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The recent three trips of the President is clouded in conspiracy.
On one hand Jagdeo announced his own cable which initially was supposed to be non-commercial but is now touted as "the cable that will bring prices down" therefore clearly commercial.(J)
Then, the likelihood that Quack or Brassman will have the management contract for the cable - link this to Brassman's trip to Iran.(W)
Then, the making of a third telephone operator - link this to the Qai Doctor trip to Russia. (B)
It seems like there is a clear plan emerging for telecommunications in Guyana that will be owned by the triumvirate (JBW).
Finally in this post we see that the Qai doctor is to do cable TV soon starting in berbice. Is this based on the e-governance brazilian-venezuelean-surinamese-russian cable that will be non-commercially giving him the connection to do his thing across country?
Friday, February 5, 2010
More on Trippps & Deals
Trips and Deals
Numerous letters have been written to the press on Jagdeo trippps. Not many writers are aware of the people that have accompanied Jadgeo on his trippps especially the more recent ones.
1) The trippp to Iran was with the Blackout Brassman, whose brother will work with the GoG to set up the e-governance system in Guyana.
2) The trippp to Surinam: the secret meetings to map out communications strategies that would link venezuela's Chavez with Bouterse in Surinam with the Russians.
3) Finally the trippp to Russia to iron out the financing of the commmunicaiton deal with Bourterse, Chavez and the Russians.
4) This trippp to Russia - who accompanied the president? None other than the owner of the Queens Atlantic. This is the guy on whose behalf the Government changed Guyana's laws to facilitate his business. Guess what other businessman went to Russia with them?
Is there more to these Iran, Surinam, Russia trips? Are we all missing something here?
The Green Green Grass of Home - Part III
From the miners' articles on the subject matter, we find that the monies paid for licensing etc is almost equivalent to the amount that Guyana is getting from Norway.
In the meantime, we also find that the president has granted mining concessions to his officers of the Government. The shady Lumumber deal smacks of the usual arrogance the so-called head of state has for laws of the country as he shares out concessions to his favorite boys.
In the meantime, we also wonder about the three concessions that the bent minister's wife is supposedly to have and to have signed documents for. This latest development is a clear case of more corruption on the part of the 'concessionaire'
The Green Green Grass of Home - Part II
Continuing from the previous Article, we use the “Seeing REDD” by Tom Griffiths of the Forest Peoples Programme:
1)March 2008: investment firm Canopy Capital and Global Canopy Programme (GCP) signed a preliminary agreement with the Iwokrama International Centre for Rainforest Conservation and Development. Under this deal, Canopy Capital will help finance the rainforest protected area for 5 years in return for ‘ownership’ of forest ecosystem services and a claim in any future profits.
2)The new saleable asset would involve carbon values and possibly rainfall, water storage, soil conservation, biodiversity, climate buffer and watershed values.
3) Canopy Capital aims to try and establish a best-practice model, protocol and standards for global profit-driven market-based payments for forest Ecosystem Services (ESS) and to create a stepping stone to a national scheme in Guyana and ultimately a global market in environmental services.
4)At this stage, Canopy Capital is exploring options for marketing ecosystem services through an ‘Ecosystem Service Certificate’ attached to a 10-year tradable bond.
5)The company advises that interest from such bonds could help pay for the maintenance of the Iwokrama forest.
6)Canopy Capital has a commitment to measure and value forest ecosystem services and to develop a financial and legal instrument to market ecosystem services. If this is achieved and sales of services are possible, then the investment company will have a major stake in any financial returns. How benefits would be shared between Canopy Capital, Iwokrama and local communities is not clear as the CC-IIC agreement remains confidential.
WEAK CONSULTATION
1) Canopy Capital and its legal advisers admit that the deal was not adequately discussed with the implicated communities but just discussed and agreed with the Board of Iwokrama, which has one community representative.
2)The community of Fairview that has titled lands within the Reserve was not consulted directly and communities that use the reserve and have never surrendered their ancestral ownership over the area were not directly involved.
3)Asked about why the deal had been shrouded in secrecy, Canopy Capital and Iwokrama advise that for reasons of ‘commercial confidentiality’ it was not possible to broadcast the issue before the deal was done and for this reason also the agreement remains confidential.
The Green Green Grass of Home - Part I
The Green Green Grass of Home: our Guyana's forests have been sold, politicized and raped. This Green Baby is being ripped apart by the careless and selfish actions of the Government of Guyana.
In this series we present the summaries of various articles presented by different writers on the subject.
This is an extract from REDD-Monitor, 3rd December 2008
1) Iwokrama scheme was originally set up in 1996, at a time when Guyana’s President Cheddi Jagan was keen to prop up his country’s flagging international credibility.
2) It was intended as a visionary and self-sustaining new scheme to balance conservation with sustainable rainforest use and provide world-class facilities for scientific research.
3) The economics of the scheme were never sound. Having built a large centre and employed numerous staff, it has always relied heavily on support from donors and, increasingly, the revenue from logging operations, which have now been allocated across half the area’s 370,000 hectares. By 2007, the scheme was effectively out of cash, and in search of new forms of income.
4) In 2008, Canopy Capital, in the form of Hylton Murray-Philipson, a former banker, and Andrew Mitchell, a rainforest canopy scientist and founder of the Global Canopy Programme. Canopy Capital contracted with the government of Guyana to ‘buy’ the ‘ecosystem services’ of the area, for an as-yet undisclosed sum.
5) Murray-Philipson and Mitchell have also been close advisors to the Rainforest Project of Prince Charles, who has been Royal Patron of the Iwokrama project since 2001.
7) Murray-Philipson said in an interview with Mongabay.com,“If you can’t make something work in Guyana, I’m not sure you are going to ever make it work anywhere.”
8)There may be more truth to this than he realises. On the basis of what has happened at Iwokrama so far, the precedent for these kinds of projects in terms of transparency, respect for indigenous rights, and consultation, is not very promising.