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ARCHIVES FOR SEPTEMBER 20, 2009

Government saves the day, so City can pay its debts
- garbage disposal to resume as early as tomorrow
IN AN effort to ensure that residents of the city are not inconvenienced further, Government has committed to paying its rates and taxes for the third quarter of 2009 in advance so that the contractors can receive payment and resume garbage collection by tomorrow.

The commitment was made during a meeting between members of the City Council and the Ministers of Finance; Local Government and Regional Development and Transport and Hydraulics. Members of the council attending the meeting included Town Clerk (ag), Ms Yonette Pluck; City Treasurer, Mr. Andrew Meredith; and City Engineer, Mr. Gregory Erskine.

Minister of Finance Dr Ashni Singh, told members of the media that Government’s rates and taxes for the third quarter, which is not yet due, amounts to $41M, and this amount along with a supplementary portion of $4M from the City Council will be paid to the two contractors and the operator of the dumpsite.

Minister of Local Government and Regional Development, Mr. Kellawan Lall was given the assurance by the two main garbage collection companies -- Cevon’s Waste Management Service and Puran Brothers Waste Disposal Services -- that work will resume tomorrow. The companies, which are collectively owed $75M for three months’ work, will receive their payments tomorrow.

Minister Singh stated that the meeting served to lay a basis for ongoing engagement between the Council and the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development, and that the officers have made it clear that Government does not have any outstanding payments to the municipality. This clarification came in light of recent allegations that Government has been starving the Council of funds.

Minister of Transport and Hydraulics, Mr. Robeson Benn noted that there needs to be a change in the attitude and culture at the City’s management level, along with a change in the management team, since the Council has failed in its obligations to the residents of the city.

Minister Lall pointed out that the city is in a perilous state and that management issues are of major concern. He stated that there is need for an efficient system which will deliver quality service. The council’s expenditure amounts to more than the $1.2 billion in rates and taxes that is collected every year.

Outlining the Council’s failure in expanding its revenue base, the Minister pointed out that Congress Place owes the Council over $100M in taxes, but no effort has been made to have this debt serviced.

Referring to a recently-aired programme on the National Communications Network Inc. (NCN) titled ‘The City Hall Issue’, where the Ministers voiced their concerns, the Finance Minister highlighted several instances where Government fully financed the construction of projects within the City including roads and drainage and irrigation, which is the responsibility of the council.

Referring to the issue of rates and taxes, the Minister stated that Government, over the years, has been continually paying its taxes for government properties in and around the city in a prompt manner for which it has received relevant statements. He noted that from 2005 to 2009 Government has paid the council over $700M and has paid for the first two quarters of this year.

The Ministers again highlighted the need for urgent restructuring within the Council since issues of mismanagement and lack of supervision were highlighted as major bottlenecks.

Minister Lall stated that persistent mismanagement is the root cause of the problems being encountered by the City since there is no proper plan and he said there is need for the body to tailor its activities to match its funds.

Minister Benn reiterated that the bulk of the work done in the city is facilitated by Central Government and he noted that if the council was doing its job then Government would have been able to do much more for the City and Guyana.

Government has already spent over $3B on a number of initiatives in the city which includes $1.9M on the maintenance and rehabilitation of city roads, over $200M on the rehabilitation of canals and pumps and $230M on municipal markets and abattoirs, the Minister said.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was recently signed between Government and the Council for a special programme where Government provides $10M a month to the council to be used for cleaning works in the city.

Minister Singh also stated that at the completion of the Haag Bosch solid waste management programme, Government would have spent $3.7B.

Additionally, the Minister stated that Government remains committed to the holding of local government elections as early as possible to ensure that the residents of the Capital City and the country receive proper services. He further pointed out that residents should hold the city officials responsible, since they pay rates and taxes and should enquire what is being done with the money they pay on an annual basis. (GINA)

President dismisses Mayor’s garbage pile-up claims as ‘lame’
- his proposals as ‘two-by-two’
-‘His Nibs’ himself as ‘obsolete’
By Tajeram Mohabir
PRESIDENT Bharrat Jagdeo has dismissed as spurious, claims by Georgetown Mayor, Mr. Hamilton Green, that the government is to be blamed for the insanitary state the city is in, particularly with regard to the garbage pile-up in recent weeks.

Speaking at a press briefing Friday on the lawns of his official State House residence, the President did not seem inclined to waste much breath on the matter, except to say that City Hall was up to its old tricks as usual, or words to that effect, and that anyone with even a modicum of commonsense would recognise that the problems the entity is facing are being caused by poor leadership, inefficiency and lack of accountability on their own part.

Noting that he was well aware of the problems facing the city, the President dismissed initiatives put forward by Green perhaps to remedy the situation as “ two-by-two,” saying they were not enough to raise even a fraction of the money the Government spends on the City.

“If you look at every road in the City … Campbellville, Main Street, Robb Street, Lamaha Street, Regent Street, Norton Street … almost every road has been fixed by Central Government to the tune of billions of dollars, “ he said, adding: “Every year, we fix all the roads in the city…”

Listing the number of things the government has done over the years to help City Hall meet its obligations, President Jagdeo said: “We bought pumps and transferred those to the City; we paid for drainage and irrigation; we have hired a few hundred people, who are working in drainage and irrigation in the city; we have paid for the dumpsite; we have bailed them out in the past; we are spending US$10M on creating a new dumpsite; we pay the largest taxes in the city… all of these have been done in the past. We even announced a $120M help to them just to cut grass and they can’t efficiently implement that.”

Noting that clearly, the City Council cannot manage the programmes at reference, President Jagdeo also said he knew all about the “cozy deals” it has had with some contractors in the past, and about the system whereby citizens had to pay for the disposal of garbage by weight, when in fact the refuse loaded onto the trucks was never ever weighed.

“So I just see as lame the excuse that Hamilton Green is making; he is from a different era, and clearly, I am not working with him,” he told reporters.

He said however that if Opposition Leader, Mr. Robert Corbin, is in favour of getting a group of decent citizens to take over the management of the City, he will support his decision.

He was yesterday scheduled to meet with Deputy Mayor, Mr. Robert Williams, other officials of the Council, Finance Minister, Dr Ashni Singh, Local Government Minister, Mr. Kellawan Lall and Transport and Hydraulics Minister, Mr. Robeson Benn to see what can be done to help the City and its citizens. There was no mention of his wanting to meet with Green, whom he earlier inferred had outlived his usefulness, or to use his own words: “…the now obsolete Mayor of Georgetown.”

What he did say was: “I at least have to work with the people in the City Council who are a little decent and hardworking to see what further assistance can be given to the City.”

Missing plane found at Chi-Chi West
-No word of pilot
A SINGLE-engine Piper 228 Cherokee airplane, piloted by its owner, Bernard Singh, and reported missing since Friday, was found late yesterday in the vicinity of Chi-Chi West.

The plane owned by pilot Bernard Singh.

There was no mention however of whether the pilot was found and what state he was in.

Both pilot and plane were last seen during take-off on Friday afternoon, but when they failed to arrive at Kaikan, where they were headed, several other pilots got together and mounted a search for their missing colleague.

Singh, 37, of Strathspey, East Coast Demerara, reportedly has a mining concession in the Pakaraima Mountains area in Region Seven (Cuyuni/Mazaruni), and was alone on the flight, which originated at the said Chi-Chi west where the plane was found.

Seems, however, that this going missing is becoming a habit of his, as it was only in April that he was reported to have disappeared in the vicinity of the said Chi-Chi area, but fortunately found his way back to his mining camp a few days later.

According to the Police, Singh had left the Ogle Airport here in the city on April 7, 2009 in his aircraft for Chi-Chi, where his mining concession is located. Three days later (April 10), he left camp, purportedly to head back to the city, but was never heard from again until April 12. What was troubling at the time was that his plane was still at the airstrip at Chi-Chi, where he had left it when he flew in, before making for his mining camp.

The police said in a release that on that occasion, a Joint Services team was just about to go into the area to conduct a search and investigation, when they learnt that Singh had made his way back to his camp and was alive and well.

The last plane to have gone missing over Guyana's mountainous jungle was the one carrying a Markham-based geophysics technician and two American geologists, and that was in November last year.

Patrick Murphy, who was conducting a geophysical survey on a twin-engine Beechcraft King N874 airplane, took off from the city at 2:15pm on November 4, 2008, and the last that was heard of it was at 3pm the following day, by way of a relayed message back to air traffic control.

There was no indication, no emergency beacons. The plane was due back at about 6:30pm the same day, but it never returned; it just disappeared.

The search, launched by the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority, began the next day and continued several days. (Michel Outridge)

Cove and John fire renders family of three homeless
By Michel Outridge

Relatives combing the debris to see if they could salvage anything.

FIRE believed to be electrical in nature ripped through two houses in the same yard at Cove and John, East Coast Demerara yesterday morning, leaving three persons homeless.

Displaced are Jasmattie Rambhajan, 74, and her two grandchildren, Mahadeo and Gopaul Rambhajan, 19 and 23 respectively, who were so traumatised, they had to be taken to the hospital.

Both lads reportedly collapsed on seeing the destruction the fire had wrought. Their grandmother, who was also shaken by what had transpired, had to be taken to her daughter’s house a few yards away, where she was helped into a hammock.

The elderly Jasmattie Rambhajan being consoled by relatives yesterday.

The woman, who relatives said was discharged from the hospital just recently and was on the road to recovery, was reportedly in the lower flat of the two-storey house when she was alerted by neighbours that there was a fire on the upper flat.

The fire, which started around 10:00h, quickly spread and engulfed the entire building, and also spread to the house immediately behind, leaving that too almost inhabitable. Both houses belonged to the one family.

Hemwattie Manohar, 30, who confirmed that the fire started in the front house, which had four bedrooms, and spread to the one behind, said the family did not get a chance to save anything. She said that thanks to their neighbours, they were able to bring the fire under some semblance of control until a tender from the Guyana Fire Service (GFS) arrived on the scene.

The burnt-out houses yesterday. (Photos by Adrian Narine)

Yesterday, the elderly homeowner was in tears and had to be consoled by her relatives, at whom she will be staying until her affairs are sorted out.

Meanwhile, the GFS was also called to douse several grass fires yesterday too.

The first one was reported at La Bonne intention (LBI), on the East Coast, while another was at Bachelor’s Adventure, also on the East Coast. The others were at Celina’s Resort, just off Vlissengen Road on the Kitty Seawall; an empty plot of land at Quamina and East Streets, here in the city; and at Bishop’s High School, also in the city.

More plaudits for Guyana’s LCDS
- President for key talks in New York
GUYANA is scoring more points for its climate change leadership role, and its deforestation model that seems certain to set the pattern for other forest countries.

Building on this international high profile, President Bharrat Jagdeo is due to leave today for a round of key climate change talks at the United Nations General Assembly in New York and meetings on the sidelines.

Further commendations for the country’s Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) have come from the government of Norway, and the prestigious Clinton Foundation.

The Norwegian government expects to conclude an agreement soon with this country that could result in funds to help its avoided deforestation and forest degradation model.

President Jagdeo announced at a press briefing at his official State House residence Friday that he is, today, to meet Norwegian Minister of the Environment and International Development, Erik Solheim in New York.

The two countries are negotiating a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that will see Norway providing Guyana with resources to implement the LCDS, and Mr. Jagdeo said they expect to sign this in Georgetown in early November. This will be a significant step for Guyana ahead of the UN summit on global climate change in Copenhagen, Denmark in December.

Guyana and Norway agreed to establish closer cooperation on climate and forest issues earlier this year when President Jagdeo met Norwegian Prime Minister, Jens Stoltenberg during his trip to Europe to attend the World Economic Forum in Switzerland.

It was agreed that this co-operation, which is guiding the negotiations on the MoU, will be founded on a broad-based, transparent, inclusive multi-stakeholder national strategy developed in Guyana, which led to the LCDS and the widespread stakeholder consultations that were held all over Guyana.

In New York, the President is scheduled to attend up to 16 different events, including a round table on climate change that he will co-chair with British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown.

“I will also speak on the special side event on REDD (Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation). I will address the General Assembly, I will speak at Columbia University, and I will also be speaking at the Secretary General’s (Ban Ki-moon’s) dinner on financing for climate change,” he said.

Mr. Jagdeo is also to have bilateral meetings, including with a delegation from Kenya and Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd.

“It’s a packed week, and I think it is lending a lot of profile to Guyana. I have already had, earlier today, an interview with the Wall Street Journal. Later tonight, I will be speaking with the Guardian (newspaper), and sometime on Monday, with the Financial Times about our strategy and our views on how we can proceed to have a good agreement in Copenhagen,” President Jagdeo said, adding:

“The country is getting quite a bit of attention in the international media, largely because we are leading in terms of REDD, and the discussions on including forests in the Copenhagen agreement.”

MRV WORK ADVANCES
International experts have also supported the framework for establishing a Guyana Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) system for REDD-Plus (REDD+) with the Clinton Foundation and other groups helping to advance the process.

The MRV was advanced at workshop sessions last week at the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) and the International Convention Centre, Liliendaal. The workshop was organised by GFC and the Office of Climate Change, with support from the Government of Norway and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Dr. James Baker, Director of the Clinton Foundation’s Climate Initiative, Global Carbon Measurement Programme, said the organization is working with the Guyana Government to help reduce deforestation and forest degradation through the development of an MRV.

“We are focusing on helping the Government of Guyana, working with the Office of Climate Change and the GFC to put together a plan for that MRV to be in place. We are at the point of discussing that. We had an expert meeting review Monday; the experts agreed on a framework to move forward, and we are now taking the next steps to make that happen,” he explained.

Baker said the United Nations climate change summit in Copenhagen, Denmark in December will be an important step for all governments to make decisions about how climate change can be mitigated to try to reduce emissions.

“All the issues about climate change will be discussed in Copenhagen, but there will be a major focus on reducing deforestation and forest degradation, which is a large part of the problem and something that can be addressed, particularly in tropical developing countries,” he said.

He commended Guyana as a major leader for having an LCDS, adding that President Jagdeo “is the only world leader that has come out (and) made a major speech that a country should have a national LCDS; and part of that is dealing with forest in the right way – reducing deforestation and forest degradation.”

“And that is an important part of the LCDS. The GFC has developed a Readiness Preparation proposal, and that has been accepted by the World Bank. So that will be an important piece… and our work is to help support the GFC in making that happen,” Baker said.

Mr. Gary Richards, also with the Clinton Foundation, said that based on discussions from the workshop on Monday, it was recommended that a carbon accounting technical team be established in Guyana.

Two senior advisers from the Norwegian Ministry of the Environment, Ms. Inger Naess and Ms. Marte Nordseth, were among other experts and representatives from the World Bank, the Clinton Foundation, the Australian Government and others at the sessions.

They commended Guyana for its thrust towards an LCDS, with Nordseth saying the process has been “very positive” and “impressive.”

Naess noted that globally, deforestation and forest degradation represent almost 20 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions, and that Guyana is a country with huge forest cover and a very low deforestation rate.

“It’s important that your country conserve or sustainably manage the forest that you have. That’s an important contribution to the global climate for all of us. But I also think it’s important for Guyana to protect the forest for the livelihood of your people, for water resource management and for biodiversity,” she said.

She said the draft LCDS is “a good start, and we are really looking forward to have a positive process. I think it’s very important to have this LCDS; it’s really going into the future to meet the new challenges of climate change – the need to have a low carbon energy supply.”

Nordseth told the session that Guyana has demonstrated tremendous leadership in the deforestation model, and is doing a lot of good work nationally.

She said too that within the World Bank’s Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF), the two countries are working on how funding for REDD compensation can be structured.

Nordseth pointed out that there is not yet a REDD mechanism, and that Guyana and Norway are hoping they can set a global standard for this.

Mr. Shyam Nokta, Head of the Office of Climate Change in the Office of the President and Chairman of the National Climate Change Committee, said the two-day meeting brought together some of the leading global experts and specialists in climate change to provide advice and guidance on how to design and implement a REDD+ MRV System for Guyana.

Also at the meetings were officials from the US Forestry Service, the Canadian Forestry Service, Winrock International, the World Resources Institute, and the Meridien Institute.

Nokta said their presence here was an assurance of the international recognition and support for Guyana and its climate initiatives.

He pointed out that in the context of climate change and forests, the MRV refers to forest carbon, but can also include land use and forest cover change and other parameters.

“The MRV system will be the mechanism through which Guyana will be monitored for compliance as part of any agreement for receiving payments for avoided deforestation, whether from international partners such as Norway, or through the international carbon market as part of a REDD Mechanism,” he said.

Nokta said that globally, the design and development of an MRV system for REDD and REDD+ is relatively new, and there are few examples to look to.

“While this could be seen as a challenge, it presents an opportunity for Guyana to engage in model building and to set the standard, especially as it relates to countries with High Forest Cover and Low Deforestation Rates.

“Clearly, we need to develop an MRV System that is transparent, accountable, and in accordance with international best practice and guidelines. But at the same time, we need to develop a system to suit our national circumstances, and one which is robust, cost-effective, utilising existing technology, and one we can manage, improve and sustain over time,” he stated.

Nokta said Guyana has been working for several months with the Clinton Climate Initiative on how to proceed with an MRV system, and with support from Conservation International and World Wildlife Fund, the GFC has started some of the technical and fieldwork towards developing such a system.

The work done so far has benefitted from this expert review which has provided the guidance for further development of Guyana’s MRV, he said.

CPCE acknowledges distance learning impact on teacher training
By Tajeram Mohabir
CYRIL Potter College of Education (CPCE) Principal, Myrtle Fanfair, has said the introduction of distance learning there in 1996, targeting primarily teachers in the hinterland regions, has had a measurable impact on their training and upgrading.

She said the programme, which was made possible through funding from the European Union (EU), was delivered partly also by face-to-face sessions at the CPCE Turkeyen Campus, Greater Georgetown.

According to her, participants were drawn from Regions One (Barima/Waini), Seven (Cuyuni/Mazaruni), Eight (Potaro/Siparuni), Nine (Upper Takutu/Upper Essequibo) and remote parts of Region Four (Demerara/Mahaica) and by August 1999, 45 teachers had successfully completed the course.

Fanfair noted that in 1996, too, the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) offered the Ministry of Education a substantial grant to bolster distance education, and a project proposal was developed and approved, paving the way for the establishment of Guyana Basic Education Teacher Training Project (GBET).

She said it engendered a revamping of CPCE’s curriculum, introducing a three-year 145 credit semesterised scheme for distance education at the early childhood and primary levels.

Fanfair said the capacity of lecturers was further strengthened to write and deliver distance education, not only for the certificate at the early childhood and primary levels but to use the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) modules in English, Mathematics, Science and Social Studies for the upgrading of hinterland teachers in Regions One, Seven, Eight and Nine.

PILOTED
She recalled that the certificate for the primary and early childhood programme was first piloted at five CPCE in-service centres, namely at Vreed-en-Hoop in Region Three (West Demerara/Essequibo Island); Anna Regina in Region Two (Pomeroon/Supenaam); Georgetown, Region Four; Linden in Region Ten (Upper Demerara/Berbice) and New Amsterdam in Region Six (East Berbice/Corentyne).

Later, CPCE ventured into Regions One, Seven and Nine with the same, Fanfair related.

She disclosed that last June, CPCE complemented the early childhood and primary levels with the Distance Secondary Academic Certificate Programme.

GBET, financed by CIDA, resulted from the success in the Early Childhood and Primary Distance Education Programmes, Fanfair stated.

Fanfair, who spoke at the CPCE inception, said it will be piloted at the Rose Hall Centre in Region Six, at Vreed-en-Hoop and in Georgetown where 120 persons are currently pursuing it.

The 125 credit system is being imparted in nine semesters, three of which are to be done using the face-to-face delivery mode.

The courses include English Proficiency, Teaching of English as a second Language, Technology in Education, Personal and Professional Development, Physical Education, Art, Music Education, Spanish, Individual Study, Community Project, Curriculum Theory, Psychology of Learning and Teaching, Teaching Methods and Classroom Testing.

Education Minister Shaik Baksh said the innovation will significantly increase the number of trained secondary school teachers in the hinterland where they are needed most.

The GBET process will come to an end next month but the Ministry of Education has pledged its commitment to take over and continue it.

TARGETS
GBET Director, Ms. Susan Sproule recently reported that it has achieved all its planned targets since its introduction a decade ago.

She said, through the Distance Education Foundation Programme (DEFP), 349 teacher trainees were upgraded to pursue studies at CPCE.

“Through the Distance Education Early Childhood and Primary Certificate Programme, approximately 970 teachers have, over the four implementation years to date, successfully completed it and they are all now trained teachers,” Sproule announced.

She said that 843 education managers were successful at the Distance Education Management Programme (DEMP) which is now being sustained by the National Centre for Educational Resource Department (NCERD).

In addition, Sproule underscored that the institutional capacity of the project’s main stakeholder institution, CPCE, has been built and strengthened and a key focus of the outcome is to enable the writing of curricula for distance education, plan, deliver, monitor and evaluate it.

But she contended that the most notable benefit was the establishment of eight hinterland in-service centres, providing access to teacher training by CPCE, through the distance education methodology.

“As a result, we have supported the Ministry of Education in decreasing the number of untrained teachers in the hinterland, assisted in the alleviation of poverty and addressed, to, some extent, gender equality issues in hinterland communities.

RESULTS
“Through improving systems of education delivery in the hinterland communities, we are raising the standard of living. We now have empirical evidence that these results do, indeed, have an important impact on the improvement of social and economic conditions in the communities that GBET has touched,” Sproule asserted.

CIDA, in 2007, approved of extending the GBET project to further strengthen basic education teacher training systems in Guyana.

The objective is to improve the quality of basic education locally by bolstering the teacher training.

Prior to that development, there was a distance education trained teacher’s certificate programme and the earliest known form was provided by the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States (U.S.) by way of correspondence courses.

According to Fanfair, secondary education was not accessible outside of Berbice High, Queen’s College and Bishops’ High School.

However, by November 1992, pioneering efforts at it in this country started at the University of Guyana (UG) Institute of Distance and Continuing Education (IDCE) and it led to other initiatives.

In 1995, the Guyana In-Service Distance Education Project (GUIDE) was started with financial arrangements between the Ministry of Education and the UK Department of International Development (DIFID) to upgrade the academic and pedagogical skills of unqualified teachers while they continued their teaching responsibilities in their schools.

Unemployed accused remanded on carnal knowledge charge
UNEMPLOYED Vallas Motie, 18, who, allegedly, had forced sexual intercourse with a 15-year-old girl, was remanded to prison yesterday.

Magistrate Tejnarine Ramroop refused bail to the accused at New Amsterdam Court, where he faced the carnal knowledge charge.

Particulars of the offence said Motie committed it at Whim, Corentyne, also in Berbice, on September 14, at his sister’s home.

Police Inspector Aubrey Cumberbatch, prosecuting, who successfully objected to pre-trial freedom for the prisoner, also cited prevalence of the crime.
The case has been transferred Whim Court for September 22.

June criminal sessions of Berbice Assizes closed
THE June criminal sessions at Berbice Assizes closed on Thursday, with 17 prisoners still awaiting trial.

In the Jail Delivery, Superintendent Charles Cossiah, of New Amsterdam Prison, told Justice Winston Patterson that all of the inmates, including a woman, are requesting early trials.

Cossiah said 12 are indicted for murder, three for attempted murder, one for robbery under arms and one for carnal knowledge.

Meanwhile, Justice Patterson concluded six trials in the eight cases that were on his list.

RESCUING OUR CAPITAL CITY
ALL HANDS are required on deck for rescuing Georgetown, our once proud capital city, from the utter disgrace, the shameful, stinking place to which it has deteriorated under the watch of what passes for a Mayor and City Council.

The time for useless talk has long passed. Mayor Hamilton Green has long ran out of sterile excuses and blame-shifting rhetoric.

Indeed, for all his known political expertise in government and long experience in the affairs of the Georgetown Municipality, he is now being viewed as irrelevant to what's required for even minimum administrative leadership.

The government, which remains the largest taxpayer to the Council, has been most generous in the financial interventions it has been repeatedly making; "billions of dollars," according to President Bharrat Jagdeo, while Mayor Green engages in excuses and blame others.

So, President Jagdeo has decided to bite the proverbial bullet by his announcement on Friday, the holding of an emergency meeting yesterday with the City Council -- minus Mayor Green -- to consider the creation of an Interim Management Committee (IMC).

That meeting was scheduled to take place as this Editorial was being written, and its outcome will also be published as part of our today's edition.

However, even without knowing of the outcome, readers may recall that the President's move for an IMC was an idea he felt compelled to voice back in June 2007, when the government released $40 million in special assistance in that year when Guyana was preparing to host Cricket World Cup.

Of course, the concept and practice of an IMC for administering the affairs of the City Council had preceded Guyana's hosting of the World Cup.

What, however, is urgently required is that while the long, disappointing wait continues for new local government elections, is to know of the positive responses that the private sector and labour movement may have to offer in relation to the President's call for a temporary IMC to save Georgetown from being buried under the obscenity of spreading, rotten, sickening garbage.

The General-Secretary of the Guyana Labour Union, Carvil Duncan, is already on record for denouncing the poor administration of the City Council that has so often affected the workers who have had to be rescued by government financial interventions.

There are more than sufficient skills and expertise located in the private sector, labour unions and other stakeholder organisations to identify with the initiative for an IMC for at least a reasonable period, pending local government elections. They do not, as President Jagdeo had stated on Friday, have to be political representatives.

We await the new developments to flow out of yesterday's emergency meeting to discuss the creation of the IMC.

Elected Dictatorship & Illiberal Democracy (Part III)
Zakaria, Zakaria
-Chant of the new opposition
‘The narcissistic orientation is one in which one experiences as real only that which exists within oneself, while the phenomena in the outside world have no reality in themselves, but are experienced only from the viewpoint of their being useful or dangerous to one. The opposite pole to narcissism is objectivity; it is the faculty to see people and things as they are, objectively, and to be able to separate this objective picture from a picture which is formed by one's desires and fears.’

Erich Fromm - The Art of Loving
PULL QUOTE: ‘Every day, a misguided and shallow few, quite motivated to destroy whatever tenets of journalism are left in this country, issue a cheap designer gift to this Administration; the gift of ‘elected dictatorship’; and then shamelessly claim that notwithstanding its electoral successes, this Administration is gradually taking on the mantle of a dictatorship; unaware that their hero, Zakaria, favours a dictatorship in the developing world’

SOME MEDIA people just do not get it; they have become victims of the mesmerising chant of “Zakaria, Zakaria” to grandstand this new opposition. Consequences of this victimisation: Narcissism or sheer ignorance? And so, we may need a Hercules to rescue the muse of democracy and good governance from this ignorance and narcissism, if that is what exists and what the prevailing situation warrants. But I am certain that there are many Hercules among us!

Every day, a misguided and shallow few, quite motivated to destroy whatever tenets of journalism are left in this country, issue a cheap designer gift to this Administration; the gift of ‘elected dictatorship’; and then shamelessly claim that notwithstanding its electoral successes, this Administration is gradually taking on the mantle of a dictatorship; unaware that their hero, Zakaria, favours a dictatorship in the developing world. But is it a mindset flowing from narcissism or sheer ignorance?

And it is reprehensible that these people are able to shriek stuff amounting to political lawlessness in the media every day without hindrance, yet they cry for freedom and democracy; clearly, ignorance is in large supply, as they seem to not know that this kind of media shrieking would be a scarce activity amid a dictatorship.

Lest we forget, this is the same PPP/C government that swept the nation in electoral polls in 1992, 2001, and 2006, and restored fundamental freedoms for all, including some of these shadowy media note-takers.

These people, the chanters of “Zakaria, Zakaria,” now howl for ‘democracy’; unaware that Zakaria bemoans the evil role of democracy in the developing world; Zakaria said that “…it is difficult to think of a Third World democracy that has achieved sustained growth rates.” Note Zakaria’s love affair with Park, Suharto, and Pinochet! Well, there is universal support for the significant role of democracy and freedoms to sustain economic growth rates; dictatorships will not do!!

And I put out a challenge to these distortionists to show me where or how the Guyana Government exhibits the characteristics of a dictatorship. I see the following elements of good governance, inclusivity, and democracy in Guyana, and this listing is not exhaustive:

Amendments to the Constitution created the following new conditions:

• The President’s powers were reduced - Note the limits on the President’s powers through Articles 90, 180, and 182 of the Guyana Constitution.

• Parliamentary Standing Committees to review Government’s policy in social, economic, foreign, and natural resources sectors.

• Parliamentary Management Committees.

• Standing Committee on Constitutional Reform.

• Legislation approved establishment of these Commissions: Ethnic Relations; Procurement; Rights of the Child; Women and Gender; and the Indigenous People.

• Government has promoted political inclusiveness through the Joint Committees, constitutional amendments, and through institutional recognition of a responsible opposition.

• Constitutional Amendments project Guyana’s Constitution as one of the most people-oriented, in relation to inclusivity and opposition involvement in the Caribbean.

• Bi-partisan committees were established – Local Government Reform; Border & National Security; Distribution of Land & House lots; Resuscitation of the Bauxite Industry; Depressed Communities’ Needs; & Radio Monopoly & Non-partisan Boards.

• PNCR representatives are included on State Boards, Commissions, and Parliamentary Committees.

• New post of Head of the Public Service to be distinguished from the Head of the Presidential Secretariat.

• Democracy is more than casting ballots at elections. Karl (1990) refers to this as a “fallacy of electoralism.”

• Democracy has to do with ‘election competitiveness’ and ‘inclusiveness’.

• There are statutory and competing elections every five years, with multiparty involvement.

• Constitutional Amendments have expanded inclusivity in governance.

• There is an independent Guyana Elections Commission, a constitutional body.

Now, if we have these building blocks of democracy and good governance, and we do, where is this dictatorship? And again, this breed of columnists living off distortions in this country can only sustain their craft under these freedoms, products of democracy and good governance; enjoying the fruits of democracy, yet claiming to be living under an elected dictatorship; and even without fully understanding the essential flaws in Zakaria’s analysis, the source of their emerging journalistic blindness that encourages the distortions in their writings, and in their application of the concept of ‘elected dictatorship’.

Over the last two weeks, I was at pains to point out that these mainly newspaper writers gullibly acquiesce Zakaria’s flawed ‘elected dictatorship’ and ‘illiberal democracy’. Zakaria believes that (1) authoritarian governments are more effective than democracies at sustaining economic growth; and (2) economic growth and industrialisation are the nuts and bolts for the emergence of a democracy. And so, in the developing world, if you want economic gains, then you have to have more dictatorship and less democracy; and so, what good is this chant to the new opposition, except, perhaps, to create political mischief?

But if, as some columnists believe, we have a dictatorship here or some form of authoritarianism, then they should know that this is a ‘good thing’ in Zakaria’s mindset; for he argues that through dictatorship, we will achieve our best economic outcomes; and these outcomes will enable the dictatorship to reach a democratic state. Another way of saying all this in Zakaria’s language is thus:

dictatorship → sustained economic growth → democracy.

But some of the Guyana media people posit that there is no democracy here, and that we need to have it; Zakaria feels that in the developing world, it is fine not to have a democracy, but a good thing to have a dictatorship, to germinate sustainable economic outcomes; at which point we could gravitate toward democracy. It would appear that these media people do not grasp the essence of the “Zakaria, Zakaria” chant.

Clearly, these media jokers’ application of Zakaria’s theory of illiberal democracy is not in sync with the fundamental pillars of his argument, methodologically flawed as it is. In Zakaria’s work, the future of freedom in the developing world lies in the hands of authoritarianism. And these media people proudly extrapolate selectively from Zakaria’s writings, the hero of this new opposition. Is this what the Guyanese people want?

The Northern Passages
EARLY NEXT week, two German-owned container ships will arrive in Rotterdam from Vladivostok in the Russian Far East, having taken only one month to make the voyage. That’s much faster than usual -- but then, they didn’t take the usual route down through the South China Sea, past Singapore, round the bottom of India, through the Suez Canal (pay toll here), across the Mediterranean and up the west coast of Europe. They just went around the top of Russia.

It’s the first-ever commercial transit of the Northeast Passage by non-Russian ships, and it shortens the sea trip between East Asia and Europe by almost a third. It’s the melting of the Arctic sea ice that has made it possible, although for the moment, it’s only possible for a couple of months at the end of the summer melt season, when the Arctic Ocean’s ice cover has shrunk dramatically. But it is a sign of things to come.

The voyage is more evidence that climate change is well underway, and will strike the Arctic region hard. But it also shows that all the fuss about the Northwest Passage is irrelevant.

It’s the Northwest Passage (another potential short-cut between Europe and East Asia that goes through the Canadian Arctic archipelago) that has got the attention in the past few years. Although ice-breakers have traversed it from time to time, no ordinary commercial ship has ever carried cargo through it. But when the Russians put on their little propaganda show at the North Pole two years ago, the Canadian government had kittens.

In 2007, Artur Chilingarov, a Russian scientist famous for his work in the polar regions and personal Arctic adviser to then-president Vladimir Putin, took a mini-sub to the North Pole and planted a Russian flag on the seabed. Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper immediately flew to Iqaluit in the high Arctic and responded with a rabble-rousing speech.

“Canada has a choice when it comes to defending our sovereignty in the Arctic,” he said. “We either use it or lose it. And make no mistake: This government intends to use it.” He then announced a programme to build six to eight armed Arctic patrol vessels to assert Canadian control over the Northwest Passage, and a deep-water naval base on Baffin Island to support them.

“I don’t know why the Canadians reacted as they did,” Chilingarov told me a few months later in Moscow, and on the face of it, he had a case. After all, Russia has no claims over any land or water that might conceivably belong to Canada, and Canada makes no claim on the North Pole. But Chilingarov actually understood the game that Harper was playing quite well.

Canada’s dispute over sovereignty in the Northwest Passage is actually with the United States, not with Russia. The Russians have absolutely no interest in the Northwest Passage, since they have their own rival, the Northeast Passage. But the United States used to believe that the Northwest Passage could be very useful if it were ice-free, so Washington has long maintained that it is an international waterway which Canada has no right to control.

Canada disputes that position, pointing out that all six potential routes for a commercially viable Northwest Passage wind between islands that are close together and indisputably Canadian. But Ottawa has never asserted MILITARY control over the Northwest Passage until now, because to do so would risk an awkward confrontation with the United States. However, if you can pretend that you are building those warships and that naval base to hold the wicked Russians at bay, not to defy the Americans...

That is Harper’s game. And he now visits the high north every summer to re-assert Canada’s sovereignty claims. But in the end, it will make no difference, because the Northwest Passage will never become a major shipping route. The Northeast Passage is just too much easier.

The problem for Canada is that all the routes for a Northwest Passage involve shallow and/or narrow straits between various islands in the country’s Arctic archipelago, and the prevailing winds and currents in the Arctic Ocean tend to push whatever loose sea ice there is into those straits. It is unlikely that cargo ships that are not double-hulled and strengthened against ice will ever get insurance for the passage at an affordable price.

Whereas the Northeast Passage is mostly open water (once the ice retreats from the Russian coast), and there is already a major infrastructure of ports and nuclear-powered ice-breakers in the region. If the distances are roughly comparable, shippers will prefer the Northeast Passage every time – and the distances ARE comparable.

Just look at the Arctic Ocean on a globe, rather than in the familiar flat-earth Mercator projection. It is instantly obvious that the distance is the same, whether shipping between Europe and East Asia crosses the Arctic Ocean by running along the Russia’s Arctic coast (the Northeast Passage) or weaving between Canada’s Arctic islands (the Northwest Passage).

The same is true for cargo travelling between Europe and the west coast of North America. The Northwest Passage will never be commercially viable.
(Gwynne Dyer is a London-based independent journalist)

Countdown to Copenhagen
WORLD leaders, including those in the Caribbean, are preparing for Copenhagen in December to reach consensus on a new global climate change agreement to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol which will set targets for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

This will require the political will of all countries, particularly the industrialised nations, to adopt and implement ambitious plans for reducing greenhouse emissions, which are the gases that trap heat in the atmosphere for a long period, leading to a gradual warming of the earth's surface.

Before meeting in the Danish capital, leaders will assemble this week at the United Nations, in New York, to address the issue of global climate change, described as the greatest threat facing humankind today.

The Caribbean plans to be well represented at the New York meeting and in Copenhagen, as the adverse impact of climate change has already begun manifesting itself on sectors of the economy and on our natural habitat.

Even though the Caribbean and other Small Island Developing Nations (SIDS) are low emitters of greenhouse gases, they are the areas that face the greatest risk of climate change impact, according to scientists.

Based on current realities and some horrific future modelling of climate change impact, Caribbean countries are pressing world leaders in Copenhagen to agree on reduction targets.

These include long-term stabilisation of atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations at levels which will ensure that global average surface temperature increases be limited to well below 1.5° C of pre-industrial levels; that global greenhouse gas emissions peak by 2015; that global Co2 reductions of at least 45 per cent by 2020 and greenhouse gas emissions be cut by more than 95 per cent of 1990 CO2 levels by 2050.

The World Bank estimates that annual economic damage from climate change in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) member countries will be around US$11 billion by 2080, or 11 per cent of the grouping's gross domestic product.

Nearly a fifth of the losses is likely to be linked to the specific effects of sea-level rise, loss of land, and damage to tourism infrastructure, housing, buildings and other infrastructure.

The loss of tourism expenditure -- the lifeblood of the vast majority of island states -- is projected at US$4 billion, and climate change-related disasters, such as hurricanes and floods, at US$5billion.

Based on this possible scenario for the Caribbean and those of us who live here, it is vital that our leaders are resolute in their position at the December high-level conference, and not allow the industrialised nations to shirk their collective responsibility to planet Earth.

It is heartening, though, that leaders of the Major Economies Forum (MEF), collectively responsible for more than 75% of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions, agreed at their recent meeting in L'Aquila, Italy, that the increase in the global average temperature should not exceed pre-industrial levels by more than two degrees Celsius -- although their general commitments fell short of what was required by science.

According to Rajendra Pachauri, Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the outcome of the meeting was a bit of a dichotomy, as the leaders of the largest emitters had agreed to a goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80% up to 2050, and that the temperature increase should be limited to 2º C.

However, they did not take into account the IPCC’s recommendation that in order to achieve the 2º C goal, emissions should peak by 2015.

Given the urgency of establishing consensus, Grenada's Prime Minister, Tillman Thomas, who was invited by UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon to address this week's UN Conference, called on all small states to stand together to confront the issues that have the potential to damage its ecosystems, limit land-based agricultural production, and significantly deplete marine resources and fishing stock.

Prior to attending the UN Conference and a meeting of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), chaired by Grenada, Mr. Thomas said the situation facing small-island states is a matter of survival, given the impact of sea level rise and temperature increases.

Grenada, incidentally, hosted the Executive Board of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) on the island in July for its 48th Session.

Executive Board Chair, Lex de Jonge noted that by holding the Board’s meeting on the island, some light was shed on the CDM in the region.

The CDM is one of the financial mechanisms established under the Kyoto Protocol, and has the dual objectives of facilitating developed countries with meeting their emission reduction targets whilst promoting sustainable development.

Since the first Board meeting in 2001, over 1,100 projects have been registered, with a further 4,000 projects in the CDM pipeline. The English-speaking Caribbean, however, has only one CDM registered project -- unlike Brazil, China and India, where the vast majority of the projects are concentrated.

It is anticipated that the CDM will generate over 2.7 billion certified emission reductions (CERs), equivalent to the removal of 2.7billion tonnes of Carbon Dioxide from the atmosphere by the end of the first commitment period in 2012.

In 2007, the primary and secondary markets for CERs were worth US$13 billion. Currently, 2% of the proceeds of the CDM are used to finance the Adaptation Fund.

Whatever the outcome of the Copenhagen conference, our countries must continue to embark on sustainable development and environmental protection initiatives.

Guyana, for instance, recently unveiled a draft Low-Carbon Development Strategy, which ambitiously sets out a pathway to a new economy which builds future prosperity that is low-deforestation, low-carbon and climate resilient.

Set within the country's response to climate change, the strategy is broadly hinged on Guyana deploying its vast forests to mitigate global climate change.

The key focus areas of the strategy are investments in low carbon economic infrastructure, investments in high potential low carbon sectors, expanding access to services and new economic opportunities for indigenous and forest communities, and transforming the village economy as well as improving social services and economic opportunities for the wider Guyanese population, and investments in climate change adaptation infrastructure.

Island nations in the Caribbean should also not see their size, or the fact that they are small emitters of greenhouse gases, as reason for not considering a broad strategy for sustainable development and have this issue on their political agenda.

The Maldives, a chain of low-lying islets in the Indian Ocean threatened by sea level rise, is aiming to become the first carbon-neutral nation by fully switching to the use of renewable energy within a decade.

The plan includes more than 150 wind turbines, hundreds of thousands of square meters of rooftop solar panels, and a power plant burning coconut husks. Batteries would provide power when energy from the wind and sun are unavailable. Fossil-fuel-powered vehicles and boats would be replaced over time by electric models.

Discussions on climate change have also opened up another raging debate on whether an economic cost should be imposed on imported products from countries that don't curb their emissions.

In an OP-ED last week, Alicia Bárcena, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), said there is already strong evidence of how new “climatic-economic” standards tend to include unilateral trade regulations, based on the carbon footprint of traded goods and services.

In June, the United States House of Representatives approved the ‘Clean Energy and Security Act’, which seeks to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 17% in 2020 with regard to 2005.

To protect the U.S. economy, according to Ms. Bárcena, this law -- which is still pending approval in the Senate -- establishes compensatory tariffs on carbon-intensive goods, such as steel, cement, paper and glass imported from countries the United States considers are not doing enough to reduce their emissions.

In France, the information on the carbon footprint of products and their packaging, as well as their consumption or potential environmental impact, will be mandatory, as of January 1, 2011.

In October 2008, the United Kingdom created the ‘Publicly Available Standard’ to estimate greenhouse gas emissions (GGE) associated with the life cycle of products and services, and drafted the Code of Good Practices for the emission and reduction of GGE.

Ms. Bárcena said these unilateral measures could mean that the efforts and responsibility for mitigating the effects of climate change may shift from north to south, and could turn into a new obstacle to the economic growth of developing countries.

Although awareness about the trade relevance of the carbon footprint is just now emerging, the ECLAC official said the region should take it very seriously in designing its public policies and long-term economic planning.

If addressed in a timely and comprehensive manner, climate change may become a window of opportunity to begin de-carbonising the energy matrix, renew infrastructure, improve productive processes, and gradually move towards a development model with less carbon content.
Some advice well worth pondering upon.

BRAZIL'S OUTREACH TO GUYANA
- River bridge as symbol for wider Caribbean business
A NEW milestone in growing Brazil-Guyana relations was reached last week with the ceremonial commissioning of a bridge across the Takutu River that marks the first ever physical link between that Latin American colossus and the sole English-speaking nation in the continent of South America.

The historic event, financed by Brazil, involved Guyanese technical expertise and cooperation in joint establishment of multi-purpose complexes on both sides of the border, including customs, immigration, security and hotel facilities.

Inauguration of the estimated 721-foot long and 46-foot wide bridge in the southeast of Guyana's sprawling Essequibo region, connects the old cattle town of Lethem and the northern states of Brazil, in particular its land-locked state of Roraima.

The project has been hailed by the Brazilian President, Inacio Lula da Silva, and Guyana's President Bharrat Jagdeo as the "fulfillment of a dream." It has been in the making for some six years.

For President da Silva, who is preparing to host early next year the first CARICOM-Brazil Summit, the Takutu bridge heralds the first in a series of initiatives for greater bilateral and wider regional development cooperation.

Comparatively a small project for a huge Latin American nation and emerging economic powerhouse in the G-20 Group, the Takutu bridge, as viewed by da Silva, "physically incorporates, once and for all" Guyana into South America, and "serves as the pathway for Brazil into the Caribbean..."

Guyana would have good reason to have Brazil committed to sharing its economic development goals and good neighbourly policy, considering historical disputes with two other neighbouring states --Venezuela on its western border, and Suriname in its eastern region.

Brazil has shown keen interest in financing the paving of an earth road that links Lethem in the Rupununi with the bauxite mining town of Linden, from where a modern road network leads into the Guyanese capital city, Georgetown.

A Brazilian technical mission is due to travel to Guyana by this month-end to assess the financial requirements of the Lethem-Linden road project.

Once completed, the road will establish the infrastructure for a total link between Boa Vista, capital city of the Brazilian state of Roraima, and Georgetown, with an expansion, said President da Silva, of "development prospects between Guyana and the entire northern region of Brazil.”

This would reduce at least six of some 12 hours in travelling time to Georgetown, and with much improved conditions that could help boost tourism and commerce between Brazil and Guyana.

Venezuelan-connection

However, while Guyana-Brazil relations assume an encouraging expanding profile in development cooperation, there continues to be concerns over an apparent lack of evidence of new initiatives to remove Venezuela's barrier to Guyanese economic development of its mineral and forest-rich Essequibo region.

The problem resides in an age-old 19th Century claim by its economically and militarily strong Spanish-speaking neighbour that claims some three-fifths of Guyana's 83,000 square miles.

It's a claim long dismissed by an international tribunal, which had ruled back in 1899 existing borders that reflect a "full, perfect and final settlement" by virtue of the 1987 Treaty of Washington, signed by a then Venezuelan government.

For all the rhetoric of ‘friendship’ and ‘cooperation’ in Caracas and Georgetown, the reality is that while there have been some encouraging gestures from President Hugo Chavez (in contrast to the belligerence of previous governments in Caracas), Guyana continues to suffer from lack of capacity to interest economic development in the Essequibo as a direct consequence of Venezuela's territorial barrier.

At this time of worsening economic crisis, when the challenge to attract foreign investment appears much greater, it is felt by independent observers who appreciate the importance good relations between Georgetown and Caracas, that the Guyana Government ought to consider pushing the so-called ‘envelope’ in the direction of Venezuela in its best national interest.

UN Good Officer Girvan: While no official confirmation could be obtained at the time of writing, it was reliably learnt that the well-known Caribbean economist, Dr Norman Girvan has been chosen to be the new United Nations 'Good Officer' to mediate in dialogues between Venezuela and Guyana on matters arising from the Venezuelan claim to most of Guyanese territory.

Once officially announced by UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon, the new ‘Good Officer’, a former Secretary- General of the Association of Caribbean States (ACS), will be the third Caribbean national to have been so appointed by mutual consent of Guyana and Venezuela.

The previous two were the distinguished Sir Alister McIntyre, former CARICOM Secretary-General, and the diplomat and jurist, Oliver Jackman who died in January 2007, with no new appointment made since.

Meanwhile, last Friday, as top Brazilian and Guyanese military personnel were engaged in their 'Seventh Bi-lateral Staff Conference’ in Brasilia, the Guyana Government was preparing for a two-day official visit, starting October 2, by Brazil's Minister of Mines and Energy, Edison Lobao.

Consequentialism has failed as an adequate moral theory
SINCE the 1960’s Western society, hitherto Christian in foundation has come under the influence of a school of moral theology known as Consequentialism. Conseqentialism, essentially denies objective truth and leads to moral relativism. Ultimately it leads to a culture of death that today sanctions everything from contraception to abortion, homosexual activity, sex outside of marriage, divorce, sterilization, in-vitro fertilization, pornography, embryonic stem cell research, euthanasia and even false notions of a just war.

Consequentialism claims to draw the criteria of the rightness of a given way of acting solely from a calculation of foreseeable consequences deriving from a given choice. Consequentialism acknowledges moral values but maintains that it is never possible to formulate an absolute prohibition of particular kinds of behaviour which would be in conflict, in every circumstance and in every culture, with those values. In his book ‘Orthodoxy” G.K. Chesterton maintains that this is a false theory of progress. “We often hear it said, for instance, ‘What is right in one age is wrong in another’. This is quite reasonable, if it means that there is a fixed aim, and that certain methods attain at certain times and not at other times... [However] if the standard changes, how can there be improvement, which implies a standard?

The so-called goal of Consequentialism is to maximise the good of humanity. It operates on the Utilitarian principle that “the ends justify the means”. As a result human beings are often treated in an impersonal way i.e. not for their own sake but for the utility that can be derived from them.

Moral philosopher Bernard Williams criticized Conseqentialism on the grounds that the central idea of Consequentialism is that the only kind of thing that has intrinsic value is “states of affairs’. For the consequentialist human acts have no value in and of themselves but only in so far as they produce the best states of affairs. The right act is the act, of those available to choose from, that brings about the best consequences while supposedly maximizing the overall good of everyone’s self interest.

Williams also objected to the doctrine of “negative responsibility” that follows from Consequentialism’s assigning ultimate value to states of affair. This doctrine holds that one is just as responsible for the things that he allows to happen or fails to prevent as he is for the things he brings about. Consequentialism, then, does not take seriously the distinctiveness of persons but rather treats them impartially. It totally subordinates the individual to the collectivity. This deprives persons of their identity and integrity.

Consequentialism is a dehumanising formula for it reduces human beings to material objects which can be exploited and to commodities that can be bought and sold. It reduces them to beings whose free will has effectively been abrogated - beings upon whom a judgment of moral good or evil cannot validly be passed. Such a philosophy ends up poisoning the social structures and human relations it purports to strengthen - defeating, in turn, its own purpose.

Some like Peter Railton advanced Consequentialism to a stage that supposedly allows the individual person the freedom to pursue personal goals of happiness while remaining, at the same time, subject to the collectivity. This “sophisticated consequentialist” is not always bound to consequentialist calculating, to rules or to “directly” seeking the goal of maximizing the good. Instead, he may at times find it more advantageous to “indirectly” maximize the good by cultivating certain, necessary areas of personal interest such as human relationships - relationships whose intimacy and friendship are not subject to suffer the “loss” and “alienation” that often comes with direct consequentialism. This would mean that on an act to act basis the sophisticated consequentialist will sometimes do the wrong thing according to his criterion of right in order to achieve the overall good. Here we have the clear justification for claiming that the ends justify the means. We also have the foundation for moral relativism.

This theory necessarily entails the cultivation of certain dispositions or character traits that are the product of moral, emotional, sociological and psychological inconsistency. These include a certain weakness of will, indecisiveness, rationalization and guilt. More precisely it involves a certain form of self-deception that enables the consequentialist to live a double life.

At the level of morality however, the conscience, being one and indivisible, does not permit the acting out of parallel lives. Scripture has it that “no man can serve two masters” (Matt. 6: 24). Railton’s sophisticated consequentialist serves as a psychological artifice to disguise this fact in order to allow the consequentialist the opportunity to live comfortably in a fictitious world of his own choosing.

How often do we see this charade being played out in the real world with our politicians?

Politicians, in order to get elected will first compartmentalise and separate their private life from their public life - claiming, in effect that one can lead an authentic Christian life while sustaining two different realities of existence. They will claim, for example, that one can privately oppose abortion, in unison with his or her religious faith while politically supporting, at the same time, a woman’s right to choose. The longer this facade is upheld and sustained the more the conscience is degraded at its most core level to that of a mechanism producing excuses for one’s conduct. Incrementally, one begins to construct a wall of resistance to anyone who might oppose this parallel existence. As one’s guilt is pushed beneath the level of the specific judgment pronounced by conscience to that level of “neglect of one’s own being”, one becomes dulled to the voice of truth and eventually incapable of any longer hearing the voice of conscience. This explains how our politicians can publically, and out of a hardened conviction, confuse the reality of objective truth.

Ultimately, consequentially is something morally and psychologically debilitating. It eventually ends up poisoning all of society for when its’ gravely immoral policies make their way into law, they begin to incrementally, surreptitiously, almost invisibly, impose themselves on society by both coercion and force - marginalizing in the process both religion and those of religious faith.

Consequentiality - utilitarian ideology, which purports to bring about the greatest good for the greatest number of people, is insufficient for it operates from within a narrow landscape of particular instances and doesn’t consider - nor can it - how different situations are ultimately connected to each other in time or how they are understood in relation to the persons that help bring them about. In other words it functions on appeal only to consequences the totality of which cannot be known but which are necessary - according to its own standard in the absence of absolute truth - to arrive at a truthful decision. What may at first appear to be clearly the best thing in a particular situation may in the long run turn out to be the worst thing and vice versa. Albeit calculated, every decision becomes little more than a shot in the dark. Consequentially thus pretends to achieve the harmony of oneself with the cosmic “whole”, the overcoming of all separations - including the distance that separates creature from Creator. In this context, responsibility, evil, goodness and moral judgment become something collective without a clear concept or manageable moral definition. In fact Immoral acts, such as lying, dishonesty, cheating, stealing, killing, are often falsely elevated to the status of moral virtues under the description of the “right act” - that being the act required to bring about the “perceived” greater good. This is especially evident in the totalitarian regimes of the 20th century that have been largely motivated by consequentiality ideologies. Ultimately, consequentially fails as an adequate moral theory worthy of human pursuit. It succeeds only in advancing a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as for certain and which has as its highest goal one’s own ego and one’s own desires.
PAUL KOKOSKI
……………..
Proactive, visible steps on investigating police behaviour needed
WHILE I agree with the Chronicle that we should appreciate the good work by the Guyana Police Force (GPF) in some recent criminal cases, we must not underplay their failures either. I believe some of these successes are due more to citizens’ help than investigative techniques. Nevertheless, these successes are welcomed. They may also be an increasing sense of professionalism coming out of some programmes being implemented in the GPF, which is a good thing.

We need to see more proactive and visible steps to investigate police behaviour and charges or terminate ranks, if necessary. A case in point, was there an investigation of the Mc Coy affair? Was it true that ranks stood by and laughed and did not intercede? Why is there no police monitoring of all demonstrations to avoid violence? It is the Commissioner’s responsibility to maintain professionalism, prevent and investigate crimes, not wait for the press, politicians or citizens to complain.
N. AUGUSTUS

ECC and GNIC lift GCA/Cellink Plus trophy and $50,000 each
…GCB commended for placing emphasis on three- day cricket
By Calvin Roberts
“I completely applaud the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) for the special emphasis they have placed on three- day cricket and I am extremely happy that a long term plan is being put in place to sustain this form of the game.”

Flanked by GT&T’s Phaedra Cramer-Phillips (left) and GCA”S Alfred Mentore (right), from left Steven Jacobs, Abhilash Dookie, Collis Butts and Rajendra Chandrika display their spoils gained from the just concluded GCA/Cellink Plus first division cricket competition. (Photo by Calvin Roberts)

These were the words of president of the Georgetown Cricket Association (GCA) Alfred Mentore during his address to the audience at the presentation ceremony held for the GCA/Cellink Plus sponsored first division competition at the Georgetown Cricket Club pavilion, Friday night.

Alfred himself a former national Under-19 batsman further stated that the three -day level of cricket is the fundamental stage where young batsmen, bowlers, fielders and even wicketkeepers learn their skills and perfect their trade.

“With stringent planning by the Cricket Development Committee (CDC) of the GCA which includes Roger and Mark Harper, Neil Barry, Reon King, Roderick Lovell and Theresa Pemberton and others, we will make every effort to keep the three- day format of the game alive, amidst the popularity of the Twenty20 format of the game” said Alfred.

While he expressed his disappointment at the way things ended with regards to the mediation talks between the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and the West Indies Players Association I(WIPA), Mentore hoped that things can be rectified soon, as such matters can damage young and upcoming cricketers.

“This unsatisfactory situation if not settled very soon, can cause serious damage to the image of West Indies cricket and at the same time, demotivate young aspiring players from pursuing the game professionally and I hope for the sake of our cricket, a responsible resolution is on the cards soon.”

He took the time to congratulate the league winners in Malteenoes Sports Club (MSC), joint winners Guyana National Industrial Corporation (GNIC) and Everest Cricket Clubs respectively, while outstanding individual performers such as best batsman Steven Jacobs, best bowler Damian Van Tull and best all- rounder Sauid Drepaul came in for honourable mention from the president.

Showers of praise were also bestowed on national Under-19 fast bowler Seon Daniels, who was adjudged the best fast bowler in the tournament.

He continued, “It is easy for promising players to get distracted, but with vigilant coaches, parents and astute cricket administrators, these outstanding players can be future role models and we at the GCA would like to implore them to remain true to the values of the game.”

Marketing Officer 1 of sponsor Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T), Phaedra Cramer-Phillips, in her brief remarks recalling the days of West Indies dominance of world cricket, charged the players not to forsake their academics for the game.

“First of all, let me say to you that GT&T is committed to giving back to you and to the players who were on show during this competition, I would like to say thanks for the show you put on at the matches.”

Stating that she is a new fan of cricket, Phillips reflected back on West Indies dominance under the leadership of Clive Lloyd, informing the audience of her husband’s duty to regale her of cricket stories including the action by late President Forbes Burnham who had his chopper transport Lloyd to the GCC ground for a regional match against Trinidad and Tobago..

“Looking at you here today and having seen some of you in action, I know that in our midst we have future West Indies players who can help bring back the game to the days of yore when Lloyd, Joel ‘Big Bird’ Garner and the rest dominated cricket on the international scene” Phillips said.

She further stated, “While it would be nice to see you representing the West Indies in the future, I would like to remind you not to forsake your academics, as that will be something you can fall back on when your playing days are over and with that in mind, I wish to congratulate all the respective winners in this year’s tournament and to those who did not succeed, I say better luck next time.”

ECC and GNIC received $50,000 each, a split in the first prize after being forced to share the championship, the second successive year GNIC is being asked to do so having done same with MSC last year, and a trophy.

By virtue of finishing on top of the points standing during the preliminary rounds, MSC were awarded with a trophy and 16 medallions, while Jacobs who scored 406 runs with two centuries and one half century and Van Tull who took 35 wickets with his left arm spin, were the recipients of trophies.

ECC’s Drepaul and his teammate former West Indies Under-19 opener Rajendra Chandrika each received a trophy for best all rounder and batsman with the highest score in the competition, with the latter gaining his accolade for his unbeaten 150 in the rain ruined three day final.

Former national middle- order batsman Neil Barry who holds the office of chairman of the GCA’s CDC, moved the vote of thanks, where he congratulated the respective prize winners and urged those who were not successful, to do their best next time around.

GFA/Cellink Plus Premier League Pele end Alpha United unbeaten streak with 1-0 injection
PELE ended Alpha United’s unbeaten run in the Georgetown Football Association’s (GFA)/Cellink Plus Premier League when play in the competition continued on Friday evening at the Tucville ground.

A Marvin Joseph 25th minute goal accounted for Alpha United’s first loss after an 11-game winning streak, but the star studded Alpha United team still heads the points standing with 31 points from the 12 matches they have played to date.

They won 10, drew one and lost their last fixture on Friday night.

To date, the points leaders have scored 39 goals and conceded five for a goal difference of plus 34.

The win for Pele propels them to 10 points from 11 matches.

They won three, drew one and lost the other seven, in the process they have scored 14 goals and conceded six for a goal difference of plus eight.

Joseph’s goal on Friday evening was his eight in the competition to date and with his team having three more matches to contest; he will be seeking to improve on that mark in an effort to be in contention of winning the Highest Goals Scorer of the tournament award.

Alpha United’s Shawn Bishop with nine first round goals and three to date in the second round, head the list of players that are in contention for the award.

Bishop’s team mate Dwight Peters has seven goals to his name, he scored two in the first round and so far for the second round, he has scored five.

Both Alpha United and Pele ended Friday night’s game with 10 players as Pele’s Mervyn Liverpool and Alpha United’s Gordon Henry were both given marching orders (red card) in the 51st and 74th minutes respectively.

Meanwhile, Sunburst Camptown is currently occupying the second spot in the points standing with 28 points from 12 matches. They won nine, drew one and lost two.

To date the Campbellville based side has scored 21 goals and conceded nine for a goal difference of plus 12.

GDF with 25 points from 12 matches is third in the standing.

They have so far won eight of their matches, drew one and lost three.

Fruta Conquerors is next with 20 points from 12 matches. They won six, drew two and lost four.

Pele, BK International Western Tigers, GFC and Flamingo occupy the other positions with 13, 11, five and three points respectively.

Play in the competition will continue on Wednesday with a double- header at the same venue.

GABBFF Mr. and Ms Guyana ‘Robocop’ is ready to grace the stage tonight
By Calvin Roberts
GUEST poser Canadian based Guyanese Eustace Abraham also known as ‘Robocop’, arrived in Guyana early yesterday morning to fulfill his duties as a guest poser tonight, when the Guyana Amateur Bodybuilding and Fitness Federation (GABBFF) holds its’ 2009 Mr. and Ms. Guyana competition at the National Cultural Centre (NCC) from 1900h.

Eustace ‘Robocop’ Abraham

Immediately after stepping through the Arrival Lounge at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA), Abraham who was met by president of the GABBFF Frank Tucker and other executives, expressed his readiness to grace the NCC tonight.

“It is always a pleasure to be back home and guest pose on any show. This tells you people are still curious about your achievements while you reside overseas and they want to enjoy that with you, but on the same note, I like to be in the spotlight.”

The 38 year- old Abraham who was a former member of the Guyana Police Force (GPF) further stated, “Come competition night, there is adrenalin that flows when I look at the audience who took some time out from their schedule to come and see the athletes perform. Not only those in the audience, but the judges and even the janitors who may take a break from what they are doing, just to have a look at the competitors. This gives me a renewed momentum to go out there and perform.”

Abraham, who recently competed in the National Physique Committee (NPC) in the USA on the 13th June, placing second to the reigning Mr. Tennessee, was quick to leave a word of advice for those who are interested in taking up the sport of bodybuilding to be ready to make sacrifices.

“I want to let the youngsters who are interested in taking up the sport of bodybuilding know that they must be ready to make sacrifices, lots of it if they intend to succeed. Do not look to the sport’s governing body to provide for you to get where you want to get.

Nobody has to pay you to get there, hard work and sacrifice, lots of sacrifices too get you where you want to get to, not only in bodybuilding, but any other sport. You should be able to push yourself to achieve the goals you have set yourself” said Abraham.

Twenty (20) athletes including former Mr. Guyana 2007 and 2006 Central American and Caribbean championship (CAC) silver medalist Clint Duke, 2009 Mr. Guyana Novice Alfred Jordan, national heavyweight boxing champion Mitchell Rogers, Oswin Jones, 2008 Ms. Guyana Alicia Fortune and Melissa ‘Vanilla’ Roberts will be vying for the title of Mr. and Ms. Guyana respectively.

With places on the national team for the 2009 CAC which will be held in Grenada from 1st to 4th October along with two tickets to Trinidad and Tobago being up for grabs, tonight’s competition should be a heated affair, especially with the non-participation of Mr. Guyana 2008 Mark ‘Uno’ Perry.

Admission to the NCC for this event which gets underway at 19:00h and has trophies and hampers up for grabs for the respective group winners will be $1500.00.

Afghanistan and Ugandan U-19 players go missing
IT has emerged that five members of Afghanistan's Under-19 side who were in Toronto to take part in the ICC Under-19 World Cup Qualifier failed to return home with the rest of the squad and may be seeking asylum in Canada.

This news comes days after it was revealed seven of the Uganda U-19 squad had gone missing. They are also believed to be planning to seek asylum.

Reports are confusing, but Pajhwok Afghan News claimed five players and a coach were not among the squad who were given a reception at the presidential palace in Kabul on their return home. The agency went on to say that President Hamid Karzai expressed anger when told of the missing members.

Sources laid the blame on the tour management for failing to keep hold of the squad's passports, making it far easier for them to disappear.

There has been no official comment from the Afghanistan board, although a spokesman speaking off the record insisted the six were not missing and would be returning home soon.

If the Afghanistan and Ugandan players have gone missing with the aim of claiming asylum then it raises doubts about teams from countries which might be considered high-risk regarding the likelihood of individuals taking a similar course of action being granted visas for future events. (Cricinfo)

Injured Roach to sit out final warm-up match today
POTCHEFSTROOM, South Africa, (CMC) – Fast bowler Kemar Roach will sit out West Indies’ second official Champions Trophy warm-up against Sri Lanka today after injuring his ankle in the opening game against South Africa on Friday.

The 21-year-old was limited to just four overs against the Proteas after sustaining a minor injury to his right ankle while attempting to field a ball on the boundary, during the Caribbean side’s 188-run loss at Senwes Park.

Roach, a key member of the depleted Windies’ pace attack, has been receiving treatment and is being monitored closely.

Coach David Williams said daily assessments would be made and remained hopeful Roach would make a full recovery and suit up for the Windies’ first match of the Champions Trophy against Pakistan on Wednesday.

“We will be having daily assessments on Kemar and we are hoping to have him ready for the first match against Pakistan,” said Williams.

“He is a wicket-taker, he has demonstrated the ability to get wickets with