ASSISTANT Editor of the weekly ‘Catholic Standard,’ Roxana Kawall, is the journalist who first began exposing the fact that thallium sulphate was poisoning persons.
Roxana said she did a lot of research from July last year into thallium poisoning after she learnt that cases of contaminated persons began appearing at the St. Joseph’s Mercy Hospital.
After she realised the danger it posed, Roxana said she began following up cases fully and did several stories on the victims and possible sources of contamination.
She joined the Catholic Standard in September, 1984 after living and studying for six years in England. Roxana was due to leave Guyana this week to be married in West Germany.
No More Comrades
SEEMS as though the appellation “Comrade” which was the order of the day during the lifetime of President Forbes Burnham, – is slowly giving way to the old form of address… Mr., Mrs. and Miss.
This was apparent when newly appointed Minister within the Agriculture Ministry, Vibert Parvatan, delivered his maiden speech in Parliament last week Wednesday.
The Minister who appeared so anxious to speak on a motion by opposition Member of Parliament Janet Jagan, that he had to be interrupted by Speaker Sase Narain, who reminded him that the motion had not been seconded, never once used the word comrade when referring to the opposition M.P..
Defending the government’s handling of the Thallium Sulphate poison, Minister Parvatan
in his well delivered presentation, continued to refer to the opposition M.P. as Mrs. Jagan
or the Honourable Member opposite.
One member at the Press table was moved to ask: ‘Is the word ‘Honourable’ creeping back into the lexicon of Parliamentary debates?”.. Let’s wait and see…
Guyana hosts NAM Confab
GUYANA this week hosted its second key meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement when members of the group’s Coordinating Bureau met in Georgetown for a special session on developments in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Among the wellknown Third World personalities who attended the March 10- 12 meeting were Cuba’s Foreign Minister Isidore Malmierca, Fr. Miguel D’escoto, Foreign Minister of Nicaragua and Dr. Witness Mangwende, Foreign Minister of Zimbabwe.
Up to Press time, most of the 400 delegates, guests and observers to the meeting had arrived here.
Vehicles fitted with public address systems moved around the city Sunday afternoon urging Guyanese to turn out at the Cultural Centre Tuesday morning for the formal opening session.
Billboards proclaiming slogans of the 101 – member group and welcome greetings were posted up around the city and scores of cars and mini-buses were rented by the State for delegates and other participants. Strict security measures were deployed on the streets to direct traffic as part of the arrangements to facilitate a smooth hosting of the meeting.
Officials and technical staff of the Movement met on Monday at the Pegasus Hotel to finalise preparations for the Ministerial meeting between Tuesday and Thursday.
Dr. Mangwende was scheduled to chair Tuesday’s formal opening of the meeting and President Desmond Hoyte was also to have addressed the gathering at the National Cultural Centre.
The focus of the meeting was on developments in the Caribbean and Latin America and much attention was expected to have been paid to the region’s throttling debt problem.
Two key issues before the meeting were the situation in Nicaragua and the debt problem. The United States policy of support for the ‘Contras,’ fighting the Sandinista Government in Nicaragua, was expected to come under attack and observers felt there would be support for the Contadora peace process and a resumption of dialogue between the US and Nicaragua. Observers were also looking forward to what steps the Bureau would have come up with to tackle the debt problem.
A representative of the South-West Africa People’s Organisation (SWAPO) also attended the meeting and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) was also expected to have a presence at the sessions.
Guyana in August, 1972 hosted a NAM Foreign Ministers’ conference which about 62 countries attended.
Because we went to Press Tuesday, the day the conference opened, we are unable to give full coverage in this issue to the meeting.
However in our next issue we will carry full reports on the conference and interviews with some delegates and photographs.
Ladies Hockey To Foster Links with Caribbean Teams
After significant success at reviving hockey among women during last year, the Guyana Women’s Hockey Association has been strengthened in terms of personnel at their recent Annual General Meeting.
Alice Lyken who spearheaded the revival drive was unanimously returned as President of the association, but this time she has two new Vice-Presidents in Joan Grainger and Paulette Tait in that order.
There is also a new Secretary in Debra Phillippe as well as a new Treasurer in Denise Carryl. Last term’s Secretary, Joycelyn Nicholas will serve as Assistant Secretary-Treasurer during this term with Merle Thompson as Tournament Secretary being assisted by Janet Allen.
The Committee members are Paula Smyra, Juanita Alphonso, Denise Norton and for the first time the executive contains the male element in Egan Nicholas, W. Underwood and G. Sills as the other Committee member.
Lyken says that the men have contributed greatly to the resuscitation drive and it is important that their contribution be recognised.
‘She says that the GWHA has successfully run off their first tournament for 1987 the recent one-day indoor tournament at the Sports Hall and she singled out the GCC and United Avengers as the clubs whose ladies showed the best potential, who, in spite of it being their first venture played with great promise in the first all ladies tournament for some time now.
In relation to the planned, schools’ programme, Lyken disclosed that it would be launched during April-May after the situation on coaching is clarified with the Department of Youth and Sport.
She also revealed that her Association has extended open invitations to Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago to send teams on tour to this country. This is intended to be the start of fostering those desirable links between Caribbean teams and Guyana.