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SUNDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2020 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM
Man found dead 1 day after receiving death threats
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Dead: Timmol Harris
21-year-old man was on Tuesday found floating in a canal at the Moroshi backdam with a wound to his neck one day after receiving death threats. Dead is Timmol Harris. Speaking with Guyana Times, Harris’ brother, Lee Harris, said that his brother’s body was found by farmers, who would usually use the canal
to go to their farms. Lee Harris said his brother was last seen by his older sister, who told the family that he told her that he was going to a birthday party. “The person from the birthday party contact me and they tell me that he was there at the birthday party and he leave there at about 7 o’clock (19:00h) the night… when he was leaving he tell the woman that he got something to tell she but the way she deh busy she didn’t get time to talk to he,” he said. He said no one knows where his brother went and what transpired after he left the party. However, on Tuesday at about 07:00h, his lifeless body was found in the canal. “Somebody lash he and then chop he and then dump he body in the canal…”, he explained. According to the older Harris, for the past year, his brother has been receiving threats from a man, who has since allegedly confessed to killing him. He said last November, his brother had an altercation with the suspect over a woman, and in the pro-
cess, his brother was cut to the face. Since then, the suspect along with another man has been threatening to kill him. Lee said only one day before his brother went missing, he told his sister that he fearful since the man threatened to kill him again. This time, the men told Timmol Harris that they would “mark his face again”. A total of nine persons have been arrested and are in Police custody assisting with investigations. However, the dead man’s brother told this publication that one man has confessed. However, this publication was unable to independently verify this. A post-mortem examination conducted on Timmol Harris’ body revealed that he died as a result of a chop wound to his upper neck. Lee Harris said his family is shaken by his brother’s death since he would have been celebrating his 22nd birthday this Thursday. He said his brother had hopes of spending time with his family this Christmas, since they had all planned to go back to their childhood home for the holidays. (G9)
Land, land everywhere…
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…but folks still squatting on it fter his piece on the Success Squatting saga yesterday, your Eyewitness was reminded by a friend that this land distribution problem is older than he’d thought. He was informed that Cain and Abel were the children of Adam and Eve, and (if you believe the story) they had inherited the entire Earth. Now, that’s a lot of real estate, isn’t it? Yet, one explanation for why Cain murdered Abel was a dispute over land!! Which would prove that one can never have enough of that commodity!! Anyhow the debate over the lands at Success took a new turn when, of all people, Leader of the Opposition (LOO), Joseph Harmon, decided to intervene. Like the proverbial bad penny, he showed up at the now flooded fields and told the holding out squatters who remained with water around their ankles, “There is enough land in this country for everybody to get a piece”!! The thing to note, of course, is that he was Granger’s second-in-command for FIVE YEARS, and while trumpeting that they came in to face a backlog of 60,000 house lot applications - they did absolutely nothing about that backlog. They just demolished the new squatting settlements that had sprung up like Jumbie Umbrellas between 2015 and 2020. Like the one behind Cummings Lodge, which they uprooted in 2017! Can they ever match the PPP’s opening up of Diamond, Eccles, Mon Repos, La Parfait Harmonie, Tuschen, Charity New Housing Scheme, Reliance and Henrietta Housing Schemes, Glasgow, Hope, Waterloo, Foulis, Amelia’s Ward, and so many others? Harmon gratuitously told the PPP Administration that they must “negotiate” with the squatters. Did he and his government “negotiate” with the folks at Cummings Lodge? After all, on housing, they promised in their 2015 manifesto to “Renew the Dream” by facilitating house ownership in addition to house lots. And with the latter, they will insist on basic infrastructure like water, electricity, drainage and roads, before giving out. Well, your Eyewitness would like Harmon to say how many house lots the PNC gave out in the five years they were in control of the treasury! And let’s not even talk about that fund to give loans to low-income applicants! Or the $8M homes that are still unoccupied! Or the retirement villages for diaspora retirees! Or the starter homes for single parents! Or the National Volunteer Corps to help the needy build homes! What happened to the 2016 promise of their Chairman of the CH&PA, Hamilton Green, to pump $50B into housing? After the Lands and Surveys only used $21M for meals!! …but you must have a plan During their last turn at the wheel, the PPP conducted the largest distribution of house lots in the history of not only of Guyana, but the entire Caribbean. The Housing Schemes mentioned above just offer a flavour of what was achieved under the tenure of Jagdeo and his then Minister of Housing, Irfaan Ali. And you can bet your bottom dollar that they’ll make a reality of their promise to distribute another 50,000 lots in the next five years. And you know why? They have a plan! The problem with the PNC - in all their incarnations, starting with Burnham - is that they believe that announcing all sorts of objectives is “visionary”. Like his 1972 announcement that he would “House, Feed and Clothe” the nation by 1976. By then the nation had become homeless, hungry and naked!! All of us can have visions - especially after smoking that Jamaican Gold!! The trick is to be practical and work according to a plan. Just watch and learn, Harmon!! …but some hands to work it If the squatters are really serious about improving their lot, they should sign up for employment at Enmore Estate when it reopens, which is soon. They’ll need cane cutters, weeders and manure spreaders.
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