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President’s Cup horse racing set for September 22 Aug 22, 2024 Sports John Bull on the outside (Green, Red and White) took down Easy Time in last year’s President’s Cup Kaieteur Sports – Horse racing rivalry will be renewed on Sunday September 22 at the Rising Sun Turf Club when the One Guyana President’s Cup runs off. After an exhilarating 16th running of the Guyana Cup, horsemen will be gearing up for another big clash, while fans will be hoping to see their favourite horse come out on top. Guyana will be an action-packed venue in September, with Cricket Carnival on the horizon. The 16th running of the Guyana Cup was hailed a great success, with more than 8000 fans, while 10 top-quality races treated the fans to a spectacle. Organizer of the Guyana Cup, Nasrudeen Mohamed Jr., is focused on improving the sport. “We have a plan, and it is to elevate the sport and take it to the level it needs to be, that is the Sport of Kings.” “We are working along with the authorities. This year we should get the legislation, and we are looking forward to that, and the sport will get even better,” Mohamed said in a recent interview. Olympic Kremlin, the Guyana Cup champion will be out to dominate, while John Bull, another horse which is owned by Slingerz Racing Stables, will be out to defend the President’s Cup title. Former Guyana Cup Champion Easy Time, who rode third at this year’s Guyana Cup, Nova Sol, and Oy Vey will he hoping to go one step further. Spankhurst, who had a long layoff due to injury, could return to horse racing, which will make this year’s President’s Cup competition a supreme one. The usual top jockeys had an ordinary outing at the Guyana Cup, as veteran Yap Drepaul returned to winning ways and took the champion jockey title, with two wins in three races he ran at Rising Sun. The likes of Colin Ross, Ronaldeo Appadu, and Nicholas Patrick will be hoping for better results at the upcoming President’s Cup. Related Similar Articles

Govt. grinding Guyanese into the dust Aug 22, 2024 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column Kaieteur News – We used to advise the aggressive traders and salespeople in Wall Street’s warzones that ‘since they believe in this instrument so much, they must put their money where their mouths are.’  What could be better proof of one’s commitment to a cause, belief in an undertaking, product?  This was exactly what Chartered Accountant and attorney-at-law, Mr. Chris Ram did in the instance of two denied and distraught NIS pensioners: he did not just put his own money into their hands as a substitute relief measure, he made it into a monthly obligation.  That is, until something gives, be it the government or the NIS. Time for another question: why is the Guyana Government always openly given to crushing Guyanese?  I speak not of dissenters or conscientious objectors.  Perhaps, the ubiquitous and industrious Attorney General, Mr. Mohabir, could ponder that question, allow it to sink into his conscience, if there is still one. GHK Lall Mr. Zainul Haniff and Ms. Julia Clarke, two Guyanese older than I, should not have had to deal with the permanent national ordeal that is the NIS.  The NIS has squeezed the benefits once received by the chronically ill, diabetics (and others). The NIS has been creative and aggressive in trimming what is due to expectant Guyanese workers, who range from the disabled to the elderly to the genuinely eligible. Question number three: what is the NIS good for, if not only as a funding mechanism for the schemes of top political grafters and their sweetheart cronies with their sweetheart secret projects?  It is always a seemingly different set of Guyanese, an exclusive club, who has the freest access to most of the lucrative advantages of this country.  May I be allowed a fourth question: is this set of untouchables, near invisible, always suspiciously rich an inseparable part of President Ali’s masquerade called ‘One Guyana?’ Meaning, waan fuh wee, and waan fuh dem? In the situation of Mr. Haniff, there is no call for any sweetheart arrangement, some special concession.  This worker qualifies for an NIS pension.  Should he support his claim with videos of turning up for duty day after day, collecting a paycheck, and with the evidence of NIS deductions imprinted?  He submitted the latter to the NIS, had those used as part of his advocacy by Attorney Ram, and on which basis the court issued its order.  Yet he is subjected to this travesty of justice, which is now a crying shame on a national scale.  Literally.  Why is the NIS in its administrative and bureaucratic wisdom denying and stonewalling this Guyanese?  In thinking of Mr. Haniff’s predicament, and the unassailable proof(s) he tendered, I wonder that if AG Nandlall had used those same unyielding standards as the NIS as part of his interpretations and conclusions, what would have been the fate of some of his senior party comrades. Regarding Ms. Clarke, she is short by 11 contributions.  Short she is, admittedly; but by a mere 11 contributions and not 111.  After a lifetime of toil, and now at 73, she is subject to the inflexible and, in effect, what amounts to the punitive for her life calendar.  Hence, I agree with Mr. Ram that a sliding scale regime would be most helpful to Guyanese trapped, like Ms. Julia Clarke, in what is a lifetime sentence of no NIS pension. For fairness, people like me who didn’t put in any considerable length of work time here should be barred.  I like the minimum threshold of 500 contributions.  And if 10 years local work would risk hurting the NIS’s viability, then make it 600 contributions.  When a state agency is carved out with such rigid lines, an attorney general that is so adamant, and a government so doggedly (and doggish) against its own citizens, it doesn’t surprise that so many citizens are hurting so badly. Media coverage originating in Mr. Ram’s office captured the pain of Mr. Haniff and Ms. Clarke. The former depends on friends and family to manage his month, while the latter stares into the void of medical demands, with more looking likely. They are a sizable minority in this country. This is what ridicules President Ali (is nah like we ain do nuthin…) and VP Jagdeo (luk how much wee duh…).  I think that somebody did them something.  I am glad that Mr. Chris Ram did what he did for Mr. Haniff and Ms. Clarke.  It should help in some ways that mean something. Now, if President Ali and former president Jagdeo could look at their own monthly $3M pay package and follow suit. Other former presidents have their own choice to make.  There would be no need for the NIS.  To push matters to their natural conclusion, there may be no further need for this tricky, dangerous, and devastating apparatus called a government in Guyana.  look at what it has done to Guyanese.  Look at what most of the members of this PPP Government have done for themselves, and by many loaded containers from the overflowing treasure house of national goodies.  Finally, Guyanese should look at themselves and where they have been forced into, then do the comparison.  It is time for my last question: of what good has been the government?  Time to dust myself off for I took an uncharacteristic slide on that one: of what good has been the government of Irfaan Ali and Bharrat Jagdeo when Guyanese live in an economic graveyard long before breathing their last? (The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.) 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The $30K electricity subsidy and government handouts Aug 22, 2024 Editorial Kaieteur News – The PPP/C Government came up with another trick recently- its $30,000 electricity subsidy to pensioners. The gesture is part of the administration’s ad hoc approach to governance: they wake up one morning in the month of August and decide they will give the electricity subsidy to pensioners, nevermind it was budgeted for and could have been introduced much earlier in the year. It is clear that the unveiling of this programme has nothing to do with a government that cares for its citizens, but more to do with politicking and a failing administration trying to win favour with the population. The subsidy itself would not work. The average household spends around $10,000 in electricity charges, which means that within three months of the year the $30,000 would have been exhausted. The government continues to spend billions to subsidise electricity generation to benefit the foreign companies who are the biggest consumers. But the government is so bent on treating its citizens as beggars they are stuck on giving them handouts.  When many citizens in an oil rich country are struggling and hurting, the thought of what is popular is in and of itself an insult and an abomination. We have always said and stood by one standard: almost half in the Guyanese population are in urgent need of meaningful and sustained assistance. The handouts, though helpful, have all the endurance of a Band-Aid, or some homemade poultice. It is time for the PPP/C Government to introduce a programme of relief that has material salary increases, tax relief, and other cost-of-living relief measures as part of a long-term plan that makes a difference in the lives of the statistically richest people in the world.  All of this is long overdue; it is time to be rid of the temporary and the piecemeal approach. Then amid the handouts culture, food prices continue to surge despite governmental concessions to importers. The real question remains: has the government conducted any surveillance or surveys to establish whether these benefits it has offered to importers have been passed on to consumers? The increase in the cost of food in Guyana is added to be by limited production capacities. Despite being endowed with fertile land and favourable agricultural conditions; Guyana does not produce food on the scale necessary to drive prices down.  The government has been making a lot of noise about being self-sufficient in poultry production. This ought to have reduced the cost of such products on the market. The contrary has happened; prices have increased. It is cheaper to import chicken from Brazil, even with the high tariffs, than to buy it locally. But in order to protect the local poultry market, the government will not allow the mass importation of chicken from Brazil. The cost-of-living crisis is far more complex than the government portrays. It is not merely about an overheating economy or higher demand. It is about an economic structure that permits sellers to hold consumers at their mercy, increasing prices at their whim and expecting consumers to pay. We, and other citizens of this country, have expressed misgivings about handouts, be they in cash or other form. Neither President Irfaan Ali nor his PPP/C Government has looked with favour on Guyanese who quietly questioned certain programmes put into motion. The handouts were one such programme, and our position was that it was not sustainable, that it was prone to significant corruption, and that there has to be better ways for government to offer relief to Guyanese. Related Similar Articles

A subsidy for the rich, a pittance for the poor Aug 22, 2024 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom Kaieteur News – The People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPPC) has once again demonstrated its profound intellectual bankruptcy and an appalling lack of empathy for the very people it claims to serve. The recent decision to offer pensioners a $30,000 annual subsidy on their electricity bill—some eight months into a year marred by soaring prices —is nothing short of a cruel joke, thinly veiled as a cost-of-living relief measure. The sheer incompetence and cynicism of this policy exposes the government’s failure to grasp the basic tenets of equitable social policy. It also demonstrates its proclivity for across-the-board measures that equally benefit the rich and the poor, rather than ensuring that the poor benefits more than the rich. Let us begin with the timing of this so-called relief. It is implemented at a time when pensioners and the general populace have already endured eight full months of unrelenting price increases. Inflation has gnawed at their modest incomes, reducing their purchasing power to a shadow of what it once was. And yet, the government—sitting comfortably atop billions earmarked for cost-of-living relief—allowed these funds to languish in the Treasury. For months, they dithered, seemingly clueless as to how these desperately needed resources should be allocated. It is only now, with the year well advanced and the damage done, that the PPPC emerges with a solution, one so belated and inadequate that it is almost insulting. And they have the temerity to tell the nation that the electricity subsidy was catered for in the 2024 Budget, which was read since January 15th, and was catered for under the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security. But it is not just the timing that is off. The very design of the subsidy is riddled with flaws, reflecting a profound misunderstanding of the realities facing pensioners. This is a targeted subsidy, we are told, aimed at easing the financial burden on those who have given so much to society. But a closer look reveals the true nature of this largesse: it benefits not all pensioners, but only those who are property owners or tenants with a metered electricity connection. In other words, to qualify for this subsidy, one must have registered account with the GPL and as we know only those who own property or are paying rent qualify to have a registered account. This amounts to an exclusionary criterion that leaves thousands of pensioners ineligible. Consider, for instance, the countless pensioners who live with their children in properties owned or rented by their offspring. These elderly citizens, who may be among the most vulnerable, do not qualify for the subsidy simply because they do not have a meter in their name. The absurdity of this policy is glaring: the government has created a benefit ostensibly for the elderly, yet has crafted it in such a way that some of the neediest pensioners are excluded from receiving any assistance at all. Adding insult to injury, the subsidy is not means-tested, meaning that multimillionaires—those who could well afford to cover their electricity costs without state assistance—are eligible for the same $30,000 as a pauperized pensioner struggling to make ends meet. This is not just poor policy; it is a moral failing of the highest order. To equate the needs of a wealthy pensioner with those of someone living on the edge of poverty is to ignore the stark inequalities that define our society. It is to perpetuate a system where the rich get richer while the poor are left to fend for themselves with the scraps that fall from the table. If the PPPC were serious about addressing the hardships faced by pensioners, it would have taken a different approach—one rooted in equity and common sense. A truly effective subsidy would have been targeted at those pensioners most in need of financial assistance, those whose electricity consumption is low and who are, therefore, more likely to be struggling. Instead of a blanket subsidy that benefits the rich and the poor alike, the government should have introduced a system, where the amount of the subsidy is linked to electricity consumption. Such a system would have had multiple benefits. First, it would have allowed for a higher annual subsidy for those who truly need it, providing meaningful relief rather than the token gesture that $30,000 represents. Second, it would have encouraged reduced electricity consumption, aligning with broader goals of sustainability and environmental responsibility. By incentivizing pensioners to use less electricity, the government could have helped reduce the strain on the national grid, while also promoting energy conservation—a pressing concern in a world facing the existential threat of climate change. But perhaps the most significant benefit of such a system would have been its ability to target the most vulnerable pensioners, those whose financial situation is precarious and who are most in need of government support. By focusing the subsidy on those with low electricity consumption, the government could have ensured that its limited resources were directed to those who would need the subsidy the most, rather than being spread thinly across the pensioner population that have registered accounts with the GPL, including those who have no real need for assistance. The PPPC’s failure to adopt such a sensible approach is a damning indictment of its lack of vision and its disregard for the welfare of the people. Instead of crafting policies that address the root causes of poverty and inequality, the government has opted for a quick fix, one that is as ineffective as it is inequitable. The $30,000 subsidy, far from being a solution to the cost-of-living crisis, is merely a Band-Aid on a gaping wound—a wound that has been inflicted by a failure to prioritize the needs of the most vulnerable. What is needed now is not more of the same, but a radical rethinking of how social policy is designed and implemented. The government must recognise that true progress cannot be achieved by throwing money at a problem without understanding its underlying causes. It must move beyond the simplistic notion that all pensioners are alike, and instead, develop policies that reflect the diversity of needs within this group. And most importantly, it must abandon the misguided belief that the rich and the poor can be treated the same. The time has come for the PPPC to show that it is capable of thinking beyond the next election and is committed to truly building a society where no one is left behind. The $30,000 electricity subsidy is not just a failure of policy; it is a failure of imagination. It reflects a government that is out of touch with the realities facing its citizens and is more concerned with optics than with outcomes. The pensioners of this country deserve better than this. They deserve a government that sees them not as a monolithic bloc, but as individuals with unique needs and challenges. They deserve policies that are designed with care and compassion, not with expedience and indifference. And above all, they deserve a government that understands that true charity is not about giving everyone the same, but about giving each person what they need to live with dignity and respect. (The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.) Related Similar Articles

Govt’s mineral-mapping project seems ill-conceived Aug 22, 2024 Letters Dear Editor, The recent reports that the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) has commissioned “Consulting Services for Mineral Mapping Study of Guyana’s Mineral Resources (Gold Resources and Non-traditional Minerals)” stirred my interest as someone who has some familiarity with such work. On reading the Invitation for Request for Proposals (IRP), however, one is hard-pressed to reconcile the sketchy outline of the IRP with the apparent elaborations to the press by Minister of Natural Resources Vickram Bharrat. To tie the pieces together, one would need to see the entire multi-year project document, which the MNR should release should one exist. Notwithstanding, the project raises several concerns in terms of its conceptualization and deliverables, starting with the two smallest: (i) several deliverables cover what the MNR ought to know itself, such as “government policy and legal framework regarding mineral resources, Investment climate and current situation, Location, and nature of mining activities in Guyana”; (ii) much of the work identified in the IRP could be accomplished through capacity building at GGMC and through any of the number of cooperation agreements between GGMC/MNR and sister organizations, such as the one signed in 2019 with Chile, for less the cost. More fundamentally, however: (iii) I would be surprised should our local small and medium-scale gold miners (one of the targeted groups) declare that they would benefit from a mineral map that shows the gold grounds already discovered in the mining districts. Our local miners look for gold by ground prospecting in known gold-producing areas. If “new” ground is discovered or if there is a “shout”, word spreads throughout the entire mining community. What purpose would a map serve that tells miners what they already know? In any case, much of the gold ground is already locked up by large claimholders, who are more interested in finding out how much gold lies on their own properties, rather than in a general mineral map. (iv) The previous effort in this regard was the UN-funded 1968 report (A Guide to Mineral Exploration in Guyana by J.R. Macdonald, for those who are familiar) which gathered and reviewed all the geologist field reports over the previous decades, plotted all the then-known gold occurrences, and presented the information in one convenient volume. This enormous effort is credited with driving the gold exploration boom in Guyana from the late1980s, which eventually led to the discovery of the world-class gold deposit at Omai. Of note, however, is the fact that it was the foreign exploration companies that benefitted from Macdonald as they were the ones with the expertise to grasp the full significance of his geological assessments. Before long, the Macdonald report had become “exhausted”—meaning all the historically-identified gold prospects had been thoroughly explored using modern techniques. To find new or undiscovered gold deposits, foreign exploration companies conducted a series of exploration reconnaissance projects covering massive expanses of Guyana’s hinterland, using airborne geophysics, regional geochemistry, and updated geological mapping and thinking. Nothing much emerged from this investment in terms of new large-scale commercial gold finds.The question then for the MNR is this: apart from (re)digitizing and re(integrating) this info, what more is the MNR project aiming to achieve in this regard? One hopes that effort is not wasted in repeating fieldwork already done and repackaging reports. (v)The IRP also speaks about non-traditional minerals – which would more naturally interest foreign mining investors. Non-traditional minerals refer to such so-called strategic and critical elements as lithium, cobalt, and rare earths. Without seeing the MNR project document (should one exist), I think it would have been better to conceptualize this aspect of the project differently as follows: PHASE 1: based on the stated geo-data needs, fiscal incentives, legal and regulatory framework, etc that large mining investors require, assess the current situation in Guyana and make recommendations to increase the country’s competitiveness as a mining investment destination. PHASE 2: design and conduct all necessary work for geological data collection (including fieldwork), processing, display, retrieval, and storage.  Priority should be given to the unexplored and underexplored areas especially in middle and southern Guyana. Regards, Sherwood Lowe Related Similar Articles

Noise nuisance and police response Aug 22, 2024 Letters Dear Editor, After listening to my neighbour blasting music throughout the whole day on Sunday 18th August, I decided to call tel. 2682222 at 7:21pm and inform the officer at Leonora Police Station of my problem and asked if they can visit the area and request the music to be turned down. The officer informed me that the patrol will visit the area shortly. At 10:21pm I called again and another officer claimed she took over shift and no one informed her, so again I made another request and she also said a patrol will visit the area. 11:03pm I called again and she informed me that the patrol in Tuschen dealing with a domestic problem and immediately after, they will come to my location. 11:48 I called back and once more was told that the patrol is in De Kinderen and coming right away. At 12:20pm I finally doze off with music still blasting loudly. Editor, the Leonora Police Station is two villages away from me, less than a 10 minutes drive, and the Commander’s office is right there. The noise nuisance was almost unbearable throughout the day, and to make matters worse, the people put their boxes out in the yard and pointed them to my house directly. Between 7:21pm to 11:48pm, I made six phone calls to the Guyana Police Force for assistance and sadly, I couldn’t get any. I’m guessing because I have no contacts I could call or whether I am supposed to offer any money to get assistance. After six telephone calls and no help, if I had taken action in my own hands, would I have been the bad one? Is there any other agency I could approach when I cannot get help from those who are supposed to protect and serve? Sincerely, Sahadeo Bates Related Similar Articles

Dave Martins’ music and lyrics brought into life the Caribbean man’s idiosyncrasies Aug 22, 2024 Letters Dear Editor, The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines “icon” as ‘a person or thing widely admired, especially for having great influence or significance in a particular sphere.’ Undisputedly, Dave Martins is such an icon notably, in the sphere of music. But Martins is also a historical phenomenon. The essence and content of his music can only be understood though the prism of the respective socio-economic formations of Caribbean societies, their evolution as well as the generational changes in the respective populaces of those countries. Dave Martins’ music and lyrics were truly democratic in the sense that he was able to bring into life not only the Caribbean man’s idiosyncrasies but to blend each peculiar one together in a holistic fashion that gave it real life in lyrical expression, meaning and understanding of what being a Caribbean man and woman is like. Those who ‘live on another planet,’ in glass houses or are not au fait with the Caribbean peoples’ Idiosyncrasies and their distinctive, if not peculiar expressions in language, of their intricate customs and mores, and who consider themselves the elite by the use of highfalutin language and the practice of corresponding airs and graces setting them apart from the ‘dregs of society’ must have ‘learnt a thing or two’ from Martins’ ‘West Indian Alphabet,’ ‘West Indian Suitcase’ or ‘Copycats’ among others. Dave Martins, I believe, would have died a happy, optimistic man knowing his music especially the household, ‘Not A Blade Of Grass’ would one day accomplish its historic mission. Dave Martins’s engagement with the cultural milieu at home and abroad, was greatly facilitated through his musings reflected in his weekly Stabroek News column; ‘And So It Go.’ In my opinion, Martins’ columns could be considered his correspondence with others in the cultural world at large. In that regard, he sought to communicate to his friends and followers a deep cultural and spiritual camaraderie grounded in shared convictions about the transformative potential of social commentary through music. In that respect, his social commentary expressed through the lyrics in his songs differ in genre with the social commentary of the exceptionally high quality of song and music in the rest of Caribbean for example in kaiso, calypso, soca, reggae chutney, socarypso and gospelypso. The content of Martins’s music embodied the Caribbean people’s dispositions, abilities, idiosyncrasies and talents. In other words, the embodiment of an essential human need that; ‘Man Shall Not Live By Bread Alone.’ And it was precisely in recognition of that human need that Martins was able to create the mastery in lyrics to reflect human nature and every-day life of the Caribbean people. The beauty of Martins musical artistry was his ability to translate from the abstract, his conviction that all active people were the creators of the lyrics of his music and to make it part of a living Caribbean-wide culture. Reading between the lines, one could easily discern from what he wrote that it was not only those like himself who worked creatively to bring into musical and lyrical form, the songs we enjoy but telling us there was a much bigger picture where lyrics can be democratic because it captured the emotional expression of people. On April 17,2022 in his S/N column ‘And So it Go’ Martins made an interesting, if not revealing statement concerning ‘The Musician’s Life’ In that connection, he wrote; ‘The professional musician’s life has many attendant aspects, other than the activity itself, so that any successful Caribbean musician will tell you that one of the problems is dealing with hecklers who consider themselves comedians and will shout stuff at you from the crowd, very loud.’ And as though that confession was not sufficient, Martins went on to explain in another column how his music on the one hand, and his column on the other, demonstrated clearly that culture is a historical phenomenon and that its essence and content can only be understood in connection with the respective socio-economic formation of Caribbean societies. In its May 23, 2021 edition of S/N, Dave Martins in his column, ‘And So It Go… I Do Not Know’ wrote; ‘People often ask me about this column or that, or this song or that. “Boy, where you get the idea for this? What kind of brain you got?” And down the road, there may come a day when I may be able to answer, but as of now the answer, honestly, is “I don’t know.”  It’s not as if I go looking for these things; the truth is they come looking for me, landing on me out of nowhere, and sometimes they come from other people and I truly don’t ask. I simply recognize the suggestion as a good one or it has some other appeal to me, and I go with it, giving thanks for whatever God gave me to propel it.’ Dave Martins’ musical legacy invites us as Caribbean people to reimagine (shades of Paul Mcarthy call) the world through the prism of human creativity and collective endeavor—a world animated not only by economic and political imperatives but by the boundless possibilities of human imagination. In Shakespeare’s ‘Twelfth Night’, we read; “If music be the food of love play on.” As we Guyanese fans mourn the loss of this musical icon, we also celebrate the time he lived and sang amongst us and for us. We will never refuse an over abundance, nor lose appetite for Dave Martins music as the food of love nor life because whenever we feel a sense of frustration, it is his music we shall turn to. Yours faithfully, Clement J. Rohee Related Similar Articles