Guyana Diaspora

Inspirational Grandmother

2007-04-14T13:54:00.000-05:00

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.

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.

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.

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."

"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."

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."

"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."

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 http://www.childrensstories.ca.

About Norma Jean

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 http://www.childrensstories.ca/

Award-winning Author

2006-11-23T16:23:00.000-06:00

Professor Mark McWatt, Guyanese author of award-winning novel 'Suspended Sentence: Fictions of Atonement'.

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.

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.

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.

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).

QUALITY OF BOOKS

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.

In the best first book winner, Suspended Sentences, 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."

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.

ABOUT THE NOVEL

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.

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.

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.

Playwright and Dramatist

2006-04-24T09:01:00.000-05:00

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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."

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.

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.

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.

TELEVISION SERIES
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

RADIO
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.

STAGE
Sweet Talk, 1973; Alterations, 1978; Samba, 1980; In the Mood, 1981; The Dark Horse, 1981; Outlaw, 1983; El Dorado, 1984; Living Together, 1988.

PUBLICATIONS
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.

From Museum of Broadcast Communications

Leader of the House of Lords

2006-04-17T08:44:00.000-05:00

Baroness Valerie Ann Amos, was born in Guyana, studied at the Universities of Warwick, Birmingham and East Anglia, and was awarded an Honorary Professorship at Thames Valley University in 1995 in recognition of her work on equality and social justice. She was also awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws in 2000 from the University of Warwick.

The Right Honourable Valerie Ann Amos, Baroness Amos, PC (born 13 March 1954), is a British Labour Party politician and life peer, currently serving as Leader of the House of Lords and Lord President of the Council. When she was appointed Secretary of State for International Development on May 12, 2003, following the resignation of Clare Short, she became the first black woman to sit in the Cabinet of the United Kingdom.

Lady Amos was made Leader of the House of Lords on October 6, 2003 following the death of Lord Williams of Mostyn, 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 June 11, 2001, with responsibility for Africa; Commonwealth; Caribbean; Overseas Territories; Consular Issues and FCO Personnel.

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 1998 to 2001 and also a spokesperson on Social Security, International Development and Women's Issues. She was created a life peer in August 1997 as Baroness Amos, of Brondesbury in the London Borough of Brent.

Lady Amos was born in Guyana, studied at the Universities of Warwick, Birmingham and East Anglia, and was awarded an Honorary Professorship at Thames Valley University in 1995 in recognition of her work on equality and social justice. She was also awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws in 2000 from the University of Warwick.

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 1989–94. In 1995 Amos co-founded Amos Fraser Bernard and was an adviser to the South African Government on public service reform, human rights and employment equity.

In the House of Lords, Lady Amos was a co-opted member of the Select Committee on European Communities Sub-Committee F (Social Affairs, Education and Home Affairs) 1997–98.

Lady Amos has also been Deputy Chair of the Runnymede Trust 1990–98, a Trustee of the Institute of Public Policy Research, a non-executive Director of the University College London 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.

On 17 February 2005, the British government nominated her to head the United Nations Development Programme.

From wikipedia.org

Geologist and Engineer

2006-04-10T08:41:00.000-05:00

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.

D. R. "Rocky" Persaud, B.A.Sc., B.Sc. is the owner of the space entertainment company, IPX Entertainment (IPXN), which will be sponsoring Mars Society Canada's next mission, Expedition Beta, a follow-up to Expedition Alpha which he organized to train new young scientists and engineers in Mars analog studies. IPXN will be showcasing a documentary about Expedition Beta on SpaceChannel.TV 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.

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.

He was a Science Collaborator on the NASA-led Haughton-Mars Project, and was a crewmember of Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station during the 2001 field season. For the Mars Desert Research Station, 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 Expedition One), the first of a series of international expeditions intensely planned and coordinated by a core group of researchers.

A member of several space advocacy groups, he was a director of the Canadian Space Society, a founding member of the Mars Society's Toronto Chapter, former editor of the Canadian Space Gazette, a delegate to the Space Generation Summit, and recently retired from the board of directors of Mars Society of Canada after serving for more than 5 years in various leadership roles, including president and vice-president of research.

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.

Rocky currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Association of Mars Explorers, 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 Canadian Space Agency.

From Lifeboat Foundation

Poet and Playwright

2006-04-05T08:04:00.000-05:00

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.

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.

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.

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.

John Agard lives in south-east England.

Critical Perspective
By Peter Forbes
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.

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)

'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.

Weblines 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.

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.

He has also written a play for schoolchildren, The Great Snakeskin (1993).

From Contemporary Writers

Research Engineer and Author

2006-03-31T07:11:00.000-06:00

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.

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. 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Trev Sue-A-Quan is the Author of Cane Reapers and Cane Ripples

Cane Reapers 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.

Cane Ripples 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.

From rootsweb

Cardiologist

2006-03-28T05:23:00.000-06:00

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.

He completed his residency at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he later became chief resident.

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.

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 Cardiovascular Institute of the South as a staff cardiologist in Lafayette.

Dr. Barker is a Diplomate in internal medicine and is board eligible in cardiovascular disease.

In 1990, Dr. Barker was honored by Uniontown Hospital as an outstanding physician and selected to "Who's Who Among Rising Young Americans."

From Cardiovascular Institute of the South

Scholarship win 'a gift for father'

2006-03-24T10:29:00.000-06:00

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.
Two years later the youngest child of Charlie and Mohinie Persaud is only the fourth Clayton High School student ever to receive the -Morehead Scholarship -the most prestigious college scholarship offered in the state of North Carolina.

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. ”

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?’ ”

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.

“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.”

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.

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.

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.”

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.”

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.

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.

“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.”

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.

“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.

“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.”

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.”

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

He also was the district and state winner of the Rotary Against Drugs Speech Competition in 2005.
Persaud hopes to pursue a degree in biology (his favorite subject) with a secondary concentration in public policy.

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.

“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.”

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.

He expects to accept the Morehead by the April 14 notification deadline.

“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.

“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.

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.

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.”

From Clayton News-Star

'Chapter One'

2006-03-23T09:09:00.000-06:00

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.

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.

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.

“Music is my first love and I do hope to pursue a musical career in the long run”, says Prakz.

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.

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.

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.

Collaborating with artists like Terry Gajraj, Queen Yasmin and Apache Waria, Prakz finally started showing the world his talent. His first Solo Album 'Chapter One' was released in the summer of 2005.

Some of the highlights of his debut CD are the songs like Under Water (talking about the floods in Guyana) & Move Yuh Feet ( 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 “Move Yuh Feet” which was then later followed by a music video to Under Water.

From DJPrakz

DJ Prakz 'Chapter One' In Stores Now....

Professor Of Medicine

2006-03-21T14:31:00.000-06:00

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.

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.

Born in Guyana, South America, Dr. Gift was a mathematics teacher in Guyana prior to attending the University of Connecticut from 1963 - 1966.

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.

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.

Dr. Gift completed an Internal Medicine residency and chief residency at Saint Mary’s Hospital.

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.

In recent years he has returned to Guyana as part of a medical team to provide free medical services and medications.

From St. Mary's Hospital

Caribbean café

2006-03-19T13:41:00.000-06:00

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Try one of their products today and "Hey Mon! - Don't Worry 'bout Nothing"

Anntony's Caribbean café has three locations in North Carolina:

The Original Location- Charlotte (pictured)
Cheshire Commons - Asheville
Historic Grove Arcade - Downtown Charlotte

From Anntony's Caribbean café

International Musician

2006-03-16T09:06:00.000-06:00

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

Jah Breeze is a Rastafarian name meaning God's breath.

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.

His teachers are world renowned master drummers from West Africa, including Babatunde Olatunji, a Nigerian Yoruba priest known for his "Drums of Passion," 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.

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, "Power of Hope."

He has performed with the Seattle Dance Company for "Dance Dis" at the Paramount Theatre, and taught African drum workshops at the 2002 Seattle International Children Festival at Seattle Center.

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.

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.

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.

He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Speech Communication from Drake University.

From jankirosemusic

Dance With Words

2006-03-14T06:52:00.000-06:00

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.

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.

Margot has been published in magazines and eZines across Canada, the US, and South America. Her books include, Feeding Dreams, Bleeding Pupils and Beauty, Alba the Spanish Woman, Studying Love, and Of Dark Night. Her sixth book of poetry, Morning Tasting Whispers, 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.

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.

She has just finished taping a six-segment TV Show with Cogeco entitled: Dance With Your Words: Poetry is Art and Healing, which will air later this year.

Her newest book, Dance With Your Healing: tears let me begin to speak, Poetry and Journal for Your Healing Words, 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.

Dance With Your Words: poems from word dancers, Volume Two that includes poems from members of the internationally acclaimed writing group www.Dance-With-Words.com which Margot Administers, will be published in Spring 2006 by Palabras Press.

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 Palabras Press.

Margot publishes a monthly eZine: www.Palabras-Press.com 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.

Margot offers workshops and readings at colleges, universities, spirituality centres, and kindred venues where words are valued as both art and healing.

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

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.

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.

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: www.Dance-With-Words.com. She was short-listed for the Canadian Literary Awards for her work, Pieces From the Same Puzzle, and Pieces From the Same Puzzle Too.

Margot lives in Peterborough, Ontario with her teenaged daughters Olivia and Jessica, her partner, Rick McKenna, and their cat, Mr. Othello.

~to dance with words is to be nourished~to dance with the kindred, doubly so~

From MargotVanSluytman

'Goddess Thoughts'

2006-03-12T06:47:00.000-06:00

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

“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

Professional Guyanese accountant, Amy Ramdass, who lives in Canada, recently published a hefty book of poetry. `Goddess Thoughts: The Rest Are Mere Details’, 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.

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.

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.

“Much of what I’ve learnt in life is from books, not from people,” Ramdass declared.

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.

“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.

Poetry became her solace. Her indulgence in the art form ruptured the monotony of academic study.

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.”

As she matured, got married, moved to Canada and started a family, her interaction with people improved. Her relations with others boosted her writing.

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.”

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.

She got serious about compiling the book in 2005.

With the title coined, she went after internationally recognized visual artist David Howard Johnson, who sketched a thought-provoking cover design for `Goddess Thoughts: The Rest Are Mere Details’.

The title of her book is inspired by Einstein’s “I want to know God’s thoughts, the rest are mere details.’

And who is the Goddess?

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.”

From AmyRamdass

"Goddess Thoughts"
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.

Goddess Thoughts "The Rest Are Mere Details"
by Amy Indira Ramdass (Author) (Paperback - October 2005)

Order 'Goddess Thoughts'

Critic, Writer and Novelist

2006-03-10T14:36:00.000-06:00

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.

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.

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.

In 2001 he wrote and presented The Forgotten Colony, 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.

His first book, Slave Song (1984), a collection of poetry, won the Commonwealth Poetry Prize and the Quiller-Couch Prize. A new collection, Turner, was published in 2002.His first novel, The Intended (1991), the story of a young Asian student abandoned in London by his father, won the Guyana Prize for Literature.

Disappearance (1993) centres on a young Guyanese engineer working on the south coast of England who lodges with an elderly woman. The Counting House (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.

His recent novel, A Harlot's Progress (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.

David Dabydeen's latest books are Our Lady of Demerara (2004) and Slave Song (2005)

Novels
Slave Song Dangaroo, 1984
Caribbean Literature: A Teacher's Handbook Heinemann Educational, 1985
The Black Presence in English Literature (editor) Manchester University Press, 1985
A Reader's Guide to West Indian and Black British Literature (with Nana Wilson-Tagoe) Hansib/University of Warwick Centre for Caribbean Studies, 1987
Hogarth's Blacks: Images of Blacks in 18th-Century English Art Manchester University Press, 1987
India in the Caribbean (editor with Brinsley Samaroo) Hansib, 1987
Coolie Odyssey Hansib, 1988
Handbook for Teaching Caribbean Literature Heinemann Educational, 1988
Black Writers in Britain 1760-1890 (editor with Paul Edwards) Edinburgh University Press, 1991
The Intended Secker & Warburg, 1991
Disappearance Secker & Warburg, 1993
Turner: New and Selected Poems Cape, 1994
Across the Dark Waters: Ethnicity and Indian Identity in the Caribbean Macmillan, 1996
The Counting House Cape, 1996
A Harlot's Progress Cape, 1999
No Island is an Island: Selected Speeches of Sir Shridath Ramphal (editor with John Gilmore) Macmillan, 2000
Turner Peepal Tree Press, 2002
Our Lady of Demerera Dido Press, 2004
Slave Song Peepal Tree Press, 2005
Guyana Diaspora
Prizes and awards
1984 Commonwealth Poetry Prize Slave Song
1984 Quiller-Couch Prize Slave Song
1991 Guyana Prize for Literature The Intended
1999 James Tait Black Memorial Prize (for fiction) (shortlist) A Harlot's Progress
2004 Raja Rao Award for Literature (India)

From Contemporary Writers

Buy books by David Dabydeen at Amazon.co.uk

Reggae Queen

2006-03-09T14:33:00.000-06:00

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 “Burning Flame International” Dance Troupe.

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.

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.

Donna just released her new album entitled “Jah Ah De Rulah” which is a 12-track CD, which includes songs like “Come Into My Life” featuring Prince Everald, a slamming, conscious track, the hit single “Make Love, Not War” featuring Roger B, “In My House” featuring Negus Morris of the Heptones, the ever popular “Folk Song Medley” and ‘Sweet Victory’ (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.

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.

She has garnered for herself eight Reggae Music Awards including “Top Reggae Newcomer” in 1993, “Top Reggae Dancehall DJ" (female) in 1995, 1996 and 1999 and 2003 and “Top Reggae Music Video (for her video “Jah Great Woman”) in 1995 from the Canadian Reggae Music Awards. An “Arts & Entertainment Award” for her contribution to the Arts from her home country – Guyana in 2000, and an “Artistic Award of Excellence” 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.

Her song “Sweet Victory” was #1 on the reggae charts in Miami for eight weeks while “South Africa” (from her CD “Who Can Endure” released 1998) was following closely at #2. “Jah Great Woman” also enjoyed much airplay and was #1 in Miami for six weeks. The “Jah Great Woman” 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 “Life Story” and also was involved in many stage plays where she performed as an actress, dancer and singer.

She also starred in a Documentary film called “Roots Daughters” 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 “Jah Ah De Rulah” and “Wonder Weed” in October 2003, which were pre-releases from her new album. She also released another music video “Who Can Endure” which was done with the help of Trebas Institute and just finished editing her new video entitled “Make Love Not War” (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.

Since 1993, this multi-talented, multi-award winning and indefatigable artist has released two full length CD’s entitled “Who Can Endure” and “Jah Ah De Rulah”, 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).

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.

From GettoFabulous

'All I need is one mic.'

2006-03-07T10:27:00.000-06:00

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.

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.

Like the legendary Robert Nestor Marley, who he praises as "much more than a musician," Maskal is inspired by great icons of the Black struggle who came before him, like Marcus Garvey and Jomo "Burning Spear" Kenyatta. "I'm here to encourage sleeping warriors who are ready but don't see a way," declares the 28-year-old Rasta rapper. "All I need is one mic."

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 "quiet street kid who got along with pretty much everybody" 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.

"I never got as far as murder," 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. "I wasn’t trying to kill the guy," he explains. "It was just due to the injuries he suffered." Incarceration and the "Public Enemy #1" 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.

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. "Every Friday and Saturday night, I knew what I was doing," Maskal recalls. "A couple of times I passed the mic with Shaggy," he adds referring to the "Hotshot" reggae/rap star who lived in his neighborhood when he was growing up.

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. "Music is a chance to express yourself to the world," says Maskal.

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 "righteous Rasta livin’ the rebel life in Brooklyn."

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. "My music is not inspired by falsehood," says the conscious rapper. "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."

Strong in his Rasta stance and in honoring his Imperial Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie in his rhymes, Maskal is one rapper who believes in "practicing what you preach and preaching what you practice." 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 "true cross", 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.

From thegettoymz
Guyana Diaspora

District Manager

2006-03-06T10:16:00.000-06:00

Stewarts Shops 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.

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.

"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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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."

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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."

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.

Deryck lives in Niskayuna with his wife Sandra and children Andrew 13, and Alyssa 11.

From Stewarts Shops
Guyana Diaspora

Stewart’s 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.

Science is teacher’s inspiration

2006-03-04T07:58:00.000-06:00

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.

Guytri Still never intended to be a teacher.

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.”

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.

“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.

She often stays late after school and works many Saturdays helping students prepare for competitions.

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.

“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.

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.

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.

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

From Florida Today

Novelist and Essayist

2006-03-03T07:22:00.000-06:00

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.

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.

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.

He came to England in 1959 and his first novel, Palace of the Peacock (1960) was published soon after his arrival. It became the first of a quartet of novels, The Guyana Quartet, which incorporates The Far Journey of Oudin (1961); The Whole Armour (1962); and The Secret Ladder (1963). He later wrote a trilogy: Carnival (1985); The Infinite Rehearsal (1987); and The Four Banks of the River of Space (1990).

His most recent novels are Jonestown (1996), which tells of the massacre of one thousand followers ordered by cult leader Jim Jones; The Dark Jester (2001) and his latest novel which has autobiographical elements, The Mask of the Beggar (2003).

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.

From contemporarywriters

Novels
Fetish Miniature Poets Series (Guyana), 1951
Eternity to Season Georgetown (British Guiana), 1954
Palace of the Peacock Faber and Faber, 1960
The Far Journey of Oudin Faber and Faber, 1961
The Whole Armour Faber and Faber, 1962
The Secret Ladder Faber and Faber, 1963
Heartland Faber and Faber, 1964
The Eye of the Scarecrow Faber and Faber, 1965
The Waiting Room Faber and Faber, 1967
Tradition, the Writer and Society: Critical Essags New Beacon, 1967
Tumatumari Faber and Faber, 1968
Ascent to Omai Faber and Faber, 1970
History, Fable and Myth in the Caribbean and Guianas National History and Arts Council, 1970
The Sleepers of Roraima (illustrated by Kay Usborne) Faber and Faber, 1970
The Age of the Rainmakers (illustrated by Kay Usborne) Faber and Faber, 1971
Black Marsden: A Tabula Rasa Comedy Faber and Faber, 1972
Fossil and Psyche University of Texas, 1974
Companions of the Day and Night Faber and Faber, 1975
Enigma of Values: An Introduction Dangaroo, 1975
Da Silva da Silva's Cultivated Wilderness/Genesis of the Clowns Faber and Faber, 1977
The Tree of the Sun Faber and Faber, 1978
Explorations: A Series of Talks and Articles 1966-1981 Dangaroo, 1981
The Angel at the Gate Faber and Faber, 1982
The Womb of Space: The Cross-Cultural Imagination Greenwood Press, 1983
Carnival Faber and Faber, 1985
The Guyana Quartet (contents: 'Palace of the Peacock'; 'The Far Journey of Oudin'; 'The Whole Armour'; 'The Secret Ladder Faber and Faber, 1985
The Infinite Rehearsal Faber and Faber, 1987
The Four Banks of the River of Space Faber and Faber, 1990
The Radical Imagination (essays) Liège Language and Literature, 1992
Resurrection at Sorrow Hill Faber and Faber, 1993
The Carnival Trilogy (contents: 'The Infinite Rehearsal'; 'The Four Banks of the River of Space'; 'Carnival') Faber and Faber, 1993
Jonestown Faber and Faber, 1996
Selected Essays Routledge, 1999
The Dark Jester Faber and Faber, 2001
The Mask of the Beggar Faber and Faber, 2003

Prizes and awards
1987 Guyana Prize for Literature
1992 Premio Mondello dei Cinque Continenti
2002 Guyana Prize for Literature (Special Award)

Buy books by Wilson Harris at Amazon.co.uk

Giving foreign students a reason to stay

2006-03-02T06:53:00.000-06:00

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.

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.

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.

Eknauth and Kafi Persaud believe they've found a local answer to this global issue.

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.

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.

"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."

Ayoka has five students on board and needs two more. So far, 19 students have worked on projects as semester interns.

"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."

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.

"We get to work with the latest technology, and we're doing some really fun and interesting things," he says. "The teamwork is great."

Academic calendar

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.

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.

And while Judy Luchtman, LookLocally's chief executive, considered price, she's far more worried about getting code that will actually work.

She's already spent 15 months and $35,000 with two different developers only to come up empty-handed.

"Basically, we've been burned."

So is she wary about dealing with students?

"Not at all. They truly know state of the art and what's happening in the development world.

"They are absolutely pocket-protector nerds who love developing code."

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.

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.

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.

In 2002, he was hired as an independent consultant for a systems integration project at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport's new international terminal.

After the airport gig wrapped up in 2004, Mr. Persaud set up the partnership with Geof Grant, director of UTA's technology incubator.

'Valuable asset'

"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."

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.

Dr. Grant says it's a perfect example of how the nesting system is supposed to work.

"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."

And in the process, it stems that troublesome flight of talent capital.

From DallasMorningNews

Crime Fiction Writer

2006-02-28T21:59:00.000-06:00

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.

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.

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.

He is best known for his crime fiction, including four novels featuring black journalist Sam Dean: Blood Rights (1989), which was adapted for BBC television, The Late Candidate (1990), winner of the Crime Writers' Association Macallan Silver Dagger for Fiction, Point of Darkness (1994) and An Image to Die For (1995). The Dancing Face (1997) is a thriller centred on a priceless Benin mask.

His last novel, A Shadow of Myself (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.

Mike Phillips co-wrote Windrush: The Irresistible Rise of Multi-Racial Britain (1998) to accompany a BBC television series telling the story of the Caribbean migrant workers who settled in post-war Britain.

His next book, London Crossings: A Biography of Black Britain (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.

Critical Perspective
Dr James Procter
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.

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.

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.

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.

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'.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

From contemporarywriters

Novels
Community Work and Racism Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1982
Smell of the Coast Akira, 1987
Blood Rights Michael Joseph, 1989
The Late Candidate Michael Joseph, 1990
Boyz 'n' the 'Hood Pan, 1991
Notting Hill in the Sixties (photographs by Charlie Phillips) Lawrence & Wishart, 1991
Point of Darkness Michael Joseph, 1994
An Image to Die For HarperCollins, 1995
The Dancing Face HarperCollins, 1997
Windrush: The Irresistible Rise of Multi-Racial Britain (with Trevor Phillips) HarperCollins, 1998
A Shadow of Myself HarperCollins, 2000
London Crossings: A Biography of Black Britain Continuum, 2001

Prizes and awards
1991 Crime Writers' Association Macallan Silver Dagger for Fiction The Late Candidate

Buy books by Mike Phillips at Amazon.co.uk

Ellie is my name

2006-02-26T07:43:00.000-06:00

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.

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 EMI Films. From there she moved to Columbia Tri-star, 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.

Ms. Rubin’s first children's picture book, Eleanor, Ellatony, Ellencake, and Me, 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, Ellie: The Perfect Dress for Me, was released in September 2005.

"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".

C.M. Rubin lives with her husband, two children and their dog in New York City.

From ellieismyname

Motivational Speaker

2006-02-24T05:32:00.000-06:00

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.

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.

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.

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."

Lecturer

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.

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."

Author

Not only is Harricharan a dynamic speaker, but he also reveals himself to be an extraordinary, compelling author. His award-winning book, When You Can Walk on Water, Take the Boat was named 'Best Book of the Year' by the American Bookdealers Exchange. Its sequel, Morning Has Been All Night Coming 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.

Businessman

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.

From getmotivation

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Making a Difference

2006-02-23T08:01:00.000-06:00

Making a difference doing what she loves Lawyer sees promise in community, U.S
The daughter of a London-educated barrister and Guyana native, and a Dutch mother, Patrica Cummings came to the United States as a 17-year-old on a visit to see her sister in Kansas City, Mo., with her father, who was an official with British Guyana's Olympic Committee. What she didn't know was that her parents had tricked her,they knew that as soon as she visited America, she'd want to stay .

Binghamton, NY, lawyer Patricia Cummings chose to live in Broome County. But not before she and her husband-to-be, Hugh Leonard, also a lawyer, listed the pros and cons of settling in Binghamton on a legal pad.

The pros, she said, won out. Cummings, 54, left the Manhattan law firm where she practiced and has spent the past 13 years as a partner with her husband at O'Connor, Gacioch, Leonard & Cummings, a Binghamton, NY law firm. Cummings and Leonard met at an alumni weekend football game at Syracuse University, where both attended law school.

Cummings, a native of Guyana in South America, didn't find the transition from Manhattan to Binghamton all that difficult.

"Binghamton is sophisticated in its own way. People's minds are open and their hearts are big," she said.

But Broome County is also the place where Cummings came face to face with her first and only experience where she felt she was judged on the basis of her skin color.

A now-retired judge expressed concern that a jury would identify her with African Americans, Asians and Middle Easterners in the community and the influx of illegal drugs. She still has difficulty talking about the experience, and won't name the judge.

"I think for the first time in my life I was speechless," she said. "And then I think I told him I would put my trust in juries because my experience has been very good with juries."

It was a comment she'll never forget. But she's moved on.

"That has been my only experience where someone made a negative comment directly to me because of the color of my skin, and I found it horribly unfair," she said. "But you know that life isn't fair."

The daughter of a London-educated barrister, and British Guyana native and a Dutch mother, Cummings came to the United States as a 17-year-old on a visit to see her sister in Kansas City, Mo., with her father, who was an official with British Guyana's Olympic Committee.

What she didn't know was that her parents had tricked her. They didn't like her teenage friends. But they knew that as soon as she visited America, she'd want to stay, she said.

"They knew that once I had a taste of this," she said, "that I would never go back home."

They were right. Cummings trained as an X-ray technician, then got her undergraduate degree in health care management. Then it was on to law school in Syracuse and ultimately to Binghamton, where much of her legal practice involves medical malpractice cases.

Interview

Q: How have you put your experience with the judge in perspective?

A: I do think some good will come of it. I'm now a delegate to the New York State Bar Association. I have spoken with them about it. Maybe we'll take some steps — maybe a questionnaire for jurors to fill out and answer questions about their perceptions.

If they feel that way about a lawyer, what do they feel about a defendant of color? How does that defendant get a fair trial? How does a plaintiff get a fair trial? But I don't believe for a second that that is what people think.

Q: Have people changed in their attitudes toward race?

A: I'm speaking as someone who personally until a few years ago hadn't experienced anything like that. I can see it (racism) in stores and things like that. I've read about it. I haven't really lived it.

You know what I'll never forget? When I first came to this country. Remember, I didn't grow up with television. A big event for us was going to the public library and getting Time magazine and all these things about what was going on in the world. When I was living in Kansas City, after a number of years, I finally bought a television. There was a show on TV called the Autobiography of Miss Jane Pitman. I cried for days. I could not believe the horrors that were inflicted on those people.

Remember, my father was a judge, my mother grew up in Europe. The horrors. I remember that. Then of course Roots took over television. That was a real eye opener, too.

Q: Has America had a hard time facing its past?

A: We may have a hard time facing up to our past. But we ought to stop and pat ourselves on the back for what a terrific job we have done and are doing — although there's a long way to go.

The rest of the world is now experiencing what Americans have dealt with for centuries. Take New York City. Think of all the different cultures that live side by side in relative peace. Where else in the world have people welcomed volumes of immigrants?

We're just now starting to see it in Europe. We're just now starting to see that influx and how it changes the culture and the effects that it has. And look what's happening in Denmark. My oldest sister has lived in Denmark since 1969. She's more Danish than she is anything else. She has three boys. They have grandkids. She's always been accepted. Every time I've visited there, people speak in Danish first, and then when they realize I don't speak Danish, then they speak English to me. They just accept you. Now all of a sudden they are having all these problems. I think it's because of the huge number of people coming into the different countries.

We're always down on ourselves, and perhaps that's what makes us so wonderful. Because we are always looking to see how we can be better.

Q: What are your hopes for the future?

A: Where would I like to see the world go? If we could all just recognize that we all want basically the same things. Every mother and father wants a safe environment for their children, a good education for their children. It doesn't matter whether you're Muslim. It doesn't matter if you're Hindu, Jewish, Catholic, Presbyterian, black or white. We all want the same things.

So why don't we just start to recognize what we have in common and work toward everyone being able to have what they need? Maybe that's too simplistic. If you just look at the person next to you — instead of being afraid of them, or instead of being threatened by them — and just think to yourself: What is it that they want? Is it that much different than what I want? Why can't we both have it? There's enough to go around.
So why do we always feel so threatened when someone else wants what we have?

Q: What would your advice be to a young person thinking about a law career?

A: Do it only if you really love the profession. I believe it was Warren Buffett who said, "Pick a career you love and you will become wealthy." I think kids today are just looking at being wealthy. If they follow their hearts and go where their heart tells them to go, they'll find not just financial wealth, but emotional wealth, too.

Q: What is your biggest legal accomplishment?

A: You know, great moments come from small opportunities. The highlight of my career is a case I probably wouldn't even have taken initially. It's a case where I got the Court of Appeals (New York's highest court) to reverse itself after 22 years of saying to women who lose a fetus as a result of malpractice that they've had no emotional injury. After 22 years.

All I did was I argued it logically. I would tell young people going to law school to look for an opportunity to make a difference. That was my opportunity. And you know, I almost ignored it.

When those people came to my office, they were good people. The law didn't give them a right to recover. I said: "I'll try, and just see what happens." Then I just kept getting angrier about it. At some point, it got to the appellate division. I got one judge to rule in my favor. Then I asked for permission from the Court of Appeals, and they accepted it. They hardly accept any case. It was a small victory for those who have lost fetuses as a result of malpractice.

It was the only time where I could think of where clearly there was a negligent act and yet there was no recourse. There's been significant writing and developments in the law as a result of it. But it's my client's victory, really. She had to be incredibly brave to let me take it that far, to make her life on such a personal level so public.

You know, that's one of the things I thought about when the judge made that rather rude comment to me. I thought: "I'm just going to quit. Why do I need this?" And I thought: "Wait a minute. There may be a small opportunity." I'm still here. I'll continue to be here.

From Press & Sun-Bulletin

Sculptor and Painter

2006-02-22T07:24:00.000-06:00

Born in Guyana in 1930 and educated in England, Donald Locke now lives in Atlanta, Georgia. Although he makes sculptures and paintings, there is not much difference between the two given that his paintings are sculptural, and his sculptures are, well, painterly. Since leaving Guyana in 1971, his work has been preoccupied with the experiences of African peoples in the New World -- their lives, myths, folklore and their social and political aspirations.

Atlanta resident Donald Locke is an artist with exceptional talent as a sculptor and painter. He has been a part of the “international scene” for over 30 years. Originally from Stewartville, Guyana, South America, Locke began studying art in Guyana in the 1940’s and continued his training at the Bath Academy of Art in England and Edinburgh University in Scotland in the 1950’s and 60’s.

Mr. Locke’s work brings together cross-cultural experiences influenced by his homeland and his journeys as an intellectual living abroad in Europe. His mixed-media sculptures, figural constructions of wax, roots and other organic materials in his creations are considered to have magical, fetishistic overtones. Other sculptures contain bush rope from Guyana’s forests along with exotic woods and ceramic.

Locke’s drawings start at US$1,800 and his paintings range from US$7,000-$15,000. His sculptures are priced between US$1,200 and $8,000.

Some of the public and private collectors of Donald Locke’s work around the world include the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; the Guyana National Collection, Guyana, South America; and The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York. Exhibitions of his work have also been featured at Skoto Gallery in New York, Aljira, a Center for Contemporary Art in Newark, New Jersey, Solomon Project in Atlanta, and City Gallery East, located in Atlanta City Hall East.

From PBSAtlanta

Picasso, Guyanese Jungles And a Robust Hybrid Art

ART history is a story of big names and bold ideas. But it is not the whole story, not by half. For every Pollock or Picasso, there are tens of thousands of artists who work a lifetime with scant recognition or reward. What sustains them is a love of their craft and the hope that someone, someday, will find merit in what they have been doing.

This kind of thinking led the staff at Aljira: A Center for Contemporary Art in Newark to instigate ''Bending the Grid,'' a continuing series of exhibitions that examine the work of outstanding yet under-recognized artists who are more than 60 years old. Aljira also commissions new scholarship on the artists, and prints substantial catalogs.

Donald Locke is the third artist to be featured in the series. Born in Guyana in 1930 and educated in England, Mr. Locke now lives in Atlanta. Although he makes sculptures and paintings, there is not much difference between the two given that his paintings are sculptural, and his sculptures are, well, painterly.

Mr. Locke has spent the past two decades living, working and exhibiting in the Southwest and occasionally contributing to international biennials. Rarely has his work been shown in the New York City area, with the main exception of a smaller exhibition at Aljira in 2000. Now, at last, there is a chance to see almost 50 of his works in one hit.

''The Caribbean is a location of conflicting traditions, where the past and present still collide in an unstable accommodation,'' writes Carl E. Hazlewood in the show's catalog. Pretty much the same goes for Mr. Locke's artworks, which blend Guyana's native cultural traditions, African vernacular myths and folk art, and European influences. This artist is broadcasting on a distinctive aesthetic wavelength.

The show spans roughly the mid-1960's to the present, beginning with a pair of early timehri paintings. Dark, murky figure studies, they apparently refer to the ancient rock engravings found in the jungles of Guyana, known as timehri. But they also play off the work of famous modern artists, notably Picasso in his Cubist period.

Picasso is one of Mr. Locke's heroes and a constant source of inspiration. Hints of Picasso's late self-portraits waft through a grid of recent acrylic sketches of craggy heads on rectangular panels included in the exhibition, while imagery of bulls (one of Picasso's favorite subjects) litters Mr. Locke's sculpture and ceramics.

Although Picasso might provide the formal inspiration for much of Mr. Locke's artwork, the content derives from another, more personal source. Since leaving Guyana in 1971, his work has been preoccupied with the experiences of African peoples in the New World -- their lives, myths, folklore and their social and political aspirations.

This preoccupation is most visible in the paintings, which juggle fragments of personal, cultural and historical information. For instance, a typical painting blends imagery of black political leaders, notices from Guyana's newspapers, photographs of the artist's sculptures and icons of the American South. These are radically hybrid, pan-African images.

Of course, some works have more specific meanings. ''Landscape with Kwame Nkrumah'' (1992) is about the struggles of black colonial peoples for self-determination. How do we know this? The title gives us a hint, for Kwame Nkrumah was the first president of Ghana, the first British colony in Africa to gain its independence. This event, in 1957, galvanized subjugated peoples throughout the African diaspora.

Alongside the paintings here are two kinds of sculpture. The first group, dazzling and delicate, is made up of small wax animals and figurines lightly decorated with twigs, wire, hair and other materials. The others are bold, precarious arrangements of thrusting, painted sticks into which the artist has lobbed wax masks, plastic flowers and slivers of fake fur.

The large sculptures are the most dramatic. Partly it is their size, with some soaring nine feet, and partly because there is a daredevil quality to them. Many pieces look as if they are about to collapse. They also possess a spellbinding spiritualism, reminiscent of votive sculptures used in hybrid Afro-Caribbean religions like voodoo.

From Art Review :NYTimes

Phaedrus Bull (Bronze) by Donald Locke

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Wrapped in Pride

Medical Director

2006-02-21T00:07:00.000-06:00

A native of Guyana, L. Abigail Pennington, M.D. is co-founder of the Pennington Institute for Health and Wellness. She began her career in patient care as a nurse in London , England . Dr. Pennington worked as an Internist in private practice for 25 years.

Dr. Abigail Pennington, (Dr. P, as she is fondly called) is a wise physician, acupuncturist and counselor. From early on, Dr. Pennington has taught her patients how certain behavioral choices offer freedom from disease and mental anguish, leading to the enrichment of their lives. She has worked for more than 25 years with all sorts of people, in every season of life and has uncovered and personally demonstrated hidden tactics for personal achievement.

A native of Guyana, Dr. Pennington began her career in patient care as a nurse in London, England. She later moved to the U.S. and her thirst for knowledge motivated her to enter medical school at the University of Nevada, Reno. She completed her training at The University of Colorado, Denver where she practiced for 11 years.

Dr. Pennington has worked as an Internist in private practice for 25 years. Besides primary care, she has also offered specialty services for elderly patients. In addition, she served as acting clinical director for the Alcohol and Drug Unit at the Georgia Mental Health Institute and treated those battling substance abuse and mental illness. When addressing addictions, Dr. P and her Treatment Team look into all aspects of the client's lifestyle and history to discover the root issues causing dis-ease or destructive behaviors. Dr. P's approach to addiction treatment is 'wholistic' - treating mind, body and spirit.

She received acupuncture training through the Lincoln Hospital in 1996 and for the last seven years she has coupled acupuncture with a counseling program that offers great success in relationship management, depression, anxiety, substance abuse, stress management, weight control and more.

Most recently she worked as a treatment provider for the Multiple Offenders DUI Risk Reduction Program for the State of Georgia. In addition, for the last ten years she has offered her medical expertise as a consultant for the Social Security Administration Disability Services.

From penningtoninstitute

Professor of Religion

2006-02-19T14:58:00.000-06:00

Dr. Khaleel Mohammed was born in Guyana, South America, and his academic pursuits have taken him to such places as Mexico, Canada, Saudi Arabia, Mauritania, Syria and Yemen. He has studied at both traditional Islamic institutions and Western universities.

Dr. Khaleel Mohammed is a professor of Religion at San Diego State University, and a core faculty member of the university's Center for Islamic and Arabic Studies.

Dr. Mohammed was born in Guyana, South America, and is now a citizen of Canada. He has studied in Mexico, Canada, Saudi Arabia, Mauritania, Syria and Yemen, at both traditional Islamic institutions and Western universities.

After a bachelor's degree in Religion and Psychology (Mexico), and a brief stint in the Canadian Army, he received a Saudi government scholarship and studied at the Kulliyat al-Shariah, Muhammad bin Saud University, in Riyadh.

Upon his return to Canada, he received numerous fellowships and awards, completing an M.A. in religion (majoring in Judaism and Islam, Concordia University), and then his Ph.D. (Islamic law) at McGill, with an FCAR (Fonds pour les chercheurs et aide a la recherché) fellowship from the Government of Quebec.

He was the first Kraft-Hiatt postdoctoral fellow in Islamic Studies at Brandeis University and during his two-year fellowship there, researched the image of the Jew in the Hadith Literature.

Dr. Mohammed is an imam and one of the few Islamic scholars who is accepted by both the Sunni and Shia sects of Islam. Dr. Mohammed has published a book (The World of Our Youth), numerous journal articles, and has presented at several conferences and public forums. He has also served as consultant to the Department of Justice, Government of Quebec, Canada, and as an expert witness in San Diego.

He is a speaker with the United Jewish Communities (UJC) and the Brandeis University National Women's Committee (BUNWC).

Dr. Mohammed also led the Daniel Pearl Memorial in 2003 in Cambridge Square, Boston. Before his departure from Brandeis, he delivered the Chaplaincy sponsored graduation commencement address for the class of 2003. In addition to having lectured at several synagogues, churches and mosques, he has delivered speeches at many universities, including: McGill, Dartmouth College, Concordia (Montreal), University of Damascus, Muhammad b. Saud University (Saudi Arabia), Clark, Hebrew College, University of Judaism, Brandeis, Rollins College and Harvard.

He is Islamic law specialist, and his responsa material can be found at http://www.forpeoplewhothink.org/ .

From: cal.sdsu.edu

Related Articles:
The dissenting Muslim (San Diego Jewish Journal)

Assessing English Translations of the Qur'an (The Middle East Forum)

One-Man Show

2006-02-18T22:11:00.000-06:00

Guyana proved to be too small to keep a hold on Nhojj, and he moved to the United States to pursue his education at NYU—with a B.A. in economics. "I'd really always wanted to just be a musician," admits Nhojj. "I was always singing around the house, and I was always daydreaming about performing."

The first thing you need to know about Nhojj is that everything and everybody on his recent release, "Someday Peace Love & Freedom," is him. It's just Nhojj, down to the digital mastering and production work. Now, that might not seem so amazing in this age of living room recording studios and solo artists who have mastered multi-vocal loops and instrument samples, but if you just sit and listen to this album, you'll realize what am amazing feat this is.

Not only can the Guyana native comfortably create electronic arrangements that sound as wholesome and organic as an ensemble cast of musicians playing natural instruments, he also has an amazing vocal range that covers four octaves comfortably. He sings lead on "Someday....", as well as a whole backup choir of wonderful voices.

"I started singing when I was really young," says Nhojj, a native of the South American country of Guyana. "My parents heard me singing around the house when I was young, and they took me up to the church one weekend, basically, and I’ve been performing ever since." Nhojj’s vocal talents quickly received attention outside of his church group, and he soon found himself performing for the Presidents of Guyana and Trinidad.

Not surprisingly, Guyana proved to be too small to keep a hold on Nhojj, and he moved to the United States to pursue his education at NYU—with a B.A. in economics. "I'd really always wanted to just be a musician," admits Nhojj. "I was always singing around the house, and I was always daydreaming about performing."

Now he’s fulfilling that dream, performing pretty much full time, doing live sets on college campuses, churches, and clubs. Since graduating Nhojj has performed at Pride festivals in New York, Washington DC, Maryland, New Jersey, and Connecticut, at colleges across the country and at THAW (Theaters Against War) concerts. He co-produced the "Underground to Peace and Unity" festivals in New York, which brought local underground talent together in the summer of 2003.

"My first album took nearly four years to put together," he admits, laughing. "But by the time I'd finished it, I had figured out all the little studio tricks with recording and engineering and the basic technology that I needed to release a second album.

"But it's weird," he adds excitedly. "I hadn't even begun work on a second album when I found myself just kind of listening to the samples, and the words just sort of flowed out. It was around the same time that 9/11 happened, that summer, and so I wrote "Peace," and a few of the other songs after that. It all just kind of flowed out."

It's almost hard to believe that an album as complex and beautiful as "Someday Peace Love & Freedom" could have been anything less than a Herculean effort. As mentioned before, this is all Nhojj on the CD. What sounds like six or seven backup personnel singing harmony behind Nhojj's warm, sincere voice is actually just Nhojj on different tracks. The Caribbean, blues, and calypso musical ensembles are also just Nhojj on different tracks. And the wonderful, crystal-clear recording quality that just tops off these songs and makes them perfect? That's Nhojj's work, too.

But these are just the trappings of technical expertise, and really don't mean anything except that one can find one's way around a recording studio. What really makes this CD "good music" is that Nhojj is a wonderful singer with a beautiful, gifted voice, and his arrangements compliment his sublime voice perfectly. Lyrically, these songs are incredibly positive and uplifting, without being corny or naive.

In "Free," Nhojj sings, "Cut the strings untie the things/That keep you down bound facing ground," and goes on to end, "One step at a time is how I'll climb/Won't stop until I reach the top." In "The Beggar's Cup," Nhojj pleads, "Please put a little bit of love in my cup now... Tonight my cup is empty/It hasn't been filled for years." There's an overall longing for peace that run through the album—peace within the author, peace outside the author, and a belief in the importance of love.

"If this album, my music in general, is about anything, it's that I'm trying to show the world not only as it is, but as it could be," finishes Nhojj. If that's the case, and this record is any glimpse of the world that Nhojj sees in his dreams, then the world he sees must be a wonderful one indeed.

*Nhojj * Genre: Urban R&B * Hometown: New York *
From Musicdish

Technology Attorney

2006-02-17T19:39:00.000-06:00

Ian Rambarran was born in Guyana, South America, and educated in both England and United States. He received his undergraduate degree in International Relations from Florida International University, after which he worked as an intern for Florida State Senator Walter "Skip" Campbell.

Ian Rambarran is no stranger to the technology industry. He has worked with several Fortune 500 technology firms, especially in the context of contract bid disputes at the state and federal level. He has also worked on complex matters involving appeals, writs of mandamus, and whistle-blower (qui tam) lawsuits.

In addition, Ian has experience in copyright, trademark and domain name issues/disputes, internet defamation, and electronic contracts, and in matters relating to corporate business planning. Ian has also assisted in counseling clients in the commercial and residential construction industry.

Ian was born in Guyana, South America, and educated in both England and United States. He received his undergraduate degree in International Relations from Florida International University, after which he worked as an intern for Florida State Senator Walter "Skip" Campbell.

Ian earned his J.D. from the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law, where the faculty awarded him the Outstanding Scholastic Achievement Award for his division.

Klinedinst Welcomes Ian A. Rambarran to Sacramento Law Office
Sacramento, CA (PRWEB) -- Ian A. Rambarran has officially joined the growing Sacramento office of Klinedinst PC."

Ian Rambarran is an incredibly talented, personable and energetic litigator," said John D. Klinedinst, CEO of Klinedinst PC. "His experience working with corporate clients, on business and intellectual property issues, will be a welcome addition to our growing Sacramento office.

Much of Mr. Rambarran's legal background has been focused in the technology arena. He has handled contract bid disputes for Fortune 500 technology firms. He has advised clients on copyright, trademark and domain name disputes. In addition, Mr. Rambarran has litigated complex matters involving whistle-blower statutes, appeals, and writs of mandamus.

Ian provides business planning guidance to clients. He also is not limited to the technology arena, having done extensive work with clients in the commercial and residential construction industry.

"Ian's addition to our Sacramento office marks a turning point for our Northern California location," added Mr. Klinedinst. "Our Sacramento office continues to grow, while still being able to efficiently and effectively handle our clients' most challenging legal needs. We welcome Ian to the Klinedinst family.

"A native of Guyana, South America, Mr. Rambarran earned his J.D. from the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law. While attending law school, he was honored by the faculty who awarded him the Outstanding Scholastic Achievement Award. He received his undergraduate degree in International Relations from Florida International University, and then interned for Florida State Senator Walter "Skip" Campbell.

Publications and Interviews

"Confidentiality in the Wireless Office," California Lawyer, Co-Author (August, 2004)

"Web Site Operators Must Prepare to Follow Privacy Act," Daily Journal - Los Angeles and San Francisco (June 25, 2004)

"I Accept, But Do They? The Need for Electronic Signature Legislation on Mainland China," 15 Transnational Law. 405 (2002)

From klinedinstlaw

Chief Psychologist

2006-02-16T13:00:00.000-06:00

After leaving his native Guyana in 1974, O'Neal Walker studied theology at Jamaica Theological Seminary before moving to the United States to study psychology and eventually earning his doctorate from the California School of Professional Psychology, Los Angeles, in 1993.

Psychologist O'Neal Walker, PhD, stepped up in June 2005 to oversee the United States only federal program devoted specifically to psychology education and training--the Graduate Psychology and Geropsychology Education (GPE) grant programs, administered by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). Walker's goal, and GPE's goal generally, is to grow the number of psychologists trained to work with underserved populations.

As chief of the Dentistry, Psychology and Special Projects Branch--an office that a year ago didn't include psychology in the name--Walker collaborates with other Department of Health and Human Services officials to expand primary-care training for psychologists, physicians and dentists and--in addition to GPE--offer grants for medical, dental and podiatric training.

The distribution of GPE grants supports students at graduate psychology and geropsychology training programs that emphasize integrated training with other health professions and collaborative work with underserved and underrepresented populations.

"The ultimate goal of the Graduate Psychology and Geropsychology Education Training Grant Programs is to give psychologists the experience and knowledge they need to practice in areas where there's additional need," Walker says.

Walker says HRSA officials intentionally moved psychology into the Division of Medicine and Dentistry to foster its integration with primary care, and then looked for a psychologist to head the branch. It was an ideal opportunity for him, he says, because of his previous experience in primary-care settings and his belief that people receive better care when treated by a team of interdisciplinary health professionals.

"It's a vision I share that basically says if we can get psychologists to work as part of a team with primary-care physicians, specialists, nurses and other professionals, and if we can bring that model into the community, it's going to be a better, more functional model, and we're going to have better outcomes," Walker explains. "We'll have providers working together, not competing with each other. It's an associational model."

First-hand collaborative experience

Practicing in a collaborative model is old hat to Walker, who spent eight years in the U.S. Army, first as a medic and later as a psychologist. While serving as the chief psychologist at the Fort McClellan Army base in Alabama, Walker worked with other health-care providers to care for soldiers and their families.

"It was appealing to me to have a specific group of people to work with, an ability to be very involved in a specific community," he says.

In collaboration with physicians and researchers at McClellan, Walker also investigated neuropsychological problems that occurred in soldiers returning from the Gulf War, an experience he found to be an "interesting opportunity to work with other professionals to solve a serious problem."

And more recently, as a member of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, which assigns uniformed health professionals to public sector posts, Walker has worked in both administrative and clinical positions at the Office of the Surgeon General's Division of Commissioned Personnel and the Federal Bureau of Prisons at the Department of Justice.

Always a counselor

Among the bevy of talents Walker brings to HRSA are his abilities to mentor and lead, says Tanya Pagàn Raggio, MD, director of the Division of Medicine and Dentistry.

"His counseling skills are first-rate and have also benefited the administration of the division," Raggio says. "And as a behavioral health official, he helps us address mental health issues in relationship to one of our agency's major goals: the delivery of primary-care health care to America's underserved populations."

Those counseling skills developed early in Walker's education. After leaving his native Guyana in 1974, Walker studied theology at Jamaica Theological Seminary before moving to the United States to study psychology and eventually earning his doctorate from the California School of Professional Psychology, Los Angeles, in 1993.

"I started out looking curiously at philosophical problems I came across in theology," Walker says. "I found that psychology was imbedded in philosophy, and I wanted to study that connection--and how understanding it can lead to ways to help people overcome mental health problems."

His dedication to helping the underserved shined through last August, says Raggio, when, as a member of the U.S. Public Health Service's Commissioned Corps, Walker spent two weeks in Florida delivering mental health care in the wake of four serious hurricanes.

From APA.org

Father Grace

2006-02-15T07:43:00.000-06:00

Born in Guyana, the fifth of six children, Father Floyd A. Grace was 3 when his father died. His mother left him and his sister in the care of their grandmother, immigrated to the United States and settled with a relative in New Jersey. Later she became a registered nurse and moved to the Bronx, where her two youngest children joined her in 1981.

Father Floyd A. Grace put himself through Fordham University working in a bank.

By the time he received his degree in computer management information systems, he was a rising star in the accounting department there. Personable, popular and a natty dresser, he dated and fell in love.

Still, he said, "I knew all along, deep inside, that I wanted to become a priest." He couldn't decide--until a conversation between his nephew and a Bronx pastor moved him to act.

Father Grace, 34, is the son of Millicent J. and the late Eric E. Grace. Born in Guyana, the fifth of six children, he was 3 when his father died. His mother left him and his sister in the care of their grandmother, immigrated to the United States and settled with a relative in New Jersey. Later she became a registered nurse and moved to the Bronx, where her two youngest children joined her in 1981. Their parish is Holy Rosary.

As a boy, Father Grace was impressed with a priest who had been a friend of his father's, and with the Jesuits who served his parish.

"To me, the priest was always a person who stood out, who made a difference in the community," he said. In Guyana, he went to Mass often on weekdays and belonged to a prayer group.

In the Bronx he attended Cardinal Spellman High School and joined a prayer group in Queens. After graduation he worked for Manufacturers Hanover Trust, then for the Bank of New York, where he remained following his graduation from Fordham. His Manhattan office was near St. Patrick's Cathedral, and he went to Mass on his lunch hour.

He knew it was time to make a permanent commitment, to follow his heart--but which way? To the priesthood, or into marriage?

"I loved her very much," he said. "At the same time, I wanted to become a priest. I couldn't make up my mind."

Some family members knew he was wrestling with the question of vocation. One day his nephew Vernon Grace, then about 9, went to Mass at Holy Rosary. Msgr. Francis X. Toner, who was then the pastor, asked the boy, "Why doesn't your uncle become a priest?" Vernon replied, "That's what he wants!" and reported the conversation to his uncle. The young banker went to see Msgr. Toner, who told him, "Give it a try." He called St. John Neumann Seminary Residence and broke off his relationship with the young woman.

"It was one of the most painful decisions I've had to make," he said. But he knew it was right because he could not give his heart unreservedly. Still, it was not easy to take the final step and enter Neumann.

"I was so scared, I didn't want to make preparations immediately," he said. He told himself he was going to the seminary only "to give it a try." But even then, he knew he wouldn't give up.

As a seminarian he visited patients at Providence Rest nursing home in the Bronx, the Convent of Mary the Queen in Yonkers and Terence Cardinal Cooke Health Care Center, and taught religion at Holy Spirit parish in the Bronx and St. Peter's in Yonkers. He served summers at Sacred Heart of Jesus parish in Highland Falls.

He noted that a secular career brings challenges, and he encourages young men to put aside their fears and accept the challenge of priesthood.

His goal as a priest is simple: "To bring others to Jesus Christ."

From CNY.org

Radio Personality

2006-02-13T10:23:00.000-06:00

Kojo Nnamdi is a native of Guyana who immigrated to North America in 1967 to attend college and explore the civil rights movement. Since 1985 he has hosted Evening Exchange, a public affairs television program broadcast by WHUT-TV at Howard University.

Kojo Nnamdi is host of The Kojo Nnamdi Show, a live public radio program produced by WAMU 88.5 FM, American University Radio.

"Maybe the best radio interviewer in town" according to The Washington Post. Each day, he welcomes a lineup of interesting and provocative guests who bring new perspectives on local, national, and international current events, political issues, social trends, science, art, and other topics. Guided by the concept that 'what's global is local, and what's local is global,' Nnamdi encourages listener calls, creating a dynamic dialogue about issues important and interesting to those in the Washington region and beyond. Regular features include Tech Tuesday, The DC Politics Hour with Kojo and Jonetta, and Sporting Views among others.

Nnamdi is a native of Guyana who immigrated to North America in 1967 to attend college and explore the civil rights movement. Since 1985 he has hosted Evening Exchange, a public affairs television program broadcast by WHUT-TV at Howard University. From 1973 to 1985, Nnamdi worked at WHUR-FM, where he served as news editor and then news director, producing the award-winning local news program The Daily Drum. His affiliation with WAMU 88.5 FM and National Public Radio began in 1998 as host of Public Interest with Kojo Nnamdi.

Nnamdi has won numerous awards in both television and radio for his work including a Gracie Award from the American Women in Radio & Television, several New York Festival awards, and a local television Emmy. In 2001 he was honored as a civil rights hero by the National Council for Community Justice.

In addition to his hosting duties, Nnamdi has chaired the board of the Public Access Corporation of Washington, D.C. since 1997. He is active in Guyaid, an organization devoted to the welfare of children in Guyana. Kojo has served on the Board of the Library of Congress American Folklife Center since 2003.

A proud nationalized American citizen for more than 20 years, Kojo's passions include cricket, Caribbean Carnival, poetry, jazz, and jogging.

From WAMU.org

Related links:
Kojo Nnamdi
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Public Works Director

2006-02-12T07:54:00.000-06:00

Yugal Lall was born in Guyana, South America. He attended the University of Guyana, where he earned his bachelor’s in civil engineering and worked on various capital projects for the government of Guyana. Lall came to the United States in 1983 for advanced study and obtained a master’s in public administration at Cal State Northridge.

Yugal Lall, an 18-year resident of Moorpark, CA. was recently hired to serve as the city’s new city engineer and public works director.

“I’m excited about the opportunity to serve the community I have lived in for so long,” said Lall, who considers Moorpark a hidden jewel.

Lall was born in Guyana, South America. He attended the University of Guyana, where he earned his bachelor’s in civil engineering and worked on various capital projects for the government of Guyana.

Lall has excellent experience in municipal engineering and public works matters, said Steven Kueny, Moorpark city manager.

“He is a good fit for Moorpark because he understands the challenges of working with a small city staff,” he said. Since Lall worked with Caltrans in Malibu, he knows how to deal with the state agency and the knowledge will be useful in Moorpark, which has several state routes, Kueny said.

Lall came to the United States in 1983 for advanced study and obtained a master’s in public administration at Cal State Northridge.

Before he began working for Moorpark, the state-registered civil engineer was public works director and city engineer for Malibu.

He also served as senior civil engineer for Simi Valley for 13 years, working on the 118/Madera interchange, the north Simi regional detention basin and the Simi Mall project, among many other projects.

Lall was employed by the Ventura County Flood Control District as a project engineer from 1986 to 1989.

He has been married to his wife, Indra, for 21 years. The Lall’s two daughters, Nalini and Kamini, were educated at Moorpark public schools. Kamini now attends Moorpark College and Nalin attends UCLA. Lall and his wife coached girls soccer for eight years when their daughters were young.

At a recent city council meeting, Lall thanked officials for bringing him home. “To live and work in the same city is a dream come true,” he said.

From Moorpark Acorn

Moorpark Facts: City of Moorpark
Moorpark , CA. is conveniently located in the southeastern part of Ventura County just 50 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles, Moorpark is a natural choice for home and family. Moorpark is recognized for having the lowest number of serious crimes committed in Ventura County and is one of the safest cities of its size in the United States!

Guided Meditations

2006-02-10T08:26:00.000-06:00

The daughter of Leela Mata and Yogi Hari, Chitra Sukhu was born in Guyana and raised in a Florida Ashram in the tradition of yoga and ayurveda. She has published several books and inspiring CDs with guided meditations.

Chitra Sukhu is introducing a new type of bedtime story for kids.

Born in Guyana to a family of Indian ancestry and raised in the United States, Chitra Sukhu has practiced yoga and meditation daily since the tender age of three.

With the release of her debut CD, Guided Meditations for Children, Sukhu now continues the distinguished legacy of her parents' life's work in the field she grew up with.

Sukhu's mother travels the world teaching ayurveda, yoga, Vedanta philosophy and meditation. Her father, Yogi Hari, a Master of Hatha, Raja, and Nada Yoga who is well known and respected around the world as a competent and inspiring teacher, has an ashram in Florida and has published over 20 CDs.

Guided Meditations for Children allows children to focus and still the mind, relax the body, achieve a sense of wholeness, and establish an interconnectedness with the universe. It also encourages creativity, helps cut down on nightmares, and reduces hyperactivity in some children.

Designed for children ages 4-12, the CD takes young listeners on an inward journey into the earth's five elements--earth, water, fire, ether and air.

Each meditation takes you on a journey to a place of innocence and wonder. Meet the king of the Gnomes in the enchanted forest, and let him show you the wisdom of every drop of life. Let the Mermaids take you on an adventure to the depths of the ocean floor, a magical kingdom awaits, and see the secrets of the mermaid kingdom. Take a ride on the suns ray and enter the sun, "Surya" the magnificent king is waiting to show you his golden kingdom. Meet your Guardian Angel, and take a ride on a cloud to her home, many wonders await you. Then relax the body as silence is found.

Each meditation is accompanied with enchanting music and followed by a life enhancing message. The CD consists of five meditations, music, and special times set aside for kids to perform their own visualizations.

If started at a young age, says Sukhu, meditation can become inherent to the way children approach life. Children can learn to look inward for strength.

Sukhu is currently working on a yoga video for children.

Sukhu is an accomplished Indian classical dancer in the ancient style of Bharata Natyam.

"This is a beautiful meditation CD which will help children experience restful alertness and enhance their energy and creativity."--Deepak Chopra

From NewAgeKids

Wrinkled or Wonderful?

2006-02-09T07:36:00.000-06:00

96 year old Irene Sinclair (known to her friends as Renee) is an animated, cheerful and vivacious woman who looks at least twenty years younger than her age, born in Guyana in 1908, she taught history in her native country before arriving in Hornsey, England in 1957 to help look after her daughter’s young children.

Irene Sinclair’s serene, smiling image gazes from billboards, advertising hoardings, magazines, buses and tube walls across the USA and Europe. She has also been the subject of magazine and newspaper articles throughout the world, and recently she has been featured on 30-metre-high adverts in Times Square, Wall Street and on an external wall of Milan Cathedral

However, this particular model is not your average, spoilt-brat catwalk queen and could not be more different from the likes of Jodie Kidd or Kate Moss. She is, in fact, a great-grandmother and a 96-year-old woman, who remains both astonished and delighted by her sudden, unexpected global celebrity.

Irene (known to her friends as Renee) is an animated, cheerful and vivacious woman who looks at least twenty years younger than her age. She sits, straight-backed, in her chair and tells about her experiences. She was born in Guyana in 1908, taught history (‘the Elizabethan period was my speciality’) in her native country and arrived in Hornsey, England in 1957 to help look after her daughter’s young children. She moved to Stoke Newington on her retirement in 1971 and settled in Filey Road and then Yorkshire Close. ‘Stoke Newington was so dull and uninteresting then. I didn’t like it at all.’ How do you feel about it now? ‘Oh, it’s a different place. I’m very happy here. Church Street is like a little Paris.’

Renee’s big adventure

Dove soap – part of Unilever – had dreamt up an advertising campaign designed to challenge stereotyped versions of female beauty. A casting director arrived at Renee’s sheltered accommodation in Yoakley Road looking for a suitable woman, between 70 and 80 years old, to illustrate old age.

When informed by the block’s manager Andy about Renee, she knocked at her door and, confused by Renee’s apparent youth, asked her if Renee’s mother was in the flat. One thing led to another and she was soon in the studio of top photographer Rankin – cofounder of Dazed and Confused and snapper of the Queen – who spent four hours and took six hundred pictures to find the perfect image for the ad.

The ad launch was held in September last year in New York, and Renee was selected as the only British model out of the seven in the campaign to attend. Naturally, she was flown over first class by American Airlines, accompanied by a Dove representative, and booked into a suite at the $500 per night Lee Parker Meridien Hotel in Manhattan. She spent four days enjoying photo shoots, television and radio interviews and champagne dinners, and revelling in her sudden change of circumstance. ‘It was marvellous. I never felt beautiful in my life but I feel I am now".

The London launch was held in January this year at the Dorchester, and Renee was again guest of honour. Since then, she has flown (again, first class) to other launches in Madrid, Milan and Paris, and she has nothing but praise for the people from Dove for their friendship and support. On her return to Stoke Newington she was contacted by an aide to Oprah Winfrey and asked to appear on the top-rated, coast-to-coast TV show. A tired Renee declined. The flabbergasted aide told her that no-one turns down Oprah. ‘Tell her I’m indisposed at the moment’, said Renee.

Life has quietened down a bit now, and Renee has had time to reflect on her brush with fame. When asked if this is the start of a modelling career she said ‘Well, it’s been a good laugh’ she replied, ‘but my feet are firmly on the ground. I wouldn’t do it again but I’m glad I did it’.

Obviously, she was paid by Dove but she has already given some of the money away to charity and intends to do the same with the rest of it, having collected only expenses for her efforts – ‘I had to pay for my own clothes and make-up’. She is now back in her old routine – attending St Mary’s Church, collecting her pension at the Post Office, shopping at the supermarket and doing the Daily Mirror crossword, a prosaic but probably welcome change from what must now seem a crazy dream.

In the Dove ad featuring Renee, the reader has to tick one of two boxes – ‘Wrinkled’ or ‘Wonderful’. The latter has to date vastly exceeded the former, which will come as no surprise to anyone who has had the pleasure of meeting with and talking to someone as charming and remarkable as this Stoke Newington supermodel.

From n16mag online

Wrinkles of 96-year-old are new line in beauty Times online

Novelist - Sharon Maas

2006-02-08T08:21:00.000-06:00

Sharon Maas was born in Guyana in 1951. Educated in England, she has lived in India and Germany and now resides back in England. Married with two children, she is the author of three novels published by HarperCollins, with a fourth in the pipeline.

Sharon Maas was born in Georgetown, Guyana, in 1951; her mixed ancestry - African, Amerindian, Dutch and British – contributes in no small measure to the complexity of themes in her work. She came from a prominently political family.

Her mother was one of Guyana's earliest feminists, human rights activists and consumer advocates; her father was Press Secretary to the Marxist opposition leader Dr Cheddi Jagan who was Prime Minister twice over. Both parents received the country's highest honours for public service, the Golden Arrow.

She lived in Guyana until she was 10, when she was sent to Harrogate College in Yorkshire, England. She returned to Guyana after her 'A' Level examinations and got a job with the Guyana Graphic as a trainee reporter, quickly progressing to writing feature articles for the Sunday Chronicle.

Sharon spent 1971 and 1972 travelling around South America: Brazil, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia. In 1973 she travelled overland to India – via England, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan. This, her first visit to India, was to last for two years, living in an Ashram in Tamil Nadu. It was there that she met her first husband, a cellist in a German orchestra.

In 1975 she travelled to Germany, married, got divorced, lived in Paris for a year then returned to Germany where she studied Social Work in Freiburg. It was while working as a Probation Officer in Mosbach, South Germany, that she met her second husband, another Probation Officer.

Sharon now divides her time between England and Germany with her husband and two children. She has written three novels - Of Marriageable Age, Peacocks Dancing and The Speech of Angels, with a fourth well under way.

You can learn more about Sharon from her interviews.

Her latest novel, The Speech of Angels, is published by HarperCollins and is available from all good bookshops or online from Amazon

From sharonmaas.com

LAPD Police Captain

2006-02-06T08:42:00.000-06:00

A native of Guyana, South America, Captain Horace Frank spent 8 1/2 years in the United States Air Force. He earned his Bachelor of Arts Degree in Sociology from Chapman University and later continued his educational endeavors at Golden Gate University, earning a Master's Degree in Public Administration.

Captain Horace Frank of the Los Angeles Police Department began his career as a police officer in 1988. He promoted to Sergeant in March 1993 and to the rank of Lieutenant in February 1999. After completing a 13-month tour of duty as a Lieutenant Watch Commander at Wilshire Community Police Station, he was selected as the Officer-in-Charge of the Department's Media Relations Section. Captain Frank has enjoyed a variety of assignments thus far in his LAPD career.

These assignments include patrol duties in three geographic Bureaus and several different administrative assignments. Among his many assignments, Captain Frank was an academic instructor at the Los Angeles Police Department's Academy, a staff writer at Human Resources Bureau, an Associate Advocate at Internal Affairs Group and an Employee Relations Investigation Advocate at Employee Relations Section. Just prior to his promotion to Captain, he served as the Adjutant to the Counter Terrorism and Criminal Intelligence Bureau Chief.

A native of Guyana, South America, Captain Frank spent 8 1/2 years in the United States Air Force. He earned his Bachelor of Arts Degree in Sociology from Chapman University and later continued his educational endeavors at Golden Gate University, earning a Master's Degree in Public Administration.

Captain Frank is married, with three children. He is an avid runner who enjoys reading and listening to jazz and traveling.

From LAPD

Voice of the Vedas

2006-02-05T07:41:00.000-06:00

Born in Guyana, Dr. Doobay was educated in the West Indies, England and Canada. He holds fellowships at both, the Royal College of Surgeons of England, Scotland and the Royal College of Surgeons of Canada. He is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Surgery at McMaster University and was the former head of the Vascular Surgery Department at Hamilton Civic Hospital.

Dr. Doobay was elected the President of the Toronto based Voice of the Vedas Cultural Sabha Inc. in 1980. He is also the Religious Advisor since the organization was founded in 1977.

He comes from a deeply religious family. As a devout Hindu, Dr. Doobay became determined at an early age to spread the word of Hinduism. In addition, he felt a compelling duty to provide medical and other assistance to the underprivileged. To achieve these goals he brought together a group of dedicated volunteers and under the umbrella of The "Voice of the Vedas", he has been able to bring the name of Hinduism to the forefront. He is a dynamic leader, and is able to motivate people to offer their best.

Born in Guyana, Dr. Doobay was educated in the West Indies, England and Canada. He holds fellowships at both, the Royal College of Surgeons of England, Scotland and the Royal College of Surgeons of Canada. He is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Surgery at McMaster University and was the former head of the Vascular Surgery Department at Hamilton Civic Hospital.

A pioneer in the treatment of immigrants who have experienced cultural dislocation and depression, Dr. Doobay has arranged culturally appropriate counseling services and often provides counseling himself.

Currently, Dr. Doobay hosts "Voice of Hinduism" a Hindu religious program, which is aired on Crossroad Television Services. This program is used to teach and promote Hinduism and is the only one of their kind in North America. Despite the mainstream audience, Dr Doobay's approach has always been to provide an unbiased commentary on religious and cultural matters. He also conducts the Annual Outdoor Bhagvat Yagna, a seven-day commentary on the Bhagvat Purana, held on the Mandir grounds.

Among the several charitable projects that he has initiated both locally and overseas, the notable ones are:

Medical clinic in Guyana for the needy;
Establishment of the Kanya Ashram (orphanage for girls) in Orissa;
Raising funds for artificial limbs for amputees in India.
Providing funds for scholarships for students who are at University or College.
Fund raised for the Gujarat earthquake victims for homes, supply of water and food.

In addition to these accomplishments, Dr. Doobay's vision is to build a Long Term Care Facility for South Asians. As a medical professional, he feels that a facility that caters to the needs of South Asians would facilitate an atmosphere that would assist recovery. Another project, which he chairs, is the extension of the Vishnu Mandir to house a Museum of Hinduism.

Because of his dynamic leadership, accomplishments and contributions to Canadian Society and the well being of Canadians, Dr. Doobay is the first South Asian recipient of the "Order of Ontario", one of the highest civilian awards that can be bestowed by the Province of Ontario, Canada. He has also been honored by several organizations locally and abroad.

Even though he has an extremely busy lifestyle, Dr. Doobay enjoys reading and never leaves home before solving the daily crossword. He keeps fit by playing golf regularly.

From VishnuMandir

From Food to Cars

2006-02-03T07:20:00.000-06:00

Meet Teek and Vee
Their parents started and built a successful business in Guyana before they decided to move their 4 children to the United States. They felt that with the political unrest in Guyana, their family would be safer and have a better chance for a successful future in the U.S.

Both Teek and Vee Persaud were born in Guyana, South America. They emigrated to America with their parents when they were 16 and 14, respectively. They come from a family of business people. Their parents started and built a successful business in Guyana before they decided to move their 4 children to the United States. They felt that with the political unrest in Guyana, their family would be safer and have a better chance for a successful future in the U.S. How right they were!

In 1982, at age 20, Teek purchased a small candy store in Manhattan, NY. Just about this time, Vee moved to Canada to help their older sister, Hetri and her husband Ray, with their business - a deli in downtown Toronto. They went on to build a successful fast food business consisting of pizza, hamburgers, chicken, etc.

While running the candy store in the early 1980's, Teek noticed the booming real estate market in NY. He ventured into this arena, purchasing houses, fixing them up and reselling them for a profit. As this business grew, Vee returned to The Empire State and the two became partners. Teek primarily ran the candy store that included a grill for breakfast and lunch specials while Vee took care of their growing real estate holdings.

How did they go from NYC to Bloomingburg? Blooming Where?

It turns out that their other sister, Gita, who lived in the Bronx, NY, was married to George, a Montgomery, NY native. His family resided (and still does) in the Village of Montgomery in Orange County. His father, Dan Bosch, (some of you may be familiar with his creative handiwork in birdhouses found for sale at the Quickway Diner) was a real estate salesperson. One fine day, in 1986, as Gita and George were visiting their family, the listing for the diner was mentioned. George saw an opportunity that he knew was right up Teek and Vee's alley.

Although a bit hesitant about the move from The Big Apple to this small town, Teek and Vee saw an opportunity that they could not pass up. With a bit of research, intuition, and foresight, they realized Orange County would continue to be one of the fastest growing areas in the country. At that time, it was considered to be "a great place to live" by the national magazines and polls. Today, Route 17 (a.k.a. The Quickway) will soon be Interstate 86, Stewart International Airport continues to expand, and tourism in this Hudson Valley region continues to grow. In other words, their intuition was right on the money.

Teek sold his candy store in Manhattan and moved to Bloomingburg. The deal was closed and the Persaud brothers became the new owners of the Quickway Diner & Restaurant and the Twin Cone Ice Cream Shop. Gita decided to quit her job in the city to help reopen the business. After being non-operational for over 6 months, it took a lot of hard work, determination and planning to reopen but the family was fortunate enough to re-hire most of the previously displaced employees. On May 4, 1987, at 4:30 a.m., Teek and Gita literally opened the doors of the renovated Quickway Diner to a handful of people already waiting outside for the famous Quickway coffee they've come to love.

And now, a Quick history of the Quickway Diner - the Diner first opened in 1955 as the construction of Route 17 was being completed (coincidentally, the same year that George was born. Yes, the very same one who encouraged them to explore the possibility of purchasing the Diner in 1986!) Route 17 was nicknamed the Quickway because it was the quickest route from NYC to the Catskills region. Since the Diner, which consisted only of the front section of the current structure, was right off Exit 116 of the Quickway, it became a very popular stop for the local residents, commuters, and tourists.Now, back to 1986.

As Teek and Gita ran the Diner, Vee remained in NYC to run their real estate business. Both he and George traveled the hour-an-half trip from NYC to Bloomingburg every weekend to help with the Diner. In July 1987, Gita and George became pregnant (rumor has it that the baby was conceived at the Quickway!). After Varian, referred to by many as the Quickway Baby, was born, Gita decided to resume her career back in the city. As the Diner continued to prosper and the catering increased, Vee was needed much more than weekends and eventually moved upstate. With their consistent hard work, honesty, and of course that catchy advertising jingle that you cannot get it out of your head after you hear it (. . . the Quickway Diner & Restaurant in Bloomingburg) Teek and Vee became local celebrities.

How did they go from Food to Cars?

Teek and Vee have a hobby that is quite removed from their businesses - they love cars. Some think that they may have had a taste of car oil as babies and hence this obsession with cars. As their businesses prospered, they could now afford to indulge in their hobby. They began purchasing and restoring vintage cars that lead them to the area car auctions where they got new ideas and visions. Being the true entrepreneurs, they became Certified Car Dealers and opened Quickway Exotic Auto based on their vast knowledge and passion for cars. Now a booming car dealership is included in their portfolio of businesses. To ensure the integrity of the vehicles they sell, they have a crew of mechanics and body shop technicians on the pay-roll to keep up with their demand.

What's next?

Being the quintessential entrepreneurs that they are, Teek and Vee continue to venture into new enterprises. But, they do not do so blindly. They have chosen to make a commitment to the community they work and reside in, with Vee now raising a family with his wife Nadira. After much thought, research, and planning, they have decided to construct the Quickway Travel Center, a landmark that will serve all the needs of the traveler under one roof while providing jobs and services for the area residents and community. A community that Teek and Vee are proud to be a part of!

From Quickway

Music Icon

2006-02-02T06:20:00.000-06:00

Born in Plaisance, Guyana, on March 5, 1948, the young Edmond Grant grew up on the sounds of his homeland, which included calypso and tan singing, an Indo-Caribbean vocal style whose roots lay in south Asia and are the backbone of modern chutney.

Eddy Grant stands amongst an elite group of artists as one who has not just merely moved successfully across the musical spectrum, but has actually been at the forefront of genres and even created one of his own. From pop star to reggae radical, musical entrepreneur to the inventor of Ringbang, the artist has cut a swathe through the world of music and made it his own.

Born in Plaisance, Guyana, on March 5, 1948, the young Edmond Grant grew up on the sound[s] of his homeland, [which included calypso and] tan singing, an Indo-Caribbean vocal style whose roots lay in south Asia and are the backbone of modern chutney. Then in 1960, the Grant family emigrated to England, taking up residence in the working class Stoke Newington area of London. The young teen's musical horizons swiftly expanded, embracing R&B, blues, and rock that percolated across his new island home.

In 1965, Grant formed his first band, the Equals, and long before the days of Two Tone, the group was unique in being the first of Britain's multiracial bands to receive any recognition. The West Indian contingent comprised Jamaican-born singer Lincoln Gordon, with his twin brother Derv and Grant both on guitar, while the rhythm section of bassist Patrick Lloyd and drummer John Hall were native-born white Englishmen. Like most of the teenaged bands roaming the capital at the time, the Equals cut their teeth on the club and pub circuit and finally inked a label deal with President Records in early 1967. Their debut single, "I Won't Be There," didn't crack the charts but did receive major radio support. This, alongside an expanding fan base wowed by their live shows, pushed their first album, “Unequaled Equals”, into the U.K. Top Ten.

At the request of his label, Grant had also been working with the Pyramids, the British group who had backed Prince Buster on his recent U.K. tour. Besides composing songs for the band (and one for Buster himself, the rude classic "Rough Rider"), Grant also produced several tracks, including the band's debut single and sole hit, "Train to Rainbow City." In 1968, the Equals scored their own hit with "I Get So Excited," the group's debut into the Top 50.

Although their follow-up album, “Equals Explosion”, proved less successful than its predecessor, as did the next single, the quintet's career was indeed about to explode. "Hold Me Closer" may have disappointed in the U.K., where it stalled at a lowly number 50, but in Germany, the single was flipped over and "Baby Come Back" released as the A-side. It swiftly soared to the top of the German charts, a feat repeated across Europe. Later that spring, a reissued British single finally received its just due and reached number one. Even the U.S. took notice, sending the single into the lower reaches of the Top 40. Sadly, this turned out to be a flash in the pan.
The Equals' follow-up single, "Laurel and Hardy" died at number 35, its successor did even worse, while their new album, Sensational Equals, didn't even make the charts. New hope arrived when "Viva Bobby Joe" shot into the Top Ten in the summer of 1969, but its follow-up, "Rub a Dub Dub," just scraped into the Top 35. Understandable, considering the Equals roller coaster of ups and downs, Grant now turned his attention elsewhere.

In 1970, he started up his own specialty record label, Torpedo, concentrating on British reggae artists. He also utilized the label as a home for a brief solo career under the alias Little Grant, releasing the single "Let's Do It Together." But the artist hadn't given up on the Equals yet, and good thing too. Later that year, their new 45, "Black Skinned Blue Eyed Boys," slammed the group back into the Top Ten.

And then, the unimaginable happened. On New Year's day in 1971, Grant, all of 23 years old, suffered a heart attack and a collapsed lung. If lifestyle played a part, it wasn't because he drank, took drugs, smoked, or ate meat; it was due to Grant's only vice - a hectic schedule. He quit the group at this point and the Equals soldiered on into the shadows without him. He sold Torpedo as well and with the proceeds opened up his own recording studio, The Coach House, in 1972.

Grant continued to produce other artists and release their records through his newly launched Ice label, but his own musical talents were seemingly left behind. It wasn't until 1977 when Grant finally released a record of his own, the “Message Man” album. It was three years in the making and a stunning about face from his previous pop persona, even if "Black Skinned Blue Eyed Boys" had suggested a change was imminent. Tracks like "Cockney Black," "Race Hate," and "Curfew" were politicized dark masterpieces laced with aggression and anger.

But the album also included some lighter moments, including "Hello Africa," which featured a sound that the media hadn't even invented a word for yet. Grant dubbed it "kaisoul," an amalgamation of kaiso (the traditional word for calypso) and soul. Caribbean legend Lord Shorty, the acknowledged inventor of this new crossover hybrid, labeled it solka. Neither term stuck, however, once the Trinidad and Tobago press came up with their own label - soca. But regardless of what it was called, the style was just one of many hybrids that Grant was entertaining. “Message Man’ may have proved a commercial failure, but that didn't dim the artist's vision for one second.

Two more years passed while Grant wrestled with its follow-up in the studio, composing, producing, and performing virtually the entire album himself. The end result was 1979's “Walking on Sunshine”, one of the greatest albums of the decade. While the B-side featured a clutch of seminal musical hybrids, the centerpiece of the album's A-side was "Living on the Frontline," a dance floor classic that blended tough lyrics with an electro-sheen, a sense of optimism and a funk-fired sound. Released as a single, the song roared up the British chart, while becoming a cult hit in U.K. clubs. Inexplicably, the album itself didn't chart at all, nor did its follow-up, 1980's “Love in Exile”. However, in the next year, Grant finally cracked the market wide open with “Can't Get Enough”, which finally breached the Top 40. His singles' success had continued uninterrupted across "Do You Feel My Love," "Can't Get Enough of You," and "I Love You, Yes I Love You." A phenomenal live album, “Live at Notting Hill”, was recorded in August 1981 during London's Notting Hill Carnival. The following year's “Killer on the Rampage” slew its way into both the British chart and the American, where it landed at number ten. The album spun off "I Don't Wanna Dance," which topped the chart in the U.K., while the exhilarating "Electric Avenue," from his next album “Going for Broke”, landed at number two on both sides of the Atlantic.

Nothing else would equal these dizzying heights. Three more singles followed by the end of 1984, but none managed to break into the Top 40. In the U.S., only one, "Romancing the Stone," actually made the chart, charming its way into a respectable berth just outside the Top 25. That was his final showing in the U.S. On both sides of the Atlantic, 1987's ‘Born Tuff” and the following year's “File Under Rock” were passed over by the record buying public. However, the British gave the artist one last Top Ten hit in 1988 with "Gimme Hope Jo'anna," a highlight of his 1990 “Barefoot Soldier” album. Unfortunately, its 1992 follow-up, “Painting of the Soul”, went the way of its last few predecessors.

By then, the artist had long ago left the U.K., having emigrated to Barbados a decade earlier. Even as his own career had taken off back in England, Grant was spending much of his time mentoring a new generation of soca talent. He opened a new studio, Blue Wave, and lavished most of his attention on it, which explains the gap in his output between 1984 and 1987. By the time "Jo'anna" had fallen off the chart, Grant was well on the way to creating his own mini-empire. Besides giving new stars-to-be a helping hand, Grant also moved into music publishing, specializing in calypso's legends.

Over the years, Ice has thrilled the world by making the back catalog of multitudes of stars available, Lord Kitchener, Roaring Lion, and Mighty Sparrow, to name a few. And almost uniquely amongst Caribbean artists, Grant has maintained control over his own music, and Ice, of course, has kept it available. Across Grant's solo career, the artist has continued to experiment with different styles in ever-changing combinations. Pop, funk, new wave, reggae, Caribbean, African, and even country have all been melded into his sound. 1992's “Painting of the Soul” was heavy with island influences, while the next year's “Soca Baptism” is a collection of covers, from hits to obscurities, all dosed with a modern sound.

By this time, Grant was hard at work in the evolution of yet another hybrid style -Ringbang. Many of the genre's elements are easily found in the artist's earlier recordings, from African rhythms to military tattoos, alongside soca itself and dancehall rhythms, many of the latter influenced by Grant's own previous work. The new style debuted in 1994 at the Barbados Crop Over festival. Since then, the style has continued to intrigue, but has yet to create the international success that it's always threatened. Much of this can be laid at Grant's own door, through a simmering dispute with other artists and the legal ramifications of the genre's trademark.

A vociferous supporter of artists' rights, Grant first ran into trouble in 1996 when he demanded his label's artists receive adequate copyright fees from Trinidad and Tobago’s Carnival. A heroic stance that infuriated the festival's organizers, this was quickly overshadowed by the public outcry over soca itself. As far as T&T was concerned, the inventor of soca was island native Lord Shorty, who announced its birth in 1978 with the “Soca Explosion” album. However, Grant insists otherwise, crediting his own "Black Skinned Blue Eyed Boys" as the first-ever soca record.

Needless to say, his public proclamations of this fact continue to infuriate T&T and other Shorty supporters. But politics aside, the greater factor may be in Ringbang's trademark. Once Grant filed it, the word could no longer be used by other artists without express permission. A perusal of any soca, calypso, or chutney hits collections shows the importance of the use of the genre term to the actual song, and just how many titles feature the term. By preventing artists from using the word Ringbang, few outside the Ice stable were willing to explore the genre. Even so, Grant managed to organize the Ringbang Celebration 2000 as part of T&T's millennium festivities. The event, which went off without a hitch, created further ill-will due to its price tag, a whopping 41 million [TT$] (U.S. $6.5 million). The artist himself performed two songs at the event.
In the new year, he recorded a new version of one of them, "East Dry River" while in Jamaica, appropriately enough in a ska style. The previous year, the artist released the “Hearts & Diamonds” album. Grant continues to make an impact on both sides of the studio, with his music always an intriguing concoction of sound and his studio work [is] equally innovative. Ice itself is equally instrumental in the music world, both in its preservation of past legacies and its attention to new artists.

From eCaroh

Voices of New York

2006-02-01T07:28:00.000-06:00

The Indo-Guyanese community in Richmond Hills, NY is growing in social strength and political influence daily. This group has established community organizations for cultural and religious growth for generations to come.

Indo-Guyanese A LOTE speaking community in Richmond Hills, NY

The Indo-Guyanese Americans use their dialect of English as a LOTE in everyday activities in Richmond Hills, which is a community in Queens, New York that has a high concentrated Indo-Guyanese American population. Although the Indo-Guyanese Americans speak English fluently the dialect they use is very different in everyday communication among the group. Richmond Hills is composed of many immigrants but the Indo-Guyanese American is the largest and they have created a cultural link to their homeland in the area by starting cultural associations, charity organizations, grocery stores, restaurants, jewelry shops, and places of prayer. Through extensive research and one-on-one interviews, the richness of the Indo-Guyanese American culture became clear.

The Indo-Guyanese originated in India. After the abolition of slavery Indians were brought into Guyana as indentured servants. This group of Indians was of Hindu religion and spoke Hindi. Among the Hindus, some were Muslims who spoke Urdu and others were Christians. Many of the Hindus that are Indo-Guyanese worship Satya Sai Baba and they have "Centers for Satya Sai Baba" throughout Queens. India and Guyana were both part of the British Empire and thus English was use widely and the main languages of both India and Guyana are partly English. This group of Indo-Guyanese became large and now Guyana has 51.0% Indo-Guyanese (Guyana Chronicle). Many of these Indo-Guyanese started immigrate to the United States and Canada. One of the largest communities of the Indo-Guyanese is in Richmond Hills, New York.

Language

Within the community, Guyanese English is the primary LOTE in use within the community. Other LOTE's used in the area are, Hindi, Cantonese, and Spanish. This variation of languages can be accounted for by the demographics of the community. Richmond Hills is mainly composed of immigrants from China, India, Guyana, and Caribbean. The population is comprised of immigrants and their first generation American born children. The Majority of the population consists of both Indo-Guyanese (those born in Guyana who have Indian ancestry) and Afro-Guyanese (those born in Guyana who have African Ancestry). There is also a concentration of South East Indians and Latin Americans within the community. This is taken into account through observations of grocery stores and restaurants within the area.

The official language of Guyana is English, spoken with an accent and a set of words and terms that differ from many other English speakers in the US. Other languages spoken are Hindi and a few Amerindian dialects. Those Indo-Guyanese who migrate here from Guyana most often speak English and there are few who speak Hindi because of their Indian descent. Those who do not speak Hindi have in a sense lost touch with their motherland, India after immigrating to Guyana.

Liberty Avenue

When walking down Liberty Avenue, one will be overwhelmed by the various Guyanese stores in operation. Among there were Trinidadian owned stores as well as South East Indian and Latin American stores. The South East Indian and Latin American stores were less common than were Guyanese and Trinidadian. Most of these stores were restaurants consisting of traditional Guyanese foods, grocery stores, and Jewelry stores promising to use the very yellow and pure Guyanese gold in their jewelry. There were also some Guyanese and Trinidadian owned stores, which sold clothes typically worn in India. It was here that we saw the influence of South East India on the Indo Guyanese population. In addition to these stores were also a few video stores specializing in South Eastern Indian movies with English subtitles for those who did not understand Hindi. Not only did the first generation Indo-Guyanese Americans have a need to learn about their Guyanese and Indian origin, but the Indo-Guyanese who migrated to the United States had a need to keep in touch with their distant Indian origin. They enjoy movies, music, literature and language of both Guyana and India.

Maleeni

From home to school the Indo-Guyanese American students vary their use of English. In schools, Indo Guyanese students learn how to speak English with an American accent. This accent however, soon fades and becomes more native Guyanese when they leave school and go home to their families. While researching this paper, we came across a High School aged girl, named Maleeni, who told us of her experiences as an Indo-Guyanese American. This girl's family migrated from Guyana to New York in the mid 1970's. She was born and raised in Richmond Hills Before attending school, Maleeni learned, from her parents, to speak English like a Guyanese would. Once, she started school however, she was taught something a bit different. "In school, I learned to speak without my Guyanese accent. At home, if I speak that way, my parents think I'm trying to be American. It's like they think I'm losing my culture." Maleeni confirmed to us that she has other friends of both Trinidadian and Guyanese descent that have similar feelings. However, she did add that she was never taught by her schoolteachers to hide her culture, it was more a matter of them telling her to speak "properly."

As we continued our conversation, Maleeni began speaking of her experiences in High School. In her experience attending Richmond Hills High School, there was more pride in Guyanese culture. There are after school activities set up for people of Guyanese descent. For example, there is a Caribbean Culture Club set up which has members with descent from all Countries in the Caribbean and certain countries in South America. Although she was used to speaking American English with her school friends, after joining this club, speaking Guyanese English became more of the norm for her when in the presence of her schoolmates. She also added that many of the Chinese and Hispanic students received ESL but the Indo-Guyanese students did not.

Religion

The Indo-Guyanese who are Christian attend a local church but there are a lot more Hindus than Christians. The Hindus have religious ceremonies at their houses monthly and they attend a temple. There is one located in Flushing, Queens. There is an up and coming group that worships Sathya and Sai Baba and hey have various centers for bahjans, a group prayer ceremony with songs. After attending one of these ceremonies, we saw their devotion by the energy and feeling with which they sung the songs.

Songs and dances are a major part of the shows the various Indo-Guyanese Associations put together. Such organizations in the area are the Hindu Caribbean American Cultural and Arts Association, The Indo-Caribbean Federation of North America, and the Association of Guyanese-Americans. There are other associations for the Chinese and South Indians active in the area in a small way. The Indo-Guyanese organizations listed above teach the youth about their cultural origins and let them show it off on stage by performing dances, songs, and plays. The development of the cultural groups in the area had made a necessity for announcements of community news.

Magazines and newspapers

The Caribbean Journal has taken the task to inform Indo-Guyanese and other Guyanese of their accomplishments and news worthy information. Editor in Chief, Mr. Prem Misir Ph.D. showed that the literary news the journal provides allows a viable mean of communication. This journal is published weekly and distributed through the mainland and selected stores in the area. Indo-Guyanese grocery stores sell magazines and newspapers with information about the goings on in Guyana as well as. These newspapers are all published in the standard written for m of English. Publications in other languages can be found as well. Chinese (which happens to be another LOTE used in the neighborhood) newspapers can be found in stores throughout the neighborhood as well.

Newspapers allow people to provide services to help people. In the newspaper, we saw services fro Indo-Guyanese such as tax returns, airline tickets and visas, filling out forms, applications and escort service for the elderly. There were also advertisements for charity organizations for children in Guyana and India. These services show the solid foundation that the Indo-Guyanese and other Caribbeans have established in Richmond Hills.

Alden Gumpti

Alden Gumpti is an Indo-Guyanese American, now 20 years old, was born in Guyana and raised in Richmond Hills, NY from the age of four. His great grandparents were born in India and immigrated to Guyana. In Guyana, they settled down and raised their family who lived there fro three generations. Then, with the generation of his parents, the family moved to the United States. Alden has siblings who were born in the United States after the arrival of his family. He however, is Guyanese by birth.

When Alden came to this country, he was already speaking with a thick Guyanese accent. It was going to school in Richmond Hills that gave him the ability to vary his accent. In school he learned the way to speak "standard" American English. He says that this ability helps him in a number of situations. His father, for example kept his thick Guyanese accent, and found it difficult to communicate with people outside of the community. He told us that his father, who speaks rather quickly, must sometimes repeat himself and slow down his words in order to be understood.

When one speaks to Alden, there is a slight Guyanese accent that can be heard through his New York accent. This accent however is even more noticeable when he is speaking to a family member, a friend, or even a West Indian storeowner in his neighborhood. Although it is English that is being spoken, there is something about the accent and phrasing that makes is difficult for a non-speaker, or someone who is not familiar with the accent to comprehend. When we addressed this fact, he told us that with his non-West Indian friends he has to try to eliminate his accent because they wouldn't understand him.

Rich in culture

The Indo-Guyanese community in Richmond Hills is growing in social strength and political influence daily. This group has established community organizations for cultural and religious growth for generations to come. Local publications have established communication and stored have established distribution of goods from their home country. This group has been able to live along side other LOTE speaking communities and have the main influence in the Richmond Hills community. Through personal knowledge, interviews of Indo-Guyanese immigrants and Indo-Guyanese American students, and references to newspapers and the local establishments of Indo-Guyanese one can see the strength of the community and the richness in culture that they hold high and promote.

From NYU

Works Cited (References)
Brenda Mangru and Madhu Pillai
The Association of Guyanese Americans. 126-17 liberty ave., Richmond Hill, NY 11419
Atlantic West Indian Grocery, 130-02 101 ave South Richmond Hills, 718-805-6964.
Caribbean Journal, PO Box 180306, Richmond Hill, NY 11418, Phone/fax (718) 845-876
Facts about Guyana Population Distribution, 2001
Guyana Gold, 124-08 Liberty Ave South Richmond Hills, 718-843 1365
Guyana Solidarity Movement of New York, 101 37 123rd street, Richmond Hill, NY 11419, 718 849-2513
Hindu Caribbean American Cultural Arts Association, 131-21 Liberty Ave., Richmond Hill, NY 11419
The Indo Caribbean Federation of North America, Inc. 129-18 Liberty Ave., Richmond Hill NY 11419
Little Guyana Bake Shop, 116-44 Liberty Ave South Richmond Hills, 718-843-6530

Hollywood Actress

2006-01-31T08:19:00.000-06:00

CCH Pounder - the initials stand for Carol Christine Hilaria - was born in Georgetown, Guyana. She attended a school for the arts in Sussex, England, and Ithica College in New York State. She has appeared in dozens of movies, and has had continuing roles on television. Since her debut in All That Jazz in 1979, Pounder, 53, has had roles in LA Law, The West Wing, Law & Order and The Practice.

Often overlooked, The Shield star CCH Pounder finds solace in her craft.

SHE has had a long acting career.

But in the last 25 years, veteran actress CCH (Carol Christine Hilaria) Pounder has got only two Satellite Awards to show for, which she won for her role in US series The Shield.

She plays detective Claudette Wyms opposite aggressive detective Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis), who played The Thing in the movie Fantastic Four.

Since her debut in All That Jazz in 1979, Pounder, 53, has had roles in LA Law, The West Wing, Law & Order and The Practice.

Besides the two awards, Pounder also received Emmy nominations for her roles in ER and The X-Files.

FRUSTRATING

But the lack of awards does get somewhat frustrating, Pounder said in a recent phone interview.

'Sometimes, it bothers me that I haven't won an Emmy. I've got nominations for many awards, and yet I don't win.

'It can be tiring listening to the roll call of names, only to find out you're not the winner. But it's part and parcel of the job. I'm getting used to this.'

Still, she said, it would be lovely to win an Emmy in her lifetime.

'I would be very angry if I was given a post-humous Emmy.'

Awards or not, Pounder insisted that she has always loved and enjoyed acting despite her family's initial disapproval.

Born in Guyana, she attended Ithaca College in New York where her talents caught the attention of Professor Earl McCarroll from the drama department.

Upon graduation, Prof McCarroll urged her to join a regional theatre company, and she moved to Monmouth, Maine.

She said: 'Being immigrants, my family preferred me to be in a more professional job, like a doctor or a lawyer.'

But now they've come to terms with her profession, she added.

While her role in The Shield was originally written for a man, Pounder insisted she did not get the part because she had worked with director Clark Johnson earlier on the TV series Boycott.

'You have to prove yourself,' she said, 'I was the only girl who went for the audition, but my agent said 'Come on, you can do it.'

'I was known for playing women who get raped and beaten. But Claudette's character is one of a strong leading lady, a tough cookie.'

Pounder was full of praise for her co-stars, especially Glenn Close.

She said: 'Glenn was really fun to work with. It was nice to have another woman around as the cast is made up of mainly men.'

From The Electric New Paper

Hollywood Actress Rediscovers African Roots

Actress CCH Pounder has made a name for herself in American television, where she now has a major role in the police drama The Shield. The actress has come a long way from her childhood in Guyana to the lights of Hollywood, and along the way has rediscovered her African heritage.

The Afro-Caribbean actress reconnected with her roots through her husband, Senegalese-born anthropologist Boubacar Kone. The two met in Los Angeles and married 14 years ago. About that time, he had an idea.

"I always said, I have to go back and do something about Senegal. So I'm not somebody who's going to build a church or synagogue or mosque, so we don't have a museum culture. So I said it's much better to have a museum," Mr. Kone explained.

He started an art museum, the Musee Boribana, just outside the Senegalese capital of Dakar. His wife shares his interest in contemporary African art. At first, she showcased art in their home in Los Angeles, and two years ago she opened her own gallery in the city.

"It's still the focus of introducing African artists to the United States, but as I'm from the Caribbean, I introduce Caribbean artists, and African-American artists as well," explained the actress.

CCH - the initials stand for Carol Christine Hilaria - was born in Georgetown, Guyana. She attended a school for the arts in Sussex, England, and Ithica College in New York State. She has appeared in dozens of movies, and has had continuing roles on television in the earlier hospital drama ER, as well as The Shield.

She joined performers Robert Guillaume and his wife, Donna Brown Guillaume, Alfree Woodard, Blaire Underwood and others in a group eventually called Artists for a New South Africa. They had been asked by political activist Nelson Mandela to speak out against apartheid, the system of racial separation imposed on South Africa by its former white government.

"Because we are artists in our different genres, musicians or actors and so on, the media often give us a platform for our voices to be heard," she said. "And so Nelson Mandela asked if there were African-American artists who could help service the breaking of apartheid, and we were one of many, many groups."

With democratization and the election of Nelson Mandela as South Africa's president, she says the group has changed its focus.

"We realized the enormous amount of work that had to be done in South Africa. And so we're now working with pediatric AIDS, AIDS educational information, getting books and services there. We worked along with Habitat for Humanity building houses," she explained. "So it's a lot of lending our voice to other people's projects, and getting them out there so that they can be serviced."

So far, the group has channeled eight million dollars into South African aid projects.

CCH and Boubacar divide their time between Los Angeles and Dakar, where they have a home on an island near the city. They say they are bridging two cultures, bringing together the world of contemporary Africa and the world of Hollywood entertainment.

From VOA News

Dancehall - Reggae Artist

2006-01-30T07:50:00.000-06:00

DIGNITERY spent his childhood years in Georgetown Guyana until he moved to the United States of America at the age of 12.

NEW YORK - Guyanese born reggae artist DIGNITERY is a capricorn who entered this world on the blessed day of Janurary 6th, 1982.

He spent his childhood years in Georgetown Guyana until he moved to the United States of America at the age of 12.

DIGNITERY started to take DJ-ing (Reggae Singer) serious at the age of 13 and started recording demos and writing his own lyrics.

At this point DIGNITERY knew he wanted to pursue a career in the entertainment industry and began his journey of becoming a reggae artist.

DIGNITERY grew up listening to artist(s) such as Terry Ganzie, Super Cat, Cutty Ranks, Bounty Killer and Jhonny P., these are some of the few artist(s) that inspired and influenced DIGNITERY in becoming a dancehall reggae artist today.

DIGNITERY describes his style as rough and rugged! His musical/DJ-ing style is a mixture of old school and new school, something for the old and young dancehall fans. Over the years DIGNITERY has matured significantly as a recording and performing artiste.

In 2003 DIGNITERY released his premiere single "Experience Lover" produced by Trigga Happy Entertainment Inc. His second single titled "I'll Never Let U Go" features roots and culture reggae artiste YAMI BOLO was mastered at VP Records and released on promo cd in 2004.

DIGNITERY is presently writing and recording new material, and we can expect to hear much more of this young and vibrant reggae artist in the near future. His debut album "Rude Boy Nine" is set to be released soon.

You've been warned!

From top4-40-charts

(http://www.dignitery.com/)

One step at a time

2006-01-29T00:11:00.000-06:00

Nizam Ally's motivation started growing back when he was a child in Guyana, South America. He said that his family was better off than the children he is now trying to help are, but that it was still very poor.

With the hot, summer sun glaring down on him from above, Nizam Ally walked from Utica to Herkimer.

But that's nothing. He has already walked from Toronto to New York City and back again.

He is making his way back to New York City - walking approximately 20 miles per day and resting at local hotels at night - as a part of his second round trip of the cities.

No, he's not crazy, and he doesn't do this because he just really enjoys long walks either.

Ally is walking in an attempt to raise money to help needy children. He founded the Walk 5-5-55 Charitable Foundation, and decided to do the "Miles for Smiles" charity walk as a way to motivate people to help.

The first trip brought in about $10,000 in donations. The money goes to Save the Children Canada and Save the Children USA.

Ally's goals are set much higher. He hopes to eventually raise $5 million for the cause and said he would continue to make the walk, health permitting, until the money is raised. "It takes some time," he said, "but I feel in my heart it will happen."

The "Miles for Smiles" walk passes by about 50 million people, Ally said. He would like to see a million of those people donate $5 each to help reach the $5 million goal. He has mentally prepared himself to make the trek five times in order to raise the money and feels that the number five may be lucky for him.

The Walk 5-5-55 Charitable foundation is named for his birth date. Naming the foundation for his birthday is partially symbolic because he said that he had to really come of age before he could get a new outlook on what he could do to make a difference and help children in need.

Before deciding to start the charity walk, Ally felt like he cared about people who needed help but that he wasn't doing anything about it. One goal of the walk is to motivate people who currently feel the way Ally used to feel to get out and join the cause.

Ally's motivation started growing back when he was a child in Guyana, South America. He said that his family was better off than the children he is now trying to help are, but that it was still very poor. His family had to walk a block away just to get water, he shared a bed with three of his brothers and he received his first pair of shoes at the age of 5. At 12, he started working with his father - pushing his father's donkey cart and trying to sell the day's crops.

While only 17, in 1973, Ally moved to Canada. He had nobody there to support him and had to learn to get by on his own. Ally worked hard and became successful. He now owns a Caribbean restaurant.

After the events of September 11th, he started paying more attention to the news and doing a lot of reading about other children around the world who have to suffer. "I have a very soft spot when it comes to children," said Ally, who has three kids of his own.

Ally then sponsored two kids - one in Columbia and one in Chili - and found great satisfaction in the way helping them made him feel.

He said he continued to see more and more about the millions of suffering children in the world - with thousands dying each day - and wanted to do more.

Ally knew he could only afford to provide so much help on his own, so about four years ago he started thinking about the idea of the charity walk.

The walk is his way of showing people his dedication to the fundraiser. "It's better than sitting in an office and making phone calls," he said.

His first walk began on March 24, 2005. On May 5, his 50th birthday, he arrived at Times Square in New York City.

He then walked back to Toronto.

Rafeek Baksh, a family friend, drives a van as he follows around on the walk. He stays within a mile or two of Ally to supply him with water and to make sure he stays healthy. "I think it's a great thing he's doing," Baksh said.

While walking, Ally has passed through many areas. He said he was surprised by how many nice places are so close by in the smaller towns.

He added that the people have been kind to him. People often wave, honk, clap or yell encouraging words as they pass him. A couple of weeks ago, a family drove by in a van and clapped for him. The van then turned around and came back and gave him water. "It really motivates you," he said.

Ally has been funding the walk by himself and is now looking for a corporate sponsor to help because the expenses are starting to add up. The expenses aren't the only difficult part of the experience. Ally - who said that getting through the walk is more mental than physical - misses his family and his business while he is out on the walks.

Nonetheless, Ally is already planning to start another walk in March 2006 if the target $5 million isn't raised by the end of this walk.

The results of his efforts will be well worth it to him. "I'm looking forward to that satisfaction," he said. "I'm determined to make that sacrifice."

From Mid-York Weekly

Contact Information:
Walk 5-5-55 Charitable Foundation
3114 Danforth Ave Scarborough, ON. M1L 1B1
Toll Free: 1-866-359-WALK (9255)

Brothers blend beats in the Bronx

2006-01-28T12:02:00.000-06:00

Both brothers’ voices are tailor-fit: Trevor was in Guyana until he was 10 and retained the lilting cadence of the Caribbean, while Roy-LT developed a gritty, streetwise Bronx accent. The contrast adds texture to music that Trevor calls spiritual.

As a 10-year-old in Guyana, Trevor Brisport jammed to Bob Marley and the Wailers and wanted to play reggae. A few years later in Baychester, NY. , his little brother jammed to DJ Whodini’s "Five Minutes of Funk" and wanted to be a rapper.

The brothers—Trevor, 29, and Roy-LT, 23—emigrated from Guyana in 1980, part of a flood of immigrants that brought the freewheeling style of the reggae-soaked Caribbean to the Bronx, where funk and soul reigned. The collision of those worlds helped midwife the birth of hip hop.

And as these brothers’ musical journey has shown, aftershocks from that collision continue to animate the borough’s music scene today.

Last year, along with a third brother and a friend, they recorded an album titled "Music," with Trevor as the bandleader, and released it on CD and vinyl. Now based near Pelham Parkway, the group has a video, a web site, and airtime on two FM shows.

Recently, they played at AJ’s Palace on 222nd Street and the New Savoy on Jerome Avenue, featuring tracks from "Music," where Trevor’s classic reggae vocals laid the foundation for rap incursions.

Both brothers’ voices are tailor-fit: Trevor was in Guyana until he was 10 and retained the lilting cadence of the Caribbean, while Roy-LT developed a gritty, streetwise Bronx accent. The contrast adds texture to music that Trevor calls spiritual.

"We want our music to inspire," Trevor said, noting that their most spiritual song, "No God No Peace," is one of their most popular.

In the song, he wails to a standard reggae beat: "Nowadays they forget the right and do the wrong, but they all end up singing sad songs."

The beat slows, the drums roll, and it’s Roy-LT’s turn. His voice is sure-talk, deep and loud. "No God no peace," he begins to rap. "If you walk in the light, your spirit’s at ease."

When Roy-LT stops, Trevor takes over, hitting a high note and then going down the scale as the mellow reggae beat resumes—the beat he has always heard pulsing, first in Guyana and then on Bronx street-corners.

In the early 1980s Trevor was infected by the DJ fever, and abandoned the drums for turntables, mixing reggae and rap tracks on tapes he gave to friends in Baychester.

"People were telling me they were feeling it, so I kept doing it," he said.
The microphone always came first for Roy-LT. While Trevor mixed his tapes, Roy-LT honed his improvisational rhyming skills in freestyle rapping competitions. Soon, he was rapping on the tapes. When

Trevor saved enough money, they decided to record an album.

Playing the role of a concerned parent trying to negotiate between estranged siblings, Trevor brings reggae and hip hop together into a guarded dance on "Music."

"Back in the day," he said, "All those DJs—Slick Rick, Heavy-D—were using reggae beats. They just stripped away the guitars and then sped it up or slowed it."

Kool Herc, a Jamaican DJ who traded Kingston for the Bronx in 1967, had paved the way. The first to make records dance on turntables, he brought eclectic sound techniques that changed the nature of music in the United States. Meanwhile, classic reggae was being eclipsed by dance hall, a form that took hip hop’s aggressive rhythms and lyrics.

For Trevor, the 1970s and early 1980s were an untarnished golden era, a time when hip hop was "for real," and not about "bitches and whores and shooting places up." It was a time when Bob Marley’s socially conscious brand of reggae was telling the world to stand up.

"That was our intention from day one, to bring all the music back together from the beginning," Trevor said last week, explaining the new CD.

Strolling down Allerton Avenue, Trevor agreed that cultural reggae was waning and that violent lyrics often sold records. But he argued the group’s new CD was a unique product ennobled by the absence of "all that slackness"—a common Guyanese reference to irresponsibility.

"Rather than mix things up, we want to clarify," said Roy-LT.

Sometimes the rhyming attempts to clarify many things at once.

"My bills are so many I buy time on lay away," raps Roy-LT on one track, and the listener, absorbed in the line’s elegant presentation of everyday struggle, misses the next line, and has to rewind.

From The Bronx Beat

Mayor and Mayoress

2006-01-27T08:05:00.000-06:00

MAYOR AND MAYORESS OF THE BOROUGH OF WORTHING

Councillor Jack Saheid is the 88th Mayor of the Borough of Worthing.

Jack Saheid was born in Guyana South America on 7 June 1941. He attended the Golden Fleece Presbyterian Church School in his early years and then the Central High School in Georgetown where he gained 6 ‘O’ level passes.

He emigrated to the UK in 1961 and within months he realised that this was the country he wanted to make his permanent place of abode and duly became a British Citizen in 1967. He is married to Lyla with four daughters and two grand-daughters. He spent the next 30 years building up a small portfolio of properties and businesses and at the same time he attended various colleges, part-time, to further his education. He gained a Certificate in Agriculture from Plumpton College, Road Transport, GCE Law and ‘A’ level Law and an Introduction to the Social Sciences from Northbrook College.

His main job during this period was with British Rail where he was employed from 1961 to 1984. He performed duties in all departments including ticket offices, rosters and diagrams, train running, traffic co-ordination, work study and in the Control Office. Whilst in the Productivity Section, he identified and published safe walking routes for staff at all the stations, goods depots and shunting yards in the Central Division.

He ran a newsagents from 1979 to 1983, farming from 1981 to the present day, sub-postmaster from 1989 to the present day and a residential care home from 1995 to the present day. All the above businesses are managed in conjunction with his wife.

He has been a Public Member of Network Rail from its inception in 2002. He was elected as a Councillor of Worthing Borough Council in May 2003.

His hobbies include: cricket, reading and travelling.

MRS LYLA SAHEID
MAYORESS OF THE BOROUGH OF WORTHING 2005/2006

"I was born in Guyana, South America, in October 1946. My parents were in business and I have two sisters and four brothers, who all live in Canada, America and East Africa.

After Jack and I married we emigrated to the UK and I have supported him throughout our married life.

I worked for, what was then, British Rail in the typing pool and for management. During my time with the Railways I was actively involved with raising funds for The Railways Homes at Woking.

I have four daughters, two are married, with two grand-daughters. My two younger daughters are still continuing their education, one at University in Cardiff and she is also an officer in the reserves of the RAF.

My youngest daughter is now taking her ‘A’ levels and will be going to university this year, hopefully.

I have been in business with Jack for some years running a Newsagents in Shoreham. I now run our Rest Home in Worthing and help Jack with his Post Office.

I have worked in the caring industry for over 19 years and gained considerable knowledge of caring for the elderly during my time with the Red Cross in the late 1970s. I enjoy my job caring for the elderly and I have found it to be rewarding." ..Lyla Saheid

From Worthing Brough Council

Creating Ripples with Words

2006-01-25T21:27:00.000-06:00

Born in Guyana, Raywat Deonandan moved to Canada when he was just two years old. His parents formed the link, between Guyana and India. "The indentured slaves who were brought to Guyana by the British, never felt that they were part of the country. They wanted to go back. Their thought that 'one day you are going home', remained alive," says Raywat.

Raywat Deonandan has never believed in defining his expanse. He has aspired to be an astronaut. However, his aspirations have taken him farther than the realms of space and time. He is an avid author and writer, an active epidemiologist, a lecturer, a research scholar and essentially a man of science.

Often people of science see the beauty in things, but find it hard to phrase the words. For Raywat, however, the words have been a living, breathing presence since he was in his early teens.

Sweet Like Salt Water his first collection of short stories, published by Toronto's TSAR publications appeared in print last year and has created ripples since then. The search for a connection is deep rooted in Sweet Like Salt Water and so is the quest for identity.

Raywat's stories and articles have appeared in magazines, newspapers and journals in Canada, United States, England, New Zealand and translated in Japan and China. Raywat was awarded two Hart House Literary Prizes at the University of Toronto and First Prize in the 1995 Canadian Author's Association National Student Literary Competition. He is currently completing a Ph.D. in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from The University of Western Ontario.

Born in Guyana, Raywat moved to Canada when he was just two years old. His parents formed the link, between Guyana and India. "The indentured slaves who were brought to Guyana by the British, never felt that they were part of the country. They wanted to go back. Their thought that 'one day you are going home', remained alive," says Raywat.

The quest for identity has been Raywat's own in many ways and writing Sweet Like Salt Water, a personal experience. He visited Guyana as a child and traveled to India a few years ago but in the effort to find the sameness, he realized the difference. "I am Canadian," he says, "You know when you are away, when you are looking too hard to find a connection, often you don't find one."

From The Weekly Voice

NCO earns US citizenship

2006-01-25T11:04:00.000-06:00

Sergeant Thomas hasn't lost touch with her own culture and fondly remembers Guyana, the country of her birth. As a child growing up there, Sergeant Thomas can remember eating vegetables from her front yard.,.

Born in the small South American country of Guyana, Staff Sgt. Donna Thomas recently finished the yearlong process of becoming a United States citizen. The new citizen is also a contract specialist with the 11th Contracting Squadron at Bolling AFB.

Though she is both a proud U.S. Air Force noncommissioned officer and a new American citizen, Sergeant Thomas hasn't lost touch with her own culture and fondly remembers Guyana, the country of her birth. As a child growing up there, Sergeant Thomas can remember eating vegetables from her front yard. At the age of 15, she departed Guyana for a better life elsewhere with her parents and two suitcases full of clothes. The family quickly settled with a relative who lived in Fairfax, Va., where Sergeant Thomas started attending the 11th grade in the local high school. There she excelled in academics and upon graduation was accepted to Virginia Tech.

Initially, she wanted to study chemical engineering, but visions of flying the F-16 and the opportunity to be independent motivated her to enlist in the Air Force.

In October 2004, Sergeant Thomas started the process of becoming a U.S. citizen. A year later, the process culminated with a citizenship ceremony on Dec. 13. The ceremony stressed that the United States is a great country because of its citizens, and that the nation's blend of cultures is both unique and vital to the well-being of America. The ceremony also helped remind those in attendance that it is important to not lose one's own culture while becoming a naturalized U.S. citizen and gaining all the rights that come with citizenship.

One of an American citizen's most treasured rights is the right to vote, and Sergeant Thomas was most excited about gaining that right and participating in American democracy.

Sergeant Thomas and her husband, Darryl, have two daughters: Melanie, age 2, and Masala, 11. The sergeant recently volunteered to deploy in AEF cycle 9/10, and like most parents, she is somewhat worried her youngest daughter won't understand her absence. But for Sergeant Thomas, the opportunity to deploy and serve her new country was so important that she extended her Air Force enlistment for the experience.

From The Beam

Bach Soloist

2006-01-24T20:31:00.000-06:00

This native of Guyana created the role of Corina in the world-premiere of David Conte’s opera 'Firebird Motel '

SHAWNETTE SULKER (soprano) has been described by the San Francisco Chronicle as a singer”…displaying a bright, superbly controlled soprano with perfectly placed coloratura.”

This native of Guyana previously appeared with the American Bach Soloists singing Bach’s cantata Non sa che sia dolore. Other concert performances include Mozart’s Exultate, jubilate and Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass both with the Santa Clara Chorale and Orchestra.

With the Redwood Symphony, she has sung Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 and the role of Clara in a concert version of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess. Additional concert repertoire includes the soprano solo in Mozart’s Missa Brevis in G Major, which was performed at the National Shrine Cathedral in Washington DC, and the soprano solo from Fauré’s Requiem.

Ms. Sulker’s operatic résumé includes two roles sung in San Francisco Opera productions of The Mother of Us All and Louise. She is also currently participating in the San Francisco Opera Guild’s outreach production of The Elixir of Love in the role of Adina. Other roles include Oscar (Un ballo in maschera) with West Bay Opera and Adele (Die Fledermaus) with North Bay Opera.

She has appeared with Berkeley Opera in the roles of Adle (‘Bat out of Hell’ – Die Fledermaus), Susanna (The Marriage of Figaro), and Despina (Così fan tutte). She created the role of Corina in the world-premiere of David Conte’s opera Firebird Motel. Other roles performed include Musetta (La Bohème), Servilia (La clemenza di Tito), and Belinda (Dido and Aeneas).

Film credits for the young soprano consist of a soundtrack performance for the movie Mimic and an on-camera operatic appearance for the forthcoming feature film Jackson directed by J. F. Lawton.

Ms. Sulker’s upcoming engagements include performing the Princess in Many Moons, and Susanna, both with Cinnabar Opera.

From American Bach Soloists

Citizen Soldier

2006-01-24T07:59:00.000-06:00

“I left Guyana when I was 11 years old. My family wanted me to
have better opportunities in the U.S.,” .

Army Staff Sgt. Hilbert Caesar lost a leg in Iraq, serving a country that wasn't his.

His heart was American, but his passport said Guyana.

That changed in a sweltering immigration office in Arlington.

Four months after his Army convoy was devastated by a cluster of roadside bombs in Baghdad, Caesar became a U.S. citizen, walking into the ceremony with a cane and a powerful sense of optimism.

"I'm ecstatic. I can't even show the emotion," declared Caesar, who has been at Walter Reed Army Medical Center since April.

Caesar, 26, is one of thousands of immigrants in the military to become citizens since President Bush issued an order in July 2002 expediting their naturalization. About 32,400 noncitizens are serving in the armed forces, or roughly 2.3 percent of the total, according to Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke, a spokeswoman for the Department of Defense.

Immigrant soldiers have come into the spotlight as they have made the ultimate sacrifice for the country they serve. Thirty-eight noncitizens serving with the military have been killed in Afghanistan and Iraq, according to Krenke. One of the first members of the armed forces to die in combat in Iraq was Marine Lance Cpl. Jose Gutierrez, a native of Guatemala. He was posthumously awarded citizenship.

"Your choice to defend your country is . . . respected at the highest levels," Eduardo Aguirre, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, told Caesar and several other members of the military at the ceremony yesterday.

Immigrants are allowed to join the armed forces as long as they are legal permanent residents, or green card holders. More than 16,000 have applied to become citizens since Bush's executive order, which allows them to apply for naturalization immediately instead of waiting three years, as previously required of immigrants in the military. Most civilians must wait five years.

Two former soldiers who had been posted to Iraq -- a Salvadoran and a Jamaican -- also became citizens.

But Caesar was the star of the ceremony, a strapping man who walks with a slight limp. A casual observer might not even notice that one leg was not the one he started life with.

"You are a man of honor," Aguirre told Caesar. "I'm proud to soon call you a fellow citizen."

Caesar showed little emotion as he joined the immigrants from 27 countries in an off-tune rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner" and raised his right hand to take the oath of citizenship. But when Aguirre finally said, "Congratulations, you're U.S. citizens!" Caesar could no longer contain himself.

"Hoo-ah!" he whooped -- the Army's cry of gung-ho commitment and approval.

In a news conference after the ceremony, Caesar said that when he was 11, his family emigrated from South America in search of opportunity. He spent his teens in New York and joined the Army at 20.

"I was born to be a soldier or a police officer," he said, adding later: "I love helping people. That's what American soldiers do."

He was working as a field artillery section chief with the 1st Armored Division when he and other soldiers set out along a road in Baghdad on April 18. They never saw the four explosive devices buried in the dirt. The explosion injured several other soldiers in addition to Caesar.

Caesar said he didn't want to focus on the bombing but on the future. He hopes to continue in the military, perhaps as a medical technician, or become a police officer.

While happy to be a citizen, Caesar said he felt no different.

"I knew I was an American before this," he said. "I always knew I was an American."

Army Staff Sgt. Hilbert Caesar story is profiled in a new Faces of America.

From The Washington Post

Women's Soccer Coach

2006-01-24T07:50:00.000-06:00

Rohan Naraine is a native of Guyana, South America, and grew up in London, England. He lived in England for 10 years before moving to the United States at the age of 16.

Rohan Naraine returns to Coastal Carolina as an assistant coach on Karrie Miller’s women’s soccer staff, having spent the last two seasons as the head women’s soccer coach at Southern University. Naraine was an assistant at CCU for the 2002 season.

Naraine was Southern’s first-ever head coach, and in the inaugural 2003 season, he led the Jaguars to a third-place finish in the Southwestern Athletic Conference and a 6-7 overall record.

During the 2002 season, Naraine helped the Chanticleers to their first winning season in school history and helped bring in a recruiting class that would be part of a Big South regular season championship in 2003.
Naraine brings 19 years of coaching experience to the Lady Chants, coaching at the high school, collegiate and international levels. He spent four years as the head coach of Coker College’s women’s soccer program before his first stint at Coastal.

Naraine is a native of Guyana, South America, and grew up in London, England. He lived in England for 10 years before moving to the United States at the age of 16. In America, Naraine played soccer at Theodore Roosevelt High in Washington, D.C. He was team captain of the 1980 State Championship team and was selected the Washington Post’s "Player of the Year."

Naraine played collegiate soccer for nationally-ranked North Carolina Wesleyan College, helping lead the program to the NCAA Division III National Tournament in 1984. Naraine was the team captain and selected to the All-South Region teams in 1983 and 1984. His playing career ended in 1984 due to a knee injury, but he remained at NC Wesleyan as an assistant coach of the men’s and women’s programs during the 1985 and 1986 seasons.

Prior to accepting the position at Coker in 1998, Naraine spent eight years at Beaufort Academy in Beaufort, S.C., where he served as Athletic Director and Head Coach of the boys’ and girls’ soccer programs. His teams won eight state championships and he was tabbed South Carolina’s Coach of the Year eight consecutive seasons.

Naraine is a staff member of the men’s and women’s Guyana National Teams that compete in the CONCACAF region. In 1999, Naraine was chosen to the coaching staff of Guyana’s Men’s Olympic Soccer Team. He also is a state coach for the South Carolina Girl’s Soccer Olympic Development Program. Naraine holds a FIFA Olympic License along with his NSCAA National Coaching License.

Naraine and his wife, Nalini, also a Guyana native, were married in 1995 in Guyana. They have a four-year old daughter, Nikki.

From GoCCUsports

Luscious mangos

2006-01-23T22:18:00.000-06:00

Dr. Betty Kissoon a native of Georgetown, Guyana and retired Toronto physician who has written a string of cookbooks focussing on Caribbean cuisine, says that immigration from mango-growing countries has made the fruit more popular and accessible.

Once considered an ethnic food, the tropical mango is now mainstream and the luscious fruit is available to Canadians almost year-around. "We assume that people from India (where mangos originated), Mexico or Latin America are the biggest consumers but it has become a fresh fruit that is extremely popular in its own right," says Karen Caplan, president of Frieda's specialty produce in Los Angeles, which ships mangos to Canada from a number of countries.

Dr. Betty Kissoon agrees. The retired Toronto physician who has written a string of cookbooks focussing on Caribbean cuisine, says that immigration from mango-growing countries has made the fruit more popular and accessible. "I use mangos a lot in my cooking," says the native of Georgetown, Guyana.

In particular, Kissoon likes to buy the small green mangos for pickle or chutney. But she also experiments with the yellow and red varieties in everything from desserts to cocktails to baked products.

Mangos were cultivated for over 4,000 years in India, spreading to south China, the Philippines, South America and the Caribbean. Mango trees are evergreens that will grow to more than 6 metres tall and will fruit four to six years after planting.

There are 1,000 varieties of mangos throughout the world. And beyond being delicious and rich in vitamins, minerals and antioxidants, mangos contain an enzyme to soothe stomach ailments. A 105 g (31/2 oz) serving of sliced fresh mango contains just 66 calories, almost no fat and is a rich source of vitamin A, potassium, vitamin C and fibre.

Caplan points out that with fruits like mangos, "you don't have to use a lot of them" to give a dish a lift. And, she adds, the time to make chutneys and salsas is when mangos are selling for 3 for $2. Some of the more popular varieties found in supermarkets and fresh produce shops are the Kent, Tommy Atkins, Haden, Ataulfo and Keitt. The first three are large ovals with either greenish-yellow, red or orange skins and contain little or no fibre. All have golden sweet flesh.

The Ataulfo is a small flat, oblong shape greenish yellow to deep golden when ripe. It is free of fibre and is very sweet and rich in flavour.

The Keitt, an Indian strain, is a large ovate tapering with slight nose-like protuberance above it's tip. A late fruiting mango, it is often available in winter.

The easiest way to serve a fresh mango is to slice off the sides as close to the large pit as possible. Using a sharp pointed knife, score the inside of the flesh in a crisscross pattern. Turn the whole segment inside out and you are left with small cubes of mango looking like a hedgehog and sticking up from the skin which can be chewed off. The middle section containing the pit can be peeled and sliced off.

In Kissoon's most recent cookbook Caribbean Desserts (Centax), she has created nearly two dozen drinks and sweet treats using mangos. Caplan says you can always tell when a particular fruit takes off and gains wide acceptance.

"Whenever a fruit flavour becomes popular, other sources and suppliers of product extensions, such as fruit juices, syrups and bottled beverages, jam and salsas, really help to stimulate the purchase of fresh fruits as well," she says.

From The Canadian Press

Store's like your livingroom

2006-01-23T21:56:00.000-06:00

"I grew up in Guyana and didn't need that to make me feel good about who I was. Most of the people around me looked like me. But for children growing up in a society where they're not the majority, they need positive images of who they are. It helps with self-esteem and self-confidence. If you don't see yourself represented in books, then you sometimes become invisible."

When you walk into Burke's Books and Picture Framing store on St. Clair Avenue West, the place feels instantly familiar -- even if it's the first time you've ever been in the shop.

There's something about the haphazard way the bookshelves are lined, the casual way the furniture is laid out and the sound of sweet gospel music playing in the background that makes you feel like you're in someone's livingroom, not a bookstore.

It isn't until you get to the back of the store that you're reminded you're in a place of business. That's where Rita Burke and her husband, Sam, can often be found framing pictures in their workshop.

"The first customer we ever had wanted three pieces framed," Sam recalled. "I remember it like it was yesterday."

"Yesterday" was 10 years ago. That's when Rita and her husband decided to quit their day jobs and open a bookstore. "My mother thought I was nuts," Rita said. "You know how parents have a certain vision for their children? Running a bookstore wasn't one my mom had in mind for her daughter."

A lot of Rita's friends also questioned her sanity. Rita was a respected teacher at Sir Sandford Fleming College in Peterborough when she decided to join her husband and open Burke's.

'Time for a change'

"I was enjoying what I was doing, but somehow I felt in my system and in my bones it was time for a change," Rita said. "It was time to try something different."

The Burkes felt there was a need to have more information available about, by and for people of African descent.

"We wanted those books to be available," Rita said. "We wanted people to walk into a central place and see these things, especially children -- picture books with people that looked like them and their parents. We thought that would be wonderful.

"I grew up in Guyana and didn't need that to make me feel good about who I was. Most of the people around me looked like me. But for children growing up in a society where they're not the majority, they need positive images of who they are. It helps with self-esteem and self-confidence. If you don't see yourself represented in books, then you sometimes become invisible."

It wasn't easy in the beginning for the Burkes. They had to learn about the business of books -- selecting the right titles and suppliers, etc. And they had to convince customers of the importance of supporting the bookstore.

"The black community is a very proud community and a very strong community," Rita said. "And they're committed to development. We wanted to be part of that development."

The Burkes got their wish. The bookstore became a gathering place. "People would come in and ask if we knew a plumber," Rita said. Then someone else would ask if we knew a social worker. We were like this bookstore/community centre."

"Many of the people who would come in and ask those questions would then stop by and have a cup of tea and chat. They were no longer customers. They became family."

And it's the family atmosphere at Burke's bookstore that has kept them in business for the past 10 years. Rita said the only regret she has about their decision to open the store was that they didn't do it sooner.

"I like selecting books and putting on events and telling people about Canadian authors who write really well. People like Mairuth Sarsfield and Horane Smith. I also love the fact that we're trying to do something good for the community."

From The Toronto Sun

Growing food for the soul

2006-01-23T17:54:00.000-06:00

After coming to Canada from Guyana in 1978, Anan Lololi noticed how disconnected many people in the city were from the land.

One of Anan Lololi's fondest memories, as a young boy growing up in Guyana, is of climbing mango trees.

"I loved picking the mango fresh off the tree and biting into it," says Lololi. "There's a holistic experience to picking a fruit and eating it. It's a way to get connected to the country."

Lololi feels it's that connection to the land that makes people respect the environment and also leads them to live healthier lives. After coming to Canada in 1978, Lololi noticed how disconnected many people in the city were from the land.

"Toronto is a big city and you don't see much green space here," says Lololi. "To get that, people have to go to the suburbs or head off to their cottages, so it's hard for people in the city to have a relationship with the environment."

Lololi felt that the best way to give people that experience, especially those who live in low-income areas, was to show them the value of urban agriculture. So three years ago he started a community garden at the side of the Lawrence Heights Community Centre.

"The first year we didn't have a great harvest," says Lololi. "People needed to be educated about the whole process of managing gardens and growing organically."

There were other hurdles to face as well.

"The demand for urban agriculture was greater than we expected. We needed more space to plant. We had to establish a dialogue with the city and apartment building superintendents so we could get permission to use their land. It wasn't easy in the beginning, but things have worked out."

Through Lololi's organization, the Afri-Can Food Basket, they were able to secure more garden space.

They now have community gardens at Jane and Finch, Lawrence Heights, Jane and Wilson and Islington and Albion.

The gardens have been so successful that last year, the Afri-Can Food Basket was able to put on the Toronto Urban Harvest Festival. The festival was their way of showing the community how much food can be harvested through urban agriculture. It was also an opportunity to educate people about the benefits of growing their own food.

"Community gardening is more than just growing food," says Lololi. "It can also help supplement the income of low-income families. Tending the garden is also a good way to relieve stress. Plus, families usually garden together, so the children will get a good opportunity to see a seed planted, a tree grow and then get to pick the fruit from that tree. These are magical things to children."

Urban agriculture isn't a new phenomenon in Toronto. Lololi says there are over 100 community gardens in the city, not to mention the thousands of people who grow food in their backyards, on their balconies or on rooftops. But he felt it was important to get these gardens in neighbourhoods like Jane- Finch and Lawrence Heights.

"I come from a tradition where food is respected," says Lololi. "When you plant something, watch it grow and see how it can sustain you, you begin to have a different appreciation for food. I think young people in our community have lost that appreciation and respect for food. Once you have it, you start to eat better, live better and treat the environment better."

Getting young people involved in urban agriculture is something Lololi wants to focus on over the next few years.

From The Toronto Sun

Wild game becomes popular

2006-01-23T16:52:00.000-06:00

Romy Prasad, 39, born in Guyana and trained in Stratford, Ont., and Paris, says the public is becoming more aware of wild game and its nutritional benefits.

Whenever Romy Prasad, executive chef of CinCin an upscale Mediterranean restaurant in the heart of the Vancover, features fresh game such as Arctic muskox, caribou or buffalo on a menu, "it always sells out."

Prasad, 39, born in Guyana and trained in Stratford, Ont., and Paris, says the public is becoming more aware of wild game and its nutritional benefits. The meat is leaner and healthier, free of chemicals such as growth hormones or antibiotics and there is no fear of mad cow disease.

Prasad, who has worked as chef at Michelin-starred restaurants in France, Spain and Italy and has taught at the Stratford Chef School, says at CinCin, two of the most popular game meats are buffalo and Arctic muskox.

"Buffalo is going to hold its own for a long time because it is familiar to people," he explains. "And the flavour is amazing and it cooks well and easily." Anytime he cooks Arctic muskox, Prasad says, "we are bound to sell it out."

The cull from the hunt of muskox, which is conducted by the Inuit of Banks Island in the Beaufort Sea, is supervised by an Agriculture Canada inspection team as well as the Canadian Inspection Agency during processing, he says. Prasad adds that game like muskox and organically grown farm raised meats are "very expensive." "We are not talking traditional poultry or animals here," he says.

Other wild game served at CinCin include quail which Prasad grills for salads or for main courses he will brush them with a glaze so they get "very crackling." The restaurant's wood fire oven, grill and spit are ideal for cooking game, Prasad says. " And if there are tougher cuts of larger game meat we will do the old style slow cooking -- sometimes overnight."

For bigger more tender cuts, Prasad turns them for three hours on a spit. "Nothing has really changed in cooking game," he says. "Accompaniments are still very rich sauces, reductions, root vegetables, wild mushrooms, dried fruits, mashed potatoes, roasted onions and shallots -- true winter fare."

From The Canadian Press

The Guyana Diaspora

2006-01-23T15:11:00.000-06:00

89 percent of Guyana 's graduate population live and work in the 30 relatively rich countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) -"Fruit that falls far from the tree", Economist, 03 November 2005

It is estimated that there are as many Guyanese living overseas as they are in Guyana.

They are spread out far and wide to almost every country on the planet.

This blog was created to chronicle the news and and stories of the Diaspora.