Extraordinary Guyana

09/09/2022

ECD man allegedly Electrocuted
FACTS: Enquiries disclose that 32-year-old Mark Wells of lot 44 Coldingen, ECD, (now deceased), resided with his 46-year-old girlfriend. However, on September 7th, 2022 at about 20:40 hours at the said address, his girlfriend noted that Wells was in the yard running a wire to a nearby house to receive electricity. A short while after she heard him screaming and rushed to see what was happening.

The woman further noted that upon arrival she then observed that he was holding a white electric drop cord in his left hand and lying motionless on the ground. She managed to remove the wire from his hand and observed he was unresponsive. She then raised an alarm.

At about 20:50 hours an EMT from the Melanie Fire Station arrived and Wells was later pronounced dead. The body was then examined by ranks and wounds were seen to his left-hand palm and right leg.

The body was later taken to the Mortuary where it is awaiting Post Mortem Examination.

Investigation in progress. No foul play is suspected.

25/08/2022

How did a Guyanese become recognized as the world's most successful lawyer? The case of Sir Lionel Luckhoo

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When one talks about the world’s most successful Lawyer, many conjure up images of corporate lawyers for some of the largest companies in the world like Bill Neukom who served as Microsoft’s lead counsel for a quarter of a century and others imagine famous criminal defense lawyers like Johnnie Cochran, however, almost all are amazed when a Guyanese name is called in the debate. This name is Lionel Luckhoo. This famed Guyanese lawyer was so good at his craft, that he was certified by the Guinness book of records as the World’s most successful lawyer.
According to an old article in the Guyana Graphic, “Sir Lionel Alfred Luckhoo KCMG, CBE, Q.C. was born on March 2, 1914 in New Amsterdam, Guyana. He was educated at Queen's College, Georgetown, Guyana and then began studying medicine at St. Thomas' Hospital in England but then quickly switched careers to legal studies when he realized that he could not stand the sight of blood. He completed a total of 18 months of bar exam preparatory work in 3 months.
He was called to the English bar (Middle Temple) in 1940, then returned to Guyana and started a solicitor's practice with one of his brothers in the firm Luckhoo and Luckhoo. He maintained his private legal practice spanning most of the years from 1940 to 1985, and became a Queen's Counsel in 1954.”
As his record suggests, Lionel Luckhoo was extraordinarily persuasive with juries. He was deadly precise in cross-examination, and got straight to the heart of what was in issue before the court. Between 1940 and 1985, when he finally retired, almost all his clients were acquitted at trial. The few that were not had their convictions overturned on appeal to the Privy Council.
One such case, Noor Mohamed v R (1949), remains an authority on so-called similar fact evidence. The defendant, a goldsmith, was accused of murdering the woman he lived with by causing her to take cyanide, a substance which he used for his trade. There was no direct evidence that he had caused her to take cyanide, and some evidence that she had committed su***de.
At the trial, the prosecution led evidence that the goldsmith had previously killed his wife with cyanide on pretense that it was a cure for toothache. On appeal, Luckhoo successfully argued that the prejudicial effect of this evidence outweighed its probative value, so it had been wrongly admitted.

Part of his courtroom technique is reported in Fred Archer's biography of Sir Lionel Luckhoo:
"Pick out two individuals. Look for one who is nodding his head and seems to be agreeing with you; then seek out another who is turning his head away because you do not convince him. Speak first to the one who is nodding. When you think you have won him over completely, move on to the one who appears dubious. Concentrate on him, look him in the eye make him feel that you are eschewing everything else to hold his attention because the life of your client is in his hands and that he must be convinced, as he ought to be convinced, that your man is innocent and deserves an acquittal." (Sir Lionel, p. 33)
Sir Lionel had many noteworthy and peculiar cases, one such instance was where he essentially forced former president Cheddi Jagan to admit in open court that he was a communist, something he had never confessed publicly before, after 4 hours of intense cross-examination and in 1990, the Guinness book of world records listed Sir Lionel as the world’s most successful attorney, citing a total of 245 consecutive murder charge acquittals.

18/08/2022

The lost treasure of the Pomeroon? Kabakaburi’s sunken Dutch gold

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Thirty-five miles up the Pomeroon River, lays the quaint little village of Kabakaburi with a rich, cultural history and a vibrant community of about 800 strong. The ancient Amerindians of Guyana had settled in the Pomeroon river area thousands of years ago, erecting giant mounds of shells over generations and leaving behind a variety of curious artifacts. it was undoubtedly them who came to realize that a particular bush named ‘Jotoro’ whose juice caused a savage itching when contact was made with the skin grew in abundance in the area. These ancient Arawaks came to name the place where the itchy bush grew Kabo Kabura, and as language and cultural expression evolved this became Kabakaburi.
After the ‘discovery’ and exploration of the wild coast, the Dutch occupied a vast part of the Pomeroon region for centuries, starting from around 1620, erecting forts and trading colonies along the banks of major rivers. In the 19th century, one of the earliest Anglican missionaries in Guyana, William Henry Brett had recorded in his journal that the area was owned by the Arawak, but was settled by the Dutch in the area as well. Describing the site of Kabakaburi, Brett observes that “from the side of that hill there rises a giant silk cotton tree, towering high above the surrounding forest and attracting the eye of every passer-by…” This tree was estimated to be a little taller than 180 feet.
Brett’s writings further stated that Kabakaburi was the site of a Dutch colony by the name of fort Durban that had been erected as a wood cutting station.
Fort Durban would eventually become abandoned after its original inhabitants were ravaged by an outbreak of Cholera. It is implied that the site was then reoccupied and utilized by the Arawak community.
Brett further notes that in 1843 the site was then purchased by the first Bishop of Guyana to be utilized as a mission after he paid a visit to the area and converted a teacher of the tribesmen to Christianity. This was fully realized in 1845 when Brett himself established the mission at Kabakaburi.
It is interesting to note that Brett commented on the most prominent natural feature of the area, a massive silk cotton tree, giant even amongst the mighty canopy of the rainforest. That very silk cotton tree is quite possibly the one that still stands in the vicinity of the village today and which plays a role in one of the most interesting tales emerging from the village. Legends emerging out of Trinidad and Guyana say that the ancient Dutchmen buried their treasures under the roots of Silk Cotton trees and then killed the slave that had buried it so that their treasure can forever be guarded. Many Silk Cotton trees around Guyana have some sort of Dutch spirit or curse allegedly linked to them. In Kabakaburi’s case, local legends speak of a Dutch punt that sank within the vicinity of Kabakaburi mission in the Pomeroon River. The submerged punt had reportedly been ferrying a large quantity of Dutch gold coins when the waters of the Pomeroon claimed it.
The punt reportedly had some huge metal chains attached to it, fifty meters long and with links as big as a person’s hand that were allegedly tied around the trunk of a massive Silk Cotton tree within the vicinity of Kabakaburi. Could this be the same giant silk cotton tree that Brett had spoken of? Many believe it so, and testimony from several persons have confirmed that there was indeed a massive chain wrapped around the base of the Silk cotton tree that led into the river, its massive links corroded and rusting after years of exposure to the elements. This chain was visible to anyone that wanted to witness it up until the mid-1940s when the government of the day made an attempt to uncover what lay at the heart of the legend. One account was published in the Guyana Chronicle and came from a man whose aunt, a native of the Pomeroon, had recounted it to him. The Government had instructed the M.V Pomeroon to retrieve whatever lay submerged there, and in 1948, the steamer and her crew attempted to retrieve the sunken treasure.
The following is an extract from the Guyana Chronicle of the M.V Pomeroon’s attempt: “a powerful tugboat was sent to the location and the driver went down and secured chains on the serpent that slithered on the surface of the punts. Now the tugboat had its engine in full speed ahead. She strained and strained. The chains burst and new links were used. That broke too. Heavy-duty wire ropes were substituted. The steel hawser held and the tug inched forward. The spectators held their breaths. Some were scared, some skeptical. With her black stone engines tested to its limit, the water above the treasure began to bubble. There was movement down there and all were excited. The tugboat gave it all and the water burst open. The rusty and muddy punts emerged with a frightening splash. You can see the snakes on top of their lids.”
Despite this initial triumph, however, it was short-lived, as the account then details how the punts began to sink again, pulling the tethers along with it and putting the boat in a dangerous position, this caused the captain of the vessel to abandon it, and the punts sank right back down to their resting place. To date, there has been no other known attempts to recover the sunken treasure except for a team of Israeli divers that had reportedly attempted to find the location of the punts but failed. This is no surprise as, the Pomeroon, being one of the deepest rivers in Guyana would have undoubtedly already swallowed the punts into its muddy bottom after decades of deposition at the river bottom.

Note: No actual Image of the massive chain was found, the image displayed represents what the chain might have looked like.

15/08/2022

Thieves posing as good samaritans steals bike from stranded motorcyclist.
According to the victim, the incident in question occured around 3 am on Sunday morning along the Railway Embankment between the Bel Air/Liliendaal area.
The young man had reportedly ran out of gas and was pushing his red Suzuki motorcycle bearing registration number CL 5238 to a gas station when two persons pulled up on a motorbike pretending that they were going to help me but they took away the bike from me.”
According to the young man, he "took the keys and ran a few meters away from them" upon shouting for help, a car stopped, but instead of helping the stranded man, the guys in the car attacked him, got the keys, and then stole his bike.
Anyone with information about the red Suzuki Gixxer bike is asked to contact the owner on Tel: 615-6767 or the nearest Police Station.

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15/08/2022

A 27-year-old man has found himself in hot water after allegations of assault and theft have been leveled against him.
According to the emerging details of the story, Denish Persaud of Blairmount Number 1 Settlement, West Coast Berbice on Sunday last at approximately 16:30 hours, allegedly assaulted his ex-girlfriend and stole her white fielder wagon bearing registration number PYY 4403, at Blairmount, West Bank Berbice. Persaud and the alleged victim reportedly shared an intimate relationship back in 2020 for a year, however it was short lived due to the abuse that the woman allegedly suffered at the hands of Persaud. Despite the relationship coming to an end, Persaud reportedly never stopped harassing the victim and her daughter. The woman’s daughter noted that “he does come in the yard night time and morning time when we wake up, we does say we go call the police and then he does go away.”
On the day in question, Persaud allegedly approached the owner on the road, took away the car keys, and jumped into the car. The victim also jumped into her car before the victim proceeded to drive to Blairmount, West Coast Berbice where he then managed to physically force the woman out of the car. He then drove away with her belongings inside the car.
According to the woman’s daughter, the incident was already reported to the Blairmont Police Station but the police are dragging their feet on the matter.
The police say “okay and they will look into the matter‘ and they man call on another phone and say he go spray over the vehicle and sell it out and no one will find it because he is in hiding.

Anyone with information on the whereabouts of PYY4403 or Denish Persaud is asked to call 6791659 or the nearest police station.

15/08/2022

A young man by the name of Owen Younge, aged just 19 years, was fatally stabbed during a heated argument that escalated into a physical brawl on the quiet streets of Perseverance, East Bank Demerara on Saturday last.

Reports emerging from the village indicate that at just before 10 pm on the night in question, Younge was on the roadway when he crossed paths with another man with whom he is known to have a long-standing feud with. An argument broke out, followed by a scuffle and in the ensuing chaos, the man can be seen on video dealing what appears to be several stabs to Younge, who then ran some distance away to a parked car that began to drive off. A subsequent image circulating on social media appears to show Younge’s body lying on the roadway in a pool of blood, the events that transpired between the video and the picture are unknown.

14/08/2022

This beautiful little island sits directly behind Canal Number 1 in the Conservancy. The island’s peculiar square shape makes it look man made, but the appearance is most likely coincidental and entirely natural.

Photo Credit: Deopaul Somwaru

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12/08/2022

Two young girls lost in the Guyanese rainforest for 1 month – The Domingo Sister’s determination to survive.

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Many have heard accounts of persons lost in the rainforests of South America, many of which are never seen or heard from again. However, in an utterly unbelievable and downright extraordinary story of survival, two young Amerindian girls, Bertina and Bernadette Domingo, aged just 13 and 9 at the time of the ordeal, accomplished the impossible when they were found alive and well a full 31 days after being lost in the inhospitable and unexplored jungles of Guyana in 1995. They traversed over 200 miles of virgin rainforest, at the mercy of the elements – from the remote reaches of Essequibo to approximately 190 miles up the Berbice River – a mile away from the Lindo tributary.
Speaking with Stabroek News in a 2014 interview, Bertina, now the mother of 6, recalled the harrowing ordeal with vivid detail. She recalled how her uncle Anselmo Henry had hurriedly picked her and Bernadette up one afternoon after school while her parents were at the farm. “I don’t know where he was taking us, He just carry us,” she said. The uncle had reportedly received instructions from the girl’s father to take them directly to the family farm, but he opted to ferry them up the Essequibo instead. “He take us in the night and he tell us to sleep in the boat and we small already, we sleep cos we din know what is happening,” she recounted. Under the guise of taking the girls to their brother, who they knew was at the time working on the coast, he continued on with the kids in tow. Bertina recalled her uncle paddling down the Essequibo for miles despite their protests and tears. As the miles passed, the terrain grew unfamiliar to Bertina. “We just start crying, cry all the time, we no stop crying,” she said. With nothing to eat, the uncle finally docked the boat near an area known to him and ordered the girls to start walking. “Then we start walk, walk, walk all the time,” she said. It was then that the situation got from bad to worse. Their uncle, who would constantly have to take medication to reportedly manage an illness while in Apoteri, began to relapse, with the condition, whatever it was, rapidly worsening. “He start getting worms on his body,” Bertina said, describing it as being all over his body, even on his head. They watched him die and then left.
According to Bertina, they survived by walking along the banks of the river and using “fire sticks” to catch fish. She explained that they pasted the gum from the haiwa tree to the end of the stick and lit it afire. They blinded the fish with the lit sticks and chopped the fish with a cutlass they had. They slept in a hammock that they strung up in the branches of the trees to sleep. She was scared, she said, of jaguars and snakes.
Bertina recalled walking through the hostile jungle for miles before eventually realizing that they were being stalked by a jaguar. She stated that “My sister was crying, I was crying and eventually jaguar start coming to us. She said that they had noticed it behind them on the track. “It was a big jaguar,” she said. “When it coming, we climb high up on the treetop,” she recalled, recounting seeing it as it passed under them. “When it pass, my sister fall down from the tree, the branch break down with she…I tell she to climb back up quick in case it come back…she climb back again, we deh crying on the treetop.”
At one point they stumbled upon a portknocker's camp, but it was long since abandoned.
Bertina recalled walking with matches but these were eventually soaked by the rain and they had to keep a piece of wood alight as they walked. “All the time we keeping fire on the wood,” Bertina recalled.
Eventually, the girls ventured near the location of a miners’ camp that was situated on the opposite end of the river that they stood by. With support from her sister, she summoned the strength to shout out to them, and recalled the miners questioning them and feeding them before promising to take them to Kwakwani. One of them was George Gonsalves. She said that she eventually started to get sick and after the wash-down, the miners took them to Kwakwani and eventually to the hospital in Georgetown.
After they were found, the incredible story was retold both locally and internationally, and the two girls were eventually reunited with their family and also received the National award - the Medal of Service.

12/08/2022

In the video below, A minibus and a Guyana Fire Service Emergency vehicle are seen totaled on a roadway. From initial reports, they were involved in a collision on a public road on the West Coast of Demerara.

12/08/2022

At approximately 15 minutes after midnight on Friday, August 12th, the decomposing body of an unidentified male was discovered floating on the Eastern bank of the Demerara River, within the vicinity of Tiger Bay. An anonymous caller tipped off the Brickdam Police Station about the location of the body.
When Police ranks arrived at the scene, the body had already begun the decomposition process.
From emerging reports, the body was clad in a gray three-quarter short pants.
The body has since been taken to the Memorial Gardens Funeral Home waiting to be identified and for post-mortem.

Photo: the mouth of the Demerara ( not where the body was found)

12/08/2022

In the video seen below, a minibus can be seen speeding off of the roadway and into the adjoining field. Unconfirmed reports indicate that the driver lost control after the vehicle's brakes reportedly failed. However, upon closer inspection of the video by Extraordinary Guyana, it appears that the minibus was attempting to illegally undertake a motorcar and swerved into the grass in a desperate attempt to avoid a collision with a car parked on the corner of the road. Whether the driver failed to brake in time due to negligence of the driver or due to a vehicular malfunction with the brakes remains unclear.

12/08/2022

the last Supermoon visible in Guyana tonight.
Photo credit: Fiaz Yamin

11/08/2022

Check out these pristine, crystal clear pools of water that form at the top of the fabled Mount Roraima. These pools have been formed by a constant cycle of erosion and rainfall for hundreds of thousands of years and are icy cold to the touch.
Photo credits: Travel 2 Unlimited

11/08/2022

In light of the Parliament's recent legalization of Industrial h**p, this infographic provides some useful on the various way in which Guyana can benefit from Industrial H**p.

11/08/2022

Over 6 Pounds of Ma*****na discovered in the Mazaruni Prison

According to a press release from the Police, on Wednesday last, at around 13:10 hours a team of prison officers from the Mazaruni Prison were conducting a routine cleaning exercise when they stumbled upon a white salt bag hidden behind the western side of the kitchen which contained several bleach bottles and other items.
Upon checking the bottles the officers found them to contain a number of leaves, seeds, and stems suspected to be cannabis. The Bartica Police Station was contacted and the suspected cannabis was handed over, which, when weighed, amounted to 3067 grams, or a little over 6 pounds.
No arrest was made but investigations are in progress.
This development continues the troubling trend that sees large volumes of illegal goods entering the nation's prisons. Often times prisoners are found with Contraband items such as drugs, makeshift weapons, and even alcohol and ci******es that have been smuggled in.

11/08/2022

Release from Assistant Commissioner Calvin Brutus on the recommencement of GPF's recruitment drive

"Today I commenced the first of a series of recruitment drives onbehalf of the Guyana Police Force as we recommence training.
We have decided to reach out to persons outside of Georgetown as the challenges associated with traveling to Georgetown to be interviewed etc, have not gone unnoticed by the force administration.
The Guyana Police Force previously provided a list to new recruits on what items they need to walk with when going into training school. Those included their P.T attire, civilian clothing and footwear etc.
Further, we are aware that many of them would be coming for their first job and may not have ready access to finance.
This, therefore, has removed the burden and made the process more simplified as many have opted out of the training because of instances where they could not find those items.
Now, those items will be provided to the recruits by the police force.
Another relief to those entering the force is a collaboration between the Guyana Police Force, Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of Health to fast track the medical that applicants require as part of the application process.
I communicated to the applicants that it is the view of the Guyana Police Force that we should try as far as applicable to have new recruits train at the Police Training School closest to where they live.
This is to facilitate easy access to recruits by their families who may want to check on their welfare while they are in training.
Recruits can however indicate if they wish to have their training at a specific training school and where applicable, those requests would be granted.
During the orientation session, the applicants were also given a brief of how the force operates, what is expected of them and the responsibilities they have to the nation once they are sworn as police officers."

11/08/2022

From reports emerging from Matthews Ridge, a Cessna aircraft tipped backward while on the airstrip. Unconfirmed reports indicate that the plane was too heavily packed, causing it to buckle backwards.

Update: Further reports indicate that the aircraft was not too heavily packed but had in fact just landed and was in the process of being offloaded. The cargo was being offloaded from the front of the aircraft first and due to the groundsmen forgetting to reattach the aircraft's Tail rod, the rear end of the plane, being heavier, rested on the ground.

11/08/2022