AMAILA AND THE NORCONSULT REPORT


I recall that long before a year had elapsed of Mrs. Janet Jagan’s presidency, an outcry arose regarding her failure to hold a press conference. She eventually held one about one year into her presidency. The voices calling out Mrs. Jagan in 1997-8 are still around, but have gone silent on President Granger failure to hold a single press conference despite having been elected to office one and a half years ago. The Norconsult Report on the Amaila Falls Hydropower Project (AFHP) is only one of the major issues of great importance facing the country and a serious and coherent response is yet to be had from the Government.

When the Norconsult Report was commissioned the clear indication was that the Government would abide by its conclusions. In announcing the report in November 2015, Minister Winston Jordan said that, “Norway seems keen to finance an independent review to, once and for all, pronounce on the viability of the project.”

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A  FOREBODING OF WHAT WILL HAPPEN IN 2017?


On December 29 the Attorney General’s Chambers issued a statement asserting that the lease that had been granted to the Cheddi Jagan Research Centre (CJRC) in connection with the property in Kingston, Georgetown, known as ‘Red House,’ was invalid. Extensive reasons were given as the basis for that conclusion. On the following day a statement by Mr. Anil Nandlall, a prominent and well-respected lawyer and former Attorney General, was published. It was an equally extensive statement with a detailed legal analysis challenging the conclusions of the statement of the Attorney General’s Chambers.

In the meantime, on the evening of December 29, a statement from the Ministry of the Presidency informed the public that the President had revoked the lease on the basis of the advice given by the Attorney General’s Chambers and had given the CJRC 48 hours to vacate the premises. The CJRC had occupied the premises for about fifteen years and had accumulated a vast amount of material. Even trespassers are given longer periods to vacate premises by courts. In law, the period given must be reasonable. 48 hours could not be reasonable under any circumstances.

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Court upholds validity of Horseshoe Racing Service owner’s will.


Stabroek News report – 29 December 2016.

Justice Roxane George on December 16, ruled that the last  Will and Testament of Yusuf Mongroo, the owner of the Horseshoe Racing Service at the time of his death on August 15, 2010, was valid.

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MERRY CHRISTMAS


It should be of some significance to Christians that God’s message was not in “a raging whirlwind or a devouring fire” (Phillip Yancey quoted by Peter Wehner, NY Times 24/12/16). His messenger on earth was an ordinary man who was born in difficult circumstances, even with a hint of scandal, in a manger, after his family could not be accommodated in the inn. He spent a part of his childhood as a refugee, as so many thousands of children and adults are forced to do today, grew up into a worker, a carpenter, and died in his 30s at a time when the lifespan could not have been much higher. Some who do not subscribe to the view that he was the son of God, described him as an itinerant preacher, undistinguished from many others at that time, whose story took on greater proportions after he died.

But Jesus was different. He did not merely preach. He led by example. He was a friend of the poor and felt that they had a greater advantage in being admitted to heaven that the rich. “Blessed are you the poor for yours is the Kingdom of God,” he said. Jesus told the rich man who wanted to inherit eternal life to “go sell all your possessions and give your money to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven.” Most of his followers, including women, who were accorded an equal status as men despite the patriarchal society which they inhabited, were ordinary people. Many of the men, including Peter, were fishermen. There is no evidence that Mary, who witnessed Jesus’s crucifixion and resurrection, was anything more than of ordinary status. Her allegedly, prior, sinful character seems to have been a later invention.

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CURTIS VASCONCELLAS


Yesterday morning the Stabroek News reported that Plaisance businessman, Kenneth Earle, was shot twice and robbed of $4 million after leaving a city bank.

On Friday last the Kaieteur News reported that Curtis Vasconcellas was one of two suspects captured on the Wednesday before during a high speed chase by police after allegedly grabbing $2.5 million from a Hotel Tower accountant. A security guard was shot by one of the two suspects but the gun was not recovered. The report reminded readers that during an attempted robbery on June 6, 2015, at Grove on the east bank, the 22 year old Vasconcellas was shot in the neck and right arm and his 18 year old accomplice, Michael Grant, was shot and killed. They had allegedly attempted to rob Neezam Khan who, himself, was shot. According to the report, Vasconcellas, apparently refused bail by the Magistrate, was granted bail by the High Court “a few months ago.”

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