Ask Jagdoe to tek over that too. 

You are really fixated on Jagdeo, me see. Like Jagdeo bin ah you fus pappa. Yu sure wan ah yu brudda na Jagdeo pickney?

More laugh story. Guyana politics too funny. When is he going to deal with the corruption in his government?

Tougher anti-corruption measures will only be achieved when the Jagans become the true leaders of the party again.

The corrupt leaders are/were the political "children" of the Jagans.  Unfortunately, in life sometimes you don't get a 2nd chance to correct your mistakes.  The Jagans were flawed in their leadership and you have what you have.  No Jagans could fix that.  The new Jagans are as corrupt as the current leaders.

The new Jagans are not part of the gang of seven. Nor were they ever a part of the gang of eight.   Long live the Jagan.

Me nah fixated pun am. Me know he a de most corrupt President in Guyana histry. And me family see him a wuk and give contract at OP. Me guh oppose him because he a wan king of bandit. If Ramoto want fuh keep am a OP Ramoto guh get attack too. 

Noting na wrang if YOU president wan fu keep Bharat Jagdeo as a paid advisa. Noting in de constitution seh he cyan't do da. Yu no wa? Yu go have to live wid da. Wah yu na bin fly yu mouth wen PNC bin carry out all dem nepotism? Dem wooda cut yu tongue and dig out yu eye ball dem. Yu lucky yu gat freedom of speech and yu can tak nansense. Thanks to de PPP. Now get yu head out ah yu kaka hole, go dig dem ticks and fleas out ah yu head and ada bady parts.

Long live de PPP!!!!!!!!!!!

Jabba the Hut Ramotar squatted on OMAI's board for years ( obviously getting fat literally and figuratively on graft) and saw nothing wrong. Yet in 20 years that company claimed it never made a profit! Yet they remain, and are branching out to other endeavors! Imagine that! And now this old Hut decides he will now cast a scrutinizing eye on the industry. Foxes and hens!

I think the President is sincere in his call here to fight corruption. It's also refreshing to hear him talk about environmental impact the extraction industry  has on the community.

I am hoping that we will see more action than these talks.

This president is a good speech reader.  There is no follow through on these speeches.  Poor fellow does not know how to do his job.

Amerindians have been complaining for over a decade on the high level of suspension in the water from mining. Nothing was done.

I agree. The people need to stop associating him with the Jagdeo policies and corruption. Even though Jagdeo had his faults, he did some good things for Guyana. Let's give the president a chance and support to do his job. If he is caught in any corruption, then expose and criticise him. Call for his overthrow. 

For now give him a chance.  

when i read what this guys preaching,it almost kill me,my wife come home and find me rolling on the floor,she though i was in pain but is when she see me laughing it freaks her out,what can i say,when you want a good laugh read and listen what the ppp fools have to say

This president does not have the political will to investigate and take action his predecessors and his PPP cronies.  He is dependent on these people and will not do anything other talk the talk.   

FC,

Would you agree that if this is going to happen, he should do back all the way to the PNC regime from 1964? No exceptions? Get guys like Hamilton Green and all the terrorists in the PNC?

The native community's concerns must be seriously addressed by this administration. They cannot be forgotten or left behind. For too long, starting with the PNC and to a lesser extent the PPP, environmental issues affecting our native community has been put on the back burner.

Less talk and more action.

I am all for that. Go back as far as you like.  Justice must be served.  By the way you guys bray constantly about the wrongs of the previous regime.  Why has the PPP done nothing? 

who the hell cares,he can go back all the way to the 18 century,but he have to start cleaning up the nation,and let him start from his arm reach but god please start do it now,let him stop talking shit and let  him do do do

This is the chance now for him prove that he is serious. Acknowledging the situation is the first step to deal with the problem. Let 's hope he has a concrete plan to clean up the mess left by his Omai operations; else this speech will be filed away in the anals as a great one with empty promises.

The PPP have taken the Amerinds for granted in the past. 

President Donald Ramotar addressing the opening of the extractive industry seminar organised by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Natural Resources Ministry

 

“In a way, we are fortunate to be developing our natural resources at a time when there is a body of knowledge in the world [that] has grown to some extent. This would allow us to learn from those experiences and to take the best of the positives and to minimise the negatives that exists,” Ramotar said.

The president noted that government should use the resources garnered from the natural resources sector, to improve the standard of living of the country’s human capital.

Correct .. and now movement should commence.

please donot make me laugh

You want them to burn down Guyana?

skeltonman watch it like you trying to get a room in one of those cream building next to cangie bridge

Warria: Me bin pas deh a few times. E look like we gat more mad man outside dan inside de mad house. FYI .. I am including you on my count. Don't disappoint me now!

i will admit i am a mad man and check in the mad house,if you admit you thiefing the taxpayers money and check in at the brickdam police station

Warria,

All abie tief one time or another. Me cayan't go ah brickdam and admit tiefing the tax payer's money. You buddy policeman dem go want wan cut and me go leff wid 
lil bit. Dem might even falla me home and rab me de rest a de money on de way. Me might look ugly but me stupid.

Skeldon,

You guys are running the country and have all the freedom to investigate and bring to justice anyone who has commited crimes past & present.  You try to use the PNC to deflect and explain away the corruption of the PPP.  If the PNC committed atrocities why haven't they been brought to justice?  Why has there been no truth and reconciliation commission set up?  You fellas are just pissing in the wind.

FC,

Let's be objective on this. A member of the PNC is being investigated and one of it's members is implacted in a serious crime, the individual goes on TV and deny the allegations, call for justice and demonstration. The Benschops and Freddie Kissons will join them and Georgrtown, Buxtion and Agricola will be charcoal. You know this and if you deny it, then you are not being objective.

The PNC do not want their own implicated.

bullshit

Warria, please dont be an ostrich and bury you head in the sand.

Even though corruption is a universal problem, the Guyanese administration is at full throttle trying to minimize , whatever traces may exists

Hay you dumb jackass, it is accepted that evil is but we still have great religions fighting for paradise and eternal bliss in godliness.

Corruption happens to be the PPP religion since they worship at that altar and that is our problem,

The PPP let OMAI of with pouring millions of gallons of toxic tailings from the gold mine into the river with nary an admonition. Within a few weeks they deem the river whole and the communities safe. Later on as deformities and skin lesions begin to appear on the People they still doubted the poisons in their water had anything to do with it. I detest this present claim to environmental consciousness when they have a long legacy of environmental destruction and cultural decay among native peoples and the society at large.

You fool and liar.  Jagan was pissed that certain locals linked to OMAI misled him on the gravity of the situation and had OMAI suspend operations and plug the leak. 

 Just use your google fu  and examine what Cheddi did. That he was pissed may be the case what he did was allowed them to restart operations with nary a sanction or allocation for future harm to the community. Instead they had one of their insiders on the legal team against the civil suit which faltered and died from lack of government concern for its people. Further their study did everything to minimize the danger.  Compare that to what the US government did with respect to BP. Note, our toxic chemical spill was one of the largest of its kind the world has seen/

Those heavy metals etc are still in the river bed and slowly leeching into the population from the food sources in the river. The tailing pond release was  an accident waiting to happen.  They planned that since they did not build a coneshaped reservoir as required. They knew they can walk around the PPP.

Note Cheddi went to Malaysia to invite the Sambling group into Guyana. Under his watch we saw the  habit of neglect for stringent oversight begin to grow. It is Chandrapaul who invented exploratory leases to circumvent the international moratorium on logging in Guyana  and JJ that excused companies from harvesting off their leases.

The internet has institutional memory. Just do the necessary research. But as usual you are too bloody lazy.

DECEMBER, 2000, GUYANA: The Essequibo region of Guyana is again the victim of mine pollution that has caused widespread harm including rashes, diarrhoea, and vomiting among the residents after using the river water. This latest incident comes five years after the August 1995 gold mine disaster at Omai, where 3.2 billion liters of cyanide tainted waste contaminated the Essequibo river which also lead to discoloration and health problems. Communities downstream from the Omai gold mine have reported a "reddish, silty" discharge in the Essequibo making the river, which is the main or only source of water for many villages, unfit for use.

AUGUST 1995, GUYANA - More than 3.2 billion litres of cyanide-laden tailings were released into Essequibo river in Guyana when a dam collapsed at the Omai gold mine. Studies by the Pan American Health Organization have shown that all aquatic life in the 4 kilometer long creek that runs from the mine to the Essequibo was killed

***********************************************

WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS

Guyana: Disaster Cyanide Spill from Canadian Mine

***********************************************

Forest Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises

August 25, 1995

OVERVIEW & SOURCE

The World Rainforest Movement reports on the atrocious spill of

cyanide and other pollutants into Guyana's primary river through

the collapse of a large mine's tailing dam.  This disaster comes

and Guyana continues to open its lands to intensive mining and

logging development.  The environmental costs of short term multi-

national harvesting of resources has become apparent.  This item

was posted in econet's rainfor.general conference.

*******************************

RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:

/* Written  6:43 PM  Aug 24, 1995 by gn:wrm in igc:rainfor.genera

*/

/* ---------- "GUYANA: DISASTER CYANIDE SPILL FROM" ---------- */

From: Forest Peoples Programme <wrm>

Subject: GUYANA: DISASTER CYANIDE SPILL FROM CANADIAN MINE

______________________________________________________________

          WORLD RAINFOREST MOVEMENT

______________________________________________________________

          GOLD FEVER LEADS TO DISASTER

GUYANA: A major cyanide spill from a Canadian gold mine has

caused an 'environmental disaster'.

A massive spill of cyanide into Guyana's main river, the

Essequibo, by the Canadian mining consortium Omai Gold Mines has

been declared 'one of the worst mine disasters in history'. Over

a million cubic metres of highly poisonous residues have poured

through breaches in the mine's waste pond killing off the river

and posing serious health risks to the communities downstream.

President Cheddi Jagan has announced an 'environmental disaster

zone' and called for international assistance to clean up the

mess and avert human tragedies.

High levels of cyanide, used to extract gold from crushed rock,

have already been detected far downstream and dead and dying

fish, birds and animals reported. Local environmentalists are

concerned that heavy metals like arsenic and copper, that are

concentrated in the slurry, will enter the food chain and take

years to dissipate. Soon after the breach in the tailings dam was

detected, late on Saturday night, the company tried diverting the

waste waters into its own mine works. However, slurry has

continued to pour into the rivers, while fears have been raised

that the waste now in the mine pits will leach into the ground

waters. The mine will now be closed for at least half a year.

Gold has been a lure for foreign adventurers ever since Sir

Walter Raleigh wrote of the 'large, rich and bewtiful Empire of

Guiana' in 1595. The Omai mine promised to turn such fantasies

into reality with dreams of Guyana becoming the 'new South

Africa'. Shortly after its opening in 1993, President Jagan

announced the Omai venture would transform 'our mudland into the

gold land of the future'. The mine, jointly owned by Canadian

companies Cambior Inc. and Golden Star Resources and backed by

the World Bank, became South America's largest, annually

producing 250,000 ounces.

The mine has been controversial since opening, for its lack of

environmental controls and the over-generous terms under which

it was granted, meaning that Guyana has seen little of the

profits. The experimental technology of storing waste slurry in

clay tanks under tropical rainforest conditions was untried.

Seepage from the ponds had already led the mine to issue warnings

to the local Amerindians against drinking local creek waters. 

Last year, an investigation carried out for the Amerindian

Peoples Association (APA) by Britain's Minewatch had highlighted

the risks of a tailings dam burst. The disaster 'was not only

predictable but predicted' notes Minewatcher Roger Moody, who

carried out the study.

Guyana's haste to open up its interior to loggers and miners has

been widely criticised by environmentalists. The Government has

been pushed into it by its huge foreign debt and pressure from

the International Monetary Fund and World Bank to encourage

foreign investment. As a result, business has expanded faster

than the Government can control leading to demands from Guyanese

citizens for a freeze on the handout of concessions. The loudest

cries have come from the Amerindians who inhabit the sparsely

settled interior. 'The Guyanese economy may need the money, but

sacrifice of peoples' lives and damage to the environment should

not be the cost' notes Jean La Rose of the APA. The Government

has now promised a thorough overhaul of its environmental laws.

'It's a pity they didn't listen to us sooner' laments La Rose.

----------------------------------------------------------------

           Background:

*    Financier Robert Friedland, whose stake in Golden Star

     Resources Limited (GSRL) underwrote the Omai venture,

     previously headed Galactic Resources, responsible for the

     worst tailings dam disaster of the decade in the USA.

*    GSRL is also developing a major diamond find on the lands

     of the Akawaio Indians of the Upper Mazaruni in Guyana.

*    GSRL has proposed a second gold mine at Aranka on Carib

     Indian lands, also in Guyana.

*    In Suriname, GSRL's prospecting has led to the forced

     expulsion of thousands of Maroon people from their lands.

*    GSRL is also developing other gold and diamond prospects in

     Suriname, French Guyana, Brazil and Venezuela.

*    David Fagin of GSRL said in October 1994 that his company

     'had looked specifically at the Guyana Shield because of

     increased pressure by environmentalists and the government

     in the USA.'

*    Share prices for Cambior Inc. and GSRL crashed on the

     international markets when the Omai disaster was announced.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

For further information contact: Marcus Colchester, Forest

Peoples Programme, 8 Chapel Row, Chadlington, OX7 3NA, England

Tel:01608676691 Fax: +441608676743 Email: wrm@gn.apc.org

(This feature is circulated for NGO use and may not be published

without first contacting the WRM-Forest Peoples Programme.)

           24 August 1995

###RELAYED TEXT ENDS###

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