Dear Editor,
One year ago (Feb. 15, 2010) we had cause to write the local and regional press with the appropriately captioned story "Cross-dressing and GBLT deception and manipulation have to be addressed by the judiciary". The edited version was posted by Stabroek News at its website as "Sasod Should be Rejected Yet Again" ( http://www.stabroeknews.com/2009/letters/02/17/sasod-should-be-rejected-yet-again/ ) on February 17, 2009. Nothing has since changed!
One year later, Stabroek news now carries the unfortunate story with the triumphant-sounding caption "Historic Constitutional Motion Filed Against Cross-dressing Law" ( http://www.stabroeknews.com/2010/stories/02/23/historic-constitutional-motion-filed-against-cross-dressing-law/ )
But there is nothing "historic" about this development, except the tragedy in deception and manipulation that it inevitably represents. The tactic to try to use the courts to circumvent the will of the people through the voting/referendum process is not new.
The really uplifting moment in the debate one year ago came when Noleander Toussaint, a 17-year old student, pronounced definitively on the issue in the article "What the People say about Cross-dressing being an offence" ( http://www.stabroeknews.com/2009/features/02/16/what-the-people-say-about-cross-dressing-being-an-offence/
We have offered before that there is proximity between transgender (cross-dressing) and homosexual issues, hence the nomenclature “GBLT community”. The activity of the one group inevitably becomes the “opportunity” for the other! Guyana’s courts should be in no doubt about who or what sasod is promoting in this case! It is not just “cross-dressing” that sasod is addressing, it is trying to gain a toe-hold of legal ground to represent gay, bi-sexual, lesbian and transgender issues.
So we have sent the online summary "The Case Against Pancap and the Decriminalization of Homosexuality" ( http://www.scribd.com/doc/17685588/The-Case-Against-PANCAP-and-the-Decriminalization-of-Homosexuality ) as a friend-of-the-court brief to the Guyana bar Association, the Bar associations of every territory in CARICOM, the Attorney General in Guyana, and the Attorneys-General in CARICOM.
The letter of February 2009 is repeated verbatim below, and it should be noted that its principal arguments remain unchallenged by sasod or any sector of a complicit media.
"... The Stabroek News headlines its Sunday February 15th edition with the claim “Cross-dressing case points to ‘selective discrimination – law should be repealed, SASOD says “. I would appreciate the opportunity to rebut. We should be relentless in the effort to present to the Guyanese public the formidable evidence stacked against sasod.
Acting Chief Magistrate Melissa Robertson’s general perspective is being roundly supported by those who appreciate the overwhelming evidence. Further, whereas her detractors are citing hot air and precious little else, the evidence in recent (2002) law reviews supports her conservative outlook.
The law DOES exist for good social, moral, legal and societal reasons … and those relating to sexual offences and improper conduct have not been invalidated by the passage of time. The Guyanese people, and Melissa Robertson, will find that science, and the law, is very clear relative to the debate that will follow.
The feeding frenzy initiated by SN’s careless caption in the main ignored the negative social policy implications of sasod’s arguments. The evidence offered in part below will support an inevitable conclusion: A behaviour-based group masquerading as a “minority” cannot usurp the value-system of entire nations without challenge. Lawyer Roger Magnuson makes the undisputed point: " …. The political proposals advanced by an increasingly aggressive group of gay activists ... merit and demand serious discussion and rational analysis. Unfortunately, gay rights proposals have often received neither. The seriousness of the issues has not been matched by a seriousness of analysis. There has been a curious inversion: a high level of public policy interest; a low level of public policy debate…." (“Are Gay Rights Right? Making Sense of the Controversy!”, p. 137)
Readers will find that the only reasoned statement the SN-article seems to be that of Priya Manickchand, who, in an abundance of caution, appears to urge nothing less than a referendum addressing the question: “Given the legal, social and moral evidence to the contrary, does Guyana really want to follow the trajectory of tragedy other nations have taken regarding gay militancy and “sexual orientation”?”
It is clear that mere brio and hot emotion will not settle this issue, and Christians and other Guyanese will be pleased to find that the secular evidence supports their religious/moral positions. On the other hand, the arguments of gay militancy are suffused with deception and a cruel agenda to manipulate those trapped in Same-Sex Attraction Disorders. Readers have immediate access to three sources for a quick introduction to the issues:
First reading should be Robert Regier and Daniel Garcia’s treatment “Homosexuality is not a Civil Right” ( http://www.crrange.com/wall34.html ). The following excerpt is instructive:
“…. When protecting one’s inalienable and civil rights, the government must discern between liberty and license. This requires that rights attach to persons because of their humanity, not because of their behaviors, and certainly not those behaviors that Western legal and moral tradition has regarded as inimical to the “Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God,” as stated in the Declaration. Yet, today some advocate granting “rights” to behaviors hostile to the most fundamental forms of self-government—family, church, and community. This is especially the case with homosexual activists, who ironically seek to hijack the moral capital of the civil rights movement….”
“…. Essential to the homosexual agenda is the idea that homosexuals are fighting for basic civil rights denied them by an oppressive society. This argument strikes a sympathetic chord among many Americans, whose decency and sense of fair play demand that all people be treated fairly. However, a closer look at the truth about homosexuality and the political goals of the “gay rights” movement shows that homosexuals are not an oppressed minority, that opposition to special legal protection for homosexuality is not bigotry, and that extending such protection is dangerous to individuals and society….”
Secondly, readers should realize that Guyana and the Caribbean recently dodged the bullet regarding the “decriminalization” craze that is currently being forcefully argued by gay militancy around the world. There seems to be an abysmal ignorance of the truth regarding the destructive social policy implications involved in these efforts, and we must start the debate now. Readers should assess the article “Arguments Against Pancap and the Decriminalization of Homosexuality” ( http://www.scribd.com/doc/17685588/The-Case-Against-PANCAP-and-the-Decriminalization-of-Homosexuality ). Sasod’s puerile arguments about the “victimless” nature of “sexual orientation” cases is dealt with at pages 21,23 and 24. Read also the dissent by Justice Antonin Scalia on pages 25-35. In particular, the following comments should be helpful:
“….“This effectively decrees the end of all morals legislation. If, as the Court asserts, the promotion of majoritarian sexual morality is not even a legitimate state interest, none of the above-mentioned laws can survive rational-basis review….” (Scalia, J. dissenting at page 30 above)
“…. It is indeed true that “later generations can see that laws once thought necessary and proper in fact serve only to oppress,” ante, at 18; and when that happens, later generations can repeal those laws. But it is the premise of our system that those judgments are to be made by the people ….” (Scalia, J. dissenting at page 32 above)
Finally, almost unnoticed by the Guyanese voting public, Guyana ’s Permanent Representative to the OAS, Dennis Moses, made an astonishing vote on June 3 2008 “on behalf of the Guyanese people”. The incredible fact here is that all Christian and conservative groups were banned from lobbying the politicians at the OAS-event, and, despite up to four requests to respond to the article “Response to OAS and PANCAP on Sexual Orientation and Decriminalizing Homosexuality and Prostitution” ( http://rogerwilli.blogspot.com/2009/07/response-to-oas-resolution-on-human.html ), neither Dennis Moses nor the OAS has responded to the issues raised therein.
An elitist snobbery seems to have replaced concern for the people’s questions in regional institutions. This is no substitute for good social policy. Instead of recommending repeal of very pertinent legislation, the Chief Magistrate should order prosecution and defence to prepare a judicial review of the 2002 law review “Child Molestation and the Homosexual Movement” (by Steve Baldwin. 14 REGENT U. L. REV. 267; 2002, http://www.regent.edu/news/lawreview/articles/14_2baldwin.doc ) and other such current reviews cited at page 18 of “Arguments Against Pancap and the Decriminalization of Homosexuality” . This would clear the air appreciably.
Magistrate Robertson would be pleased to find that her comments about “confusion” are also raised in the psychiatric community. She should peruse the 2001-article by Dr. Joseph Nicolosi: “The Removal of Homosexuality from the Psychiatric Manual” (http://www.cssronline.org/CSSR/Archival/2001/Nicolosi_71-78.pdf . An excerpt follows:
“….To some, this approach may sound reactionary and anti-gay, antisexual, anti-freedom. Rather, for those men who seek an alternative to the gay lifestyle, this is progressive treatment. Indeed, many men have found these ideas to reflect a truth they sense within themselves. This approach acknowledges the value of gender difference, the worth of family and traditional social values, and the importance of the prevention of gender confusion in children….”
Sasod and their supporters would, again, be found to be actively trying to deceive the Guyanese people. They should be rejected yet again...."
Yours faithfully
Roger Williams
February 25, 2010
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Monday, January 11, 2010
Mahadeo Panchu's Atheism, like Darwinism, begins and ends with ... nothing!
Dear Editor,
I refer to a letter captioned “Dawkins’ Book has been hailed by churchmen and reviewers” (SN 11/01/10) and would appreciate the opportunity to rebut!
Mahadeo Panchu now confirms what others like Surujbally had been loathe to admit ... that McDonald's abortive piece represented nothing less than an attempt to illustrate his own convictions ("... reservations concerning the existence of a supernatural being ..."), and that he expected no one to question his motives, or his sources.
McDonald clearly wasn't just saluting Dawkins’ scholarship, but was selling us his own atheistic basket of fake goods while ignoring the opposing view!
What is now clear is that these pathetic defences of Ian McDonald's obvious self-indulgence seem to be getting shorter and shorter ... the only option apparently left being not to present new evidence, but to engage in the semantic defeatism of phraseology such as "... Thoughtful churchmen and reviewers have hailed Dawkins’ "The God Delusion" as a splendid contribution to national thought..."
It should not escape Panchu's rather unfocused and indeterminate logic that even more "thoughtful churchmen and reviewers" have hailed the Bible as a BETTER contribution to national thought. In our own context, Psalms 14:1 and Proverbs 14:34 would be effective starting points in the search for a national ethos!
As far as an “ethos” goes, atheism begins with nothing and ends with … nothing!
So, in another seamless moment of 'splendid' intellectual confusion, Mahadeo Panchu proves another point that Dawkins made: "... Darwin made it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist ..."
Sorry, Mahadeo, it gets worse! McDonald's torment ... or delusion ... is a function, and a result, of his own choices about whom he chooses to believe, as readers can judge for themselves in the unedited version of the original submission "I have to believe! ... a response to 'rationalist' Ian McDonald" (http://rogerwilli.blogspot.com/2009/12/i-have-to-believe-response-to.html ).
McDonald went to church on Christmas Eve 2009 CHOOSING to believe the "Dawkin Delusion" that he has been fed, and ignoring the natural and Biblical evidence to the contrary.
If he claims ignorance to this "evidence", and CHOOSES to ignore both Nature and the Bible, then Philip Johnson's "Darwin on Trial" may be a good start for his return to mental and emotional stability. Then there is always Lee Strobel's "The Case for Christ!". It will all lead back to the Word of God!
These exchanges hinge on the presentation of appropriate evidence, and the reasonable conclusions that can be drawn from those facts. That being the case, Mahadeo, Jonathan Wells sums up Dawkins' "contribution" rather well, don’t you think, at page 8 of 8 in the online article "The Survival of the Fakest" ( http://www.discovery.org/articleFiles/PDFs/survivalOfTheFakest.pdf )!
Yours faithfully
Roger Wiliams
January 11, 2010
I refer to a letter captioned “Dawkins’ Book has been hailed by churchmen and reviewers” (SN 11/01/10) and would appreciate the opportunity to rebut!
Mahadeo Panchu now confirms what others like Surujbally had been loathe to admit ... that McDonald's abortive piece represented nothing less than an attempt to illustrate his own convictions ("... reservations concerning the existence of a supernatural being ..."), and that he expected no one to question his motives, or his sources.
McDonald clearly wasn't just saluting Dawkins’ scholarship, but was selling us his own atheistic basket of fake goods while ignoring the opposing view!
What is now clear is that these pathetic defences of Ian McDonald's obvious self-indulgence seem to be getting shorter and shorter ... the only option apparently left being not to present new evidence, but to engage in the semantic defeatism of phraseology such as "... Thoughtful churchmen and reviewers have hailed Dawkins’ "The God Delusion" as a splendid contribution to national thought..."
It should not escape Panchu's rather unfocused and indeterminate logic that even more "thoughtful churchmen and reviewers" have hailed the Bible as a BETTER contribution to national thought. In our own context, Psalms 14:1 and Proverbs 14:34 would be effective starting points in the search for a national ethos!
As far as an “ethos” goes, atheism begins with nothing and ends with … nothing!
So, in another seamless moment of 'splendid' intellectual confusion, Mahadeo Panchu proves another point that Dawkins made: "... Darwin made it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist ..."
Sorry, Mahadeo, it gets worse! McDonald's torment ... or delusion ... is a function, and a result, of his own choices about whom he chooses to believe, as readers can judge for themselves in the unedited version of the original submission "I have to believe! ... a response to 'rationalist' Ian McDonald" (http://rogerwilli.blogspot.com/2009/12/i-have-to-believe-response-to.html ).
McDonald went to church on Christmas Eve 2009 CHOOSING to believe the "Dawkin Delusion" that he has been fed, and ignoring the natural and Biblical evidence to the contrary.
If he claims ignorance to this "evidence", and CHOOSES to ignore both Nature and the Bible, then Philip Johnson's "Darwin on Trial" may be a good start for his return to mental and emotional stability. Then there is always Lee Strobel's "The Case for Christ!". It will all lead back to the Word of God!
These exchanges hinge on the presentation of appropriate evidence, and the reasonable conclusions that can be drawn from those facts. That being the case, Mahadeo, Jonathan Wells sums up Dawkins' "contribution" rather well, don’t you think, at page 8 of 8 in the online article "The Survival of the Fakest" ( http://www.discovery.org/articleFiles/PDFs/survivalOfTheFakest.pdf )!
Yours faithfully
Roger Wiliams
January 11, 2010
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Eco-Imperialism: Guyana's fateful misadventure into Norway's "Copenhagen Alternative"
Dear Editor,
Patrick Pereira's view of Guyana's disastrous position under the recently-signed "Norway Agreement" in a recent 5-page advertisment is a truly astonishing analysis … and has many of us scrambling to play 'catch-up'!
The online article is found at http://www.stabroeknews.com/2010/letters/01/06/patrick-pereira-speaks-out-on-mou-with-norway/ and is captioned in the print media as "THE NORWAY – GUYANA M.O.U: AN INSULT TO PRESIDENT JAGDEO AND TO THE PEOPLE OF GUYANA"
I remember having the same sinking feeling in my stomach years ago as I came to grips with the implications of Section 5 of the Lausanne Covenant (Christian Social Responsibility).
Are we now in the realm of "eco-imperialism" in Guyana?
And is President Jagdeo still in control given the horrible mix of issues represented by rampant Brazilian mining adventurism, leftist Western politics and environmental activism, debilitating corruption and racist intrigue locally ( see "Greed, Genocide ... and Now Green: Corruption and Underdevelopment in Guyana" ) and the fact that he has been recently pushing “investment from the Arab Middle East”?
Pereira's analyses ... and accusations ... suggest that he is not, and go far deeper than that!
He accuses the administration of President Bharat Jagdeo of a mixture of duplicity and social-policy recklessness and naievety that will have enormous detrimental effects on Guyana's future, destroy the hitherto peaceful existence of its citizens, and a perfectly healthy mining industry ... all the while using the indigenous Amerindian population as pawns, and possibly having its end-game in reserving the oil-potential off Guyana's coast for a select few.
His analysis, as yet unanswered directly by the President or his army of local spin-doctors, raises a lot of questions ... chief among which is "How does any sane person or government propose that a miner must wait 6 months for permission to cut down a tree in the process of mining?"
Were our planners asleep at the wheel when the Norway Agreement went down? Was there even any systematic institutional planning here?
Or was this debacle the result of one man's grotesque egotistical plunge off the Kaieteur Falls as he was caught up in the heady throes of "being nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize"?
Was the CRNM/CARICOM consulted before the Norway MOU? This especially after President Jagdeo went after its then head after the EPA issue with the EU?
Somehow, US $250 million doesn't sound so rosy now!
And if Bharat Jagdeo wanted a legacy, he will now probably have it! It would be that he ... or his ego ... fell for Norway's carrot hook, line and sinker!
1. But what is eco-imperialism? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eco-imperialism )
“… Eco-imperialism is a term coined by Paul Driessen to refer to the forceful imposition of Western environmentalist views on developing countries. The degree to which this occurs is a topic of debate, as is whether such imposition would be ethically justifiable. In his book Eco-Imperialism: Green Power, Black Death[1], Paul Driessen argues that like the European imperialists of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, today’s eco-imperialists keep developing countries destitute for the benefit of the developed world…”
“… Some commentators maintain that eco-imperialism has a racial dimension, and occurs when environmentalists place the well-being of the environment over the well-being of humans, particularly non-whites, living in developing countries. Roy Innis, chairman of the Congress of Racial Equality has argued that European Union restrictions on the use of the pesticide DDT to combat malaria are killing ‘black babies’. Environmental historian Ramachandra Guha has accused ‘authoritarian’ biologists of valuing the protection of endangered species over the well-being of local people in India and other developing countries…”
2. What are some of the anticipated consequences of eco-imperialism?
See “Eco-imperialism’s Deadly Consequences” ( http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,104889,00.html ) … written 6 years ago in response to Paul Driessen’s book. The arguments are grim, and contrast drastically with the sudden and rosy promotion of an “LCDS” strategy in Guyana ... while paradoxically offering one explanation of why malaria is still rampant in Guyana:
” … Driessan’s book isn’t limited to global warming and third world energy problems. The chapter “Sustainable Mosquitoes — Expendable People” describes the ongoing tragedy of the eco-activist crusade against DDT.
“Our family and community are suffering and dying from [malaria], and too many Europeans and environmentalists only talk about protecting the environment,” says 34-year old Ugandan businesswoman with malaria. “But what about the people? The mosquitoes are everywhere. You think you’re safe, and you’re not. Europeans and Americans can afford to deceive themselves about malaria and pesticides. But we can’t,” she added.
The Ugandan woman is only one of more than 300 million annual victims of malaria in the third world. Between 2-3 million die every year. “Over half the victims are children, who die at a rate of two per minute or 3,000 per day — the equivalent of 80 fully loaded school buses plunging over a cliff every day of the year,” explains Driessen.
Despite this ongoing public health horror story, the United Nations Environment Programme, World Bank, Greenpeace, Pesticide Action Network, World Wildlife Fund, Physicians for Social Responsibility and other eco-imperialist groups oppose the use of DDT — the only practical solution to the malaria crisis. The eco-imperialists’ disturbing attitude toward the third world is perhaps most frighteningly described by Robert S. Desowitz in another must-read, “The Malaria Capers,” (search) (W.W. Norton, 1991).
Desowitz reports a U.S. Agency for International Development official named Edwin Cohn as saying, “The third world didn’t require a healthy labor force because there was a surplus of workers; better some people should be sick with malaria and spread the job opportunities around.” Even more bluntly, Cohn reportedly said people in the third world were “better [off] dead than alive and riotously reproducing.”….”
And the final instalment to this worsening debacle seems to be the following comment by Germany in a Reuters news article on July 24th 2009:
" ... Germany called a French idea to slap "carbon tariffs" on products from countries that are not trying to cut greenhouse gases a form of "eco-imperialism" and a direct violation of WTO rules..."
Were our local planners asleep at the wheel when the Norway Areeement went down?
Was the CRNM/CARICOM consulted?
Between Jagdeo's apparent egotistical blunder, the German comment and Patrick Pereira's analysis, somehow US $250 million doesn't sound as rosy now!
Perhaps we all need to read more ... if only because Periera shows us how we have literally been handed thirty pieces of silver for the thirty-thousand odd pieces that meaningful exploitation of our natural resources represented!
Can President Jagdeo ever look the CRNM/CARICOM personnel in the eyes again?
And is this what is meant by "achieving our continental destiny"?
Yours faithfully
Roger Williams
Patrick Pereira's view of Guyana's disastrous position under the recently-signed "Norway Agreement" in a recent 5-page advertisment is a truly astonishing analysis … and has many of us scrambling to play 'catch-up'!
The online article is found at http://www.stabroeknews.com/2010/letters/01/06/patrick-pereira-speaks-out-on-mou-with-norway/ and is captioned in the print media as "THE NORWAY – GUYANA M.O.U: AN INSULT TO PRESIDENT JAGDEO AND TO THE PEOPLE OF GUYANA"
I remember having the same sinking feeling in my stomach years ago as I came to grips with the implications of Section 5 of the Lausanne Covenant (Christian Social Responsibility).
Are we now in the realm of "eco-imperialism" in Guyana?
And is President Jagdeo still in control given the horrible mix of issues represented by rampant Brazilian mining adventurism, leftist Western politics and environmental activism, debilitating corruption and racist intrigue locally ( see "Greed, Genocide ... and Now Green: Corruption and Underdevelopment in Guyana" ) and the fact that he has been recently pushing “investment from the Arab Middle East”?
Pereira's analyses ... and accusations ... suggest that he is not, and go far deeper than that!
He accuses the administration of President Bharat Jagdeo of a mixture of duplicity and social-policy recklessness and naievety that will have enormous detrimental effects on Guyana's future, destroy the hitherto peaceful existence of its citizens, and a perfectly healthy mining industry ... all the while using the indigenous Amerindian population as pawns, and possibly having its end-game in reserving the oil-potential off Guyana's coast for a select few.
His analysis, as yet unanswered directly by the President or his army of local spin-doctors, raises a lot of questions ... chief among which is "How does any sane person or government propose that a miner must wait 6 months for permission to cut down a tree in the process of mining?"
Were our planners asleep at the wheel when the Norway Agreement went down? Was there even any systematic institutional planning here?
Or was this debacle the result of one man's grotesque egotistical plunge off the Kaieteur Falls as he was caught up in the heady throes of "being nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize"?
Was the CRNM/CARICOM consulted before the Norway MOU? This especially after President Jagdeo went after its then head after the EPA issue with the EU?
Somehow, US $250 million doesn't sound so rosy now!
And if Bharat Jagdeo wanted a legacy, he will now probably have it! It would be that he ... or his ego ... fell for Norway's carrot hook, line and sinker!
1. But what is eco-imperialism? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eco-imperialism )
“… Eco-imperialism is a term coined by Paul Driessen to refer to the forceful imposition of Western environmentalist views on developing countries. The degree to which this occurs is a topic of debate, as is whether such imposition would be ethically justifiable. In his book Eco-Imperialism: Green Power, Black Death[1], Paul Driessen argues that like the European imperialists of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, today’s eco-imperialists keep developing countries destitute for the benefit of the developed world…”
“… Some commentators maintain that eco-imperialism has a racial dimension, and occurs when environmentalists place the well-being of the environment over the well-being of humans, particularly non-whites, living in developing countries. Roy Innis, chairman of the Congress of Racial Equality has argued that European Union restrictions on the use of the pesticide DDT to combat malaria are killing ‘black babies’. Environmental historian Ramachandra Guha has accused ‘authoritarian’ biologists of valuing the protection of endangered species over the well-being of local people in India and other developing countries…”
2. What are some of the anticipated consequences of eco-imperialism?
See “Eco-imperialism’s Deadly Consequences” ( http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,104889,00.html ) … written 6 years ago in response to Paul Driessen’s book. The arguments are grim, and contrast drastically with the sudden and rosy promotion of an “LCDS” strategy in Guyana ... while paradoxically offering one explanation of why malaria is still rampant in Guyana:
” … Driessan’s book isn’t limited to global warming and third world energy problems. The chapter “Sustainable Mosquitoes — Expendable People” describes the ongoing tragedy of the eco-activist crusade against DDT.
“Our family and community are suffering and dying from [malaria], and too many Europeans and environmentalists only talk about protecting the environment,” says 34-year old Ugandan businesswoman with malaria. “But what about the people? The mosquitoes are everywhere. You think you’re safe, and you’re not. Europeans and Americans can afford to deceive themselves about malaria and pesticides. But we can’t,” she added.
The Ugandan woman is only one of more than 300 million annual victims of malaria in the third world. Between 2-3 million die every year. “Over half the victims are children, who die at a rate of two per minute or 3,000 per day — the equivalent of 80 fully loaded school buses plunging over a cliff every day of the year,” explains Driessen.
Despite this ongoing public health horror story, the United Nations Environment Programme, World Bank, Greenpeace, Pesticide Action Network, World Wildlife Fund, Physicians for Social Responsibility and other eco-imperialist groups oppose the use of DDT — the only practical solution to the malaria crisis. The eco-imperialists’ disturbing attitude toward the third world is perhaps most frighteningly described by Robert S. Desowitz in another must-read, “The Malaria Capers,” (search) (W.W. Norton, 1991).
Desowitz reports a U.S. Agency for International Development official named Edwin Cohn as saying, “The third world didn’t require a healthy labor force because there was a surplus of workers; better some people should be sick with malaria and spread the job opportunities around.” Even more bluntly, Cohn reportedly said people in the third world were “better [off] dead than alive and riotously reproducing.”….”
And the final instalment to this worsening debacle seems to be the following comment by Germany in a Reuters news article on July 24th 2009:
" ... Germany called a French idea to slap "carbon tariffs" on products from countries that are not trying to cut greenhouse gases a form of "eco-imperialism" and a direct violation of WTO rules..."
Were our local planners asleep at the wheel when the Norway Areeement went down?
Was the CRNM/CARICOM consulted?
Between Jagdeo's apparent egotistical blunder, the German comment and Patrick Pereira's analysis, somehow US $250 million doesn't sound as rosy now!
Perhaps we all need to read more ... if only because Periera shows us how we have literally been handed thirty pieces of silver for the thirty-thousand odd pieces that meaningful exploitation of our natural resources represented!
Can President Jagdeo ever look the CRNM/CARICOM personnel in the eyes again?
And is this what is meant by "achieving our continental destiny"?
Yours faithfully
Roger Williams
Saturday, December 26, 2009
I have to believe! ... a response to "rationalist" Ian McDonald
Dear Editor,
I refer to Ian McDonald's piece "I try my best to believe" (SN Dec 20, 2009), and would appreciate the opportunity to rebut.
Without realizing it, Ian McDonald himself becomes the "rationalist" (albeit whimsically, perhaps self-pityingly ... and certainly fatalistically so ... ) in this astonishing piece of self-indulgent agonizing.
This is a 'nothing' piece, one that did not have to be written! Was this done simply to show us that he was "well read"? Is this Ecclesiastes 1:16 working itself out?
The last time we saw such a gross attempt to feed self-indulgence to the masses (you will know the pieces by their inevitably anti-Christian, grandly defeatist, or subtly racist undertones) was when BC Pires tried to denigrate CARICOM's idea of the "Ideal Caribbean Person" ( http://rogerwilli.blogspot.com/2009/07/response-to-bc-pires-on-ideal-caribbean.html ; and the rebuttal to Stabroek News at http://rogerwilli.blogspot.com/2009/07/response-to-stabroek-news-on-ideal.html ).
Whether or not it was intended, McDonald now writes a treatment in hopelessness and despair that surely must now baffle his fellow churchmen.
Now the first reason we have to disagree with his fatalism is the fact that NOWHERE in his treatment does he refer to the logic and comfort of the Bible, or of the finished work of Jesus!. Is this Ecclesiastes 1:16 again working itself out?
He speaks instead of "the truths of poetry", and "stories told on his mother's knee". The compass is clearly skewed, and rather than tasting Dawkins' mess to see if it is real (he says "...I suffer when I read their books ..."), Ian in his distress will do well to return to the unambiguity of the Bible, say, in Proverbs 2:1-15:
Pro 2:1 My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee;
Pro 2:2 So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding;
Pro 2:3 Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding;
Pro 2:4 If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures;
Pro 2:5 Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God.
Pro 2:6 For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.
Pro 2:7 He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous: he is a buckler to them that walk uprightly.
Pro 2:8 He keepeth the paths of judgment, and preserveth the way of his saints.
Pro 2:9 Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity; yea, every good path.
Pro 2:10 When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul;
Pro 2:11 Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee:
Pro 2:12 To deliver thee from the way of the evil man, from the man that speaketh froward things;
Pro 2:13 Who leave the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness;
Pro 2:14 Who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the frowardness of the wicked;
Pro 2:15 Whose ways are crooked, and they froward in their paths:
We will find that Proverbs 1:20-33 also has an answer for McDonald's belief in "the truths of poetry", his apparent high "regard" for Dawkins, and his so subsequent agony and despair ... as the "poetic" lines below testify:
Pro 1:20 Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets:
Pro 1:21 She crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates: in the city she uttereth her words, saying,
Pro 1:22 How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?
Pro 1:23 Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you.
Pro 1:24 Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded;
Pro 1:25 But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof:
Pro 1:26 I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh;
Pro 1:27 When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you.
Pro 1:28 Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:
Pro 1:29 For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD:
Pro 1:30 They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof.
Pro 1:31 Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.
Pro 1:32 For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.
Pro 1:33 But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.
Proverbs 1:26 (read 1:24-31) above is instructive to Ian's torment, as is Ecclesiastes 1:16-18 (verse 16 will compete to be Ian's loudest claim to fame, and perhaps explains his claim of a (sic) " ... growing tide of God-denial which is emptying churches and trying mightily to suck dry the wells of belief ..."):
Ecc 1:16 I communed with mine own heart, saying, Lo, I am come to great estate, and have gotten more wisdom than all they that have been before me in Jerusalem: yea, my heart had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.
Perhaps he speaks for himself, for the Catholic Church, or for the Church of England, because the attendance at all evangelical locations throughout England and Guyana on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day 2009 will be truly spectacular!
And if all else fails, Ian is welcome to try to "rationalize" or "poeticize" Psalm 14:1 ... the first part.
Because others like Dawkins have tried to deny the existence of God before ... and ultimately failed. We did not need "A Scientific Dissent From Darwinism" ( http://www.discovery.org/articleFiles/PDFs/100ScientistsAd.pdf ) or Jonathan Wells' "Survival of the Fakest" ( http://www.discovery.org/articleFiles/PDFs/survivalOfTheFakest.pdf ) to prove that they have descended to the depths of academic depravity and skulduggery to so do!
Why must we ask Ian to read Jonathan Wells above, in particular? Because at page 8 of 8 we find this astonishing remarks about Richard Dawkins, the object of Ian's fascination:
“… Oxford Darwinist Richard Dawkins, though not writing in a textbook, puts it even more bluntly: “Darwin made it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist.” …
“… These are obviously philosophical rather than scientific views. Futuyma, Gould, and Dawkins have a right to their philosophy. But they do not have the right to teach it as though it were science. In science, all theories – including Darwinian evolution – must be tested against the evidence…”
Perhaps the next item on McDonald's reading list should be Lee Strobel's "The Case For Christ"!
Ian will find that the wisdom of this world ... Dawkins' world of "rationalism" ... turns out to be foolishness with God. His real wisdom ... and comfort ... will begin with the fear of God, not in the rationalizing of God's existence, or reading Dawkins' works to that end ... when he has the Bible to search out instead!
Yours faithfully,
Roger Williams
December 26, 2009
I refer to Ian McDonald's piece "I try my best to believe" (SN Dec 20, 2009), and would appreciate the opportunity to rebut.
Without realizing it, Ian McDonald himself becomes the "rationalist" (albeit whimsically, perhaps self-pityingly ... and certainly fatalistically so ... ) in this astonishing piece of self-indulgent agonizing.
This is a 'nothing' piece, one that did not have to be written! Was this done simply to show us that he was "well read"? Is this Ecclesiastes 1:16 working itself out?
The last time we saw such a gross attempt to feed self-indulgence to the masses (you will know the pieces by their inevitably anti-Christian, grandly defeatist, or subtly racist undertones) was when BC Pires tried to denigrate CARICOM's idea of the "Ideal Caribbean Person" ( http://rogerwilli.blogspot.com/2009/07/response-to-bc-pires-on-ideal-caribbean.html ; and the rebuttal to Stabroek News at http://rogerwilli.blogspot.com/2009/07/response-to-stabroek-news-on-ideal.html ).
Whether or not it was intended, McDonald now writes a treatment in hopelessness and despair that surely must now baffle his fellow churchmen.
Now the first reason we have to disagree with his fatalism is the fact that NOWHERE in his treatment does he refer to the logic and comfort of the Bible, or of the finished work of Jesus!. Is this Ecclesiastes 1:16 again working itself out?
He speaks instead of "the truths of poetry", and "stories told on his mother's knee". The compass is clearly skewed, and rather than tasting Dawkins' mess to see if it is real (he says "...I suffer when I read their books ..."), Ian in his distress will do well to return to the unambiguity of the Bible, say, in Proverbs 2:1-15:
Pro 2:1 My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee;
Pro 2:2 So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding;
Pro 2:3 Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding;
Pro 2:4 If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures;
Pro 2:5 Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God.
Pro 2:6 For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.
Pro 2:7 He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous: he is a buckler to them that walk uprightly.
Pro 2:8 He keepeth the paths of judgment, and preserveth the way of his saints.
Pro 2:9 Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity; yea, every good path.
Pro 2:10 When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul;
Pro 2:11 Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee:
Pro 2:12 To deliver thee from the way of the evil man, from the man that speaketh froward things;
Pro 2:13 Who leave the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness;
Pro 2:14 Who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the frowardness of the wicked;
Pro 2:15 Whose ways are crooked, and they froward in their paths:
We will find that Proverbs 1:20-33 also has an answer for McDonald's belief in "the truths of poetry", his apparent high "regard" for Dawkins, and his so subsequent agony and despair ... as the "poetic" lines below testify:
Pro 1:20 Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets:
Pro 1:21 She crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates: in the city she uttereth her words, saying,
Pro 1:22 How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?
Pro 1:23 Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you.
Pro 1:24 Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded;
Pro 1:25 But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof:
Pro 1:26 I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh;
Pro 1:27 When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you.
Pro 1:28 Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:
Pro 1:29 For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD:
Pro 1:30 They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof.
Pro 1:31 Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.
Pro 1:32 For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.
Pro 1:33 But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.
Proverbs 1:26 (read 1:24-31) above is instructive to Ian's torment, as is Ecclesiastes 1:16-18 (verse 16 will compete to be Ian's loudest claim to fame, and perhaps explains his claim of a (sic) " ... growing tide of God-denial which is emptying churches and trying mightily to suck dry the wells of belief ..."):
Ecc 1:16 I communed with mine own heart, saying, Lo, I am come to great estate, and have gotten more wisdom than all they that have been before me in Jerusalem: yea, my heart had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.
Perhaps he speaks for himself, for the Catholic Church, or for the Church of England, because the attendance at all evangelical locations throughout England and Guyana on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day 2009 will be truly spectacular!
And if all else fails, Ian is welcome to try to "rationalize" or "poeticize" Psalm 14:1 ... the first part.
Because others like Dawkins have tried to deny the existence of God before ... and ultimately failed. We did not need "A Scientific Dissent From Darwinism" ( http://www.discovery.org/articleFiles/PDFs/100ScientistsAd.pdf ) or Jonathan Wells' "Survival of the Fakest" ( http://www.discovery.org/articleFiles/PDFs/survivalOfTheFakest.pdf ) to prove that they have descended to the depths of academic depravity and skulduggery to so do!
Why must we ask Ian to read Jonathan Wells above, in particular? Because at page 8 of 8 we find this astonishing remarks about Richard Dawkins, the object of Ian's fascination:
“… Oxford Darwinist Richard Dawkins, though not writing in a textbook, puts it even more bluntly: “Darwin made it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist.” …
“… These are obviously philosophical rather than scientific views. Futuyma, Gould, and Dawkins have a right to their philosophy. But they do not have the right to teach it as though it were science. In science, all theories – including Darwinian evolution – must be tested against the evidence…”
Perhaps the next item on McDonald's reading list should be Lee Strobel's "The Case For Christ"!
Ian will find that the wisdom of this world ... Dawkins' world of "rationalism" ... turns out to be foolishness with God. His real wisdom ... and comfort ... will begin with the fear of God, not in the rationalizing of God's existence, or reading Dawkins' works to that end ... when he has the Bible to search out instead!
Yours faithfully,
Roger Williams
December 26, 2009
Monday, August 10, 2009
Burrowes, Lall, City Hall and Hypocrisy: Guyana’s Auditor-General Report for 2006
Context: This is a rework of a similar article appearing in the Kaieteur News on August 3, 2009 ( http://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/20... )
Dear Editor,
I refer to the article "Burrowes city probe finds widespread financial irregularities " (SN August 1, 2009) and would be grateful for the opportunity to comment. Even though the article is chock full of innuendo and noticeably bereft of money-sum detail, I again sense that the time may well have been reached when the best among us should speak out!
We should immediately note the stunning hypocrisy that Minister Lall's comments in the above article represent.
For the first time we actually have a Minister's comments about what SHOULD follow an indictment of any agency by the Auditor-General. Lall's candour is welcome. The implications are enormous.
Hopefully, a national conversation on the phenomenon will also be facilitated through the article: "Greed, Genocide ... and now "Green": Corruption and Underdevelopment in Guyana" (http://www.scribd.com/doc/17958657/Greed-Genocide-and-now-Green-Corruption-and-Underdevelopment-in-Guyana )
Some issues arising from the SN-article above:
1. Why was a Commissioner necessary after the detail of the Auditor-General's indictment? Unless Burrowes was being used as a political football to intimidate non-government-friendly municipalities in the run-up to local-government elections, it follows that the Minister's comments signal that a Commission(er) is going to be appointed to investigate every Ministry/Department similarly indicted by the Auditor-General's report. There is no shortage of candidates in that regard!
But is this a realistic expectation in the face of smothering hypocrisy by the Bharat-Jagdeo government in Guyana, given what is by now seen throughout the Caribbean as a complete failure in leadership and credibility? With almost every passing day, a Minister in that grouping distinguishes himself/herself with arrogance, insincerity and/or corruption that is “ruinous to the state”. The latest laughable instalment is the decision to “institutionalize” polygraph testing in the Public Service … while excluding every cabinet functionary from such scrutiny. Since no credible organization (we have suggested Interpol and the FBI) is effecting these polygraphs, the government may have found another way to rid itself of ‘undesirable” professionals who dare to oppose them! No appeals are possible, or recourse to the court!
2. Will Commissioner Burrowes, considering the “excellent” job that Minister Lall says he did at City Hall, now turn his attention to explaining with similar efficiency why the GPHC (Guyana Public Hospital Corporation), which is now a separate entity from his (Burrowes’) employer the Ministry of Health, continued to use that Ministry’s cabinet approval (funds) to purchase drugs and medical supplies from specialized agencies both local and overseas, and why $608.4 MILLION of Ministry funds was spent on medical supplies which the GPHC cannot account for?
Or why the Minister of Health (suddenly) cannot be polygraphed even though he was the last one to leave the Ministry of Health before it was gutted by fire recently?
3. Would Commissioner Burrowes offer his professional opinion on the Minister’s comment that “ … one of the ways to ensure financial efficiency was to have strict adherence to the annual budgets…” and analyze this against the fact that the Auditor-General has accused that same Minister’s cabinet of presiding over “political gifts” to Ministries, Departments and Regions that resulted in “… the miscellaneous receipts of $2.053 BILLION at December 31, 2006 being understated by an undetermined amount...” That same Auditor-General would have advised Minister Lall and Commissioner Burrowes, courtesy of his 2006-report, that his cabinet has not seen fit to transfer the sum of $7.190 BILLION, representing balances held in 13 special accounts, to the Consolidated Fund. Who is accessing, and utilizing, these accounts?
It gets worse. According to the KN-synopsis on the AG’s report, “ … the Contingencies Fund continued to be abused, with amounts drawn from the Fund being utilised to satisfy expenditure that did not meet the eligibility criteria as defined in the Act …”
4. Finally, that same Auditor-General would have advised Minister Lall and his cabinet that, relative to "… strict adherence to the annual budgets …", the Bharat Jagdeo government would have elicited the following comment: "...the old Consolidated Fund bank account was overdrawn by $46.906 BILLION at 31 December 2006 ..."
If Commissioner Burrowes or Minister Lall cannot, or are instructed not to, respond to these and other anomalies relating to their functions as public servants, then they need to be reminded that: “…The Fiscal Management and Accountability Act 2003 (FMA Act) provides for the regulation of the preparation and execution of the annual budget, the receipt, control and disbursement of public monies, and the accounting for public monies, and is the most vital legislation governing the transparent and efficient management of the finances of Guyana….”. In other words, Mr. Burrowes and Mr Lall must now be very proud men … or very confused ones! They both are members of institutions that are in flagrant violation of the Act!
We are presiding over a crisis in leadership and credibility in Guyana … and a stunning hypocrisy evident in the disdain for the welfare of entire segments of the population! An entire social policy is apparently being formulated on the nebulous framework of "keeping certain people in their places"…whatever the social cost, and however biased the machinery. As a policy initiative, this borders on lunacy, or, if not that, the deliberate orchestration of national discontent and resentment. To what end?
Quite unlike Burrowes' self-serving journey into City Hall intrigue, the Auditor-General’s report for 2006 in the main gave us an insight into the " … widespread financial irregularities …" perpetuated by Guyana's government ... but will anything come out of it? The only clear thing transmitted by Minister Lall’s comments is that every municipality in the " … local government system …" NOT supporting the government will be targeted by erstwhile "Commissioners" ... while those toeing the line will be left unscathed.
This is the definition of hypocrisy!
Yours faithfully
Roger Williams
August 3, 2009
Dear Editor,
I refer to the article "Burrowes city probe finds widespread financial irregularities " (SN August 1, 2009) and would be grateful for the opportunity to comment. Even though the article is chock full of innuendo and noticeably bereft of money-sum detail, I again sense that the time may well have been reached when the best among us should speak out!
We should immediately note the stunning hypocrisy that Minister Lall's comments in the above article represent.
For the first time we actually have a Minister's comments about what SHOULD follow an indictment of any agency by the Auditor-General. Lall's candour is welcome. The implications are enormous.
Hopefully, a national conversation on the phenomenon will also be facilitated through the article: "Greed, Genocide ... and now "Green": Corruption and Underdevelopment in Guyana" (http://www.scribd.com/doc/17958657/Greed-Genocide-and-now-Green-Corruption-and-Underdevelopment-in-Guyana )
Some issues arising from the SN-article above:
1. Why was a Commissioner necessary after the detail of the Auditor-General's indictment? Unless Burrowes was being used as a political football to intimidate non-government-friendly municipalities in the run-up to local-government elections, it follows that the Minister's comments signal that a Commission(er) is going to be appointed to investigate every Ministry/Department similarly indicted by the Auditor-General's report. There is no shortage of candidates in that regard!
But is this a realistic expectation in the face of smothering hypocrisy by the Bharat-Jagdeo government in Guyana, given what is by now seen throughout the Caribbean as a complete failure in leadership and credibility? With almost every passing day, a Minister in that grouping distinguishes himself/herself with arrogance, insincerity and/or corruption that is “ruinous to the state”. The latest laughable instalment is the decision to “institutionalize” polygraph testing in the Public Service … while excluding every cabinet functionary from such scrutiny. Since no credible organization (we have suggested Interpol and the FBI) is effecting these polygraphs, the government may have found another way to rid itself of ‘undesirable” professionals who dare to oppose them! No appeals are possible, or recourse to the court!
2. Will Commissioner Burrowes, considering the “excellent” job that Minister Lall says he did at City Hall, now turn his attention to explaining with similar efficiency why the GPHC (Guyana Public Hospital Corporation), which is now a separate entity from his (Burrowes’) employer the Ministry of Health, continued to use that Ministry’s cabinet approval (funds) to purchase drugs and medical supplies from specialized agencies both local and overseas, and why $608.4 MILLION of Ministry funds was spent on medical supplies which the GPHC cannot account for?
Or why the Minister of Health (suddenly) cannot be polygraphed even though he was the last one to leave the Ministry of Health before it was gutted by fire recently?
3. Would Commissioner Burrowes offer his professional opinion on the Minister’s comment that “ … one of the ways to ensure financial efficiency was to have strict adherence to the annual budgets…” and analyze this against the fact that the Auditor-General has accused that same Minister’s cabinet of presiding over “political gifts” to Ministries, Departments and Regions that resulted in “… the miscellaneous receipts of $2.053 BILLION at December 31, 2006 being understated by an undetermined amount...” That same Auditor-General would have advised Minister Lall and Commissioner Burrowes, courtesy of his 2006-report, that his cabinet has not seen fit to transfer the sum of $7.190 BILLION, representing balances held in 13 special accounts, to the Consolidated Fund. Who is accessing, and utilizing, these accounts?
It gets worse. According to the KN-synopsis on the AG’s report, “ … the Contingencies Fund continued to be abused, with amounts drawn from the Fund being utilised to satisfy expenditure that did not meet the eligibility criteria as defined in the Act …”
4. Finally, that same Auditor-General would have advised Minister Lall and his cabinet that, relative to "… strict adherence to the annual budgets …", the Bharat Jagdeo government would have elicited the following comment: "...the old Consolidated Fund bank account was overdrawn by $46.906 BILLION at 31 December 2006 ..."
If Commissioner Burrowes or Minister Lall cannot, or are instructed not to, respond to these and other anomalies relating to their functions as public servants, then they need to be reminded that: “…The Fiscal Management and Accountability Act 2003 (FMA Act) provides for the regulation of the preparation and execution of the annual budget, the receipt, control and disbursement of public monies, and the accounting for public monies, and is the most vital legislation governing the transparent and efficient management of the finances of Guyana….”. In other words, Mr. Burrowes and Mr Lall must now be very proud men … or very confused ones! They both are members of institutions that are in flagrant violation of the Act!
We are presiding over a crisis in leadership and credibility in Guyana … and a stunning hypocrisy evident in the disdain for the welfare of entire segments of the population! An entire social policy is apparently being formulated on the nebulous framework of "keeping certain people in their places"…whatever the social cost, and however biased the machinery. As a policy initiative, this borders on lunacy, or, if not that, the deliberate orchestration of national discontent and resentment. To what end?
Quite unlike Burrowes' self-serving journey into City Hall intrigue, the Auditor-General’s report for 2006 in the main gave us an insight into the " … widespread financial irregularities …" perpetuated by Guyana's government ... but will anything come out of it? The only clear thing transmitted by Minister Lall’s comments is that every municipality in the " … local government system …" NOT supporting the government will be targeted by erstwhile "Commissioners" ... while those toeing the line will be left unscathed.
This is the definition of hypocrisy!
Yours faithfully
Roger Williams
August 3, 2009
Friday, July 31, 2009
Greed, Genocide ... and now "Green": Corruption and Underdevelopment in Guyana
Greed, Corruption, Narcotics, Torture, Fire, Race … and now "Green": Guyana’s potent linkages to Underdevelopment
July 27, 2009
As a mostly silent world looks on, and as CARICOM diligently turns a blind eye to the escalating evidence of Guyana’s manufactured social, political and economic crisis, the “torching” of the Ministry of Health just before a pending and potentially cataclysmic audit by the Auditor-General offers new clues as to how degenerate the political climate has become. This is the fifth government building so “destroyed” with all its paperwork and files.
For Health Minister Leslie Ramsammy, already implicated by a US-court in the Shaheed “Roger” Khan issue (see “Genocide in Guyana … The Tip of the Iceberg?”), we should offer five viewpoints that place the Auditor General’s Report for 2006 in perspective. A synopsis of that Report is appended below.
First, Kean Gibson in her iconoclastic review “The Cycle of Racial Oppression in Guyana” pointed to the strange local phenomenon of “good thieving” and “bad thieving” to describe the astonishing rape of national and institutional coffers under the party associated with President Bharat Jagdeo. She also coined the phrase “corruption that is ruinous to the state” in that regard (see “The Marginalization of Persons of African Origin in Guyana” and “The Case for Scholarship in Kean Gibson’s Book”. The Guyana government used ethnic and other bias in its tightly controlled Ethnic Relations Commission to try to have the book “removed from public places”.
US. State Department Reports on Guyana for several consecutive years point to “corruption at the highest levels of government”. The Bharat Jagdeo-led government in Guyana dismiss these claims as “false”.
The Commonwealth Adviser Sir Michael Davies points to the systematic destruction of Guyana’s parliament as the highest decision-making forum in Guyana in “Needs Assessment of the Guyana National Assembly 2005”. He reiterates his findings in the report “Addendum to the Needs assessment of the Guyana National Assembly 2005”
The Guyana government dismiss these claims as “false”.
The UN Independent Expert on Minority Issues, Gay McDougall points to acts of racism that could just as easily have come from the story of the deprivation of India’s 300 million Dalits in the report of the UN Human Rights Council: “Report of the Independent Expert on Minority Issues, Gay McDougall : addendum : mission to Guyana (28 July to 1 August 2008)”(27 February 2009, A/HRC/10/11/Add.2, available at: http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/49bfa6ec2.html ).
The Bharat-Jagdeo government dismisses these claims as “false”.
World-renown Guyanese economist Dr. Clive Thomas speaks to the “criminalization of the state” under the tenure of a Bharat-Jagdeo-led administration that has literally squandered 17 years of local and international goodwill:
“…. Guyana needs intervention at the macro/national, intermediate/meso and the micro/local levels, Thomas said. He listed, "the superficiality of national unity, the dynamics of racial arithmetic and insecurity and the unrelenting rise of both benign and militant extremism." Guyana's predicament, he said, was compounded by the depth, scale, complexity and sheer persistence of economic misery and the growth of the narco-economy. He added that the country's entrenched totalitarianism in a multiracial society combined with territorial threats and the criminalisation of the state all played their part. Thomas asserted that Guyana's political and social crisis could not be solved without the intervention of the international community in the broader sense of creating the foundation for some resolution. "Just as our development problems are so acute that we cannot solve them without the support of the regional and international community, similarly, our political crisis requires this type of intervention." Asked to expand on the term `structural deadlock' during the debate that followed his remarks, Thomas alluded to the government's initial objections to the symposium and their attempts to review presenters' papers prior to actual presentation....”(Source: Dr. Clive Thomas: "International Conference on Governance, Conflict Analysis and Conflict Resolution," Georgetown, Guyana February 2004)
The Bharat-Jagdeo government dismisses these claims as “false”.
And so, finally, a Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) that begs the outside world to pour more funds into Guyana’s gaping wound … or else the pockets of those who are convinced that they are destined to rule Guyana forever!
By is this feasible since, given the abundance of evidence, one can easily detect a massive accounting frenzy designed to leave the country bankrupt by the time there is a change of government?
And now, below, a synopsis of the Auditor-General’s Report for 2006 … illustrating why the LCDS may be doomed before it began... because of the very real possibility that while government functionaries will end up with $60,000,000 houses (carbon credits or not), the vast majority of the people will probably get ... nothing!
Roger Williams
July 2009
"2006 Auditor General’s report states Govt. abuses public funds … Billions unaccounted for..."
August 8, 2008 By knews Filed Under News:
http://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2008/08/08/2006-auditor-general%e2%80%99s-report-states-govt-abuses-public-funds/
"... Despite the fact that the Auditor General Report for Guyana came in one year late, it has proved to be very revealing.
The report on the audited public accounts of Guyana and on the accounts of ministries, departments and regions for the year ending December 31, 2006 has verified a complaint by the Parliamentary Opposition parties regarding the Contingencies Fund.
According to the report presented to the National Assembly by the Auditor General, the Contingencies Fund continued to be abused, with amounts drawn from the Fund being utilised to satisfy expenditure that did not meet the eligibility criteria as defined in the Act.
“According to the statement, amounts totalling $3.945 billion were drawn from the Fund by way of 138 advances….As at 31 December 2006, forty-nine of these advances, totalling $1.721 billion, remained outstanding.”
The report, which was made public yesterday, after it was presented to the Speaker the previous week, also noted that amounts totalling $579.438M were shown as contingent liabilities for entities that were no longer in existence, yet the Ministry of Finance and the Accountant General’s Department have still not taken steps to have these liabilities transferred to the public debt.
As regards the affairs at Transport and Harbours Department (T&HD), the Department continued to request, and was granted, blanket waivers to award contracts selectively. This selective tendering was done without the requisite pre-qualification of contactors and the invitation of at least three contractors to bid for these contracts.
The Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation was also cited on the executive summary, and caused raised eyebrows.
According to the Auditor General, GPHC, which is now a separate entity from the Ministry of Health, continued to use the Ministry’s Cabinet approval (funds) to purchase drugs and medical supplies from specialised agencies both local and overseas.
$608.4 M SPENT ON MEDICAL SUPPLIES. HOSPITAL CANNOT ACCOUNT FOR PURCHASES
“It did not re-tender or obtain a new no-objection from Cabinet for the purchases of drugs and medical supplies…Further, during 2006, amounts totalling $608.406M were expended on drugs and medical supplies…However, the corporation could not totally account for drugs and medical supplies purchased, since there was no central point of accountability.”
In relation to Customs and Trade Administration, the Auditor General noted 17 Permits for Immediate Delivery (PID), with a total value of $2.832 billion, had not yet been perfected at the time of the audit in January 2007.
Incoming vessels at ports in Guyana totalled 1,089. However, completed ship’s files in respect of 243 ships were not submitted to the Quality Review Section, and as such, were not made available for audit examination.
$11M PAID FOR ARMS, AMMO IN 2003, YET TO BE DELIVERED
In relation to the Ministry of Home Affairs, it was noted that a quantity of arms and ammunition, to the value of $11.160M, which were paid for in 2003, had not yet been delivered, nor has the Ministry been able to recover the amount paid.
It was also noted in the report that several ministries and departments also recorded overstatements on their appropriation accounts, and the unspent amounts have not been refunded, “…Subvention agencies not returning the unspent portions of amounts paid over to them for specific expenditure.”
The Auditor General also cited in his report what he called the overpayment of contracts.
“Several Ministries and Regions have not recovered amounts overpaid on various contracts in prior periods….In addition, some of these Ministries and Regions, such as, Education, Amerindian Affairs, Regions Two, Three, Six, Seven and Ten continued to have overpayments on various contracts during 2006…One such example was recorded under the Ministry of Education, where $10.982M was overpaid on eleven projects which were mainly for the rehabilitation and extension to schools.”
$13.6M SPENT ON HIRING VEHICLES FROM A PERSON HIRED AS A MAID
In relation to the Guyana Defence Force, it was noted that the Force continued to hire vehicles from a civilian and members of the Force. During 2006, one hundred and one payments, totalling $13.697M, were expended on hiring of vehicles owned by one civilian, who is employed as a maid, and nine members of the Guyana Defence Force.
This was a serious breach of the regulations, which strictly prohibit sponsoring of tenders for Government contracts by Government Officers.
Gifts also raised eyebrows, with the Auditor General noting that the continued lack of reporting and accounting for all gifts to Ministries, Departments and Regions resulted in the miscellaneous receipts of $2.053B at December 31, 2006 being understated by an undetermined amount.
As it relates to bank accounts, several transfers from other accounts to the Consolidated Fund were not effected, and several accounts had overdrafts.
This was documented as follows:
Transfers not effected
(i) The amount of approximately $7.190 billion, representing balances held in 13 special accounts;
(ii) The balance of $34.336M held in the General Account
(iii) The balance of $527.139M held in Non-Sub Accounting Ministries and Departments’ Bank Account
(iv) The balances of 66 inactive bank accounts, of which eight had balances in excess of $100M.
(b)Accounts with overdrafts were identified in two categories:
- the old Consolidated Fund bank account was overdrawn by $46.906 billion at 31 December 2006; and
- Forty-two inactive accounts had overdrafts totalling $685.991M. Of these accounts, 24 were overdrawn by amounts in excess of $1M.
The Fiscal Management and Accountability Act 2003 (FMA Act) provides for the regulation of the preparation and execution of the annual budget, the receipt, control and disbursement of public monies, and the accounting for public monies, and is the most vital legislation governing the transparent and efficient management of the finances of Guyana.
According to this Act, a number of Public Accounts Statements are required to be prepared and submitted...."
July 27, 2009
As a mostly silent world looks on, and as CARICOM diligently turns a blind eye to the escalating evidence of Guyana’s manufactured social, political and economic crisis, the “torching” of the Ministry of Health just before a pending and potentially cataclysmic audit by the Auditor-General offers new clues as to how degenerate the political climate has become. This is the fifth government building so “destroyed” with all its paperwork and files.
For Health Minister Leslie Ramsammy, already implicated by a US-court in the Shaheed “Roger” Khan issue (see “Genocide in Guyana … The Tip of the Iceberg?”), we should offer five viewpoints that place the Auditor General’s Report for 2006 in perspective. A synopsis of that Report is appended below.
First, Kean Gibson in her iconoclastic review “The Cycle of Racial Oppression in Guyana” pointed to the strange local phenomenon of “good thieving” and “bad thieving” to describe the astonishing rape of national and institutional coffers under the party associated with President Bharat Jagdeo. She also coined the phrase “corruption that is ruinous to the state” in that regard (see “The Marginalization of Persons of African Origin in Guyana” and “The Case for Scholarship in Kean Gibson’s Book”. The Guyana government used ethnic and other bias in its tightly controlled Ethnic Relations Commission to try to have the book “removed from public places”.
US. State Department Reports on Guyana for several consecutive years point to “corruption at the highest levels of government”. The Bharat Jagdeo-led government in Guyana dismiss these claims as “false”.
The Commonwealth Adviser Sir Michael Davies points to the systematic destruction of Guyana’s parliament as the highest decision-making forum in Guyana in “Needs Assessment of the Guyana National Assembly 2005”. He reiterates his findings in the report “Addendum to the Needs assessment of the Guyana National Assembly 2005”
The Guyana government dismiss these claims as “false”.
The UN Independent Expert on Minority Issues, Gay McDougall points to acts of racism that could just as easily have come from the story of the deprivation of India’s 300 million Dalits in the report of the UN Human Rights Council: “Report of the Independent Expert on Minority Issues, Gay McDougall : addendum : mission to Guyana (28 July to 1 August 2008)”(27 February 2009, A/HRC/10/11/Add.2, available at: http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/49bfa6ec2.html ).
The Bharat-Jagdeo government dismisses these claims as “false”.
World-renown Guyanese economist Dr. Clive Thomas speaks to the “criminalization of the state” under the tenure of a Bharat-Jagdeo-led administration that has literally squandered 17 years of local and international goodwill:
“…. Guyana needs intervention at the macro/national, intermediate/meso and the micro/local levels, Thomas said. He listed, "the superficiality of national unity, the dynamics of racial arithmetic and insecurity and the unrelenting rise of both benign and militant extremism." Guyana's predicament, he said, was compounded by the depth, scale, complexity and sheer persistence of economic misery and the growth of the narco-economy. He added that the country's entrenched totalitarianism in a multiracial society combined with territorial threats and the criminalisation of the state all played their part. Thomas asserted that Guyana's political and social crisis could not be solved without the intervention of the international community in the broader sense of creating the foundation for some resolution. "Just as our development problems are so acute that we cannot solve them without the support of the regional and international community, similarly, our political crisis requires this type of intervention." Asked to expand on the term `structural deadlock' during the debate that followed his remarks, Thomas alluded to the government's initial objections to the symposium and their attempts to review presenters' papers prior to actual presentation....”(Source: Dr. Clive Thomas: "International Conference on Governance, Conflict Analysis and Conflict Resolution," Georgetown, Guyana February 2004)
The Bharat-Jagdeo government dismisses these claims as “false”.
And so, finally, a Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) that begs the outside world to pour more funds into Guyana’s gaping wound … or else the pockets of those who are convinced that they are destined to rule Guyana forever!
By is this feasible since, given the abundance of evidence, one can easily detect a massive accounting frenzy designed to leave the country bankrupt by the time there is a change of government?
And now, below, a synopsis of the Auditor-General’s Report for 2006 … illustrating why the LCDS may be doomed before it began... because of the very real possibility that while government functionaries will end up with $60,000,000 houses (carbon credits or not), the vast majority of the people will probably get ... nothing!
Roger Williams
July 2009
"2006 Auditor General’s report states Govt. abuses public funds … Billions unaccounted for..."
August 8, 2008 By knews Filed Under News:
http://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2008/08/08/2006-auditor-general%e2%80%99s-report-states-govt-abuses-public-funds/
"... Despite the fact that the Auditor General Report for Guyana came in one year late, it has proved to be very revealing.
The report on the audited public accounts of Guyana and on the accounts of ministries, departments and regions for the year ending December 31, 2006 has verified a complaint by the Parliamentary Opposition parties regarding the Contingencies Fund.
According to the report presented to the National Assembly by the Auditor General, the Contingencies Fund continued to be abused, with amounts drawn from the Fund being utilised to satisfy expenditure that did not meet the eligibility criteria as defined in the Act.
“According to the statement, amounts totalling $3.945 billion were drawn from the Fund by way of 138 advances….As at 31 December 2006, forty-nine of these advances, totalling $1.721 billion, remained outstanding.”
The report, which was made public yesterday, after it was presented to the Speaker the previous week, also noted that amounts totalling $579.438M were shown as contingent liabilities for entities that were no longer in existence, yet the Ministry of Finance and the Accountant General’s Department have still not taken steps to have these liabilities transferred to the public debt.
As regards the affairs at Transport and Harbours Department (T&HD), the Department continued to request, and was granted, blanket waivers to award contracts selectively. This selective tendering was done without the requisite pre-qualification of contactors and the invitation of at least three contractors to bid for these contracts.
The Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation was also cited on the executive summary, and caused raised eyebrows.
According to the Auditor General, GPHC, which is now a separate entity from the Ministry of Health, continued to use the Ministry’s Cabinet approval (funds) to purchase drugs and medical supplies from specialised agencies both local and overseas.
$608.4 M SPENT ON MEDICAL SUPPLIES. HOSPITAL CANNOT ACCOUNT FOR PURCHASES
“It did not re-tender or obtain a new no-objection from Cabinet for the purchases of drugs and medical supplies…Further, during 2006, amounts totalling $608.406M were expended on drugs and medical supplies…However, the corporation could not totally account for drugs and medical supplies purchased, since there was no central point of accountability.”
In relation to Customs and Trade Administration, the Auditor General noted 17 Permits for Immediate Delivery (PID), with a total value of $2.832 billion, had not yet been perfected at the time of the audit in January 2007.
Incoming vessels at ports in Guyana totalled 1,089. However, completed ship’s files in respect of 243 ships were not submitted to the Quality Review Section, and as such, were not made available for audit examination.
$11M PAID FOR ARMS, AMMO IN 2003, YET TO BE DELIVERED
In relation to the Ministry of Home Affairs, it was noted that a quantity of arms and ammunition, to the value of $11.160M, which were paid for in 2003, had not yet been delivered, nor has the Ministry been able to recover the amount paid.
It was also noted in the report that several ministries and departments also recorded overstatements on their appropriation accounts, and the unspent amounts have not been refunded, “…Subvention agencies not returning the unspent portions of amounts paid over to them for specific expenditure.”
The Auditor General also cited in his report what he called the overpayment of contracts.
“Several Ministries and Regions have not recovered amounts overpaid on various contracts in prior periods….In addition, some of these Ministries and Regions, such as, Education, Amerindian Affairs, Regions Two, Three, Six, Seven and Ten continued to have overpayments on various contracts during 2006…One such example was recorded under the Ministry of Education, where $10.982M was overpaid on eleven projects which were mainly for the rehabilitation and extension to schools.”
$13.6M SPENT ON HIRING VEHICLES FROM A PERSON HIRED AS A MAID
In relation to the Guyana Defence Force, it was noted that the Force continued to hire vehicles from a civilian and members of the Force. During 2006, one hundred and one payments, totalling $13.697M, were expended on hiring of vehicles owned by one civilian, who is employed as a maid, and nine members of the Guyana Defence Force.
This was a serious breach of the regulations, which strictly prohibit sponsoring of tenders for Government contracts by Government Officers.
Gifts also raised eyebrows, with the Auditor General noting that the continued lack of reporting and accounting for all gifts to Ministries, Departments and Regions resulted in the miscellaneous receipts of $2.053B at December 31, 2006 being understated by an undetermined amount.
As it relates to bank accounts, several transfers from other accounts to the Consolidated Fund were not effected, and several accounts had overdrafts.
This was documented as follows:
Transfers not effected
(i) The amount of approximately $7.190 billion, representing balances held in 13 special accounts;
(ii) The balance of $34.336M held in the General Account
(iii) The balance of $527.139M held in Non-Sub Accounting Ministries and Departments’ Bank Account
(iv) The balances of 66 inactive bank accounts, of which eight had balances in excess of $100M.
(b)Accounts with overdrafts were identified in two categories:
- the old Consolidated Fund bank account was overdrawn by $46.906 billion at 31 December 2006; and
- Forty-two inactive accounts had overdrafts totalling $685.991M. Of these accounts, 24 were overdrawn by amounts in excess of $1M.
The Fiscal Management and Accountability Act 2003 (FMA Act) provides for the regulation of the preparation and execution of the annual budget, the receipt, control and disbursement of public monies, and the accounting for public monies, and is the most vital legislation governing the transparent and efficient management of the finances of Guyana.
According to this Act, a number of Public Accounts Statements are required to be prepared and submitted...."
Sunday, July 19, 2009
A Response To BC Pires on the "Ideal Caribbean Person"
Response to BC Pires’ “Ideal Caribbean Person”
September 28, 2008
Dear Editor,
I have finally had the time to read the “Thank God It’s Friday” piece in the Trinidad Express for September 12, 2008. One inescapable conclusion is that … there is an awesome, throbbing, horrible emptiness in the mind and work of BC Pires. It is especially evident in his grotesque piece “The Ideal Caribbean Person”
This truly is the desperate banality of a deskbound hack, a nine to fiver who found himself with lots of spare time, no ideas to justify the pay grade, and an easy target in fifteen lines of a CARICOM communiqué. Do a Google search on “Ideal Caribbean Person” to see how far he missed the mark!
I had hoped against hope that the source of inspiration for Stabroek News’ editor, in his ridiculous commentary of the same name on September 26, was something so truly profound and inspiring that we would all be forced to retract, to concede, and to beg the forgiveness of an inspired columnist’s vision. I was disappointed! Contrary to Stabroek News, it is not only our bureaucrats (sic) who generate pronouncements of meaningless, pseudo-intellectual drivel.
What we got from BC Pires was an insipid attempt to hock the unsellable, another attempt to pawn fake goods. We got from BC an attempt to imply that CARICOM’s crafting the idea of an “Ideal Caribbean Person” somehow translated into a failed attempt to fashion a new Magna Carta, Declaration of the Rights of the Child, or some such other product of astonishing advertising poppycock like “Rally Round the West Indies”. Is this for real?
It would be laughable if it were not in black and white … and perhaps is reflective of a deeper, more sinister manifestation of anti-CARICOM rhetoric that seems to be infecting liberal Caribbean media-personalities these days. Look at their photographs closely!
At best, it is cheap trickery aimed at personal aggrandizement and assuaging delusion. In essence, however, it attempts to belittle the work of hundreds of the best minds in the region as they struggle to bring order and success, to keep alive a vision of unity that many of the current crop of regional heads of state seem incapable of comprehending.
Who, exactly, is BC Pires, and what has he done for Caribbean integration lately? We recounted (see http://rogerwilli.blogspot.com/2009/07/deadly-storm-of-rhetoric-in-guyana.html ) the sad fact that convenient memories now forget that it has been the strong and steady support of a unified CARICOM that has kept Venezuela, Suriname and possibly Brazil off Guyana’s territory. More recently, CARICOM’s support was evident in the UNCLOS and UNITLOS ruling on Guyana’s maritime border with Suriname. What of the CCJ, or CSME in 2015.?
But Pires would have us believe that CARICOM’s worth should be measured in hotel bills. This is the classic manifestation of the cake-shop mentality alluded to for Stabroek News, and the convoluted thinking of an intellectual leprechaun. He hides his diseased outlook with a “nonchalant” reference to the “Good Negro” and “pappyshowing”. We know his kind well … BC’s own citation of “res ipsa loquitur” … the thing speaks for itself. His own words condemn him!
Stabroek News’ editor, incapable of forming an opinion of his own, validates the inanity of BC Pires as “brilliant satirical wit” without bothering himself with the necessary trouble of reflective thinking. I now see where he got his “what’s the real difference?” quip from. I repeat that this is plagiarist insensitivity and intellectual incompetence at its worst, adequately argued at http://rogerwilli.blogspot.com/2009/07/response-to-stabroek-news-on-ideal.html .
So, we conclude for BC as we started for Stabroek News. An elitist segment of the Caribbean population seems to have declared war on CARICOM ... for all the wrong reasons. If we must offer a critique of CARICOM and its institutions, then let's focus on the factual evidence (there is plenty available), not sophistry … or nonchalant racism!
Yours faithfully
Roger Williams
Who, exactly, is BC Pires, and what has he done for Caribbean integration lately? We recounted (see http://rogerwilli.blogspot.com/2009/07/deadly-storm-of-rhetoric-in-guyana.html ) the sad fact that convenient memories now forget that it has been the strong and steady support of a unified CARICOM that has kept Venezuela, Suriname and possibly Brazil off Guyana’s territory. More recently, CARICOM’s support was evident in the UNCLOS and UNITLOS ruling on Guyana’s maritime border with Suriname. What of the CCJ, or CSME in 2015.?
But Pires would have us believe that CARICOM’s worth should be measured in hotel bills. This is the classic manifestation of the cake-shop mentality alluded to for Stabroek News, and the convoluted thinking of an intellectual leprechaun. He hides his diseased outlook with a “nonchalant” reference to the “Good Negro” and “pappyshowing”. We know his kind well … BC’s own citation of “res ipsa loquitur” … the thing speaks for itself. His own words condemn him!
Stabroek News’ editor, incapable of forming an opinion of his own, validates the inanity of BC Pires as “brilliant satirical wit” without bothering himself with the necessary trouble of reflective thinking. I now see where he got his “what’s the real difference?” quip from. I repeat that this is plagiarist insensitivity and intellectual incompetence at its worst, adequately argued at http://rogerwilli.blogspot.com/2009/07/response-to-stabroek-news-on-ideal.html .
So, we conclude for BC as we started for Stabroek News. An elitist segment of the Caribbean population seems to have declared war on CARICOM ... for all the wrong reasons. If we must offer a critique of CARICOM and its institutions, then let's focus on the factual evidence (there is plenty available), not sophistry … or nonchalant racism!
Yours faithfully
Roger Williams
September 28, 2008
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