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Chronicle Pepperpot March 23, 2014

Ruth Ann – The Ghost Child T he little girl sat on the garden swing, her head bent and hair falling loosely over her face. She sat waiting as little unholy creatures danced and played around her. They sang songs and chanted her name, their princess of their evil world but she was unmoved for soon they’ll be gone as night retreated. In the day as they slept she could leave the throne they had designed for her, a throne she hated for it held her captive to live in their world.

The sun’s ray filtering through the overgrown trees and thick, wild shrubs touched the child sitting alone in a place that seemed to have been abandoned, a long time ago. The little girl raised her head and as the sunshine brought colour to her pale cheeks and warmth to her cold skin, she opened her eyes and smiled. She was dressed for church in a pink frilly dress, stockings, shoes and her little pink bag. She slid off the swing and walking to the foot of the stairs she called, “Mom, dad, I’m ready.”

No one answered, no one had been answering for a long time.

“Where are you?” she asked quietly. “Why have you left me here all alone?”

She couldn’t cry for she had no more tears, just sadness on her pretty little face. Such a long time since that cold, dark night when the light from her eyes faded and her cheeks became pale.

“Where are you mom?” she whispered. “Please come for me.”

She passed through the rusted, wrought iron gate and waited for the neighbours, walking with them to church but no one knew she was there. No one could see the little girl who had died twelve years ago from a mysterious illness none of the doctors could have diagnosed.

People had spoken about strange voices and presences in the dead of the night but Ruth Ann’s family, unbelievers of the unnatural had dismissed those tales. As her heartbeats became less and she became paler, she had whispered incoherently about the strange little creatures dancing and laughing around her. The family sat at her bedside in the hospital, praying until the last moment but could not save her. Broken by grief at the loss of their little girl, they had drifted away one by one.

A house that was once filled with love, light, warmth and comfort was now empty, dark and cold.

Things, not human continued to live there, holding captive, the little girl’s soul so she could not ascend to heaven.

If only her family had belief.If only her grandfather had not sheltered those beings to prosper from their evil magic. He had passed on, taking with him his secret, not knowing that it was something that had to be passed on to the new generation. The family unaware of the ungodly entities the grandfather had dealings with would have to pay a heavy price for their ignorance. The little girl, the darling of the family was the price.

She played alone in the house with her Barbie dolls, no one to invite to her tea parties and fashion shows and in the afternoons she stood on the street corner, the ghost child, watching everyone pass by, hoping someone could see her, so her family could know she was still here.

No one did and at dusk, every day, she would return to the house for they were always waiting.

Close to December, on a tepid afternoon, standing at the street’s corner, she heard a voice behind her call her name softly, “Ruth Ann.” Ruth Ann spun around and stared unbelievingly at the beautiful woman standing there with dark brown hair.

“Did she just call my name?” she wondered.

Ruth Ann glanced back to see if there was someone else there, the woman was talking to but no one else was there-no one else was at the street corner.

“Ruth Ann.” She called her name again, “How is it you’re still here?”

“You can see me?”

“Yes, I can.”

“How can no one else see me, all this time and a stranger can?

Are you a ghost too? Did the evil creatures get you?”

“I’m not a stranger. I’m your friend, Anjalie.”

Ruth Ann looked at her closer, “You can’t be.Anjalie is little like me.”

“Yes, but you died Ruth. I did not. That’s why I’m grown up.”

Woman and girl stared at each other for a long moment, agony in Anjanie’s heart and opening her palm, she showed Ruth Ann, a white turtle dove.

“You gave me this for Christmas.”

Ruth Ann gasped.

“Anjanie…oh it’s really you, my best friend! Where did you go? I missed you.”

“I’m so sorry Ruth, I didn’t want you to leave and I cried until I fell ill.”

Anjanie had fallen sick since the tragedy because of her deep grief and her family was afraid she may meet the same faith as Ruth Ann had sent her overseas.

Now she was back for the first time.

No one else was at the street corner for those few moments to witness the strange reunion of two best friends.

They talked for a long while more as Ruth Ann related her story to Anjanie.

“I’ve been waiting so long. Can you find my family and tell them?”

“Sure I will.” Anjanie promised her.

The creatures were very angry, they knew and that night they vented their anger by screams, horrible screams that sent shivers down the spines of those who heard. Ruth Ann could not leave anymore, not even in the day for not even a ray of sunlight shone through the trees anymore. People converged in front of the house, talking in low whispers.They had known all along that evil lived in that manor, secluded by thick, non-flowering trees. Anjanie found her friend’s family and two days later they showed up, visibly disturbed at the story of evil in their home that was spreading like wild fire and their little girl’s ghost. After twelve long years, now the child was seeing her mother and maureen.rampertab@gmail.com | 692-2117 father who had aged so much and her sister and brother. But no one could enter, the creatures wouldn’t allow it. It was now their home and the child was repayment for their grandfather’s debts, she now belonged to them.

“Ruth!” Her mother called. “We’re so sorry my baby, so sorry we didn’t believe.We have come now to free you.”

“Thank you mom” she whispered in her mind. Kicking her ball, that hit the gate so they could know that she had heard them.

To exorcise the evil that had been living there so long, was not at all easy but days and nights of prayer sessions by renowned pastors defeated and banished the evil creatures.

Ruth Ann’s soul was now free to ascend to heaven with the angels and sunlight streamed through the trees as she bid her family goodbye. They would not leave again but stay and restore the old house in her memory.

She smiled at her friend. “If you hadn’t returned and could not have seen me, I would still be in those creatures’ captive.”

“It was God’s will, Ruth for He blessed our friendship.”

“Thank you so much my friend, goodbye.”

“Goodbye Ruth.”

Ruth Ann took the hands of the angels and she asked “Are there any Barbie dolls in Heaven?”

Chronicle Pepperpot March 23, 2014

III

By Petamber Persaud

CULTURAL FOLKLORE

(Part One)

‘Cultural Folklore, Celebrating 44’ was the theme for Mashramani 2014, Guyana’s celebration of its Republican status attained on February 23, 1970. Cultural folklore has forever captivated the imagination of the country’s writers. Cultural folklore has also captured the imagination of non-Guyanese writers who in one way or the other had experienced the intricacies of Guyana’s cultural patrimony as colonisers, missionaries or adventurers.

This paper in a series of articles will deal with some poetic contributions by Guyanese writers, the contribution by non-Guyanese writers and will attempt to examine the relevancy of cultural folklore to the Guyanese psyche.

Many of the motifs are familiar, some strange and others little known. So let’s start with the familiar and work our way into the esoteric. Let’s start at the beginning with the poem ‘El Dorado’ by A. J. Seymour which tells part of the story of the City of Gold that attracted the imagination of all European adventurers which led to the colonising of these parts and to sugar, slavery, indentureship, independence and republic. The following was witnessed by Juan Martinez ‘who came on an expedition to find gold’: That morning in reverence priests had anointed him/With sacred and fragrant balsam, then had sprinkled/The dust of gold upon his gleaming skin/He was the gilded one The gilded one was now prepared to make his sacrifice of ‘emeralds, pearls and gold...then casting his robe aside, the king descended/And washed from him the sacrificial gold’. This annual sacrifice was done in order to reclaim his loved ones from the lake.

From El Dorado, we could move to our first nations. And back to Seymour in his ‘Legend of Kaieteur’ which tells of discord among the first nations and about another sacrifice. Old Kaie the great chief sacrificed his life by going over the great falls to seek the will of Makonaima, the Great Spirit, in order to bring peace to his people.

(Later in the series we will look at Jan Carew’s treatment of the legend in prose form.)

Kaie then raised his tall/huge bulk in the boat and towered over the fall/a cruciform over the flaming mist...But of Kaie’s body never showed a trace/He sat with Makonaima before his face.

After the first nations, there were those who came by ships Portuguese, Chinese, Africans, and Indians among others. And they brought their own peculiar cultural folklore like Anancy, ole higue, baccoo, churile, moon gazer, Yemanji, Ogun, Balgobin.....

Our first sample is ‘ol higue’ by Wordsworth McAndrew.

Ol' woman wid de wrinkled skin, Leh de ol' higue wuk begin.

Put on you fiery disguise, Ol' woman wid de weary eyes Shed you swizzly skin.

Find de baby, lif de sheet, Mek de puncture wid you teet', Suck de baby dry.

Whaxen! Whaxen! Whaxen! Plai!

You gwine pay fo' you sins befo' you die.

Lash she all across she head You suck me baby till um dead?

Whaxen! Whaxen! Plai!

You feel de manicole 'cross you hip?

Beat she till blood start to drip.

"Ow me God! You bruk me hip!

Done now, nuh? Allyou done!"

Is whuh you sayin' deh, you witch?

Done? Look, allyou beat de bitch.

Whaxen! Whaxen! Pladai! Plai!

Die, you witch you. Die. Whaxen! Whaxen! Plai!

This piece titled ‘Moongaza’ by Rooplall Monar is also written in creolese.

Two a’clack ah manin Moonlight shine Daag bark Bow wow wow Fram de ole loco-line

I am designed to be a symbol of Terror Though there are some who reckon Me differently I am Maha Kali ...

Mother of the universe ..

Shrouded with terrifying esoteric misunderstanding ..

Do you know why many fear My worship?

Of course, we must never diminish the voice of our women writers. Here are two pieces by Grace Nichols; first ‘Like Anansi’ followed by ‘Yemanji’.

I was the Ashanti spider

Memba…

Neighba Stella picknie Dead blue in she belly Cause she see Moongaza Same night dem fowl cack crow Cook coo roo roo

Woman-keeper Of dreams Tenacious Opalescent Dark eyes Unblinking

Memba watchman Djoko?

Drop. Stone dead.

E mule tramp e Kick e Mash e Cause e tek shade foh Moongaza

Then you came Like Anansi...

Not at all What I was expecting

Me skin raise big!

Ow Moongaza! Moon…Ga…za!

Me picknie! Me picknie!

O Gaad neighba, Lawd!

Moongaza mouth wid blood Wait, don’t run away, there is more of the esoteric in ‘Maha Kali’ by B. Ramsarran

Yemanji Mother of seas Goddess of rivers Mother of Shango Mother of the long breasts of milk and sorrow Anancy is not alone. Here comes Balgobin to complement or counter Anancy in ‘Balgobin Khappah’ by Sasenarine Persaud.

Ehem – is me Khappah – Balgobin Khappah/...Well don’t/ ask me how abhi dhis come fuh get dhis name-yuh/know how abhi dhis West Indian staan, always giving/matti falsename but thankyuh thankyuh manijah/fuh dhis oppatunitee...

When last did you see a blue moon? Here is ‘Blue Moon’ by Cyril Dabydeen to throw some light on that nocturnal subject.

The moon turns blue, taking its life from everything around it It is flesh of the body It is the blood vessel It meets at the limits Of heart and soul In closing this part of the paper, it would be useful to quote from a poem named ‘Tradition’ by Laxhmie Kallicharan.

Swirling oceans of tradition Distilled as culture Ferment into habit 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) the National Library (telephone #226-2690) and at the airport. * It is here: ‘Anthology of Contemporary Guyanese Verse: Volume 1’ published by The Caribbean Press and compiled by Petamber Persaud. The work of twenty-one writers is captured in this 164-page book.

IV

The Shadow Bride

By Roy Heath Introduction by Ameena Gafoor The Shadow Bride (1988)1 is the eighth of nine novels published to date by Roy A. K. Heath (b. 1926). The author now lives and writes out of London, where he migrated in 1950. His novels speak directly of the unyielding landscape of his homeland, Guyana, and the social and cultural realities that inhere in its complex history of slavery, indentureship, colonialism and its aftermath.

Heath’s novels range over the whole of the twentieth century in Guyana, registering in the writer’s peculiar way the impact of conquest and colonising the lives of ordinary people.

His novelistic focus remains the urban condition, ground that has not been covered to any comparable extent by his contemporaries, the terrain that Martin Carter famously refers to as “my strangled city.” Heath’s novels, powered by what Michael Gilkes terms “urban angst”, anatomise a society mired in class schisms, poverty, power Roy Heath

struggles and powerlessness, among other adverse social forces.

Doc’s words in From the Heat of the Day (1979) could summarise Heath’s fiction: “Everybody’s making frantic efforts to get out of some deep pit… There’s always a tormentor trying to kick you back into the pit.” Heath’s first attempt to write prose fiction was in the 1960s. It came in the form of a massive novel whose burden was to portray the experiences of the Armstrongs, a coloured middle-class family living in the first half of the twentieth century, first in Agricola, a stagnant rural village on the East Bank of Demerara, and finally, moving up to the prestigious ward of Queenstown in Georgetown.

However, Heath could not find a London publisher willing to take the risk of a lengthy William Collins, 1988; New York: Persea, 1996. Winner of the 1989 Guyana Prize for Literature.

The other novels are: A Man Come Home (London: Longmans, 1974); Ameena Gafoor The Murderer (London:Allison & Busby, 1978; NewYork: Persea, 1992); From the Heat of the Day (London: Allison & Busby, 1979; New York: Persea, 1993); One Generation (London: Allison & Busby, 1981); Genetha (London: Allison & Busby, 1981) [From the Heat of the Day, One Generation and Genetha were reissued as The Armstrong Trilogy, New York: Persea, 1994]; Kwaku (London: Allison & Busby,1982; New York: Persea, 1997); Orealla (London: Allison & Busby, 1984); The Ministry of Hope (London & New York: Marion Boyars, 1997).

Chiefly, the novelists-Edgar Mittelholzer, Jan Carew and Wilson Harris and work from an unknown writer. He was encouraged to

write a shorter novel that was published as A Man Come Home in 1974. This was followed, in 1978, by The Murderer. Both novels are set in a newly independent country recognizable as Guyana.

Success inspired Heath to return to the long work he had laid aside.

He divided it into three blocks before itwas accepted and published as three separate novels: From the Heat of the Day (1979), One Generation (1981), and Genetha (1981); these paved the way for four more novels in which Heath continued his uncompromising examination of man and society. Each of Heath’s works stands by itself but their cumulative effect is an instructive and illuminating portrait of twentieth-century Guyana. To read the novels serially, in the order in which they were written, is to pursue an odyssey through a world of unrelieved post-colonial deprivation.

People of Indian origin generally owe their presence in the Caribbean to the indentureship system, initiated in 1838, ostensibly to counter a labour shortage in the a7ermath of emancipation. Indian immigrant workers were the last additions to the heterogeneous societies of the British West Indies where a creolisation process was broadly at work among the polyglot elements. The entry of the Indian was precarious as, even though by early twentieth century, Indians in Guyana constituted the largest racial and cultural block in the colony, integration was only a presumption. The social fabric is further complicated by the range of ethnicities found among Indians.

In The Shadow Bride we see relationships at work between a free Hindu woman from Kerala in South India (who is unlike her counterparts in the colony, for indentured women came largely from North India, a few from Madras); a Muslim Indian priest; a low caste Madras priest claiming to be a Brahmin Hindu; and several first generation Guyanese-born Indian characters including a medical doctor, his wife and a retinue of servants in the mansion. These are all unknowingly caught up in changes within the social structure of regulated Hindu life as transported from India.

As a Guyanese, Heath would be conscious of the presence of Indians in the society and one would expect that they would appear in his work, even though Kamau Brathwaite cautions: “Few non-Indians knew much about Indians… although Indians make up more than one third of the population, their customs and ceremonies remain quaint and even exotic.” Whilst it may seem surprising that a non-Indian writer should tackle the reinterpretation of life among Indians in the colony, Heath had more than passing acquaintance with Indians. In his unfinished autobiography, Shadows Round the Moon, he records a leap in awareness. His particular connections with Indians opened a window to their world that enabled him to come to terms with Indian presence and the reality of a racially complex society that he explores in One Generation.

It is not surprising therefore, that The Shadow Bride delivers a more in-depth treatment of Indian experience in the colony. It is Heath’s gi to those Indian Guyanese friends and acquaintances that helped shape his perceptions and sensibility. Through the eyes

Chronicle Pepperpot March 23, 2014 of a third-person omniscient narrator, who frames the text within five parts and an Epilogue, an account of Indian female experience unfolds. The work opens with Dr. Bea Singh in retirement, “looking inwards and backwards” on his growth to adolescence and adulthood and contemplating what turns out to be a certain unresolved issue in his life. It is the 1980s and the reconstruction of the character’s past is achieved through his memories and reflections. The work can be read on one level as an account of Dr. Singh’s social evolution: his resolve to be a Guyanese and his desire to be a good man and to serve his people while remaining the Indian his mother would wish him to be.

The narrative structure would suggest Dr. Singh to be the main character but readers will detect another dominant presence in the work. Singh’s mother plays such a central part in the unfolding drama and her story is so compelling that the reader accepts Heath’s decision to call the novel The Shadow Bride. Thus, on another level, the work is convincingly about the experiences of an Indian woman: her dislodgment from India and her struggle to sever ties with the ancestral land; her dilemma of adjustment and accommodation in the heterogeneous hodge-podge of early twentieth-century British Guiana; her struggle for identity and a place in patriarchal society and, above all, the struggle of a strong-minded woman to cope with “Contradictory Omens: Cultural Diversity and Integration in the Caribbean”, Savacou 1974; reprinted 1985). her inner desires.

The Shadow Bride is perhaps the first regional work of fiction not only to grapple intensely with the psychological consequences of exile and dislocation, but also to do so from an essentially female perspective. Heath must be praised for bringing female experience to centre stage as he had done earlier in Genetha (1990). Brought as a beautiful bride from the progressive state of Kerala, Mrs. Singh is astonished to discover that her wealthy Guianese husband is a nobody and has no standing in his own country or community; he plays no part in his wife’s induction into that society nor in her process of adjustment and accommodation. Upon his sudden demise when her Guianese born son,

Please see page V

Chronicle Pepperpot March 23, 2014

The Shadow Bride From page IV

Bea, is four years old, she begins to assert her “violent opposition” against colonialism and its institutions: “She had not come to the country as an indentured labourer and had no intention of suffering either directly or vicariously the humiliations heaped on the children of estate workers”, and she refuses to permit her son to attend “one of those schools where white boys sit in the front and East Indians in the back”. Mrs. Singh is determined to distinguish herself ethnically as the orthodox Indian without the stamp and stain of indentureship, to keep her son cloistered within a self-referring Hindu culture and, not least, within her own possessive grasp. Even though Mrs. Singh is not an indentured woman, her relationships and clashes with indentured Indians (around whom the plot pivots) are, nonetheless, instructive and reveal much about how transplanted people negotiate and come to terms with their new space and its possibilities.

Shunning her husband’s wish for her son to attend the prestigious Queen’s College, Mrs. Singh employs a private tutor, the reputable Mulvi Sahib, to groom him for the world and a profession in medicine (while forbidding Mulvi to impart Islamic teachings to Bea).

The protagonist is oblivious to the notion that immersion into the education system is one way for Indians to overcome the indignities of indentureship. Mrs. Singh exhibits an early desire for power not only over her son but also over the helpers and hangers-on in her household: Then, with a gesture of desperation, she went off to her room, reflecting as she went that as a girl she never defended herself, that as a wife she never raised her voice, that soon after her husband’s death she had her long hair cut, took to wearing trousers and discovered the tumult behind her expressionless face and a terrible desire to exercise power over Aji and her husband’s hanger-ons.

Even though Mrs. Singh cuts “her hair short and [takes] to wearing trousers like a man” so that her words and actions can carry weight in the patriarchal society, she remains a vulnerable, powerless creature, thrown into a state of emotional crisis when she and her maturing son clash over nationality and cultural issues.

Qualifying as a medical doctor in Ireland, Be8a Singh returns to Guiana with certain idealisms about himself and his people. He disobeys his mother and sacrifices a successful private practice in Kitty to devote his service to the malaria stricken, working-class poor on a rural sugar estate, influenced, no doubt ironically, by the Mulvi Sahib’s life and humanistic philosophy, “Sacrifice is at the heart of human experience”.

During his three-year absence from Georgetown, he chooses his own bride in contravention of the ancestral practice of arranged marriages. It is an act that enrages his mother. Mrs. Singh’s isolation deepens in proportion to her jealous rage against her son’s wife.

Mrs. Singh is a nameless character, clinging to the title“Mrs. Singh” as a social mask that links her to her husband’s wealth and large mansion; she clings even more tenaciously to the cultural mask of “Dr. Singh’s mother”, having invested heavily in her son’s education so that her own status and vanity can be enhanced. In India, Dr. Singh’s mother would have derived identity through the high esteem attached to Hindu motherhood; as such, she would have gained authority and power through her veil and would have expected nothing short of complete submission from her son but, in the New World, the ground beneath her feet shines in the face of her son’s unexpected bid for individuality. She is left psychically insecure and stranded on an alien shore, without an identity of her own or the inner resources to struggle creatively towards self-realisation.

While Dr. Singh meets his mother’s fury with “the gentle firmness he had adopted from abroad, driven by the impulse seven years of independence had kindled in him” she, on the other hand, “wanted to howl with impatience at her impotence in the face of events she could not control”. Subjugated to a “mother country” and the purity of its values, it is impossible for her to je8ison the collectivity of her Keralan culture, particularly where no viable alternative order is on the horizon in a post-colonial society that offers no myths from which the psyche can take strength.

Whether or not Heath fully understood the shi7 occurring in Hinduism in the New World, he managed to capture the degradation among some of its adherents as conveyed by C. F.Andrews in Impressions of British Guiana, 1930: An Emissary’s Assessment. Both works traverse the same historical period. In the face of proselytizers in the colonies, the upper caste immigrants moved to relax the caste system, embracing many more Hindus as Brahmins to prevent them from going over to Christianity, thus enabling illiterate self promoters (such as Pujaree) to pose as spirituals and assume and exceed religious and moral authority. An African character in The Shadow Bride is invested with

sufficient awareness of the plural society to detect that Indians had been in limbo since their historic crossing: “They had lost caste since their journey across the water, a constant complaint of those who claimed to be Brahmins, and the swi7 dismantling of the caste system that delighted many had le7 others bewildered and confused”.

The shift from spiritualism to materialism manifests itself most clearly in Pujaree, whose undue influence over a vulnerable Hindu woman complicates the crisis between mother and son, a clash that could otherwise have been taken as nothing more than a generational gap between immigrants and their Guianese-born offspring with aspirations of their own. Pujaree belongs to a band of people who exploited Hinduism in the New World, practising a perverted version of it. Mrs. Singh’s living arrangements with Pujaree, cohabiting under the guise of their being spiritual partners, would have been untenable in India, but this development only emphasizes the altering conditions of womanhood in the new dispensation of migration.

The choice between the trickery of Pujaree and the moral authority of Mulvi places certain pressures on Mrs. Singh that contribute to the acceleration of fragmentation and self division. In retrospect, Dr. Singh’s feelings of guilt spring from the thought that somehow he allowed his mother to fall prey to such a degenerate character and, by the end of the work, Dr. Singh feels responsible for the tragic state of affairs, “jolted into the realization that his mother’s death was his doing, but he could not have acted otherwise”. His sympathy for his mother remains intact: He reflected on his shame, on the chaos of his former home…even though he came to reflect sympathetically on her wilfulness and desolate condition: His animosity at his mother’s earlier behaviour passed away at the discovery of her loneliness…he examined his discovery from every angle, astonished that he had missed what lay before his eyes. She was an exile from marriage and her country, and the last link with both had been severed at Aji’s death, leaving her stranded on the shore of an unrelenting loneliness. Mulvi had known Pujaree as a “wayfarer priest … wandering the suburbs of Georgetown with his brass lotah and a cloth thrown over his shoulder… a disreputable opportunist who gave East Indians a bad name”; but he refrains from offering opinions to Mrs. Singh in her void of desolate loneliness and her increasingly temperamental moods. The way is left free for Pujaree to seize the opportunity to reinvent himself. Ensconced in Mrs. Singh’s mansion, he asserts himself as man of the house, exploits her in every sense and widens the rift between mother and son. Heath offers a graphic portrait of the predator that also illuminates the erosion of mainstream Hinduism and its traditional mores and values in an alien land: For the first time he had been roused to exercise his full rights as her spouse and protector. Standing at the head of the stairs he listened and was surprised at the spirited way she had carried out his orders.

The Pujaree had been quietly working towards this end for years.

All his actions had been regulated by his ambition… Hardly had he taken in the fact of living by her side, in the house that had dazzled him for so many years than he found himself in a position of being able to make of it whatever he chose. He was familiar with every piece of furniture in the drawing room… If life was change then he would change everything around him beyond recognition.

As we shall see, there are, in addition, certain characteristics noticed in Mrs. Singh that are not historically or culturally predetermined. A deeply divided character, Mrs. Singh enters the most challenging stage of her existence after Be8a’s abandonment of her, for even though “Kerala never ceased haunting her” and “[I]f Bea let her down, she would go back to India, to the place of longboats”, the dilemma is that return is impossible, “she could not return, for she had given birth here.”

Mrs. Singh’s isolation that begins with her son’s rejection deepens in the hands of the Madrasi Pujaree who had “gained a foothold in her house”. Her negative energy is released at the moment when she discards the medallion of Ganesha, the all knowing God of Hindu tradition, and replaces Laxshmi (the goddess of compassion, generosity, love, and fertility) with that of Durga of the Kali Mai sect (fierce warrior of war and destruction), at the Pujaree’s command: “a fire burned intensely in her and she transformed into an opposite quantity”. This departure from mainstream Hinduism throws Mrs. Singh into deeper psychic confusion than that already presented by her condition of shipwreck.

The following surreal scene with her terrorized daughter-in-law heightens the psychological realism of a work that depicts the chaos of a disintegrating mind on the brink of madness: All of a sudden the dogs reappeared at the entrance of the door. Meena, gripping the arms of her chair, closed her eyes and waited. And just as suddenly as the animals had appeared, so their gasping filled the room and

V

Meena, unable to restrain herself any longer, uttered a piercing shriek which resounded throughout the house, accompanied by the bellowing of the dogs… She then remembered that her mother-inlaw had replaced her shrine to Lakshmi, goddess of prosperity, by one to Durga, the destroyer. And just thinking of the name struck terror in her heart.

At the heart of Mrs. Singh’s dilemma is a fixation with her son whose “shadow bride” she secretly perceives herself as, and so the work can be read as a reinterpretation of the Oedipus complex. This is suggested through a dream Be8a has that convinces him of her emotional manipulation, masking as maternal love, that “could not fail to bring in its train the most terrible consequences”: Then, one night after she had petted and cuddled him while putting him to bed, he dreamt of her with staring eyes and a long tongue which hung over her lower lip.

And soon afterwards, among the numerous old calendars she kept in her camphor-wood chest, he discovered a picture of Durga in her terrible aspect, the devourer of children. The picture was red and baleful. And what remained of the experience, what lingered until his childhood was overtaken by his youth, was the ascendance of red over blue. Now he felt pity for his mother, realizing that her power was illusory, that he no longer cared to explain in detail why he was obliged to leave as soon as he could, before he was overcome by a complacence which . . . in him would be a kind of death. Shocked into recognition of this duality in his mother “transformed into an unrecognizable entity”, a version of the destructive Kali goddess Durga, Dr. Singh resolves to flee the grasp of her indomitable will and the prison-like mansion with its camphor-wood chairs and chests, its irrelevant internal laws, early in his medical career.

In spite of his maturity and education, Dr. Singh’s understanding of his mother’s character is as imperfect as when he was a child; it is even suggested that his career was strangulated as “he could take pleasure neither in his mother’s helplessness, nor in the fulfillment of his own ambition to found a hospital of his own.”

For crossing his mother’s will, Dr. Singh comes to experience the seething cauldron of her mind; she feels “the affront of her son’s abandonment deeply enough to seek revenge on someone closely related to him” and conspires with Pujaree to do evil: “In exchange for her undertaking to convert the lower storey of her house into a temple, he agreed to harm Bea’s infant son as punishment to Bea.” In the first chapter of the novel we meet Dr. Singh’s son, made invalid as a result of this evil act.

Heath’s preoccupation with the dark side of the human mind comes through clearly in all of his novels, nowhere more so than in his rendition of the dramatic psychological change in Mrs. Singh, convinced as she is that “she had arrived at the point where the road forked, where good and evil separated. And she had no doubt it was Bea’s conduct that obliged her to take the one leading to the destruction of herself at the moment when she was about to embark on the other”. The urgency of her needs and the intensity of her rebelliousness guarantee her greatness as a literary creation.

Unlike other Indian women in the colony who are bound by the rigid rules and regulations of the plantation system, however repressive they may be, Mrs. Singh is unanchored and invested with an ironic freedom. The ill?fated relationships she cultivates in her bid for power over others threaten her fragile mental condition, rendering her the most alienated creature that ever crossed the so?called “blackwaters”.

And yet Mrs. Singh’s fragmentation is not all of her own doing. This character allows us to reflect on Western theories about rational man through the irrationality and illogicality evidenced in human behaviour: When, ashamed of the absurdity of the charge she had laid at Rani’s door, Mrs. Singh broke off in the middle of her tirade, she stood near the two young women, astonished by her conduct, by the realisation, after all these years that her husband was really dead… She listened by the silence created around her by her dictatorial voice and was ashamed that Rani’s irresponsible smile had vanished and that Lathi seemed cowed by her outburst…The Shadow Bride is also instructive for Mrs. Singh’s perverse relationship with other members of her household, including her harbouring of a rootless vagrant, Sukrum, to bring calculated ruin to one of her protegés, Lathi.

Sukrumis, in turn, were responsible for the final degradation of this tragic woman. In view of her irrational and psychopathic tendencies, even Pujaree ultimately comes to fear Mrs. Singh as “a woman whose character he could never fathom”. By choosing a first generation Indian who arrives in the New World with her cultural certainty intact, the writer is able to trace the process of adjustment and accommodation into Creole society from its initial stages. Through the schizophrenic response of the Indian to her dislodgment from the ancestral land, the work comments on the sea change that Hinduism undergoes in the New World.

Mrs. Singh fails tragically in her poignant struggle to secure an identity in the New World; she cannot even understand her place in the unformed sociocultural reality of early twentieth?century British Guiana.

VI

Chronicle Pepperpot March 23, 2014

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

“DEAD” BENJIE TURNS UP ALIVE

MOSQUITO SCOURGE BRINGS COMPLAINTS FROM CITY RESIDENTS (Guyana Chronicle January 2, 1980) Residents in several areas of Greater Georgetown are complaining about mosquitoes which pester them both day and night.

They say that this is due to the fact that in most of these areas there are silt-choked trenches and drains with plots of bush and grass growing wild – situations contributing largely to the breeding of mosquitoes.

The insects are invading homes bringing misery to thousands of residents.

Salesmen are calling for thirty-two and forty-eight dollars for mosquito nets and the destroyer vendors are telling people bluntly :”one dollar and thirty five cents for a box-take it or leave it.”

(Guyana Chronicle January 15, 1980) At least one black flag was fluttering at half- mast in the compound of the Georgetown Hospital early yesterday morning following news of the death by road accident of a very popular staff member.

A feeling of shock and sadness had oppressed workers when a staff nurse reporting for duty had told of seeing the body of Fitzroy Benjamin, an attendant, after he had been struck down by a jeep on the East Bank Demerara road at Eccles.

News of 50-year old Benjie’s death soon spread to Linden and a number of people there including hospital colleagues converged on his East Bank Demerara home –only to be greeted by a very- much -alive Benjie and his wife.

At the Georgetown Hospital a grinning and laughing Benjie was later greeted with hugs and handshakes by his relieved and happy colleagues when he later turned up for duty.

One worker said that the news of the “resurrection” had already reached them.

With the cloud of sorrow dispersed and the black flags pulled down, all was normal again at the Georgetown Hospital, reports stated.

J.O.F. HAYNES RETIRES (Guyana Chronicle January 1, 1980 Chancellor of the Judiciary Joseph Oscar Fitzclarence Haynes O.R., S.C goes on pre-retirement leave today after serving in that office for the past three years.

Chancellor Haynes will be succeeded by Justice Victor Crane who has been serving as Chief Justice since the retirement of Justice Harold Bollers around September last year.

In 1976 he succeeded as Chancellor Sir Edward Luckhoo who was appointed High Commissioner to India.

It is understood that a special sitting of the Guyana Court of Appeal will be held to honour retiring Chancellor Haynes who has had a brilliant career both as a practising lawyer and as Head of the Judiciary.

BELVEDERE (Guyana Chronicle January 5, 1980)

This is a hotel famous throughout the Caribbean: Belvedere Restaurant-Bar Nite Club and Disco; Dance tonight with nonstop disco music; featuring the latest disco records from the U.S.A. Proper Dress is required.

Undesirables will be refused admission/service.

NINTEEN-YEAR OLD LAD IS HERO OF ILL-FATED MOTOR VESSSEL MARLA K (Guyana Chronicle January 14, 1980) A seaman was reported drowned and 10 other persons including two women were rescued after being left adrift in the Atlantic when the vessel in which they were travelling, capsized and sank some fifteen miles off Cromarty Corentyne on Monday morning.

Hero of the ill-fated vessel Marla K was 19-year old Trevor Tappin who swam fifteen miles to shore and reported the incident to the Springlands Police.

Tappin a strong swimmer, said that he was helped by the tide which enabled him to swim the distance in a reasonable time.

Telling the story about the tragedy yesterday he disclosed how the Marla K with more than 5,000 bags of fertiliser consigned to the Guyana Rice Board at Corriverton suddenly capsized giving the crew no time to launch life boats.

According to him from the time the vessel started to take water the battery exploded thereby putting their radio transmitter out of commission.

In a mad haste for safety the most some of them could have got were life jackets, he explained.

Some of those with life jackets had to be content with holding on to a log that was floating in the ocean for the lifeboats had drifted away with the tide within seconds.

Tappin said that it was the necessity for early rescue and the safety for himself and others that made him decide to chance swimming for land in the choppy sometimes shark infested waters.

His objective he said was to reach land as quickly as possible so that he could have help sent to his colleagues who were drifting in the ocean.

During the journey to shore he did see sharks but according to

him they were far away and did not constitute any danger to him.

On reaching land he hurried to the Springlands Police Station and reported the matter.

The Police acted promptly and immediately arranged for a number of fishing boats and private launches to speed to the area.

He said that arrangements were also made for a helicopter to fly out the same time but he learnt that the helicopter could not make the trip until later that day.

However as a result of the thoughtfulness and bravery of Tappin in having the matter reported early, ten of the eleven on board were rescued by the rescue party.

The man who is still missing as a result of the mishap and is feared drowned is Albert Hunte 32 of Albouystown .

The survivors described how they had sung hymns of praise while they were adrift in the ocean and they have associated their rescue to the help of the Supreme Being.

However they agreed that they had much to thank Tappin for their safety.

Had it not been for his early report on the incident, they said it might have turned out that the rescue party might have been sent out at a time when it would have been too late to save their lives.

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

Chronicle Pepperpot March 23, 2014

Defendant found guilty of using private car for hire ‘Police trap - No need for corroboration’

DESPITE the fact that a magistrate, in a private car for hire case in 1960, made no mention in his memorandum of reasons about unchallenged and unrebutted evidence, the Full Court nevertheless upheld the guilty decision.

As a consequence, the appeal by Sooknandan was dismissed with costs to the respondent.

In a prosecution for using a private car as a hire car, a police decoy gave evidence that he joined the car at Leonora, when it already had four passengers.

One of them left the car at Windsor Forest, after giving the defendant some money; and later, the decoy himself disembarked, after paying the defendant 50 cents.

The evidence about the payment at Windsor Forest was unchallenged, but it was contended by the defendant that it has not been established that the payment was for a place in the car and that the evidence did not therefore disclose that the vehicle had been used for conveying passengers at separate fares stage by stage, or stopping to pick up or set down passengers along the line of route, and that as the magistrate did not advert to this aspect of the

matter in his memorandum or reasons for decisions it should not be assumed that he had in fact directed his attention to it.

The Full Court, constituted

by Chief Justice J. A Luckoo and H. B. S Bollers, held: (i)

if the decision reached by him can be supported.

The court cited the case of Gonsalves vs Chairman of the Poor Law Commissioners, 1939, L. R. B. G. 68 and said it was applicable to the Sooknandan case. The appeal was

in the case of a police trap there is no requirement that the evidence of the decoy should be corroborated. All that is necessary is that it should be acted upon with caution; (ii) as a court of rehearing the Full Court is entitled to look at the specific findings of fact made by the magistrate together with other unchallenged and unrebutted evidence not adverted to by him in his memorandum of reasons for decision to see

therefore dismissed.

J.O.F Haynes Q.C and E. A Romao, Senior Crown Counsel appeared for the appellant and the respondent respectively.

According to the judgment of the Court the appellant Sooknandan was convicted by the magistrate of the West Demerara Judicial District on a charge of using an unlicensed vehicle, contrary to Section 23 (1) of the Motor Vehicles and Road Traffic Ordinance, Cap. 280, as provided by Section 20 (2)

- Full Court

of the said Ordinance. Against this conviction he has appealed.

The case for the prosecution was to the effect that on June 4, 1960 on the Vreed-enHoop, Public Road in the West Demerara Judicial District, the appellant used motor car no: PJ 231 for which there was in force a licence as a private car as a vehicle for carrying passengers for hire for reward at separate fares stage by stage or stopping to pick up or set down passengers along the line of route.

Such latter user was for a different purpose and different user from that for which the car was licensed. Under the schedule to the Ordinance the licence fee for the latter user is substantially higher than that for user as a private car.

The evidence on behalf of the prosecution disclosed that one Chapman (decoy) was given a marked dollar note by the police at Leonora. Chapman was given certain instructions by the police in consequence of when he went to a spot on the public road at Leonora near to a gasoline station.

The defendant was driving the car east along the public road at Leonora and was stopped by Chapman who asked him how much he would charge to take him to Vreed-en-Hoop.

The defendant replied “50 cents” and told Chapman to get into the car. There were at that time four other persons in the car. At Windsor Forest on the way to Vreed-en-Hoop, the car stopped and one of the four persons left the car after giving the defendant some money.

The car was driven to Vreeden-Hoop and at the junction of West Coast Demerara and West Bank Demerara roads Chapman disembarked and paid the defendant with the marked dollar note receiving back 50 cents from the defendant.

The three other persons remained in the car. As the appellant was about to drive off Cpl. Lewis and Police Constable McLean, who were in ambush, came up. At their request the appellant produced the marked dollar note.

The appellant stated that

VII

By George Barclay he had taken Chapman without charge and did not accept any money as a fare or servant from him. He also denied that he produced any money to the police.

The magistrate did not accept the defendant’s story and found that Chapman’s evidence was corroborated in material particulars to his satisfaction.

It is to be observed that in the case of a police trap there is no requirement that the evidence of the decoy should be corroborated. All that is necessary is that it should be acted upon with caution.

The Full Court judgment revealed: “In this case before us we are of the opinion that the evidence does support the decision of the magistrate.

The appeal is dismissed and the conviction and sentence affirmed with costs to the respondent.”

VIII

Chronicle Pepperpot March 23, 2014

Plaque: A major cause of gingival, periodontal disease, tooth decay

How Do I Mend My Broken Life

My name is Matthew. I am 32 years old, soon to be 33. I am single, have been since my ex-girlfriend left me five years ago. Prior to that, I was in a deeply committed relationship which culminated in a beautiful child we both planned and wanted, but alas, the relationship fizzled out.

I was recently involved with a woman a few years my senior, who was and is great. But that relationship would not have worked out anyways.

I always felt a twinge of guilt and regret because I could not or would not give the same amount of positive attention to my child.

I've also claimed bankruptcy at a younger age, been involved in a series of failures from eviction to delinquent accounts to three dismissals from employment. I've worked for over 30 companies in a wide variety of settings, including janitorial, surveyor helper, plumber, glass installer, pipe fitter, laborer and hunting guide. As such, I have moved incessantly.

Throughout this debacle or ordeal, I consumed alcohol which led to isolation, disagreements, fallings out, broken hearts and an overall trend that wasn't good. I've given up drinking but I'm still plagued by doubts, insecurity and a horrible credit rating.

I'm not focused on employment anymore, but my life. That includes a loving relationship. How do I gain the footing I need to actively seek a meaningful partner now, with no credentials and a disastrous path forged by my alcoholism?

MATTHEW Matthew, you've gone from child to adult. Now you need to go from adult to mature adult.

One characteristic of the mature adult is that they don't look for a breakthrough moment or epiphany. They don't look for a person who will make their life right. They look to make their own life right.

Mature adults know a good life comes from the small decisions made every day. Mature adults know simple disciplines over time create great results. Mature adults know they already possess the wisdom they need.

You are a fit guy and a smart guy. Make a list with two columns. On the top of the first column, draw an arrow pointing up. In the second column, draw an arrow pointing down. Under the up arrow, list what fills you up, makes you proud, gives you energy. List your successes, even if you have to go deep into childhood to find them.

Under the down arrow, list what drains you, embarrasses you, creates problems for you.

All you have to do is live life from the first list. Every decision you make comes from the first list.

When bad things from the second list kick up in your mind, grab something from the first list, think about it and relive it.

You said you are not now focused on employment, but on your life. Does that mean you want your reward now? "Give me the medal. I'll run the race later." That's backward. You run first, then get the medal if you deserve it.

You want a meaningful partner. The problem is, the woman of your dreams isn't dreaming about you.

It's hard but true. You want to date up. Way up. That's the mindset of someone who thinks they deserve better than the life they have lived.

You do deserve better. But you have to earn it. That's what maturity means.

People who live chaotic lives usually come from a chaotic background. If that is your case, you have to be ruthless. Everyone who leads you the wrong way gets fired from your life. You have to exceed what you were shown. You can't limit yourself to what they were or are.

The most important thing now is faith. Faith that you can do it.Because you can. Because we know you can. Next week we will outline in concrete detail what you can do to turn your life around.

WAYNE & TAMARA

Most people will tell you that they have heard of plaque, but few would be able to explain its composition and the role it plays in dental disease. Now, plaque is a soft, adherent film that collects on the surfaces of teeth. Seventy percent of it is made up of germs (bacteria, fungi and viruses). The remaining thirty percent is called the matrix which is actually the framework that holds it together.

Plaque is found in all mouths and makes up part of the natural flora (parasites) of the body. The most common sites where plaque is found are occlusal pits and fissures (the biting surface of back teeth), cervical (neck) margins of teeth and in periodontal pockets (the sack of gum that surrounds each tooth). Patients can be made aware of plaque in their mouths by using a disclosing solution or tablets.

Plaque is a major causative factor in gingival (gum) and periodontal disease and a contributory agent of tooth decay. In fact, most dental problems that we human beings face are due to plaque. Even in people with good tooth-brushing skills, one would need to brush and floss approximately every 3 minutes in order to prevent plaque from forming.

In a healthy mouth, there is a natural balance of bacteria, but when illness or antibiotics (for example) upset the balance of the mouth’s flora, or when teeth are not cleaned often and/or appropriately, plaque matures. Waste products from the bacteria, enzymes and toxins then cause the inflammatory

response in the gingival tissues leading to gingivitis. Depending on a person’s response, gingivitis can progress to periodontitis (chronic gingivitis).

In recent years, dental plaque has been recognised as a biofilm. The concept of a biofilm is of huge importance not only to dentistry, but also to the wider medical world and many sectors of industry.

Since the 1990s, there has been a huge amount of research into biofilms, which reflects our growing understanding of their importance.

A biofilm, in simple terms, is a thin layer of bacteria that adheres to a surface. Over ninety-five percent of bacteria in nature exist in a biofilm state as opposed to living independently. Contact lenses, rocks in rivers and aspirator tubing in the dental surgery are all examples of surfaces colonised by biofilms. Within a biofilm, bacteria are not just sitting alongside one another passively; they are communicating, interacting and gaining benefits from one another. In other words they act as a team.

This is what makes a biofilm so virulent, resilient and difficult to manage.

Bacteria being the most common germ found in plaque biofilm can be classified into groups in a number of ways, including whether they need oxygen (aerobic) or not (anaerobic) to survive.

The majority of bacteria in a healthy mouth come from the oxygen-dependent species which live in areas of the mouth where oxygen is readily available. When resistance is lowered, they can give rise to sore throats and other illnesses, but are less harmful than their non-oxygen-dependent relatives.

Bacteria that need oxygen (aerobic) feed on sugar from the human diet, and in doing so, produce sticky substances that enable other more harmful germs to attach themselves, causing plaque to become more dense and harmful to tissues. On the other hand, anaerobic bacteria can cause far more disease when producing their poisons because they do not need oxygen to survive so they can penetrate deep in the gums. So, in event of an oral infection, the dentist needs to prescribe drugs to kill both the bacteria on the surface and those that penetrate deeply.

Chronicle Pepperpot March 23, 2014

FOLKLORE

IX

Long John Run

I

By Neil Primus

t was a full moon night. Every dark area was under assault shadows came to life shifting and jumping with alacrity. Bats and owls went about their usual business.

The side dam was quiet as if waiting to be awakened. It did not have to wait long.

Long john was exactly as his name implied and more. He was tall and boney-to-boot. He looked like a matured matchstick man.

Every night he sat at Balram’s rum shop and drank himself silly.

Then he would stumble and fall all the way home. John lived alone after the death of his wife four years ago. He had retired so did not have to worry about getting up early for work the following day.

The side dam did not see too many late travellers with the exception of Long John. Tonight was no different. The tall lanky man was making his way along the bushy damn. As he staggered along he hummed a drunken melody.

His path took him one side of the damn then the other in an organised zig-zag pattern. It was as if he had measured the distance for each cross. After he covered over 100 yards = 300 zigzag yards, he paused to catch his breath and to take a drink. As usual he had a quarter in his pocket for the road. He pushed on.

The side dam was about two miles long and John would cover that distance in about an hour or an hour and a half. An hour if half-drunk and an hour and half if high as a kite. Tonight he was higher than an orbiting satellite.

From one side of the dam to the next, this way and that, bean pole John made his way homewards. He came into contact with trees, bushes, insects and birds. None made any impact on him.

If a bird flew out of a clump of bushes he was approaching he would smile and point a wavering unsteady finger at it. If a tree made a swishing noise he would glare at it and with finger on his lip telling the annoying tree to hush.

John stopped for a water break in some bushes at the side of the dam. After relieving himself he lumbered off heading for the opposite side. Growing out of the side of the dam and directly in his path was a large old coffee tree.

This was nothing new to the traveller. He had passed it on many previous occasions and would do so for many more. The moonlight was brilliant so the area under the tree was easier to see. Standing under the tree and smiling at John was a woman.

This too was nothing new to him. He had many women smile at him but none on a lonely moonlight night, on a side dam under a coffee tree. This struck him as odd.

He halted and peered at the figure. She was young, beautiful and white. Strange! Turning aside he tried to avoid the tree and continue on his way. As he took his new course away from the tree he was shocked to see the same woman in front of him. His thoughts were confused. How could she be two

places at the same time? He almost fell over trying to look back at the coffee tree. There was no one there.

Turning away from the figure in front of him he headed for the next side of the damn when he got there guess who got there first?

The white woman! Her long black hair blowing in the wind and gave her a spooky appearance. John was becoming more and more worried.

Even though he was very drunk he knew he was in trouble. This was too weird. He tried this side then that, zig then zag. Each time she was there smiling and blocking his path. In total confusion and mounting fear he turned back and headed in the direction he had come.

His passage back went smoothly for a while until he round-

ed a corner and saw her there in the middle of the road. John stopped and glared at her. He was becoming angry now. No woman should torment a man this much. She stood feet apart, hands akimbo in the middle of his path with her ready smile and unruly hair.

The moonlight made her white dress glow and her dark hair shimmered in its unrelenting beam. Slowly and steadily the moonlight began to disappear as a large cloud obscured the moon. Slowly and steadily the spectacle in front of him underwent a horrific transformation. The hair changed from black to grey to silver the dress seemed to fade away leaving the most terrifying sight behind.

There stood before him a skeleton with red glowing eyes and silver flowing hair.

We all know that very tall people are sometimes awkward.

And very tall, very drunk people are even worse off-and all that on a full moon night, on a lonely sideline that spelt big trouble, but not for Long John-not tonight.

When Long John realised the thing in front of him was a spirit, he went into full panic, then survival mode. In panic mode his eyes bulged, his mouth opened wide and a scream that could be heard back at the rum shop exploded from his mouth.

His survival was something special to see. Imagine a sixty-year old retired man, drunker than ten barrels of high wine being able to out jump an olympic high jumper and out sprint Osafo Powell without chemical assistance.

Long John took off. He jumped eight feet straight up and ten feet across clearing the skeleton like LIAT flying over GT. When his feet hit the dam they were already in fifth gear.

Zoom!

Each time the spirit appeared in front of him he did the high jump. When he landed he did the 100 metres in record time. John’s speed took him pass Balram and straight into the police station.

This action caused great inconvenience to the cops. When John rushed in screaming incoherent at the top of his voice he woke all the on duty cops. Men dived for cover thinking that the station was under attack. When they realised that it was drunken Long John they cussed him up fo so and locked him up for the night.

The strange thing that they could not understand was John thanking them for locking him up. Just before he fell asleep he heard one of the angry cops saying to his partner who was now going back to sleep.

“Wow! Check that sweet white chick on de road. I gon try a thing.”

With that he headed for the door and Long John shut his sober eyes tight and started to pray.

X

Chronicle Pepperpot March 23, 2014

Guyanese Women in History:

First Women elected to the British Guiana Legislature Three women, Janet Jagan, Jane Phillips Gay and Jessica Burnham were the first females elected as Members of British Guiana Parliament in May 1953 after the first universal adult suffrage elections were held in the same year.

Former First Lady Janet Jagan became the first female Deputy Speaker of the Legislature in 1953; the first female Prime Minister in March 1997 and the first female President of Guyana in December 1997.

Jane Phillips-Gay was a trade unionist and an ordained Baptist minister. She attended Georgetown’s St. Ambrose Primary, Brickdam Roman Catholic, Christ Church Anglican and the Collegiate School from 1918 to 1930. She became involved in trade union activities in the 1940s. Jessica Burnham was the sister of former President Forbes Burnham and a member of the People’s Progressive Party.

Jessica Burnham, Jane Phillips-Gay and Janet Jagan in 1953

***************************************************** Precipitation (rain and snowfall) has increased across the globe, ***************************************************** Spruce bark beetles have boomed in Alaska thanks to 20 years of warm summers. The insects have chewed up 4 million acres of spruce trees. ***************************************************** DNA was first discovered in 1869 by Swiss Friedrich Mieschler ***************************************************** The molecular structure of DNA was first determined by Watson and Crick in 1953. ***************************************************** The first synthetic human chromosome was constructed by US scientists in 1997. ***************************************************** The thermometer was invented in 1607 by Galileo. ***************************************************** The planet is warming, from North Pole to South Pole and everywhere in between. Globally, the mercury is already up more than 1 degree Fahrenheit (0.8 degree Celsius), and even more in sensitive polar regions. And the effects of rising temperatures aren't waiting for some far-flung future. They're happening right now. Signs are appearing all over, and some of them are surprising. The heat is not only melting glaciers and sea ice it's also shifting precipitation patterns and setting animals on the move. ***************************************************** Ice is melting worldwide, especially at the Earth's poles. This includes mountain glaciers, ice sheets covering West Antarctica and Greenland, and Arctic sea ice. ***************************************************** Researcher Bill Fraser has tracked the decline of the Adélie penguins on Antarctica, where their numbers have fallen from 32,000 breeding pairs to 11,000 in 30 years. ***************************************************** Sea level rise became faster over the last century. ***************************************************** Some butterflies, foxes, and alpine plants have moved farther north or to higher, cooler areas.

Astronauts cannot belch as there is no gravity to separate liquid from gas in their stomachs.

Chronicle Pepperpot March 23, 2014

By Rebecca Ganesh – Ally Perfect Picnic Menu The Easter holidays are fast approaching, and picnics will be the attention of all. What makes the perfect picnic menu? Prepare and pack up these delicious appetizers, side salads, sandwiches, drinks, and desserts for any outdoor occasion.

Picnic Appetisers The best appetiser recipes to bring to a picnic are those that you can easily make ahead, like dips, spreads, and finger foods.

1. Fresh Avocado Dip - You can dip tortilla chips for a Mexican flair, or try dipping fresh-cut veggies for that freshfrom-the-garden taste. Our Fresh Avocado Dip is perfect for anytime-snacking.

What you’ll need: * 3 ripe avocados, peeled and pitted (see Note) * 1 garlic clove, chopped * 1/2 cup salsa * 2 teaspoons lemon juice * 1/4 cup chopped fresh or 4 teaspoons dried cilantro * 1/2 teaspoon salt * 1/4 teaspoon black pepper * 1 medium-sized ripe tomato, chopped What to Do: Place all ingredients except the tomato in a medium bowl; mash with a potato masher or fork until chunky. Stir gently until well combined.

Transfer to a 9-inch pie plate or shallow serving bowl and top with the chopped tomato Cheesy Beer Dip - This one's for adults only, so mix up a batch, put your feet up, and relax. We all deserve a little quiet time and there's no better way to enjoy it than with this spicy Cheesy Beer Dip. What you’ll need: * 2 cups (8 ounces) shredded Mexican cheese blend * 1/2 cup thick and chunky salsa * 1/4 cup beer What to Do: 1. In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine all ingredients; cook 3 to 5 minutes or until smooth and the cheese is melted, stirring frequently. Serve immediately.

PICNIC SANDWICHES No picnic menu is complete without sandwiches! Picnic sandwiches are a cinch to make at home and travel easily, making them the perfect pack-along meal. Whether you prefer fancy wraps or classic sandwiches, you'll love tasty picnic sandwich recipes!

Croissant Club Sandwiches There is something fun about taking an old standby recipe and and spicing it it up a bit. Here we took our favourite club sandwich and team it with a French croissant. Voila!

What you’ll need: * 1 cup mayonnaise * 2 tablespoons real bacon bits * 8 large croissants, split * 8 romaine lettuce leaves * 1 pound thinly sliced deli turkey * 1 large tomato, cut into 8 slices (see Notes) What to Do: 1. In a small bowl, combine the mayonnaise and bacon bits; mix well and spread equally over the croissant halves.

2. Layer the lettuce, turkey, and tomato equally over the bottom croissant halves; replace the tops of the croissants and serve.

Layered Sandwiches No more hearing, "I want this!" or, "No, I want that!" Serve everybody a slice of this combo sandwich and they'll have a chance to sample everything!

What you’ll need: * 1 (1 pound) loaf bakery white bread, unsliced

* 1 (6-ounce) can tuna fish, drained * 3/4 cup mayonnaise, divided * 1/2 teaspoon dried dillweed * 4 ounces (1/2 of an 8-ounce package) cream cheese * 1/4 cup chopped green olives with pimientos * 4 chopped hard boiled eggs * 3 tablespoons sliced black olives, drained (about 1/2 of a 2.25-ounce can) * 1/4 teaspoon salt * 1/8 teaspoon black pepper What to Do: 1. Turn bread on its side lengthwise. Slice a 3/4-inch slice from bottom. Repeat 2 times more so that bread is in 4 equal long pieces; set aside.

XI

2. In a small bowl, combine tuna, 1/2 cup mayonnaise, and dillweed. In another small bowl, combine cream cheese and green olives. In another small bowl, mix together eggs, remaining mayonnaise, black olives, salt, and pepper.

3. Spread each of 3 fillings evenly on a layer of bread, then stack layers on top of one another.

4. Cover layers with top of loaf. Slice loaf into 3/4-inch thick slices as you would a loaf of bread, and serve.

XII

Chronicle Pepperpot March 23, 2014

Kareena and Genelia host dinner party in Mauritius Katrina Kaif to work with Salman Khan’s arch rival, Shahrukh Khan yet again!

Shahrukh Khan and Katrina Kaif surely created magic on the silver screen when they worked together for Yash Chopra’s Jab Tak Hai Jaan. And it seems that the two are all set to share the screen space yet again in the upcoming film, Raees. Yes, as per the latest buzz, Kat has been offered the film and apparently, she has given a go-ahead.

“Katrina is in talks to play the lead role. They have been discussing it for a while now, but latest developments suggest that she has given them a goahead. This will be her second film with Shahrukh Khan after Jab Tak Hai Jaan,” a source was quoted by a tabloid.

For those of you who don’t know, initially, Sonam Kapoor was being considered to play the lead role, but she opted out of the film to work with SRK’s arch rival – Salman Khan in Sooraj Barjatya’s upcoming

film, Prem Ratan Dhan Payo.

Currently Kat is shooting with Hrithik Roshan for Bang Bang, after which she will be working onJagga Jasoos opposite Ranbir Kapoor, but it looks like this film will be pushed

ahead, courtesy trouble in Ranbir-Katrina’s paradise. Besides these two films, she doesn’t have too much on her plate as of now, so a lead role in Raees might be just right for her. After all, who wouldn’t want to work

The entire cast of Humshakals has been shooting in Mauritius and has been away from home for quite some time now. What we hear is that when Kareena and Genelia learnt that Saif and Ritiesh were feeling home sick they immediately decided to go and visit them on the sets in Mauritius.In fact, when Kareena and Genelia landed on Sajid Khan’s films sets they surprised everyone by throwing a Dinner party for the entire cast.

A source close to the team said, ‘It was a party time when Kareena and Genelia came on the sets. They decided to have a small get together for the entire cast and surprised everyone by throwing a Seafood and Salad dinner party for them. Everyone had a great time together and the party went on for a really long time.’

Well, we are sure that Humshakals team had some more fun time on the sets!!

with King Khan, hai na?

Anyway, considering Katrina is still friends with Salman even after their break-up, we wonder what the Dabangg Khan has to say about Kat working with SRK in Raees.

Deepika Padukone replaces Kareena Kapoor Khan in Karan Johar’s Shuddhi The war between the once number one heroine and the current Bollywood queen is taking interesting twists and turns Deepika Padukone has replaced Kareena Kapoor Khan as the heroine in Shuddhi. This is not first time that Padukone gal has stepped into Bebo’s shoes in a movie. Apparently Karan

Johar is keeping this news under wraps, now wethinks this is wise decision considering Kareena’s successful stint with Dharma Productions has hit all time low. Kareena was left huffing and puffing when one of the most awaited film of hers was delayed innumerable times thanks to Hrithik Roshan’s

health at first and followed by work commitments. With the recent development we’re sure that Ms Kapoor Khan will turn green with envy.

Apparently Hrithik had informed Kareena in advance about his exit from KJo‘s movie, Roshan Jr chose to work with Katrina Kaif in Bang Bang over reuniting with Kareena on screen after a decade. While both Johar and Karan Malhotra

made announcements initially stating that the Agent Vinod heroine would remain an integral part of the film, Johar later did reveal that he couldn’t ask Kapoor gal to wait for his movie to start forever. What followed was unexpected for KKK, whose films with Farhan Akhtar Bombay Samurai were shelved.

Kareena had lost out on Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Goliyon Ki Rasleela Ram-Leela and now we hear that once a frontrunner to play SLB’s Mastani in his film Bajirao Mastani, Kareena is no longer in the race. And if buzz is to be believed then Deepika might oust Bebo and become the heroine in Bhansali’s film too.

Kangana replaces Vidya After Kahaani, Sujoy Ghosh was ready for his another edgeof-the-seat thriller, Durga Rani Singh. The director had said that he will make his next with Vidya Balan and no one else. According to sources, Vidya is on her way of becoming a mother and thus had to drop out of the film. However Sujoy found his new actress in Kangana Ranaut. Post the success of Queen, Kangana has impressed everyone with her stupendous act and hence it was an obvious choice for Sujoy to replace Vidya with Kangana. Looks like Kangana is the new of toast of the town.

Vivek Oberoi to dub for Electro in Hindi ‘Spider-Man’ In the original version of the film, Electro is played by Oscar winning actor Jamie Foxx.

“We are very happy to have Vivek on board for the Hindi version of `The Amazing Spider-Man 2`. The Hindi version is a large part of our box office and it`s a very important role that Vivek will be playing in its success. Vivek has played a villain so brilliantly in the past and is already a familiar face in the genre. Kids in particular love him,” said Kercy Daruwala, MD Sony Pictures India.

Vivek said he agreed to dub for the voice of Electro because he has been a huge fan of the web-casting superhero.

“I will be Electro`s voice in the Hindi version of `The Amazing Spider-Man 2`. I have always been a huge fan of the Spider-Man comics and films. Max Dillon/Electro is an immensely fascinating and complex character and it will be interesting to face off with Spider-Man,” said Vivek, who played a negative role in his last Bollywood release `Krrish 3`.

The actor has already begun dubbing for the character. The film starring Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man and Emma Stone as his lady love will release in India on May 1.

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“I like rich men who spend money on me, money turns me on”

- Actress Lizzy Gold Onuwaje Lizzy Gold Onuwaje is Miss Detlta State 2006 turned actress. Here is what she told Vanguard about men and wealth “My former affair didn’t crash because I went into acting. The basic truth is he doesn’t have money, so I decided to end the relationship. I dumped him in 2013 because he didn’t have much in terms of money and he didn’t have any push as my kind of man.

I like men that are caring. You have to be rich, caring, romantic and nice. Some men are rich but stingy. Be rich and be willing to spend the money. If I tell you I need anything, let me get the alert. I like alerts (Laughs). Alerts turn me on.

Of course, if you don’t have money, don’t even bother to call my line. Don’t even bother to admire my pictures (Laughs).

I love money so much. I can’t marry a poor man. Never! I need a rich man; I don’t want a man that is a bit okay. Money means a lot to me. In fact, money turns me on. I just need to imagine so much money in my account and I’m turned on.

When I get a credit alert on my account, Oh my God, I get turned on immediately.

If you are not rich; I can never be attracted to you. I like rich, clean, fresh guys. When I say rich, I don’t mean ‘Yahoo’ kind of guys, because they are not hard working. I want a guy who is consistent with his work and rich. Right now, I’m okay where I am, so I don’t think I’ll leave him for any other. “

TRUE? Nollywood Producer Ken Okafor Says Actresses $exually Harass Producers To Get Roles In an interview with Punch, Nollywood producer Ken Okafor said: “When I was shooting my first movie, Dangerous Licence, I got a call from an actress asking me where I was. I told her I was in my hotel room. She said she really wanted to see me but I told her I would see her on set the next morning as it was late at night. She insisted that it was an emergency and pleaded with me to give her the address of my hotel. Reluctantly, I gave her the address. I met her at the bar and she was seductively dressed.

She said she needed to be in the movie and came to do her own audition in my room. She said she would have oral sex with me and make my night. I felt pity for her and asked why she was doing this and she said it was the way to rise in the industry. Out of pity, I cast her in my movie and urged her not to let sex become the key to her career. It was quite an awkward moment for me.”

“It is natural and human for a producer to find an actress attractive and ask her out for a date. What I see as sexual assault is when you are forced to accept such. Producers are constantly sexually harassed by actresses but we are always quiet about it.

However, I am not denying its true existence, it happens.”

Nollywood Actor, Emeka Ossai Talks About Men Been Emotionally Abused In Relationships Here is what the Nollywood actor told a reporter when asked about his new project.

You were talking about an initiative to be known as Men Against Spousal Psychological and Emotional Abuse (MASPEA), kindly tell us about that. What it is, what do you want to achieve and how do you intend to go about it?

This issue of spousal abuse campaign started with a lot of men irresponsibly abdicating their responsibilities to spouses and families and resorting to sundry abuses. So appropriate laws were made to protect women and punish men who are guilty. This noble step has itself been increasingly abused by a lot of wayward women to gag and further punish innocent men to the point of death. A lot of men these days are walking corpses who due to gross psychological and emotional abuse have become empty shells waiting to drop.

Women have become increasingly aloof in a supposed union

with their spouses, while the men have become increasingly powerless to even complain, lest they are labelled as insecure. We are saying enough is enough! Even though I do not have this experience in my marriage, I have come across these in people who have confided in me, those I have counselled and some others I have observed.

These days you have cases of women beating up their husbands, beheading some, doing bodily harm or wrecking them emotionally with no one in the society reacting. But on the other hand, mere exchange of words with a woman can result to a lot of societal backlash. This is unacceptable! So under my leadership, we have started a movement of Men Against Spousal Psychological and Emotional Abuse (MASPEA). We intend to sensitise fellow men to this ravaging plight and the society in general to wake up to this new reality.

We will encourage abused men to speak up and relate their experiences, engage women of vintage upbringing who do not

encourage this trend and are ready to do something about it; and organise counselling for healing and support. We will be launching our social media pages and website soon to start the sensitisation process.

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Chronicle Pepperpot March 23, 2014

How Technology is Changing the Way Children Think and Focus

A few days ago, I heard my little niece (over Skype) singing the Hanuman Chalisa (Hindu Song) with the help of a Samsung Galaxy S4. She did exceedingly well for a two-year old kid-o.

The environment of a child’s earliest years can have effects that last a lifetime. Thanks to recent advances in technology, we have a clearer understanding of how these effects are related to early brain development. A child brain develops the most from conception to age three. This means a lot need to be emphasised and put into place for best results of the child’s “way of life”.

Technology can be both beneficial and harmful to different ways in which children think. Moreover, this influence isn’t just affecting children on the surface of their thinking. Rather, because their brains

are still developing and malleable, frequent exposure by so-called digital natives to technology is actually wiring the brain in ways very different than in previous generations.

The effects of technology on children are complicated, with both benefits and costs. Whether technology helps or hurts in the development of your children’s thinking depends on what specific technology is used and how and what frequency it is used.

Attention-You can think of attention as the gateway to thinking.

Without it, other aspects of thinking, namely, perception, memory, language, learning, creativity, reasoning, problem solving, and decision making are greatly diminished or can’t occur at all. The ability of your children to learn to focus effectively and consistently lays the foundation for almost all aspects of their growth and is fundamental to their development into successful and happy people.

In generations past, for example, children directed considerable amounts of their time to reading, an activity that offered few distractions and required intense and sustained attention, imagination, and memory. The advent of television altered that attention by offering children fragmented attention, and little need for imagination. Then the Internet was invented and children were thrust into a vastly different environment in which, because distraction is the norm, consistent attention is impossible, imagination is unnecessary, and memory is inhibited.

Exposure-Technology isn’t all bad. Research shows that, for example, video games and other screen media improve visual-spatial capabilities, increase attentive ability, reaction times, and the capacity to identify details among clutter. Also, rather than making children stupid, it may just be making them different. For example, the ubiquitous use of Internet search engines is causing children to become less adept at remembering things and more skilled at remembering where to find things. Not having to retain information in our

brain may allow it to engage in more “higher-order” processing such as contemplation, critical thinking, and problem solving.

What does all this mean for raising your children? The bottom line is that too much screen time and not enough other activities, such as reading, playing games, and good old unstructured and imaginative play, will result in your children having their brains wired in ways that may make them less, not more, prepared to thrive in this crazy new world of technology.

Reminiscing about the good old days when we were growing up is a memory trip well worth taking when trying to understand the issues facing the children of today. A mere 20 years ago, children used to play outside all day, riding bikes, playing sports and make trips to the farms in the backdam.

Masters of imagination-Children of the past created their own form of play that didn’t require costly equipment or parental supervision. Children of the past moved... a lot, and their sensory world was nature based and simple. In the past, family time was often spent doing chores, and children had expectations to meet on a daily basis. The dining room table was a central place where families came

together to eat and talk about their day, and after dinner became the centre for crafts and homework.

Today’s families are different. Technology’s impact on the 21st century family is fracturing its very foundation, and causing a disintegration of core values that long ago were the fabric that held families together. Juggling school, work, home, and community lives, parents now rely heavily on communication, information, and transportation technology to make their lives faster and more efficient. Entertainment technology (TV, Internet, video games, tablets and cell phones) has advanced so rapidly, that families have scarcely noticed the significant impact and changes to their family structure and lifestyles.

Children now rely on technology for the majority of their play, grossly limiting challenges to their creativity and imaginations, as well as limiting necessary challenges to their bodies to achieve optimal sensory and motor development. Hard-wired for high speed, today’s young are entering school struggling with self-regulation and attention skills necessary for learning, eventually becoming significant behavior management problems for teachers in the classroom.

The impact of rapidly advancing technology on the developing child has seen an increase of physical, psychological and behavior disorders that the health and education systems are just beginning

to detect, much less understand. Child obesity and diabetes are now international epidemics causally related to technology overuse.

Diagnoses of autism, coordination disorder, developmental delays, unintelligible speech, learning difficulties, sensory processing disorder, anxiety, depression and sleep disorders are associated with technology overuse, and are increasing at an alarming rate.

An urgent closer look at the critical factors for meeting developmental milestones, and the subsequent impact of technology on those factors, would assist parents, teachers and health professionals to better understand the complexities of this issue, and help create effective strategies to reduce technology use.

Four critical factors necessary to achieve healthy child development are movement, touch, human connection, and exposure to nature. These types of sensory inputs ensure normal development of posture, bilateral coordination, optimal arousal states and self-regulation necessary for achieving foundation skills for eventual school entry. Young children require 2-3 hours per day of active rough and tumble play to achieve adequate sensory stimulation to their vestibular, proprioceptive and tactile systems. Tactile stimulation received through touching, hugging and play is critical for the development of praxis, or planned movement patterns. Touch also activates the parasympathetic system lowering cortisol, adrenalin and anxiety. Nature and “green space” has not only a calming influence on children, but also is attention restorative and promotes learning.

This sensory imbalance creates huge problems in overall neurological development, as the brain’s anatomy, chemistry and pathways become permanently altered and impaired. Young children who are exposed to violence through TV and video games are in a high state of adrenalin and stress, as the body does not know that what they are watching is not real. Children who overuse technology report persistent body sensations of overall “shaking”, increased breathing and heart rate, and a general state of “unease.”

It’s important to come together as parents, teachers and therapists to help society “wake up” and see the devastating effects technology is having not only on our child’s physical, psychological and behavioural health, but also on their ability to learn and sustain personal and family relationships. While technology is a train that will continually move forward, knowledge regarding its detrimental effects, and action taken toward balancing the use of technology with critical factors for development, will work toward sustaining our children. While no one can argue the benefits of advanced technology in today’s world, connection to these devices may have resulted in a disconnection from what society should value most, children. Rather than hugging, playing, rough housing, and conversing with children, parents are increasingly resorting to providing their children with more TV, video games, and the latest tablets and cell phone devices, creating a deep and irreversible chasm between parent and child.

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MARIA GOEPPERT-MAYER:

First female Nobel Prize winner for theoretical Physics

T Maria Goeppert-Mayer

he German physicist and mathematician, Maria Goeppert-Mayer is prominent for her numerous contributions to the field of physics which earned her a Nobel Prize in Physics in 1963. She was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize for theoretical physics and second woman in history to win a Nobel Prize—the first being Marie Curie. She is most famous for proposing the nuclear shell model of the atomic nucleus.

EARLY LIFE AND CAREER: Maria Goeppert Mayer was born on June 28, 1906, Kattowitz, Germany (now Katowice, Poland). She was the only child of Friedrich Goeppert, a progressive professor of pediatrics at the University at Göttingen and Maria nee Wolff, a former music teacher. When she was very young her family moved to Göttin-

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MARIA GOEPPERT-MAYER...

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gen in 1910, where Maria was educated at a girls’ grammar school operated by suffragettes. The school went bankrupt after her junior year, but she passed a collegiate examination without a high school diploma and earned her PhD under Max Born at the University of Göttingen in 1930. The same year she married Dr. Joseph Edward Mayer, an assistant of James Franck. After marriage they both moved to United States.

Women during that time were generally regarded unsuitable in the upper realms of academia, and despite her doctorate for years she was largely limited to unpaid and unofficial work in university laboratories, her presence only accepted because her husband. In the following few years, Goeppert-Mayer

Chronicle Pepperpot March 23, 2014

worked at unofficial or volunteer positions, initially at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, from 1931–39, then Columbia University in 1940-46, and after that the University of Chicago. Later she also took different positions that came her way: a teaching position at the Sarah Lawrence College, a research position with Columbia University’s Substitute Alloy Materials Project and with the Opacity Project. She also spent some time at the Los Alamos Laboratory.

During her husband’s time at the University of Chicago, Goeppert-Mayer volunteered to become an Associate Professor of Physics at the school. Within a few months of her arrival, when the nearby Argonne National Laboratory was founded on July 1, 1946, Goeppert-Mayer was offered a part-time job there as a Senior Physicist in the Theoretical Physics Division. This was the first time in her career that she was working and paid at a level commensurate with her training and expertise. Two years later she made the breakthrough that earned her tremendous fame and respect in her field.

During 1960, Goeppert-Mayer was appointed to a position as a (full) Professor of Physics at the University of California at San Diego.

Development of the Structure of Nuclear Shells: It was during her time at Chicago and Argonne that she developed a mathematical model for the structure of nuclear shells. With Edward Teller (one of her colleagues at Argonne National Laboratory) she conducted inquiries about the source of the elements, and noticed the repetition of seven “magic numbers”, as she named them — 2, 8, 20, 28, 50, 82, and 126. Elements with a “magic number” of protons or neutrons were consistently more stable than elements with other numbers of protons or neutrons. On the basis of this, she proposed in that inside the nucleus, protons and neutrons are arranged in a series of nucleon layers, like the layers of an onion, with neutrons and protons rotating around each other at each level. During the same time but working independently, German physicist J. Hans D. Jensen reached the same conclusion.

Goeppert-Mayer was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1963, shared with J. Hans D. Jensen and Eugene Paul Wigner for their proposal of the shell nuclear model.

Death: Goeppert-Mayer died due to a heart failure in San Diego, California, on February 20, 1972.

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Chronicle Pepperpot March 23, 2014

PATRICIA INDRAWATIE SHEERATTAN-BISNAUTH: A woman determined to do something about injustice

By Telesha Ramnarine

SHE grew up at a time when the gender disparities were more evident in families and were accepted as norms. Especially in the community where she lived domestic violence was rampant. So from an early age, she became very conscious about the violence and the injustices in all of this and was determined to fight it.

Meet beautiful 52-year-old Patricia Indrawatie Sheerattan-Bisnauth, called Pat for short. Her mom, Rebecca, is originally from Crabwood Creek and her dad, Colin, from Plaisance, East Coast Demerara.

Patricia was born in Skeldon but raised in Ogle. Her dad died in 1981 but her mom is still around.

She attended Cummings Lodge Primary and Secondary schools and then went to study in Jamaica at the United Theological College of the West Indies. She went to Sweden to do gender and management and also completed studies in social work at the University of Guyana.

Patricia also her studies at Princeton University in the United States and did a further degree in religion and society. “So I have done a bit of schooling,” she acknowledged in an interview with Pepperpot recently.

Furthermore, she is a Minister of Religion at the Guyana Presbyterian Church, and pastors three churches on the East Coast Demerara. She was the first woman to be ordained in this church as a minister, she disclosed.

Patricia has worked with Red Thread, the Council of Churches, the Guyana Presbyterian Church, and the Family Life Commission. She is currently the Executive Director of the Guyana Responsible Parenthood Association (GRPA).

Having visited almost 50 countries and worked in some of them, Patricia has found that Guyana is where she can share in celebrating diversity as a people. “I haven’t been to another place where people of different religions can live peacefully.

We have a lot to celebrate as a people,” she said.

TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE Patricia is very outgoing and enjoys conversations with

people, especially those who like to explore life. “I am also a justice seeking person, justice aiming for peace,” she explained.

Perhaps this kind of personality made her question the injustices she was seeing while growing up.

“I grew up very conscious about the inequalities. I was very determined that I will not accept this and so I fought it in my personal life. My father didn’t encourage any of that in our home,” she explained.

And so Patricia was 19 when she decided to study theology in Jamaica.

“This included studying a lot about the social issues or realities. I therefore saw the need to be more involved in what is happening in the society. That’s Patricia Indrawatie Sheerattan-Bisnauth. why I went on

With her husband, the late Dr Dale Bisnauth, and their daughter Krysta.

Patricia always believed she can make a difference in terms of domestic violence and other issues.

to study social work.

“I did think that I can make a difference in terms of helping to create a more wholesome situation. I’m really in my heart committed to issues of justice, of reconciliation. Wherever I saw that something wasn’t right, I could not turn a blind eye to it. It wasn’t in my nature to do that,” she expressed.

LOSING HER OTHER HALF Patricia was married to former Education Minister, Presbyterian priest and University of Guyana Lecturer, Dr.

Dale Bisnauth, for 28 years.

He died last year April in the Caribbean Heart Institute at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation.

His death has deeply affected the family and has thrown life off course for quite a while for them. Patricia believes that their daughter, Krysta, was more affected and took a longer time to come around.

According to her, he was

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ailing for a while but was managing well. This is why his death came quite unexpectedly.

“We thought he had the flu but he was really having a slow heart attack. The heart attack started the night before.”

“He had contributed quite a lot. Many people loved him.

He always had a heart for people who were poor and struggling and never failed to talk about his poor background,” Patricia fondly recalled.

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Chronicle Pepperpot March 23, 2014

ANN’s GROVE:

A cheerful ‘countryside paradise’

By Alex Wayne We bubbled with excitement as we packed a knapsack filled with snacks, water and fruit juices. We were readying to visit the very striking village of Ann’s Grove on the East Coast of Demerara where the smiles of residents, bustling activity, and shrill lamentations of market vendors made it a little ‘countryside paradise’ worth checking out.

With Latitude readings of 6.7167°, and Longitude of -57.9500° this sun filled village is nestled between the villages of Two Friends and Clonbrook and oozes a strange but refreshing ‘countryside charm.’ This village is located some 20 miles from Georgetown and is said to be one of the villages bought by African slaves after the abolition of slavery. Today the population is somewhere between 3,000-3,500 and boast some striking features that give an indication of the historical slave trade in times gone by.

Our experiences continue to vary as we explore the many villages around Guyana and become absorbed in their mystical tales and alluring infrastructure, experience the fascinating interaction of their inhabitants, and listen to the rabble of these various people.

We were greeted with jovial hospitality, amazing village camaraderie, amusing village gossip and interesting tales of the many challenges that were either faced and conquered, or avoided and lamented by the residents.

This week, we were totally enthralled by the high degree of camaraderie and seemingly never ending festivity enjoyed by the people of Ann’s Grove Village, and the positive manner in which they embraced the dawn of modernity and development.

In the early 1980s, I would have had ample opportunity to savour the mysteries of this village, since I was employed as a police officer at the Clonbrook Outpost for over nine months, and actually resided in the village. During that time, the village was quite an appealing alcove that featured scattered houses, and wide-open lush pastures.

On our recent trip I was just mystified at the positive changes that have since occurred in the village.

We arrived and were engulfed in suffocating clouds of smoke from a grass fire which had spurted mysteriously in an open pasture and the swearing and alarmed exclamations of passengers in the minibus was laced with disgust and obscenity.

Lush green coconut palms swayed luxuriously in the fresh wind rolling in from the nearby Atlantic Ocean, creating an atmosphere that lured you to inhale great gulps of this fresh wind that as so unlike that in Georgetown.

As we moved around the village there was just this very hushed simplicity about it and the starry eyed smiles of residents just made you feel welcome and definitely at home. All around there were thriving kitchen gardens and in many yards we could see patches of sugar cane just bursting with sweet juice, and waiting to be

harvested.

Juice laden sour sops swung lazily in the wind from tall trees, and the green blur of tall grass moving like snakes as the wind rustled them, was a sight that played havoc with the ‘nature side of our senses’.

Cows and goats enjoyed the lush grass and stopped from their morning feasts to gaze at us with rolling eyes, as if they were demanding what we were doing on their premises. Curvy mothers and daughters sat around at the many fruit and vegetable stalls chatting, and many times peals of girlish laughter rang out as they enjoyed the juicy village gossips.

CHATTING WITH RESIDENTS Villagers were very welcoming and wasted no time in indulging as we started our interviews. Actually a popular electrician who prefers to be called ‘Pompey’ rode up to me on a rusty bicycle with a boyish grin as he indicated that we had met and interacted when I had visited Victoria and Clonbrook Villages.

He totally adored the rustic beauty of the village and declared that it was quite fitting for living and a comfortable existence. But as expected, he had a few concerns which he felt could be alleviated if dealt with by the appropriate authorities.

“This village is a beauty boss and I am proud of the striking appearance. And its beautiful in a simple yet appeal way. Life here is good and everyone lives as one with love and harmony.

But there are indeed a few things that need to be taken care of before Ann’s Grove can become the perfect village people would want to visit for a little fishing, to have a picnic or just to explore”.

According to this resident, most of the main canals in the village are kept in ‘tip-top’ shape by the authorities, but that he said is not the case in the Housing Scheme areas.

“Residents living in the Housing Scheme areas suffer because the drainage is bad in that area. Drains are filled with weeds and other plant species, hampering the smooth flow of water to important locations. Most persons here are engaged in farming and this can pose a major setback since water is needed in abundance to sustain the life of cash crops and ground provisions.”

Another concern of a small group of residents, headed by the same electrician was that there were many ‘bad GPL power poles’ in the village that need repairing and some were leaning at precarious angles. Residents fear that should such poles fall, they would endanger the lives of those residing around them.

There were complaints of police harassment by villagers who claimed that police from the Cove and John Police Station would enter the village and physically harass residents for no apparent reason. However, upon contacting the Cove and John Police, ranks they said such allegations were untrue and that officers there would

A student tries to make a ready bargain for custard block from a vendor who stands firm on her standard prices

merely engage in their routine patrols and would as expected attempt to apprehend persons found loitering after hours or found engaging in unlawful acts.

Confectionary vendor Sybil Clarke was very concerned by a garbage problem that was plaguing residents. The very emotional woman said that persons from outside the village would normally come in the still of the night to dump their refuse there, and in some cases over the seawall that kept out the smashing waves of the nearby Atlantic Ocean.

“This is a very serious problem. In this village we try out best to keep our surrounding clean and tidy, Bust even as we are struggling to do so outsiders come when we sleep and dump garbage along the roadside and sometimes in open land spaces. Also they would dump huge loads over the seawall and this can cause serious problems, especially for the mangrove plans we are trying to preserve along the seawall. Many times we have to form groups and engage in a self help exercise to clean up their rubbish. Man look, if I catch dem ah night dumping dem rubbish....Woe beyond to their souls”.

LIVELIHOOD It appears as if most of the residents in are self employed in one way or the other and it was a very moving spectacle to watch them engaged in their choice of professions.

As we walked through the village we saw husbands fussing with their chickens that were cackling loudly at their intrusion. These were of course those that decided to earn a living as poultry farmers.

Then there were the housewives that could be seen tending to customers in the many vegetable, groceries, fast food, confectionary and fruit stalls that have sprung up around the village. Of course there are at least eight well established confectionary and fast food locations so residents have the choice of enjoying home cooked food or eating in ‘breezy splendour’ at the fast food shop of their choice.

Many have chosen farming and they would do this on both small and large scales on the railway embankment and in the back lands surrounding the village. Some persons prefer to tend to their small kitchen gardens; ensuring fresh vegetables, spices and peppers are just within their hand reach for the morning, midday or evening delicacies.

A large percentage of males in the village are engaged in ‘pork-knocking’ in the hinterland regions and of course these are the residents who prefer a ‘bigger dollar’ or just like to have their earnings in a lump sum. Some females are engaged in teaching at the Ann’s Grove Secondary School, while a meagre few have jobs at the post office and health centre.

HISTORICAL FEATURES Ann’s Grove boasts some landmarks that foretells of its rich

Bush fires are a constant f

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colonial history and among them are the Dutch-styled kokers, the yesteryear looking railway embankment and the Ebenezer Congregational Church, which is quite a gift to the village and spearheaded

by Brother William Rogers, and Dr. Edward Adams who are dubbed ‘sons of the soil.’

Last year the church celebrated its 150th anniversary, an event that was attended by PNCR Leader David Granger and many others.

The church, which serves the communities of Ann’s Grove, Bee Hive, Clonbrook, Dochfour and Two Friends, was founded in 1862 and is well maintained by those concerned today. Many centenarians from the village attended this church, and amongst them were Harriette Pompey, Kathleen Paul, Rebecca Rover, Everlyn Austin, Henrietta Dublin, Gertude Carter, and Katie Adams.

The Ebenezer Congregational Church is an historic feature in the village

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Village elder, Sydney Dundass

HUMBLE LADIES PLY THEIR TRADES The females of Ann’s Grove are quite contented with their lives and never fail to come up with honest means of survival. I was lucky to bump into two very jovial and saucy elderly ladies selling snacks and confectionary inside the Ann’s Grove School Compound.

Sixty-five year old Jewel Thomas was ready to chat, her eyes dancing with fire, at being the target of media attention. Looking rather younger than her age, she rexclaimed: “Ah caring me bady wid good country food and bush tea!.” when I paid compliments to her good looks.

“Bai me ah duh dis business fuh 37 years now and it nah much but it does really mek ends meet”. This humble lady comes

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feature in the countryside

A section of the alluring Ann’s Grove Village

The busy Ann’s Grove market area

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Shopkeeper John Baksh readily provided information on employment in the village

Dozing off as he avoids the hot midday son

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Self Help projects are constant features in the village

ANN’s GROVE ...

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to the school at around 10:15 every day and to sell her sweets, plantain chip, polouri, egg balls and icicle. She sits there under an umbrella and welcomes the midday rush of her many ‘student customers’ and awaits them again at around 13:45 hours when they get another recreational break. She gets up at around 05:00 hours to prepare her items and yes, it is indeed gruelling at times.

But she is contented and enjoys what she does.

Cecilia Sampson, 57, is another vendor who sells soft drinks, fudge, sugar cakes and custard blocks, and she too is quite comfortable with her trade.

“I have been selling here for over fifteen years, and my husband is a framer in the back dam. I have grown to love the school children as my own and there is a special bond between us. I welcome their noisy chatter and bantering everyday because I know it means an extra dollar from their purchases. Some of them may try to trick me when large crowds are here, but I love them all the same. I enjoy what I do, and it brings in a little money to help out in the home.

ANN’S GROVE IN TIMES GONE BY Ann’s Grove is very developed today but in times gone by it was a small village where its infrastructure and features were not as appealing as today. To reflect on Ann’s Grove Village in times gone by was shopkeeper, John Baksh who has been living in the village for over 40 years.

“When I was a little boy Ann’s Grove was a village with not so many houses. There was plenty of waste land and farming was the order of the day. There weren’t so much vehicles around and residents in those time used donkey and horse drawn carts, and bicycles for transport. The few houses were more so the outlandish type with shingle roofs, but with the dawn of modernisation things changed and we saw new businesses, paved streets, and other features that now make the village one worth visiting.”

As indicated by Mr. Baksh villagers still hold on to their traditions and there is great celebration and festivity in the village during Christmas, Mashramani and Emancipation functions. There are no more telling of stories around bond fires, no more greasy pole and May Fairs, but some still hold on to their carolling at Christmas time.

“The things of the old are gone and this is the time of the youths, so the ‘in thing right now’ is the Passa Passa dance craze or the ‘Wine pon de Button’ style that send the young ladies crazy. There is still teh annual Miss Ann’s Grove Beauty and Intelligence Pageant, and every one looks forward to that”

Sampling the polouri and plantain chips which are delicacies in the village

VILLAGE ELDER It was quite a pleasure to sit and chat with village elder, Sidney Dundass who is still active and peppy at 93 years. When he is not moving around he is seated in his wheel chair, smiling dreamily as he reminisces on his childhood days as a young boy chasing pond flies in the open pastures of Ann’s Grove.

“As a young boy I was involved in everything. From playing marbles, to cricket, football and I was a very good athlete. As I grew older I decided to become a pork-knocker and that paid off nicely, because when I came home with the big bucks the girls would swarm me like honey bees. I was tall and handsome and

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Jewel Thomas (left) trades confectionary and snacks inside the Ann’s Grove School compound

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the rum shop, then suck on peppermint sweets to hide the smell of the alcohol before I go home.”

Mr. Dundass hopes to live to a century and hi proud that he has attained the age of ninety three which is hard to attain these days. “I am proud of myself because only few young men of today to get to such a milestone’

energetic, and many times there were scuffles among the girls to ensure they remained the centre of my attraction. But as I grew older I became responsible, got a family and now in my old age, although I am not so well physically, I still have the fire of youth burning in my veins. I was a church boy and my parents ensured I attended church regularly. But I used to get away after and tek a lil tupps at

Read and enjoy for sure, but make sure you visit the intriguing village of Ann’s Grove. The happy residents would be more than ready to welcome you. Join us next week as we visit the village of Noot-en-Zuil on the East Coast of Demerara.

Bye now folks...

CONCLUSION

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Farmers transport their cash crops from their many farms in the village

Electrician ‘Pompey’ who gave us the grand tour of the village

Get that gas refilled before the fire burns low

Garbage thrown into irrigation trenches by residents of the village

The Ann’s Grove Secondary School

Drains are in good conditions in some sections of Ann’s Grove

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Ken Taylor: His music is everything

By Michel Outridge

NICKNAMED Dabeatmaker, Ken Taylor is an extraordinary man who has a lot to offer, having invested his life in music, and working with both local and international artistes. He is a remarkably humble man, who always wears a lopsided smile; and that and his obviously pleasant personality are good qualities any young man should possess. This Kitty, Georgetown resident is unmarried, but is the father of two children.

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Speaking to the Sunday Chronicle recently, Taylor said there is a lot to him, and at the same time there isn’t. He said he became involved in music production when a friend, T Chris $, a local rap artiste, started to show up at his home on Sundays to record songs. Recording those songs soon became a habit for Taylor, and he became terribly engrossed in it, but never thought it would later become his career.

Music is everything to Ken Taylor. He is a music producer/sound engineer, and does everything related to audio, such as mixing tracks and recording songs, among other music-related duties. He is responsible for production of many of the local advertisements we see on television, and he has that talent which makes his job very simple. Taylor has worked The talented at the Brutal Tracks Recording Ken Andrew Taylor Studio, located on Waterloo Street, Georgetown since 2008, and would not change his career for anything in the world, because he simply enjoys his job.

He said the Brutal Tracks Recording Studio is equipped with high-end equipment in the pro-tools brand name, which is considered the highest standard of equipment for recording studios.

Apart from songs, the studio does jingles, and Taylor is even versed in live shows; and even though his work entails long hours, it is not bothersome because, once he is working on music, it doesn’t matter if he gets home in the mornings.

He said: “I wouldn’t switch careers now that I have found the one I enjoy; and I have a plan which will push local music to the highest level, since there is so much talent here in Guyana that Guyanese music will be where it should on the international scene.”

Taylor advises local artistes to keep trying their best to achieve the desired end, until each song becomes better than the last one.

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STEPHEN BOYD:

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“I like to look at people and see them smile - when the face smiles the soul comes through.�

S

TEPHEN Boyd was born William Millar on July 4, 1931, at Glengormley, Northern Ireland, one of nine children of Martha Boyd and Canadian truck driver James Alexander Millar, who worked for Fleming's on Tomb Street in Belfast. He attended Glengormley & Ballyrobert primary school and then moved on to Ballyclare High School and studied bookkeeping at Hughes Commercial Academy. In Ireland he worked in an insurance office and travel agency during the day and rehearsed with a semi-professional acting company at night during the week and weekends. He would eventually manage to be on the list for professional acting companies to call him when they had a role. He joined the Ulster Theatre Group and was a leading man with that company for three years, playing all kinds of roles. He did quite a bit of radio work in between as well, but then decided it was distracting him from acting and completely surrendered to his passion. Eventually he went to London as an understudy in an Irish play that was being given there, "The Passing Day".

In England he became very ill and was in and out of work, supplementing his acting assignments with odd jobs such as waiting in a cafeteria, doorman at the Odeon Theatre and even busking on

Stephen Boyd the streets of London. Even as things turned for the worst, he would always write back to his mother that all was well and things were moving along so as not to alarm her in any way or make her worry.

Sir Michael Redgrave discovered him one night at the Odeon Theatre and arranged an introduction to the Windsor Repertory Company.

The Arts Council of Great Britain was looking for a leading man and part-time director for the only major repertory company that was left in England, The Arts Council Midland Theatre Company, and he got the job. During his stay in England he went into television with the BBC, and for 18 months he was in every big play on TV. One of the major roles in his early career was the one in the play "Barnett's Folly", which he himself ranked as one of his favorites.

In 1956 he signed a seven-year contract with 20th Century-Fox. This led to his first film role, as an IRA member spying for the Nazis in The Man Who Never Was (1956), a job he was offered by legendary producer Alexander Korda. William Wyler was so struck

by Boyd's performance in that film that he asked Fox to loan him Boyd, resulting in his being cast in what is probably his most famous role, that of Messala in the classic Ben-Hur (1959) opposite Charlton Heston. He received a Golden Globe award for his work on that film but was surprisingly bypassed on Oscar night. Still under contract with Fox, Boyd waited around to play the role of Marc Anthony in Cleopatra (1963) opposite Elizabeth Taylor. However, Taylor became

so seriously ill that the production was delayed for months, which caused Boyd and other actors to withdraw from the film and move on to other projects.

Boyd made several films under contract before going independent. One of the highlights was Fantastic Voyage (1966), a

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science-fiction film about a crew of scientists miniaturized and injected into the human body as if in inner space. He also received a nomination for his role of Insp. Jongman in Lisa (1962) (aka "The Inspector") co-starring with Dolores Hart.

Boyd's Hollywood career began to fade by the late 1960s as he started to spend more time in Europe, where he seemed to find better roles more suited to his interests. When he went independent it was obvious that he took on roles that spoke to him rather than just taking on assignments for the money, and several of the projects he undertook were, at the time, quite controversial, such as Slaves (1969) and Carter's Army (1970). Boyd chose his roles based solely on character development and the value of the story that was told to the public, and never based on monetary compensation or peer pressure.

Although at the height of his career he was considered one of Hollywood's leading men, he never forgot where he came from, and always reminded everyone that he was, first and foremost, an Irishman. When the money started coming in, one of the first things he did was to ensure that his family was taken care of. He was particularly close to his mother Martha and his brother Alex.

Boyd was married twice, the first time in 1958 to Italian-born MCA executive Mariella di Sarzana, but that only lasted (officially) during the filming of "Ben Hur". His second marriage was to Elizabeth Mills, secretary at the British Arts Council and a friend since 1955. Liz Mills followed Boyd to the US in the late 1950s and was his personal assistant and secretary for years before they married, about ten months before his death on June 2, 1977, in Northridge, California, from a massive heart attack while playing golf - one of

Chronicle Pepperpot March 23, 2014 his favorite pastimes * at the Porter Valley Country Club. He is buried at Oakwood Memorial Park in Chatsworth, California. It was a terrible loss, just as he seemed to be making a comeback with his recent roles in the series Hawaii Five-O (1968) and the English movie The Squeeze (1977).

It is a real tragedy to see that a man who was so passionate about his work, who wanted nothing but to tell a story with character, a man who was ahead of his time in many ways ended up being overlooked by many of his peers. One fact remains about Stephen Boyd, however--his fans are still passionate about his work to this day, almost 30 years after his death, and one has to wonder if he ever realised that perhaps in some way he achieved the goal he set out for himself: to entertain the public and draw attention to the true art of acting while maintaining glamor as he defined it by remaining himself a mystery.

Died of a heart attack while playing golf, shortly after completing a guest-starring role on Hawaii Five-O (1968).

Was initially cast as Marc Antony in Cleopatra (1963). When numerous delays in production eventually brought about his departure, Richard Burton took over the role.

Was the original choice to play James Bond 007 in Dr. No (1962).

Was associated with the lead role in a film version of Mary Renault's novel of ancient Crete, "The King Must Die." The film was never made.

In 1976, in what would be his final interview, Boyd expressed regret at concentrating so heavily on movies and said he wished he had acted more on stage and on television.

Shortly before his death he was seriously considered for the role of the Regimental Sergeant Major in The Wild Geese (1978), which was subsequently played by Jack Watson.

While working as a doorman in 1955, Boyd was discovered by Sir Michael Redgrave, who got him his first film role.

In 1995, Charlton Heston denied a claim by screenwriter Gore Vidal that there was a gay subtext to the film Ben-Hur (1959). Vidal claims he wrote the script with such an implication and mentioned the subtext to director William Wyler. Boyd, who played Ben-Hur's friend (and later nemesis) Messala, supposedly was in on this subtext and played his scenes as if he had been spurned by his gay lover.

Heston was not informed of this as they thought he would not like it. Heston went on to state that after writing one scene, Vidal was dismissed from the project. Vidal responded by producing extracts from Heston's 1978 journal "The Actor's Life", in which he admitted Vidal had written most of the finished screenplay.

He blamed the massive commercial failure of The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964) for ruining his movie career.

Nearly died during the great flu epidemic in London in 1952.

Personal Quotes (7) “I decided that perhaps now I'm at an age when film producers and the major companies might accept me again as I am rather than as they thought I was. (1976)” [on Brigitte Bardot] “All I can say is that when I'm trying to play serious love scenes with her, she's positioning her bottom for the best angle shot.” [on Sophia Loren] “She is not the most attractive lady in the world at first glance but, my God, two seconds later you felt like you were in a dream world. Just for her to say "Hello" was enough.

You just capitulated. For me she is the most beautiful person I've ever met.”

“I am sick and tired of acting. I want to make decisions at production level. I have tried to fight the system and do things my way, but I haven't been able to. Now I feel that whatever talent I may have had is gone. The time has come to move on.”

“They tried to make me a star, a leading man. Well, I'm not a star even though they thought I looked like one. I'm a character actor.

When I've had the choice I've always opted for the character role.

I'd rather be the pillar that holds up the star than the star himself.”

“He's a mystery man and I think it's a good idea to occasionally bring back a good character. He's a bit like the man with no name, but he's got more depth, more humor. I think he's capable of more things on either side of the law. He's got glamour. I think a lot of the glamor is missing in motion pictures today and it's very necessary to bring it back. It's interesting to really get to the bottom of the word 'glamour'. It is almost impossible to have glamour without mystery.

If there is too much explanation, too much knowledge, the glamour is diminished. It doesn't matter how much you interview Elizabeth Taylor, Marlon Brando or Steve McQueen, there is always the mystery. Once that goes, so too does the glamour.” - On The Man Called Noon (1973)” “My whole life has been in entertainment. I like to look at people and see them smile - when the face smiles the soul comes through.”

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Is Ed Houben Europe’s most virile man?

(BBC) Ed Houben has an unusual pastime. He has slept with scores of women who seek him out for his legendary powers of insemination. As John Laurenson discovers, he doesn't charge.

In a farm house in north-western Germany, heated by a lively fire in a wood-burning stove, a bulky and bespectacled Dutchman - he freely admits he is a bit on the heavy side - makes his way upstairs to the baby's room.

Ed Houben has come to see his daughter for the first time.

He talks gently to the six-week-old baby, and little Madita looks up at him. She is, he says, his 98th child.

I am single. I have long wanted to have a child but I could never find the right man” Mr Houben is a "charitable sperm donor". He helps lesbian couples, single women and heterosexual couples with fertility problems to have children free of charge.

He started out in 2002 donating sperm to a sperm bank.

But his sperm donating career (he has a day job, by the way, as a tour guide) really hit its stride when the Netherlands, like many other European countries and Canada, banned anonymous sperm donation and he started offering his services for free on the internet.

'LOOKING FOR ED' He now donates his sperm in the "traditional way". Using the apparatus God gave him rather than a syringe. "Much better chance of conception," he says.

"People probably think it's 'oh he has sex without responsibility' but usually I'm the only person people can talk to if it doesn't work," he says.

What motivates him, he says, is "the beautiful hope of creating a new life that will be loved and looked after".

Madita's mother is a 28-year-old nursery nurse, called Kati, with tattoos of Winnie the Pooh, Tigger and Piglet on her forearm.

"I am single. I have long wanted to have a child but I could never find the right man," she explains.

"So after six years I started looking for [someone like] Ed." Was it not difficult going to a man that she didn't know… sleeping with a man she didn't know… to make a baby?

"We got to know each other beforehand so it wasn't such a problem," she says.

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anonymous donation.

"I want to be able to give answers when she starts asking questions," she says.

She also hopes the father will play a role in his daughter's life. They could meet once or twice a year, she suggests.

LIST OF OFFSPRING Back in the council flat where he lives on his own in Maastricht, Mr Houben shows me some of the mugs the children of lesbian couples make for him at kindergarten when they have Father's Day. There are dozens of photos of children around the place, too. So many he has bought a digital frame.

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A slideshow of snaps of 89 children scrolls away as we speak.

On his computer he keeps an up-to-date list of his progeny to reduce the risk that they might unwittingly interbreed.

"If, later on, one of my children meets someone who doesn't know who his natural father is, he can consult this list," he says.

On the "upcoming" part of the list there is a British couple that came over after many years of visiting clinics in the USA and the UK. "They stayed for eight days and - how should I put it correctly? - she and I slept together four times and after almost 10 years of trying they had their first pregnancy."

Last year they visited again, and now they are expecting their second child.

GOOD FAITH I ask: Is it not difficult for the husbands?

"I can imagine that if you have never been in this situation it would be difficult," he says. "But take the example of a couple from Belarus I just helped.

"They drove 1,000 miles to get here each month for three months. They had been trying for 15 years in clinics… paid all their savings… doctors saying 'it will be all right, it will work' and so on - and it did not work. Usually probably it works but for them it didn't.

"They came here three times and now they have a baby. They are beyond these feelings of 'ooh there's a stranger sleeping with my wife'."

With mothers of his children dotted all around the Netherlands and Europe, how does Mr Houben protect himself against claims for financial assistance?

He seems remarkably relaxed about it. He used to draw up contracts, but since a lawyer advised that they would not guarantee protection, he now relies on good faith.

One day, Mr Houben says, he hopes to find a woman who will want to have his children and start a family with him.

And, if he does, will he find himself a more run-of-the-mill charitable activity?

He will, he says. Definitely. But he looks a bit regretful as he thinks it over.

Perhaps he could just cut down, he suggests. Only impregnate women who have one or two of his children already and want real siblings, for instance.

Back with his 98th baby, her mother unwraps presents he has brought for them. A large chocolate M for her and a rattle for little Madita.

Is her father going to celebrate when he gets to 100?

Well, he does not usually drink, he says. So he can keep up the quality.

But when he gets to his 100th baby he might just make an exception.

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ARIES - You've been dealing with all kinds of awesome and unusual people lately, and loving every minute of it. There's one more new acquaintance coming your way today, thanks to an influx of social energy that should keep that parade of people you need to meet up with going strong. Whether they turn out to be friends or enemies (or something else entirely) is up in the air, but who cares?

It's like a social buffet. Treat yourself to a little taste of everything.

TAURUS - That new persona you're working on is probably quite well outfitted at this point, since you're super-thorough. You're likely to need to deal with cash flow, though, so check the balance on your credit cards -- and balance your cheque book, if you can. You probably have nothing to fear, but even if you've done some serious damage, think of it as the price you pay for rebirth.

GEMINI - It might not feel completely comfortable to you -- at least at first -- but you're on centre stage for at least a couple of days, and probably longer.

It's far better to just accept it and try to get your loved ones used to the idea, because if they're staying close by, they may also find the spotlight trained on them. Of course, there are definitely worse things than being worshiped by a throng of admirers. Check out the bright side!

CANCER - The universe is trying to push you into some sweet new social encounters, and there may be a touch of romance in the air too. This is a lovely combination on its own, but if there's someone you've been secretly thinking about, and you're wondering if they're doing the same -- the news is especially good. Don't be surprised if you receive a startlingly precise answer to that question via a seeming coincidence.

LEO - You know exactly what you want, which is cause for admiration and envy among your peers. At the moment, though, you're torn between being good (taking care of chores, family needs and personal care) and being bad -- which basically means staying up as late as you like and forgetting about anything past tonight. The final decision rests with your conscience. If you're facing the right (or wrong) temptation, there won't be a contest.

VIRGO - Everyone around you knows you have a way with words -- a gift for presenting logical, practical arguments that are hard to disagree with. That talent comes through for you beautifully today, more so than usual, especially if you add just a touch of charm to the mix. Of course, there's no need to manipulate anyone -- but when you're asking for such a big favour, it doesn't hurt to be nice.

LIBRA - If you're thinking about travel, today's amazing mental energy should make it just about impossible for you to resist any longer. If not, why not? You don't even have to decide exactly where you're going -- not just yet, anyway. All you really have to do, is inform the powers that be that you need some time off soon. Once that's done, the situation becomes real and puts you in the mood to choose your destination.

SCORPIO - You're thinking about letting a certain special person know just how much you care -- in fact, you've been thinking about doing that for some time now. You're right on the verge of having a sit-down, all-out heart-to-heart to tell them how you feel. There's no point in delay -- you know they feel the same, and you know they want to hear it from you. You've even got someone watching your back right now. Get busy.

SAGITTARIUS - It's over -- for now, anyway. That recent work binge has finally come to an end, but that's not to say that you won't be putting in your time and maintaining your professional reputation. You just might also suddenly find that you have quite a bit more time for the people you love. Reintroduce yourself tonight, and rest assured that you'll receive an extremely warm reception.

CAPRICORN - After all the good work you've done lately, asking for that raise, bonus or promotion should be trivial. You're confident that you've earned it, but, as usual, your humility is getting the best of you. If you're wondering why they haven't yet offered it to you, remember the old adage about the squeaky wheel getting the grease. Step right up and tell your superiors that you deserve this.

AQUARIUS - You've always tended toward objectivity, and are far more prone to erring on the side of rationality than sentimentality. At the moment, though, you're feeling like a regular Hallmark special -- not even a little shy about spouting phrases you would have made fun of not too long ago. It's all thanks to a new burst of emotion that is taking everyone around you by surprise. Revel in it!

PISCES - The universe has officially granted you a leave of absence from responsibilities. Your compassion may know no bounds, but you've done absolutely everything you can for the ones you love right now. It's time for them to take care of themselves -- and for you to stop feeling guilty about not being able to do more. Besides, there's someone a bit farther along out there who could do with a bit more of your time and attention.

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Nature Study trip to locations on the Soesdyke/Linden Highway “It is becoming clearer that the most effective way to ensure that persons and countries consider their impact on the environment and consequently proceed along a sustainable path is to have all citizens aware of their interaction with the environment. So said Richard B. Olver, former Resident Representative, United Nations Development Project (UNDP) Guyana.

(A contribution of Okeena Humphrey, Evergreen Nature Study Club (ENSC) “This report essay is based on the beautiful part of my country, Guyana, following a tour to Hauraruni and Yarowkabra locations along Soesdyke/Linden Highway, on the hilly, sand and clay belt.

The morning weather was fair when we left Georgetown. It was my first trip so it was quite exciting.

The group first went to the Hauraruni Agro-Development Project.

It was an example of how agro-forestry is done. There we saw the cultivation of mixed crops on white sand such as pineapple and citrus (on the upper slope); pawpaw, banana, coconut and peppers (on the lower slope) and even wild pineapple plants as part of natural forested vegetation.

We also saw a thriving pawpaw plant almost without leaves and soon realised that photosynthesis was taking place in the stems and fruits themselves. Different kinds of birds witnessed our presence as they flew by.

Our teacher explained, during observation, that in modern day agriculture, ornamental plants form part of a farm to enhance the aesthetics and attract insects for pollination. We then left the site to visit the main location of Evergreen Nature Study Base at Yarrowkabra When we reached Evergreen Nature Study Base, we settled down and placed our belongings in the hidden bushes, then off to the nature trail we went. Along the way, we saw many different kinds of trees such as Wallaba, Mora, Dakama, Duka, Sawari Nut and even Monkey Rope, as it is called, which some of us used to take a swing. There were some labba holes at the base of tree trunks. We heard the sound of a woodpecker pecking at a hollow trunk in search of a home. Large and small brightly coloured butterflies made their presence felt among us. Different types of flowers graced our path such as lucky lips and wild sage. What attracted me were fox tail grass (suitable for floral arrangements), turtle/sand cherry (out of season) and velvet leaf plant from which a tea is made and drunk to improve voice tone.

Other medicinal plants included wild maran, blood wood, sand bitters, iron weed, duka, ginger and purple zeb grasses. Creek water came in useful to quench our thirst. Fellow students gathered big dark red coloured 'horse eye' seeds as part of plant sample collecting.

At a later stage, we hiked to the famous sand pit some distance away. The excavation was about 90 feet deep and was a breathtaking sight. We took the pleasure of running into the pit where at the bottom of which fat pork shrubs presented us with fruits. Images at the top appeared very small from the bottom.

It was a challenge and fun to climb back to the top of the pit. We still had time thereafter to find some sweet berries from the Duka tree which were the best I tasted. During relaxation time, we were allowed to eat snacks. Some children splashed and played in the creek while others picked awara and observed cute, small black monkeys in nearby vegetation. Many chose to take photographs.

On leaving the site before sunset, we walked up the hill, looked down, and realised from above how tranquil and inspiring the Study Base really was about 30 acres seated within the basin of a mixed tropical rain forest.

You'll have to experience this journey yourself!

Surely Madonna Can’t Get Any More Desperate Than This We rag on Madonna a lot, but everyone can see how ridiculous this is getting. Even you people who are fans of hers?

You can look at all the things she’s been doing recently, all the selfies that reek of desperation and obnoxiousness, and go “yeah, this is too much.”

If you still won’t admit that Madonna’s getting way weird (and not in a good way), check out this photo she just posted on Instagram, and also check out the caption: Looking for Love in all the wrong places! Fear makes you focus......#rebelheart

Chris Brown - I Can ... For the Get Out of Jail Right Price

It sure seemed Chris Brown was checkmated sitting in jail as the clock ticks for his D.C. assault trial that could trigger a probation violation in the Rihanna case that could land him in prison for 4 years but sources has learned his lawyer has found a way out of the hole by paying LOTS OF MONEY. Sources connected with the D.C. assault case tells, Chris’ lawyer, Mark Geragos, has contacted the lawyer for the man who claims Chris assaulted him in D.C., breaking his nose, and offered him a BIG FAT CHECK. We’re told Geragos is gunning for a civil settlement which could very well mean the broken nose guy would tell prosecutors he no longer has an interest in pursuing the criminal case. And sources say prosecutors are aware of the civil settlement negotiations.

We’re told Geragos may have already sealed the deal but if not it should be done in a day or 2.

So here’s the likely resolution. The alleged victim gets a ton of money (our educated guess is several hundred thousand dollars), D.C. prosecutors drop the criminal assault case and the Rihanna judge then lets Chris out of jail either late this week or early next.

Smart move.

George Clooney Went And Ruined That Beautiful, Beautiful Face Guys, George Clooney, beautiful, amazing George Clooney, went and got the worst tan in the entire world. This is worse than a Kardashian tan. This is worse than if someone somehow got dipped in melted orange crayons. And the fact that it happened to someone as wonderful as George Clooney, well, that makes it even worse.

George, go back to your old self. Your incredible looks aren’t the greatest thing about you, of course, but they’re still pretty darn great, and this new look just doesn’t do them justice at all.