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Washington security specialists train Guyana cops
TWENTY-ONE members of the Guyana Police Force have completed a special training course run here by two security specialists from the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington DC.
The group, from several sections of the force, was coursed in `Basic Tactical First Responder Training’ which covered topics such as conducting traffic stops, use of force, stopping and frisking potential suspects, introduction to characteristics of a gunman, handcuffing and baton techniques, weapons of mass destruction and terrorism `first responder’.
Those on the course yesterday received certificates at a ceremony at the Felix Austin College in Georgetown.
The training was organised by the Guyana Police Force and Federal Management Systems (FMS) and was aimed at improving the quality of police service and productivity in various departments of the force.
The course began March 21 and ended Saturday.
Police Commissioner Winston Felix, at yesterday’s ceremony, encouraged the course participants to immediately apply their training skills to the job.
He said it is important to recognise that when frontline policemen/women go out unarmed, there is need to concentrate on their safety and this new training programme was introduced with this in mind.
He said that much emphasis had not been placed on the safety of police officers but this is changing.
Running the course were security specialists Thomas Stephenson and Wayne Stevenson.
They said they were satisfied with the excellent performance by the participants and encouraged them to train and practice to carry out their duty in protecting citizens.
FMS yesterday also handed over handcuffs, handcuff pouches and batons to the Police Force.
Nightmare at sea
-- fishermen recall pirate attacks
SIXTEEN East Coast Demerara fishermen beaten and robbed by pirates who left them adrift in the Atlantic Ocean just more than a week ago, are back home after they were rescued by friendly Surinamese.
They yesterday recalled the nightmare at sea, fearing death as they drifted, after the pirates stripped their boats of everything, from the engines to the lights.
Four of them returned home Sunday and the others Monday from Suriname where they were taken by their rescuers.
The boats that were attacked at sea on March 21 were the Ronita 1, Ronita 3 and the Ramkumar, all belonging to the Kourmiahs of Annandale, East Coast Demerara, and another vessel owned by another villager.
The men said that around 19:00 h that day, they were in the four boats in the Atlantic Ocean, near the Corentyne coast, and were about to haul in their catch when a much larger boat pulled up alongside.
Tony, the Captain of the Ronita 1, said that as he was about to inform the men on the strange boat that they could not anchor there, one of them fired a shot and they were all ordered to lie in their vessels.
He recalled that before he obeyed, he noticed that there were six men, all wearing masks.
"They tell we to lie down and don't look at their face", he recalled.
Tony said the ordeal lasted two hours, while the pirates stripped the boats of the engines, anchors, life jackets, catch, lights and fuel.
He said the robbers also beat the crews with the flat sides of cutlasses as they lay helpless in the vessels.
Captain of the Ronita 3, Rajendra Gordat, also called 'Bunty', said he begged the pirates to leave at least one light as they prepared to leave with their booty.
"I had to beg them to leave one light for us, so that we can play cards to pass the time", he told this newspaper.
Gordat said this was his second encounter with pirates.
The crews said that after the attack last week, they drifted towards the Suriname coast where they were rescued.
They said they stayed most of the time in their boats because they were unable to communicate with the Surinamese who speak Dutch.
They were, however, able to phone the Kourmiahs, informing them of their plight and other boats with extra engines were sent to get them.
On Friday night, police raided a house at No. 44 Village, Corentyne, and uncovered eight outboard engines, normally used on coastal fishing vessels.
Police said the engines were at the Whim Police station in Berbice and Mrs Baby Kourmiah yesterday said they have identified two as theirs and are hoping to get them back soon.
She said although the fishermen were terrified by the ordeal, they are eager to return to work since they have families to maintain and bills to pay.
Prisoners set fire in Barbados jail
SEVERAL inmates at Barbados main prison, Glendairy, had to be taken to hospital after a disturbance leading to a fire at the penal institution yesterday morning.
It appears though that none of the estimated 20 Guyanese inmates there were among them.
Royal Barbados Police Force and Barbados Defence Force units were quickly on the scene around 11:00 h when smoke started billowing from the century-old building on Station Hill, about 15 minutes drive outside the capital Bridgetown.
Guyana’s Honorary Consul in Barbados, Norman Faria, said he was informed that several inmates had to be taken by ambulance to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.
He said reports indicated that at least one was suffering from a gunshot wound while three others had head injuries. The main ailments were smoke inhalation.
Faria said there are between 15 to 20 Guyanese inmates, including eight women, at Glendairy.
Up to late yesterday afternoon, the consulate had not been able to ascertain if any Guyanese were among the injured or those specially contained arising out of the “incident” as it was described by Barbados Attorney General Mia Mottley when she spoke with the Barbados media.
Faria said he went to the prison at about 14:00 h and from information provided by a senior police officer, it was difficult at that point to ascertain the nationality of those injured.
“I also contacted the hospital and a Dr Watson there told he from he knew none of the injured were Guyanese”, he said.
The consulate will, however, keep monitoring the situation “so that we can inform the appropriate ministry or relatives if need be”, Faria said.
“These inmates have committed crimes but they are still human beings and going through a rehabilitative process and we have to care about them and provide them with consulate services.”
Faria added that while he was there smoke was still coming from the compound and at least two ambulances were seen leaving it.
“The fire was quite large. Before I went to the main entrance, I was up on a hill overlooking the compound and could see several of the roofs damaged,” said the Consul.
According to media reports, some of the inmates were seen by journalists (located on a hilly vantage point looking down onto the prison) cooking in the open in a large container.
It appears that among the buildings affected by the fire were the kitchen and bakery.
In her statement, Ms Mottley said no prisoners had escaped.
There was a massive cordon of police and army officers around the institution.
Faria said it was not clear if the reported injuries to the inmates came at the hands of the police or soldiers or if these resulted from altercations among the prisoners.
Glendairy prison was built in the 19th century to hold 350 prisoners.
It now has more than 1,000 inmates.
In recent weeks, a prison chaplain has complained to the Barbados media of what he described as “inhumane conditions” there, including inmates sleeping on bare concrete.
The problem with drinking
`…people not only die from drinking too much; they harm and kill those who don't drink, too’ -- Maristela Monteiro, PAHO regional advisor on alcohol and substance abuse
By Cheryl Harris Sharman
From the `Perspectives in Health’ magazine produced by the Pan American Health Organisation
EFRAÍM was already drunk when he left the wedding at 2 a.m.
It had been a "nice wedding," which in Costa Rica means only hard liquor was served. The 21-year-old headed to a local bar for a "sarpe," or nightcap, with some friends.
At 5 a.m., one of them finally sent him home in a taxi. Shivering and wrapped in towels, he sat on the carpet near the toilet and threw up.
Hours passed before his father found him in the same spot around 6 in the evening and rushed him to the hospital. The nightmare finally ended after an emergency room doctor injected him with medication for alcohol poisoning.
Tadeo, a young Costa Rican, went to the beach with three friends for a few laughs and a lot of drinks. After eight beers each, they drove home on the dark highway. A truck sped by, its rear lights obscuring the curve ahead.
Their car skidded off the road and into a tree. Pinned in the wreckage, Tadeo broke three ribs, fractured his skull, fell unconscious, and remained in a coma for a week.
In Costa Rica, as in most Latin American countries, social gatherings more often than not include alcohol. Weddings and funerals, births and baptisms rely at least in part on drinks to ease grieving or encourage celebration. Aside from special occasions, many homes keep well-stocked bars that facilitate impromptu gatherings.
The drive home, particularly in the half-year-long rainy season, can entail a mix of alcohol and slick, winding roads, with potentially catastrophic results.
But no one abstains for this reason. Statistics reflect the outcome: 13 per cent of emergency room consultations in 1987 and 33 per cent of auto fatalities in 2003 were alcohol related. Yet only 5 per cent of Costa Ricans are alcohol dependent.
"The biggest misconception people have is that the problem of alcohol is alcohol dependence, or alcoholism," says Maristela Monteiro, regional advisor on alcohol and substance abuse at the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). "In terms of society, most public health problems come from acute intoxication."
Medical research shows that long-term alcohol abuse causes liver diseases such as cirrhosis and hepatitis, as well as memory loss, ulcers, anaemia, impaired blood clotting, impaired sexual performance, malnutrition, depression, cancer and even brain damage.
But from a public health perspective, alcohol's greatest impact comes from occasional high-risk drinking by normally light to moderate drinkers.
"Homicides, traffic accidents, suicides, violent behaviour, domestic violence, child abuse or mistreatment, neglect — these are from heavy drinking occasions, but most of these people are not alcohol dependent," says Monteiro.
Studies in the United States show that alcohol is a factor in 25 per cent of deaths among people aged 15 to 29. Its direct costs to the U.S. health care system add up to some $19 billion a year, and for the economy as a whole, some $148 billion.
As a risk factor for the global burden of illness, alcohol rivals tobacco: It is ranked number five among risks to health worldwide (tobacco is number four), and number one in all but two countries — Canada and the United States — in the Americas.
ALCOHOL POLICY NEEDED
Experts note that alcohol takes a disproportionate toll on the poor, despite the fact that alcohol consumption tends to increase with educational levels and development. Poor people spend a greater proportion of their income on alcohol, and when drinking problems occur, they have less access to services, may lose their jobs, and bring major hardship on their families.
For all these reasons, many public health experts believe that alcohol policy should be a top priority in every country of the Americas.
Costa Rica is one of many countries that have instituted programmes to reduce the toll of alcohol using a variety of measures: taxes and licensing, restrictions on advertising, minimum-age laws, and controls on the hours of operation and location of outlets that sell alcohol.
In addition, Costa Rican law bans alcohol consumption in most public buildings, at sporting events, in the workplace, in parks or on the street, within 100 meters of churches, and on public transportation.
"It is important to use various measures to be effective," says Julio Bejarano, head of research at the Instituto sobre Alcoholismo y Farmacodependencia (IAFA) in San José.
Programmes like Costa Rica's are the outcome of a 30-year trend toward viewing alcohol less as an individual malady and more as a problem of public health. The shift began with the 1975 publication of Alcohol Control Policies in Public Health Perspective by the Finnish Foundation for Alcohol Studies. Since then, new definitions of alcohol use and abuse have emerged, including classifications for levels of drinking according to their risks to health.
According to the emerging consensus, people with what the U.S. health sector calls "alcoholism" and what the World Health Organization (WHO) calls "alcohol dependence" need to seek treatment. But those engaged in occasional overuse that causes mental or physical health problems — "alcohol abuse" in the United States and "harmful use" disorder for WHO — should be made aware of its impact on their health and urged to reduce their consumption before they become alcohol dependent.
A third WHO category, "hazardous use," implies high-risk consumption, or what is sometimes referred to as "binge drinking."
"You never had a car accident," Monteiro explains, "but you drink too much and drive." This is a large group of people who also need to cut back.
PREVENTING INTOXICATION
But the bottom line, says Monteiro, is that good public health policies must aim at preventing intoxication. And the best way to do this is by reducing consumption.
"What has been proven over and over in developed countries and more and more in developing countries, is that we need to reduce the overall consumption of the population," she says.
Monteiro says that experience shows that the most effective way of reducing overall consumption is by increasing prices and taxes on alcohol and restricting availability — that is, where it can be sold, to whom, how much, at what times and on which days.
"Once you reduce the hours of sale, for example, you also control the amount of alcohol people can access and drink. You reduce homicides, accidents, violence — many of the acute consequences decrease significantly. There are several examples — for a long time in Europe, the U.S., and Canada, and now in Latin America and elsewhere — that show that closing bars earlier reduces both accidents and violence."
A 2003 book, Alcohol: No Ordinary Commodity, published by Oxford and WHO, reviewed three decades of research and concluded that reducing consumption is key.
Their top-10 list of specific measures includes minimum-age laws, government monopolies, restrictions on outlets and hours of sale, taxes, drunk-driving countermeasures and brief interventions for hazardous drinkers.
LIMITING ACCESS
Raising the minimum age for purchasing alcohol has long been one of the most effective means of reducing access. Only a handful of countries have emulated the U.S. minimum age of 21, but this has proven to be an effective policy.
When all 50 U.S. states raised their minimum age from 18 to 21, the country as a whole saw a 19 per cent net decrease in fatalities among young drivers.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that raising the minimum age has saved 17,359 lives since 1975.
Government monopolies on alcohol have also proven effective, but these are increasingly unpopular. Until 1968, Finland prohibited the sale of beer anywhere but in government-owned outlets. In 1968, the country began to allow grocery stores to sell beer, and alcohol consumption climbed by 46 per cent overall (increasing particularly among 13- to 17-year-olds).
Government monopolies today oversee production, sales or distribution (but not all three) in parts of the United States, Canada, Russia, India, southern Africa and Costa Rica.
In Scandinavia, multinational companies have waged legal battles invoking international trade rules to break up longstanding government monopolies on alcohol, increasingly limiting their ability to restrict consumption.
Short of holding monopolies, governments can control where, when and to whom alcohol is sold, restricting the density of outlets through limited licensing and restricted hours of sale. They can also restrict the availability of high- and medium-strength alcoholic beverages.
Before 1965, Swedish grocery stores could not sell beer with more than 3.5 per cent alcohol. When 4.5 per cent beer became legally available in grocery stores, total alcohol consumption increased nearly 15 per cent.
Twelve years later, Sweden returned to the 3.5 per cent limit, and consumption dropped again by the same amount.
Hours of sales are equally important. When Norway closed bars on Saturdays, researchers noted that those most affected by the restricted access were also those deemed likely to engage in domestic violence or disruptive intoxication.
An Australian Aboriginal community, Tennant Creek, closed bars on Thursdays and noted that fewer women required hospital attention for domestic injuries.
In Latin America and the Caribbean, Colombia provides one of the leading success stories of limiting alcohol consumption through restricted hours of operation.
Rodrigo Guerrero, a physician and public health expert, served as mayor of the second-largest city, Calí, in the mid-1990s and dedicated much of his effort to tackling the city's surging violence problem.
He commissioned surveys that found that 40 per cent of violence victims and 26 per cent of violent death victims in his city were intoxicated. In response, Calí passed a ley semi seca ("semi-dry law"), which closed bars and discotheques at 1 a.m. on weekdays and 2 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.
These and other measures reduced homicides from 80 per 100,000 to 28 per 100,000 in eight years.
Costa Rica also limits hours and days of sale. The law prohibits selling or purchasing alcohol in public places after midnight, the day before and the day after a national election, and during Holy Week, "the period of highest alcohol consumption in Costa Rica," IAFA's Bejarano notes.
Probably the most effective policy to reduce consumption, however, is raising taxes on alcoholic beverages. Worldwide, raising the price of alcohol always reduces consumption.
According to the recent WHO report Global Status Report: Alcohol Policy, the price of beer should always be more than the price of a soda. And because the harmful effects of alcohol use stem from alcohol content, higher-content beverages should be taxed at higher rates.
DRINKING AND DRIVING
After restricting access, the next most effective policies are those aimed at reducing drunk driving. WHO's Global Status Report: Alcohol Policy lists among the most effective countermeasures sobriety checkpoints, lowered blood-alcohol limits, license suspension and graduated licensing for novice drivers.
Enforcement is key. Police intervention must be visible and frequent, and lawbreakers must be punished to the extent of the law.
Blood-alcohol limits are a critical part of these efforts. "Very little alcohol impairs motor coordination," explains Monteiro. "If you drink just over a drink, you are at risk — actually, it's less than a drink."
Costa Rica sets the legal blood-alcohol limit for drivers at 0.05 per cent, although many experts say that problems often begin at 0.04 per cent.
Belize, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Canada and the United States set the limit at 0.08 per cent. These limits are most effective when used with checkpoints and random breath testing, according to research.
Other effective measures include screening and "brief interventions," prevention tools that have become a cornerstone of WHO's alcohol policy recommendations.
During routine visits to health facilities or the family doctor, patients are asked simple questions that screen them for behavioural risk factors — including alcohol, cigarettes, poor diet, physical inactivity and seatbelt use — and doctors provide brief counseling sessions based on the responses.
"This is the epitome of low-technology medicine," says Thomas Babor, one of the researchers who designed the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test, or AUDIT.
"It's not the kind of thing, like MRIs, that seem to capture the interest of clinicians. But it probably is of equal importance, because it provides a way to prevent problems before they occur and to minimize problems if they've already started to develop."
AUDIT has been tested in a variety of countries and has proven easy to use, inexpensive to implement, and effective in reducing alcohol consumption at all levels of the population.
Translated into many languages (including a Spanish version available through PAHO), the test and booklet include everything a clinician needs to give the 10-question test, to score it for one of four levels of risk for alcohol use, and to talk to patients about cutting back (including scripts for doctors who are unsure of what to say).
Patients take the test in about one minute, a nurse or receptionist scores it in another minute, and the clinician takes a few minutes to talk to the patient.
Those testing in the first risk level are cautioned and advised to avoid drinking at least two days a week. Clinicians tell second-level scorers to minimize the number of drinks per day or week and to cut back on heavy drinking.
Those in the third level receive brief counseling with more tools and goal-setting. Only fourth-level scorers are referred to an alcohol specialist.
A 1999 study by Michael Fleming, at the University of Wisconsin–Madison Medical School, showed that, with a single counseling session, subjects cut back on their drinking in the first six months and kept it down for four years. The study also found that every $10,000 invested in interventions saved $43,000 in health costs, with even greater savings when researchers factored in societal benefits, such as fewer auto accidents and crimes.
Other policies have been found to be somewhat less effective, but combined with the "top 10," they help minimize the burden of alcohol.
These include having alcohol outlets refuse to serve intoxicated patrons; training their staff to prevent and manage aggression; promotion of alcohol-free events; community mobilization; and public service campaigns in schools and colleges, on television, and in print, including warning labels.
Bans and restrictions on alcohol advertising and marketing can help reduce youth exposure to pro-alcohol messages.
In Latin America, Costa Rica and Guatemala have completely banned alcohol companies from sponsoring youth and sporting events, and several other countries forbid alcohol advertising on Sundays and holidays.
The challenge ahead, says PAHO's Monteiro, is to build on the work of international alcohol policy experts, using the available scientific evidence to judge which mix of policies works best.
But she offers a note of caution: "In Europe, there's almost a reversal of the gains they had before because of trade agreements. The trade agreements that opened the markets for equal opportunity for everyone mean that you cannot have higher taxes or higher prices. You have to allow advertising for everyone."
She notes that in Sweden, foreign companies have challenged laws forbidding alcohol advertising, arguing that they give local, better-known products an unfair advantage.
"That is a point that will be critical in the region," says Monteiro, "how to deal with the economic benefits of alcohol in certain countries while protecting public health and reducing its social costs."
Moving forward, Monteiro and researchers from 11 countries are embarking on a multicountry study that will show, with precision and hard data, the public health burden of alcohol in the Americas. The study will focus on alcohol use in Belize, Nicaragua, Paraguay and Peru. The results will be added to existing data from Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, Mexico, Uruguay, the United States and Canada.
Monteiro believes the new study is particularly timely, as several trends in the region point to a growing alcohol problem.
For example, in most countries, women drink more as their educational levels rise. In Costa Rica, the percentage of children 13 to 15 who have tried alcohol rose from 16.3 per cent in 1990 to 28.4 per cent in 2000.
In many countries, pressure from industry has been growing along with the spread of public health measures aimed at reducing alcohol sales.
All these developments call for more research and more action, says Monteiro, because "people not only die from drinking too much; they harm and kill those who don't drink, too."
(Cheryl Harris Sharman is a freelance journalist based in New York City).
Brazilian Military Attache ends Guyana stint
THE Military Attache at the Brazilian Embassy here, Colonel Jose Julio Dias, ends his two-year tour of duty today.
The embassy said he will officially hand over the function of Defence, Naval and Army Attache to his successor, Colonel Francisco Augusto Pereira Neto at a ceremony this evening.
During his stint here, Col. Barreto had continued strengthening the bonds of friendship and cooperation between the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) and the Brazilian Armed Forces, the embassy said.
It noted that he was decorated with the Military Efficiency Medal at a farewell lunch Wednesday at GDF headquarters, Camp Ayanganna, Georgetown.
His successor Col Neto is attached to the Infantry Branch of the Brazilian Army.
The embassy said Neto has also visited East Timor, Argentina and Italy.
In Brazil, he served as Platoon Commander; Company Commander; Director of the Non-Commissioned Officers Course; Logistics and Operations Officer; Instructor of the Advanced Officers School; Intelligence and Personnel Control Officer; Assistant of Planning and Public Affairs Sections; Chief of Planning and Public Affairs Section and Commander of the Second Military Police Battalion.
God, Moses, the law and the genesis of human rights in Guyana
By Colin Bobb-Semple
(The writer is Senior Lecturer, Inns of Court School of Law, City University, Gray’s Inn, London; Founder Member, Guyana Law Association (UK); Solicitor and Attorney-at-law)
THE Human Rights movement in Guyana had its genesis in the application by the slaves of their religious instruction to their status and circumstances.
It effectively commenced on 23 February 1817 when the missionary, Rev. John Smith and his wife, Jane Smith landed in Demerara (Guyana). That was exactly 54 years after the Berbice Slave Uprising, led by Cuffy (or Kofi) and nearly 10 years after the slave trade from the coasts of Africa was abolished on 1 May 1807.
Illegal slave trading still continued, however, and there was smuggling of slaves from the Orinoco Delta in Venezuela, along the South American coast, to supply the Demerara market. Slave auctions continued to flourish in Demerara.
Rev. Smith commenced preaching at Bethel Chapel on Plantation Le Ressouvenir, on 9 March 1817. The congregation consisted overwhelmingly of slaves from plantations along East Coast, Demerara and approximately half of them were African born.
Slaves had been imported from Africa to Guyana by the Dutch, French and British from the 17th century, to labour on the cotton, coffee and sugar plantations. Slaves were regarded as chattels or merchandise.
Colonial slave deeds, contracts and records showed that they were legally conveyed and bequeathed as property. There was little regard for human rights. There were, however, cases in the English courts in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries which considered the status of slaves in England.
In the case of Butts v Penny (1677), an action was brought to recover possession of 100 slaves. In the court’s judgment, slavery was legal in England, as slaves were infidels, the subjects of an infidel prince, and were without the rights enjoyed by Christians.
In Chambers v Warkhouse (1693), slaves were described as merchandise and were compared with musk cats and monkeys, but baptised slaves were excepted. In Smith v Browne and Cooper (1701), a merchant claimed £20 in the English court as the price of a slave sold by him in London.
Chief Justice Holt reaffirmed the principle that as soon as a ‘negro’ came to England he became free. He declared that one might be a villein (an unfree peasant, legally bound to the lord of the manor) in England, but not a slave. He then gave leave to the claimant to amend his claim to state that the law of Virginia applied, and that under that law, ‘negroes’ could be sold as chattels.
In Smith v Gould (1706), Chief Justice Holt decided that an action would not lie to recover possession of a slave, as no person could have property in another, except in the special circumstances of villeinage. In Shanley v Harvey (1762), a claim was instituted by Shanley as administrator of the estate of his deceased niece.
Shanley had brought Harvey as a child slave, to England, 12 years earlier and had given him to his niece. She had him baptised and had changed his name. She became very ill and about an hour before her death, she gave Harvey about £800 in cash, asked him to pay the butcher’s bill and to make good use of the money.
Lord Henley, the Lord Chancellor, dismissed the action, with costs against Shanley. It was stated in the judgment that as soon as a person set foot on English ground, he or she became free and that a ‘negro’ might maintain an action against his or her master for ill usage, together with an application for habeas corpus if detained.
HUMAN RIGHTS DEVELOPMENT IN ENGLAND
The human rights movement began to develop in England in the latter part of the eighteenth century. Granville Sharp was a leading campaigner for the abolition of slavery and supported a number of slaves in court proceedings to assert their rights to freedom.
In Thomas Lewis’s case (1771), Lewis, a runaway slave, was seized and was put on board a ship. Granville Sharp rescued the slave as the ship left the harbour and an action was later instituted against the men who had seized Lewis. Lord Mansfield directed the jury that the point to have been decided by them was whether a slave master had a legal right to forcibly remove a slave from England.
The jury did not find the slave to be the defendant’s property and found the defendant guilty, but Lord Mansfield ignored their verdict and advised that no further proceedings should be taken.
Granville Sharp was very displeased at Lord Mansfield’s indecisiveness and he championed the cause of another slave, James Somerset. In the celebrated case of Somerset v Stewart (1772), Somerset, a slave, had been brought to London from America and had escaped. He was recaptured and was held on a ship bound for the West Indies. Somerset issued proceedings for habeas corpus for his release and Lord Mansfield decided that the state of slavery could not be enforced in the English courts while the slave was in England.
The air of England was said to have been too pure for slavery to breathe in. English courts, however, continued to recognize that slavery existed outside the air of England and revived on the slave’s return to the colonies. In The Slave Grace (1827), a female domestic slave, named Grace, was taken from Antigua to England in 1822. She resided with her mistress in England until 1823 and voluntarily returned to Antigua with her.
In 1825, Grace was seized by a customs officer of Antigua, on an allegation that she had been illegally imported in 1823. Her mistress launched a legal action and in 1826, a judge in Antigua ruled that Grace should be restored to her, and that damages and costs were payable to the mistress.
On appeal, Lord Stowell upheld the judgment and stated that it had never happened that the slavery of an African, returned from England, had been interrupted in the colonies in consequence of a sort of limited liberation conferred upon him in England. The maxim which applied to villeins in England “Once free for an hour, free for ever!” did not apply to ‘negro’ slavery.
THE STORY OF MOSES
A favourite lesson studied by the slaves was the story of Moses leading the people of Israel out of slavery in Egypt, to freedom in the Promised Land. The Pharaoh, king of Egypt, had ordered that the Israelites working in Egypt should become slaves. He later ordered that all the male babies of the Israelites should be drowned in the river.
The mother of an Israelite baby boy hid him for three months from the Egyptians. She placed him in a basket and she and his sister, Miriam, took the basket and placed it on the River Nile. The baby was found by Pharaoh’s daughter, who then called him Moses (the name means to draw out) and adopted him.
He received the education of an Egyptian prince. After Moses had attained manhood, he witnessed an Egyptian slave-driver flogging a slave. He struck the slave driver and killed him. He then fled to Midian, settled for some years, married and raised a family. One day, he saw a burning bush on Mount Horeb and the voice of God directed him to go back to Egypt and tell Pharaoh to set the Israelites free.
He complied, but Pharaoh was not willing to agree. God sent ten plagues on Egypt, namely blood, frogs, lice, flies, cattle disease, boils, hailstones, locusts, darkness and the angel of death on the first-born, before Pharaoh relented. After the Israelites had left, Pharaoh assembled his soldiers and followed them, with instructions to return the former slaves to do their work.
The Israelites reached the Red Sea and when Moses held out his hand, as God had commanded him, a strong east wind blew all night and rolled back the waters, leaving a dry path which the Israelites followed to safety. The Egyptian chariots and horsemen then gave chase, but they became caught in the sand and drowned in the waters which had returned.
THE APPLICATION OF THE STORY OF MOSES TO DEMERARA
The slaves applied the story of Moses leading the children of Israel out of bondage in Egypt, to their own situation of bondage on the plantations in Demerara. The word was spread across the plantations by the teachers of the catechism. Some of the African slaves would have been of Muslim faith and were, no doubt, already familiar with some of the holy scriptures contained in the books of Genesis and Exodus in the Old Testament of the Holy Bible, which were also noted in the Holy Qur’an.
The Qur’an is replete with passages detailing the exodus of the Israelites. There are over 80 references to Moses in the Qur’an. Some slaves of other African religions were also familiar with the legend of Moses as a great magician and custodian of the law.
The slaves applied “the law of Moses” and one of their major complaints was that the planters were forcing them to break one of the Ten Commandments by preventing them from keeping the Sabbath day, Sunday, as a holy day on which they were to refrain from labour. Rev. Smith was tried on charges relating to his alleged involvement in the Demerara Slave Uprising in 1823, noted in the article, Demerara sugar, plantation injustice: Two centuries of suffering in Guyana, Guyana Chronicle, 24 February 2005.
Bristol, of Chateau Margo, a deacon in Bethel chapel, testified at Rev. Smith’s trial that on almost every estate there was a teacher, whose duty it was to teach the catechism. He stated that he had heard Rev. Smith read about Moses leading the children of Israel out of slavery in Egypt, because they were slaves under Pharaoh. His evidence confirmed that the slaves applied the story of the Israelites to themselves and that what had created the discontent was that they had no other time to wash their clothes or do anything for themselves on a Sunday, because they had to go to chapel, and that some of them had been “licked” because they had declined to attend to work given them by the planters on the Sabbath.
The human rights movement began to develop in Guyana in the early nineteenth century. During the course of the uprising in Demerara in 1823, the slaves were asked by the Governor, John Murray, what were their demands. Their responses included “our rights” and “unconditional emancipation”. They argued that they were made of flesh and blood, just like the planters and they demanded that they be treated with humanity.
Bertie Ramcharan, former UN Acting High Commissioner for Human Rights, confirmed that the uprising played a significant part in the history of the growth of universal human rights.
This was achieved by the slaves’ awareness of the movement for abolition of slavery in England, their knowledge of the law and their rights and the practical application of the holy scriptures and the “law of Moses” to their circumstances.
SOURCES
Ali, A. Y., The Meaning of the Holy Qur’an, Amana Publications, Maryland, 1999, 2001.
Bobb-Semple, C., The Common Law and Human Rights, SPR Consilio, 2000, http://www.spr-consilio.com/humanrights.html
Bobb-Semple, C., Demerara sugar, plantation injustice: Two centuries of suffering in Guyana, Guyana Chronicle, 24 February 2005.
British Parliamentary Papers, Proceedings of a Court Martial in Demerara, on Trial of John Smith, A Missionary, Slave Trade, Vol. 66, Sessions 1823-24, Irish University Press, 1969.
Craton, M., Testing the chains – Resistance to Slavery in the British West Indies, Cornell University Press, New York, 1982.
Craton, M., Walvin, J. and Wright, D., Slavery, abolition and emancipation, Longman Group, London, 1976.
Gouveia, E. V., The West Indian slave laws of the 18th century, Caribbean Universities Press/Ginn and Company, 1970.
Hochschild, A., Bury the chains: The British Struggle to Abolish Slavery, Macmillan, London, 2005.
Ishmael, O., Remarks by Ambassador Odeen Ishmael at the Emancipation Day Event Sponsored by the Guyana Festivals Committee in Brooklyn, New York, August 13, 2000, http://www.guyana.org/speeches/ishmael_emanaug2000.html.
Lester, A. and Bindman, G., Race and Law, Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1972.
Northcott, C., Slavery’s Martyr: John Smith of Demerara and the emancipation movement 1817-24, Epworth Press, London, 1976.
Ramcharan, B. G., The Demerara Slave Rebellion of 1823: Guyana’s Contribution to the Growth of Universal Human Rights, Human Rights Tribune, March 2000, Vol 7, No. 1, http://www.hri.ca/tribune.
`I want to be buried in Cuba'
-- Cuban doctor told friends
HE WAS awaiting a decision on Guyanese citizenship but Cuban doctor Omar Diaz, killed in a tragic accident Easter Monday, wanted to be buried in his homeland if he died here.
His Guyanese wife Shelly Diaz was due back from Trinidad yesterday afternoon and close friends said they were awaiting her decision on making arrangements to fly his body to Cuba for burial.
"It was his wish to be taken back to Cuba to be buried if he died anywhere else", a friend said yesterday as she and others tried to come to grips with his horrific death. The driver of the taxi that struck the Cuban on Homestretch Avenue last Monday night is in custody, police said.
According to reports the victim, Dr. Omar Diaz had earlier won a kite-flying competition at the Everest sports ground and was in a vehicle heading east on Homestretch Avenue when his hat flew off his head.
Eyewitnesses said the vehicle stopped and the man exited to retrieve his hat which was lying on the roadway. When the hat was in his possession again he was attempting to return to the vehicle when he was struck by the hire car, witnesses said.
Dr. Diaz later died of his injuries while receiving treatment at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation.
The Cuban had been involved in a legal battle to gain Guyanese citizenship having married a Guyanese national and had only recently secured the right to practice medicine in the country. He was slated to resume his medical practice yesterday.
He had earlier been volunteering his medical expertise in the Buxton community during the recent floods where he assisted in treating afflicted residents at the Buxton Community High School.
History comes full circle with a new twist
IT was twenty-seven years ago in the midst of a series that the West Indies selectors announced a reshaped team, including a new Captain, to face the then touring opposition at Test cricket in the Caribbean.
While there are a number of similarities, or perhaps coincidences for want of a better word, in 2005 the situation is the same with controversy between the Board and players like it was in 1978 when the Australians were in the Region.
At that time it was known as the Kerry Packer Affair. This time around the fall out surrounds Player Contracts.
While this new look team has been chosen in advance of the start of this series against South Africa, in 1978 the sudden change of the team was announced days prior to the third Test in a series against an already weakened Australian side led by Bobby Simpson.
What occurred in 1978 that repeats itself in this 2005 scenario is that it involves the same chairman of selectors Joey Carew, the venue is the same Bourda and decisively a Guyanese will be at the helm.
Alvin Kallicharran took over the captaincy from Clive Lloyd who resigned along with the rest of the team after the selectors revealed that Desmond Haynes, Richard Austin and Deryck Murray were dropped in 1978 while in 2005 it is Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who is replacing Brian Lara who along with six others have been overlooked for selection due to personal endorsement contracts.
While Kallicharran had to lead a virtually new look side back a virtually back then, Chanderpaul with 80 Tests under his belt has at his disposal, Wavell Hinds (38 Tests), Daren Ganga (30), Pedro Collins (27), Courtney Browne (14) and Corey Collymore 14 Tests, all seasoned and experienced players.
Guyana’s contribution to the composition of the 1978 team was as is now three, skipper Kaliicharran, Faoud Bacchus and Sew Shivanrine were selected then This time around it’s Chanderpaul , Narsingh Deonarine and Reon King.
On that momentous occassion in the history of West Indies cricket when the gentleman Clive Lloyd resigned and caused the rest of his side to follow suit over a quarter century ago, the region was silenced into disbelief.
Lloyd like the true ambassador of the sport expressed best wishes to his successor for the rest of the series. To date we have not heard anything from the great Brian Lara . It’s funny how times have changed.
U.K. to continue Guyana flood support
THE United Kingdom flood relief for Guyana, through the Department for International Development (DFID), has so far amounted to G$570M or 1.678 million Pounds Sterling.
A press statement from DFID issued through the British High Commission in Georgetown yesterday assured that the U.K. will continue its support to Guyana, in the wake of the worst natural disaster here.
The statement noted that the U.K. Government recently signed an agreement with the Government of Guyana to provide 950,000 pounds sterling (G$323M) to help repair the water management system, in particular the East Demerara Water Conservancy that was damaged during the January floods.
These immediate repairs, which included clearing drainage outlets, were identified by a team of Guyanese and international experts as essential in preparation for the upcoming May/June rainy season.
The UK will also provide funding for experts to assist the Government of Guyana to oversee the emergency repairs.
The UK said it has already provided cash donations to the Government of Guyana’s National Disaster Relief Fund, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Pan American Health Organisation’s (PAHO) public health work.
The money was used to buy relief items including water purification sachets and water containers, survival items such as blankets and treated mosquito nets to reduce the chances of malaria and solutions for getting rid of human waste.
In the first initiative of a new partnership, DFID said it funded the services of a 20-person Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) rapid response team with six lifeboats from the U.K. to help distribute supplies in areas cut off by the floods.
The lifeboats and associated equipment were subsequently given to the Guyana Coastguard to strengthen Guyana’s ability to respond to any future disaster.
A further 6,500 Pounds Sterling has been provided by the British High Commission in Guyana to local groups for cleaning materials and replacing damaged equipment.
The statement said, too, that 185,000 Pounds Sterling of the Euros 1.7M provided by the European Commission in response to the floods is also attributed to U.K. resources made through routine contributions to the European Commission.
DFID is the UK Government Department responsible for promoting sustainable development and reducing poverty.
The central focus of the British Government’s policy is a commitment to the internationally agreed Millennium Development Goals to be achieved by 2015, the statement noted.
It said these seek to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, achieve universal primary education, promote gender equality and empower women, reduce child mortality, improve maternal health, combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, ensure environmental sustainability, and develop a global partnership for development.
Schools reopen after short Easter break
SCHOOLS in and around Georgetown yesterday reopened after a four-day break for the Easter holidays.
The usual two-week holiday was shortened by the Ministry of Education in light of the recent floods that ravaged parts of the coastland, forcing a late opening for dozens of schools.
Many of the schools in Georgetown and its environs were either severely affected by the floods or housed displaced members of various communities and classes were suspended until last month.
Checks at several schools in the city and on the East Bank and East Coast Demerara yesterday showed that while some schools were back at work, attendance was poor to average in most cases.
Some schools even recorded attendance rates as low as 11% while others remained closed.
At one city school the Chronicle was told that a 'half day' session was declared since the usual food vendors did not show up and students could not buy lunch.
At another school in Georgetown, a student reported that he showed up for classes only to be told to go home at midday and return for classes on Monday.
Police zero in on domestic violence
DURING the second half of 2004, Commissioner of Police Winston Felix and Head of Aid with the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) here, Mr Murray Kam, signed an agreement to enhance the fight against domestic violence.
Out of a meeting, the Guyana Police Force said it recognised the importance of collaboration with other agencies if the goal of the project which was to meaningfully address domestic violence in all its forms was to be achieved.
Yesterday, another step towards that goal was taken when the Police Force and members of governmental and non-governmental organisations met at the Police Officers Mess in Georgetown to discuss the problem.
Commissioner Felix, in his opening remarks, pointed out that although women are usually the victims of spousal abuse, many instances of children being abused, which were earlier subdued, are now surfacing.
"We also have instances of children, and this one seems to be very common, very subdued and has been in existence for some time in this country", Felix pointed out.
He also pointed out that more children are "coming out" and bravely reporting the matters, despite the shame such reports carry.
According to the Commissioner, the workshop is timely and would help the police tremendously.
"I cherish this coming together because the police must be supported by such social services available to it”, he said.
He said that the police daily grapple with instances where a domestic violence crime is reported and the abuser charged, only for victims to turn up and tell law enforcement officers that they no longer wished to pursue the matter.
"This is our dilemma and we are accused of not being well trained...now my position is, what should that policeman in that far flung area do"?
The seminar is expected to address some of those issues.
Felix also said that participants must observe the gaps and strive to fill them, since the delivery of justice does not hinge on law enforcement only.
Assistant Superintendent of Police, Deryck Jossiah highlighted the Police Force's response to domestic violence and noted its role as articulated in the 1996 Domestic Violence Act.
He said that even before the act was passed in Parliament, the force participated in a Women's Rights campaign which was spearheaded by the Caribbean Association for Feminist Research and Action (CAFRA) in 1992.
The drive towards dealing with domestic violence was extended when the regular one-day seminars were expanded to two days in 2000.
In 2000, there were 777 reports of domestic violence, 627 in 2001, 1,100 in 2002, 2,361 in 2003 and 2,395 in 2004, he reported.
In 2000, 750 persons were arrested, 620 the following year, and 1,000 the next.
Two hundred and sixty charges were laid in 2000, 300 in 2001 and 500 in 2002, Jossiah pointed out.
The programme that was signed in 2004 addresses issues such as articulation of policies on domestic violence, renewing and upgrading trainers skills and expertise, production of trainers manual and a trainees handbook.
Some of the organisations represented at the seminar were Guyana Human Rights Association, Men of Purpose, Ministry of Labour, Human Services and Social Security, Guyana Nurses Association, Women Affairs Bureau and the Guyana Responsible Parenthood Association.
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