Black Immigrant Daily News

The Barbados Football Association (BFA) last week showed its support for diversity in football by donating goal bars, nets, and protective barriers to a regional blind and visually impaired football workshop hosted by the National United Society of the Blind (NUSB) in partnership with the Blind Football Committee of Barbados.

In addition to equipment, the BFA sent three representatives – Kent Hall, Head of Coaching Education, Fitzgerald Carter of the Talent Development Scheme, and referee Tricia Forde – to the Samuel Jackman Prescod Institute of Technology (SJPI) to attend the three-day workshop as part of a collective knowledge-building exercise and to assist in generating awareness about blind and visually impaired football.

The workshop, supported by the Paralympic Association of Barbados, various national disability organisations, and the International Blind Sports Federation, was attended by a diverse group of disability sports stakeholders from Jamaica, Guyana, St Vincent, Grenada, and Barbados, with world-class international blind sports facilitators delivering both classroom theory sessions as well as hands-on practical activities. The Minister of Youth, Sports, and Community Empowerment Charles Griffith was in attendance and delivered the feature address.

Newly-appointed BFA Technical Director Emmerson Boyce also visited the workshop to gain further insight into the developmental initiative.

“The BFA is really pleased to be able to lend a hand in whatever way we can to assist to develop diversity in football,” he said.

“It’s fantastic to see participants from all over the region coming together and bringing awareness to the unique sporting needs of the blind and visually impaired, and I personally am very much looking forward to seeing this aspect of the game grow exponentially over the years to come.”

BFA Head of Coaching Education Kent Hall echoed these sentiments, and said the workshop was an invaluable experience.

“I went into the workshop curious and just generally wanting to be supportive,” he said. “But, I came out of it feeling not only more knowledgeable about this particular niche of the sport, but also with a greater understanding of people and communication. It was really inspiring and this experience will certainly change the way I coach. We thank the National United Society of the Blind Barbados for welcoming us to be part of such a wonderful learning opportunity.”

Chairperson of the NUSB Sports Committee Pedro Belgrave said he was thrilled with the turn out of participants and thanked the BFA for their donation and support in helping to generate much-needed awareness.

“This workshop is an important step in developing not only blind and visually impaired football, but also in our mission to bring more sports to the Caribbean for people with disabilities in general,” he said. “I want us to be able to shine in all areas and to reach the full potential of what is possible – it is my genuine wish that we can send a Barbados football team to the next Paralympic Games in Paris in 2024. We thank all involved this week for their support and in helping to get the wheels in motion towards realising that goal.”

BFA President Randy Harris said providing assistance to workshops of this nature emphasizes the Association’s firm commitment to playing a vital role in developing the game at all levels in Barbados.

“The BFA’s main focus is always going to be guiding the development of football, and this of course includes areas like this that may sit on the peripheries of day-to-day operations,” he said.

“We are intentionally continuing to explore new landscapes for football development, and we thank the National United Society of the Blind Barbados for extending the invitation to us to participate and to continue to be a part of the wider conversation for the progression of sport in Barbados.”

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An in-depth review will be conducted on the gas supply agreement from oil giant ExxonMobil for the gas-to-shore project, with the Government going out to tender for a consultant to conduct the review and provide legal and commercial advisory services.

In a recently published Request for Proposals (RFP), the Natural Resources Ministry invited companies to submit proposals for providing advisory services to the Government for the gas-to-shore project.

One of these services is to do an in-depth review of the gas supply agreement submitted by ExxonMobil subsidiary Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL), the operator in the Stabroek Block where the gas will be supplied from.

According to the RFP, the consultant will be expected to – considering the existing legal and contractual framework and best practices, as well as the Guyana context – “conduct an in-depth review of the submitted gas supply agreement submitted by the Stabroek contractor (as prepared in accordance with AIEN standards) and provide detailed legal opinion, comments and advice to the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Gas to Energy Task Force, with the primary objective of executing an agreement that provides the best project outcome for the country.”

A gas supply agreement governs how much gas Exxon will be providing to the Government of Guyana, for use in the gas-to-shore project. So far, it is agreed that the project will bring approximately 120 million cubic feet per day of natural gas onshore. The project will include a gas processing plant, a Natural Liquid Gas (NGL) facility and a combined cycle power plant.

Meanwhile, Government also wants the consultant to provide legal and commercial advisory services. This includes providing advice on ways to strengthen the legal and commercial framework, as well as providing support to the Government in its negotiations with Exxon.

The consultant will also be tasked with “evaluating the associated financial models, economic analyses and cost estimates and reports to ensure consistency with the heads of agreement executed on June 30, 2022 and to ensure financial optimisation of gas profiles as it relates to determination of daily gas value and take or pay obligations.”

With a timetable to deliver rich gas by the end of 2024 and the NGL plant to be online by 2025, works are progressing on getting the project off the ground. As such, during the first half of this year, Exxon was expected to source the materials and pipelines, so that they are available for when construction starts later this year.

The scope of the US$900 million gas-to-shore project consists of the construction of 225 kilometres of pipeline from the Liza field in the Stabroek Block offshore Guyana, where Exxon and its partners are currently producing oil. It features approximately 220 kilometres of a subsea pipeline offshore that will run from the Liza Destiny and Liza Unity floating, production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessels in the Stabroek Block to the shore. Upon landing on the West Coast Demerara shore, the pipeline would continue for approximately 25 kilometres to the NGL plant at Wales, West Bank Demerara.

The pipeline would be 12 inches wide, and is expected to transport per day some 50 million standard cubic feet (mscfpd) of dry gas to the NGL plant, but it has the capacity to push as much as 120 mscfpd.The pipeline’s route onshore would follow the same path as the fibre-optic cables, and will terminate at Hermitage, part of the Wales Development Zone (WDZ) which will house the gas-to-shore project.

The Guyana Government has invited interested parties to make investments in the WDZ, which would be heavily industrialised, and for which approximately 150 acres of land have been allocated. Those lands were previously used by the Wales Sugar Estate.

The other component of the project is the construction of a combined cycle power plant that would generate up to 300 megawatts (MW) of power, with a net 250MW delivered into the Guyana Power and Light grid at a sub-station located on the East Bank of the Demerara River.

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Two months after the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) recommended that a coroner’s inquest be conducted to determine if anyone is criminally responsible for the death of 12-year-old Kayla Barnabas, the proceedings are yet to commence.

Barnabas, who attended the West Demerara Secondary School, was killed on June 1 after she was run over by a Police vehicle transporting prisoners along the Good Fortuin Public Road, West Bank Demerara (WBD). At the time, the vehicle was being driven by a Corporal.

It was reported that a vehicle had stopped for the young girl to use the pedestrian crossing, but the Police Force vehicle with registration number GXX 6575, which was reportedly speeding, struck her.

Police Headquarters had said that Barnabas ran from east to west across the road in the path of the pick-up. A release from the Police had stated that the Police Corporal swerved to avoid a collision, but the front of the vehicle collided with the schoolgirl. The girl, who sustained injuries about her body, was picked up in an unconscious state and taken to the West Demerara Regional Hospital (WDRH), where she was pronounced dead on arrival.

Following the accident, a breathalyser test was administered to the driver, but there were no traces of alcohol in his system. He was subsequently placed under close arrest.After conducting investigations, Police forwarded a file to the DPP’s Office, which later recommended that an inquest be done.

A coroner’s inquest is a judicial inquiry in common law jurisdictions, particularly one held to determine the cause of a person’s death. In Guyana, a Magistrate acting as the coroner empanels a three-member jury to inquire and give a verdict according to the evidence.

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