HEAVY rains throughout yesterday hampered the probe into the cause of an early morning fire which razed the concrete and wooden complex at the corner of Regent and Camp streets after midnight Monday.
The complex housed the popular ‘747’ disco and several commercial businesses on the ground floor and the ‘Kwang Chow’ restaurant on the top floor.
Fire officials said the fire probably started on the ground floor but complained that they were hampered by the wrought iron grills used on windows and doors as protection against thieves.
‘‘When we got there after 2 am. yesterday the fire was well under way but because of the grills we could not get into the building. We were seriously hampered and could have contained the fire perhaps only to parts of the ground floor if we could have got into the bunding,” one Fire Service source said.
He said the wrought iron barricades on the S.A. Sammy store in Lombard Street also prevented firemen from containing last month’s fire there and this led to the destruction of the building.
Low water pressure from the city mains forced the fire-fighters to stretch hoses two blocks away to the South Road canal to pump water to the scene, one official said.
Losses are estimated to run into millions of dollars and dozens of employees, mainly females, are now out of work.
Baggage Racket At Piarco Says BWIA
A SMALL but determined band of Guyanese traders is reportedly involved in a well organised ring, stealing other passengers baggage in several Caribbean islands, reports reaching Georgetown say.
The ring, involving some regular traders, has created problems for airport officials, but the hardest hit appears to be the BWIA in transit baggage section at Piarco Airport, Trinidad and Tobago.
BWIA Piarco officials showed Stabroek News some of the in transit passengers bags that were slit by what they said were “fellow Guyanese.” The baggage were among dozens of left-behind pieces awaiting shipment to Georgetown. This happened two Fridays ago.
“Let me show you. They are re-tagging other people’s baggage and checking them in. Or they come with large empty suitcases and simply place yours in theirs, or they also empty items from yours and put in theirs,” one cargo official told this newspaper.
LAX
He refuted suggestions that BWIA officials are lax with Guyana-bound baggage and staff are tardy in dealing with reports of missing pieces, because of what is regarded as a “purely Guyanese problem.”
Local airline officials were unavailable for comment Monday, but they have in the past maintained that Piarco is one of the more notorious airports, where baggage are either slit open and stuff removed or some of the smaller pieces disappear altogether. The majority of the baggage have been shipped home in the last 10 days by special BWIA cargo flights, but the build-up is expected to continue during the final days leading up to December 25.
Jagan says no
Leader of the opposition Peoples Progressive Party (PPP) Dr Cheddi Jagan has rejected claims by the state media that his son Joey is returning home to take over the leadership of the party.
A party statement called the reports “totally false” and said it was a “total fabrication” that Jagan had told a public meeting his son was coming to take over the leadership of the PPP.
“Dr Jagan is not retiring from politics. He will continue to play an active role in the PPP and the political life of Guyana,” the PPP said
GEC Has 5th ‘88 Shutdown
THE troubled Guyana Electricity Corporation (GEC) last Monday experienced its fifth “total shutdown” for the year and it left many Guyanese wondering if the system will function smoothly during the Christmas season.
The corporation blamed a line fault in the system which it said triggered shutdowns of the Garden of Eden, Sophia and Kingston stations in quick succession.
Telephone and telex services were cut off for hours, while dozens of districts in Georgetown and along the coast were left without water.
Several mains in Kingston and other areas were broken as residents tried desperately to obtain water. The blackouts lasted for as long as 13 hours in some areas and for more than 15 hours in others. Some restaurants closed and businesses could not function properly.
The Lamaha Conservancy at Kitty Avenue was the scene of a near riot as dozens tried to obtain water for cooking and other purposes.
“We are trying our best here, but I am not making any predictions about the system,” Public Relations Officer Leslie Sobers said. He said engineers are still working to restore the damaged Number Two boiler which could add another 8.5 megawatts to the system.
Sobers could not say if repairs would be completed this week. Problems continued yesterday.
USA Has Moral Duty To Help Restore Democracy – PPP
THE opposition People’s Progressive Party (PPP) has deferred that the United States has “a moral duty” to help in the restoration of democracy here as it did in the Philippines, South Korea, Pakistan and elsewhere.
The party in a statement welcomed the active part the US is taking in the global democratisation process, saying this was long overdue.
It however, noted that there must be no “sacred cows” in the democratisation drive.
“Democracy must prevail everywhere. The USA can definitely do much more than it is doing at the moment,” the PPP argued.
It declared the US government was ignoring “the intolerable rape of democracy in Guyana in the guise of consistently rigged elections,” and changed, “for the USA to crusade elsewhere for democracy while ignoring electoral fraud in Guyana is unacceptable.”
DEMOCRACY
The PPP referred to what it said were “encouraging pronouncements” on democracy by the US State Department senior official for Latin America, Mr. Elliot Abrams in Miami earlier this month.
Abrams was addressing the Miami conference on the Caribbean and according to the PPP, he spoke about economic liberalisation in Guyana “but said not a word about the need for political liberalisation.”
It noted that he also said, “the political progress towards democracy has its counterpart on the economic side” and contended that Abrams’ omission to refer to the need for democratisation here could not have been “an oversight on his part.”
Guysuco welcomes improved US quota
THE Guyana Sugar Corporation (Guysuco) says it intends to “take full advantage’’ of the improved sugar quota it would get on the United States sugar market for 1989.
The country’s 1989 US quota has been upped to 13,931 tons from the revised 1988 figure of 12,050 tons.
The new quota was among those announced for Caribbean sugar- producing countries for 1989 by Mr. Harold Davis, Chairman of the Sugar Association of the Caribbean (SAC).
Davis noted that Guyana was unable to take up its allocation of US sugar quota for 1988 but declared, “in 1989 Guyana intends to take full advantage of the improved sugar quota now offered.
Davis, who is also Guysuco Chairman, said he noted “with considerable satisfaction” the US improved sugar quotas for 1989.
“The overall quota announced is 1,240,380 short tons compared to the 1988 revised quota of 1,054,675 short tons,’’ Davis said.
“Coming at a time when 1989 marketing arrangements are being planned, this is a definite boost to Caricom sugar-producing countries which depend on sugar exports for a large part of their foreign exchange earnings.
“This is a most constructive step in the developing relationship between the United States and Caribbean countries,” Davis added.
The increases Davis gave cover Guyana, Jamaica and Belize.
Barbados, Trinidad and St. Kitts have not had their 1989 quota increased over the 1988 revised figures.
