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Tel: 416-289-3898 ictimes@rogers.comVol 1. No 10 December 2007

Indo-Caribbean

T I M E ST I M E SA daringkidnapshocksGuyanaKitty woman and childrescued from internationalgang headed for Colombia

other country and destruction of propertyby soldiers, unless the complainer is con-sidered to be weak or insignificant. The ex-planation by Venezuela's Minister ofForeign Affairs Nicolas Maduro that he wasout of the country and would handle thematter when he returned, was not accept-able.

After two weeks without a response or avisit by a Venezuelan delegation, GuyaneseForeign Minister Rudy Insanally saidpointedly the government would “not waitmuch longer” for a response and would re-view the situation. That’s diplomatic lan-guage for saying it was time to make somenoise. In the end, the Venezuelan responseto the Guyanese diplomatic note was de-livered by a delegation in the second weekof December. Venezuela is still claimingthe incident happened in their territory.

Venezuela plays the bully afterNovember 15 invasion of GuyanaVenezuela has finally given an explana-

tion for its November 15 invasion ofGuyana territory in the Cuyuni river area,nearly a month after the event. But it is stillclaiming the attack took place in Venezue-lan territory. Two Venezuelan helicoptersflew into Guyana and the venezuelan mili-tary blew up two dredges.

Normally, armed invasions of anothercountry can lead to severe tension, and evendeclarations of war. And the Guyana gov-ernment immediately sent a stiff protestnote to the Venezuelan authorities, de-manding an explanation and compensation.

In what can only be described as a de-liberate diplomatic insult, the Venezuelansignored the Guyana protest note for overthree weeks. No country would ignore a se-rious matter like an armed invasion of an-

Heroic TT cop toexpose corruption

TT judge orders govt. to handover lands to Caroni workersFour year wait an abuse of process

Richard Aziz

MORTGAGE SPECIALIST

Aconfrontation between Guyana policeand an international kidnap gang

ended with the death of a Colombian kid-napper and the dramatic rescue of a preg-nant Kitty mother and her three year olddaughter. The country has never seen any-thing like this before.

Shelly Khan, 26, and her young daugh-ter were snatched from her Kitty, George-town business place last Saturday by fourarmed men. They by vehicle to ParikaStelling and left from Pomeroon River in asmall speedboat via the Atlantic Ocean,heading for Colombia.

The kidnappers stopped at a businessplace at Grant Stelling Hope in LowerPomeroon River, and three went looking forlarger boat and engine to make a quicker es-cape. That’s where the police came uponthe businesswoman and the Columbianbandit who was guarding her with a gun.He was shot dead by police after he openedfire.

The other bandits rushed back on hear-ing the shots, and one, apaparently aVenezuelan, was shot and captured. Twoothers, at least one of whom is believed tobe Guyanese, escaped. The womand childmiraculously escaped unhurt during theshoot-out.

Police have been combing the backlandsof the Lower Pomeroon River for the twoother bandits. Investigations are also inprogress as to why the businesswoman andher daughter were kidnapped.

416-832-7293

Government has dragged its feet on itspromise to lease land to former cane

workers and must now deliver the landwithin six months, a Trinidad High Courtjudge has declared.,

So serious was the breach of promise thatJustice Lennox Deyalsingh termed it anabuse of power.

The stinging criticism-a consolation tothe almost 8,000 former workersof Caroni(1975) Ltd-came from Justice LennoxDeyalsingh, as he noted that the promise tolease the land had been made since 2003and not a single lease had been granted, atleast up to mid 2007.

"This matter required a real sense of ur-gency (from the government). People losttheir means of livelihood. They were wait-ing on the promised lands... to get on withtheir lives," Justice Deyalsingh wrote in ajudgment he delivered at the Port of SpainHigh Court.

"Government's attitude seems to me to

have been 'business as usual', not reallybeing concerned about the frustration thatdelay in meeting its promise was causing.Up to the present time, there is no credibleevidence as to when these former sugarworkers will get their leases without whichthey are disadvantaged in a substantial way.

"Government's lack of the sense of ur-gency (which) this matter warranted is inmy view, tantamount to an abuse of power,"he wrote.

The commitment to lease land to thesugar workers was a condition of voluntaryseparation packages the workers acceptedwhen the government shut down Caroni'ssugar manufacturing operations mid-2003.

Despite assurances from government thatsugar workers would be given priority, sev-eral deadlines for the land distribution wentby without results.

Deyalsingh’s judgement came as a resultof a lawsuit by Trinidad and Tobago CivilRights Association for the former workers.

Aheroic, one of a kind Trinidad police-man has defied the Commissioner of

Police and the Minister of National Secu-rity. He has refused promotion, risked hisjob and probably his life to expose corrup-tion in the Trinidad Police Service to an im-partial foreign investigator - and wonagainst all the odds.

Police Superintendent Chandrabhan Ma-haraj said earlier this year that he knew ofthe corruption among Southern Divisionpolice officers and was ready to blow thewhistle. But he would not talk to any in-vestigator from the Trinidad Police, sincehe didn’t trust any of them. He would talkonly to a foreigner with no ties to the localpolice.

The top brass didn’t like it. They offeredhim a big promotion to shut him up, butChandrabhan refused. They asked him totalk to Superintendent Woodley but he saidhe didn’t trust Woodley, who had failed toclear up other glaring examples of policecorruption. He took Anand Ramlogan tofight his case. He went into court with a Tshirt saying “The only solution for corrup-tion is execution”, to the horror of policebrass.

This week the Trinidad police gave in andagreed to appoint a foreign investigator tohear Chandrabhan’s corruption evidence.(SEE STORIES ON PAGE 4 & 6)

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Canada's three largest cities are strug-gling to cope with a flood of newcom-

ers primarily from China, India, thePhilippines and Pakistan as immigration ap-proaches levels not seen since the end of the"Great Migration" a century ago.

Statistics Canada said Tuesday that 69per cent of recent immigrants to Canadaresided in the "magnet" or "gateway" citiesof Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver -dubbed MTV - in 2006. That's down from73 per cent in 2001 and 74 per cent in 1996.

Still, 97 per cent of all immigrants in thelast five years ended up in large urbanareas.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the fed-eral government floated the idea of direct-ing new arrivals to the hinterland to addressthe issues of stressed urban services, immi-grant concentration and rural depopulation.

The idea died a quiet death and has sincebeen replaced by federal and provincial ef-forts to "encourage" immigrants to settle inless-trafficked centres.

In 2006, only five per cent of the immi-grant population lived in a rural area, Sta-tistics Canada reported. Setting asideconstitutional concerns, experts say forcingimmigrants to settle outside large urbancentres simply doesn't work.

Amy Casipullai, policy co-ordinator ofOntario Council of Agencies Serving Im-migrants, said immigration is no panaceafor rural depopulation.

"If Canada doesn't deal with the problemof flight from small towns for the Cana-dian-born population, then how are yougoing to convinceimmigrants that this is ac-tually a worthwhile move for them?" Casip-ullai said.

Big cities complain they are left on the

hook for providing the vital services thathelp immigrants feel at home - social hous-ing; libraries; community, recreation andpublic-health programs and schools.

"We don't get a nickel from the federalgovernment to support the kind of servicesthat actually help people settle successfullyin this city," said Toronto Mayor DavidMiller, where 46 per cent of the city's pop-ulation was foreign-born in 2006.

"(But) if we don't properly support new-comers . . . there can well be problems."

Ontario Immigration Minister MichaelChan said the province, which gets half thecountry's immigrants, spent about $160million on services for newcomers last yearalthough he complains that Ottawa hasshortchanged the province in promised sup-port.

Where in the province immigrants go isa "personal" choice, Chan said.

The census shows 69 per cent of On-tario's foreign-born chose the Toronto area,with suburbs such as Brampton, Missis-sauga picking up an increasing amount ofimmigrants.

Experts say the bright lights of the me-tropolis are an irresistible lure for newcom-ers for two main reasons: economicdiversity and social networks.

Editor’s note:Interestingly, Indo-Caribbean immigrantscome mostly from rural areas in theirhomes countries like Trinidad and Guyana,but few choose to live in rural areas whenthey come to Canada. Most head for thecities where jobs and housing are plentiful,as well as many other Indo-Caribbeans re-ligious and cultural groups, groceries,restaurants and other businesses. Recentlysome have been moving into semi-ruralareas around the GTA in Ontario.

Immigrants still head for MTV -Toronto, Montreal Vancouver,but not for empty rural areas

COMMUNITY NEWS Indo-Caribbean Times DECEMBER 2007 Page 3

The Canadian Council of Imams has con-

demned the death of Aqsa Parvez as inhu-mane and un-Islamic.

The recent tragedy that has befallen theblossoming young life of an innocent Mus-lim girl in Mississauga, ON, where her fa-ther allegedly strangled her, is humanly andIslamically condemnable. This action does-n’t bespeak anything resembling the moralupbringing Islam purports. Aqsa Parvez’ssuffering is simply atrocious and has noplace in Canadian parenting. The allegedreason is she did not stick to wearing thehijab stringently and instead, left her par-ent’s home, so as not to be coerced intosomething she had not decided on wearing.

Islam came to save girls from being mur-dered; it gave life to humanity. The Quranhas dedicated famous verses against thisheinous sin- When the female (infant),buried alive, is questioned …81:8

Parents are encouraged to reason withtheir children when they reach the age ofmarriage and seek mutual understanding.However, as people of good Faith, this rec-onciliatory approach to discipline and train-ing is no license for our sons and daughtersto be permissive and disrespectful.

The Charter of Rights allows freedom ofreligion, and rightly so, since our QuranicConstitution proclaims this freedom of con-science as a God given right of everyhuman being. Let there be no compulsionin religion: Truth stands out clear fromError…2:256

While the freedoms the youths enjoy maynot always be to the liking of parents andwhile the cultures children are engaged inmay not necessarily be the traditions of thecountry of origin, the right thing to do is en-gage all in a dialogue. The correct approachis to get generational-appropriate coun-selors and respect the level of Faith prac-

ticed by all- for the Sharia allows hijab ofvariant styles as much as it allows flexibil-ity in different circumstances.

Neither a parent nor the siblings can takethe law in their hands, believing this is aGodly-duty. Once we have shown our dis-like for an act that is considered reprehen-sible, given our circumstances, we haveabsolved ourselves of that responsibilityand hence not sinful. No matter what theywhat they choose in life, to do the oppositemakes us both criminally indictable andcursed with a major sin. Beating childrenleads to brutalization and is therefore ille-gal and sinful.

We call upon all agencies to support thetransient Muslim community, through theirvarious generational crises, by providing fi-nancial and logistical auxiliaries, so we maybe the colorful petal in this multiculturalflower and not a thorn on this flowery tree.We call on all parents to solicit the legalmeans readily available to ensure properdiscipline.

Commenting on parent’s challenges’,Kahlil Gibran aptly said: Your children arenot your children. They are the sons anddaughters of Life's longing for itself.

Yours humbly,

Imam Habeeb

Secretary

Brampton girlkilled for refusingto wear hijab

An Ontario father charged with killinghis 16-year-old daughter who had turnedaway from traditional Muslim garb was ledaway in handcuffs Wednesday after a judgedenied him bail.

Dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit,Muhammad Parvez, a 57-year-old cabdriver, appeared unemotional during hisbrief appearance at a Brampton court.

He was also ordered not to communicatewith his 26-year-old son Waqas, who wascharged with obstructing police in connec-tion with the girl's death.

When asked if he understood the order,the senior Parvez stood quietly in the pris-oner's area of the court and mumbled "yes."

Parvez was charged after his daughterAqsa Parvez, 16, died after being rushed tohospital on Monday. Earlier in the night, aman called 911 to say he killed his daugh-ter.

Police have not commented on any mo-tive in the case. The girl's friends have saidParvez frequently clashed with her familyabout her reluctance to wear a hijab, the tra-ditional Muslim headscarf.

Outside the courtroom, the man's sonSean Muhammed Parvez told reporters hewasn't sure what exactly led to his sister'sdeath.

"We don't know so far, we are upset," hesaid, adding that his mother was "sick" be-cause of the ordeal.

A publication ban was imposed on thecourt proceedings, but Parvez's lawyerJoseph Ciraco told reporters outside courtthat the family is distraught.

"It's clearly a tragedy," he said."You've got a sister that's gone and a fa-

ther and brother in jail."Ciraco added that Parvez has a heart con-

dition and will have to see a doctor beforehis next court date, which will be on Jan. 29via video link.

Until then, Parvez will remain in policecustody, Ciraco said. CANADIAN COUN-CIL OF IMAMS

TT Seniors celebrate the season

It was Christmas Trinidad style, complete with parang and black cake and spicy danc-ing, when the Trinidad and Tobago 50 Plus and Seniors Association held its 12th An-

nual Xmas banquet on November 17th at the Elite Banquet Hall. President Farook Hydalinformed guests that some of the activities which the Association did in the past year in-cluded trips, picnics, bots cruise, All Fours games, Fathers, Mothers and Valentines daycelebrations. The Association also has a Ladies Section and he invited the women to par-ticipate. Entertainment was provided by the Five Star Dancers and Los Amigos Paranggroup as well as a DJ. A great time was had by all. Special greetings and best wishes weregiven by members of the head table. Seated from L to R are Nazi Mohammed, represent-ing Caribbean Airlines, Bas Balkissoon, MPP, Rouge Valley, Michael Lashley, CouncilGeneral of T & T and Ms. Margo Harris, distinguish member of the Caribbean Commu-nity.

Imams condemn slaying of Aqsa

Kash Heed is firstIndo-Canadian police chief

By Balwant Sanghera

The appointment of Kash Heed as WestVancouver’s police chief is a great news forthe Indo-Canadian community. Kash is notonly a very competent police officer butalso an extremely dedicated member of theIndo-Canadian community. As a member ofthe Vancouver Police Department (VPD)since 1979 he has added a new dimensionto policing.

It has been a great privilege for this writerand many others in our community to workwith Kash in addressing the issue of gangsand youth violence in the Indo-Canadiancommunity. Since early 1990’s our com-munity has lost close to one hundred tenyoung men to gangs, drugs and violence.This has resulted in a lot of anxiety andfrustration for all of us. The whole commu-nity has been devastated by these tragedies.For quite sometime, the community wasblaming the police for not doing enoughand the police was blaming the communityfor lack of co-operation. Finally, havinggone through denial and blaming, the com-munity accepted the challenge and decidedto do something about it.He has been serving as a great role model

not only for the Indo-Canadian youth butalso youth in other communities. VPD’svarious innovative programs including in-terdiction, encouraging more Indo-Cana-dian youth to join the police force and act asa great motivator are a credit to him. He hasbeen playing a major role in keeping andhelping our young people stay out of trou-ble.

IInnddoo--CCaarriibbbbeeaann TTiimmeess is pub-lished monthly in Toronto byIndo-Caribbean Times Ltd.

EEddiittoorr//PPuubblliisshheerr:: Ram Jagessar

EEddiittoorriiaall CCoommmmiitttteeee::Reynold Ramdial, Gulcharan Mo-habir, Lloyd Harradan, SandyKissoonsingh, Roop Misir, DeorajNarine, Jiantee Jagessar,KrishnaNankissoor, Rudy Lochan

OOfffificcee: 17 Gaiety Drive, Toronto ON Canada M1H 1B9

TTeell:: 416-289-3898

EE--MMaaiill: ictimes@rogers.com

Opinions given in this newspaperare those of the authors and donot necessarily reflect the viewsof the Indo-Caribbean Times.

We welcome letters, e-mails andcomments on matters relevant toIndo-Caribbeans in Canada andabroad, and also those at home inthe Caribbean. All content mustcomply with the requirements ofCanadian law.

A copy of this newspaper isposted on the internet in as a pdffile immediately after publication,and the entire contents can beread online by anyone with acomputer and an internet con-nection.Past and current issues of the IC-Times can be found at http://www.esnips.com/web/Indo-CaribbeanTimes

COMMENTARY Indo-Caribbean Times DECEMBER 2007 Page 4

Q. Which is an alien land?A. Any place even if it isone’s native land, where heis not respectedQ. Which is one’s own land?A. Any land where one is respectedSri Sri Muralidhara Swamiji

Trinidad (and Tobago) is the last of thethree Indian majority countries of the south-ern Caribbean where there can still besome debate about the future of the Indiancommunity.

From nearby Guyana the majority of theIndo-Guyanese have long departed for saferand more developed places to live. About700,000 Indo-Guyanese and their descen-dants live abroad, mostly in the UnitedStates, Canada, Britain and Venezuela,while around 375,000 Indo-Guyanese re-main at home, most of them according tothe old joke just waiting for their visa to de-part. Indo-Guyanese have voted with theirfeet, and there’s little doubt their future isin New York and Miami and Toronto andLondon.

Next door in Suriname, the bulk of theIndo-Surinamese took off for Holland whenthe creole (black) NPK party was negotiat-ing for independence. Now over 200,000 ofthem and their children are happily settlingdown as Dutch citizens. Less than 150,000Indo-Surinamese remain in the land of theirbirth. No community can recover whenmore than half its people depart. The futureof Indo-Surinamese is in New Amsterdamand various other Dutch cities.

So how do the Indo-Trinidadians shapeup when compared with our cousins fromGuyana and Suriname? The sad reality isthat we seem to be heading along the sameroad and are well advanced towards thebreak point of having 50% of the Indo-Trinidadian community choosing to leavetheir home and native land for betterprospects abroad.

If we leave the emotion behind and justlook at the facts we will find that already

around 250,000 Indo-Trinis and their de-scendants have departed and are living else-where, most of them unlikely to return.Remaining in Trinidad and Tobago arearound 523,900, or 40.3% of the TT popu-lation of 1.3 million. Simple mathematicswill tell us that of the total Indo-Trinidadpopulation of 773,900, a full 250,000 or32% have decided their future lies else-where than Trinidad and Tobago. That’sabout one third gone and two thirds re-maining, which is not as definitive asGuyana or Suriname but certainly gettingthere.

For those who will dispute the estimateof 250,000 Indo-Trinis gone, let me sayhow I arrived at it. We know that Canadahas a minimum 50,000 Indo-Trinis, theUnited States more than double thatamount, or around 125,000. Britain haswell over 25,000 in my opinion, whichbrings us up to 200,000 already. There aresizeable but unknown numbers of Indo-Tri-nis living in Venezuela, Barbados and sev-eral other Caribbean countries, plus othersscattered everywhere from continental Eu-rope to Africa to India to the rest of Asia,and even Australia and New Zealand. Ithink it’s well within probability that wecould have another 50,000 Indo-Trinis scat-tered around the rest of the world.

The natural question to ask is why haveIndo-Trinidadians been leaving the mostprosperous country in the southernCaribbean, and are we likely to continuedoing so in the future? It comes down tothe respect mentioned by Swami Muralid-hara. Indians want an equal place in theland where they were born. They want a fairchance to build a life for themselves andtheir children. They want to able to keeptheir culture and religion and way of lifewithout discrimination and prejudice. Theywant economic, cultural, social and reli-gious equality with the other people livingin the country, nothing more, nothing less.

That’s what the jahajis were looking forwhen they decided to stay in Trinidad ratherthan returning to India. It’s still what their

descendants want. But we’ve never got thatequality, that respect, neither during thelong years of colonialism or in the fiftyyears since self government and independ-ence.

It’s a simple equation. When the Britishwere getting ready to leave Trinidad, the In-dians and the Africans battled for politicalpower to replace them. The Afros won andthe Indos lost, in 1956, 1961, 1966, 1970,1971, 1976, 1981, for 30 years in succes-sion. The Afros got the political power, andwith it economic, cultural and social domi-nance. The Indians became the politicalenemy to be kept out of power and posi-tion at any costs, and put in their place.

Seeing that their prospects for respect andequality were not good, Indians started mi-grating quietly from the late fifties and havecontinued to do so ever since. Indian lead-ers told them they could get equality whenan Indian dominated political party wonpower, but that didn’t happen for 39 years,until 1995 when Basdeo Panday’s UNCwon the government.

To their great surprise, Indians discov-ered that Panday was unable to do much to-wards getting the much desired equality forIndians. He lasted only 6 years in govern-ment, and then the Afro dominated PNMresumed its hold on power in 2001.

It boils down to this. For the 111 yearssince 1845 Indians got no respect or equal-ity under the British rulers, and for the last51 years since 1956 they didn’t get it fromthe Afros or even their own man BasdeoPanday. What are their chances of gettingit in future from the Afro PNM and theirleader Patrick Manning?

Not enough to bet your future on and thatof your children, is my guess. There comesa time when you must cut your losses andlook for a new game. The Indo-Trinidadi-ans are already a third of the way along theGuyana-Suriname road of leaving their na-tive land to find their own land. It's just amatter of time before they reach the pointof no return when the majority of the ma-jority Indians in Trinidad go away.

From the editor’s desk

What is the future of Indians in Trinidad?Over half of the Indians from Guyana and Suriname have left. Is Trinidad next?

Ram Jagessar

Letter to the Commissioner of Police:Having regard to the PM’s curious responseto the sudden upsurge in crime in the after-math of the election, his hint that it may(once again) be politically-inspired, Ihereby publish excerpts of the letter I wrotethe Commissioner of Police concerning il-legal activity in the Police Service.

Dear Sir,I act for Supt Chandrabhan Maharaj, for-

mer head of Firearms Interdiction Unit. Myclient is a well-known detective with arecord of distinguished service in the Or-ganised Crime and Narcotics Unit andGuard and Emergency branch.

I’m instructed that you have appointedAsst Commissioner Glenroy Woodley(Head of the Fraud Squad) to investigateclaims made by my client about corruptionin the Police Service and the involvementof senior police officers from the SouthernDivision in the illegal arms and ammuni-tion and drug trade.

This is to advise that my client has gravereservations about the appointment ofsomeone from within the present hierarchyof the Police Service to investigate this sen-

sitive matter, as he has reason to believethat the corrupt and illegal activities in thePolice Service may involve senior officerswithin the present hierarchy.

Apart from the direct involvement of sen-ior officers in crime, my client is extremelyconcerned about the indirect involvementof several members of the Police Service inthe promotion of the illegal gun and drugtrade.

As you are aware, the claim about policeofficers renting out their guns to bandits andkidnappers has been substantiated by bal-listics, expert evidence in several murdersand robberies.

Internal investigations conducted by thePolice Service have so far failed to bearfruit.

A case in point, for example, is the mur-der of young engineer Uttamdeo Maharaj,who was shot to death whilst trying to savehis sister from an attempted kidnapping.

The gun in question was, in fact, assignedto a police officer at the Arima police sta-tion, and there has been no explanation as tohow the gun was able to walk from Arimaand find itself in the hands of kidnappers

and murderers in the opposite end of the is-land in Palo Seco.

To date, no action has been taken on thismatter.

I’m instructed that my client’s experi-ence, unfortunately, leaves him in greatdoubt as to whether the Police Service ismore interested in covering up police cor-ruption and misconduct by sweeping itunder the carpet, in the hope that the issuewill simply dissolve with the passage oftime.

I’m instructed that my client has no con-fidence in Mr Woodley, because over twoyears has elapsed since he has been ap-pointed to investigate the disappearance of32 kilograms of cocaine from the PrincesTown Police Station, with no end in sight.

My client thinks that it would be betterfor Mr Woodley to concentrate his effortsin bringing this long-overdue investigationto a belated conclusion, before he is furtherburdened with a fresh investigation.

I have been instructed to humbly ask thatyou appoint an investigator from the Scot-land Yard pool of investigators or the FBI toinvestigate and act upon the damaging evi-dence and information my client has in his

possession, in the interest of a better PoliceService and a safer Trinidad and Tobago.

The media quotes you as having offered“whistle-blower protection” to my clientand his family, in anticipation of predictableretaliation and repercussion from those whomay be arrested and charged.

Unfortunately, my client was unaware ofthis. It is unfortunate that he had to learnabout such a well-intentioned offer from themedia, as it sends the message that your of-fice is more concerned about giving thepublic the impression that it is serious aboutthis investigation, when in truth and in factit is once again tritely going through the rel-evant motions in the knowledge and hopethat it will die with the passage of time.

Should the reported offer of protectionbe genuine, please note that my client hasapplied for a personal firearms user’s li-cence and this application was submittedto your office over three months ago.

To date, he has not had any response. Asyou’re aware, my client has arrested someof the most notorious criminals and druglords. He’s on the eve of his retirement,and clearly requires a personal firearm toensure his safety

Investigate corruption in Trinidad PoliceGuest Opinion:Anand Ramlogan

TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO NEWS Indo-Caribbean Times DECEMBER 2007 Page 5

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How accurate are Trinidad police statisticson kidnapping? They’re not worth much,if we judge by howthe police handled thereports of kidnap murders for 2006.

On January 2, 2007 the Trinidad Expresssaid police had reported four kidnap victims“murdered while in the custody of their ab-ductors” in 2006.

According to the police, these were:Rehanna Ramlochan, 22, of Cunupia,

was abducted on October 5 and found deadin the Tunapuna cemetery.

Riaz Khan, 19, snatched on October 2in Carapichaima, and found shot to death atthe e Caroni Cremation site.

Accountant Christopher Taylor, kid-napped on October and found murdered atClaxton Bay

Reshma Boodoo, 17, kidnapped on May27 with her boyfriend Anil Singh, at Mara-bella, and thrown out the moving car to herdeath.

TIMES FINDS 18 KIDNAP MURDERS

The Indo-Caribbean Times review of kid-nap murders found 18 people who had beenmurdered by kidnappers in 2006.These were: Rehanna Ramlochan, Riaz

Khan, Reshma Boodoo and ChristopherTaylor, along with 14 others.5. 10 year old Sean Luke, kidnapped andmurdered by two young “friends”6. Siparia 16 year old Pixie SurujdayeLakhan, abducted from her home, rapedand murdered,7. Blind Anthony Ramcharan, kidnappedand murdered for reasons unknown.8. Albert Hosein, driver for Anthony Ram-charan, also murdered.9. Mary Baldeo-Waheed, killed after jump-ing out of a moving kidnap vehicle,10. Businessman Uttamdeo Maharaj, whodied trying to save his sister from kidnap-pers (killed with a gun assigned to a policeofficer!).11. Real estate agent Gerard Gopaul, bat-tered and suffocated to death despite anoffer of ransom,12. Krishna Pooran, dead in intensive care50 days after being shot in a kidnap attempt.13. Medical student Mark Rattan, murderedin a kidnap attempt.14. Samdaye Rampersad, a small shop-keeper, beaten, her back broken, and buriedalive(kidnapped 2005, body found in 2006)15. American citizen Balram Maharaj, kid-napped, his body cut up and buried in twoholes (kidnapped 2005, body found 2006)16. Businessman Eddie Khoury, murderedand beheaded, with his head still missing,17. Elenor Cupid, shot and burned in a carparked at a Blue Basin lover’s lane, be-cause she was a potential witness for kid-nappers of Linda Ali.18. Kevin Cassie, parked in car withElenor Cupid, also murdered.

All 14 of these murders that the police ig-nored were extensively reported in the localmedia by the same police.

Trinidad police have also made a strangedifferentiation between “kidnappings forransom” and “abductions”. Only when thepolice are officially informed that a ransomdemand has been made does an “abduc-tion” become a kidnapping for ransom.That way, when a kidnap takes place and aransom is privately paid, the police label itan abduction and ignore it. When Mark Rat-tan was killed in a failed kidnap attempt, hedidn’t count as “murdered while in custodyof abductors.”

By Ram Jagessar

Kidnap plagued Trinidad with an averageof 12 kidnappings per month, is heading fora total of 144 reported kidnappings in 2007.

On June 18 this year the Trinidad Ex-press reported National Security MinisterMartin Joseph as saying that seventy-sevenkidnappings had been reported, with five ofthem being kidnappings for ransom.

"In 2005, there were 280 reported kid-nappings of which 58 were for ransom. In2006, there were 214 reported kidnappings,of which 17 were kidnappings for ran-som,”said Mr Joseph.

That 77 kidnaps for six and a half monthsworks out to an average of 12 kidnaps permonth, and a projected 144 for the year.That’s down from the 2006 average of 18per month and the 2005 average of 23 permonth.

This apparent declining trend in kidnap-ping may please Minister Joseph but is lit-tle comfort for Trinidadians. These are onlythe reported kidnappings, which kidnap-ping researcher Dr Kumar Mahabir has saidare usually not more than one in ten.

Now that’s a scary thought. If 144 kid-nappings are only the 10 percent of kid-nappings that are reported to the police,what would be the total number of totalnumber of reported and unreported kid-nappings?

On a visit to Trinidad last month, this re-porter was told of several kidnappings thatwere not reported to the police and notmentioned in the newspapers. People saidthere was little point in reporting kidnap-pings to the police, as the cops seldomcaught the kidnappers or recovered the vic-tims. They found that the police response tokidnapping was generally slow or indiffer-ent, and their crime fighting methods werepoor and inadequate.

The Indian community in Trinidad didnot appear to have much confidence in thepolice. Several people expressed the beliefthat members of the police were in leaguewith kidnappers and were collecting sharesin the ransom money.

Wealthy Indians were taking more pre-cautions to avoid being snatched, such asremote controlled electric gates at theirhomes, armed security guards, changingtheir driving patterns, and avoiding placeswhere they could be grabbed. Some weresending their children abroad to study toescape Trinidad, and encouraging them notto return to Trinidad.

There have been some changes in kid-nappings methods in Trinidad. One busi-nessman reported that kidnappers wereshying away from kidnapping foreign na-tionals, after the FBI came to Trinidad andsolved the case of kidnapped US veteranMalram Maharaj.

Some kidnappers have switched to “kid-napping by instalment”. They approachwealthy busines speople and threaten themwith kidnapping unless they pay regularprotection money or what is popularlycalled “coward tax”. The tax can be asmuch as $1,000 per month per family mem-ber.

Others have said that young men dressedin long white robes have been coming tobusinesses and asking for sizeable regularcharitable donations. If the indidivual de-clines they threaten “Better pay a smallamount now than plenty money later.”

An unknown number of families havemigrated to avoid the everpresent kidnap-ping threats that are now part of TT life.

Police kidnappingstatistics are nottrustworthy

Trinidad heads for 144 kidnappings in 2007Reported kidnaps down from 280 in ‘05 and 214 in ‘06 but still a serious problem

Ransom kidnaps resume after “election break”Kidnappers who appeared to have taken apolitical holiday during the election periodin Trinidad, have resumed operations. Themedical doctor and La Romaine housewifewho were taken both escaped with the helpof an alert public and unusually active po-lice services.

It was a telephone call to the police sta-tion by an unknown citizen last Thursdaynight that triggered the police search andrescue of a medical doctor who was kid-napped and was being taken away to bekept for a ransom.

Dr Marvindra Maharaj, 35, survived ahighway chase reaching speeds of 180 kilo-metres an hour, and a police confrontationwith his armed captors. A 19-year-old sus-pect was caught and dragged out of thebushes byCrime Suppression Unit officers.Police know the identities of two other sus-pects, both from Central Trinidad and one acareer kidnapper.

But credit was given to the nameless per-son who saw Dr Maharaj being grabbedand hustled intohis SUV outside the Mara-bella branch of Kentucky Fried Chicken(KFC), at around 9.30 p.m. Thursday.Thatman called the Marabella Police Station.

His actions came on the heels of the hero-ism shown by people living at RaghunananRoad, Longdenville, when they helped ab-ducted housewife Josanne Sammy escapeher kidnappers and kept her safe until po-lice came. They also led investigators to thegetaway car in which three of the suspectedkidnappers were fleeing the village. Two ofthe suspects are in police custody.

And in another display of people power ,villagers of Flanagin Town, CentralTrinidad formed their own search party tohelp a depleted Central Division policeforce find missing and murdered teenagerRebekah Sugrim.

In the Marabella incident, police said thesuspects were working to a plan - with asecond car involved, bogus registrationplates and akidnap house in which to keepthe doctor - a father of two.

But with the tip, police were able to sendout an All Points Bulletin (APB) to squadcars in the area to look out for the blackSUV.

It was spotted heading for the highway atTarouba Village by E-999patrol officers.Highway Patrol officers based at the MonRepos and Freeport Police Stations joinedthe chase.

The officers worked with policemen fromthe Marabella-based Crime SuppressionUnit, Inter-agency. Task Force, and a policehelicopterequipped with night vision cam-era and spotlights, to follow the SUV.

Police said they lost the vehicle twice,when it drove onto the Rivulet Road, head-ing to Couva, and again when it reached thePoint Lisas Roundabout. More than 30 of-ficers were involved in the hunt.

Near the Phoenix Park Government Pri-mary School, the kidnappers abandoned thevehicle and stumbled into the bush. Dr Ma-haraj was left behind.

CSU officers, led by Cpl Henry Quam-ina, and including officers Nyron Heeralal,Rudy Seecharan and Terrence Victor andHighway Patrol officersSwayne Solomon,Constable Aneil Bharath, led the search.

Dr Maharaj took officers back to PhoenixPark to help them find the gun that wasbeing held to his head during the ride. Hisfamily declined to speak with the media.

Police said the doctor thanked them forsaving him. Police used metal detectors andtracker dogs in the search. It was uncertainif anything was found.

Police believe Maharaj was followedfrom his home. He is the fourth medicaldoctor to fall victim to crime recently.

In July, an Indian-born doctor was ab-ducted and taken to the M-2 Ring Road, SteMadeleine, robbed, beaten and his carstolen. Last June, a doctor from the Philip-pines was beaten and robbed of his jewelryoutside the Princes Town District Hospital.

Last week, thieves broken into the officeof Dr Omar Ali in Chaguanas.

Acting Police Commissioner Glen Roachpraised the citizen who called in the tip thatled to the rescue of baby Jeremiah, who wasabducted fromthe Mt Hope Women's Hos-pital late last month.

Jeremiah, who was just 10 hours old whenhe was snatched, was reunitedwith hismother, Nekeisha Noel, shortly after therescue at a house at Mt D'or Road, ChampFleurs.

It pays to advertise in theIndo-CaribbeanTimes

TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO Indo-Caribbean Times DECEMBER 2007 Page 6

Fed up Trinis mayform their own police stations: Ramesh Tabaquite MP Ramesh Lawrence Maharajhas called on Gasparillo villagers to form“citizens police stations” to combat the up-surge in crime.

Maharaj made the appeal during an earlymorning protest to address concerns aboutcrime and traffic woes for constituents.

Maharaj urged demonstrators to get or-ganised saying, “I intend to train groups ofpeople and make armed security availableto defend the people. To defend one’s lifeby taking the life of another if necessary.”

Calling these groups “citizen police sta-tions”, Maharaj boldly stated that, “I’m notgoing to wait on the Government. The peo-ple are going to be the government. I am notprepared to sit by while Martin Joseph (Na-tional Security Minister) sleeps in his houseand people of Brasso and Flanigan Townare robbed and killed and their daughtersare raped.”

He stated, “We are in a time of no law,no order and we are living in anarchy, andthe detection rate for crime is less than 20percent.”

Crimes and horrors plague Trinidad

Cop escapes deathfrom taxi robbers

A police officer lost his gun to fake taxi"passengers" who then triedto kill him when they realised he was a law-man.PC Daniel Ashby was heading homein streetclothes with his service revolverlate one night last week when he tried totake a taxi from Chaguanas to Enterprisevillage. The taxi driver and two passengerspulled out guns, relieved him of his walletand gun, and put him out of the taxi.

While he was leaving, one of the menfound Ashby's police identification card andshouted for him to be killed. Ashby ran forhis life as several bullets whizzed aroundhim. He escaped unhurt.

PM’S office raidedThieves have raided the San Fernando

East constituency office of Prime MinisterPatrick Manning, and stolen $5,000 in pettycash that was kept in his desk. They cutopen burglar proofing outside the office andsmashed the front glass door on their wayout. No political documents were taken.

Robbers neededChristmas presents!

Three armed gunmen stormed the casinoClub Monte Carlo at Princess MargaretStreet, San Fernando at 9.30 a.m, stole thesecurity guard's gun, and made off withmore than $100,000. yesterday. The un-masked bandits tied up four employees andforced one of the workers to open the safe.Before they left the bandits said, “sorry",but that it was Christmas and they needed tobuy presents.

Robbery withgun and dogat the beach!

About 20 bathers at Las Cuevas beachwere terrorised and robbed by three menarmed with cutlasses, a gun and two dogson a Sunday afternoon earlier this month.

Carl Hernandez, one of the lifeguardswho was on duty Sunday, said a couple whowere bathing in the sea ran to his post andalerted him that there were three slim, darkmen who were robbing people on thebeach.

"I ran to the office and called the police,but there was no response," he said.

"We then called the lifeguard office inMaracas Bay, who (the guards) drove to thepolice station and told them what was goingon."

By the time the police got to Las Cuevas,Hernandez said, about 20 people had beenrobbed of their jewelry, money and cellphones. The men escaped by runningthrough the nearby swamp.

One of the victims of Sunday's attack saidshe was liming with several friends on thebeach when the men pounced on her groupand announced a hold-up.

They threatened to let the dogs loose onthem and shoot them if they tried to escape.They then robbed them of cash and cellphones.

Hernandez said robberies on the beachhad been taking place for some time."Long time, they used to run and snatchyour bag but now they doing it at gunpoint."

Man shot, beheadedA man who up to late yesterday, remained

unidentified was shot through the head andneck before being decapitated by two menwho also chopped two other men and set ahouse alight during an early morning ram-page in rural Carapo, Arima.

Residents said the brutal killing has leftthem in fear since they do not know if thekillers would return to the area. They arecalling for police patrols in the area. Thiswas one of three murders to have been com-mitted in two days.

Carjacked police style coming from airport

T&T senior cricket team scorer RohitBalkissoon and his wife Sheila were car-jacked last Friday morning on the M-2Ring Road in Debe.

They were returning from Piarco Interna-tional Airport, and on reaching the end ofthe Uriah Butler Highway around 1 am,they noticed two cars racing behind themfrom Golconda Settlement.

Balkissoon proceeded to the M-2 RingRoad and mere metres from the Debe Traf-fic Lights in front of the Debe High School,one of the cars pulled in front of him, whilethe other stopped behind him, his wife said.

Three men alighted from the vehicle andannounced a hold-up, Mrs Balkissoon said.

The couple were relieved off all of theirvaluables, including cash, cellphones, duty-free alcoholic beverages and their car, reg-istration number PCA 933, she said.

Mrs Balskissoon said one of the gunmentold them to run into the nearby bushes ifthey wanted to live. The robbers then spedoff , she said.

Balkissoon then came out and flaggeddown a passing car, which took them toDebe Police Station, where a report waslodged.

Mrs Balkissoon said the police saw ofone the vehicles but could not give chase,because the clutch in their van was notworking properly.

They also told Balkissoon they couldnot get the police helicopter to chase therobbers, because it was not working.

Seven armed,masked men attack Tobagohotel

Seven armed men tried to rob the TurtleBeach Hotel at Black Rock, Tobago duringthe early hours of last Wednesday morning.Police said around 3.30 a.m., seven men, allarmed and masked, entered the hotel andoverpowered one of the guards and tied himup.

Luckily, other alert security officials whoobserved the situation scampered andphoned the police. The bandits tried tocrack the hotel "safe" but were unsuccess-ful. They later escaped on foot, but notwithout firing random shots.

Foreigners toprobe corruptSouth Police

Police Commissioner Trevor Paul has an-nounced plans to employ foreign investiga-tors to probe allegations of corruption in theSouthern Division made by Supt Chandra-ban Maharaj.

Paul revealed the plan yesterday duringthe weekly media briefing at the Police Ad-ministration building in Port-of-Spain.

He assured that the allegations would beinvestigated with the “utmost urgency.”

The CoP said he consulted with NationalSecurity Minister Martin Joseph about thematter.

“I am aware that the ministry is seekingto source foreign investigators to ensurethat the allegations of Supt Maharaj are, infact ,investigated.

“The matter is going to be investigatedwith the greatest amount of transparency, aswell as with a sense of urgency and with asense of professionalism.”

Maharaj, the officer in charge of PrincesTown Police Station, had alleged that hehad information about corruption in the Po-lice Service—even at the executive level—allegations which he said he was notconfident local officers would be able to in-vestigate effectively.

This lack of confidence had promptedMaharaj’s attorney, Anand Ramlogan, tocall on President George Maxwell Richardsto appoint a commission of inquiry into theclaims.

But Ramlogan expressed scepticism dur-ing a telephone interview. He questionedwhether or not any local police officerwould be involved in the investigativeprocess.

Ramlogan said he and his client wouldco-operate if they were guaranteed an au-tonomous investigation that would not in-volve any local officer.

He added that the foreign team should betotally independent and the stipulations ofthe selection should be completely trans-parent.

Terror in oncesafe rural Central TrinidadLiving in the forest of rural Central

Trinidad are a murderous gang of menwho are raping, robbing and killing peoplein an orgy of violence, in what was once thesafest areas in the country.

The men are believed responsible for thekilling of father of two, Jesus Bompartt,who was shot and chopped to death in hisgarden near his home at Talparo Villageyesterday.

Police have also linked the suspects, agang of seven, to the shotgun murder offarmer Ujistar Narine, in the bushes near hishome at Las Lomas No 1, the night beforeDivali-November 8. A woman was alsogang raped.

On Divali night, the killers showed up inanother village, held a family hostage forsix hours, raped a mother and daughter, beatthem, and stole several items from the tele-vision to the chickens and ducks.

Investigators are also consideringwhether the men, several of whom have beidentified, were also the rapists and mur-derers of 16-year-old Rebekah Sugrim nearher home in Flanagin Town three weeksago.

All the villages are within a ten squaremile area, and linked by a network of hunt-ing and garden trails and logging roads. Vil-lagers believe one or more of the suspectslive among them.

Bompartt, 35, died, but probably savedhis family by his actions. Over the week-end, said his father, Andres Bompartt, 70,three of the family's dogs were poisoned.

"We were prepared for something to hap-pen. I was at home when I heard two gun-shots and he (Jesus) bawl 'bandit, lock upthe house'. So we locked up."

Bompartt's wife, Vashti Sookdeo, fledthe home and ran a quarter mile to a neigh-bour. The nearest police station, SanRaphael, took 20 minutes to respond.

When they reached the scene, officers ini-tially refused to go into the bushes. Andthey had to hold back Andres Bompartt,who was loading his licensed gun to goafter the killers. It was only when back-uparrived that police searched and foundBompartt among his cassava plants.

Scores of villagers went to the home yes-terday. They said Bompartt "was the kind-est, quietest person, who only raised hisvoice when he laughed. Everybody lovedhim."

They were angry that three hours afterBompartt's killing, there had been no searchfor the men they were sure were hiding inthe forest nearby.

Among those protesting was the manwhose daughters were raped the night be-fore Divali.

He said:"Them same fellas attack me, mywife, my father-in-law, mother-in-law. Theytook every possible thing from washing ma-chine to duck and fowl. They raped mydaughter and wife. The nearest police sta-tion was Londgenville. This is why we needa police post in the village."

The lawlessness in the villages of CentralTrinidad has outraged residents, who yes-terday demanded joint army-police patrolsto secure the area, and a massive forestsearch to smoke out the killers.

GUYANA NEWS Indo-Caribbean Times DECEMBER 2007 Page 7

Funny things are always happening inGuyana. But the hilarity occurs intragic circumstances, giving rise to

tragic-comedy.In one recent robbery attempt at Non

Pareil, one of the robbers said: "We want demoney and the jewellery."

Mala, one of the victims, said she told theman that they had no money and jewellerysince they had only yesterday morninghosted a religious function. "All we have isparsad and cake, y'all could get that," De-claring that they were not interested in food,the bandits became very furious and threat-ened them further.

In a rare occurrence, the Police respondedpromptly and shot the three bandits dead.

Who’s an “Ole Higue”

In another incident, a woman was beatento death by residents of Bare Root, Bache-lor's Adventure, East Coast Demerara. Shewas identified as 55-year-old psychiatricpatient Rabika Singh, of 713 Phase Two,Good Hope, also on the East Coast of De-merara.

Rabika Singh, who wandered into the vil-lage, was beaten to death, by residents whoclaimed that she was an ‘Ole Higue', amythical figure that sucks the blood of lit-tle children. But her husband categoricallydenied the assertion.

In fact, the husband claimed that his wifewas a psychiatric patient who would wan-der away from the home they shared withtheir 19-year-old son, from time to time. Heeven produced a medical card to confirmhis statements. Now that the woman hasbeen identified, police could go ahead andpress murder charges.

While residents are insisting that thewoman was an ‘Ole Higue', police are nowworking on the theory that she had wan-dered into the village. (How’s that again?)

The woman's body bore several bruises,and her two hands were broken. Rice grainswere scattered around the body, which waslying next to a manicole broom which, ac-cording to the myth, is used to beat the ‘OleHigue'.

According to mythical teachings, the ‘OleHigue', usually a female, moves in a ball offire and sucks the blood of young children.

“All you hearing is rumours that childrenget suck, but we have no evidence of this,”a police source said. Wonder how they wentabout looking for evidence…

And then there was the issue of the ap-pointment of a Chancellor of the Judiciary.Consultations between President BharratJagdeo and Opposition Leader RobertCorbin on the appointments of a Chancellorand Chief Justice ended in another deadlockwith both parties still holding firm to theiroriginal positions.

The President wants Chief Justice CarlSingh, who had been acting as Chancellor,to be the substantive Chancellor of the Ju-diciary. Corbin wants someone else. Ap-

Guyana: "All we have is parsad and cake.”A casual review of the year that was, by Lloyd Harradan

parently the law requires the agreement ofthe leader of the opposition for such ap-pointments – unlike other countries, whereonly consultation is required. Eric Williamsuse to consult Panday regularly on suchmatters. Panday use to disagree. Williamswould go ahead and make the appointment.He would then announce that he had con-sulted the leader of the Opposition, whowas not required to agree.

Which takes us back to PresidentJagdeo’s New Year’s Day message.

“Fellow Guyanese,” he said, “from today,the system of Value-Added Taxation willtake effect.

My government has carefully designedthe VAT to ensure that it does not adverselyimpact on the cost of living. As such wehave removed the VAT from all medicalservices, prescriptions and over the counterdrugs, water and sewage services, educa-tional materials and services, rent, localbuilding materials, gasoline, dieseline,cooking gas, kerosene, electricity, and basicfoodstuff among other items.

No VAT on sewerage services? The manmad? In one fell swoop he has given up afertile source of revenue. Imagine the bil-lions of dollars in revenue that would havecome from the PNC’s headquarters. I canenvisage the likes of Corbin. Ellis, Lewis,Hamilton Green and Freddie Kissoon has-tening to the VAT office every morning,with wheelbarrow-loads of cash to maketheir second deposit of the day.

But the introduction of VAT leftGuyanese totally confused. Prices thatshould have gone up, went down. Pricesthat should have gone down went up.

“Thanks to the Georgetown Chamber ofCommerce and Industry,” VidyarathaKissoon wrote in a letter to the Chronilcleon the 15th of January, “ for publishing thelist of items of things for which we will paymore, with VAT.

Telephone services, already high due tothe monopoly situation, are higher. And thecost of alcohol has been further reduced.

It’s a shame that the cost of food andother essential living items has gone up,while the cost of alcohol is going down.”

Dumb bombers

You can say a lot of things aboutGuyanese. But you can’t say they are stu-pid.

Most of them aren’t. But in early Junefour men including former PNCR Memberof Parliament Abdul Kadir were arrested forplotting to blow up JFK airport in NewYork as well as tanks storing aviation fueland underground fuel pipelines.

Those charged were Abdul Kadir, formerJFK worker Russell Defreitas, a Guyanese-born US citizen; Kareem Ibrahim, an imamfrom Trinidad; and Guyanese Abdel Nur.

Quoting an unnamed source, The NewYork Daily News said that the group's orig-inal plan had been to crash an aeroplaneinto several other passenger jets on theground at Kennedy in order "to create a cat-astrophic explosion." However, the sus-pects could not recruit enoughco-conspirators and changed course. In-stead, their revised plan was to set off anexplosion at the airport's fuel farm in NewJersey.

The same newspaper also reported thatDefreitas, 63, a retired airline cargo handler,through the assistance of Kadir had been inthe process of seeking the financial backing

of the Trinidadian group, Jamaat Al Mus-limeen. The Muslimeen had perpetrated anattempted coup in Trinidad in 1990, andhad taken over parliament for a time. Whilethe Muslimeen are a Sunni group, bothKadir and Ibrahim are Shi'a Muslims. Thepaper quoted several law enforcement offi-cials as saying that there had been no directthreat to the airport which handles an aver-age of 1000 flights each day, and the al-leged plotters had not obtained eitherfinancing or explosives.

The New York Daily News reported a lawenforcement source as saying, "The fedsdidn't move in more quickly [against theplotters] because they wanted to seewhether the probe targets had ties to AlQaeda .There are a couple of shadowy fig-ures in the background. Whether those AlQaeda connections were real or not, wedon't know."

"They didn't have the money and theydidn't have the bombs," a law enforcementofficial told NYT, "but if we let it go itcould have gotten there - they could havegotten J.A.M. [Jamat Al Muslimeen] fullyinvolved and we wouldn't know where itcould have gone." The same official belit-tled Defreitas's terrorist credentials, callinghim "not a Grade A terrorist."

Israel Khan, the Prosecutor in the extra-dition hearing in Trinidad, in objecting tobail for all three men, warned that the issueshould not be determined by superficial fac-tors.

"You cannot look at an individual and saythat he is not a terrorist. Terrorists come inall forms and fashion...gentlemen, rogues,vagabonds..."

Khan noted how the physical appearanceof one of the suspects, Nur, had changedsubstantially since his first appearance lastweek. He produced a photograph of Nurwhen he first arrived in Trinidad and said itshowed the suspect "dressed-up like my Is-lamic forefathers."

Are we still looking for Ole Higue?Minister of Transport and Hydraulics,

Mr. Robeson Benn said, in November, thatGuyana will never return to the days of beg-ging, because of its current prudent econ-omy.

He made the declaration in reference toan article published by another section ofthe Press, the same day, which said thiscountry is begging for help.

Addressing thousands at the opening of‘Essequibo Nite’ Exhibition and Fair, atAnna Regina, Essequibo Coast, Benn said itwas easy to break down things in the coun-try some years ago.

But it is a hard and difficult task to re-build, he pointed out.

Minister Benn said those people whospoke about beggary caused Guyana to begfor food years ago as rice was being im-ported and Guyanese had to line up to buyit.

He said the nation will never go back tothose times and the ‘Essequibo Nite’ exhi-bition is one example that showcases theabundance of fresh grown food and locallymanufactured products in Region Two(Pomeroon/Supenaam).

Benn pointed to the increased acreageunder agricultural production, and a subse-quent increase in overall production.

In spite of the many problems Guyaneseare busy rebuilding their country. With apossible oil boom in their future, MinisterBenn is right. Guyana will never return tothe days of begging.

Venezuela and Guyana to improve alerts afterborder incursion

By Simon Romero, New York Times

Guyana and Venezuela agreed on Tuesdayto establish ways to prevent Venezuelanmilitary activities in Guyanese territory,after reports that Venezuelan soldiers hadentered Guyana in November and de-stroyed two gold-mining dredges.

The move is intended to relieve new ten-sion between the countries. President HugoChávez's government had previouslysought to smooth over a long-simmeringterritorial dispute with shipments of subsi-dized oil to Guyana. Venezuela still claimsabout two-thirds of Guyana's territory, inthe gold- and timber-rich Essequibo region.

"We have agreed to set up some mecha-nisms that would not only address this par-ticular issue but try to prohibit other similarincidents from occurring," Rudy Insanally,Guyana's foreign minister, said in George-town, the Guyanese capital, after meetingwith Venezuelan officials, according toAgence France-Presse. The details of theagreement remained unclear on Tuesday.

The tension involves the region aroundthe Cuyuni River, a porous area claimed byGuyana and Venezuela that is rife with ille-gal mining. Guyana's military says 36Venezuelan soldiers entered the area lastmonth, using helicopters and C-4 explo-sives to blow up the dredges.

A spokeswoman for Vice Adm. ElíasDaniels, director of the special office forGuyana in the Venezuelan Foreign Min-istry, said he was unavailable for commenton Tuesday. Officials here said this monththat they would issue a report on the inci-dent.

Guyana, with a population of less than amillion, has been seeking to lure foreign in-vestment, particularly from Russia, despitethe Venezuelan claim. The dispute seems tobe viewed as a minor irritant in Venezuela,which has a population of 27 million, but inGeorgetown it is considered a major devel-opment.

Anger erupted there after a self-congrat-ulatory statement last month fromVenezuela's embassy about the delivery of16,000 barrels of subsidized fuel; the ship-ment was announced shortly after reportssurfaced of the military incursion.

"The reality is that we are being treatedwith utter contempt by an infinitely largerand wealthier neighbor whose head of statenever tires of expatiating on the bullyingtactics of the U.S., but is apparently blindto those of his own armed forces," said thethe Stabroek News editorial.

Relations between the nations had im-proved in recent years, with Mr. Chávezmoving away from vociferous claims hemade early in his presidency to Guyaneseterritory. But Venezuela's reluctance towithdraw its claim still irks Guyana.

The dispute is rooted in an 1899 accordin Paris that established Venezuela's bound-aries with Guyana, then a British colony. Aletter by Severo Mallet-Prevost, who repre-sented Venezuela in the talks, was pub-lished in 1949 suggesting the deal was voidbecause it involved a secret deal betweenBritain and Russia.Several Venezuelanleaders have pressed ahead with the territo-

Lloyd Harradan

GUYANA NEWS Indo-Caribbean Times DECEMBER 2007 Page 8

Government has taken in more moneythan expected from Value Added Tax

(VAT) and Excise Tax (ET) for the first sixmonths of 2007, but the taxation could havecreated problems with higher living costsand a slowdown in retail sales.

The taxes took in $17.1 billion for thefirst six months of this year, which is68.95% of the projected $24.8 billion col-lection for 2007. This is $4.7 billion morethan the $12.4 billion expected by the endof June.

Now Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singhhas revised the final tax intake to $30.5 bil-lion and the government's total revenue hasbeen revised upward from $64.9 billion to$70.7 billion. Higher imports and less taxevasion have been given as reasons for thehuge surplus.

Consumer groups and opposition partieshave long called on the government to re-duce the VAT rate from 16%, but those callshave gone unheeded.

They have pointed out the higher cost ofliving as one of the problems caused by thehigh taxation.

The implementation of the Value AddedTax (VAT) has seen items that previouslyattracted no taxes being taxed and increasesin the prices of imported items such as milkand oil (which do not attract VAT). Thesetogether with cheese, corn, soybean andwheat have significantly increased the costof the consumer's basket of basic items andinflation now stands at 13.3%. Locally pro-duced rice, sugar, peas and fats like mar-garine and other shortenings have also seenprice increases.

The retail prices of basic food items ascompared to last year show significant in-creases. For this year one bag of brown ricehas moved from $3600-plus to $4400 andwhite rice from between $2700 to $3000 to$4000 per bag; cheese from $6000-plus lastyear per slab to as high as $9700 and$10,000; sugar from $3400 last year perbag to $4100 per bag; a bag of flour from$4000-plus last year to $6000-plus (flourpreviously attracted 10% c-tax now butnow attracts 16% VAT); a 11.4 kg box ofmargarine moved from $3700 last year to$3900; a five-gallon pail of oil retailed lastyear for $3000 to $4000 and is now $6400-plus.

One wholesale confectionary and groceryvendor at Stabroek Market who asked notto be named complained thateven at No-vember month end "sales is really bad."

He complained as well that decreasedbusiness also contributes to the shelf life ofitems expiring. The wholesaler said that forthe past couple of years holiday sales havedecreased and he believes that with the im-plementation of VAT it is going to be "

Another grocery stall owner at Stabroekmarket who asked not to be named opti-mistically said vendors are expecting thatsales will be good but, "right now it is veryslow."

Grocery vendor O. Persaud at 6C inBourda market revealed too that "it is veryslow right now," adding that last year saleswere a little better. Grocery store ownerJacklyn Ashby at Bourda Market said,"since VAT nothing is the same" and she didnot believe that sales will improve this hol-iday. She explained that more money willhave to be invested into her grocery shop asa result of rising prices and she will be earn-ing a smaller profit."Who ain't got family outside (abroad) Isorry for them," commented this vendor,noting that the disposable income of shop-pers has to be supplemented by moniesfrom relatives residing overseas.

Another missingarmy AK47causes shake-upAs the probe intensifies into a missing AK47 from Camp Ayanganna, the Guyana De-fence Force (GDF) announced that it has re-moved three senior officers from their postsand remanded another eight soldiers intopolice custody.

In addition, several others who worked asduty officers and orderly officers are to faceserious disciplinary action immediately forfailing to supervise the base security per-sonnel during their tour of duty over the pe-riod that the weapon went missing, theGDF said in a hard-hitting statement yes-terday afternoon which also took a swipe atretired Chief of Staff, Edward Collins.

The loss of the AK 47 is seen as a majorembarrassment to the new army high com-mand coming in the wake of the shockingvanishing of 30 of these weapons the pre-vious year and a consequential shake-up inthe GDF hierarchy.

Among the three officers who have beenrelieved of their duties are the Base Com-mander,Lieutenant Colone, Windee Alger-non the Adjutant, Andy Pompey and theBase Sergeant of Camp Ayanganna, War-rant officer Torrington. The army statementsaid that the relieved officers have been in-structed to hand over their respective dutiesto replacement officers who have alreadybeen appointed, and to make themselvesavailable to the army and police investiga-tors. The statement said too that eight armysuspects are in police custody and more arelikely to be detained as investigations con-tinue.. Last year February the army made theshocking announcement that 30 AK 47 ri-fles and six pistols were spirited away fromthe storage bond at Camp Ayanganna. Four-teen of the weapons have since been recov-ered, mostly from the hands of criminalsconnected to the Buxton/Agricola criminalgang.

Rice earnings up to US $68 million

The increase in the global demand forgrain pushed rice earnings to US$68M fromthe export of 247,111 metric tonnes (MT)at the end of November compared toUS$49M earned from the export of 183,000MT for the same period last year.

Agriculture Minister Robert Persaud saidthat with the global demand for grains likerice increasing Guyana was a critical mar-ket to supply Caricom and traditional mar-kets like the European Union (EU) as wellas new ones. Demand for rice, Persaud said,seemed to be outstripping the ability to sup-ply.

Rice production in the first crop this yearwas 168,902 MT and the second crop was128,260 MT for a projected total of 297,162MT. In 2008, the first crop is projected at168,118 MT and the second crop at 173,544MT for a total of 341,662 MT, valued atUS$67.2M. Approximately 70% of the pro-jected acreage for the first crop of 2008 isalready being prepared.

The EU and Caricom continued to beGuyana's main markets with exports of50,000 MT to Jamaica surpassing the aver-ages of the last four years.

Police kill threerobbers in NonPareilThree armed bandits were dead earlier thismonth, but not before they wounded a po-liceman during a blazing gun battle at ahouse the bandits had invaded in Section 'C'Non Pareil, East Coast Demerara.aid they all appeared to be intheir late teens or in their early 20s. Thebodies are at the GeorgetownHospital Mortuary.

Injured is Police Lance Corporal ShawnHosannah, who is stationed atCove and John Police Station. He was shotbehind his right foot.

Mala, one of the occupants of the house,said that bandits entered around 9.30 pmwhile she and her relatives were relaxingafter hosting a religious function earlier.She said she was sitting on a chair close tothe front door, while her mother, husbandand other relatives were seated inside thehouse.

Mala said she was engrossed in a con-versation with them, when suddenly some-one hit her on the head and commanded herto "get into the house". When she turnedaround to see who it was, she was accostedby one of the three bandits.

The woman said a gun was placed to herhead and she was shoved into the house bythe bandit. By this time, she said the othertwo robbers, brandishing their weapons,had begun threatening her relatives and de-manding money and jewellery.

"We want de money and the jewellery,"one of the robbers , Mala said.

She said she told the man that they had nomoney and jewellery since they had judyhosted a religious function. "All we have isparsad and cake, y'all could get that," Malasaid she offered them. Declaring that theywere not interested in food, Mala said, thebandits became very furious and threatenedthem further.

She said it was at this point that she man-aged to grab her cellular phone, run to thewashroom, and lock herself in. She con-tacted a few of her friends in the neigh-bourhood who immediately called thepolice.

Police responded within minutes and thebandits were still in the house with them,when the lawmen arrived. She said that bythen her relatives had started handing overmoney to the bandits.

Police, on arriving on the scene, cor-doned off the area. Realising they were cor-nered, the bandits became desperate toescape and ignored Mala and her relatives,while hitting down almost everything intheir way. The family fled the house, andpolice moved in on the bandits, confrontingtwo of them in a bathroom and shootingboth of them dead. The third bandit ran outthe house in an escape bid, but was broughtdown by a bullet as he crossed the bridge.

"It was fast and nasty," one resident ofthe area commented about the police oper-ation, noting that the policemen were quickin their response and their actions were de-cisive.

"We must commend them for a good jobthat was really good," a relative of Mala'ssaid.

Berbice to getbright ChristmasBerbicians who were recently plagued

by constant blackouts can likely lookforward to a bright Christmas as an addi-tional seven megawatts of electricity will beadded to the Berbice grid through the Skel-don Modernization Project.

The co-generation project, which is beingundertaken by the ChinaNational Trade Im-port/Export Corporation (CNTIC) is ex-pected to be ready in time for Christmas,senior engineer and construction managerof CNTIC, Zhao Zhengxiang, said.

Zhao pointed out two of the three Finland-made Wartsila diesel generators that wouldbe ready for safe testing next week. Thethird generator would be tested the follow-ing week to ensure there are no mechanicalproblems, and then hamded over toGuyana Power and Light (GPL).

According to Zhao, the three generatorshave a total capacity of 10,000 kilowatts(KW) - two of which consist of 2,500 KWseach and the other, 5,000 KWs. The gener-ators are capable of supplying 10megawatts of electricity but only seven toeight megawatts would be added to theBerbice grid. "After the electricity is gen-erated it goes into the step-up transformerand is then exported to the outside line," hesaid adding that GPL is currently workingon the site to export the electricity.

West Demerara businessman shot

Armed bandits last evening robbed anAnna Catherina, West Coast Demerarabusinessman and shot him in his buttocksin a brazen attack at his home.

Basdeo Shaadar of Lot 2 Anna Catherina,WCD was being treated at the GeorgetownHospital, sources at the institution toldStabroek News last night.

According to reports Shaadar was underhis house around 6:30 last evening whenfour men entered his yard.

The robbers all brandishing handguns ac-costed him and his household, threateningto kill them if they did not hand over cash.Stabroek News was told that the business-man resisted the robbers and was shot. Hethen handed over an undisclosed sum ofcash to the bandits who escaped.

Pirates hiding outin SurinameIn the wake of yet another piracy attack onBerbice fishermen the government said ithad now confirmed that the pirates wereusing Suriname as a safe haven after com-mitting their attacks on Guyanese vessels inthe eastern sector of Guyana's maritimespace.

Reports have indicated that some 15boats were subject to attack by pirates lastSunday causing Agriculture Minister yes-terday to call on Suriname to supportGuyana in its fight against piracy.

"We need to see greater demonstrationby Suriname to support our effortonpiracy," the minister said at a media con-ference yesterday.

Reports said that five of the boats whichwere attacked in the Atlantic Ocean are saidto be missing. The recent acts of piracyhave angered fishermen who have threat-ened to take their own action if somethingis not done.

Taxes take in more money but slow down retail sales

BUSINESS Indo-Caribbean Times DECEMBER 2007 Page 9

strong credit rating and everybody willwant to lend you money for anything youwant. “

He has a warning for credit cards. Usethem to build your credit rating, and payyour credit card bills in full. Do not payminimum amounts and incur ruinous creditcards interest rates of as much as 20% forthe balance. Do not use credit cards for ex-penses under any conditions. Use the goodcredit rating you develop to acquire wealth,just as our parents back in the Caribbeanworked all their lives to acquire wealth.Don’t buy land in Canada , but buy houses.

How about saving money for a rainy dayas we were advised in the Caribbean?Lochan advises that we save money regu-larly but put it in RRSP’s, which are tax de-ductible. In emergencies RRSP’s can becashed, but their greater value is that theycan be used to buy a house.

Life insurance should be taken out onlyon the breadwinner, and then only term in-surance. Do not insure children, as nobodyis dependent on them. Avoid whole life in-surance, which have higher premiums andare practically useless as savings.

Lochan finds that many of the Caribbeanbased values, including family values anda focus on education work well in Canada .Just as in the Caribbean , we have to pay at-tention to how our children are growing upand not dump them in the schools.

“It’s easy to lose our children to gangsand the Canadian culture of the schools, sowe have to keep them close and make surethey follow our culture and values. We haveto get involved in their school life, helpthem with their work, and watch them care-fully. We have excellent libraries, which arefree to use, and have millions of dollarsworth of information. We must use them toeducate ourselves and take the childrenthere too.

“ One of the most valuable things we cando as Caribbean people is to affiliate our-selves with community organizations withpeople like ourselves. Link up with a tem-ple or church group or mosque, with cul-tural or social or sports groups. They arefull of people who have been here longerthan us, people who can lend us their valu-able experience in Canada . You don’t haveto fight it alone in Canada when you haveso many of your own people available tohelp you integrate to Canadian life. One ofthe things you may learn is that you cannever go to the top when working for Cana-dian companies, so you should aim at be-coming self-employed or starting your ownbusiness where the sky is the limit.

‘You don’t have to fall into the trap oftrying to keep up with the Joneses. Youcan easily get hooked on a high consump-tion life style, living beyond your meansand digging yourself into a financial hole.The commercial culture here wants you tokeep buying and changing clothes and carsand houses and home equipment, throwingout perfectly good things just to get the lat-est and newest. That is not a good way tolive.

“Our way is to use education to developyourself financially, to build up the wholefamily, to create wealth for the future, tospend only what you have in hand, to de-pend on the extended family and the com-munity, and not to let other people imposetheir values on us. That is what our ances-tors fromIndia taught us, and what our an-cestors in the Caribbean followed, and mostof it is still useful for us here in Canada. Wehave to make some changes to adjust to lifein Canada but our core values are solid andlong lasting,” says Rudy Lochan.

When we come to Canada , Caribbeanpeople must not abandon sound tra-

ditional values like living within our means,saving for the future, buying rather thanrenting homes, and keeping a close watchon children in school. But we must adaptthose values to suit the very different con-ditions in Canada .

That’s the advice from mortgage brokerand financial adviser Rudy Lochan to mi-grating Caribbeans who want to build asound new life in Canada on a strong base.

“ The first thing you need to do is get adecent job, which is difficult if you don’thave Canadian qualifications and Canadianexperience. Most employers here feel weare suitable only for low paying factory orwarehouse jobs, but we don’t want to getstuck there. We have to make sure our qual-ifications are accepted in Canada or makethe sacrifice to get our papers from a Cana-dian school,” explains Lochan.

Next in importance earning an income isthe questions of accommodation, and thematter of renting or buying a home.

“Buy a house immediately or as soon asyou are able. Rent part of it to cut yourcosts, and later on acquire more houses andrent them out. Owning a house means youare acquiring wealth, which is somethingour parents in the Caribbean always workedhard to do. Do not rent, as this is just throw-ing away money. You have to pay for hous-ing anyway, so you might as well use thatmoney to build equity in your own house.

“ Do not buy apartments or condos. Theirvalues can go down in recession times, andmaintenance costs can rise without warn-ing. Houses generally keep rising in value,and are always in demand.”

At least for the early stages, Lochan sug-gests you live in Toronto where you can usethe TTC and where schools, hospitals andmost facilities are plentiful and close athand. Living in the suburbs means going toa region with less facilities and the need tohave one or two cars. But since each carcosts around $400 a month to maintain,apart from car payments, life in the suburbsmay well drain away money you can not af-ford to lose.

Care must be taken when buying a car,which is a deteriorating asset that is costlyto maintain. If you do find you need a car,never buy it new. Buy a good second handcar, and avoid paying those new car taxesand taking the immediate depreciation invalue of as much as 15% from the minuteyour buy the car. Buy a Japanese car insteadof an American, because of its better per-formance and value, and keep it in goodcondition for several years.

Lochan insists that developing goodcredit is a crucial matter for people livingin Canada , and those who do not make theeffort are hurting themselves financially.In the Caribbean people are proud to saythey pay cash and they have no loans butthat policy is not advisable in Canada .

“You need a strong credit reputation toget a mortgage to buy a house, to buy orrent a car, to get a bank loan, to get a roomin a hotel or even to buy furniture on terms.Businesses and financial organizationswant to know that you have a good recordof paying back loans, so you have to workto build that record.

“Get a credit card, buy some small thingswith the card and make sure to pay thecredit card bills in good time. Take out asmall loan from a bank or a credit union,even if you don’t need it, and repay the loanin good time. The size of the loan or creditcard bill is less important than the fact thatyou repaid them on time. Then you get a

A group of likeminded Caribbean businessmen got together last week to launch the REVBusiness Networking Group.

The aim of the group is to provide networking opportunities and business referrals tosupport each other to expand their respective client bases. The group plans to meet on amonthly basis to share new ideas and introduce new products and services to each otherand to brainstorm ideas to overcome some of the challenges facing the business commu-nity.

The first meeting was held at Anava Financing office on Islington Avenue and was at-tended by Vic Sarju, Rudy Lochan, Adit Kumar, Nirvan Radhamohan, Roy Rampersaud,Mani Singh, Jonathan Roy, Navin Nandram,Vikash Jain, Rohan Harripaul, and Paras Palai.For further information on the group please contact Vic Sarju at 416 686 6127 or RudyLochan at 416 830 1510.

If you're thinking of popping down to theUS or checking out the internet shoppingsouth of the border, you will have a lot ofcompany from Canada. Cheaper US pricesas much as 60% lower than the Canadianones are driving the shopping spree.

A recent Canadian Press-Harris/Decimasurvey found that 17 per cent of Canadianspolled had travelled to the U.S. to shop inthe last two months alone, dropping an av-erage $616 each into the hands of U.S. re-tailers. And among households withincomes of $80,000 and more, one in threesaid they have shopped in the U.S. in thepast two months.

The poll of 1,000 Canadians, conductedbetween Nov. 29 and Dec. 2, asked respon-dents about their cross-border shoppingduring October and November, when theloonie mostly traded at or above par withthe greenback.

"Based on these numbers, millions ofpeople spent billions of dollars in the U.S.,"says pollster Bruce Anderson. Asked if theyintended to return for more bargains beforeChristmas, four per cent said they were cer-tain they would and another 10 per cent re-sponded that they were likely to.

"It's the highest dollar and it's the highesteconomy we've had in probably 30 years,so there's a compounding effect where peo-ple have more money," Anderson said.

"They're more confident in the economythat at any time they've ever been in the 25years we've been measuring. Put all thosetogether and you've got a pretty big phe-nomenon.

It's "a surprisingly high number," saysToronto-area retail consultant Richard Tal-bot. "I think the news accounts about theparity of the dollar and the buildup toChristmas coming at the same time, it wasperhaps inevitable there was going to be afair amount of leakage south of the border."

Canadians living in Ontario and B.C.

Business network group launchedKeep traditional values in Canada

were the most likely to say they went alone,or with a member of their household, to theUnited States to shop - at 22 per cent and30 per cent, respectively.The survey adds context to sporadic indi-cators that more and more Canadians aretaking their more muscular loonie, whichhit parity at the end of September and hasbeen at least around parity with the green-back ever since, to the U.S. in search of bar-gains.

Statistics Canada reported recently thatCanadians spent $3.1 billion in the U.S.during the second quarter of the year beforethe loonie reached parity, a jump of 8.8 percent, dropping an average of $765 perovernight trip.

And in a more recent indicator of the mas-sive shift in buying habits, Canadians im-ported 25,000 autos in October, twice asmany as last October and 68 per cent morethan in September.

Canadians have been flying and drivingdown to the United States in record num-bers, spending billions of dollars snappingup bargains at prices they cannot find athome. Diane Brisebois of the Retail Coun-cil of Canada told a parliamentary commit-tee last month that prices are anywherefrom 20 to 60 per cent higher in Canada.

Talbot said the poll should be a wakeupcall to retailers to move Boxing Day salesahead to before Christmas to forestall los-ing more customers.

But he said the phenomenon is likely topeter out in the long run as more retailersadjust their prices to the higher loonie.

"Presumably, retailers are going to putpressure on their suppliers to drop prices,so that toward 2008 we'll see the pricesmoving closer together," Talbot said. "It'salready happening."

Canadians spending billions on cheaper US goodsCanadian prices 20-60% higher

TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO REPORT Indo-Caribbean Times DECEMBER 2007 Page 10

There are dozens of reported kidnap-ping stories in Trinidad this year,with the total expected to hit 144.

There are even more unreported cases,where victims suffered in silence withoutbothering to take the case to the country’sdistrusted police service.This is a smallsample of the reported stories of the kid-napping plague that has gripped the countryfor the past six years.

Jan 1, 2007

Tota Harricharan, 37, son of a christophenefarmer, was abducted from a relative'shouse, in Blanchisseuse on Old Year'snight, by a gang of men who held up hiscousin, her mother and other relatives. A $5million ransom demand was made for hisrelease.

January 8A 44 year old taxi driver was held up at 11pm while driving along the Solomon Ho-choy Highway , by four passengers he hadpicked up in San Fernando . A passengerwho was put ouf of the car alerted police,who intercepted the car and arrested thefour men.

January 15

A pregnant Annalee James, 28, of SinghStreet , Tacarigua on her way to rent DVDsnear her home was kidnapped while walk-ing along Dinsley Main Road at 6.40 pm .An armed man came out of a car, pepperher companion Kelly Buchoon, and tookAnnalee away. She was visiting from NewYork where she lives

Feb 16.Three armed men wearing military typecamouflage outfits grabbed fisherman Fer-oze Ali, 38, who was hunting in a Cedro es-tate with two friends at 8.00 am . The twofriends were tied up and left behind. A landand sea blockade by police and villagersforced kidnappers to release Ali after eighthours.

Feb 19A young woman working as a live inbabysitter for a Mt Hope businessmanstabbed him several times while attemptingto kidnap his 4 year old daughter. Thebabysitter invited two men into the home

by a cutlass and $200,000 demanded fromhis family. Police set up roadblocks in thearea immediately and three hours later thekidnapers abandoned Sieunarinesingh in acanefield. for his safe release Around 9.30 p.m. , the kidnappers left Sie-unarinesingh in the canefield and sped offin their car. This was a second kidnappingfor Sieunarinesingh, who escaped from an-other kidnap gang five months earlier

May 3Kenell Cooper, of Easy Street, Fyzabad,was stopped by two armed men and forcedinto their car along Guapo Main Road at 9p.m. Cooper said he was blindfolded, butcontinued to fight the men while the carwas being driven, and they eventuallythrew him out in Caroni..

June 8A 31 year old man kidnapped his stepsonand tried to drown the six-year-old boy inan Aripo in an attempt to get back at thechild's mother who broke up with him. Theman took the child out of his Arima primaryschool, took the child to the river and, heldhis head under water until he thought theboy was dead. But the boy walked out onto the road where he was picked up by vil-lagers.The man is being charged with at-tempted murder and kidnapping.

July 12Hospital clerk Varsha Ramkarran-Ramdeo,28, who was allegedly snatched by kidnap-pers on Thursday was released on Friday,after relatives paid part of the $200,000 ran-som demanded. Varsha was snatched on herway home to Penal after leaving work at thePleasantville Health Centre, driving a lux-ury Honda Accord recently bought by herhusband, Suraj, from his boss- the owner ofa general contracting firm.

September 1Foreign used car dealer Ronald Samlal, 42,reported missing on August 30, was founddead off the North Coast Road , Maracas.Samlal left his home on that date to conductbusiness at Chaguanas but failed to returnhome. Relatives received a call later thatnight demanding money for his safe re-lease.

September 8

Gordon Deane, Atlantic LNG's chairmanand former chairman of the Integrity Com-mission, was at his estate at Angles Road,Toco, on September 8, when around 1 p.m.,three armed men jumped out of the bushand attacked him .He was put into the backof his van and driven around on rough roadsfor about an hour before being taken out ofthe van. Believing that he was going to bekilled, Deane made a dash for freedom atsome stage, ran through the forest, chasedby his armed kidnappers, until he came to awaterfall, where he jumped and fell severalfeet. He was hurt but had managed to es-cape his kidnappers. Police set up a roadblock and held three men, aged between21-27, driving in Deane's van.

Kidnapping reviewSome of the stories and faces ofkidnap victims in Trinidad in 2007

and tried to tie up and businessman and hiswife. The businessman escaped and the kid-nappers ran away when a neighbour raisedthe alarm. Police believe the gang had vic-timized several other families in Trinidad .

March 6Thirteen year old 13-year-old girl Ana ViaRamcharan, of St Julien Village, PrincesTown disappeared after leaving home thatmorning. Next day her parents received acall demanding a $100,000 ransom for therelease of the girl, who is a Form Two pupilof the Tableland High School

March 9Rennie Mohammed, 37, brother of CCNjournalist, Sasha Mohammed, was kid-napped when he hired a car at the San Juantaxi stand on Friday night to take him toAranguez. The driver picked up an accom-plice who held up Rennie at gunpoint. Oneman was arrested by police when he triedto pick up the ransom money, and he he ledthem to the other two kidnappers and Ren-nie, who was being held in Curepe.

March 15

Fifteen year old Chandani Ramsarran ofBridel Road , Cunupia was reported miss-ing soon after returning from school. Thehouse was ransacked but nothing wastaken.

April 6Three soldiers who kidnapped and beatShane Robely, 28, at King’s Wharf in SanFernando on Food Friday, were arrestedand charged by police

April 10Thirty seven year old mother Sitar Maraj-Lewis, her two teenage sons aged 15 and 17and their relative Bim Dookie, 21, werecharged with false imprisonment of NavinJagessar of Longdenville on April 10, andasking for a $150,000 ransom. Navin hadbeen held against his will after leaving hishome. He allegedly escaped his kidnappers.

April 22Richard Deleon, 22, the stepson of a SanJuan dry goods wholesaler,, and his friend,Rodney Rambarran, 23, were kidnapped atSan Juan Hill and a ransom of $2.5 millionwas demanded. Rambarran's father owns asmall auto body repair. The young menwere beaten and released the next day. Itwas not known if a ransom was paid.

April 26Businessman Shiva Sieunarinesingh, whosefamily owns Sieunarinesingh's Hardware inGasparillo, was kidnapped by armed manoutside a gym at 6.00 pm . He was beaten

September 19

Fifteen-year-old schoolgirl Christine Wongwas grabbed at Valencia Junction while stillin school uniform of El Dorado SecondarySchool . She was kept for several weeksand released on October 2 after an undis-closed ransom was paid.

November 24

Rebekah Soogrim, 16, s student of theTabaquite Composite School did not returnto her Flanagin Town home from Saturdaymaths classes in Chaguanas. The familyappealed to the police for help, but policealleged that the girl had "probably run offwith a man.” Her body was found in acocoa field near her home. She had beenraped and murdere

Dec 4

Josanne Sammy, 22, common-law wife ofLa Romaine used car dealer Riyad Baksh,was dragged out of her bed at 2 a.m. bythree gunmen ed and forced her into a wait-ing car. A $200,000 ransom was demanded.She was rescued by police soon after. Agrave had already been dug for her at thehouse where she was to be held.

IT PAYS TO ADVERTISE

IN THE

INDO-CARIBBEAN TIMES416-289-3898

ACHIEVERS Indo-Caribbean Times DECEMBER 2007 Page 11

Mani Singh's father Mahadeo Singhstarted his adult life as a cane cut-ter with no formal education and

as a labourer with British Guyana Airwaysbut worked his way up to becoming theStores Manager for the airline, fluent inHindi and able to read the Ramayan, presi-dent of the local Hindu templea and a vil-lage leader.

With that kind of example, Mani could dono less when he came to Canada in 1981 asa young man with no formal secondary ed-ucation and no work experience. And so hehas. Mani has educated himself and becomeone of Remax's top real estate agents inOntario with a place in the Remax Hall ofFame, a frontline leader of the Associationof Concerned Guyanese who has hostedfunctions at his home for Guyana PresidentBharrat Jagdeo, a noted charitablefundraiser, and an NDP candidate whomade a very respectable showing in lastmonth's provincial elections.

He has remained true to his Hindu rootsand culture, along with wife and four chil-dren, his burning concerns for fellowGuyanese back in the Caribbean and thosehere in Canada He has also mainainted hisworking class interests in social justice andequality gained from the People's Progres-sive Party in Guyana, and transferred themto the NDP in Canada.

A driving interest in education, passionfor social justice and his Hindu heritage arethe three drivers that have taken Mani fromhumble beginnings in the village of Cover-den, East Bank Demerara in Guyana to akey position in the Caribbean communityin the GTA. He aims to integrate into theCanadian mainstream but on his own termsand without surrendering his heritage.

He learned early to improvise when con-ditions were difficult, by educating himselfwhen secondary education was not avail-able in Coverden. Mani studied at homeand passed the exams for the PreliminaryCertificate of Education and then the Col-lege of Preceptors diploma. In his sparetime he developed the Swastika Culturaland Cricket Club to bring youth into the re-ligious circle through sports.

He read the Bhagavadgita with its mes-

sage of standing up for justice, and fol-lowed the charismatci Guyanese leaderCheddi Jagan, then the country’s leadingfigure in the struggle against injustice on aworld scale. These two teachers have re-mained with him ever since.

Mani needed the inspiration when hecame with his family to Canada in 1981,following the death of his mother. His edu-cation was not recognized. He had no workexperience, and could not get a job inGuelph where his elder sister and Canadiansponsor lived.

He had to move to Toronto, and took thefirst job he could find, a factory position as-sembling castors. He had to go to West-wood High School to get his Grade 12diploma, and enrol in Humber College tostudy trade unionism and politics. All at thesame time.

After four years he was fired from thefactory job for trying to get equal pay forequal work at the castor assembly plant. Itwas an early personal lesson in injustice,and a signal that he had to boost his educa-tion to land something better than a deadend factory job.

Mani finished his Certificate in LabourRelations, started studying political scienceat York University, and moved into insur-ance sales before finally settling on real es-tate sales as his career. “Real estate wasmore lucrative and it gave me the time tofollow my other interests in the social andpolitical world,” he remembers.

Now came the work that he really wantedto do, which included supporting CheddiJagan and the PPP back in Guyana, and en-gaging in social and political work inCanada.

Joining the PPP support group GuyanaResearch and Representative Services inToronto and its successor the Association ofConcerned Guyanese, Mani put serious ef-fort in fighting the dictatorship of ForbesBurnham in his native Guyana. He becamepresident of the ACG and an editorial boardmember of the group’s newspaper GuyanaCurrent. He worked to help Guyaneserefugees in Canada who were fleeing per-secution and racism in their homeland. Andhe rejoiced when Cheddi Jagan finally be-came president of Guyana in 1992, after theUnited States forced the illegal governmentin Guyana to hold its first fair election in 28years.

With the great battle for justice in Guyanafinally won,.Mani found he could focus onmatters in Canada like his Hindu heritage,social and political affairs, and also on fur-thering his career. He has done well in allthree.

After 18 years with Remax Real Estate,Mani has collected a bulging bag of hon-ours. He is in the Remax Hall of Fame, haswon the Remax Pinnacle Award, and re-cently was entered in the Remax Circle ofLegends. With his title of “King of the Jun-

PH I L L I P905 -794 - 5551

Coverden boy Mani Singh scales the heights in Canada

Mani Singh (third from left) with his extended family including wife Prema, his late fa-ther Mahadeo, two sisters, sons Tej and Vijay, and daughters Renita and Jitisha.

performers with a sizeable clientele in themainstream and Caribbean community.

Mani has continued to support severalHindu temples in the GTA, and to see thathis family carries on the Hindu heritage heand his wife Prema have transported fromGuyana. His four children, daughtersRenita and Jitisha and sons Tej and Vijay allattend temple services, and know how toplay Indian musical instruments and singbhajans.

Sick Kids Hospital, Children’s MiracleNetwork, Canadian Red Cross, Heart andStroke Foundation, Canadian Cancer Soci-ety, Canadian Breast Cancer Society, Habi-tat for Humanity, Unicef, Doctors WithoutBorders and the Nelson Mandela Children’sFund are some of the charities that he sup-ports financially and personally, as well asseveral in the Guyanese community inCanada.

Mani’s interest in political and social is-sues has blossomed in recent times. His

trade union and social justice leanings madehim a natural supporter of the New Demo-cratic Party from his early years in Canada,where he has been a member for the lastdecade.

“I’ve always wanted to participate inmainstream politics in Canada, especiallyat the federal level where there are foreignpolicy issues that can affect Guyana. I feelwe have to integrate into Canada at all lev-els,” he explains.

So when the NDP approached him to runfor a Brampton riding in the Ontario elec-tions this year, Mani didn’t hesitate. Hejumped right in for the Brampton-Spring-dale seat, a very tough battle facing an in-cumbent Liberal Linda Jeffrey, in a ridingthat has never been won by the NDP before.

Predictably, he didn’t win against fiveother candidates, including a strong Pro-gressive Conservative politician. But hepulled in over 3,000 votes in his first shot at

provincial politics, and came in third afterthe Liberals and the PC. “I gained a lot from that experience. I gotmy feet wet in mainstream Canadian poli-tics. Now I know how the system operates,and next time I will do better, “ he says.There probably will be a next time, though

it may be at the federal level. Mani feelsfederal politics will give him wider oppor-tunities to raise matters dear to his heart.Among them are major issues such as for-eign aid for developing countries likeGuyana, problems with the nation’s healthcare, a national minimum wage of $10,poverty, immigration, and recognition ofthe credentials of foreign trained profes-sionals.

He believes that more Caribbean peoplemust step up to the crease and engage theCanadian system, rather than staying on theoutside and complaining about being leftout. That’s what real integration into Cana-dian life should mean, he believes.

Naturally, Mani always has an eye out forGuyana. He has spend almost half of his lifein Canada, but he still feels for the land ofhis birth and for his countrymen andwomen in Canada who were forced out ofGuyana so many years ago.

And yes, he would love to head back toGuyana to help rebuild a country shatteredby 30 years of dictatorship and misman-agement. But it’s just not possible. He hasfour children still in school, the youngestjust nine years old. They are all born hereand are well integrated into Canada. Hecould not leave them here, and it would becruel to take them to a Guyana which ispractically a strange country to them.

We are stuck with Mani Singh in Canada,but that’s not such a bad thing when youthink of it. The Caribbean community needspeople like him. Canada needs people likehim just as much as Guyana.

R e s t a u r a n t & B a rDine In *Take-Out *Catering * Delivery on orders $30 & overDJ Night every Friday! Buffet every Friday from 11am

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SAY IT IN PICTURES Indo-Caribbean Times NOVEMBER 2007 Page 12

Ontario’s Healthy Restaurant Program

1732 Lawrence Av. E. Scarborough, ON416-757-6635

www.curryandroti.com

Merry Christmas

ChristmasBlackCakes

Two generations strong since 1973.

Let us Cater your HolidaysDiabetic & Heart Friendly. We are the healthier choice!

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LICENSED OPTICIANCERTIFIED CONTACT LENS FITTER

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Keele Ingram Professional CentreSuite #209, 2221 Keele Street, Toronto M6M 3Z5

Tel/Fax: 416-242-3595

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We pay up to 100% deductible We do customizing

Tel: (905)602-7474 Fax: (905) 602-9539

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Students of the Tabla Kendar and entertainers strike a happy pose at the Kendar’s 2007 graduation ceremony, which was held at the Empire Banquet Hall. GurujiMohan Singh (with turban) is in the back row, next to event sponsor Jay Brijpaul.

Born Nirush Jani, 7 lb. 12 oz. to Nina and Bhuvan Jani on Tuesday No-vember 12 2007 at Mt. Sinai Hospital, Toronto. Nirush is the first grandsonof Dilip & Bhavna Jani, and also Dr. Roop & Ramdai Misir (Mishra). Lit-tle Nirush is the first great grandson of Chandrakant Lalshankar and In-drakanta Jani, and also Jayendra (Late) and Sakountla Joshi of Ahmedabad,Gujarat, India; and also Pt. Harinarain (Late) & Mrs. Surujdai Misir of Scar-borough, and the late Pt. & Mrs. Prasad Ganesh Tiwari of Guyana. He is thenephew of Dr. Anil Misir (Hamilton), Renuka Misir, and Honey Jani.

(905) 477-001124 Hr. Pager

www.remaxalls tars .ca

Khel BaldeoSales Representative5071 Highway #7 East

Markham Ontario L3R 1N3Bus: 905-477-0011Fax: 905-477-6839

E-mail: kbaldeo@trebnet.com

Young students of the Bharat Sevashram Sangh show their ability to handle yoga asanasat the group’s recent fundraiser in Rexdale. Over 100 youth recited slokas from the Gita,and dmonstrated stick fighting techniques as yoga postures.

Indo-Caribbean Times DECEMBER 2007 Page 13

It was the Caribbean diaspora re-connecting with the Indian continent when NishaMaraj of Trinidadian parentage became the bride of Indian born Joginder Godhara.

Community activist Krishna Nankissoor and family were sereneded by Peel school principal Dr Sandy Kissoon Singh and his wife Dr Jean Kissoon Singh (right)at a recent multiple celebration in downtown Toronto. Krishna (in suit)and wife Leah (to Krishna’s right), they both counted their 25th wedding anniversary, daughter Natasha (left) markedher 21st birthday, and youngest daughter Natalie celebrated her graduation to high school.

Universal Buildings PMProject ManagementManage Buildings Design & Construction Projects-Design/Build New/ Addition/RenoContract & Manage Professionals & Contractors(Licensed/Insured/Bonded).Project Managers .Estimators .Architects .Engineers .ContractorsPresently working/practicing in the industry with the appropriate Expertise& Work Experience Manage Projects: Specifications,Cost, Time & Quality

Design Buildings: Architectural & EngineeringBuild/Renovate Buildings: General Construction

Contact Sham (Mathura Maraj) Owner/President Cell: 647-885-4501E-Mail: UniversalBuildingsPM@rogers.com/sham.homeoffice

Popular promoter DJ Hitman (left) tells his Trinidad guest dramatists Ethel Fraser(centre) and Leroy Joseph after his recent showthat it’s not really so cold in Toronto.

COMMUNITY Indo-Caribbean Times DECEMBER 2007 Page 14

BHAGVAD GITA FOR EACH HOME

Bulk distribution centres. The Gita can be available in bulk at the fol-lowing contacts: Donations are expected tofund further copies; any individual or or-ganization wishing to assist in this projectcan contact us.

CANADAToronto, Mississauga, BramptonRamnarine Sahadeo 905 671 9233 e-mailramjihindu@rogers.com, Omesh SharmaOmesh@flexomark.com, Chandan Persaud at 416-754-2382, Gulcharan at416 481-5777 gmohabir@hotmail.com,Ram Jagessar at 416 289 9088 orram@eol.ca

RICHMOND HILLOmo Persaud at omo@globalspectru-minc.com 905-886-1724

Winnipeg:Ajodhya Mahadeo 204-661-6643

British ColumbiaChameli Seegobin 604-945-9510, e-mailaddress maylee34@hotmail.com, andNaraine Mohabir at 604-274-8938

GUYANA: Saraswati Vidya Niketan ph.2760013/14

THE ASSOCIATION OF CONCERNEDGUYANESE and friends cordially inviteyou to a fundraising Dinner and Dance inAid of the Victims of Bangladesh's CycloneDisaster and the Dookhoo family ofGuyana.

It will be held on Friday December 14th,from 7:30 p.m. at BJ's Restaurant, 1747Albion Road, Rexdale, Ontario(S/E Corner of Albion Rd. & HWY 27). Adonation of $20.00 per person includes din-ner and dance.

All proceeds will be distributed as fol-lows: 60% to Human Concern International(HCI) for the Victims of the BangladeshCyclone Disaster and 40% to theDookhoo's family of Guyana.

For more info call: Azim: 905-206-9377,Karran Singh: 905-204-0241, Jerry: 905-837-7554, Jay:416-744-0476, Mani: 416-569-4172.

ISLAND GROVE RESTAURANT ANDBAR of 4525 Ebenezer Road Unit #,Brampton (Gore Plaza) holds its ChristmasParty on December 22. Entrance is $20,which includes food. Old Year’s NightDance takes place December 31, with topDJ’s and other entertainment. Cost is $50per couple, which includes food. ContactHema at 905-813-1200.

ENMORE PARADISE RESTAURANT in-vites you to its Old Year’s Night Party onDecember 31 at 1780 Albion Road, Unit 1,starting at 9.30 pm and going to 2.00 am.Admission is free, and there will be danc-ing, entertainment and music by a popularDJ. For information call 647-428-6994.

Connections Family Restaurant brings theChutney Stars to its New Year’s Eve Showand Dance, at 5835 Dixie Road (at Shaw-son), Mississauga. Artistes include Heer-alal Rampartap, De Hitman, RakeshYankarran, Anil Pitie, King Rooplal G,Nelly B, the Wave Band, Curtis Band theFlying Trini. This is 19+ event and ID ismandatory. For info call 905-696-7133 orre-mail at info@connectionsiswe.com

To all our readers and friendsA Merry Christmas &A Happy New YearFrom the Indo-Caribbean Times

COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES Indo-Caribbean Times DECEMBER 2007 Page 15

Caribbean hot spot on Albion & Highway 27

Kamla’s Fashions Inc.Kamla’s Fashions Inc.Wholesale Garment Manufacturer

Announces the takeover ofTJ Fashions and Design Inc.

1510 Birchmont RoadUnits 106 & 107

Scarborough, Ontario M1P 2G5

Massive clearance sale continues in the factory outlet (same location) until Christmas.

Wide variety of transfers/screen prints – Babies, Children, Humour, Christmas, topical, geographical/Souvenir from 50 cents.

Tel: 416-913-2379

�� Youth T-Shirts and Tank Tops - $2.00 each�� Adult Golf Shirts 2 for $10.00 or 5 for $20.00�� Adult Golf Shirts 2 for $10.00 or 5 for $20.00�� Ladies Leggings and Capri Pants 4 for $10.00�� Children’s Clothing $2.00 each�� Wide range of Winter Clothing on Sale

Albion Road

Highway 27

Westmore Drive

You can’t go wrong with Albion Road and Highway 27 in Rexdale if you are looking for a Caribbean Hot Spot packed with food, services andentertainment for Caribbean people. At least eight Caribbean focused businesses in that area can supply all that you need. The veteran is ofcourse Ram’s Roti Shop, Canada’s first roti shop which has been serving the delicacy since 1967, along with doubles, and other Caribbean food.Next door is Enmore Paradise Restaurant which specializes in platters and takeouts with a menu of over 50 Guyanese, West Indian and Chinesedishes, and Caribbean Temptations with its huge menu of Caribbean and Chinese style cooking. Across the road is BJ’s bar and Grill, and onWestmore Drive is Nisha’s West Indian Cafe, Grace’s Patty World with its Jamaican patties and jerked meat, and Green’s West Indian Groceriesfor that tasty Caribbean food Green’s Travel Services next door will take you to the travel location of choice. Drop in and sample their goods.

HEALTH AND FASHION Indo-Caribbean Times DECEMBER 2007 Page 16

Fasting one daymay help hearts

Mormons have less heart disease - some-thing doctors have long chalked up to theirreligion's ban on smoking. New researchsuggests that another of their "clean living"habits also may be helping their hearts: fast-ing for one day each month.

A study in Utah, where the Church ofJesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is based,found that people who skipped meals oncea month were about 40 per cent less likelyto be diagnosed with clogged arteries thanthose who did not regularly fast.

People did not have to "get religion" tobenefit: non-Mormons who regularly tookbreaks from food also were less likely tohave clogged arteries, scientists found.

They concede that their study is far fromproof that periodic fasting is good for any-one, but said the benefit they observedposes a theory that deserves further testing.

"It might suggest these are people whojust control eating habits better," and thatthis discipline extends to other areas of theirlives that improves their health, said Ben-jamin Horne, a heart disease researcherfrom Intermountain Medical Center and theUniversity of Utah in Salt Lake City.

Roughly 70 per cent of Utah residents areMormons, whose religion advises abstain-ing from food on the first Sunday of eachmonth, Horne said.

Researchers got the idea to study fastingafter analyzing medical records of patientswho had X-ray exams to check for blockedheart arteries between 1994 and 2002 in theIntermountain Health Collaborative Study,a health registry. Of these patients, 4,629could be diagnosed as clearly having orlacking heart disease - an artery at least 70per cent clogged.

Researchers saw a typical pattern: only 61per cent of Mormons had heart diseasecompared to 66 per cent of non-Mormons.They thought tobacco use probably ac-counted for the difference. But after takingsmoking into account, they still saw a lowerrate of heart disease among Mormons anddesigned a survey to explore why.

It asked about Mormons' religious prac-tices: monthly fasting; avoiding tea, coffeeand alcohol; taking a weekly day of rest;going to church, and donating time ormoney to charity.

Among the 515 people surveyed, onlyfasting made a significant difference inheart risks: 59 per cent of periodic mealskippers were diagnosed with heart diseaseversus 67 per cent of the others.

The difference persisted even when re-searchers took weight, age and conditionslike diabetes or high cholesterol or bloodpressure into account. About eight per centof those surveyed were not Mormons, andthose who regularly fasted had lower ratesof heart disease, too.

Horne speculated that when people take abreak from food, it forces the body to dipinto fat reserves to burn calories. It alsokeeps the body from being constantly ex-posed to sugar and having to make insulinto metabolize it. When people develop dia-betes, insulin-producing cells become lesssensitive to cues from eating, so fastingmay provide brief rests that resensitizethese cells and make them work better, hesaid.

But he and other doctors cautioned thatskipping meals is not advised for diabetics- it could cause dangerous swings in bloodsugar.

Trinidad Black Cake (Christmas Cake)

The elements of this fruit cake fromTrinidad are prepared on separate days. Wehave divided it into three sections - the earlypreparation, caramelizing sugar, which canbe done the day before, and the day ofcooking. This is a rum cake, a fruit cake, aChristmas cake. This is euphoria.

* 1 pound currants* 1 pound raisins* 1 pound prunes* 1 pound dried figs* 1 (16 ounce) jar maraschino cherries,

drained* 1/2 pound mixed peel* 1/4 pound almonds, chopped* 1 tablespoon angostura bitters* 2 1/2 cups dark Jamaica rum

Caramelizing Sugar (see note below)

* 3/4 pound brown sugar* 1/2 cup boiling water

Final Cooking

* 2 teaspoons grated lime peel* 2 teaspoons vanilla* 4 cups flour* 4 teaspoons baking powder* 1 teaspoon ground cloves* 1 pound butter (4 sticks) softened* 2 1/4 cups sugar* 9 large eggs

METHOD

Equipment: Two 9x5x3 inch loaf pans or1 10 inch tube pan.

Prep Day

Chop currants, raisins, prunes, figs andcherries. Put in large bowl with mixed peeland almonds. Stir to combine. Sprinkle onbitters and pour rum over mixture. Soak fora minimum of 24 hours, extending to onemonth. Dream about this cake for whateverperiod of time you have chosen.

For those who avoid alcohol for religiousor personal reasons, soaking can be doneusing grape or apple juice!

Caramelizing Sugar

Put brown sugar in heavy pot. Stir, lettingsugar liquefy. Cook over low heat untildark, stirring constantly, so sugar does notburn. When almost burnt, remove from heatand stir in hot water gradually. Mix well, letcool, and pour into container for use in finalcooking.

Final Cooking

Preheat oven to 250°F.

Bring fruit from its resting place. Stirlime peel, vanilla and caramelized sugarinto fruit. Mix well. Set aside.

Sift together flour, baking powder andcloves. Set aside.

Cream together butter and sugar untilmixture is light. Add the eggs, one at a timeuntil blended.

Stir in dry ingredients gradually. Whenmixed, stir in fruit mixture.

Pour into tins lined with buttered parch-ment paper or waxed paper. Place pan (orpans) in large shallow pan of hot water.Cook in preheated 250°F oven for 2 1/2 - 3hours or until a tester inserted in center ofcake comes out clean. Cake should haveshrunk from sides of pan.

Cool for 24 hours in tins. When cool,moisten with rum, remove from tins, andwrap in aluminum foil or a rum drenchedcloth. Cakes may be stored to ripen. Ifkeeping for any length of time, check occa-sionally to add more rum.

Yield:1 large or 2 medium cakes

Make your ownDoublesFor the dough 2 cups flour 1/2 tsp salt 1 tsp saffron 1/2 tsp cumin 1 tsp yeast 1/3 cup warm water 1/4 tsp sugar 1/2 tsp curry powder (optional) Oil for frying Additional water

For the channa filling 1 cup dried channa, soaked overnight, or tinned channa 1 1/2 tbsp curry powder 3 cloves garlic, crushed 1 onion, sliced 1 tbsp vegetable oil Pinch of ground geera (cumin powder) Pinch of black·pepper Salt to taste Pepper Sauce to taste

Method

1. Make the dough for the Bara: combineflour, salt, saffron, curry powder (if using)and cumin. Set aside.

2. In another bowl pour in warm water,sugar and yeast. Let sit for about 5 minutesuntil yeast and sugar are dissolved.

3. Add the yeast mixture to the dry ingre -dients with enough water to make slightlyfirm dough. Mix well, covering and settingaside for about 1 1/2 hours so that doughmay rise. Punch the dough down and let itsit for another 10- 15 minutes.

4. To shape Bara, take about 1 tablespoonof dough, flattening and stretching withboth hands to a 5" circle. Moisten palmswith some water if dough sticks to hand.Fry in hot oil, until golden brown, turn inguntil cooked. Remove and drain on a papertowel.

5. Make the channa filling. Boil soakedchanna with salt and 1/2 tbsp curry powderuntil tender. Drain. Mix the rest of the currypowder with 1/4 cup water. Heat oil in alarge skillet and add the garlic, onion, andcurry powder mixture.

6. Saute for a few minutes. Add the channa.Stir to coat well with the curry mixture andcook for about 5 minutes. Add 1 cup water,geera (cumin), salt, and pepper. Cover,lower heat and let simmer until the peas arevery soft. Add more water if you need.Channa should be soft and moist. Add moresalt if required.

7. To assemble, put about 2 tbsp. cookedcurry channa on a Bara. Cover with anotherBara. You can also add mango chutney,tamarind chutney or pepper sauce beforeputting the second Bara on top.

Tomato ChokaIngredients

1 lb ripe red tomatoes2 tsp vegetable oil 1 small onion, diced 2 cloves garlic, crushed 1hot,pepper 2 tbsp coriander, chopped Salt and cumin to taste

Method

1. Ensure that tomatoes are washed. Then,place under a hot grill, roast ing until skin ischarred.

2. Leave tomatoes to cool, then removeskin.

3. Pound tomatoes in mortar and pestle ormash in a bowl.

4. Mix in onion, salt, cumin and hot pepper.

5. Cook garlic lightly in a heated frying panwith the vegetable oil.

6. Add the tomato mixture and corianderand pllow to reduce slightly.

7. Serve hot with bread or sada roti

Saffron RiceIngredients

1/2 tsp saffron powder4 cups boiling water 3 tbsp vegetable oil or ghee2 vegetable oil or ghee1 1/2 cups 1 tsp rice 1 tsp ground clove1 tsp ground cardamom1 tsp salt1 stp freshly ground black pepper

Method

1. Fry onions in ghee or oil until soft. Thisshould take about 4-5 minutes.

2. Add rice and stir in clove, cardamom, saltand pepper.

3. Fry for 3 minutes, stirring frequently.

4. Add remaining boiling water and saffronpowder, then simmer for 15-20 minutes oruntil rice is tender.

5. Drain and place in a serving dish. Servehot.

Recipes: Trinidad Black Cake, Doubles

RELIGION Indo-Caribbean Times DECEMBER 2007 Page 17

Stop thiswomanbashing

By Habeeb Alli

Under law in Saudi Arabia, women aresubject to numerous restrictions, includinga strict dress code, a prohibition on drivingand a requirement that they get a man's per-mission to travel or have surgery. Womenare also not allowed to testify in court un-less it is about a private matter that was notobserved by a man, and they are not al-lowed to vote. This is a regular media blurp.

But, nothing here resembles the Islampractised by the majority of Muslims in theworld, so obviously this is Saudi Law andnot an Islamic Law.

Muslim women may travel, not don blackgowns and veils, vote, be witnesses incourts and appeal for a divorce and well,even drive, and that too alone. So whenIslam has granted women so many rightsand priviledges, these bias misognist menare only destroying human life and Islamwith their personal judgements, as in theecase of the lady who is sentenced to lashesafter being raped, on the pretext that she isan accessory to sexual enticement by walk-ing about alone.

It's nice to hear that the higher Judicialbody is reconsidering these laws and it'stime, especially how we have seen SaudiPrince Abdullah has been leading somesmart political, social and even economicmoves, recently, to correct some major evilsand build bridges.

The fact is the husband of this rape vic-tim rightly said that his wife was abductedfrom a mall and raped and she was not inany illicit relationship. Not because awoman walks without a mahram/ app-proved relative she is evil. As a matter offact, this requirement is only for long dis-tance travel and too if it's insecure, as canbe seen how Hajj groups relax this law.

Why the Saudis don't charge the girlswho walk the malls passing cell numbersout, internet chat and enjoy sattelite TV nonchaperoned? That's having a relationshipwithout a "relative". Moreso how about notbeing picky on criminal charges and im-prove relationship with minorities and Shi-ite brothers and sisters. Charging nonnationals is no justice; moreso, gang-rapinga woman is no "honor".

So if someone slams this episode as bar-baric, it's the barbarism of a human natureexpressed by some wicked authority andnot in anyway a libel against the pure fem-inist laws of Islam nor an attack on an entirewomen-protecting society.

In the same token, I would beg that wecontinue to support our domesticallyabused at home and help them to rise abovethese cultural and social yokes, that seemsto travel relentlesly, despite the visas of en-ligtened ports.

Look how silly the issue in Sudan is,about a woman naming her pet Muham-mad, despite being defended ny her stu-dents and herself claiming this is not herintention- i.e. to demean our Holy Prophet,on whom be peace.

So do we have any disenfranchisementwarrant for those whose name is Muham-mad but do not reperesent His life? How in-sulting to the Prophet, isn't it? Hence, aperson can name someone or something offan everyday Moh; is that a problem? Howabout other Prophets, be peace on them all?

In a very real sense, we are like thespaceman in a photo , totally dependenton our body, mind, emotions and per-

sonal identity to persist in life, just as he de-pends on his space suit and its supply ofoxygen to enable him to exist in space. Takeaway our body, remove our emotions, eraseour identity and what is left? Do we ceaseto exist? What are we really? Rishis assureus that we are immortal souls on a journeyof spiritual evolution. We will take on manybodies, many lives, many different identi-ties through the repetitive cycle of birth,death and rebirth. Each advent into a newbirth is like an astronaut's voyage into thegreat unknown.

The soul's underlying joy throughout thisadventure is to commune with and realizeGod, learning of its true nature in the greatclassroom of experience, known as theworld, or maya. The three realities of exis-tence, God, soul and world, constitute thefundamentals of Hindu theology, known astattva-trayi in Sanskrit, describing a view inwhich Divinity, self and cosmos are a pro-found, integrated unity. Each and every soulis on the same journey, spanning many life-times. The path has been made clear bythose who have gone before. The answersto life's ultimate questions have been giventime and time again, but still must be askedand answered by each soul in its own time:"Who am I?" "Where did I come from?""Where am I going?

Never have there been so many peopleliving on the planet wondering, "What isthe real goal, the final purpose, of life?"However, man is blinded by his ignoranceand his concern with the externalities of theworld. He is caught, enthralled, bound bykarma. The ultimate realizations availableare beyond his understanding and remain tohim obscure, even intellectually. Man's ul-timate quest, the final evolutionary frontier,is within man himself. It is the Truth spo-ken by Vedic rishis as the Self within man,attainable through devotion, purificationand control of the mind. On the followingpages, we explore the nature of the soul,God and the world. Offered here is a broadperspective that Hindus of most lineageswould find agreement with, though in suchmatters there naturally arise myriad differ-ences of perspective. To highlight the mostimportant of these we offer a comparison ofHinduism's four major denominations. Nextwe explore the views of these four denom-inations on liberation from the cycle ofbirth, death and rebirth. Finally, we presenta chart of Hindu cosmology that seeks toconnect the microcosm and the macrocosmand is a lifetime meditation in itself.

Different Views of God, Soul & World -from Hinduism's Four Denominations

There is a wide spectrum of religious beliefwithin Hinduism's four major sects or de-nominations: Saivism, Shaktism, Vaishnav-ism and Smartism. While they share farmore similarities than differences, they nat-urally hold unique perspectives on God,soul and the world. In Saivism, the personalGod and primary temple Deity is Siva. Heis pure love and compassion, both imma-nent and transcendent, pleased by devotees'purity and striving. Philosophically, GodSiva is one with the soul, a mystic truth thatis ultimately realized through His grace.

In Saktism the personal Goddess is ShriDevi or Shakti, the Divine Mother, wor-shiped as Kali, Durga, Rajarajeshvari andHer other aspects. Both compassionate andterrifying, pleasing and wrathful, She is as-suaged by sacrifice and submission. Em-phasis is on bhakti and tantra to achieveadvaitic union.

For Vaishnavism the personal God andtemple Deity is Vishnu, or Venkateshwara,a loving and beautiful Lord pleased by serv-ice and surrender, and His incarnations, es-pecially Rama and Krishna. Among theforemost means of communion is chantingHis holy names. In most schools of Vaish-navism, God and soul are eternally distinct,with the soul's destiny being to revel inGod's loving presence.

In Smartism, the Deity is Ishvara. Devo-tees choose their Deity from among sixGods, yet worship the other five as well:Vishnu, Siva, Shakti, Ganesha, Surya andSkanda. Ishvara appears as a human-likeDeity according to devotees' loving wor-ship. Both God and man are, in reality, theAbsolute, Brahman; though under the spellof maya, they appear as two. Jnana, en-lightened wisdom, dispels the illusion.

In this Insight, along the lower section ofthe next four pages, you will find versesfrom the writings of seers of these four de-nominations that offer a glimpse of theirperspectives on the nature of things ulti-mate.

Who Am I? Where Did I Come From?

Rishis proclaim that we are not our body,mind or emotions. We are divine souls on awondrous journey. We came from God, livein God and are evolving into oneness withGod. We are, in truth, the Truth we seek.¦We are immortal souls living and growingin the great school of earthly experience inwhich we have lived many lives. Vedicrishis have given us courage by uttering thesimple truth, "God is the Life of our life." Agreat sage carried it further by saying thereis one thing God cannot do: God cannotseparate Himself from us. This is becauseGod is our life. God is the life in the birds.God is the life in the fish. God is the life inthe animals. Becoming aware of this Lifeenergy in all that lives is becoming aware

of God's loving presence within us. We arethe undying consciousness and energyflowing through all things. Deep inside weare perfect this very moment, and we haveonly to discover and live up to this perfec-tion to be whole. Our energy and God's en-ergy are the same, ever coming out of thevoid. We are all beautiful children of God.Each day we should try to see the life en-ergy in trees, birds, animals and people.When we do, we are seeing God in action.The Vedas affirm, "He who knows God asthe Life of life, the Eye of the eye, the Earof the ear, the Mind of the mind--he indeedcomprehends fully the Cause of all causes."

Where Am I Going? What Is My Path?

We are all growing toward God, and ex-perience is the path. Through experience wemature out of fear into fearlessness, out ofanger into love, out of conflict into peace,out of darkness into light and union in God.

We have taken birth in a physical body togrow and evolve into our divine potential.We are inwardly already one with God. Ourreligion contains the knowledge of how torealize this oneness and not create un-wanted experiences along the way. Thepeerless path is following the way of ourspiritual forefathers, discovering the mysti-cal meaning of the scriptures. The peerlesspath is commitment, study, discipline, prac-tice and the maturing of yoga into wisdom.In the beginning stages, we suffer until welearn. Learning leads us to service; and self-less service is the beginning of spiritualstriving. Service leads us to understanding.Understanding leads us to meditate deeplyand without distractions. Finally, medita-tion leads us to surrender in God. This is thestraight and certain path, the San Marga,leading to Self Realization--the inmost pur-pose of life--and subsequently to moksha,freedom from rebirth. The Vedas wisely af-firm, "By austerity, goodness is obtained.From goodness, understanding is reached.From understanding, the Self is obtained,and he who obtains the Self is freed fromthe cycle of birth and death."

God, Soul and the WorldHindu Views on the Nature of Existence

YOUTH Indo-Caribbean Times DECEMBER 2007 Page 18

Naipaul amongIndian NobelPrize winners

Mahatma Gandhi was tipped to win the1948 Nobel Peace Prize, but he was assas-sinated just before nominations closed.Trinidad's Sir Vidia Naipaul, winner for lit-erature in 2001, is the first diaspora Indianto take the world's most prestigious award,and Dr. R.K.Pachauri of the Inter-govern-mental Panel on Climate Change is one ofseveral Indian scientists who shared this year's Peace Prize with American Al Gore

The full list of Indians and those with In-dian connections who have been awardedNobel prizes begins with Ronald Ross, whowon the Nobel for medicine in 1902, bornin Almora and was listed as an ''Indianphysician of Scottish origin.'' He joined theIndian Medical Service in 1881 and workedin Calcutta, Bangalore and Ooty. The writerRudyard Kipling, who won the Nobel forliterature in 1907, was born in Bombay.

The first ethnic Indian Nobel winner wasRabindranath who won the Nobel for liter-ature in 1913, followed by Sir C V Ramanwho took the science Nobel for physics in1930. In 1968 Punjab-born Dr Har Gobind Khorana won the Nobel for medicine whileworking in the United States.

Mother Tesera, who was not born in Alba-nia, but spent most of her life working inIndia, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979.Subramanyan Chandrasekhar won theNobel for physics in 1983, and in 1989,Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, bornin Tibet, but living a resident of Dharam-sala in Himachal Pradesh, India for manyyears, was awarded the Nobel for peace.

Amartya Sen won the Nobel for Eco-nomics in 1998, followed by VidiaNaipaul three years later. This year severalof the hundreds of scientists in the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Changewhich shared the Nobel Peace Prize with AlGore, were Indians. Among them were thehead of the Panel Dr Pachauri, andTrinidad's Roger Pulwarty.

Lessons Learned

Caribbean countries have been living ex-amples of multicultural societies at the timewhen immigration to Canada was restricted to people from Europe . Since the middleof the last century, however, Canada openedits doors to people from all over the world.Today as new cultures take root side by sidein Canada , there is the need for citizens tounderstand the significance of traditionalfestivals. Joint celebrations of Eid and Di-wali serve to bring to the forefront mean-ings and symbolisms beneath the festivitiesnot otherwise obvious to other Canadians.

True, what may stand out at such eventsare the attractive costume worn and finefood consumed. In due course, the truemessage of these great festivals shall per-meate the fabric of society, as they becomepart of an evolving Canadian culture. Todayour youths are getting the best of bothworlds, inspired by the past as they lookforward to a bright future with confidence.

Annual Reminders

There is truth to the saying that what goesaround comes around, just as day followsnight, or light dispels darkness. As ouryouths celebrate Eid and Diwali, what isperhaps more important than costume, foodand drink is the forming of new friendships,and the cementing of old ones. Undoubt-edly, some of them over-indulge and losetrack of the true message of fasting (Eid)and the dissemination of new knowledge(Diwali). But should anyone be overly con-cerned? This time next year, all of us willhave the opportunity to celebrate onceagain!

In the meantime let’s continue to act re-sponsibly and strive for success, as we be-come contributing members of society. Inthe process we shall lead healthier lives andappreciate those benefits that arise from in-culcating good habits. Therefore, let’s con-tinue to cherish the new friendships wemake as we learn more about the culturesof fellow Canadians.

Certainly, we adults can learn a thing ortwo from our youths as they jointly cele-brate Eid and Diwali. Societal changes wecurrently experience are helping to shapethe future.

The poem below seeks to capture theessence of Eid and Diwali:

Feasting in the LightAs the lights of diyas in radiant brillianceglowLet the darkness in our thoughts be dis-pelled.As the Ramadan feast reinvigorates thefaithfulLet body in strength and mind in truth grow

Youths of today certainly do knowthat living in harmony is vital for success

So what a better time is it to celebrateFestivals from two traditions so great?Come let’s wish everyone everywhereEid Mubarak aur Shubh DiwaliEid Greetings and Happy DiwaliWhere faith abounds and light radiates

As Indo-Caribbean youths join othersfrom all over the world and celebrate Eidand Diwali, let’s strive to make life one bigcelebration!

[Dr. Roop Misir is a Teacher at Sir RobertBorden BTI. You may contact him atroop.misir@gmail.com]

By Roop Misir

Background

There is no doubt that we take pride inour own traditions. But having said so,should the obsession with “our own” cul-ture and religion makes us oblivious tothose of other citizens?

Today Indo-Caribbean people are livingin Canada, the new country we call home.Here, changes are taking place at rapidspeeds. New knowledge is helping to shapeour lives in ways never expected even a fewshort years ago. In the workplace, innova-tion is replacing obsolescence. Elsewhere,there is change, change and more change.

But are these changes here to stay? Orare they changes for the sake of change?

Of course, many of us adults prefer tolook at the world from a traditional per-spective. In contrast, the rapid pace ofchange is helping to shape the lives of ouryounger generation. At school and in theworkplace, they become exposed to otheryouths from different backgrounds and arich tapestry of cultures.

There are some us who interpret multi-culturalism in Canada to mean that for us atleast, our cultural life will be the same as inthe Caribbean countries whence we came.But is this really true?

Canada ’s Multitudes of Cultures

Canada is blessed with a plethora of fes-tivals, compliments of the confluence ofcultures of immigrants from various coun-tries. In towns and cities across the vastlandscape, local communities celebrate agreat many festivals; however, only a feware actually observed widely.

Occasionally, the dates of two such fes-tivals coincide or follow each other closely.This was the case recently for Eid (mid-Oc-tober) and Diwali (early November). Tradi-tionally, Eid is the Muslim Festival ofFast-breaking, whereas Diwali is the HinduFestival of Lights.

While the faithful of both religions tendto adhere strictly to traditional ways, theyounger generation celebrates with friendsoutside their respective religious communi-ties. At many of these secular events, thefocus is on having fun, enjoying fine food,and strengthening friendships. Yes, ourCaribbean youths are actively celebratingand they contributing to cultural change.

Eid and Fasting

Devout Muslims consider that fastinghelps humanity to appreciate the true valueof food and drink. During Ramadan, ab-stention from earthly pleasures also allowsus to be truly thankful as we make wisechoices on a daily basis. In addition, it isthought that the faithful can become pure inbody and mind, and thus are worthy recip-ients of divine blessings.

From a nutritional viewpoint, fastingtends to give our overworked digestive sys-tem a well-deserved ‘rest’. Supposedly, thisallows the system to cleanse itself, and be-come rejuvenated thereby increasing the ef-ficiency of food digestion. If subsequently

we choose ‘healthier’ foods and develop’better’ eating habits (e.g., reduced intake),these may lead to increased health throughweight reduction and obesity prevention.

Diwali Glows GlobalAlso known as Deepavali, Diwali has its

origins in India but now the diyas glowglobally, wherever Hindus and other peopleof Indian origin are domiciled. In thesetimes, more and more people from othercultures also participate in Diwali festivi-ties.

Traditionally, the light of Diwali is meantto symbolize the dispelling of darknessfrom our hearts as well as ignorance of themind through education and enlightenment.To the faithful, Diwali is an auspicious timeto worship the Divine Mother Lakshmi,Goddess of wealth and prosperity. Somepeople consider it a time for sharing andcaring, for showing generosity and practic-ing forgiveness.

Partying and FeastingWith the austerities of Ramadan fasting

over, and the flame of diyas reminding usof Diwali’s eternal presence, it’s time to cel-ebrate. Young people party with friends bywearing the latest fashions, partaking infine food and exotic drinks, and dancing tothe latest tunes.

Indo-Caribbean HolidaysThe ancestors of Indo-Caribbean people

hail the Indian subcontinent, starting nearlytwo centuries ago. In Guyana , Surinam ,Belize and island countries in the Caribbean(e.g., Trinidad & Tobago), young people arerediscovering their roots. They learn for ex-ample that our ancestors face the dauntingtask of cultural survival in a not too friendlyChristian milieu. Our cultural practiceswere not encouraged as these were consid-ered “pagan”. Yet despite the odds, Hin-duism and Islam (Indian version), andassociated festivities not only survived butlater flourished. Today, some of our culturaldays like Diwali and Eid are national holi-days. Now it is not unusual for aspects ofboth these holidays to be celebrated by allcitizens, at least in Guyana , Surinam andTrinidad & Tobago. This spirit is catchingon elsewhere too.

Youth Celebrations in Canada

In Schools, Colleges and Universities,Muslim and Hindu students often hold jointcelebrations of Eid and Diwali. ThroughoutNovember, many Eid-Diwali joint celebra-tions were held. For example, students atone Sir Robert Borden BTI (a Toronto HighSchool ) held a successful joint celebrationin the school cafeteria. Participants re-flected the broader school population. Inaddition to students of Indo-Caribbean ori-gin, there were others who emigrated fromcountries across the world— Afghanistan ,India , Pakistan , Sri Lanka , former Yu-goslavia , and parts of Africa . The highlightof the celebration was a sumptuous lunchfeaturing traditional snacks (samosas), anddishes (Biryani). The celebration took on anair of elegance as the participants weredecked out with traditional costumes. Therewas food, fun and laughter, and dancing toBollywood pop tunes.

Of course, occasions like this one pro-vide youths the opportunity to appreciateanother living culture. The common ele-ments were emphasized through the shar-ing of food, having fun, and dancing tomusic.

Trinidad’s Sir Vidia Naipaul

Roger Pulwarty

Mahatma Gandhi

Eid-Diwali Promote Friendships in Our Youths

IINDIANS IN THE CARIBBEAN Indo-Caribbean Times DECEMBER 2007 Page 19

Sex abuse of young girls by family members a huge problem in GuyanaClose to home: four womenrelate how they were sexuallymolested as children

Resentment, an inability to trust,emotional trauma and depressionare some of the psychological scars

carried by children who suffered sexualmolestation at the hands of family mem-bers.

Incest remains one of the most under-re-ported and least discussed crimes in the na-tion. Associated with strong taboos not justin the local community but in the interna-tional one as well, incest often remains con-cealed by the victim because of guilt,shame, fear, social and familial pressure,and coercion by the abuser.

Help and Shelter Crisis Service Centre(HSCSC) has reported that more and morepersons are coming forward to report incestcases and have attributed this to its publiceducation campaign.

For this year, the organization has re-ceived two reports of children under the ageof six years old being raped. In the six toeight-year-old age range, HSCSC has seenthree cases, in addition to five children agedbetween nine and 11.

The majority of cases, 22 for the year,were accounted for by children aged 12 to14. HSCSC is also currently providingcounselling and other assistance to 11 otherrape sufferers, four of whom are betweenthe ages of 15 and 17; two in the 18 to 20age range; four between the ages of 21 and30; and one in the 30 to 31 age range.

Research has determined that many othercases go unreported either to the police orto Help and Shelter. A consultation paperdrafted by the Ministry of Human Servicesand Social Security as part of its 'Stamp itout' campaign states that prosecutors andhealth care workers have reported increas-ing levels of violence against young chil-dren in Guyana. It acknowledges that inmost cases the offender is known to thechild.

In a section headed 'Did you know?' thepaper said that a 2005 study found that onlyobout one per cent of the rapes reported tothe police resulted in a conviction. It re-vealed too that a study done this year foundthat 92% of victims of sexual violence werefemale and 60% of these were 16 years oldand younger.

In three out of every four cases, the ac-cused was known to the victim and morethan two-thirds of sexual offences tookplace in the home of the victim or the ac-cused, the document, which was producedas part of the ministry's efforts to strengthenprotection against sexual violence and re-forming the law on sexual offences, re-ported.

From 2000 to 2004, the study said, of the647 rape cases reported to the police, 341of the offenders had been charged and 20had been tried in the high court, but onlynine convictions had been secured.

While the ministry was directing its ef-forts to instituting tougher legislation todeal with those who commited these of-fences, victims who had already sufferedremained scarred by the abuse.

Stolen innocence

"Stolen innocence," is how Bridget (nother real name) described the pain and agonyshe still felt following years of sexual abusewhich started at the tender age of five.

"I just wanted to play with my friends

outside and wanted to do what any five-year-old girl would do, but daddy said, 'Nostay with me in the bed… I haven't seenyou in three weeks.' So like an obedient girlI stayed with daddy in the bed. He closedthe door… I don't remember much of whathappened that day but I do remember himputting his penis in my mouth," she said.

"My sister and I went to the Essequibofor vacation because daddy lived there… Iremember daddy naked, telling me to takewhat I want and asking me why I liked it somuch. I did not understand that it waswrong. I used to be so scared and neverwanted to tell anyone.

"I remember this one time mommy wasworking and daddy had me and my sister atthe dinner table. We were eating. I felt hishand on my leg slowly moving it up totouch me, then he took me and my sister inthe room and closed the door.

I don't know if he touched her, but I havea feeling he did. Maybe one of these days Iwould ask her," she said.

She said she tried telling her mother, buther mother told her to tell her grandmother.

Bridget said that as she grew older shebecame shy, especially towards any malebut often felt, "like I wanted to be toucheddown there and it used to drive me crazy."

Bridget's father continued to molest hersexually until she was 11 years old. Thenthe abuse became verbal.

"After inflicting so much pain on me asa child you would think daddy stopped. Hefound another way to make me feel horribleabout myself. He told me I was a whore andthat I would amount to nothing and that allI would do is dress up and go out to lookfor men to get money. He would beat mefor no reason. When mom was not homeand I had to cook for the family, dad wouldfind something to say about the food I pre-pared."

Bridget said she disliked her father and inher early high school days she was very de-pressed and became an introvert.

"It made me scared and I was afraid tohave friends because I was worried thatthey would somehow know my secret, andso for a long time I was the quiet girl in thecorner. I believed some of the things he saidand I questioned my abilities and my future.Would I really be somebody or would I bea whore liked daddy said? Would I ask menfor money? I didn't know.

"I had so much bottled up inside andnever really told anyone because I wasashamed of what people would think of me,and maybe they would blame me for bring-ing it on myself. I was so afraid of men be-cause I thought they all would do the samething to me, but I had to learn to let it go,"she added.

Sara's story

Sara (not her real name) was ten yearsold when she faced sexual molestation atthe hands of her 21-year-old brother.

"It was a school day and I was home sick,really sick - fever, vomiting and I think abad cold. I was in my mother's bed in theonly bedroom in the house that had a doorthat could be locked. My mother was in thekitchen downstairs.

"He came home at lunch time and walkedin and out of the room several times. I thinkI must have dozed off because the nextthing I recollect is feeling hands on my un-derwear. I opened my eyes and said a weakno. 'Sssssh, ssssh,' he said. 'I have to dothis.' I was terrified; I shut my eyes tightly,"she said.

She continued, "I locked my legs togetherso that my underwear only went partwaydown, but he was able to touch me inti-mately. I was ashamed and very, veryscared. Then I felt his penis poking betweenmy tightly-locked legs. I remember think-ing that mommy would be angry with mebecause she had told me that I should neverallow anyone to do this. I was so rigid withfear that he could not enter me. Then hestarted to tremble and moved away. (I knownow that that was when he ejaculated andhe must have come in his underwear, be-cause there was nothing on the bed.)"

Sara said she jumped up and ran down-stairs, drenched in perspiration and startedvomiting. "Mommy came to me and said,'Thank God the fever has gone.' I hadsweated it out in fear. I stayed close to herfor the rest of the day."

Sara said she went to school the next dayeven though she still felt unwell but nevertold anyone and never stayed home sickagain.

Sara had blanked the incident from hermind, but somehow, enough remained forher to be permanently resentful towards herbrother.

She said she hadn't spoken to her brotherfor years and it wasn't until she became anadult and underwent counselling for an-other traumatic experience that the wholething came flooding back. "I told the coun-sellor and I told my husband; not a soulelse."

Sara, who is now a grown woman, foundout only three years ago that her brother hadalso been abusing her older sister since shewas about eight years old, and that abusecontinued for four years until he moved outto live with his girlfriend. "He died twoyears ago and I did not grieve," she said.

Erin's story

"I hated him and he took advantage ofme and I don't know how I could forgivehim even though he is now dead," Erin (nother real name) said, adding that eventhough there was no intercourse, she be-lieved her story needed to be told.

"I had just turned 10 and had just writtencommon entrance and he, my grandfather,was assisting my single mom to purchasemy school supplies. He told me to meet himat his house where he lived alone and thenwe would go into town to get my stuff.When I got there, he was still lying on hisbed. I vaguely remember what he waswearing, but I was dressed in a three-quar-ter khaki pants and a short-sleeve brownand cream top. He told me to come into theroom and I saw no harm in it because afterall he was my grandfather…

"He pulled me on him and closed thedoor and then held me close to his body. Hepushed his hands in my underwear andpressed me down as he worked his body upand down. My chest was flat. I didn't evenhave breasts, yet he caressed me as thoughI was his woman," she said.

"But I started to panic and he realized itand asked me if I wanted to take my clothesoff. I asked him why and he told me Ishould not tell my mother about it. But thenhe leaned over me and got up and eventu-ally opened the door. I was scared andwanted to go home. When we left his houseI walked in the opposite direction and hekept shouting my name. I headed straightfor my mother's workplace and she listenedto me but not with the amount of attentionand urgency I felt my case required.Though I was so young I knew what he

wanted to do."Erin said her mother later confronted her

grandfather, "who denied everything I saidand my mother simply swallowed all hesaid and never discussed the matter with meagain. But it has worried me to this day andhas made me totally incapable of trustinganyone. I am always suspicious, not only ofmen, but of people who try to be too niceto me, maybe even genuinely so because Ifeel like they always want something in re-turn. While I feel myself growing out of it,it makes me imagine what many other per-sons out there suffered and are still suffer-ing," Erin recounted.

Lisa's story

Lisa (not her real name), whose parentswere busy working to make ends meetstayed with a close family friend, her hus-band and her 16-year-old son until her par-ents came home from work.

"I was in second-year nursery and everyday after nursery school he came to pick meup and I stayed by them and he was evendelinquent sometimes and left me alone.One day I was sleeping and I felt him pullmy underwear down and he inserted his fin-gers into my vagina and he told me not totell anyone. But as he pulled my underweardown he made it rip a little. He asked mewhat was the matter and I said nothing. Hezipped down his pants and took his penisout and tried penetrating me, but he didn'tsucceed and he used his finger and then hestopped," Lisa recounted.

She said she had never told anyone abouther experience but after that day she toldher parents that she never wanted to goback to that home.

"I can't remember if there was any blood,but I know I felt him trying to penetrate myvagina. Until now I struggle with what mo-tivated my molester and I feel like if I hearhis reaction, if I ask him why he did it, itmay put an end to the thoughts I get," shesaid.

Lisa said her experience still caused hermuch pain but she believed that the perpe-trator would face whatever penalties he de-served later in his life.

A common thread running though thesecases is that none of them were ever re-ported.

Human Services Minister Priya Man-ickchand has acknowledged that sexual vi-olence is the most widespread andunpunished of crimes. She said too thatGuyana's laws were centuries out of dateand the system here was failing to delivereither justice or support to those who hadbeen violated. "This is unacceptable," shesaid in her foreword in the consultationpaper. The paper has proposed a number ofmeasures aimed at stamping-out sexual vi-olence in our society.

The minister said government actionalone was not enough to deal with this so-cial ill, adding that "protecting our peoplefrom sexual violence is the responsibility ofall Guyanese. A collective effort is needed,involving all sectors of society.

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TT’s own singing idol singer, MastanaBahar winner Pravana Maharaj took to thestage at Centre of Excellence to perform“Lapat Japat Arey Bajarewa”. He set thepace for a memorable evening with the win-ners of Zee TV’s Sa Re Ga Ma Pa. *

However, the night belonged to RajaHassan who thrilled the audience with hisrenditions of Bollywood hits. Raja, whoplaced second inIndia?s biggest competi-tion, sent the crowds in a frenzy when hedid “Tujhe Dek Dek Sona”. His powerfulvoice penetrated the hall and many wereclapping and singing along.

Among the early acts were the BogeeWogee dancers out of Mumbai, India, whodid pop rock and film dances. Then cameMauli Dave with an interpretation of “Noentry”. She was followed by Harpreet Doelwho gave a tremendous performance,singing hit after hit, much to the delight oftheir young TT fans who have been follow-ing the Zee TV competition on cable tele-vision. Harpreet, who is from Punjab,started with the chart topper “ChanaveyGhar Aja Rey”, followed by “Bhegi HotaRey”, and “Sare Kay Nakay”. The crowdserupted when he ended his stint with the oldBollywood tune “Aaj Mousam Hai Baraa”.

Next on stage was the beautiful SumedhaKarmahee. She started off with “Baho MehDhar Diya”, followed by “Jawani JanayMann”, and ended with “Bedi Chamelay”.

Sa Re Ga Ma Pa winner Aneek Dharcame on stage at 10 pm and performnedseveral of his winniong songs much to thedelight of the crowds.

At 11pm the youngest of the lot, DevakarSharma 11, who was born blind,came on tosing a medley of the Bollywood tunes.

The singers left TT last Sunday for threeshows in Miami and other shows in the UKbefore returning to India.

Promoter of the local event, MahenadraPersad, said people were calling for morefrom the young stars but the show had toend at 1 am on Sunday morning. He saidZee TV stars are very popular in the west-ern countries as they have been performingbefore sold out audiences in the US and theUK.

“It is amazing how these young peoplecan hold the attention of the huge audienceswith their songs,” he said.

Persad said while none of them are play-back singers they are able to deliver theBollywood tunes as perfectly as the origi-nal singers.

Deepika not signedfor Krrish-2Model-turned actress Deepika Padukone,who made her debut with Om Shanti Omand is believed to have signed RakeshRoshan’s Krrish-2, denies the rumour.Deepika confirms, "I am not doing Krrish-2." The actress, who has been endorsing awhole range of products says, "I am nothere to count my endorsements, but to dogood work."

Zee TVwinnersthrill TT crowds

Tabla players excel at Arya Samaj concert

Students of Chandi Pitamber's Tabla school performing a tabla recital at the Diwali con-cert of Toronto Arya Samaj held on Nov 17 at the Arya Samaj Mandir, 4345-14th Av-enue.A huge audience was there to cheer them on as they showed off their skills and dexterityin fine style demonstratng different taals and beats. The concert featured songs, music,dances, and fashion. There was a variety food bar and a raffle to add to the excitement.

Dr Ganraj Kumar (right), former presidentof Guyana Central Arya Samaj presents abook of poems written by Pt Birbal Singh toAmar Umadas, Vice President of TorontoArya Samaj.

Americans tour disappoints IndianIdol Tamang

While the reigning Indian Idol PrashantTamang had a good time on his four-cityUS tour that ended last Monday, the organ-isers were disappointed by the low turnoutof Indian Americans at his concerts.

"At Tamang's New York performance, theaudience of about 1,700 was predominantlyNepalis and Tibetans. Only about 30 IndianAmericans attended," said Kashish, whomanaged the concert at the Jacob JavitsCentre Dec 8.

"The proportion of Indian Americans atthe Atlanta concert Dec 9 too wasabysmal," he added.

"The tour that opened with concerts atWashington DC and Boston was not a fi-nancial success," Kashish said.

"But then profit was not our motive. Itwas to introduce him to the Nepali commu-nity here," he said.

Tamang himself said he had a good timeon the tour as it was a dream come true forhim. "Ever since I was a child, I had wantedto visit China and America," he said at apress conference in New York. "I will re-turn to the US as a performer and a tourist,"he added.

He said he was keen to learn more aboutsinging techniques to improve his skills andwas not averse to doing playback numbersfor Bollywood. He has already released hisalbum titled "Dhanyavaad".

At the New York concert, the policeman-turned-music star sang 18 songs in Hindiand Nepali. His rendering of the"Saawariya" theme song was admired aswas his stock number "Yo Maan Ta MeroNepali Ho". Raghav, who sang "AngelEyes", closed the concert.

In Atlanta, many joined Tamang on thestage towards the end of the concert.

Tamang's US tour was organised byMoonlight Records and PartyNepal.com.

The Darjeeling-born Kolkattan flew backto Mumbai, where he is currently based.Next, he was scheduled to perform in Nepaland Britain.

Tamang is expected to extend his leavefrom his police job to concentrate more onhis music career.

In the wake of Tamang emerging winnerof Indian Idol in September, an alleged in-sulting remark against him and Gurkhasby an RJ incited violence in Siliguri inWest Bengal.

Mumbai police have dismissed reports ina section of the media that claimed Bolly-wood star Shah Rukh Khan had received anextortion call for Rs 2 crore from gangsterBunty Pandey.

"Shah Rukh has not received any suchcall," said a senior officer from the CrimeBranch.

Asked about interviews a person, claim-ing to be Pandey, has been giving to sometelevision news channels since morning, theofficer said "may be he is doing it just forcheap publicity...to become big in the gang-

land. Undue advantage is being taken of themedia."

Pandey was earlier aligned with theChhota Rajan gang but later broke awayand reportedly targets Bollywood personal-ities for extortion.

Pandey's name was in news recently afterhe gave an interview to a private newschannel claiming to be behind the murderof NCP Corporator Devidas Chowgule inthe neighbouring satellite city of NaviMumbai.

Police say no extortion on Shah Rukh

CARIBBEAN Indo-Caribbean Times DECEMBER 2007 Page 21

may experience less un-informed opinionsand bad pronunciations, bad grammarloaded with green verbs and pink adjec-tives, including statements like brother-in-laws, darma for dharma, Bagwansingh forBhagwansingh, baji for bhaji, new innova-tions, Bay-joo-cal for Bejucal, Soowar (pig)Sangeet for Swar Sangeet, jess for just andthe list goes on. Most of these announcersprove to be an embarrassment on many oc-casions. Clearly, what is required is furthertraining and the knowledge of basic Eng-lish and consultation on pronunciation ofHindi words. The irony is that some ofthese stations have Hindi lessons as one as-pect of their programming. Listen to any ofthe Indian stations and one will be bom-barded with these errors.

The questions needs to asked, Are wehappy with this form of programming orwhat we are subjected to? Are we happy tobe continued being stagnated with thin or isit time for us to renew our efforts and re-format our programming? Is this the bestthat can be offered? Shouldn’t the listeningpopulation demand better?

New Breath of Life

Perhaps, in the restructural process wecan consider new vistas. This does notmean broadcasting more yagnas whichearns the advertising dollar. Some exposureshould be given to local Indian literaryworks. Since radio stations provide a serv-ice to the community on a daily basis, someWest Indian literary works could be serial-ized which deal with the Indian presence ina social, historical and cultural complex.Fictional works of such writers like SirVidia Naipaul, Samuel Selvon, Ra-bindranath Maharaj and Vishnu-Ram-samooj Gosine. Sharlowe Mohammed,Lakshmi Persaud and this author to name afew could be serialized for airplay. Drama-tization of these works could even win auniversal audience.

Non-fictional works are available for useand, discussion in broadcast to schools. Theradio remains a powerful medium for edu-cating our people and liberating our minds.Positive lessons from our past, from our at-titudes during and after indentureship couldbe used to re-inculcate in our progeny, fam-ily values, work ethics, self-esteem, con-sciousness and direction.

What about problems rampant among In-dians, obesity, diabetes, cardio-vascular dis-eases, exercise and dietary habits? Whatabout alcoholism, domestic violence, drugs,incest, suicide? Moral decay, infidelity andbreakdown of the Indian family unit arenow common place. Self-righteousness andthe victim psyche among Indians should beaddressed. There are issues that shouldnever be peripheralised. Solutions to thesemust be addressed. There are sufficient andcapable exemplers in our society, skilledand qualified to offer prescriptive solutions.Radio stations have the unique opportunityto harness the talents of these individualsand achieve far-reaching and multi-bene-fits.

Presently radio stations play music, es-pecially Hindi film music and chutney. Thisis all well and good, it is commercially re-warding. What is necessary is more varietyin the choice of music, e.g. Mehdi Hassan,Pankaj Udhas, Ravi Shankar and other re-gional music from India, Fiji, Mauritius,and South Africa (where Indians have set-tled). More local artistes should be high-lighted which would assist in furtherdeveloping our creative ability instead of

Indian radio programming in TT- the unfolding dramaBy Ashram B. Maharaj.

Public administration and informationMinister Dr. Lenny KrishendathSaith, has recently announced that

thirteen new radio stations will come on airover the next two years. Minister Saith alsostated that this will comprise ten nationalstations and three community stations moredetails will be given later. One can expectthat among these new stations there will beadditional Indian frequencies. It is againstthis background that this analysis and criti-cal review is being carried out.

From the arrival of Indians to Trinidadin 1845, Indian culture was not only rele-gated to the dark cell, but was treated withscorn, contempt and hostility by the pow-ers that be, by the non-Indian populationand later on the PNM government.

The Genesis of Indian Radio Programming

In 1947, the first Indian radio programmewas introduced by Kamaluddin Mo-hammed, though some authorities have ar-gued that it was Pandit Teeluckdharry whointroduced the first Indian programme, thisis still to be verified.

From 1947 until the advent of WABC103FM in July 1993, Indian culture loverswere treated to bouts of tokenism by thetwo competing radio stations (what wasthen known as Radio 610 and Radio 730).Half an hour and later on, one and a halfhours of Indian programming were allo-cated to approximately 45% of the popula-tion with additional hours for Divali andEid-Ul-Fitr only. With the introduction of103FM and its all Indian programming,many remarked that everyday felt like Di-vali or Eid-Ul-Fitr.

The genesis of 103FM in 1993 broughtnot only smiles of appreciation to the Indianpopulation, but also had the effect of cat-alyzing dramatic changes in policies andprogramming of at least two other radio sta-tions, ICN 91.1FM and the then CCN106FM. Also witnessed was the introduc-tion of 90.5FM, another exclusive IndianRadio Station in October 1996 whichbrought the total to four Indian radio sta-tions.

Black Response

As far as the non-Indian population wasconcerned, this was a frightening, develop-ment as evidence by George Harvey’s arti-cle in the Newsday. He stated

How come an arm of the state re-chris-tened ICN (Indian Cultural Network) is al-lowed to peddle Indian musicexclusively…..

We are courting calamity in this calypsoland by violating rules that guide our cher-ished institutions…..

George HarveyNewsday, June 19th; 1995 Page 8

Comments by UWI’s Rhoda Rheddock,Errol Fabian calypsonians Gregory Ballan-tyne (GB) and Luta also supported GeorgeHarvey’s position: This was so despite thefact that there were at least six other radiostations with absolutely no Indian pro-gramming, neglecting at least half of the na-tions’ needs. No journalist, columnist orcommentator has seen fit to comment onthis blatant contempt and disregard for In-dian cultural forms

Explosion of Indianness

At present, there are at least seven Indianradio stations (91.1FM, 90.5FM, 103FM,106FM, 94.1FM, AND 101.1FM). Howcan we account for this explosion of “Indi-anness” and consciousness on the air-waves? Many theories have been advancedfor this phenomenon, including, the need tofill a vacuum; providing an avenue for In-dian expression, enhancing education aboutand among Indians and mostly the tappingof the advertising dollar vis-à-vis the Indianmarket.

A cursory glance at the above factors willreveal that the vacuum in which Indiansfound themselves has existed since 1845.They always needed, and still do, avenuesfor cultural expression, and they alwaysneeded to be educated about their culture.With very few exceptions, the need for ed-ucation has not been fulfilled via the airwaves.

Call-In Programmes

Programmes such as 90.5FM Shabnam(Gillian Lucky), 106FM Morning Pan-chayat (Dr. Suruj Rambachan) are com-mendable in this respect. Sad to say, the restof the call-in programmes are disappoint-ing to say the least. On most of these pro-grammes the presenters/moderatorsdemonstrate their incompetence and igno-rance when dealing with issues, maybe it isdue to a lack of preparation but it reflectsbadly on the airwaves.

The Indian Dollar

The advertising dollar appears to havebeen discovered by WABC 103FM whichescalated to be the leading station in theland. The meteoric rise of 103FM galva-nized CCN 106FM into recognizing the In-dian factor for the purpose of cashing in onthe Indian dollar. Fast on the heels of106FM, came the state owned 91.1FM,which had hitherto previously refused toeven consider increased paid programmingfor Indian cultural expression, followed by90.5FM which also wished to capitalize aswell as 94.1FM.

Programme Format

Indian radio programming by and largewas based on a request format since its in-ception. This trend has largely continuedand appears to be the most popular on atleast five radio stations. Through the years,the request program has been the main formof programming and appears to be internal-ized by listeners. Clearly, it can be gleanedthat listeners hardly learn anything fromthese programmes suggesting that the for-mat, since its inception has met little edu-cation need. Hence, the large dose of Hindisongs and music, the repeated requests andannouncements are very stereo-typed. Thismeans that one Indian radio programme onone station parallels on another station. It isclear that with very few exceptions the pro-ducers are yet to exploit the true potentialof the airwaves as a means of public edu-cation with respect to Indian culture.

By and large the radio announcers withfew exceptions on these stations could en-hance their skills with further training. Itappears as though one of the pre-requisitesto become a radio announcer is the abilityto sing which does not necessarily makeone a good announcer. Their versatility andskill in dealing with the material at hand de-mands additional development and prepa-ration before they come on the air. Then we

fostering pre-packaged programming. Thisdoes not mean more of. “Rum till I die”,“Sand fly go bite you” or “Cat lick the but-ter” but songs with lyrics that can be uplift-ing.

Probably it can be argued that this is thesuccessful formula and stations must becommercially viable. However, sooner orlater, the Indian ear will become saturatedwith the similar music on all station and anew recipe will have to be explored, inorder to retain or increase market share. In-novative measures and visions will have tobe explored. It can be argued that the lis-tening audience gets what it demands there-fore change must come from thepopulation.

Indian radio stations and Indian radioprogramming to a large extent have in-stilled a sense of pride, self-esteem and con-sciousness among Indians. However,improvement in the talk-shows and call-inprogrammes should be encouraged. Radiostations have successfully captured the In-dian pocket, it is now time for a larger vi-sion to manifest itself in terms of furthereducating the Indian mind and not solelyfor entertainment.

Akash is the topCaribbeanCAPE studentJust months after he shared this country?sPresident’s Medal award, Akash Maharajreceived the Caribbean’s top award for hisperformance in the Caribbean Advance Pro-ficiency Examination (Cape).

Maharaj, a past pupil of Presentation Col-lege in Chaguanas, received the DennisIrvine Award for overall outstanding per-formance.

Dr Dennis Irvine was a past chairman ofthe Caribbean Examination Council (CXC).

Maharaj, who is studying physics atQueen’s College in Cambridge, England,returned home last week to enjoy Christmaswith his family.

Accompanied by his mother Bina, he leftfor St Lucia yesterday to attendthe award ceremony at the Sandals GrandeBeach Resort.

Maharaj and Jemelia Harris, of BishopAnstey’s High School, were namedin October as the two President’s Medalwinners for exceptional performance in theCape exam.

SPORTS Indo-Caribbean Times DECEMBER 2007 Page 22

Ganguly, who won man-of-the-series inhis 99th Test, was poised to become theseventh player to score a double-hundredand a century in the same match.

Australians Doug Walters and GregChappell, West Indies' Lawrence Rowe andBrian Lara, India's Sunil Gavaskar andEngland's Graham Gooch are the otherbatsmen to have achieved the feat.

But the former captain flashed an edge toIqbal at gully off Mohammad Sami in thenext over for no further score.

India's stutters continued shortly afterwhen birthday boy Yuvraj, 26, edged Samito wicket-keeper Akmal for two.

But Karthik, who hit Kaneria for a sixand two fours in an over, and VVS Laxmanstemmed the rising tide with a 37-run stand.

India were unfortunate to lose a furtherbatsman when Laxman retired hurt on 14after suffering a blow to the elbow when heducked into a fiery Shoaib Akhtar short ballwith the third delivery after lunch.

But the aggressive Karthik was ably sup-ported by Irfan Pathan (21 not out) and thepair put on 59 before Karthik edged behindto Sami off Arafat and Kumble finally de-clared.

England struggleagainst Sri Lankain second TestEngland face a struggle to save the sec-

ond Test after conceding a sizeable firstinnings lead against Sri Lanka on day fourin Colombo.

When the tourists took their fourth wicketof the day soon after lunch they held hopesof restricting the lead.

But the hosts' ninth wicket pair ofPrasanna Jayawardene (79) and DilharaFernando (36no) put on a defiant 98.

Mahela Jayawardene's 195 helped themdeclare on 548-9, a lead of 197, and Eng-land reached 48-0 at the close.

Sri Lanka's gritty first-innings display -they kept the tourists in the field for 13 anda half hours - effectively ends England'shopes of winning both the match and the se-ries.

They lost the first match in Kandy by 88runs and their best hope now is to avoid de-feat in Colombo in order to go to Galle forthe third and final Test with a chance of lev-elling the series at 1-1.

CHESS, DRAUGHT ANDCHESS, DRAUGHT ANDDOMINO TOURNAMENTSDOMINO TOURNAMENTS

Players of all skill levels (beginners to advanced) areinvited to participate. Tournaments held every month during the winter.

See schedule at www.horizoncricketclub.com or phone905-794-5423. Also, adult and kids CHESS LESSONS(beginners to advance). Learn to play the world’s best board game.

Registration information at www.horizoncricketclub.com

Sri Lanka, who resumed 28 ahead on379-4, progressed serenely through the first40 minutes and it was a surprise when Eng-land made the breakthrough.

Durham paceman Steve Harmison hasshown signs of returning to form on his re-call to the side following six months outwith injury and he produced a brute of de-livery to Jehan Mubarak which the left-han-der could only fend to Ian Bell in the gully.

Prasanna Jayawardene turned the nextdelivery through square leg to take the hosts

Prasanna Jayawardene

past 400 but his namesake and captain Ma-hela, who had looked completely unruffled,was soon back in the pavilion.

The Sri Lanka captain, who had resumedon 167, greeted Monty Panesar's arrivalafter an hour's play by merrily clumping histhird delivery through deep mid-wicket tomove within sight of a double century.

But his desire to dominate Panesar costhim dear when he tried to repeat his mid-wicket assault in the next over.

He succeeded only in skying the ball toslip, where Paul Collingwood pouched thechance to remove him for 195.

At that point the hosts' lead was 69 andwhen Broad followed up with his maidenTest wicket, Chaminda Vaas gloving a hookto Ian Bell at slip, the tourists were rightback in it.

Prasanna Jayawardene cover drives onhis way to his second Test fifty in Colomboon Wednesday. Prasanna Jayawardene's de-fiance took the game away from England.n even better for England but Ravi Boparaand Bell failed to cling on to sharp chancesat short mid-wicket and short extra-coverrespectively off Prasanna Jayawardene -mistakes which were to prove costly.Sri Lanka lunched on 439-7, a lead of 88,but Lasith Malinga's dismissal soon afterthe interval, trapped in front by Panesar,was a false dawn for England..

India wins home seriesagainst rivals PakistanIndia settled for a draw in the final Test

with Pakistan in Bangalore to claim afirst home series for 29 years against

their fiercest rivals.The hosts won the three-Test series 1-0

but were heading for an unlikely secondvictory, with Pakistan 162-7 chasing 374,before bad light stopped play.

India declared their second innings on284-6 with Sourav Ganguly (91) and Di-nesh Karthik (52) doing the damage. Cap-tain Anil Kumble then took 5-61 to giveIndia a sniff of the win.

But with 13 overs lost because of thegloom, the leg-spinner might rue not de-claring earlier.

Pakistan raced to 23-0 at tea as they wentthrough the motions of chasing, but thegame appeared to be up soon after.

Kumble deceived Yasir Hameed (39)with a quicker ball and then caught YounusKhan (0) off his own bowling three deliv-eries later.

The skipper struck for a third time to re-move Salman Butt for eight after the openeredged behind to wicket-keeper Karthik butPakistan's Faisal Iqbal and Misbah-ul-Haqstuck around to put on a bit of a show forthe patient crowd.

The pair shared an enterprising 71 beforeIqbal lofted a skier to 19-year-old IshantSharma off Kumble for 51 and then Kam-ran Akmal was bowled by Kumble's nextball for a golden duck.

But as the match looked like grinding to-wards the draw, left-arm spinner YuvrajSingh removed Misbah's off stump for 38off 40 balls to leave Pakistan tottering at148-6.

The home crowd sensed a chance to skit-tle Pakistan and the excitement mountedfurther when Yuvraj bowled Yasir Arafat foranother duck.

But with an unlikely victory seeminglywithin India's grasp, the light worsened andPakistan wasted no time in accepting the in-vitation to go off.

The Indians remained on the pitch buteventually the umpires conferred withKumble and he accepted the bad light wasterminal.

Earlier, India resumed on 131-2 withGanguly on 63 and Rahul Dravid on 35.

The two old hands proceeded serenelyfor 14 overs and added 46 to their overnightstand of 106 before the innings stuttered.

Leg-spinner Danish Kaneria trappedDravid trapped lbw for 42 to leave India178-3, a lead of 267. Devon Thomas is

2007 Chess MasterHorizon’s Cricket Club’s 2007 Ontario

Chess Master Championship was held onSaturday, December 08 in Brampton, On-tario.

The club’s 2007 Ontario Chess Master isDevon Thomas from the Brampton ChessClub. Second place was claimed by RobGashgarian from Brantford Chess Club,and third place was awarded to Lee Hendonfrom Brantford Chess Club.

Congratulations to all the winners.[Thosewho wish to send congratulators letters,prizes, gifts, etc to the Master are encour-aged to do so. Please mail to: HorizonCricket Club, 26 Latania Blvd, Brampton,Ontario, L6P 1S9. Selected letters will beupdated on our the Horizon websitehttp://horizoncricketclub.com/horizon2/congratulatory%20letters.html.

The championship was judged by BarryThorvardson, President of the OntarioChess Association and Dr. Harold Chan,2007 World Draughts Champion.

Complete tournament results will be up-dated at www.horizoncricketclub.com .Players from across Ontario are invited tocomplete for the prestigious title of 2008Ontario Chess Master in the Spring of 2008(date & venue to be confirmed and postedon the website)

UPCOMING TOURNAMENT

2008 Ontario Domino Championship: Saturday, January 12, 2008 at 1:00 pm atISLAND GROVE RESTAURANT (905-913-1200), 4525 Ebenezer Rd, Brampton(Queen & Gore Rd)Registration from 12:30 to 1:00 pmExpected finish time: 5:00 pm. No laterthan 6:00 pm.

Amir Khan heads forEuropean title fightYoung Amir Khan has cemented his

reputation as the best young boxer inBritain with a sensational knockout ofhighly rated Graham Earl last Saturday. Heis now on course for a title fight for the Eu-ropean championship sometime in the newyear.

The 21-year-old turned professional inJuly 2005 having won a silver medal at the2004 Athens Olympics and impressed in hisrookie year, easily despatching a series ofjourneymen.But criticism soon surfacedabout the standard of opponent he was fac-ing despite the fact he was still a novice.

Earlier this year he made a significant risein stature by claiming Willie Limond'sCommonwealth lightweight title before de-fending it against Scott Lawton.

And on Saturday night he silenced thelast remaining critics with a superb, no-non-sense first-round victory over Luton's for-mer WBO interim title challenger GrahamEarl.

Khan blew Earl away inside a minuteand 12 seconds at a packed Bolton Arena,knocking the 29-year-old down before ap-plying further pressure to prompt refereeHoward Foster to step in and stop the fight.The brilliant victory made a significantstatement within the sport and Khan admit-ted afterwards: "It felt good, I think most ofthe time when I fight I will probably getslagged off afterwards, people saying ac-cording to rankings, and on paper, I was al-ways going to beat him.

Such was the impact of Khan's perform-ance that promoter Frank Warren, whosesteady hand has guided Khan's career care-fully so far, revealed he is happy to securehis protege a European title fight - againstYuri Romanov of Belarus, who lost to Earllast year - at the earliest opportunity beforemoving on to bigger things."We've seen the start of a new era in Britishboxing,” said Warren.

Indo-Caribbean Times DECEMBER 2007 Page 23

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Who’s getting killed in TT?The list of 122 murders for the first five months of 2007

January 1. Neil Alexander, 2. Ophelia DeFeeza, 3. Vonrick Ferguson, 4. Amir Mo-hammed, 5 Body found in Maracas, 6 Jamal Edwards, 7 Junior Davis. 8 Body Found, 9.Ako John (Body found in Arima),10 Female body found at Maracas, 11 Body found in ElDorado, 12 N Jack, 13 Police Officer ELIZABETH Sutherland, 14 IVAN Sutherland,15ANIKA Sutherland, 16 Kevin Serrette, 17 Lance Corporal Brian O'Shaunessy, 18 Cer-rano Mason, 19 Darren Francis, 20 Neville Bernard, 21 Akiel Weekes, 22 Body found inEast Dry River, 23 Denise Commissiong, 24 Clyde Commissiong, 25 Clint Lutchman, 26Michelina Aurecchione, 27 Tariq AliFebruary 28 Keron Hazel, 29 Kevon McKenna, 30 Body found at Rock City Laven-tille31Loretta Hercules, 32 Nicholas Alexander, 33 Anthony Raphae-Silverton, 34 SeanSpencer, 35 Chaitlal Singh, 36 Anthony Baptiste, 37 Christopher King, 38 Ashmin Sonny,39 Tevin Besson. 40 Kevon Delpheach,41 Moonshar Ghany, March 42 Angelo Mendoza 43 Robert Green 44 Ronnie 45 Anthony Pope 46 Sheldon Vala 47Ann-Marie Singh 48 Fazouk Khan 49 Krishendeo Allpitchia 50 Don Duncan 51 Bodyfound at Beetham 52 Avalon Gonzales 53 Pastor Kelvin Austin 54 Hamid Mohammad 55David McCullin 56 Darian Nicholas 57 Kern Hutch 58 Body found at Fyzabad 59 RandyReed 60 Aleem Ali April61 Marli McKenzie 62 Body found at Couva 63 Dexter Taylor 64 Body found at SS ERINRING ROAD 65 Kenrick Ryan Manswell 66 Joel Ross 67 Body found at Belmont 68Body found at Moruga 69 Alistair Jack 70 Nicholas Clement 71 Neil Henry 72 NehruRamsingh 73 Body found at Caura 74 Jerome Metto 75 Body found at Orangefield RoadCentral 76 Deonarine Singh 77 Kendell Belcon 78 Kevon Gabriel 79 Dave Alexander 80Keston Andrews 81 Dexter Williams 82 Dhanraj Bowlah 83 Sherman Bailey 84 AngusDavis 85 Felicia Sanker 86 Makesis Nayako Julien 87 Ronald Spence 88 Atiba Griffith May89 Blaine Arthur 90 Body found at St James 91 Jerome Batson 92 Whitley Von Hannigan93 Body found at Iere Village, Princes Town. 94 Anthony Barter 95 Marlon Mathais 96Emmanuel Jagroo 97 Baby boy found dead at La Brea Village, Guayaguayare 98 BrentJason Cook 99 Keron Hypolite 100 Sloane Isacc 101 Kerry Lane 102 Gary Dickson 103Charles Des Vignes 104 Vindra Naipaul 105 Jerry Salvary 106 Body found at MahoganyTrace, Bagatelle 107 Nazeem Hosein 108 Body found La Romaine 109 Body found inMalick Link Road in Morvant 110 Ajoma Mohammed 111 Michael King 112 RusheedGoodridge 113 Winston Skeet 114 Russell John 115 Carlon Briggs 116 Marlon Duke117 Asquith Clark 118 Rudolph Sorzano 119 Andrew Belcon 120 Shakir Hinds121 An-drew Decan 122 Derrick Venus

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