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ix o’clock in the morning and the dawning of a new day. The sun’s rays like the warmth of a smile, let the celebration of life continue. The sounds of crowing roosters, twittering birds, a donkey’s bray way down the street, and the awaking aroma of breakfast wafting in the air was morning in the countryBy Maureen Rampertab side.

I was standing at the gate of my grandmother’s garden, the grass still wet from the early morning’s dew, my bare feet feeling cool to the touch. It is, my grandmother had said, a heavenly gift, the dew; and drinking a few drops in the morning was good for the body. I wasn’t sure about that, and come to think of it, I wasn’t sure of many things she said or believed, but I always went along with her stories, real or superstitious for she was an old woman, wise to the world.

I knew when I was old enough and more learned I would be able to separate the true from the make–believe. I picked a leaf from the hibiscus plant and drank the few glistening dew drops, letting my heart believe this was true. She lifted her head and saw me: “Aarti,yuh here already, come? Chile.”

She was standing between the rows of tomato plants, carefully harvesting her crop. It was why I sometimes come early, to help her, before I go to school, for she had to walk half of a mile to the local market to sell her produce. She was a hard working woman for all the twelve years of my life I knew her; jolly, cheerful and a little cranky.

Her brown eyes with flecks of green always seemed to have a smile, and she eluded a grandmotherly charm that seemed to pull me like a magnet. I don’t know, but there seemed to be something very special about her that I wasn’t sure of, a kind of power she probably inherited that came from the gods. She had a great passion for gardening, it was her love, her life, and though her children didn’t share her passion and my brothers and cousins only came by for the fruits, I somehow bonded with her.

I loved to listen to the stories of the Mahabarat, of plantation life, the little she knew of her mother’s life in India, mysteries and superstitions of the British and Dutch. I guess maybe it was because I loved to read and had a very curious mind and even though my brothers would make fun of her tales, I always listened fascinated, for in between were precious words that gave life its value and real meaning, words that came from a generation older than her.

She sang snatches of Bhajans as she worked and at the sound of the sugar estate whistle, she packed my basket with celery, thyme and tomatoes for my mother, and said, “Go now chile, is time fuh school.” As I made to leave, she called me back and put a small leaf in my hand, saying “Is a tulsie leaf, a little blessing fuhyuh as yuh study today.”

I sat in class wondering about the tulsie leaf, what kind of blessing can it bestow on me, for today was a big math test. I really

was not good at the subject and I simply did not like it. But I had to somehow conquer the world of Mathematics, and totally forgot about the tulsie leaf in my hand as I worked. I wasn’t quite sure how it happened, but I scored a B+ in the test, something I never did, and I seriously opened my heart to the fact that the tulsie plant had magical power.

“All it tek,”my grandmother said, “is ah little belief.” I smiled and hugged her, the dear old woman, strong and wise, a gem of the past that helps light the road of the future for the young who cared to listen, and the crankiness that always brought laughter.

On my thirteenth birthday, she brought for me a nicely wrapped present and my second brother whispered, mischievously,” What she bring dis time, de skeleton of a cat?”

“Stop it,”I said, slightly annoyed. The last birthday she had brought for me a few books that had seen better days, from a box under her bed, the skeleton of a little lizard in one of them and a dead spider. Those books of poems were of great value, my teacher had

Chronicle Pepperpot February 16, 2014

said, written by old Indian poets long dead. I opened my present and there, in a clay pot, was a little tulsie tree. The boys tried not to laugh, but laugh they did and she said something to them in Hindi that they didn’t understand, and I was quite sure it was not something nice. I thanked her with an affectionate kiss, and together we planted my little tulsie tree in my garden.

THE LITTLE TULSIE TREE Time went on, and I developed into a young woman of virtue and dignity with deep belief, as I watered the tulsie tree every morning as the sun rose and say my prayers. I prayed for all those close to me and for those who needed it and today I prayed for my friend, Damien, the pastor’s son, who was very ill, with a heart problem.

Some days I read to him from the old book of poems and he would touch my hand and smile weakly, and one day he said, “Aarthi you are a really good friend, and though we have different beliefs, still pray for me.” I looked at his mother standing by his side and she smiled at me, tears in her eyes.

I lent him a book of poems with a tulsie leaf between the pages, the morning he left for surgery. A few weeks later, as I stepped into my garden, early the morning, he was standing by the gate, a big smile on his face, to return my book. My heart exulted for him, for prayers, for belief and for that wonderful old woman, my grandmother, who taught me so much.

One morning, I did not see her in her garden and she did not answer when I called.

It was with deep sadness in my heart when I touched her almost cold hand and saw the light in her eyes slowly going out. She held my hand and whispered my name and I felt that little sensation of something strong and pure entering my being as life left her body. The sun didn’t shine for me that morning, nor did I hear the birds singing. And as her pyre was lit, my tears flowed for a loved one now gone, sad that I will see her no more, happy for the time I spent with her, all I learnt that enriched my mind, blessed for the touch of power she imparted to me, and the one thing I will cherish in her name, the special gift of my little tulsie tree.

Chronicle Pepperpot February 16, 2014

III

By Petamber Persaud

‘Redemption Song’- Part 1 (Extract of a conversation with Ras Leon Saul and I-Mykal, Georgetown, Guyana, 2013)

I-Mykal

Ras Saul is a cultural activist, playwright and television presenter; I-Mykal is a musician.)

PP: Bob Marley is alive....

I-Mykal & Ras Leon Saul (in chorus): Jah Rastafari ...

PP: It is said that he died on May 11, 1981...

I-Mykal & Ras Leon Saul (in chorus): Bob lives...

PP: He was born on February 8, 1945, and it is said that he died on May 11, 1981, but many of us know that he lives in the minds and hearts of the people in Guyana and in the Caribbean, and in the minds and hearts of people all over the world.

The influence of his music is extensive and the impact is immeasurable because of how he tackled issues of redemption and repatriation. Marley is known as the ambassador of Reggae and Rastafari, taking the music and message to a worldwide audience.

How was he able to transcend boundaries?

Bob Marley

nous, one line said so much..

PP: ‘Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds!’ (to be continued)

I-Mykal: Through the powers of music transforming people.

When he speaks of people, he never meant one type of people, he meant all people who are oppressed in one way or the other. His love for music was great, and it was this love that connected to the people – you may not like what he says, but it is the reality; you may not accept his message because it may be offensive to you, but fact is fact.

Responses to this author telephone (592) 226-0065 or email: oraltradition2002@yahoo.com What’s happening!

Coming soon The first reprint of ‘An Introduction to Guyanese Literature’, will be available from the author at the above contacts, Austin’s Book Service (telephone # 226-7350) and at the National Library (telephone #226-2690).

PP: It is said that you cannot keep a good man down, you can’t keep a good artiste down.

Ras Saul: As an extension to answering that question [how was he able to reach a worldwide audience], I would want to say, apart from destiny and a divine plan for Bob, it had also to do with preparation on Bob’s part. Because if he had not prepared himself to be excellent; if he had not prepared himself for excellence in his art form-he would not have gotten the opportunity when it presented itself. For example, when he went to England and met Chris Blackwell of Island Records, that connection clicked. The fact that he was ready and a system was in place to produce and distribute the music.

One level was divine, the other was strictly commercial, and those things helped Bob greatly to succeed.

PP: I’d like us to focus for a while on something you [Ras Saul] said when we fail to prepare, we also fail to grab the opportunity when it comes. We the artists, the artistes, the songwriters, the poets, ...we complain all the time over the absence of opportunities, but we fail to prepare ourselves to take advantage of the opportunity when it comes.

I-Mykal: I’d want to put it a different way - preparation does not always meet opportunity. What I mean is that there were big singers in Jamaica at the time like Peter Tosh, Bunny Wailer, Jimmy Cliff and others but their approach to the issues was different, so they never really exploded like Bob. We need to look at it this way that Bob’s purpose was to break through, and the time was ripe. The oppressive nature of the times gave Bob the breakthrough. There was self-conviction, so he was singing for a cause despite the cost and consequence. That is what made Bob stand out.

PP: What influenced Bob’s message?

Ras Saul: That influence came from within himself, a deep spirituality; not siding with white, not siding with black [referring to his black/white heritage] but siding with the spiritual.

Timing is important. Bob developed through the years, but for me he took off about the time when His Imperial Majesty, Emperor

Ras Saul Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, mystic-departed this life-and a spirit went into Bob ...soon after, he sang ‘Jah Lives’ and that to me was when: boom, he took off. He was doing music with a purpose, it was music to move a people forward....

I-Mykal: Positive...we must not forget there were people in Jamaica, like Marcus Garvey and Leonard Howell, who were instrumental in motivating Bob mentally. There were people on the forefront trying to make a difference... and Bob was moved...

PP: Literally moved by what was happening in Trench Town, celebrating the situation in the song ‘Trenchtown.’ You [I-Mykal] mentioned Marcus Garvey and I know that Garvey did not only talk the talk, he walked the talk by creating businesses to raise consciousness and the standard of living of his people.

Ras Saul: Marcus is seen as John the Baptist to Bob Marley.

But back to his roots and his preparation – coming out of Nine Mile, Saint Ann Parish, growing up in the hills within nature helped to balance him when he went into the ghetto, Trench Town, Kingston, watching the degradation, deprivation and discrimination and the other injustices. All those things gave him a different outlook to life, telling him that he had to be working and singing on behalf of the people, to raise their consciousness.

I-Mykal: Bob took up their cause, putting it in an art form....

Ras Saul: He used the vehicle to touch the masses – music, a universal language. Bob was a poet – he was sparse and yet volumi-

IV

Selected Poetry 1999-2010 of Maggie Harris INTRODUCTION

By LYNNE MACEDO University of Warwick

T

neatly slot into a pre-defined area of belonging, particularly for the "mixrace/ whiteface gold hair girl"6 - is one that Harris revisits in several other poems, most notably in the aptly titled 'For all the seeds planted by men in foreign soils and left to harvest themselves'. "Lord Jesus, since mih Daddy gone/ It seem that Ma don't want we/...She say she cyant stand blue eye/ Is like he lef he ghost behind/...No-one want white man pickney" .7 This dialogue about the shifting nature of identity is by no means confined just to those poems that are specifically located within a Guyanese context. In 'Solomon's Wisdom' Harris provides the witty but poignant perspective of a Caribbean migrant to Britain, a 'confuse woman' who worries about her future in 'the motherland': "You see Solomon, mih old grandad he own plantation/ Mih old granma she work plantation/...So I thinking hard about repatriation

he writer, performer and tutor Maggie Harris was born in New Amsterdam, Guyana in 1954 and attended Berbice High School. In 1971 she moved to the UK and, as a mature student, studied at the University of Kent where she achieved both a BA Honours in African/Caribbean Studies and a Masters Degree in Post-Colonial Studies. She has published five collections of poetry to date - Foreday Morning (1999), Limbolands (2000), Dancing with Words (2001), From Berbice to Broadstairs (2006) and After a Visit to a Botanical Garden (2010), and also written a memoir entitled Kiskadee Girl (2011).

Harris has received numerous awards for her work, including Kent's Outstanding Adult Learner in 1994, a Leverhulme scholarship to research performance poetry in Barbados in 1999, awards from Meridian TV, the Arts Council New Writing, the T.S. Eliot Student Prize from Kent University, and Kingston University Life Writing. In addition, her Limbolands collection won the Guyana Prize for Literature in 2000.

Harris also created the first live literature festival in East Kent - Inscribing The Island - was a founding member of the 'Write Women' group, has performed her work in Europe and the Caribbean, and has been widely anthologised.

Much of Harris's work is concerned with what a reviewer of Limbolands aptly described as 'a collision of cultures'', and this desire to explore and articulate cultural and racial hybridity is evident throughout the poems which form this new volume.

Representing a cross-section of her writing from the past eleven years, these poems illustrate the Maggie Harris myriad ways in which her skilful use of language both Creole and Standard English - is employed to wondering/ Which pieca me goexplore a range of issues such as motherhood/motherland; identity; ing to go through which gate?" 8 exile and alienation; and to (re)imagine events from the Caribbean's Many of the issues which inform turbulent past. It would be hard to underestimate the importance of ideas about racial and cultural re/memory' for Harris, who clearly draws upon the diversity of her difference are given further conGuyanese background as a major source of nourishment for both her sideration in 'Alien In-Transit creative imagination and the hybrid, trans-cultural sense of self that (or Travelling on a Guyanese informs her poetry. As she writes: "I come from borrowed names, Passport) . Even the typography given names, names of dispossession/ of this poem - specifically the di...I come from skin and bone, Portuguese skin, African bones/ minishment of 'I' to T - is uti-lised buried in forgotten oceans"3 , and it is this ability to straddle differto draw the reader's attention to ent worlds and mindsets that makes her poetic voice so distinctive. the all-pervading sense of isolation By opening this new collection with a poem entitled 'Origins', that the narrator experiences in an Harris immediately draws our attention to the centrality of this airport interrogation about their concept to her body of writing. Some of the most powerful images right of entry: "that I should be about ancestry and belonging are evoked in those poems which exso audacious as to claim/ expect, plore the notion of what it means to be an individual of Caribbean believe/ a focused i, a real i, a origin, someone who must deal with all the cross-cultural; racial; and truthful i/ is challenged with sharp geographical collisions that such a heritage entails. "Trace me that rapier thrusts".9 line of ancestors on that shore/ Ibo, Hausa, a Madeiran fisherman Harris has continued to drawing his nets off a reef/ Waters that flow from Chechnya and the foreground the freedom of her Nile".4 In 'Mapping', for example, the child of a 'brown-eyed Mama poetic imagination to question the and grey-eyed Dada' struggles to find a sense of self from within that relevance of a fixed sense of self in indeterminate space of mixed racial heritage: "Dr. Ferdinand.../...slap works such as the title poem from me, lift me, cry me, write me, label me/ like a cocktail: 'Mixed'.../... her 2006 collection, From Berbice centred me neatly in limbo".' That notion of limbo - the inability to to Broadstairs. Once again faced

Chronicle Pepperpot February 16, 2014 with those seemingly endless questions about belonging - "'Come far?' The taxi driver asks"", she resists assimilation into any preconceived concept of identity: "'You're the only Caribbean I know' she says/ and my tongue rolls back in my throat/ 'Guyanese', I whisper, 'Guyanese'. /Guyana, not Ghana, South America, not Africa./ I am neither a small island girl nor am I a region."" That one word 'Guyanese' may encompass all aspects of the heritage from which Harris draws her strength and inspiration, but clearly the clash between a Caribbean imagination and an English context is one that resists easy resolution within the confines of her poetry.

Harris has lived in the UK for more than forty years, yet her poems constantly remind us that memories of a Caribbean past not only shape her own sense of identity but also inform the ways in which she relates to contemporary Britain. In 'Palm Houses', a visit to a seemingly ordinary Botanical Gardens in Wales quickly alters into something far more evocative, as the narrator becomes transfigured into and through the Caribbean-like flora which it contains: "I enter, a native daughter, barefoot/ mouth open like a bromeliad/ the hair on my arms rising/ like cactus spines."12 Another of her poems which is tellingly entitled 'On the Limbo Trail, 2', uses the unlikely medium of a train journey to further explore the transformative quality of memory. Beginning with a Caribbean setting of the late 1950s, the poem gradually shifts both time and location to England fifty years later, yet all through what ostensibly appears to be a single journey: "And so we go, shunted away on runners taking us/ From here to there, and in our ears still clickety clack/ And in our noses steam/ And in our heads dream..."" This blurring of boundaries between the physical journey and that of the path to self-aware-ness, of what it really means to have taken the journey from Guyana to Britain, are all encompassed in those dramatically shifting images which, despite everything, cannot stifle the creative imagination: "You could still dream though; stare out the window."14 The exploration of the ambiguities inherent in her position as a migrant writer may be a major theme in her writing, but it is only one of several which thread through Harris's poetic output. Remembering her own past in Guyana is closely allied to re/membering

Chronicle Pepperpot February 16, 2014

V

Selected Poetry 1999-2010 ...

her country's past, with the intermingling of diverse races and cultures through a history shaped by colonisation, slavery and indentureship. In 'I, Breadfruit', for example, she takes the bold step of writing from the perspective of the vegetable itself, which was first taken to Jamaica on The Bounty as a food source for the African slaves. "I, Breadfruit, am Traveller/ Eyes bright and Mouth shut/ Am Survivor extra-ordinate/ Mister Fletcher, Captaine Bligh/ You have writye me into Historye Booker's It is not just the subject matter but also the very specific type of language used a kind of broken, 18th century form of English - that makes this particular poem so memorable, providing the reader with a highly creative glimpse into a little-known aspect of the region's history.

The backdrop of slavery provides the context for several other poems in this collection such as 'Onwards', 'In the Wake of the Santa Maria' and 'Free Coloured, 1810'. The latter work celebrates the onset of freedom that has just been granted to a mixed-race woman - part of an ever- growing element of Caribbean society of that time due to widespread (and largely unsolicited) sexual liaisons between white 'Masters' and their black, female slaves. "My honourable father he/ set me at table wait/ he know full well I was his seed/...He not to blame for he had need/ to keep his name from stain/...Sweet Liberty! That pen and word should be/ so glory be and sun no longer own my face!" Those first, free steps towards a new world order" in which 'pen and word' can finally give voice to the dispossessed, emphasises Harris's belief in the immense power of language, and its unique ability to link the present to previously untold stories from its vanished past.

The strong ties which bind Harris to the past, present and future of the land of her birth - her motherland - are mirrored in their intensity with those poems which deal with family relationships, particularly those between daughters, mothers and grandmothers. As Dieffenthaller has commented: "A central concern...lin Harris's poetry] is a meditation on motherhood and its post West-Indian condition...

Harris's poetry [itself] becomes a kind of motherhood."18 Poems such as 'In my Mother's house there are Many Mansions', 'Warrior', and 'I am a Guyana Woman' openly celebrate the affection between (grand) mother and child whilst, at the same time, highlighting the generational shifts in ways of dealing with an ever-evolving world: "How were you to know that times would change/...That the time for swords, too, would pass/ ...again we need/ the time for words, for praise-songs to the elders/ for memories to weave within the skins of our children."" It is interesting to note that as in 'Free Coloured, 1810', the primacy of language - 'the time for words' - is singled out as the most important gift that a child can inherit from its ancestors.

Not all the relationships that Harris writes about are, however, so straightforward and in 'Fifteen', 'Blame', 'Words Across the Water' and 'Grandmothers of the Morning' she articulates more anxieties about the nature of the maternal bond. "So what can I tell you/ that you don't already/ know/ ...You walk your own road; I'm the mother dragon breathing fire from the hill"." As a migrant mother who lives in England she worries, with just cause, that her daughters will be unable to continue that matrilineal link to the (mother)land of her own birth: "of course i am to blame/ how can one chant praise-songs to fields and plains/ your children never claimed/ ...so if my children dance to other drums/ and speak in different tongues/ whose fault is it but mine?"21 Harris's poems acknowledge that there are no easy answers to such musings, yet the repetition of the line "My daughters walk the deserts of unknowing"22 provides us with an apt and poignant refrain.

It is apparent that the character of the migrant experience is viewed by Harris as but another level in a complex relationship with the mother/land, one which constantly reconfigures the links between her (female) narrative voices to multiple yet receding points of connection with their Caribbean heritage. It also seems likely that Harris will carry on exploring such matters with an increasingly confident voice, and continue to articulate a desire for 'home that is forever filtered through a lens of distance. As Barbara Dordi has so aptly observed: "...Maggie Harris may have lost her accent but Guyana has her firmly in its grip still...".23 Notes: 1Dieffenthaller, Ian: 'Review of Limbolands' p.1, www.maggieharris.co.uk, accessed 26.7.11 2 Using the term as defined by Toni Morrison, and a central feature of her novel Beloved (1987).

3'I come from', p. 24.

'Origins', p. 15.

5 'Mapping', p. 25.

6 'The Limbo Walkers', p.35.

7 'For all the seeds planted by men in foreign soils and left to harvest themselves', p. 33.

'Solomon's Wisdom', p. 53.

'Alien In-Transit', p. 79.

1° 'From Berbice to Broadstairs', p. 85. " Ibid.

12 'Palm Houses, p. 90. "'On the Limbo Trail, 2', p. 92.

11 ibid.

15 'I, Breadfruit', p. 18.

16 'Free Coloured, 1810', p.21.

The trade in slaves was abolished by the British in 1807, although full freedom from slavery was not finally granted until 1838. " 'Review of Limbolands', p. 2 " 'Warrior', p.41.

2' 'Fifteen', p. 48.

21 'Blame', p. 52.

22 'Words Across the Water', p. 95.

23 Dordi, Barbara: 'Review of From Berbice to Broadstairs', p.52, www.maggieharris.co.uk, accessed 26.7.11

There are 62,000 miles of blood vessels in the human body – laid end to end they would circle the earth 2.5 times At over 2,000 kilometres long, The Great Barrier Reef is the largest living structure on Earth The risk of being struck by a falling meteorite for a human is one occurrence every 9,300 years A thimbleful of a neutron star would weigh over 100 million tons A typical hurricane produces the energy equivalent of 8,000 one-megaton bombs Blood sucking hookworms inhabit 700 million people worldwide.

The highest speed ever achieved on a bicycle is 166.94 mph, by Fred Rompelberg We can produce laser light a million times brighter than sunshine 65% of those with autism are left handed The combined length of the roots of a Finnish pine tree is over 30 miles The oceans contain enough salt to cover all the continents to a depth of nearly 500 feet.

The interstellar gas cloud Sagittarius B contains a billion, billion, billion litres of alcohol [J.Frater is planning to move there in the near future] Polar Bears can run at 25 miles an hour and jump over 6 feet in the air 60-65 million years ago dolphins and humans shared a common ancestor Polar Bears are nearly undetectable by infrared cameras, due to their transparent fur

VI

Chronicle Pepperpot February 16, 2014

(A look at some of the stories that made the news ‘back-in-the-day’ with CLIFFORD STANLEY)

TOP BUYS ON TIP TOP CARS (Guyana Graphic February 2, 1969)

Brand new Vauxhall Viva PZ 2873; Done only 45 miles only $4,150 to the first buyer; Singer Vogue- PZ 486 with stick shift-in showroom condition for only $4600.

Shining Honda Sports car PZ 165 ready for the highway at a real bargain price $3,975 Rush now to Auto Supplies Co. Agents for the cars of best value…TOYOTA Crown , Corona, Corolla and 800 sports . Arrange a test drive soon.

BLIND MAKING MATS FOR THE NEW AIRPORT (Guyana Graphic March 18, 1969)

The Guyana Institute for the Blind is appealing to the public for donations of old rope to help them complete the biggest order the Institute has ever had –one for 18 mats valued $725.

The order was placed by the Civil Aviation Department which wants the mats for use at the new Atkinson Airport terminal.

Nine have already been completed and at present six men are working on a giant one 30 feet by four feet which is being made from 810 yards of cord.

Among the people working on the order for the mats are Mr. Lawrence Gravesande who regained his sight after nine years of blindness following an operation performed by Dr. Ovid Johnson under the guindance of a British surgeon who visited Guyana in 1967.

Meanwhile members of the institute are also preparing to supply mops as part of a “Sell Local” campaign launched last Wednesday.

GIFT OF MARMITE TO THE HOSPITAL (Guyana Graphic February 5, 1969)

Mr. D. Walker and executive of Marmite UK Limited who arrived here recently will present a gift of marmite to the Georgetown Hospital this morning.

The gift comprising hundreds of pounds of marmite will be received by Mr. Chetram Singh Hospital Administrator.

Arrangements for the presentation were made the local agents Davson’s Agencies Limited.

POLICE STEP UP CAMPAIGN AGAINST RADIO THIEVES: (Guiana Graphic February 22, 1969)

The Police are alarmed over the spate of transistor radio thefts which have reached them they said yesterday.

And because of this, Criminal Investigation Department, Brickdam, have stepped up their campaign in an effort to reduce these offences.

Within the past week there have been reports of six such thefts throughout the city but good work by C.I.D . Detectives have led to the arrests of three people.

A Police Official said that a person carrying a transistor, is an easy target for thieves, because the radios are held carelessly in the hand.

The Police warned that owners of these sets ought to be more careful and don’t lose themselves in what they hear coming from the radios at this time because it is at this time that the snatchers strike.

The Police have asked the dealers of transistor sets to put on private marks on these gadgets so that it would be easier for them to solve these thefts.

GRAND SOUL STEW (Guyana Graphic February 1, 1969)

The League of Gentlemen invites you to Grand Soul Stew tomorrow from 2.30 p.m. at Profitt Place Plaisance.

Menu served up by the chief cook Rudy and the Roosters. ably assisted by the Emerald’s String Ork & the Cosmonauts String Ork. Admission $1.50 Russian Bear Rum: Guyana’s best in a bottle.

PATROL BOAT AT SPRINGLANDS (Guyana Graphic March 14, 1969)

The Police at Springlands have acquired a patrol boat which is already in operation on the Corentyne River According to a Police spokesman the “TAKUBA” which is under the command of Sergeant Godcfrey Ninvalle will stamp out illicit trading but will also minimise the chances of illegal entry into the country.

Clifford Stanley can be reached to discuss any of the foregoing articles at cliffantony@gmail.com or cell phone # 657 2043.

BIGAMY CHARGE-WIFE TESTIFIES (Guyana Graphic March 14, 1969)

Doreen Reid, a young woman yesterday testified at the enquiry into a charge of bigamy laid against her husband David Wilfred Reid of Lodge Housing Scheme.

The Police are alleging that Reid married Hazel Noble on September 7 last year during the lifetime of his wife Doreen, According to the charge Reid and Doreen were legally married at the church of Bethel Agricola East Bank Demerara on February 27, 1965.

He married Hazel on September 7 last at Smith Memorial Church.

THE END OF A KILLER’S REIGN OF TERROR (Guyana Graphic February 2, 1969)

A killer tiger which prowled the lower Demerara River ravaging livestock and virtually kept villagers imprisoned in their homes after dark was finally shot and killed by a brave farmer.

For one year the cunning 8-foot beast plagued families destroying an estimated 120 cows, ten sheep and two dogs at Springfield and Endeavor.

Men women children were forced to remain indoors after dark until Mr. Charles Gill a farmer in the village put an end to this infamous saga.

Recalling the incident, Mr. Gill told the Sunday Graphic:”It was a memorable night. The tiger had killed one my cows about 200 yards from my home and because I was occupied with other things I didn’t dispose of the carcass immediately.

“Four hours later I found it missing but I found a trail. I took a friend Anthony Yhap and we were armed with guns.”

“We soon saw the carcass covered with bushes. This meant that the beast would soon return to eat it. Then we climbed a tree and waited. About midnight the creature returned and I took careful aim and shot him. The villagers ran out and began to beat the beast with sticks.

But there is still some fear in the villages because according to reports, the female partner of the dead male is still lurking around.

Chronicle Pepperpot February 16, 2014

Rafferty’s appeal against Clarissa Riehl’s appointment dismissed

Appointment of a Hearing Officer is not a constitutional one-Appeal Court ruled THE decision of Hearing Officer, Mrs. Clarissa Reihl (Magistrate) whose cancellation order of 1988 against Neil Rafferty resulted in his filing a Constitutional Motion claiming that the Hearing Officer had not been validly appointed, and as such her appointment was unconstitutional and void.

Among other things, the appellant said that the appointment ought to have been made by the Judicial Service Commission under Article 199 (3) of the Constitution of Guyana, being an appointment to an office connected with the Courts of Guyana” or for which legal qualifications were required.

The Attorney-General was made the first respondent to the proceedings. The trial judge dismissed the motion and the appellant appealed to the Guyana Court of Appeal.

The Court of Appeal, in dismissing the appeal, held that (1) that although the Mining Act: Section 9 (a), in effect required any objection to jurisdiction to be raised at the hearing, such limitation on the grounds of appeal did not exclude the jurisdiction of the court in other proceedings.

(2) That since Mines Commission was not a department of the state, the State Liability and Proceedings Act did not require the Attorney-General to be a party to the proceedings; the Attorney-General, having struck out the Constitutional Motion, could not proceed against the second respondent alone because, in challenging the mining claims he could not be said to have been exercising an executive function of a public nature, nor could he be held responsible for any acts of the Geology and Mines Commission.

Neil Rafferty appealed to the Court of Appeal of Guyana (Civil Appeal 50 of 1992) against the decision of Justice Singh dismissing his application for constitutional redress. The

Attorney-General and Orlando Adams were the respondents to the appeal. The facts are set out in the judgment of the court delivered by Chancellor Kenneth George.

Reihl gave her decision. She upheld the challenge and, under Regulation 93, ordered that the appellant’s claims be cancelled.

Some three years later, on April 22, 1991, the appellant

Delivering the judgment of the court, the Chancellor said: “The appellant and one John Mendes were the joint holders of claims numbered 44/21/77 to 44/24/77 inclusive in the Cuyuni mining district.

“On February 6, 1986, the second respondent (Orlando Adams) challenged the continued validity of the claims under Regulation 29 of the Mining Regulations. His grounds of his challenge were: (1) That the claims had remained unworked for a period of one year from August 1984 to August 1985; and (2) the boundary marks of the claims were not erected and marked in accordance with the Mining Regulations.

The appellant rejected the challenge, and the resulting dispute between the parties eventually came in for hearing during March 1987 before Mrs. Reihl, who was then, and at all material times, a magistrate.

She had been appointed by the Commissioner of Geology and Mines by letter dated February 17, 1982 to be a Hearing Officer for all disputes arising under the Mining Regulations.

On April 29, 1988 Mrs.

signed a motion seeking (inter alia) a declaration that the decision of Mrs. Rehil was unconstitutional and void , in that the hearing over which she presided was not a tribunal established by law, as required by Article 144 (8) of the Constitution. He named the Attorney-General and the Challenger Orlando Adams as respondents.

In his affidavit in support of the motion, the appellant recited the fact of Mrs. Rheil’s hearing, went on to state that on the first day of that hearing, Mr. Brotherson ( counsel on his behalf as well as Mr. Gibson on behalf of Mendes) had challenged the validity of her appointment, to which she had responded that she had been appointed by the commissioner by letter.

The appellant added that on June 8, 1988 i. e. more than six weeks after the decision had been given, he had lodged an appeal .

This appeal had come up for hearing before Justice Claudette Singh, and the issue of the appointment of Mrs. Reihl was raised.

Evidence was received from

both Mrs. Reihl and Mr. Gibson, after which the judge concluded that from the records before her, the challenge to Mrs. Reihl’s appointment had not been raised at the trial.

Accordingly, she held that it could not later be raised on appeal.

The holding that the failure or omission to challenge the propriety of Mrs. Reihl’s appointment at the hearing of the dispute barred any such objection at the appeal stage may well have been based on the fact that, by virtue of

Section 73 of the Mining Act, the practice and procedure of the Summary Jurisdiction (Appeals) Act are made applicable to any appeal from the decision of a Hearing Officer.

Section 9 of the latter statute limits the grounds of appeal to those stated herein.

One of the stated grounds is that “the Magistrate’s Court had no jurisdiction in the matter” (Section 9 (a), but it is expressly provided that for any objection on that ground to succeed, it must have been taken at some time during the progress of the trial.

It would seem, however, that the circumscription of this ground of appeal is no bar to other proceedings, such as certiorari being instituted to challenge any fundamental deficiency in the court jurisdiction as being wholly outside its judicial province, or the validity of the appointment of the adjudicating functionary.

The trial judge dismissed the application as being misconceived and it is against that

VII

By George Barclay order that the appellant now appeals to this court.

After delving into several aspects of the case, the Chancellor pointed out that the appointment of a Hearing Officer is not a constitutional appointment, and added: “Therefore, having failed to establish any link between the appointment of Mrs. Reihl and a breach of his right to a fair trial by an independent tribunal, I hold that that not only the claim, but also the procedure used, is misconceived, and the appeal must be dismissed, with costs to the respondents to be taxed.”

VIII

Chronicle Pepperpot February 16, 2014

Using behaviour management techniques when attending to children

Barrel Of Apples

M

y older sister and brother cut me off if I don’t agree with them. Most of my life I’ve known this and kept my mouth shut and my opinions to myself.

Five years ago my sister cut me off because I told her I only had four days to get together during the holidays. So two years later she sends me a letter, expressing how jealous she is of me because I have a good job, happy family and a nice house. But she has all those things, too. I did not respond. It’s always something with her, and I’m tired of her head games.

My brother has always been a bachelor, going from one woman to the next. He prefers much younger women. Five years ago my son went to visit and my brother was mean to him, even cruel.

I did not confront him; I just didn’t put my son in that position again.

My brother travels abroad. His last girlfriend said he goes to prostitutes and brothels and forwarded emails and photos as proof. Again, I kept my mouth shut.

After he split with her, he decided not to get a place to live. He decided to travel to family members and friends’ houses, staying up to two months at a time. I call it his I’m-taking-advantageof-you tour.

He called a week before Christmas saying he was bringing his latest young girlfriend to my house. I told him no. He got irate and sent me a long email saying I’m a horrible person and he will never talk to me again.

I can live happily not being abused any longer, but because of what happened with my brother, our 79-year-old mother has little to do with me. It’s sad. At the same time I’m emotionally exhausted trying to keep peace in this dysfunctional family. Any suggestions?

KERRY

Kerry, we have one suggestion. Celebrate!

Your sister didn’t have anyone to abuse at the moment, and she missed abusing you. She was willing to say she was jealous of you even though you know she was not. She should have apologized to you, but you know she never will.

Fortunately, you said no. And your brother? He doesn’t belong in your home. Again, you said no.

In the real world, when a victim says no, the abuse continues. In the best of worlds, the victim says no and the abuse stops. In a perfect world, the victim says no and the abusers say, “I’m cutting you off.”

You are living in the perfect world.

The only problem is your mother, who plays minion to the other two. Don’t change what’s right to please her. It’s a small price to pay for sanity.

The apple is delicious, once you cut out the rotten spots.

WAYNE & TAMARA

**********************************************

Crying Over You

I

’ve been dating a wonderful girl. We never argue, we never fight. I could see her being the one. The only issue is compromise. I always end up doing whatever she wants just to stop her crying.

Example. For the last six months I talked about going to a particular restaurant on my birthday. Many times she joked we would only go there on my birthday. The day arrives, and she cried at the thought of going there.

It’s not a bad restaurant, but she doesn’t like their style of food and she’s a picky eater.

I want to make her happy, but for once I’d like to have something my way.

GLEN

Glen, you never fight, but she cries to get her way. That is her fight. She cries to end the argument.

Perhaps you think you don’t understand the hidden cause of her tears, but that isn’t it. She learned as a child to cry to get her way, and she’s been doing it ever since.

Tell her either the tantrums stop, or she needs to find another shoulder to cry on.

WAYNE & TAMARA

A female colleague of mine once told me that she literally hates to attend to children in her clinic. Although most children generally cooperate as dental patients, some display behaviour that presents obstacles to the safe and effective delivery of care. In these instances, the dentist can use behaviour management techniques so as to modify the child’s behaviour. There can also be pre-medication which basically tranquilises them or physical restraint by a close relative who the child knows well.

When using behaviour management techniques in paediatric (child) dentistry, it is critical that the child’s parents or guardians be educated as to the usefulness and appropriateness of the desired techniques. This is necessary for two reasons. First, it has been shown that parents who are informed and educated about behaviour management techniques are more positive and accepting of their use.

Second, the use of some of these methods may require consent by the parent.

Methods to accomplish control over children who do not cooperate with the dentist include, “tellshow-do,’ voice control, hand-over-mouth, physical restraint and drug induced management.

The “tell-showdo” technique is the foundation of all child management. It involves the dentist first describing to the child exactly what is going to be done, then showing the child what will be done, and finally, performing the procedures as previously discussed

and shown. It is important when using this technique to use the words for dental instruments and procedures that are suitable for the child’s age.

About 80 percent of all children above the age of three with normal intellectual and emotional development can be guided successfully through new procedures with this technique.

Voice control is usually described as the dentist assuming a more authoritative role when the child starts to display disruptive behaviour. It can also be described as the dentist constantly speaking to the child in a supportive manner when the latter displays appropriate behaviour. It is important when using voice control that the facial expression and demeanor of the dentist mirror the attitude he or she is attempting to convey. It is also important to note that the technique is most effective when inappropriate behaviour is full blown.

The hand-over-mouth technique is not commonly used in this country. The purpose of this technique, which calls for the dentist to place his hand over the mouth of a hysterically crying or screaming child, is to gain the attention of the child and establish communication.

Thus, the child can hear and begin to communicate with the dentist and learn the cooperative behaviour required for safe course of treatment. This technique must be linked with voice control, that is, a cessation of oppositional behaviour is immediately accompanied by removal of the dentist’s hand from the child’s mouth and the simultaneous giving of positive verbal reinforcement (praise).

Perhaps in Guyana, physical restraint is the most widely used method to ensure that an uncooperative child receives proper dental treatment. This may involve using bite block, pediwrap, papoose board or simply by having the parent or guardian confine the child’s head, hands and legs while the dentist executes a procedure.

This author only uses the latter method because it’s the least traumatic from a psychological point of view. It is often not advisable to restrain a child who is more than five years old. Mental retardation may be an exception.

The drug most noteworthy for pharmacologic management is nitrous oxide. There are many other sedatives that can be delivered orally or by injection. General anesthetic is also used in particular circumstances.

I, personally never would advise general anaesthetic for routine dental treatment and I only recommend pre-medication (4 milligrams of diazepam 2 hours before the child’s visit), if I consider the procedure to be relatively long and complex.

Chronicle Pepperpot February 16, 2014

IX

FOLKLORE

d i a R d a e D

“Is who disturbing we?”

“Who wake me after 300 years?”

“Who dare run pun me palace!”

“Who playingdeh mad tonite!”

Mo licks start up.

The three jokers find datJumbies block all the exits so they decide fo give back de gold.

By Neil Primus

When granny Dorothy died the entire village mourned. She was the oldest person in Bushy Dam. She was wise, respected and loved. Even the little children who traditionally kept away from very old folks were not shy around her. When she died there was sadness in the air.

The wake ran for weeks. Each night more and more people came. Food was cooked;coffee and tennis rolls/buns were shared.

Rum, gin, whisky and high wine were in abundance.

There were all sorts of people present. There was the woman from the spiritual church, the pastor, the priest, the Obea man and Reuben de ol thief. Everyone made a special effort to be civil to each other. At any other forum there would be fireworks.

Uncle Daniel was one year younger than granny and just as wise.

He loved to chat and would be on the lookout for anyone passing his ancient hut. He would call out to them and if they stopped they would be delayed by at least half an hour. Even then he would still

be chatting amiably as they hurried away.

Now he had a captive audience. He settled down and started to chat. Tonight he would entertain the younger folks with a story.

Guess what type?

“Welcome friend, family, relative, de living and de dead.Jumbie and Old Haigue welcome. Masacura Man anKamina welcome. Baccroan Bush Dai Dai welcome. Mermaid an Moon Gazer welcome.”

By now he had plenty of attention. The younger folks were drawing near and the old folks were straining their ears to hear what he was saying.

“A very long time ago a teenaged girl name Millicent died. She family bury her wid all she jewels. Yo see, Millie did love she gold.

Whenever her mother took them away as punishment the girl won’t eat until she get dem back. One time she big sister ask the mother to borrow a ring. The mother give her one from Millicent. Somehow she lost it. When Millie heard this she went berserk. She attacked her sister and won’t leave her alone until the ring was replaced. Nobody borrowed her gold jewelry after that.

People who attended de funeral suggested to the family that

they should remove the jewellery from the dead. They ignored these suggestions. Others who saw this were elated. Silent plans began to hatch for the gold. Mille was laid to rest.

A couple of nights after her burial three unfortunate thieves decided to raid the dead. They were going to collect a bounty of gold.

The trio worked hard to dig up the casket. When they had pulled it up to the surface, they pried it open with a crow bar and proceeded to remove the jewelry. When they hard remove all of it, they spilt it up and decided to replace the dead. What a nasty shock greeted them. The box was empty.

Looking around they saw angry Millie glaring murderously at them. Her hair stood on edge and her eyes were like sockets of fire in her head. In her hand was a stout piece of stick that they had used to do the exhuming.

“Give me back me jewels!”

Even though this shocked and frightened them, they had no intention of returning the treasure.

“If yo don’t give me me thing is me and allyo!”

Instead of complying they ran; big mistake. Licks like peas start raining pun dem.

Wax!Ply!Pow!Pax!Ow!Aah!Ouch!

Hands, feet, backs, bellies and bamsies got good licks. As lix get heavy they decide to scatter in different direction; an even bigger mistake. This last move caused them to run pon plenty people grave.

The bawling an screaming wake up nuff dead people that night.

Snatch!

The gold was back wid Millie Ply!Pax!Wax! Mo lix fodem

Ow! Blows in the unmentionables. They were begging and crying.

“Sarryfo we nah!”

“Sarryanyo all wake me an me friends up!”

“We natgon do it again.”

“Put me back now!” That’s was Millie with flashing eyes If yo see put back, full back and pad down, neat neat. By de time they done all the jumbiesgon back. The three limped out de burial ground because they were too beat up to run. Regretting they ever went in the first place, they headed for home. One of dem put he hand in one pocket and pull out something gold. With a scream he dropped it and de three thief men run fodey life. But was only he lighter.

Uncle Daniel paused and looked around. By now all the children had moved from the dark areas and were close to the light. They had not taken their eyes off of the old man. He smiled knowingly.

“Yall want hear another nice story?”

NO!!!

The story teller burst out laughing!

X

Dimitri Mendeleev B Dimitri Mendeleev

orn on February 8, 1834 to Ivan Pavlovich and Maria Dmitrievna Mendeleev, in Tobolsk in Serbia, Dmitri Mendeleev was one of fourteen children in the family. His father was not only extremely poor but also blind which forced his mother to take on the entire burden of the family on her rather frail shoulders. To make ends meet, she began a glass factory which unfortunately was razed to the ground.

The same year Dmitri Mendeleev’s father too passed away. Mendeleev was a mere boy in high school when this catastrophe struck. Not to give up on her children’s education, his mother took the young boy and walked all the way to Moscow for his admission at the university. Denied a place in Moscow they next went to St. Petersburg where Mendeleev joined the Pedagogy course. Within a year his mother passed away. Left an orphan, Dmitri Mendeleev went on to complete his graduation in Math and Science and left for the Crimean Peninsula to teach. A couple of years later he returned once again to St. Petersburg for his Masters Degree. On it’s completion, he was invited to teach at the Technical Institute. He married Feozna Nikitchna Lascheva in the year 1863. It was in the sixties that Dmitri Mendeleev began his great adventure with Chemistry.

Perhaps the greatest distinction Mendeleev ever received was because of his contribution in the field of Chemistry that made an impact in not only in the understanding of the elements in nature but also in related fields like geology, meteorology, hydrodynamics and eventually all sciences related with the components of the entire universe. The Periodic Table formulated by Mendeleev in fact was not only a sign of his genius but also the indication that his perception about science included the dynamics of the physical and the organic world.

It was in the year 1869 that he finally started work on the chapter that dealt with the classification of elements. Having found nothing that he could lay down as the abiding principle for classification, he wrote down all the properties of the 63 elements on cards

Chronicle Pepperpot February 16, 2014 and then as in a game of patience began placing them in a variety of positions. He was struck by the manner in which the cards he had arranged in the descending order of atomic weight reminded him of the game of solitaire. This triggered the final compilation of the Periodic Table Of Elements.

In his book-The Principles Of Chemistry, Mendeleev arranged all elements known to man on the basis of their atomic mass and also their chemical properties. What was also astounding was the depth of his understanding of the way elements occur and their structure.

He left gaps in the periodic table believing that certain elements that had not been discovered would one day be known to man and find its place in the table. As predicted, the three newly elements in the periodic table during his lifetime included gallium, scandium and germanium. Later boron and silica and aluminium were also added.

His concern for finding some semblance of order in the way matter is formed and elements exist sprung from his concern for his students who seemed to find no justification for the relation between elements and their combination.

“The Periodic Table formulated by Mendeleev in fact was not only a sign of his genius but also the indication that his perception about science included the dynamics of the physical and the organic world.”

Dmitri Mendeleev also was one of the only scientists of his times to have communicated with scientists from across the world by painstakingly collecting data and information from all quarters.

He in fact spent thirteen years of his life collecting data from other scientists and then formulated his almost perfect Periodic table which stands today as the testimonial of a near perfect find in the field of chemistry. It was path breaking enough to get acknowledged by the Swedish Academy which subsequently brought home the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for Mendeleev . He received also the Davy Medal and the Copley Medal in recognition of his contribution . So significant was Mendeleev’ contribution that till date the periodic table continues to place newly found elements in it and element number 101 was named as Mendelevium, in his honour.

Dmitri Mendeleev was a scientist who believed that science had a place in every walk of life and that it knew no distinction of class or creed. He in fact not only drew large crowds during his lectures but was also known to interact with the common people on board trains explaining to them that there was perfect order in nature and if one discovers the source of this divine order, a lot of human suffering and disquiet could be solved. He in fact saw this order governing relations between man , society and politics.

So loved and respected was he in Russia that even the czar pardoned the charges of bigamy against him. Mendeleev went on to contribute enormously to agricultural chemistry, mineral recovery, oil refining, and also founded the Russian Chemical Society. It is also believed that it was through the efforts of Mendeleev that there was a huge exchange or research and data between European and American scientists for the very first time.

A stickler for perfection, Mendeleev predicted properties of some elements on the basis of their atomic weight and also went on to edit and revise the subsequent editions of the periodic table, reflecting his concern over the missing elements such as radioactive elements rare earths and inert gases. He resigned from his university position in 1890 and was made the Director of the Russian Bureau Of Weights and Measures till his death in 1907.

Chronicle Pepperpot February 16, 2014

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XII

Chronicle Pepperpot February 16, 2014

Chronicle Pepperpot February 16, 2014

XIII

Lynn Ann Medford: A Guyanese

Lynn is also in to fashion and modeling

beauty with an extreme passion for dancing

M

By Telesha Ramnarine E E T young and talented L y n n Ann Medford, who has thus far managed to achieve quite a lot in her life, and whose biggest passion is dancing.

In fact, she hopes to someday be in a position to help Guyanese dancers to become internationally recognised.

And actually, in fact, there is an Enigma Line in Guyana.

Apart from the dance company, she has Enigma Fashion and Enigma Entertainment.

Lynn, also a dance choreographer/dance teacher, is also into fashion and modelling. The height of her modelling career was her shoot for the prestigious

Lynn Ann Medford

With her fiancé Alex and son Alonzo

“When I am relaxing, I dance. I dance for fun, I dance for work. When it comes to recreation, dance again. Dance, for me, was a way to express myself. It was very hard for me to express myself, and I found it easy by dancing. So I dance to escape my problems, I dance to express my feelings, my emotions. So dance is an escape from personal problems. It was an escape from everything that was wrong in my life.”-Lynn medford Armani Brand in London. She has also done costume modelling for Carnival Spectacular, a Latin American group.

The peak of her dancing career was choreographing for the London Olympics in 2012, and carnivals held there.

She has also performed for the Mayor of London, and did all of this while she was four months pregnant.

Moreover, she has a crash course in choreography in London, and has been working with the Lion King Theatre for a few months, and therefore has a bit of theatrical experience, too.

Lynn was born in New Am-

sterdam, but eventually moved to Linden, before coming to Ruimveldt in Georgetown to spend most of her life.

She spent a year at Liana Nursery School in 1991, and went to St. Pius Primary from 1992-1998. She then secured a place at St. John’s College, and spent the next five years there, before moving on to the University of Guyana where she started law studies but didn’t complete it.

Her passion changed from wanting to become a lawyer, and so she is currently a scholarship student at the

Please turn to page XVII

XIV

Nollywood star Emeka Ike caught-up in alleged wife battering After playing a wealthy businessman who beats his wife (played by Ufuoma Ejenobor) in a recent movie, Emeka Ike, has been allegedly caught up in the act of battering his real life wife.

It was reported that he took the unwise decision to beat his wife after a little misunderstanding the couple had. His wife, after the incidence, decided to pack out of her matrimonial home with their newborn baby. Futher information uncovered that the matter was quickly settled and the wife returned to her matrimonial home.

However, Emeka and wife have denied the story that nothing of such happened.

Chronicle Pepperpot February 16, 2014

Naija Men Want to Take Advantage of Me? Actress Collette Orji Collette Orji is an amiable and articulate Nollywood actress. She tells a reporter some of her challenges: You acted alongside A-list actors on your first day. Could you share your experience with me?

Oh, my God! Look at Jim Iyke, the American boy. Then, I saw Mama Gee and I was like, Oh my God! It was just great and they were nice. When you come close, you find out that these people are so warm. They were like Collette do this and that. It was all fun.

Has love been fair to you?

I think the answer is yes. But have I been fair to love? I don’t think that the answer there is yes.

How was it like when the guys started coming?

I think from a very young age, I knew I was pretty. At home, my brothers would say, ‘If somebody tells you that you’re beautiful, tell them that you know.’ So, at a very young age, I started saying things like, ‘I know’. People would be like shut up, say ‘Thank you.’

I would be like, ‘yeah, but I know.’ But before I got to be like 15 or 16, most of my brothers were already out of the country to study.

So, it was just me, my mom and my friends. But I’ve always been an assertive person. If something is not right, first of all, it’s really hard to get me twisted. It takes time to get me twisted on things that I am not comfortable with. But growing up as a teenager, you had to make your own mistakes.

When was the first time you had your first date?

I was 18 when I had my first date. But before then, I got loads of love letters. I had my first relationship in school when I was doing

Kate Henshaw Sizzles At Nigeria’s Got Talent Finale Nollywood actress, Kate Henshaw has continued to show to many people that ‘a beauty at 40 can remain a beauty forever.’ At over the age of 40, she has continued to make men pray and fast for days just to have her for keeps, despite being an ‘after one’.

At the grand finale of Nigeria’s Got Talent, Kate showed that Nigeria’s really Got ‘Victoria Beckham’ as she dazzled with a Jovani couture dress.

The event, which held at Dream Studio on Saturday, February 8, 2014 and aired to millions on Nigerians on Sunday, February 9, 2014, saw the screen goddess stealing the show on the carpet in a embroidered floral sheer dress revealing some elements of her shimmering skin.

Collette Orji is an amiable and articulate Nollywood actress. my advance level.

Is it that you don’t feel that the time is ripe to be in a serious relationship?

I have been in a couple of serious relationships. But you know, it’s just not easy.

Is it harder for an actress?

Yes, it is harder... it affected my relationship with guys because they intentionally come to take.

There was this guy I was dating some time ago. I remember I was driving his car on this particular day. We needed a phone charger and we were driving to get one. We got to a shop and the guy brought out the charger. They tested it and it worked. And the next thing, he was playing game on his phone and fiddling with his ipad. Then, the phone seller recognised me and was hailing me. It made me uncomfortable. They were calling my name. It was his charger we were buying, yet he couldn’t be bothered; he was just doing something else. I had to dip my hand in my bag and pay for the charger. And we drove off. After a while, I was like, ‘Why did you do that? It’s your charger.” You won’t even believe what he said to me: “Actresses spend money on their husbands. Do you think their husbands are rich enough? They spend money on their husbands and they don’t insult them. But you just bought a charger for me now and you’re insulting me.” I don’t have that kind of money and that is not the life I want...

They are all working, so why should I be the one paying? That’s one thing that affected me in my relationships. I have been in two serious relationships that were all about ‘Collette, bring this and that.’

I go for a movie production and as I’m driving back into the house, the next thing I hear is: what was the fee like? Everyone is just trying to grab from you. And it’s not like you’ve ever bought something for me or you gave me something.

How do you now find real love?

I don’t know. Maybe we actresses have made them think that there is so much money.

Chronicle Pepperpot February 16, 2014

I hope to work with Salman Khan, says Juhi Chawla Actress Juhi Chawla, who has worked with stars like Aamir Khan and Shah Rukh Khan in her prime, hopes that someday she is paired with Salman Khan in a movie.

“I hope I get to work with Salman...he will not work with me because he hasn’t in all these years,” Juhi said even as she laughed.

“I don’t see that happening. But I never thought I will be working with Madhuri (Dixit) so you never know. I would love to do anything which is justified on papers,” she added.

XV

Katrina’s health issues

The actress is facing health problems.

Incidentally, Katrina Kaif underwent a minor surgery in 2009 because of her system’s low haemoglobin level. And now it seems that Kat is facing health problems again, which is why the actress recently flew to London for a complete medical check-up.

Let’s hope it’s nothing major. Also, Katrina’s fans have a reason to rejoice, as the actress has recently signed two big projects. The actress will make an official announcement soon.

Is Hrithik Roshan helping Kareena Kapoor Khan with her Bollywood career?

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s daughter Aaradhya Bachchan turns supermodel for mommy!

The Yaadein co-stars have not shared screen space for a decade and it may a while before we see them together on 70 mm again. But that hasn’t affected their equation. In fact, Duggu is more concerned about Bebo’s acting career we think.

Kareena Kapoor Khan and Hrithik Roshan were supposed to star in Karan Johar’s ambitious project Shuddhi. But we all know the two actors are no longer part of the film. First Kareena announced that she was unsure about acting in Shuddhi as it was getting delayed repeatedly. Then Karan Johar started looking out for a replacement and said in an interview, “I can’t expect an actress to wait indefinitely. I feel terrible for Bebo, who is a special friend.” Finally Jr Roshan too opted out from the film and issued an official statement regarding the same. But we hear Duggu had already informed KKK about his decision before he went on record or even told KJo. Well, if HR had disclosed his decision without letting Kareena get a whiff of it then the makers ofShuddhi would have asked the Talaash starlet to back off. After all, there was a lot of buzz around Shuddhi coz it was coming together of Hrithik and Kareena more than anything else.

Beti B has already done a photo shoot, but exclusively for mommy dearest A little birdie tells us that while flying over the Bachchans’ bungalow recently, he sawAbhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s daughter Aaradhya Bachchan striking poses in the gardens of Prateeksha. The birdie adds that Aishwarya had Aaradhya in her arms and someone was clicking candid pictures of the beautiful mother-daughter duo. Reportedly, the candid shots were being captured on a tablet.

So being born to a Miss World mother, is Aaradhya a natural poser? Well, actually no, she’s only over two years of age, Aaradhya, like every other little child had a very short attention span during the photoshoot. We hear that to get her to look into the lenses, Aishwarya would pluck a flower or a leaf so that she had Aaradhya’s attention. Aww, that’s so cute na!

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Chronicle Pepperpot February 16, 2014

Most parents are unaware of dangers faced by children on smartphones -Girl commits suicide due to online bullying

A smartphone, or smart phone, is a mobile phone with more advanced computing capability and connectivity than basic feature phones, it’s ais a device that lets you make telephone calls, but also adds features that you might find on a personal digital assistant or a computer. A smartphone also offers the ability to send and receive e-mail and edit Office documents, for example. Modern smartphones include all of those features plus the features of a laptop, including web browsing, Wi-Fi, and 3rd-party apps and accessories.

While there is no standard definition of the term “smartphone” across the industry, there are a few features that you’ll find on every smartphone Parents are advised to set to their children about how they use their smartphones.Many parents are out of touch with the dangers faced by their children on tablets and smartphones.

Almost one in five children said they had seen something on their devices that had upset them.

A separate study found that just over 20% of parents do not monitor what their children are doing online.

PARENTAL CONTROLS Unfortunately, none of us - of whatever age - is immune from encountering problems online. But, we can avoid them by learning how to deal with threats and online bullying, we can prevent online harassment by being more technologically trained.

Without using controls such as built-in security, safety and privacy features and search engine filters, children will almost certainly run into something that really isn’t appropriate for their age, or any age.It is the duty and the right for parents to uphold their position of being the “protective” one over their children, unsupervised usage of smartphone is a worldwide sicknessa child can easily sneak-out for a few minutes just to be online pretending to be doing else.

Teenagers aged 13-16 were more vulnerable to being bullied online than those aged 8-12.

Parents were not often as aware of the dangers of using the internet on tablets and smartphones as they were with PCs. When children use mobile devices to access the web, they are using the same internet, with the same risks. There is a common misconception that smartphones and tablets don’t need the same level of protection as a PC, but with such a high percentage of parents not having a clear view of their children’s online activity, this way of thinking needs to change now. Access to certain apps or websites can be blocked completely or restricted to age appropriate content. Restricted profile accounts can also be set up on Android smartphones and tablets, some of Apple’s devices like the ipad and iphone have restrictions, or parental controls, that can be set using a passcode. The same goes for Samsung products

too. However, most parents don’t know cannot use the devices themselves. I think the on-going OLPF programme will help some parents to become more trained so that online monitoring will become easier.

Apple was recently told to refund US $32.5M to parents whose children had made purchases without their parents’ consent. Adults were also being warned to stay safe online as Microsoft released its annual online consumer safety research. The software giant recommended that users set PINs for their mobile phones and strong passwords for online accounts.

Online (Cyber-bullying) suicide: Bullying is not new but thanks to the Internet teens are now being bullied at home.

Online harassment, more often called cyber-bullying, is a serious problem. When bullying comes home via the Internet it can leave victims feeling helpless and overwhelmed.

What is Cyber-bullying?

Cyber-bullying is any harassment that occurs via the Internet. Vicious forum posts, name calling in chat rooms, posting fake profiles on web sites, and mean or cruel email messages are all ways of cyber-bullying.

A few days ago, people in Italy called for action against cyber bullying after a 14-year girl, subjected to online abuse, killed herself .She had gone on the social network seeking sympathy after breaking up with a boyfriend. She jumped to her death from a high-rise building.

“Kill yourself,” “Nobody wants you” and “You are not normal” were some of the anonymous replies she received.

For some time she had been posting messages that suggested she might be suicidal. She appeared to have stopped posting about a week before she died.

Where do I see myself living five years from now?” she wrote in one entry. “Me living five years from now. Wow” The girl, whose real name was given as Nadia, left messages for her family in the town of Fontaniva, near Padua, but they were unable to reach her in time.

At one point, Nadia posted photos of cuts she said she had made to her arms. It appears she planned her death carefully, leaving five letters to family and friends.

Let’s try our best to end online harassment, put a step forward to engage ourselves in becoming more acquainted with the devices and applications that come with them so as to stamp out online predators.

Chronicle Pepperpot February 16, 2014

Performing for the Mayor of London in 2012

Lynn Ann ...

From page XIII

university, doing tourism.

“My ultimate goal was to become a lawyer, but that perspective has changed. I am more into humanitarian work. I like working with children and I am very passionate about my environment and keeping it safe and healthy. That’s why I chose to do tourism. But I plan on picking up back my law career later. I still like it but not as much as I enjoy the other things now,” she explained.

Lynn is also the Assistant Marketing Manager for BM Group, which managers the Kanuku Suites, the Angel Brand and Kunuku Tours.

DANCE TO ESCAPE Lynn recalled that she was quite shy and introverted while growing up. She specifically remembers the time when she was walking home from school and a gentleman stopped her and offered some encouragement.

“He said he watches me every day when I pass and he asked me why I always walked with my head down. He told me I didn’t need to do that and that, I was a beautiful black woman and that I needed to remember that. And from that point on, I don’t know if I wanted somebody to say that to me, but I somehow got the courage to start modelling, dancing and doing everything that got me to this stage.”

Dancing is like therapy for Lynn. “When I am relaxing, I dance. I dance for fun, I dance for work.

When it comes to recreation, dance again. Dance, for me, was a way to express myself. It was very hard for me to express myself, and I found it easy by dancing. So I dance to escape my problems, I dance to express my feelings, my emotions. So dance is an escape from personal problems. It was an escape from everything that was wrong in my life,” she declared.

She does contemporary, Latin, African, modern and Indian dancing, among other forms. She has also done a bit of classical ballet, she said.

Lynn said she would really like to see dance go to another level in Guyana. “Most dancers are taken for granted here. Guyanese dancers are so talented, but they never get the opportunity. So I would like to see us stepping up in that arena.”

VERY PROUD Lynn said she is very proud of all that she has managed to achieve in her life so far, as many are not fortunate to be presented with opportunities to accomplish what they want.

“It’s about being calm and focused, and knowing where you want to go and finding avenues to get there. I really don’t have regrets, because whatever glitches I had, I see them as stepping stones to getting where I am today. So you have to know yourself and know where you are heading. Stay focused and be confident,” she advised.

She said she was blessed with encouraging parents, Leon and Sharon, and supportive siblings Shonette, Ophetia, Lionel, Anthony and Ryan.

Lynn is engaged to British-born Alex Groppie and they have a one-year old son named Alonzo.

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Chronicle Pepperpot February 16, 2014

Paul Robeson: Singer, Actor, and Civil Rights Activist Researched by Michelle Gonsalves

In the 1930s Paul Robeson (1898-1976) was one of the best known and most widely acclaimed African Americans.

He was born in Princeton,

New Jersey in 1898. His father was a former slave who became the religious leader of a Protestant church and his mother was from a prominent Quaker family of mixed ancestry.

Robeson was an excellent

student and athlete and Rutgers University in New Jersey gave him a scholarship so he could study there. He played four different sports while at Rutgers and was also was the top student in his class. Members of his class believed Paul Robeson

would become the leader of black people in America.

He graduated in 1919 and then attended law school at Columbia University in New York City. He was only the third black person to attend Columbia Law School. On the weekends, he earned money by playing professional football. He also acted in plays. He married Eslanda Cordoza Goode while he was in law school. After he graduated in 1923, he got a job with a group of lawyers in New York but left after experiencing unfair treatment because he was black. He decided not to work as a lawyer. Instead, he wanted to use his ability in theatre and music to support African American history and culture.

Robeson became a professional actor. He joined the Provincetown Players, an acting group linked to American playwright Eugene O'Neill. Robeson was the star in two famous productions by Eugene O'Neill in the1920s. They were "All God's Chillun Got Wings" and "The Emperor Jones." Critics praised his performances. Robeson be-

came the most recognized black actor of his time.

In London he earned international praise for his leading part in William Shakespeare's great tragic play, "Othello." That was in1930.

Thirteen years later, he played "Othello" on Broadway in

Please see page XIX

Chronicle Pepperpot February 16, 2014

at concerts where the people people in the United

Paul Robeson: Singer ...

From page XVIII New York. It was very popular.

Paul Robeson also was famous for appearing as a riverboat worker in the popular American musical play "Show Boat”. He performed the play in London in 1928 and on Broadway four years later.

He appeared in 11 movies in the 1920s and 1930s.

However, he realised that his acting was limited by the small number of parts for black actors and criticised the American movie industry for not showing the real lives of black people in America. He stopped making movies and decided to sing professionally instead.

Robeson sang many kinds of music. He sang folk music

from many countries. He sang songs to support the labour and social movements of his time.

He sang songs for peace and justice. And, he sang African American spiritual music. One of his famous songs was this spiritual, "Balm in Gilead."

He travelled a great deal in Europe during the 1930s and found that Black people were treated better in Europe than in the United States. He met members of liberal political organisations, socialists and African nationalists. He also met many working people and poor people.

In the late 1930s Robeson became involved in national and international movements that sought peace and better labour conditions. He also supported independence for African colonies from their European rulers. He learned

the languages and folk songs of other cultures, saying that these folk songs expressed the same feelings that were in African American music. He learned to speak, write and sing in more than 20 languages using his deep baritone voice to promote Black spirituals, to share the cultures of other countries, and to benefit the labour and social movements of his time.

Robeson became known as a citizen of the world, equally comfortable with the people of Moscow, Nairobi, and Harlem. For many years he performed in concerts in many countries.

The songs he sang supported the struggle for racial justice for Black Americans, and for civil rights and economic justice for people around the world. He refused to perform

were separated by race. He said: "The idea of my concerts is to suggest that all men are brothers because of their music."

In 1934, Paul Robeson made the first of many trips to the (former) Soviet Union.

In the Soviet Union, he said, he was treated as an equal of whites for the first time in his life. He declared his friendship for the Soviet Union. And he spoke about the need for peaceful co-existence between the United States and the Soviet Union. Conservative groups in the United States strongly opposed his friendship with the Soviet Union and his support for other liberal issues.

In the 1940’s, many

States were strongly opposed to his advocacy of anti-imperialism, affiliation with communism, and his criticism of the US government caused him to be blacklisted.

In 1950, the U.S. revoked Robeson's passport, leading to an eight-year battle to re-secure it and to travel again. During those years, Robeson studied Chinese, met with Albert Einstein to discuss the prospects for world peace and published his autobiography, Here I Stand, and sang at Carnegie Hall. Two major labour-related events took place during this time. In 1952 and 1953, he held two concerts at Peace Arch Park on the U.S.-Canadian border,

XIX singing to 30-40,000 people in both countries.

In 1957, he made a transatlantic radiophone broadcast from New York to coal miners in Wales. In 1960, Robeson made his last concert tour to New Zealand and Australia. In ill health, Paul Robeson retired from public life in 1963. He died on January 23, 1976, at age 77, in Philadelphia.

Sources: 1 . h t t p : / / w w w. c p s r. cs.uchicago.edu/robeson/ bio.html,www.

2. http://learningenglish. voanews.com 3. http://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/Paul_Robeson

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The legendary Peter O’Toole Born: August 2, 1932 in Connemara, Ireland Died: December 14, 2013 in London, England

T

he legendary Irish-born thespian Peter O’Toole proves that when an actor is faced with a bitter personal crisis and struggles with addiction, spirit and determination can often lead to a forceful “third act” in that performer’s career that rivals anything to have preceded it.

Blessed with an immensity of dramatic power, the fair-

haired, blue-eyed, flamboyant and virile O’Toole chalked up one of the most formidable acting resumes of the 20th century during the 1950s and ‘60s, before experiencing an ugly bout of self-destruction in the mid-’70s that led to serious health problems, several disappointing and embarrassing roles, the destruction of his marriage, and a threat (in the process) to bury his career. By

1980, however, O’Toole had overcome his problems and resurfaced triumphantly as a box-office star.

O’Toole began life in Connemara, Ireland, in either 1932 or 1933 (most sources list his birthdate as August 2, 1932, though the year is occasionally disputed). His family moved to Leeds, England in the early ‘30s, where O’Toole’s father earned his keep as a racetrack bookie. Around 1946, 14-yearold O’Toole dropped out of secondary school and signed

on with The Yorkshire Evening Post as copy boy, messenger, and eventually, a cub reporter.

Within three years, he dropped the newspaper gig and joined the Leeds Civic Theatre as a novice player; this paved the way for ongoing parts at the much-revered Old Vic (after O’Toole’s military service in the Royal Navy as a signalman and decoder), beginning around 1955.

A half-decade of stage roles quickly yielded to screen parts in the early ‘60s. O’Toole actually debuted (with a bit role) in 1959, in The Savage Innocents, but international fame did not arrive for a few years, with several enviable back-to-back characterizations in the 1960s: that of the gallant, inscrutable T.E. Lawrence in Sir David Lean’s 1962 feature Lawrence of Arabia (for which he received his first Best Actor Oscar nomination); Henry II in Peter Glenville’s 1964 Becket (starring longtime friend Richard Burton), for which he received his second Best Actor Oscar nomination; the title character in Lord Jim (1965), and philander-

Chronicle Pepperpot February 16, 2014 ing fashion editor Michael James in the popular Clive Donner-Woody Allen sex farce W h a t ’s N e w Pussycat? (1965).

O’Toole’s success continued unabated with yet another appearance as Henry II alongside Katharine Hepburn in Anthony Harvey’s The Lion in Winter (1968), which netted him a third Best Actor Oscar nod.

Unfortunately, O’Toole lost yet again, this time (in a completely unexpected turn of events) to Cliff Robertson in Charly, though a fourth nomination was only a year away, for the actor’s work in 1969’s Goodbye, Mr. Chips.

The early 1970s were equally electric for O’Toole, with the highlight undoubtedly being his characterisation

of a delusional mental patient who thinks he’s alternately Jesus Christ and Jack the Ripper in The Ruling Class (1972), Peter Medak’s outrageous farce on the “deific” pretensions of British royalty. That gleaned O’Toole a fifth Oscar nomination; Jay

Please see page XXI

Chronicle Pepperpot February 16, 2014

the 1980s and ‘90s: that of whimsical, spiritual ghost story From

The legendary ...

Cocks, of Time Magazine, called his performance one “of such intensity that it will haunt memory. He is funny, disturbing, and finally, devastating.” Unfortunately, this represented the last high point of his career for many years, and the remainder of the ‘70s were marred by a series of disappointing and best-forgotten turns -- such as Don Quixote in Arthur Hiller’s laughable musical Man of La Mancha (1972), covert CIA agent Larry Martin in Otto Preminger’s spy thriller Rosebud (1975), and a Romanian émigré and refugee in Arturo Ripstein’s soaper Foxtrot (1976).

Meanwhile, O’Toole’s off-camera life hit the nadir to end all nadirs. Though long known as a carouser (with friends and fellow Brits Burton, Richard Harris, Peter Finch, and others), O’Toole now plunged into no-holds-barred alcoholism, pushing himself to the

very edge of sanity and death.

The drinking necessitated major stomach surgery, and permanently ended his 20-year-marriage to Welsh actress Sian Phillips (best known as Livia in I, Claudius). Career-wise, O’Toole scraped the bottom of the gutter (and then some) when he made the foolish decision (around 1976 or 1977) to appear alongside Malcolm McDowell and Helen Mirren in the Bob Guccione/Tinto Brass Penthouse mega-production Caligula (released 1980) -- a period film wall-to-wall with hardcore sex and visceral, graphic violence that led celebrity critic Roger Ebert to echo another viewer’s lament: “This movie is the worst piece of s*** I have ever seen.” It did not help matters when O’Toole returned to The Old Vic not long after, and was roundly booed off the stage for his uncharacteristically wretched portrayal of Macbeth.

The Macbeth calamity,

page XX

however, masked a slow return to triumph, for O’Toole had since resolved to clean himself up; he moved in with Kate and Pat O’Toole, his two actress daughters from his marriage to Phillips, both of whom were teenagers in the late 1970s, and both of whom cared for him.

And in 1979, he signed on to play one of the most esteemed roles of his career -- that of the sadistic, tyrannical director Eli Cross in Richard Rush’s wicked black comedy The Stunt Man (1980) -- a role for which O’Toole received a sixth Oscar nomination. O’Toole again lost the bid, this time to Robert De Niro in Raging Bull. Not one to be daunted, however, the actor continued down the path to full professional and personal recovery by beginning an ongoing relationship with California model Karen Brown, and fathering a child by her in 1983. O’Toole then signed on for many fine roles throughout

Alan Swann, a hard-drinking, hard-loving, has-been movie star, in Richard Benjamin’s delightfully wacky 1982 film My Favorite Year (which drew the thesp yet another nomination for Best Actor -- his seventh); and as Professor Harry Wolper, a scientist obsessively trying to re-clone his deceased wife, in Ivan Passer’s quirky, underrated romantic fantasy Creator (1985). Despite occasional lapses in taste and quality, such as 1984’s Supergirl and 1986’s Club Paradise, O’Toole was clearly back on top of his game, and he proved it with an admirable turn as Reginald Johnston in Bernardo Bertolucci’s 1987 Best Picture winner, The Last Emperor. That same year, O’Toole signed on to co-star in High Spirits (1988), fellow Irishman Neil Jordan’s

with Shakespearean overtones.

At the time, this looked like a solid decision, but neither Jordan nor O’Toole nor their co-stars, Steve Guttenberg, Liam Neeson, and Daryl Hannah, could have anticipated the massive studio interference that (in the words of Pauline Kael) “whacked away at the film, removing between 15 and 25 percent of the footage” and turned it into one of that year’s biggest flops. Ditto with Alejandro Jodorowsky’s 1990 comedy fantasy The Rainbow Thief, where studio interference again all but destroyed the work.

O’Toole remained active throughout the 1990s, largely with fine supporting roles, such as Willingham in King Ralph (1991), Welsh nobleman Lord Sam in Rebecca’s Daughters (1992), Bishop

XXI Cauchon in the made-for-television Joan of Arc (1999), and Von Hindenburg in the telemovie Hitler: The Rise of Evil (2003). In late 2006, O’Toole hit another career peak with a fine turn as a wily old thesp who enjoys a last-act fling with a twentysomething admirer, in the Roger Michell-directed, Hanif Kureishi-scripted character-driven comedy Venus. The effort reeled in an eighth Best Actor Oscar nomination for the actor. In 2007 he voiced the part of the critic in Pixar’s Ratatouille, and in 2008 he joined the cast of The Tudors playing Pope Paul III. He played a priest in 2012’s For Greater Glory and filmed a role for Katherine of Alexandria (2014) before he died at age 81 in 2013. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

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Chronicle Pepperpot February 16, 2014

Litter Prevention Regulations It is an Offence to place Litter a Public Place

The Litter Prevention Regulations will soon be enforced by the Environmental Protection Agency.

It is an offence under these Regulations to (a) place litter in a public place; (b) permit or cause another person to litter a public place or; (c) have litter on private premises that pose a health risk.

It does not matter if littering is intentional or accidental; once the act is committed the person responsible would be charged. As such, if litter comes

from a moving vehicle to a public place then

the person responsible for the moving vehicle would have committed an offence. Similarly, if a person

places litter in a public place not intended for garbage collection then this person would have committed an offence.

Additionally, a person who gives permission or causes another person to litter a public place is guilty of an offence. Another point to note is that the absence of a waste receptacle is not an excuse for littering!

The fine for an individual found littering in a public place is fifty thousand dollars ($50,000); for a corporate business it is one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000).

Littering on Private Premises is an Offence A person who places litter on premises owned or occupied by another person without consent,is guilty of an offence under the Litter Prevention Regulations.

The fine for this offence is thirty thousand dollars ($30,000) or six (6) months imprisonment.

Persons who litter will be ordered to clean it up If the litter left in an area defaces that area, Litter Wardens appointed by the EPA will give notice to the individual or company responsible for such litter to clean it up and restore the area. Similarly, the owner or person who occupies premises with litter can be ordered to remove it. This may apply particularly to litter such as dead animals, or materials and substances

that pose a public

health risk.

Notices may be given orally or through writing via mail.

The fine for failing to obey the notice to clean up a public or private premises is twenty thousand ($20,000) and an additional five thousand ($5,000) dollars for each day of non-compliance.

Further, the guilty person will bear the cost of the litter removal if it is done by the Litter Warden.

Repeat offenders will pay double the maximum fine for the offence committed or face three (3) months imprisonment.

Save yourself the embarrassment and cost of littering - dispose of your waste properly!

Share your ideas and questions by sending letters to: “Our Earth, Our Environment�, C/O EIT Division, Environmental Protection Agency, Ganges Street, Sophia, Georgetown; or email us at eit.epaguyana@gmail.com.

Chronicle Pepperpot February 16, 2014

Roy Geddes: T

By Alex Wayne

hough he remains behind the scenes as his secluded demeanour would allow him, he certainly has catapulted Guyana into the arena of the steel band and steel pan music.

Roy Geddes has become a household name both locally, and internationally as his exploits over the years have kept the joys of the steel pan rolling around the hills and many waters of the Caribbean, an invading the terrain and borders of foreign lands.

A beautiful array of tropical trees and flower plants line the lush walkway accentuated with steel pan souvenirs and other assortments that send the distinct message of ‘a vivid steel pan haven’ secluded in a quiet and serene location at Geddes’s 190 Roxanne Burnham

XXIII

a musical icon behind Guyana’s steel pan evolution

industry; his contributions and dedication to the development of the art form is unrivalled and unequalled. For more than 56 years, he has dedicated his full-time energies into making steel pan in Guyana a force to be reckoned with.

And even at age 70, this truly outstanding stalwart is still actively involved in the continued growth of steelpan music. He presently teaches pan music at the Greycoat Training Centre in Victoria, East Coast Demerara, where his services are voluntary.He is also employed with the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport in a venture to educate youths in the field of steel pan music at his home in Roxanne Burnham Gardens.

Tourists visiting Guyana over the years have developed a keen interest in his popular steel pan museum and have visited the site for firsthand information and demonstrations on vital aspects of the art form. The reservoir of information also attracts the attention of many schools, youth clubs and other institutions.

Geddes, who has paved the way for the ultimate evolution and maximum development of the steel pan industry, noted that its continued success depends on the dedication, commitment and

The late President Dr. Cheddi Jagan bestows one of the many medals earned by steel pan stalwart, Roy Geddes. cooperation of entities and individuals associated with its existence.

Roy Geddes creating magic on the steel pan

Gardens, South Ruimveldt, Georgetown home.

The steel pan museum houses a vivid and colourful pictorial display of Roy’s successes, even as it showcases the making of steel pans-from raw material to the finished product. There is also an abundance of reading materials, while an array of trophies, medals and souvenirs speak volumes of his successes and contributions to the music discipline in Guyana and abroad.

Commenting on the need for upward mobility and the further development of steel pan music locally, Roy indicated that only those directly involved in this production can ‘bring about an actual change.’

He noted that while the steel pan has advanced technologically, the love is not there for the art form, thus hampering its ultimate success. Comparing the steel pan music of yesteryear with that of present day, he pointed out that in th past those involved exhibited intense dedication and loyalty, and would spend lengthy hours in rehearsing.

According to Roy, those involved with steel pan today are very reluctant to ‘go the extra mile’ and would scarcely attend practice sessions.

He is the recipient of two National Awards for his sterling contributions in the field of steel pan music. In 2004, the official magazine of the British Association of Steel Pans, the Pan Podium, recognised his achievements in the development of the music genre.

Roy Geddes is indeed a Guyanese icon in the steel pan music

A CLOSE ASSOCIATE OF DR CHEDDI JAGAN Roy has remarkable praises for the exploits of the revered late President Dr.Cheddi Jagan, whom he indicated was a pleasant, close friend and a proud admirer of the steel pan tradition.

In 1960 through the efforts of Dr. Jagan, he began offering

Please turn to page XXVII

Eggshells striking tropical flowers and other affixtures make up the beautiful ‘Caribbean Garden’ in front of Roy Geddes home and museum

Wales:

XXIV

T

By Alex Wayne

his week things were a bit quiet as we indulged in our village trek.

We visited the village of Wales on the West Bank of Demerara. Normally a village that bustles with activity and great economic happenings,things were strangely quiet there and I must admit we were a bit taken back.

However, as I am sure you would agree, the customary bustle and buzz of this very appealing village is generated by the productive activities of the Wales Sugar Estate which provides solid employment for residents of the village and for other citizens from both near and far.

From interviews with estate employees and villagers, it was discovered that because there was a lull in certain seasonal aspects of sugar production things were a bit quiet around the village. Many ascertained that when it is crop or harvesting time the village explodes in ‘bustling allure’ as seasonal cane cutters converge on the estate to enjoy their assured seasonal earnings.

Wales is a name that originated from an Old Saxon word that means 'outsiders.' The name has some Celtic roots showing some historical links between Wales and Scotland. This village is said by many to have derived its name during the intervention and association with the Prince of Wales during the colonial era.

Wales is located nine miles from Vreed-en-Hoop. With a population of over three hundred, the community is a thriving alcove with a sugar estate that serves as a lifeline for several villages along the West Bank of Demerara.

However, that is only Wales proper. The area stretching from Sisters on the one side to Patentia on the other, is also referred to as Wales by locals of the older generation and that assumption is still being held today.

Wales is mostly inhabited by residents of East Indian descent but there is an ever-increasing presence of Afro-Guyanese and other ethnic groups.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE VILLAGE Wales has a rich history that dates back to the era of the slaves and to the days of the great migration of Dave Hollet who at the height of his career in the West Indies had several sugar plantations in Demerara including Success, Wales, Waller’s Delight and Coverden estates.

History dictates that the terms upon which he acquired these es-

The yester-year ambience of Wales

tates were carefully calculated, taking full account of the weaknesses of each. Great emphasis was placed upon improving the quality of the sugar; and low grade produce suffered from great misfortune.

However, the commissioners considered that the wages paid on this plantation were fair, at least by colonial standards, worked by female employees on this large plantation is no less revealing.

Wales was among those that housed an old Dutch sugar plantation that started in the early 1800s when 380 sugar estates operated on the coast of the three colonies that would eventually unite to form British Guiana in 1831.

With the end of slavery in 1834, apprenticeship programmes were introduced to fill the labour scarcity. However, many apprentices abandoned the sugar estate life after their apprenticeship stint was over. This labour shortage, coupled with factors that impacted the price for sugar, caused many sugar estates to be sold at ridiculously low prices, as the owners simply wanted to get out of the business.

Between 1838 and 1846, nineteen sugar estates were sold at such low prices. In 1846 in particular, Plantations Haarlem (on the West Coast) and Goed Fortuin were sold for £3,500 and £1,700 respectively. The values of these two sugar estates during slavery were £50,000 and £35,000 and sold at less than 5% of its value when slavery was in full swing.

OUR ARRIVAL

Chronicle Pepperpot February 16, 2014

a quiet vil econom

Places of worship lends comfort to villagers The spanking new Wales Magistrate Court

We arrived at Wales village around 10:00 hours and the quietness of the location to me was just a bit disturbing. The stalls along the roadside were bare, but that was because it was Tuesday and the customary Wales Market scenario does not explode until Fridays which is the market day.

Along the village there seemed to be a hush saved for the noisy chatter of students at the Patentia Primary School, and the occasional banter of a few men liming by the roadside.

Curvy and buxom looking women were stationed in a few vegetable stalls beckoning would-be buyers, or just catching up on the day’s gossip.

All through the village small shops have sprung up and have actually become the main source of income for some households, small families and for a few single-parent mothers who have eventually forgot about their irresponsible spouses and have decided to fend on their own.

Getting off the mini-bus amidst noisy chatter from passengers disembarking, we were immediately struck with its quiet, serene appearance and it’s distinct aura of simplicity.

There seemed to be a’ natural quiet’ to the entire village even though there were a few groups liming here and there, some chatting by the roadside, or others waiting for mini-buses to the city of Georgetown.

And that was not all, there seemed to be such satisfaction or contentment on the faces of villagers as they went about their chores or busied themselves in their little kitchen gardens. There was no fuss or bitter complaints, and a few, on realising that the media was in their village made extra efforts to ensure we were well received and escorted around the village.

As we moved around we were hailed by young men playing cards under fruit trees, and they seemed not have a card in the world as their gruff masculine chatter and raucous laughter seemed to indicate.

Chatting with a few residents about their means of livelihood residents were quite eager to speak and estate employee, ‘Mohan’ noted that the village is normally quiet but comes alive as the sugar cane harvesting intensifies. While things are a bit cool at the Wales Estate, he however explained his concern about having to work under a few sordid conditions.

“I does work at de estate as a labourer, and I does normally assist in building punts. Mista me gat tuh wuk fuh eat, but the conditions is not satisfying. De water frum dem trench does stink and some ah dem punt leaking and when de wata catch

Chronicle Pepperpot February 16, 2014

XXV

llage with vivid mic potentials

One of the many stately houses in the Wales Estate compound.

Historical colonial structures are still evident in the village

Wales Sugar Estate’

yuh it does itch and bring out bile and rashes pon we skin. Dem ah give we salt soap fuh wash it aff, but we need something like anti-septic and anti-bacterial soap sir”.

His sentiments were shared by another worker Claudius Goodridge whose job is to bail water from the punts.

‘Yes boss I know we got tuh wuk to survive but dem can at least ensure that we get prapa safety stuff to wuk in or good soap tuh kill germs. Yuh see most time when we done wuk early we does got fuh sit down lang in dem wet clothes and it does dry pon we. And afta dah, plenty biles and sore does come out pon we skin.”

Marvin Johnson who is another labourer also supported these reports.

Gerald James another labourer however is satisfied with his job and notes that as a single man he will do anything honest to survive and live comfortably Everyone comes up with an idea or another to survive in Wales and since not every resident can be categorised amongst the elite of society, farmers can still be found in the village but this profession has dwindled drastically, save for the few that are engaged in large scale farming of rice and cash crops in the ‘back dam areas’ of the village.

Some villagers, especially females cash in on a quick dollar as Please turn to page XXVI

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Chronicle Pepperpot February 16, 2014

folks at the S & R Poultry Shop supplies the village with fresh poultry products.

Estate trucks wait to transport employees of Wales Sugar Factory

This little lass is getting her fill of ‘snow cone’, which is a treat to young kids in the village

Wales:

From Centre pages

confectionary and snack vendors at the Patentia Primary School and at small stalls along the roadside.

But as one would expect, the majority of the population are engaged in professions at the Wales Sugar Estate in the administrative office or in the various available positions in the fields.

Others are engaged in poultry farming and would ensure the village receives an am-

ple supply of fresh eggs and plucked chicken.

MEDICAL FACILITIES Workers of Wales benefit continuously from the Primary Medical Centre located not far from the sugar estate, and this is indeed a good thing. But with that aside they also positively gained from ongoing medical outreach initiatives in 2012, made possible by the government.

In October 2012 a medical outreach through the collaborative effort of the Ministry, the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU), the health sector in Region Three and the Wales Sugar Estate to benefited hundreds of residents of Region Three and was one of several activities to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the People’s Progressive Party / Civic (PPP/C).

Minister of Health Dr. Bheri

Ramsaran who was in the community during the medical outreach, said that there are several other medical outreaches across the country currently. He said the Ministry of Health will be training more doctors in Guyana and will always continue to improve the health profession which will add to the human resources.

On the first day of the medical outreach 67 patients were attended to, benefitting from services such as eye screening, voluntary counselling and testing for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis awareness and education, dental care, VIA screening for cervical cancer and general medical complaints.

A representative from the National Tuberculosis Programme Mr. Celvin Bovell was also involved in educating the residents on Tuberculosis.

Lectures were held educating the residents on health conditions. For every service Please turn to page XXIX

A patient’s blood pressure being checked at the Wales Community Centre

Residents use the traditional bicycle to get around in the village

with available medical opportunities here is a Wales resident registering prior to having a general medical check- up

Chronicle Pepperpot February 16, 2014

Roy Geddes...

From page XXIII

entertainment with the steel pan to folks at Freedom House, Robb Street, Georgetown. He noted that the admirable Dr. Jagan at no time tried to include him into the politics of the country, but instead took a neutral stand in his love and respect for the steel pan music. He said that Dr. Jagan was an inspiration to his drive for steel pan music and actually contributed to his strength to continue in this aspect despite constraints surrounding the artform at that time.

“Dr. Jagan was really a nice man who was all about patriotism.

He promoted the steel pan music well and it was him who orchestrated the formation of the first National Steel Band in Guyana in 1963.

This band performed at various functions for the workers of Guyana and was paid by the state. However, when the People’s National Congress came into power in 1964 they knocked out such steel pan performances because of their colonial mentality.”

Performances at Freedom House during Christmas season and on Old Years Night were quite a treat for Roy but though this is no more, he was delighted that through efforts by the Wilderness Explorer entity some 140 tourists visited his home on December 25, 2013.

They were of course educated on the history of the steelpan and given demonstrations on steelpan for which they were thankful and very elated.

HIS JOURNEY It all began in 1934 while he was still in his early teens, growing up in a single parent home at Leopold and Lombard Streets, Werk-en-Rust, Georgetown.

Around that time he was bombarded with steel pan music since the Chicago and the Casablanca Steel Bands were in proximity to his home. He played in both bands for about four years and also was a vibrant force in the Tripolo and Invaders Steel Orchestras during his teenaged years.

His popularity grew as his natural inborn skills and talents were noticed by the music elites as well as persons in the cultural and entertainment fields.

Soon after, he branched off with the National Steel Band of Guyana and was selected along with several others to form the National Steel Orchestra in 1962.

That year brought pleasant tidings and the orchestra was selected to play for the independence celebrations in Trinidad. The following year their musical versatility took them to Cuba where they toured the many provinces, bringing ‘tropical steel pan pleasure’ to hundreds of thousands.

Those were the years of fame and Roy reminisced on “feeling like the celebrity Michael Jackson” when he was asked to sign autographs and pose for photos.

In 1964 he teamed up with Guyanese Freddie Massay (leader of the then Mediators Steel Band) and formed the Silvertones Steel Orchestra.

There was high competition in Guyana back then but it was the Silvertones Steel Orchestra that was selected to play for the

Please Turn to page XXVIII

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. . . s e d d e G y o R From page XXVII

Queen Elizabeth II who was visiting Guyana at that time. They were the champions in this field for about a decade and also won two Guyana Music Festivals during their reign.

They did not stop there but moved on to record an LP to raise funds for the University of Guyana in the 1970s, also playing for many charity events and raising funds for churches and schools. Their many concerts in the rural areas can be remembered as events that offered much entertainment for those residing in the ‘countryside’.

Roy’s talent and well earned popularity paid off in 1984 when he was selected to travel to Tanzania and consigned to make steel pans for the Tanzanian National Service.

According to Roy, his affiliation with the Silvertones Steel

Orchestra taught him discipline, patriotism, and a sense of responsibility, while it gave him an opportunity to ‘better his life’.

Although Roy was “going places’, he had his sights set on playing a more instrumental and personal role in the improvement of pan music, which he also saw as a vehicle to transform the lives of many people.

So in the early 1970s, he established the Roy Geddes Pan School situated in his community to impart musical expertise and a trade to single parent youths and others in the society.

Roy was the recipient of the Medal of Service award in 1971 and the Golden Arrow of Achievement in 1996 for his sterling contributions and excellence as tuner, leader,

Chronicle Pepperpot February 16, 2014 player and social worker among the youths with whom he was associated.

In 2004 the Pan Podium paid him homage and featured him, while in 2005 he was featured in the magazine ‘Celebrating African Achievements’. GEM Magazine also featured his successes in 2005.

The musical stalwart was pellucid that his successes could not have been possible without the valuable assistance of his wife and Band Secretary, Pamela Geddes, to whom he has been married for over 45 years.

In an effort to preserve and further educate on the values of the art form, the Roy Geddes Steel Pan Museum was established 12 years ago and to date is the only such institution locally.

Roy quite naturally was very excited when the Culture Ministry called on him to help them establish a National Steel Band to perform during the Carifesta X celebrations.

However, he indicated that he selected five tuners along with himself to make this a reality, but was not entirely satisfied with the outcome.According to Roy, tuning of steel pans ‘has gone to another level’ and therefore needs careful and concentrated work of the highest quality.

He opined that there was no coordination in the music supplied at the various Carifesta X events since many put to do the job “were not serious about producing the best sounds from the pans and therefore did not bother with fine tuning.”

He highlighted that his greatest desire is to see that there is respectability and commercialisation of pan music.

While there is dissatisfaction with many aspects of what currently exists, Roy views himself as successful in bringing about enlightenment and improving the knowledge base and putting Guyana on the map in terms of highlighting expertise in this regard.

Describing success as “a journey rather than a destination,” Roy remains optimistic that steel pan music will be returned to its former glory.

In a recent interview with the celebrity at his Roxanne Burnham Gardens home, Geddes seemed a bit more remorseful than when we visited him in 2008. Part of his lack of jubilation was generated by horrid memories of his being beaten and robbed at his home in February of this year, when he was attacked by a lone gunman who beat him on his head with a handgun, and robbed him of two gold chains worth about $160,000, then made off in a car which was waiting a short distance away.

Roy was tending his flower garden and trimming the parapet outside of his yard when the gunman struck. He recalled that at the time he was in a bending position, trimming the parapet, and suddenly he felt a blow to his head. Spinning around, he saw a man with a ‘big gun’ and a vicious look on his face.

The intruder grabbed the chains Roy was wearing, but he put up a resistance. And for a brief moment there was a scuffle, but the bandit, being armed and younger and stronger, dealt Geddes about four blows to his head with the gun butt, causing him to fall to the ground.

The elderly man however managed to rip the bandit’s shirt off and later turned it over to the police.

Roy has gotten over that ordeal now, and seems more interested in talking about the importance of steel pan music in Guyana and his accomplishments in the field over the years.

Chronicle Pepperpot February 16, 2014

From page XXVI

Wales

being offered at the outreach, there were brochures and booklets given to residents, courtesy of the Ministry of Health.

There were about 30 medical personnel attending to residents at the outreach, including Ms. Adelina King who has been studying in China for the past six years, and who recently returned to Guyana.

PEACE SOMETIMES DISTURBED BY UNPLEASANT ACTIVITIES Our interviews far and wide dictated that Wales is by far one of the more peaceful locations on the West Demerara, but some still have memories of a few unpleasant events.

Seeroachnie Singh, a vendors who sells ‘snow cones’ and snacks, reflected on an incident not so long ago which she claimed left a damper on the village. “ Sar, this village very nice and everybady does live peacefully heh as wan, and life is beautiful. We ah get good wata, good electricity, neva mind dem can step up a little wid de drainage.

Dem still a get a few low areas wha does flood a little when the nearby Demerara Riva raise during high tide. But normally we enjay peace and solitude hea.

But nat lang ago, something happen heh that de mek we get real sad….”.

She was of course referring to the teenager who was reportedly killed in August 2012 at the Wales Sugar Estate.

Seventeen-year-old Klein Roberts, commonly called “Pop Corn”, of Lot 35 Murphy Street, Goed Intent, West Bank Demerara died instantaneously after lightning struck him.

Ms. Singh explained that the lightning penetrated the safety helmet the former student of Goed Intent Secondary was wearing at the time. His head was reportedly scorched, and blood oozed from his eyes and ears. Roberts had been working with the estate for just over three weeks.

His body was brought out of the backdam on a boat, and was taken to the West Demerara Regional Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

INFRASTRUCTURAL LAYOUT Wales is quite a striking little village with a certain yester-year allure still present from the pres-

Liming by the street side

ence of the old colonial buildings that remain in the compound housing senior staff members of the sugar estate.

This fused with the many modern structures that have evolved there today, lends a definite striking Caribbean charm to the village, fused with a startling colonial blend that exudes dashing architecture.

Cascading flowers in almost every yard infused with an array of tropical fruit trees create the comfort and dazzle of a country side haven that offers shade, coziness and blissful solitude. Roads in the village are in reasonably good condition but the main road could certainly do with some repairs from the many pot-holes that are visible in certain locations.

With the ever churning Wales irrigation trench, as most villagers call it, and its sprawling cluster of colourful buildings, this village is certainly the hot spot for those desiring some well-deserved relaxation and quietude.

WALES IN TIMES GONE BY Despite the apparent economic potential and constant social evolvement that is there, Wales was just an almost vague settlement with only about only 60 inhabitants.

Relating this story was elderly resident Selouttie Persaud popularly called by some. ‘Granny’ she has resided there almost all her life.

“In me time as a lil gal, Wales was a place that was muddy and with just about ova 18 house that was far frum each otha. We used to get lil light frum de estate, and wata too. Well we always get dem estate houses whea de staff does live, but de place was nat suh develop like now. Some areas was very bushy and underdeveloped, and people nah really used to guh round dem area dah. But soon people start move in and accupy de land and develop it, and then shaps and more business start fuh spring up, until it is wha it is today. But before ah fuhget, dere was plenty canefield left fram slavery days, and nuff, nuff waste land.”

Today this very striking village showcases businesses like Hicks New Millenium Playschool, the Madras Curry Outlet, a spanking new police station and magistrates’ court, and villagers can worship at the Sister’s Sarwattie Mandir and the few Christian churches there.

That aside, there is the

GT&T cable network for proper telephone service, S & R Poultry Shop for fresh poultry products, Rams’s Snack Shop, and so many other business that meets the necessities of residents.

We can continue to write pages of this almost mesmerising village, but one can never enjoy the ‘Wales Experience’ unless they hop into a mini-bus or ‘short drop car’ and spend some time there. You will be surprised at its tranquil beauty and the thrills of its hospitable residents. What are you waiting for folks?

Chatting with employees of the Wales Sugar Estate

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Chronicle Pepperpot February 16, 2014

15-Minute Place Settings for a Party

By Rebecca Ganesh –Ally

FANCY FLATWARE Who needs to break out the silver, Invite pops of color to the table in a surprising way. These stickers are removable so you can just add a splash of neon one cocktail party at a time.

Fancy Flatware: Supplies What You Need: Office dots Flatware Glasses (if you want to create a matching set)

A PLATE WITH EDGE Picnic in the park; Lunch on the deck. Paper plates can feel special without all the fuss. Here’s a trick: Layer plates in different colors and create a fancy border.

How To: A Plate With Edge What You Need: Paper plates Pinking shears 1. Using the pinking shears, cut around the edges of one plate.

2. Layer on top of the other plate.

HOW TO MELT CHOCOLATE Chocolate-covered strawberries, chocolate-dipped cookies?perfectly melted chocolate can take a simple dessert from delicious to divine. Low heat is the key; excessive heat can easily burn it or make it grainy.

1. Chop the chocolate Roughly chop the chocolate into small pieces, about the size of sugar cubes.

2. Place chocolate in heat-proof bowl Please see page XXXI

Chronicle Pepperpot February 16, 2014

15-Minute Place Settings ...

From page XXX

Set chocolate pieces in the bottom of your metal or glass bowl, making sure it’s heat-proof.

3. Place bowl over a saucepan of simmering water Bring about an inch of water to a simmer in your saucepan. Set the heatproof bowl in the mouth of the pot, making sure the water doesn’t touch the bottom of the bowl.

4. Stir the chocolate Stir chocolate occasionally as it softens. When you have just a few small unmelted chunks, remove bowl from heat (residual heat will melt the rest).

HOW TO APPLY MAKEUP IN 5 MINUTES When your morning is hectic and you have only minutes to make yourself look your best, follow these fuss-free approach to applying makeup. It’s guaranteed to make you look awake even when you don’t feel that way.

WHAT YOU NEED * moisturiser * foundation * mascara * lipstick or gloss * blush 1. Rinse and moisturize your face Cleanse your face quickly but thoroughly and follow up with moisturizer.

2. Dab on foundation Use foundation only where you need it to even out your overall skin tone. Focus on your chin, the sides of your nose, and around your eyes, all areas that can be prone to redness or dark shadows.

Dab it on using your ring finger.

3. Sweep on black or brown mascara

XXXI Mascara (a black shade is universally flattering; brown is a good choice for the particularly fair) opens up the eyes and makes you look refreshed.

Sweep on one coat from root to tip.

4. Apply lip color or blush Apply blush to the apple of each cheek (the roundest part when you smile), sweeping back toward the ear. On your lips, use color with a sheer or gloss finish, which requires less precision (and time) than a liner-and-lipstick combo.

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Chronicle Pepperpot February 16, 2014

The Coming of Age of Guyana’s Parks Botanical Gardens

By Neil Primus

Palm trees line the main roadway like giant sentinels. Dark, mysterious lakes snakes their way through the green landscape.

Manatees enjoy the sanitary of this dark opaque water. Birds fly overhead; some soaring majestically others darting from free to bush. Magnificent flowers decorate the terrain and strange

rustling sounds come from the lush vegetation. Like a Sleeping Beauty this national treasure waits impatiently to be awakening; wait no more.

Situated at the busy junctions of Vlissengen Road and Regent Street, just a stone’s throw away from the Office of the President of Guyana, lay the enchanting and perennial Botanical Gardens.

The oldest of our three Urban Parks, it came into exis-

tence in 1879. It now sits on 96 acres of diverse woodland.

Like the Zoological Park and the National Park this facility is ably managed by the proficient Protected Areas Commission (PAC).

Popular for its Bandstand, Kissing Bridges and Flowering Shrubs, it is the venue of choices for wedding, picnics, concerts and other more discrete activated.

It houses the Seven Ponds and Mausoleum where two of our deceased presidents were laid to rest. Parts of its attraction are the Sun dial, Kissing Bridges, Manatees and Curator’s Lodge built in 1880.

Plans are in progress to transform the Garden into a nature showpiece that will give residents and visitors a chance to embrace nature, Guyanese style.

Emphasis will be on effective drainage and intensified security.

New lights and a number of strategically placed Guard Huts will enhance security. The ring road around the Bandstand has already been upgraded. There is a swift developing ‘Comprehensive Waste Management Plan.’

Already a bird watchers’ paradise which is a sanctuary to more than 100 of the 800 species of birds found in Guyana. It is quickly developing into a Nature Tourism Hot Spot.

To the North of the Round-About is the rainforest-like ecosystem and to the South the Wetland Savannah ecosystem.

These will be preserved as an illustration of our rich biodiversity.

A dam that still exists will be recovered, re-capped and used by visitors to journey deeper into the Gardens. There will be raised, all weather walkways and a beautiful fountain.

Two of the major features that will truly transform the Botanical Gardens and enrich the ‘Garden Experience’ for visitors are the man-made Island. Though man-made, it will have a dazzling array of flowers and a majestic waterfall.

Strategic distributions of raised platforms will undoubtedly be the highlight of the new look gardens. These platforms will be raised to tree level and furnished with benches. They it will offer visitors an aerial view of the natural landscape.

The oldest urban park with many old trees and artifacts will receive a huge dose of developmental input. It will rapidly be reshaped into a recreational facility without par.

Chronicle Pepperpot February 16, 2014

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Diabetes: What you need to know. Part one

T

By Michelle Gonsalves

he bad news is that diabetes is incurable – medical science has yet to find a cure for one of the world’s most common and dangerous illnesses. The good news is that diabetes is treatable, and with proper care and self-management, most people with diabetes can live normal and healthy lives. Until a cure comes along for diabetes, the key is treatment provided by your doctor and yourself. The following are some common questions and answers people have.

Q: What is Diabetes?

A: Diabetes is a malfunction in the body’s ability to convert carbohydrates (sweet and starchy food such as fruit, bread and vegetables) into energy to power the body. The medical name for this is diabetes mellitus, meaning “honey-sweet diabetes”. As you might gather from such a name, diabetes is characterised by an abnormally high and persistent concentration of sugar in the bloodstream. Other characteristics are sugar in the urine, excessive urine production and unusual thirst, hunger and weight loss. People affected with diabetes generally require lifelong medical care to control the disease.

Q: Why are carbohydrates a problem?

A: The process of converting food into energy is called metabolism, and diabetes is often called a metabolic disorder. In a normal body, carbohydrates are converted to glucose and other simple sugars in the stomach and small intestine. Glucose moves from thee organs into the veins. The blood circulate glucose through the body where it goes to the liver, muscle and fat cells, either to be stored for later use, or to be used immediately as energy. Thus glucose enters body cells powering the muscles, heart and brain, and assisting the body in maintaining a constant temperature. A body of a person with diabetes also converts carbohydrates into sugars and sends them into the blood. But, at this point, the system comes to a crashing halt: The glucose is unable to enter the cells.

Q: Why not?

A: The answer has to do with insulin, a hormone that enables the body to burn carbohydrates.

Q: Insulin? Where does that come from?

A: It comes from the pancreas – a six-inch-long gland that is located behind the stomach.

In healthy people, the pancreas, secretes many fluids including insulin. However, in a person with Diabetes, one of two things happens: No insulin or not enough insulin is produced by the pancreas, or what the pancreas is not working properly.

Q: So insulin is important?

A: Absolutely. That one hormone enables the cells to absorb glucose for use as energy. Without it, a “glucose glut” eventually results – high levels of unused blood sugar are trapped in the blood stream.

Q: So what’s wrong with high blood sugar?

A: As sugar builds in the bloodstream, the kidneys try to pump it out. To eliminate the sugar, the kidneys must dissolve it. The more sugar to be eliminated, the more urine must be passed.

You can see how this situation quickly leads to excess urination, increased thirst, and dehydration – three of the symptoms of Diabetes. Although the kidneys effectively keep the body from being overrun with sugar, working double-time wears out the kidneys sooner than normal. Over a lifetime, such overwork

eventually brings on kidney failure. But that’s not the only problem with High blood sugar.

Q: What’s the other?

A: At the same time that the kidneys are furiously flushing the system of sugar, the body is seriously low on fuel. The body’s cells, unable to burn sugar, begin to use protein and body fat as a source of energy.

This breakdown of fats for fuel releases toxic acids called ketones. Some ketones are excreted through the urine. Eventually, however, the ketones accumulate; and at high levels, they can lead to a condition called ketoacidosis, which is in effect a poisoning of the system. In extreme cases, ketoacidosis can cause unconsciousness –what some people call a Diabetic coma, if left untreated, ketoacidosis can kill.

Q: What can happen if Diabetes goes unchecked?

A: Diabetes hastens the wear and tear on many crucial body functions. In particular, it attacks: . The Circulatory System. Diabetes leads to coronary heart disease, stroke, and circulation problems in hands and feet. Heart attacks, hardening of the arteries, amputations – these are common examples of Diabetes damage. . The Kidneys: Diabetes is the leading cause of end-stage kidney disease. . The Eyes: Diabetic eye disease, or diabetic retinopathy, is the major cause of new vision loss . The Nervous System: Nerve cells may be damaged causing severe pain or loss of feeling - a condition known as neuropathy.

Next Week: Type I and II Diabetes Sources: 1. “Diabetes Questions you have… Answers you need”. Published by: Peoples Medical Society: Pennsylvania in 1997.

2. “1001 tips for living well with Diabetes”. Published by: American Diabetes Association: Virginia, 2004.

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Chronicle Pepperpot February 16, 2014

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Chronicle Pepperpot February 16, 2014