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Produced and Edited by C. Naipaul | Graphic and Layout Design by D. Prince

II

Chronicle Pepperpot June 29, 2014

“The Rebirth of Devina” W

hispers, soft, the wind through the tall grass and wild shrubs, for those who lay in eternal sleep, the silent tombs speaking only through the endearing words and verses inscribed

on the headstones.

Arjun, holding a bunch of carnations in his hands, stood in the cemetery and looked around a little lost. The hushed silence, the soundless butterflies and the scent of wild flowers touched his senses, like cold fingers. He was there alone in the midday hour. ‘Not a good time to visit a cemetery’, he remembered his grandmother saying but he was not a believer of such superstitions and shrugged his shoulders. He walked around, looking for the grave site, not quite remembering where it was after such a long time. Huge flamboyant and wisteria trees beautified the landscape of the old cemetery but the overgrown, intrusive shrubs and creepers somewhat ruined the scenic beauty.

It was Arjun’s first visit since he had left home sixteen years ago, the exact day since the tragic accident. Time should have healed the wound of that loss over the years but it could not and today he cameback to visit the gravesite of his childhood friend She had only been seven.

He stopped, not sure where to look for he had been so young at the time and after over a decade the landscape of the grounds seemed to have changed.

“Where are you, Devina, I can’t find you,” he said aloud, a little desperation in his voice.

A slight gust of wind ruffled his hair and a white butterfly with pink flecks on its wings alighted on his hand. Arjun looked at the butterfly, not sure what he should do when it flew away and a strange urge overcame him to follow the butterfly as it flew to where the shrubs were thicker and the shadows deeper.

He cleared a path to pass and there in the shade of a flamboyant tree, laden with pink blossoms was her tomb. Arjun inhaled deeply, the grief subdued over the years, rousing in his heart once more. He knelt down and laid the bunch of carnations gently on his friend’s grave. It felt again, like when he was that eight-year-old boy, the ache in his heart, the unending tears.

“So young,” he whispered, “So sweet, gone far away to the beyond.”

Time rewound as he sat by her grave and he saw her pretty face lying in deep sleep, the pink frilly dress, pink ribbons in her hair and carnations flowers to say ‘goodbye.’ Through his tears that day, he had thought he saw her smile just a little, something only he seemed to have seen.

Friends they had been since nursery school but like broken glass their young lives were shattered by the speeding car that came through the narrow street, that day. The crash, her screams as she was hit from her new bike and the last words she had said when he held her little body, her hand grabbing hold of his shirt, “Arjun, my friend.”

Then silence, the shock and horror of a thousand nightmares that stole his sleep and played havoc with his young mind.

The pain in his young heart, nothing could heal as the days went by and he would sit and stare at the gate for hours, waiting for her to come and play but she couldn’t, not anymore. So when no one was watching over him, he would run away to the cemetery to be close to her, to talk with her. It was not a good

sign for his mental state and his worried family had taken him away, far away, hoping it would help him to forget his loss.

Years had gone by as he grew into a young man, excelling in his studies, focused on his ambition and forging friendships in his social life. His family was happy that he had found a way to overcome his pain but no one knew the sad memories, he kept in a secret vault in his heart and the happy memories they shared as children was the soothing balm that eased his pain. Sitting by her grave now, he spoke to her softly, “I’m still your friend Devina,” he said, “I haven’t forgotten you, never mind I live so far away, you’ll always live in my heart.”

The butterfly fluttered its wings and a sweet childish voice said,

“I’ve been waiting for you Arjun, why did you take so long?”

Arjun looked up, a little startled but there was no one around.

“Did I actually hear that?” he wondered and shook his head, “It can’t be, not after all this time.” Yet he couldn’t stop himself from asking, “Why have you been waiting?”

No answer, not for a long while and he smiled wryly, knowing it was his mind playing tricks on him when she answered, “Because you asked me to.”

A sudden hush descended on the grounds and Arjun stood up slowly, his heart beating rapidly, not of fear but astonishment. He remembered the day of her funeral when he had been so grieved, he has cried, “Please don’t leave Devina.”

All that time she hadn’t left, she was waiting for him.

“Oh my God,” he whispered, “This can’t be true.”

He looked around but there was nothing that showed any indication she was there except for the beautiful butterfly that had guided him to her grave. He stretched out his hand and it

maureen.rampertab@gmail.com alighted in his palm, the touch of its tiny form, sending a slight shiver through his body.

“I’m so sorry he said,” withtears in his eyes, “I never knew you were waiting all these years, you should be in Heaven.”

“I know, the angels have been waiting for me.” He heard her say. “I wanted to see you just once more, now I can leave with them.”

He nodded, tears flowing down his face and as the butterfly flew away, he felt something soft touch his cheek, “Goodbye my friend,” the sweet childish voice said.

A gust of wind shook the trees, showering her tomb with the fallen pink blossoms and a light shone through, exiling the shadows. Through the veil of the light, he saw her, like an illusion in her pink dress then she was gone.

He sank down on his knees, by her tomb for a long while, crying, the vault in his heart now open then he raised his head to the Heavens and asked in a broken voice, “Why did this had to happen, Lord? You gave a precious life to one, a priceless gem then you take it back so soon, how can you be so unfair?”

Arjun spent the next few days cleaning and restoring her tomb, placing a sculpted angel over the headstone and in her village he opened a charity in her name. He returned home with even more special memories and one night, several months later, he had a dream.

She was riding her bike down the street and she stopped and looked back at him, standing there, the young man he was and she asked him “Do you have a girlfriend?”

“No…why?” He asked, surprised at the question.

“You should, you’re a handsome dude” she said, laughing a little and rode away, disappearing around the corner.

He woke wondering what was the meaning of that dreamif it had any meaning at all. But it was a good advice anyway and two years later he got married. One year later, a baby girl was born. Arjun held the precious little bundle in his arms, happy and proud to be a father and as she moved her tiny arms, he noticed the heart-shaped birth mark on her inner arm.

He stared at it, astounded.

It was the exact design of the heart he had drawn on a piece of paper and had placed it in Devina’s hand that day, as she laid in eternal sleep.

“Oh my God,” he whispered delighted beyond words as he looked at the baby in his arms.

God had sent his friend back to him, as his own child, to love and cherish – Her name Devina.

Chronicle Pepperpot June 29, 2014

III

By Petamber Persaud

‘Potaro Dreams, My Youth in Guyana’

by Jan Carew

‘Potaro Dreams’ can be read as a supplementary reader to Carew’s more popular novels, ‘Black Midas,’ ‘The Last Barbarian’ and ‘The Wild Coast.’ As such, this first volume of his memoir is quite a revelation, giving credence to the saying that truth is stranger than fiction. ‘Potaro Dreams’ can also be read in conjunction with the novels as a guide to fictionalising the past, an exercise that would be more pleasing than studying a textbook on fictionalising history.

Jan Carew Furthermore, ‘Potaro Dreams’ enforces the notion that most first novels are semi-autobiographical.

This first volume of his memoir covers a period from birth in 1920 to 1939 when Carew was drawn into the Second

World War. And it is aptly described by the author as ‘the prism’ through which he would approach life. This book is also described by Joy Gleason Carew who wrote the foreword as ‘the bedrock upon which his life, with all its accomplishments and challenges would be lived.’

His accomplishments were many and all came out of his formative years. He taught at many universities including Princeton, Rutgers, and Lincoln, and was Emeritus Professor of African-American Studies at Northwestern University, where he taught from 1973 to 1987. For his writing, Carew won the London Daily Mirror’s award for Best Play, ‘The Day of the Fox’, the Pushcart Prize (U.S.A.) for his essay ‘The Caribbean Writer and Exile’ and the Casa de Las Americas Prize for poetry. He is also the recipient of the Caribbean-Canadian Literary Expo 2003 award organised under the auspices of CARICOM Consular (Corps).

The book starts quite dramatically when Carew declared: ‘One night when I was nine years old, I died and miraculously came back to life.’ Then the memoir moved into flashback mode, like a novel, which method of writing a memoir makes for entertaining and engaging reading.

There are many parts of the prism that shed light on Carew’s formative years. Carew acknowledged those influences on page 78: ‘Edmund Rohlehr, Aunt Enny, my nurse Myah, my wicked cousin Maria, and my tutor Reginald Fort...illuminated the past for me with unforgettable stories’ and through them he learnt about his ancestors. To the above list should be added his grandfather, his friend Braveboy Pluto and his teachers at Berbice High School – Ben-O Yisu Das and James A. Rodway.

One of his greatest influences was his eclectic reading. There were many factors leading to his interest in books which led him into ‘magical landscapes of the imagination.’ One factor was his battle with malaria which made him into an ‘untouchable’ – ostracised by the youths in the hood which led him to turn his interest into areas other than boyhood outdoors recreations. Then he was fortunate to have grown-ups read to him. Like his cousin Maria who used to read him from Dickens’ ‘Great Expectations’ and ‘David Copperfield.’ And Edmund Rohlehr who read from Wilfred Owen, Rupert Brooke, Thomas Moore, Charles Kingsley and others. His reading list included novels, history and biographies and books by Charles Dickens, Alexander Dumas, H. Rider Haggard, Rudyard Kipling, Charles Kingsley, Andre Maurois, among others.

Books led him to experiment with storytelling. He learned from his grandfather how to get a moral/message across through storytelling; his grandfather used to cloak his rebellious messages from the pulpit in fanciful Anancy tales.

He learnt from Aunt Enny that it was ‘not the colour of the skin that counts, it’s the colour of the imagination.’ And she connected him to our folklore – Massakruman, Old Higue, Baku, Fairmaid, Whitelady, Anancy, Kanaima, Hurricane and Mantop.

Very importantly, while he was learning, Carew was never afraid to question the text and his teachers and his elders. In this was his greatest strength.

Jan Carew was able to put into practice what he learnt. He related how he made money by scripting and telling stories using a projector, an incident that brings to mind Edgar Mittleholzer who also lived in Coburg Street, New Amsterdam, and who went house to house selling his ‘Creole Chips.’

Using the projector, Carew created a theatre. ‘I made up trickster tales about rebellious children outwitting strict parents and teachers. Using paper cut-outs to depict characters in the drama, I then projected them as silhouettes onto a bed sheet that was stretched and pinned to the wall. I narrated the tale as the images appeared in the sheet. The entrance fee was a penny and I always had a rapt audience.’

Carew learnt well how to use his mind’s eye – ‘the eye of the imagination’ according to Edmond. And that was what defined Jan Carew – his imagination.

‘Potaro Dreams’ is essential reading for all who are willing to learn from the master of the imagination.

The book opened dramatically and ended profoundly when Carew admitted that the Second World War provided his generation ‘with the chance of escaping this stultified colonial system,’ a system where ‘colour, class, caste and wealth played an important role in defining who you were.’

Responses to this author telephone (592) 226-0065 or email: oraltradition2002@yahoo. com What’s Happening: • You are invited to repeat performances of ‘Expressions’ – a new forum for poetry on Thursday, July 10, at Theatre Guild, school show at 1 pm, public show at 8 pm.

‘Expressions’ is a Gems Theatre Production.

IV

Chronicle Pepperpot June 29, 2014

Interiors

by Mark McWatt INTRODUCTION

By LUCY EVANS University of Leicester, UK

M

ark Mc Watt was born in Guyana in 1947, and spent his child-hood in the Guyanese interior, where his father was a district officer. As a teenager, although he moved to Georgetown to attend school and college, he continued to arrange trips back into the interior, to which he had grown attached. He then left Guyana for Canada to study for a degree in English at the University of Toronto, and became a Canadian citizen. Mc Watt went on to complete a Ph.D at the University of Leeds in the UK, drawn by the innovations of academics there in the field of commonwealth literature. He eventually returned to the Caribbean permanently, but not to Guyana, taking up the position as Professor of West Indian Literature at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill, Barbados, from which he has recently retired.

Mc Watt has talked of the importance of his childhood and adolescent experiences of the Guyanese interior to his creative process and his sense of self, commenting in a 1990 interview that he ‘feel[s] the need to go back,’ despite the obLucy Evans

structions presented by the country’s political situation’, and mentioning in a 2007 interview that he still tries’ to get back to renew acquaintance.’ The influence of his various memories of Guyana’s forested hinterland is clearly apparent in his published work. In his two collections of poetry, Interiors (first published by Dangaroo Press in 1989) and The Language of Eldorado (Dangaroo Press, 1994), rivers in the northwest district of the interior feature in many of the poems, collected into sections entitled: ‘The Interior’ (in the first collection) and ‘Rivers of Dream’ (in the second collection). Of the eleven stories which make up his first work of fiction, Suspended Sentences: Fictions of Atonement (Peepal Tree Press, 2005), four chart a journey upriver through the Guyanese interior.

Finally, in his most recent poetry collection, The Journey to Le Repentir (Peepal Tree Press, 2009), a sequence of poems fictionalising an Elizabethan sea captain’ search for El Dorado is juxtaposed with a semi-autobiographical sequence depicting a personal childhood’ discovery’ of Guyana’s rivers.

If Mc Watt’s creative output demonstrates the centrality of the Guyanese interior as a place both experienced and imagined to his own sense of his identity as a writer, the prizes awarded to him suggest that Guyanese readers also view him as contributing to the development of the nation’s literary tradition. The Language of El Dorado won the Guyana Prize and Suspended Sentences won the Guyana Prize as well as the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize for best first book. Indeed, reviewers and critics have considered the relationship of his work to that of an earlier generation of Guyanese writers, including Wilson Harris, Edgar Mittleholzer, A.J. Seymour and Martin Carter.

McWatt himself draws attention to his indebtedness to these writers through dedications and explicit allusions: the subtitle to the poem’ Orifice’ in Interiors is a quotation from Seymour, the final poem of The Language of Eldorado incorporates words from Carter’s poem ‘You Are Involved’, in his 1954 collection Poems of Resistance – ‘(despite the poet) all / are not consumed. Not yet’ – and Mc Watt’s poetry and fiction resound with multiple references to Harris’s work.

However, as his contestatory citation of Carter’s words indicates, Mc Watt’s inter-textual dialogue with these writers is characterised by tensions and differences as well as shared concerns. Speaking to Gemma Robinson, Carter explained his decision to remain in Guyana at a time when many others left the Caribbean region in order to pursue writing careers: I stayed in Guyana deliberately. I felt that to be a writer, especially a poet, I should.’ For Carter, then, the act of remaining in Guyana was a necessary part of his identity as a writer; according to Gordon Rohlehr, he saw the migration of other Guyanese people as’ a means of evasion, a being “elsewhere” when our historic moment calls for confrontation.’ In an essay

on Carter, Wilson Harris challenges this idea, identifying with Carter across the discrepancy in their geographical locations.

The’ division’ between them, Harris argues, is part of the ‘complex background we share’. While Carter’s home has remained in Georgetown,’ Harris’s expeditions into the Guyanese interior set the pattern for his later migration ‘across other hazardous oceans rich and dangerous as the rainforest’. Harris insists that his migration to Britain as an adult has by no means led to a dissociation from his country of origin; he points out that since’ Guyana stems from Amerindian root word which means “land of waters,’’ it follows that the voyaging archetype is as native to Guyana as the homing instinct.’ The semi-au-

Mark McWatt tobiographical voices of Mc Watt’s poetry and fiction express a more anxious and unstable position in relation to his place of birth. While he did not, like Carter, remain in Guyana to confront the social and political problems following independence, at the same time he does not, as Harris does, celebrate his own migrations as acts which identify him with Guyana as a ‘Land of Waters’. The poems in Interiors – particularly’ Hillside: Hosororo’ and ‘Beyond Punta Playa’ – explore themes of exile, alienation, loss and longing, associated with the poet’s position as a migrant writer, which distinguish his imaginative encounter with the Guyanese interior from Harris’s.

These themes constitute only one dimension of a rich and textured collection. Offering an elaborate play on the word ‘interiors’, the book is divided into five parts: ‘The Interior’ is at the heart of the book, enclosed by two sections entitled ‘Interiors of the Mind’ and two sections entitled ‘Interiors of the Heart.’ The central section, Please see page V

Chronicle Pepperpot June 29, 2014

V

which contains poems set on rivers in the northwest district of Guyana’s hinterland, presents the interior as a geographical location imbued with a troubled history, while ‘Interiors of the Heart: Part One’ examines the inner thoughts and feelings of an adolescent persona exploring the rivers as part of a journey of self-discovery. Running parallel to these two associated sequences, ‘Interiors of the Heart: Part Two’ deals with domestic interiors, focusing on the intimacy of marriage and familial relations. The two ‘Interiors of the Mind’ sections are less consistent in their subject matter, but tend to be more playful in tone even when they touch on painful topics.

From page IV

In the preface to the first edition, Mc Watt comments on his arrangement of the poems, explaining that he had intended the divisions to ‘suggest the three aspects of the process that produces them – thought, feelings or desire and the phenomena of landscape themselves. However, the opening stanza of the first poem, ‘Porknocker’, disrupts the neat structure mapped out by the section headings:

His fingers felt Along every neck of stone For a vein of the mountain Until it convulsed in his hand Like the pulse of his desire With sudden, secret data To his brain

Natural features of the landscape, human desire, and intellectual thought are bound together within this introduction stanza, prevising the entanglement of the various forms of ‘interior’ explored in subsequent poems. As we progress through the book, overlaps between physical, psychical and emotional interiors recur as the boundaries between section divisions break down and the collection acquires a more fluid shape.

‘Porknocker’ ends with a reference to ‘the intimations of El Dorado / that perished – or were fresh conceived – within the dancing seam’ (11), lines which suggest simultaneously a seam of gold encased within the rock and the seam of colonial wounds inflicted on Guyana’s landscape and people. The poet’s aside – ‘or were fresh conceived’ – hints at the ongoing legacies of the El Dorado legend. Elsewhere in the collection, the repeated motif of Eldorado effects a layering of different kinds of quest; the quest of seventeenth century explorers for gold and diamond mines, the quest of Guyanese people for an independent nation, and the quest of an adolescent version of the poet for self-discovery through connection with the landscape. A ghostly golden boy surfaces fleetingly in some of the poems (Golden Flower’, River Passage’) as a reminder of unfulfilled dreams. If ‘Mt. Everand’ intimates that the broken dream of Empire – reduced to a ‘heap of rusting / metal / and rotten wood’ – might be replaced by ‘another golden city’ (36), ‘Golden Flower’ comments on ‘the fatal pollen of all dreams’ (37), and in ‘Morawhanna’ a road ‘points the way to all foundered dreams’ (32-33). In these poems, the unfounded dream of Eldorado fuelled multiple conquests of the Americas underwrites the lost dream of independence in a postcolonial Guyana burdened by political corruption and racial polarisation.

The shifting and multifaceted character of the rivers in Interiors, where the country’s past, present and future flow into each other, is compounded by the collection’s alternation between adolescent and adult impressions of the landscape. ‘River passage’ opens with an image of the speaker ‘launch [ing] himself’ into the river, in an attempt to fathom its mysteries, and the poem traces his journey as he drifts downriver(39). In ‘Hillside: Hosororo’, that sense of immersion and immediacy is lost; aware that the landscape merges into ‘the pages of [my] memory,’ this adult speaker observes the river running ‘in the distance [...] without ripple’ as its offers ‘its centuries of silence to the sum’ (45). Here, the river’s untold stories of a vanished past are rendered even less accessible by the speaker’s physical

detachment from Guyana. In these two poems and others within Interiors, direct impressions of Guyana’s rivers contend and co-mingle with dreamed, imagined and remembered landscapes, distorted by feelings of longing and nostalgia. The key phrase’ heartland of dream’ (38), located at the heart of the book’s inner section, momentarily draws together the collection’s intersecting strands: interiors of the mind, heart and landscape.

If Guyana’s forested inland region is a ‘heartland’ in a geographic sense, it also exists

within the poet’s heart, as another home’ (49), and in his imagination, as a source of creativity.

VI

Migraine or headaches treatment might lie in the hands of the dentist

A

n important part of a dental examination is measuring the patient’s normal range of motion in the muscles of the head and neck. We start with measuring the maximum range of the opening of the mouth, but we also measure the extension and flexion of the head and neck muscles. There is a normal or average range of opening of the mouth for a man and a woman. Generally, the mouth should be able to open sufficiently to allow the width of a tablespoon to be placed between the upper and lower central incisors.

If a patient cannot open his or her mouth that wide, there is usually an underlying issue, either in the muscles or the temporo-mandibular joint (TMJ) itself. Know that malocclusion (“bad bite”), premature contacts of teeth, spasms in jaw muscles, and TMJ disease can all trigger the pain of migraines and/or headaches. The treatment of your migraine or headaches might lie in the hands of your dentist, but it is possible that you are still totally unaware of this. Indeed these commonly arise from an underlying craniodental disharmony. If you go to many hospitals in the United States complaining of severe headaches,

Chronicle Pepperpot June 29, 2014

Don’t Do Today

What Can Be Put Off Until Tomorrow

I

First Things First

have a terrible problem with procrastination. Not in everything, but in two areas.

First, I put off entering my paperwork into my work computer until the last minute, though I do get it done in time. Second, my car is a mess of working material and purchased items I carry with me, such as medical supplies, non-perishable food, empty drink bottles and food wrappers.

I am a home health nurse. I am in my car every day, all day. Years ago I used to be better about keeping stuff caught up, then I went to counselling and stress management therapy and got over being stressed out all the time.

Now I am more relaxed and enjoy the moment because my job is more flexible and less stressful than working in a hospital. However, my supervisor wants my car cleaned out in case we have a state health inspector ride with us to see a home health patient.

How can I get myself not to put off entering paperwork into the computer and keep my car more presentable?

Trish

they first refer you to a dentist for him or her to eliminate the possibility of the mentioned disharmony.

When dentists do come to that conclusion, we control the pain by reducing inflammation of the TMJ. Dentists do this by helping the patient control the parafunctional habit causing the inflammation, all the while making sure each patient’s airway is maintained.

You see, airway obstruction, that is sleep apnea, is frequently connected to teeth grinding.

Pain in the neck or shoulders, and even arms can be triggered by tempero-mandibular disease (TMD). Based on the results of several diagnostic tests, including some motor flex and nerve tests, dentists can decide if the origin of the pain is primary, that is, if it is originating from the dento-facial complex, or if it is secondary. In the latter case, the dentist will refer the patient to the relevant physician. Knowing the cause of the pain allows dentists to render treatment customised to each patient and his or her origin of the pain.

Patients with secondary issues benefit from symptomatic treatment, like night time appliances (bite guards) that prevent grinding and clenching. Sometimes medications are utilised. Besides using flex tests, dentists can also have the patient bite with variable force on sheets of wax which can indicate pressure-mapping. It shows where a patient’s teeth contact first and how much is the relative pressure. This allows the practitioner to see where to adjust or remove the premature contact in the patient’s mouth.

After diagnosing a patient, usually a dentist fits a rehabilitative orthotic for that patient to wear for a certain period of time. During that period, the dentist provides the patient adjunctive physical therapy. The orthotic prevents grinding of teeth, while the adjunctive physical therapy allows the muscles to relax and the TMJ to reposition.

In that way, there is no longer any pressure or irritation to the nerves surrounding the TMJ. Remember, pain in any area where there are muscles causes those muscles to contract involuntarily.

Trish, your letter suggests that you are not less stressed, but that you've found a way to kick the can farther down the road.

You've exchanged the stress of the hospital for the stress you can inflict on yourself.

Your inner procrastinator tells you it's no big deal. It doesn't matter that your car is messy and you delay paperwork because you are good at your job. But if you think about it, that's not true. Your routines affect your job and how people perceive you.

People will judge your work by the state of your car. From your car people won't think you are competent and relaxed. They will think you are sloppy, disorganized and haphazard.

You want to be laid-back, but how does leaving paperwork till the last minute accomplish that? What if the computer is down? What if the state inspector shows up? What about complaints from your boss?

The quickest way to remove tension is to do those items first. Instead of calculating the last possible minute to file your paperwork, calculate the first possible moment. Instead of letting your car become a pig sty, clean it up. The first cleanup may take time, but if you do it last thing every day, or do it as things are being used, it takes almost no time.

These two things relate to your ability to earn a living, and they can negatively affect that ability. If you don't do them promptly, you want the stress. You are seeking it out. That gets to a deeper question. Why? What is your why? Why are you doing this to yourself?

Wayne & Tamara

One-lamp car involves in fatal accident

Chronicle Pepperpot June 29, 2014

- driver found guilty of contributory negligence & liable for damages

T

HE Federal Supreme Court in its Civil Jurisdiction 1960, disagreed with a High Court Judge’s assertion in a claim for damages and ruled that the respondent was negligent and liable for damages to the appellant, who was a passenger in the car and was injured in the accident.

The Appellant Mangaria, a passenger of the car was injured when a speeding motor cyclist, trying to evade the one-lamp car, died from injuries received in a collision with the vehicle.

The Federal Supreme Court constituted by Chief Justice Hallinan and Justices A.M. Lewis and J. F. Marnan, heard arguments and allowed the appeal, recommending that damages be assessed for the appellant.

The facts of the case disclosed that the respondent drove a car in the centre of the road one night at 20 to 25 m.p.h. His two park lights and head lamp on the left side of the car were on, but his other head lamp was not.

A motor cyclist was riding in the opposite direction at a fast rate with a passenger on the pillion seat and was seen by the respondent to swerve from side to side.

The respondent continued to drive in the centre of the road and there was a collision between the motor cycle and car in which the motor cyclist was killed and the appellant, who was a passenger in the respondent’s car, was injured.

The Federal Supreme Court held that: The respondent was negligent and his negligence had contributed to the accident and the Appeal was therefore allowed.

That Court had referred to several cases during the hearing of the appeal.

Mr. S. D. S Hardyal appeared for the appellant, while Mr. J. A. King represented the respondent.

Delivering his judgment, Chief Justice Hallinan said: “In this case the defendant respondent was driving a motor car along the road from New Amsterdam in the direction of Corentyne at night carrying as a passenger the plaintiff (appellant). He came into collision with a motor cyclist who was carrying a passenger on the pillion. The motor cyclist was

killed as a result of the accident and the appellant a passenger in the respondent’s car, was injured.” “The appellant has sued the respondent for damages for negligence in that he did not drive, while she was in the car, with that care and skill required of him in the performance of his duty to the appellant.”

The learned trial judge found that the respondent was

driving his car that night with only one head lamp which was on the near or left side of the car. The two park lights were on and the respondent admitted that he was driving in the centre of the road. On the other hand, the learned trial judge found that the motor cyclist was approaching at a very fast speed whereas the respondent’s car was only proceeding at 20 to 25 m.p. h.

The approaching motor cycle was seen swerving from one side of the road to the other.

In these circumstances the trial judge directed himself, thus, he said it was necessary to establish not only the knowledge of the defect of the respondent, that is, the condition of the head lamp, but also that the defective head lamp misled the the motor cyclist thereby causing or contributing to the collision between the motor car and the motor cycle.

VII

“It must, I think, be conceded that to drive a motor car in the centre of the road is not in itself negligence. The only negligence alleged the appellant in her statement of claim was the lack of a head lamp on the off side of the motor car,” the Chief Justice explained Counsel for the respondent objected to any argument advanced which would combine the fact of the car being driven in the centre of By George Barclay the road with the defect in the head lamp.

“I think that the fact of the car being driven in the middle of the road was a surrounding circumstance, a collateral fact to the alleged negligence of driving with a defective headlight; I do not think that the appellant should be precluded from arguing that the danger of driving with a defective head lamp would be aggravated if he drove in the middle of the road,” the Chief Justice contended.

The case cited by trial judge of Esso Petroleum Co., Ltd. v Southport Corpn was deemed inapplicable, the Chief Justice ruled.

“I think that the learned trial judge should have found as a fact that the respondent with reasonable care ought to have known that the off-side head lamp was not working and that when he saw the approaching motor cyclist he should not have continued to drive in the middle of the road,” the Chief Justice asserted.

On the authority of Wintle v. Bristol Tramways & Carrage Co., Ltd it is stated in Charles – Worth on Negligence, 3rd Edn., p. 99, that failure to carry the usual lights, which misleads the driver of another vehicle and causes a collision , is negligence.

The Chief Justice said it is true that the motor cyclist is dead and “we have no direct evidence from him whether he was misled or not.”

According to the evidence of the respondent, shortly before the accident the motor cyclist came from the northern side of the road to the southern side and then swung back hitting the motor car.

This maneuver may have been due to the cyclist suddenly realising that he was too far to the north to avoid a vehicle which he may have first thought was a motor cycle with one light and later realised it was a car.

Then, he may have gone too far to the south and in swinging back ran into the off side of the car which was in the centre of the road, the Chief Justice said.

“In these circumstances, in my view, the appellant has established that the respondent was negligent and the negligence continued up to the time of the accident and contributed to it. In these circumstances, I would allow the appeal,” the Chief Justice said.

He added: “It is conceded by the respondent that if contributory negligence is proved he is liable for the whole damages. Should the parties fail to agree on damages within one month, then the case must be referred back to the lower court for assessment of damages. I would allow costs both here and below.”

The other judges concurred.

VIII

Chronicle Pepperpot June 29, 2014

ME NA LEAVE HEY! T

By Neil Primus

here are many stories of tragic incidents in the “gold bush.” There are also stories of strange and bizarre happenings. Some are believable others are not.

Here is a story of a porknocker who refused to give up easily.

Edward was part of a mining crew working deep in the interior. It was river dredging so they lived close to the river.

After work, the men got cleaned up then ate or vice-versa.

Night was another hectic affair for the gold seekers. Many visited the shops and were provided with rum, drugs and women. Payments were made in currency or minerals. The crew was sixteen in number. They worked hard and played hard. When they hit the hammock they were usually dog-tired.

One cold moonless night a very peculiar thing occurred.

The men were all lying in their hammocks. The fire was reduced to glowing embers and night creatures communicated at will. It was in this calm setting that the men got their first encounter with the unknown.

Edward lay half-wake after a very hard day of work. Even though he was nodding off, he still had the presence of mind to sense that something strange was taking place. He lay still listening to the sounds of the jungle. He took a quick peek out of the hammock, nothing was in sight. Something or someone had caused him to come fully awake. Not only that, he then realised that he had the worst case of goose bumps. His spine was shooting tingly, arrows up and down his back. He broke out in cold sweat.

As he again looked around the sleeping camp his brain registered this extraordinary phenomenon. All the hammocks in the camp were rocking back and forth. But that was only the beginning of this curious incident. They were all moving to and fro in perfect unison. Edward began a slow but increasing tremble. Then reality hit home. His hammock was being rocked too. It was like a skilled symphony conductor commanding unison of his orchestra. Scared out of his skin, he shut his eyes tight and pretended to sleep. It was the longest night he had ever experienced.

The next morning he told everyone what he had witnessed.

Some were not bothered by it but others decided to break camp for safer grounds. The crew was reduced to eleven.

After a heated meeting the boss decided to shift the location of the camp and the crew began clearing a new area. They chatted as they worked calling out to each other. There was the usual chit chat and heavy tantalising, cussing and joking.

Samuel sweated as he worked. He had earlier entertained the thought of leaving with the four but changed his mind at the last moment. He had invested a lot in this trip and he intended to succeed. He hacked and slashed at the resistant and stubborn foliage.

A soft, clear whisper seemed to float through the air.

Samuel jumped and looked around. It was definitely not his friends, they were much noisier. Unnerved by this, he contin-

ued working but at a slower pace. Again the soft whisper came to him. He stopped and looked wildly around. The other men were working intently. Something uncanny was happening to him. He closed his eyes, shook his head and reopened them.

There was silence. He went back to work, this time with an uneasy mind.

“Phillip will die!”

Samuel froze. Although it was a very low whisper he heard the warning clearly.

“Phillip will die!”

Samuel spun around quickly and without thinking screamed a warning to his friend.

“Phillip! Look out!”

Phillip was busy cutting and clearing. When he heard the scream he rushed from the location.

CRASH!!

A large tree cut by another crew member gave way much earlier than anticipated. It fell on the exact spot Phillip had been occupying. Work came to an abrupt end that day. That night Samuel had trouble sleeping. He tossed and turned all night. Too many strange things were happening at this camp.

He had had enough. Tomorrow he would leave for another camp. Hopefully things would be much better over there.

Sometime after midnight he felt the urge to ease his bowels. He got up and walked down to the river. Stooping on the make-shift landing, he began to execute his toilet functions.

The soft lapping of the water helped this process. He felt very relaxed.

From out of the dark water rose a woman. The soft moonlight flashed against her golden hair that reached beyond her waist. From just below her breast her skin was covered in sparkling scales. Her gaze was fixed on the man stooping at the riverside. She glided effortlessly and silently towards him.

Her movements in the water were natural and purposeful.

Danishwar got up and stumbled out of the sleeping camp.

He wanted to urinate. The urge was overwhelming so he made haste and headed for some bush a short distance from the camp. Losing the battle of control, he let go before reaching his destination. He felt instant relief. His sleepy eyes began to wander around until it settled on a bizarre scene at the river.

In the moonlight he could see a man stooping on the small landing. He knew from experience what he was doing there.

His eyes however locked onto another figure and they popped in their sockets as he recognised the deadly “Wata Muma.”

What really shocked and terrified him was the way the water creature was advancing. With deadly intent she was creeping up on her unsuspecting victim. In the moonlight the saga began to unfold. The stooping man having a quiet moment and the water creature with arms outstretched reaching for him.

“Eeeeeeeaaaaa!”

Danishwar jumped at the high-pitch scream then suddenly realised it was coming from his trembling lips.

“Aaaaaahhh!”

The sounds shattered the tranquility of the night and several things happened. Samuel jumped in fright and stood up as the sound of the loud scream coming from the camp reached his ears. Just in time. The woman’s arms closed around the spot he had just vacated. The men tumbled from their hammocks grabbing cutlasses and axes. They rushed out of the camp and straight into the unfolding drama.

The creature, sensing that she could still catch her prize, charged straight for the figure standing on the landing. Samuel heard a splash in the water and looked slowly around.

It was a big mistake. His eyes came to focus on a silvery, glittering woman who was closing on him fast. Dragging his pants up, he tried running but stumbled and fell. The creature was now within touching distance of the man lying flat on his back.

By now the crew had recovered from shock. They raced down to the landing shouting, cursing and brandishing their weapons. Phillip was a few steps ahead and hit the landing running. He held his cutlass poised and ready for action. He reached for his friend with his left hand while he pelted chops at the creature with his right. The creature kept advancing. Phillip pulled Samuel to his feet and tried to retreat.

While all this was happening, the others who had reached the landing refused to go out over the water. From the safety of the land they shouted to their companions.

“All yo run!”

“Come boy!” Hurry!” “Run!” Phillip shoved Samuel towards the others and turned to face the advancing threat. He swung viciously at the creature.

PLOW!!

It sounded like the crack of a dull axe on a stubborn Greenheart tree. Phillip’s body sailed up in the air and landed in the river. As the crew watched in disbelief, the silvery menace surfaced next to the splashing man. There was a deafening splash then silence. Both had vanished.

JIM BROWN Chronicle Pepperpot June 29, 2014

IX

- Often mentioned as the greatest player in NFL history

O

ften mentioned as the greatest player in NFL history, this ruggedly handsome African American fullback for the Cleveland Browns first appeared on movie screens in the western Rio Conchos (1964), followed by a strong supporting role as convict commando "Jefferson" in the terrific WW2 action film The Dirty Dozen (1967). He was kept busy with additional on-screen appearances in other fast paced films including Ice Station Zebra (1968), 100 Rifles (1969) and El Condor (1970).

Brown's popularity grew during the boom of "blaxploitation" cinema in the early 1970s portraying tough "no nonsense" characters in Slaughter (1972), Black Gunn (1972) and Three the Hard Way (1974). His on-screen work in the latter part of the 1970s and 1980s was primarily centreed around guest spots on popular TV shows such as CHiPs (1977) and Knight Rider (1982). However, Brown then resurfaced in better quality films beginning with his role as a fiery assassin in The Running Man (1987), he parodied the blaxploitation genre along with many other African-American actors in the comedy I'm Gonna Git You Sucka (1988), played an ex-heavyweight boxer in the sci-fi comedy Mars Attacks! (1996) and ironically played an ex-football legend in the Oliver Stone directed sports film Any Given Sunday (1999).

Additionally, Jim Brown was a ringside commentator for the first six events of the Ultimate Fighting Championships from 1993 through to 1996. A bona fide legend in American sports and a successful actor, he continues to remain busy in front of the camera with recent appearances in various sports shows & TV productions.

He was a great Lacrosse player for Syracuse University.

He was also inducted into the Lacrosse Hall of Fame, in 1983.

Only man to be inducted during his lifetime into three sports Halls of Fame: Pro Football, College Football, and Lacrosse.

He was considered by many to be the greatest ever to play in the history of the National Football League. One defensive lineman's response as to the best way to tackle Brown: "Grab a hold of him and wait for help."

He never missed an NFL game in his career due to injury.

Despite only playing nine seasons, he retired as the alltime NFL career rushing leader with 12,312 yards. The record stood for 19 years.

In 1984 both Walter Payton and Franco Harris stood to break his NFL record of career rushing yards. Brown vowed to come back and play after 19 years of retirement if Harris broke the record because he didn't like the fact that Harris often ran out of bounds instead of fighting for every yard he could get.

First Cleveland Browns player to rush for 1,000 yards (1,527 in 1958).

Ranks 17th on NFL All-Time Rushing Attempts List (2,359).

Ranks 8th on NFL All-Time Rushing Yardage List (12,312).

Ranks 2nd on NFL All-Time Rushing Average List (5.219).

Ranks 4th on NFL All-Time Rushing Touchdowns List

(106).

Born to a devoutly Baptist family.

Inducted into both the College Football Hall of Fame and the Lacrosse Hall of Fame, making him one of the few athletes in more than one Hall of Fame. Brown was unanimously named the Rookie of the Year in 1957. He was recognised that season as the NFL's Most Valuable Player by many media organizations. In all, he earned league MVP honors four times (1957, 1958, 1963, and 1965).

Brown starred in 100 Rifles (1969), with Burt Reynolds which featured one of the first interracial love scenes in film

weeks old when his father abandoned the family. His mother soon departed from his life as well, taking a job as a maid in Manhasset, New York, and leaving the care of her young son in the hands of Brown's great-grandmother.

Brown was eight years old when his mother finally sent for him to come and live with her in New York. In his new home, Brown did well, thriving on the football field for the largely white Manhasset High School. During his senior years, the young running back averaged an astonishing 14.9 yards per carry, more than good enough to earn him a spot at Syracuse University.

In college, Brown dominated the competition, both on the football field and on the basketball court. He also ran track and was a talented lacrosse player.

As a running back, Brown earned national attention for his strong, explosive play. In the final regular-season game of his senior year, Brown capped off his college career by rushing for 197 yards, scoring six touchdowns and kicking seven extra points.

It was just the start. Over the next seven seasons Brown became the standard-bearer for all NFL running backs. At a time when defenses were geared toward stopping the ground game, Brown bulldozed his way past opposition, posting remarkable season totals: 1,527 yards (1958), 1,329 (1959), 1,257 (1960), 1,408 (1961), 1,863 (1963), 1,446 (1964) and 1,544 (1965).

His only “down” year came in 1962, when Brown rushed for 996 yards. It was the one season in his brilliant but brief football career that he failed to lead the league in yards.

But Brown saw a life for himself outside of football, and before the start of the 1966 season, he stunned the sports world by announcing his retirement. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1971.

Jim Brown

After Football Just 30 years old when he stepped away from the game, Brown wanted to use his post-football life to focus on a movie career. While some doubted he would stay away from the game for long, Brown stayed true to his word, leaving football for good and going on to appear in more than 30 films, including “The Dirty Dozen” (1967) and “100 Rifles” (1969).

But trouble also followed the temperamental Brown. For much of his adult life he's been dogged by accusations of assault. In 1968 he was accused of throwing his then girlfriend off a second-story balcony. The following year he managed to escape charges that alleged he assaulted another man following a traffic accident.

More recently, in 1999, Brown was convicted of smashing the window of his wife's car. After refusing to attend counselling Brown served a six-month jail sentence in 2002.

But Brown's life has also been defined by his support of African-American causes. In the 1960s he threw his support behind black-owned business by helping to create the Negro Industrial Economic Union. In the late 1980s he started the Amer-I-Can programme, which aimed to turn the lives around of young gang members. He's also been fiercely critical of modern black athletes, such as Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson, for not being better role models for younger black athletes.

(with Raquel Welch).

He was selected as All American in both Football and Lacrosse from Syracuse University.

His favourite films of his own are The Dirty Dozen, Slaughter, and Mars Attacks!

He posed for a nude centrefold in the September 1974 issue of Playgirl Magazine.

He was a close friend of the late actor Lee Marvin.

Even though, he had retired from the NFL after the 1965 Season, he remained on the Reserve/Retired List of the Cleveland Browns until 1975.

Jim Brown Biography Film Actor, Football Player, Activist, Athlete (1936–) Jim Brown is a record-holding, former NFL fullback who's been elected to his sport's Hall of Fame and who's also worked as a model and film actor.

Synopsis Born February 17, 1936, on St. Simons Island, off the southern coast of Georgia, James Nathaniel Brown experienced a childhood shaped by struggle. He was just two

X

Chronicle Pepperpot June 29, 2014

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

ROSIGNOL SWIM TO FIRST PLACE (Guyana Chronicle October 27, 1977) In the first ever Inter-School Swimming competition on the West Coast of Berbice Rosignol Government Primary emerged winner with 45 points.

Second place went to Blairmont Government Primary with 32 points and third Ithaca Government Primary with 22 points.

Champion boy was Alfred Reddock of Rosignol Primary with three firsts for fifteen points .

Champion girl Anna Lena Blair of the same school got one first and two seconds with eleven points.

The competition was held at the Blairmont swimming pool and five schools participated.

MUSEUM EXPEDITION COLLECTS RARE BIRDS (Guyana Chronicle October 27, 1977)

The Museum Exhibition team returned to Georgetown yesterday with a collection of over fifty specimens of birds, mammals, fishes and insects from the Rewa River area in the Rupununi.

The Rewa Museum expedition left Georgetown a week ago for the Rupununi in search of a new collection of swamp and forest birds as well as other mammals and species of fish.

The team which was headed by Naturalist N.O. Poonai included Taxidermists Balram Singh and Reynold Benfield.

According to expedition leader Poonai some of the birds brought back such as the capped heron, the spurwinged or upland plover and the orange breasted falcon are so rare that they have not been collected for a long time and it was doubtful whether they even existed in the country.

The collection also included a representative species of hawks, moths, frogs and fishes from the lakes and rivers.

Poonai said that ecological studies and observations were made of the Essequibo, Rupununi amd Rewa Rivers –especially in the lakes along the rivers and in the forest of the river banks.

TWO CHILDREN WIN MEDALS (Guyana Chronicle October 29, 1977)

Two school children from Guyana, Mukesh Persaud (9) of Albion Government school Berbice and Roxanne Casey (12) of Calcutta Government school East Coast Demerara have won Silver Medals for painting in the Shankar’s International Children’s Competition held in New Delhi

India in 1976.

FILM OM GUYANESE PLAY A BIG HIT (Guyana Chronicle November 8, 1977)

A film based on a play by Guyanese Jamal Ali is drawing big audiences at London cinemas, the British High Commission has said.

The film “Black Joy” brings together a number of Caribbean actors including the Jamaican born star Trevor Thomas and Guyanese Norman Beaton who plays a leading role.

“Black Joy” based on Ali’s “Dark Days and Dark nights” takes a fabled look at London’s suburb of Brixton and deals with the experiences of Benjamin when he arrives at the predominantly black community.

Movie critics have heaped praise on the film and the actors.

Alexander Walker critic of the London “Evening Standard” said that the cast brings a sense of seething humanity more common place in Kingston or Montego Bay to rainy grey London.

And they spill out some of the saltiest , sexiest, funniest dialogue I’ve ever heard,” he added.

EXPLODING BOTTLE LAMP SETS MAN ON FIRE (Guyana Chronicle November 13, 1977)

A watchman jumped into the Demerara River yesterday morning after he was turned into a human torch.

Khemraj Sookdeo 29, of Patentia Housing Scheme West Bank Demerara was later admitted to the Georgetown Hospital in a serious condition.

According to reports Sookdeo who was guarding a business place was using a kerosene bottle lamp when it exploded setting his clothes alight.

He jumped into the river in an attempt to put out the flames.

DENIS WILLIAMS DISCOVERS ROCK CARVING TOOLS IN SOUTH RUPUNUNI (Guyana Chronicle November 20, 1977)

A group of ancient rock carvings found in South Rupununi savannahs are currently being studied by Mr. Denis Williams Director of Art in the Department of Culture.

Mr. Williams and three other colleagues spent a week at Aishalton in the South Rupununi savannahs where exits the oldest rocks on the continent of South America.

Photographs and transfers taken of the rock carvings are being studied to determine the approximate time of their inscription.

It seems that the rocks were carved by pre-pottery using peoples who traversed the Brazilian-Venezuelan and Guyanese savannahs as hunters at a dare still to be established.

Members of the expedition were Williams, Dr. Alain Fournier, a sociologist attached to UMDA, Dr Philipe Mitrani, a Social Anthropologist attached to UNESCO and Dr Lesley

Potter, Head of the Department of Geography, University of Guyana.

The team was associated with the recent conference on Human Ecology and Environmental Management sponsored by the National Science and Research Council.

4 GIRLS AMONG EIGHT GUYANA SCHOLARS (Guyana Chronicle November 24, 1977)

Four girls are among eight winners of Guyana scholarships awarded for this year.

They are Bibi Zorina Khan who will study Hotel Administration, Christine Y Williams, Medicine, Sharon A V Embarack Spanish and Russian double major and Monica Helena Bowen, French and Russian.

The boys awarded Guyana scholarships are Rajendra Harry Dyal who will study Computer Science , Nunesh C S Singh, Industrial Engineering , Paul Dexter Valz, Actuarial Science , Leshpratap Lall, Chemical Engineering and Sheik Riyad A Insanally Spanish and French double major.

STAMPS TRACE HISTORY OF GUYANA FIRE SERVICE

(Guyana Chronicle November 25, 1977) Four stamps commemorating Fire Prevention Week 1977 which was observed earlier this month are now on sale at post offices and postal agencies throughout the country.

The stamps are in denominations of eight cents, 15 cents, 35 cents and 40 cents.

On the eight cent stamp is seen the fire appliance of the oldest type used on sugar estates while the fifteen cent stamp depicts the coal and the steamer type of appliance which was horse drawn to the scene of a fire.

On the 35 cent stamp is depicted a fire appliance which was introduced into the country in October 1923.

It was a Hatfield Merryweather motor vehicle fitted with an internal combustion engine.

The fire appliance on the forty cents stamp conforms with all the requirements of a modern fire fighting vehicle for a wooden city like Georgetown.

It was introduced in Guyana in December 1975.

All these appliances mark different stages of Fire Service development in Guyana.

TODAY’S BEST BUY (Guyana Chronicle November 28, 1977)

Raleigh All Steel Gents 23” cycle frames only $84; Refit your old cycle with a new frame for only $99. Duty Free racing cycle.

Parts & Accessories at controlled prices.

D M Fernandes Ltd. 27 Main Street Georgetown.

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

Chronicle Pepperpot June 29, 2014

XI

PRESIDENT RAMOTAR OPENS NEW OPPORTUNITIES FOR SMALL BUSINESS FOLKS

THE MAGIC OF CASSAVA

S

ome weeks ago President Ramotar was the guest speaker at the launching of The Mini and Small Business Project at the National Conference Centre. The aim of the Project is to help to create and foster the entrepreneurial spirit among ordinary folk so that they could develop their social and economic conditions.

The Project which is headquartered at the Ministry of Tourism, Trade and Industry is offering training, financial help and other assistance to those desirous of starting up small businesses or persons who already have their own small businesses.

The occasion was well attended by members of the established business community, the Diplomatic Corps and large numbers of small business persons and aspiring entrepreneurs.

The President gave a wide-ranging and inspiring address and one of the subjects he focused on was the more scientific production of cassava and the value-added products which could be had from cassava such as starches and snack-foods. He pointed out that some importers are bringing in cassava snack-foods from CARICOM countries which Guyanese could easily produce and from which they could make a good living.

In keeping with the President’s encouragement of cassava cultivation, last week Government gave one million dollars to the Amerindian village of Taushida in the Karasabai District to help this effort. And as if to be in consonance with President’s Ramotar’s advice, the news

also reported that the Trinidad and Tobago government “is developing a Strategic Industry Development Plan for the cassava industry.” There is obviously much wealth and well-being in an extending cassava industry.

Many years ago, Mrs. Savithri Mootoo, a British-trained educationist and widow of the legendary Dr Leslie Mootoo wrote a children’s short story about the wealth that lies in the cassava. The story was one of a series of simple reading aids for Amerindian children and is still relevant to-day. The story:THE MAGIC OF CASSAVA Once upon a time there was a little boy named Peter.

Peter lived with Anna, his grandmother, in a little house near the village market. Every Friday afternoon, Anna made twelve jars of guava jelly. Anna was very good at making guava jelly. Her jelly was the best in the village.

Every Saturday, Peter sold the twelve jars of guava jelly in the market. The people in the village loved Anna’s guava jelly.

It was so delicious that Peter had no difficulty in selling it. It was sold out almost as soon as he took it to the market. However, one Saturday Peter was not so lucky. It was a rainy day and there were very few people in the market. Peter asked the people in the market if they would like to buy some guava jelly. They only shook their heads and said “No thank you Peter. We don’t need guava jelly to-day. Maybe, we will buy a jar of jelly from you next week”.

It was raining heavily and

the people were in a hurry to get back to their homes. It was getting late and Peter was getting worried. He had not been able to sell even one jar that day. He knew that his grandmother would be very worried too. She needed money to buy food to run the house.

It was nearly time for the market to close. At last Peter decided to go back home. He would explain to his grandmother why he had not sold any guava jelly that day. Peter walked slowly and sadly back home with his basket of unsold guava jelly.

As he neared his house, he met a strange-looking old man. “What have you in your basket?” asked the old man. “Guava jelly, Sir” replied Peter. “Would you like a jar of jelly, Sir. It is very delicious. My grandmother made it.” “What!

Guava jelly! That is exactly what I have been looking for” said the strange old man. “I will buy all the jars of jelly you have in your

basket”.

Peter was very pleased.

He handed the old man all the twelve jars of jelly. The old man gave Peter a paper bag with something in it.

Peter was very excited. He quickly opened the bag to see how much money was in it. “What!” exclaimed Peter, “oh no! This is not money! There is no money here! Only a piece of cassava!”

Peter wanted to give the piece of cassava back to the old man, but when he looked up the old man had disappeared. Peter ran up and down the road looking for the old man. But the old man was nowhere to be seen.

Peter was afraid. “What will grandmother say?” he thought as he walked very slowly to his house. When Peter arrived home, his grandmother was waiting for him.

“Why are you so late, Peter?” She asked. “I have been waiting for you. Give me the money quickly so that

I may go and buy some food.

There is no food in the house to-day.” Peter was afraid. “I have no money grandmother” replied Peter. “The man who bought the guava jelly gave me this in return.” “What!” shouted Anna, “A piece of cassava in return for my twelve jars of guava jelly?

You stupid boy! Go give this back to the old cheat and bring me back my twelve jars of jelly at once!” “Grandmother please don’t be angry with me. The old man has disappeared. I looked for him everywhere but he seems to have vanished.”

“Oh you stupid boy!” shouted Anna. “How did you allow that man to cheat you like this”. “That wicked cunning old man grumbled Peter’s grandmother.

“Well, I suppose we will have to eat this piece of cassava for dinner” she said.

She then washed the piece of cassava and put it to cook in a large pot. While the pot was cooking she grumbled at Peter for allowing the old

man to cheat him. She said Peter was a lazy, stupid and good-for-nothing boy.

When the cassava was cooked, she tried but could not open the pot. “Come Peter, come and help me. The cassava is cooked but I can’t take the lid off. Please help me open this pot.” Peter tried to open the pot but he could not open it either. “What shall we do?” asked grandmother. Peter had an idea.

Before grandmother could stop him, he picked up a cutlass and broke open the pot. “Oh! Oh! Oh!” cried grandmother. “It’s gold!

It’s gold!” shouted Peter.

“The pot is full of gold!”

There was no cassava in the pot. The pot was filled with bright glittering pieces of gold. “Now we are rich!” shouted Peter. “Yes we are rich!” shouted grandmother.

“I am sorry I called the old man a wicked cunning cheat.

He must be a very kind old man.”

“Peter, you are a very good boy, I love you.”

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Chronicle Pepperpot June 29, 2014

Chronicle Pepperpot June 29, 2014

XIII

XIV

Randeep and Chitrangda together?

The actors might star opposite each other in a biopic drama. Prawaal Raman who is busy with post production of Main Aur Charles, a biopic on Charles Shobharj starring Randeep Hooda in the lead role has already planned his next film.

A c c o r d i n g t o s o u rc e s t h e d i rector is planning to make a film on Dr. Ajoy Kumar, who is a doctor-turned-cop-turned-politician. The director has approached Randeep for the lead role and is keen on casting Chitrangda Singh to play Randeep’s wife, Reena in the film. The casting has not been finalised yet but if it does, this will be the first time that the two actors will act together.

Chronicle Pepperpot June 29, 2014

5 Lesser known facts about Karisma Kapoor The dangerous Ishq actor turns 40 today. Born on June 25, 1974, Karisma Kapoor is one actor who looks younger with every passing day. Her life has been an open book as people have always been privy to what’s happening in her personal life. But still there are some things that remain unknown.

Ajay Devgan won’t direct Kajol Contrary to the reports, Kajol is not a part of her husband's next directorial venture. According to sources, Ajay Devgan is currently working on the script of his second

directorial venture. He is planning to announce the project by the year end. He has planned to keep all the details of the film under wraps but it is heard that Kajol won't be a part of the film.

Nargis Fakhri on Filmfare cover

The actress is our cover girl this fortnight. Whenever Nargis Fakhri decides to grace our cover she makes sure she gets our cover blazing. This fortnight for our bikini issue Nargis Fakhri sizzles our pages.

Rekha and Katrina to do a workshop?

The two actresses are going all out for their film. Rekha and Katrina Kaif will soon be doing a workshop to get into the skin of their respective characters before they start shooting for Fitoor.

According to a source, though Rekha was a bit skeptical about the idea initially, director Abhishek Kapoor managed to convince her. Apparently, the director feels this workshop is essential for the two leading ladies and that it will make their work much easier during the shoot.

Casting director, Mukesh Chhabra will be spearheading the workshop.

They are: -Karisma‘s mother, Babita, gave her the name Lollo after the legendary Hollywood heroine Gina Lollobrigida.

-Karisma dropped out of school soon after sixth standard to pursue acting.

-Karisma was not the first choice for Raja Hindustani, which went on to be a huge hit and got her many awards.

The movie was supposed to be Aishwarya Rai’s debut.

-Karisma won the National Film Award for Dil to Pagal Hai. Surprisingly she was not the first choice to play the bubbly character of Nisha. She was selected after the role was rejected by Raveena Tandon, Juhi Chawla, Kajol, Manisha Koirala and Shilpa Shetty.

-Karisma‘s break up with Abhishek Bachchan happened because of Junior Bachchan’s not so successful film career and Karisma’s mother Babita’s interference in their relationship.

Chronicle Pepperpot June 29, 2014

Talented Actress, Georgina Onuoha Shows Off Daughters Nollywood actress, Georgina Onuoha, who debuted in the movie industry in the 1990s, is one actress that is loved by several people but had a break after she got married to her husband and father of her two kids in 2006.

Georgina, who married a Nigerian-American man, relocated to the United States, where she gave birth to her two beautiful children.

Reports now have it that the gorgeous actress is on a movie set in San Francisco. The actress showed off her children, who are no doubt very adorable.

XV

Why I Don’t Want To Be Committed To Any Man

—Ghanaian Actress, Joselyn Dumas

Ghanaian television presenter turned actress, Joselyn Dumas, has disclosed that a friend with benefit is more beneficial to her than having a serious relationship. According to her, having a relationship is always a problem because the expectations are always high, but when it comes friends with benefits, not much is expected because there seems to be an understanding that if things go well, it would lead to the next level. Joselyn made the revelation while answering a question on the topic: "Can a man and a woman be just friends?" on the Super Morning Show on Joy FM with Kojo Yankson last Friday.

The actress expressed her mind that she’s not ready to go through any stress of relationship for now because of the pressure involved with it. Even though the television presenter believes in marriage, she says being married or in a relationship requires commitment, which is too much for her.

Glitz, Glam At Ndani TV’s ‘Gidi Up’ Season 2 Premiere

On Saturday, June 21, 2014, a private screening

I am not having an affair – Patience Ozokwo clears the air

Nollywood actress, Patience Ozokwo, aka Mama Gee, has finally reacted to the speculated affair between her and Delta State-born politician, Michael Diden aka Ejele.

The actress debunked the rumour and stated that she is not in any romantic relationship with any man at the moment, including the former Commissioner at Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (DESOPADEC), who is also a Pastor.

According to Patience Ozokwo, she has more important issues to handle than having a secret affair with an opposite sex. She also stated that as a blunt person, if such was true, she would have boldly presented the man in her life to the public.

The 2014 AMAA Best Supporting actress, who was recently spotted in Uganda at the launch of the second edition of the Uganda Film Festival on Tuesday, June 17, 2014, is currently on vacation in London, taking care of her grandchildren and is due to be back in the country soon.

was held at the Palms, Lekki, Lagos for the private screening of ‘Gidi Up’ season 2. The thrilling adventure series centers around the lives of four friends in pursuit of happiness, success and independence

but few wrong choices turn their ‘Lagos dream’ into a Gidi nightmare.

The latest season, which first showing started on Monday, 23rd of June, on Ndani TV’s website, YouTube channel and National

television, featured casts from the series; OC Ukeje, Titilope Sonuga, Deyemi Okanlanwo, Adesua Etomi, Anthony Monjaro Daniel Effiong and other celebrities who made the exclusive screening guest list.

XVI

Chronicle Pepperpot June 29, 2014

World Cup technology: Who will win in 2050?

Will robots play in future World Cups? And the World Cup 2050 is awarded to... (Drum roll)...Mars!

Sound far-fetched? Not if a recent suggestion of future "inter-planetary competitions" is anything to go by.

Some might have felt references by FIFA's chairman to football in space aimed to detract from the row about awarding the 2022 event to Qatar.

Others might note that if a tournament did go ahead on Mars, it would at least be cooler than in Qatar.

How will football and sport in general, develop in an

ever-changing, tech-focused world? And what will the World Cup be like in 2050?There is no doubt that humans seem to be getting better at sport.

If the winner of the 2012 Olympics marathon had competed in the 1904 race, he would have won by nearly an hour and a half.And if Jesse Owens, who took gold in 1936, had competed against Usain Bolt in the 100 metres at London 2012, he would still have had 14 metres left when Bolt crossed the finishing line.

These days sport is a science, with technology playing a huge role from 3D printed trainers and specially-designed equipment to data analytics that monitor athletes' every move.

Look closely at the British Lions next time they play and you may

see a small box underneath their shirts.

Technology could also be used to give the fans a more immersive experience.

We can put Google Glass under a helmet and get a sense of what it is like to be running down a field at 100 miles an hour, the blood pounding in your ears.

There is plenty of technology on show in Brazil, including goal-line sensors, heat-bonded footballs and vanishing spray used by referees during free kicks.

But it was a mind-controlled exo-skeleton - worn by Juliano Pinto, a 29-year-old paraplegic man to kick the first ball of the tournament - that has stuck in the minds of many.

So will future World Cups feature similar robotics?

The technology is clearly available to make players even more superhuman but, will it be of cultural acceptance? Do the fans want football to go the same way as Formula 1, where the car matters more than the driver?

I expect that in 2050 we will not have human referees any more. Humans will probably be present as supervisors of an automatic referee that can be software or even a robot.

sector hasn't quite decided what it wants to be - is it a phone on your wrist or an accessory device?

Once you introduce Android Wear, it will hopefully provide a more focused case for what the devices are capable of. And that's a direction that could invigorate the market.

Bionic eye let’s blind man 'see' again As a teenager, Roger Pontz's eyesight began to fail. Doctors told him there was nothing they could do to save his vision and over the years his sight deteriorated until, by the age of 40, he was completely blind.

Pontz had been diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, a he-

Google Has Announced Its First Smart Watch

The LG G Watch and Samsung Gear Live - both featuring rectangular screens - mark an attempt to standardise the way Android wearable devices function.

The problem with smartwatches so far has been that the

reditary eye disease that damages the retina -- a layer of tissue at the back of the eye that converts light to nerve signals and sends them to the brain.

But he always believed that one day he would see again.A few years ago he heard about a device called the Argus II. Known as the "bionic eye," it gave a glimmer of hope that some of his sight might be restored.

The Argus II system consists of a pair of glasses with a small video camera mounted on it, which captures images.

A prosthesis, no larger than a pencil eraser is surgically implanted on the surface of the retina and information from the camera is transmitted wirelessly to electrodes on the artificial retina, where it is converted to electrical pulses.

Any remaining cells that haven't been damaged by the eye disease are stimulated by the pulses, leading to a perception of light patterns in the brain.

It's a long way from perfect vision -- the users perceive simple flashes of light, no colour or details -- but it can be enough to get around.

Chronicle Pepperpot June 29, 2014

XVII

MARY ANNING (1799-1847) -Made several important discoveries as an amateur fossil collector

M

ary Anning (1799-1847) made several important discoveries as an amateur fossil collector in the first half of the nineteenth century, including a nearly complete skeleton of an Ichthyosaur.

Her findings were key to the development paleontology as a scientific discipline in Britain.

Anning was born on May 21, 1799, in Lyme Regis, Dorset, England, the daughter of Richard and Mary Moore Anning.

The Annings had nearly ten children, but only Mary and her elder brother Joseph survived to adulthood. On August 19, 1800, Anning narrowly escaped death during a lightening storm. She was one of four people who found shelter under an elm tree in Rack Field near Lyme Regis. Only Anning survived when the tree was struck by lightening. Local legend had it that her intelligence increased significantly after the incident.

Richard Anning made his living as a cabinet maker and carpenter. As a hobby and for extra income, he collected fossils. They were cleaned, polished, and sold to summer tourists. The area in which the Annings lived was rich with fossils. Their hometown, Lyme Regis, was located on the southwest coast of England. About 200 million years earlier, the region had been a sea bottom, where numerous dinosaur remains were fossilized after their death. As sea level fell, these fossils could be found on the beach and above it, especially in the exposed rocky cliffs. Richard Anning was among the first to take advantage of the tourist trade, which increased as Lyme Regis became a summer resort seaside town in the late 1700s. A popular item was what the locals dubbed "curiosities," a coiled shell. Later, it was determined that these shells were ammonites, a type of mollusk that lived in the Jurassic Period.

Richard Anning was not the only townsperson to sell collected fossils, but he did interest his whole family in the enterprise, including daughter Mary.

Anning had only a limited education, perhaps only a few years in a parish school, but she learned much about the business and the fossils from her father.

She developed extraordinary skills in fossil collecting. Her abilities came in handy when Richard Anning died in 1810, leaving his family destitute and in debt for £120. He had been suffering from consumption and had fallen off a cliff before his death. Her brother Joseph was already working as an apprentice to an upholsterer, so the burden of providing an income for the family fell to Anning and her mother. Anning viewed fossil collecting as their only means of support, except for charity given to the family by their local parish from 1811 until 1815.

DISCOVERED ICHTHYOSAUR In 1811 or 1812, Anning made her first important discovery. Though sources differ on the sequence of events and who was involved, it is clear that Anning was primarily responsible for the finding of a well-preserved, nearly complete skeleton of what came to be called an Ichthysaurus ("fish-lizard").

Some said that her brother Joseph found the skull first, or they found the head together, separate from the rest of the body. Others believed that Anning found the whole fossil on her own. Anning then hired workers to dig out the block in which it was embedded. In any case, the ten-meter (30 feet)

long skeleton created a sensation and made Anning famous.

She sold it to Henry Hoste Henley, a local collector, for £23.

Eventually it made its way to the London Museum of Natural History, and a debate ensued over what to name the creature, a marine reptile with a long body and tail, small limbs, and trim head. It was dubbed Ichthysaurus in 1817.

This discovery was important to science as well as Anning's livelihood. Though life in the Anning family was difficult for the next decade, Anning herself was developing important skills. She became a good observer, who could provide vital information to scientists. She knew the area well and became expert at predicting where fossils might be found after storms. Anning also became adept at removing the fossils without causing ant damage. Though Anning and her mother were the primary fossil hunters, they was often accompanied Mary Anning

interested scientists. Anning shared her knowledge with both segments of society when they visited Lyme Regis. Many were surprised at the level of her understanding of fossils.

Anning also held an extensive correspondence with experts in the field, both in Britain and other countries. Yet, for Anning, this was also a business. She had a shrewd business sense and came to know her market well. She often sought out specialists or museums that paid more for her unusual fossil. With each major discovery, Anning started a bidding war. For example, her second complete Plesiosaurus was sold to the London Natural History Museum for £100.

In 1828, Anning made two major findings. She found the anterior sheath and ink bag of a Belemnosepia, an invertebrate. This was her first finding in invertebrate paleontology. The same year Anning also discovered a Pterodactylus macronyx, British pterosaur ("wing finger"), the first pterodactyl of the Dimorphodon genus. An Oxford University professor named this fossil. The discovery brought Anning even more attention, on a nation-wide level. It was this celebrity that might have prompted her visit to London in 1829, the only recorded leave she took of Lyme Regis. Anning continued to make important discoveries in 1829 and 1830. In the former, she found the fossil of Squaloraja, a fish that seemed to be an evolutionary step between rays and sharks. In 1830, Anning discovered a Plesiosaurus macrocephalus, which was bought for £200

by William Willoughby.

EARNED ACCOLADES

by her brother or a local friend, Henry De le Beche, who later became a geologist. The family was also aided by Thomas James Birch, who helped them sell many of their fossils before Anning became an adult.

DISCOVERED COMPLETE PLESIOSAURUS In 1823, Anning made another important discovery, perhaps her greatest. She found the first complete Plesiosaurus ("near lizard"). This was a reptile that was nine-feet long and lived in the sea. It had a long neck, short tail, small head, and four flippers that were pointed and shaped like paddles. They were very rare, and Anning's discovery led to the creation of a new genus. The specimen was sold to Richard Grenville for about £100, though sources differ and the amount could have been as much as $pound;200. Anning and her mother developed a reputation for being effective negotiators with those who wanted to buy their specimens.

By this time, Anning's contributions and skills were being recognized by those in the field. She had her own retail shop in Lyme Regis. The shop was a tourist attraction that also drew

In 1838, Anning's income from her shop began to be supplemented by a grant of £25 per year. This was paid for by the British Association for the Advancement of Science and government funds approved by William Lamb, Lord Melbourne, Britain's prime minister. Later in her life, the Geological Society of London granted Anning an honorary membership. In 1846, the Society also gave her further funds when it was learned that she had developed cancer. That same year the Dorset County Museum named her its first honorary member.

Anning died of breast cancer on March 9, 1847, in Lyme Regis. She never married, and the only immediate family left was her brother and his wife, Amelia. The town of Lyme Regis suffered financial losses after her death because fewer tourists were drawn there without its star attraction. However, the fossils she collected can still be found in museums around the world, including the Natural History Museum in London and Oxford University. Yet Anning's name is essentially unknown.

Geologist Hugh Torrens told Gail Vines of New Scientist, "Lord Gnome, who bought Anning's fossil, is honoured-she, as workman and tradesman, is invisible."

Anning's legacy has remained alive over the years. A tongue twister ("she sells seashells by the seashore") was believed to have been written about her. About 15 years after her death, the scientists of the Geological Society of London gave the church in Lyme Regis a stained-glass window in her honor. It depicted the six corporal acts of mercy. By the late twentieth century, the Lyme Regis Museum stood where a home of Anning's once stood. Its primary purpose was preserving Anning's legacy. Scientific historian, Hugh Torrens, wrote this of Anning, "If I could create my own myth about Mary Anning, it would be to equate her with Diana as the hunter."

XVIII

KAREN ALTHEA Mc GREGOR-Cake Decorator Meaningful work as a led to satisfying Par Excellence child work in later years

Chronicle Pepperpot June 29, 2014

Karen Althea Mc Gregor

By Telesha Ramnarine

F

ROM an early age, Karen Althea Mc Gregor learned to do meaningful work with her hands.

Her mother, Hyacinth, had a huge kitchen garden and supplied a dry goods store in Linden, along with Chinese restaurants with her produce. Karen’s father, Lloyd, on the other hand reared pigs and poultry. And so, more often than not, she was called upon to help out.

The family was huge, consisting of 10 siblings (four boys, six girls) and the parents. No one was spared of helping with the chores.

“Farming was like a way of life for me. I didn’t grow up lazy because we were not just being provided for. We had to work and help; help pull the weeds in the garden Please see page XIX

Karen likes her cakes to be edible from top to bottom

Chronicle Pepperpot June 29, 2014

From page XVIII and so forth. The entire family had to help. It was a must.

So the whole family was part of the food drive,” Karen related to the Chronicle a few days ago.

Karen, now 51, who was born and raised in Christianburg, Linden, believes her upbringing trained her to be self-sufficient, as her parents were.

Her mother didn’t believe too much in higher education, but Karen did manage to attend the Christianburg Government School. “In the 1970s, it was just one school, no primary and secondary. If you wanted to go to a high school, your parents had to pay or you had to be very bright to get into like Mc Kenzie High School and Telford and Johnson,” she explained.

After school, she worked briefly with a firm in Linden and then got married to a young photographer Lindon whom she met at a friend’s wedding. Together, they have six children, namely Melissa, Natasha, Genelle, Renetta, Eldon and Koralyn.

But her husband always disliked the idea of a wife having to work, and so ever since Karen got married, she has never managed to work with anyone. After starting to get kids, though, Karen felt she can stay at home and do something with her hands.

KAREN’S CAKES For the past 17 years, Karen has been a cake decorator and her business is known as ‘Karen’s Cake Decorating.’ She started experimenting with simple techniques and after about two years, she began working professionally.

One of her aunts in Linden was a cake decorator and seeing her work, Karen became interested in learning how to icing the cake. The roses and other intricate designs on the cakes always caught her attention.

So while being at home, Karen thought she should not just sit around without doing anything. She also wanted to be able to assist the family financially. She began practicing on her own and making cakes for her family, especially on special occasions such as when her wedding anniversary came around. Some of her friends even took their cakes for her to icing, just for the fun of it.

After Karen’s interest in making cakes was fully developed, she began taking it seriously by doing a few courses with those who were experts and obtaining professional howto-do books. She eventually got the finesse of it.

Karen can make any type of cakes and for just about any

With her husband Lindon

occasion. She believes that the quality she puts into her work sets her cakes apart from any other.

“I try my best not to deviate from people’s designs and the finesse of it. I like my cake to be edible from top to bottom.

I don’t like using artificial flowers. Everyone has their signature look and I have mine so that people recognise my work anywhere,” she said.

Karen’s vision include opening up her own training school. She once successfully managed to teach a three-month course to six persons.

She is always punctual with her orders, even if it means working through the night in order to meet a deadline.

Karen can be reached on telephone numbers 226 0125, 648 2207, and 601 6762. Furthermore, she usually participates in the Duke Lodge Wedding Expo.

XIX

Karen tries her best not to deviate from the designs chosen by her customers

XX

Rajesh Dubraj:

A ‘behind the scenes artiste’ with much to offer

By Alex Wayne

Guyana is indeed loaded with vocal talent and most times we never get a rich tasting of our vocal power

because most of our talented singers remain behind the scenes for one reason or another.

And in the arena of our vocal power houses is a very

talented artiste with much finesse and versatility that is bound to take him places.

While he is secluded and remains behind the scenes most of the time, Rajesh

Dubraj’s performances are however spectacular when he takes the stage.

Recently completing his 37th birthday, he has been involved in Indian music from a very tender age and from the grass root level at mandirs. Hailing from Grove Housing Scheme on the East Bank of Demerara, Dubraj has emerged from having a passion for Indian music and culture to being the leading Chutney artiste in Guyana and is also the lone artiste of that particular genre signed to the Kross Kolor Label.

Over the years He has been making his name performing at many major events in almost every region in Guyana and has also touched a few regional territories including Suriname where he performed at CARIFESTA VIII and CARIFESTA IX in Trinidad & Tobago representing Guyana in the arts of singPlease turn to page XXXI

Chronicle Pepperpot June 29, 2014 Rajesh Dubraj has a promising future in the entertainment field

Chronicle Pepperpot June 29, 2014

By Rebecca Ganesh-Ally Uses for Baking Soda (Part 2) * Make a Hand Cleanser and Softener Skip harsh soaps and gently scrub away groundin dirt and neutralise odours on hands with a paste of 3 parts baking soda to 1 part water, or 3 parts baking soda to gentle liquid hand soap.

Then rinse clean. * Help Your Hair - Vinegar is amazing for your hair, but baking soda has its place in the shower too.

Sprinkle a small amount of baking soda into your palm along with your favourite shampoo. Shampoo as usual and rinse thoroughly–baking soda helps remove the residue that styling products leave behind so your hair is cleaner and more manageable. * Clean Brushes and Combs -For lustrous hair with more shine, keep brushes and combs clean. Remove natural oil build-up and hair products residue by soaking combs and brushes in a solution of 1 teaspoon of baking soda in a small basin of warm water.

Rinse and allow drying. * Soothe Your Feet - Dissolve 3 tablespoons of baking soda in a tub of warm water and soak feet. Gently scrub. You can also make a spa soak for your feet. * Hand wash Dishes and Pots & Pans - Add 2 heaping tablespoons baking soda (along with your regular dish detergent) to the dish water to help cut grease and foods left on dishes, pots and pans. For cooked-on foods, let them soak in the baking soda and detergent with water first, then use dry baking soda on a clean damp sponge or cloth as a scratch less scouring powder.

QUICK DINNER Chicken Fried Steak Recipe This chicken fried steak recipe comes from German immigrants who settled in Texas. It soon became a Texas favourite, and to many is synonymous with Southern food.

Chicken fried steak uses tenderised round steak, an inexpensive, tough piece of meat. It is usually served with vegetable and mashed potatoes.

Ingredients:

1 (2 1/2 to 3-pound) round chicken (steak) 1 (5-ounce) can evaporated milk 2 Tablespoons green Tabasco sauce 1/2 teaspoon salt 2 cups all-purpose flour, divided 2 teaspoons paprika 3/4 teaspoon garlic powder 1 teaspoon each salt and cracked pepper Vegetable oil

XXI

Directions: 1. Trim steak and pound, if needed, to 1/2-inch thick; cut into 6 to 8 pieces.

2. Combine milk, Tabasco sauce and salt in a bowl.

3. Measure 1 cup of flour into a bowl. Combine remaining flour, paprika, garlic powder, salt and pepper in another bowl.

4. Dip steak into flour, into milk mixture, and then into seasoned flour. Set aside until all meat is coated.

5. Heat 1 or 2 inches of oil in a heavy fry pan. Fry meat until both sides are golden brown, about 2 minutes per side.

6. Drain on paper towels. Serve with cream gravy, mashed potatoes and biscuits.

Cream Gravy: 1. Pour off all but 6 tablespoons of fat from fry pan; add 6 tablespoons flour into pan (use any leftover seasoned flour) and blend well.

2. Gradually stir in 2 1/2 cups of milk. Cook and stir over medium heat until thickened. Season with salt and pepper.

Cover steak with gravy when served.

Continued on page XXVII

XXII

Guyanese Women in History:

Chronicle Pepperpot June 29, 2014

WAVENEY ANN MOORE: Award Winning Journalist/ Pulitzer Prize Finalist

Waveney Ann Moore

Waveney Ann Moore is a general assignment reporter for the Tampa Bay Times. She covers a wide range of topics in the metropolitan area, most recently the debate over the future of the St. Petersburg Pier.

She was a finalist for the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for “For Their Own Good,” about abuse at Florida’s oldest reform school.

The series won the Dart Award for covering trauma, the Casey Medal for exemplary reporting on children and families and first place for non-deadline reporting in the 2010 Green Eyeshade competition run by the Society of Professional Journalists.

Moore was also a finalist for the 1998 Pulitzer as part of a team that covered the story of the Rev. Henry Lyons, former head of the National Baptist Convention U.S.A. She’s a former reporter for the Kansas City Star.

Born in Guyana, on the northern coast of South America, she is a naturalised American citizen. Moore, a former

Bishops High School student, recalled that she has always been an avid reader. After migrating to the United States, she graduated cum laude with a B.A. in English and Communications from the College of New Rochelle in New York.

Her first reporting job was with the Kansas City Star, in Kansas City, Missouri. She also wrote for several gourmet food magazines. She has been writing for the St. Petersburg Times since 1994.

The Dart Awards are administered by the Dart Centre for Journalism and Trauma, based at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Established in 1995, the annual Dart Awards recognise outstanding reporting that portrays traumatic events with accuracy, insight and sensitivity while illustrating the effects of trauma on victims’ lives and the process of recovery from emotional trauma.

Chronicle Pepperpot June 29, 2014

XXIII

BAGOTVILLE - A village where jolly residents remain glued to ancestral roots

W

By Alex Wayne

ITH the annual Emancipation celebrations looming just ahead, we decided to visit a village rich with ancestral roots; flourishing Guyanese heritage, and is, of course, a location with great historical standpoints and is alive with the jolly bustling about of residents.

So here I was, one afternoon, in the village of Bagotville, on the West Bank of Demerara, nestled nicely between the villages of La Grange to the east and Nismes to the west, some sixty-five kilometres from the city of Georgetown.

THE ARRIVAL We arrived there at about 14:00 hours to meet a village alive with activity. There was the constant chatter of young men operating taxis by the roadside, while the shrill laughter of young girls pierced the air constantly as they strolled around with flashing smiles, mouthing the latest gossips or plotting on ways to get even with a malicious rival.

Some girls were rushing about getting household supplies for their impatient mothers, or just smiling coyly at the young men who followed them around, trying their best to see which girl would be an easy conquest.

Groups of young men were perched on the rails of bridges, their raucous guffaws renting the afternoon air as they argued politics or boasted of their latest ‘bedroom exploits’ on the many ‘hard-to-get females’ milling around. There were older men playing dominoes under mango trees, while little girls stood at small stalls rigged up by their fathers to sell tamarind balls, sugar cake, metai or plantain chips, which seemed to be the popular afternoon snacks in the village.

It was very evident that liming was a favourite pastime,

The village, over time, has become popular as a location where residents have many choices in places of worship

lages to be bought by freed Africans on the west side of the Welcome to Bagotville river, and is today home to just over 1,000 people. It was also the home of Guyanese World War I veteran Gershom O. B. Browne, who passed away in 2002.

This location was actually a coffee plantation, and was named Bagotville by ex-slaves in honour of the man who made the land available to them.

After the era of slavery, many folks went into farming as a profession, and some sought their fortunes in the goldfields to obtain ‘fast riches’ with which to purchase many of the properties that are owned by residents of the village today.

After the era of slavery, many bought plots of land and the makings of the village as could be decided by the large number of young men just began. sitting around chatting, surfing on their cell phones, or just In those days, the roads were made of burnt clay bricks making miserable the lives of young girls as they passed by. that lent a somewhat colonial aura to the slowly developing Smiling mothers beckoned at us cheerily as they urged us village. While maybe just a sprinkling of these roads remain to sample their cassava pone, black pudding, polouri, salara, today, many of them have disappeared, since squatters have bun and mauby that were displayed quite nicely for sale in built temporary and even sturdy homes on them. Amongst ‘kittle clean’ glass cases. such roads is David Rose Street, which was Victoria Road back then. This road was built in honour of Queen Victoria, THE BAGOTVILLE OF YESTERYEAR who ruled in that era.

Bagotville once had a Post Office, but it has since been The quiet village of Bagotville was one of the first vil- relocated to the neighbouring village of La Grange.

With the passage of time, residents of the village learnt to survive through the means of peasant farming, especially those around Victoria Road; and some 160 rods of fertile land was reserved for farming purposes. In those days, ground provisions and a few cash crops (vegetables) were the order of the day.

After slavery, farming reached its peak in prominence, and some of the produce from the village was actually exported to countries around the Caribbean. As a matter of fact, the plantains coming from this village are popular on the market, but they were being exported to Barbados in 1848.

Bagotville was home to many churches, since villagers were God-fearing, and amongst the popular places of worship were St. Thomas Anglican, Nismes Methodist, Rotary Memorial, The Scots Church, and the Moravian Church.

Today, however, the Seventh-Day Adventist Church has sprung up among the churches at Bagotville, and is quite popular with the faithful.

This village had no proper facility to house visiting dignitaries, and when King Ezzie of Africa visited Guyana in the late 1950s, villagers were forced to erect a large tent to entertain him and his Please turn to page XXIV

XXIV

Chronicle Pepperpot June 29, 2014

BAGOTVILLE

From page XXIII

company. This prompted villagers, through self-help efforts, to build a community centre, which still stands today as an historical masterpiece.

This very structure was also used as home to the then Infant Maternity Welfare Group; and is a library for villagers, a village office, and also a section was dedicated to the operations of the Community Development Committee (CDC).

East of the Community Centre, villagers secured a plot of land which they made a recreational park for leisure-time activities. This land was, however, leased to the West Indian Oil Company (Shell & Texaco) and Sir Lindslay Parkinson, who was at that time laying down the conservancies in the Bagotville canal. So, naturally, the existence of that park dwindled and disappeared.

Women in the village are very industrious, and they branched into the cottage industry business. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the females of the village travelled up the Demerara River to various locations, where they gathered the tibisiri straw to plait and place to dry quite nicely in the tropical sun. This was then stitched together to make quite fashionable and colourful bags, purses, and hats of every imaginable nature, and sold on a large scale. These items were once must-have items at the Stabroek Market in Georgetown.

Today the village is somewhat more developed, and has taken on a modern ambience that is accentuated with the coming of the L. A. Meat Centre, Rakesh Nauth Lotto Shop, New Look and Professional Clipperz barber shops, Perfect Results Beauty Salon, Nature Point Snackette, Hong Fa Chinese Restaurant, and a few other businesses.

During the good old days, although Bagotville was not as bright as it is today, there was never a gloomy face there, as every villager seemed to be always caught up in the constant festive atmosphere of the area.

rehearsals of theatrical plays and folk dances.

And villagers certainly had choices then, since one could have chosen to make purchases at the Harangi Shop, Jessema Shop, or at Brother Wills Shop, which was quite famous for the production of ceramic pieces.

The housewives would often bicker over prices, and would vent their anger by leaving the goods at a proprietor who chose to hike his prices. And they had choices, since there was Nedd Shop, Lall Shop and Samaroo Shop also to choose from.

On Saturday in the village, according to Mr. Crawford, everyone seemed to be “up and fussing about”. At this time, an area that stretched from the Bagotville Bridge way up to Harangie Shop was turned into a market place, and villagers swarmed the area in a melee as they fussed about and fretted in making their final purchases.

Sturdy, buxom women with flashing white teeth tumbled into the streets setting up their little food stalls, and the village was filled with the succulent aroma of cow face souce, black pudding, puri and curry, cassava pone and other items. Coal pots were kept ablaze as each woman tried her best to keep her snack items warm and ready for her eager customers.

And there was no bickering among the women; it was all jovial laughter as they enjoyed jolly and friendly sales competition.

And sales in those days were excellent, since the employees of the Versailles and Wales Sugar Plantations would come out in large droves, quite hungry and thirsty as ever. In no time at all, the food items would disappear and the women would returned to their homes quite happy, with their apron pockets bulging with tinkling coins and crisp notes, as always.

Everyone would rush in the afternoons to Miss Nelson’s Mauby Shop, where she turned out ice cold jugs of the delicious liquid. It was a sight to see thirsty men gleefully gulping down mug after mug of mauby, and burping in pleasant

presence and mirthful semi-scowls of Aunty Zeffa, who loved to admonish ‘her boys’ for over eating with that special twinkle in her eyes that divulged she was only teasing, and really wanted them to buy more of her snacks. All this time, Mr. Foo’s large juke box would be blasting the latest folk songs and the hit songs that were in then, and the rum shops just overflowed with celebratory crowds, everybody having a blast after a week of hard toil.

ENTERTAINMENT

The Bagotville Primary School

Banquets and dancers were quite popular in the village in years gone by, and everyone looked forward to these activities with much excitement and anticipation.

Every church kept a banquet of some kind in their open yard spaces, and it was a sight to see the little damsels dressed in their ruffled skirts, stockings, and frilled dresses, with colourful ribbons and other adornments accentuating hair styles that were well groomed with coconut or crab oil. The boys would wear trousers with crisp seams, and their shoes were always shiny and quite pleasant to the eyes.

Some activities of this nature were also promoted at the then St. Thomas Anglican School, which has now been renamed Bagotville Primary School.

Today still keeping connected to their roots, villagers would come out in huge numbers to enjoy their annual Emancipation celebrations in August month, and there is always much fun, frolic, and revelry.

The elderly ‘Mr. Palmer’ has served the village well in his youthful days, and now retires with pleasure and great content Recollecting on those ‘good old days’, village elder Ashton Crawford noted that there was only one butcher in the village, and he was nicknamed ‘Ibrahim’; and there was just a single baker’s shop (Ferrier’s Bakery). Older folks in the village would remember the existence of the Foo Rum Shop and the Chung Variety Shop, where crowds always gathered to get their groceries and, of course, to “tek a tupps” at weekends.

The villagers were certainly into the theatrical and creative arts, and the Apollo Hall was the location for hosting and

Village Elder Ashton Crawford gave us important information on the village satisfaction. And there was Miss Nelson as always, smiling in delight, with her hands on her lush hips as her wooden ‘money chest’ filled up with the hard earned coins and dollars. She, too, sold snack items.

Some shoppers would branch off to Miss Shurie Shop if their taste buds called for a little ‘sweet mouth food’ that was highly spiced, as they loved it. Miss Margaret was quite infectious with her bubbly laughter and girlish tittering as she, too, used her endearing personality to bring in the customers.

But, of course, she had to compete with the dominating

THE BAGOTVILLE PRESENT-DAY Society seems to have disintegrated somewhat today, and according to Mr. Crawford, the village is rapidly losing its respectful aura and high level of discipline, which had been made a highpoint by its elders.

“Today things have changed greatly, and the high level of good manners and discipline that was instilled in our youths long ago has been badly damaged by the transcending hands of modernisation. With this evolvement have come a decline in the level of respect youths have for the elderly, and there is an appalling increase in the lawlessness and vulgarity that

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The little lad was the object of our affections as he so willingly directed us to the home of a village elder

Villagers are glad that the Ministry of Agriculture and the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) are installing a new drainage pump that will alleviate flooding in Bagotville and contiguous areas The Bagotville Community Centre

This single Internet cafĂŠ makes communication and learning much easier for students of the village

The morning is a bustle at Bagotville, as residents hurry to get the day’s chores completed

Villagers throw garbage into the main irrigation canal

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is now invading our streets.

“These unwelcome new issues, I think, have been fuelled by the strange and rather raucous music that is allowed in our society and the appalling genres of fashion that are taking over. I think the type of movies and television programmes allowed in our homes have quite a lot to do with the disintegration of our society,” he scolded.

Mr. Crawford informed that, in past times, there was great expectancy among residents when examinations were taken; and when children excelled, the entire village celebrated their success. He noted that, today, not much emphasis is placed in this area, and the moral ideals of many residents are dwindling.

He highly praised Mr. J. A. Croaker, a stalwart in the village who installed excellent values among residents, and left a legacy that still see many villagers holding on to their roots and traditions.

Croaker was the one who had spearheaded the very first ‘Guyana Celebration’ to be hosted in the village, and he had also formed the Bagotville Song Circle, which was popular for its entertainment exploits. He was the son of the soil who made it possible for many traditional African dignitaries to visit the village, and ensured the African traditions, music, and drums are kept alive today.

Gershom Onesimus Browne, another village icon, (deceased) saw active service in the Middle East, and was one of Guyana’s last known surviving veterans of the First World War. He had been a member of the British West Indies Regiment, and had also written a book – The History of Bagotville – about his home village, of which he became Village Overseer Early in the 1970s, when a Nigerian warship visited Guyana and a party came to the village, residents were well equipped and ready to sing lustily the Nigerian National Anthem, taking the organizers of the tour who were not villagers of Bagotville completely by surprise.

Bagotville was the first village in Guyana to host the now popular Emancipation Celebrations, and this exercise was later taken up and expanded by other locations across the country. The wild celebrations and thanksgiving and praise to the ancestral spirits are normally done at the Bagotville sluice during the month of August.

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EMPLOYMENT PROBLEMS

Of all the villages visited, Bagotville seemed to be actually suffocating in the vice grip of a severe employment problem.

And this was evident in the large number of young males and females just aimlessly milling around, lamenting the lack of any particular scope for employment there.

Many have sought odd jobs outside the village, and a small number are employed at the Wales Sugar Estate. However, those with jobs at the estate complained that work there is seasonal, according to cane harvesting, and that there is just really nothing left to do when that period passes.

Parents await the designated transport to get the young ones to school

CONCLUSION Let’s set aside the few challenges faced by residents, since it’s customary to encounter problems in almost every Guyanese village. But folks, let’s look at the appealing ambience of this location, with its Old World countryside charm that oozes into the very soul on the first visit.

That is why I encourage you to spend some time there, and melt into the infectious laughter and welcoming smiles of the inhabitants. Do some sightseeing along the dusty dams, and sample some of the fresh fruits from the many over-burdened trees; or sample the many rich traditional foods there, or get lost in the pulsating tempo of the African drums.

Just make sure you do not pass up the opportunity to visit this village with its historical significance and traditional customs, which are still alive and vibrant as ever.

This almost dismal location comes alive on weekends, when it is transformed into the Bagotville Market

Students hurry to schools outside the village, intent on avoiding the morning rush hour traffic

CHALLENGES Despite the few challenges Bagotville residents face, they still find time to smile; indulge in merry chatter; frolic in the sun; and make the extra effort to make their visitors feel well at home.

Some folks there are peeved about the drainage and irrigation system in the village, which they claim is not up to the best of standards. This, they claim, often causes excessive flooding in certain areas in the village during heavy rainfall.

However, some residents may want to blame themselves for the flawed drainage system, which has become so entirely through their mindless and inconsiderate disposal of garbage.

And this could have been easily confirmed with the large amount of plastic bottles, Styrofoam boxes, tins, plastic bags and other refuse that was seen floating in their main irrigation canal in the vicinity of the Bagotville Bridge.

Most residents dispose of their garbage by burning, but some admitted that there are some souls in their midst who are in the habit of just dumping trash wherever they seem pleased.

That aside, villagers are pleading to have a sophisticated playfield for their many sports-oriented youths, and for the community centre to have a much needed facelift. Several housewives deem the Bagotville Primary School much too small for the volume of youths attending it, since the population is increasing; and they are urging the relevant authorities to increase the size of the structure or build a new facility altogether.

There are also calls for repairs to be done to the road that leads into the areas of La Parfaite Harmonie and Dairy, since it is way too narrow for the volume of vehicular transport; and already, sections are badly deteriorating.

‘Rastaman’ makes a living by selling fruits by the roadside

Friends catching up on their early morning roadside discussions

Residents are appealing for help to improve the condition of their roads

The lone Hong Fa Chinese Restaurant in the village nets major sales on a daily basis

Chronicle Pepperpot June 29, 2014

RELAXING COCKTAIL MOJITO Ingredients Ice 6 ounces light rum 12 mint sprigs, or spearmint, 8 roughly broken apart 6 tablespoons fresh lime juice 4 tablespoons sugar Club soda 4 slices lime

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Directions Place ice in beverage shaker then add in the rum, 8 broken up mint sprigs, lime juice and sugar. Shake well and serve over ice in a high ball glass. Top off each glass with a splash of club soda.

Garnish each with a slice of lime and a sprig of mint.

KIDS CORNER How to Make a Guitar Cardboard boxes form the base of this inspired instrument while corks make the tuning pegs.

How to Make A Cereal Box Guitar What You'll Need Cereal box, spaghetti box, craft knife, rubber bands, glue, corks, straws, paint, paintbrush Make It 1. Paint the boxes and cut out a circle on one side of the cereal box.

2. Stretch the rubber bands over the middle of the cereal box.

3. Attach the spaghetti box to the cereal box with glue to create the guitar neck. Draw "strings" onto the neck.

4. Have an adult cut holes on the sides of spaghetti box

and insert corks for the tuning keys. Glue in place.

5. Place a straw piece under the rubber bands underneath the hole to create the bridge (this will help make a sound when you strum).

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Rajesh Dubraj ... ing and Tassa drumming. One of his major performances was at the launching of the cell phone giant company DIGICEL in Guyana where he shared the stage with Grammy award winner Akon and the T.O.K male group of Jamaica. With a few of his original songs already released under the Kross Kolor Label, Rajesh has been excelling tremendously having won the 2004 and 2009 Chutney Soca competition in Guyana and gradually managed to gain the position of being the Chutney sensation

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of Guyana.

He is an accomplished vocalist, Harmonium, Dholak player and Tassa drummer and is also the director and founder of Dubraj Tassa Troupe, which is the six -time Tassa champion of Guyana. He is a family guy and a businessman and a great lover of vegetarian meals. Rajesh Dubraj is very much liked around the Guyanese population and his name has now become a household one and with his captivating stage performances, he has won the hearts of many, if not all

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Guyanese. He is one of the most demanding artistes in Guyana as he performs with the Ministry of Culture, Youth & Sport for all major cultural events in and out of Guyana. He also voluntarily teaches music and singing on the East bank of Demerara and at various mandirs in Guyana. As he says, this is his way of giving back to the society and propagating the rich, diverse culture of Guyana. He believes that in everything you do, “keep focused on your goals.”

Rajesh notes that: “Everyone has their way of doing things; their own style and adds their own ‘flava’ and feel to make things more comfortable and far easier for them to do.”

When it comes to Guyanese entertainment, Rajesh Dubraj has his own way of expressing and showcasing his talent.

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The chances of dying on the way to get your lottery tickets are greater than your chances of winning.

The cigarette lighter was invented before the match.

The cruise liner, 'Queen Elizabeth 2', moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns.

The energy of a discharge of an electric eel could start 50 cars.

The filming of the movie 'Titanic' cost more than the Titanic itself!

The IRS processes more than 2 billion pieces of paper each year.

The launching mechanism of a carrier ship that helps planes to take off could throw a pickup truck over a mile.

The little bags of netting for gas lanterns (called 'mantles') are radioactive-so much so that they will set of an alarm at a nuclear reactor.

The name Wendy was made up for the book Peter Pan. The normal static electricty shock that zaps your finger when you touch a doorknob is usually between 10,000 and 30,000 volts!

The oldest patented company logo is the red triangle of Bass beers!

The venom of the king cobra is so deadly that just one gram of it can kill 150 people.

The warmest temperature ever recorded on Antarctica was 3 degrees F. The word 'News' is actually an acronym standing for the 4 cardinal compass points - North, East, West, and South!

There are 53 Lego bricks manufactured for each person in the world.

There are 92 known cases of nuclear bombs lost at sea.

There are no words in the dictionary that rhyme with: orange, purple, and month! Interesting tries from our readers: orange: door hinge, melange (French for mix) purple: hurtle, durple?, turtle month: once, bunth?, hunch There is more real lemon juice in Lemon Pledge furniture polish than in Country Time Lemonade.

When glass breaks, the cracks move faster than 3,000 miles per hour.

When young and impoverished, Pablo Picasso kept warm by burning his own paintings.

You can start a fire with ice.

You can tape a small mirror onto a cone speaker, play music and shine a laser on to the mirror and the reflection will look like a laser light show on your wall.

You share your birthday with at least 9 million other people in the world.

Chronicle Pepperpot June 29, 2014

Meet the National Dance Company

T

By Raschid Osman ODAY we introduce to you two lovely danseuses from our National Dance Company.

They are Tecona Williams and Marrella Bennnett, both lovers of the modern idiom, and their even stature often throws them together in striking pas de deux.

Williams is a care-giver at Tender Heart Day Care in Kingston and has been dancing ever since she can remember.

She loves Dance Hall music and has been in the company for the past seven years. As a performer, she takes to the stage brimming with confidence. No butterflies in the stomach for this one. She finds modern dance a perfect vehicle for her to express her inner feelings. The idiom gives her a greater freedom to improvise, much more than say the ethnic or classical forms allow.

As for Bennett, she has sat Performing Arts examinations at CXC, and last year she came third in Dance in the Caribbean Region. For this she performed a folk dance.

She teaches Mathematics and Integrated Science at the Richard Ishmael School, and her favourite music covers jazz, hip-hop and R&B. Like Williams, she is confident on stage, though she expresses a preference for performing on the stage she refers as her ‘home ground’, the stage at the National Cultural Centre.

She is always apprehensive when she dances elsewhere, be it at the Georgetown Club or the University of Guyana’s Tain Campus or the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in the capital city.

Asked about a memorable on stage moment in her career so far, she recalls an Indian dance at the Cultural Centre, splendid in an all red shalwar, and the curtain going up with her sitting on the floor.

It was an exhilarating choreography and at the end of it all she was glowing with a sense of accomplishment.

You will see Welcome and Bennett at the Company’s annual performance at the National Cultural Centre on July 5.

In performance, Tecona Williams, left, and Marrella Bennett

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A SILVER LINING THROUGH DARKNESS

‘Paving the way for other blind persons’ RosemarieRamitt I

By ShivanieSugrim

t is often reiterated that everyone is unique in their own way. In Rosemary Ramitt’s scenario; this philosophical statement holds no disparity. We can often tell when a person is visually impaired (blind) by their actions. In the case of Rosemary, everyone would be left in awe and disbelief. “Acceptance” is regarded as her first step towards taking a stance against darkness and fighting the odds in life which has led her to countless opportunities and exposure.

When one stumbles upon this distinctive individual, he/ she must either leave inspired or touched by her dazzling smile and cheery personality that shows a great deal of determination. Such is the effect Rosemary, commonly known as ‘Rosie’would leave on her well-wishers. Generally, any blind person would be susceptible to stigma and discrimination which would pose as an obstacle for their aspirations. However, in Rosie’s situation, this has done nothing but propelled her to prove the normality false.

There are some persons who are initially born blind and some that lose their sight as they journey in life. At 13, Rosie lost her sight due to inflammation at the back of the eyes. Like every normal person who would seek medical attention, she also did. Thereafter, this led to many disappointments though two failed surgeries were conducted in Brazil and countless visits to eye specialists. Thus, the entire failure aftermath took an immense toll on Rosie for two years allowing darkness to become a formula for her.

“A major step for any person who has acquired the disability is acceptance” (Rosemary) –May 31 last makesfive years since Rosie is visually impaired. Today, she has already accepted her condition and is currently a member of the Guyana Society for the Blind who has already sat the May/June 2014 Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations along with nine other visually impaired persons. She reiterates the issue of ‘acceptance’ in relation to any person that is visually impaired since she has wasted a few years of crying behind closed doors.

With the ready-to-go software that was ideally invented for visually impaired persons worldwide, JAWS (Job Access With Speech) reads aloud to its clients as it steers and access contents from the computer and the internet. Fortunately for Rosie, her little encounter with a blind girl at the hospital accessing the computer motivated her to sign up for membership at the Guyana Society for the Blind. Luckily the JAWS software was in the process of initiating; thereafter it took her approximately 15 months for training and adjusting to

the society.

It is rather surreal for a blind person to be actively involved in curriculum activities and aid in giving back knowledge to the less fortunate. Rosie visited the society almost four times a week for classes, other than that she was quite involved in the government’s computer training programme in which herself and colleague Leroy would give a helping hand. It was rejuvenating to discover that with an exception to Rosie, other visually impaired persons who are exposed to JAWS have gained a sense of independence. As Rosie noted “you get that sense of independence because with the computer you can access so many things…you don’t have to ask a person the time…you have access to the internet…”

When asked about being less reliant on people as a result of using the computer, she noted that “not only do you feel independent but you give people this “woah how you do it?” expression.”

This ambitious young lady highlighted the lessons that

she earned from the society: “…when you are here, you are among blind persons who have accomplished things and they would always say that “you know dear, it’s not easy but it’s up to you”…Any person with a disability you can’t expect someone to give you something. You have to get up on your own and go out there and get it. For us it’s more difficult so all the more we have to put in and work harder. So coming here they taught us and to have that drive or push to get things done even if you get turned down the first time, you always go back again.”

Apart from ‘curriculum activities,’ Rosie is also a member of another disability group that is not only composed of visually impaired persons but other persons with disabilities, primarily deaf persons with physical disabilities. “Young voices” is a youth group that Rosie along with fellow classmates participates in “…we would take part in activities and so, whether it’s lobbying, Please see page XXXV sensitising…” she said.

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“Determination is something you have to imprint on your brain when you have a disability.” (Rosemary) It is notable to know that Rosie aspires to be a teacher one day chiefly because it is the only ‘workable’ and ‘feasible’ option for her. Although it is a ‘childhood dream’ to stand in front a class of 40 students and offer knowledge, she believes it is not a ‘challenge’ for her since she is willing to go the extra mile for them and her motivation lingers around other blind persons that teaches, precisely older and well experienced ones-“If you’re asking me if my condition would stop me from doing what I want to do, I would say no…if they can do it, I can too.”

Our mentality is profoundly shaped on believing what the surface holds, per se a blind person walking with a cane.

We would initially gather that they are struggling to overcome hurdles in their life but what is remarkable about Rosie is that this very ‘cane’ is an epitome of a stepping stone in her life. She generally uses the cane for outdoor routines such as catching a bus and moving around. Many blind persons are mostly loaded with struggles such as the first phase of acceptance which is stepping on the feet. She noted that her only struggle was her examinations (CSEC) and hernervous wait on the results-“…more like “paving the way for other blind persons…””

People tend to be more arrogant towards persons with disabilities and Rosie thoroughly agrees with this. She elaborated that most persons are not exposed about her condition so they ideally refer to arrogance towards her innocent flaws. She also noted that “we always push for persons with disabilities to have equal rights and opportunities so that more people could be educated and more people would be sensitised and less ignorant…”

Reminiscing on her sad and happy moments, she highlighted the main aspects. Her sad moments entailed the first

two years into being visually impaired. Prior to losing her sight, she used to visit the library quite often in school and borrow books. Her first year at Annandale Secondary school, she was transferred to Lifesprings School which led to even more countless readings but that also took a deadly turn for her-“…I remember picking up a book and trying to read and be like “Why can’t I see to read?” and I would start crying but I don’t think about these moments because they are in the past.

I would tell people and then laugh afterwards.” Like a normal person, when interrogated about his/her gloomy moments, they too have a tendency to relive those moments; this is no different in Rosie’s scenario. Contrast to her heartrending flashbacks, her cheery moments hover around her outings with “…a bunch of blind persons…”

Every blind person has encountered the hardest part of living with this disability. As Rosie spoke on behalf of all blind persons, she noted that one of the hardest parts of being blind is “not seeing things.” It is quite different trying to tell a blind person about an eclipse since he/she will not get the ‘full description’ of it. They ideally ‘stop seeing what other people see.’ Though Rosie misses her television a lot, music has filled that void. Who can guess a blind girl’s favourite band is ‘Paramore?’ Being visually impaired, one can have countless fears such as being in a kitchen with several sharp objects. For Rosie, her fear surrounds ‘hot oil’ in the kitchen. Ironical as it sounds, she enjoys making Mac and Cheese, Sausage and tea.

Ever wondered how the blind can recognise people? Approximately all visually impaired persons recognise persons through their voices. Rosie recognises people as she meets them on a daily basis as opposed to a person she would occasionally meet, which would pose as a difficulty to recognise that person’s voice. Light can cure a lot of things, for Rosie it provides shadows and colours as she paves her way in daylight. To live in immense darkness on the other hand, is quite startling.Coincidentally Rosie is blessed with blurs and shadows, needless say, this can be considered ‘gifted.’

It is essential to have in-

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spirations and role models. Ganesh Singh, executive member of the Guyana Society for the Blind poses is Rosie’s primary inspiration. She spared no room in elaborating about his effect on her. Singh is renowned for his success in the disability arena in Georgetown, Guyana. His association in this spectrum has increasingly spurned countrywide via the media. Similar to Rosie’s loss of sight scenario; Singh took almost five years to accept his disability. It was after Rosie met him that he shared his story with her with the intention of inspiring her to quit crying over spilled milk and pushing her towards success.

“He was the one that really pushed me and I had to endure hours of lecturing and he would say: “I don’t care if I annoy you, I will annoy you…I see a lot of me in you…”” she noted.

What if life gave Rosie a second chance to see? In her quest to conquer this ultimate question, she responded: “You know if I had sight, I don’t think I would’ve been here where I am right now as in the things I’ve done and the things I’ve accomplished and the places I’ve been and the persons I’ve met. I don’t know if I would’ve done that, I would’ve been a typical person writing CXC and be out there hunting for a job.

So to say to what I would have done different I don’t know because I wouldn’t have been exposed to this much but if I could get back my sight now, what I would definitely change, is other persons’ life.”

As we stroll through the streets of Georgetown, we encounter many persons with disabilities; however, the sad and most awful truth is that most of us consider them to be handicapped burdens. As humans, we err and learn from our mistakes but it is pathetic that the pessimistic ones do not. The term ‘handicap’ mentally portrays a helpless disabled person, preferably a blind person. In Rosie’s perspective, “using the term “handicap” is more like an offence…I prefer the term visually impaired” as she pointed out with underlying evidence from the United Nations. In future when a visually impaired person is walking with a cane, amidst the hurrying crowd in Georgetown, it is commendable if one can show appreciation for their bravery of accomplishing the first step of acceptance in being blind.

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ARIES - The world is your oyster today, and all you have to do is pick your condiments. Isn’t it nice to be sitting at the head of the table for a change? Wrapped up in your own ambitions, however, you could lose sight of what’s most important in your life. Make sure your priorities are straight. Don’t forget the importance of a balanced meal and some time for relaxation.

TAURUS - Your strong sense of conviction and your ability to entertain divergent points of view could catapult you into a leadership position. People appreciate your excellent listening skills and the ease with which you quickly grasp their salient points. Always remember the qualities that got you to this pinnacle. Losing sight of them could diminish your effectiveness.

GEMINI - You may be somewhat prickly today if your plans do not go exactly as you expect. Giving in to anger or defeatism will do nothing to solve the problem. It’s time for a little detective work, Sherlock. Someone or something could be thwarting your efforts. Determining the source of the friction is the first step in resolution and in re-establishing your peace of mind.

CANCER - These obstacles may seem insurmountable, but you do not have to let them stand in your way. If you think through your options carefully, you should be able to manoeuvre around, over or under any hurdle, especially with all the resources you have at hand. Think of yourself as an Olympic track star, and push resolutely toward the finish line. Victory will be sweet.

LEO - Just because you know exactly what you want doesn’t mean that everyone else is going to be panting to give it to you. Getting ahead has just as much to do with taking care of those around you as it does with taking care of yourself. When you feel your ego rearing up, take a deep breath and try to think from another’s perspective.

If the exercise makes you feel a little dizzy, you’re probably not doing it enough.

VIRGO - It’s easy to pick apart another’s inspiration, but a real leader can build constructively on just about any framework without tearing it down first. Are you up to the challenge? If you are pleased to be the object of someone’s flirtatious attention, returning the sultry glances could lead to a most pleasant evening. An excellent dinner and lively conversation may be just the appetizers.

LIBRA - Your irritation threshold is definitely lower today than usual, but you’re being hardest on yourself. Perhaps old memories are constricting your heart. Maybe past failures are haunting your mind. Banishing these negative influences will take a supreme act of will, and only you can do it. You know what they say about spilled milk. There’s a lot of wisdom in those words.

SCORPIO - You’ve been thinking about making this life change for quite a while.

Now it’s time to stop rationalising and start doing. You have the strength of will to overcome a bad habit and the resolution to set off in a new direction. Procrastination is a thing of the past. Action and decisiveness are your new operative descriptors.

Take this newfound determination and use it to your advantage.

SAGITTARIUS - Difficult financial questions are likely to crop up today and make you sit up and think. Your immediate reaction will be to cut back drastically and resolve to forego even some of your most cherished indulgences. But a long-term solution and a workable way out of this dilemma require a more balanced approach.

Frugality and fun do not have to be mutually exclusive.

CAPRICORN - Creature comforts are particularly satisfying, and you’re in just the mood to appreciate them. But in the mood you’re in, just about everything pleases you. As an added bonus, it seems as if others are bending over backwards trying to make things even better than they are. Examine your situation carefully. These moments are what life is all about.

AQUARIUS - Look for outside reasons if you want, but there’s really only one reason you’re so frustrated, and you know exactly what it is. Until you figure out a way to overcome your slapdash approach and your propensity to veer off on tangents, you simply will not have much to show for your efforts. It’s easy to resist self-discipline, but if you want to break this habit, you have to start somewhere. It might as well be now.

PISCES - Different circumstances call for different approaches. The trick is to hit the right combination. There might be times today when you need to be in control and times when you simply need to let go and allow others to run with the ball.

Even with others calling the plays, you can be very effective from the sidelines. In fact, you may enjoy being out of the spotlight.

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Green Corner: Composting (Final Part)

By Clifford Stanley The under-mentioned is the final of a series of articles on Back Yard Composting or Turning Kitchen / Backyard Waste into Useful Manure Continued from last week: Troubleshooting Compost Problems:

or damage plants.

How do I screen compost?

A simple screen can be made with a half inch mesh hardware cloth and a wood frame. The screen may be placed on top of a wheel barrow or inclined at an angle on the ground.

Load the screen with compost and use your gloved hand or a square-end shovel to scrape the compost against the screen .

Remove the screen to reveal sifted compost. Organic materials

against drought. Compost will hold moisture so plant roots can get it during the dry weather.

Sowing Seeds?

Put compost through a half inch sieve and then shred it with a hoe or use a rolling pin to make it very fine. Mix compost with equal parts sand and soil (one third each.)

Trees and shrubs?

For newly planted shrubs and trees, top dress the soil surrounding the plant with compost and water it.

For established shrubs, once a year, work half of a bushel of compost into the surface soil and then cover it with mulch.

For established trees, start two feet from the trunk and cultivate the soil shallowly to one foot beyond the drip line of its branches. Rake one or two inches of compost into two inches of soil.

What are some benefits of compost?

When is the compost done?

The following indicators will signal that your compost is finished: the pile is less than 10 degrees warmer than ambient, it is about one third of its original volume; you cannot recognise the original materials and the compost is black or dark brown and smells earthy (not like ammonia or rotten eggs) To make sure the compost is fully mature and stable, test it in a small area to ensure that it doesn’t prevent germination

that were too large to pass through the screen may be added to another compost pile. .

How do I use compost?

Apply finished compost a month before planting.

How do I improve poor soil?

Spade soil 12 to 18 inches deep and mix in the compost.

Putting the compost deep in the soil will protect the plant

Compost contains macro- and micro-nutrients and releases them slowly, when plants need them.

It brings and feeds diverse life in the soil and makes soil easier to work with hand tools. It can suppress plant diseases and pests and encourages healthy root systems. Compost may also reduce the need for pesticides and fertilisers. Compost improves soil structure, texture, aeration, soil fertility, water holding capacity and reduces erosion.

Remember Composting is a controlled process that converts organic materials, leaves, kitchen scraps and garden waste into a valuable product. When compost is mixed with soil in gardens and lawns and houseplants it improves soil quality and help plants grow.

Solange Snuggles with Boyfriend Alan Ferguson during Jamaican Getaway Happy birthday, Solange Knowles!The singer celebrated her 28th birthday in Jamaica on Tuesday, calling her day "perfect" as she shared a sexy picture of herself and boyfriend Alan Ferguson snuggling in the blue water.

In the pic, Solange wraps her arms around her beau and gives the camera a big smile.Beyonce's little sister shared another snapshot of herself, rocking a neon printed sun dress with matching heels while trying to keep her balance on a boat.

"Today couldn't have been more perfect," she wrote. "I couldn't have smiled harder. Thank you for all of your lovely and wonderful wishes. They warmed my heart and I simply feel grateful for all of the love."

Knowles' birthday marks the end of a controversial 27th year for the songwriter, who got some bad press after she attacked brother-in-law Jay Z at a Met Gala after party in May.

Christina Aguilera Puts Big Baby Bump on Display Her bump is getting big! Christina Aguilera showed off her growing belly on Saturday afternoon, posting a full body photo to her Twitter page showing her relaxing in what looks like her kitchen. Sporting a tight long tank, the pop star looked happy and healthy while applying EOS lip balm.

“Happy 1st Day of Summer,” she tweeted along with the pic ... along with an additional message promoting the skin treatment line. Christina recently opened up to PEOPLE about Baby #2, saying “I’m really excited to meet our baby girl. This has been a very easy and enjoyable pregnancy.”

Aguilera is expecting her first child with fiance Matt Rutler, who popped the question on Valentine’s Day earlier this year. The 33-year-old also has son Max with ex-husband Jordan Bratman.

Katie Couric Marries John Molner

Eliza Dushku and Rick Fox Have Split Eliza Dushku and Rick Fox have split. The former Dollhouse star and retired NBA player, 44, who dated for five years, have gone their separate ways after Dushku has moved back to her native Boston.

“Rick’s an L.A. guy and I’m a Boston girl,” she told The Boston Globe. Dushku, 33, told The Globe that she’s bought a condo near Watertown and is planning to go back to school, but isn’t turning her back on acting.

“I’d rather be a little physically cold here than emotionally cold in L.A.,” she said. “I missed my town and my family.”

Dushku told The Improper Bostonian that she will start studying for a bachelor’s degree in the fall.

“I have a new life right now,” the former Buffy the Vampire Slayer star added. “I’m on kind of a different path for the time being.”

Katie Couric married fiancé John Molner in an intimate ceremony in East Hampton, New York, on Saturday. The couple, who got engaged last September after dating for two years, tied the knot in the backyard of Couric's home in front of 50 friends and family.

"We wanted to keep the wedding just very low-key," Couric, 57, told PEOPLE before the wedding. "This is not my first rodeo so I didn't want to go too crazy and neither did John."

The ceremony, which Couric says had "traditional touches," featured readings by Molner's children, Allie and Henry, as well as Couric's daughters with late husband Jay Monahan, Ellie, 22, and Carrie, 18. Couric's youngest daughter also sang for the couple, Molner's nieces were flower girls and there were two ring bearers.

The bride wore an ivory beaded and embroidered Chantilly lace halter gown by Carmen Marc Valvo that she'd finally decided on just one week before the wedding. And bucking with tradition, she'd asked her groom to help her make the final decision. "I hope this isn't bad luck but I actually tried it on for him," she admitted. "I tried on a number of dresses and I was so busy, I had a crazy spring."

Over the past couple of months, Couric wrapped up her talk show, embarked on her new role as a Yahoo! News Global Anchor, released a documentary, Fed Up, and celebrated her daughter Carrie's high school graduation.