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Costa Rica Future Series 2024 Sep 13, 2024 Sports Priyanna Ramdhani Kaieteur Sports – Priyanna Ramdhani is currently competing in the Costa Rica Future Series Tournament 2024 taking place from the 11-14th September, 2024. Wednesday she played women singles in the round of 32 and won against a player from Costa Rica, 21-9, 21-7 where she advanced to the round of 16. She then lost against the Portugal player in the women singles round of 16, 21-13, 21-10. For the women doubles, she partnered with Chequeda de Boulet of Trinidad. They won against El Salvador, 21-12, 21-13 and advanced to the Quarter-Finals. Yesterday in the QF they defeated Jenny Ng & Emma Rodriguez of Costa Rica 21-9, 21-4 to reach the semi-finals (bronze). Today is the semi-finals and they will play the second seed Fernanda Munar & Rafaela Munar of Peru. Related Similar Articles

Oil used in production…Why the games? Sep 13, 2024 Editorial Kaieteur News – It seems that American oil supergiant, ExxonMobil, is extremely clever with certain sensitive information surrounding its Guyana operations, or it has succeeded in influencing the PPP/C Government to sacrifice national interests to the advantage of the company.  One early example of this is the secrecy surrounding billions of American dollars in ExxonMobil’s oil operations expenses that are withheld from the nation. Who would be the foremost beneficiaries of such a decision, if not ExxonMobil and its partner the PPP/C Government?  Why is there such deceptiveness with the release of key information that is routine?  Why is the hiding of such expense details necessary in the first place, and what does it say about the credibility of both the foreign oil operator and its local collaborator?  The former is ExxonMobil, the latter is the PPP/C Government slavishly fulfilling its role as dutiful aider and abettor.  Secrecy with massive expenses for different oil projects was the introduction.  Now there is this succeeding chapter involving how much oil is being used by ExxonMobil in its operations. Activist and attorney of international recognition, Ms. Melinda Janki, raised that specific question.  How many barrels of oil is the company using for its various production processes?  It is an important question, and should not be difficult one for any honest government to provide an answer that is straight and accurate.  Because Guyana is where it is with this oil, and the PPP/C Government has taken pride in tricks and sleights of hand with this generational wealth of the people, there is little optimism that the issue of how many barrels of oil ExxonMobil is using in its operations will be responded to and put to bed.  The standard is already in place, with the Ministry of Natural Resources serving evidence of how careful and clever the government can be when certain pieces of vital information are required.  Guyanese are told of how much oil the company produces daily.  They are informed of the amount of gas re-injected into the wells as part of the production process, and how much is flared into the atmosphere.  But then there is this huge gap in the information provided.  How much oil ExxonMobil is creaming straight from the top of the oil pumped daily to use in its offshore operations? The concern is whether this is an innocent oversight by the Natural Resources Ministry, or it forms part of oil management ploys employed by the PPP/C Government to pull the wool over the eyes of Guyanese.  When that number is disclosed, whatever it is, assessments can be made that, given the scope of ExxonMobil’s Guyana operations, as to the reasonableness of it, how it compares to similar situations elsewhere.  On the other hand, when that number is shaded in secrecy, the door is flung open for playing with what could involve thousands of barrels of oil daily.  To put this matter more bluntly, is ExxonMobil using that information blackout about how much oil it uses in its operations to skim and scam this country, without citizens having a clue about what is happening?  To make matters more unpalatable, there is a State agency of Guyana, its oil ministry no less, being selective with what is shared with citizens. When issues like this one, cloaked in darkness, part of strange mysteries, occur, the keen in Guyana grow firmer in the belief that these things are happening too frequently to be taken at face value. When a host country’s government, operating alongside a foreign oil company, practices secrecy and delivers information only when pressured, then the outlook is not healthy for the people and their wealth.  There could be some discretion when some component in the oversight of the oil patrimony is concealed once.  The same leeway, though to a lesser degree, could be extended when there is a second such development.  After that, patience and trust dwindle to zero.  There has been secrecy or selective sharing of details with billions of ExxonMobil’s Guyana expenses.  The same is true with audit reports and studies.  Now, there is the issue of how much of Guyana’s oil ExxonMobil is using in its operations, and why the Guyana Government is so tricky in sharing it. Related Similar Articles

“No more Cooperation in the Cooperative Republic” Sep 13, 2024 Letters Dear Editor, On the eve of May 25th, 1966, the lowering of the Union Jack, a symbol of the colonial past, welcomed the hoist of the Golden Arrowhead, the emblem of a new nation. History records, the two fathers of the nation, Hons. Dr. Cheddi Bharat Jagan and Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham shared an embrace at the Golden Arrow hoist to the tune of Dear Land of Guyana, putting aside bitter and at times tumultuous political differences to welcome the birth of our beloved a cooperative nation. Cooperativism goes back to the 1830s when ex-slaves pooled their resources via wheelbarrows and bought plantations of Victoria and Buxton along the East Coast Demerara. On February 23rd, 1970, in remembrance of the 1763 Berbice Slavery rebellion, that if succeeded would have birthed our nation over one hundred years earlier, Guyana, became the only Cooperative Republic. Succeeding this historic moment, hundreds of cooperative societies were born in the 1970s under the ethos “that spirit of community, the pooling of capital, labor and skills, joint ownership of the enterprise and sharing in the profits.” (Ten-Pow, 2019). Cooperatives had support institutions developed for its sustainability. The Guyana National Cooperative Bank (GNCB) provided capital for cooperatives while the Kuru Kuru Cooperative College provided business capacity training. (Ten-Pow, 2019). Cooperatives were not immune to the economic decline in the 1980s with 1,440 cooperate societies in 1989 reduced to 1,268 in 2016. GNCB ran into operational difficulties and was sold in 2002. Our redeeming quality is the Cooperative College that has continued along with funding initiatives from the Caribbean Development Bank (Ten-Pow, 2019). Today, in Guyana, they are hardly signs of cooperation in the Cooperative Republic with no support from the current administration for cooperatives. It has become a way of life for Guyanese citizens to forget the spirit of cooperation, which has been replaced with greed, corruption, and deception. As an observer of this radical transition in our society, primarily in the early 2000s the ties that bound us as a people has now been replace with the forces of profiteering on the backs of poor people and providing little to no relief for the disenfranchised of society. It is heartbreaking to observe the erosion of morality in our society. If the current administration is serious about the future of the country, Cooperative societies should be developed further with funding and technical assistance. Students from the College can use the opportunity to visit the cooperative societies to learn about its challenges and opportunities to partner to provide technical assistance. It is time to reinstate a funding mechanism like GNCB with the assistance of Development agencies. Guyanese collectively need to see each other as our brother’s keepers. We must be kind, caring and work together regardless of race, religion, or geographic challenges to forge the path of self-reliance and sustenance for the future dependence on each of us, man, women, and youth to ensure that this Cooperative Republic succeeds. In the words of W.R.A Pilgrim: “Let us co-operate for GuyanaLet us co-operate for our land,Let us resolve to fight togetherSee we do it right togetherCan we do it? Yes we can.” Reference: Ten-Pow, R. M. (2019, March 19).Presentation on the Cooperative Movement in Guyana at the Commission for Social Development Side Event | Guyana.https://www.un.int/guyana/fr/statements_speeches/presentation-cooperative-movement-guyana-commission-social-development-side#:~:text=It%20was%20that%20spirit%20of,while%20remaining%20viable%20business%20enterprises Sincerely, Collin Haynes MPH MBA Related Similar Articles

Illiteracy in Guyana Sep 13, 2024 Letters Dear Editor, On May 5, 2008, some 15 years ago, I wrote an article which was carried by the Stabroek News, entitled “We need a national conversation on literacy” in Guyana. This letter was followed up by several letters supporting my call, including from Clarence O. Perry who taught me at Queen’s College (https://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2011/02/20/towards-a-national-conversation-on-illiteracy/). Today, as we observe the recent results in Mathematics and English, I wish that my call was heeded, as now we are far worse off than 15 years ago, when the situation was already critical. We seem to celebrate our high performers who take 20 plus subjects but ignore the larger national disgrace of an education system that is out of touch with global trends and one that leaves so many of our young people behind. Today, I make the same call for a “national conversation on literacy” as now it has become both a national security / economic sovereignty issue as well as a sustainable development issue. In my 2008 letter, my opening paragraph was “We need a national conversation on the state of literacy in Guyana. We are an illiterate nation. Indeed, illiteracy is a national disgrace. A visible secret that everyone hears and knows about. We seem to nurture, promote, encourage and reward illiteracy. Guyana was once the most literate nation in the British Commonwealth”. Seems as if the chickens have come home to roost. To me, high failure rates in the two most essential subjects, Mathematics and English, reveal we have a national crisis of monumental proportions on our hands. In 2008, I wrote “Culturally, illiteracy has become an integral part of national life. Our DJs abuse the English language with relentless fervor. Most of our advertisements highlight a degree of illiterate thinking and poor English that are surpassed only by their make-believe and vile content. It is a hype to be illiterate in Guyana. Travelling in a minibus is a surreal experience in non-English”. Imagine Mike Tyson at a National Spelling Bee competition. Guyana is a society that has been under moral, social, political, cultural and religious siege over the last few decades. Poverty, illiteracy, drugs, violence, gender abuse, corruption and the loss of civility, collectively create the environment of cascading illiteracy in our society. With Spanish speaking migrants now in Guyana in large numbers, the complexity of the problem will grow and so will the failure rates. Failure rates in Mathematics and English are the tip of the iceberg. The traditional influencers in the society – the family, the school, the church, the media and the community are unable to comprehensively address key issues because of the overarching political climate, the lack of a strong civil society and the breakdown of key values. Poverty is a key reason why illiteracy, hopelessness and other social ills undermine education. When our teachers themselves speak poor English or are afraid of mathematics, what would one expect. We need to invest in our teachers. We need to change our teaching philosophies and methodologies. We need to re-mission and re-purpose our education system. We need to remove cell phones from our classes. We need to support families so that there is an enabling environment for learning at home. We need to invest in 6 national TV channels in which our best math teachers can teach our school children during specified hours of the week. We need to involve more technology in the classrooms. We need to make mathematics fun and English a priority. I grew up in Mahaicony where many of the elders were uneducated, but they played draughts with young kids to nurture our logic and mathematical prowess. Mathematics was therefore fun and not a disease. In the USA, there are many underprivileged communities where chess champions are being nurtured. Over the years, I have been very impressed with the ideas and concerns of Dr. Jerry Jailall. His insightful ideas about revamping our education system, especially how we approach Grade Six exams, should be discussed. Perhaps a Commission of “experts” (not politicians) led by Dr. Jailall, should be put together to address this national security and development issue. Without a strong foundation in mathematics and English, our citizens will be ill prepared to function in an oil related high-tech economy where artificial intelligence and other technologies will be prominent. We must remember that more than half the population of Guyana only has primary school education and less than 3% has tertiary school education (degrees). Underpinning our descent into “illiteracy heaven” is the poor treatment of teachers. This crisis of education Guyana has developed over several decades and it will take a very concerted evidence-based set of solutions to rectify the problem. Much of this has to do with a fundamental lack of understanding of the problem or as usual, a simplistic political approach to a complex, moral, social, ethical, cultural, psychological and economic problem. Our national conversation on “illiteracy” must have three ground rules. First, we should analyze the problem cold-bloodedly. Second, we must not blame, as we all are to blame. Third, we must seek honest workable solutions devoid of political, racial, emotional or financial motives. Setting up monitoring committees is the last stage of a multi-tiered continuous process of re-inventing our education system. Monitoring poverty or illiteracy will not solve the problem. The system is part of the problem. Vision is part of the problem. At one time, the Asian Tigers spent 12% of GDP on education for an extended period of time. This is not brain surgery. The Commission should have experienced educators and individuals who understand development. As Mike Tyson should not be invited to participate in a Spelling Bee contest, so shall the usual political surrogates not be invited to the Commission. This is about national security. Illiteracy cannot be solved just by the Ministry of Education. As Clarence O. Perry indicated, illiteracy has to be tacked in a coherent and holistic manner as “This condition demands a collaborative approach involving several ministries (Education, Finance, Health, Housing, Human Services and Labour, Youth, Sports and Culture), and the Private Sector”. The Family is also a very important stakeholder The problem at hand is one that will determine our children’s future and our legacy to them. We cannot fail. We must not fail. Yours truly, Eric Phillips Related Similar Articles

S. S. RAMPHAL Sep 13, 2024 Letters Dear Editor, Those who know something of Greek history and about the Trojan war might not have come across the name Glaucus. This is because his role was only a small part in the drama of the Trojan war. As a military leader of the Lycian army, Glaucus was valiant enough, but failed in his attempts to win a place on the A-list of heroic celebrities. Yet in these modern times his name would pop up from time to time. That was the prize for which he fought and won. Unlike Glaucus of ancient times, S.S. Ramphal (1928-2024) won a place in the pantheon of fighters for national and social liberation of Southern Africa; Zimbabwe and South Africa in particular. It was by dint of the many challenges he faced and successes achieved in his role as Commonwealth SG that he joined the A-list of international celebrities; a prize he justifiably won. The idea that fame is a kind of immortality is an ancient one that, up to today, shows no sign of losing its attraction. The question is why? What good does it do the dead to be in the pantheon of famous men and to be on the posthumous celebrity list? From books we read, we discern that men and women in almost every field of human endeavour possess the impulse to make a name for themselves and to leave a legacy.  Fame seems a very flimsy thing to live and to die for. But as history would have it, when Sridath Ramphal at an early age picked up his pen and turned to the microphone, heading for what eventually became diplomatic and negotiating fame, he began a journey that cemented a place for himself in the global hall of fame. With his passing, most commonwealth nations would have paid homage, in one way or another, to Ramphal recalling his role as Commonwealth Secretary General, other international bodies and academic institutions where he would have served in support of the global quest for peace, equality and justice. Local newspaper editorials and letters to the editors of mainstream media have been published at home and abroad about Ramphal’s oratory skills and diplomatic exploits as well as his personal style, experiences, attitudes and feelings be brought into his life work. Ramphal’s name and his photographs accompanied with messages of condolences have appeared on the front pages of mainstream media and online media outlets. But what his photographs and what has been written about him does is to literally peel off layers of his persona and trap it on paper. I recall how as the then Minister of Foreign Trade and International Cooperation, and he as CARICOM’S Chief Negotiator on External Negotiations, along with other CARICOM ministers helped shape international trade negotiations ahead of us. Later, when CARICOM Heads decided to break up the negotiations into four separate; but coordinated theatres of negotiations, they assigned Rohee CARICOM’s Lead Negotiator at the WTO along with four other CARICOM ministers as Lead Negotiators for the US/FTAA, ACP/EU, CARICOM/Canada and WTO theatres of negotiations with Richard Bernal as coordinator. We all benefited from the foundation laid, and guidance provided by P.J. Patterson and Ramphal allowing us to confidently proceed with those negotiations. Thus far, what has been written and said about Ramphal’s contributions, convinces me that we live in a celebrity culture, meaning from the writing and speeches of celebrities such as poets, musicians, diplomats, actors, legal practitioners, politicians, sportsmen, academics and scientists, thoughts of posterity must have crossed their minds from time to time knowing that there will be others who will follow their example. Then there are the critics and cynics who will cherry pick the negatives and dig up what they consider as the shady side of their lives. It appears that since Ramphal chose to pursue the diplomatic world’s path, he carried with him two sorts of destinies. That is, if he stayed in Guyana and continued his association with local politics and the sordid electoral record of the PNC he would continue to be bruised professionally. But in a democracy where freedom of speech is upheld and where the records speak for themselves, we know such bruises will not go away. This phenomenon is reflected in some letters to the editor about Ramphal that speak implicitly to the age-old adage; ‘No man is a prophet in his own land.’ Ramphal’s association with the CARICOM mission to Guyana following the 1997 election that cut two years off the PPP’s term in office for the sake of peace and stability in the country raised eye-brows amongst party supporters at home and abroad as well as in the leadership of the party. By opting to labour in the vineyards of international relations and diplomacy and to dedicate his energies on foreign battlefields of global politics, Ramphal carved out for himself a legacy for years to come. The view that celebrity transcends mortality seems to be more than a mere metaphor. In this regard, good examples are Coffey, H.N. Critchlow, LFS Burnham, Cheddi and Janet Jagan, Martin Carter, Walter Rodney and Dave Martins to mention a few. Apart from us being their heirs, through life, we preserve their memory and assign immortality to them by way of our references in speeches and writings about them. So in a larger sense, whenever passing by the statues of Coffie or Critchlow in Georgetown, or the monuments to Damon at Anna Regina or the Rose Hall Martyrs’ Memorial at Canje, or the 1823 Slave Rebellion Monument at the Kitty sea wall, know that what they stood for is everlasting because they reproduce themselves in us as part of our history and because their names and contributions are mentioned in various fora and publications from time to time. Yours faithfully, Clement J. Rohee Related Similar Articles

WPA on the mid-year report and the economy Sep 13, 2024 Letters Dear Editor, The government has just released its mid-year report on the Guyanese economy. WPA believes that by any metric this publication by the Ministry of Finance has dominated the news cycle. Understandably, the scope, wealth and breadth of the information contained therein have provided a lot to engender an ongoing intense and robust national conversation on the economy. Regrettably, it appears to WPA that the broad mass of Guyanese is being distracted and dis-informed by those who urge us to take a doomed, grim, hellish and dystopian view of where Guyana is at. Instead of articulating the obvious, which is, that new challenges are fast emerging in Guyana, they want us to believe that all is lost. Further, that our ancestral geologic formations offer no hope, only greater despair. WPA thinks that this is an absurdity! WPA takes its political responsibility to contribute to the ongoing discussion seriously. We posit that, the post-colonial criminalized enterprise State of naked thievery and plunder, which ruled Guyana for the decade preceding the 2015 discovery of oil, is being morphed over the decade since the petroleum finds into a rentier State appropriating significant external rents from windfall oil earnings, in the billions of US dollars. This largesse is shared with the families, friends, and favorites of the ruling political elites as well as key functionaries of the State and related agencies. It defies the facts on the ground, therefore, to tell Guyanese, naively or otherwise, that there is no link between chosen Guyanese and increasing GDP and wealth. The massive inequities in the country grow and the case for the Buxton Proposal, the WPA’s cash transfer plan, gets stronger. In all WPA’s interactions with the media on recent published Mid-year Reports of the Ministry of Finance, we have always singled out for mention, the sheer wealth of details and data on the economy, its policies and performance provided for the period which is reported. This recent report is no different. Paradoxically, this strength underscores crippling weaknesses in these official data. To begin with the data and details in these reports are needed in a far more timely, real-time manner, so that they can be acted upon when it most matters. Under current regulations, the report is required to be published within 60 days after the mid-year. The late publication incentivizes the lack of interest in timeliness. It also incentivizes wordiness to fill the time allotted for the report, which is 111 pages long. Last, and by no means least, WPA is convinced that more analysis and less descriptive detail along with greater timeliness in publishing most of the details and data in the Report would serve the nation better. Sincerely, Working People’s Alliance Related Similar Articles

The full force of the law must be brought to bear on prankster Sep 13, 2024 Letters Dear Editor, A threatening phone call to an international hotel was later determined to be a prank.  No one has been arrested (News Source September 4).  It is an offence to make a prank call. Now threatening calls were made against the national Airport and a regional carrier.  Investigations are ongoing both locally and in the twin island Republic.   In a twist, it has now been revealed the prankster was a taxi driver for a fifteen thousand dollars pay day, allegedly at the behest of two Venezuelans (Newsroom September 12). The report indicates that the prankster, after working a while, went home, but felt uneasy, so he returned to work.  Was this uneasy feeling a prelude of the dastardly, treasonous acts he was about to set upon?  Imagine going to the hotel, where, not long before the prankster made the threatening call? Were these pranks aimed with a certain outcome? A supposedly mature individual engaging in acts of highly threatening and critical nature.  The full force of the law must be brought to bear on this individual who has created unnecessary panic and turmoil. The arrest of the two Venezuelans is awaited. Sincerely, Shamshun Mohamed  Related Similar Articles