FREE
Your Passport to the Caribbean American Community
12
10
Diwali is the Hindu Festival of Lights. It is the most important festival of the year based on the Hindu calendar and celebrates the triumph of Light over darkness, knowledge over ignorance and good over evil. It is celebrated on the night of the new moon in the Kartik month of the Hindu calendar. Diwali is derived from the Sanskrit word dipavali which means row of lights. And one of the most delightful aspects of this festival in Guyana is driving around at night to see the beautiful lines of diyas (little clay pots with ghee and wicks) decorating the hindu homes and driveways. For Hindus in Guyana, Diwali celebrates the return home to Ayodhya of Lord Rama and his wife Sita from 14 years of exile. The people of Ayodhya joyfully lit the way through the forests with diyas to help them find their way. Since the exile was caused by Lord Ram’s stepmother’s evil plotting to put her son on the throne, the festival celebrates good overcoming evil and bringing joy and hope back to the kingdom. The festival is also a celebration of the birth month of the Goddess of wealth, prosperity and light, Mother Latchmie. Since Diwali generally coincided with the last harvest of the year, agrarian society was concerned with a bountiful harvest to provide for their needs, and would pray to Mother Latchmie to ensure this. Many business people, see Diwali as the beginning of their financial new year, and therefore Diwali is also celebrated by many as welcoming the New Year sharing sweets. For Guyanese, this is one of our national holidays. The day begins with a thorough cleaning of the house. A rangoli is made at the entrance of the home to welcome Mother Latchmie into the home..... cont'd on page 17
Oct/Nov 2021
Our Colin Powell
Colin Powell, has died. The retired four-star general and former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who served four presidents made his reputation as a man of honor distant from the political fray. He was a US war hero and the first Black secretary of state. Colin Luther Powell was born in the Harlem neighborhood of New York, New York, on April 5, 1937. His parents were immigrants from Jamaica. He spent most of his childhood in the South Bronx neighborhood of New York City, which was then regarded as a step up from Harlem. The neighborhood included white, African American, and Puerto Rican residents. Powell has said that he never thought of himself as a "minority" while a child. Caribbean people have always been proud of Colin Powell and many nurtured the hope that he would have run for President but he chose not to take that step and continued, in spite of divisive politics to stand
out as a statesman. Powell whose family was vaccinated has died from complications from Covid-19. He was 84 and had been double vaccinated. Right-wing pundits are using Powell’s vaccination status to question the effectiveness of vaccines and rail against mandates. However he was being treated for prostate cancer, and had suffered from multiple myeloma, a blood cancer that weakens your immune system. So Powell, even while vaccinated, was about as vulnerable as they come to infection. The vaccines are not perfect— particularly at preventing infection. Breakthrough infections, and even hospitalization and deaths, among vaccinated people are real. But, for people without confounding risk factors for COVID-19, the vaccines remain effective against the most serious outcomes of the disease. That is, vaccinated people who are in good health, and do not have chronic conditions, are very, very safe from COVID-19....Cont'd on page 12
