Articles by Gtimes

Technology

Human Services Ministry launches “Girls to Women Mentorship Network”

To empower young females with guidance and support as they navigate life’s journey, the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security officially launched the “Girls to Women Mentorship Network” on Monday at the Umana Yana in Kingston, Georgetown. According to the Ministry’s press release, the initiative, led by Minister Dr Vindhya Persaud, was unveiled during its observance of International Day of the Girl Child, hosted by the Childcare and Protection Agency (CPA). Minister Persaud highlighted that the network is designed to connect young girls with experienced women who can mentor, inspire, and help them unlock their full potential. She emphasised that this platform would create meaningful opportunities for growth and help prepare girls for the transition into womanhood with confidence and purpose. “We must focus on empowering our girls, focus on ensuring that they’re included in every aspect of development, and focus on making sure that they access all the programmes and supporting mechanisms through the Childcare Protection Agency, the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security, and the Government at large,” Minister Persaud stressed. She noted that this programme will be rolled out across the country, where it will see a closer relationship being built between women mentors and young girls. To start up the initiative, the first group of mentors who were present at the event included Justice Roxane-George- Chancellor of the Judiciary, President of the Guyana Bar Association- Pauline Chase, President of Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI), Kathy Smith, Woman Superintendent- Nicola Kendall, Environmental Enthusiast- Annette Arjoon and Environmental Economist at the Ministry of Natural Resources- Pradeepa Bholanath among others. The Minister emphasised the importance of giving young girls the opportunity to hear directly from exceptional women, to learn about their challenges, their journeys, and their triumphs. “We live in a world where we cannot divorce reality, and that reality is that girls experience many challenges,” she noted. “It is about you telling them what your challenges are…and how they can help you through mentorship to make your way exciting.” She noted that by engaging with these inspiring role models, young girls can begin to see themselves reflected in their stories, envisioning their own paths to success, and even surpassing the achievements of the trailblazing women who came before them. “We’re trying, in our own way, to play a part in shaping the woman you will become tomorrow, while helping the girl you are today understand that there is support for everything you aspire to do and all that you can be,” Minister Persaud told the girls. Minister Persaud also spoke of the positive impact girls are currently making in Guyana. “If you look at education, more girls are finishing high school, there are more girls than men, or girls than boys, finishing the University of Guyana (UG),” she stated. Those who participated in Monday’s event will have access to all the programmes and support mechanisms through the CPA and the Human Services Ministry’s resources.

Technology

New saviour… or Pied Piper?

Folks are still flailing around trying to understand – and explain – what happened in the Sept 1 elections…and your Eyewitness expects this to go on for a while. After all, there ain’t a single explanation for any one thing happening, is there?? In this, the “one thing” being the trouncing of the PNC – and your Eyewitness is being kind here!! – by Sanction Man’s WIN party. Just losing would’ve been bad enough – but losing to a fella with very serious US OFAC sanctions for smuggling gold and a Lambo hanging over his head – who then launches a party a mere three months before the elections to clobber the PNC?? Ahhh…the shame…the shame!! How the heck did Sanction Man – who can barely string together two coherent sentences and hides behind his sisters’ skirts via Facebook posts – get all these people from the traditional PNC to follow him?? Well being a graduate of British colonial indoctrination, your Eyewitness remembers the story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. Don’t you, dear Reader?? It’s about that fella – wearing eye-catching bright, gaudy clothing – who suddenly appears in the latter town that was being plagued by rats!! He tells the good citizens he can get rid of their pestilential plague – for a fee, of course. He duly plays his pipe and leads all the rats out of the town!! Isn’t this what happened to the good folks in the PNC who were plagued – according to their bright boy WPA ally led by Black Pudding Man – by the PPP, whose plan was to keep them living like rats!! Their leader Norton wasn’t taking on the PPP as he’d promised and they were so fed up that when Sanction Man suddenly showed up with his designer glasses, off-the-rack designer garb and most importantly doling out oodles of money, they didn’t need no fancy talk. Calling themselves know-nothing “Scrapeheads”, they turned the story on its head and became the rats who followed the Pied Piper!! They even overlooked the irony of a fella who’d corrupted the system by bribing officials – criticising PPP’s corruption!! Pot calling cahari black!! For good measure, Sanction Man was willing to cuss down the PPP – which sealed the deal when he launched a political party three months before the elections!! Goodbye Norton, hello Sanction Man!! But the rats…er…folks who followed the Pied Piper should remember that he returned to demand payment and when the townsfolks balked, he led away their children – read their future!! And that’s what Sanction Man’s doing right now innit? Frittering away any chance of helping Scrapeheads with his unrealistic greedy demands to control everything to destroy the PNC and PPP!! …in Parliament It’d be funny if it weren’t so pitiful. Here we have a bunch of geriatric WPA Pied Pipers playing tunes from the seventies to the PNC– landing them on the road to extinction. Seems they forget that as time marches on, the tune that captures the inner Geist of the people also changes. So these out of tune, wanna-be Scrape-catchers turned up at various villages in our fair land to lure the residents into following them on some Quixotic – and dangerous – path. Failing to gain traction they were adopted by Norton into the PNC!! Norton sent their failed “presidential candidate”, Black Pudding Man to Parliament where he’s gonna soon not only be eligible for TWO duty-free cars – but free food during Parliamentary sittings!! Your Eyewitness hopes the Speaker ensures Black Pudding is sourced from Buxton and not Lusignan!! Your Eyewitness has his popcorn ready for the debates between Black Pudding Man and Sanction Man!! He hopes PNC parliamentary leader, Chicken Man, will allow Black Pudding man to expose his irrelevance!! …on development While the new struggle for global hegemony’s playing out between the US and China, after the two wear each other out on the ropes – it’s be a new multipolar world. We’re gonna have more competition vying for our oil fund driven development!!

Technology

Mohamed and WIN failed supporters after 1st real test

Dear Editor, The first real political test for Azrudin Mohamed and WIN came with the swearing-in of councillors for the ten Regional Demographic Councils and the elections for Chair and Vice-Chair for the ten geographic regions. By all indications and by any standard, Mohamed and WIN failed miserably. The PPP won elections for chair of eight (8) of the 10 regions – Regions 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, and 9. The PPP also won elections for seven of the 10 Vice-Chairs – Regions 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 9. WIN won elections for the Chair and Vice-Chair of Region 7. The election for Chair in Region10 ended in a deadlock between the candidate nominated by the PNC-led APNU and the candidate nominated by WIN. When there is a deadlock between candidates, the person who ends up as Chair depends on a casting vote by the Minister of Local Government. Unless there is a negotiation between parties to end the deadlock, Minister Priya Manikchand will now have to cast a vote to determine whether the Regional Chairman will be the PNC-led APNU candidate or the WIN candidate. The reality was for WIN to offer APNU the VC position in Region 10. But that would not be enough to win APNU’s support since the PPP’s offer to APNU was the Chair’s position and to take the VC position. Clearly, for WIN, the challenge was to make their offer more attractive than the PPP’s offer, and there were varied ways to do so. WIN showed they lacked the experience to managed this situation. They failed. As in Regions 4 and 8, none of the political parties had a clear majority of seats to determine the Chair and Vice-Chair for Regions 4, 8, and 10. It means that negotiation between the parties had to take place to determine who would be the Chairs and Vice-Chairs of these Regions. We know that the PNC-led APNU and WIN parties had negotiations. The PNC-led APNU issued a statement confirming those negotiations took place. WIN has not denied that negotiations took place. The PNC-led APNU stated unequivocally that the negotiations collapsed without any agreements. In Region 4, therefore, the voting for Chair and Vice-Chair ended up with at least one member from the PNC-led APNU, FGM or WIN voting for the candidate nominated by the PPP. We cannot know which opposition councillor voted for the PPP candidate because it was a secret ballot. From public statements by various councillors, it appears that the person from the opposition that voted for the PPP was an APNU councillor. Since WIN candidates indicated they left their ballots blank, the 17 PPP votes for VC in Region 4 were more than enough to give the PPP the VC position also. Given that there were negotiations that took place between WIN and APNU, in their first big political test, WIN failed. Even though the PPP had by far the largest number of seats in the Region 4 council, WIN had a chance to make a deal with the PNC and FGM to block the PPP. WIN failed. Given that the PPP controls central government, WIN, APNU and FGM, as responsible opposition parties, had an obligation and an opportunity to ensure that the largest RDC did not end up in the hands of the PPP. This, in particular, was a test for WIN, as the party that would lead the opposition in parliament, to demonstrate it had the ability to rattle the PPP. It failed miserably. Region 8 elections ended with the PPP candidate for Chair and the APNU candidate for VC elected. Clearly, this meant that the PPP and the PNC-led APNU succeeded in negotiating an outcome. The PPP and WIN were in the exact position in Region 8 and clearly the PPP successfully negotiated with APNU for the Chair while conceding the VC position to APNU. This was a loss for WIN as it allowed the PPP to control another Region that WIN could have denied them. In Region 10, another important region for any political party that is determined to play an effective role in the next five years, the opportunity to lock out the PPP exists. The fact that the election for Chair ended up in a deadlock between the APNU and WIN candidates when WIN only needs one vote to covet the Chair’s position signals the inability of WIN to effectively negotiate. It appears likely, therefore, that the PNC-led candidate would end up as Chair of Region 10 with a likely PPP-nominated candidate as the VC. The WIN leadership showed they lack political agility and political pragmatism to effectively represent their supporters. In their very first test, Mohamed and WIN failed. Now they are crying, bemoaning the fact that APNU did not support them and crying crocodile tears that the PPP now has prominence in nine of the 10 RDCs, with the possibility of having eight of the 10 Chair and VC positions, with WIN and the PNC-led APNU, each, having one Chair and VC positions. The failure in their first political test has ramifications for WIN’s role in parliament. Parliament is not merely about debates and “pompositing”. Almost daily and almost in every sitting, there must be negotiation. While WIN definitely will have the leader of the opposition role, the question is whether they can rely on the support of the MPs from APNU and FGM. Can WIN effectively prevent the PPP from getting its way when there is need for a two-thirds majority votes in parliament? For example, there is the need for two-thirds majorities during the work of the Appointments Committee. Wherever there is need for more than majority support, can WIN effectively align the opposition votes? Parliament’s convening will take place in a matter of days – at least, before November2. The first major votes will be for the speaker and the deputy speaker. The PPP will nominate its candidate for the speaker’s position and will win that vote, with or without any support from the opposition WIN, APNU or FGM MPs. The PPP is likely to not oppose a candidate for the deputy speaker from amongst the opposition MPs. This is where a second test for WIN will emerge. Will they negotiate a consensus opposition candidate or will they allow multiple candidates with WIN, APNU and FGM nominating their own candidates? Will they allow the PPP to pick-and-choose? WIN’s failure in the RDC elections for Chairs and VCs raises serious doubts whether they would be able to mobilize and align the opposition’s strength in parliament to oppose the PPP. WIN’s leader has reverted to crying and moaning over the results of the elections for Chair and VC in the RDCs. Instead, he needs to recognize that the voters have crafted, intentionally or unintentionally, the reality that mature, practical and pragmatic negotiations must take place. What WIN clearly demonstrated in this first test is that their approach so far lacks practicality, pragmatism and maturity. Crying like a spoilt brat is not the answer. Representing their supporters is their obligation, a responsibility that they have so far spectacularly failed to deliver. Yours sincerely, Dr Leslie Ramsammy