Year: 2018

Union roasts APNU/AFC over increase in Berbice Bridge tolls

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…says bridge was a wise investment The impending toll increases to use the Berbice River Bridge has attracted the attention of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Guyana (FITUG), with the Union on Tuesday rapping the Government for its less than mature approach to resolving the matter. On Tuesday, FITUG stressed that Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) supplies the entire country with agriculture produce and thus, higher tolls would result in higher prices for groceries. The Union noted the seriousness of the situation, from both the economic point of view…

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Gutless…

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…AFC leaders Ralph Ramkarran is a well-meaning fellow…but he’s either incurably optimistic or preternaturally naïve. Pointing to the studied silence of the PNC-led Government on the constitutional reform they’d promised – to open up the political space in Guyana – he repeated an earlier suggestion: “The AFC’s Ministers should leave the Government, sit in the back benches, support the Government if they wish, but insist on constitutional reform in return for their continuing support.” Your Eyewitness choked on his coffee when he read that!! Does Ramkarran really hope the AFC…

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Commonwealth delegates impressed with Guyana’s Smart Classroom

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Delegates of the Commonwealth Association for Public Administration and Management (CAPAM) were impressed after a demonstration of how Guyana’s Smart Classrooms work. The delegates are currently in Guyana for the 12th Biennial Conference. They were given a hands-on tour of the operations of one of the classrooms by the National Centre for Educational Resource Development’s (NCERD) Information Technology (IT) Coordinator Marcia Thomas. The IT Coordinator informed the delegates that the smart classroom was born out of a need to meet the needs of the people, especially those in the hinterland…

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Succeeding in a ‘man’s world’

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…Cancer survivor shares her story It is considered a ‘man’s world’ but there are several women who continue to champion this field and they are doing it in a sustainable way. The field, is the mining sector. Belina Charlie has built a livelihood through mining. She has been in the field for 18 years. It was sometime in 2006, while working as a receptionist at a local guest house in the city that she met a Brazilian, who would later become her partner. “He was just like me, we were…

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Berbice Bridge fiasco an election gimmick gone wrong

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Dear Editor, The Board of the Berbice Bridge Company Inc (BBCI), led by Dr Surendra Singh, has proposed a hike in the tolls paid to use the Berbice River Bridge. It is a very steep rise in the tolls, which, according to the latest report, is due to commence on November 12, 2018, the very day set for Local Government Elections. Immediately there was a train of events that followed: the pro-People’s National Congress electronic media in Guyana began churning out the propaganda news of the ‘evils’ of the People’s…

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Teen battling for life after being hit by wood

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…17-year-old remanded to prison for attempted murder La Retraite, West Bank Demerara (WBD) teen Peter Livingstone Junior is presently battling for his life at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPHC) after he was struck to the head with a 2×4 piece of wood allegedly by a 17-year-old fellow villager last week. Guyana Times International understands that the incident occurred near Livingstone’s home in La Retraite village just after 19:30h on Friday. Reports are that the now injured teen and the suspect, who are known to one another, were teasing each other…

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Boat captains in Mazaruni River crash that left 10 dead listed for High Court trial

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After five years of being wracked by emotional turmoil, relatives and dependents of ten persons who perished when two boats collided in the Mazaruni River on January 22, 2013 will finally get closure at the trial of the captains of those boats, scheduled for the current session of the Demerara Criminal Assizes. Boat captains Devon Thomas and Cabesh Persaud had each been placed on G$1 million bail at their arraignment on manslaughter charges in the Georgetown Magistrates Courts in April 2013. When their matter comes up for trial, they are…

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Guyana’s Public Security Minister blasted for ‘poor’ performance

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…Opposition Leader points to several riots, jailbreaks under his watch For each of the three years that the coalition Government has been in office, there were jailbreaks and riots at various prisons, Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo has noted. Addressing a recent press conference, the former Head of State said that this pointed to the incompetence of Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan and, by extension, the Government. “Ramjattan’s incompetence knows no limit. So, we have had another fiasco at the prison. We warned about this … but he is impervious to…

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“Enmore is dead, nothing nah happen here”

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The old saying “put some aside for the rainy days” comes to mind when one thinks of the plight of retrenched sugar workers, since most of them are suffering because their “rainy days” cookie jar is empty. Among those are 54-year-old Mohamed Farook and 47-year-old Deonauth Bisnauth of Enmore, East Coast Demerara. Farook was employed at the Enmore Estate for 37 years as a cane transporter. His daily job entailed transporting cane from the fields to the factory in order for them to be processed. He, like many of his…

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State-of-the-art operating theatre for Region 2 hospital

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A G$40.9 million contract was signed on Monday between the Government of Guyana and Rakesh Samaroo of Builders Hardware for the construction of a state-of-the-art operating theatre at the Suddie Hospital. Signing on behalf of the Government was Regional Executive Officer (REO) Rupert Hopkinson, who said that he was very happy that Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam) would finally get a state-of-the-art operating theatre. He noted that the Region requested this through its budget a long time ago, but he was, nevertheless, happy that it was approved in 2018. Hopkinson stated that…

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