tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-214073432024-03-19T04:37:25.036-05:00Guyana DiasporaIt is estimated that there are as many Guyanese living overseas as they are in Guyana<br>
They are spread out far and wide to almost every country on the planet<br>
This blog was created to chronicle the news and and stories of the DiasporaUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger58125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21407343.post-35553050090254797982007-04-14T13:54:00.000-05:002007-04-14T14:09:11.569-05:00Inspirational Grandmother<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCiw7BD70Zigy-bAg6uPK_iqI6i1TgU-ZaoZg63cTJSeO33xZcu-USCESSjN2-OOt3uubbIy2_3ArIBZsHKVgmRB5G0zO0gnM2BKK40ICSZUBCGKYGOmghsCyelNwmc5VcxB33/s1600-h/NormaJean.gif"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5053360697613119714" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCiw7BD70Zigy-bAg6uPK_iqI6i1TgU-ZaoZg63cTJSeO33xZcu-USCESSjN2-OOt3uubbIy2_3ArIBZsHKVgmRB5G0zO0gnM2BKK40ICSZUBCGKYGOmghsCyelNwmc5VcxB33/s320/NormaJean.gif" border="0" /></a><span style="color:#990000;">Norma Jean was born in Guyana and moved to Canada thirty-four years ago with her husband Rolly. She remembers those starry moonlit Friday and Saturday nights when she was a child back in Guyana, sitting on the front porch, snacking on Plantain chips, fresh hot roasted peanuts and ice cold Mauby while listening to her mother tell the stories of such characters as Anansi, Brier Tiger, Sly Mongoose and others. </span><br /><span style="color:#990000;"></span><br />When her children were little, Norma Mammie shared her childhood stories with her daughter Norma Jean and her 4 siblings. Then, when Norma Jean's granddaughter was born, she had another chance to share these wonderful memories. Now she hopes that other parents and grandparents will see the joy in their little one's eyes as they hear the Fables and Tales of Guyana that Norma has written to be shared.<br /><br />Norma Jean was born in Guyana and moved to Canada thirty-four years ago with her husband Rolly. She remembers those starry moonlit Friday and Saturday nights when she was a child back in Guyana, sitting on the front porch, snacking on Plantain chips, fresh hot roasted peanuts and ice cold Mauby while listening to her mother tell the stories of such characters as Anansi, Brier Tiger, Sly Mongoose and others.<br /><br />With her busy lifestyle when her three children were growing up, she neglected to pass on these stories. However, when her granddaughter, Taylor, was born, life was a little slower and she decided to use the opportunity to share these childhood memories. "I enjoyed every memory of those evenings in Guyana and it became an absolute joy to write the stories and I kept smiling through it all. The thoughts were flowing so fast, I had to write them down first."<br /><br />"I remember holding my granddaughter and gazing into her beautiful brown eyes", beams Norma, "I felt so humble and privileged to be a grandmother to this beautiful gift." She turned to her daughter and asked, "What kind of legacy do I have to pass on to this angel God has given me?" Her daughter simply replied, "Mom, write your grandchild stories you have always wanted to write and share your childhood with her."<br /><br />It was a wonderful idea. "My daughter is so wise", laughed Norma. So her husband Rolly bought her a laptop and said, "There you go. Start writing and I am here for you if you need me."<br /><br />"I read these stories as I helped to edit the manuscript," says Janice Byer, Norma's desktop publisher and web designer, "and I shared them with my 10 year old daughter. She loved them. They are perfect for bedtime (or any time) stories and the illustrations, done by a talented mother of triplets, are beautiful."<br /><br />Norma is so passionate about how parents, grandparents and children around the world will enjoy these wonderful stories that she has already written a second book (with 3 or 4 more on the tip of her tongue) and offers them on her website at <a href="http://www.childrensstories.ca" target="_blank">http://www.childrensstories.ca</a>.<br /><br /><strong>About Norma Jean</strong><br /><br />Norma Jean has lived in Brampton, Ontario, Canada for 34 years. She is married to her husband Rolly and is the mother of her late son Andrew, second son Terry and daughter Cindy. She is also the proud grandmother of Taylor Anne ("my Taylor Rose"). Her love for her family, especially her granddaughter, are the inspiration for her books and she plans on sharing many more memories and other treasures in upcoming books. Visit her website at <a href="http://www.childrensstories.ca/" target="_blank">http://www.childrensstories.ca/</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21407343.post-55872940469983906592006-11-23T16:23:00.000-06:002006-11-23T18:31:18.153-06:00Award-winning Author<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger2/1647/2613/1600/561654/2006markmcwatt.gif"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger2/1647/2613/320/452848/2006markmcwatt.gif" border="0" /></a><em><span style="color:#990000;"><strong>Professor Mark McWatt, Guyanese author of award-winning novel 'Suspended Sentence: Fictions of Atonement'.<br /></strong></span></em><br /><em><span style="color:#990000;">Mark McWatt was born in Guyana. He took his first degree at the University of Toronto, and then went to Leeds University to complete a doctorate. He is currently head of the English Department at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill campus, Barbados. He has published two collections of poetry; Interiors (1989) and The Language of Eldorado (1994), which won the Guyana Prize. </span></em><br /><br />GUYANESE SCHOLAR, Professor Mark McWatt won the coveted 20th Commonwealth Writers' Prize in the category overall best first book for his novel Suspended Sentences: Fictions of Atonement. The winners were announced by His Royal Highness, Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex, at the State Library of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia.<br /><br />While the overall best book award worth £10,000 went to The Secret River by Kate Grenville of Australia, McWatt was awarded £3,000 for his satirical tale of life in Guyana. The Commonwealth Writers' Prize, awarded annually, aims to reward the best in Common-wealth fiction written in English, by both established and new writers, thus taking their work to a wider audience.<br /><br />The judging panel for the overall awards was chaired by Professor Chris Wallace-Crabbe of the University of Melbourne. He was joined by the four chairs of the regional judging panels - Professor Mary Kolawole (Africa region), Professor Aritha van Herk (Caribbean and Canada), Professor Angela Smith (Eurasia - Europe and South Asia) and Professor Vijay Mishra (South East Asia and South Pacific).<br /><br />QUALITY OF BOOKS<br /><br />Speaking on behalf of the judges, Chris Wallace-Crabbe said they were intrigued by the outstanding quality of the works of fiction facing them. "Books flowed to the Prize from Guyana to New Zealand, from Malta to Malaysia. We noted that, in particular, the Prize continues to reward new talents in English language fiction.<br /><br />In the best first book winner,<em> Suspended Sentences</em>, Caribbean writer McWatt presents a delightful caravan of stories that explore the changing character of Guyana," he said. Said an elated McWatt: "I'm very happy to have won the overall prize for best first book, especially since I have come to know, over the past days, the work of the other regional winners and to realize how wonderful all the competing books are. I feel deeply privileged that my book was chosen as overall winner."<br /><br />The 20th year of the prize coincides with the 40th anniversary of the Common-wealth Foundation and confirms the Foundation's ongoing commitment to nurturing and promoting culture in this diverse and vibrant community.<br /><br />ABOUT THE NOVEL<br /><br />Back in 1966, each of a group of Guyanese sixth-formers is 'sentenced' to write a short story that reflects their newly independent country. Years later, McWatt, one of the group, is handed the papers of his old school friend, Victor Nunes, who has disappeared, feared drowned, in the interior. The papers contain some of the stories written before the project collapsed.<br /><br />As a tribute to Victor, McWatt decides to collect the rest of the stories from his friends. Whether written by their youthful or adult selves, the stories reveal not only their tellers and the Guyana most of them have left, but offer an affectionately satirical take on Guyanese fiction making. Amongst the stories, we read about the sexual awakening of a respectable spinster by a naked bakoo in a jar; an expedition into the Guyanese interior that turns into a painful homoerotic encounter; a schoolboy who is projected into an alarming science fiction future; and about an academic (in a brilliantly tragicomic story) who confesses the betrayal of his friend.<br /><br />There is Victor Nunes' visionary story that blurs the frontiers between past and present and, in the concluding story, McWatt reveals how the group came to be handed down their suspended sentences. In this tour-de-force of invention, by ranging across Guyanese ethnicities, gender and time in the purported authorship of these stories, McWatt creates a richly dialogic work of fiction.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21407343.post-1145887804730845762006-04-24T09:01:00.000-05:002006-11-23T20:48:15.494-06:00Playwright and Dramatist<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5887/2164/1600/AbbensettsMichael.0.gif"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5887/2164/320/AbbensettsMichael.0.gif" border="0" /></a><em><span style="color:#990000;">Micheal Abbensetts was born in Guyana in 1938. He began his writing career with short stories, but decided to turn to playwriting after seeing a performance of John Osborne's Look Back In Anger. He was further inspired when he went to England and visited the Royal Court Theatre, Britain's premier theatre of new writing, where he was soon to become resident dramatist.</span></em><br /><br />Michael Abbensetts is considered by many as the best Black playwright to emerge from his generation. He has been presented with many awards for his life-time achievements in the area of television drama writing, and in 1979, received an award for an "Outstanding Contribution To Literature" by a Black writer resident in England. His work emerged alongside and as part of the larger development of black British television drama.<br /><br />Abbensetts was born in Guyana in 1938. He began his writing career with short stories, but decided to turn to playwriting after seeing a performance of John Osborne's Look Back In Anger. He was further inspired when he went to England and visited the Royal Court Theatre, Britain's premier theatre of new writing, where he was soon to become resident dramatist. Sweet Talk, Abbensett's first play, was performed there in 1973.<br /><br />In the same year, The Museum Attendant, his first television play was broadcast on BBC2. Directed by Stephen Frears, the drama was, Abbensetts says, based on his own early experiences as a security guard at the Tower of London. After these two early successes Abbensetts, unlike most Black writers in Britain at the time, was being offered more and more work. He wrote Black Christmas which was broadcast on the BBC in 1977 and featured Carmen Munroe and Norman Beaton. Like The Museum Attendant, Black Christmas was based on actual experience and was shot on location for television.<br /><br />During the 1970s and 1980s, a number of Abbensetts' plays were produced for the London theater. Alterations appeared in 1978, followed by Samba (1980), In The Mood (1981), Outlaw (1983) and Eldorado (1983). Inner City Blues, Crime and Passion, Roadrunner and Fallen Angel were produced on television.<br /><br />Abbensetts' success led to participation in British television's first Black soap opera Empire Road (1978-79) for which he wrote two series. Horace Ove was brought in to direct the second series, establishing a production unit with a Black director, Black writer and Black actors. The television series was unique in that it was the first soap opera to be conceived and written by a Black writer for a Black cast, but also because it was specifically about the British-Caribbean experience. Set in Handsworth, Birmingham, it featured Norman Beaton as Everton Bennett and Corinne Skinner-Carter as his long-suffering screen wife. Although Empire Road was a landmark programme on British television, it managed to survive only two series before it was axed. The late Norman Beaton said of the programme, "It is perhaps the best TV series I have been in."<br /><br />Norman Beaton continued to star in many of Abbensett's television productions including Easy Money (1981) and Big George Is Dead and Little Napoleons (1994/Channel 4). Little Napoleons is a four-part comic-drama depicting the rivalry between two solicitors, played by Saeed Jaffrey and Norman Beaton, who become Labour councillors. The work focuses on a number of themes including the price of power, the relationship between West Indian and Asian communities in Britain and the internal workings of political institutions.<br /><br />Much of Abbensetts drama has focused on issues of race and power, but he has always been reluctant to be seen as restricted to issue-based drama. Certainly his dialogue is concerned with the development and growth of character and he is fundamentally aware of the methods and contexts for his actors. Abbensetts has always actively involved himself in the production process and his dramatic works have provided outstanding roles for established Black actors in Britain--Carmen Munroe, Rudolph Walker and of course Norman Beaton--giving them the chance to play interesting and realistic roles as well as creating stories about the everyday experiences of Black people. Abbensetts' work thrived at a time when there was very little drama on television which represented the lives of Black British people and his television plays have created new perspectives for all his viewers.<br /><br />MICHAEL ABBENSETTS. Born in British Guiana (now Guyana), 8 June 1938; took British citizenship, 1974. Attended Queen's College, Guyana, 1952-56; Stanstead College, Quebec; Sir George Williams University, Montreal, 1960-61. Security attendant, Tower of London, 1963-67; staff member, Sir John Soane Museum, London, 1968-71; resident playwright, Royal Court Theatre, London, 1974; visiting professor of drama, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, 1981. Recipient: George Devine Award, 1973; Arts Council bursary, 1977; Afro-Caribbean Award, 1979. Address: Heinemann Educational Books Ltd, Halley Court, Jordan Hill, Oxford OX2 8EJ, U.K.<br /><br />TELEVISION SERIES<br />1978-79 Empire Road 1994 Little Napoleons Television Plays 1973 The Museum Attendant 1975 Inner City Blues 1976 Crime and Passion 1977 Black Christmas 1977 Roadrunner 1982 Easy Money 1987 Big George Is Dead<br /><br />RADIO<br />Home Again, 1975; The Sunny Side of the Street, 1977; Brothers of the Sword, 1978; The Fast Lane, 1980; The Dark Horse, 1981; Summer Passions, 1985.<br /><br />STAGE<br />Sweet Talk, 1973; Alterations, 1978; Samba, 1980; In the Mood, 1981; The Dark Horse, 1981; Outlaw, 1983; El Dorado, 1984; Living Together, 1988.<br /><br />PUBLICATIONS<br />Sweet Talk (play). London: Eyre Methuen, 1976. Samba (play). London: Eyre Methuen, 1980. Empire Road (novel). London: Panther, 1979. Living Together (play). Oxford: Heinemann, 1988.<br /><br />From <a href="http://www.museum.tv/museumsection.php"><em>Museum of Broadcast Communications</em></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21407343.post-1145281915727021882006-04-17T08:44:00.000-05:002006-04-17T08:51:55.886-05:00Leader of the House of Lords<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5887/2164/1600/baronessvamos.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5887/2164/320/baronessvamos.jpg" border="0" /></a><em><span style="color:#990000;">Baroness Valerie Ann Amos, was born in </span></em><a title="Guyana" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guyana"><em><span style="color:#990000;">Guyana</span></em></a><em><span style="color:#990000;">, studied at the Universities of </span></em><a title="University of Warwick" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Warwick"><em><span style="color:#990000;">Warwick</span></em></a><em><span style="color:#990000;">, </span></em><a title="University of Birmingham" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Birmingham"><em><span style="color:#990000;">Birmingham</span></em></a><em><span style="color:#990000;"> and </span></em><a title="University of East Anglia" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_East_Anglia"><em><span style="color:#990000;">East Anglia</span></em></a><em><span style="color:#990000;">, and was awarded an Honorary Professorship at </span></em><a title="Thames Valley University" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thames_Valley_University"><em><span style="color:#990000;">Thames Valley University</span></em></a><em><span style="color:#990000;"> in </span></em><a title="1995" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1995"><em><span style="color:#990000;">1995</span></em></a><em><span style="color:#990000;"> in recognition of her work on equality and social justice. She was also awarded an honorary </span></em><a title="Doctor of Laws" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_of_Laws"><em><span style="color:#990000;">Doctor of Laws</span></em></a><em><span style="color:#990000;"> in </span></em><a title="2000" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000"><em><span style="color:#990000;">2000</span></em></a><em><span style="color:#990000;"> from the </span></em><a title="University of Warwick" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Warwick"><em><span style="color:#990000;">University of Warwick</span></em></a><em><span style="color:#990000;">.</span></em><br /><br /><a title="The Right Honourable" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Right_Honourable">The Right Honourable</a> Valerie Ann Amos, Baroness Amos, <a title="Privy Council of the United Kingdom" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privy_Council_of_the_United_Kingdom">PC</a> (born <a title="March 13" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_13">13 March</a> <a title="1954" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1954">1954</a>), is a <a title="United Kingdom" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom">British</a> <a title="Labour Party (UK)" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labour_Party_(UK)">Labour Party</a> <a title="Politician" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politician">politician</a> and <a title="Life peer" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_peer">life peer</a>, currently serving as <a title="Leader of the House of Lords" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leader_of_the_House_of_Lords">Leader of the House of Lords</a> and <a title="Lord President of the Council" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_President_of_the_Council">Lord President of the Council</a>. When she was appointed <a title="Secretary of State for International Development" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secretary_of_State_for_International_Development">Secretary of State for International Development</a> on <a title="May 12" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_12">May 12</a>, <a title="2003" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003">2003</a>, following the resignation of <a title="Clare Short" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clare_Short">Clare Short</a>, she became the first black woman to sit in the <a title="Cabinet of the United Kingdom" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabinet_of_the_United_Kingdom">Cabinet of the United Kingdom</a>.<br /><br />Lady Amos was made Leader of the House of Lords on <a title="October 6" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_6">October 6</a>, 2003 following the death of <a title="Lord Williams of Mostyn" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Williams_of_Mostyn">Lord Williams of Mostyn</a>, which meant that her tenure as Secretary of State for International Development lasted less than six months. Prior to her appointment as Secretary of State for International Development, Lady Amos was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Foreign & Commonwealth Affairs on <a title="June 11" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_11">June 11</a>, <a title="2001" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001">2001</a>, with responsibility for <a title="Africa" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africa">Africa</a>; <a title="Commonwealth of Nations" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_of_Nations">Commonwealth</a>; <a title="Caribbean" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caribbean">Caribbean</a>; Overseas Territories; Consular Issues and FCO Personnel.<br /><br />Lady Amos was the principal spokesperson in the House of Lords on International Development as well as one of the Government's spokespersons in the House of Lords on Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs. She was previously a Government Whip in the House of Lords from <a title="1998" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998">1998</a> to <a title="2001" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001">2001</a> and also a spokesperson on Social Security, International Development and Women's Issues. She was created a life peer in August <a title="1997" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1997">1997</a> as Baroness Amos, of <a title="Brondesbury" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brondesbury">Brondesbury</a> in the <a title="London Borough of Brent" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Borough_of_Brent">London Borough of Brent</a>.<br /><br />Lady Amos was born in <a title="Guyana" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guyana">Guyana</a>, studied at the Universities of <a title="University of Warwick" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Warwick">Warwick</a>, <a title="University of Birmingham" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Birmingham">Birmingham</a> and <a title="University of East Anglia" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_East_Anglia">East Anglia</a>, and was awarded an Honorary Professorship at <a title="Thames Valley University" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thames_Valley_University">Thames Valley University</a> in <a title="1995" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1995">1995</a> in recognition of her work on equality and social justice. She was also awarded an honorary <a title="Doctor of Laws" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_of_Laws">Doctor of Laws</a> in <a title="2000" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000">2000</a> from the <a title="University of Warwick" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Warwick">University of Warwick</a>.<br /><br />After working in Equal Opportunities, Training and Management Services in local government in the London boroughs of Lambeth, Camden and Hackney, she became Chief Executive of the Equal Opportunities Commission <a title="1989" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989">1989</a>–<a title="1994" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1994">94</a>. In <a title="1995" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1995">1995</a> Amos co-founded <a class="new" title="Amos Fraser Bernard" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Amos_Fraser_Bernard&action=edit">Amos Fraser Bernard</a> and was an adviser to the <a title="South Africa" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Africa">South African</a> Government on public service reform, human rights and employment equity.<br /><br />In the <a title="House of Lords" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Lords">House of Lords</a>, Lady Amos was a co-opted member of the Select Committee on European Communities Sub-Committee F (Social Affairs, Education and Home Affairs) <a title="1997" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1997">1997</a>–<a title="1998" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998">98</a>.<br /><br />Lady Amos has also been Deputy Chair of the Runnymede Trust <a title="1990" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1990">1990</a>–<a title="1998" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998">98</a>, a Trustee of the Institute of Public Policy Research, a <a title="Non-executive Director" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-executive_Director">non-executive Director</a> of the <a title="University College London" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_College_London">University College London</a> Hospitals Trust, a Trustee of Voluntary Services Overseas, Chair of the Afiya Trust, a director of Hampstead Theatre and Chair of the Board of Governors of the Royal College of Nursing Institute.<br /><br />On <a title="February 17" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_17">17 February</a> <a title="2005" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005">2005</a>, the British government nominated her to head the United Nations Development Programme.<br /><br />From <em><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page">wikipedia.org</a></em>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21407343.post-1144676682883259662006-04-10T08:41:00.000-05:002006-04-10T08:56:45.373-05:00Geologist and Engineer<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5887/2164/1600/rocky_persaud.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5887/2164/320/rocky_persaud.jpg" border="0" /></a><em><span style="color:#990000;">Rocky Persaud was born in Guyana a week after the last Apollo mission returned from the Moon, but was raised in Canada since the age of 2. Rocky has two baccalaureate degrees in mechanical engineering and geology from the University of Toronto.<br /></span></em><br />D. R. "Rocky" Persaud, B.A.Sc., B.Sc. is the owner of the space entertainment company, <a class="bluehover" href="http://www.ipxentertainment.com/">IPX Entertainment</a> (IPXN), which will be sponsoring <a class="bluehover" href="http://www.marssociety.ca/">Mars Society Canada</a>'s next mission, <a class="bluehover" href="http://chapters.marssociety.org/canada/expedition-mars.org/ExpeditionBeta/">Expedition Beta</a>, a follow-up to <a class="bluehover" href="http://chapters.marssociety.org/canada/expedition-mars.org/ExpeditionAlpha/">Expedition Alpha</a> which he organized to train new young scientists and engineers in Mars analog studies. IPXN will be showcasing a documentary about Expedition Beta on <a class="bluehover" href="http://www.spacechannel.tv/">SpaceChannel.TV</a> some time in the summer of 2006. Plans are being developed for IPX and IPXN participation in Mars Society Canada's "Expedition Three" that summer as well.<br /><br />Rocky is developing a science fiction anthology series for SpaceChannel.TV describing a possible post-Singularity future of humanity. A prequel mini-series, called "The 5 Minute Empire", would deal with worldwide events just before, during and after the Singularity itself.<br /><br />He was a Science Collaborator on the NASA-led <a class="bluehover" href="http://www.marsonearth.org/">Haughton-Mars Project</a>, and was a crewmember of <a class="bluehover" href="http://www.marssociety.org/arctic/index.asp">Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station</a> during the 2001 field season. For the <a class="bluehover" href="http://www.marssociety.org/mdrs/index.asp">Mars Desert Research Station</a>, he was invited to serve on the first unofficial shakedown crew during a week over Christmas 2001 amidst its construction, where many ideas for a long-term research program was developed. These ideas led him to organizing and commanding the month-long mission of MDRS Crew 14 (which he dubbed <a class="bluehover" href="http://chapters.marssociety.org/canada/expedition-mars.org/ExpeditionOne">Expedition One</a>), the first of a series of international expeditions intensely planned and coordinated by a core group of researchers.<br /><br />A member of several space advocacy groups, he was a director of the <a class="bluehover" href="http://www.css.ca/">Canadian Space Society</a>, a founding member of the <a class="bluehover" href="http://chapters.marssociety.org/canada/toronto/">Mars Society's Toronto Chapter</a>, former editor of the <a class="bluehover" href="http://www.css.ca/gazette/">Canadian Space Gazette</a>, a delegate to the <a class="bluehover" href="http://www.spacegeneration.org/sgs/">Space Generation Summit</a>, and recently retired from the board of directors of <a class="bluehover" href="http://www.marssociety.ca/">Mars Society of Canada</a> after serving for more than 5 years in various leadership roles, including president and vice-president of research.<br /><br />Rocky has two baccalaureate degrees in mechanical engineering and geology from the University of Toronto. He was born in Guyana a week after the last Apollo mission returned from the Moon, but was raised in Canada since the age of two.<br /><br />Rocky currently serves on the Board of Directors of the <a class="bluehover" href="http://www.mars-club.org/about.html">Association of Mars Explorers</a>, and led the organization of the 2nd Martian Expedition Planning workshop. Once again steering Mars Society Canada's collaboration with the Mars Society of Australia, Rocky managed the science program for "Expedition Two" in Australia for August 2004, for which he obtained a supporting contract from the <a class="bluehover" href="http://www.space.gc.ca/">Canadian Space Agency</a>.<br /><br />From <em><a href="http://lifeboat.com/ex/main">Lifeboat Foundation</a></em>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21407343.post-1144242905153865062006-04-05T08:04:00.000-05:002006-04-05T08:15:05.180-05:00Poet and Playwright<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5887/2164/1600/agard.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5887/2164/320/agard.jpg" border="0" /></a><em><span style="color:#990000;">Born on 21 June 1949 in British Guiana (now Guyana). John Agard worked for the Guyana Sunday Chronicle newspaper as sub-editor and feature writer before moving to England in 1977, where he became a touring lecturer for the Commonwealth Institute. </span></em><br /><em><span style="color:#990000;"></span></em><br />Playwright, poet, short-story and children's writer John Agard was born on 21 June 1949 in British Guiana (now Guyana). He worked for the Guyana Sunday Chronicle newspaper as sub-editor and feature writer before moving to England in 1977, where he became a touring lecturer for the Commonwealth Institute, travelling to schools throughout the UK to promote a better understanding of Caribbean culture.<br /><br />In 1993 he was appointed Writer in Residence at the South Bank Centre, London, and became Poet in Residence at the BBC in London, an appointment created as part of a scheme run by the Poetry Society in London. He also played a key role in the 'Windrush' season of programmes in 1998. He won the Paul Hamlyn Award for Poetry in 1997 and has travelled extensively throughout the world performing his poetry.<br /><br />His published poetry includes Man to Pan (1982), winner of the Casa de las Américas Prize, Limbo Dancer in Dark Glasses (1983), Mangoes and Bullets: Selected and New Poems 1972-84 (1985) and Weblines (2000). He is also the author of many children's books, including Lend Me Your Wings (1987), which was shortlisted for the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize. He has contributed to, and edited, several anthologies, including The Penguin Book of Caribbean Verse (1986), and is also co-editor of A Caribbean Dozen (1994) with his partner, the poet Grace Nichols, with whom he also co-wrote No Hickory, No Dickory, No Dock in 1991. Their latest collaboration is From Mouth to Mouth (2004), an anthology of poems handed down from all over the world.<br /><br />John Agard lives in south-east England.<br /><br /><strong>Critical Perspective</strong><br /><em>By Peter Forbes</em><br />Agard is a mesmeric performer and there is something distinctly Puckish about him. Mayhem, overturning the established order appeals to him. He also has a lush sensual side, expressed in some fine erotic poems. Although he has lived in England since 1978 his imagination is still deeply Caribbean.<br /><br />Agard often writes sequences and books constructed around a single theme. His first book Man to Pan (1982) celebrated the steel drums of calypso. In Limbo Dancer in Dark Glasses (1983), limbo, having originated on the slave ships, is seen as iconic of Caribbean culture. Since his move to England his poetry has become less elemental, more satirical and pointed. Typical is 'Listen Mr Oxford Don' from Mangoes and Bullets (1985)<br /><br />'He has been prolific in recent years with From the Devil's Pulpit (1997) and Weblines (2000). From the Devil's Pulpit explores the omnipresence of satanic influence in modern life: For Agard, the Devil is a necessary evil, an anarchic force, insinuating himself at every level of modern life. The Devil rearranges Mrs Thatcher's St Francis speech from the steps of No. 10 Downing Street.<br /><br /><em>Weblines</em> is a book of selected and new poems, reprinting 'From Man to Pan' and 'Limbo Dancer in Dark Glasses', along with a new set of Ananse poems. Ananse is the traditional spider prophet - trickster and spider hero - of the Caribbean. The Ananse stories are primal stories - creation myths. Typical is 'How Wisdom and Commonsense were Scattered'. In prose paraphrase the story is: Ananse gathers up all the wisdom into a gourdpot but with the gourdpot hanging from his belly he could no longer climb a tree. His youngest child tells him to put the gourdpot on his head. In vexation at having his sum of wisdom questioned and added to in this way, Ananse throws the pot down and wisdom is scattered. Agard has helped to make Caribbean culture accessible to a wide audience.<br /><br />One way in which he has done this has been to write for children. His many books, often illustrated, are as philosophical as his adult books but entirely accessible to children. In Come Back to Me My Boomerang (2001) he has a dialogue between a circle and a square on the respective virtues of rectangularity and circularity. In Get Back, Pimple (1996) he has a poem in which the animals dream of exploiting humans in the way that humans exploit them.<br /><br />He has also written a play for schoolchildren, The Great Snakeskin (1993).<br /><br />From <em><a href="http://www.contemporarywriters.com/">Contemporary Writers</a></em>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21407343.post-1143811182809398312006-03-31T07:11:00.000-06:002006-03-31T07:42:20.783-06:00Research Engineer and Author<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5887/2164/1600/suequan.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5887/2164/320/suequan.jpg" border="0" /></a><em><span style="color:#990000;">Trevelyan A. Sue-A-Quan was born in November 1943 in Georgetown, Guyana. He is the great-grandson of an indentured labourer. Trev attended Queen's College in Georgetown and attained B.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Chemical Engineering at the University of Birmingham, England. He immigrated to Canada in 1969.</span></em><br /><br /><span style="color:#000000;">Trevelyan A. Sue-A-Quan was born in November 1943 in Georgetown, Guyana. He is the great-grandson of an indentured labourer who had embarked with his wife and son aboard the ship Corona at Canton. </span>They arrived at Georgetown in February 1874 after 78 days at sea. The family was allotted to La Grange sugar cane plantation on the West Bank of the Demerara River. Many of the Chinese immigrants and their second generation descendants became shopkeepers, including Soo Sam-kuan the author's grandfather. In the process of cultural assimilation his name became transformed into Henry Sue-A-Quan thus initiating the distinctive family surname.<br /><br />Trev Sue-A-Quan's generation was the one that typified the transition from shopkeeping to professions based on higher education. His brother and sister both graduated from Edinburgh, Scotland and became chief surgeon and mathematician/computer specialist, respectively.<br /><br />Trev attended Queen's College in Georgetown and attained B.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Chemical Engineering at the University of Birmingham, England. He immigrated to Canada in 1969 but then pursued a career opportunity with a major oil company in Chicago where he was engaged in research in petroleum processing and fossil fuel utilization.<br /><br />Eight years later Trev headed East - to Beijing, China, becoming Senior Research Engineer at the Coal Science Research Center. He spent 5 years there and in 1984 returned to Canada with his wife and son, both acquired in Beijing. They now make their home in Vancouver.<br /><br />The interest in Trev's family history came from a curiosity about the circumstances that caused his great-grandfather to leave his native land. Almost 20 years after obtaining a copy of his ancestor's contract of indenture Trev has applied his training in analytical research to compile this comprehensive account of the experiences of the first Chinese immigrants in Guyana.<br /><br />Trev Sue-A-Quan is the Author of <a href="http://www.rootsweb.com/~guycigtr/Book.htm" target="Trunk">Cane Reapers</a> and <a href="http://www.rootsweb.com/~guycigtr/Book.htm" target="Trunk">Cane Ripples</a><br /><br /><strong>Cane Reapers</strong> is the story about the Chinese who were procured to replace the emancipated slaves on the sugar plantations of Guyana (then British Guiana). Following China's defeat by Britain in the Opium Wars in the 1840s the European powers, and Spain in particular, began a recruitment drive to obtain Chinese labourers for their colonies. This was executed using all manner of methods ranging from subtle inducement to kidnapping. Numerous abuses arose from this trade in human cargo and Britain later set up local emigration depots aimed at enlisting willing emigrants, with some degree of success. Between 1853 and 1879 a total of 13,541 indentured labourers arrived in British Guiana from China but by 1900 the resident Chinese population was down to 3,000 mainly because only 15% of the Chinese immigrants were females. The Chinese endured many tribulations both in the journey and after arrival in the new land. In the process of assimilation into Western culture some unique names have evolved for Chinese families, creating both a mystery and a topic of fascination for their descendants and for genealogists.<br /><br /><strong>Cane Ripples</strong> is an integrated work that expresses the joy and pains experienced by a vital sector of Guyanese society during the 20th century. . . It uses oral histories, personal recollections, photographs, and archival materials to illuminate an important aspect of Guyana’s complex history. . . We can see the names and the faces that influenced Guyana’s social, economic, political, cultural, and scientific life. Contributors take us into their homes, share family histories, and tell us about the creation of some of Guyana’s most successful institutions and enterprises . . . Dr. Trev Sue-A-Quan must be congratulated for a most valuable and accessible contribution.<br /><br />From <a href="http://www.rootsweb.com/~guycigtr/"><em>rootsweb</em></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21407343.post-1143545817712986712006-03-28T05:23:00.000-06:002006-03-28T05:36:57.800-06:00Cardiologist<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5887/2164/1600/barker.0.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5887/2164/320/barker.0.jpg" border="0" /></a><em><span style="color:#990000;">Dr. Esmond Barker, a native of Guyana, South America, received his undergraduate degree from the College of Staten Island, New York, and his medical degree from Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee.<br /></span></em><br />He completed his residency at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he later became chief resident.<br /><br />In 1995, he obtained his cardiology fellowship at Rutgers University (Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital) in New Brunswick, New Jersey. He also completed a senior year of residency as an ambulatory care instructor and research fellow. Returning to Pittsburgh, he practiced cardiology at North Hills Passavant Hospital.<br /><br />Dr. Barker continued his cardiology studies with a Fourth Year Interventional Cardiology Training at Cardiovascular Institute of the South in Lafayette, Louisiana. Subsequently, he joined <a href="http://www.cardio.com/site1.php"><em>Cardiovascular Institute of the South</em> </a>as a staff cardiologist in Lafayette.<br /><br />Dr. Barker is a Diplomate in internal medicine and is board eligible in cardiovascular disease.<br /><br />In 1990, Dr. Barker was honored by Uniontown Hospital as an outstanding physician and selected to "Who's Who Among Rising Young Americans."<br /><br />From <em><a href="http://www.cardio.com/site1.php">Cardiovascular Institute of the South </a></em>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21407343.post-1143218795525826612006-03-24T10:29:00.000-06:002006-04-21T15:30:10.276-05:00Scholarship win 'a gift for father'<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5887/2164/1600/Raj_Persaud.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5887/2164/320/Raj_Persaud.jpg" border="0" /></a><em><span style="color:#990000;">Arriving in North Carolina in the spring semester of his sophomore High School year in 2004, Raj Persaud , a native of Guyana admitted he was “overwhelmed at first” in acclimating to American culture. </span></em><br /><em><span style="color:#990000;">Two years later the youngest child of Charlie and Mohinie Persaud is only the fourth Clayton High School student ever to receive the -<strong>Morehead Scholarship</strong> -the most prestigious college scholarship offered in the state of North Carolina.</span></em><br /><br />When Clayton High School senior Raj Persaud asked his father what he wanted for his birthday on March 8, Charlie Persaud replied, “The only thing I want is for you to get the Morehead Scholarship. ”<br /><br />The younger Persaud said, “I felt like asking him, ‘Couldn’t I just go to Wal-Mart and pick you up a pair of new socks?’ ”<br /><br />It turns out that Plan B won’t be necessary. The youngest child of Charlie and Mohinie Persaud found out – fittingly enough on March 8 – that he had become only the fourth CHS student ever to receive the most prestigious college scholarship offered in the state of North Carolina. He is one of just two Johnston County students to earn the scholarship this year, along with Emily Carter of South Johnston High School.<br /><br />“I’m still in shock,” Persaud said. “I’m expecting Ashton Kutcher (star of “That 70s Show” and “Punked”) to walk through the door any second and tell me I’ve been punked.”<br /><br />The Morehead Scholarship, named after long-time University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill benefactor John Motley Morehead, was instituted in 1957. The four-year scholarship, valued at approximately $80,000 for in-state and $140,000 for out-of-state students, covers all undergraduate college expenses, including the cost of a laptop computer and four summer enrichment experiences.<br /><br />Persaud is one of 53 high school seniors in the United States and Great Britain to be chosen for the scholarship this year. A total of 1,620 applied.<br /><br />CHS guidance counselor Pam Savage, who recommended Persaud for the honor, said, “Raj is the quintessential Morehead Scholar. If he hadn’t gotten it, I’m not sure we’d ever have another one who’d qualify.”<br /><br />Persaud said, “It’s the biggest thing I’ve ever dreamed of, and my biggest accomplishment. I feel that way because of the potential this gives me to do so much good, to utilize all my talent and skills to make a positive impact on society – the capacity to do that is tremendous.”<br /><br />By all accounts, Persaud already has had a major impact on Clayton High School in just the two and a half years he has been a student.<br /><br />Arriving in the spring semester of his sophomore year in 2004, the native of Guyana (by way of a short stay in Lakeland, Fla.) admitted he was “overwhelmed at first” in acclimating to American culture.<br /><br />“My dad came here because his church (Faith Community) offered him a job,” Persaud said. “It was a bit of culture shock, but I realized very quickly I had to take charge of my future.”<br /><br />He credits his father’s life-long devotion to missionary work and education (Charlie Persaud served as principal of a school in Guyana for rural students) and his mother’s losing battle with cancer (Sewranie Persaud died when Raj was 7 years old) for shaping his own social consciousness and activism.<br /><br />“Everyone I have met has had an influence on me, but if I had to list who has had the most, it would be my dad,” Persaud said.<br /><br />“Growing up, watching his amazing service to others, and the sacrifices he and my mom (Mohinie) made to move here and provide me and my older sisters an education in this country – I think getting this scholarship helps repay them for those sacrifices.”<br /><br />Savage said, “Raj has always been very community-focused. He jumped right in when he got here and founded Teens Changing the World. To him, there is nothing too little to do to get people to think about others.”<br /><br />Teens Changing the World is a service club whose members engage in a variety of activities to provide community assistance, including visiting senior citizens’ homes, collecting hats for cancer victims who have lost hair due to chemotherapy and encouraging diversity in the high school through “Mix It Up Day,” when students spent lunch sitting with strangers.<br /><br />In addition to founding that club, Persaud also is president of the Interact Club; creator and Web manager for Inspiration4All, an Internet chat group that offers aid to suicidal teenagers; and a board member of the Youth Council of North Carolina on HIV Awareness.<br /><br />As part of that group, Persaud organized and sponsored several AIDS awareness sessions in his native country of Guyana, for which he was awarded the Governor’s Award for HIV/AIDS as Youth Volunteer of the Year.<br /><br />A straight-A student with a 5.04 grade-point average, Persaud has been on the Principal’s List (for maintaining an A average in all subjects) his entire high school career. He has earned AP Scholar with Honor recognition, been named a Quest Bridge College Match Finalist, received an Editor’s Choice award and recognition as a 2004 Youth Poet by Youth Voice Newsletter for his writings, and has served as a school ambassador to the National Youth Parliament in Guyana.<br /><br />Along with the Governor’s Award for his involvement with HIV/AIDS education, Persaud also has earned selection to attend the Rotary Club Youth Leadership Awards Conference and the state Catalyst Conference for Youth Leaders.<br /><br />He also was the district and state winner of the Rotary Against Drugs Speech Competition in 2005.<br />Persaud hopes to pursue a degree in biology (his favorite subject) with a secondary concentration in public policy.<br /><br />His long-term goal is to become an oncologist – a specialist in cancer research and treatment – as a result of his mother’s experience with the disease.<br /><br />“That was a tough learning experience,” he said. “But going through it gave me the desire to help others go through it and support them.”<br /><br />Persaud said that social awareness and motivation is what most attracted him to Chapel Hill – even though he remains a candidate for scholarships at Harvard and Yale universities, as well as the Robert-son Scholarship, a combined grant to both UNC-Chapel Hill and Duke University.<br /><br />He expects to accept the Morehead by the April 14 notification deadline.<br /><br />“Winning this (the Morehead) is giving me the opportunity to really do something meaningful,” he said. “I feel I’ve been given the skills and motivation to lead others, to allow them to see their potential to do good and help people live lives of dignity.<br /><br />“The atmosphere at UNC, I feel, really helps drive you to be more productive, and the Morehead is a wonderful tool to do something that will have a tremendous positive impact,” he said.<br /><br />Persaud is the first CHS student to earn the Morehead Scholarship since Natalie Sanders in 1999. He and fellow CHS senior Alex Wiedemann, who was named two week ago as a Parks Scholarship winner to North Carolina State University, are the first CHS students ever to receive the Parks and Morehead scholarships in the same graduating class.<br /><br />CHS Principal Jerry Smith said, “This is a tremendous honor for the school and, particularly, for this senior class. They have been an exceptional group ever since entering the school, and these scholarships reflect the character and achievement this class has demonstrated all along.”<br /><br />From <em><a href="http://www.claytonnews-star.com/index.html/">Clayton News-Star</a></em>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21407343.post-1143128029901937582006-03-23T09:09:00.000-06:002006-03-24T10:03:42.796-06:00'Chapter One'<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5887/2164/1600/prakz.0.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5887/2164/320/prakz.0.jpg" border="0" /></a><em><span style="color:#990000;">Sankar Singh, also know as Prakash was born in Georgetown, Guyana, at the age of 11, Prakash migrated to Queens, NY. Currently he is an accountant major at Queens College, NYC.</span></em><br /><br />Sankar Singh, also know as Prakash was born in Georgetown, Guyana on November 1st. At the age of 17th, he took upon the stage name DJ PRAKZ. Prakz was born to two wonderful Guyanese parents who always supported and guided him through difficult situations in life. Growing up in Guyana, he was always surrounded by a wide range of music as from chutney/Soca/Indian and Reggae.<br /><br />At the Age of 11, Prakz migrated to queens, NY. Currently he is an accountant major at Queens College. On weekends, Prakz dedicates himself to his music.<br /><br />“Music is my first love and I do hope to pursue a musical career in the long run”, says Prakz.<br /><br />NYC is where he became more interested in a more diverse range of music. He followed reggae artists such as Sean Paul and Supercat. I develop my style through people such as Apache Waria and a mixture of different reggae and soca artists.<br /><br />Around the age of 17, Prakz joined the Supertones Band based in Queens, NY. Rocky, a high school friend who was already playing with the band introduced him to band leader, Avinash Singh and Band Manager Terry Gajraj.<br /><br />Prakz thanks Avinash and Terry who were really the true members who gave him a chance in life and Omesh for his encouragement and everyone else who’ve been there for him. He fought his way up to a recognized artist and Terry has been truly been an inspiration to him in terms of helping and giving him a break in life.<br /><br />Collaborating with artists like Terry Gajraj, Queen Yasmin and Apache Waria, Prakz finally started showing the world his talent. His first Solo Album <em>'Chapter One'</em> was released in the summer of 2005.<br /><br />Some of the highlights of his debut CD are the songs like <em>Under Water</em> (talking about the floods in Guyana) & <em>Move Yuh Feet</em> ( a song that has packed dancefloors throughout the US, Canada, Trinidad & Guyana). Soon after the release of Chapter One, Prakz recorded the music video to <em>“Move Yuh Feet”</em> which was then later followed by a music video to<em> Under Water</em>.<br /><br />From <em><a href="http://djprakz.com/indexx.htm">DJPrakz</a></em><br /><br /><strong>DJ Prakz <em>'Chapter One'</em> In Stores Now.... </strong><br /><br /><img height="300" src="http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/7908/djprakz2om.gif" width="300" border="0" />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21407343.post-1142973576091045582006-03-21T14:31:00.000-06:002006-03-21T14:45:04.620-06:00Professor Of Medicine<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5887/2164/1600/gift.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5887/2164/320/gift.jpg" border="0" /></a><span style="color:#990000;"><em>Born in Guyana, South America, Dr. Compton Gift was a mathematics teacher in Guyana prior to attending the University of Connecticut from 1963 - 1966. In recent years he has returned to Guyana as part of a medical team to provide free medical services and medications. </em></span><br /><br />Henry Compton Gift, MD, is the Medical Director of the Saint Mary’s Family Health Center in Waterbury, Connecticut, and is the Associate Program Director for the residency program in charge of ambulatory education.<br /><br />Born in Guyana, South America, Dr. Gift was a mathematics teacher in Guyana prior to attending the University of Connecticut from 1963 - 1966.<br /><br />He delayed his studies to serve in the United States Army as Section Chief Of Microbiology And Parasitology at the United States Army Hospital in Heidelberg, West Germany, for two years.<br /><br />Following an honorable discharge from the Army, Dr. Gift graduated from Central Connecticut State University with a bachelor's degree in Biology. He then earned an M.P.H. degree in Epidemiology and Environmental Health from Yale University School of Public Health and his medical degree from the University of Connecticut School of Medicine.<br /><br />Dr. Gift completed an Internal Medicine residency and chief residency at Saint Mary’s Hospital.<br /><br />Dr. Gift has a private practice in Waterbury. He is an Assistant Clinical Professor Of Medicine at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine and Assistant Clinical Professor at Yale University School of Medicine.<br /><br />In recent years he has returned to Guyana as part of a medical team to provide free medical services and medications.<br /><br />From <em><a href="http://www.stmh.org/">St. Mary's Hospital</a></em>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21407343.post-1142797660872169632006-03-19T13:41:00.000-06:002006-03-19T14:30:29.846-06:00Caribbean café<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5887/2164/1600/tony_rayban.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5887/2164/320/tony_rayban.jpg" border="0" /></a><em><span style="color:#990000;">In 1968, Dr. Tony Martin, a PHD in Nutrition and born in British Guyana, immigrated to the United States, bringing with him secret recipes handed down to him through generations of his family. He moved to Charlotte, NC in 1986 and opened a small Cafe with a menu straight from the heart of the Caribbean. It is named for his mother, Ann, and himself, Tony.<br /></span></em><br />Anntony's Caribbean café has won many awards, received favorable reviews and accolades for it's innovative style and tasty Island cuisine. Rotisserie chicken marinated and seasoned for an authentic Caribbean flair has made the restaurant famous. This flavorful fare caused such a stir; Dr. Martin had to develop his unique and flavorful sauces for retail sale.<br /><br />These sauces are so unique and versatile they can be used for marinating, dipping, topping, in beverages or just boasting to your guests that you've discovered a new secret recipe. Demand has continued to the point that Caribe Food Development was created. And a factory was built. The company now bottles these flavorful sauces for retail and the restaurant sales at our 3500 sq. ft. south Charlotte plant.<br /><br />Currently Caribe Food Development sells products in supermarkets such as Food Lion, Winn Dixie, Harris Teeter, Bi-Lo and Ingles throughout the Southeast. They also sell to specialty distributors who deliver Anntonys to many other retailers throughout the country. In addition we sell our products to restaurant suppliers such as PYA Monarch, and US Foodservice.<br /><br />Anntony's Caribbean café products are unparalleled due to specially blended herbs and spices, distinctive to the Caribbean. They bring a special flavor to any dish.<br /><br />Anntony's features award winning authentic Caribbean cuisine, including healthy low fat rotisserie style meats, vegetarian side items such as black beans, callaloo greens and sweet potato fries. In addition to their Caribbean crab cakes, grouper and homemade curry dishes are always excellent choices.<br /><br />They offer fresh conch chowder, lobster bisque and black bean soup. Enjoy the spicy tropical flavors of the islands including Jerk chicken, loin back ribs, the best wings around, coconut encrusted seafood and Cuban roasted pork.<br /><br />In their Island coffee bar (Asheville) they offer freshly roasted bean coffees from all over the world as well as delicious desserts, smoothies and gypsy teas. Live entertainment (weather permitting) on Friday & Saturday nights overlooking the streets of downtown Asheville.<br /><br /><em>Try one of their products today and "Hey Mon! - Don't Worry 'bout Nothing"<br /></em><br /><em>Anntony's Caribbean café has three locations in North Carolina:<br /></em><br /><img height="225" src="http://img296.imageshack.us/img296/5126/ashevilleexterior3ue.jpg" width="300" border="0" /><br />The Original Location- Charlotte (pictured)<br />Cheshire Commons - Asheville<br />Historic Grove Arcade - Downtown Charlotte<br /><br />From <em><a href="http://www.anntonys.com/index.html">Anntony's Caribbean café </a></em>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21407343.post-1142522212697420242006-03-16T09:06:00.000-06:002006-03-16T09:27:59.000-06:00International Musician<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5887/2164/1600/jahbreeze.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5887/2164/320/jahbreeze.jpg" border="0" /></a><em><span style="color:#990000;">Jah Breeze was born in Guyana, he grew up with African music and has traveled to other continents to perform and study. He is currently artist in residence at Islandwood School on Bainbridge Island and The New School at South Shore, Seattle ,Washington. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Speech Communication from Drake University<br /></span></em><br />Jah Breeze is a Rastafarian name meaning God's breath.<br /><br />He is an international musician and percussionist from Guyana, the only English speaking country in South America. A solo and group performer with experience on drums and other instruments, he grew up with African music and has traveled to other continents to perform and study.<br /><br />His teachers are world renowned master drummers from West Africa, including Babatunde Olatunji, a Nigerian Yoruba priest known for his<em> "Drums of Passion,"</em> and Mamady Keita and Mamady (Wadaba) Kourouma of Guinea, both versed in the Malinke traditions and students of the legendary djembe master drummer, Famadou Konate.<br /><br />Jah Breeze received a Service to Education Award in May 2000 from Seattle Community College District in recognition of 5 years of dedication to teaching. He served on the board of directors for ArtsCorps, a nonprofit arts education organization. He has directed the African Drum Ensembles at High Point YMCA and Rainier Beach Community Center in the past years, and taught African drum workshops for Rainier Valley Youth Theatre and the Whidbey Institute's youth program, <em>"Power of Hope."</em><br /><br />He has performed with the Seattle Dance Company for <em>"Dance Dis"</em> at the Paramount Theatre, and taught African drum workshops at the 2002 Seattle International Children Festival at Seattle Center.<br /><br />He also directed the Arts Corps African Drum Ensemble in a South African mural exchange celebration at the Seattle Art Museum. Jah served as the Percussion Director for the 2003 MAAFA Performance produced by the Sankofa Theatre, a Pan African Saga about the legacies of the Middle Passage Experience.<br /><br />He is currently artist in residence at Islandwood School on Bainbridge Island and The New School at South Shore. Participants learn traditional rhythms from Africa, South America and the Caribbean (including steel drums), exploring different timbres and tones of the drums by applying various hand techniques.<br /><br />They also learn songs and chants from different African cultures, such as the Yoruba, Malinke, and Nyabinghi (Rastafarian Culture). Participants are encouraged to explore their own rhythms, traditions and contemporary cultures with the aim of facilitating diversity and self-acceptance.<br /><br />He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Speech Communication from Drake University.<br /><br />From <em><a href="http://www.janakirosemusic.com/entrance.html">jankirosemusic</a></em>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21407343.post-1142341922215973142006-03-14T06:52:00.000-06:002006-04-20T15:33:57.126-05:00Dance With Words<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5887/2164/1600/margot.0.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5887/2164/320/margot.0.jpg" border="0" /></a><em><span style="color:#990000;">Poet, publisher, and instructor Margot Van Sluytman was born in Guyana, South America, she moved with family to Canada in the late 1960's. Margot currently lives in Peterborough, Ontario with her teenaged daughters Olivia and Jessica, her partner, Rick McKenna, and their cat, Mr. Othello.<br /></span></em><br />The words: passion, intensity, and focus, have been used to describe the work of Margot Van Sluytman, poet, publisher, and instructor, who was born in Guyana, South America, and moved with her family to Canada in the late 1960s. Margot is a Canadian Pioneer in the field of mentoring and teaching poetry and writing as both art and healing.<br /><br />Margot has been published in magazines and eZines across Canada, the US, and South America. Her books include, <em>Feeding Dreams</em>, <em>Bleeding Pupils and Beauty</em>, <em>Alba the Spanish Woman</em>, <em>Studying Lo</em>ve, and <em>Of Dark Night</em>. Her sixth book of poetry, M<em>orning Tasting Whispers</em>, will be published in the Fall of 2006. This work was inspired by an ongoing collaboration with, Robert Winslow, Artistic Director of Canada’s renowned 4th Line Theatre.<br /><br />Margot created and hosts the Trent University Radio Show, Dance With Words On Air, 9-10 a.m. EST every Friday, on 92.7 FM, where writing, reading, discussing words, is shared with an enthusiastic audience.<br /><br />She has just finished taping a six-segment TV Show with Cogeco entitled: <em>Dance With Your Words: Poetry is Art and Healing</em>, which will air later this year.<br /><br />Her newest book, <em>Dance With Your Healing: tears let me begin to speak, Poetry and Journal for Your Healing Words</em>, will accompany this series and has been receiving attention from some very kindred and vital voices: “Margot's deeply felt, generous poems and exercises, in the tradition of 'Call and Response', is a dance well worth the taking to lighten any heart who has suffered loss.” Perie Longo, Poet, PhD, RPT, President of The National Association for Poetry Therapy, Author of, The Privacy of Wind.<br /><br />Dance With Your Words: poems from word dancers, Volume Two that includes poems from members of the internationally acclaimed writing group<em> </em><a href="http://www.dance-with-words.com/" target="_blank"><em>www.Dance-With-Words.com</em></a> which Margot Administers, will be published in Spring 2006 by Palabras Press.<br /><br />Margot uses her extensive skills with language to teach others to write and express their voice. Her personal mantra, think by feeling, has been a starting point for novice, seasoned writers, students, as well as individuals who partake of the journey of using words for healing and personal development. Her online and in-class courses have inspired individuals to both write and publish their words often through <a href="http://www.palabras-press.com/" target="_blank"><em>Palabras Press</em></a>.<br /><br />Margot publishes a monthly eZine: <a href="http://www.palabras-press.com/" target="_blank"><em>www.Palabras-Press.com</em></a> which has included the work of individuals including: Eric Ashford, Gary Zukav, Sandra Ingerman, Oriah Mountain Dreamer, Stephen Levine, Robert Carroll, Lucia Capacchione, misty santana, Greg Levoy, Gavran, Anngwyn St.Just, Penn Kemp, Susan McCaslin, and Roger Humes to name a few.<br /><br />Margot offers workshops and readings at colleges, universities, spirituality centres, and kindred venues where words are valued as both art and healing.<br /><br />According to Poet, Misty Santana: “Teaching individuals how to write to use words for creativity and healing, is the gift Margot offers to her students and clients alike. Tapping into intellect, passion, and raw spirit, is what she focuses on, believes in, and inspires others to do. For Margot, art and healing are kindred siblings.” Misty Santana, Poet, Author of, spiritwind, the flesh of language, and fragile boundaries<br /><br />Margot has traveled extensively, most recently living for a year and a half in Venezuela, teaching English and Art, learning Spanish, reading Pablo Neruda close to his home country of Chile, and discovering the work of Spanish poet Antonio Machado, tasting the air and food of Brazil, and returning to Guyana to reconnect with roots, seeking out and finding the graves of her Great Grand Parents, filling her soul with images and sounds which will be birthed in her play, Jack and Clare, for which he has received an Ontario Arts Council Grant.<br /><br />In 2004, twenty-one of Margot’s poems were selected to be painted by Montreal Artist, Caroline Archambault. A show entitled, dialogue, held at Galerie le 1040, which highlighted the natural affinity between word and paint proved a rich success for both Poet and Painter.<br /><br />Margot is a Member of The National Association for Poetry Therapy, The Peterborough Arts Umbrella, and is the Administrator of the internationally acclaimed writing community: <a href="http://www.dance-with-words.com/" target="_blank"><em>www.Dance-With-Words.com</em></a>. She was short-listed for the Canadian Literary Awards for her work, Pieces From the Same Puzzle, and Pieces From the Same Puzzle Too.<br /><br />Margot lives in Peterborough, Ontario with her teenaged daughters Olivia and Jessica, her partner, Rick McKenna, and their cat, Mr. Othello.<br /><br /><em>~to dance with words is to be nourished~to dance with the kindred, doubly so~</em><br /><br />From <em></em><a href="http://www.margotvansluytman.com/"><em>MargotVanSluytman</em></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21407343.post-1142168951872801242006-03-12T06:47:00.000-06:002006-03-16T08:35:47.400-06:00'Goddess Thoughts'<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5887/2164/1600/amy_ramdass.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5887/2164/320/amy_ramdass.1.jpg" border="0" /></a><em><span style="color:#990000;">Amy Ramdass was born and bred at Susannah’s Rust a village, 34 miles up the right bank of the Demerara River, Guyana. Her childhood was serene, her parents over-protective. Ramdass and her 10 siblings were not allowed to travel. A portion of her elementary education was obtained at Susannah’s Rust Primary School. But essentially she was home-schooled. Amy is a professional accountant who now resides in Canada<br /></span></em><br /><em>“Books wove a magical flying carpet to secret worlds of intrigue, danger, romance, mystery, enchantment and wonder…it was poetry in the verbal and musical form that really enthralled and enticed….” – Poet Amy Ramdass</em><br /><br />Professional Guyanese accountant, Amy Ramdass, who lives in Canada, recently published a hefty book of poetry. <em>`Goddess Thoughts: The Rest Are Mere Details’</em>, which was released late last year, is compact with more than 200 easy-to-read lyrical poems and rhyming thoughts on controversial subjects ranging from Big Bang, the Bible, the planets, celestial beings, ancient folklore and mythical gods, to love, family, friendship, nature and healing.<br /><br />Ramdass was born and bred at Susannah’s Rust a village, 34 miles up the right bank of the Demerara River, Guyana. Her childhood was serene, her parents over-protective. Ramdass and her 10 siblings were not allowed to travel. A portion of her elementary education was obtained at Susannah’s Rust Primary School. But essentially she was home-schooled.<br /><br />Being perennially surrounded by nature during her childhood, Amy said that she was able to engross in deep thinking – “to go deep for answers.” She sailed high seas and roamed deserts of the written word as she journeyed with numerous authors.<br /><br />“Much of what I’ve learnt in life is from books, not from people,” Ramdass declared.<br /><br />She states in the introduction of Goddess Thoughts that she fell in love with the written word at a very tender age mainly due to the entertainment void at Susannah’s Rust.<br /><br />“Books [wove] a magical flying carpet to secret worlds of intrigue, danger, romance, mystery, enchantment and wonder…it was poetry in the verbal and musical form that really enthralled and enticed…,” she said.<br /><br />Poetry became her solace. Her indulgence in the art form ruptured the monotony of academic study.<br /><br />From childhood she began to pen her own feelings, working mainly during the early morning hours when her thoughts “flow like a river” and she can write her “heart out.”<br /><br />As she matured, got married, moved to Canada and started a family, her interaction with people improved. Her relations with others boosted her writing.<br /><br />Although Ramdass believes that her writing ability is a gift, she says, “Just being around people inspires me to write. I see their positives and I want to show them that they have something beautiful inside of them.”<br /><br />Tragedy also induces her ink on paper talent as it did when her father died in 1988. Prior to his death, Ms. Ramdass had put poetry writing on hold.<br /><br />She got serious about compiling the book in 2005.<br /><br />With the title coined, she went after internationally recognized visual artist David Howard Johnson, who sketched a thought-provoking cover design for <em>`Goddess Thoughts: The Rest Are Mere Details’</em>.<br /><br />The title of her book is inspired by Einstein’s “I want to know God’s thoughts, the rest are mere details.’<br /><br />And who is the Goddess?<br /><br />Ramdass answers: “Some believe that she is the divine principle, the feminine aspect of God, while others feel she is nature, the creative Goddess. I also believe that the Goddess is the ultimate power, the supreme mind within each woman. She is wholeness, negative and positive, good and evil, Kali and Durga, black and white, life and death. She is like the sea totally healing yet totally destructive. She is the warrior woman and the peacemaker, the unholy one and the saint.”<br /><br />From <em><a href="http://amyramdass.com/">AmyRamdass</a></em><br /><br /><br /><p><br /><img height="222" src="http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/9290/goddessthoughts5vj.gif" width="168" align="left" border="0" /><span style="font-size:85%;"><strong><span style="font-family:verdana;">"Goddess Thoughts"</span></strong><strong style="FONT-WEIGHT: 400"><br /></strong></span><strong style="FONT-WEIGHT: 400"><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;color:#cc0000;">A book on the secrets to life....a book that will bring magic to your life...a book filled with secrets vast... a book written in the divine language...a book to enchant your soul and make you loving and whole.</span></strong></p><p><a href="http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/1411639243/qid=1139115553/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_0_1/701-8984409-6615506"><strong><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Goddess Thoughts "The Rest Are Mere Details" </span><br /></span></strong></a><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">by Amy Indira Ramdass (Author) (<strong>Paperback</strong> - October 2005)<br /><br /></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/1411639243/qid=1139115553/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_0_1/702-3545711-3812806">Order 'Goddess Thoughts'</a></span></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21407343.post-1142023547917473502006-03-10T14:36:00.000-06:002006-03-10T14:55:31.690-06:00Critic, Writer and Novelist<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5887/2164/1600/dabydeen.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5887/2164/320/dabydeen.jpg" border="0" /></a><em><span style="color:#990000;">David Dabydeen was born in in Berbice, Guyana, moving to England with his parents in 1969. He read English at Cambridge University, gained a doctorate at University College London in 1982, and was awarded a research fellowship at Wolfson College, Oxford. David Dabydeen is Director of the Centre for Caribbean Studies and Professor at the Centre for British Comparative Cultural Studies at the University of Warwick. </span></em><br /><br />Critic, writer and novelist David Dabydeen was born in 1955 in Berbice, Guyana, moving to England with his parents in 1969. He read English at Cambridge University, gained a doctorate at University College London in 1982, and was awarded a research fellowship at Wolfson College, Oxford.<br /><br />David Dabydeen is Director of the Centre for Caribbean Studies and Professor at the Centre for British Comparative Cultural Studies at the University of Warwick. He is also Guyana's Ambassador-at-Large and a member of UNESCO's Executive Board.<br /><br />In 2001 he wrote and presented <em>The Forgotten Colony</em>, a BBC Radio 4 programme exploring the history of Guyana. He is the author of four novels, three collections of poetry and several works of non-fiction and criticism.<br /><br />His first book, <em>Slave Song</em> (1984), a collection of poetry, won the Commonwealth Poetry Prize and the Quiller-Couch Prize. A new collection, <em>Turner</em>, was published in 2002.His first novel, <em>The Intended</em> (1991), the story of a young Asian student abandoned in London by his father, won the Guyana Prize for Literature.<br /><br /><em>Disappearance</em> (1993) centres on a young Guyanese engineer working on the south coast of England who lodges with an elderly woman. <em>The Counting House</em> (1996) is set at the end of the nineteenth century and narrates the experiences of an Indian couple whose hopes of a new life in colonial Guyana end in tragedy. The story explores historical tensions between indentured Indian workers and Guyanese of African descent.<br /><br />His recent novel, <em>A Harlot's Progress</em> (1999), is based on a series of pictures painted by William Hogarth in 1732 and develops the story of Hogarth's black slave boy. Through the character of Mungo, Dabydeen challenges traditional cultural representations of the slave.<br /><br />David Dabydeen's latest books are<em> Our Lady of Demerara</em> (2004) <em>and Slave Song</em> (2005)<br /><br /><strong>Novels</strong><br /><em>Slave Song Dangaroo</em>, 1984<br /><em>Caribbean Literature: A Teacher's Handbook Heinemann Educational</em>, 1985<br /><em>The Black Presence in English Literature</em> (editor) Manchester University Press, 1985<br /><em>A Reader's Guide to West Indian and Black British Literature</em> (with Nana Wilson-Tagoe) Hansib/University of Warwick Centre for Caribbean Studies, 1987<br /><em>Hogarth's Blacks: Images of Blacks in 18th-Century English Art</em> Manchester University Press, 1987<br /><em>India in the Caribbean</em> (editor with Brinsley Samaroo) Hansib, 1987<br /><em>Coolie Odyssey</em> Hansib, 1988<br /><em>Handbook for Teaching Caribbean Literature</em> Heinemann Educational, 1988<br /><em>Black Writers in Britain 1760-1890</em> (editor with Paul Edwards) Edinburgh University Press, 1991<br /><em>The Intended Secker</em> & Warburg, 1991<br /><em>Disappearance</em> Secker & Warburg, 1993<br /><em>Turner: New and Selected Poems</em> Cape, 1994<br /><em>Across the Dark Waters: Ethnicity and Indian Identity in the Caribbean</em> Macmillan, 1996<br /><em>The Counting House</em> Cape, 1996<br /><em>A Harlot's Progress</em> Cape, 1999<br /><em>No Island is an Island: Selected Speeches of Sir Shridath Ramphal</em> (editor with John Gilmore) Macmillan, 2000<br /><em>Turner</em> Peepal Tree Press, 2002<br /><em>Our Lady of Demerera</em> Dido Press, 2004<br /><em>Slave Song </em>Peepal Tree Press, 2005<br /><a href="http://guyanadiaspora.blogspot.com/"><em><span style="font-size:78%;">Guyana Diaspora</span></em></a><br /><strong>Prizes and awards<br /></strong>1984 Commonwealth Poetry Prize Slave Song<br />1984 Quiller-Couch Prize Slave Song<br />1991 Guyana Prize for Literature The Intended<br />1999 James Tait Black Memorial Prize (for fiction) (shortlist) A Harlot's Progress<br />2004 Raja Rao Award for Literature (India)<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/external-search/202-1626605-0702263?keyword=David+Dabydeen&mode=blended&amp;amp;amp;amp;tag=contemporaryw-21&Go.x=4&Go.y=6" target="_blank"></a><br /><br />From <em><a href="http://www.contemporarywriters.com/">Contemporary Writers<br /></a><br /></em><a class="bc_buttonText" href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/external-search/202-1626605-0702263?keyword=David+Dabydeen&mode=blended&amp;amp;amp;amp;tag=contemporaryw-21&Go.x=4&Go.y=6" target="_blank">Buy books by David Dabydeen at Amazon.co.uk</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21407343.post-1141936456512288662006-03-09T14:33:00.000-06:002006-06-28T14:19:31.136-05:00Reggae Queen<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5887/2164/1600/donnamakeda1.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5887/2164/320/donnamakeda1.jpg" border="0" /></a><em><span style="color:#990000;">This Guyanese born dreadlocked singjay is a graduate of Trebas Institute where she received her diploma in Recorded Music Production and Multimedia and also is the proud owner of her own music label “DONNA MAKEDA MUSIC” and a quarterly music magazine called “REGGAEXCLUSIVE Entertainment News”. Donna migrated from Guyana to Canada in early 1990 as a worker in the entertainment field.<br /></span></em><br />Donna Makeda is definitely a musical force to be reckoned with. She performed at the Calgary International Reggae Festival – and created quite an impact on the 6000-strong audience with her dynamic and impressive stage show.<br /><br />With her beautiful and very talented back up dancers ‘The Caribbean Dance Theatre’, she created quite a wonderful spectacle and together they had the audience mesmerized with their stage act.<br /><br />Donna started singing and performing 25 years ago, her foundation in music came from the church, which she attended when she was a little girl.<br /><br />She received the Consul General’s Award at the Guyana Awards late May 2004 in appreciation for her steadfast commitment and service to the Guyanese Community, she also walked away with the Female Dancehall DJ Of The Year Award at the 20th Annual Canadian Reggae Music Awards held March 2004, which makes it her 9th award to date.<br /><br />Donna started out as a dancer; she was trained in Afro-Caribbean Dance, Modern Dance, Folk Dance, Kathak and Classical Ballet. At age 16, she opened her own dance & aerobics school called <em>“Burning Flame International”</em> Dance Troupe.<br /><br />By the time Donna got to Canada, she had already been performing extensively throughout Guyana with her dance troupe. Singing at that time was just a fun thing for her. Upon siting Ras Tafari, Donna began to take her music more seriously and began writing lyrics and practicing on sound systems, singing at various stage shows and winning many competitions.<br /><br />Upon migrating to Canada in early 1990 as a worker in the entertainment field, Donna did her first international stage show and captivated her audience to the point where Denise Jones of Jones & Jones Productions decided to manage Donna’s musical career. From there on in, it was just upward movements for Donna. Although that contract/relationship dissolved within one year, Donna kept on promoting herself and releasing her music.<br /><br />Donna just released her new album entitled <em>“Jah Ah De Rulah”</em> which is a 12-track CD, which includes songs like<em> “Come Into My Life”</em> featuring Prince Everald, a slamming, conscious track, the hit single <em>“Make Love, Not War”</em> featuring Roger B, <em>“In My House”</em> featuring Negus Morris of the Heptones, the ever popular <em>“Folk Song Medley” </em>and <em>‘Sweet Victory’</em> (groundation dub). Performing on stage alongside many top artists including Capleton, Coco Tea, Marcia Griffiths, Sister Carol, Culture, Beres Hammond, Buju Banton, Michael Rose, Cutty Ranks, Yami Bolo, Anthony B and Louie Culture to name a few, Donna has certainly made a name for herself.<br /><br />With her bevy of beautiful and flexible dancers (Caribbean Dance Theatre) and her hard-core conscious lyrics, Donna Makeda is certainly making a mark on the national and international reggae music scene. She has been very busy working on shows such as the Jamaica Day celebrations, the Marcus Garvey Day celebrations, The Canadian Reggae Music Awards, The Toronto Street Festival, Irie Music Festival, Afrikadey in Calgary and Caribana to name a few. Donna Makeda has certainly proven to be one of the hardest working recording artists residing in Toronto, Canada.<br /><br />She has garnered for herself eight Reggae Music Awards including <em>“Top Reggae Newcomer”</em> in 1993, <em>“Top Reggae Dancehall DJ"</em> (female) in 1995, 1996 and 1999 and 2003 and <em>“Top Reggae Music Video (for her video “Jah Great Woman”)</em> in 1995 from the Canadian Reggae Music Awards. An <em>“Arts & Entertainment Award” </em>for her contribution to the Arts from her home country – Guyana in 2000, and an <em>“Artistic Award of Excellence”</em> from the Inter-City Multicultural School of Excellence Reading Club in 2001. Donna has performed extensively in Canada in places like Toronto, Hamilton, Ottawa, Montreal and Calgary, also internationally in Barbados, Guyana, New York and Jamaica.<br /><br />Her song <em>“Sweet Victory”</em> was #1 on the reggae charts in Miami for eight weeks while <em>“South Africa”</em> (from her CD <em>“Who Can Endure”</em> released 1998) was following closely at #2. <em>“Jah Great Woman”</em> also enjoyed much airplay and was #1 in Miami for six weeks. The<em> “Jah Great Woman”</em> music video, which was done with the help of Videofact, was on high rotation on Much Music and played in countries like Guyana, Jamaica, Barbados and New York on selected programmes. Donna Makeda signed a licensing deal with Amiata Records in Italy for the remix of her song <em>“Life Story”</em> and also was involved in many stage plays where she performed as an actress, dancer and singer.<br /><br />She also starred in a Documentary film called <em>“Roots Daughters”</em> alongside Judy Mowatt and that film is constantly being aired on television throughout the world. Donna Makeda released a 45’ (vinyl) with two tracks namely <em>“Jah Ah De Rulah”</em> and <em>“Wonder Weed”</em> in October 2003, which were pre-releases from her new album. She also released another music video <em>“Who Can Endure”</em> which was done with the help of Trebas Institute and just finished editing her new video entitled <em>“Make Love Not War”</em> (another single from her new album), alongside Roger B, which is soon to be released to television. The National Film School here is doing that project in Toronto, Canada.<br /><br />Since 1993, this multi-talented, multi-award winning and indefatigable artist has released two full length CD’s entitled <em>“Who Can Endure”</em> and <em>“Jah Ah De Rulah”</em>, two cassette-albums (Who Can Endure & Sweet Victory), two vinyl-singles (Sweet Victory & Jah Ah De Rulah & Wonder Weed), one vinyl-album (for Who Can Endure), two compilation CDs with Canadian Music Week and four CD singles (Just Hurry, Money Crazy, Make Love Not War and Family Medley – Part 1). Donna has appeared live numerous times on City TV’s Breakfast Television, Entertainment News, Clip Trip, The Scene, Lunch Television, Rogers Cable 10, Soul In The City and Da Mix (Canada).<br /><br />This Guyanese born dreadlocked singjay is also a graduate of Trebas Institute where she received her diploma in Recorded Music Production and Multimedia and also is the proud owner of her own music label “DONNA MAKEDA MUSIC” and a quarterly music magazine called “REGGAEXCLUSIVE Entertainment News”.Without a doubt, her voice is her wealth; her intellect a cultural strength, and her stage presence is an expression of royal heritage.<br /><div></div><div></div><div></div><div> </div><div>From <em><a href="http://www.ghettofabulous.ca/home.htm">GettoFabulous</a></em></div><div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21407343.post-1141749517817247212006-03-07T10:27:00.000-06:002006-03-08T16:10:45.620-06:00'All I need is one mic.'<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5887/2164/1600/GABRE_MASKAL.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5887/2164/320/GABRE_MASKAL.jpg" border="0" /></a><em><span style="color:#990000;">Born in Guyana, South America, Colin Aubrey Edmonds, aka, Maskal was brought to the United States at the age of 7 by his father, who wanted to do better for his family. A "quiet street kid who got along with pretty much everybody" while growing up in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, NY, he was drawn into the gang life, while hanging out with an older crowd and a cousin who was one of the most feared youths in the 'hood. </span></em><br /><br />Coming up on the streets of Brooklyn, NY, Colin Aubrey Edmonds, aka Maskal, had his brushes with the gangsta life. But instead of hyping a bad boy past to raise his music profile, like a lot of hip-hop gangsta wannabes, Maskal is one talented rapper who is committed to dropping knowledge of a conscious and spiritual kind. Although able to kick styles from straight-up hip-hop to driving rub-a-dub and roots reggae, Maskal’s flow and superior lyrical content comes strong from the tradition of warrior musicians like Bob Marley and Steele Pulse.<br /><br />Like the legendary Robert Nestor Marley, who he praises as <em>"much more than a musician,"</em> Maskal is inspired by great icons of the Black struggle who came before him, like Marcus Garvey and Jomo <em>"Burning Spear"</em> Kenyatta. <em>"I'm here to encourage sleeping warriors who are ready but don't see a way,"</em> declares the 28-year-old Rasta rapper. <em>"All I need is one mic."<br /></em><br />Born in Guyana, South America, Maskal was brought to America at the age of 7 by his father, who wanted to do better for his family. A <em>"quiet street kid who got along with pretty much everybody"</em> while growing up in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, he was drawn into the gang life, while hanging out with an older crowd and a cousin who was one of the most feared youth in the hood.<br /><br /><em>"I never got as far as murder,"</em> Maskal recalls about his days as a member of the Fifty Terrorists gang. But a beat-down did land him in New York City’s notorious Spofford Detention Center. <em>"I wasn’t trying to kill the guy,"</em> he explains. <em>"It was just due to the injuries he suffered."</em> Incarceration and the <em>"Public Enemy #1"</em> tag he was branded with when he returned to the hood, convinced Maskal to get out of the gangsta life, and led him to music and a more spiritual path.<br /><br />Maskal, first caught the music flava around the age of eight listening to his father, a professional bass player, jam with musicians in their home. As a teenager, he spent his weekends going with his crew to the jumpin’ sound systems in Brooklyn. The gigantic mobile DJ systems, popularized in Jamaica in the 50s, was where some of Jamaica’s best and most famous DJs, like Screechy Dan, Admiral Bailey and Frankie Paul, showcased their microphone skills whenever they visited New York City. <em>"Every Friday and Saturday night, I knew what I was doing,"</em> Maskal recalls. <em>"A couple of times I passed the mic with Shaggy,"</em> he adds referring to the "Hotshot" reggae/rap star who lived in his neighborhood when he was growing up.<br /><br />Maskal eventually became known in Brooklyn for his own sound system, named Big Boss, and his mix tapes became much-requested party jams. After learning how to scratch by hanging with DJ Richie Rich of the old school rap group 3rd Bass, he began dabbling with lyrics and writing about whatever he saw. <em>"Music is a chance to express yourself to the world,"</em> says Maskal.<br /><br />Now, Maskal is ready to break out and make his mark on the music scene and beyond. Naming names and taking no prisoners, the mighty young dread with the mad lyrical skills is set to educate and inspire the masses with his keen social commentary and the thought-provoking observations of a <em>"righteous Rasta livin’ the rebel life in Brooklyn."<br /></em><br />Maskal's lyrics are a cut above the larger-than-life guns talk and boasts of bling-bling lifestyle perpetrated in the hip-hop game, and ring with the truth of what he has lived. <em>"My music is not inspired by falsehood,"</em> says the conscious rapper. <em>"There's no pretense. I want my music to be positive and the people to be inspired. If you're down, I want my music to pick you up."<br /></em><br />Strong in his Rasta stance and in honoring his Imperial Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie in his rhymes, Maskal is one rapper who believes in <em>"practicing what you preach and preaching what you practice."</em> His name, which comes from the Ethiopian word for cross, came to him during a deeply spiritual experience after asking for a name with meaning and purpose. And like the story of the finding of the <em>"true cross",</em> lost and buried for more than 300 years, Maskal’s coming is helping lift the burden of false music prophets from the music scene and bringing the meaning and purpose back hip-hop.<br /><br />From <em><a href="http://www.daghettotymz.com/">thegettoymz</a></em><br /><a href="http://guyanadiaspora.blogspot.com/"><em><span style="font-size:78%;">Guyana Diaspora</span></em></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21407343.post-1141662691443523302006-03-06T10:16:00.000-06:002006-04-27T23:49:01.170-05:00District Manager<a href="http://www.stewartsshops.com/index.cfm"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5887/2164/320/deryk_singh_2003.jpg" border="0" /></a><a href="http://www.stewartsshops.com/index.cfm"><em><span style="color:#990000;">Stewarts Shops </span></em></a><em><span style="color:#990000;">District Manager Deryck Singh, was recognized for his efforts in helping to revitalize the city of Schenectady NY. As a result of Deryck’s initiative, Schenectady has opened its doors to new immigrants from Guyana since the year 2000. These immigrants, who originally settled in the New York metropolitan area, found the city of Schenectady eager for their investment and energy; the city has welcomed Guyanese families looking for affordable housing, business opportunity and a place to build a home.<br /></span></em><br />Deryck’s Singh's family emigrated to the U.S. from Guyana when he was 19 years old. His parents and 5 brothers and 2 sisters never had a TV, refrigerator or indoor plumbing until they came to America to stay with relatives in the Bronx.<br /><br />"We started from scratch," says Deryck, "I had $30 in my pocket when I arrived and worked at 3 jobs- we all pitched in. After 2 years I saved $5000 to put down on 2 houses in the Bronx." Deryck continued to work and save money through his early 20’s and married his wife Sandra, an immigrant from Trinidad while in New York.<br /><br />In 1987, at age 25, he decided to move to the Capital District; seeking an area that was large enough for opportunity, but small enough to maintain a sense of community. "In Schenectady you can buy a low-priced home, invest in it and live there with no mortgage." This same financial logic along with a deep-rooted sense of optimism has driven other Guyanese to Schenectady; Deryck’s brothers and sisters also settled in the Capital Region.<br /><br />His first and only job in Upstate New York has been with Stewart’s. Deryck started as a Manager Trainee in the Brandywine Avenue Shop in Schenectady in 1987, and became Manager of the Livingston Avenue Shop in Albany the following year. He moved back to Brandywine as Manager in 1989 and continued to run the Hamilton Hill shop for 8 years. In 1997, just 10 years after moving to the region, he became District Manager for the Albany area and continues to teach and grow a group of 20 Stewart’s Shop Managers today. While moving up through the ranks at Stewart’s, he also became a U.S. Citizen.<br /><br />One might say Deryck’s success has started a trend, and is a living testimonial to the opportunities in the area. Word of mouth has certainly traveled, along with active promotion of the area by Schenectady Mayor Al Jurczynski.<br /><br />According to George Robertson of Schenectady’s Economic Development Corp one year ago there were about 1500 Guyanese- now there are estimates of 4,000 individuals in Schenectady. "There could be 5,000 this time next year. The movement has brought families and the housing market is coming back.<br /><br />It was a matter of the Mayor realizing the opportunity and Deryck opening the door." This rennaisance is vital to Schenectady. "As GE declined over several decades, generations of young people left the area; currently Schenectady has the 2nd highest senior citizen population for a city of its size. While there’s nothing wrong with that, it’s not our future. Recruiting young families is critical to bringing back the city and the county. Older cities have found the answer in recruiting immigrant groups."<br /><br />Recently the National Associated Press ran a story naming 6 cities with the best downtown urban re-development. They were Cleveland, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Washington D.C. and Schenectady.<br /><br />The heart of many communities is the church. Deryck assisted Hindu Priest Jai Misir in finding and negotiating the acquisition of a vacant church building (the former St. Thomas Catholic Church in Mount Pleasant area) to hold services and serve as a center for community activities.<br /><br />The church holds meetings, works to rehab housing and runs talent shows and fundraisers for a growing youth organization. His active involvement in developing the Guyanese Community in Schenectady renewed Deryck’s own sense of Guyanese culture.<br /><br />In April of 2003 Deryck traveled to Guyana with the Mayor of Schenectady and a group of businessmen. They visited the President of the country & his ministers, the rainforest, and Deryck went back to his village and local church. He saw friends and a cousin who still lives there. "A lot has changed in 23 years, they now have telephones, the internet, ATM cards and credit cards are coming. The culture has changed too. There used to be kids hanging out, playing outdoors. Now they’re indoors." Many Guyanese know about Schenectady and the Mayor invited the President of Guyana to come for a visit.<br /><br />While there, Deryck was able to share his perspective with the President regarding the image of the country, environmental issues and an effort to encourage Nationals to return vs. spending money on attracting European tourism.<br /><br />He also made a commitment to giving back to help rehabilitate the Village Church and to solicit Guyanese in New York who have left. "One U.S. Dollar = 193 Guyanese Dollars," he commented, "even a small amount makes a big difference."<br /><br />Deryck prefers to act as a catalyst for the cause as the effort could easily take more time than he can give as a busy District Manager. He prompted the Mayor to put a liaison on the city payroll to handle inquiries from interested NYC Guyanese. "I’ve found that leadership and conversation gets results," says Deryck. As in the case of Schenectady’s turnabout, sometimes the results are greater than you can imagine. Stewart’s commends Deryck Singh for making a difference.<br /><br />Deryck lives in Niskayuna with his wife Sandra and children Andrew 13, and Alyssa 11.<br /><br />From<em> <a href="http://www.stewartsshops.com/index.cfm">Stewarts Shops</a></em><br /><a href="http://guyanadiaspora.blogspot.com/"><span style="font-size:78%;"><em>Guyana Diaspora</em></span></a><br /><em><span style="color:#666666;"><strong></strong></span></em><br /><em><span style="color:#666666;"><strong><a href="http://www.stewartsshops.com/index.cfm">Stewart’s </a></strong>congratulates Deryck Singh, Albany District Manager, who was recently recognized for his efforts in helping to revitalize the city of Schenectady. As a result of Deryck’s initiative, Schenectady has opened its doors to new immigrants from Guyana since the year 2000. These immigrants, who originally settled in the New York metropolitan area, found the city of Schenectady eager for their investment and energy; the city has welcomed Guyanese families looking for affordable housing, business opportunity and a place to build a home. Positive changes are taking place as the run-down neighborhoods of Hamilton Hill & Mount Pleasant are being transformed one house at a time. </span></em>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21407343.post-1141481564055045322006-03-04T07:58:00.000-06:002006-03-04T09:38:04.970-06:00Science is teacher’s inspiration<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5887/2164/1600/Guytri_Still.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5887/2164/320/Guytri_Still.jpg" border="0" /></a><em><span style="color:#990000;">Born in Guyana Guytri Still now lives in Florida and teaches science to gifted students at McNair Magnet Middle School in Cocoa Fl. Guytri is one of eight finalists for the 2006 Teacher of the Year award for Brevard Public Schools.</span></em><br /><br />Guytri Still never intended to be a teacher.<br /><br />But when she found herself in front of a classroom of high school seniors in her native country of Guyana, she said she realized that’s where she “belonged.”<br /><br />Now, for the second time in five years, the science department chairwoman at McNair Magnet Middle is up for the district’s most prestigious award.<br /><br />“I love teaching because I have the opportunity to keep learning,” she said. “These kids keep you on your feet.” Still teaches five accelerated science classes and a research class to about 150 gifted students each day.<br /><br />She often stays late after school and works many Saturdays helping students prepare for competitions.<br /><br />Eighth-grader Alexia Baillow said Still’s hands-on approach sets her apart from other teachers. In a lesson recently on friction, motion and pressure, Alexia and her classmates built bottle rockets and sent them soaring outside.<br /><br />“Anytime you have a problem, “Ms. Still is the type of teacher that you can go to and talk to, and she’ll help you solve it in an efficient way,” the 13-year-old said.<br /><br />Guytri Still has been teaching for 28 years and has been at McNair Magnet Middle School since 1997, where she is currently Science Department Chair. Ms.<br /><br />Still is also the teacher of Gifted/Accelerated Comprehensive Science for seventh and eighth grades. She has a Bachelor of Science degree from Stetson University and a Master of Arts from Rollins College in Winter Park.<br /><br />Past awards include the Space Coast Science Alliance, Exemplary Science Teacher Award in 2001 and 2005, Florida finalist for the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching in 2002, and McNair Magnet School Teacher of the Year in 2001<br /><br />From <em><a href="http://www.floridatoday.com/">Florida Today </a></em>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21407343.post-1141393136118346412006-03-03T07:22:00.000-06:002006-03-03T20:07:16.430-06:00Novelist and Essayist<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5887/2164/1600/harris.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5887/2164/320/harris.jpg" border="0" /></a> <em><span style="color:#990000;">Wilson Harris was born in Guyana and studied at Queens College before taking up a career as a lecturer and writer. Harris moved to England in 1959 and his first novel, Palace of the Peacock (1960) was published soon after his arrival . He has twice been winner of the Guyana Prize for Literature.<br /></span></em><br />Born in Guyana in 1921, and studying at Queen’s College, Georgetown, Guyana, Wilson Harris became a government surveyor, before taking up a career as lecturer and writer. The knowledge of the savannas and rain forests he gained during his time as a surveyor formed the setting of many of his books, the Guyanese landscape dominating his fiction.<br /><br />Wilson Harris’ writing style often departs from accepted norms, and he is known for his broad vision and the abstract complexity of his mystical style. He first wrote poetry, but since has become a well-known novelist and essayist.<br /><br />He came to England in 1959 and his first novel, <em>Palace of the Peacock</em> (1960) was published soon after his arrival. It became the first of a quartet of novels, <em>The Guyana Quartet</em>, which incorporates <em>The Far Journey of Oudin</em> (1961); <em>The Whole Armour</em> (1962); and <em>The Secret Ladder</em> (1963). He later wrote a trilogy: <em>Carnival</em> (1985); <em>The Infinite Rehearsal</em> (1987); and <em>The Four Banks of the River of Space</em> (1990).<br /><br />His most recent novels are <em>Jonestown</em> (1996), which tells of the massacre of one thousand followers ordered by cult leader Jim Jones; <em>The Dark Jester</em> (2001) and his latest novel which has autobiographical elements, <em>The Mask of the Beggar</em> (2003).<br /><br />Wilson Harris also writes non-fiction and critical essays and has been awarded honorary doctorates by several universities, including the Univeristy of the West Indies (1984) and the University of Liège (2001). He has twice been winner of the Guyana Prize for Literature.<br /><br />From <a href="http://www.contemporarywriters.com/"><em>contemporarywriters</em></a><br /><br /><span style="color:#006600;"><strong>Novels<br /></strong></span><span style="color:#006600;"><em>Fetish Miniature Poets Series</em> (Guyana), 1951<br /><em>Eternity to Season Georgetown</em> (British Guiana), 1954<br /><em>Palace of the Peacock</em> Faber and Faber, 1960<br /><em>The Far Journey of Oudin</em> Faber and Faber, 1961<br /><em>The Whole Armour</em> Faber and Faber, 1962<br /><em>The Secret Ladder</em> Faber and Faber, 1963<br /><em>Heartland </em>Faber and Faber, 1964<br /><em>The Eye of the Scarecrow</em> Faber and Faber, 1965<br /><em>The Waiting Room</em> Faber and Faber, 1967<br /><em>Tradition, the Writer and Society: Critical Essags </em>New Beacon, 1967<br /><em>Tumatumari </em>Faber and Faber, 1968<br /><em>Ascent to Omai</em> Faber and Faber, 1970<br /><em>History, Fable and Myth in the Caribbean and Guianas </em>National History and Arts Council, 1970<br /><em>The Sleepers of Roraima</em> (illustrated by Kay Usborne) Faber and Faber, 1970<br /><em>The Age of the Rainmakers</em> (illustrated by Kay Usborne) Faber and Faber, 1971<br /><em>Black Marsden: A Tabula Rasa Comedy</em> Faber and Faber, 1972<br /><em>Fossil and Psyche </em>University of Texas, 1974<br /><em>Companions of the Day and Night</em> Faber and Faber, 1975<br /><em>Enigma of Values: An Introduction</em> Dangaroo, 1975<br /><em>Da Silva da Silva's Cultivated Wilderness/Genesis of the Clowns</em> Faber and Faber, 1977<br /><em>The Tree of the Sun</em> Faber and Faber, 1978<br /><em>Explorations: A Series of Talks and Articles 1966-1981</em> Dangaroo, 1981<br /><em>The Angel at the Gate</em> Faber and Faber, 1982<br /><em>The Womb of Space: The Cross-Cultural Imagination</em> Greenwood Press, 1983<br /><em>Carnival </em>Faber and Faber, 1985<br /><em>The Guyana Quartet</em> (contents: 'Palace of the Peacock'; 'The Far Journey of Oudin'; 'The Whole Armour'; 'The <em>Secret Ladder </em>Faber and Faber, 1985<br /><em>The Infinite Rehearsal</em> Faber and Faber, 1987<br /><em>The Four Banks of the River of Space</em> Faber and Faber, 1990<br /><em>The Radical Imagination</em> (essays) Liège Language and Literature, 1992<br /><em>Resurrection at Sorrow Hill</em> Faber and Faber, 1993<br /><em>The Carnival Trilogy</em> <em>(contents: 'The Infinite Rehearsal'; 'The Four Banks of the River of Space'; 'Carnival')</em> Faber and Faber, 1993<br /><em>Jonestown</em> Faber and Faber, 1996<br /><em>Selected Essays</em> Routledge, 1999<br /><em>The Dark Jester</em> Faber and Faber, 2001<br /><em>The Mask of the Beggar</em> Faber and Faber, 2003</span><br /><span style="color:#006600;"></span><br /><span style="color:#006600;"><strong>Prizes and awards<br /></strong>1987 Guyana Prize for Literature<br />1992 Premio Mondello dei Cinque Continenti<br />2002 Guyana Prize for Literature (Special Award)</span><br /><span style="color:#006600;"></span><br /><a class="bc_buttonText" href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/external-search/202-1626605-0702263?keyword=Wilson+Harris&mode=blended&amp;amp;amp;tag=contemporaryw-21&Go.x=4&Go.y=6" target="_blank"><em><span style="color:#666666;">Buy books by Wilson Harris at Amazon.co.uk</span></em></a><em><span style="color:#666666;"><br /></span></em>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21407343.post-1141304567014379802006-03-02T06:53:00.000-06:002006-03-02T16:19:30.146-06:00Giving foreign students a reason to stay<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5887/2164/1600/persaud.G5M1QU79C.jpg"><em><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5887/2164/320/persaud.G5M1QU79C.jpg" border="0" /></em></a><em><span style="color:#990000;">Eknauth and Kafi Persaud are married left and right brains. He's a 34-year-old former Marine who specializes in artificial intelligence software design. She's a 32-year-old graduate of the University of California at Berkeley with a degree in psychology and a passion for how people think. She was born in Guyana. His parents immigrated to the United States from that South American country too. They met by happenstance in San Francisco.<br /></span></em><br />Want to get someone in academia all riled up? Bring up the hot topic of "flight capital." That's the growing phenomenon of foreign students coming to U.S. universities for advanced degrees only to return home for more rewarding careers than they can find here.<br /><br />Computer science and software engineering are particular vulnerable to the skilled talent exodus. Cheaper costs in India, China and Russia have ignited software production there and siphoned jobs from American companies.<br /><br />Eknauth and Kafi Persaud believe they've found a local answer to this global issue.<br /><br />The couple's tiny Ayoka Systems Engineering LLC is cutting the cost of software production by setting up shop within the nurturing confines of the Technology Incubator at the University of Texas at Arlington and hiring master degree students in computer science and software engineering.<br /><br />The students get more experience than they would at a typical internship with an established company. With Ayoka, they meet with clients, create the software solutions and implement the systems, rather than writing just one "widget" in a software code chain.<br /><br />"We have students from Taiwan, India and Thailand who've already had three to five years' experience in those countries," says Mr. Persaud. "We have a start-up feel where they're an integral part of what happens."<br /><br />Ayoka has five students on board and needs two more. So far, 19 students have worked on projects as semester interns.<br /><br />"A number of our folks have gone on to work at top companies, including IBM, Microsoft and SSA Global," Mr. Persaud says. "They see how a U.S. business operates and the importance of creativity and decide to stay."<br /><br />Arlington resident Abdullah Jibaly, a U.S. citizen from Syracuse, N.Y., has a full-time job, goes to school part time and works off-hours at Ayoka because he enjoys seeing projects from start to finish.<br /><br />"We get to work with the latest technology, and we're doing some really fun and interesting things," he says. "The teamwork is great."<br /><br /><strong>Academic calendar<br /></strong><br />One client, Paul Nichols, vice president of MMI Internetworking in Fort Worth, is so happy with the results that he adjusts his company's software development cycles to fit UTA's academic calendar.<br /><br />Ayoka recently beat out several larger firms to create third-generation Web site software for LookLocally.com, a Grapevine-based Internet marketing company that specializes in local searches.<br /><br />And while Judy Luchtman, LookLocally's chief executive, considered price, she's far more worried about getting code that will actually work.<br /><br />She's already spent 15 months and $35,000 with two different developers only to come up empty-handed.<br /><br />"Basically, we've been burned."<br /><br />So is she wary about dealing with students?<br /><br />"Not at all. They truly know state of the art and what's happening in the development world.<br /><br />"They are absolutely pocket-protector nerds who love developing code."<br /><br />Eknauth (pronounced ache-not) and Kafi (rhymes with Kathy) Persaud are married left and right brains. He's a 34-year-old former Marine who specializes in artificial intelligence software design. She's a 32-year-old graduate of the University of California at Berkeley with a degree in psychology and a passion for how people think.<br /><br />She was born in Guyana. His parents immigrated to the United States from that South American country too. They met by happenstance in San Francisco.<br /><br />Eknauth selected Kafi's middle name for the company because Ayoka means "one who brings joy to all." That's the company's de facto mission statement.<br /><br />In 2002, he was hired as an independent consultant for a systems integration project at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport's new international terminal.<br /><br />After the airport gig wrapped up in 2004, Mr. Persaud set up the partnership with Geof Grant, director of UTA's technology incubator.<br /><br /><strong>'Valuable asset'<br /></strong><br />"Eknauth's outgoing and entrepreneurial," says Dr. Grant. "I felt that even if his company didn't succeed, he'd be a very valuable asset to the area to develop university technology. He knows what he's doing and where he's going. That's critical for an entrepreneur."<br /><br />Ayoka gets dirt-cheap rent and overhead. In return, UTA owns a 3 percent equity slice of the fledgling company and has a pledge from Mr. Persaud that he'll set up his company in the Arlington area once Ayoka is ready to leave incubation.<br /><br />Dr. Grant says it's a perfect example of how the nesting system is supposed to work.<br /><br />"UTA helps companies succeed and generate a workforce, which then builds a cluster of technology development in our local area – particularly technology that originates out of the university."<br /><br />And in the process, it stems that troublesome flight of talent capital.<br /><br />From <em><a href="http://www.dallasnews.com/">DallasMorningNews</a></em>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21407343.post-1141187324250443532006-02-28T21:59:00.000-06:002006-03-03T16:14:02.476-06:00Crime Fiction Writer<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5887/2164/1600/phillips_mike.0.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5887/2164/320/phillips_mike.jpg" border="0" /></a><em><span style="color:#990000;">Born in Georgetown, Guyana, writer Mike Phillips moved to Britain as a child and grew up in London. He was educated at the University of London and the University of Essex, and gained a Postgraduate Certificate of Education at Goldsmiths College, London. </span></em><br /><br />Writer Mike Phillips was born in Georgetown, Guyana. He moved to Britain as a child and grew up in London. He was educated at the University of London and the University of Essex, and gained a Postgraduate Certificate of Education at Goldsmiths College, London.<br /><br />He worked for the BBC as a journalist and broadcaster between 1972 and 1983 on television programmes including The Late Show and Omnibus, before becoming a lecturer in media studies at the University of Westminster. He has written full-time since 1992.<br /><br />He is best known for his crime fiction, including four novels featuring black journalist <em>Sam Dean: Blood Rights</em> (1989), which was adapted for BBC television, <em>The Late Candidate</em> (1990), winner of the Crime Writers' Association Macallan Silver Dagger for Fiction, <em>Point of Darkness</em> (1994) and <em>An Image to Die For</em> (1995). <em>The Dancing Face</em> (1997) is a thriller centred on a priceless Benin mask.<br /><br />His last novel, <em>A Shadow of Myself</em> (2000), is a thriller about a black documentary filmmaker working in Prague and a man who claims to be his brother. He is currently working on a sequel.<br /><br />Mike Phillips co-wrote <em>Windrush: The Irresistible Rise of Multi-Racial Britain</em> (1998) to accompany a BBC television series telling the story of the Caribbean migrant workers who settled in post-war Britain.<br /><br />His next book, <em>London Crossings: A Biography of Black Br</em>itain (2001), is a series of interlinked essays and stories, a portrait of the city seen from locations as diverse as New York and Nairobi, London and Lodz, Washington and Warsaw.<br /><br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Critical Perspective</span><br /></strong><span style="font-size:78%;">Dr James Procter<br /></span>Mike Phillips is a gifted, entertaining storyteller who has performed his work with equal success in front of academics and prison inmates. His critically acclaimed novels have attracted a cult following and Phillips's reputation is spreading rapidly, not just within the UK, but across the US and Europe where he is a regular speaker.<br /><br />Phillips has said that very early on in his career he made the conscious decision to work within the specific literary genre of crime, or detective fiction. As a Black British writer, Phillips's choice is an interesting and unusual one. In the United States the crime novel is closely associated with Black literature through the work of celebrated African American authors such as Chester Himes and Walter Mosley.<br /><br />However in Britain, with the notable exception, perhaps, of Victor Headley's best selling Yardie trilogy, or more recently, Diran Adebayo's My Once Upon a Time, Black writers have not appropriated the tropes of the thriller. This, despite and, arguably, because of the centrality of criminality to constructions of the post-war Black presence in Britain.In a recent essay on Black British writing, Phillips provides some clues as to the significance of the detective genre for his writing.<br /><br />Exploring how Black writers have tended to become imprisoned 'within the idea of race and blackness', he argues that the crime novel allows him to disrupt the canonical literary tradition, to write in his own 'voice rather than the voice of a white Englishman or a foreign "postcolonial"'. The crime novel allows Phillips both to self-consciously confront his own relationship to a white English cultural heritage and to challenge essentialist, universal notions of Black subjectivity.<br /><br />Phillips does not simply reproduce the dominant structures of crime fiction, or reverse them in order to replace the white urban investigator with a Black protagonist. Rather, he seeks to disrupt the oppositions installed within the crime novel, with its divided moral universe, neatly compartmentalised into good and evil, black and white. In his first novel, Blood Rights (1989), Black journalist Samson Dean is paid to investigate the disappearance of Virginia Baker. The investigation unravels in a way that, as Phillips points out, not only challenges English 'moral certainties', but also sees Sam Dean 'continually obliged to reconstitute his own moral code within a culture where he is a moral outlaw'.<br /><br />In common with crime fiction more generally, Blood Rights seduces its reader through the agility of its plot and its ability to generate mystery, intrigue and suspense. Sam Dean's mission takes him from London to Manchester and into an investigation of the mysterious, Roy Akimole, the unacknowledged brother of missing Virginia. Roy is the 'illegitimate' son of respectable MP Grenville Baker, the product of a (concealed) relationship with a Black woman. Roy's oedipal revenge on his father stands at the heart of this mystery, which is also an investigation into repressed relations between black and white Britain.<br /><br />In his later novels such as The Late Candidate (1990), Point of Darkness (1994), The Dancing Face (1997) and A Shadow of Myself (2000) Phillips continues to innovate, taking the thriller form in different directions.<br /><br />At the same time he develops many of the issues and themes already raised within his debut fiction, Blood Rights to create a recognisable and distinctive body of writing (Sam Dean, for example, is the hero in several of the novels).<br /><br />Revolving around the detection of murders, missing people and mysterious disappearances, each novel is also an investigation into the limits of 'Blackness' and Britishness. Collectively they might be read as attempts to expose that which are concealed behind terms like 'race', nationality and belonging.<br /><br />Phillips's most recent novel, A Shadow of Myself is arguably his most ambitious and successful thriller to date. Moving beyond Britain, the novel occupies a larger landscape than many of the earlier works, taking in the likes of Hamburg, Prague, Moscow and Berlin, not to mention London. A Shadow of Myself (as the title itself suggests) playfully evokes one of the key figures of the crime novel the doppelganger.<br /><br />The text pivots around George and Joseph Coker and the consequences of their 'chance' encounter at a film festival in Prague. Kofi, the father of these recently re-united brothers constitutes the central enigma of the narrative, opening up a sinister world of intrigue and murder in which Joseph is another potential victim.<br /><br />A sophisticated, superbly crafted novel, A Shadow of Myself extends the concerns with citizenship and racial coding evident in the earlier novels to a wider, European context.<br /><br />Phillips is not just a novelist of considerable talent. He has also produced several important works of non-fiction. He wrote and co-edited Windrush: the Irresistible Rise of Multi-Racial Britain with his brother Trevor to coincide with the Windrush anniversary and the major BBC TV series, Windrush. The anniversary celebrations were designed to commemorate the beginnings of large scale West Indian migration to Britain, marked by the arrival of the SS Empire Windrush in Tilbury in 1948.<br /><br />The book is, among other things, an invaluable compilation of passages and quotations from the pioneering settlers and their children offering a vivid, intimate history of Black Britain since the war. His most recent book, London Crossings (2001) is a fascinating collection of essays.<br /><br />The opening sections recollect Phillips's childhood, from the early years in Guyana to the formative years growing up in London between 1956 and 1980. The pieces chart Phillips's growth alongside an increasing familiarity with the metropolitan landscape as the 'I' narrator criss-crosses London, piecing together the city section by section without ever comprehending it whole.<br /><br />In later sections Phillips intersperses creative writing with personal accounts of journeying in Europe and North America. Subtitled A Biography of Black Britain, the volume is also a poignant autobiographical account of the author's life.<br /><br />From <em><a href="http://www.contemporarywriters.com">contemporarywriters</a></em><br /><em></em><br /><span style="color:#666600;"><em><strong>Novels<br /></strong>Community Work and Racism</em> Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1982<br /><em>Smell of the Coast</em> Akira, 1987<br /><em>Blood Rights</em> Michael Joseph, 1989<br /><em>The Late Candidate</em> Michael Joseph, 1990<br /><em>Boyz 'n' the 'Hood</em> Pan, 1991<br /><em>Notting Hill in the Sixties</em> (photographs by Charlie Phillips) Lawrence & Wishart, 1991<br /><em>Point of Darkness</em> Michael Joseph, 1994<br /><em>An Image to Die For</em> HarperCollins, 1995<br /><em>The Dancing Face</em> HarperCollins, 1997<br /><em>Windrush: The Irresistible Rise of Multi-Racial Britain</em> (with Trevor Phillips) HarperCollins, 1998<br /><em>A Shadow of Myself</em> HarperCollins, 2000<br /><em>London Crossings: A Biography of Black Britain </em>Continuum, 2001<br /><br /></span><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/external-search/202-1626605-0702263?keyword=Mike+Phillips&mode=blended&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;tag=contemporaryw-21&Go.x=4&Go.y=6" target="_blank"></a><span style="color:#666600;"><em><strong>Prizes and awards<br /></strong></em>1991 Crime Writers' Association Macallan Silver Dagger for Fiction <em>The Late Candidate</em><br /><br /></span><a class="bc_buttonText" href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/external-search/202-1626605-0702263?keyword=Mike+Phillips&mode=blended&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;tag=contemporaryw-21&Go.x=4&Go.y=6" target="_blank"><em><span style="color:#666600;">Buy books by Mike Phillips at Amazon.co.uk</span></em></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21407343.post-1140962035220295842006-02-26T07:43:00.000-06:002006-02-26T08:35:54.420-06:00Ellie is my name<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5887/2164/1600/cmrubin.gif"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5887/2164/320/cmrubin.gif" border="0" /></a><span style="color:#990000;"><em>Born in Guyana, South America, and educated in various countries of Africa, the Middle East, and the UK, C.M Rubin began her career in London at ACC (ITC Film Distributors) and EMI Films. From there she moved to Columbia Tri-star, where she managed several entertainment projects and rose to senior marketing and publicity positions.<br /></em></span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">C. M. Rubin has developed numerous entertainment and book projects in New York and London over the past 20 years. Born in Guyana, South America, and educated in various countries of Africa, the Middle East, and the UK, she began her career in London at ACC (ITC Film Distributors) and </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMI"><span style="font-family:verdana;">EMI Films</span></a><span style="font-family:verdana;">. From there she moved to </span><a href="http://www.sonypictures.com.au/"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Columbia Tri-star</span></a><span style="font-family:verdana;">, where she managed several entertainment projects and rose to senior marketing and publicity positions. After relocating to New York in 1988, she developed a number of properties for a major independent entertainment distributor and book publisher.<br /><br />Ms. Rubin’s first children's picture book, </span><a href="http://www.ellieismyname.com/reviews.html#eleanor"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Eleanor, Ellatony, Ellencake, and Me</span></a><span style="font-family:verdana;">, introduced the spunky character Eleanor, who ultimately decides that Ellie is the name that suits her best. The book received widespread critical acclaim, having won the iParenting Media Award, Children's Choices Award 2004, Teacher's Choices Award 2004, and Bronze Gold Ink Award 2004. Its delightful sequel, </span><a href="http://www.ellieismyname.com/reviews.html#ellie"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Ellie: The Perfect Dress for Me</span></a><span style="font-family:verdana;">, was released in September 2005.<br /><br />"Helping kids build great self-esteem, teaching them good values and encouraging them to make the right choices is crucial in the early years," says Ms. Rubin. "The child that has the inner strength to be a caring, creative, resourceful and independent thinker is the emotionally healthy child. I hope parents see Ellie as the best kind of role model for their child".<br /><br />C.M. Rubin lives with her husband, two children and their dog in New York City.<br /><br /></span>From <em><a href="http://www.ellieismyname.com/">ellieismyname</a></em><br /><br /><a href="http://www.ellieismyname.com/reviews.html#ellie"><img height="305" src="http://img112.imageshack.us/img112/4692/lookinside17xm.gif" width="252" border="0" /></a><img height="304" src="http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/511/lookinside27hw.gif" width="252" border="0" /></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21407343.post-1140780784823668152006-02-24T05:32:00.000-06:002006-02-24T05:33:04.840-06:00Motivational Speaker<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5887/2164/1600/John_Harricharan.0.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5887/2164/320/John_Harricharan.0.jpg" border="0" /></a><em><span style="color:#990000;">Born in Guyana, South America of East Indian heritage, John Harricharan is truly a multi-cultural, global personality. Yet, with his professional background, he also exhibits a rare sensitivity and charismatic delivery which have earned him well deserved respect and acclaim.</span></em><br /><br />Outstanding businessman, lecturer and award-winning author, John Harricharan, is a unique blend of East and West. A naturalized U.S. citizen born in Guyana, South America of East Indian heritage, he is truly a multi-cultural, global personality. Yet, with his professional background, he also exhibits a rare sensitivity and charismatic delivery which have earned him well deserved respect and acclaim.<br /><br />However, he was to know failure as well as success. The events that led to both are incorporated in his lectures and are chronicled in his books, which, rather than being stories of loss and sadness are, instead, inspiring tales of courage, strength and the dignity of the human spirit. He has shared the lecture platform with such well-known speakers as Deepak Chopra, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, Og Mandino, Gerald Jampolsky, Foster Hibbard, Eric Butterworth, C. Everett Koop and others.<br /><br />His transformational message stems from his challenging personal growth experiences. As Harricharan says, "I know what it feels like to have my car repossessed, to watch my wife die of cancer, to lose all earthly possessions and start again from ground zero. I also know what it feels like to write an award-winning book, to be written about in others' books and to be featured in the same book with His Royal Highness, Prince Philip of Great Britain, the Dalai Lama and Paul and Linda McCartney. The contrasts bring compassion and sensitivity to one's life."<br /><br /><strong><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:130%;">Lecturer</span></strong><br /><br />Bright, well-educated and professional in demeanor, John brings a welcome, pragmatic approach to his lectures, as an outstanding example where the message and the messenger are one. Not only does John share his personal tragedies; he shares the extraordinary tools he uses to overcome his challenges. He meets his audience filled with energy and enthusiasm. His approach is inspirational and motivational, contagiously so and always, always memorable.<br /><br /><em><span style="color:#009900;">Dr. Deepak Chopra, best-selling author and speaker, refers to Harricharan as, "A skilled and eloquent guide" Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, renowned psychiatrist and bestselling author says, "John Harricharan brilliantly inspires you, motivates you and teaches you. He's fantastic ... absolutely fantastic."</span></em><br /><br /><strong><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:130%;">Author</span></strong><br /><br />Not only is Harricharan a dynamic speaker, but he also reveals himself to be an extraordinary, compelling author. His award-winning book,<em> When You Can Walk on Water, Take the Boat</em> was named 'Best Book of the Year' by the American Bookdealers Exchange. Its sequel, <em>Morning Has Been All Night Coming</em> has been drawing rave reviews. Both books are published in the U.S. and Canada by Berkley Books. In the U.K., Australia and New Zealand they are published by HarperCollins and are also availabIe in Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese editions.<br /><br /><strong><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:130%;">Businessman</span></strong><br /><br />Harricharan graduated summa cum laude, with degrees in chemistry and an MBA from Rutgers University. He started his career with Fortune 500 corporations and worked his way into upper level executive positions. His corporate expertise encompasses areas as varied as Production Management, Research and Development and Marketing. He then proceeded, by blending his knowledge of the corporate world with his entrepreneurial talents, to build an extremely successful business with offices in the Caribbean, Europe, Africa and India. He finally switched from managing his company into what he really loves to do. So now he travels extensively, speaking at seminars and consulting for corporations, organizations and a private clientele worldwide. His extensive experience coupled with his knowledge of multi-cultural inter-relationships afford him the ability to relate to diverse cultures with respect and integrity.<br /><br />From <em><a href="http://www.getmotivation.com/">getmotivation</a></em><br /><br /><em><span style="color:#666666;">Related Articles:</span></em><br /><a href="http://www.insight2000.com/harricharanarticle2.html"><em><span style="color:#666666;">One Little Glimpse of Eternity</span></em></a><em><span style="color:#666666;"> </span></em><br /><a href="http://www.insight2000.com/harricharanarticle4.html"><em><span style="color:#666666;">Listening to Your Inner Self</span></em></a><em><span style="color:#666666;"> </span></em><br /><a href="http://www.insight2000.com/harricharanarticle10.html"><em><span style="color:#666666;">A Matter of Courage</span></em></a><em><span style="color:#666666;"> </span></em>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0