GUYANA is set to benefit from £53.2 million in grant resources from the United Kingdom under its newly established United Kingdom Caribbean Infrastructure Fund (UKCIF). Finance Minister Winston Jordan, along with Minister of Public Infrastructure David Patterson and Minister of Communities Ronald Bulkan, last week met with British High Commissioner Greg Quinn and representatives of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) and the Department For International Development (DFID) to discuss Guyana’s proposed infrastructural projects that are to be funded by UKCIF.
UKCIF is an ambitious investment undertaken by the United Kingdom. It will provide grant-funding to improve or create new infrastructure such as roads, bridges and ports to help drive economic growth and development in nine countries across the Caribbean region.
UK Prime Minister David Cameron announced the launch of the £300 million fund during his trip to Jamaica in 2015.
As a result, the Government of Guyana has identified and submitted project proposals for six major infrastructural development programmes.
The identified interventions will see improved road networks, bridges, stellings and waterfronts, rehabilitation of airstrips, reliable access to potable water and reduced energy costs, as well as tackle the environmental and health risks associated with the improper disposal of waste.
The CDB has been designated by the UK Government to design, develop and implement the programme in collaboration with the Government of Guyana.
A team from the CDB is expected to visit Guyana shortly to discuss the start of project-preparation activities with the relevant sectoral agencies.

COMMISSIONERS of the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the catastrophic Georgetown Prison riots on March 2 and 3 said the conduct of Guyana Bar Association President Christopher Ram reflects the lowest point of the legal profession, and practitioners now display “gutter” mannerisms in the Courts of law and Courts of Inquiry.According to a press statement signed by Chairman of the CoI, Justice James Patterson (retd), “Mr Christopher Ram’s conduct, widely reported in the press, reflects the very nadir of ethical display in the practise of what has always been known as ‘the noble profession’.”

Attorney Christopher Ram

The statement said the commissioners have been caught in the crossfire of attorneys’ regular fierce contentions before the Commission, and have, “on a regular basis, incurred the wrath of both counsel, that is to say, Christopher Ram and Selwyn Pieters, as each pressed their clients’ case with understandable vigour.”

However, the statement said, “Liberties were taken. Mr Selwyn Pieters, Counsel for the Joint Services and Fire Service, was ferried away by his enthusiasm, and made statements which, by any objective view, constitute a breach in civility and an affront to the Commission.”

The commissioners also noted that Pieters was profuse in his apologies, which were unconditional and well received by the commission.

However, the statement said, “Mr Christopher Ram, on the other hand, who appeared for the Bar Association as an interested party, obtained ‘good standing’ from the Commission to conduct his brief.  Mr Christopher Ram was equally fierce on behalf of his clients, an amorphous lot though they be. The commission has been unusually charitable to Mr Christopher Ram…. His appearance has been pro bono for the public good, and such appearances are clearly to be commended…. Mr Christopher Ram, however, routinely displayed a degree of petulance when his extravagant demands were disallowed.”

The Commission said Ram’s unwillingness to abide by the rulings of the Chairman has become routine and is outrageous, with Ram automatically reflecting his displeasure “by displaying the tantrums of a five-year-old who cannot get his own way on the ball field. This he did on the 20th (April), 2016 ultima by throwing tantrums and slamming the door to the CoI Hearings Room, and made off with his bat and ball because he was not allowed to bat first.

“That degree of petulance and disrespect I have not seen in nearly 50 years of practice since called to the English Bar,” Justice Patterson stated.

Other commissioners on the panel are former Director of Prisons Dale Erskine and Human Rights activist Merle Mendonca. (Shauna Jemmott)

By Shauna Jemmott

AS PRISON officers continue to testify before the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the Georgetown Prison riots that occurred between March 2 and 4, testimony continues to tell that life isn’t the same anymore for any of the officers who worked within the walls of the Georgetown Prison on that fateful day.Still traumatised from the events of March 3, when 17 prisoners died in a fire at the Capital A block of the Georgetown Prison, Cadet Officer Udistair Holligan said on Friday that the events had taken a psychological toll on him, and he is left asking himself many questions for which he cannot find answers.
Holligan, a Task Force Commander within the Prison Service, said that he and other officers had tried desperately to open the door for the screaming, trapped prisoners to get out, even though the men had minutes before thrown faeces, urine and a peppery substance on them, yet prisoners are showing ingratitude and are threatening to take him and his family out.

Holligan said though he tries his best, he is constantly confronted with the haunting thought that his best was not good enough to save 17 lives. Coupled with that, his life and the lives of his nuclear family, even his mother, are being threatened, with prisoners shouting to him that they know where he lives; one even shouting aloud his correct address in the midst of death threats.

The officer told the CoI that he is commander of the Task Force at the Timehri Prison, and on the morning of March 3, he was called by the officer in charge at Timehri and given an order to muster his ranks and report to the Georgetown Prison.
Upon reaching Georgetown Prison, he met with Director of Prisons Carl Graham and Officer-in-Charge at Georgetown Prison, Kevin Pilgrim, who briefed him that a search would be conducted for contraband items in the new capital block.

The ‘Task Force’ is set aside to assist in the search for contraband, among other responsibilities within the local prison; and on March 3, he and Hutson were commanders of the task force of between 25 and 30 persons at the Georgetown Prison.
He said that sometime after 09:45 hrs, they instructed prisoners to get their belongings and vacate the dormitories in the new Capital block in groups of five.

He said a group was set aside to extract alleged ringleaders, who were responsible for influencing the riot on the previous night (March 2), and his team visited Capital A.

Inmates were asked to gather their belongings and approach the western door in orderly manner, exiting the building in groups of five.

BLOCKED DOOR
He said he and Hutson attempted to open the door, but found it difficult when they tried using the keys, “as if the door was joined inside.” He said the door could have possibly been blocked with a piece of wood or a cork, so Cozier, another Georgetown Prison staff, was sent by the Deputy Director of Prisons, Gladwin Samuels, to open the door with a “cutter.”

While Cozier made his way, a prisoner, Randolph (Randy) Marques (who perished in the fire), said: “Mr Holligan, ya’ll could open the door”, and the officers opened the door with the keys. He assumed that the door was opened after the prisoners had removed whatever element they used to block the door.

As the prisoners exited as ordered, officers directed them to the search area. Holligan said “at first it was going smooth” and the officers were able to identify the ring leaders for the unexpected takedown. They first extracted prisoner Steve Allicock and everything went well. After Collison was extracted, prisoner Shaka McKenzie (who also perished in the fire) started behaving disorderly and was quite confrontational, even rushing into Holligan’s face.

The officer said McKenzie even pushed him and “I then pushed him back into the dormitory and secured the door.” At that time, other inmates were approaching the door to exit the division as ordered, but McKenzie “started going on, and he started arming himself with improvised weapons, and I heard Mr. Hutson say “weapons.”

He said that at this time McKenzie was pushing the door and officer Hutson shouted an order to “lock the door!”
THROWING OF URINE
Another officer, whose name was given as Lyken, locked the door after the prisoner was armed with improvised weapons (bed posts) and was pushing them through the door. The prisoner was joined by other prisoners, who also verbally abused the prison officers and threw on them urine and faeces mixed with pepper.

“I was hit with urine…some got on the side of my face and my uniform,” Holligan told the commission. He said he proceeded to another area and changed his uniform, putting on a green jersey instead, before returning to the new Capital block.

“At Capital B, they met us with the same aggression, cursing; and they even throw stones at us,” said Holligan.
The officer related that Deputy Director of Prisons, Gladwin Samuels, and Officer-in-Charge of The Georgetown Prison, Kevin Pilgrim, approached after the situation got out of control, and Samuels tried to talk to the prisoners to have them evacuate the Capital B division. After a while, the Capital B prisoners complied, and Holligan assisted in directing them down the stairs.

That was when they observed smoke saturating the Capital B dormitory and realised a fire had been lit through a hole created in the wall separating the two dormitories. The fire was put out with the use of extinguishers. Shortly after, he saw smoke arising out of Capital A, and shortly after he and other officers tried to open the Capital A door for the prisoners to exit to safety. The prisoners were crying for help.
Holligan said.

“It went from a controlled environment to an uncontrolled environment,” he related.

He said the Fire Service later arrived on the scene and tried using a hose to extinguish the blaze. The Capital B door was opened already, he said, and “I heard officers and inmates shouting to them: ‘Ya’ll could come through the hole! Come through the hole!’

“It was confusing. The place was filled with smoke, the fire was blazing out of control…everything just went haywire from then,” Holligan pointed out.

“It kinda left me traumatised,” the officer said, and added that in his attempts to save the prisoners, he failed, and found himself in a situation where he witnessed their burning to death instead.

“I heard inmates screaming…even though I tried to assist in trying to get the door open…. You [I] did your [my] job to the best, but you [I] didn’t do it good enough to assist on that day. It’s kinda hard,” the officer confessed.

He said he wonders from time to time, “If this thing goes to that level again, how can you [I] assist somebody? How could you preserve a life that is already lost?”

The officer said that although he experiences what appears to be severe psychological trauma, he has not received counselling, and no one has made those services available to him.

A 23-YEAR-OLD mechanic is on the run after allegedly stabbing the mother of his 11-month-old son on Wednesday evening.The 25-year-old waitress Michelle Drennon, of Lot 1607 Cadet Lane, South Ruimveldt, was stabbed about her body, reportedly by her common-law husband Keon All. She is in a stable condition at the Georgetown Public Hospital.

According to relatives, Drennon has made numerous reports at the West Ruimveldt Police Station about the abuse she suffered at the hands of All.

“Last October she moved in with her mother because of the violence and the fights they have. Imagine when he attacked her at her home he walked with poison in a container and was slamming her head with the stuff,” one relative said.

The mother of the injured young lady, Adunni Drennon, told this publication that they will not be staying at the house until the perpetrator is caught, since they are fearful of attacks on the family.

“He brags about having police friends, we need proper security for my daughter at the hospital because he had wanted to kill her,” the mother noted.

She explained that after the stabbing incident, he has been calling the phone and pretending to be his mother, asking how Michelle is doing, “but we know his voice. He is molesting us, and the police need to arrest him.”

Her sister, Tandicka Drennon, said she was relaxing on Wednesday evening, watching television while her sister was resting in bed. She said the perpetrator visited the home and requested to speak to her sister.

“I told him she was sleeping and he went around to the window at her room and said something.”

She explained that the man then rushed his way into the home and started beating her sister, who had walked into the living room. The fight moved into the kitchen, where the perpetrator armed himself with a knife and stabbed the mother of his child several times about the body.

Tandicka said she tried to part the fight but was unsuccessful, so she ran over to neighbours for help.

“Then he ran behind us. He was on the patio pushing the door, and the only reason he didn’t get in was because is four of us holding back the door… If he was given a proper chance he would have killed her.”

She said her sister and the suspect even had a matter before the court because he had destroyed her personal property, among other things.

In a few weeks Guyana will observe its 50th Independence anniversary. The observances will coincide with the first anniversary of the current government.

IN A FEW weeks’ time, Guyana will observe its 50th Independence anniversary. The observances will coincide with the first anniversary of the current government. From all indications, Guyana is ready for a big party; that is part of who we are as a Caribbean people. In a sense, the very act of celebration is an affirmation of freedom. The plantation was a closed space, with all the horrors bottled up therein; so, logically, emancipation and independence meant reclamation of the open space. That is where our carnival spirit comes from, and why cricket speaks to, and of, our spirit.

“All our people ask for is some love and respect, some sweet caress, some happiness.”

Bob Marley, the poetic genius of our Caribbean Independence, was moved in the 1970s to ask of the powers that be: “Why can’t we roam this open country/Oh why can’t we be what we want to be/We want to be free.”

Bob Marley asks a very serious question in that verse: Why can’t we be free? This is the question I want to pose today. If you come out of the bowels of slavery, indentureship and colonialism, your appetite for f reedom is bound to be large. We Guyanese are no different. That is why when May 1966 arrived, we sang the freedom song in a land that was no longer strange to us. We had turned a “strange land” into a freedom space. The challenges were many, but in the end we overcame.

You see, Independence was not about who the political father was or which party led us to 1966; it was and is more profound. It was and is about FREEDOM — the opportunity for the sufferers to suffer no more. Bob Marley’s chant pierces our consciousness: we want to be free.

But have we really been free? Can we roam the open country? Fifty years later, are we what we want to be?
Marley would simultaneously proclaim: “No chains around my feet/But I am not free/I have never known what happiness is/I have never known what sweet caress is.”

We have survived the plantation and we have survived the harshness of Independence, but as Brother Eusi Kwayana, our own sage, would say, the scars of bondage are raw; and I submit that bondage is not a thing of the past, it is very much
in our present.

That is why when my national newspaper dispatches history to the pit of hell, I weep for Guyana. Our foreparents did not fashion a history of survival, resistance and freedom for some lost soul to write it out of history. As Marley would ask—“where is the love to be found?”

In Guyana we have not known what happiness is these fifty years; we have not known what sweet caress is. It is not that some of our leaders have not meant well. It is not that our people have not raised their voices in protest against the agents of unhappiness. It is not that there have been no socio-economic advances. It is not that our collective creative imagination has not soared. We have done right in the sight of God and humanity, but still we are not free to be what we want to be.

So, to quote Marley again, we forward “in this generation.” But is it triumphantly? Come next month, what songs will we sing? Will we join Brother Bob to sing redemption songs? Or will we party as if we are fully free? Please let us leave some time and space to reflect on our journey and our present condition. Let us not depend on Google to explain our history — our story; we are better than that. Our own Martin Carter speaks for all of us: “From the niggeryard of yesterday I come with my burden/To the world of tomorrow I turn with my strength.”

Our current government finds itself in a tight spot; it is a rare product: it has the burden of facilitating that love and happiness and sweet caress which Brother Bob talked about. Brother Granger calls it the “good life.” All our people ask for is some love and respect, some sweet caress, some happiness. I see it in their eyes and hear it in their voices, and touch it when I touch flesh with them. Our politics have never been easy. But we have got to face our demons and cast them out.

Ras Michael Jeune: Rootsman to the Core; Artistic to the Core
Ras Michael Jeune was my friend, my mentor, my brother. In a little wooden house at Buxton-Friendship Line Top, he taught me and others how to write and read poetry, and how to write period. He taught us drama and storytelling and short story writing. He is for me Guyana’s best short story writer of his generation. Michael was the first person to clarify for me what is the meaning of democracy and dictatorship. It came out in an argument he had with a “lil hot hand” name John Cromwell. Mike introduced me to the poetry/chant of Andre Tanker and the artistry of Ken Corsbie, Marc Matthews, Johnny Agard and Henry Muttoo. It was he who explained to me that Walter Rodney was an artist too, and that Kwayana had that touch of genius.

I love you Mike. Go back to your ancestors and continue your work of the mind and of poor people looking to break free. This year, Emancipation at Buxton Line Top would not be the same, but the first libation will be for you: Rootsman to the bone, artistic to the core.

More of Dr. Hinds ‘writings and commentaries can be found on his YouTube Channel Hinds’ Sight: Dr. David Hinds’ Guyana-Caribbean Politics and on his website www.guyanacaribbeanpolitics.com. Send comments to dhinds6106@aol.com

By Clement Henry

THE quintessence of the ‘Good Life’ is where all people — regardless of physical characteristics and social and political linkages — are able to live in freedom and dignity: free from poverty and despair, and able to fully develop their human potential. This is a goal of human security. In fact, human security is synonymous with the ‘Good Life’.

Human security, as an emerging approach, contends that fundamental to the ‘Good Life’ is an acceptance that people’s existence is characterised by three key freedoms: freedom from fear, freedom from want, and freedom to live in dignity. In its broadest understanding under these three heads, human security therefore encompasses economic and income security, food security, health security, personal security from violence, community and identity security, environmental security, and security of political freedoms.

The relevance of human security as a way of conceptualising and practising security became more apparent across the globe post-1989, at the end of the Cold war, when practitioners and scholars came to recognise that state security does not always correlate with the security of citizens. In reality, there are numerous instances when people have suffered and died as a result of poverty, hunger, communicable diseases, criminal violence and environmental disasters, even though state structures persist.

The paradox between security of the state and human security is consistent with local realities. This contradiction is evident in a Stabroek News article dated August 26, 2010, wherein a senior policy maker was reported as saying that “national security remained intact” notwithstanding the country’s homicide rate for that year was 18.6 per 100,000 population, robbery rate was 145.8 per 100,000 population, and 52.1 per cent of the robberies committed that year involved the use of firearms.

While one might be tempted to dismiss the senior policy maker’s conclusion on national security as being uninformed (I do not think it is so), what it really reveals is the gap between security of the state and security of the individual. As Dr Edward Newman, Professor of International Security, explains: “State security, while being a necessary condition for citizen security, is not a sufficient condition.”

And while traditional perspectives on security are tightly built around security of the state, human security is principally concerned with protection of individuals. It is not atypical, therefore, for traditional views of security to subsume, if not conflate, human security concerns with state security. Further, the human security perspective’s call for attention to individual security, as apart from state security, is based on the overarching prevalence of existential threats to the security of individuals emanating from both state and non-state actors.

Nevertheless, human security is not a substitute for national security. The state remains fundamentally responsible for security. Human security, however, is important to attaining the ‘Good Life’ because it highlights the various vulnerabilities and insecurities that people face in their everyday lives. It is people-centred, its elements are interdependent, and it is best achieved through empowerment and early prevention.

At the system level, a human security approach is relevant to the realities in Guyana. In this context, current drivers of human insecurity in Guyana include unemployment, poverty, inequality, social and political exclusion, diseases, flooding, interpersonal violence, trafficking of humans, and illicit trafficking in drugs and small arms.

It is worthwhile to note also that a 2012 UNDP Citizen Security Survey found that only 42.7 per cent of respondents felt secure living in Guyana. A corollary of this finding is that human insecurity among citizens poses a major challenge to realising the vision of the ‘Good Life’ across Guyana. Notwithstanding this challenge, human security is achievable in Guyana! However, achieving human security for all will require proactive approaches and responsive institutions that will protect individuals from risk and vulnerabilities, empowering them so that they become resilient to a wide variety of life-threatening circumstances in the economic, food, environmental health, physical, societal and political dimensions.

Because the elements of human security are interrelated, achieving human security also requires broad-based partnerships among a variety of actors from international and regional institutions, central and local government, community-based organisations, non-governmental organisations, and the private sector. It requires understanding the correlates of insecurity and acting proactively to prevent conditions that generate insecurity.

It is apposite to note, as a reminder, a United Nations General Assembly Declaration which states, “human security calls for people-centered, comprehensive, context-specific and prevention-oriented responses that strengthen the protection and empowerment of all people and all communities.”[a condition that undoubtedly leads towards a good life].

One of the challenges we will face in operationalising human security is our ability to measure human security, which is a multidimensional concept. However, measuring human security as a multidimensional concept is achievable via the application of statistical type operations. Towards this end, perception surveys have been used in evaluating levels of citizen security in Guyana, and similar approaches can be useful in measuring human security.

Measuring human security, in the final analysis, offers tremendous benefits for the development of evidence-based strategies to protect and preserve the citizenry. It can also support the identification of priorities, risks and protective factors.

Because human security is closely related to the concept of the ‘Good Life’, analytical innovations in this concept can be transferred to the latter, thereby offering Government practical means of assessing, measuring, and developing a road map towards achieving the ‘Good Life’ for all.

Comments can be sent to: towardsagoodlife@gmail.com

By Navendra Seoraj

EXEMPLIFYING hard work and perseverance, farmer Lloyd Doobay, 51, has been employing innovative ways to stay in the agriculture business, in which he has been engaged for the past three decades.Doobay carries on his farming business from the little community of Laluni, on the Soesdyke-Linden Highway. Over the years, he has provided employment to persons within the community to keep up with his expanding variety of crops, now numbering over 62, with the latest addition being Irish potatoes. His main crops include cherries, peppers and eggplant.

Achieving such a feat did not come easy for the farmer. He started out as a security guard with the Guyana Stores Limited in 1983, but found the job could not provide for his growing family and their betterment. He needed to think of another means of earning an income to provide for his wife, Ramdularie, and three children – one boy and two girls.

In 1985, Doobay moved his family to Laluni, where he started cultivating tobacco; then the industry collapsed. Battling poverty, Doobay resorted to operating a grocery shop, which gave him the entrepreneurial skills needed to progress further.

With the shop not doing as well as he had wanted, Doobay once more resorted to his passion – farming. He recruited a group of persons from the area and they began cultivating various crops on nearby land. However, as time went by, his human resources became depleted by the eventual exodus of persons, and the farmer was left with just about 61 different crops to manage by himself.

“Maintaining my produce was hard, but I never gave up because I loved what I was doing. I planted them with the help of good workers, and I won’t leave this place till the day I die. This is what allowed me to be who I am today, and send my children to school,” the farmer confessed.

For over 30 years, he fought the bondage of poverty, and eventually got to where he is today. In that process, apart from creating betterment for his family and himself, he provided employment for neighbouring persons, especially youths who work along with him and his son, Ravi, on the farm.

Doobay is not just a prolific farmer, but is also an accomplished entrepreneur. He is currently the main supplier of cherries to popular juicing factory “Topco”, and is also engaged in other commercial activities, thanks to his perseverance and patience.

Along with the help of his son Ravi, Doobay continues to work hard to produce more and develop his farm.

Currently, he is seeking major markets for his wide produce of the different varieties of pepper he has cultivated.

Doobay is currently involved in a ground-breaking experiment with the Canadian non-profit organization World University Services of Canada (WUSC), cultivating Irish potatoes in Guyana. The farmer says he intends to be the largest producer of potatoes in the country, once the experiment is proven successful.

Other farmers were selected to grow Irish potatoes, but the dry weather curtailed their efforts.
Doobay, however, innovatively drilled a well next to his plot, from which he has been able to access enough water to supply his crops.

If all goes well, Doobay will be able to harvest approximately 17,000 pounds of potatoes in two months’ time.

THERE is no development without workers. Workers are the key ingredient to any developmental process, and without them the engine of production cannot turn. Labour still remains a key factor in production and development, and once labour remains a key factor, workers must be treated with dignity and respect.People often pay lip service to labour, preferring to pay more attention to land, capital and entrepreneurship, forgetting that labour is the key factor.

Labour has always been exploited — from slavery unto today. It is against this backdrop that the labour movement, formed in 1905 under the leadership of Hubert Nathaniel Critchlow, saw dockworkers striking to demand their labour be treated with respect and dignity. This demand was grounded in the right to self-determination, which in the Industrial Revolution in Europe in the 1700s saw similar acts being committed by workers who were dislocated from the cottage industry and denied the right to have a say in their conditions of work.

The month of May will mark Guyana’s 50th anniversary of independence. Independence is an achievement of self-determination consistent with the universal right to charter one’s political, social, cultural and economic wellbeing. The pursuit of internal self-government began in 1926 when Caribbean Labour Leaders met in Georgetown, strategised, developed a menu of measures, and led the fight to achieve independence. It wasn’t until one year shy of a quarter-century that a mass-based political party, the People’s Progressive Party (1950), entered the fray and supported the struggle.

This year, as Labour takes time out to reflect on its erstwhile contributions to self-determination of the workers (past, present and potential), theirs and the nation’s development, there remains the need for a redoubling of efforts. This is so given that Labour is not only being taken for granted in determining the nation’s development, but workers are being treated as though they are not key to development and are only incidental to the process.

Some even consider workers nuisance when they stand up and demand the achievements from their blood, sweat and labour that resulted in international declarations, conventions, charters and laws be respected.

Let me make it very clear: No politician today, in or out of the Executive or Legislature, could be where he/she is without the foundation that was laid by the trade union movement and the Workers’ Agenda which was incorporated into the Political Platform and received the support and votes of the workers. The fight for one-man one-vote started in 1926 with the trade union. This fight, which from 1953 paved the way for politicians — irrespective of their socio-economic status and identity — to have a presence in the legislature and the executive, is thanks to Labour.

And where Labour has made its mark in achieving these two important milestones in the fight for self-determination, it will be an affront to the workers and movement to ignore the foundation laid by us; which today is either taken for granted, coveted, or is under threat to be denied us and have us shut out of the political decision-making processes of the state at the national, regional and local levels.

2016 finds the Labour Movement a united unit based on the conviction that unity exists only when Labour is in one federation that stands convinced of the universal right to freedom of association protected in the Guyana Constitution (Article 147) and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention No. 87 (Article 6). Consistent with respect for these tenets, 90 years after the foundation was laid and 50 years after political independence was achieved, the Labour Movement stands proudly united and committed to hold dear the legacy bequeathed to this nation; which shall be relentlessly safeguarded, deepened and strengthened even as we ward off the forces of contempt and disregard for our blood, sweat and tears.

Going forward, trade unions across Guyana have committed to the following:
i) Right to Freedom of Association and Collective Bargaining; ii) resolution of all outstanding labour grievances; iii) demanding a seat at the decision-making table; iii) ensuring the honouring of the social contract; iv)upholding of international declarations, conventions, charters, time-honoured principles and the Laws of Guyana.

Where, in 2016, there exists a Ministry of Business to address the wellbeing of entrepreneurship and there is no agency to address the wellbeing of Labour, the Trade Union Movement has every right to be aggrieved. For whereas back then the struggle was against the exploitation of labour by the merchant class, which had the support of the colonial government; today, under self-government, entrepreneurship is once again given pre-eminence over labour.

And while it is noted that President David Granger holds the view that Social Protection encapsulates Labour, holding a view does not necessarily make that view right. Social protection, according to the ILO, is one of the 4 strategic objectives of the Decent Work Agenda.
The absence of a Ministry of Labour clearly sends a signal that workers are not considered a strategic component of national development. Where a ministry which normally has responsibility for addressing issues that cut across every facet of governance is miniaturized, it speaks to a misunderstanding of what Labour is all about. It also speaks to contempt for the spirit and intent of the Guyana Constitution and the key role workers play in national development via production, distribution and consumption.

In this 90th year, where workers paved the way to celebrate the 50th anniversary, there shall be unity against indignity, disrespect, and the miniaturising of our presence, contributions and roles in society.

THE trade union community will today begin its week-long commemoration activities with a morning church service and afternoon wreath-laying event, and will culminate same in a Labour Day march and rally on Sunday, 1st May. 

While the genesis of May Day, which in Guyana is referred to as Labour Day, is rooted in the May 4th, 1886 Haymarket Square riot in Chicago, when workers striking for an 8-hour work day were shot and killed by police, Guyana, though joining the global community to mark the event, has added its local twist.

As a nation whose first peoples, the Amerindians, fought against the exploitative system of slavery; followed by our African community, and the Indians, Chinese and Portuguese who fought against indentureship; and later all, including Europeans, against colonialism; all can identify with the cause that gave rise and meaning to the Labour Movement.

Historians will recount numerous instances of workers, though not formally organised, standing up against what they considered poor conditions under which they worked and the less-than-adequate sums paid for their labour. Historical evidence recounts workers, be they enslaved, indentured, colonised or free, resisting poor working and living conditions and high cost of living.

In the 20th century, where the trade union movement has it genesis as a formal organising mass and taking up the workers’ cause as we come to know it, the understanding of the workers’ movement has come to be accepted through these lenses.

In 1905, when the 21-year-old Hubert Nathaniel Critchlow led stevedore workers in a strike at the John Fernandes Wharf, the first act of mass mobilisation was registered. Apart from putting Guyana on the map as the birthplace of the Father of Trade Unionism in the British Commonwealth, Critchlow went on to lead causes in the interest of the workers, in and outside of the workplace. He, along with other Caribbean Labour Leaders, is credited for putting in place the framework that helped to shape the struggle of the Caribbean peoples for the advancement of their social, cultural, political and economic wellbeing. This included the utility paid to international self-government and regional integration as important pillars in development.

And whereas regional integration was first achieved with the West Indian Federation, the Caribbean Free Trade Agreement to the Caribbean Community, (CARICOM) established in 1973, still stands today as a marked achievement of the workers’ movement.

Self-government, hinged on first establishing the right to one-man one-vote, wherein every eligible citizen is given the right to exercise the choice of electing his/her representative, is owed to the trade union movement.

And where there exists doubt about the ability of Guyanese to work harmoniously with each other, the trade union movement has shown that this is possible.

After the March 1926 meeting of Caribbean Labour leaders, in which Critchlow participated, history has shown that, in December 1926, Critchlow met with the then British Guiana East Indian Association to discuss how Indians can get involved in the political process of voting.
Once called the African Crosby by Indian sugar workers, who likened him to an immigrant agent that represented their interests, he helped in giving direction and support to the struggle to improve living and working conditions on the estates.

When sugar workers deferred to trade unionist Ayube Edun, being their leader of choice, this decision was respected.

The workers’ movement has a storied and complex legacy in this nation’s history. It is one that has played a sterling role in building this country, and includes the fight for equality, universal free healthcare and education, childcare, fair treatment by landlord, housing development, decent pay and working conditions, minimum wage, and paid leave, among other things.

At the internal level, there have been differences between unions that have seen breakaway, disbanding of the original Guyana Trades Union Congress, formation of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Guyana, its later disbandment, and formation of another. It is not unfair to say the movement has always had an attraction for politicians, who find it a ready institution with mobilised and militant workers/citizens, and also used it as front to serve or reinforce political agenda.

That aside, given the existence of laws, notably the Constitution which specifically addresses the right to join a trade union of choice to represent one’s interests (Article 147), the involvement of the trade union in the management and decision-making processes of the State (Article 149C) and its duty to help in the development of the economy (Article 38), the presence of the workers and their organisation will be felt and known.

Dear Editor:

OUR ability to meet the challenges facing this nation on the social cohesion front and to achieve the opportunities of our time depends in large measure on how we configure and construct the next Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC). While our people have worked out their own mechanism at the local level to co-exist side by side amiably, at the national level, the social cohesion and ethnic relations situation is in an abysmal shape.

There are many reasons for this, but one cannot deny that the attempt to dominate the conversation by the Georgetown-based elites is a serious causation of the social cohesion degradation.  One only has to examine the list of invitees to nominate the next Commission on Ethnic Relations and you can easily identify how rural Guyana is being marginalised in this process.  It seems as though people from Buxton and Albion, Victoria and Enmore have no say in national life anymore. Less than 15 percent of the invited organisations have their genesis in rural Guyana.

But to compound this eye-pass against rural Guyana, one can drill down another layer to observe what is the state of representation for different segments of the rural society.   Because of lack of space I will focus on two segments of society – rural Hindus and rural youths.

Hindus constitute some 30 percent of the nation and most of them live in rural Guyana.  However, on the list of invitees to this nomination process for the ERC, the Hindus are provided with less than 10 percent representation and most of the invited Hindu groups are Georgetown-based. Why are bodies such as
Tain Hindu Mandir, the Mahaica Creek Hindu Temple, the De Hoop Hindu Temple, the Unity Shiva Mandir, the Strathaven Hindu Temple, the Lusignan Mandir, the Enterprise Hindu Mandir, the Guava Bush Hindu Temple, the Enmore Shiva Mandir, and the Annandale Hindu Temple not invited? I can list at least 40 other Hindu Groups across rural Guyana who have been excluded from this process.  Isn’t this a clear and present act of discrimination against rural Hindus?

We talk every day about equal rights for women, but yet this perverted system cannot recognise the power of the rural Hindu woman.  Strong women leaders, who continue to mould communities in rural Guyana, dominate the management scene in most of these rural temples, but they have no voice according to these Georgetown- based elites.

Now what about the rural youths?  The footballers and cricketers in Buxton, Albion, Victoria and Enmore have no voice in this process?  Why are they not being invited to this ERC nomination process?  Again, more than 65 percent of Guyana are youths, but if you observe the youth groups, save and except for the Rose Hall Group, there is again a predominance of the urban elites.

So I am calling out these blatant acts of marginalisation on the part of the Georgetown-based ruling elites and let the record show that unless the rural Hindus and rural youths are not properly represented in the ERC, it will be another failed institution of Guyana.

One of the most progressive political documents crafted in Guyana, the Herdmanston Accord, caused the establishment of the ERC.  It was made a constitutional body and was designed to do many things, but one of its most important role remains:

How can we promote harmony and good relations when rural Guyana remains largely excluded from the nomination process to the Commission? Or is this more public relations gimmickry?

Rural Guyana have already expressed  their displeasure at being so under-represented in the state institutions under this Coalition Government in the just concluded Local Government Elections, but like no one seems to be listening to their voices.

Let us be mature and rise about our comfort zones and do the right thing if we want to progress Guyana’s human development.  The status quo is nothing but counterproductive.

Regards

Sase Singh

With Edwin Seeraj
WHEN Carlos Braithwaite struck huge sixes against England’s Ben Stokes off the first four balls of the last over of the recent World T20 final, it understandably brought back memories of the other men who plundered sixes in an over in first-class and limited-overs cricket.India’s Ravi Shastri and Yuvraj Singh together with South African’s Herschelle Gibbs have all hit their way into the record books, but the man that led the way was the West Indian Sir Gary Sobers

Gary Sobers-Six balls , six sixes

who clobbered six super sixes for Nottinghamshire against Somerset in 1968.
Inside Edge shares a part of ‘Six of the Best’-one of the chapters of Sobers’s autobiography-in which he gave details of his involvement in English county cricket, his six-hitting and much more.
“I would have loved to go into county cricket before 1968, but I wasn’t going to spend two years qualifying and not playing for my country. If that rule had not applied, I would have played county cricket much earlier.
“I was playing for Norton in the Staffordshire league when the rule was changed and immediately county secretaries from several clubs came creeping round the back of the pavilion after games to inform me that the laws were going to be altered next season and that they would like me to play for them.
“The move to county cricket came a little later in my career than I would have liked. I was 31 and had played 14 solid years of cricket around the world, but the offer was a good one-5000 Pounds Sterling per season with accommodation, tickets home to Barbados and a car.
“Nottingham, Trent Bridge, suited me nicely because whenever I had played there I had found it to be a true batting wicket and I had scored a couple of double-centuries there for the West Indies.

Malcolm Nash, the bowler hit for six sixes by Garfield Sobers

“I was appointed captain, taking over from Norman Hill and, it was said, much to the disappointment of Brian Bolus who apparently expected the job. If he did, he never showed it and he was a fine example to everyone at the club.
“The season started extremely well and when we went to play Glamorgan at Swansea at the end of August, we were poised to finish fourth in the standings (from the bottom three for 10 of the last 11 seasons) if we beat them.
“The Welsh side were well placed and if they defeated us, they stood every chance of winning the title. So the scene was set with everything to play for, not to mention several bottles of champagne.
“I went in when the score was about 300 for 5 and I played a few overs, looked up at the scoreboard and realised that we needed a few quick runs to get Glamorgan in if we were to try to bowl them out for a victory.
“The wicket, as usual, aided the spinners on the last day, but Bolus propped up the innings with a big hundred. With an hour to play I was on 40 and thought I should go for it and as a result, I became the first batsman in first-class cricket to hit six successive sixes in a six-ball over.
“The unlucky bowler was Malcolm Nash, a 23-year-old Welshman who had opened the bowling with his medium-paced deliveries and was now bowling his left-arm over-the-wicket spin.
“As he prepared to bowl, I remembered the two versions of how to go about the proposed assault. Sir Everton Weekes used to tell me that if I kept the ball on the ground, no one could catch me, while Sir Learie Constantine preferred the alternative, saying if you hit it up in the air and out of the ground no one could catch it anyway.
“Obviously, if you want quick runs you have to make sure that you hit it over the boundary, but at this stage there were no thoughts of six sixes, just runs, and I was not even bothered whether I was out or not-all I was interested in was quick runs and a declaration.
“There was a fairly small boundary on the right-hand Gorse Lane side of the ground which, with Malcolm being a left-arm spinner who was not turning the ball a great deal, presented a perfect target.
“I tucked the first two over that short boundary without a problem and when he bowled the third one a little wider I dispatched it over wide mid-on. The fourth delivery I struck way over the bowler’s head and into the stand and it was only then that I even contemplated going for the six sixes.
“The crowd, although partisan Welsh, were caught up in the excitement and were chanting ‘six, six, six’ and then I thought that I should give it a go for there was nothing to lose.
“The fifth ball was wide of the off stump and although I connected well I didn’t middle it and there was a fielder Roger Davis, underneath it.
“He was furiously back-pedalling all the time and as he caught it everything went over the boundary. I started walking but the crowd shouted to me, “ You’re not out, get back, get back” and these were the Welsh fans but they didn’t want me to go….they were obviously enjoying themselves.
“The rules had recently been changed and I wasn’t exactly sure where I stood. I stopped as the umpires converged and conferred and after a short while a six was signalled.
“The crowd hollered for murder and they and I began to think seriously about the possibility of being the first batsman in history to hit six sixes off an over in a first-class match.
“As Tony Lewis, the Glamorgan skipper, spread his fielders all round the boundary with a preponderance on the leg side, all sorts of things were going through my mind.
“A no-ball or a wide would spoil it and make it difficult, because that would require a seventh ball while Nash would certainly not fancy becoming the first bowler to be on the wrong end of this particular record.
“I felt sure that he would try to deceive me; being a former fast bowler, he would run up as if to bowl another off-break and then bowl a straight, faster ball.
“Unfortunately for him, he obviously didn’t realise that we were both thinking along the same lines, and he pitched his quicker ball a little short. I was seeing it as big as a football by this time and I had one eye on the ball and the other on that short boundary.
“Even if I had a top-edge it would have gone for six, but I caught it right in the middle of the bat and it not only cleared the boundary, but went over the stand as well, rolling down the hill towards Swansea town centre.
“When I hit the sixth six, the British Broadcasting Corporation’s television commentator Wilf Wooller shouted, “it’s gone, it’s gone, it’s gone over the houses, over the buses, it’s gone to the Guildhall, clean into Swansea.”
“A young man found the ball, battered and torn, still rolling down the street and he dutifully returned it to Wilf the next day. It was mounted and sent to the Nottinghamshire County Cricket Museum.
“I might have gone on for the quickest hundred, but that wasn’t in the script and I quickly declared at the end of the over. We bowled them out and went on to claim our fourth place, having played in all but two matches that season, sending down 773 overs taking 83 wickets and scoring a few runs.
“The television waited for our comments until the end of the day’s play and as Nash and I walked across the field from the dressing rooms towards the interview room together, out of the corner of his eye, I caught him smiling to himself and I politely asked him what he was smiling about.
“I want you to understand that I’m with you,’ he replied. “I don’t mind that I’m at the wrong end, I’m in the record books with you.”
“Nash has been regularly invited to sportsmen nights to talk about the six sixes from his perspective. Unfortunately, we had no nights or dinners like that in the West Indies, so Nash probably had the last laugh on me by making more money out of my record than I did!
“But when I see him now and tell him that he owes me some of that money, he just laughs.”

Kenny Bristol won his 15th professional fight when he out- boxed Jamaican Michael Dewar on April 24, 1982 in Port au Prince, Haiti. The gangly Guyanese junior middleweight was ahead on all the judges score cards when the 10-round contest came to an end.Dewar (22) was eight years Bristol’s junior and suffered his first defeat in 17 fights. Bristol, a southpaw, was born on March 9, 1952. He ascended to the professional community in October 1976.
On December 3, 1978 he won a hard-fought unanimous points victory over Reggie Ford to remain undefeated in eight bouts. In June 1979, Bristol became the only Guyanese to win a Commonwealth title at home when he out-pointed Pat Thomas, who was born in St Kitts and Nevis.
Bristol received the first blemish when he met Canadian southpaw Wayne Caplette on May, 1981. After battling the Canadian in his home town of Manitoba, the Guyanese was adjudged the loser by Split Decision.
His attempt to make amends five months later ended in a disqualification in the fourth round. Bristol would go on to achieve a record of 20 fights with 15 victories from an eight year career. He remains one of the best junior middleweight products from Guyana.

THE West Demerara Football Association’s (WDFA) Stag Beer senior league will kick start today at the Den Amstel ground, West Coast Demerara with a double -header starting at 16:00hrs.According to a release, 11 clubs will be a part of the tournament and they are; Pouderoyen, Wales United, Den Amstel, Beavers, Young Achievers, Stewartville, Golden Warriors, Eagles, Jetty Gunners and Uitvlugt along with new comers Vegac of Vergenoegen.
The top four teams will receive trophies, and medals, compliments of Ansa McAl whose brands manager Lindon Henry last week presented the sponsorship cheque to WDFA’s president Orin Ferreira in the presence of the association’s vice president Christine Smith.
Henry noted that Ansa McAl is pleased to be associated with the tournament and its continued partnership and development of sports in the association.
Ferreira, on behalf of the club and its executives, expressed his gratitude to Henry and Ansa McAl for their unwavering support and pointed out that the Ansa McAl company have also been sponsoring the annual Derrick Josiah Memorial tournament as well as the annual Super 16 Knock-Out tournament which also involves teams from the East bank and East Coast of Demerara.
Guyana Football Federation’s (GFF) president Wayne Forde is expected to be on hand for the march past of teams and the official opening ceremony.
All matches in the WDFA Stag League tournament will be played atb the Den Amstel ground.

By Frederick Halley
TORONTO, Canada – Defending champions Glory Guys shrugged off a fierce challenge from front-runners and newcomers East/West to once again enter winner’s row when the Canadian Dominoes Association (CDA) annual aggregate tournament climaxed recently at Fusion Bar & Restaurant, Scarborough, here.By far the most consistent team in the tournament over the years, Glory Guys had to call on all their reserves with East/West taking the early lead, but failing to maintain the momentum towards the closing stages.
In the end, Glory Guys emerged winners with a commanding 2886 games with East/West having to settle for the first runner-up spot on 2864, Cougars third on 2814 and Better Hope fourth with 2810.
Of the other sides in the nine-team tournament, Essequibo ended with 2801, Demerara 2780, Young Blood 2773, Titans 2761 and Empire 2751.
Zakir Khan, who is also the long-standing president of the CDA and who represented Better Hope, emerged as the leading scorer with 533 games, earning $180 (Can) in the process while Rashinal (Glory Guys) finished second with 503, Bernard Thomas (Glory Guys) third with 498 and Duggie Bacchus (East/West) fourth with 497. The second and third-place finishers took home $100 (Can) and $60 (Can) respectively.
John Gonsalves of Titans copped the title for the Most Valuable Player (MVP) awards with seven, while the consistent Zakir Khan had six and there were five each for Robin Gowkarran and Alim.
Glory Guys skipper Ryan Chung shared the most loves (seven), with his teammate Seeram Singh and Demerara’s Errol Budhoo finishing with six each. Chung collected $70 (Can) for his efforts.
Cash prizes totalling $5000 were handed out to all the participating teams with the winners collecting $1200; first runners-up $900; second runners-up $700 and third runners-up $570. All the other teams received $200 each. Several trophies were also up for grabs.
In a magnanimous gesture, Zakir Khan donated his winnings and an undisclosed sum to Empire’s Zane Cooman, who is in the process of furthering his academic studies. According to Khan, he’s very impressed with the youngster’s effort to upgrade his skills, hence the move to assist him.
Khan also disclosed that the CDA has been able to assist an orphanage in Guyana over the last year, with several items being donated, while some 30 persons were also fed.
The humanitarian efforts also extended to a library in Malvern, Ontario, while a family in Scarborough was the recipient of a refrigerator. Khan extended thanks to the players for making these ventures a reality.
However, Khan’s announcement that he was giving up the mantle as leader for the CDA was met with instant disapproval by the players, who all felt he has been doing an excellent job. Whether or not that decision will be reversed before the next season commences in October is unknown.
Glory Guys’ remarkable run of victories has increased to an amazing 11 out of 12 seasons. The only team to stop their unprecedented march were Cougars in the 2012-2013 season, when they finished second.

By Daniel Haynes
IT is impossible to talk about table tennis in Guyana without mentioning the name Shemar Britton in the conversation. At the age of 17, the 2013 Guyanese junior sportsman of the year has the world as his oyster. Shemar Ronaldo Britton was born on July 13, 1998 and is the older of two children. He started playing table tennis at the age of 9 as just another sport in the Physical Education Class at Mae’s Primary.
However, his interest in the sport extended far beyond the boundaries of his P.E class. From the time he picked up the racquet to this present time he has dominated.
According to Britton, his most notable moments came at the age of 14 when he was the 2013 Guyanese Junior Sportsman of the Year
. He also said that in the same year he became the youngest ever Guyanese men’s champion. In the year 2014 he became the first Guyanese to win the men’s Super Bowl table tennis title in Trinidad and Tobago
Despite being the table tennis genius that he is, his time is not dominated by the sport he loves. He is an avid football player and an especially good one, having represented both his former school Queen’s College and his current school Bishops’ High. He is also equally dedicated to his studies and is currently preparing for the CAPE examinations.
“I understand that CAPE is on another level, but I’m looking to do even better than I did at CSEC,” said Britton. For the record, his CSEC grades were excellent. He procured eight grade ones and three grade twos from the 11 subjects he wrote.
When asked what drives his success and his life, he laughed, saying: “I’m driven by the fear of being average. It’s why I push myself so hard… when the chips fall, people must never be able to say that about me.”
Britton recently returned from The Dominican Republic where he got a bronze medal in the singles 18 and under category and a silver medal in the doubles 18 and under category. He is currently preparing for the Pan-American Junior Championships, which he will attend after CAPE.

THE Guyana Amateur Boxing Association (GABA) will this afternoon wrap up its final two-day training camp for schoolboys and juniors. The camp is the third of its kind and is part of the fine-tuning process ahead of this weekend’s International Schoolboys and Juniors tournament at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall.
A total of 36 young boxers from around the country turned up at yesterday’s session at the Andrew `Six Head’ Lewis gym. The session was conducted by AIBA Three Star coach Sebert Blake with assistance from GABA Technical Director Terrence Poole, Clifton Moore and Orland Rogers
Today, the pugilists drawn from the Essequibo Gym, Forgotten Youth Foundation, Harpy Eagles, Pocket Rocket and Rose Hall Jammers of Berbice, are expected to have sessions at the National Gymnasium and Andrew Lewis gym. The camp is being held to prepare the locals for the expected Caribbean invasion.
The international tournament to be held on Friday and Saturday has attracted the attention of Barbados, Jamaica and St Lucia, all of whom have confirmed participation. The Jamaican team is scheduled to arrive on Thursday.
The team includes two boxers and one coach, but GABA president Steve Ninvalle disclosed that the island is seeking to send one more fighter. Joshua Forrest Davidson (69 kg) and Daniel Hylton (60 kg) would be battling for the Land of Wood and Water during the two-day tournament with Robert Napier as the coach.
Hylton was in Guyana last November to compete in the Caribbean Development Tournament. He beat local Christopher Moore in his first fight, but later lost to Trinidadian Justin Parris.
St Lucia has confirmed a team of four that would be led by light welterweight Nathan Ferrari. Lightweight Kareem Boyce and welterweight Taj Brown are the other fighters on the team. Ferrari was named St Lucia’s Best Junior Boxer of 2015 and would be paying his second visit to Guyana.
This weekend’s tournament is the first of its kind in the Caribbean and was organised following a regional call more attention to be paid to the nursery of the sport.

Jefford Relay Festival

Spectators and participants alike can all expect a vibrant day of activities when they turn out today at the Police Sports Club Ground for the inaugural hosting of the Boyce and Jefford’s Relay Festival and Family Fun Day.While many will be looking out for the relay competition which includes ten male and female relays, with the day including a mixture of track, softball, football and dominoes competition along with family activities, there seems sure to be something for everyone who turns out today.
“It will be a day of excitement, thrills and keen competition. All the clubs will be going after the cash prizes so that in itself will be something exciting. “ Chairman of the Boyce and Jefford committee, Colin Boyce, declared yesterday.
Approximately seven teams, including the Guyana Police Force and Guyana Defence Force, are set to take part in the relays, which carries $20000 for the winning team, $12000 for second place and another $8000 for third.
At least nine teams have been confirmed for the five-a-side football competition, which is being sponsored by Xtra Energy and Extra Orange Drink for a first place prize of $50000. A $25000 prize is set for the second place finishers.
Teams set to participate include the Police, Agricola, Rich Boys, Wartsila, Brazilians, Customs Barbershop, Sparta Boss, and West Front among others.
In the softball competition things are expected to be particularly interesting with the inclusion of Guyana and West Indies all rounder Christopher Barnwell, as well as Lennox Cush playing for the Boyce/Jefford XI, who will take on the Trophy Stall XI. Meanwhile rumour also has it that Ramnaresh Sarwan may also make an appearance though his participation has not yet been confirmed.
And that’s only for the male side. In the female softball competition patrons can expect to see the performance of female West Indies World Cup Champions Shemaine Campbell and Tremayne Smartt. However this time the two will be pitted against each other, with Campbell playing for Mike’s Well Woman and Smartt playing for the Trophy Stall Angels.
The winner of the female softball competition will pocket $50000, and a trophy, while runner up gets $25000. There will also be prizes for the “Best Batter” and “Best Bowler” for both of the teams.
The dominoes competition is set to go down with over 20 teams participating.
The day’s competitive activities are expected to kick start at 10am with the football preliminary matches. The relays are expected to start off around 1pm, and run intermittently with the other events. The dominoes and softball will begin at 2pmand run concurrently.
No doubt saving the best for last the day’s activities is expected to end with the 4x400m relays, which is expected to carry fierce rivalry, especially from the GDF and GPF camps. Adding some excitement to the mix will be the inclusion of University of Guyana team, which recently returned from participating in Jamaica and also copped a number of wins at last week’s Jubilee Relay Festival at the National Track and Field Centre.
Another feature of the day is the $1M grudge 100m race between Colin ‘Poison’ Boston from Big Boss Trucking Service and Cadogan of Dynasty. Each participant lodged $500,000 for the $1M winner take all purse to settle an age old score.
Other family fun activities for the day include trampolinees and bouncy castles.

– Yadram smashes 177 against Berbice

By Rajiv Bisnauth
MAN-of-the-Match Ronaldo Renee fell one run short of a century, but his effort was enough as Demerara pocketed vital first-innings points over Essequibo at the end of the third and final round of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) sponsored Hand-in-Hand Insurance Company Under-19 three-day cricket tournament yesterday at the Georgetown Cricket Club ground.Despite the drawn encounter, Demerara finished the tournament on top of the points standing to claim the three-day title.
Renne’s 99 was the highlight of Demerara’s first innings total of 240, although left-arm spinner Akenie Adams produced three mesmerising spells, taking 6-87.
The in-form Renee occupied the crease for 197 minutes, faced 207 balls and reached the boundary on eight occasions.
The right-hander was dropped on 92 by wicket-keeper Nathan Persaud, but apart from that blemish, he batted responsibly and held the innings together.
Resuming on 16 without loss, still 182 runs behind Essequibo’s first innings, Demerara openers Renee and Raymond Perez weathered the storm perfectly, with both putting on an opening stand of 73.
But Adams and off-spinner Looknauth Chinkoo took two vital scalps each to leave the host battling for the crucial first-innings points at the end of the first session.
Renee comfortably outscored Perez in the opening stand before the latter was trapped leg before wicket to Adams for 23.
Chinkoo then removed both Sherfane Rutherford (15) and Romain Muniram (3) to leave Demerara at 96-3.
Shell-shocked by the setbacks, Demerara resorted to defensive play, consolidating themselves through Renee and skipper Travis Persaud.
The fourth-wicket pair added 39 before Persaud was stumped off Adams for 18.
However, the right-hander Renee stuck to the task commendably and was a model of concentration and application as he battled through the first session to be unbeaten on 52.
Soon after, Demerara’s innings was plunged into further trouble with the loss of Gavin Boodwah (3) and Malcom Hubbard (4), in the post-lunch session, at 162-6.
Renee, meanwhile, was calmly building his innings, and in company with Ronaldo Alimohamed, the duo shared a determined seventh-wicket stand of 42 which eventually took Demerara over the first-innings barrier.
However, Adams removed Renee and soon after completed his five-wicket haul when he removed Ramnarine Chatura for 10.
Ali Mohamed made a stubborn 35 before he was dismissed by Chinkoo (3-43). Adams continued his classical exhibition of left-arm spin bowling to claim the final wicket of Keshram Seyhodan.
With a first-innings deficit of 43 runs, Essequibo reached 66-1. Mark Williams was the batsman dismissed for 42. Nathan Persaud was unbeaten on 19 when play ended.
Meanwhile, Bhaskar Yadram slammed a stroke-filled 177 against Berbice in the other final-round game played at Wales.
Replying to Berbice’s first innings 73, the Select Under-17 team batted the entire final day before they were eventually bowled out for 327 within the final hour of the day’s play.
The one-day version of the tournament bowls off tomorrow.

Guyana ruggers steam flying-fish 48-17

By Stephan Sookram
A WELL-OILED green machine steamrolled their Barbadian opponents yesterday when Rugby America North 15’s action scrummed off at the National Park.The locals wasted no time in “frying” the flying fish men, getting off to a pacey start thanks to the efforts of a successful penalty from former captain Ryan Gonzalves.

A Barbadian player trying to hold on to Guyana’s Lancelot Adonis summed up the touring side’s performance at the National Park yesterday.

Avery Corbin’s and Rickford Cummings’s successful tries within minutes of each other then ensured that the Green side would assume a further gap at 13-0, before Gonzalves again moved the score to 15-0 with a conversion.
Barbados number 4 Anthony Faggiani would finally open his side’s account with a successful try.
That would not faze Guyana as Corbin returned again to power through the Bajan backline and take the score to 20-5, as the Guyanese used the full width of the pitch and the acceleration of their players to outclass the men from Barbados.
Another trifecta of conversions from Gonzalves and a try each from Dwayne Schroeder and Corbin’s ensured that Guyana ended the first half at a cruising distance of 36-5.
Upon the resumption, the Bajans made another deposit in the bank, thanks to Faggiani’s try again, but the Green Machine kept the pressure on,with Lancelot Adonis scoring a try and Gonzalves converting.
Jeren Clarke returned for the blue and yellow unit to score a try before Kevin Carter converted for the best scoring period of the Bajans’ attack, but that closed off the day for the visitors, who were at sea for Guyana’s pace.
The relaxed Guyanese unit by this time had the sense of victory as they began to craft together more plays as a nippy run down the right flank from Dane Parks ensured that Guyana upped their tally to 48-17, which would hold till the final whistle.
Speaking after the win, Coach Larry Adonis contended that the side worked well, adding, “Barbados put up a good fight at the start but then we started to break them down and started running up the score.”
Meanwhile, captain Richard Staglon contended that the unit played well under the circumstances, saying, “We executed very well. Right now we are at 80%. We had a couple of new guys coming in the middle. We were missing Claudius Butts and Theodore Henry in the centre.
“We wanted to attack up the middle and play a bit expansive and score some tries from there,” continued Staglon, who was humble in victory

By Daniel Haynes

You could not write a better script in cricket – the same team winning all three major T20 world titles. However, the West Indies did that. Both the Male and Female teams won on April 3rd. But it was the U19 team’s win a month earlier that set in motion the triple glory for West Indian fans.
Coning down to the final two overs, the equation was a simple one – 9 from 12 balls. AS simple as it looked, it was done, and the West Indies U19 team won their maiden World T20 trophy, and the squad etched their name in the record books. The one person with the front row seat – and the one responsible for steering the team to victory – was the captain, Guyana’s Shimron Hetmyer.
He was born the youngest of four children on December 26, 1996 in Cumberland Village, East Canje Berbice.

Shimron Hetmyer with the T20 trophy

“I was the baby of the family, and whenever I wanted to go somewhere I always had to go with one of them.”
Growing up in Berbice where the culture of cricket has been embedded into the county’s DNA, definitely impacted a young Hetmyer, so it was no surprise that he became interested in cricket.
What did come as a surprise, however, was the fact that his inspiration did not come from the heroes and pioneers of Berbice cricket. It was not the Rohan Kanhais or the Joe Solomons or even Basil Butchers of the world that inspired him to become one of Guyana’s best players; his inspiration came from the bat of his older brother Seon Hetmyer.
“My brother was always a cricketer, and when I was younger, I always told myself I have to be as good as him, and even more so, I had to be better than him,” Hetmyer told the Guyana Chronicle in a recent interview.
It was with this mentality and determination that the youngster from Berbice picked up the bat and started his career at the age of 11.
He joined the Young Warriors Cricket Club. In those formative years of his cricketing career, he focused on learning the game, being a skilled competitor, always striving for perfection. His dedication and attitude led to his selection for the Berbice Under-15 team two years later at the age of thirteen. This “coming out” was a successful one and despite not scoring many runs in the Under-15 inter-county competition, his obvious talent earned him a place on the Guyana Under-15 team, where he then also excelled. As a result, he was selected for a special training camp of the West Indies Cricket Board 9WICB) in St Lucia.
In 2009, while only 13 years of age he scored the only century (118) in the Berbice county Under-19 inter-zone competition, something that was an outstanding achievement for the youngster who wanted to surpass his brother. He also hit a century in the 2010 Berbice Under-13 club championship.
In September 2011, Shimron received the Sports Ambassador award from the Berbice Chamber of Commerce at its annual awards ceremony.
As an aggressive opening batsman, he enjoyed considerable success in the 2012 Regional Under-19 competition in Barbados. He hit a superb 116 for Guyana’s Under-19s against Windwards n the 50-overs segment of the competition. In July 2013, he scored 105 off just 65 balls against Trinidad & Tobago in the Regional Under-17 competition in Tobago – the only century scored by any player in the competition.
In October 2013, Shimron represented the West Indies Under-19 team in several Under-19 One Day International Matches against Bangladesh in Guyana. He kept wicket in at least one of those matches.
Shimron had surely surpassed his brother when his name was called as the captain of the West Indies U-19 World T20 squad. This squad was to head to Bangladesh to take on the best young talent the other cricket nations had to offer in this format of the game.
He embraced the challenge with the same fortitude and determination that was his nature. The championship goal started with a loss against the English side, something that tested the morale of the team.
Hetmyer however inspired his team, and in their second game they came through like a Caribbean hurricane decimating Fiji and winning by 262 runs.
After that, there was a controversial win against Zimbabwe, where the team “Mankad” their way to a two-run victory. From there it was history – the team beat the Bangladesh side in the semis, then handled India in the finals and brought home the gold.
“It is hard to give the feeling of winning in words, to be honest, this was something I had dreamed of accomplishing and I had done it and I couldn’t have done it with better guys.”
His form did not dip after the tournament and proof of that was when he put the Jamaica Scorpions bowlers to the sword with a masterful 107 to secure his maiden first-class century when the Guyana Jaguars dominated the opening day of their final round of West Indies Cricket Board’s Professional Cricket League (PCL) Four-Day game at the Guyana National Stadium, Providence on March 19.
With his drive, determination and ambition, the sky is the limit for the left handed batsman from Canje, who had not only made Berbice proud, but the whole of Guyana.