The U.S. State Department has revoked visas for a number of Haitian citizens, an American diplomat in the Caribbean country announced on May 19. Jon Piechowski, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Port-au- Prince, declined to disclose the identities of the Haitians, or to say if some or all were public officials, citing privacy rules for individual visa decisions. He also gave no specific number. He would say only that the travel documents were lifted earlier this week because the holders “were no longer qualified to have those visas.”…
Read MoreYear: 2011
Poverty affects 81 million children in Latin America, Caribbean
In Latin America and the Caribbean, 45 per cent of children are affected by moderate to severe deprivation. This means that almost 81 million children below the age of 18 years suffer from child poverty, according to a study by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). The study, “Child poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean”, developed rights-based measurement and diagnosis of child poverty in the region, and sought to put forward public policy recommendations to overcome the problem.…
Read MoreDoctor’s wife found dead at home
The wife of a prominent medical doctor at the Georgetown Public Hospital was found bludgeoned to death in her Echilibar Villas, Campbellville home on Tuesday afternoon. Dead is Sharmaine Monica Doobay, 58, wife of the head of Internal Medicine and consultant cardiologist at the hospital, Dr Ramsundar Doobay. Reports are that her body was discovered lying face down in the kitchen. According to reports, the woman’s head was bashed in and she was lying in a pool of blood. Relatives said Dr Doobay went home and found the home locked.…
Read MoreUnattended siblings burn to death –mother had left home to iron school clothes
By Ariana Gordon Two children, aged six and four, were on Tuesday, May 24, burnt to death in a fire which destroyed the wooden shack they called home at Dazell Housing Scheme, Paradise, East Coast Demerara (ECD). Dead are Julius DeClou, six, and Josiah DeClou, four, who were left alone at home by their mother, twenty-six-year- old Ashana Letlow. According to Letlow, she would usually go to her mother’s house, a stone’s throw away, to iron the older son’s school clothes; but, on this occasion, she took only her year-old…
Read MoreFarmer hacks wife to death, torches house, attempts suicide
By Bhisham Mohamed Tragedy struck at Garden of Eden, East Bank Demerara early Wednesday morning when 45-year-old Chitnandan Latchman hacked his wife, Suscilla, 38, to death, burnt his home and drank poison. Suscilla was chopped several times about the body, before being doused with gasoline and set on fire. Latchman and the motionless, severely burnt body of his wife were pulled from the burning building at 48 First Street, Garden of Eden by members of the community. The badly burnt man is at the Georgetown Public Hospital in critical condition.…
Read MoreEvidence of progress is everywhere
Dear Editor, Progress came to Guyana a long time ago, but we have gotten so accustomed to certain things now that we seem to forget that things weren’t always this way, and what a struggle it was to come this far. Children these days don’t know what it was like to walk along mud dams to get to school and in and out of communities, especially those on the Coastal Belt. Those now getting into their adolescent and adulthood stages have been growing up seeing roads and streets in their…
Read MorePostcards from Guyana
Yupukari Wildlife Club awarded 2011 Disney grant
Yupukari Butterfly Farm to benefit By Venessa Deosaran Rupukari Wildlife Club was awarded a 2011 Disney Friends for Change grant to support its efforts towards the development of a community butterfly farm in the village. The grant was awarded via a proposal that was written and submitted by Yupukari Wildlife Club members Harnaman Dorrick, Rosita Roberts and Shamir Khan, with the assistance of a volunteer from Rupununi Learners Incorporated. Funds acquired from the Disney Friends for Change grant were used to support activities related to Global Youth Service Day (GYSD),…
Read MoreGovt may no longer import maths, science teachers
Government may no longer recruit overseas teachers, as was intended, but will place more emphasis on training local teachers in the areas of mathematics and the sciences. Already, the Education Ministry is looking at preparing a plan whereby scholarships can be awarded to teachers to attend the University of Guyana (UG) to pursue studies in these needed areas. This is according to a senior education official who requested anonymity. The official pointed out that it would be too costly to import teachers, and the best solution is to train locals.…
Read MoreUNASUR mulls financing options for secretariat
The Council of Delegates of the Union of South America States (UNASUR) is eyeing the United Nations model for financing the permanent secretariat, which is set to be opened in Quito, Ecuador next month. This is one of several methods of financing being examined as delegates meet at the Guyana International Conference Centre, Liliendaal. “That is a decision the ministers of foreign affairs will take once the council delegates will present to them different alternatives,” said UNASUR Secretary General Maria Emma Mejia Velez, while briefing the media on Tuesday. The…
Read More