Strike at Linden Hospital construction project ends
By Joe Chapman.
THE strike by workers attached to the construction project of the new state of the art Linden Hospital Complex has been resolved following a visit to the site by the Managing Director of the contracting firm R. Basoo and Sons, Roy Basoo last Friday.

As a result a full resumption to work is expected today.

Mr. Basoo reported to this newspaper that the main issue was that civil works are coming to a close and some workers will have to be retrenched.

He further said: “We explained to them any project must come to an end and we will release as we go along. We will not release all of them at the same time because as the work reduces, we will reduce accordingly. And that is what we explained to them. When we will reduce the workers they will get whatever benefits are due to them. They will be given those benefits.”

The site visit by Mr. Basoo, Civil Works Manager Dr Charles Garrett and Senior Project Engineer Ms. Heidi Gillet was timely and their presence seemed to have pleased the striking workers who had withdrawn their services citing imminent retrenchment of half of the masons on site.

When that time comes to retrench workers the contracting company boss said all benefits accrued will be paid accordingly.

Questioned on specific matters which had raised eyebrows, as at least two construction workers claimed that they were being denied sick leave benefits, Basoo responded “they were given their benefits. It was a three-day pay and that the medical report went down late to the head office, but they got that benefit a couple of days ago.”

He said: “However, persons did not know that the other had gotten theirs which caused the alarm. So it’s a non-issue.”

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Linden Hospital Complex Mr. Gordon Gumbs had opined that the contractor from reports had reached a point where he wanted to reduce the amount of staff on the job.

This the workers agreed would become necessary but the manner in which it was expected to occur last week agitated them resulting in protest action as they feared persons from out of the town would be asked to replace them to do the same jobs.

The majority of the nearly fifty Linden-based workers at the construction site of the state of the

art new $1.2 billion Linden Hospital Complex, in anticipation of a cut in the number of masons presently on the job last week Wednesday, had withdrawn their services for the second time, the first being last year.

M&CC launches Carifesta enhancement programme

THE Mayor and City Council (M&CC) yesterday launched its Carifesta enhancement programme at the Festival City entrance, the venue for the inaugural cultural explosion in 1972.

The plan detailed the M&CC programmes to beautify the city during the mega event and will see several infrastructural works being undertaken at Festival City.

The occasion was attended by more than 150 residents of the community and Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport Dr. Frank Anthony and Mayor Hamilton Green were the keynote speakers.

Dr. Anthony said the return of Carifesta here represents a symbolic homecoming and urged Guyanese not to lose sight of its historic significance.

Green underscored the event is a catalyst to forge national and Caribbean unity and its 1972 opening was the flag ship that saw the explosion of poetry, songs, dances, paintings and the other forms of art in the region.

He urged the Carifesta X should go beyond narrow politics and should take the form of a luxury liner.

The Carifesta City enhancement programme is sponsored by Banks DIH Limited and Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T). More information of the lunch will be disclosed in our forth coming publication.

Wheeler hails UK/Guyana bio-diversity conservation cooperation
By Sarada Singh

BRITISH High Commissioner to Guyana, Mr. Fraser Wheeler has hailed the milestone of the productive partnership between the United Kingdom (UK) and Guyana in achieving the promises embodied within in the Convention on Biological Diversity.

He was speaking Wednesday last at the ceremony to mark eight years of Guyanese and British cooperation within the Darwin Initiative Wetlands Project on conservation and development of its convention on biological diversity.

To commemorate the occasion, a ceremony was held in the Savannah Suite of Le Meridien Pegasus hotel which saw the presentation of project highlights and discussion on the future of the North Rupununi Wetlands by prominent individuals in conservation here.

Noting that biological resources support such diverse industries as agriculture, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, pulp and paper, horticulture, construction and waste treatment, the High Commissioner said: "The loss of biodiversity threatens our food supplies, opportunities for recreation and tourism, and sources of wood, medicines and energy. It also interferes with essential ecological functions such as natural flood control, and weakens the ability to deal with natural disasters such as floods, droughts, and hurricanes, and with human impacts, such as pollution and climate change."

He observed that already, countries such as the UK and Guyana are spending huge sums in response to flood and storm damage; and such damage is expected to increase due to global warming.

According to Wheeler, the UK is active in the world of bio-diversity at home and abroad, and has the expertise and resources to help other countries achieve their 2010 targets to halt the loss of bio-diversity.

He said the principal mechanism through which the UK supports other countries in their obligation to the Convention on Biological Diversity is through the Darwin Initiative.

The key objective of the Darwin Initiative is for the UK to work with local partners in countries rich in bio-diversity but poor in resources to achieve the conservation of biological diversity and the sustainable use of its components and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits. Since March 21, 2007, 458 projects have been supported, totalling an investment of around 60 million pounds, of which six of these are in Guyana.

At the ceremony the results of the North Rupununi Wetlands Project were presented which include: teacher and student resources for primary schools, community and environmental officer courses, and a postgraduate course on wetland management for the University of Guyana, the 2008 edition of the NRAMP, a study of the impact of NRAMP to date, the North Rupununi Tourist Guide and maps, and the North Rupununi Community website.

Chairman of North Rupununi District Development Board during his presentation advocated the development and sustainability of the North Rupununi Wetlands.

“We need to ensure that our actions promote the continued ecosystem stability, and that the uses that are undertaken are sustainable and the benefits that are derived from such uses do not escape the people of the North Rupununi Wetland area. We are cautious of mother nature’s retribution when her resources are exploited in an irresponsible way based on our and the experiences of others,” Andries posited.

He also pointed out the need for global understanding of the importance in maintaining the appropriate balance in the way the North Rupununi Wetland ecosystem works.

“We cannot do this alone, as we are not in isolation. As a country we need to make the right decisions that will ensure that this rich place that is the North Rupununi Wetlands continues to provide the services not just to the people who live there, but also the wider Guyanese and global population,” he explained.

The key objective of the Darwin Initiative is to draw on expertise relevant to bio-diversity from within the United Kingdom, to work with local partners in countries rich in bio-diversity but poor in resources, to achieve the conservation of biological diversity; the sustainable use of its components and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits. Among the contributions of the Wetlands Project was during the year 2003 the Darwin Initiative approved funding for the North Rupununi project.

The project also allowed the UK’s leading institutions for biodiversity conservation and education which includes the Royal Holloway University of London, the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust and the Open University to work in partnership with Iwokrama, the North Rupununi District Development Board, the University of Guyana, the Guyana Environmental Protection Agency and the Ministry of Education.

The aims of the project were delivered in two phases with the first phase implemented between 2003 and 2006 which involved assessing the health of wetland habitats and communities in the North Rupununi, and developing a process for the sustainable management of natural resources with the key output of phase one being the North Rupununi Adaptative Management Process (NRAMP).

Phase two implemented from 2006-2008, served to build capacity of Guyanese stakeholders at both local and national level in executing the NRAMP process by:

* significantly expanding the number of trained individuals in bio-diversity monitoring and management;

* developing material for Guyanese university courses and schools to help raise awareness of, and build capacity for, bio-diversity conservation;

* developing local, financially sustainable livelihood schemes, such as eco-tourism, that have a linked objective to the bio-diversity monitoring and conservation of key wetland habitats important to the local communities.

Fight against pernicious, hostile anti-PPP propaganda must continue
--Rohee
By Priya Nauth

MINISTER of Home Affairs Clement Rohee and executive member of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic ) PPP/C) said the fight against the pernicious and hostile propaganda being peddled by certain anti-PPP elements, politicians, social activists and columnists who continue to push the myth that Afro-Guyanese are being ‘marginalised’ and ‘discriminated’ against.

He made this appeal during his address on the work and life of Dr Cheddi Jagan in the 1947 Legislative Council at the Eighth Annual Cheddi Jagan Lecture which was held at the Cheddi Jagan Research Centre, Kingston, Georgetown last Thursday evening.

It is nothing but a blatant lie that is being repeated over and over again and this is why we never stop exposing it for what it is worth--a mere fallacy”, he condemned.

He noted this year marks the 60th anniversary of Dr. Jagan’s entry into the National Assembly in this country.

He said he believes this is one of the best tributes that can be paid to the memory and legacy of this great leader and in addition “we must keep working to advance national cohesion, racial and working peoples’ unity.”

Rohee said Dr Jagan entered the Legislative Council at a time when it was an institution dominated by the representatives of the colonial power and the local elite and was an institution of a class power combination with the sole purpose to perpetuate colonial rule and make it more sophisticated and acceptable to the working class, the poor and the powerless in the colony.

However, long before Dr Jagan entered the hallowed Chambers of the foreign and local elite he knew very well what the institution was at that time in those Chambers”, he pointed out.

I am convinced more than ever that were it not for men like Dr Jagan supported by ordinary working men and women, as well as farmers, the history of Guyana’s struggle for independence would have been quite different, he said.

He said it is important that we speak about the life and work of outstanding leaders such as Dr Jagan because if we who are better acquainted with facts, do not do so, the modern day revisionists of history together with others will seek to create doubts in the minds of the new generation about these worthy men contributions to the independence and post independence struggles.

Even in his time, Dr Jagan had cause to wage battle against such reactionary, philosophical and political thinking though of different hues and shades,” Rohee pointed out.

He said one such reactionary belief and practice at that time was that women should know their place and not seek to ‘step out of line’.

He said that Dr Jagan’s contribution to the Legislative Council in those days impacted significantly on awakening the political consciousness of the Guyanese working people across the country.

It was the first time ever that the poor and oppressed had a voice in the hallowed chambers of the Legislative Council to represent them in such an articulate and authoritative manner,” he pointed out also.

He said Dr Jagan also insisted in medical and educational matters being priority and also opposed the use of public funds to certain upper class institutions which he felt made no contribution to National Development.

Among other issues debated in the Legislative Council at that time were developing hydro-electric power in British Guiana, land settlement and land settlement allowance for converting cane lands into rice lands as well as the Cooperative Societies Bill.

In all his debates, he made lucid and sterling contributions but an exciting and exhaustive debate was on the question of Adult Suffrage,” he insisted.

Also it was the first time ever that the poor and oppressed had a voice in the hallowed chambers of the Legislative Council to represent them in such an articulate and authoritative manner, he noted.

He was a fierce defender and champion of the working people, extremely biased in this respect so much that he attracted equally biased criticisms and hostility from those who defended the status quo and their colonial masters, he asserted.

He urged young people to always be consistent in their beliefs and to ensure they are well grounded in the people whom they look to support.

The Central Committee member of the PPP further said it is important that we consider where we are today in light of the ideological philosophical and political foundations laid down by Dr Jagan during the halcyon days of the struggle against colonial domination.

He pointed out that nowadays it is not unusual to hear comments about how the Party has moved away from what Dr Jagan stood for and PPP watchers and ‘Freedom Houseologist’ have pinned various labels on the party and its leaders to make them appear to be what they would like us to be.

It is interesting to note that they are divided in their opinion. Some think that we are no longer what we used to be while Dr Jagan was alive and others claim we haven’t change at all,” he lamented.

Some time after assuming office Dr Jagan pointed out that the government and ruling PPP must walk carefully and skilfully between compromise and transformation that is to say to conform with the conditionalities of the donor community but at the same time to transform the country taking into consideration what we inherited form the People’s National Congress (PNC) when we took over.

Alluding to if the party has changed, he said that majority of Guyanese agree with their policies and this was reflective in the number of votes received at general and regional elections hence these results show that contrary to what detractors say the PPP is truly a national party and not an Indian party.

He reminded that some years ago, Dr Jagan pointed out that Indians in Guyana did not support him because he was Indian rather because he fought for those who were oppressed and exploited.

Rohee assured that the party continues to ensure that our ideology is translated into actionable projects to bring immense benefits to our people particularly in the social sector such as health, education, housing and water sectors.

These are the very objectives that Dr Jagan fought for in his time but it is only now with his Party in power for the longest period ever in history that his dreams are close to reality the tremendous odds notwithstanding,” he declared.

Side by side with the successful realisation of these programmes the PPP true to the beliefs of Dr Jagan, continues to exert every effort to consolidate democracy in Guyana and ensure that major tenets of good governance are upheld as part and parcel of the democratic process,” Rohee stated.

Rohee said one of the overriding factors that must be taken into account when we assess where we are now is the fact that the Party still maintain a mass style of work and mass support.

He said today a new generation of critics and cynics has emerged and in the circumstances, our task is to continue the struggle on all fronts and the voice of the PPP must be heard loud and clear as Dr Jagan’s during his time in the 1947 Legislative Council.

The political, ideological and philosophical convictions on which Dr Jagan started out in 1947 are still valid in today’s context… we can do him no greater service but to cherish his convictions and beliefs and work hard to make them more and more relevant to our day to day activities,” he appealed.

Additionally, prizes were presented to winners of the Cheddi Jagan essay competition.

First prize of $100,000 was copped by Mohamed Yasin, 2nd place Nadia Ganesh who got $50,000, 3rd Raymond Yusuf who received a trip to Kaieteur Falls and Anastacia Ally copped fourth place and received a collection of books written by Dr Jagan.

Secretary of Education for PPP/C, Mr. Hydar Ally informed that the competition attracted 38 entries from almost all the regions and sought to develop writing skills and stimulate research.

He noted that Dr Jagan was a prolific writer who wrote several books and countless articles and an even better researcher which was one of his strengths.

Ally said certificates of appreciation will be given to all the participants.

Among those present were Ministers of Government, Party members and members of the Diplomatic Corp.

Guyana blessed, beautiful but there is too much fear
-- Swami Vidyanandaji
-- answer to this problem lies in the scriptures
By Sarada Singh

GUYANA is a very blessed and a very beautiful land but unfortunately, most of our people are living in fear and there is no peace for some people, this is the view of spiritual leader, Swami Anandaji.

What are the answers behind these fears and what are the solutions to these problems?

According to the Swami, everyone is searching for answers and for support, but in so doing each individual is casting blame on another and there is disharmony.

In an interview with this newspaper the Swami contends that the answer lies in the scriptures. In Hinduism, the stages of life are clearly defined and must be adhered to achieve maximum benefits.

These stages of life are as follows:

1. Bramcharya (student life)

2. Grahastya (family life)

3. Banprastha (retired life)

4. Sanyasa (monastic life)

He asserts that the student life which is before marriage, states very categorically that there must be absolute sense control and self control…In this stage of life there must be total dedication towards pursuing academic education, moral values and physical development that are essential for human growth.

He explained that when these qualities are fully developed and the student moves to the second stage -- that is family life -- then he or she is fully prepared to take on duties of the home, society and country.

Hinduism further states that there are four classifications of duties and these are in the following categories:

1. The religious leaders

2. The military, police, intellectual and political leaders

3. Business community

4. Working class

Each of these categories has specific duties to perform in society to ensure that there is peace, harmony and prosperity, the Swami said.

According to him, the religious leaders must epitomise austerity, peace simplicity, truth and sincerity in their own lives before they can teach this to others. When this is done, there is immense peace in society and the lives of these religious leaders can be emulated.

He added that the intellectuals, military and political leaders have to protect the society/country through their dedication to their specific responsibilities. If these persons exhibit any form of indiscipline in their lives, this will lead to fear and eventually they will never be able to function effectively in society.

The business community has to be honest in their ventures as these individuals are responsible for economic expansion of the country.

The working class also has to faithfully perform their allotted duties for the growth and development of their personal well-being and for the country as a whole.

It simply means that if every citizen in a country performs his or her duty according to the laws of dharma/righteousness, then indeed there is peace, happiness and prosperity.

On the contrary, there is a decline in performance of one’s respective duty, which is leading to unhappiness, fear and conflict, the Swami stressed.

What are the causes of this decline?
The spiritual leader attributes several reasons for the decline. Firstly, persons are not fully prepared for their respective responsibilities in life. If in one’s student life the required foundation of sense control and self control is not there, then there is no moral, physical and intellectual development.

Instead the negative qualities of greed, selfishness, lust, anger and hate have become predominant in one’s life, the Swami contends, adding that these are the qualities that lead to crime such as the recent massacres in Guyana. Secondly, many persons do not adhere to their swadharma -- one’s own duty, instead they want to perform the duties of others. This also will bring out the negative qualities in human beings and will eventually lead to crime.

What is peace and how can we find peace?
According to the Swami, peace is not outside of the self but within one’s self. Divine personalities like Acharya Pranavanandaji Maharaj, founder of Bharrat Sevashram Sangha states “peace is not found in a lustful person or in the hearts of dishonest businessmen or immoral ministers, dictators or the so-called religious leaders. Rather, peace is in the hearts of the disciplined, courageous and in whose mind there is an absence of conflict”.

What is the most important element for the development of this country?
Swami Vidyanandaji posited that the future of this country lies in the hands of the youths. Youths who possess dynamic personalities are building blocks of the nation but there must be adequate training for their physical, academic and moral development in order to develop their self confidence.

Each individual is responsible for his or her own action which will ultimately lead to the development of the country.

“We have to help ourselves. We cannot expect persons from outside to come to die for us. We must be prepared to protect ourselves. Let us begin today. Take a good look at our lives and begin to improve for a better Guyana,” he reiterated