Iana Seales

Of the endless string of Jamaican music imports landing here every other month for local entertainment, the presence of Freddie McGregor and Tarrus Riley was a rare blessing; a combination of fresh and enduring reggae sounds worth soaking up.

-Trinis ask The Fifth Summit of the Americas opens in Trinidad and Tobago today against a backdrop of increasing hemispheric concerns, and criticisms at the domestic level, of how the locals will benefit after the dialogue has ended.

Some incivility at civil society forum Several Latin American countries walked out of the Civil Society Forum in Trinidad yesterday, signalling a thorny start to the scheduled dialogue between hemispheric Foreign Ministers and civil society stakeholders when the Fifth Summit of the Americas opens today.

-auditor general Acting Auditor General, Deodat Sharma says the forensic audit into the assets of employees at the Customs and Trade Administration (CTA) is well underway, and the probe is “looking into bank accounts and recently acquired assets”.

-case of five boys highlights weaknesses Stamp It Out, which aims at strengthening protection against and reforming the laws on sexual offences has lost critical momentum, several stakeholders have observed, even as blatant abuses persist against women and children in the society.

How does an eco-friendly wedding sound in these challenging financial times?

– judge rules right to fair trial breached Justice Roxanne George-Wiltshire yesterday quashed criminal charges against a former employee of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) who had been charged with stealing from the revenue body, recognizing that her right to a fair hearing within a reasonable time had been breached.

-four completed over weekend An ambitious undertaking by the Caribbean Heart Institute (CHI) and the public hospital to increase the frequency of bypass surgeries here is expected to bear fruit in another few months when a largely local team will perform the operations.

President of the Guyana Teachers Union (GTU), Colwyn King said teachers with solid insurance plans in Clico (Guyana) are suffering the blow of being stripped of health insurance among other security, and are at risk of “not retrieving anything”.

Former long-serving Barbadian Prime Minister Owen Arthur last night said he found it disturbing that regional heads have failed to move in the direction of a regional response to the financial woes that engulfed CLICO since the Trinidad crisis though “it is a major regional financial conglomerate” with policy holders and investors spanning the Caribbean.

– judicial manager to point way forward Assets of CLICO (Guyana) that escaped the ravages of the collapse of its sister company in the Bahamas are now under the supervision of the High Court, which has appointed Commissioner of Insurance Maria van Beek to manage its affairs as the government here scrambles to protect policyholders.

-EU-ACP Assembly opens President Bharrat Jagdeo says that protectionist measures emerging in developed countries following the global financial crisis are of “major concern” to ACP countries that have signed the Econo-mic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union based on reciprocal trade.

-MP Kissoon tells budget debate Lindeners rarely see the effect of big budgets and are instead left every year wondering about jobs, access to good healthcare and clean water and a failing infrastructure, PNCR-1G parliamentarian Vanessa Kissoon charged last week as the budget debate neared a close.

On a night when local calypso was mostly lacklustre, the Professor’s gripping, witty lecture on politics, crime and living conditions in Guyana stood out and propelled him to a convincing win over dethroned monarch Young Bill Rogers.

Manic dancer, Travis Bowen Travis Bowen is one of the few Classique dancers who can boast of being young and particularly good, as well as crazy enough to do weird aerobatics others would hardly attempt.

–in polar beer probe Attorneys for several of the Customs and Trade Administration (CTA) employees named in the Polar beer fraud involving Fidelity Investments are calling on the revenue body to handle the internal investigations being conducted carefully, and to provide further details on the allegations being made.

Guyanese Ramon Dummett is growing into a mini-institution on the island of Barbados, but it is the kind of fame he takes no credit for, saying instead that Christ has lifted him up and continues to “take him to the unreachable places”.

Residents increasingly frustrated Rising water levels in the Dochfour housing scheme, East Coast spells continued agony for residents who have been surrounded by stagnant water for more than two weeks now.

Celeste David the accountant is a stark contrast from the vampy singer with the enviable vocal range, but if the jingle competition had failed to provide the successful breakthrough she had been looking for, a career balancing the books would have been likely.

-as global crisis bites Russian bauxite giant United Company (UC) RUSAL has cut around fifty local jobs within the past two weeks as the company grapples with increasing costs and slumping demand for aluminum in the deteriorating global economic environment.