PRIME Minister, Mr. Samuel Hinds has announced that a particular goal among his retirement plans is to enlist in a class in an effort to advance in computer literacy. Speaking at a graduating ceremony for students who have completed training in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) at Port Mourant, Corentyne, on Wednesday afternoon,

Mr. Hinds said he feels jealous and incompetent when young people, including his grandson, are computer literate and are able to do things outside his present capability.
Hinds, who is the longest-serving Prime Minister in the Caribbean, reminded his audience that he would not be running for office again.
“I will be going into retirement after Election Day, and persons have asked what I will be doing then… I will be looking to enroll myself in a class that you have gone through, “ Mr Hinds said, adding:
“I am feeling a bit jealous; very incompetent when young people, even my grandson, can do things I cannot do; it is not that I have been a non-technology person. In the summer of 1965, I did a special course; an extra course in computering at my university.
“I felt then that I was at the frontline, but that was a different frontline from the frontline of today. That frontline is a thousand miles in the rear; so I have to catch up.
NEVER TOO OLD TO LEARN
“But 1965 was a long time ago. There has probably been 30 to 40 generations of computers and computing that has passed since then. So I have to catch up. I have to become competent in Skype, along with things like Facebook and Twitter, which are things I hear about, but have not ventured there as yet. I have to get into that too. You are never too old to learn and to learn new things.”
Meanwhile Hinds, a chemical engineer by profession, recalled the old adage ‘you have to know the three R’s, reading, ‘riting and ‘rithmetic’, but he added a fourth by saying that “for these days for sure, if you don’t know the fourth ‘R’, that is computer, you are not of this world.”

BACKGROUND
Samuel Archibald Anthony Hinds has been Guyana’s Prime Minister, almost continuously, since 1992. He served briefly as President of Guyana in 1997, following the death of then President Dr Cheddie Jagan. He was awarded Guyana’s highest national award, the Order of Excellence in 2011.
He first became Prime Minister under Dr Cheddi Jagan in 1992 following the October 5, 1992 general elections, which was won by an alliance of the People’s Progressive Party [PPP] and Hinds’ group, Civic.
When Dr Jagan died in March 1997, Hinds became the President, and appointed Dr Jagan’s widow, the American-born Ms Janet Jagan, as Prime Minister.
The following elections held in December 1997, the PPP/C nominated Hinds as the prime ministerial candidate, whilst Janet Jagan was the candidate for the Presidency. Following the election, Jagan was elected President, and re-appointed Hinds as Prime Minister.
In August 1999, President Janet Jagan resigned and temporarily replaced Mr Hinds with Mr. Bharrat Jagdeo, who became the President upon her resignation. Jagdeo reappointed Hinds as Prime Minister. After the re-election of the government in the 28th August, 2006 election, Hinds was again sworn in as prime minister.
He was again nominated as the prime ministerial candidate for the PPP in October 2011elections, although there were suggestions that he might step aside. After PPP/C candidate Mr Donald Ramotar was elected President, Mr Hinds was sworn in as Prime Minister again on 5th December, 2011.
Previously Mr. Hinds worked with ALCAN Aluminum limited, a Canadian mining firm, as head of Chemical Engineering and he is a licensed and qualified chemical engineer, having graduated from the University of New Brunswick, USA.

(By Jeune Bailey VanKeric)