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Situation at UGBC “absolutely normal”, says Director
Campus doing research on plantain disease, dead fish on sea shores
Director of the University of Guyana Berbice Campus (UGBC) Professor Daizal R. Samad, has said
Professor Daizal R. Samad
that classes are going ahead as scheduled at his campus. “Everything is absolutely normal”.
Professor Samad was responding to a question on whether the sit-in at the Turkeyen Campus of UG had filtered to the Berbice Campus.
He stated that lecturers are teaching and doing research. “Not only are our lecturers doing what they are supposed to be doing, but they are researching,” he said.
Samad noted, “It is life as usual on the campus. The work continues”.
At the campus revealed that classes were in session in the various lecture rooms. Students were also in the cafeteria waiting area as usual, while some were collecting documents and lecture handouts from the print shop located on campus.
The professor said that one of the campus’s youngest lecturers, Mr Vishal Mohabir, will be leaving soon for an academic conference in Thailand. “He is just 22 and he will give an internationally refereed scholarly presentation,” he disclosed.
Mohabir, a lecturer in Chemistry, will be making a presentation on “Application of Atomic Absorption in Food Sciences” with special emphasis on the health uses of pumpkin. “We pushed him and he stepped up to the plate,” Professor Samad explained.
On another issue the UGBC head referred to work the institution is doing in the field of Agriculture.
He added that the price of plantains has skyrocketed on the local market. “They have doubled and in some instances, tripled” due to an infestation of a disease called Black Sigatoka.
“That obviously has national consequences and I have discussed this with one of UG’s premier scientists and researchers, Dr Subramanie Gomes, and I informed him of the damage caused by the disease.”
He noted that at Moleson Creek, Corentyne, after lengthy investigations, Dr Gomes and a team of science students of UGBC, “arrived at a cure (for the plant disease) which is something like Potassium Permanganate plus Formalin”.
This new breakthrough, he noted, brings the disease affecting the plantains “under control”. He is calling on the farmers across Guyana to “put their hands” on this new formula and to try it (on their plantain crops)…this is a major thing.”
Professor Samad also expressed regret that his campus did not respond in a timelier manner to the situation whereby several dead fish washed up on the Number 63 Beach and other shores on the Corentyne Coast a few weeks ago.
“To our embarrassment, we weren’t quick on the uptake. That does not please me. There was too much at stake and I didn’t like the hearsay (information and suppositions regarding explanations for the situation) that was being stated in some corners,” he related.
“I dispatched our Agriculturist, Dr Rajesh Kumar (lecturer) to the Number 63 Beach to do his investigations.”
Kumar collected soil, water samples but did not manage to “get samples of the fishes since they were already badly decomposed and compromised by time and exposure.”
He revealed that preliminary results of the findings found “traces of zinc, lead and diminished degrees of oxygen in the water.”
He added that once the report has been fully completed, copies will be made available for full disclosure to the general public.
UGBC, he noted, “is still thriving and we are keeping our eyes on the ball.”
“We continue to work with Scouts, and help with sports like cricket, boxing– and we are about to open our very own Karate School at UGBC.”
The campus’ first ever Dojo Karate school under Sensei Hazrat Ally (3rd Dan Black Belt) will be teaching Sudhan Style. The school will be launched shortly.
The UGBC head, a Black Belt Champion himself, is hoping that males as well as females will apply to learn karate.
“We are continuing our partnership with the Guyana Police Force (GPF), Scouts and Community Policing Groups (CPG), as well as religious organizations,” he noted.
On March 5, a charitable outfit will be speaking at the campus on Spousal Abuse and Domestic Violence after which they will be hosting a series of workshops “which will cost the taxpayers absolutely nothing”.
According to Prof. Samad, on February 21, a Stanford University Professor, Guyanese John Rickford, will be coming to UGBC to “speak on Research and Publication”, adding to the many facets of life at the campus.
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