Black Immigrant Daily News

AL RAYYAN, Qatar (AP) — Arab teams are making an impact at the first World Cup in the Middle East.

Tunisia held European Championship semifinalist Denmark to a 0-0 draw Tuesday, three hours after Saudi Arabia beat Argentina in a shocking upset.

Before a stadium filled almost entirely with their red-clad supporters, Tunisia likely deserved more but an expert save shortly before halftime by goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel helped Denmark preserve the draw.

Having already gone down to the grass after Tunisia broke through the defense, Schmeichel stuck his hand up to deflect a shot from Issam Jebali, who plays his club ball in Denmark for Odense.

It was just the sort of save that the keeper’s father, former Manchester United great Peter Schmeichel, used to pull off.

The match marked Christian Eriksen’s return to a major tournament less than a year and a half after his cardiac arrest with Denmark at Euro 2020.

Assuming his customary playmaker position, Eriksen produced a dangerous long-distance shot on goal in the second half that Tunisia goalkeeper Aymen Dahmen had to bat away.

And on the ensuing corner, Denmark hit the post.

Tunisia also survived the chance of a last-minute penalty for Denmark but the referee ruled to play on after a video review for a possible handball.

Denmark have been one of the most outspoken critics of the tournament in Qatar and during the pre-match warmup their players wore all black long-sleeve shirts over their red game jerseys to mourn migrant workers who died building infrastructure for football’s biggest event.

Denmark were also planning on wearing the “One Love” anti-discrimination armband along with other European teams before the campaign was dropped when FIFA threatened to hand out yellow cards.

However, former Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt, who is now chair of the Danish soccer federation’s governance and development committee, was at the stadium wearing a coat with some subtle rainbow colouring.

Denmark have lofty goals following their performance at last year’s Euro 2020 and a near-perfect qualifying campaign, while Tunisia are seeking to advance from the group stage for the first time in their sixth World Cup appearance.

After a lack of atmosphere at several of the opening matches, the huge number of Tunisian fans inside Education City Stadium made it feel like a home match for the North African team. Tunisia fans chanted, banged drums and blew air horns when their squad had the ball — then hissed and whistled loudly whenever Denmark had possession.

Many spectators waving Palestinian flags also supported Tunisia.

Tunisia midfielder A?ssa La?douni set the tone in the very first minute when he stripped Eriksen of the ball with an aggressive sliding tackle — then stood up and pumped his arms menacingly, gesturing to the crowd to get even more fired up.

In the end, both teams produced 13 shots.

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Black Immigrant Daily News

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — It was a match Argentines had no doubt would be victorious and joyful. Instead, shock and sadness engulfed the streets of the capital Tuesday morning as the long-awaited debut of the national team in the World Cup ended in a 2-1 loss to Saudi Arabia.

“The truth is, this is a disappointment, a big disappointment,” said Alejandro Pintos, a 36-year-old locksmith who was opening his shop a bit later than usual because he first wanted to watch the game. “This was the match that we had no choice but to win.”

Pintos described the national team as being “very disorganized,” something he found particularly frustrating given its 36-match unbeaten streak leading up to the tournament.

Led by Lionel Messi, Argentina entered the tournament as one of the favourites, but instead suffered one of the biggest World Cup upsets after Saudi Arabia rallied with two second-half goals in Lusail Stadium.

“I’m really quite bitter,” Josefina Licera, a 27-year-old social worker, said as she waited for the bus to go to work. “I was really sure we were going to win and it was a big surprise.”

Susana Leguizam?n, 55, woke up half an hour before the match was set to start at 7 am local time and put on her blue-and-white-striped Argentina jersey, ready to celebrate what she thought was going to be a fabulous debut for the national team in Qatar.

“I was very, very, very surprised,” Leguizam?n said. “The truth is, we underestimated our rival.”

Argentines were counting on a World Cup win to bring a glimmer of a hope to a country that has been economically stagnant for years, is suffering a nearly 100% inflation rate, and where close to 4 in 10 people are living in poverty.

Oscar L?pez, 67, was visibly upset as he reflected on the team’s unexpected defeat while wiping down windows outside the building where he is the superintendent.

“If they’re in the World Cup, no team is easy,” L?pez said, his eyes watering. “You always have to be careful.”

But Santiago Babarro, 40, said he wasn’t all that shocked by the result.

“The same thing always happens to Argentina,” the retail worker said. “We say, ‘This is an easy match, we can win it easily,’ and then, bam! They put us in our place. We always believe we’re more than what we are.”

Sebasti?n Fabre, 48, woke up with an uneasy feeling Tuesday, worried about what he said was overconfidence on the side of Argentina fans.

“There was way too much unfounded optimism. I didn’t want to say anything but I think we were all way too overconfident,” Fabre said.

Leguizam?n, who walked to her job at a restaurant still wearing her Argentina jersey, said she could feel those around her were also suffering the loss.

“Everyone is very sad, very sad,” she said. “We all woke up with lots of hope.”

Still, the fans said they could see a silver lining.

“Really, it’s better that this happened in the first match and not in the quarter finals,” Fabre said. “That’s the positive side to this.”

Leuizam?n agreed.

“A trip is not a fall, as we say here,” she said, using a common Argentine expression. “I’m a big fan of the national team and I get in a really bad mood when it loses but my hope is intact.”

Argentina plays Mexico on Saturday in their second match in Group C.

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Black Immigrant Daily News

See full statement from the Guyana Elections Commission:

The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has taken note of the disinformation that have been propagated by small groups of placard-bearing persons who were protesting in front of a few of the Registration Offices of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) on Monday, November 21, 2022. The wording of some of the placards displayed grossly inaccurate information, for example, “GECOM it’s long overdue”, “21 days and still no OLV List,” “GECOM stop the nonsense and clean the list,” “21 days to Nomination Day, where is the OLV,” “We need sanitized voters list” and, “clean the voter’s list”.

With specific reference to “OLV” as written on the placards, it is assumed that this is the acronym for ‘Official List of Voters’ for Local Government Elections, which is, according to the statutory description is really the Registers of Voters (RoVs). Members of he public could easily form the impression that the RoVs are overdue having read the placards which proclaim “GECOM it’s long overdue”, “21 days and still no OLV List.” Nothing could be further from the truth.

GECOM has posted the Revised List of Electors (RLE), in the public domain for scrutiny in compliance with the Regulation which mandates that this be done for the statutorily required twenty-one (21) days.

Posting of the RLE precedes extraction of lists of electors for Local Government Elections. GECOM’s Secretariat is currently implementing the tasks delineated sequentially in its Work Plan for the conduct of Local Government Elections (LGE) which is scheduled to be held on 13th March, 2023. Section 23(4) of the Local Authorities (Elections) Act, Chapter 28:03 stipulates that “the register of voters for the local authority area shall come into force at such time as shall be prescribed by the Elections Commission by notice published in the Gazette and shall be open for inspection at all reasonable times at the offices of the local authority, and copies thereof shall be printed.” The date earmarked for the extraction of the RoVs is November 26, 2022 i.e. two days after the end of the period of display of the RLE.

This will be followed by printing and distribution of the Registers to Returning Officers so that they could be opened for inspection by members of the public as is statutorily required. Opening of the Registers for public scrutiny is scheduled in the work Plan to commence on December 1, 2022. It is, therefore, wholly misleading for any person or organization to perpetuate the disinformation that the publication of the RoVs is overdue.

On the matter of the calls for a “sanitized voters’ list”, it is imperative that we reiterate GECOM’s operations continue to be guided by the applicable Constitutional and legal provisions. In this regard, it is obligatory for us to repeat that the eligibility requirement for registration is that one must be a Guyanese citizen by birth, descent, or naturalization; or a citizen of a Commonwealth country living in Guyana for one year or more.

Providing persons met those requirements and have been registered, their registration in the National Register of Registrants (NRR) is and remains legitimate. Accordingly, any removal of their names from the NRR, without legal basis, would be unlawful and unconstitutional.

Existing legislation provides that the removal of names from the NRR can be done only through the established methodology comprising (i) the receipt of monthly death reports from the General Registers Office (GRO) and (ii) through the Objections aspect of any Claims and Objections exercise, which allows for any elector, or suitably accredited Scrutineers of Political Parties, to object to the inclusion of the names in the Preliminary List of Electors (PLE) who may not be eligible inclusion.

In view of the foregoing, the Commission calls upon all concerned persons/organisations to desist from peddling misinformation and disinformation, as this could seriously impact citizen’s participation at the upcoming Local Government Elections.

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Black Immigrant Daily News

The National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) 2023 is set to be written on May 3 and 4, as the Education Ministry continues to work to return a sense of normalcy for the new academic year following the Covid-19 pandemic.

The last time the National Grade Six Assessment was executed under normal circumstances was the year 2019.

As she made the announcement on Tuesday, Education Minister Priya Manickchand shared that the release of results for the NGSA will also return to a normal timeline.

“Results are going to be ready by July 11, 2023,” she said.

The Minister explained that this early announcement will give stakeholders a chance to plan and prepare for the NGSA.

Next year’s assessment will be based on the Grade Five curriculum and then a consolidated curriculum. However, it was reminded that concepts from Grades Three and Four are also tested.

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