TIMES
Phagwa
Parade in
New York
Page 11
Ram & Ruby
Ram’s Roti
Shop 1967
Page 12
Toronto man protests murder
Tel: 416-289-3898 ictimes@rogers.com
of 15 yr old nephew in Trinidad
Toronto businessman Mo Mohammed has-
n’t slept for a week since he heard of the un-
believably savage murder of his sister’s son
Aleem Ali in Trinidad on March 28.
Mo is furious at the way 15 year old
Aleem was dragged into a car kicking and
screaming from in front of the Five Rivers
Secondary School, and taken to his death in
the Tacarigua forest. His throat had been
cut, he had been chopped many times, his
arms and legs had been cut off, his eyes had
Freed Panday upsets TT politics
been gouged out and his body had been
burned almost beyond recognition, said
Mo.
“What is happening to Trinidad?” he
Basdeo Panday is back with a bang
Call it the mother of all comebacks.
Against all the odds, veteran politician and
former prime minister Basdeo Panday has
returned to the bandstand of Trinidad poli-
tics. In the process he has completely upset
the election plans of the two other political
parties that hinged on him being a dis-
graced, convicted criminal.
After the Trinidad and Tobago Court of
Appeal last month threw out Basdeo Pan-
day’s 2005 criminal conviction and six year
jail term for failing to declare all his assets,
Panday went on a mini rampage.
He boldly walked back into Parliament to
claim his Caroni North seat that had been
hurriedly declared vacant by House
Speaker Barry Sinanan even though Pan-
day’s conviction had been appealed.
Sinanan was helpless to stop him.
DUCKY’S
When Parliament opened the next time,
Sinanan tried to persuade Panday to wait
Saturday breakfast special $4.99
Sada roti, fry bake, salt fish, smoke herring,
tomato and bigan chokha, okro and more
Baked products: currants roll, sweet bread
Indo-Caribbean
asked. “ It is incomprehensible why any-
body could do this to a child. What has he
done to deserve this? Even in the animal
kingdom we do not have this kind of
thing. This is beyond the animal kingdom.
This has to be corrected.”
Ali, a Form Four student of the Five
Rivers Junior Secondary School was last
seen alive by his mother Waheeda on
Monday March 26. Waheeda, an em-
ployee at the canteen at the same school
her son attended, saw him at about 2.10
pm on Monday, when she left to return
home leaving him to return home later.
When he failed to return home, checs were
befoer taking his place, while legal advice
was obtained from the High Court. Panday
saw a ploy to delay his return and refused.
He declared his intention to take his seat
and speak in Parliament, since his convic-
tion had been quashed. There was no legal
reason to delay his return.
The ruling Poeple’s National Movement
simply didn’t know what to do. The man
who had defeated their party three times in
general elections was knocking on the door.
Rather than confront Panday or try to re-
move hik physically from Parliament, the
PNM simply shut down the House of Rep-
resentatives and fled to the High Court for
protection. Score another one for Panday.
All the carefully contrived plans of the
PNM for the election due this year are up
in smoke. Prime Minister Manning was
counting on Panday being disabled in the
election campaign because of his position
as a disgraced “convict politician”. That is
probably gone, since there may not be
enough time for Panday’s retrial to be com-
pleted this year. Panday is known as the
most fearsome vote getter in an election
campaign, and can prevent Manning doing
a cake walk towards a second term in of-
fice.
The breakaway Congress of the People is
not happy at Panday’s return either. Their
plan was to scoop away several of the seats
held by Panday’s United National Congress
while Panday was politically injured. That
too is now looking like a pipe dream. Pan-
day is back from the political grave yet an-
other time. Love him or hate him, this is
the stuff of legend.
ROTI AND CARIBBEAN FOOD
TAKE OUT  EAT IN
CATERING  CURRANTS ROLL
416-253-5358
Catering and Party orders
Panday:
Racist plot to
crush me has
failed
Page 17
Vol 1. No 2 April 2007
INSIDE
Guyanese remit $53 billion P 7
Most angioplasties
unnecessary, says study P 16
Global warming crisis P 19
made but Ali was not found.
The body was found on Wednesday after-
noon in bushes at Upper St Michael Road,
Tacarigua by forest rangers. It was badly
burnt and bore several chop wounds.
What Mo finds so unbelievable about the
incident is that Aleem was reportedly taken
in front of the school in mid-afternoon.
Three persons pulled him into a car in full
view of many other students and carried
him away to a gruesome death. It was a
planned operation and not a schoolboy
fight. One of the people in the car is re-
ported to have been a security guard. Aleem Ali- kidnapped and killed
( SEE PAGE 3)
U.S. pulls the plug on
Guyana visitor visas
Will Canada be far behind?
THE United States government has effec- where there is a huge Guyanese immigrant
tively put an end to Guyanese obtaining vis- population of more than 200,000.
itor or tourist visas to travel to America. The Americans feel the visa clampdown
New regulations from the U.S. State De- was always in the cards given the level of
partment say that residents of Guyana ap- official corruption, warnings from Wash-
plying for non-immigrant or tourists visas ington about the failure of authorities to
deal with Guyana's growing brigade of drug
need not bother to bring official documents
barons, and the desire of so many to leave
like land titles, job letters, invitation docu-
this former British colony for so-called
ments from relatives overseas and even
greener pastures in the United States.
bank statements. Too many of those docu-
"We simply don't have the time and re-
ments are phony, the embassy says.
sources to verify what is an authentic doc-
Guyanese will have to convince the Cana-
ument or what is not," said Susan Tuller, the
dian visa officers that they will not remain
head of the U.S. embassy consular section
illegally in the States if they are allowed to
in this small South American nation of
travel. It means that visa officers will have
730,000, which is also home to the head-
total discretion on whether to grant or re-
quarters of the 15-nation Caribbean Com-
fuse the visa application.
munity. "Applicants will simply have to
It was not easy to get visitor (or holiday)
impress consular officers that they should
visas before, as Guyana has one of the high-
be granted a visa and that is as it should be."
est rates of refusal in the world. Now it will
For years, the mission with less then 20
become almost impossible to get a visitor
U.S. expatriate staffers, supported by local
visa to go to the United States.
hires, says that it has simply been over-
Guyanese are worried that Canada may
whelmed by the level of corruption in the
take similar steps to cut off the flow of
form of forged documents to support appli-
Guyanese visitors, since the Canadian ex-
perience with visitor visas is similar to that cations for tourist visas.
of the Americans. It’s already quite difficult
(CONTINUED ON PAGE 8)
to get visitor visas to come to Canada,
3296 Lakeshore Blvd (West of Kipling Ave)
Large dhalpuri $1.50
Why are Indians not acting on TT kidnapping?
FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK Indo-Caribbean Times April 2007 Page 2

People have been
throwing hard ques-
tions at me since the
publication of two
kidnap horror stories
Ram Jagessar in the first issue of
Indo-Caribbean Times
showed the rape and abuse of In-
dian women kidnap victims in
Trinidad. What is wrong with those
Indian men in Trinidad? How could
they allow kidnappers to abuse our
women like that and do nothing?
There are plenty of angry Indo-
Caribbeans in Canada (and in the
United States too) who are as furi-
ous at the kidnappers as they are at
the inaction of the Indian population
in Trinidad. Some have told me they
cannot sleep in the night when they
think of how those vicious kidnap-
pers are ravaging Indian business
people and abusing helpless Indian
women.
The situation they lay out is simple
enough. A plague of kidnappers,
who appear to be mostly black, are
targeting business people who are
mostly Indian. An average of
around 200 reported kidnappings
have happened over the last five
years, and maybe ten times as many
have not been reported to the police.
Tens of millions of dollars have
been ripped away from the Indian
kidnap victims, over a dozen have
been killed. Many, if not all, of the
women are sexually abused, and
several victims like Vindra Naipaul
are missing and believed dead.
The Ministry of National Security
and the Trinidad police have been
pathetically useless in slowing or
stopping the kidnapping. Most of
the Indian population now believes
that the police are involved in the
kidnapping racket, and that some
members of the police are helping
the kidnappers and getting their cut
of the ransoms. The bulk of the non-
Indian communities in Trinidad are
indifferent or unsympathetic to the
plight of the Indian kidnap victims.
Some elements of the black com-
munity actually seem to enjoy the
ravishing of the Indian community
by the kidnappers.
In short, the Indian community in
Trinidad has no security from kid-
nappers. The forces of law and order
are useless and hopeless. Indians are
cowering and hiding like food fish
while the kidnappers roam free like
barracudas. The Indian men are not
doing a single thing to defend their
community from these kidnapping
criminals, not a thing to save their
women from these kidnap rapist an-
imals. These Indian men, who have
billions of dollars in assets, have no
ideas and no willpower aimed at de-
fending their half a million strong
community. Why? Why? Why?
What’s wrong with these Indian
men?
I have to tell people right away
that I don’t know. Maybe 18 years
away from Trinidad is too long, so
that I don’t understand Trinidad as I
did in the eighties before I migrated.
If any of my readers have a clearer
idea why Trinidad men have been so
passive towards kidnapping, please
share it. If anybody has any ideas on
getting the Trinidad men to wake up
and act, please share it.
What I can say is that the behav-
iour of Trinidad Indian men is un-
natural and very scary. They are
members of a society where they are
being robbed of their life earnings,
when they are being killed and prac-
tically driven out of the country.
When they see that the security
forces cannot or will not protect
them, they must conclude they have
no security. They have to take their
security in their own hands and fight
for their lives, or they have to flee. It
comes down to fight or flight.
Trinidad Indian men have chosen
to do neither, and that is really baf-
fling. To my knowledge they are not
analyzing and studying kidnapping
either. They are not developing in-
dependent plans and strategies to
deal with the kidnapping. Incredibly,
they still seem to be hoping the cor-
rupt and incompetent Trinidad po-
lice will suddenly change its nature
and become effective after five
years of failure.
I have spoken to several Indo-Trini
men about kidnapping in the last
few years and I am still baffled.
When given the standard “describe,
analyze and solve” formula they do
a fair job or describing and analyz-
ing the kidnapping crisis. They fail
utterly at the “solve” portion. I sug-
gest that since the security position
is critical and the official security
forces have failed, Indians must then
do what is needed to guarantee their
own security in Trinidad. That’s
where meaningful conversation
ends.
Too many start musing, ”If
Bhadase was alive…if the Poolool
boys were alive.. if Dole Chadee
was around..” I am not joking. They
start calling on dead men to save
them! Or they start suggesting that a
few Tamil Tigers from Sri Lanka or
Indo-Caribbean marines from the
American army might do the trick.
They say it will take special people
(that they don’t have available) to
defend Indians from kidnappers.
They say Indian business people
will not cooperate. They say how
dangerous it will be, how long it will
take. They will give a dozen reasons
why nothing can be done and not
one reason why anything can be
done, just as the Guyanese Indians
used to do during the
Burnham/Hoyte era.
And then they say it’s easy for you
to talk when you are living safe in
Canada, but you don’t understand
what’s going on in Trinidad. Obvi-
ously these Trinidad men are sleep-
ing more comfortably in their beds
than some of us in Canada, and
that’s really, really scary.
Other than a very few exceptions
like lawyer Anand Ramlogan,
Trinidad Indian men seem to be nei-
ther pro-active nor reactive when it
comes to kidnapping. They are
mostly inactive. And yes, I know it’s
easy to be critical when we are sit-
ting safe in our non-burglar proofed,
unfenced homes in Canada. But we
really cannot be happy at the non-re-
sponse of our Indian brothers and
sisters to kidnapping. A fire is burn-
ing up the drapes in the living room
of Indians in Trinidad and the fire
brigade is not answering the phone.
They have to put out the fire them-
selves or else evacuate the building.
Right now.

SCOTTS AND MENDEZ OVERSEAS UNITED

& MASTERS SPORTS CLUB
GRAND INDIAN MUSICAL EXTRAVAGANZA
Saturday April 14 at 6.30 p.m Sharp
CHINGUACOUSY SECONDARY SCHOOL
1370 WILLIAMS PARKWAY, BRAMPTON

FEATURING TORONTO’S BEST IN SONG, MUSIC & DANCE

Singers Sharma Ramdular Ganga Persaud Bobby Armoogam
Bisram Raquel Mahadeo Shanti Jackree
Romeena Ali Randy Mahadeo
MUSIC BY SOUND SENSATIONS LED BY BOBBY ARMOOGAM
DANCES BY CHRIS BADREE SCHOOL OF DANCE AND FERRYAN
ADMISSION $10 per person (Children under 6 Free).
For tickets and info call Deo at 416-798-2118, Shanti at 416-588-7827,
Terry at 905-799-3494, Johnny at 416-897-1973.
Customer Quote
We chose J5 Networks to be our IT Service providers because of their
knowledge in all IT areas. Their technicians – who have always been
available to us – have applied their knowledge and used their resources
to help resolve our IT challenges and issues on many occasions. With
time always being an issue, this support is imperative in the property
management industry, with the need to have real time info at our fin-
gertips, 24/7.”
Anisa Boland, Beaux Properties
 A Wall of Peace for
COMMUNITY NEWS Indo-Caribbean Times April 2007
A TRINIDAD
Hindu Museum
PENSION COULD
BE YOURS FOR
THE ASKING
If you worked in Trinidad and Tobago and
paid into the National Insurance System
(NIS ) before coming to Canada to live,
there may be some
money coming to
you. .
Retirement ben-
efits of up to
$24,0000 TT a year
(raised from
$12,000 effective
January 1, 2008)
Gobin Maharaj
are among the five
types of entitlements for former TT work-
One view of how the Wall of Peace would look when completed. ers. Consulting group Ramcharitar and As-
sociates and Prudential Management
Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Mike Colle is coming to the Hindu Museumof Services is offering a service to help
Civilization on Thursday April 12 to announce a $200,000 grant for the Wall of Peace
Trinidadians resident in Canada to obtain
project. them.
The Museum, located on the grounds of the Vishnu Mandir at 8640 Yonge Street, Rich-
“If you paid into NIS between 1972 and
mond Hill, has decided to create a Wall of Peace to send a message of harmony among all the present time, you are entitled to all NIS
religions and at the same time stimulate peace consciousness in all nations. The wall has
benefits no matter where you live. It does-
come about because of ongoing tensions in the world. n’t matter if you are getting similar benefits
It depicts warfare from Alexander the great to the nuclear explosion. Its uniqueness will
in Canada . This something you paid for,
be that it will consist of the personalities and symbols of major religion which include: something you have a right to, “ says Gobin
Lord Mahavir of Jainis, Lord Buddha, Lord Jesus Christ, Shri Guru Nanak of Sikhism,
Maharaj, a Toronto based agent of the con-
The Star of David, The Symbol of Islam, Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson sulting group.
Mandela and a Symbol of Hinduism
Retirement payments through NIS kick in
Dr.Deepak Chopra is a patron of the Wall of the peace and he will inaugurate the proj- after the person reaches the age of 60, and
ect on May 27th, 2007 at 2:30 p.m. Mr. Michael Lee-Chin of AIC has donated $100,000
currently range from a minimum for quali-
to this Wall of Peace. fied people of $200 TT a month upwards
Dr. Budhendra Doobay, president of the Museum, has said “This is the only type of peace
This amount will soon increase. The actual
structure in the Western world and we hope it will carry a message of peace and harmony amount will depend on the number and
amongst all religions.
value of NIS payments and the time of
qualification.
Disability benefits can be paid to those
who are under 60 and unable to work for a
living. Survivor benefits are due for the
widow or widower of a person who has
died while being qualified for NIS . A sur-
vivor can also cash in on a $4,000 funeral
grant, even though the actual funeral could
have taken place years ago. There are also
education benefits if a qualified person has
died leaving children still going to school.
Maharaj emphasizes that all of these ben-
efits are payable even if the individual is
living in Canada , if the spouse died here, or
if the children are going to school in
Canada . Place of residence has nothing to
do with entitlement to NIS benefits.
Maharaj and the consulting group in
An emotional Wazir Ali, father of murdered schoolboy Aleem Ali, Trinidad will handle all the paperwork in-
along with other relatives carry the sealed, white coffin bearing his volved in making the claims, including
son's remains at his Seecharan Streeet, Arouca home finding forgotten NIS numbers, answering
There are reports that Ali often complained he was being, beaten and his money stolen questions from the NIS and appeals.
from him by other pupils. It is believed that there was a problem with a schoolgirl who had Canadian Trinidadians can contact Ma-
dumped a boy belonging to a gang in favour of Ali, and that the security guard was sup- haraj at 905-673-1541, by e-mail at g.ma-
porting them by harassing Ali. Mo feels there must be some reason beyond the normal to haraj@rogers.com or contact the head
explain the extreme savagery of the attack on his nephew. office directly in Trinidad at Ramcharitar &
About a thousand mourners gathered at the Seecharan Street, Arouca home of Ali last Sat- Associates, 10 Victoria Square East, P.O.
urday to pay their last respects to a young boy, who most of them described as very jolly Box 236 , Port of Spain , Trinidad W.I., at
and ambitious. Ali wanted to become a graphic artist and also a mechanic. “Aleem wanted 868-625-4636 or email at
to be just like his grandfather, fixing up cars and customising them,” said a school friend. ramassoc2003@yahoo.com.
Stating that family members are trying to cope with the murder, Ali’s uncle Ahazad said
that the family, especially Ali's mother, remain in disbelief. "He was not involved in any-
thing illegal and spent most of his time in the mosque or in the pluck shop where he worked
on a weekend," Ahazad said.
His body could not have been viewed at the funeral service as it was burnt beyond recog-
nition and was placed in a sealed, pearly white coffin. “All I want is justice. What my wife
and I are going through right now, it is just not easy — words can’t really explain,” an emo-
tional father, Wazir said.
Ali was buried at the Five Rivers Islamic cemetery following the short service which
was conducted under Muslim rites. Tyron Ali, the boy’s grandmother said that evil was
stalking the land. She said that her grandson did not deserve to have his life snatched away
from him, and she called on members of the public to force the Government and the au-
thorities to do something about the crime in the country.
LATEST NEWS: An 18-year-old security guard was released from police custody after 3
days of questioning, and pAdrienne Duff noticed them three years ago, drifting in a Bramp-
ton branch of the Credit River.
Page 3
*1st & 2nd Mortgages
*Pre-approval
*Debt Consolidation
*Lines of credit
*Business loans
*Bank turndown
*Self employed? Rudy Lochan
*Refinance at lower rates & save $$
Call me today for the best deal in town!
Ph: 416-410-7501 Fax: 647-430-5793
1183 FinchAve. W, Suite 306, Toronto
www.anavafinancing.com *e-mail:anava@rogers.com
Call today for a free consultation
GTA Hindus looking
for a river to place
ashes and offerings
A Credit Valley Conservation agency
worker has opened up the issue of how to
handle Hindus making river offerings of
puja materials and ashes. Landowners liv-
ing near Fletcher’s Creek observed clusters
of flowers, plastic statues, coconuts – some
still wrapped in plastic – even jewellery and
money.
Together with other conservation agencies,
they started talking to Hindu groups whose
members were making the river offerings.
Priests and temple elders promised to help
by urging community members to limit
their offerings to small amounts of flowers.
Devout Hindus hope their cremated re-
mains will be dispersed in moving water.
The ritual, a symbolic cleansing of the
body, is being quietly practised within a
GTA Hindu community of 200,000, as of
the 2001 census, that is growing rapidly.
"In any discussion of the issue of river of-
ferings, we cannot avoid discussing the
issue of ash remains," said Roopnauth
Sharma, president of the Federation of
Hindu Temples of Canada and a spiritual
leader at Ram Mandir (temple) in Missis-
sauga. Hindus hope to find a safe and sanc-
tioned place where last rites and other
rituals can be performed freely.
"Right now this is happening in Ontario,"
Sharma said. "People are dying and people
are depositing ashes (in lakes and rivers).
We're not sure whether it's against the law."
The province's environment ministry says
it has no problem with the practice so long
as it is carried out with "dignity, decorum
and consideration of other members of the
community." Conservation authorities
argue it is not allowed and is subject to local
bylaws.
Immersing ashes in a river, somewhere, is
one of the final steps in the elaborate death
ritual for a devout Hindu. Sharmand other
spiritual leaders are quietly preparing to
lobby for a spot on a river or lake system,
that would be designated as a place to make
offerings and scatter ashes.

COMMENTARY
Indo-Caribbean Times is pub-
lished monthly in Toronto by
Indo-Caribbean Times Ltd.
Editor/Publisher: Ram Jagessar
Editorial Committee:
Reynold Ramdial, Gulcharan Mo-
habir, Lloyd Harradan, Sandy
Kissoonsingh, Roop Misir, Deoraj
Narine, Jiantee Jagessar,Krishna
Nankissoor
Offi
ficce: 17 Gaiety Drive,
Toronto ON Canada M1H 1B9
Tel: 416-289-3898
E-Mail: ictimes@rogers.com
Opinions given in this newspaper
are those of the authors and do
not necessarily reflect the views
of the Indo-Caribbean Times.
We welcome letters, e-mails and
comments on matters relevant to
Indo-Caribbeans. All content
must comply with the require-
ments of Canadian law
If you want my vote this election..
Indo-Caribbean Times
By Ram Jagessar
Provincial elections in Ontario are due
later this year, and federal elections could
come at any time. Politicians are already
putting out their hooks to catch our votes.
They know that Indo Caribbeans with a
population of over 200,000 in Canada
have well over 120,000 votes to cast.
I think that we must not give away all
votes cheaply. My advice to the politi-
cians is that if you want my vote you have
to show me what you are going to do for
me and my community. You have to write
it down in your manifesto for all to see
and for me to check later.
You have to do something about this dis-
gusting immigration system that is frus-
trating my relatives and friends who are
willing to come to Canada. Why is there
a secret quota system for places like
Guyana and Trinidad? Why does it take
three years to process an independent ap-
plication, and as much as five years for
sponsoring a parent? Canadian embassies
in the Caribbean must stop treating our
people as if they were all crooks trying to
defraud the system. You either want im-
April 2007
your mind and play it straight up.
You have to do something about the amount
of poverty and especially child poverty in
Canada. It's unacceptable that 20 percent
of the people live under the poverty line,
and in immigrant communities like ours as
much as 30% are poor in this rich country.
I am not ready to accept that one of five
children in Toronto is living in poverty.
You politicians have to tell us what you are
going to do about affordable housing for
millions of people. It is not right that we
have people earning minimum wage who
can never afford to buy a home which can
cost an average of a quarter million dollars
in the GTA.
You have to fix the child care crisis in On-
tario and several other provinces. It is crim-
inal to have people earning minimum wage
spend three quarter of their salary on child
care.
You have to tell us what you are going to
do about this traffic gridlock that paralyzes
most of the cities where the majority of
Canadians live. Why is it that we have to
spend an hour and a half in a car in rush
Page 4
have decent public transportation systems
like in England or Japan?
You'll have to tell us how you are going to
slow down the inflation rate and prices that
are moving faster than the increases in our
salaries. This means that our standard of
living is actually falling backward, and the
buying value of our dollar keeps falling
You have to show us what you are going to
do about the discrimination against visible
minority immigrants groups that is the root
of the slow Progress of such groups in
Canada. For example, even though we are
close to 50% in Toronto, visible minorities
are way behind in employment, salaries,
positions and acceptance as compared to
the white Canadian population.
If you want my vote you must show me
how you will speed up the acceptance of
minority cultures and religions in Canada.
You must show how you will expand the
school system in Ontario to allow religious
groups other than the Catholics to operate
schools within the Ministry of Education.
And finally, the big one, our environment.
The sight of our cities getting dirty and run
down, vagrants and streetpeople every-

Letters
migrants like me or you don’t, so make up hour moving from downtown Toronto to where is unacceptable. This is not the

Guest Opinion: Vishnu Bisram

Mississauga or Scarborough? Why don't we Canada I came to. I want the old one back.
CONTINUE TO WRITE tries, make nice speeches, however, they

NACTA poll predicts easy

ABOUT CRIMES AGAINST IN- fail hoplelessly when it comes to action.
DIANS In Trinidad it is clear from sentiments ex-

win for PNM in Trinidad

pressed in Calypsoes and condoned by the
Dear Editor, Government that our Indian women are

general elections in 2007

I must with immense pleasure congratu-
late you and your team for putting together
a Newspaper that shows a degree of passion
that must touch the inner core of the
Trinidad and Guyanese Indian people.
For too long the other papers have skirted
around the sufferings of our people in the
Caribbean, reluctant to discuss in depth the
issues of racism and the targetting of our
men and womenfolks in particular.
I urge you to continue to be explicit about
the rapes of our Indian women and all
crimes against our people on the whole.
Those women who have the courage and
the guts to come forward and expose those
nasty and totally repulsive degenerates in
our society needs our full support in their
rehabilitation.
Our people over here needs to be shocked
to their senses. Perhaps easy living in a rel-
atively safe country has betrayed our con-
cerns for those brave people back home.I
hope your article shock those of us over
here to the extent that we show our repul-
sion to those Government Ministers and Of-
ficials who are feted and given the red
carpet treatment whenever they come to
Canada. The opportunists and ass lickers
are easily identifiable during these visits.
Let these officials leave these shores with
no doubt whatsoever that their inactivity or
inability to tackle the growing menace of
these criminals cannot be condoned.
We should mobilise our effort and expose
the President of Guyana and the Prime Min-
ister of Trinidad and Tobago as people who
display a barren thought process when it
comes to tackling crime in their respective
country, particularly crimes against the In-
dian people.
What is a worrying is the fact that these
are countries with relatively small popula-
tion - God help us if the population of
Guyana and Trinidad were like that of
India!! Our Leaders talk big in their coun-
lusted after by the black people. This is not
racist ranting. These are facts and we must
have courage to express them. Your news-
paper has touched upon it. Crimes against
the Indian people in that island seems to be
organised and orchestrated from some- But united opposition could remove unpopular PNM
where at the top. If it was not there would
EVEN though voters are not pleased with conducted by Vishnu Bisram, “the people
have been wholesale condemnation of the
the Government’s handling of UNC leader wanted a united Opposition under a leader
rapes on our women from the Prime Minis-
Basdeo Panday and Chief Justice Satnarine whocould attract voters and who would not
ter in particular. What is he or his Ministers
Sharma’s criminal trials, the Nacta poll hesitate in making decisions.”
doing? Celebrating Carnival? The agenda
shows this has not, in any way, seriously af- The only hope for the Opposition was an
against our women folks is quite clear.
fected the People’s National Movement’s electoral alliance led by an individual of in-
Our Indian men needs to be vocal. Pan-
(PNM) chance of winning the general elec- tegrity who could sway swing voters and
day, perhaps the only brave Indian man in
tion due by year’s end. non-committed voters to vote for it, the poll
Trinidad is fierceless, but he seems to be
The latest findings of the Nacta poll stated. Among names mentioned as leaders
battling not only the opposition but his own
showed the handling of the Panday and were Stephen Cadiz, Ramesh Lawrence
people who have brought these sufferings
Sharma trials created a perception “that Maharaj, Reggie Dumas and Karl Hudson-
on themselves. They forgot all the good
Government wants to run the CJ and Bas Phillips.
things Panday has done for Trinidad over
from office.” However, the poll predicted ”The infighting is driving supporters of
the years and brand him dishonest because
the PNM easily winning this year’s election both COP and UNC away from the polls
he failed allegedly to make full financial
with a possible special majority in the face and may enable the PNM to pick up seats
disclosure to Parliament. Is there one brave
of the divided oppositionUnited National that are considered traditional safe UNC,”
Trinidadian who has the guts to challenge
Congress (UNC). According to the findings the poll stated.
the disclosure of the Black Leaders of
of the poll, conducted two weeks ago, voter “Many Opposition supporters say they are
Trinidad? It seems in their eyes that Indians
apathy and division within the Opposition turned off by the inability of the UNC to
are the dishonest ones. Wake up people in
were eroding the base of the UNC, which pursue reforms but are also disappointed
Trinidad. You need a Leader that can looks
was projected to lose several of the seats it with the make up of the COP.
the other Leader in the eyes, call his bluff
now holds. “Many among the Indian middle and pro-
and show him what an inept and unbal-
“The PNM is projected to win between fessional classes who swung towards COP
anced leader he is.
27 and 31 seats with the rest ofthe seats when it was launched have become non-
The Indian people should for once in their
going to the UNC,” the poll stated.In fact, voters, although some have returned to the
lives unite behind one leader and get rid of
the ruling party was projected to win all of UNC because of the projected weakness of
the present administration which is pre-
the marginals and could also pick up St Au- the COP.”
dominantly Black, one that does not have
gustine. Although there was dissatisfaction Voters, according to the poll, felt for the
the interest of the Indian people at heart.
with the PNM, voters did not view either UNC to improve its chances in the election,
By having a strong united Indian Admin-
the UNC or the Congress of the People it had to overhaul the party and enter into
istration again, the attacks on our Indian
(COP) as an alternative to the ruling an accommodation with the rest of the Op-
people, particularly our women will cease.
regime. position forces.
The Indians needs to be pushed. Well - they
However, if the Opposition was united, The survey showed PNM supporters were
have been pushed - get Panday and his
there would be a close contest that could united behind their party.”The African mid-
team back in powers and stop for once this
see the PNM losing government because a dle and professional classes are not moving
childish squabble amongst yourselves.
majority of voters were disenchanted with towardsDookeran’s COP in significant
its overall performance, the poll stated. The numbers to upset the PNM’s re-election-
Sincerely
survey was conducted to determine popu- chances,” the poll stated.
Taij Seetarram
lar support for the political parties in the
coming election. According to the report,
TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO NEWS
Muslimeen members confess to killing Vindra Naipaul
Three members of the Jamaat Al Mus-
limeen have confessed to their lawyer of
their role in the kidnapping, murder and dis-
memberment of the body of Extra Foods
Chief Executive Officer Vindra Naipaul-
Coolman in Decem-ber last year.
But a deal to offer the men amnesty in ex-
change for fingering the other gang mem-
bers has collapsed, and the men have gone
into hiding.
The 51-year-old businesswoman was
snatched outside her Lange Park, Chagua-
Jamaat leader Yasin Abu Bakr has been
accused of starting kidnapping epidemic
nas, home on the night of December 19 last
year. A report submitted by United King-
dom officers based at the Special Anti-
Crime Unit of Trinidad and Tobago
(SAUTT) revealed that Naipaul-Coolman
was also shot.
Last month the three men met for one hour
with attorney Odai Ramischand at a secret
location and revealed all the details from
the time Naipaul-Coolman was snatched to
the disposal of her body.
The men who appeared scared said that
two members of their organisation who
were also involved in the kidnapping were
given instructions to execute them at all
costs. One of the men who was trembling
while being interviewed by Ramischand
said he and the two others have been in hid-
ing and wanted to give themselves up to the
police on the condition that they be granted
immunity and be placed in a safe house.
The men claimed that on the night of De-
cember 19, they, along with nine others,
were given specific instructions to grab
Naipaul-Coolman, take her to a house at La
Puerta Avenue, Diego Martin, and then the
ransom demand would be paid.
According to the men, the kidnapping was
botched when one of the kidnappers fired a
shot at the vehicle in which Naipaul-Cool-
man was seated. The bullet struck her on
the left side of the breast. She was driven to
La Puerta, where she was allowed to speak
briefly to her husband Rennie Coolman.
During her stay at the house in La Puerta,
the kidnappers got a doctor to visit Naipaul-
Coolman and administer medication to her
but her health started deteriorating. The
doctor told the kidnappers that the life of
the kidnap victim was in limbo because her
wound had become infected due to dia-
betes.
On December 20, Naipaul-Coolman was
raped by one of the men guarding her at the
house. On Thursday December 21, she suc-
cumbed to her gunshot injuries and died.
Her abductors panicked and a decision was
made to dismember the body. According to
one of the three men, the body was wrapped
in a cloth and taken to Central where it was
disposed off.
The three men said that following the
death of Naipaul-Coolman they learned that
instructions were given to kill them and
they have been in hiding since. They con-
Indo-Caribbean Times
tacted a friend who advised them to go to
Ramischand so that arrangements could be
made for them to be granted immunity and
protection.
Since then, however, the situation has de-
teriorated. Police questioned Ramischand
and said they had no confession. The three
men became fearful for their safety and
worried that Ramischand would not be al-
lowed to make a deal for their immunity.
They have disappeared, leaving the Naipaul
kidnapping in limbo. Police claim to be
working hard on the case but cannot report
any progress in finding the kidnappers or
Naipaul herself after more than three
months.
COP says
no unity with
Panday’s UNC
Basdeo Panday's calls for unity among
Opposition political parties have been dis-
missed as a public relations gimmick by the
United National Congress to tarnish the
image of the Congress of People.
Stressing this, COP's chairman Roy Au-
gustus said that the Congress was not inter-
ested in the formation of a government of
national unity with the UNC's current lead-
ership.
He said the COP was doing what he de-
scribed as "everything that we can do legit-
imately to achieve victory"against both the
Opposition UNC and the ruling People's
National Movement in the country's next
general elections, constitutionally due this
year.
"The COP will not be engaged (in unity
discussions) with the current leadership of
the UNC.
"Do you think that any sensible person
would accept the (unification of the) Con-
gress and the UNC at any level?"asked. Au-
gustus at a press conference held after the
party's monthly National Council meeting
at the Congress Operations Centre in Gas-
ton Court, Lange Park, Chaguanas. He was
joined by COP's Deputy Political Leader
Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan and party mem-
bers Hulsie Bhaggan and Dr Clyde Weath-
erhead.
"I think that the UNC is generating this
question of unity to show the Congress of
the People in another light. The idea is not
a call for unity but destruction.
FARMERS WILL NOT
ABANDON CANE
The Sugar Cane Farmers Co-operative is
predicting that cane farmerswill not aban-
don the industry when the Government of-
ficially closes itafter the 2007 crop.The
co-operative, headed by a group of former
Caroni (1975) Ltd managers, has sent a pro-
posal to the Government to revive the in-
dustryto produce mainly bagasse for a
French paper company.
Ramdeo Ramcharan, president of the co-
operative, last week insisted:”Farmers will
not go out of sugar cane.”
Giving reasons why cane would always be
attractive to farmers, he said:”Farmers have
all the knowledge about growing cane. The
soil type of their lands is best suited for
cane and they have no larceny prob-
lemwith this crop. Further, sugar is the only
produce that has a guaranteed market price.
If the farmers go into tomatoes, for in-
April 2007
stance, they will only know theprice when
they go to the market.”
Ramcharan predicted that farmers would
“take their compensation andstill go back
into sugar.” He also said that, “after two
years of producing sugar cane for bagasse,
farmers would see a higher return than what
they got for sugar. If farmers don’t benefit,
we will get out of the business,”
Ramcharan said the co-operative, which
sent its proposal to the Government since
February 28, was still awaiting feedback.
The co-operative wants to produce bagasse
for pulp for French paper company Com-
pagnie Industrielle de la Matiere Vegetale
(CIMV). and also planned to produce
ethanol from sugarcane.
Manning in full
election mode
Prime Minister Patrick Manning has gone
into full election mode, doing his walka-
bouts,spewing announcings left and right
and pledging billions in crowd pleasing
projects. Some of the latest include:
CLAIMS FULL EMPLOYMENT
Unemployment in Trinidad and Tobago
now officially stands at an historic all-time
low of five per cent Prime Minister Patrick
Manning said at the weekend.
He said this meant his administration had
achieved a goal of fullemployment that he
first began to pursue in 1995 against
tremendous scepticism.
"The final figures for the fourth quarter
are in, the figure is indeed five per cent for
the fourth quarter of 2006 and for the first
time
Trinidad and Tobago has achieved full em-
ployment," Manning said at a ruling Peo-
ple's National Movement (PNM) public
meeting in Chaguanas.
"I know of no other country in the
Caribbean that has been able to do that and
there are many outside of the Caribbean
that hasn't done it at all," he said.
$3 BILLION FOR YOUTH
Some $3 billion will be spent by the State
on programmes aimed atimproving the
lives of young people as part of the war on
crime.
Of that amount, Prime Minster Patrick
Manning said "$132 million will be spent
on providing real opportunities for youth at
risk within ourcommunities."
CONSULTATIONS ON CRIME
Manning announced the start of a series of
public consultations on crime later this
month. Social programmes and other issues
are to be explored during the consultations.
RAPID RAIL SYSTEM COMING
A $7 billion contract to build the Govern-
ment’s proposed rapid rail will be awarded
by month’s end.
Two consortia remain in the bidding war
for the rapid rail undertaking:the Trinitrain
consortium, led by Bouygues Travaux
Publics, and the T-3Group, led by Vinci
Construction and Bombardier.
The Government has positioned the rapid
rail as one possible cure for transportation
ills affecting the country.
A rapid rail would hasten the Govern-
ment’s plan to decentralise the city of Port-
Page 5
of-Spain, since a lack of transport options
had hindered decentralisation.
By 2010 the project was expected to be
complete from Curepe to Port-of-Spain and
Curepe to Chaguanas. There are plans to
extent into Penal and Siparia. In total, the
rapid rail will cover 72 miles at a cost of
US$15 million a mile.
NO EXECUTIVE PRESIDENT IN TT
Despite efforts to frame a new constitu-
tion that would recognise the post, Prime
Minister Patrick Manning now believes that
the population is not “sophisticated
enough” to facilitate an executive president.
Manning said T&T had not yet arrived at
“the end of the line” that would necessitate
the administration of an executive presi-
dent.
NO PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTA-
TION
Manning also gave a vote of no confi-
dence to the issue of proportional repre-
sentation, which he believes could work in
the Opposition party’s favour by giving
more power to the country’s largest ethnic
group.
“The politicians who have the upper hand
in that matter, and at this time they form the
Opposition will find it too attractive a
proposition not to use,” he argued.
CJ OWES STATE $1 MILLION
Chief Justice Sat Sharma owes the State
over $1 million, Attorney General John Je-
remie HAS disclosed , as he gave the fig-
ures paid to attorneys hired by the
government in the case against Sharma.
Sharma was ordered to pay all legal costs
incurred by the State in the matter before
the Privy Council in which Sharma had
brought an action which sought to prevent
him from being arrested on a charge of al-
legedly attempting to pervert the course of
justice in the integrity matter against former
prime minister Basdeo Panday.
While he won in the High Court, Sharma
lost in the local Appeal Court and at the
Privy Council.
After the Privy Council's ruling, he sur-
rendered and the matter went to the
Trinidad High Court, as he was charged
with the offence.
Last month the charges against the CJ col-
lapsed after Chief Magistrate Sherman Mc-
Nicholls refused to testify. As McNicholls
was expected to be the chief witness against
Sharma, the judge threw out the case.
Sharma has taken steps to resume his posi-
tion as as chief justice, and is being sup-
ported by some lawyers in the belief that
the state should pay his legal costs.
An unexpected result of the failure of the
case against Sharma has been the release of
former prime minister Basdeo Panday on
charges of failing to declare his full assets
to the Integrity Commission.
Panday had been sentenced to a jail term
of six years by Chief Magistrate Sherman
McNicholls. The Court found that the deci-
sion of McNicholls in the Panday case was
tainted by his refusal to testify in the
Sharma case and dismissed the charges
against Panday. A new trial has been or-
dered for Panday, but it is not known if or
when this will take place.
Panday has already said that it would be
ridiculous to have a new trial in front of a
magistrate appointed by Mr McNicholls,
who retains his post as chief magistrate.
The Suff(e)rage of Trinidad and Tobago
TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO
By Lloyd Harradan
BASDEO PANDAY strolled into the
House of Representatives today... took his
seat... wearing a smug "I told you so" facial
expression, daring the PNM Government
and Speaker Sinanan to stop him.... Sub-
lime theater, performed flawlessly and with
consummate flair, as only BAS could.
Speaker Sinanan talked about seeking legal
advice, some heckled, but they were out-
shone by the master, Basdeo Panday… this
was a quintessential PANDAY moment and
he nailed it. An OSCAR performance, no
doubt about that. (CCDSJ)
It is good that the CCDSJ characterizes
this political event as theater. It followed
the quashing of Panday’s conviction by the
appeal court, which itself was the culmina-
tion of a series of events that can only be
described as the theatre of the absurd.
Chief Magistrate Sherman McNicholls
gave Panday the maximum sentence
Manning and the PNM, having lost three
elections, are not so sure of themselves.
They recognize that one man was responsi-
ble for their defeat. And Manning took it
upon himself to destroy that man. The man,
of course is Basdeo Panday.
The current charges against Panday, for
failing to declare a London bank account,
were instigated by Manning. When the
Chief Magistrate alleged that Justice Sat-
narine Sharma had tried to influence him in
Prime Minister Patrick Manning
At the centre of the bacchanal
the Panday trial, Manning set out to get the
Chief Justice. Criminal charges were laid
against the Chief Justice. That matter blew
up in Manning’s face when the Chief Mag-
istrate refused to attend court to be cross-
examined. Now the Panday matter has also
blown up in his face. Manning should be an
embarrassment to his party and country.
Apparently, not in Trinidad and Tobago.
In both cases there was political interfer-
ence in the administration of justice. Yet the
PNM, after the Appeal Court ruling had the
gall to claim that ” the judicial system was
set up in such a way that prevented prose-
cutions from being politically moti-
vated…The PNM applauds and respects the
doctrine of separation of powers, the rule of
law and principle of due process.”
The doctrine of the Separation of Powers
was never highly regarded in Trinidad and
Tobago. It was never clear to anyone, least
Indo-Caribbean Times
of all Manning, who is not the brightest
bulb in the string, that the Prime Minister is
not the Chief Justice’s boss. The Prime
Minister cannot tell the Chief Justice, “Re-
sign or be fired.” He could quietly suggest
to the President that the Chief Justice be im-
peached. Similarly, the Westminster model
does not allow the legislature much control
over the executive. In the case of Trinidad,
the legislature has been used as a rubber-
stamp. Dookeran has recounted that when
he tried to raise the Sharma matter in Par-
liament the motion was turned down by the
speaker. Such motions are invariably un-
successful. The legislature is effectually si-
lenced.
SHARMA WANTS HIS JOB BACK
CHIEF JUSTICE Sat Sharma has written
to President George Maxwell Richards stat-
ing that he was ready to resume duties, as
Head of the Judiciary.
Sources at President’s House also con-
firmed that Sharma and President Richards
spoke on the telephone, but there were no
details of what they spoke about.
This follows the dismissal of a criminal
charge against Sharma after his main ac-
cuser, Chief Magistrate Sherman Mc
Nicholls refused to give testimony in the
criminal case against him.
On July 31, 2006, acting in accordance
with section 103 of the constitution, Presi-
dent Richards relieved Sharma of his post
as Chief Justice. This decision was made
after Sharma wrote to the President indi-
cating that he would not be sitting as Pres-
ident of the Court of Appeal, but would
continue to carry out his administrative du-
ties.
Richards appointed Justice Roger Hamel-
Smith to act as Chief Justice. At the time
Sharma was removed from office, a warrant
was out for his arrest on a charge of at-
tempting to pervert the course of public jus-
tice in that he tried to influence the Chief
Magistrate to rule favorably for Basdeo
Panday on charges of failing to declare his
London bank account to the Integrity Com-
mission for the years 1997, 1998, and 1999.
The police, on July 14, 2006, obtained a
warrant for Sharma’s arrest, but the Chief
Justice was able to get Madame Justice Ju-
dith Jones to grant him a series of injunc-
tions blocking the arrest. The Court of
Appeal lifted the injunctions, but Sharma
went to the Judicial Committee of the Privy
Council in London.
On November 30, 2006, the Privy Coun-
cil dismissed Sharma’s appeal, paving the
way for him to be formally charged with the
offence. He surrendered later that day and
was granted $250,000 bail.
The State decided to go the way of a paper
committal preliminary inquiry. After 25
statements were tendered into evidence and
after Mc Nicholls went into the witness box
to be cross-examined on March 5, the pros-
ecutor Gilbert Peterson SC dropped a
bombshell that he was discontinuing the
case against Sharma.
The reason given was that Mc Nicholls
no longer wanted to give evidence in the
criminal case, opting to testify at impeach-
ment proceedings which have not been in-
stituted.
We see no reason why Sharma should not
follow Panday’s example and walk back
into his job.
MANNING AS TERMINATOR
According to Lennox Grant, of the
Trinidad Guardian, “the Manning PNM
April 2007
drew on the State’s legal apparatus to ha-
rass and discomfit actual and potential op-
position.” A lot of it backfired, according to
Grant.
The list is long. There was the attack on
the Elections and Boundaries Commission.
Then the denial of a radio licence to the
Maha Sabha, the planting of evidence on
Sadiq Baksh, charges against Fuad Khan
and Finbar Gangar, attacks on protestors
like Inshan Ishmael. If this is theater, Man-
ning is the tragic-comical anti-hero doomed
to come to a tragic end.
WHY ONLY PANDAY?
Director of Public Prosecutions Geoffrey
Henderson is being blamed by the Integrity
Commission for failing to start criminal
prosecution of politicians who have broken
the law.
This was brought to light in a dramatic
Former minister Dr Morgan Job
Did not file declaration, not charged
twist, in the judicial review case brought by
former Prime Minister Basdeo Panday
against the Integrity Commission, for its
failure to prosecute other public figures
who have breached the Integrity in Public
Life Act.
Alkins said, in his review of the commis-
sion’s records, that he discovered that sev
eral people had never filed declarations.
They included former parliamentary sec-
retary, Ministry of Legal Affairs, Andrew
Casimir, who did not file for 1990 and
1991. He added that on May 13, 1996, the
commission caused the publication of
Casimir’s name, along with that of Hart Ed-
wards (Permanent Secretary,) Gideon
Hanomansingh (former MP) and Occah
Seapaul (former Speaker of the House of
Representatives), for failing to file their
1994 declarations.
On March 26, 2002, Alkins said he caused
the publication of names of Dr Morgan Job
(former government minister,) Justice An-
thony Carmona, (former acting DPP) and
Mary Blandin (Permanent Secretary), for
failing to file declarations for the years
1998 and 1999.
Alkins said on March 29, 2000, the com-
mission wrote to the DPP, informing him
that they had published in the Gazette, the
names Claire Blake (acting chief parlia-
mentary counsel), Carol Cuffy-Dowlat,
Winston Gibson (chief technical officer)
Hamid O’Brien and Hector McClean
(Speaker of the House of Representatives)
for failing to declare under the 1987 act.
Alkins denied Panday’s claim that he,
Panday, and Gangar were singled out for
criminal prosecution while PNM defaulters
were not being pursued.
He pointed to the instances of Ministers
Franklin Khan and Eric Williams, who are
both before the court on corruption charges,
based on the commission’s recommenda-
tions.
Alkins pointed to a number of letters dis-
patched to the DPP, listing names of de-
Page 6
faulters who have failed to declare, in some
instances, for ten years and more.
Ten Years? And none of them charged?
Why are we not hearing anything about the
Franklin Khan and Eric Williams matters?
Or about allegations against Keith Rowley.
Something about transferring building ma-
terials in Tobago?
TERRORIST AND PEDOPHILES IN
THE PNM?
Former PNM St Joseph candidate Dr
Sharon Gopaul-McNicol has cut ties with
the ruling party, saying that she has seen
racism in the bowels of the PNM and saw
sexual molestation allegations swept under
the carpet.
Gopaul-McNicols was speaking at the
Congress of the People rally at Trincity
Mall car park on 18th March 2007. She said
in the last general elections she saw racism
within the PNM. "I saw political terrorism
as people were blocked from the election
site because of their race, they were called
names and they were told to go back to Ca-
roni," she said. "It broke my heart then and
it still does now," she said. She said there
Former UNC minister Finbar Gangar
Prosecuted along with Basdeo Panday
were allegations of sexual molestation of
children and she did everything possible but
yet there was no change.
Gopaul-McNichols is apparently referring
to the PNM’s use of the Muslimeen in the
last election to keep Indians away from the
polls. The PNM has done some terrible
things in its time, but molesting children?
How low can they sink?
At the same rally COP deputy chairman
Hulsie Bhaggan declared:
“…we have the PNM, and Manning is run-
ning ok and all the people around him are
sitting like mooks, so now we have the Peo-
ple’s Network of Mooks.” So Manning, ac-
cording to Hulsie, is a mook running amok.
There seems to be merit in this claim.
THE UNC GETS A BOOST
THE Opposition United National Con-
gress (UNC) will receive a political boost
as a result of the Court of Appeal’s verdict
in favour of UNC leader Basdeo Panday,
Congress of the People’s (COP) Ganga
Singh said yesterday.
Singh said: “In the same way that the
UNC suffered when Mr. Panday was con-
victed, the party will now receive a bounce
as a result of the current Court of Appeal
decision.
And Dooks welcomed Panday back to the
House. The Mook was absent. Maybe they
see which way the wind is blowing?
80,000 Guyanese living
GUYANA NEWS
(illegally) in Venezuela
near Guyana border
Many others
living in the
capital Caracas
Guyana's ambassador to
Venezuela, Dr Odeen Ish-
mael has stunned the nation
with the news that about
80,000 Guyanese are living
in Venezuela's border areas.
Hundreds of Guyanese
live in Caracas and in the
other cities but the majority
- tens of thousands - live in
the border areas, many of
them illegally, he said in a
recent interview.
The former vice-president
and foreign affairs minister
of Venezuela had estimated
that some 80,000 Guyanese
were living mainly in the
border areas of Puerto
Ordaz and San Felix, about
four to five hours drive out
of Caracas .
"We don't know the actual
numbers but a large number
there is illegal. The numbers fluctuate be-
cause some go to Venezuela and some come
back to Guyana periodically," he said, re-
ferring to the nomadic nature of the people
who lived mainly in the border areas and
who had relatives living on both sides of the
border.
The Guyanese who went to Venezuela
were from different social and economic
groupings than those who migrated to
North America and other destinations. They
went to Venezuela looking for jobs includ-
ing mining, farming or small-scale com-
mercial enterprises.
In the border areas, Ishmael said, the
Guyanese "have established some very in-
teresting places like Puerto Ordaz and in
San Felix. If you go to those localities you
would think you are in Guyana . All the
businesses along the streets are owned by
Guyanese and the buildings are owned by
Guyanese. The market places… would be
like going to a market in Guyana with all
the Guyanese products on sale. You'd think
you are in Guyana . Guyanese Creolese is
spoken."
In spite of the fact that the older Guyanese
maintained their Guyanese identity, "their
children identify themselves as Venezue-
lans. They don't speak English. They speak
the Spanish Creolese. So they grow up in
that situation adopting the Venezuelan cul-
ture, food and dress. The children become
more Venezuelan. As they grow older they
would begin to identify with their Guyanese
background."
He felt that the problem of a lack of iden-
tity and maintaining their Guyanese her-
itage was related to their parents' own social
and economic well-being. In Venezuela
many "parents are working, struggling to
make a life for themselves and their chil-
dren, and are hardly ever at home and this
creates a problem."
Indo-Caribbean Times
Documentation problem
Another problem, he said, was that many
children born to Guyanese in Venezuela did
not have documentation identifying them as
residents of Venezuela , so they were ille-
gal residents. "Children born in Venezuela
are supposed to be Venezuelans according
to international law, because they are born
there, but this is not so in the case of
Guyanese children in Venezuela because
they are not registered - do not have either
Guyanese or Venezuelan nationalities," he
said.
The problems arose when the children
reached school age, he said. Asked how this
issue was being resolved, he said that the
Guyana mission in Caracas would ask par-
ents to register their children as Guyanese
through the mission. The problem was that
they had to retrieve the documented infor-
mation from the hospital where they were
born. This process could be cumbersome.
However, once that had been received by
the Guyana mission it was then sent to the
Registrar General in Guyana for approval.
"I would say many, if not most of the par-
ents do not contact us on this matter. They
only do so when they need passports, and
this generally is when the children are eight
to ten years old. At that age, too, many are
still not in schools in the border areas," he
said.
There are "a few hundreds of Guyanese
living in Caracas , the majority of whom are
not professionals but are connected to offi-
cialdom," and these, he said, did not expe-
rience the problem of documentation
identifying their children as Guyanese.
Other problems, he said, were associated
with living conditions in the city areas.
Since the migrant population came from an
economic class that was not wealthy, they
remained poor living in barrios - slum areas
- which were associated with crime. He
said, "many Guyanese are caught up in
these because Venezuela has an extremely
high incidence of violent crime in which
Guyanese become involved. Most times
when Guyanese are arrested it is for drug-
related offences."
April 2007
Overseas Guyanese remit $53 billion,
equal to half the national budget
Overseas Guyanese sent home an amaz-
ing $270 million US last year, equivalent to
$51.3 billion Guyanese dollars or 49.9% of
Guyana's 2006 national budget of $102.9
billion. Each US dollar fetches 190 Guyana
dollars at the current rate of exchange.
The amount of money sent home privately
by overseas is not known, but it could add
up to a few billion more Guyanese dollars.
nge rate of $1 US to $190 Guyana, the re-
mittances equal $51.3 billion Guyana, or
49.9% of the 2006 budget of just under
$103 billion Guyana
This was five times as much as the $97
million US overseas Trinidadians sent back,
which is equivalent to $616 million TT.
The Trinidad remittance comes up to 1.7%
of the 2006 budget of $35.9 billion.
According to the Inter American Devel-
opmnent Bank, Guyana received US$270M
in remittances in 2006, part of a whopping
US$62.3B sent home by migrants from
Latin America and the Caribbean. !s remit-
ted from migrants, mostly in North Amer-
ica, Europe, and Asia was 14 percent higher
than the amount for 2005.
According to the Inter-American Develop-
ment Bank's Multilateral Investment Fund
(MIF), this figure is expected to rise to
about US$72B in 2007 in remittances to
Latin America and the Caribbean.
The remittance to Guyana is lower than
that sent to the Dominican Republic, which
recorded $2.6B, while Jamaica received
US$1.6B, and Haiti US$1 billion.
Trinidad & Tobago received US$97 mil-
lion, and Suriname US$55 million.
According to the IDB, remittances to
Latin America and the Caribbean will con-
tinue to grow in coming years, and surpass
$100 billion a year by 2010.
MIF Manager Donald F. Terry, Saturday,
Cleaning up the seawall
presented the estimate for the money trans-
fers made by Latin American and
It’s the famous Guyana seawall as you’ve
never seen if before- clean. sMaintenance
work on the Georgetown seawall from Vlis-
sengen Road to Fort Groyne in Kingston by
the Sea Defence Board has already given
the area a clean, new look but the project
faces the challenge of keeping the area free
from vagrants and garbage.
The work, being executed in three con-
tracts to the total value of $13.95 million
with funding from central government, is
being done by contractors Ignatius Harris
and Lilwattie Rajnauth.
Chief Sea and River Defence Officer
George Howard has said that the three
maintenance contracts were awarded in
February and will end on June 30.
Under the maintenance project, the con-
tractors would clean the landward and sea-
ward sides of the seawall on a daily basis.
One of the contractors reported that the
workers have weeded heaps of grass and
cleared tons of garbage from the seawall
but the challenge remains because some
businesses continue to dump what appears
to be industrial waste in areas just cleaned.
Maintenance work on the Georgetown
seawall from Vlissengen Road to Fort
Groyne in Kingston by the Sea Defence
Page 7
Caribbean migrants at a news conference
held on the eve of the annual meeting of the
IDB Board of Governors.
"Given present economic and demo-
graphic trends in Latin America and the
Caribbean, and in industrialized countries,
remittances will continue to grow in vol-
ume over the next few years to (reach) more
than $100 billion a year by 2010," he said.
For the IDB and the MIF, added Terry,
this growth is not a cause for celebration
because it reflects the fact that the region
cannot generate sufficient income opportu-
nities to prevent millions of people from
migrating.
Nevertheless, he said, remittances will
continue to flow. They already exceed both
foreign direct investment and overseas aid
to Latin America and the Caribbean, help-
ing millions of families to escape poverty.
"The challenge for the countries in this re-
gion, and for institutions such as the IDB
and the MIF, is to find ways so these flows
may have a greater development impact by
offering migrants and their families more
options to get more out of their money,"
Terry said.
The IDB and the MIF support pro-
grammes are aimed at expanding the eco-
nomic impact of remittances by
encouraging financial institutions to handle
these flows so that people who send or re-
ceive money transfers may build credit his-
tories and gain access to services such as
savings accounts, insurance, pensions, as
well as business and housing loans.
The MIF will also support a new pro-
gramme, launched by the International
Fund for Agricultural Development, which
will establish a $10 million facility to fi-
nance projects to cut the cost of making
money transfers to remote rural areas
around the world.
Board has already given the area a clean,
new look but the project faces the chal-
lenge of keeping the area free from va-
grants and garbage.
The work, being executed in three con-
tracts to the total value of $13.95 million
with funding from central government, is
being done by contractors Ignatius Harris
and Lilwattie Rajnauth.
Chief
S e a
a n d
River
D e -
fence
Officer
George
Clearing debris in the Fort Groyne area
Howard told Stabroek News that the three
maintenance contracts were awarded in
February and will end on June 30.
Under the maintenance project, the con-
tractors would clean the landward and sea-
ward sides of the seawall on a daily basis.
One of the contractors told the local
media that the workers have weeded heaps
of grass and cleared tons of garbage from
the seawall but the challenge remains be-
cause some businesses continue to dump
what appears to be industrial waste in
areas just cleaned.
Mini robbery wave
GUYANA NEWS
bothers Guyanese
POSTMASTER SHOT
IN $8 M ROBBERY
Four persons have been taken into cus-
tody following the $8.2M robbery in New
Amsterdam during which the Postmaster
of the Nigg Post Office was shot.
Postmaster Kishore Sewlall, 39, suffered a
gunshot wound to the pelvicarea and was
rushed to the New Amsterdam Hospital. He
underwent emergency surgery with the aim
of removing the bullet, but doctors were
unable to do so.
In the course of their daring robbery, the
bandits threw Sewlall and the Postmaster of
the New Amsterdam Post Office out of
Sewlall's car, at the corner of Republic Av-
enue and Alexander Street in New Amster-
dam. The car has since been recovered at
Vryheid, West Canje.
The two postmasters had just left the New
Amsterdam Post Office when the incident
occurred. The bandits, who were waiting at
the head of the street, threw a bicycle in the
path of the car, forcing it to stop. One of the
bandits, who carried a gun tried to force
Sewlall out of the car, while the other un-
armed bandit pulled Munesar out.
Sewlall, a father of two sons aged 13 and
14 years old was apparently attempting to
resist the bandit when he was shot.
RESTAURANT ROBBERY
Two men, one of whom was armed with a
gun robbed a Chinese restaurant at Her-
stelling, East Bank Demerara (EBD) of an
undisclosed sum of money before escaping
in a car.
The men robbed the Kei Kong restaurant
located on the Public Road at Herstelling.
About 10.30 am the men entered the
restaurant and ordered food and drinks.
After it arrived, one of them confronted the
cashier and demanded the money she had,
which was handed over. In the process she
was struck in the face.
ELDERLY VISITORS ROBBED
An elderly couple who appeared to be vis-
itors were choked and robbed on Saturday
night at the corner of Alexander and Regent
Streets by two men who had accomplices
lurking nearby.
An eye-witness to the robbery said the
Caucasian couple were walking hand-in-
hand east along Regent Street and were
nearing Alexander when two men con-
fronted them from behind.
After they were confronted, the woman
fought with her attackers but was eventu-
ally overpowered. The witness said the men
then robbed the couple.
THREE GUNMEN HIT BUDDY’S
Two men have been held in connection
with the recent robbery at the Buddy's In-
ternational office on Brickdam. Three men
armed with guns committed the robbery
while pretending to be customers.
The men walked into the office and said
they were there to do business before rob-
bing Company Secretary Meena Mookram
of $40,000, a Taurus .32 pistol and 22
rounds of matching ammunition. Security
guard Prince Edwards was relieved of a .32
Taurus pistol and 11 rounds of ammunition.
Edwards put up a fight and was shot in the
left thigh as a result.
Indo-Caribbean Times April 2007 Page 8
MASKED MEN AT BLACK BUSH
US PULLS THE PLUG
Three masked bandits, armed with two
guns - one long and one short - and a cut- FROM PAGE 1
lass, attacked and robbed a family at Mibi-
curi, Black Bush Polder of over $30,000 in But while almost everyone in Guyana
gold and silver jewellery around 6.45 pm agrees that the decision is understandable,
on a Sunday evening. given the ease with which official docu-
The bandits entered Hublall Tulsi's kitchen ments can be bought for a small fee, the
ARMED ROBBERY OF $1.8M
in the lower flat of the building and stripped larger story has to do with what was not
Police said they believe that the two men his wife, Pearl Peters of her gold rings, a said and what the new ruling means.
chain and a cellular phone. They also For one thing, locals trying to obtain a
who carried out the armed robbery on
robbed Peters' mother of gold and silver visa by simply turning up without docu-
Ronald Ashby had followed him from a city
rings. The men then made their way into the ments proving who they are stand little
bank. Ashby was robbed of $1,816,000 in
grocery store and liquor restaurant where chance of impressing consular officers, who
cash just outside his office at Joseph Polly-
Hublall was conducting business and took already operate on the notion that the ap-
dore Street, Lodge. The robbers also re-
him into the kitchen. They tied him up and plicant would probably "jump ship" and re-
lieved him of a cheque in the amount of
fled further in the village. According to re- main in the U.S. illegally, joining friends
$115,000.
ports, no money was taken from the shop. and family in the large diaspora there.
Ashby is employed by Frank Quallis. Po-
The rate of rejection of Guyanese seeking
lice said he had just returned from the bank
GAS STATION HIT U.S. tourist visas is astonishingly high and
and was about to enter his office when the
among the worst on the planet. Embassy of-
suspects confronted him and robbed him.
Gunmen, in a black Toyota Tacoma stuck ficials say some 60 percent of applicants are
They escaped in a waiting car that was
up a pump attendant at Azad Takie's Gas rejected, a figure topped only by a small
parked a short distance away.
Station at Hogstye, Corentyne around 2.15 group of countries including The Gambia
pm on a Sunday and escaped with almost with 65.5, Ghana with 61.1, and Uzbekistan
PAWNSHOP BANDIT CAPTURED
$40,000 in cash, gas and phone cards. with 61 percent.
The occupants of the vehicle pulled into What's more, a verification exercise done
A bandit who was captured after he and an
the gas station and asked the pump atten- by federal agencies in the last two years in-
accomplice robbed an employee of Harris
dant, Surendra Nandram to fill up their dicates that 8.5 percent of those who travel
Easy Cash Pawn Shop is likely to appear at
tank. on non-immigrant visas do not return.
the New Amsterdam Magistrate's Court.
When Nandram approached the driver for "Compared with the rest of the region that
The two bandits, one armed with a hand-
payment, an occupant sitting in the back figure is very high, double in some cases.
gun, pounced on the employee,Robin Mo-
seat whipped out a gun and pointed it to Na- For example, in the Dominican Republic,
habir and relieved him of a bag containing
tram, demanding that he hand over every- Belize and Jamaica, their figure is only four
$20,000. But Mohabir gave chase and with
thing. The men sped off in the direction of percent," says Tuller.
the help of a police officer and public-spir-
Corriverton with $20,000 cash, property of She says that the verification exercise has
ited citizens captured one of the bandits on
Takie and Natram and $15,000 in Guyana shown that people from all classes of soci-
Angoy's Avenue and recovered the cash.
Telephone and Telegraph Company tele- ety are in this group, "so we will be going
phone cards. now with what a person tells an officer."
ROBBED AT THE STELLING
Aubrey Norton, a University of Guyana
professor and opposition member of parlia-
Armed bandits operating at Rosignol
ROBBER WITH BOGUS MONEY ment, says the announcement speaks vol-
Stelling robbed three medical students of
umes about the political situation in the
US$500 and other articles and later evaded
Baburam Doodnauth, of Canal No.1, West country and underlines how Washington
a police chase in the busy market area at
Bank Demerara, a vendor of vegetables was appears to be increasingly viewing the en-
Rosignol. The students are attending the
selling at the La Penitence Market, George- tire government and national community as
Green Heart Medical University at Tain,
town, from a parked motor canter. corrupt.
Corentyne.
It was raining, and he was negotiating the "The Americans are obviously putting po-
Police said in a statement that around 3 am
purchase of a quantity of agriculture pro- litical pressure on government for not deal-
four men armed with guns robbed the three
duce when he was robbed. ing with the drugs situation in the country,
medical students of cash and articles at the
The robber went into the cab of the vehi- as there have been no indictments of big
Rosignol Stelling. Six students had returned
cle and held up Doodnauth and took away dealers in Guyana. Also, it is clear that they
to Guyana and were on their way to the
$4,000. Persons nearby raised an alarm, and are seeing the entire place as corrupt and
Green Heart Medical University at Tain,
a police patrol responded. that they hardly trust government or any-
Corentyne via minibus when the bandits
In the chase that ensued, the man was ap- thing from government," he said.
pounced on them. The bus was parked wait-
prehended and a search of his person re- Government spokesman Kwame McCoy
ing to cross with the first ferry when the
vealed six bogus one-thousand-dollar says that "government has noted the an-
bandits struck. They then escaped in a wait-
currency notes. nouncement and will comment if and when
ing motorcar.
it sees fit. We are aware it has implications
REALLY BOLD FACED COP but we may comment later."
DAYLIGHT SNATCH AT ROSE HALL
Police are at a loss to figure out why one U.S. officials are not unmindful of the fact
of their colleagues risked his life to go to that one of the biggest visa fraud rackets in
Two armed bandits robbed a woman of a
bed with a woman while her husband lay State Department history occurred in
quantity of gold jewellery valued at
sleeping in the same house. Guyana in 1999-2000 when an expatriate
$100,000 during a daylight attack on Mar-
The risk landed the cop under close arrest vice-consul was found selling visas for
tin Street, Rose Hall Corentyne.
after the woman and her husband alleged 10,000 dollars each. Federal investigators
According to reports, Bibi Madramootoo
that he had broken into their home at Cane figured out that he and local co-conspira-
was walking along the street on Sunday af-
Grove, East Coast Demerara, with intention tors had sold 700 visas in all before being
ternoon when the two men confronted her.
to steal. But police found out that the police caught in a sting operation and convicted in
They placed a gun to her head and relieved
Constable who is stationed at the Ma- a Chicago, Illinois court.
her of five gold bangles and one chain. The
haicony Police Station and the woman were The Canadian government also ran into
robbers also took $15,000 from her before
indeed having an affair. problems with fraud and corruption. At the
fleeing. The matter was reported to the po-
Reports are that the woman and her hus- close of the 1980s, investigators uncovered
lice, but the suspects are yet to be arrested.
band, an ex-convict, had attended a wed- a visa for sale racket that led to the jailing of
ding, which was also attended by the a former embassy employee. Guyanese
ON THE LIGHTER SIDE
policeman. Since the husband appeared to now have to travel to neighbouring
be heavily under the influence of alcohol, Trinidad, where the Canadians have moved
A man walked into a rum shop in Berbice
the woman took the opportunity to invite their consular section.
and promptly passed out. People rushed to
the policeman to her home. While her hus- Norton says that it is becoming quite
take him up and tried to revive him without
band was asleep, the police was allowed clear that relations with the U.S. are dete-
success. Some said give him water, some
entry into the house. riorating because of the apparent reluc-
said give him air. Finally, a woman peeled
When the husband unexpectedly awoke tance of authorities to deal with local drug
an orange and tried squeezing the juice into
and found the man in the house with his barons thought to be linked to official-
his mouth. The man woke up spitting,
wife, she raised an alarm and shouted for dom.
pushed the woman away and said, “ If ah
thief, which alerted several residents. Along He pointed to the fact that U.S. agents
de want orange, ah woulda fall down in de
with the husband, the residents gave chase nabbed three alleged major traffickers in
market.”
and caught up with the policeman and gave Trinidad in the last two years only because
him a sound beating. they had left the local safe haven.
LETTERS
CONGRATS TO
GITA GROUP
The editor,
I congratulate you on the first publication
of your newspaper and wish to emphasize
that I was impressed with the variety of in-
formation printed. Finally we have a news-
paper with news.A friend once commented
that there are some newspapers in GTA for
those who cannot read for the dominant fea-
ture seems to be advertisement and pictures.
It is clear that your focus is different since
the many columns made provision for ac-
tion and issues.
I was particularly interested in the article
on page 18 referring to the project “A Gita
for each home”. I hope that one day the
page heading would read PHILOSOPHY
and not RELIGION as it pertains to Gita
principles, which are universal. We should
make one Gita available not just to each
home but to each person.
I know the lawyer Mr. Ram Sahadeo
when he was actively involved in education
since 1992 when he initiated a system caus-
ing many Guyanese to ADOPT THEIR
SCHOOLS. It is most encouraging to
know that he is now taking the lead in an-
other area of education that was consis-
tently ignored for hundreds of years not
only in the Caribbean but also in India, the
birthplace of Vedic philosophy. Our tem-
ples are trying but have not succeeded in
this area as yet.
As a Hindu I can state as a fact that many
Hindus knew very little about the basics of
their religion and fewer yet would do some-
thing to propagate it. I must take my hat off
to the team that started this noble project
and I wish them success. The task of ask-
ing Hindus to arm themselves with the Gita
when they attend the temple so they can fol-
low when the pandit is reading is a novel
and challenging one.
The accountant Mr. Gulcharan Mohabir
has the right idea by inserting a supporting
line for the project in his advertisement on
page 23. It would be very helpful if others
professionals and businesses follow his ex-
ample by storing a few hundred Gita on
their premises and letting the public know
by adding the following to their advertise-
ment:
“Bhagwad Gita available on premises”.
This should speed up the distribution and
the cost is insignificant compared to the
benefits of spreading Gita gyan.
For myself who have a few years left of
my material existence I have obtained a few
hundred gitas and will send them home to
my village so the box that usually contained
material goods will now include the origi-
nal knowledge of my forefathers. I invite
others to do the same if they really want to
make a difference and experience the feel-
ing of sharing a knowledge that is eternal.
This is their opportunity to do something
positive instead of criticizing those who are
trying but have little knowledge.
Do you have a website so we can read the
paper on line?
Looking forward to your next edition.
N. Singh
Brampton
Dear Mr Singh,
We are at the moment preparing our web
site where we will post all the main articles
from the paper. It will be at www.indo-
caribbeantimes.com and should be online
this month.
Editor
Indo-Caribbean Times
ENCOUNTER WITH RACIST POLITICAL ‘BROU-HA- HA’ IN
PIZZA MANAGER/POLICE SWEET TNT.
The Editor,
Last year on my daughter's 10th birthday,
I took her and some of her friends out to a
pizza place for a meal. We took a table and
the children ordered pizzas, spaghetti and
lasagna. When two huge pizzas arrived for
two small ten year old girls, I was surprised
but did not make a fuss.
Then the lasagna arrived and the inside
was still frozen. The girls could not eat it. I
called the white manager and told him this
was not acceptable, and that we were leav-
ing. He started quarrelling with me when I
said I had ordered food , not garbage. I said
I would pay for the pizzas and spaghetti but
not the cold lasagna. He said he would call
the cops. I told him to go ahead. After 10
minutes no cops had arrived, so I left my
card with him and took the children home
where we ordered pizza from another place.
The birthday party ended and we went to
sleep until we were awakened about 2.00
a.m by loud knocking on the door. I went
downstairs and saw a white policewoman
and a white policeman at the door.
The policewoman was very hostile and
immediately told me to “get your ass out
and pay your bill.” I started to explain what
had happened but she didn't want to hear
me. I told her you can't behave so but she
said very angrily, “Who you think you talk-
ing to?”
My wife got scared and said that I should
pay the bill to avoid trouble. I went over to
the pizza place and paid the bill in full. I
didn't get any discount for the frozen
lasagna that we did not eat.
I was not satisfied with this treatment and
went to the police station to make a com-
plaint. The sergeant said he didn't have any
complaint forms. I insisted and he finally
found a form. When I was filling it out he
said I could fill it out at home. I said no, I
would fill it out right there.
When I was finished I handed it to the ser-
geant and asked for a receipt or a photocopy
as evidence I had filed a complaint. He said
he didn't have to give me a photocopy! I in-
sisted again and he made a photocopy for
me.
Next day I e-mailed the pizza company
Pizza X and complained about the treat-
ment I had received. A lady called back and
said she would investigate. Two days later
the pizza company send my a full refund on
the money I had spent and a $50 voucher
for any product at their shop.
After hearing nothing for a week from the
police I called the police station and was
told they would look into it. Nothing hap-
pened for several months, so two weeks ago
I send out a fax to the police one morning
about 6.00 a.m. By 7.30 a.m. I got a call
from the police saying the policewoman
was wrong and she would be writing a let-
ter of apology to me. I said I wanted her
fired. I didn't want any written apology but
wanted her to come to my house and apol-
ogize personally. The police said that was
not possible.
I am not still not satisfied with this situa-
tion. I believed the white manager, the
white policewoman, and the white sergeant
behaved this way because I and my child
and her friends are visible minorities.
There is no way they would have treated
white people so. This is just another exam-
ple of the racism I have experienced in this
country because of my skin colour and the
ethnic group I am proud to belong to. Why
it is that the police are over 90% white
while visible minorities are nearly 50% of
the population in Toronto?
Joe Lalla, Toronto
The hype was on. The Congress of the
People (COP) would be bringing out a
tsunami of supporters at the Trincity Mall
carpark on Sunday 18th March, 2007 at its
mammoth rally. The flags, banners and
handbills dominated the land/skyscape.
Surprise speakers were promised on the
platform. A vision of true unity was to be
unveiled. And the nation waited with baited
breath.
The reality? Three thousand supporters at
the rally, a brutal 'come-down’ from the al-
leged ten thousand at the party’s launch last
year. The surprises on the platform were
former PNM St. Joseph candidate, Dr.
Sharon Gopaul-Mc Nicols, which was no
surprise really since this was already hinted
at in the media after she accused the PNM
of racism against Indians and child mo-
lestation; and the former Principal of Pres-
entation College-San Fernando, Michael
COP leader Winston Dookeran
Samuels, a prime example of the fine young
minds being attracted to the COP. His claim
to fame was that his former students, Bas-
deo Panday and Patrick Manning, had dis-
appointed him. What does that say of him
as a teacher?
Of-course the COP is claiming fifteen
thousand supporters at the rally, but that
claim belongs to the same waste bin as De-
vant’s Maharaj’s (Maha Sabha Executive
Member and Gopio bigman) prediction that
there would be a monolithic shift of Indi-
ans from UNC (United National Congress)
t But a positive note is that beleaguered ex-
Gillian Lucky
COP, and the COP’s claim of close to
twenty thousand supporters at their launch
last year in a hall that could barely hold
eight thousand people. Eyewitnesses and
media accounts give the rally figure as three
thousand. But political parties and politi-
cians do have the right to ‘big-up’ them-
selves whatever the reality.
So what really is the reality as the far as
the COP is concerned? Is it the perception
that Winston Dookeran as a great betrayer,
having deceived the UNC about his com-
mitment to that party whilst surreptitiously
forming his own party? Or is it the very
strong rumour that Winston Dookeran was
promised the Presidency of the country by
the PNM should he destroy the UNC before
the next general elections via vote splitting?
April 2007 Page 9
Far-fetched you say? But look at the
lengths the PNM is willing to go in its ‘get
Pandy/UNC’ mission i.e. the pathetic at-
tempt to frame Panday in the courts, not for
the first time. Double - dealing with
‘Dooks’ pales by comparison. Gillian
Lucky is on record saying on HCU Radio
Shakti that their (COP’s) only chance of
winning the election is by, get this, de
stroying the UNC – not the PNM as one
would have thought. The plot is unravelling
eh. But wait, there is more.
There is this other strong rumour that
Dookeran is angling to haggle with the
UNC. Big favours in exchange for COP’s
withdrawals, especially from the marginal
seats, which he will use as bargaining chips.
He figures that his handful of support in
those seats could cost the UNC victory – a
la Ramesh and Team Unity. A powerful po-
sition you say? Others say it is another ex-
ample of the wheeling and dealing honest,
Mr. Integrity himself, Winston Dookeran.
He would do well to factor in the views of
UNC supporters who are not going to just
accept the decisions of the leadership just
so. They have matured as they ably demon-
strated by their rejection of the imposition
of Dookeran as political leader of the UNC,
and their support for the COP’s Inshan Ish-
mael’s shut-down call against crime and
kidnapping.
Throw into that equation ‘before-the-
court-on-corruption-charges’ Sadiq Baksh
referring to Basdeo Panday as a convicted
felon, never mind his matter is before the
Appeal Court, with a decision, possibly in
Panday’s favour, to be handed down today
(Tuesday 20th March, 2007). Or the notori-
ous ‘bag-man’ of the UNC hey-days, now a
staunch COP man, also taunting the one
who gave him political life.
And what do you get? Political brou-ha-
ha in sweet TNT.
Chief Justice Sat Sharma has emerged as a
shining star in this political madness and is
expected to be completely exonerated and
reinstated in the position of Chief Justice.
The proverbial David took on the giant and
won the battle in fine style. Never mistake
humility for meekness, a lesson the PNM is
not likely to forget.
THANKS FROM BOXER
RIA RAMNARINE
The Editor,
On behalf of Miss Ria Ramnarine and my-
self, I sincerely extend our deepest thanks
to you and the Indo Caribbean Times for the
feature publication on Miss Ramnarine.
We appreciate your time and effort that was
placed into the story and through your
newspaper, we believe that more people
will learn of Miss Ramnarine's career and
her accomplishments.
Yours sincerely,
Mr. Bharrath Ramoutar
Coach/ Manager - Ria Ramnarine

SNATCHED BY GUN-TOTING
MORE KIDNAP STORIES
Anand Ramlogan’s kidnap horror: Mr X is tortured, sexually abused, made to drink urine
“I sleep with my lights on and I no longer
eat nuts,” he said quietly. Such was the ex-
tent of the damage to him and the everlast-
ing fear. Not hatred‚ he quickly added, but
fear.
Mr X, the son of a prominent business-
man, was snatched by four gun-toting men
late one afternoon. He was put in the mid-
dle of the back-seat, sandwiched between
two men with guns.
A short drive away from the point of kid-
napping, the kidnappers stopped to tie his
hands, with cutlass wire, and dragged him
to throw him in the trunk of the car. As he
struggled, two of the men beat and kicked
right there, one of them rammed his boot
into his back so hard that he buckled and
fell inside the car’s trunk. The physical pain
was excruciating and intense. To this day,
X still suffers from severe back pains.
His abductors took him to an apartment
where he spent the night in a daze.
The next morning, X was fed bread and
cheese. He was allowed to use the wash-
room—with his hands still tied, one of the
kidnappers pulled down his pants and briefs
for him.
X asked if his hands could be freed so that
he could clean himself. There was no re-
sponse. The same man simply pulled up his
brief and jeans and escorted him back to the
room where he was being kept.
Two of the men wore masks, the faces of
the other two were bare of coverings. A
cellphone rang and X could hear one of the
men taking directions. X heard him curse
and raise his voice, asking the caller if he
was certain that this plan would work.
One hour later, his room door was opened
and he was greeted by an unforgettable
sight: his four abductors were all dressed as
soldiers, in full army camouflage uniforms.
X was bundled into the trunk of a car.
Forty-five minutes later, the kidnappers
and their victim switched vehicles. X was
blindfolded and placed inside “a sort of bar-
rel, in the back of what felt like a truck.”
There were holes at the top to allow air in
so he could breathe but it was a bumpy ride
and his hands were cramping.
THIS IS THE SPOT
About three hours later, he was taken out
of his container and led along a track, up
some hills into the bush. One of the men
called out to say they had arrived. X heard
him say that the plan had worked well as
“police eh stop we.”
The party of men walked for about an
hour until one man said “this is the spot.”
X’s hands were untied and he was allowed
to urinate. Still blindfolded, he was led into
what felt like a cave or some dark hole. His
hands were tied behind his back around
what felt like a tree trunk or a rough, broad
wooden post.
His blindfold was removed and a crocus
bag placed over his head with strings at the
base that were pulled around his neck and
tied. The bag stank, but he could breathe.
The men left X in this “cave.” In total
darkness, he stayed awake all night. He
could hear the noises of animals and wor-
ried that if he fell asleep, he’d be at the
mercy of snakes. He was afraid of snakes.
He eventually fell asleep thinking how wor-
ried his mother must be.
When he awoke, he assumed it was day-
time. The place was still dark and the cro-
cus bag was still on his head.
He could feel his bowels churning, he
badly wanted to use the toilet. He assumed
someone would come to facilitate this, and
MEN
Indo-Caribbean Times
waited. Eventually, someone came. The
crocus bag was loosened and lifted no
higher than above his nose.
He was fed some bread with butter and
given some water. He tried to engage the
men in conversation to see if he could talk
his way out of captivity. He told them his
father suffered a heart attack after he was
snatched and would die soon and begged
them to release him. The reply was “well he
better pay de (expletive) money before he
dead or else you goh meet him up dey.”
The men started pulling the crocus bag
back down and X asked if he could be al-
lowed to void his bowels and his bladder.
One of the men slapped him, saying “You
tink dis ah (expletive) hotel or wat?”
They left. He eventually gave in to the call
of nature and defecated and urinated in his
pants. He would do so for the next three
days.
LIVING IN FILTH
X felt as if his arms were collapsing. He
was thirsty and longed for some water. No
one came until the following morning when
he was awakened by a kick and voice say-
ing “like yuh (expletive) s... down de
place!”
The bag was removed and X was hand-
fed Crix biscuits by his captors. He asked
for some water, but was told that they had
forgotten to bring water. His captors left
without allowing him to clean himself up.
X started to feel weak. He became disori-
ented, frustrated and depressed. He was de-
hydrated and living in his own filth. He lost
count of the days and nights and was fast
losing hope of being rescued or of surviv-
ing. Not a religious man, X prayed.
Two days later, two men visited a weak,
hungry, and dehydrated X. They beat him
badly “for no reason at all.” The crocus bag
was again raised above his nose and he was
again hand-fed Crix. While putting Crix in
his mouth, they talked about how many
people they had murdered.
FLICKER OF HOPE
He finished eating and as the bag was
being lowered over his face again, he
begged for some water. His pleas were ig-
nored, the bag was tied. He cursed the men,
telling them he was dying of thirst and
needed something to drink. They ignored
him and left.
Later on that day, some men visited X. He
was slapped and told that his father wanted
to speak with him and that he’d better tell
him to pay the ransom. A flicker of hope. X
said he was not talking to anyone unless he
got something to drink and was allowed to
clean himself up. One of the men said “look
open yuh mouth and drink this.”
X felt a warm burst of liquid on the bag.
It tasted funny, but he couldn’t care less. It
stopped and one of the men laughed and
said “Like he like de (expletive) p---, boy!”
He realised that he had just been made to
drink one of the men’s urine. Truth be told,
he would later confess in this interview,
he’d somehow known this, but managed to
quell the inchoate because his thirst was so
desperate.
Hearing the men say it, though, the hu-
miliation rose and he cursed them, telling
then he would tell his father “to not give
them any (expletive) money.”
The men removed the crocus bag from
X’s head. He saw three men. They looked
like the Bobo Shanti vendors he’d buy nuts
from at traffic intersections along the high-
ways.
The men slapped, kicked and cuffed him
all over his head until he was barely con-
scious.
One of the men held his face in his hands
and ordered him to open his mouth. He re-
fused, not because he didn’t want to, but be-
cause he was delirious and his brain was
taking far too long to process what was
said. The man pulled down his pants, forced
X’s mouth open and urinated into it. X
gagged. He swallowed.
He was taken to the top of a hill where
telephone reception was available and he
was allowed to speak to his father. He told
his father he was fine, even though his
voice quivered.
The crocus bag was replaced around his
head and he was taken to a spot where the
men untied his hands and dashed water on
him. He was not allowed to take his clothes
off but he was able to wash himself.
GUARD CHANGES
Two days later, X was moved to a differ-
ent location. He was now held captive in a
shack. He was handcuffed, but felt a lot bet-
ter as he had a sort of makeshift bed and
was fed bread and butter. New men guarded
him.
There were two of them. They talked
about his father trusting the police too much
and quarrelled about the fact that they (the
police) were getting paid even though they
were taking no risks.
The following night, X was awakened and
beaten for snoring. He butted one of the
men and was stripped and made to lie on
the floor. His back was used as an ashtray,
the men putting out their cigarettes on his
back and buttocks. The men were drinking
alcohol and smoking weed. He laid on the
floor all night, with the men boots resting
on his back.
They discussed details of other kidnap-
pings and other illegal exploits and also that
the police had told “de boss” that X’s father
was trying to raise the ransom money. X fell
asleep on the floor.
These two men stayed with X for the next
three days. One would sometimes leave to
fetch food, weed, alcohol and cigarettes.
One night, the man who remained as
guard opened the door to X’s room and
slapped him awake. He put a gun to X’s
head and forced him to perform oral sex on
him. X thought about biting the man’s penis
off, but felt that the man was so high on
marijuana and intoxicated from the liquor
that he might actually pull the trigger.
Dehumanised and fearing for his life, X
did as he was told.
NO ESCAPE
X slowly began to accept that there was
no escape and he had to surrender to his
captors. He subjected himself and co-oper-
ated with them, living only in his mind for
his thoughts was the one thing they could
not control.
He was released one week later, after a
negotiated ransom was paid. His father told
him that he suspected that the police might
have been involved with his kidnappers and
urged him to forget the entire thing and
move on as he had arranged to send him
abroad.
He has never told this story to anyone. No
one will ever understand why, even though
he is now hundreds of miles away, he still
sleeps with the lights on and refuses to eat
nuts.
Page 10
April 2007
Vindra’s sister
flees Trinidad
death threats
The sister of missing kidnap victim Vin-
dra Naipaul-Coolman has left Trinidad with
her family, after reported death threats.
The toll of months of uncertainty over the
whereabouts of Naipaul-Coolman follow-
ing her abduction last year, and fears, fol-
lowing death threats reportedly received by
Seema Naipaul Ramcharitar and her hus-
band Mitra, were said to be behind their de-
cision to pack up and leave.
Vindra Naipaul is still missing
The Ramcharitars lived at Palm Road, Val-
sayn north.
Neighbours told a rinidad newspaper that
the family left three weeks ago, with their
two young daughters. Seema was the first
to leave, then a few days later, Mitra.
A friend of the Ramcharitars said that Vin-
dra's abduction had deeply affected Seema.
"She had been crying everyday. She was
very close to her sister (Vindra), and was
depressed and overwhelmed by the situa-
tion."
The family friend also said that the cou-
ple did not feel that bringing up their
daughters "in a society like this would have
been beneficial to the girls".
Before his sister-in-law Vindra was ab-
ducted, Mitra Ramcharitar had reportedly
boasted to his neighbours that he would
never leave the country over the high crime
rate.
One neighbour related that Ramcharitar
had a strong faith in God, and told him, "I
am not afraid. I walk with God."
However, following Naipaul-Coolman's
kidnapping, neighbours said the couple be-
came prisoners in their own home.
"They were keeping their doors closed.
They even shunned their neighbours in the
aftermath of the kidnapping," a neighbour
told the Express.
The neighbour said that Ramcharitar also
admitted to him that he had received death
threats, but was unsure they were genuine.
"He told me that someone threatened to
kill the whole family. He didn't know if it
was a hoax," the neighbour said.
Senior police officials could not confirm
the report. However, neighbours said that
Ramcharitar had been warned by police to
avoid coming out his front yard following
the alleged threats.
Ramcharitar reportedly told his neigbour:
"Because of what happen, I don't want to
have anything to do with this country
again."
The couple still maintain business inter-
ests in the country. They are now living in
the United States, according to the neig-
bours.
Their house has reportedly been leased to
a petroleum company and remains unoccu-
pied.
 Page 11
Ram & Ruby Maharaj:
ACHIEVERS Indo-Caribbean Times April 2007

GUYANA HONOURS CHEDDI

Roti pioneers in Canada Cheddi Jagan, also known as Cheddi
Berret Jagan (March 22, 1918 – March 6,
1997), was the chief minister (1957-1964)
was active in the government as a labor ac-
tivist and leader of the opposition. In 1992,
after 28 years in opposition, he was elected
and president (1992-1997) of Guyana. The president in the first free elections since in-
son of ethnic Indian sugar plantation work- dependence. He died in office less than 5
ers, Jagan years later.His
managed presidential tenure
to attend was characterized
Queen's by the revival of
College the union move-
i n ment and a re-com-
G e o rg e - mitment to
town. He education and in-
later stud- frastructure im-
ied at the provement.
The young man 1947
Howard Towards the end of
University Dental School in Washington, his life, he aban-
D.C., and Northwestern University in doned Marxism-Leninism and began to
Chicago before returning home in the early move his country to a free-market capitalist
1940s. system.

Disgusted by conditions in British Guiana, He married Janet (née Rosenberg), a former

he founded the People's Progressive Party member of a communist youth organiza-
with Forbes Burnham in 1950. He was tion,
elected to the colonial legislative body in i n
Ram and Ruby Maharaj still going strong 1947 and was the controversial leader of the
Guyanese government in the late 1950s and
ings. There was an Indian restaurant called early 1960s.
Today Trinidad style roti can be found in
India House, but its prices were beyond
major supermarkets, in dozens of roti
the reach of young men working for low
shops, and in restaurants all over Canada
wages.
and United States. It is an appreciated and
Instead they would go down to 490
accepted food by many North Americans
Dupont and content themselves with a po-
who are not connected to the Caribbean.
tato roti at $2.50 or a chicken roti at $3.50.
But it wasn't always that way. The pio-
Then, as now, a roti was much more sat-
neers of this multimillion-dollar food in-
isfying than a hot dog or a hamburger. Meeting Canadian PM Jean Chretien
dustry live right here in Toronto, still
Ram would play Indian music records, 1943, and the couple had two children,
operating their business with the same
and he remembers the young Indians lis- Nadira and Cheddi Jr. (who in turn pro-
name Ram's Roti Shop that they started
tening to Lata Mangeskar and Mukesh and duced five grandchildren, Cheddi B. Jagan
with in the year 1967. In this the 40th an- Speaking after the Enmore deaths
crying out of nostalgia and loneliness. West II, Vrinda Jagan, Avasa Jagan, Alex
niversary of that event, Ram and Ruby
Indians driving up to Toronto from New Jagan won in a colonially administered Brancier, Natasha Brancier). Mrs. Jagan
Maharaj deserve to be recognized for their
York would make a beeline to Ram's Roti election in 1953, but was removed from followed her husband's footsteps and held
contribution.
Shop, because there was nothing like this power militarily by Britain which, under the positions of prime minister and presi-
Back in the year 1967 when other
where they lived. strong behind-the-scenes pressure from the dent in 1997 (succeeded as president by
Caribbean people mostly from Trinidad
Flyers and announcements about com- United States and the CIA, asserted that he Bharrat Jagdeo in 1999). A museum in the
were preparing to start Caribana for
munity events and music shows would be had ties to the Soviet Union. Jagan resigned capital, Georgetown, celebrates Cheddi
Canada's Centennial, new immigrants Ram
posted up at the shop. Visiting artistes like as British Guiana prime minister after 133 Jagan's life and work, complete with a repli-
and Ruby were thrown into the roti business
the Tradewinds band, calypsonians and days. Britain suspended the constitution and cation of his office.
by accident. The couple and their five chil-
prominent West Indians could be found at chose an interim government. Jagan's Jagan was also an important political au-
dren had migrated from Trinidad in 1964
490 Dupont soaking up the local news and movements were restricted to Georgetown thor and speechwriter, and his publications
and were doing well. Ram, a former Texaco
trying out a taste of home. from 1954 to 1957. include Forbidden Freedom: The Story of
worker, had found a job with DuPont Oil
For several years Rams' Roti Shop was British Guiana, The West On Trial: My
and had bought his own house within a
the only business in town if you wanted to Having broken off links with the increas- Fight for Guyana's Freedom, The
year. Ruby was working part-time in a roti
taste a roti in Toronto. Gradually others ingly authoritarian Burnham, who divided Caribbean Revolution, and The USA in
shop called Rotisera, which had been
opened up, Ali's started selling Trinidad

Winnipeg based Guyanese man gets

started by three Trinidad teachers. the country among racial barriers, Jagan South America, among others.
style doubles and roti, and the Caribbean
The teachers were not very good at run-
Indian roti industry started to take shape.

posthoumous Medal of Bravery

ning a roti shop, and within three months
After many years of patiently persuading
the business collapsed. Ram was called in
white Canadians and other immigrants to
to help, and he assumed the bank loan and
try a dhalpouri roti, Ram and Ruby began
lease on the building at 490 Dupont Street. He made the ultimate sacrifice to save his Jean announced Mulchand is the only one
to see gradual acceptance from mainstream
Ruby ran the shop in the day and Ram son's life, and will be honoured with a of 13 new recipients of the Medal of Brav-
Canadians.
helped out after work. So started the first medal for his heroism. ery to receive the decoration posthumously.
The New Yorkers soon realized that they
permanent roti shop in Canada and the Winnipegger Prakash Mulchand will be His family will be given the medal at a later
needed their own roti shops, and started
United States. posthumously awarded the Canadian Medal ceremony.
putting them up in Queens and other parts
Toronto's first Caribana took place less of Bravery for his efforts to pull his then- Roy Mulchand, Prakash's nephew, said
of the city. In Canada, roti shops began to
than three months later, and the organizers eight- year-old son from a swirling and his uncle -- a supervisor at Motor Coach In-
spring up in cities outside of Toronto, in
placed a banner in front of Ram's Roti strong current after the youngster fell into dustries -- could have been called a hero for
Montreal, Vancouver and many other
places. Today roti shops can be found in the Portage la Prairie spillway during a fish- far more deeds during his life, on top of his
Shop. When the Caribana celebration took ing outing in August 2005. rescue of his son Nevin.
Massachusetts and in Texas and in Los
place on the Toronto islands Ram and Ruby Mulchand, 47, drowned after helping his When his son fell in, Prakash jumped in
Angeles and other American cities. An In-
sold over 2000 rotis that day. There was no son stay afloat until the unconscious boy and yelled for help. The boy grabbed onto
ternet search for roti shops Canada and
turning back after that. could be pulled from the water at Delta his father, though the pair became separated
United States yields over 700 hits. Roti
In a short while, Ram's Roti Shop became Beach north of Portage la Prairie by a man by the current. The boy was revived after
shops can even be found in Europe and the
a kind of community center for West Indi- on a personal watercraft. being brought to shore, but his father could
Middle East.
ans in Toronto. Trinidadians, Guyanese and Prakash's mother was in tears when she not be saved.
The thread for this powerfuly growing in-
even young men from India would come learned of the honour, which was an- "He was a very genuine person -- very
dustry traces back to the doors at 490
for a taste of home or a familiar and afford- nounced earlier by Gov. Gen. Michaelle moral and did other things to help people
Dupont Street in Toronto, the year 1967,
able meal. Jean in Ottawa. out," Roy said. "He would do whatever he
and Ram and Ruby Maharaj. They are true
Many of the customers were young bach- "I've started crying. I'm happy, but that's could. He was a friend to everyone. He
pioneers who can be found at their shop at
elors who could not cook, or who were not my son -- he was so young," Sham Mulc- stood for morals and education. It was
130 Westmore in Mississauga still doing
allowed to cook Indian food in their rented hand, 73, told Sun Media at her Fort Rich- pretty hard to get anything past him. He
what they have done for 40 years now,
rooms or small apartments. In those days, mond home. didn't do anything wrong or bad. That's how
which in Ram's words is, "making sure
landlords did not look kindly on tenants "I'm proud of what he did. I'm very emo- I see him."
Trinidad style roti has a place in every
cooking spicy Indian curries in their build- tional."
North American kitchen."
INTERNATIONAL Page 12

New York Phagwa Parade very Holi

Indo-Caribbean Times April 2007

New York’s 18th annual Phagwa Parade begins on a closed off Liberty Avenue in Queens Bhawanee Maa Mandir float brings Holi greetings and live chowtaal music

Shree Krishna Mandir is one of the Caribbean Hindu groups taking part The Phagwa Queen of the Trimurthy Bhavan Mandir waves regally from on high

Warming up at the start of the parade Some groups did not have floats but were happy to march and sing Some hot street tassa is always welcome

Always present in the parade are the Arya Samaj Hindus of New York After the parade over 1,000 create a snowstorm of powder in nearby Smokey Park
CONSUMER WATCH Indo-Caribbean Times April 2007 Page 13

To buy or not to buy: the big screen television set

By Reynold Ramdial
I would like to relate a recent shopping ex-
perience. At the Best Buy store I was about
to buy a flat screen TV. I talked to the sales
person, compared the picture with other
brands, looked at the features and so on and
of course agreed that the price was right.
I was ready to buy this TV. I was actually
looking forward to taking it home and set-
ting it up in the ideal location and watch
some TV on a Big Screen TV.
We loaded it onto a cart and wheeled it
over to the cash register. Now it was time
for the sales person to give me some spe-
cial instructions. You see this TV is a high
resolution and comes with a box but didn’t
come with any cables so the salesman took
me to the cable section and pointed the va-
riety and explained why I should get this
one and not the other.
You see not all cables are made equal.
Audio and video buffs will know this and
willingly spend the money to get higher
quality sound and video signals. I am no
buff but agreed to get the cables; after all, I
want better picture and sound. Why else
would I buy this TV? Then it was explained around $75.00 to well over $200.00. I de- will be honored, right?...Wrong.
to me that I would get the high definition cided against the mounting bracket, I could The salesman informed me that the war-
signal ranty is 30 days and if anything goes wrong
from the after that, I would have to ship this big TV
cable to California. Now I am thinking that I have
company to pay the cost of shipping and insurance,
for a lim- go through the logistics to get the proper
ited time packaging and have a shipping company
a f t e r pick up, which means I will have to take
which of time off from work because shipping com-
course, panies usually pick up during regular work-
the addi- ing hours etc.
tional My mind was racing and so was my
c o s t anger. He promptly informed me however
would be that this doesn’t have to be the case and that
added to I could get 24 hours local warranty service.
my cable This came with a hefty price tag, $250.00.
bill. I was mad and decided then that I will not
At this allow myself to get sucked in by this type of
point, I unethical business and that this TV was not
w a s for me. I told the salesman and the manager
starting who happened to be close by, what I
to have thought and how I felt knowing that they
second could do nothing to change the conditions
thoughts Big ticket buy can come with hidden costs and poor warranty of the sale. I did get that look, however,
about from them and a couple other customers.
this purchase but I was still excited about do this later as it is not essential. Is there a lesson in all of this? I for one
the BIG SCREEN TV so alright, let’s get And now back to the cash register, I was have decided that I will never patronize that
the cables and back to the cash register we ready to take my TV home. Once again, the store again nor will I buy from any other es-
go adding approximately $100.00 to the al- salesman being very competent mentioned tablishment that uses such trickery and un-
ready high price of the TV. something very important which I admit- ethical practices. I advise consumers to use
Well there was something else that I may tedly didn’t consider up to this point which their almighty purchasing power to send as
want to consider, that is the mounting is warranty. strong a message as possible to these
bracket. You see, this TV can be mounted We are accustomed to standard warranties sharks. I maintain that consumers are ma-
on the wall. The salesman and I looked at of about 1 year for purchases such as this nipulated and it is time we realize it and do
the brackets. There was at least 6 varieties and if needs be, we would take the product something about it. We have the power to
to choose from with prices ranging from to some nearby location where warranty buy or not.

BEWARE OF WIRE
TRANSFER SCAMS
Consumers would do well not to fall prey
to a growing number of scams that induce
victims to wire money to con-artists. They
range from the good old “you’ve won a lot-
tery you never entered, send taxes to get
your loot” to the newest “just deposit this
cheque in your account, keep your share
and send me mine.”
"It's a disaster when a victim wires money

Selling or buying?
to a con-artist," said Iowa Attorney Gen-
eral Tom Miller. "It usually goes abroad, it
cannot be traced, and the money is gone in
a flash. Usually it's for a large amount of

Trust the business of Real Estate to a Realtor

money, and victims often are older or low-
income Iowans. Usually, we can't get their
money back and we can't catch the crooks,"

Let me help you meet your Real Estate needs!

he said. "We have to prevent the scam in the
first place."
There are more and more schemes that de-

Lisa M. Maharaj
ceive victims into wiring large sums, and
usually abroad," Miller said. "People may
receive a call or mailing indicating they

Sales Representative
have won a huge lottery or sweepstakes
prize and they simply have to wire money
to pay for so-called taxes or other fees.
They may be promised a large loan or credit
card, but first have to pay certain fees or

T: 905-277-0771 F: 905-277-0086
so-called insurance. People may even be
approached in an on-line chat room and

Direct: 416-458-5683
asked to send money to help someone get
into the country," he said.
"We think the fastest growing form of
scam now involves counterfeit cashier's E-mail: lmaharaj@trebnet.com
checks and money orders ending up with

50 Burnhamthorpe Road. W. Ste 102

wire transfers," Miller said. "Victims may
receive a cashier's check or postal money

(Sussex Centre) Mississauga ON L5B 3C2

order for some reason and be asked to de-
posit it and wire part of the money, only to
learn the check is counterfeit -- and they
have to repay the bank. Victims often lose
thousands of dollars," he said.
COMMUNITY
ANNOUNCEMENTS
SATYA JYOTI CULTURAL SABHA in-
vites you to a Ramayan Yagna with Pundit
Dr Mahin Gosine from New York, run-
ning from Thursday April 5 to Sunday
April 8. It will be held at the mandir at
6731 Columbus Drive, Units 7&8, Missis-
sauga from 6.30-9.00 p.m. Thursday to
Saturday and 9.30 a.m to 12.00 noon on
Sunday. Pundit Lakraj Harrypaul will as-
sist. Pundit Gosine’s topics include De-
ceit and Deception, Keeping Promises
Amidst Adversity, Divine Messenger and
Sanatan Dharma Gyaan Yoga. For info
call 905-564-6723, 905-790-7729 or e-
mail info@satyajyoti.com or go to
www.satyajyoti.com
CHESS TOURNAMENT
HORIZON CRICKET CLUB invites all
chess players (beginners & professionals)
to come and enjoy a day of chess on Sat-
urday, April 21, 2007. Visit www.hori-
zoncricketclub.com or phone
905-794-5423.
INDO CARIBBEAN CULTURAL SO-
CIETY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA holds
it annual general meeting and election of
officers on April 15 at the Southarm
Community Centre,
William Road, Richmond BC. President
Naraine Mohabir and his nine person ex-
ecutive are up for re-election. For info
contact Naraine at 603-274-8938.
June 1-3, the ICCCSBC holds a Three
Day Yagna at the Vedic Cultural Society,
Ram Krishna Mandir, 8200 #5 Road,
Richmond BC. Pundit Prakash Gossai
will conduct the yagna.
PEEL ARYA SAMAJ celebrates Arya
Samaj Foundation Day on Sunday April.
8 at 10.00 am Peel at the Vedic Cultural
Centre, 173 Advance Blvd., Unit 50&51
Brampton. For info contact
Lionel Persaud - President at 905-454-
9148 , Jay Brijpaul - Public Relations Of-
ficer at 905-840-5369 or Naresh Persaud
- Priest at 905-790-1397
SCOTTS AND MENDEZ OVERSEAS
UNITED & MASTERS SPORTS CLUB
present a Grand Indian Musical Extrava-
ganza on Saturday April 14 at Chingua-
cousy Secondary School, 1370 Williams
Parkway, Brampton, starting at 6.30 pm.
The show features Toronto’s best in
song, music and dance, including singers
Sharma Ramdular, Ganga Persaud,
Bobby Armoogam, Bisram, Raquel Ma-
hadeo, Shanti Jackree, Romeena Ali and
Randy Mahadeo. Music is by Sound
Sensations led by Bobby Armoogam, and
dancers by Chris Badree School of Dance
and Ferryan. Admission is $10 per per-
son. For tickets and info call Deo at 416-
798-2118, Shanti at 416-588-7827, Terry
at 905-799-3494.
TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO 50 PLUS
AND SENIORS ASSOCIATION holds it
Annual General Meeting and Election of
Officers on Sunday April 29 at the Birk-
dale Community Centre, 1299 Ellesmere
Road, Scarborough, from 1.30 p.m. For
info contact Public Relations Officer
Rasheed Sultan Khan at 416-281-5264.
VISHNU MANDIR celebrates Hanuman
Jayanti on Monday April 2 and Ganga
Indo-Caribbean Times
Devi Mandir’s Pt. Damodar is
new Hindu Chaplain in Durham
Damodar in full police uniform
History was made by Pandit Damodar
Sharma, the spiritual leader of the Devi
Mandir when he was sworn in last Sunday
as the first ever Hindu Honorary Chaplain
for the Durham Regional Police.
In attendance were the Mayor of Picker-
ing Dave Ryan, the Deputy Chief of Police
Jayanti on Monday April 23, at the temple
at 8640 Yonge Street, Richmond Hill. For
info call 905-886-1724 or e-mail at vishnu-
mandir@hotmail.com.
DEVI MANDIR marks Hanuman Jayanti
on April 2, with abhishek and puja from 9-
11 am, 108 recitations of the Hanuman
Chalisa from 11 am, and Bhajans from 5-7
pm. and discourse from 7 pm– 9 pm. All ac-
tivities take place at 2590 Brock Road,
Pickering, telephone number 905-686-
8534.
BHAGVAD GITA FOR EACH HOME -
Bulk distribution centres.
The Gita can be available in bulk at the fol-
lowing contacts: Donations are expected to
fund further copies; any individual or or-
ganization wishing to assist in this project
can contact us.
CANADA
Toronto, Mississauga, Brampton
RamnarineSahadeo 905 671 9233 e-mail
ramjihindu@rogers.com, Omesh Sharma
Omesh@flexomark.com, Chandan Persaud
416-754-2382, Gulcharan at 416 481-5777
gmohabir@hotmail.com, Ram Jagessar
416 289 9088 or ram@eol.ca
Richmond Hill
OmoPersaud omo@globalspectruminc.com
905-886-1724
Winnipeg:
Ajodhya Mahadeo 204-661-6643
GUYANA
Saraswati Vidya Niketan ph. 2760013/14
Swami_aksharananda@hotmail.com
TRINIDAD
Hindu Students Council:
hsclink@gmail.com
SEND YOUR
COMMUNITY NEWS
TO THE ICTIMES AT 416-289-
3898, EMAIL TO
ictimes@rogers.com, or mail
to 17 Gaiety Drive, Toronto
ON Canada M11H 1B9
April 2007
Pundit Damodar in the temple
in the Durham Region Chuck Mercier, In-
spector Jim Douglas, Judge David Stone,
widely known Toronto lawyer Dhaman
Kissoon, and off course a full congregation
of all the supporters and members of the
Devi Mandir. Pandit Sharma who lives in
Pickering, immigrated from India 15 years.
He is married and has three children.
"Today is a very special day not only for the
Devi Mandir but the entire Hindu commu-
nity in Canada", stated Vishnu Sookar,
Chairman of the Devi Mandir.
NALINI MAY GET
KIDNEY FROM
TRINIDAD
Mississauga auditor Nalini Maharaj cam-
paign to get a life saving kidney is showing
promise in Trinidad. Several people have
responded to advertisements and articles in
Trinidad newspapers and offered to help.
Tests for compatibility are being arranged
with the hope that one of the persons would
be a close enough match to donate a kidn
ey.
Nalini and her family are very encouraged
by the response in her home country
Trinidad. For the past three years since her
kidneys failed she has been trying to get a
donor in Canada without success.
After a story appeared in the Indo-
Caribbean Times last month but brought no
responses, Nalini decided to widen her
search. She believes that Trinidad has a
greater number of people from her gene
pool than Canada, and more people who
know her or her family. Contact her at 905-
568-4699 or a puran8@msn.com
ADVERTISING
SALES REP
The Indo-Caribbean Times
seeks an experienced media ad-
vertising salesperson. Knowl-
edge of the Indo-Caribbean
business community in the GTA
iwould be considered a major
asset. Access to a vehicle is
needed.
Contact Ram at 416-289-3898
or by e-mail at
ictimes@rogers.com
Page 14
OBITUARY
BRIJPAL RAMSARAN
He was never able to go to
school, but he worked and
sacrificed to educate all his
children
Brijpal Ramsaran was born on the 7th Feb-
ruary, 1926, in Crabwood Creek, a farming
village in Berbice, Guyana. His mother died
when he was about three years old and he
had an extremely difficult childhood. He
was not sent to school but to work in the
rice and saw mills at a very tender age. He
got married when he was about seventeen
years old; his wife was fifteen. Together,
they raised six children, three boys and
three girls : Krishna, Amelia, Shile, Ravin,
Jay and Sattie.
Brijpal was a very simple, easy going,
humble, kind and generous man – his wife
was the disciplinarian in the family. He
worked very hard on the farm, growing
rice, rearing cows, poultry which included
chicken, ducks and turkeys and also sheep
and goats. The family was poor but they
had their own home, enough food and
clothes. He and his wife ensured that the
basic needs of their children were met.
In the days when girls were not necessar-
ily sent to school and boys were not sent to
High School, Brijpal made sure that all six
of his children completed High School.
Those were the days when you had to pay
fees for high school and buy all your books
and supplies for both elementary and sec-
ondary schools. This was a costly venture
especially for six children but he realized
that education was extremely important. He
made many sacrifices and in the off rice
field season, he often got another job like a
night watchman for draglines, or cutting
and drifting logs to earn a bit more so that
his children were not denied an education.
He laid the foundations for their future
lives. The legacy for honesty and hard work
lives on in his children.
Brijpal was very well known and well re-
spected in the village. He had the ability to
set sprained ankles or wrists and elbows or
some other joint, for pulling nara - that is a
tummy ache, and for fixing and bandaging
broken joints; many people came to him.
He never charged a fee and always had
elastoplast at home for bandaging. He was
also a milkman in the village, delivering
milk to his customers, riding a bicycle.
He and his wife came to Canada in 1988
and they lived with Jay and his family in
Brampton. When his wife became ill in
1997 he took care of her. She passed away
in 2001. Since then he became very lonely;
he missed his wife after fifty eight years of
marriage. His daughter-in-law Nan, Jay’s
wife, was more like a daughter. She took
care of him and was there when he took his
last breath on February 21, 2007. He was
eighty one years old. May his soul rest in
peace.
 BUSINESS AND FINANCE
Getting the computer
without the headache
Hidden away in many a home in Canada
are computers that were bought with high
hopes but are now gathering dust. The own-
ers don’t know what to do with them and
have given up on the idea of entering the
computer age.
The reason for this is very simple. The
owners didn't know how to buy a computer
that they could use. Instead of getting a
computer that was set up and ready to run,
they just went out and bought a computer.
Then they found out that a computer is not
like a radio that you switch on and start to
enjoy.
A computer is really a system, with a case
containing the working motherboard, plus
a keyboard, a mouse, a monitor, speakers
and a printer that are plugged into the case.
But you can't do anything with the com-
puter in this condition. You have to buy an
operating system like Microsoft XP and in-
stall it, which is difficult for most computer
novices. You have to install the printer
using the supplied CD before it will print
anything.
When you get your operating system and
printer properly installed, you think you can
start doing some fun computer things. You
want to write and print out an assignment,
write a letter, send an e-mail, surf the inter-
net, do your budget, read the newspapers
from back home, download some music or
buy a book from amazon.com.
NEED TO BUY SOFTWARE
Stop right there. You can't do those things.
You must have a word processing program
to write the letter or the assignment, or a
spreadsheet program to do your budget.
You have to buy something like Microsoft
Office and install the program.
To get on the internet, you must get an in-
ternet provider, and install the internet pro-
gram. Sometimes you have to get a modem
and install it, or get somebody to do that for
you. You must get an e-mail address before
you can send out or receive e-mails.
You have to get an antivirus program and
install it on your computer to prevent com-
puter viruses from damaging your com-
puter. You should install a firewall so that
Indo-Caribbean Times April 2007 Page 15
US housing crisis deepens,
but Canada safe for now
people on the outside cannot control your CINCINNATI – For years, political lead- gress is now looking at tighter lending stan-
computer. You should back up your data on ers touted rising homeownership rates as a dards to protect unwary Americans from
CD's or DVD's so that if your computer sign the ”American Dream” was being ful- taking on loans they cannot afford. But it is
hard drive dies all your valuable data is not filled but more than a million looming fore- not just poor and minority Americans who
lost. closures have called the dream into are losing their homes – many debt-ridden
There is no way you can do all those question. consumers simply were unwise in their loan
things properly if you are new to comput- “We no longer have a problem with loan choices. The suggestion that more regula-
ers. You have to pay a computer expert $45 availability ... but a lot of our homeowners tion is needed to protect Americans from
an hour to set you up properly, or take a are one crisis away from losing their willing but risky lenders is controversial.
chance on asking your 14 year old cousin home,” said Hope Wilson, a housing coun- The U.S. subprime mortgage crisis should
to help you out. selor at Working in Neighborhoods, a non- have only a limited impact on the perform-
There is a way to avoid this mess, and that profit trying to boost homeownership in ance of Canada 's main stock index as
is to get your computer from a store that of- inner-city Cincinnati . strong demand for commodities should
fers more than over the counter sales. A de- There is no shortage these days of tragic continue to drive the resource-heavy mar-
cent computer provider will assemble your stories of homeowners caught in America 's ket higher, CIBC World Markets has said.
computer to your specifications. He will in- subprime mortgage meltdown, as risky bor- Jeff Rubin, chief economist at World Mar-
stall the monitor, printer, CD or DVD rowing, reckless lending and a slump in the kets, a unit of Canadian Imperial Bank of
writer, and modem. He will install your housing market drives millions into fore- Commerce expects the U.S. subprime melt-
computer programs like Microsoft Office. closure. down to deepen -- eventually costing more
But while statistics show poor and mi- than $100-billion.
WHAT HE WILL DO FOR YOU nority homeowners are bearing the brunt of Canada's mortgage market has largely es-
the crisis, the belief that every American caped a similar slowdown, which analysts
In addition, he will get your internet con- can or should own their own home remains say is partly due to the fact that Canadian
nection, and even set up your e-mail. He so pervasive few politicians admit that it home prices have not risen to the same ex-
will install your anti-virus program to run just might not be true. After stagnating at tend as U.S. prices, and also because of
automatically, and load your firewall. He about 65 percent for much of the 1960s, tighter regulations in Canada's mortgage
will set up system points on your computer '70s and '80s, the U.S. homeownership rate market.Canada's mortgage market has
so that if your system crashes you can go has risen slowly in the past 15 years to largely escaped a similar slowdown, which
back to a time when everything was run- nearly 69 percent – a point of pride for De- analysts say is partly due to the fact that
ning well. He will make emergency startup mocrats and Republicans alike. Canadian home prices have not risen to the
disks so you can restart your computer if it But with an estimated 1.5 million home- same extend as U.S. prices, and also be-
freezes up. And most important of all, he owners facing foreclosure this year, Con- cause of tighter regulations in Canada.
will be available if you need help.
Something will go wrong with the com-
puter, usually as soon as you get it. A com-
puter is an incredibly complex machine and
is very easy to upset.
It will freeze up on you for no reason. Pro-
grams will tell you they have to shut down,
and you will lose your data. You will be un-
able to find that valuable file in the folder
where you are sure you put it.
Your printer wuill stop working and you
will be asked to reinstall the drivers. You
may find the computer slowing down to a
crawl and will get messages you don’t un-
derstand. You will be asked whether you
want to install updates to some program
you didn’t know you had. The internet will
refuse to deliver your e-mail for no obvious
reason, usually at the most critical time.
Getting your computer set up properly the
first time will cost you some money, of
course. But it is money well spent. What
you get is a fully functional computer with
all necessary systems installed and tested,
SPECIALIZING IN CUSTOM
all programs and protections in place. You
can begin to use the computer as soon as
your plug in the pieces and turn on the
* Railings * Gates * Fences
power. You enter the computer age without
headaches or pain, and can anticipate
months and years of service in the future. 135 Dolom i t e D r. , To ro nt o , O N M3 J 2 N 1
Your computer will definitely not be gath-
ering dust in a corner while the computer Te l : 4 1 6 - 7 3 6 - 0 7 7 2
world passes you by. F ax : 4 1 6 - 7 3 6 - 9 7 7 6
ww w.m e t a l w o r x 2 g o . c o m
Most angioplasties are unnecessary, study finds
HEALTH
.
AND WELLNESS
Procedure gave only slight temporary pain relief; drugs are just as effective
NEW ORLEANS - More than half a mil-
lion people a year with chest pain are get-
ting an unnecessary or premature procedure
to unclog their arteries because drugs are
just as effective, suggests a landmark study
that challenges one of the most common
practices in heart
care.
The stunning re-
sults found that
angioplasty did
not save lives or
prevent heart at-
tacks in non-
emergency heart
patients.
An even bigger
surprise: Angio-
plasty gave only
slight and tempo-
rary relief from
chest pain, the
main reason it is
done.
“By five years,
there was really no significant difference”
in symptoms, said Dr. William Boden of
Buffalo General Hospital in New York.
“Few would have expected such results.”
He led the study and gave results at a
meeting of the American College of Cardi-
ology. They also were published online by
the New England Journal of Medicine and
will be in the April 12 issue.
PROCEDURE IS TOP TREATMENT
Angioplasty remains the top treatment for
people having a heart attack or hospitalized
with worsening symptoms. But most an-
gioplasties are done on a non-emergency
basis, to relieve chest pain caused by
clogged arteries crimping the heart’s blood
supply.
Those patients now should try drugs first,
experts say. If that does not help, they can
consider angioplasty or bypass surgery,
which unlike angioplasty, does save lives,
prevent heart attacks and give lasting chest
pain relief.
In the study, only one-third of the people
treated with drugs ultimately needed angio-
plasty or a bypass.
“You are not putting yourself at risk of
death or heart attack if you defer,” and con-
sidering the safety worries about heart
stents used to keep arteries open after an-
gioplasty, it may be wise to wait, said Dr.
Steven Nissen, a Cleveland Clinic heart
specialist and president of the College of
Cardiology.
WHY DID ANGIOPLASTY NOT HELP
MORE?
Helping one artery at a timeIt fixes only
one blockage at a time whereas drugs affect
all the arteries, experts said. Also, the clogs
treated with angioplasty are not the really
dangerous kind.
“Even though it goes against intuition, the
blockages that are severe that cause chest
pain are less likely to be the source of a
heart attack than segments in the artery that
are not severely blocked,” said Dr. David
Maron, a Vanderbilt University cardiologist
who helped lead the new study.
Drugs are better today than they used to
be, and do a surprisingly good job, said Dr.
Elizabeth Nabel, director of the National
Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.
“It may not be as bad as we thought” to
said.
Indo-Caribbean Times
leave the artery alone, she said.
About 1.2 million angioplasties are done
in the United States each year. Through a
blood vessel in the groin, doctors snake a
tube to a blocked heart artery. A tiny bal-
loon is inflated to flatten the clog and a
mesh scaffold
stent is usually
placed.
“We deliber-
ately chose to
enroll a sicker,
more sympto-
matic group” to
give angio-
plasty a good
chance to prove
itself, Boden
said.
The new
study shifts the
argument from
which type of
stent to use to
whether to do
the procedure at all.
The procedure already has lost some pop-
ularity because of emerging evidence that
popular drug-coated stents can raise the risk
of blood clots months later. The new study
shifts the argument from which type of
stent to use to whether to do the procedure
at all.
It involved 2,287 patients throughout the
U.S. and Canada who had substantial
blockages, typically in two arteries, but
were medically stable. They had an average
of 10 chest pain episodes a week — mod-
erately severe.
About 40 percent had a prior heart attack
more than three months previously.
“We deliberately chose to enroll a sicker,
more symptomatic group” to give angio-
plasty a good chance to prove itself, Boden
said.
All were treated with medicines that im-
prove chest pain and heart and artery health
such as aspirin, cholesterol-lowering
statins, nitrates, ACE inhibitors, beta-block-
ers and calcium channel blockers. All also
were counseled on healthy lifestyles —
diet, exercise and smoking cessation.
Half of the participants also were assigned
to get angioplasty.
After an average of 4½ years, the groups
had similar rates of death and heart attack:
211 in the angioplasty group and 202 in the
medication group — about 19 percent of
each.
Heart-related hospitalization rates were
similar, too. Neither treatment proved better
for any subgroups like smokers, diabetics,
or older or sicker people.
At the start of the study, 80 percent had
chest pain. Three years into it, 72 percent
of the angioplasty group was free of this
symptom as was 67 percent of the drug
group.
That means you would have to give an-
gioplasties to 20 people for every one
whose chest pain was better after three
years — an unacceptably high ratio, Nissen
said.
After five years, 74 percent of the angio-
plasty group and 72 percent of the medica-
tion group were free of chest pain - “no
significant difference,” Boden said.
The study was funded by the U.S. De-
partment of Veterans Affairs, the Medical
Research Council of Canada and a host of
drug companies. Stent makers refused to
help pay for the research, said scientists.
April 2007 Page 16
Is most Chinese restaurant food unhealthy?
Menus loaded with sodium, saturated fat and calories — even the veggies
WASHINGTON - The typical Chinese appetizers: An order of six steamed pork
restaurant menu is a sea of nutritional no- dumplings has 500 calories, and there’s not
nos, a consumer group has found. much difference, about 10 calories per
A plate of General Tso’s chicken, for ex- dumpling, if they’re pan-fried.
ample, is loaded with about 40 percent The group found that not much has
more sodium and more than half the calo- changed since it examined Chinese food 15
ries an average adult needs for an entire years ago. That’s not all bad, Liebman said.
day. “We were glad not to find anything differ-
The battered, fried chicken dish with veg- ent,” she said. “Some restaurant food has
etables has 1,300 calories, 3,200 milligrams gotten a lot worse. Companies seem to pile
of sodium and 11 grams of saturated fat. on. Instead of just cheesecake, you get co-
That’s before c o n u t
the rice (200 chocolate
calories a c h i p
cup). And cheesecake
after the egg with a layer
rolls (200 of choco-
calories and late cake,
400 mil- and lasagna
ligrams of with meat-
sodium). balls.”
“I don’t want The group
to put all the says there
blame on is no safe
Chinese harbor
food,” said f r o m
Bonnie Lieb- sodium on
man, nutri- the Chinese
tion director Avoid the sauce and ask for brown rice, say the experts restaurant
of the Center menu, but
for Science in the Public Interest, which did it offers several tips for making a meal
a recent report.. healthier:
“Across the board, American restaurants Look for dishes that feature vegetables in-
need to cut back on calories and salt, and in stead of meat or noodles. Ask for extra
the meantime, people should think of each broccoli, snow peas or other veggies.
meal as not one, but two, and bring home Steer clear of deep-fried meat, seafood or
half for tomorrow,” Liebman said. tofu. Order it stir-fried or braised.
The average adult needs around 2,000 Hold the sauce, and eat with a fork or chop-
calories a day and 2,300 milligrams of salt, sticks to leave more sauce behind.
which is about one teaspoon of salt, ac- Avoid salt, which means steering clear of
cording to government guidelines. the duck sauce, hot mustard, hoisin sauce
Sheila Weiss, director of nutrition policy and soy sauce.
at the National Restaurant Association, said Share your meal or take half home for later.
that restaurants around the country were al- Ask for brown rice instead of white rice.
ready making efforts to offer customers
healthier choices. In particular, Chinese
NEW VACCINE
restaurants typically offer plenty of options
STOPS REPEATED
for customers looking to steer clear of fried
foods and heavy sauces, she noted.
EAR INFECTIONS
"Restaurants have a responsibility to pro-
vide options and they do," said Weiss, but
IN CHILDREN
"customers also have a responsibility to un-
derstand their own dietary needs and know
how to make special requests."
A vaccine to fight common bacterial dis-
ITALIAN AND MEXICAN eases has produced significant and unex-
RESTAURANTS ARE WORSE pected drops in repeat ear infections and the
need for inserted ear tubes in children since
In some ways, CSPI's Liebman said, Ital- its U.S. introduction in 2000, researchers
ian and Mexican restaurants are worse for reported on Monday.
your health, because their food is higher in “This is exciting news for parents whose
saturated fat, which can increase the risk of children suffer from frequent and painful
heart disease. ear infections,” said Katherine Poehling, a
While Chinese restaurant food is bad for pediatrician at Wake Forest University Bap-
your waistline and blood pressure — tist Medical Center and lead author of the
sodium contributes to hypertension — it study.
does offer vegetable-rich dishes and the The vaccination, given initially at 2, 4 and
kind of fat that’s not bad for the heart. 6 months of age, was designed to combat a
However — and this is a big however — number of pneumococcal infections, in-
the veggies aren’t off the hook. A plate of cluding ear infections that most children
stir-fried greens has 900 calories and 2,200 have at least once by the time they turn 2
milligrams of sodium. And eggplant in gar- years old.
lic sauce has 1,000 calories and 2,000 mil- But Poehling said the new research shows
ligrams of sodium. that the vaccine was also preventing repeat
“We were shocked. We assumed the veg- infections, which occur three or four times
etables were all low in calories,” Liebman a year in up to nearly a third of all children,
said. often requiring the insertion of ear tubes to
No safe harborAlso surprising were some equalize pressure..
Panday: racist govt. plot to crush me has failed
BREAKING NEWS Indo-Caribbean Times April 2007 Page 17

“They were too greedy, they tried to hang two Indians with the same rope”
Basdeo Panday’s address at a Pub- ment from the Scarborough Hospital Proj- not receive the cheque he calls Mr. Maharaj returned the deposit because the AG and
lic Meeting in the Couva Car Park, ect; I was not accused of being dishonest in to remind him of it. On the 28 March Ma- Monteil had given him the promise that the
any way. It is the PNM propaganda that has haraj goes to his bankers, CMMB, and ob- company would buy back the land from
Trinidad on Friday, 23 March painted me as a corrupt person to be used tains a manager’s cheque for $400,000, him. The question is: in return for what?
as a weapon against me and my Party in the which he sends to Mc Nichols as down pay- For burying Panday and Sharma? Is that is
I want to thank my supporters, friends and elections. ment deposit for the land; Mc Nichols re- why Mc Nichols was afraid to be cross-ex-
well-wishers both inside and outside the I am told that when the then Chairman of ceives the cheque and promptly deposits it amined? Was he afraid that the lawyers
Party for continuing to have faith in me the Integrity Commission learned that I had into his own bank account. A perfectly nor- would force this damaging piece of evi-
even in my darkest hour. To my political omitted to declare that account he is re- mal transaction, don’t you think? The big dence out of him?
opponents who believe that their only path ported to have said: “Aha! We have the son question is: Why then would he return the There is
to political success is through my death, jail of a bitch to hang.” But when similar errors money 6 days later saying he was no longer another
or political demise, I say: Sorry, not this interested in selling the land when that is piece of
time! not true. He must have been lying because evidence,
This is my first public appear- he did in fact sell the land to Millennium which has
ance since the Court of Appeal soon after. Why did he really return the de- come out
quashed the conviction of Chief posit? And accept $100,000 less for his land in the state-
Magistrate, Sherman Mc Nichols, from Millennium? Who made up the dif- ments they
and set aside the various sen- ference? filed that
tences inflicted on me. I am here What you are forgetting is that Andre puzzles
tonight because I believe I owe it Monteil is a Director of that Bank (CMMB) me. The
to my constituents to speak to in which Maharaj had his money and he DPP says
them first; to ask them whether found out that a CMMB’s Manager’s that on 19
they want me to carry on or cheque for $400,000 was made out to Mc April he re-
whether they think the time has Basdeo Panday (left) and Patrick Manning Nichols. He suspects something and calls ceived a
come for me to go. have been discovered in the declarations of his friend and fellow political pardner, At- Satnarine Sharma copy of a
I have always said that it is you, the peo- PNM Ministers and other PNM hacks the torney General, John Jeremy, and tells him cheque for
ple of Couva North, this blessed con- Commission would call them in and ask of the cheque. Remember Andre Monteil is $400,000 and he passes it to the AG. Which
stituency of blessed people, who gave birth them to make the necessary corrections. the Treasurer of the PNM and John Jeremy cheque is he talking about? It can’t be the
to my Parliamentary life 30 years ago, and But instead of calling me in and advising is the PNM Attorney General. They must cheque Maharaj had sent to Mc Nichols as
who have sustained me with your blood, me that I was mistaken and ought to make have thought that they had the perfect sce- the deposit because Mc Nichols deposited
your sweat and your tears for 40 long years the necessary correction as they have done nario to deal with political enemies. that cheque into his bank account!
of struggle; it is you and only, you and you with every PNM Minister and PNM Party Jeremy sends for Mc Nichols. Is that Remember? It had therefore to be the
alone, who must take that away from me. hacks they send the matter to the DPP who when this sinister plot was hatched to find cheque Mc Nichols gave to Maharaj when
That sacred privilege does not belong to promptly laid charges against me and Panday guilty, send him to jail so he cannot he returned the deposit. If so, what the hell
the PNM, or to the Speaker, or to the caused me to be arrested. That’s where the contest the general elections, and implicate is the DPP doing with a copy of that
plethora of hypocritical armchair politicians conspiracy started. They refused to treat me the Chief Justice, Sat Sharma in the cheque? Who gave it to him and why? Was
who puke up their garbage in the media in the same way that they treated others, process, and so kill two birds with one it Mc Nichols? And why would he do such
with shameless persistence, nor does it be- because I was a political opponent. stone? Further evidence of this will be a thing? Was it the evidence the conspira-
long to the Corpses whose putrid political I was charged in September 2002; the trial given of when we go to court. All that I tors wanted before they would decide not
carcasses continue to litter the political of the matter did not begin until the 20 have said so far has been taken out of state- to prosecute Mc Nichols as they had threat-
landscape. That sacred privilege belongs to March 2006 before Chief Magistrate Sher- ments given by the parties in the cases ened? And why did the DPP pass the copy
you the people of Couva North and only to man Mc Nichols. The witnesses, one of against Panday and Sharma and other of the cheque to the AG? Isn’t it his func-
you. So I start the first day of my new life whom was Mr. Lawerence Duprey, Chair- sources. But there is more to come. tion and duty to prosecute? Was he part of
by coming to you, bowing at your feet and man of the Clico Group of Companies, who Remember the evidence in my case ended this whole thing? Now this is the same DPP
seeking your guidance. had given a scholarship to the children, con- on the 24 March and on that day the matter that has threatened that my retrial will be
When the truth is told in the trial of Bas- cluded their evidence on the 24 March and was adjourned to the 24 April for decision. swift…he forgot to say ‘nasty, brutish and
deo Panday and Satnarine Sharma it will re- the matter was adjourned to the 24 April, So they had a month to play with. In late short’. How come he is not swift with the
veal the most devious political conspiracy 2006 for decision. What happened between March or early April (that is while the de- trial of PNM chairman, Franklin Khan and
ever contrived by a Caribbean Government those two dates would make your blood cision in my case is pending) Monteil ad- PNM Minister Eric Williams, and PNM
to rid itself of people it regarded as its po- crawl and make you wonder whether you mits he visited the AG, who he says is his Minister rowdy Rowley?
litical enemies, It will unfurl a racist plot to are living in a democracy or in Zimbabwe. friend, and they discuss Mc Nichols’ land What kind of retrial will I get? Who will
use the perceived legitimacy of the judici- In order to understand the humongous con- deal. He admits meeting the AG some time appoint the Magistrate to try me this time?
ary to destroy the opposition in order cre- spiracy of the PNM and its agents to per- later at which time he calls Fifi saying Chief Magistrate Mc Nichols? And will I be
ate a vicious dictatorship and maintain itself vert the course of justice and to imprison its someone wants to talk to him (Fifi). It turns tried by a Magistrate who himself/herself
in power forever. It will make Burnham opponents it is necessary to know the his- out to be the AG asking Fifi to buy back Mc has illegally failed and/or refused to file
seem like an amateur and Mugabe like a tory of what went on before. Nichols’ land “as they were in a bind.” their own declaration with the Integrity
high school bully. You will be shocked to Sometime in the year 2005 Mc Nichols What bind? Mc Nichols has already been Commission? Who will pay for my defence
learn how the PNM has mastered the art of bought a piece of land from Home Con- offered $4 million in a perfectly legal trans- for a second time? Why should any human
combining the power of the Party, the Gov- struction Ltd through one of its subsidiaries action. Why is the AG pressuring Fifi, the being be called upon to go through this tor-
ernment, the media, certain business exec- Millennium Homes Ltd. Both companies Chief Executive of Millennium, to buy ment for a second time because a Magis-
utives, the Judiciary, the Integrity are part of the Clico group. CMMB, a mer- back Mc Nichols’ land when it is against trate was biased? You see, my sisters and
Commission and the Police to mercilessly chant bank, of which Andre Monteil is a Di- their policy to do so? What sort of deal was brothers, we are dealing with very desperate
crush its opponents. rector, also belongs to the same group. made with Mc Nichols? I don’t know; I can people; they will do anything to stay in
Everyone knows that the facts surround- Andre Monteil is also Treasurer of the only guess. What I do know is that the power; they want to break the body and
ing my arrest and persecution in this matter PNM; he is also gunning for Lawrence strangest thing next happens. On 3 April spirit of the only man who has led a politi-
arose out of a bank account in London Duprey, whose position he wants. Mc Nichols goes to his bank and borrows cal party that has defeated the PNM not
where my children were studying. That ac- Some time later Mc Nichols decides he money to return the deposit to Maharaj say- once, not twice, but three times. They came
count, which contained money obtained no longer wanted the land and approached ing he is no longer interested in selling the very close to succeeding this time.
from a scholarship for the education of our Millennium to re-purchase the land from land. But he is lying because later Millen- The only reason they failed was because
children was in the name of my wife who him, but they refused to do so on the ground nium re-purchases and he agrees to sell the they were too greedy; they tried to hang two
operated that account for the education and that it was the Company policy not to re- same land for $3,900,000 … $100,000 less Indians with the same rope. If they had
benefit of our children. My name was purchase lands they had already sold. That than Maharaj had offered him. Why? Up to taken Sharma and myself separately, one by
added to that account so that if anything seems reasonable. Mc Nichols then let it be this day they cannot explain why Mc one, they may very well have succeeded.
happened to Oma the children’s education known to friends that he wanted to sell Nichols would get a cheque in the normal They have failed but that does not mean
would not be interrupted. I had nothing to these lands. In or about February or early course of business, report it to no one, de- that they will not try and try again. I expect
do with that account and therefore did not March 2006 one Anthony Maharaj heard posit it in his account and 6 days later bor- them to come and search my house again;
regard myself as beneficial owner of the that Mc Nichols was selling the land and he rows money to return the deposit on April 3. to lay new charges against me; to rig the
money therein; consequently, I did not de- became interested; he called Mc Nichols to What happened in those 6 days between courts, to jail me and to persecute me until
clare it in my statement of assets and liabil- talk about it. They agreed on a price of March 27 and April 3? We know and in due I am dead, but I am not afraid because I
ities to the Integrity Commission. $4,000,000 and a deposit of 10% course you too will know. Is that when the know that Almighty God will not place on
I want to remind you that I was not ($400,000) to seal the deal. Maharaj agrees plot was hatched to finish off Panday and my shoulders a cross heavier than I can
charged for corruption, or of receiving a to send Mc Nichols a cheque for $400,000. Sharma? bear.
bribe, or of thiefing sand, gravel and ce- When by the 27 March Mc Nichols does It is as clear as daylight that Mc Nichols (CONTINUED ON PAGE 20)
RELIGION Indo-Caribbean Times
Holi in North America Celebrated with Indo-Caribbean Flavour
By Roop Misir
Large numbers of Indians come to Canada
and the United Stated of America from
Guyana, Trinidad & Tobago, the Indian
subcontinent and elsewhere. A great many
of us celebrate Holi.
Holi as the Indian Spring Festival of
Colours
Like other festivals in India, Holi has two
faces – cultural and religious. To many peo-
ple, Holi is celebrated as the “Festival of
Colours.” It falls on the full moon day in
the month of Phalgun according to the In-
dian Calendar. The spring harvest festival
of Holi is observed mainly by Hindus of
northern India, though its appeal is univer-
sal as others love to join in the fun. Festiv-
ities can last from two to five days in March
every year, and take many forms, reflecting
tradition in different parts of India. Typi-
cally, merry makers crowd in towns, cities
and villages. In streets, parks and public
places, revellers intermingle and spread
happiness and joy. Traditionally, bonfires
are lit in public places on the evening be-
fore the first day. Then on Holi day, people
celebrate with festive vibrancy and wild
abandon as they throw coloured powder
and water at one other. Traditionalists offer
harvested grains and coconuts as oblation
to the fire as they rejoice at the bountiful
harvest.
Religious Aspects of Holi
Holi evokes similar sentiments in Hindus
as Eid in Muslims and Christmas in Chris-
tians. In Hindu temples and other places of
congregation, stories are recounted that
lend a distinct religious flavour. For exam-
ple, the story of the boy devotee Prince Pra-
halad, who always used to chant God's
name in the palace. Bhakt Prahalad had
Lord Vishnu's blessings. His father King
Hiranya Kashyap never believed in God,
and scolded Prahalad whenever he used to
see him chanting God's name. Prahalad was
always cool and composed and never be-
came angry or afraid. Although given many
forms of punishment by his angry father,
Prahalad’s faith in God only increased. In
desperation, King Hiranya Kashyap sought
the help of Holika, his sister. One of her
special gifts of power was that she could
never be burnt by fire. On the orders of her
brother the King, she made Prahalad sit on
her lap and then she herself sat on a burning
pyre. But the opposite happened. Holika
was reduced to ashes whereas Prahalad
came out unscathed.
This is the reason why Hindus celebrate
Holi first by burning the wooden pyre, sym-
bolically representing Holika. They also in-
terpret the burning of Holika to ashes as the
victory of good over evil. Nowadays, the
true significance of Holi is extended to in-
clude other desired attributes—like friend-
ship over enmity, and a person’s trust over
suspicion. The theme of Holi has since be-
come one of “Universal brotherhood”. This
is the key to celebration of the festival of
Holi.
Fun Aspects of Holi Celebrations in
Metro Toronto
Holi is also known as “Phagwa.” In
Toronto, the weather is still cold. But the
spirit of Holi lives in the minds as it warms
the heart. This is immortalized in poetry:
The spring sun warms as it surely thaws
The thinning white blanketing the Earth.
As the last snow melts the days get longer
Heralding the end of chilling winter’s stay.
It’s the month of Phalgun and now it’s Holi
The long awaited Festival of Colour galore
Phagwa is a unifying social force that
brings together Indians (and Hindus in par-
ticular) from diverse social backgrounds.
For the faithful, there are numerous dis-
courses and rituals to commemorate the
season. It’s a time to rededicate themselves
to the service of God and fellow humans.
For those who are eager to have a joyful
time, at long last Holi has finally arrived:
“Holi Hai”, “It is Holi” . There are stage
shows featuring talented artistes and latest
Bollywood films and fashions. Family and
friends visit one another, and exchange gifts
and pleasantries.
Phagwah Parade in New York City
Indians who went to the Caribbean as in-
dentured immigrants in the 19th century
and early 20th century brought Holi to
Guyana, Surinam, and Trinidad & Tobago.
This special holiday flourished and gained
the name “Phagwah.” In Guyana and Suri-
nam, Phagwah became important national
holidays, and employees now get the day
off from work. Since the 1970s many
Guyanese have emigrated to the United
States, especially to Richmond Hill and Ja-
maica in Queens, New York City. They
brought the “Phagwah” tradition to their
new home. Every year, the Phagwah parade
is held along Liberty Avenue. This year’s
parade was held on March 4. It’s now an es-
tablished event as Indians take pride in
Phagwah and extend the hand of friendship
to fellow citizens.
Yes, the days of Phagwa are here to make
Outdoors or indoors wherever you may be
In Holi’s uninhibited revelry let’s partake
The unbridled joy seasoned with delight.
Enchanted and exuberant it acts like a tonic
Refreshes the body with fun and frolic
Multiculturalism in Action
Apart from economic opportunities, rea-
sons why immigrants choose to settle in
Canada and the United States are tolerance
for peoples of different cultures. Canada’s
policy of official multiculturalism is evolv-
ing into a recognition of the value and ben-
efits of our “cultural diversity” and
"cultural mosaic". Though the late winter
climate may be harsh, both countries pro-
vide suitable backdrop for showcasing our
immigrant culture of tolerance. Of course,
many North Americans are more fascinated
by fun, food and fashion.
April 2007
Two very “colour-
ful” young ladies
show the results of
taking part in Holi
celebrations in the
Mississauga Ram
Mandir. Large num-
bers of Caribbean
Hindus attended
this and other
events at the Devi
Mandir, Vedic Cul-
tural Centre,
Vishnu Mandir,
Peel Aryua Samaj,
and Satya Jyoti.
Adapt or be Lonely?
Holi is one of the few Indian festivals that
is celebrated publicly and with great gusto.
For new immigrants with few friends and
no relatives here, life can indeed be lonely.
To many of them no doubt, Holi or Eid can
be just another day. But thankfully though,
there are dozens of wonderful events in
major cities across Canada and the United
States of America. As for Holi, planned
events are held in temples and community
centres. And best of all, for the most part
admission is free. However, for celebrations
with a modern twist that appeal to the
younger generation, there are numerous
concerts and stage shows featuring local
talent and visiting artistes. Not forgetting
Indian food and fashion which have been
gaining popularity in recent years. Surely,
a festival like Holi must be celebrated with
large groups of merrymakers. The more the
merrier! So why stay home and watch TV
when you can be part of the festive and the
joyous?
We live in a world beset by mistrust, de-
ceit and hate. A world where different
groups are vying for superiority as they feel
“convinced” that only their viewpoint is
right . Or that their way is the only way.
As far as the celebration of Holi is con-
cerned, social barriers are removed as peo-
ple embrace each other in fun and play.
Is the true message of Holi a lesson in so-
cial harmony? For other than having a good
time during Holi (and other festive days),
are these lessons useful in promoting social
justice, racial harmony and mutual respect?
Time will tell!
[Dr. Roop Misir is an Indo-Guyanese Cana-
dian Teacher with the Toronto District
School Board. He can be contacted at
roop.misir@gmail.com.]
PAINTER TO WITHDRAW
OBSCENE PICTURES OF
HINDU GODS
MUMBAI: Noted painter M F Hussain,
who was booked by police for allegedly
hurting sentiments of people by painting
gods in nude, on Tuesday apologised and
promised to withdraw from an auction his
controversial painting depicting "Bharat-
mata" in an obscene manner.
Following persistent protest by Hindu
Janjagruti Samiti (HJS) and VHP against
Hussain displaying the painting on the web-
sites and in an exhibition in New Delhi, the
painter on Tuesday said he apologised to
the people for the same and promised to
withdraw the auction of the picture.
"The proceeds of the auction are said to be
utilised for the victims of Kashmir earth-
Page 18
Does a bath in the Ganges
wash away your sins?
At the Kumbh Mela religious festival in
Allahabad, India last earlier this year mil-
lions of Hindu pilgrims ran into some un-
usual protestors- Hindu swamis. Scores of
saffron-clad swamis from the reformist
Arya Samaj were telling pilgrims not to
take a “holy” dip in the Ganges because it
could not wash away their sins.
Arya Samaj leader Swami Agnivesh said
that although Hindus had been told for cen-
turies that they will be purified of sins by a
dip in the Ganges, there was no scriptural
support for such a belief. “When I asked
people how taking a dip in any river could
absolve a person of sins, the only answer I
got was that there must be some reason,
otherwise why were so many people at-
tending. This kind of blind faith is at the
root of the degeneration, the rot, which has
set into Hindu society today,” he added.
Agnivesh argued that the Hindu scrip-
tures emphasize right conduct; speak the
truth and follow the path of righteousness
and did not say a simple bath could cancel
out the effects of karma. “At Kumbh Mela,
nobody told these simple people about the
real problem of pollution; sewerage and in-
dustrial effluent flow into the Ganges, and
dead bodies are also thrown into the river
in the belief that it provides direct access to
swarga (Heaven).”
The swamis did not appear to have much
impact on the Hindu pilgrims. “There were
about 500 of us at the Kumbh Mela and we
could easily have been lynched by the
crowd. Yet nobody said anything. We dis-
tributed thousands of leaflets to convey the
message that taking a dip could never ever
wash away one's sins. The problem is that
nobody really cares; they don't beat you up
but at the same time they don't take much
notice of you either.”
Swami Agnivesh warned that Indian so-
ciety needed to change and inculcate the
values of doubt and dissent. There must be
debate and society should question the au-
thority of religious leaders. He also urged
Hindus to look at the social injustice that
emanates from the caste system, from gen-
der inequality , trying to build yet another
Ram mandir in Ayodhya to join the 15oth-
ers claiming to be Ram's birthplace, and un-
derstanding that there could be no personal
salvation unless there is social salvation.
CORRECTION
In our last issue we incorrectly said Mus-
lims would celebrate Eid in March. Eid
will in fact be celebrated in the fallafter
the fast of Ramadan. The Hamilton group
CICA held own early celebration of Eid
on March 17.
quake," HJS said in a release on Tuesday,
urging for an immediate, strong action
against Hussain.
HJS has also filed a case with Mumbai
and Thane police and appealed to President
A P J Abdul Kalam and Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh to take action against
such "anti-national and perverse attitude of
great aritists", Ramesh Shinde said..
Criticized paintings include
Naked Lord Hanuman and Goddess Sita
Naked Goddess Sita sitting on the tail of
Naked Lord Hanuman
Lord Hanuman is portrayed naked and with
His genitals pointing towards a woman
A bull having sexual intercourse with God-
dess Parvati and Lord Shiva watching on
the auspicious day of Shivratri
 Scary global warming crisis is upon us today
YOUTH Indo-Caribbean Times April 2007 Page 19

Deadly heat waves, water and food shortages, stronger tropical storms, disappearance of species predicted in report
THE INTERGOVERNMENTAL It is likely that the artic summer ice would this is already at their doorstep! Two years veloped economies (Asia, Africa and South
PANEL ON CLIMATE CHANGE melt during the latter half of this century. ago Brazilian villages living along rivers America) are the most susceptible to the
(IPPC) REPORT AND WHAT IT Coastlines as we know them will change and streams found themselves staring at ravages of climate change a good part of the
SHOULD MEAN TO ME. significantly, for example, the low coast of dried-out river beds with a large number of financial pie would be spent to shoring up
Guyana and the Sunderbans of Bengal, the dead fish. The fact that this had happened these economies- to make them climate
The jury in the form of the form of the low lying island countries in the Indian in the lush Amazon stunned the world and
IPPC sat and deliberated over the vast oceans ( Seychelles islands and others), the Brazilian government was moved to de-
amount of pertinent data from a host of rel- areas in the Philippines, Bangladesh and the clare a state of emergency over these areas.
evant, international authorities on climate Indonesian islands will be inundated. Sen- The dry-out was linked to climate change
and weather and their latest verdict came sitive intertidal ecology of many countries and experts predicted that by 2030 there is
out in February 2007. will completely disappear. Those countries a 50% chance that this would happen again
The IPPC believes and by 2100 the chance goes up to 90%!
that they are better The water level in the mighty Amazon has
than 90% sure that the dropped by 3 metres (about 10 ft!). Rising
climate changes we sea levels can cause salt water to reverse
are currently experi- flow into the Amazon, flora and fish species
encing is caused by that cannot withstand the salt water will die. Flooded New Orleans after Katrina
human activities, this - there is a greater than 60% chance that, proof.
level of certainty is due to climate change, the intensity of trop- But this is not happening. For example,
much higher and nar- ical storms will increase. the unpredictability of the weather has been
rower in range than These tropical storms batter many coun- a big problem to farmers, especially those
IPO’s earlier report tries. Most of these countries are poor. We in poor countries, whose crops are very de-
which was published Guyana’s sea wall may come under increasing pressure have seen what Katrina has done to the US, pendent on rainfall. Thus far, economic aid
in 2001. that depend on extensive dykes systems to now imagine a storm that is 2 times as in- and technological solutions from the devel-
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate keep out the seas (Guyana, the Netherlands) tense. It will be unparallel destruction, oped countries have not been forthcoming
Change (IPPC) headed by Dr. Rajendra will be hit hard with increasing costs to re- many of these countries may not be able to to the level that would make these poor
Pachauri is an organization set up in 1988 pairs and/or to emplace or to replace dykes. recover for a very long time only to be farmers less susceptible to the capricious-
by the World Meteorological Organization The warmer seas will kill the very fragile struck again. ness of the weather. The brunt of the cli-
(WMO) and the United Nations Environ- and temperature sensitive corals systems in Coast-lines, intertidal zones and mangrove mate risk will be borne by agricultural and
mental Programme(UNEP). This organiza- Australian and the Caribbean Oceans. This forests will be uprooted and rural development. These are exactly the
tion's role is to assess, using the best has been observed already! recovery may not be possible, the ecology types of development that are acutely
available scientific knowledge and models, Melting of the glacier would reduce fresh will change. needed in the poorer countries.
the risk of human induced climate changes, water availability and as fresh water inse- With the enormous amount of water in the In this regard it has been stated by the ex-
its potential impact and its options for adap- curity increases poverty and malnutrition heated atmosphere the storm-caused deluge ecutive director of the UNEP that "an
tation (change/or substitutions) and mitiga- will increase in Asia, Africa and parts of will be catastrophic. There will be unbe- African child born in 2007 should expect to
tion (reduction). The IPPC does not carry South America. Fresh water insecurity may lievable torrents in the rivers and streams be faced with disease and a new level of
out any scientific research on its own but lead some countries to declare sources of that will cause many hardship for humans, drought by the time he/she is 50 years old".
uses data that have been published in peer- fresh water as "national security assets". animals and crops. Soil erosion will sweep This is an alarming development for an
reviewed journals. This may lead to flexing of military might away the productive layer of earth. area that is already being savaged by dis-
So, what activities the report is alluding to sat- ease, drought and chronic food shortages
to? Well, it is the relentless cutting and i s f y brought on by famines. In parts of India and
burning of the forests, the removal and f r e s h Bangladesh the scenario is frighteningly
combustion of fossil fuel from the bowels w a t e r similar.
of the earth with their consequent release of n e e d s .
carbon dioxide gas to the atmosphere over W a t e r WHAT IT SHOULD MEAN TO ME
and above the amount that was originally will be-
there. c o m e Let us not kid ourselves, reversal of the
What is the matter with carbon dioxide? the new greenhouse gas emission and climate proof-
Carbon dioxide from combustion and c u r - ing will be hugely expensive and one of the
methane from rotting vegetation in wet- r e n c y major players, the USA, is still hedging its
lands and animal waste products, are green- r e p l a c - bets.
house gases. They cause the atmosphere to ing oil! If you think you are paying heavy taxes
heat up just as in a greenhouse, hence the -it is now, wait until the other shoe drops! Al-
name. This excess build-up of carbon diox- v e r y The Amazon Riverhas seen water levels drop 10 feet in recent years though the major players will be govern-
ide has been going on since the industrial l i k e ly ments, industry and the scientific
revolution (1750) but has taken a turn, dra- (greater than 90% chance!) that there will community, you the individuals can play a
matically, for the worst in the 20th century- be increases in the number and severity of WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE AND vital role by analyzing your use of energy
the era of the automobiles and other fossil heatwaves over many parts of the world. QUICKLY. and try to reuse, reduce and recycle so that
fuel fed processes. We would see much more intense and your ecological footprint will be as tiny as
It has been estimated that there has been longer periods of droughts. This means that It would be nice to think that the above possible. In the individual cases the sum of
a 12.5 % increase in carbon load to the at- for those countries, mainly Asia and Africa descriptions are the ideas for a really fright- the parts may be greater than the whole!
mosphere from 1990 to 2005 and IPPC has and parts of South America, there will be ening science fiction novel but it is not! If In our last issue of ICTimes we have
predicted that there would be dire conse- untold human misery. the IPPC model is reliable and there is no given you 20 ways to love your planet and
quences for the earth and its inhabitants if Should the climate change continue ani- good reason to believe that it is not, action leave your bad habits. We will continue to
the current trend in carbon dioxide emission mals and plants will disappear- the ecology must follow. This is the "knock on the head' encourage you to do more in future issues.
is not reversed and be brought to a stop. will change: what was once grassland may the governments of the important industri- Imagine for the moment that the predic-
become desert and the rain forest, which is alized nations-who are the major green- tions of the IPPC were to come true, can
DIRE CONSEQUENCES the lungs of the earth and whose ecology is house gas emitters- were awaiting to get you visualize the mass of humanity that will
extremely sensitive and fragile, may irrev- their acts together before it is too late. In come kicking and screaming to the doors of
If current trends continue the following ocably change. many quarters it is being said that it is al- the "safe" countries. Could they be turned
would occur: Severe heatwaves can change local wind ready too late and the window for action is back? I doubt it!
- the temperature of the atmosphere would patterns and this can lead to wind-borne soil rapidly closing- there is no time to lose. In the case of climate change "all are in-
rise somewhere between 1.1 - 6.4 degrees erosion, dust storms and tornadoes. Many governments have agreed to cut volved and if little or nothing is done all
Celsius (deg C) by the end of this century. Forest fires in the Amazon and other greenhouse gas emissions and have insti- may be consumed".
In this regard the IPPC 2001 report pre- forests would rage and the ecology that sup- tuted programs to do so: harnessing wind Some information for this article has been
dicted a 0.15 - 0.35 Deg C rise to the end of ported tropical and temperate forests may and solar energy, reducing the consumption obtained from many internet sites. The im-
2000, the rise was found to be 0.33 deg C, change. Flora, fauna and crops will disap- of fossil fuels by making car more fuel ef- plications of the IPPC findings is solely the
closer to the upper end! pear. About 2 years ago 2800 sq. km of the ficient by using a combination of fossil and author's who has a background in sci-
-with the increase in temperature of the Amazon forest was devastated by fire electrical energy-hybrids autos, making ence/environmental science.
atmosphere it is to be expected that which was climate change related. buildings green. We are hoping to reduce
the ice at both poles would melt and the sea There will be increased evaporation of our carbon footprint with cuts to the total D.R. Narine. PhD
levels will increase. It is predicted that the lakes, rivers and streams and some of the greenhouse gas emission.
sea levels would rise between 28 – 43 cm. rivers and streams will run dry. In Brazil One would expect that since the lesser de-

Niala’s book is Like
ARTS AND LITERATURE
Heaven.. for a while
This is the story of Ved Sant, an Indian
from Port of Spain, Trinidad - a ramshackle
carnival culture which suddenly becomes
oil and gas rich.
At an age when he might have been con-
templating further education, Ved is forced
to take charge
of the family
business.
Breaking all
the rules about
how things
should be
done, Ved fol-
lows his in-
stinctive
impulses to-
wards kind-
ness, respect, generosity, creativity, and
sees the company surgeforward.
But while success brings very tangible re-
wards, it also brings more than its share of
heartache. Ved may be clear-sighted in his
practical vision of the future, but he is un-
able to apply the lessons he has learned to
his private life. And intense family pres-
sures bind him tight when he needs to be
free.
Ved is an attractive man, and very attrac-
tive to women. But he cannot keep the one
he really loves.And, as his business flour-
ishes, he finds himself sucked into a
whirlpool of politics and corruption.
In her first novel, Niala Maharaj takes us
on an exhilarating journey into an island
Eden, where natural, ebullient innocence
has to struggle to survive under the extreme
pressures of commercial development. Like
Heaven is a novel which pulsates with life,
is rich in character and vibrant with the
sounds, smells, colours and texture of the
Caribbean.
In an interview Niala explained her inspi-
ration to write the book.
“I was in Italy, spending time with an
American friend who was married into a
wealthy Italian family. My friend had mar-
ital difficulties and we talked about them a
lot. To my own surprise, I kept trying to ex-
plain her husband's behaviour to her. That's
because Italians are very similar to Indians
from Trinidad - the same mixture of a mod-
ern consciousness with commitment to
older cultural norms involving very strong
relationships with the wider family.
My friend is very much like me - a
woman of the modern age who believes her
life is her own to live as she decides. Her
husband's behaviour reminds me of that of
my brothers, my brothers-in-law, many de-
cent men I know from Trinidad. Like
Heaven grew out of these discussions - of
me trying to explain the conflicts within a
man caught by the need to fulfil his wife's
desire for an independent existence in-
formed by modern concepts of individual
identity, and his responsibilities to the wider
family and his heritage.
At the same time, I was reading Mar-
guerite Youcenar's 'Memoirs of Hadrian'
and was struck by her daring, not just in
writing a novel with a male narrative voice,
but in the voice of one of the greatest of
Roman emperors, a man who had the power
to shape the world that existed at that time.
All these concerns came together in the
writing of Like Heaven. Its structure is
heavily based on Memoirs of Hadrian. I
wanted to write a book about someone who
creates an empire, is a leader and something
Indo-Caribbean Times
“The Croiseee”,the crossroads where peo-
ple of all races pass to get to the city centre.
I have always been part of the 'melting pot'
of modern society, even now, even outside
Trinidad, where my closest friends come
from a wide variety of backgrounds.
Growing up in urban
Trinidad was indeed liv-
ing in a situation where
the edges of cultural
practice melted into
each other. It was a
highly dynamic social
situation, one where
cultural change was tak-
ing place daily in front
of your eyes.
As an adult, I worked
on a television series, a
cultural magazine programme called
Gayelle, in which we showcased all the dif-
ferent strands of culture in Trinidad. It was
one of the most fulfilling experiences of my
life.
Well, my family was involved in small
business, so I know that milieu well. I also
know from personal experience that build-
ing a business doesn't mean you have to be
exploitative and grasping. Both my father
and my brother-in-law were deeply in-
volved in the lives of their employees; their
employees were part of their families. As a
result, my father was spectacularly suc-
Dr Prem Misir
cessful in business. “
brings a new
book on race
and ethnicity
Prem Misir's book Ethnic Cleavage and
Closure in the Caribbean Diaspora: Essays
on Race, Ethnicity and Class has now been
published by The Edwin Mellen Press of
New York, Wales (UK), and Canada .
This collection of essays addresses racism
as one of the major themes in political com-
mentaries in the multiethnic Caribbean and
its Diaspora. In this context, several ethnic
groups ply for scarce resources, so the prin-
ciples of fairness and equality in resource
distribution becomes critical to societal sta-
bility.
The book advocates an understanding of
inter and intra-ethnic class structure as a
useful conceptual tool to address the issues
of ethnic cleavage, racism, and discrimina-
tion, using a power-conflict framework that
illustrates that inter and intra-ethnic class
structure emphasizes economic stratifica-
tion, caste, internal colonialism, and a di-
versity of class-based and Marxist theories.
The subject areas are: Ethnic and Immi-
grant Studies, Latin America, Iberia ,
Caribbean - History, Sociology, Develop-
ment Studies.
The book is available through mellen-
press.com and regular bookstores, both lo-
cally and internationally.
“Dr. Misir has made a most welcome ad-
dition to the literature of Caribbean social
science with his compilation of this book.
It deals with enduring and tense issues in
Caribbean societies, both in the region it-
self and beyond, for the Diasporas are both
within and without.
Page 20
M arch 2007
Dolly PANDAY: RACIST PLOT
nearly get
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 17
What I have revealed to you today is only
heart attack
the tip of the iceberg of corruption, malice
and vindictiveness of the leadership of the
PNM. Only half the truth in this sordid af-
fair has come out so far. There is much
more to come and will come as I go
By Ram Jagessar throughout the length and breadth of this
country exposing the corruption and cruelty
Dolly nearly get heart attack of this fascist PNM regime. You will see
When she hear how they are making Mc Nichols the fall
Big daughter Pearl guy in this conspiracy to pervert the course
Hiding and seeing the course of justice. I feel no sympathy for
A black man. Mc Nichols; he had entered into a transac-
tion to sell his land which was above board;
Cross she arm he should have been strong enough to stand
Same day, up to them and not allow them to terrorise
Waiting for Pearl him into making false allegations against
To come home. the Chief Justice and wrongfully convict-
What is this I hear ing me and sending me to prison so that
About you and this black man? they could win the next elections.
This is why we come Canada?
PATRICK MANNING AT THE
Pearl fire back same speed CORE OF THE CONSPIRACY
I know you would behave so
That is why I didn’t tell you The stinking core of this conspiracy lies in
Why you people the bowels of the PNM under Patrick Man-
have to be so racial? ning. That is where we have to look. My
colleagues are calling for an independent
Dolly can’t help it inquiry into this sordid affair. An inquiry in-
She see black man stituted by this corrupt PNM will be a waste
She see Wismar of time; it must be a truly independent in-
She see Georgetown riot quiry. As far as I am concerned my first
Black man killing Indian question in Parliament will be how much
Black man raping money was paid to Timothy Cassels, British
Indian girl like Pearl QC, to prosecute me. I hope he has paid
taxes on it and on the house in Tobago.
You don’t know What is the lesson we must learn from
What black people do we these false prosecutions and persecutions?
Make we leave If the PNM can do this to the Chief Justice
and come here Canada of this country and to the former Prime
Minister and Leader of the Opposition,
Pearl say stop right there what will it do to you? You are in danger of
Don’t blame Roderick being oppressed by the most vicious, cor-
He born in Canada. rupt and malignant government in the West-
He father and mother ern Hemisphere. You cannot condemn your
Not even come from Guyana children and your grand children to this
But St Lucia. kind of life. Do not bequeath to them a so-
ciety in which you yourselves are afraid to
Dolly stamp on foot brakes
live. To save them from this tragedy we
And pull up hand brakes too.
must stand up and fight; fight for a better
One inch more on that road
country and a better society. To do that you
And Pearl gone with the black man
must take this Government from this vi-
Grand picknie dream gone too.
cious PNM and return the and return this
Dolly itching for grand picknie
country to the days of peace and prosperity.
Really want the Indian one
To do this we must prepare ourselves for
But will take half white
what looks like the mother of all battles. We
Half Chinese, half Filipino, anything
must organize and mobilize and inspire our
Maybe even half black St Lucian.
people.
Dolly say she sorry
PNM PREPARED TO COMMIT
didn’t know
MURDER TO STAY IN POWER
Not going to
Interfere.
Our first task is to ensure that every body
entitled to vote is registered with the Elec-
Pearl ent no fool
tion and Boundries Commission. You must
She watching Dolly
check the list for voter padding by the
She eye hard
PNM; they are prepared to commit murder
Like porkknocker diamond.
in order to stay in power. Put aside your dif-
ferences and divisions and factionalism.
She don’t know Dolly hoping
Look upon this as a holy war; a battle to
If she don’t oppose
ensure that all our peoples shall live in
That will take the shine
peace and harmony. We are doing all in our
off the black man Roderick
power to unite the opposition forces; all the
More parents oppose
political parties opposed to the PNM are
More children want
now talking…except the CorPse. We are
If Dolly pretend to like him
trying to solidify this movement. I cannot
Maybe Pearl get to hate him.
tell you how it will work out. For your sake
Four years in college
and for the nation’s sake I do sincerely hope
Plenty time for Pearl
it will work out.
To find better fish
Let us all join together and make 2007 the
Than Roderick
year of the lion; the year of victory.
And produce
Thank you and may Almighty God bless
better quality
you all.
grand picknie. (Basdeo Panday)
Chanderpaul: The man
SPORTS
Why so little Indian culture
from Unity Village, Guyana in opening ceremony?
By Rahul Bhattacharya
When Guyanese remember the first time
they watched Shivnarine Chanderpaul bat,
they remember how large the helmet sat on
his little head, how his pads dwarfed his
body, how inconceivable the idea was that
he might be able to lift the bat let alone ex-
ecute a swing.
Watching his 10-year old son Brandon -
left-handed like Shiv, fidgety in stance like
Shiv, thin and bony like Shiv - batting on
the concrete strip his grandfather has
marked for practice in the front yard is to
think something similar. A few days ago the
boy made 61 in a club game against players
twice his age. He batted for five hours.
You know where it comes from: Shiv has
done it for more than a decade. Nothing has
meant more to Shiv than batting, and bat-
ting has meant more to few as much as it
does to Shiv, and when West Indies face Sri
Lanka in Sunday's crucial match, it will be
another homecoming for the finest
Guyanese batsman since Clive Lloyd and
the best West Indian batsman of his gener-
ation after Brian Lara.
We're in Unity Village, on the lovely East
Coast of Guyana in a backstreet full of
flowering front yards and jhandis, flags, the
symbol of Hindu ritual. Mr Chanderpaul's
own house has two small shivlings installed
by the practice strip. "Without god, without
prayer, we are nothing."
Not a minute by foot is the community
centre where Khemraj Chanderpaul would
look after Shiv's cricket, as he does with
Brandon's, though nowadays the ride is by
SUV to the Gandhi cricket club in George-
town, 45 minutes away.
Life was a little harder then. Like his fa-
ther, Khemraj went out to sea to fish. But
his greatest dedication was towards his son
Shiv, whose obsession with the game
matched his own. Khemraj is one of the
great men of Guyanese local cricket. Talk
to him at a game, even under-15s, and he
will reply without ever taking his eyes off
the field.
Together the Chanderpauls would roll the
pitch at the Unity-Lancaster Community
Centre and Shiv would bat for hours. Some-
times a fellow called Bharrat Jagdeo from
up the road might come around and watch.
The fellow is now president of Guyana.
When Shiv was nine, a man of 6 feet 4
inches from Lancaster village across the
road bowled at him and was impressed by
the boy's defence. The man was Colin
Croft.
From the beginning Shiv defended a lot
and would cut anything, cut into the ground
and in club games cut through gaps be-
tween five men in the cordon. It is only
Page 21
Indo-Caribbean Times April 2007
much later that he began playing to leg. Not
so Brandon, who is a little more attacking, Guyanese promoter Nanda Sahadeo challenges
Khemraj will tell you, a little more rounded, Cricket World Cup officials for an answer
though perhaps not quite as prodigious as
A Guyanese cultural promoter has asked the best ever--I commend you for this. It is
Shiv was.
why there was so little (just one item) of In- with this in mind that I too am absolutely
The training had to go beyond nets. In the
dian culture in the opening ceremony of the committed to not only showcasing the
derelict concrete ground floor of the pavil-
Cricket World Cup in Jamaica.She even of- cricket--but our wealth--the people of the
ion building in the community centre
fered to help with items marking the East Caribbean--the warmest, kindest and most
Khemraj would fling a hard cork and rubber
Indian culture in the Caribbean, but was ig- versatile and talented.
'compo' ball at Shiv to sharpen his reflexes.
nored by cricketing officials. 1.The Indian drums that are very popular
Or he would walk him two minutes to the
Nanda wrote to the newspapers in Guyana in Guyana in Trinidad--we have seen them
shore of the muddied Atlantic and, on a
saying she suspected there would be an being played at cricket matches in these
strip of wet sand, test him with a sponge
issue with Indian cultural presence in the counties too. There is the tassa, tadja and
'bumper ball'. The ball would rear at his ribs
opening ceremony. She wrote to Robert tappu drums. We have can them in fusion
and throat and, being light, swerve in the
Bryan of the Jamaica Cricket Association with African drums -- each have their own
breeze. Always Shiv's appetite was for
on May 14, 2006. sound and style but when done together are
more. "Don't talk cricket," Khemraj would
tell him, "play cricket." unique yet distinct. These drums can be
Dear Members of The Board of Directors, used toprovide the beat/rythmn and at the
It is the same advice he gives Brandon,
The Jamaica Cricket 2007 same time--we can have dancers
who spends his time between his grandpar-
ents, and his mother, Annalee, of mixed performing with them. This item can be
Greetings. done in a fusion of dance and rhythmn or
white and Portugese extraction, who now
runs a beer garden in the same village. Shiv seperately.
Your country has the most honorable task 2. Dance--there are several styles of tradi-
himself lives in Miami with his second wife
of hosting the Opening Ceremony. In the tional Indian dances. I am very happy to tell
Amy.
World Cup in South Africa, there were you that
The couple looked shiny bright at the Pe-
artistes t h e
gasus hotel in Georgetown last night as they
and cul- dancers
socialised their way through the lobby.
t u r a l are not
There is now a more urbane confidence
items that only of In-
about Shiv, a great progression from his
reflected dian de-
palpable diffidence from his early years. Al-
the ethnic scent.
ways shy, he entered a team of established
popula- 3. Chut-
black cricketers, a simple teenaged East In-
tion of ney--this
dian from an East Indian village, the first
South should be
East Indian to break through into the West
Africa. included
Indies team for over a decade. It was not a
There as Chut-
matter of exclusion but of not feeling fully
were In- ney music
understood.
d i a n has been
Already his place in the annals of East
dancers created/in-
Indian batsmanship is secure, second only
perform- The I-Three and Bob Marley reggae but Indian culture absent vented by
to Rohan Kanhai and perhaps Alvin
i n g our own Caribbean people. In Trinidad--we
Kallicharran, both further up the coast in
alongside the African dancers. have people of both Indian and African de-
Berbice, the home of Indo-Guyanese
With this thought in mind, I am hoping scent singing chutney. We can have Chut-
that you will also include cultural items ney and Soca separately or Chutney
that reflect on the diverse cultures of the Soca---this will be a wonderful means too
people that make up the West Indies. I of showcasing the unity in diversity in our
would like to voluteer to help/assist in put- Caribbean.
ting together artistes/cultural items from the These are just a few ideas--I have grown
East Indians of the Caribbean. up in culture/cultural activities in Guyana. I
I am in touch with the various artistes in have produced and performed in my own
the different countries and it will be my shows.
greatest honor to assist in this aspect of the Please allow me to share of my knowledge
Opening Games. and experience so that we can make this
We have to show the World how diverse World Cup Opening Ceremony--the ab-
yet united a People we are and this is the solutely best ever.
most splendid opportunity to do so. Sincerely, Nanda
With sincere regards, Mr. Bryan fowarded her letter to one Mar-
Shivnarine Chanderpaul's father Nanda Sahadeo (Ms) tin Lewis, manager of the opening cere-
Khemraj and son Brandon mony, asking him to follow up. He never
Mr Bryan promptly replied on May 15: did. She e-mailed Martin Lewis directly,
cricket. Like those two predecessors, he is but he never replied.
Hello Nanda Ssahadeo So in June 2006 Nanda wrote the LOC in
a source of great East Indian pride, and in a
land embittered by racial tension, a figure Guyana suggesting ideas for showcasing
I would be very interested in pursuing this. African and Indian culture. The LOC asked
of reconciliation.
Could you indicate a short list of the types for a formal proposal with costs, which she
"Ramotar and Joseph Henry/ Drinking two
of acts and items you are in a position to gave in July 2006.
rum in Unity", begins the fine Tradewinds
bring to the table “ I gave them a proposal since July 2006
calypso, Hooper and Chanderpaul. "Plan-
ning the cricket game next day/ Ramotar and have never heard from them since.
Regards Why am I writing this now? Is anyone re-
turn to Joe and say/ We can win it in
Robert Bryan, Executive Director ally interested in promoting our Culture?
Guyana/ With Chanderpaul and big
Jamaica Cricket 2007 Limited Your guess is as good as mine.”
Hoopa."
11a-15 Oxford Road, Kingston 5
On the television in Mr Chanderpaul's liv-
Tel: 876-926-1252
ing room it appears that West Indies have
Mobile 876-819-4222 Yours truly,
just slipped to defeat against New Zealand,
their second loss in three days. The thought, Nanda Sahadeo.
Nanda replied: 102 Regent Street.
I'm afraid is inescapable: Unity and Provi-
Hello Robert, Lacytown.
dence must come together if West Indies are
to win it in Guyana.
Greetings. In the end, the opening ceremony was held
Rahul Bhattacharya is the author of Pun-
I thank you for your very prompt reply-- with an abundance of Jamaican cultural
dits from Pakistan: On Tour with India,
it shows your sincere dedication and com- items, but just one single Indian cultural
2003-04
mittment towards making this World Cup item.
SPORTS
WORLD CUP CRICKET
Canada goes home early 0-3, West Indies failing in Super 8
As expected, cricketing minnow Canada
bowed out of the Cricket World Cup in the
first round, after losing all three matches.
But they did acquire some experience and
gained a little respect after putting up a de-
cent fight in two of their games.
The lone Indo-Caribbean on the tea,
Guyanese born Sunil Dhaniram, gave a
good account of himself with bat and ball
and probably cemented his place in the
team.
The West Indies story is more compli-
cated. Starting up strongly by beating Pak-
istan in the opening round, they sailed fairly
easily through the first round. Chanderpaul,
Sarwan and Ramdin served the team rea-
sonably well, with Chanders in particular
being a steadying influence with the bat.
The Super 8 round has been another story
entirely. West Indies won one game and
were badly humbled in their last three. It
will take some kind of a miracle to see them
through to the quarter finals. Skipper Brian
Lara’s hope of being the first home team to
win the Worle Cup is running very thin.
West Indies is being outplayed in every area
of the game, and they have no one to blame.
The other teams are just trying harder and
making less mistakes. Australia is heading
down the course like a runaway horse and
the host team has nothing like the super
teams of Worrell, Kanhai or Sobers to head
them off. Something is rotten in the state
of cricket in the West Indies and it has to be
cut out.
England make hard
work of vital win
against Canada
By Andrew McGlashan
March 18, 2007
/*England* 279 for 6 (Joyce 66, Colling-
wood 62*, Dhaniram 3-41) beat
*Canada* 228 for 7 (Mulla 58) by 51 runs/
After the disciplinary problems of the pre-
vious day England managed to keep their
focus, dispatching Canada by 51 runs in St
Lucia, to open their World Cup account. Ed
Joyce and Paul Collingwood hit sixties as
England began and ended their batting
strongly before early inroads with the ball
put the result beyond doubt.
As against New Zealand the England bat-
ting faltered with the loss of three top-order
wickets, this time for eight runs, then there
was a lack of cutting edge from the bowling
attack when the threat of the new ball had
disappeared.
After Liam Plunkett grabbed two in his
first spell, Ashif Mulla provided the Eng-
land attack with a wake-up call as he
launched 58 off 60 balls in a fifth-wicket
stand of 97 with Abdool Samad. The runs
came with ease, but after falling to 65 for 4
in the 17th over the target was always out
of reach, although the lower-order kept the
entertainment going. It highlighted the im-
portance of the breathing space created by
the 81-run stand between Collingwood and
Ravi Bopara plus the eight-ball 23 from
Paul Nixon.
Joyce and Michael Vaughan started with
England's first century opening stand in 27
matches, both playing neatly although
Joyce survived chances on 30 and 46. The
top order, though, went in familiar fashion
and all helped their own demise leaving the
century count among them at a miserly one.
Indo-Caribbean Times
Sunil Dhaniram
Vaughan drove to point, Ian Bell top-edged
an attempted slog-sweep and Joyce's re-
verse sweep proved his downfall after a re-
turn to form. Sunil Dhaniram was
responsible for the latter two, but his day
got even better with his third victim -
Kevin Pietersen caught and bowled after a
delivery stopped on a slightly two-paced
surface.
In 16 balls England had been sent into a
position of needing a partnership to ensure
their mini-collapse didn't become a more
major issue. Bopara, Andrew Flintoff's re-
placement at No. 6, quickly looked at
home and his sharp running and strong on-
side play kicked the innings back into life.
Collingwood was his usual self, biding
his time before unleashing in the closing
overs as Canada lost their disciplines.
Samad was banned from the attack in his
sixth over after bowling two waist-high
full tosses, although England didn't have
much trouble scoring off them with
Collingwood's fifty taking 41 balls. The
65-ball stand put England into a comfort
zone, then Nixon provided a thumping fin-
ish as he reverse-hit the death bowlers over
the ropes. The final ten overs brought 98
runs.
Paul Collingwood boosted England's
total with an unbeaten 62. What England
needed now was an incisive bowling dis-
play to stamp their superiority over
Canada. They started well enough as Plun-
kett struck in his opening over before
Bagai slashed to third man. John Davison
had promoted himself to open and cracked
four boundaries of varying authenticity be-
fore carving James Anderson to deep
cover, removing the only realistic hope of
Canada getting close.
Bopara continued to impress in his first
World Cup match with a delivery that
nipped away to take Ian Billcliff's offs-
tump, but Canada refused to back down.
With England feeling safe from defeat the
foot came off the gas, allowing Mulla and
Samad to find the boundary. Both hit sixes
and Mulla was especially strong through
the leg side until his fun was ended by a
smart piece of work from Nixon. Yet, even
when Panesar struck in the next over they
couldn't run through the lower order.
Dhaniram completed a solid allround day
while Desmond Chumney showed his
power as England were forced to bowl out
their 50 overs. By batting out time, Canada
put up a better show than against Kenya
and managed their highest total in World
Cups. It is something they can take with
them after their tournament concludes, al-
though the age of their team is a major
issue.
England will claim they did what was
needed, but for reasons on and off the field
this wasn't a day to inspire confidence.
Their final match, a must-win to quality for
the Super Eights, is against Kenya on the
same pitch, which will be even slower and
lower. They may not have it all their own
way.
April 2007
Canada makes 249
against New Zealand
*New Zealand* 363 for 5 (Vincent 101,
Fleming 66, McCullum 52*) beat
*Canada* 249 (Davison 52, Billcliff 52) by
114 runs
A thoroughly professional performance
from New Zealand, has given Stephen
Fleming's side a useful confidence boost
ahead of the Super Eight stage of the World
Cup, with a convincing 114-run win over
Canada in a dead rubber in St Lucia. The
manner of their victory, and the intent
showed from their batsmen, was almost
Australian in its ruthlessness.
One slight area of concern coming into
today's match was the form of their top-
order and, in particular, that of their opener
Lou Vincent. He answered it emphatically
with a majestic 101, a match-winning in-
nings littered with aggression and bold
counterattacking strokes. Allied with his
brilliant fielding - at point, mid-on and else-
where in the infield during Canada's innings
- his class shone through, at a useful time
too.
It was all New Zealand as they motored
past 350, their highest in World Cups,
stamping their authority on the match and
sending a warning note to the sides in the
Super Eights.
New Zealand’somentum did not slip,
thanks to a breathless last seven overs in
which Brendon McCullum and Jacob Oram
put on 85. McCullum's fearlessness hum-
bled an already miserable Canadian attack
as he feasted on bowling which lacked di-
rection, discipline and courage. Five sixes
later, three of which sailed over midwicket,
he brought up the quickest World Cup fifty
from an indecently meagre 20 balls. It was
also the fastest half-century by a New
Zealander in one-dayers.
Canada refused to be ignored, though, in
this their final match of the World Cup. A
rousing fifty of breathless audacity from
John Davison, their captain and only
match-winner, lifted the crowd and even,
momentarily at least, sunk New Zealand's
shoulders.
Fourteen fearless runs from the opening
over got Canada rolling, but it was Tuffey's
opening partner, Michael Mason, who
handed Davison a free behind square fol-
lowed by a zinging smite through mid-off.
After five overs, Canada had flown to 52
without loss. While Davison was on the at-
tack his opening partner, Geoff Barnett - no
stranger to many of the opposition having
played for Central Districts - was no less
purposeful, if lacking the gift of timing
Davison has in abundance.
But the big fish, Davison, fell in the fol-
lowing over when he skied Mason straight
back to the bowler. His delight rather sug-
gested the match was as good as closed, ut
to their credit Canada didn't just roll over.
An adhesive 50 from Ian Billcliff followed
a rather sedate 37 from Ashish Bagai before
Jeetan Patel wrapped things up in a hurry
with 3 for 25.
And all this without the tournament's most
potent fast bowler, Shane Bond, who was
today rested. New Zealand are looking in
good shape.
Will Luke, Cricinfo
Page 22
West Indies in
crisis mode
GEORGETOWN: BRIAN LARA’S West
Indians gave a near capacity crowd here lit-
tle to cheer about as the host country suf-
fered its third straight loss in the World Cup
Super Eights, surrendering to Sri Lanka by
113 runs at Providence on Sunday.
In front of nearly 16,000 fans, West In-
dies were dismissed for a disappointing 190
in 44.3 overs in reply to Sri Lanka’s 303-5,
built on Sanath Jayasuriya’s 25th ODI cen-
tury.
Only Shivnar-
ine Chander-
paul with a
determined 76
off 110 balls
saved the West
Indies from
total humilia-
tion.
He and
Brian Lara Ramnaresh Sar-
wan (44) shared
a 92-run fourth wicket partnership but Sar-
wan’s dismissal at 134 in the 35th over trig-
gered a middle order collapse in which four
wickets fell for 24 runs.
Chanderpaul hit five sixes and just one
four in his innings but apart from Sarwan,
none of the other batsmen showed the ap-
plication necessary to put up a West Indies
challenge.Desperation has given way to cri-
sis for Brian Lara and his West Indies World
Cup squad.
A 113-run loss to Sri Lanka followed
heavy defeats to defending champion Aus-
tralia and New Zealand, and left the West
Indies needing to win its last three matches
and rely on other results.
“We are in a crisis situation, pertaining to
cricket,” Lara said. “We’re in a hole, and
we’ve got to take ourselves out of that hole.
“That performance was not up to scratch.
We know that.”
Lara said four matches in ten days, in-
cluding three in the last six on sandy out-
fields, had sapped his squad.
An eight-day rest before matches against
top-ranked South Africa, Bangladesh and
England should give the West Indies time
to regroup, he said.
“I am an eternal optimist. I still see it. To
win a World Cup takes a lot of skill and a
lot of luck,” the 37-year-old left-hander
said.
“We?ve still got an outside chance, and I’m
still focusing on that.”
Lara said the team and its supporters had
to concentrate on its slim chance of reach-
ing the last four.
“We have time to improve. We’ve got to
stay upbeat,” he said. “I know
everyone is disappointed around the
Caribbean. But we’ve still got a job
to do.There is a little bit of light.”
The West Indies, winners of the first two
World Cups and runner-up in the third, are
hosting the quadrennial tournament for the
first time.
To make it back to the semifinals, it needs
England, Bangladesh, South Africa and Ire-
land losing matches.
Lara said he would like the West Indies
last Super 8s match against England to have
a semifinal spot resting on it.
“There are permutations,” he said. But, “It
still boils down to us beating South Africa,
Bangladesh and England to give ourselves
any chance. Nothing will help if we don?t
do that.”
SPORTS Indo-Caribbean Times M arch 2007 Page 23
ICC Cricket World Cup Highlights

Pakistan’s Rana is comprehensively bowled by Wayne Bravo The Canadian team made a brave effort, but it was not enough against the big fish
n

Lasith Malinga- four wickets in four balls

Herschelle Gibbs- hit six sixes in one over

Sjhane Bond- one of the top bowlers in the Cup

Denesh Ramdin

Celebrating 14 years as the Best in the East

THE ROTI & PELAU SHOP

SPECIALIZING IN CURRY & CARIBBEAN COOKING

For your favourite “tasty”

West Indian dishes & snacks
Ramnaresh Sarwan

Friday special: chicken pelau

Breakfast on Saturday morning

15 LAPSLEY ROAD
(On Sheppard East of Markham Rd.)
TEL: 416-321-3755
 GREAT
RATES!
Loans & Mortgages

Amit Pahuja

Residential and Commercial Services

* No fees for qualified *All types of business
buyers financing
*Access to over 36 lenders *Financing for
*Pre-approved mortgages industrial buildings,
*Purchases/refinancing/ plazas, highrise
debt consolidations apartment buildings
*New immigrants *Financing for Hotels,
program Motels
*All types of credit *Financing for Gas
accepted Stations
*All types of employment ...“creating clients for
accepted life”
WOW!! 3.49% mortgage rate*
100% Financing & No Income Confirmation
Good / Bad Credit & Previous Bankrupt PRIVATE FUNDS AVAILABLE
CALL AMIT PAHUJA TODAY!
Self Employed & Bank Turndowns

Lea Nankissoor
Call NOW!!

LOTUS LOANS AND MORTGAGES CORP.

Associate Mortgage Broker (over 15 yrs Banking experience) Phone: (905) 791-1100. Ext. 224 - Cell: (416)723-5528
7955 Torbram Rd., Unit 5 - Brampton ON L6T 5B9
647-294-6241 Website: www.lotusloans.con E-Mail: info@lotusloans.com
*OAC, terms and rates are subject to change without notice and some conditions may apply

Commercial and Industrial Controls and

Service
Chemical Feed Systems, Pumps and
Controls
Instruments and Services for
Measurement and Factory Automation
For more information, please call us at 1 888 487 8677 or visit our website www.itsinstruments.com

Want To Move Into That Dream Home Now?

)4)2 !))1)23'(
"0.. *2))
%
Peter Seepersad
05+) ,6)2 )'.47 4( 20-)2'+)

Sales Representative
,/+340/ 0'( #/,4 "020/40 /4'2,0
" & ! % $ & #