The end

Due to several reasons, we are closing this site.

we recommend the following:
http://ohguyana.blogspot.com/
http://peerguyana.blogspot.com/
http://www.chrisram.net/
etc
etc
etc
etc....

Another sad day has dawned for Guyana

Another sad day has dawned for Guyana.

Independent critics of the Government have all come under immense criticism and personalized attacks from the Government spokespersons.

In a particular blog which can be traced to Office of the President,
1) Glen Lal the owner of Kaieteur news has had his children and wife vilified.
2) Freddie Kissoon was attacked and accusations made about his wife and daughter.
3) Christopher Ram has come under intense criticism, being accused of everything under the sun, including drugs.

While we have no affiliations or sympathies for any of the above named, the cold fact is that those three persons are known to be independent persons. And, all have been attacked. We predicted these attacks many posts ago.

In the Guyana Times, we find cartoon about Ram, and ludicrous letters and columns about any one who has dared to oppose the Government. Online one can find the mischievous postings of Chris Ram's family being abused. What did these kids do to be so abused?

Other blogs have been attacked, hacked and shut down. We have also tried to make contact with previous persons associated with this blog to warn them of upcoming attacks since the pattern is clear.

As the hate posts spirals uncontrollably, we can only predict that the wives and children of all and any opposing voice will be viciously attacked. One can expect photoshop adjusted photos to find posting online as the Government knows no boundaries.

May God bless us over the coming weeks.

Some stolen photos

With some serious fun in mind, tonight we stole some fotos from Kwamy's website. That site is being run by Kwamy, RobeBenn son etc.
These photos are taken from Kwamy's site and are artists impressions of the PPP event in berbice.

From a broken wharf an unfinished Tarmac

He has done it again ! Beekay has fished up another major project in this country and No no! He will not be sanctioned! No no, none of those things happen to our friends.

Months AFTER Beekay was to complete work on the Taxiway at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, he still has a lot to. As a matter of fact our Dear Beekay cannot tell the Airport officials and Public Works Ministry when the works would be completed!

Extension in the contract deadline? Your guess is as good a mine!

We know that one part of the Airport Taxi Way has been closed until the end of July and this was after a notice was issued to Airmen at the end of April. And, the Consultants are busy drinking soup from Beekay hands to even bother with this "fish-up".

So BeeKay has roads, bridges and airport taxi ways under his belt, while he is also building his Mall at the corner of Sandy Babb and Vlissengen Road.

How the Bee produces honey eh?

Sweet !

Carvil Duncan

His smile spells treachery, his face, greed, he is another one of the black fools, a puppet of the Jagdeo gang, a sinister idiot.

Carvil Duncan will move on to the next bowl of soup if the government changes tomorrow.

But we have been observing him since the days of the formation of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions. He was one of those brainless brains who opted to sell out the workers, turn his backs on them and trample on their rights when he stepped away from the large Trade Union body in Guyana, the Guyana Trades Union Congress.

He used this opportunity to make his money, buy new cars, buy new properties and send his daughter to school overseas, some of life’s choices working class Guyanese patients don’t have.

Today his nose is so close in the Champion’s Butt that we not even sure he got an adequate supply of oxygen!

He is hailing, applauding and kissing as at every opportunity he has with the PPPites and the Champion.

He has received several appointments when the PPP sought to put snitches in various constitutional bodies including the ERC where both Duncan and his daughter served.
He is one of the man soup lovers who crossed the Atlantic with the Champion to Copenhagen.

Life is indeed sweet for the few who kiss butts.

The cloak of ICT

We have noted the prominence of the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company recently in the Media, with the arrival of its Fibre Optic Cable and what seems to be the appointment of one of the younger CEOs in the history of the Company.

Both are welcomed but we hope the Company and its young CEO have both eyes opened as the government is sneaking around under this cloak of ICT Strategy.

For one the government owns 20% shares of GT&T and is privy to all information possible about its fibre optic cable, its arrival, its setting up and its promises.

This is the same government that is headed by Chief Tyrant who is bringing his own cable for ‘e-governance’ across the Brazilian Border. Is the Government using its position as minority shareholder to abuse the inside plans of the company - against the company itself? Knowing Jadgeo and Brassington, we see their betrayal of companies' secrets as a real possibility.

We understand that GT&T does not see Jagdeo’s cable as competition since according to Major General Retired Joe Singh his company was assured that Jagdeo’s cable is for ‘e-governance’ only.

If so, then Jagdeo ought to explain why he is claiming that he is breaking a monopoly and what about reducing bandwidth?

Jagdeo must also tell Guyana why he is pursing some call centres not to set up shop in Guyana because of unreliable bandwidth, does he plan to sell his to them and what about that doctor, his friend who needs this cable for this Phone Company something soon?

GT&T better keep their eyes open.

What about government selling their shares in GT&T? isn’t that still open?

The blame-game habit of Guyana's King

We are starting a reflection of his Presidency by looking at several of his statements made in the Media over the years.

Here is fuel for your memory of a man who many thought would have changed the landscape of politics.

The Opening of the 9th Parliament
“I encourage all of you to be faithful to the timeless principle of service, and to be detached from the ambitions of power and the trappings of office. I urge you to execute your duties with pride, simplicity and integrity, and to find in this service a higher calling. There can be no greater honor than to be called to the service of one’s country.”

Maybe he should listen to his own advise !

Mr. Speaker, in the next five years, my Government will work towards the political, economic and social transformation of our country in which all of our people will have equal access to resources and benefit from economic development and improvement in social conditions.

Equal access? Is that how you explain the Queens Atlantic Deal?

The underlying pillars of the new political framework will include meaningful engagement with all political parties; reform of the legislative and judicial branches of Government; and continuous engagement of the progressive civil society in the governance of this country.

Ha ha meaningful engagement

HIS YEAR 2000 Promises
A special “crime crack force,” along the line of a SWAT team will be set up to complement existing units. A large enough group of special trained and well-provided-for armed officers and ranks will form this crack force and will respond mainly to these new forms of criminal activities and acts of domestics terrorism.

Yes that happened, hence extra judicial killings and torture that followed

A comprehensive reform of the Intelligence sector to strengthen intelligence gathering to support the fight against crime, narco-trafficking and threats to internal security will be undertaken.

Employment of Roger Khan
Legislation would be introduced to provide for closer monitoring of certain categories of deportees

??

2001 Acceptance speech
My vision is to create a country in which everyone has a sense of belonging and an opportunity to continue to its development.

Failed!

MAY DAY speech 2003
Government has, as its top priority, the continued improvement of the living standards of workers and the reduction of poverty throughout the country. This is manifested in Government’s involvement and emphasis on the issue of tackling poverty over the recent years.

Yes the continued degradation of workers, lowering wages and salaries, impositions and racism in the Public Service.

The Government has placed immense emphasis on the importance of the National Labour Movement to the development of the country and in particular the well being of the Guyanese workers.

Lovely! A national labour movement meant the continued politicization of the Labour Movement, stifling of one faction of the labour movement while appointing Labour Union heads to political positions and taking some of them on overseas trips.

Here are some of the most important wheels we are missing in this ‘democracy’
President Champion and Opposing Everything leader Corbin signed a Communiqué in May 2003 and promised us, the fools among these:
- National Policy on Land and House lots Distribution
- The Appointment of the Public Procurement Commission
- A Human Rights Commission
- Local Government Reform
- Radio Monopoly and Non Partisan Boards
- Border and National Security Issues including the Recapitalisation of the GDF
De-Politicisation Of The Public Service
- The Appointment of a Commission of Inquiry into the Operations of the Guyana Police Force
- Agreements for the Electricity Sector

Shall we go on??

Guyana Times launching 2008
“You know me; I am controversial and I don’t care at this stage of my life,” President Jagdeo

Honesty?

To Yesu Persaud
“Mr. Persaud, you are falling right into the trap of the ignorant people who have been saying this over and over again (the negotiated deal) but we chose not to respond to it because we knew that it would continue”

His best excuse on the Queens Atlantic Deal

On signing the EPA 2008
“To sign EPA is to forfeit economic sovereignty”

“We had extensive discussions and I still feel strongly that we are entering into an Agreement that will undermine some aspects of the regional integration movement.”

On David Clarke 2009
“From now on if you believe all that this informant is saying, you have to also believe that he (Waddell) was a member of the Buxton gang and that he was in criminal enterprise,

The quick to blame black people game

When Roger Khan issued a full page ad saying he was helping the government fight criminals I publicly said at that time, ‘you tell us which Government you are helping because it couldn’t be this government,

What about those meetings eh?

On Roger Khan 2009
I have said before, Khan said several things, he said that [former Commissioner of Police Winston] Felix was undermining the Government of Guyana too, he said he had taped conversations with people sharing information who are linked to drug dealers

The blame game continues

“I have never put any store on what Roger Khan has said in the past or not said. I never decided whether he is guilty or not guilty, so if he pleads guilty he has to face the consequences that is clear.”

What history will say about you Mr. Jagdeo.

All hail the Mighty Oozeness

Once again we witness the ooze spewing out from the elected President of Guyana. It is our view that the President of Guyana has lied to the public more than any other president in the world at his time. Whether it has to do with duty-free vehicles, mining concessions, cabinet outreaches, ramjattan’s expulsion, janet jagan’s leadership, bobby ramroop’s gifts, Gerry gouveia’ gifts, the amalia falls hydrocele project or the government’s fiber optic cable.

Lies have formed a every increasing, every present flowing of fermented verbiage coming out of his excellency’s mouth.

How can the nation stand the level of deceit that is being foisted on them?

We will soon put together a chronology of Jagdeo’s lies one of these days as we attempt to document Guyana’s slide into a hopeless, hapless, crime-infused nation in which the friends of the president has risen to great wealth due to their association with the President.

Yet, this man, nay, this fading light of what was a human, looks the public in the eye and lies more and more – each and every time that he talks to them. They literally threw filth in Fredie's face, but throw more nasty verbal filth to our intelligence every day!

Let’s look at the LCDS project. How many persons KNOW of the total amount spent by Jagdeo on the LCDS project so far. We see the “3rd edition” (ref 3rd term) of his strategy document on LCDS. Who paid for that and who/what body approved those expenditures? We see Amerindians feted and partied and airplaned to places to give a show of support for the LCDS, at whose cost? Isn’t it true that we have already spent US$20million on this project? WHO is approving this release of funds? From WHAT account? Who is paying for all the billboards praising the Jagdeo’s Champion filthood? Where are those funds coming from. Could the GRA and Sattaur explain the collection of VAT for those billboards? Where are the funds coming from, and to whom?

We will continue. We will build a Fippin dam to stop this filth!

Riddle of the week

Who struck a cord with the distinguished mad man, we mean the Attorney General Charles Ramson?
1. Speaker of the National Assembly
2. Leader of the Main Opposition Party
3. Advisor on Governance
4. Chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee
5. PPP MP Anil Nanadall
6. President Jagdeo

Who rubbed Ramson the wrong way to have him resigned from all the Parliamentary Committees two weeks ago out of a fit of anger?

Who did?! Your guess is as good as ours.

He's Greene, but not Hulk (more like Bulk)

Henry Greene is now talking about retirement after he sat his fat ass in the Police Commissioner’s chair parading like a worth less puppet for the government while holding up the appointments of several police officers who were tipped for promotions.

Like another top black person in Guyana, he has allowed his professionalism to be manipulated by the Jagdeo Band of Criminals as worthy police officers were stepped upon.

As an act of friendship President Champion has extended his term as Commissioner of Police last year, an act that should have been deliberated on by the Police Service Commission. Greene’s dismal performance has not placed in the Guyana Police Force in any better light than it was five years ago.

But what Jagdeo has managed to do is to push the professional officers worthy of any political tarnishing out of the force. We understand that Assistant Commissioner Paul Slowe will have his going out Parade soon as he is proceeding on retirement.

Where does this leave the Guyana Police Force?

Ask Greene when you meet him at Pegasus, he takes his crime fighting skills there for a drink and food after which he paddles himself out to his car to have a drunk drive home.

Greene mirrors the sorts of crooks, the Jagdeo administration surrounds itself with.
Endless bribes, visa revocation, drunk car crashes, friendships with known criminals and the list goes on.

Have a good early retirement Paul Slowe! We will now have to deal with the likes of deportee Steve Merai.

I'm feeling Raaaandy

RANDY Persaud. Who is this person?

A political scientist or mad scientist? Either, we will never know. Dr. Randy Persaud, the latest Office of the President recruit and understudy of Prem Misir has a full letter writing task set out for him for the rest of the year.

Before he adds pen to waster another piece of paper on idiotic rants we will suggest what his next topics should be.
- How about Fip Motilall’s failure to deliver that US$15 million road?
- How about the 40 plus year old President relationship with a unknowing lass ?
- How about his non-existent marriage?
- How about McKoy’s crime ?
- How about Nanda Gopaul takings at NBS?
- How about Dr. Luncheon’s listening device?
- How about the blatant racism in the Public Service?
- How about Norway lying to us about the REDD plus funds?
- How about personal investments made by the President?
- How about telling us which friend he will grant duty free concession to next?
- How about that cable he is planning to bring?

Instead of counting chairs and penning letters about who is a CAPITAL FOOL, pen letters about these.

$30million dissolving away

The promise of US$30 million from Norway could blow up in front of our faces.
What will he say to the Amerindian Villages he has promised millions of dollars to, what will he say to those communities he has promised roads and water, what about those project he has air marked this money to be spent on, what will the fool do now?
Norway’s Ambassador Hans Brattskar recently told the Stabroek News that this millions of dollars in forest protection money is months away from reaching Guyana’s coffers.

The good PPP administration has begun to stifle the Forestry Sector in a bid to get this money while a battle begun with the mining sector to place miners against a wall.

The Guyana Government has once again fooled the Nation as to what exactly is promised to Norway in exchange for funds.

We are asking the Jagdeo administration once again to release the MOU for scrutiny.
As Professor Clive Thomas pointed out in his Colum today Sunday, Brattskar simply said that Norway though the MOU is trying to ‘gain practical experiences that may give positive inputs to the NEGOTIATION on a future REDD-plus regime under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change’. In fact according to Prof. Thomas column Brattskar said Norway’s ‘cooperation [with Guyana] has not been motivated by the possibilities for offsetting against any future emission targets for Norway.’
Professor Thomas Column’s raises a number of issues we wouldn’t do any justice to if we transform his words, but he highlights Norway’s disingenuous moves while pondering on government’s hypocrisy.

Now where will we get money to build this roads Jagdeo?

See Prof Thomas' article here.

Jagdeo in Newark

Yep that's right, he is in Newark... not a mention in the press as he ensured that he was out of the country for the attack on Freddie and the other Guy.

The Mayor of that city welcomed him (as if they could do differently) and Jagdeo noted that it was the "first time in 37 years that he celebrated Guyanese Independence Day outside of Guyana"...

Get real! You are never in Guyana! What do you know about our independence day or our celebrations, Mr. tourist corruptident?

Jagdeo also committed sacrilege by saying:
“Both of your countries need your involvement to succeed. Be active, stay active, and be progressive”. Can you imagine anyone really getting active in Guyana? Acid pon dem face!

He who pays the piper...

The sellout is about to be finalized with a fat pay out plan. We will be sold to the Dictator and his immoral bullies for a few pieces of silver. We knew that were we never safe but we never expected this act of blatant disregard for the citizenry or the act of mistrust that lingered for years.

We have reported that the Office of the President continues to the pay several bills for the Office of the Leader of the People’s National Congress (Congress Place, Sophia) and several of the leader’s bills.

But sources are telling us that this isn’t new and he was in fact being paid via brown paper bag from a certain friend close to the New Garden Street Property.

Two people we were told are authorized to collect these payments and these include a driver and a close man who is no stranger to the law. This explains why the Champion coward pays no mind to this ‘sickly’ man.

Wonder about all the politicking?
All in the game as we are left to look on as fools. A recent meeting to discuss ‘matters of importance’ is nothing about a photo opportunity that gets us to think outside the box when inside the box they have been secretly meeting and secretly talking about deals. These include a Constitutional Reform to allow for over seas voting and secure an extension of the Presidential term and another to allow the PNC to implode using race politics within the line.

When you hear every man for him self, its no joke.

A king without clothes

We refuse to imagine Him without clothes....any person who struts their ego must be agonizingly insignificant, so Freud would tell us.

Think of the King...Hail the King.

1) Where does the filth come from?
It may take a master to analyze the psychology of the King of Guyana. Which end does the filth pour from? All over Freddie, all over the poor cricketer-guy (to put a different spin), all over the Amerindians, all over the Indians, all over black people, all over Guyana. The poop-bags like lumumba et al are but the gaseous pre or post bubbles of the rest.

1) The drivel that is Fip was used to fool the nation. So confuse the nation with US15million while tying up a US600million deal. Confuse the press into a frenzy with 15million while working out the deals of a lifetime.

Then sacrifice Fip, because the bigger deal is done. So that makes him Shine like a champion. The savior of the masses, the champion of earth. Take justice to Fip. He deserves it. he cannot finish the work. Champion's hireling Luncheon gave a clue to that yesterday.

2) Sexual offenses bill. Yeah! A pedophile works as liaison to the King. He took the king's ooze and threw it at freddie's face. Yet, the king publicly spoke of his dislike for "man-kissers". Show me your friends....

There are records, documents, public accusations of ministers who have raped, pimped and sexually harassed young (stupid) women in their offices. Sexual offense?

The King himself, lived in sin, sleeping with a woman that he told the country was his WIFE! The ooze flowed with his 'explanation'. Sexual offense?

The King took Stanley Ming's relative to Lethem as his companion - well, that is not rape, she's big - but he has to prove that the man-kissers around him does not overly affect his suspicioned fatuous insignificance - then create a scandal to ensure that everyone knows he was with this woman. The poor fool, young and silly, has disgraced her family. Sexual offense?

3) The farce of the government fiber is another master idea aimed at pushing business to B-Yong and B-rassington. The latter is owner of an island in Essequibo (with a yacht moored to boot!). B-Yong operates his "business" front in a building owned by B-rassington. The King's cable will be "managed" by B-Yong and b-rassington (remember our previous post about B-rassington's brother in ICT business in USA). Meanwhile, the "Laptop per family" contract will be given to these two to bring in 100,000 laptops that will crash in a year or with 2-hour battery life to span the blackout. Cheap, affordable will be their words - after all it is a Government contract.

4) Laws and more laws. are passed to protect the B's. The King's filth flowed at a public forum when he called on his man-friend B-rassington to educate Yesu Persaud. Next day, the legal fools were scrambling to the King's desire to put laws in place to legalize the deals that the King made with B-ubby.

The filth has flowed for so long - we are b-lind, bitten by the Bs, fed BS everyday.

Should we go on?

The king has no clothes

A "guest" letter borrowed from the Kaieteur News

Are the ministers, advisors, and ambassadors of this naked king the same species and purpose of filth?

If I am going to write an impassioned novel, I will name it “The Day of the Champion.” In this piece I will write about a filthy man with a filthy mind, a depraved hero who has fallen into the convolutions of his primitive instincts, a man who can’t contain his love and resolve to wallow in filth. This novel will not exclude beauty and exuberance, but will also talk about the fear and insecurity of a man, a weak and frightened man who drinks the wine of power to flex his muscles in a travesty of strength. In a childhood story I was told, I will write at length about this man who rides a white horse as a king, boasting his fine clothes and jewellery, with thousands of his people waving banners, throwing garlands, and singing his praise that he is the best-dressed man ever to walk this earth. Then I will write about the little boy who was both astonished and baffled at seeing the king on a white horse, a naked king in pornographic obscenity, with the hypocrisy of thousands celebrating this king in his best regal apparel. Then the little boy cried, “King, king, you have on no clothes!”

This book I will write will have a basic theme, with a question: “How can a man be a champion of decency, nature, and beauty when he is a prisoner of the lowest qualities of the human mind, a man obsessed with the crudest repulsiveness on “Earth” of a thing called ‘filth’?” I will ask another question, “Are the ministers, advisors, and ambassadors of this naked king the same species and purpose of filth?” Where is the intellectuality of these ministers, ambassadors, and advisors? Where is the shame, the sense of justice, morality, and personal decency? Has the word “filth” metamorphosed into meanings of parliaments, cabinets, family life, international diplomacy, economic strategies, cultural expositions, offices of presidents, and social justice?

What troubles me most is the overt and covert humour of a particular ethnic section of Guyana about this plot and execution of filth. I am a Hindu and East Indian. Nowhere in our Vedas, Itihaases and Puraanas our heroes and celestial deities condone this raakshas (demonic and fecal) act of throwing filth on a writer and academic to thwart freedom of expression. But I am now wondering if this king without clothes is given permission and rights to rewrite the tomes of our resplendent Hindu past, to rewrite it with the putrid and odious ink of filth.

I will certainly write this novel, titled “The Day of the Champion.”

Churaumanie Bissundyal

Elections - 2011?

It’s close to the 2011 and you are not sure there would be General Elections- We share your pain.

If the Jagdeo administration throws a Manning fit and calls General Elections tomorrow - you have no idea who you’d be voting for- We share your pain.

It is quite obvious that voters this time around would have a difficult time choosing a leader as they have had in 2006.

The PPP record of corruption, crime, cronism and unaccountability haven’t help, neither has the PNC’s lack of leadership, indecisiveness and baggage of dismal performance has helped their image.

The AFC has practiced much of what it has preached since 2006 and opted to be a party that use to the opportunity to rebut everything that spilled from the others’ mouth.

We predict fewer voter turn out if elections is called, we also predict mass rigging- as the government may seek to allow overseas voting.

In 2001, the three main parties and two others blamed the low voter turn out on migration. None of them noted their dismal performance since 2001 and the fact that the citizenry may have been silently protesting against them by not exercising their franchise.

With a population or more than 700000 in 2006, the Guyana Elections Commission recorded a more than 350000 voter population. There was a 69% voter turn out for that Election says the Commission. It was the lowest voter turn out since Guyana’s Independence.

We see it as the year, the PPP and PNC also lost considerable votes in traditional strong holds as we will later point out.

The PPP lost Indian votes, the PNC sank lower and the AFC entered the political realm.

For the PPP Region 4 was a walk over, as President Jagdeo said publicly that he expects his party to win more black votes than the PNC and AFC combined.
We may never know, but what we know that the PPP netted only 61000 votes in 2006 a far cry from the more than 74000 it has won in 2001.

As for the PNC, that party scrapped a miserable 67000 votes that can’t even compare to the more than 94000 in 2001.

More than 217000 Region 4 residents voted in 2001 but in 2006 148000 voted, 2000 were probably unsure when they spoiled their votes.

As for Region 6, a stronghold of the PPP just about 50000 people voted, more than 80000 voted in 2006.
41000 of that more than 50000 voted for the PPP.

As for Region 10 the PNC strong hold, it lost more than 30000 to AFC and the Elections Commission averaged that more than 10000 Lindeners did not vote.

In the end, this is what happened, PPP won 36 seats, two more than it had in 2001, the PNC lost 3 and was reduced to 22 seats and AFC got 6. Two other parties got one each and the PPP fought CN Sharma and his Justice for All Party in Court for a region Ten Seat that they had already taken away.

Our prediction?

PPP will win the 2011 elections
Jagdeo will be President
PPP will lose one seat
PNC will lose more than 5 seats
PNC will struggle to be the main opposition party as it preaches
Shared Governance
AFC will gain 4 more with an alliance with GAP/ROAR
We will be screwed once again as the PPP will come up with another corny line like LET THE PROGRESS continues and we will battle with them for another five years.

p.s. Dear Mista Rohee, a corrupt goat bite the presidential seat. Let me translate: no one else can get it.

This is Guyana

Hats off to Stabroek News for this article.

Many of the shires (counties) in the UK have web portals which begin with the words ‘This is,’ and what they do is provide a wealth of information on the area. For instance, a visitor to Leicestershire would find on its ‘This is’ page, historical information, where to find what, news, links to jobs, real estate, pubs, almost everything anyone might need to know. Perhaps this may have caught on in other places in some other parts of the world. Not in Guyana, though. Here, ‘This is Guyana’ is a sentence that brings with it connotations of everything that could possibly be wrong.

For example, if one found oneself waiting at 10:00 hrs for a scheduled 09:00 hrs event to begin, the reason that would be given is that this is Guyana. It is used almost wholesale to explain practically every flawed eventuality: blackouts, corruption, nepotism, unsolved crimes, water shortages, injustice – the list can go on and on. But it’s a useless tally really, since no true Guyanese would like to see any of this on a web portal introducing Guyana to the rest of the world.

Just this last Monday, President Bharrat Jagdeo, as he launched what was called the third draft of Guyana’s Low Carbon Development Strategy, shed some light on the “Guyana way of doing things.” He intimated that though there had been no consensus in Copenhagen last December, Guyana was not prepared to turn away from playing a role in combatting climate change. He held out the hope that his imminent trip to Norway would bear fruit to the tune of millions of US$ to be spent over the next few years on climate change initiatives, one of which was the Amaila Falls hydropower project.

This hydroelectric project, which the President said would cost some US$450 million will, the ‘This is Guyana’ invocation notwithstanding, be ready for commercial operation by October 2014. Hardly believable it is, that Guyana will have commercial quantities of green energy in the next four years – all things being equal that is. One question that is yet to be completely and comprehensively answered is whether this hydropower will be available throughout the entire country.

In the meantime, while we await this progressive step we must continue to endure the blackouts and the high and low voltages still being supplied. We must still resign ourselves to using candles, flambeaux and kerosene lamps, especially the poor families who cannot afford the high electricity rates, or those who live in unelectrified communities, or the residents of Berbice, where periods of outage currently exceed periods of power supply.

Obviously, no one needs any alternative form of energy. Who cares if Food For The Poor in collaboration with the Roetheli family of the USA successfully built 100 houses in the Lil Red Village and supplied each one with solar power? What does it matter if smaller hydropower projects might be more feasible? After all, it’s just another four years then all will be well.

Meanwhile, we must unquestioningly swallow the drivel being fed to us by smarmy politicians; like the “one laptop computer per family” statement, dished out last week by Minister of Education Shaik Baksh, who said government is working out the modalities and costing for this initiative. Surely this cannot precede the completion of the great hydroelectric project. For while we are not all tech savvy, certainly everyone must know that laptops carry batteries which must be charged and that this cannot be done with candles, flambeaux or kerosene. And unless there are also plans to have Wi-Fi throughout the country, there will be need for other infrastructure to allow the laptops to access the World Wide Web. But why worry, this must have all been thought through. It just was not conveyed to the rest of us. After all, this is Guyana; this is the Guyana way of doing things.

Miasmic mess, acid, grenades

Another sad day has dawned for Guyana.

Freddie Kissoon
This may be an unsavory writer who rambles more than he analyzes. But, like everyone of us, deserves his space in the crazy world. He hates the PPP and is very vocal about that hate. It is a pity that he cannot see past that hate sometimes. But he is entitled to his freedom!

Months ago, the Guyana Times attacked Freddie's wife. Then the GoG's spin doctors (honorary doctorate to0), started rumours about Freddie's daughter and his bisexual traits. Bhrat Jagdeo displayed his homophobic side by calling Freddie 'man-kisser' - as if kissing a man is a crime.

He, jagdeo, is better placed to know if it is a crime, since he recently 'ass'ented the sexual offences bill. We wonder how many persons will analyze the rapes and prostitution that is done by the highest people in the land?

Back to Freddie: the attack on his family was a very low chapter in Guyana's media - all compliments of Guyana Times. However, this recent attack on Freddie is a public message - NOT to Freddie - but to the public.

Elections are approaching. The public is warned about its mouth! Journalists be warned.

To top it off, acid was thrown on a virtual unknown - making him acidly known - and telling the public again that "be warned".

What else will happen, we wonder?

What does it all mean for Guyana?

This week speaks volumes of a turning point in the History of the Caribbean as several noted and questionable acts have occurred and as people prepare to take to polling stations to stay or remove governments.

In JAMAICA:
A state of emergency was issued for a month by the Bruce Golding administration. This action followed a 2 PM Cabinet meeting.

The genesis is the US request to extradite Christopher Dudus Coke.

In recent weeks, we saw PM Golding being forced to review his moves and even think about the leadership of his country when news broke that he sought legal help to address the extradition.

After he signed the extradition order-Tivoli Gardens and Denham City were on a shut down by criminal gangs opposing the extradition of Dudus.

What followed is unprecedented violence in Jamaica as gangs sought to protect Dudus.
Police stations burns, police cars hijacked, Kingston Airport shut down, Hospitals come under gun fire, citizens had to be evacuated and gun violence in Kingston and other parts of Jamaica.

A State of Emergency was issued at a time the United States Embassy Officials in Jamaica and Dudus lawyers are trying to get him out of the country. Dudus have reportedly waived his right to stand trial in Jamaica and wishes to be flown directly to the US.

This is one telling tale.

In Trinidad
Tomorrow, Monday, Trinidadians will turn out in their thousands to polling stations in Trinidad and Tobago to vote.

The UNM-COP grouping seems a likely winner- as Trinidadians seek a change from the Patrick Manning led PNM.

In recent years corruption had plagued the Manning government as Trinidad, the richest Caribbean Country battled a plunging economy. The UNM also a tarnished record on that topic as well but with the emergence of a promising candidate Kamla Persad-Bissessar the elections is one to keep a close eye on.

Suriname
And on Tuesday, Surinamese would take a trip to the poll.

The calls are in for the infamous Desi Bouterse of the National Democratic Party as some are suggested that the incumbent Ronald Venetiaan of the National Party of Suriname is out.

All of these events could see a change in the landscape of politics in this Region, so keep an eye on them.

Our exclusive take on the NICIL BOSS

In this photograph Winston Brass Boy must be running off to State House to meet Jaggers to discuss their next deal as the two prepare to siphoned off monies from weary and disillusioned taxpayers.

We want to ask Brass Boy some simple questions:

1) Are you prepared to take a lie detector test?
2) What is Your salary?
3) How much % you make on those deals, yes THOSE deals?
4) Why are you leaving the country every month?
5) Where do you go and why?
6) Who pays for those trips?
7) Have you ever been to Russia?
8) Serious business now, how much money NICIL makes annually?
9) Are you prepare to reveal this?
10)What about an audit?
11)How many properties has NICIL acquired and sold recently?
12)How many friends of the President have you sold these to?
13)How many deals NICIL has negotiated recently?
14)How many closely linked to the Office of the President?
15)Brassy boy what about those Guyana Telephone and Telegraph shares you spoke about selling? and,
16)In whose name did you write Fip's US$1.6million cheque?

Brassy don’t lets be enemies, speak to us.

Parcels of land given to friends

Too much wrongs in Guyana.

Land is being given away to friends of the Government. Our understanding is that Airfan,Robbie, Brat and the 5 bees are giving and getting everything.

The latest cause for concern in a strip of land on the embankment of the canal at Montrose. If one were to take a drive to that area, you will find a gated community being developed there - from the public road to the seawall, east of the canal.

Who owns that "reserve"? Who gave it to whom - and when? Was it gazetted?

With our penchant for flooding, how will that canal ever be cleaned? I guess, the poorer residents on the western side will have to have their homes bulldozed in any flooding emergency.

More to it than meets the eye. Deals and Deals!

When will the Integrity Commission lets it independence guide it to drag the Head of Staff with his ‘assets’ before it?

A President who merely makes less than a half a million dollars a month on his day job is busy tying and knotting deals with his cronies and friends that his expected to full his pockets at some time or another.

We know that he got himself a little of the Guyana Times pie as Guyana Times TV Plan to set up a Berbice operation. A new office space is being built.

We know that he has cut himself several sweet deals and owns properties in and out of Guyana. He is negotiating another sweet deal with Russian Powers and would see a fibre optic cable coming from Brazil. This man would be making more money!!!

We were also informed of this connection to the Russian owned Rusal. Connection we say but hidden in that, word is director of the Bauxite Company.

Now as the story about Rusal’s involvement in a hydro power plant breaks we wonder about that else is not visible to the eye.

Stabroek News of Wednesday May 19 has an interesting and though provoking story. It says that a letter between a Gianfranco Miceli of Business Development of a Brazilian Company, Andrade Gutierrez and RUSAL’s General manager Alexex Gordymov talking about building a hydro power plant in the Middle Mazaruni. This isn’t the only revelation. According to SN who we will quote their article says that there are talks about two consortiums involving RUSAL, GUYANA GOVERNMENT and Brazilian owned ELECTROBRAS.

In fact, the Brazilian Company said that it is ready to go ahead.
This is despite no announcement by the government, no reports of Environment Impact Assessment and oh wait, No tendering.

There must be a Memorandum of Understanding somewhere around.

There are some pieces of the puzzle as put together by Stabroek News.

“In the letter dated May 14, which was seen by this newspaper, Gordymov told Miceli that he hoped that their meeting in Miami in March this year was productive and at least the parties could exchange their intentions and recognise how they could move the project forward. He recalled that despite efforts they could not find any amicable solution at the time. He recalled that during the March meeting it was understood that one of the crucial points for Miceli was to get Electrobras to be part of a consortium. He mentioned the building of a smelter. After numerous internal reviews and discussions, they would like to continue dialogue on the main principals, Gordymov said.

He outlined six points. According to the letter, Consortium A would be created with three main stakeholders: Electrobras, the Government of Guyana and Rusal. “This consortium would be responsible for developing the Hydropower Plant and distribution of energy”, Gordymov wrote. He said the consortium would build a 3000MW hydropower plant which would be done in three phases.

He said that the first 1000MW would be sold to Brazil “beside what is energy required by Guyana” and the second 1000MW “(probably less)” would go to the smelter. The third 1000MW would be sold to Brazil, he said.

He outlined Consortium B – which would be created between the government of Guyana and RUSAL for the construction of an aluminum smelter. “RUSAL would control the consortium”.

According to the letter, Consortium B has a right to declare an option to use energy in the second phase of up to 1000MW “in case smelting capacity will be built before commissioning 2nd phase”. Such an option has to be declared no later than six months after the commissioning of the first phase, Gordymov outlined. He said that if this option is not declared by Consortium B within that time then Consortium A has a right to use the energy of the second phase at its own discretion. In this case, the third phase will be developed by Consortium A when Consortium B decides that the smelter is needed, according to Gordymov.

He said that the Consortiums will enter into a written agreement where Consortium A will guarantee to supply power to Consor-tium B in the requested amount for smelting but no more than 1000MW at a cost basis price.

“We will appreciate your feedback on this message and would like to point (out) that we are ready to develop further this project in case you accept (the) above main terms”, Gordymov wrote. He added that any final deal is subject to contract. “

We say there is no way this could have even past our dear President’s ears.

Press Release: 'Peter' Vs Nicola Jang

POLICE PUBLIC RELATIONS OFFICE
Police Headquarters, Eve Leary, Georgetown
Tel: 225-5401 or 227-2685
Email: propolice247@yahoo.ca

PRO: May 18, 2010

News Editors,
PRESS STATEMENT

Acting on information received the police obtained and executed a search warrant on a building owned by Mr. Peter Ramsaroop at 261 Forshaw and New Garden Streets, Queenstown, Georgetown, yesterday.

The building houses several apartments and the police were only able to access one occupied by Nicole Ming, female, 19 years, the sole occupant. The search revealed the existence of three covert cameras. One hidden in a clock on the wall that obtains a panoramic view of the apartment, another hidden in a radio in the bathroom and a third focusing on her bed.

Nicole Ming indicated that she rented the apartment about two months ago from Mr. Peter Ramsaroop and about a week ago he requested that she leave her keys as he had to fix an electrical problem and on her return she observed an instrument on the wall with a light flashing.

She also stated that about two weeks ago she had replaced a battery in the clock in which one of the cameras was found and the camera was not affixed at that time and complained that Mr. Peter Ramsaroop may have been recording her.

The police became suspicious that Mr. Ramsaroop may be in possession of pornography and may be distributing pornography and consequently obtained warrants to search his apartment as well as his office at Land of Canaan, East Bank Demerara. At the time he was overseas and upon his return on May 17, 2010, the warrants were executed in his presence by the police who seized two computer hard drives and a digital video recorder from his apartment and two computer hard drives from his office.

Mr. Peter Ramsaroop has denied the allegations of possession and distribution of pornography and indicated in a written statement that he once used the apartment to house an office for his employees when he installed cameras and did not remove all of the cameras when he rented it to Nicole Ming.

He is currently on $20,000.00 cash bail pending investigations.

Ivelaw Whittaker
Public Relations & Press Officer

Political conspiracy? Or plain old wickedness?

These two questions feature prominently as news broke tonite about cameras found on the premise of AFC member Peter Ramsaroop.

A woman, Nicole Ming, an employee of Guyana Times and a personal friend of a very senior official claimed that she was being spied on. She occupied a garage that was also an office owned by Ramsaroop where she paid a rent. She claims that she noticed cameras and believes that she was being spied on.

What is so tricky about this situation is that the woman at the centre of the allegations is known for her personal relationship with this very senior and influential public official.

They were in Lethem together and she recently travelled to a neighboring country to meet him and her boss, her good friend.

We have seen a police report which said that three cameras were found in the apartment as the police probe how they were placed there and by whom- Ramsaroop? well, it is his property.

But something is not right about this story. We know that the woman reported the matter to the senior official and it was him to alerted the police.

What we don’t understand is how she was renting Ramsaroop’s apartment in the first place when she was dating the said official for more than two months.

Was it a well-orchestrated planned? Were the cameras placed there at someone else?
The quick action of the police is notable like we have seen in the CN Sharma matter and wonder if this is how the PPP intends to take down their opponents as General Elections near.

State ads

Read this carefully and do as we tell you! We hope you are wearing trousers with two pockets!

Now reach into one pocket and take out that little change you have there, yes those same crummy $20 bills, now put them in your other hands and place them into your other pocket.

Done?

Well, that’s exactly the situation with the now 22% government advertising that has reached the ‘privately’ owned Guyana Times Newspapers. http://www.stabroeknews.com/2010/stories/05/16/guyana-times-received-22-of-state-ads-in-april/

You get the picture yet?

Well boldly we are gonna draw that picture for you.

The Champ President has taken tax payers money once again and it putting it into his own pockets, this time under the guise of Guyana Times that he owns with his good friend and crony Bobby, the doctor Ramroop.

Nothing else could explain the sudden injection of cash into this almost dying media entity. A newspaper whose circulation is not even matched with the Guyana Chronicle!

The sweet joys of ‘cronism’!

We wonder what explanation it will be this time?

Sugar and the Nation

The Diamond Sugar workers have no one but themselves to fight this battle against Guysuco. Its almost 4 months now since the workers having heard about the closure of the Diamond Estate asked the Sugar Company for their severance.

The Turn Around Plan (TAP) had listed the closure of that estate along with other East Demerara Estates and the Union had deliberately kept it a secret.

The workers didn’t wait on the Union to take to the streets to demand their severance and that is when the Union realized the workers were prepared to fight the company it drafted itself into the protest.

Now it is at the forefront of calling on the Sugar Company to pay the workers their severance.

Some are of the view that the workers are not entitled to their severance. These few are those who have misinterpreted the Severance Pay Act.

While the Act does say that if the employer offers alternative work to the employee, severance may be negotiated, it also says that such work much be able to pay the employees the same amount of money or more but there must not be extra labour, working hours or hazardous conditions.

By now we all know what the Diamond Workers have said, they simply prefer their severance than to work at LBI, with among their reasons being a decrease in their actual working hours.

In a most comical action recently, GAWU has announced that it will be moving to the courts, this is after Guysuco said that the Union knew of its plans to close the Diamond Cultivation and move workers to LBI, even suggesting publicly that the Union was in agreement of this move all along.

What does GAWU do? Pretend that it has exhausted all of its negotiating skills and announce it will go to court, the scenario for you? Well you be the judge of this and tell us who is really serious

The PPP Union takes the PPP run Sugar company with legal support and advice from PPP lawyer the esteem Aston Chase S.C

You be the judge and tell us who is making a mockery of the workers.

Forget the cake shops, deal with the issues

We are falling in love with the approach of Stabroek News. Not that Kaieteur News is not doing a good job.... but these last two editorials of Stabroek News are analytical, pragmatic and honest.

We think soon both newspapers will lose their Gog ads.... if only Kaieteur joined the struggle a little while back on the ads.... in unity lies strength. Both Stabroek News and Kaieteur News should join in the fight.... if the Gov't pulls ads, then they, in effect, wont be placing ads, because no one reads the Guyana mis-time and the lying-chronicle. Unite fellas!

Here is Stabroek's editorial of May 17, 2010
There would likely have been many cake shop owners and patrons who would have been bemused and taken some offence at President Jagdeo’s recent description of reportage on the controversial Amaila Falls deal as cake shop journalism. After all, cake shops not only provide heavenly fare such as salaras, sponge cakes, buns and frosty beverages on sweltering days; they are also a forum for important community discussions. Perhaps, the reporters covering the Amaila Falls shenanigans should take the president’s remarks as a solid compliment.

The President is an old hand at trying to demean valid criticism and never tires of trying. One would have thought that in the week when he was quite properly recognized by his cabinet colleagues for his UNEP award he would have been more accommodating of those who are asking important questions on behalf of the people of this country.

If one were to follow the cake shop analogy it may be the case that the President sees his government as the delicatessen or patisserie. That’s all well good but it doesn’t infer that it is any more scrupulous or vital than the humble neighbourhood cake shop. Moreover, the bar is set higher for the government; it runs the country and must be accountable all of the time to all of its people; not only the reporters and the stakeholders in the cake shop.

This brings us to the question of accountability and Guyana’s appearance before the United Nations Human Rights Council last week in Geneva. Several years ago the government gave a commitment to improve the timeliness of its reporting to the various UN treaty bodies and at the same time to extensively canvas Guyanese on all issues to be reported on. It failed comprehensively to do this. Last week its delegation surreptitiously flew into Geneva without a word to the public or without the report which was to be the subject of the relatively new Universal Periodic Review being distributed locally.

If the government thought it would have escaped piercing scrutiny of its woeful human rights record it miscalculated big time. The information that it tried to keep from the Guyanese public was readily available and so were embarrassing questions by heavyweights such as the UK and Canada and a statement to the committee by the United States.

Numerous questions were put to the Guyanese delegation including concerns about extrajudicial killings, police brutality, rights of the indigenous peoples, violence against women and children and discrimination against the lesbian and gay community but in the rarified Geneva atmosphere the bombshell would have been the recommendation in front of the committee by the United Kingdom and Canada that Guyana convene an independent probe of the abuses committed by the phantom squad between 2002 to 2006 and to ensure that those responsible are brought to justice.

This call by London and Ottawa is what the PPP/C government has obstinately and quite improperly refused to institute. Despite numerous appeals locally and the patent need for such an enquiry the Jagdeo administration has filibustered at every turn and thrown in red herrings such as the need to investigate abuses going far back into the past. When calls were made for a forensic probe of the Clico (Guyana) collapse President Jagdeo said he would acquiesce if the PNCR agreed to one of Globe Trust. When his bluff was called there was no change in his position.

He may want to continue with his refusal to agree to an inquiry into the phantoms as his term in office is swiftly coming to an end and he doesn’t need to face the electorate again. In so doing, however, he is leaving the ruling PPP/C with an enormous burden to bear and no matter which party wins the next elections there will have to be a full-fledged inquiry into the phantoms. In the same manner that rigged elections was the albatross on the PNC, the operations of the phantom squad will be the PPP’s millstone as the present government has failed to convince the public that it had no ties or knowledge of what was going on.

For those who would immediately rebuff this argument by asking what about the other criminals who ran amok after the prison-break in 2002, we say that all of the arcane violence of that period must be properly investigated and as far as possible the masterminds, the triggermen and the accomplices brought to justice. The stupendous violence of that period traumatized the lives of many thousands of Guyanese on a daily basis. Many scars remain. Many voids have opened in many lives only to be filled by gnawing emptiness. Many questions remain about the direction of the violence and its intersections with sections of society. An inquiry would provide a catharsis that the entire nation needs, except that this government remains fearful of what could be revealed especially when it contemplates what the recent drug trials in New York have revealed about the underworld here and its connections with officialdom.

Whatever happens, the government now faces a bigger problem than the media and political parties clamouring for an investigation into that period. The clamour is now resounding in the halls of the human rights council in Geneva and the call is coming from the United Kingdom, Canada and others. As is evident Washington, London and Ottawa have become increasingly irritated by the stance of the government on human rights and security issues most recently manifested by the UK’s decision to withdraw its offer of security sector assistance. The pressure by the western countries will undoubtedly grow and could have unpleasant repercussions on aid and other forms of cooperation with Guyana.

It is revealing that many of the same human rights issues that besieged the PNC confronted the PPP/C government last week in Geneva and it was left to its spokespersons to trot out lame excuses. Responding to the questions, Foreign Minister Carolyn Rodrigues revealingly said that in relation to the “so called” phantom squad the government wished to indicate that the “allegations are currently being addressed and investigations are ongoing…The public has been invited to assist in providing information that will aid in the successful completion of the investigations”. Really? This is the type of statement that President Jagdeo might have intended to label as emanating from those wonderful cake selling shops. It is high time that this government shrugs off the cake shop talk and deal with the substantive issues. Is it now ready to order an investigation into the phantom squad and all of the associated violence of that period?

Adoration

We respectfully quote the entire Stabroek News' editorial of Sunday May 16, 2010.

Public adulation, extravagant receptions, congratulatory advertisements, laudatory billboards – what head of state could ask for more? If it weren’t for those pesky, geriatric critics gulping down their bitter brew in the dark recesses of their favourite cake shops, our President’s cup would have ‘runneth’ over and left him standing knee-deep in a syrup of flattery.

Certainly no president since Burnham has been the recipient of this amount of public ‘adoration’ – and no one needs to be told how popular he was with large segments of the population, especially in his later years. Both the Jagans as well as Hoyte were very unpretentious people, and while the protocols necessary for a head of state were observed, there was none of this level of glorification. While President Jagdeo has won a UN award, for which he deserves appropriate congratulations, it appears to have gone way beyond this, and been made the excuse for a major publicity campaign to exalt him in the eyes of the populus. But why, one wonders? Has he been such a failure that his spin-doctors find it necessary to try and boost his reputation to distract from his poor image? If he had a good image in the first place, then it would hardly seem necessary to go to these lengths. After all, why gild the lily?

And what about the President himself? What does he think driving around Georgetown seeing these billboards sprouting like mushrooms bearing his own face smiling back at him? Does he not feel even a tad uncomfortable? Did he ask whose genius of an idea this was? And most of all, did he ask whether the taxpayers were footing the bill for this bit of seeming narcissism? Or is this a generous donation from one (or more) of his admirers? If it is, who gave permission for the city’s parapets to be utilized for this purpose? The Mayor and City Council?

All of this may play well with the President’s support base, and perhaps even with the Amerindians who are geographically removed from the political shenanigans of the Lower East Coast, and whose dancers are brought down to perform at the adulatory functions, but surely the spin-doctors know that this kind of saturation acclaim really convinces no one else. In fact, it may succeed in alienating them further; many will see it for what it is: an example of rank propaganda. Have the architects of this campaign forgotten so soon what it was like during Burnham’s days? How the population took all the promotion of personality and the fawning by some noisy disciples with a pinch of salt? How they picked up the Chronicle every day and read between the lines? How they watched with a cynical eye as the motorcades and outriders zipped past at full throttle?

So again, what are the spin-doctors trying to accomplish? Surely they don’t think that because the foreigners have given the President an award, the local population will be overwhelmed. Can they seriously believe that Guyanese are incapable of exercising their own judgement? Despite what they think, in the end the electorate of this country is primarily concerned about what he does now and has accomplished here, and where that is concerned elements of his record are in question and will not be erased by any number of outside awards. It might be mentioned in passing that in any case the UK only last week asked for an independent inquiry into the phantom squad at the UN meeting in Geneva.

It might be said that this whole campaign is coterminous with a sudden flurry of projects, foremost among which is Amaila Falls, closely followed by a revivified Marriott Hotel. The most problematic of the two by far is the first-mentioned of these. As was asked in SN’s editorial of April 19, for a project which has been hovering around for about thirteen years, why the sudden rush now? Amaila will involve a huge undertaking and has been promoted by a small company which has absolutely no experience with hydro facilities and at best could only act as a middleman. Mysteriously it has recently been awarded the preliminary road project for Amaila although it appears to have no experience in road-building either. Despite persistent questions asked by a variety of sources, there have been no clear answers from the government.

Is this what the hagiography campaign is all about? Distracting from Amaila? Or is it for the benefit of an overseas audience which would have to provide the funding? Is the message: here is a President who has accomplished great things on the environmental front, not just abroad, but at home as well; the Amaila Falls project forms a part of this, and he has the unequivocal support of a grateful population? Even if that were what the propagandists wished to convey, it does not answer the question of why the haste to take on Amaila at this late stage?

We have, of course, a national election supposedly coming up next year. Is this campaign connected to that – in some labyrinthine way?

An award for the forest while Guyana sinks lower

The United Nations has long and respectable history. Having replaced a failed League of Nations, the United Nations under various stewardship over the many decades have investigated some of the world’s most horrific crimes against humanity.

And, the United Kingdom has recently recommended that the Guyana government independently investigate the death of more than 400 Guyanese and asking the government to bring the perpetrators of the death squad killings to justice.

But there is an obvious double standard that the United Nations and its members have overlooked. It is with no doubt that the dictator they awarded the Champion of the Forest award, is the person who has stifled the essence of a democratic society.
We know the UN is fully aware of the existing situation in Guyana as contained in the Gay McDougal Report of 2009.

In that report, McDougal examined the racial complexity of the society and listed a number of what was believed to be racial discrimination as complaints of the violent deaths of hundreds of Guyanese were also brought to her attention.

The UN is aware that the PPP government shot down the McDougal Report and even attacking the professional who spent time in Guyana meeting officials including the government.

The existing hold of the government has on the state media is no secret either to the United Nations.

Guyana has a very poor record with the onlookers and it ranges from the withdrawal of the ads to the independent Stabroek News, closure of CNS Ch 6, the refusal to address Broadcast Legislation, the manipulation of the State Media and the constant threat to media houses by the Head of State himself. And more recently, the steady increase of state ads to the Guyana Times, well-known best friend of the president.

These are no secrets.

Several international bodies have ranked Guyana’s corruption - both government and other wise, the crime situation and the delicate investment situation but yet the double standards that exist awards a dictator with an award. On first look that award is unjustifiable - and a large part of the LCDS money is being spent to "honor" Jagdeo for his award. Yet, it has to be a cruel joke that he gets an award for the forest - trees and animals, while the people are starving and the nation sinks in a rot of corruption that the awardee is himself a part of.

It is a timely reminder that there is no helping hands - but our own to ourselves.