Prominent member of the Children’s Legal Aid and Attorney-at-Law, Jaya Manickchand,Wholesale Baseball Jerseys Online, believes that effective communication among ranks of the Guyana Police Force and Social Service workers could be the catalyst for the reduction of juvenile matters brought before the courts.Jaya ManickchandThe Legal Aid official voiced these sentiments during a recent interview with this publication. She outlined the adherence of a policy of procedures when dealing with juveniles.Manickchand further stated that social services should intervene before a charge is instituted against a child for certain offences she deemed as petty,Wholesale Jerseys From China, to determine if the child is criminal-minded and should be removed from the environment.Manickchand cited instances where children are committed to the New Opportunity Corps for wandering and other simple offences,Cheap NFL Jerseys Authentic, while suggesting that these children may have social issues necessitating interventions of Legal Aid.The Children’s Legal Aid, funded by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), has been providing free legal representation to children up to 18 years old, across Guyana, and within the past four years, has expanded its mandate to referral of clients to appropriate agencies.“We allow anybody to come in once it relates to children and advises on other referral agencies,” Manickchand explained. She added that Legal Aid sometimes seeks the intervention of the Police Commissioner or the Director of Public Prosecutions to ensure that matters of this nature receive adequate attention.The agency’s clients include unrepresented youths, and once the body is satisfied with the court’s guidance,Cheap Soccer Jerseys, the Attorney-at-Law present represents the alleged offender as a friend of the court.“We are not in the business of lying for children to get them off. The Courts have been very understanding, co-operative and sympathetic when dealing with children. If there are minor offences we ask the court in terms of sentencing to consider they are children who made mistakes. Most times the courts elect to order non-custodial sentences,Authentic NFL Jerseys Cheap, while magistrates may use their discretion and mete out non-custodial sentencing ordering counseling as an alternative.”Manickchand admits to the slothfulness of the judicial system but blames this on the resignation of some magistrates resulting in a new magistrate taking over the case. In some cases, the matter may restart when that client reaches the age of 19 years, which precludes the Children’s Legal Aid from providing legal representation. That person is now required to seek legal representation from private practitioners or from the Guyana Legal Aid Clinic.

Former Auditor General, Dr. Anand Goolsarran, has aired his dissatisfaction about the appointment of former Attorney General, Senior Counsel Charles Ramson,Jerseys NFL Cheap, as Commissioner of Information in Guyana. The appointment was made last week by Cabinet Secretary, Dr. Roger Luncheon.It is an appointment that signals the first stage in implementing the Access to Information Act which comes several weeks after the International Press Institute (IPI) said it was pushing Government to enact the said Act. But the Director of Transparency International,Cheap NFL Jerseys, a body funded by the British and Canadian Governments to fight corruption in Guyana and other parts of the world,Cheap Nike NFL Jerseys, is worried that the appointment of Senior Counsel Ramson could bring disrepute and doubt to the post itself.“It is supposed to be an independent job…he is a party die-hard….crude…so putting him there is like putting a bulldog there. You can’t get past there; you can’t get anything.”Any citizen of Guyana,Wholesale Nike NFL Jerseys, Dr. Goolsarran said, is supposed to feel free to approach the Commission of Information for documents about any aspect of government or operations of government…”That’s what freedom of information means,Cheap NFL Jerseys,” he mentioned.Dr. Goolsarran added that the state media in Guyana is becoming worrying. It maligns and attacks public individuals, Goolsarran included.“You need to reform the state media. The state media resources are being used to target opposition…including me and other members of our TI group. We are independent people but we need to stop thinking that if you’re not for me, you are against me. They must respect civil society and independent actors. They must show us the respect.”He also mentioned the “damning U.S State Department Report on the Police Force in Guyana”, and begged that the police force be reformed and professionalized.

Dear Editor,Wholesale Cheap Jerseys,Guyana has always been a hypocritical society when it comes to discussing ethnicity and its racial consequences. We understand fully how ethnicity has shaped our history and politics, yet we avoid any frank discussion about it. In fact, we punish those who dare to raise it in the open by deeming them racist.This is one of the most disgusting aspects of our political culture that is practiced even by some sections of the media. The instances of censorship when it comes to discussion of race and ethnicity have become the rule rather than the exception. It is at the root of our inability to overcome our ethnic challenges.The discourse surrounding the recent reports of the government commissioned audits is a typical case. The reports are now out in the open. The revelations are startling. They reveal a wholesale transfer of state resources to a tiny cabal of mostly members of the Indian Guyanese elite. Yet many would dare not go there; we prefer to talk about Mr. Jagdeo transferring State resources to his close friends. But who are is close friends? Too which ethnic do they belong? There are??? a party- political,NFL Jerseys China, a social class and an ethnic dimension to those transfers.You simply do not unlawfully transfer all of those resources to one ethnic group and not expect, in our ethnically charged society, to be charged with systemic racism. Resources are pivotal to the accumulation of wealth and when one group enjoys a monopoly on those resources, you are courting ethnic discontent. The basis of ethnic domination lies in the economic empowerment of one group and a simultaneous disempowerment of another group.None of our early leaders,nfl jerseys china, from Burnham to Hoyte to Jagan engaged in such wholesale transfer of state resources into the hands of a small private clique.? I believe that these leaders understood the ethnic consequences of such transfer. And I believe that Mr. Jagdeo and his leadership understand those ethnic consequences. Yet, they went ahead with the transfers.Although the Indian Guyanese masses do not benefit directly from this unlawful concentration of resources in the elite of their ethnic group, in our ethnically divided environment the symbolism has far-reaching consequences for ethnic balance.? I am contending that the corruption under the PPP was partly ethnically motivated and would in the end have ethnic consequences.African Guyanese, who have been dispossessed of ancestral lands will not take very lightly the transfer of state lands into the private hands of the East Indian elite. They should not take lightly such transfers into the hands of the elite of any ethnic group,Cheap Jerseys, including their own.So we now have a Guyana in which ownership of common resources are disproportionately in the hands of one group. That should not be allowed to stand. I am opposed to the rape of state resources from a social-class standpoint. Denying the poor while enriching the rich is wrong and ugly.I oppose those actions from a purely political standpoint. Governments should not facilitate corruption; it’s undemocratic. I am opposed to using government for unfair ethnic distribution of state resources. It is ugly,Wholesale Jerseys Free Shipping, dangerous and morally wrong. African Guyanese and poor people of all races have a duty to press this government to recover those resources and to put measures in place so that what the PPP did does not happen again.David Hinds

The manager of Joseph’s Record Bar, Shabbir Baksh, is one step closer to receiving his firearm along with its licence to legally use it given that the Chief Justice (ag) Ian Chang and Justice Rishi Persaud, quashed an order by the Divisional Commander Leron Brummell.Assistant Commissioner Brummell must return Baksh’s firearm and licence or show cause why the High Court ruling must not stand,Cheap NFL Jerseys, the court ruled.The entire incident stemmed from five “Guyanese Girls Gone Wild” pornographic DVD Baksh had in his possession.Baksh in his petition to have the firearm returned stated,Cheap Jerseys, “In the course of my business, I am in charge of the entire business outfit which at any given time is stocked with millions of dollars of stock-in-trade. On a regular basis I am required to deal with, handle and carry to the bank and to my employer’s home large sums of cash and other valuables.”As such Baksh said that as a consequence, in 2004,Wholesale Authentic Jerseys, he successfully applied for a firearm licence and purchased a .32 semi-automatic pistol along with 100 rounds of ammunition.That firearm licence was duly renewed for the years 2005 and 2006.In 2006, however, ranks of the Guyana Police Force descended at the Regent and King Streets business, conducted a search and found, seized and removed the five pornographic “Guyanese Girls Gone Wild” DVDs. The police also arrested him and took possession of his then licensed firearm which he was carrying on his person at the time.Baksh was subsequently charged with the offence of trading in obscene objects. He said that without legal representation he pleaded guilty to the offence and paid the fine.For more than a year Baksh said he went about his business and then suddenly received a letter from the Assistant Commissioner which drew reference to the charges that related to the pornographic disks and requested him to show cause why his firearm licence should not be revoked.Baksh said that upon receipt of that letter he was advised by his Attorney Anil Nandlall that Mr Brummell had no authority whatsoever to require him to show cause why the firearm licence issued to him should not be revoked since Brummell was neither a grantor of the licence nor the prescribed officer under the Firearms Act.Baksh nevertheless said that he responded to Brummell pointing out that,cheap jerseys, “I am just an employee of the said Joseph’s Cassette and DVD Shop and not the owner of the business. I do not make purchases of any DVDs or CDs: the proprietor who does all of the purchasing was not within the jurisdiction on the day in question…“My job, however, entails the transport of large amounts of cash from the business place to the boss’ residence or to the bank which is very dangerous.”The following day he received a correspondence from Brummell stating that his licence had been revoked and that he had to turn over his weapon.Baksh said that he wasadvised by his attorney, Nandlall,Authentic China Jerseys, that the possession of pornographic DVDs is not a valid ground and does not form the legal basis for the revocation of a firearm licence and that the act of revocation constitutes a most bizarre exercise of a discretionary power.Nonetheless it has taken several years before Baksh is now one step closer to receiving his weapon along with a licence which he lost as a result of five “Guyanese Girls Gone Wild” disksChief Justice Chang and Justice Persaud ruled that the decision by Brummell was “arbitrary, capricious, unreasonable, influenced by extraneous and irrelevant considerations, whimsical, unlawful, null, void and of no effect unless,” he (Brummell) could show cause otherwise.