia depot.

Concerns over visitor safety in the wake of the recent attacks at Lusignan and Bartica by gunmen that left twenty-four people dead “have all but shut down several of the country’s interior nature resorts,” compounding an already difficult situation for the country’s tourism sector, according to Managing Director of the Roraima Group of Companies Captain Gerry Gouveia.

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

GASCI (www.gasci.com/telephone N

Berbice began their defence of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB)/ Castrol sponsored under-15 Inter-County title with an energetic 106-run win over Essequibo yesterday at the National Stadium, Providence.

The old adage `save the best for last’ proved a truism on Wednesday when the eight-man round robin finals of the men’s division of the national table tennis championships began at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall.

National middleweight boxer Lennox Alleyne will soon be campaigning in the United States of America (USA) under a contractual deal that was organized by popular boxing enthusiast in the USA, Cameron Dunkin.

The Guyana New York and Pele veteran teams will engage each other in the opening game this evening as play in the Mayor’s 73rd birth anniversary seven-a-side inter-ward/village knockout football tournament returns to Thirst Park from 5pm this afternoon.

Oliver Kear-Downes pulled off a stunning upset over two- time Caribbean under-15 champion Alexander Arjoon on Wednesday evening in the ‘A’ category of the Guyana Squash Association’s Toucan Industries Junior Squash Mash tournament.

Dear Editor, A letter by Moeen Kaini captioned “In some areas there are no house lot numbers” (08.02.09) took my memory back a few years.

Dear Editor, Paul Slowe, Assistant Commissioner of Police is 100% correct in his presentation with respect to firearm casings.

Dear Editor, The GDF is attempting to use the media to obtain recruits.

Dear Editor, I am of the opinion that the bandits are on the East Coast and were at Nooten Zuil where they murdered a man and took his engine.

Dear Editor, Here’s another home affairs minister seeking to steal the thunder from the police force.

Dear Editor, I refer to the letter written by Mr Al Creighton captioned “Dr Thakur acted precipitately, he was in no position to announce any prize winner” (07.12.22).

Dear Editor, I am deeply troubled with the ongoing attacks emanating from the bowels of the state media on respected individuals who are well meaning in their critiques of government policies – probably an attempt by some elements in the state media to silence every critique no matter how beneficial to the government.

Dear Editor, Amid continuous calls for a “saner” society, the time has now come to consider, urgently and seriously, the (re)establishment of some form of National Service and a revamping of our Army Reserves Centres and other institutions.

Dear Editor, As leaders, no matter at what level of the social strata we find ourselves, we must be quick to think out situations before we commit to act on them.

Dear Editor, As the people of Guyana grapple to cope with the recent killings at Lusignan and Bartica and the continued rise in crime we need to pause and reflect on the many causes of these actions by criminals.

Dear Editor, I welcome the news of a civil society’s “Stakeholders meeting on crime crisis,” (SN, February 27), featuring AFC/ GAP-ROAR playing a pivotal lead role calling for the revamping of the police force and urging new governance measures.

Dear Editor, I write in support of Mr. Colin Bascom’s observations in his letter captioned “An entire community should not be criminalized for the transgression of a few” (08.02.27).

Dear Editor, In 1965, a mere two years before Guyanese independence, the visionary Lee Kuan-Yew boldly took control of the reins of leadership in a newly independent Singapore at which time our native Guyana combined with Jamaica, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago were literally years ahead of poor, tiny, struggling, impoverished Singapore.

The helicopter which the Trinidad government had promised to lend Guyana to assist in crime fighting efforts arrived here yesterday.

Police have taken note of reports in a Suriname newspaper which said that wanted man Rondell ‘Fineman’ Rawlins was in that country and police are “hot on his tail.”

An early morning collision between a car and a minibus at Sheriff Street and Campbell Avenue yesterday saw two persons admitted to the Georgetown Public Hospital and three treated and sent home.

“Me really worried, me nah know what happen to me son,” were the words of Latchmin Jagmohan, the mother of one of the three fishermen, who have not been heard from since leaving for sea on January 23.

The PNCR says that “Operation Restore Order” has turned out to be an assault on the Buxton community and the party expressed its alarm over the consequences and implications of ongoing developments in the exercise.

The section of the unfinished Berbice River Bridge that the pontoon, MB Sandaka slammed into when the vessel became entangled in weeds would have to be replaced, Stabroek News was told.

She is the best known black woman in Britain-Baroness Valerie Amos of Brondesbury, the Guyanese-born former leader of the UK House of Lords.

The People’s Progressive Party (PPP) says it will be hosting a number of activities throughout the month in honour of the late President Dr Cheddi Jagan on this the 11th anniversary of his death.

The PNCR has congratulated President Raul Castro on his election to high office in the Republic of Cuba even as it recalls the fertile relations Guyana shared with that country under former President Fidel Castro.

The Nobel Prize winner Derek Walcott will be coming to Guyana for Carifesta.

Opposition leader, Robert Corbin has accused the National Communication Network (NCN) of shutting out the views of his party and other stakeholders on the Lusignan tragedy in its programming in the wake of the horrific slaughter.

The PNCR says the national stakeholders meeting on security held on Wednesday is the first sensible step the government has taken towards finding a resolution to the present crime and security crisis.

Caribbean carrier LIAT has paused its night service to Guyana and will now offer those flights early in the morning instead, following security concerns raised by staff plying the Georgetown route, its Communication Specialist Penny Gomez said.

The students of the new Silver City Secondary School who were under observation at the Linden Hospital Complex were sent home on Wednesday night after their conditions improved.

The Factory Manager at the Guyana Sugar Corporation’s (GuySuCo) La Bonne Intention (LBI) estate died on Wednesday after reportedly ingesting a poisonous substance.

The Indian Arrival Committee (IAC) recently distributed 100 hampers to Abary, Mahaica and Mahaicony Creek residents who have been affected by floods.

The Guyana Sevashram Sangha has announced the programme for the Maha Shiva Raatri festival which will be celebrated at the Cove and John Ashram.

Region Eight (Potaro/ Siparuni) is undertaking a massive self-help road repair project “to alleviate the present peril posed by the existing state of the road” and as such the main thoroughfare will be closed from Monday, March 3rd.

A team of US doctors led by cardiologist, Dr. Gary Stephens was in the process of completing the second open heart surgery in the country last night at the Caribbean Heart Institute (CHI).

The salaries of the Chancellor, Chief Justice, every Justice of Appeal and every Puisne Judge have been increased as at December 14, 2007, through an Order by Minister of Finance Dr Ashni Singh which he made under the Constitutional Offices (Remuneration of Holders) Act.

A $50M hostel has been planned for hinterland students pursing education in Georgetown, the Government Information Agency (GINA) said in a press release.

With the Value Added Tax (VAT) and the Excise Tax reaping some $36.7B, way over projections for 2007, PNCR-1G Member of Parliament Winston Murray yesterday called for the 16% VAT to be chopped to 10% and pointed out that the party had supported the new tax regimes on the basis of a projected take of $24B.

The Toronto Thespians are staging a second reading of Frank Pilgrim’s Miriamy on Sunday, 9th March, 2008 at the Hall of St John the Divine Church, Scarborough, Canada.