Year: 2012

Burnett sizzles despite wet conditions

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Marian Burnett ran a spirited final 300m to win the hotly anticipated 1500m international race at the third President’s Jefford Track and Field Classic at the Mackenzie Sports Club ground in Linden on Sunday (May 13). Despite, the less than ideal conditions with parts of the track under water and other parts muddy from persistent rain, Burnett managed to stave off strong challenges from two-time Carifta 1500m champion Jevina Straker, who came in second, and Trinidad and Tobago’s Tonya Nero, already part of T& T’s contingent for this year’s Olympics…

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Beach football has a future in Guyana – says Tappin

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Coordinator of competitions in the Guyana Beach Football Association (GBFA), Rollin Tappin, said that despite the Red Jaguars lost to Tobago Beach Football Club team in the International Series, he is upbeat about their future. He pointed out that the players were impressive and showed that they have matured over the months. However, according to the coordinator, they need to work harder on their finishing. “They tackled the opposition and dribbled well but they were not so good in placing the ball in the goal. That department was where they…

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They hurt me mentally – Sarwan

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Ramnaresh Sarwan, the West Indies batsman who has not played for his country since June 2011, has turned on the national team’s coaching set up for his continued nonselection. Sarwan, 31, has scored 5,842 Test runs at 40.01 and captained West Indies in two Tests in England in 2007 but was overlooked for this tour and instead signed for Leicestershire where he has been in form with two centuries and two half- centuries and has captained the side while Matthew Hoggard has been injured. “The coach said some negative stuff…

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Who were they?

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Little-known Indo Guyanese of pre-independent Guyana Nesbit Chhangur “Guyana’s first singing cowboy” Nesbit Chhangur was born in the early 1930s at Fyrish, Lower Corentyne, Berbice in British Guiana to a musical family – his father sang and played the sitar while his siblings (three brothers and four sisters) played the piano accordion, harmonium, and fiddle; Nesbit played the dantal and loved to sing. He attended Fyrish and Albion primary schools, and by the time he was eight he was performing in school, accompanied by one of his brothers on the…

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Indian Protests for Rights: Pre Independence

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The unstated policy of the state in Guyana throughout the nineteenth century and up to the middle of the twentieth was, “what’s good for sugar is good for British Guiana”. There was more than a kernel of truth in the popular saying that “B. G.” stood for “Bookers Guiana”, after the largest sugar company “Bookers Bros”. The entire state apparatus was geared towards the protection of “King Sugar”. The Indians that fought for their rights on the plantations were therefore indirectly going up against the power of the state. From…

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Logic of Envy

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Satiricus is a modest fellow. He knows he has a lot to be modest about – especially when it came to this fancy thing they called ‘logic’. Satiricus pretty did whatever came to his mind – which usually got him into no end of trouble. It seems that what came to his mind naturally, seldom was ‘logical’. So you can imagine Satiricus’ joy when this ‘logic thing’ was explained to him in a series of ads carried by the Muckraker – on some new airline. “Listen chaps, all you have…

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UNDP plugs US$ 75,000 into fighting TIP

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The Human Services and Social Security Ministry and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on Thursday signed the project document for the initiation of a US$ 75,000 programme aimed at tackling human trafficking in Guyana. The Human Services Minister Jenifer Webster, who was among the signatories, said the initiation of the project which seeks to offer assistance and guidance to “victims of and families affected by human trafficking” will take the fight against the inhumane act to another level as she expressed gratitude to UNDP for funding the project. “This…

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Guyana, Venezuela ponder ‘next steps’ on border issue

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Representatives of Venezuela and Guyana held a meeting last Tuesday in New York that was organised by Jamaican scholar Norman Girvan, the United Nations good officer on the border controversy between the two countries. According to a communiqué issued by the UN, officials of the two countries attended a technical workshop headed by Girvan. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon’s personal representative in the territorial dispute said that the workshop focused on multi-dimensional approaches and best practices in the resolution of controversies around the world. “The participants displayed a tremendously positive and…

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OLPF programme to continue – OP

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Government on Thursday announced that it will continue the One Laptop Per Family (OLPF) initiative with the assistance and support of stakeholders. A statement from the Office of the President said that while the administration has contemplated the impact of the opposition budget cuts, specifically on its information communication technology (ICT) 4G National Strategy, the vision which propelled the OLPF initiative has been affected by those cuts. Thousands of the laptops have already been distributed to persons in the lower income bracket since the programme began. “The administration, refusing to…

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Encouraging lawlessness

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Insubordination   The David Ramnarine flap is not as inconsequential as some may think. In a new democracy such as ours, situated as we are in the Third World, and more specifically in the bosom of Latin America, we cannot be oblivious to the need for disciplined forces to accept they are subordinate to the civilian authorities. This is a lesson that the opposition and its cheerleaders in the media seem determined to evade. The lines are drawn very clearly. The civilian authorities must not get involved with direct operational…

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