Moontown

President Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday called on all Guyanese to embrace “a green economy,” which he said is key to transforming the country into one of the richest economies in the world, on par with the US.

A group of young Amerindian dancers performing one of the cultural items at yesterday’s reception to honour President Bharrat Jagdeo on his recent Champion of the Earth award. (Jules Gibson photo)

Addressing a few hundred at a special reception organised and sponsored by Cabinet to celebrate his recent receipt of the Champion of the Earth award from the United Nations Environment Programme, Jagdeo said while climate change is the country’s greatest challenge, it presents one of the biggest opportunities as well. “In Guyana’s case, the green sector can emerge as the largest sector in our economy. We could probably, in the future, if the carbon prices go the way they should go, and that the world development model values the externalities of fossil fuels at the right price, we could earn US$400 to US$500 million a year from this industry,” he said at the International Conference Centre. He noted that the country’s economy could benefit from a massive turnaround within three years and emphasised that work needs to start now. He also said that no development strategy could be crafted in Guyana by ignoring the impact of climate change. “The green economy will do for the world, what ICT development did in the 1990s,” he opined, “[It] is the next catalyst for that huge leap forward.”
‘Negative voices’
Jagdeo stressed that the government will use the funds received from its Low Carbon Development Strategy to push development in the country, including investments in hydropower plants, biodiversity research and in the hinterland region. He noted that while the hinterland had been ignored in the past, the PPP/C government would keep its promise of development. Jagdeo has already pledged to donate US$40,000 that he won as part of the award to the Amerindian community.

He also stressed that it is necessary for Guyanese to be positive and to ignore the few negative voices in the country. “We must not give up our country and its future to the few in our midst who are negative about everything single thing on earth,” he said. “They’re always negative. And many of them, frankly speaking, are very old people, many of them…. there are about five of them you see recurring in the newspapers …five very old… people who have lived their lives very bitter,” he said.  “The future doesn’t belong to them, it belongs to you, the positive people and your children and they need to get involved,” Jadgdeo added.  He urged Guyanese to think about “the benefits that will flow three years into the future” and start to do the “heavy lifting now.”

Jagdeo did voice disapproval at the dirty state of the country, noting that there is “too much garbage in the streets.” He urged communities to get involved to address the problem. He said that the government is willing to work with community groups to fund small recycling plants as well as other initiatives to beautify the environment.

The ceremony featured several speeches and cultural items. Attendees were also given memorabilia of bookmarks and magazines relating to the “Champion of the Earth.” UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative Kiari Liman-Tinguiri and IDB Country Representative Marco Nicola both congratulated Jagdeo for his awarded and for his strong advocacy to combat climate change.  Nicola, during his presentation, read a congratulatory message from the President of the IDB Luis Moreno.

Prime Minister Samuel Hinds, speaking on behalf of Cabinet, congratulated the President on his award and for the example it set.  Hinds said that the President’s campaign on environmental issues was not a case of receiving handouts but demonstrated how developed and developing countries can work together to address issues to their mutual benefit.

President of FITUG Carvil Duncan saluted Jagdeo for being “a champion in many ways.” He said that Jagdeo was responsible for improving the country’s education system, for transforming the landscape of the country’s economy and for the reduction of debt, which resulted in benefits for the workers he represents. According to Duncan, Guyana had been changed from a “little known” nation into one recognised as one with “a dynamic and powerful leader” involved in pushing environmental issues.

PPP General Secretary Donald Ramotar, Chairperson of the National Toshaos Council Yvonne Pearson and Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr Roger Luncheon also addressed the gathering. The proceedings were chaired by Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh. There were no opposition party representatives at the reception. (Stabroek News)

Several Berbicians recently benefitted from free eye tests and spectacles when the East Canje Lions Club (ECLC) and the New Amsterdam Lions Club (NALC) held a clinic at the den at Adelphi, Canje.

Devin Sookraj, President of the ECLC, told Stabroek News that the patients were very pleased with the service they received. He thanked the president of the NALC, Leila Clarke, for teaming up with his club in the venture. Sookraj said a Lions club in Canada wants to start a joint project with his club after recognising the efforts members have been making. The club, which is expected to be in Guyana in a few months, would be treating over 2,000 patients.

He said Dr. Tulsi Singh of a Lions club in Midland, Texas was present during the last clinic and has made a monetary contribution to his club.

Dr. Singh also promised to donate 25 pairs of spectacles. Also present for the clinic were other overseas-based Guyanese, including Leon Sookraj, Dr. Pooran Singh, Ayube Latiff and Deodat Sookmangal who also provided monetary contributions. Sookraj expressed gratitude to the overseas-based residents and looks forward for their continued support.  (Stabroek News)

Daryl Vaz, minister of information, makes his way back to a meeting after addressing the media outside Vale Royal in St Andrew yesterday. - Norman Grindley/Chief Photographer

A rare glimpse of Prime Minister Bruce Golding (second left) at Vale Royal yesterday. - Ricardo Makyn/Staff Photographer

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Gary Spaulding, Senior Gleaner Writer

As the calls for the resignation of the prime minister heighten, official word from the Government is that Bruce Golding is engaged in a series of consultations before deciding his future.

Information Minister Daryl Vaz feverishly sought to quash swirling rumours that Golding had tendered his resignation to a meeting of officers of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) yesterday.

“The prime minister, the Government and the party take very seriously what has transpired and, therefore, these consultations and discussions have to be done in a very organised way,” asserted Vaz.

The information minister continued to be the face and voice of the party in turmoil even as scores of other party faithfuls wound up heavily tinted windows to avoid the media.

Vaz sought to stave off a rush on the prime minister’s official residence, Vale Royal, in the face of the rumours that the prime minister had buckled under pressure.

He said the prime minister started his day with an officers’ meeting, followed by a meeting of the parliamentary group.

Vaz said Golding also held meetings with persons from his constituency and other party groups to culminate with a meeting on Sunday of the Central Executive of the JLP.

The Central Executive is the highest decision-making body of the party, after annual conference.

“After that, the prime minister and the party and the Government will communicate to the country the result of these consultations,” Vaz told journalists.

“I am calling for calm and responsibility from those who report in the media,” the information minister added.

“The Government has made good progress on the economic front and we would hate for rumours, speculations and sensationalism to disrupt this. This is a very serious time in the history of this country,” he said.

“I am always available, I remain available, but please, in the interest of Jamaica, let us be responsible and careful in terms of how we continue to report on this developing story,” Vaz pleaded.

Foremost concern

Asked whether the issue of Golding’s resignation had been placed before the meeting, Vaz seemed evasive.

“In a situation like this, everything has to be aired. If you know the prime minister as well as I do, you would know that his first and foremost concern is his party.”

Vaz said Golding had already received the full backing of his Cabinet colleagues and the officer corps of the JLP.

“But that is one function of the party, so (his resignation) must be a topic of discussion; no one can hide from that,” Vaz declared.

Earlier, senior Cabinet member, Olivia Grange, who is not an officer of the party, said she was there to offer support to the Government during these difficult times.

But she declared that the party leader had no intention of resigning.(Jamaica Gleaner)

- gary.spaulding@gleanerjm.com

Gary Spaulding, Senior Gleaner Writer

Human rights groups have lashed out at Prime Minister Bruce Golding, saying he has wronged Jamaicans.

The local human rights agitators unleashed their venom on Golding, joining the thunderous demands for Prime Minister Bruce Golding to resign.

“I believe Golding is his own problem and that he should leave before his reputation disintegrates any further,” declared Yvonne McCalla Sobers, convenor of Families Against State Terrorism.

“The fitness to lead of the prime minister and members of his Government has been irretrievably compromised,” asserted the Carolyn Gomes-led Jamaicans for Justice (JFJ).

McCalla Sobers argued that the issue was more fundamental than getting rid of Golding.

“This will not solve our problem any more than getting rid of any of our past leader-messiahs has benefited us over the past half-century,” she contended.

“This present crisis provides us with a chance to exercise the powers we have in a democracy, and that goes beyond voting in this or that party every five years,” argued McCalla Sobers.

The JFJ characterised Golding’s decision to involve the Jamaica Labour Party in a state matter as unconscionable.

“This resulted in the hijacking of the process of negotiations on treaty matters being conducted by the Office of the Attorney General on behalf of the people of Jamaica.”

Compromised by decision

The lobby said Golding’s decision had compromised State Minister Ronald Robinson, Attorney General Dorothy Lightbourne and Solicitor General Douglas Leys.

“Each succeeding statement or disclosure, or lack thereof, on the Manatt, Phelps & Phillips affair is more disturbing and raises more questions than it answers,” the JFJ said.

The JFJ also said the appointment of Karl Samuda to investigate the matter was another attempt to mislead Parliament and the media.

The JFJ complained that Golding knew the full truth of the situation and said the initial attempts to make Harold Brady a scapegoat was also an indication of the loss of a moral compass and an abdication of personal integrity and responsibility.

“The prime minister’s behaviour and pronouncements since the admission in Parliament of his complicity in the misleading of the people make clear that he fails to understand the enormity of the wrong that he has done to Jamaica,” the JFJ said.

The group asserted that Golding had abused the trust of the citizens and compromised Jamaica’s standing in the international community. (Jamaica Gleaner)

Nadisha Hunter, Gleaner Writer

Prime Minister Bruce Golding yesterday bailed out of a scheduled meeting with church leaders.

A number of religious leaders were scheduled to meet with Golding to continue dialogue on issues affecting the country.

But late Thursday evening, they were told that the meeting had been cancelled.

According to Gleaner sources, the meeting was called off after it became clear that the church leaders wanted to put the Manatt, Phelps & Phillips issue on the agenda.

President of the Jamaica Council of Churches (JCC), the Reverend Dr Paul Gardner, and well-known church leader, the Reverend Al Miller, told The Gleaner that they received calls indicating that the prime minister would not be able to make the meeting.

Miller downplayed Golding’s absence, saying it was due to the prime minister’s busy schedule, while Gardener was unable to give a reason for the postponement.

“I am sure it would have to be because of his schedule why he is unable to make it. It is not the first time we should have a meeting and something has come up,” Miller said.

PM ducked?

But with several church leaders voicing their dissatisfaction with Golding’s handling of the Manatt issue, there was wide speculation that the prime minister ducked what could have been an uncomfortable meeting.

Umbrella organisations of the Church, representing more than 70 per cent of church membership across the island, have called on the prime minister to tender his resignation forthwith.

The JCC, the Church of God in Jamaica, the Jamaica Association of Evangelicals, the Jamaica Association of Full Gospel Churches and the Jamaica Pentecostal Union said the heart of the matter was the extradition request for Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke.

The group said the prime minister must be held accountable because of his own previous assertion that the action of a party member could not be separated from his capacity as a minister.

“We find this current attempt, therefore, to separate these roles and functions as spurious and born purely of expediency,” the group said.

“We are deeply disappointed at the way in which events have unfolded and are of the view that the actions have done serious damage to his credibility as prime minister and to the name and image of our country.”

The group argued that given the prime minister’s “professed commitment to a new governance model - which includes his avowed commitment to stamping out corruption in every sphere of public life and the vexed and worrying perception of the nexus between politics and crime in this country - the situation warrants a clear and unequivocal response.”

- nadisha.hunter@gleanerjm.com

Ria Taitt Political Editor

It was not a case of tit-for-tat when Prime Minister Patrick Manning last night displayed the People’s Partnership manifesto, before kissing it.

Describing it as a ’gift from Almighty God’, Manning put a huge kiss on the glossy document before a crowd at Mayaro. His actions were a dramatic contrast to the ripping up of the PNM manifesto by People’s Partnership leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar on Tuesday night.

To the roars from the crowd, Manning said: ’I have been waiting a long time for this document.’

He kissed it again.

’Not the lady, the manifesto (is what I am kissing),’ he said, clarifying his actions.

Manning said he knew the contradictions inherent in the coalition arrangement, especially in the area of energy, would not be resolved in the manifesto.

’They have no policy on natural gas. In respect of the largest revenue earner, they have no policy,’ he said, adding: ’And they are asking you to play fast and loose with the country’s revenue (by voting for them).’

The Prime Minister said that while Errol McLeod and Winston Dookeran supported industrialisation, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, Mary King and Patrick Watson (two environmentalists who were authors of the policy in the document) did not.

’They are speaking through two sides of a fowl’s mouth,’ he said.

Manning also spoke about a kidnapping threat ’on a relative of the charming lady (Persad-Bissessar)’.

’If the threat is real, then the PNM wishes to condemn it in the strongest possible terms. PNM is not for that,’ he said.

He was referring to an incident earlier in the day in which Persad-Bissessar’s niece, Lisa Harry, and driver were involved in an incident in which her SUV was stolen.

But, Manning said, he wanted to hear what the police had to say first before discussing it further.

Manning said in Jamaica on the eve of a general election, one of the proponents reported to the police that his car was shot up and on the morning of the election, that was front page news.

’It is designed to evoke sympathy,’ Manning said.

’So I could predict from now that you have more of that to get … because that is their modus operandi. We know it well. We want to hear what the police have to say about this one.’  (Trinidad Express)

Anna Ramdass anna.ramdass@trinidadexpress.com

Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar last night said Prime Minister Patrick Manning is a disaster to this country who is spread false propaganda against her, when he said she tampered with SEA results ten years ago during her tenure as Education Minister.

Speaking at a UNC public meeting in Penal, Persad-Bissessar trained her guns on Manning and his recent statements against her.

Manning claimed that Persad-Bissessar sat in her office for three days during her tenure as Education Minister and tampered with SEA results.

’You hear lie? That is lie!’ Persad-Bissessar said last night.

She also fired back at Manning for saying that she was a disaster waiting to happen.

’Under Manning murders went from 99 to 568 per year. Under Manning the country went from boom to recession. Under Manning floods in this country is a normal pain and drought in the dry season, as we are having now. Under Manning a $250 million stadium cost a billion dollars. Under Manning food prices increased by 400 per cent. Under Manning workers in Trinidad and Tobago have been displaced by foreigners. Under Manning corruption is a way of life for him and his cronies. Under Manning big buildings take priority over hospitals … Under Manning the poor have become poorer and Manning tell me I am a disaster waiting to happen, well Mr Manning I am telling you are a disaster that has already happened,’ she said.

Persad-Bissessar said this is why the people have to vote out the PNM on May 24.

She also waded into the PNM manifesto again, saying it was a document of outdated ideas.

’Did you see they didn’t say anything about crime? Did you see they didn’t say anything about corruption? There was nothing new. There were no answers to our problems, to the very problems Manning and Rowley created, the problems they have spent years ignoring,’ she said. (Trinidad Express)

Akile Simon

ONE hour after two armed gunmen hijacked the official vehicle belonging to United National Congress (UNC) Political Leader, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, and took it away from her driver and niece in Tunapuna yesterday, police recovered the SUV locked and abandoned at the NUGFW housing settlement in Valsayn.

The incident occurred around 2.20 p.m. at the corner of Orange Grove Trace and Streatham Lodge Road in Tunapuna. After the vehicle was recovered, Persad-Bissessar went to the scene and spoke with police officers about the incident.

The vehicle was found abandoned along NUGFW Circular by Snr Supt Joseph Edwards, Sgt Basdeo Sinanan, Cpls Ganga Singh, Sheldon Peterson and PC Aaron McLeoud, who went in search of the suspects. Up to late yesterday, Crime Scene Investigators from the Port of Spain CID were searching the $.5 million SUV at the Tunapuna Police Station for clues.

Persad-Bissessar’s niece, Lisa Harry, and driver, Denzil Dukharan, were left tramautised after the incident, the Express understands.

At a press conference called late yesterday, Acting Police Commissioner James Philbert said the incident was not politically motivated and appeared to be a genuine robbery. He said shortly after the car was recovered, he spoke with Persad-Bissessar, who expressed her gratitude that the vehicle was recovered.

hijacked: UNC Political Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar, at right in vehicle, views the area where her Toyota Prado, left, was discovered abandoned at the corner of Selwyn John Avenue and NUGFW Circular Drive, Valsayn, yesterday. The vehicle was stolen earlier in a carjacking incident in Tunapuna. -Photo: MICHEAL BRUCE

’It is one of those robberies where vehicles are taken away and those vehicles are taken away because they cannot be wired and that was one of the vehicles that was taken away and our deployment out there was sufficient enough to recover that vehicle very very quickly,’ Philbert said

He added, ’We have had a number of these things and I do not have any information that it is political and I do not believe it is so in the way it was done, and the information we have even on terms of who the perpetrators might be. There is nothing suggesting to us that it is politically motivated.’

He said the police remained certain the perpetrators will be apprehended because of the information they had received.

According to police, two men dressed in bullet-proof vests armed with hand guns and in a silver Almera motorcar, licence number pch 8663, stopped at the intersection of Orange Grove Trace and Streatham Lodge Road, and walked towards the SUV as it slowed down behind the parked Almera. The men pointed guns at the driver and Harry and ordered them out. One of the men jumped into the driver’s seat and drove off with the SUV while the other followed in the Almera, police said.

Speaking at a political meeting last night, Persad-Bissessar revealed that the perpetrators stole confidential documents and wondered why they would do so.

’What is disturbing to me is the interpretation one can place upon the removal of the documents. There were a lot of other items in the vehicle, we had a lot of UNC buttons in boxes in the car, those remained. If this were random robbery, why would they take my documents, of what purpose would those documents be to them?’ she asked.

’The prospect of this being a deliberate and planned event is an implication that is too dangerous to consider at this time, and when taken in the context, if you remember, that the PNM leader, Prime Minister of this country, he casually dismissed the recent threat on my life saying it was a hoax and that was even before the police conducted an investigation, and I believe then we all have reason to be very concerned.’

She said the reaction from the PNM comes as no surprise.

’My opponents’ attitude on matters of this kind are all too familiar, we can remember the reaction when he was given statistics on crime and he heartlessly commented that is ’collateral damage’.’(Trinidad Express)

-reporting by Anna Ramdass