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Times December 29, 2013

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Person of the Year

Captain

Debra Gouveia Page 3

2 Times Sunday Magazine

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December 29, 2013

Times Feature

“O

h! This fair getting bigger every year!” was the comment of taxi drivers delivering patrons to the annual Rupununi Christmas Fair, held at the Market Place in Lethem.

The Christmas Fair, held December 21, started from a simple idea promoted by the Kanuku Mountains Community Representative Group (KMCRG) in 2010, and entered its fourth year as a now firmly established local tradition. Participants travel from all over the region to showcase a variety of festive gift ideas, including locally made handicrafts, jewellery, cosmetics, soaps and natural products, as well as a fuller range of deliciously made foods and beverages.

It is therefore not surprising to witness increasing support for the Fair from private sector enterprises exercising corporate social responsibility.

“Contributions from patrons such as Trans-Guyana Airways, Neal & Massy, Golden Arrow Airways and Air Services Ltd show that

entire range of products; and one women’s group attended the November 2013 Honey Expo in Georgetown.

This year judges selected five categories for awards. The award for Best Agricultural products was given to Ben Smith from Moco Moco Village; Best Preserved Foods Products award was presented to the Shulinab Women’s Group; the Nappi Balata Artisans received the Best Visitors checking out the stalls at the fair

to wider markets” said Behi Barzegar, one of the organizers of the fair.

Continued support from Conservation International Guyana was strengthened this year by the linkage between the Christmas Fair and the current CI/ IDB funded programme ‘Leveraging Natural Capital in Guyana’s Rupununi’.

Recognized as a significant livelihood initiative spanning across agriculture and tourism, the Rupununi Christmas Fair has attracted the interest of regional and national public and Noah’s ark balata figures by artist George Tancredo of Nappi Balata Artisans

these companies are recognizing the value and quality of products from the Rupununi and are eager to help reduce some of the challenges of getting these wonderful products

Her views were confirmed when analysis of a questionnaire survey, completed by patrons and participants on the day, revealed 100 percent support for the location of the venue and the promotion of family and traditional values while maintaining the focus on sales and marketing of quality products from the Rupununi.

Camilla George, a community member from Moco

private sector stakeholders by providing access to market for impoverished Amerindian communities, and especially women.

This year it has received significant promotional sup-

port from the Rupununi Chamber of Commerce & Industry in addition to an order from the Guyana Bank of Trade and Industry for 30 gift selection packs made from products from the Rupununi, thus benefitting at least eight community craft workers and producers.

“There is so much potential here!” said Haydock Thompson, representing the New Guyana Marketing Corporation for the first time. “I never knew there was such variety of wonderful products available in the Rupununi.”

First-time participants from Surama Village in North Rupununi were delighted with their first experience of the Fair. “It is excellent! It was entertaining and fun, as well as a great opportunity to sell our products!” said Floyd Buckley from Surama.

Jacqueline Allicock, Surama Eco-Lodge manager, said she was very impressed with the fair. “I had heard about it but I couldn’t imagine how you could link tourism with agriculture.

But I can see how this is working. It is bringing people from all over the region, people that you wouldn’t normally see, and allows you all to interact. I am amazed to see the range and quality of different items each community has brought to the Fair, and the effort that

Artist Theodore Edward, winner of the KMCRG Award, showcasing his crafts

they have put in,” she noted.

The appearance of Santa Claus for the second year running thrilled the children. Thanks to donations from the Georgetown-based charity EIRIPAN, Global Shapers- Georgetown Hub and local retailers Saarah’s, Andy’s, and Carlton Beckles’ stores, more than 400 children received gifts from Santa, including 30 who were visiting from Region Eight.

More than 20 local businesses, retail outlets, and individuals donated gifts to be disbursed among the participant groups, including outstanding donations from the Ori Guest House, Asian Trading Company, Lincoln’s Stores and Strong.

A unique and popular feature is the awards and prizes given for winners of categories, selected by a panel of judges. The value of these awards goes beyond allowing the winners to market their goods and services but, more importantly, to gain valuable exposure to experiences that would have been beyond their reach-including flying in an airplane.

In the past three years, the fair has been responsible for awards at no cost to the participants. Awards that allowed two women from different communities to attend two-week workshops at the Carnegie School of Home Economics; two women to attend 10-day IPED workshops in Georgetown; two women groups had the opportunity to showcase and market their products at Guy Expo 2013; one women’s group received $100,000 of specifically designed and printed labels covering their

Handicraft Products award; the Most Innovative Range of Products award went to the Ishartoon Women’s Group from Aishalton, and Theodore Edward from Maruranau Village received the KMCRG award for his hand-woven armadillo purses.

Behi said that many patrons and participants commented on the improved organisation of the fair this year, which had much to do with the increased collaboration among the stakeholders, including painting of the stalls by young local volunteers, and gate and car parking control by members of the Community Policing Group.

“This Christmas Fair is growing because it is filling a gap in what the communities and enterprising people in the Rupununi need. Its popularity and the commitment and enthusiasm, not only from the communities but from local businesses, are proof that people in the region are clear about what they want and how it should be organized,” noted Behi.

Products from the Sepo WomenTraditional Medicine From Trees group on display at the fair

Moco community, wrote as her comment on the day: “Thank you for giving agriculture a voice.”

Another member of the Fair Committee, Jessica George, who is also KMCRG project manager, commented: “The wider success of the fair this year is a result of increased collaboration between our public and private sector stakeholders as well as the communities themselves. We now need to strengthen those partnerships and work towards longer term sustainability of the fair and not just next year. We need the support of our partners to improve the standards of the facility and hygiene services at the venue, promote and market the fair, facilitate attendance by addressing transportation issues, and keeping diary dates flexible to allow both customers and vendors to enjoy and benefit from the unique ambience and offerings of the Rupununi Christmas Fair.”

For more information on the fair visit Rupununi Christmas Fair on Facebook.

guyanatimesgy.com

December 29, 2013

Times Sunday Magazine

3

Times Focus

Sunday Times Person of the Year

INSIDE

T

he first woman to become an airline captain in Guyana, a proficient professional and an outstanding yet humble individual, are just a few reasons Captain Debra Gouveia is aptly chosen as the Guyana Times ‘Person of the Year’.

In an exclusive interview with Guyana Sunday Times, Capt. Debbie Gouveia, who began her aviation education at 17, said that she has never regretted choosing her challenging and exciting aviation career.

She also shared her life’s story that has led her to many accolades and awards over the years.

Sunday Magazine: What are your academic qualifications?

Capt. Debbie: I attended St Mary’s Roman Catholic Primary School, St Roses High School, Flight Safety International Academy in the U.S., Oxford Air Training Academy in the U.K., IATA Travel Agents Training Academy in the U.S. where I studied professional travel planning, IATA Academy in Montreal, International Airline Station Management, ICAO Academy in Ecuador where I studied international aviation safety systems, CDI College in Canada where I graduated with a diploma in business management. I have also completed numerous courses in aviation security and airline operations.

Sunday Magazine: What motivated you to get into aviation?

Capt. Debbie: I was always fascinated with machines. My father had me driving large bush trucks at a very tender age as he ventured out looking for gold in the hinterland. My attraction to aviation developed during my visits to Ogle airstrip with my father – he used planes to support his mining operations. This was where I met my husband, Capt. Gerry Gouveia. He was an army officer and pilot, and was conducting aviation classroom training with the military pilots. I guess my association with him and

Music Unlimited Pg 4

Star of the Week readily signed off my command licence.

Sunday Magazine: At the beginning of your career, what was your determination?

Capt. Debbie: I worked harder, studied harder until I eventually was respected equally as a professional aviator by fellow pilots and more particularly the passengers.

I guess because I am a woman- a relatively small woman and a Chinese woman tooall the traditional odds were against me. I do not believe there was ever another pilot, before or after me, who, having passed his or her check ride, ever had to undergo the scrutiny I did. After all, I am the first woman to become an airline captain in Guyana.

I was always a very detailed pilot and took nothing for granted. I prepared for every flight with great detail, and I flew every flight carefully and precisely.

Sunday Magazine: Any unforgettable experience during your career?

Capt. Debbie: The one event that resonates in my mind occurred during a flight to Caracas in Venezuela with some mining executives. Annette Arjoon-Martins was my co-pilot. I was halfway and in cruise at

The Gouveia family

his encouragement, along with my mother’s support, increased my interest and passion in aviation. So when I graduated from St. Roses, while a lot of my friends were going on to universities around the world for an academic education, I was going off to the Flight Safety International Academy in the U.S. for a technical education in aviation.

Sunday Magazine: What was your first experience like as a pilot?

Capt. Debbie: I felt free and totally in charge of my destiny at that moment. It was wonderful to be zooming high above the earth’s surface. Being totally in control was amazing. It's a feeling I feel every time I fly my planes, even today. When I passed my first command flight check with flying colours, the director general of civil aviation at the time, Tony Mekdeci, demanded that I return to the plane and fly with him so that he could personally assess my command readiness. He instructed me to take off from Ogle and fly low level east along the seawall, not going 1ft above 100ft above the ocean. I had to follow his very detailed instructions precisely- “fly level”, “turn sharply”, “climb rapidly”, “fly as slow as the plane could fly”... He was relentless for one hour, until he told me to return to Ogle where he

10,000ft when the left engine started surging and losing power. I made the decision to do an emergency landing along the coast of Venezuela on a road I saw on the map.

As I descended lower and was preparing to land, I glimpsed an airstrip on my right and landed there instead. Soon as the aircraft came to a stop, we were surrounded by approximately 100 Venezuelan soldiers. After a few hours of questioning and investigation, they eventually released us. They then drove us to a hotel in Caracas. Gerry and Yacoob Ali came the next day with the mechanics. They could not find us and were upset because Annette and I went shopping in downtown Caracas. I guess they had expected us to be sitting waiting for them.

Sunday Magazine: How do juggle being a pilot, entrepreneur, mother and wife?

Capt. Debbie: I have always prided myself on being a very organized and disciplined woman. Very early in my life I learnt quickly from my father what was important and what was not. I learnt how to prioritize my time. There was a time to play and a time to work. I knew early we (herself & husband) were young and preparing a future not only for ourselves but our chil-

dren. My husband made it even harder because he was determined not only work to make our company successful but making Guyana a better place. What that meant was that I had to support him as well in his endeavours. So I got up early in the mornings, took care of my children, sent them off to school, flew the planes, came back to the office, worked until it was time to be with the boys after school. I ensured that the weekends were spent with the children, and that’s how Arrowpoint got started. We bought a boat and would spend weekends at Arrowpoint. Our Medivac plane would be parked at Cheddi Jagan International Airport. Many nights Gerry and I would have to leave our kids with our friends from the village, drive the boat out of the creek at night, fly our Medivac plane deep into the Guyana jungle to rescue a sick person. We returned late at night to continue our time with the children. My children are always my number one priority. My boys are now grown men, shaping their own lives, and I am right there beside them.

Sunday Magazine: What were your feelings when you were told about being on a national postage stamp?

Capt. Debbie: Emotional, honoured and humbled. I knew both my husband and I worked hard for Guyana, but I had always stayed in the background and supported him totally. When I was told by Gerry about the honour of being featured on a stamp, I could not believe it. Soon I fully realize it was really for me. I was overwhelmed. My husband and my sons are always totally supportive.

Sunday Magazine: Presently, what is your main focus?

Capt. Debbie: Roraima Airways is a very complex conglomerate of aviation, travel, security and tourism services. I had to become trained and functional in every sphere of activity, whether it was flying the planes, driving the boats, coordinating the airport security and airline handling operations, planning events at our hotels, coordinating the Wedding Expo, or just arranging the airline catering on demand.

As you could imagine, it’s neverending. So I do spend my time managing the managers and the details. The future is exciting. It took Gerry, myself and our staff 21 years to build from nothing to a successful business.

Her award for being a female pioneer in aviation

Pg 7

Haute designer collection for New Year’s Pg 10

Salman Khan celebrates 48th birthday Pg 14

Artist Everley Austin

Pg 21

Today, I believe there is nothing like our company offering a real one-stop shop of travel and tourism services. We hold high the quality control visitors experience from the time they arrive in Guyana to the time they depart. Therefore, it is our focus is continue to refine and expand our services Sunday Magazine: Do you still get time to fly?

Capt. Debbie: I do sometimes, but only alongside Gerry. Between my sons and the day-to-day management of the Roraima activities, it is challenging to find the time to fly too.

Sunday Magazine: What is your encouragement for women?

Capt: Debbie: For mothers, motherhood is a sacred role and so it must always take preference over a woman’s professional career. I believe that a woman could do anything in this world if she works hard, organizes her life and sets her priorities.

Sunday Magazine also interviewed her husband and sons, who highly praised the doyenne of aviation.

Her husband Captain Gerry Gouveia, also an award-winning pioneer in aviation in Guyana, said that he met her at a very young and tender age when she was still in high school and he was a young army officer and pilot.

“Her disposition, principles and mannerism have remained a constant- she has never changed. She was always a very calm and quiet woman, never trying to outshine nor outperform anyone. Her only objective seem to have always been to always do the very best she could do in anything she does. Debbie is down- toearth and simple, and takes great pride in working alongside her staff. She is a wonderful, hard-working woman, an extremely supportive wife and a seriously dedicated mother. I have utmost respect for her, and depend on her advice and opinion on everything I do,” he explained.

Speaking about his mother, son Kevin said that it was impossible to find such an extraordinary mother.

“My mother will do anything and sacrifice everything to make my brother and I happy. I couldn’t ask for a better mother. Even if she wasn’t my mother, I would love to have someone like her giving me continued on page 4

4

Times Sunday Magazine

guyanatimesgy.com

December 29, 2013

Times Feature

A

personal challenge turned into a flourishing music school, Music Unlimited aims to promote self-development through the lyrical power of music.

Founded by Christian Sobers, the music school was officially launched in November 2012. In an interview with Guyana Times Sunday Magazine, Sobers said that it began as a project and personal challenge for him in 2010. “[It] took a more serious turn when a music comrade, Mr. McDonald, approached me about tutoring at his music school. I tutored for about two years, and it was during this time Music Unlimited was developed,” he recalled.

For 20-year-old Sobers, music has always been a significant part of his life.

Both his parents, Sean and Michelle Sobers, are music aficionados. But it wasn’t until Sobers was 16 that music began to matter to him.

“I saw an American Idol contestant play guitar and I thought it looked easy enough to try. I remembered we had one in our house, picked it up that very evening, and my journey began,” he revealed.

As a self-taught musician, Sobers researched books, self-help guides and even YouTube for guidance.

As he progressed, the musician took a few online courses to sharpen his knowledge, and has since been able to gain much knowledge from performing and working with other musicians.

Every day he learns about music as he views it an “unending” field, and

we’re able to interface with,” expressed the musician.

Sobers said tutoring is available Mondays and Wednesdays from 5pm to 8pm and Saturdays from 10am to 4pm. For those who cannot attend classes, Music Unlimited can come to you. Private tutoring is also available 7 days a week.

The programmes, pointed out Sobers, are developed utilizing numerous music tutoring syllabi from established music institutes.

goals.

Sobers also mentioned that live performances are an integral aspect of the Music Unlimited programmes. The team at the music school understands the dynamic feeling when performing in front of an audience and with other musicians and the strengthening power that has for musicians.

Additionally, Sobers revealed, performing onstage gives musicians direction as

and even the recent Courts ‘Christmas Light Up’.

“I always tell people that music saved me because it changed who I was and gave me purpose, and I see that purpose every time I commence a session for Music Unlimited. The principles taught in music are rigid and the practice they require fosters discipline and coordination in children.

The possibilities with music are vast and it gives room for them to explore creativ-

Christian performing with his guitar

therefore is constantly challenging himself to explore and understand it even more.

Since he began with acoustic guitar, Sobers has learnt bass and piano; his recent challenge is drums – which he loves.

Now, through Music Unlimited, Sobers passes on his passion for music, and helps others find their inspiration through it. Music Unlimited offers courses in guitar, piano and drums, and will be offering vocal coaching as a course in 2014. There are also live and online courses available.

“Within the past year we have developed a programme for music enhancement in churches. We call it our Worship Empowerment

Program, (WEP) and have implemented it in two ministries who had no musicians and now have full bands at their churches,” he outlined.

Music Unlimited currently has more than 50 students as part of its programmes. It enrols students from age 4 upward- the youngest “playing” student presently is 5 years old and the oldest is 40.

“Guyanese culture is one which is very much based on our expression through art in its many forms. Our aim at Music Unlimited it to be an avenue of expression through music, to do our part in enhancing the quality of musicians and music lovers and to aid in creative development of the minds

Students at Music Unlimited learn to play the guitar

They initially identify the specific aspects of participants which need development from genre to style and technique. Through modified exercises, theory bases videos and games, as well as many “JAM” sessions, students are able to learn and retain principles faster. Music Unlimited works with students to set goals and show them how to work with the various programmes to achieve those

opposed to just playing alone in a bedroom. All students at Music Unlimited are given an opportunity to display their skill and sharpen their technique at events (gigs). This has resulted in the formation of three young bands of students from Music Unlimited with the past year. Sobers even had students joined him in his performances at numerous venues such as Upscale, Sidewalk Café, Red Cross

ity through different genres and artists, both past and present. I’ve seen students identify with and connect to each other through songs from decades ago, and this shows the social impact that the music has on them.

When they JAM with each other it challenges them to be sensitive to each other and it enhances their ability to work together as a unit to achieve a single goal,” he declared.

Captain Debra... from page 3

Debbie as a young pilot

advice. The best advice my mother ever gave me is, ‘Don’t strive to be average.’ She always told me to strive to be 100 percent in everything I do,” he said.

Gerry, her eldest son, said that his mother has always had an indomitable spirit, unrelenting determination and immeasurable compassion; entering a completely maledominated profession at a young age and ex-

celling to become one of the most respected pilots in Guyana. He believes that the traits that helped her while flying in the interior also helped when she co-founded Roraima airways with his father, while still finding the time to share with them.

“To me, this is her most impressive accomplishment; her ability to be a shining example of a professional in the business community while being an outstanding mother is nothing short of incredible. She has always been there to support and motivate Kevin and I, regardless of her busy schedule or even distance – she was always there.

She is truly an inspiration to me, and her advice is always welcomed and frequently sought. We are all proud of mom and incredibly happy she has been given the honour of being recognized with a national stamp as well as the Guyana Times’ ‘Person of the Year’,” he stated.

Adding to her achievements, Capt.

Debbie was elected president of the Travel Agents Association for two terms, and has served on the council of the Private Sector Commission representing travel agents.

Additionally, she has served on the IATA board in the Caribbean as a representative for Guyana. She was recently awarded by President Donald Ramotar for being an outstanding female pioneer in aviation.

guyanatimesgy.com

December 29, 2013

Times Sunday Magazine 5

Times Women

Maternal guidance proves a beacon for female scientist

N

Dara Bobb-Semple

oted for her outstanding academic achievements, Guyanese-born Dara BobbSemple is proving that through diligence and dedication anything can be achieved.

In the U.S. at Stony Brook University, Dara has many accomplishments. Twice she has been recognized for achieving a 4.0 GPA; she has received the coveted MARC award in 2011, was elected to Tau Beta Pi Honour Society in December 2011 and was named a recipient of a national award the 2012 UNCF Merck Undergraduate Science Fellowship.

But looking back, the path has not always been straightforward or easy.

She said in an interview with her Stony Brook University, “Some years ago, I would have never dreamed of doing what I’m doing now. Getting involved in the Wong group has been a great opportunity for me. It’s given me a lot of experience and has opened the way for me to become involved in many other things. My MARC fellowship is partly due to my research. I also believe that the skills and experience I acquired in the Wong group gave me an edge toward the Merck scholarship.”

As an 11-year old, Dara remembers deciding that she wanted to be a scientist- in part influenced by a Scholastic Biography of George Washington Carver.

As a high school student, she remembers being captivated by the study of chemistry, “It was one of the subjects that I had to work the

hardest at in high school. I just gravitated towards it early on, and I grew to love it and understand it better than most other subjects.”

However, her goal of pursuing science as a career/profession seemed more than remote in the years following high school when Dara took a job as a bank teller to help support her family. After a few years in banking, Dara decided to redirect her focus back to her love of chemistry, and set out north by northwest from her home in Georgetown to arrive at Stony Brook in 2010, motivated to pursue her studies of in the field of chemical engineering.

Looking back on that time period, Dara reflects, “The time I spent in that job helped me to clarify my goals, and to realize exactly what it is I wanted to do.

When I arrived at Stony Brook, I had a clear goal and I was more driven towards it.”

To help support herself, Dara worked as a lab assistant, 10 hours weekly, in the Furie Laboratory at the Centre for Molecular Medicine from her first semester there onward. When she took the initiative to get involved in Chemistry research in sophomore year, she contacted Dr. Stanislaus Wong in the Chemistry department at Stony Brook and counts herself fortunate to get an opportunity that she acknowledges changed her life.

Dara worked in the Wong lab together with her graduate student mentor, Chris Koenigsmann, preparing crystalline metallic ruthenium (Ru) nanow-

Awarded by the UNCF-Merck Science Initiative in 2012

ires and getting invaluable training in the nanotechnology field, including exposure to physical characterization methods such as transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and powder X-ray diffraction (XRD).

Dara’s research was supported in 2011 through AGEP-Summer Research Institute, a program hosted by the Centre for Inclusive Education (CIE). Dara subsequently applied for and received a MARC fellowship from the Centre for Science and Mathematics Education (2011-2012) which has allowed her to dedicate more time to research/scholarship.

She was awarded the UNCFMERCK Undergraduate Science fellowship, a nationally competitive award which provides additional internship opportunities at Merck.

In her spare time, Dara enjoys singing, dancing, badminton and reading.

She is the corresponding secretary of the Stony Brook Gospel Choir and the secretary of the Essence of Praise dance group. She is also an active member of Collegiate Science & Technology Entry Program (CStep) and Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP); as well as the American Institute for Chemical Engineers.

Dara credits her mother and grandmother as motivating forces in her life, and fondly remembers her grandmother's recitations of the poet Longfellow as she extolled the merits of hard work and dedication, “The heights by great men reached and kept, were not

obtained by sudden flight.

But they while their com-

panions slept, were toiling upward in the night.”

(Excerpted from www.stonybrook.edu)

6 Times Sunday Magazine

guyanatimesgy.com

December 29, 2013

Times Book World

Arthur James Seymour The Shaping of Guyanese Literature

By Petamber Persaud

Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.

H

is love for literature provided him with the love of his life and many of his favourites things in life. Arthur James Seymour had become interested in Elma Bryce because, as he once declared: “I had realised that she had in her memory more line of Milton’s “Lycidas” than I had at the time, and this knowledge first prompted my curiosity in her.”

The marriage on July 31, 1937 of Arthur and Elma lasted more than fifty years, with only death physically separating them; a union that issued six children and an adopted child, and directly produced at least two books, “My Lovely Native Land” and “Dictionary of Guyanese Biography”. (The latter a landmark work in Guyanese literature.) Seymour immortalised that love and marriage in some of the most delicate romantic verses ever penned by a Guyanese, in a little known collection entitled “Love Songs” (1975).

Seymour’s love for literature and reading started much further back. When he was approaching seven, something happened which he described as his “second vivid recollection…one day a box of books was delivered to the gallery of the house and was opened to reveal 20 volumes of a series edited

by Arthur Mee called “The Books of Knowledge”. This led to him confessing, “...before I became eleven I was reading everything I could put my hands upon.” This avid reading constrained him to express himself, leading to the other level of literacy – writing.

Seymour was a prolific writer who started keeping a diary at 22 because “biography and autobiography have not been the strong suits in Anglo Caribbean bibliography” and because he had the urge “to write primarily as a means of self-discovery.” This desire to write also stemmed from his discovery of “the element of creativity in myself and was intent on protecting and developing that gift”; he wanted “a fuller deeper understanding of the workings” of his mind. Forthwith, he borrowed books from Guy de Weever on short story writing.

But, after only winning a few local competitions, he realised from measuring his efforts against the models of Maupassant and O. Henry, that he wasn’t making the breakthrough that was necessary.

So he gave up writing of short fiction, turning to poetry. In August 1936, he wrote his first poem, going on to perfect his craft by reading everything available on poetry in the library, sometimes spending 3-4 hours reading such books on the seawall. His early efforts at writing were kindly endorsed by Walter McArthur Lawrence.

In 1937, when he was only 23 years old, he published his first book of poems, “Verse”.

“More Poems” came out in 1940, followed by “Over Guiana Clouds” (1944) and “Sun’s in my

AJ Seymour (Jan 12,1914 – Dec 25, 1989)

Blood” (1945). Since then, his poetry has been translated into French, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Russian, Chinese and Hindi. In Australia, one of his poems is taught in Braille. At least 10 were put to music and placed into the national repertoire.

Seymour’s other books of poetry include “Six Songs, Selected Poems” published in 1965 to mark his 50th birthday, “Monologue” and “Images of Majority”, among others. His poetry, essays, autobiographies and other genres of writing effectively mapped the course of his life and the history of the development of a Guyanese literature.

Such a map includes gems like “Introduction to Guyanese Writing” and “The Making of Guyanese Literature”, and all his autobiographical books: “Growing up in Guyana”, “Pilgrim Memories”, “Family Impromptu”, “Thirty Years a Civil Servant” and “The Years in Puerto Rico and Mackenzie”.

His books of literary criticism, like “A Survey of West Indian Literature” and “Studies in West Indian Poetry”, helped to define a Caribbean literature. A bibliography in 1974 of his writing, compiled by the National Library, was 100 pages long! (A matter of immense interest is that almost all his books were published locally).

Poet, literary critic, radio programmer/broadcaster, anthologist, “ ‘nativist’ publisher” and cultural historian, A. J. Seymour was born Jan 12, 1914, grew up in Georgetown, but spent many delightful August school holidays in New Amsterdam in the neighbourhood of N. E. Cameron, Jan Carew, Wilson Harris, the Abbensetts and Edgar Mittelholzer.

He started his education at Blackman’s School on Regent Street across the road from home, and then moved to St. Phillip’s School, Smythe Street before going across to the Collegiate High School, Camp and Bent Streets.

At the Guianese Academy headed by N. E. Cameron, he won the Government Junior Scholarship to enter Queen’s College. Apart from his academic pursuit, he played halfback in the football team, a position that suited his stocky nature, a characteristic inherent from birth where he weighted whopping 14 pounds.

Seymour entered the world of work at the General Post Office in the mails branch where he was known as a man of letters – writing and publishing his poetry.

This working experience came at a time when there was rank class discrimination but social and political changes were at hand from which he eventually benefited.

One such change was when the colonial office implemented one of the more important recommendations of the West India Royal Commission Report: that governments of the region “should adopt a much more positive policy of bringing their points of view before the mass of the people, and of explanation in sufficiently plain terms the reasons which lie behind their decisions…”

This led to the formation of the Bureau of Public Information in 1942 of which Seymour was an integral part until 1962, moving from volunteer status to chief information officer.

The 40s was a fertile period of Seymour’s life.

This new appoint-

Cameron who was the first person to publish a collection of Guyanese poems called “Guianese Poetry” (1931). Seymour was also part and main mover of a number of other literary groups, including the British Guiana Writers Association, launched Dec 28, 1944; the Diogenes Club, discussing essays, and The Library Committee.

He also played a vital role in a number of organisations dealing with national development: Chairman of the Standing Committee for Preservation and Protection of Historical Monuments and Archaeological Sites, Acting Chairman of the Board of Film Censors, Vice Chairman of the British Guiana Tourism Committee, Acting Chairman, Public Free Library Committee, Chairman, Guyana Textbook Committee… just to name a few.

In 1946, he started editing Kykoveral an important journal in the fine literary tradition of its counterparts in the Caribbean namely Bim of Barbados

A book produced by Ian McDonald and Dr Jacqueline de Weever and published in 2000

it comes to literature. In the UK, he met with T.S. Elliot and C. S. Lewis; while living in Mackenzie, he was visited by Andrew Salkey, John LaRose and Beryl McBurnie (as recorded by Salkey in his ‘Georgetown Journal’).

Seymour was an able cultural organiser evident in the success of expansive and elaborate events – from the 1954 History and Culture Week to Carifesta (1972).

Despite his active public life, he spent quality time with the family, larger due to his strongly religious family, as described by his wife Elma, in her autobiography, “A Goodly Heritage”. It could be said that religion was like literature and vice versa to him. Seymour’s life was a personification of those two disciplines.

In public and privately he was generous. The many anthologies he produced attested to his concern for development of other writers, ensuring their work reach a public. Such collections as “Treasury of Guyanese Poetry”, “The Miniature Poets”, and “Independence Ten – Guyanese Writing” were stepping stones to many emerging writers who eventually became famous in local and world literature.

In 1970, he was honoured here with the Golden Arrow of Achievement. In 1983, he was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Letters Degree by UWI. In 1984, Dr Ian McDonald compiled an extensive bibliography on Seymour titled “AJS at 70” – in tribute to Seymour on his 70th birth anniversary. In 2000, McDonald teamed up with Dr Jacqueline de Weever to produce the elaborate, “A. J. Seymour, Collected Poems 1937 – 1989”.

Guyana and the Caribbean owe him a great debt of gratitude for his pioneering work in the field of literature –well defined by McDonald: [H]e began when everything was still to be done…the work done at the beginning is the least seen but the most important part.”

Arthur James Seymour died Dec 25, 1989, knowing that “tomorrow belongs to the people”.

For Seymour’s birth centenary, the National Library has planned a number of activities to mark the occasion.

Responses to this author telephone (592) 226-0065 or email: oraltradition2002@yahoo.com

ment with the bureau led him to research the history and folklore of Guyana and disseminate his findings through a radio programme “Uncle Jim and his niece, Maggie”.

“A book Dictionary of Guyanese Folklore” was a direct result of that study. The project also provided him with additional material for his poetic development and other literary involvement.

In 1943 when the British Guiana Union of Cultural Clubs was organised, Seymour was named honorary secretary.

This group was headed by N. E.

and Focus of Jamaica.

Wherever he travelled or lived, he found himself in the environment of a literary nature. In Puerto Rico, as a cultural promoter with the Caribbean Organisation, he discovered there was much more to Caribbean writing than Anglophone Caribbean literature as he came into contact with Dutch, French and Spanish writings.

During a 30-day sea trip on the Marine Marlin, he formed a cultural group and started a magazine! He was never at sea when

What’s happening: • “An Introduction to Guyanese Literature” is now available from the above contacts, Austin’s Book Service and at the National Library. This book is an up-to-date guide featuring significant literary landmarks from the 16th century to the new millennium. This 150-page book including over 100 photographs is an attempt at bringing to the fore little known facts about lesser known aspects of our literature. The big books, the big authors and the big success stories in Guyanese Literature are also featured.

• Coming soon: Hall Fame for the Literary Arts.

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Times Sunday Magazine 7

Times Feature

YOUNG PROFESSIONALS

Star of the week

Jameer Shamshudeen Entrepreneur

By Vahnu Manickhand

W

ith many young people trying to establish their own businesses, their aims hardly ever steer towards the agriculture field, and this was one of the many factors that motivated 26-year-old Jameer Shamshudeen to enter farming.

Growing up in an East Coast Demerara village, Shamshudeen attended Chateau Margot Primary School and St Joseph's High School where he wrote CXC exams in 2004, gaining passes in eight subjects. During his school days, he was a “classical nerd” as he found immense pleasure in reading, and was too shy to socialize.

After school, he began working at Republic Bank for more than three years as a teller, after which he left to pursue his dream of managing his own business.

Shamshudeen’s parents had a shop in the Mon Repos Market where he would assist from time to time as a child, and this had conceived his desire which he would later realize.

“It was something I grew up with and so it came to me naturally; and being in the business field in school really assisted me.”

He said that he toyed with the idea and quickly decided on farming because a lot of young persons do not get into that field.

“There was not much competition there and I found that this a whole lucrative industry open to me with a lot of possibilities, as long as I can explore them.”

Shamshudeen started his business, Nature Green Farm, in 2009. He had inherited farmlands from his grandfather, which he used to cultivate and process pepper. He would later enter a six- week entrepreneurship program by the Guyana Youth Business Trust. In the end he was among three persons whose business proposals were adjudged outstanding from a group of more than 20.

With this start, Shamshudeen’s business venture quickly expanded as he began exporting his produce along with other West Indian products.

“I did a lot of research, and after finding out that there is a market there for my products, I began shipping them out. I was also encouraged by a lot of friends to do so because they saw the need for West Indian products,” he said.

Shamshudeen has prided his business success on the fact that he has the support of the Ministry of Agriculture through various programs designed to assist young entrepreneurs. Through these programs he also acquired training and guidance from experienced agriculture entrepreneurs.

Shamshudeen is aiming to expand his business to create a legacy that would not only ship but also process the produce. He wants to keep bringing new things on the market just to keep his customers interested.

The young entrepreneur is advising persons out there with business ideas to take risks and make their dreams come true.

“A lot of young people come up with business ideas, but they are not motivated to get it done. There is a saying: ‘bigger the risk, greater the rewards’, and they should follow this. I was told when I was starting my business that one should not enter a business venture to make a profit – profit will be a by product of your business; you just have to do what you like.”

A

doe-eyed beauty, Zahrah Alli is a professional who knows that hard work is vital for success. After completing her secondary education at Queen’s College, Zahrah moved to Miami for four years to attend the University of Miami. In 2009, she graduated with a degree in International Finance and Marketing and a diploma in Accounting. She currently works at a local accounting firm. A well-rounded individual, Zahrah balances her professional life with her passion – dancing. It all started when her mother enrolled her at the Lets Dance Studio, headed by Nadia Jagan, for ballet lessons when Zahrah was just five. The first time Zahrah performed on a stage was at one of the studio’s dance recitals. However, when Nadia migrated with her family, Zahrah’s mother recommended Indian classical dancing. She still has her little red ballet outfit she wore at her very first performance. At nine, Zahrah’s classical dancing journey began when she enrolled for classes at the Kendra in Prashad Nagar. Dreaming of becoming as graceful and skilled as the senior girls in the class, Zahrah dedicated all her energy in developing herself as a talented dancer. She invested several years of training on her technique, and masterfully fulfilled what she initially set out to accomplish: becoming a creative dancer. For more than 17 years, Zahrah has been actively part of the Guyana Hindu Dharmic Sabha’s Dharmic Nritya Sangh. Dance is now a medium of self-expression for Zahrah. The adept dancer has been a popular face in numerous Naya Zamana dance shows over the years, and was honoured to be given a lead role in a local Bollywood drama, “Bollywood Dreams” – a dance production by the Dharmic Nritya Sangh. To perfect her skills as a dancer, Zahrah reviews her flaws on stage and tries to correct them. It is Zahrah’s wish that she and her fellow dancers can take the Dharmic Nritya Sangh’s dance shows to the international stage as they have developed themselves and are equipped to perform at that level. If not dancing or crunching numbers as an accountant, Zahrah enjoys travelling, exploring new locations and learning about new customs and cultures.

8 Times Sunday Magazine

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December 29, 2013

Times Kids Page

Horse

T

he horse (Equus caballus) has evolved over 50 million years from small many-toed animals to the big beautiful, singletoed horses of today that have been domesticated across the world.

Horses graze on plant matter and vegetation, preferably tender green grass.

There are thought to be more than 300 different breeds of horse found around the world today, each being bred for a purpose. Some are used for transportation, some for riding, racing or pulling heavy loads, and some are bred as pets.

The sense of smell of the horse is better than that of a human but the horse tends to rely more on vision than smell. They also have much better night vision than humans.

The objective of the game is to fill all the blank squares in a game with the correct numbers. Every row of 9 numbers must include all digits 1 through 9 in any order. Every column of 9 numbers must include all digits 1 through 9 in any order. Every 3 by 3 subsection of the 9 by 9 square must include all digits 1 through 9.

MAZE DAZE

Colouring Fun FUN FACTS NEW YEAR’S Black eyed peas are consumed in many parts of the world on New Year's Eve. They are thought to bring good luck.

Julius Caesar was the first one to set January 1st as the New Year. When he established the Julian calendar, New Year's Day was also established.

New Year's Eve Resolutions dates back to the Ancient Babylonians.

In the Gregorian calendar, January was named after the God Janus who has two faces: one looking backward and the other one looking toward the future.

Did you know?

Horses have remarkable hearing: they are almost able to have 360 degree hearing.

Their field of monocular vision is almost 360 degrees with a narrower field of binocular vision in front and slightly to the sides.

Horses have an advanced sense of taste which allows the horse to sort through grasses and grains to find the things that the horse would most like to eat. Horses generally will not eat plants that are poisonous, but when the horse cannot find more adequate food, the horse will eat plants that contain toxins.

please see solution on page 22

Help the revellers reach the party before the clock strikes midnight

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December 29, 2013

Times Sunday Magazine 9

NEW YEAR’S HISTORY

Ringing in the New Year dates back some 4,000 years to the Babylonians who celebrated it at the first full moon after the spring equinox.

January was established as the first month of the year by the Roman calendar. It was named after the god Janus (Latin word for door). Janus has two faces which allowed him to look both backwards into the old year and forwards into the new one at the same time. He was the 'spirit of the opening'.

In the very earliest Roman calendars there were no months of January or February at all. The ancient Roman calendar had only ten months and the new year started the year on March 1. To the Romans, ten was a very important number. Even when January (or Januarius as the Romans called it) was added, the New Year continued to start in March.

It remained so in England and her colonies until about 200 years ago.

CUSTOMS AND TRADITIONS

Ancient Persians gave New Year's gifts of eggs, which symbolized productiveness.

Many people see the old year out with a party, welcoming in the New Year with toasts of champagne, and exchanging good wishes for a 'Happy New Year'.

It is traditional to stay up and see the old year out. Its exit is usually noisy. All over the world there are parties, fireworks, singing and dancing, to ring out the old year and ring in the new.

As the clock strikes midnight, people either play or sing a song called “Auld Lang Syne” reminding them of old and new friends.

‘Auld Lang Syne” is an old Scottish song that was first written down in the 1700s. Robert Burns is the person whose transcription got the most attention, so the song is associated with him. It is from old Scottish dialect and can be translated as "times gone by".

The poem/song is about love and friendship in times gone by. The lyrics 'We'll take a Cup of Kindness yet' relate to a drink shared by men and women to symbolise friendship.

An old custom was to open the door of the house at the last stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve to allow the old year out and the New Year in.

Some people believe that breaking anything on New Year's Day foreshadows a year of other broken things, like friendships and marriages. Many cultures also make sure to not serve any form of fowl on that day because it means the family will have to "scratch out" a living for the rest of the year. Instead, to ensure a year of good luck, firecrackers and noisemakers became tradition in order to scare away any remaining evil spirits and to ensure a brand new start.

The end of the year brings reflection on the past and hope for the future. Many people make New Year's resolutions.

The tradition to smooch at midnight isn't a recent invention.

According to old English and German folklore, the first person you come across in the New Year could set the tone for the next 12 months. The s u p e rst i t i o n doesn't just apply to singles— if a couple ringing in the new year together doesn't kiss, then the future of their relationship might not be all that bright.

Sources: projectbritain; history.com;cnn;msn

The first spot to celebrate the start of 2014 will be Kiritimati on Christmas Island, ringing in the New Year at 5 a.m. EST on Dec. 31. Sydney, Tokyo and London—in that order—will all pop their bubbly before the Times Square ball in New York. When Howland Island, one of the U.S. territories in the Pacific, welcomes the New Year at 7 a.m. EST on Jan. 1, the entire world will have officially entered 2014.

NEW YEAR’S FOODS Legumes and leafy greens – money or financial fortune Pork – progress and prosperity Ring-shaped cakes and pastries – The year has come full circle Long noodles – Long life Twelve grapes– To ensure a productive year ahead. One for each day of the coming year, each grape corresponds with a single month in the upcoming year. A sour second grape, for example, might foretell a bumpy February. The goal for most grape eaters is to swallow all 12 before the stroke of midnight.

10 Times Sunday Magazine

December 29, 2013

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Times Fashion

A

t the recently held gala fashion event, Guyana Fashion Week 2013, a flurry of international designers showcased their creative and elegant collections, but one that stood out was by US-based African designer Flo. Working closely with Guyanese veteran designer

and CEO of Guyana Fashion Week, Flo presented an array of gorgeous formal evening dresses and gowns.

“Flo’s pieces are sophisticated, sexy, elegant and fashionable. You can certainly make a statement with Flo Couture. It is a collection for those women who want to look distinct at any upcoming New Year’s

events,” Noel pointed out to Guyana Times Sunday Magazine.

For more information visit Flo Couture on Facebook or check out Sonia Noel’s fashion studio at 176 Barr Street, Kitty, or call 226-3099. (Photos by Donn Thompson)

Emma Stone is an American actress. She was born in Scottsdale, Arizona. In 2007, she starred in the short-lived Fox action drama “Drive” as Violet Trimble, and made her feature film debut in the comedy “Superbad” (2007). She has appeared in “The House Bunny” (2008), “Ghosts of Girlfriends Past” (2009), “Zombieland” (2009), and “Paper Man” (2009). In 2010, Stone voiced Mazie in “Marmaduke”, and played the lead in the comedy “Easy A” for which she received a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. In 2011, she co-starred in “Crazy, Stupid, Love” and “The Help”. In 2012, Stone co-starred as Gwen Stacy in “The Amazing Spider-Man”, a reboot of the “Spider-Man” film series. In 2013, she co-starred in “Gangster Squad”, and voiced Eep in the animated film “The Croods”. Stone is set to reprise her role of Gwen Stacy in “The Amazing Spider-Man 2”.

Emma Stone

guyanatimesgy.com December 29, 2013

Star Times Hollywood

Times Sunday Magazine 11

12 Times Sunday Magazine

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December 29, 2013

Times Hollywood

One Direction to take Miley Cyrus to fellow pop a three-month break stars: ‘Chill out, dude’ M

O

ne Direction will take a break from music. After spending months working on new album and hitting the road, Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Niall Horan, Liam Payne and Louis Tomlinson are taking holidays they deserve.

According to Britain's The Sun, the boys will have a three-month break. The group will be back at work in mid-March to begin tour rehearsals. Their management hasn't confirmed the news, but a source has shared some details.

"The lads are dead on their feet. They've

completed a huge world tour and done endless promo in between," the source told the site. "They approached management to work out a deal. Given their success, they could hardly disagree and understood entirely. It was all sorted on good terms."

There's no denying that it has been a busy year for One Direction. They spent months visiting countries around the world for their "Take Me Home" tour.

Additionally, the boys worked on their third studio album, "Midnight Memories".

(AceShowbiz)

Lady GaGa: ‘I have found love’

L

ady GaGa says it is hard to find love because of fame and success, but she has found it now.

Gracing the cover of Fashion magazine's February issue the "Applause" singer talks about her actor boyfriend Taylor Kinney, fashion and her music in an interview for the spread.

"It has been hard for me to find it but I have found love," GaGa tells the magazine. "When you meet someone that's not intimidated by the amazing people that are around you [or] by the love that you receive - that's love.

Men weren't always happy for me. It was very challenging to watch a woman be so successful."

The pop star, who sports a unique pair of glasses and gray top on the cover, additionally shares how music helps her fight depression. "I put all my pain into my work and as joyful as this album is, this joy and if you look at the album cover there's an explosion of joy

iley Cyrus has a simple message for her fellow pop stars: “Chill out, dude.”

In an enlightening yearend interview with The New York Times, Cyrus talked about the long-lasting echo effect of her twerktastic VMA performance, why she thinks her peers are too uptight, how Joe Jonas is wrong, and her desire to see Ariana Grande bust out of her shell.

Despite making headlines almost every week of 2013, including this one with her sexy "Adore You" video, the defining moment for Miley this year continues to be her twerk-heavy performance at the VMAs. "I went from people just thinking I was, like, a baby to people thinking I'm this, like, sex freak that really just pops molly and does lines all day," she said of the reaction to her foam-finger-flaunting set with Robin Thicke. "It's like, 'Has anyone ever heard of rock 'n' roll?' There's a sex scene in pretty much every single movie, and they go, 'Well, that's a character.' Well, that's a character. I don't really dress as a teddy bear and, like, twerk on Robin Thicke, you know?"

Asked about the blow-

back from some who deemed the bump-and-grind routine racist or sexist, Miley said she continues to be surprised by that reaction.

"I'm like: 'How do I win? If I have white dancers, then I'm racist. If I have black girl dancers, then I'm racist,' " she said. "We know we're not racist, and I know I'm not putting down women.

People got a rise out of me saying that I was a feminist, but I am. I'm telling women be whoever you want to be."

After all the talk, though, Cyrus said she realizes that at some point "everything becomes irrelevant" and that her VMA performance will not just be the standard by which she is forever judged. "And then anytime I do anything else, they're like, 'Miley kept it tame tonight,' " she said.

Cyrus said that before re-

leasing Bangerz, she obsessively watched what other pop singers were doing and wearing in their videos as she tried to mold her unique post-Disney personality.

"But now I realize how much they're not being themselves either," she said.

One thing she was not willing to let slide was the recent claim by Joe Jonas that she and Demi Lovato introduced him to drugs. "If you want to smoke weed, you're going to smoke weed," she said. "There's nothing that two little girls are going to get you to do that you don't want to do. I thought maybe he was saying that like it was going to make him look badass."

From Elvis to Madonna, Kurt Cobain and Eminem, every generation has someone to push its buttons.

Miley knows that's her job now, and she's proud of it.

But she also knows that two years from now, it'll be someone else.

"Even when I hear that — that someone, two years from now, is going to be the next kind of provocateur — like, I can't wait to collab with whoever the hell that is, you know?" she said.

"I'm like, whoever that is, I'm going to ride that wave."

(MTV)

Taylor Swift tops 2013 ‘Do-Good List’

T that is coming from a place of intense sadness that's been in my heart since I was younger and this is why we understand each other because I was not born happy, naturally always joyful or believing in myself," she explains. "I was born with a sad heart. I didn't feel alive unless I was on a stage."

In the interview, the 27-year-old singer also says that her unique fashion style is a way to make her happy. "Fashion is that thing that saved me from

being sad. I've always cared about my costumes and my clothes. When I leave my apartment I like to look pretty for my fans but not [in a] hot sexy girl [way] - I don't care about that, I just want to make you feel something with what I wear," GaGa says.

"This is who I am and it’s never been an act and it’s never been marketing. This is me all the way to my core and fashion is a big part of my life," she continues.

(AceShowbiz)

aylor Swift and Harry Styles may be “never, ever, ever getting back together” but the duo are together again at the top of DoSomething.org's annual ranking of charitable celebs.

Swift tops the list for the second year in a row for her general do-gooding, including a US$100,000 donation to the Nashville Symphony and headlining an event benefiting Centrepoint, an organization that provides aid to homeless young people.

Hot on her heels are the boys of One Direction, coming in at #2 for this year's "Red Nose Day" single. The special release raised more than £2 million to help poverty and injustice-stricken individuals across Africa and

the U.K. They also drummed up US$784,345 in donations for cancer research.

But there's plenty more where that came from.

Beyoncé, Paul Walker, and Macklemore and Ryan Lewis round out the top five, while other stars cracking the top 20 include Jennifer Lawrence, Justin Bieber, Demi Lovato, Miley Cyrus, Blake Shelton and Kendrick Lamar.

At his "Believe" red-carpet premiere last week, Bieber told MTV News that he doesn't do charity work — including raising more than US$1 million for Typhoon Haiyan relief efforts and becoming the first recording artist to grant more than 200 wishes for the Make-A-Wish

foundation- “for attention.”

"I do that out of the goodness of my heart because I really care," he said. "I want to help the world. I really want to make it a better place." (MTV)

Beyoncé brings terminally ill girl to tears Action star Jet Li treated for overactive thyroid on her YouTube page of ter-

B

eyoncé made a dying girl's day earlier this month.

The pop star, 32, who recently released a sexy secret album, posted a video

minally ill cancer patient Taylon.

In the video, the wheelchair-bound girl, whose dying wish was to dance with Jay Z's wife, said, "I am having so much fun. I can't wait to see Beyoncé."

At the Las Vegas show Taylon attended, a blue, sparkly-suited Beyoncé swoops into the audience and lands right in front of Taylon, bringing her to tears. The two sing "Survivor" together, and the tears continue even after the singer eventually parts ways onto the stage.

(People)

J

et Li says he's being treated for an overactive thyroid, but he's determined to fight the condition head-on.

The Chinese action star known for his kung fu skills discussed his diagnosis during the taping of a talent show he's judging in China.

In Tuesday's taping, the 50-year-old Li appeared to have a fuller face and heavier frame.

He said his weight has fluctuated but he's taking it all in stride. Li joked about his weight gain and said "I'm fat, I don't have the time to lose it. It's a fact!"

He explained that exercise is not advised with the medication he's taking. An overactive thyroid, or hyperthyroidism, causes changes in a person's metabolism and heart rate, among other symptoms, but is generally treatable with medications.

Li was diagnosed in 2010. He kept his

condition under control with medication, but it came back with a vengeance recently.

He said that he's tackling his illness head-on. "I'm just a regular guy, I'm not Wong Fei Hung, I'm not Huo Yuan Jia (kung fu heroes he portrays on film), I'm not a hero.

I'm just like you."

A martial arts champion at a young age, Li turned to acting and began showing off his kung fu skills on big screens in the 1980s.

He catapulted to fame in the '90s with the "Once Upon a Time in China" films where he portrayed martial arts master Wong Fei Hung.

His Hollywood career includes such titles as “Lethal Weapon 4”, “'Romeo Must Die” and more recently “The Expendables 2”.

Li confessed there are times he's unsure if he's able to carry on with work, but he's determined. "I'm in pain, but I'm not suffering. I'm happy," he said. (Yahoo)

December 29, 2013

Ranveer Singh

Ranveer Singh, born in Mumbai, is an Indian actor working in Bollywood. Following his Bachelor of Arts degree from Indiana University Bloomington, United States, Singh returned to India to pursue his dream of being an actor. In 2010, Singh auditioned for the lead role in the Yash Raj Films venture “Band Baaja Baaraat”, and was selected. The romantic comedy was set in the world of wedding planning and required Singh to portray a typical Delhi guy called Bittoo Sharma.

After its release, “Band Baaja Baaraat” became a critical and commercial success, with Singh's portrayal of Bittoo being lauded by critics. He went on to win the Filmfare Award for Best Male Debut at the 56th Filmfare Awards. Singh continued experimenting with different roles including a con artist in “Ladies vs Ricky Bahl” (2011), a disguised robber in the critically acclaimed “Lootera” (2013) and a Gujarati boy based on the character of Romeo (from William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet) in “Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela” (2013), which emerged as Singh's biggest commercial success to date.

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Star Times Bollywood

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14 Times Sunday Magazine

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December 29, 2013

Times Bollywood

Abhishek Bachchan: Salman Khan celebrates 48th birthday 'Aishwarya is a super mum'

S

uperstar Salman Khan, who turned 48 on Friday, threw a birthday bash for family and friends at his Panvel farmhouse, where a host of Bollywood A-listers joined the party.

The celebration began in the midnight and went on till the wee hours. Besides family members including father Salim Khan,

mother Sushila Charak sister Arpita and Alvira, brother-in-law Atul Agnihotri, brother Arbaaz and Sohail actors Aamir Khan, Anil Kapoor, Suniel Shetty, Sonakshi Sinha, and Varun Dhawan were present.

Celebs like Esha Deol, Sonu Sood, Chunky Pandey, Randeep Hooda, Girish Taurani, producers Boney Kapoor, Ramesh Taurani, Sajid Nadiadwala, director Kabir Khan, filmmaker David Dhawan and others also wished Salman.

“Bigg Boss” contestants Elli Avram, Armaan Kohli, Kushal Tandon and others too attended the party.

The actor has a huge fan following and is still on the top of the game among the three Khans in Bollywood.

He is riding high on the blockbuster success of his films like “Dabangg”, “Ready”, “Bodyguard”, “Ek Tha Tiger”, and “Dabangg 2”. Although, this year saw no Salman release, his chart for 2014 would begin with “Jai Ho” in January followed by “Kick”, which would hit screens on Eid. Salman has had his share of trouble after he got embroiled in the black buck killing case and the 2002 hit-and run case wherein court has ordered fresh trial against him.

The actor, who is now facing the charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, had moved the court sessions on November 19 seeking a fresh trial in the case. (Indian Express)

Shahid Kapoor: 'Tabu is one of the finest actresses'

S

hahid Kapoor has described Tabu as one of the finest actresses in Bollywood.

The “R... Rajkumar”

actor stars with Tabu in “Haider”, Vishal Bhardwaj's latest movie.

"I had a great time shooting with Tabu, she is one of

the finest actresses," Kapoor told IANS. "In fact, in the film, we also have actors like Kay Kay Menon and Irrfan, so it will hugely benefit the film. I have not yet shot with Irrfan for the film. I will start shooting with him by the middle of January," Kapoor added.

The 32-year-old has agreed to shave his head for the role, saying that he believes the script demands it.

"I don't have any apprehensions," he explained.

"You as an actor have to do it when it's required in the script. We all felt it is required so I am fine with it."

(IANS)

Kareena launches safety app for women

K

areena Kapoor has said she longer feels safe in Mumbai.

The actress, who was attending the launch of Channel V's Vith U app, designed to help safeguard women in the Indian city, expressed her personal sense of shock at the spate of sexual assaults and the growing incidence of rape in the country.

Speaking to IANS, she said: "I felt safe two years ago. But in the last two years there is an uneasiness in the city.

"The recent crimes against women have left some kind of unsafety even in our city, not only in Delhi.

If such cases can happen in the capital then these can happen anywhere. A feeling of unrest is always there in me."

Kapoor explained that her mother also worries

A

bhishek Bachchan has described wife Aishwarya Rai as a "super mum".

In an interview with PTI, the actor praised his wife as a mother and as a co-worker.

"Her (Aishwarya's) professionalism and dedication is unquestionable. As a mother (of Aaradhya), she is superb... She is a super mum. As a co-star, I have always loved working with her. It is a pleasure," Bachchan said.

"Aishwarya always knew what is the right film for her and has a knack to pick a right film that suits her. I love her as an actor.

I am a big fan of her and she should be given the liberty to choose the films she

wants to do".

Discussing his parental responsibilities, Bachchan explained that he and Aishwarya are concerned with protecting their daughter Aaradhya from the glare of the spotlight.

"As her parents, Aishwarya and I want our child to be happy and healthy," Bachchan said. "I was guarded from all this (media attention).

"The trade magazine and all was banned in my house.

The first time I read a film magazine was when I was 18," he added.

The 39-year-old also urged the media to show "restraint" when photographing the children of celebrities.

"This is one department

(of children) where I would want the media to show restraint and responsibility.

In our time, social media was not there," Bachchan stressed.

"I appeal to the media to show restraint... Let children grow up the way they want to. We want to let her (Aaradhya) grow as a normal kid."

It was recently reported that the real-life couple will star together in a film

by Prahlad Kakar called “Happy Anniversary”.

Bachchan clarified the reports, saying: "What happens in selection process is [that] you have certain ideas and suggestions and things get worked out, so it is time consuming. It takes time to develop a script to making a film... It doesn't happen overnight.

"He has a script which he is keen on. We haven't heard it completely yet. If we like it then we will do it."

The film would mark the first time that the couple will pair up on screen since they starred together in Mani Ratnam's “Raavan” in 2010.

Meanwhile, Abhishek most recently won high praise from his father Amitabh Bachchan, following his performance as ACP officer Jai Dixit in “Dhoom: 3”. (Digital Spy)

Katrina Kaif plays a secret agent in ‘Phantom’

K

atrina Kaif is to play a secret agent in upcoming movie “Phantom”.

After filming with Saif Ali Khan in the Lebanon, the actors have now started work on the Mumbai schedule.

"The shooting for the Mumbai schedule has begun and we can see the movie progressing as envisioned," said producer Sajid Nadiadwala.

"Both the actors, Saif and Katrina, have worked hard for their roles. Phantom is an intense action-thriller and is sure to keep you at the edge of your seat."

The lead actors were reportedly provided security while working on the film in Beirut in October.

Directed by New York filmmaker Kabir Khan, “Phantom” is about global terrorism

following the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai.

The project is scheduled for a 2014 release. (Digital Spy)

Amitabh Bachchan to star in Johnny Depp's movie?

about her safety whenever she is shooting late at night and revealed she has strict instructions to send her a message when she reaches home.

"If I am shooting at night my mother is worried about me. She stays awake as much as possible when I am shooting late at night or early morning. I have to mes-

sage her everyday when I reach back home," she added.

Shah Rukh Khan and Farhan Akhtar are among the Bollywood stars who have supported initiatives to safeguard women and instil gender equality in India following a spate of attacks against women across the country. (IANS)

A

mitabh Bachchan has confirmed that he has been approached to star in the Warner Bros film “Shantaram”.

An adaptation of Gregory David Roberts' “Shantaram- A Novel”, the film is being co-

produced by Brad Pitt and Johnny Depp.

The 71-year-old star told the Hindustan Times: "Warner Brothers have sent me a script. Let's see what happens. It was originally given to me a couple of years ago when Mira Nair was directing it.

"But then she said it's not happening... and now again very recently they've sent the script again."

The film tells the story of an Australian heroin addict who escapes from a maximum security prison in the 1980s and tries to create a new life for himself in India, before joining a fight against the Russians in Afghanistan. Depp has previously been earmarked for the lead role.

Bachchan made his first foray into Hollywood with a brief role in “The Great Gatsby” with Leonardo DiCaprio.

(Hindustan Times)

guyanatimesgy.com

December 29, 2013

Times Sunday Magazine

15

Times Healthy Living

O

ne of most athletes’ greatest assets is something you can't see -- their mental stamina.

"Athletes can get far on raw physical ability," says Robert E. Corb, PhD, a psychologist and director of the Sports Psychology Program at UCLA. "But what separates the truly elite from the rest is that they know how to use their minds."

You can build up mental stamina with training, just like physical strength, experts say. It also has many uses. "Mental stamina skills aren't only for athletes," Corb says. They can help musicians, actors, writers, or anyone who needs to perform, he

In time, interrupting negative thoughts and replacing them with positive ones will have a real effect on your athletic performance -- and overall outlook, Corb says.

2. Use Visualization Visualization is a common technique for handling stress. When you're overwhelmed, imagining yourself in a calm, soothing place for a few minutes can help you manage the stress. Athletes use it in other ways.

"Some athletes use visualization right before a game to practice mentally," says David Geier, MD, an orthopaedic surgeon and director of Sports Medicine at the Medical University of

tells WebMD. How can you build up your mental stamina before your next race -- or presentation at work? Here are tips for Olympic athletes and office workers alike.

1. Think Positively "Self-confidence is probably the most important mental characteristic that athletes need," says Corb.

Self-confidence doesn't just stem from physical ability.

We've all seen highly-skilled athletes who lose their selfconfidence and fall apart.

How do you get more selfconfidence? Corb urges people to listen to what they're saying to themselves -- maybe not even consciously. "If you keep saying, 'I'll never be able to do this,' before a marathon, then you won't be able to do it," says Corb. "If you say something enough to yourself, you'll make it true."

Corb stresses that building self-confidence is a mental exercise that you can practice. Listen to what you're saying about yourself.

If what you hear is negative, correct it. Consciously think more positive thoughts.

South Carolina. A basketball player might close his eyes and think about what a free throw will look like. A sprinter might imagine the gun going off and the first few steps.

Visualization can give you a mental space to rehearse.

Corb suggests another type of visualization. "I tell people to visualize past achievements," he says. "It's almost like a highlight reel that you play back in your mind. Focus on times you felt really good, and remember that feeling." It can give you a real boost, he says.

3. Plan for Setbacks If you're a marathon runner, there are times when you'll hit the wall. If you're a golfer, you'll make a bad shot sometimes. These things happen. What really matters is what you do afterwards.

One of the things that separates elite athletes is their ability to hold up after a setback," says Corb. "They don't spiral out of control."

Again, this isn't just about your personality -- it's a skill you can learn. How can you regain your focus when things go wrong? "You need

T

o cut your risks of developing dementia by as much as two thirds, a new study suggests following five healthy lifestyle rules.

Most important is getting regular exercise, followed by: not smoking maintaining a low body weight eating a healthy diet and not drinking too much alcohol According to the findings, sticking with four of the five habits could cut your risk of dementia and cognitive decline by 60 per cent, as well as reduce your risks of diabetes, heart disease, and stroke by 70 per cent.

Lead author Professor Peter Elwood, from Cardiff University's School of Medicine

to practice techniques to recentre yourself," Corb says.

There's no one way to do it. Some athletes have a ritualized physical routine -- like a specific sequence of stretches. Others have a specific phrase that they repeat to themselves. Some play a specific song -- in their heads if they can't turn on their iPod. Others will take 30 seconds to do deep breathing.

The point is to know what to do when the pressure mounts. Having a plan in place -- even if it's as simple as a word you repeat to yourself -- will boost your confidence.

4. Manage Stress Feeling stressed before a competition? Try techniques like meditation or progressive muscle relaxation -- in which you consciously relax each muscle group, from your toes to your head.

Of course, channelled the right way, stress can be your ally right before an athletic performance.

"Not all stress is bad," says Geier. "The fight or flight response can push you harder during an athletic competition."

Corb points out that positive stress (excitement) and negative stress (anxiety) really have the same physical effects. Your heart rate and breathing go up. Your pupils dilate.

The difference is how you experience these effects. If excitement before a competition gets you amped up, that's good. If it's tipping you into panic, that's bad.

Remember that when you feel stress building, you have some control over how to interpret it.

5. Sleep More Not only does sleep help athletes physically -- allowing your body time to repair itself after a workout -- but it also has mental benefits.

Studies have shown that getting enough sleep can improve reaction time and split second decision making.

How much sleep do you need? Aim for at least seven to nine hours -- and more if you're under a lot of stress or doing intense workouts.

Develop a Plan to Build Your Mental Stamina

Of course, these tips are easier to read than to put into practice. No one gains

in the U.K., said switching to a healthy lifestyle had a "far more beneficial effect than any medical treatment or preventive procedure."

"The size of reduction in the instance of disease owing to these simple healthy steps has really amazed us and is of enormous importance in an ageing population," he said.

"What the research shows is that following a healthy lifestyle confers surprisingly large benefits to health -- healthy behaviours have a far more beneficial effect than any medical treatment or preventive procedure."

The study involved data from 2,235 men in South Wales over a 35-year period.

Findings were published online in the journal PLoS ONE.

mental stamina overnight -it's a skill you have to learn.

"When you watch Olympic athletes getting ready to perform, every single thing they do is intentional," says Corb.

"They're focusing their minds

with techniques they've learned and practiced for years. It takes a lot of hard work."

Start working now to improve your mental stamina.

You may not have the time

to practice eight hours a day like an Olympian. But building your mental stamina has a lot of benefits for your game, your career, and life in general -- and it doesn't even require a gym membership.

16 Times Sunday Magazine

guyanatimesgy.com

December 29, 2013

Times Home & Cooking

Boneless Buffalo Wings Ingredients

1 cup all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons salt 1/2 teaspoon black pepper 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper 1/4 teaspoon paprika 1 egg

If you plan on decorating for an Old Year’s Night celebration, take some tips here Bring out differentcoloured balloons, blow them up and tape them to the wall for a unique and bubbly wall decor

Tall displays of food add a dramatic touch to a sideboard

1 cup milk 2 chicken breast fillets 4 -6 cups vegetable oil 1/4 cup hot sauce 1 tablespoon margarine For Dip Blue cheese salad dressing Celery rib

Method

Combine flour, salt, peppers and paprika in a medium bowl. In another small bowl, whisk together egg and milk.

Slice each chicken breast into 6 pieces.

Preheat 4-6 cups of vegetable oil in a deep fryer to 375 degrees. One or two at a time, dip each piece of chicken into the egg mixture, then into the breading blend; then repeat the process so that each piece of chicken is double-coated.

When all chicken pieces have been breaded, arrange them on a plate and chill for 15 minutes.

When the chicken is done resting, drop each piece into the hot oil and fry for 5-6 minutes or until each piece is browned. As chicken fries, combine the hot sauce and margarine in a small bowl.

Microwave sauce for 20-30 seconds or just until the margarine is melted, then stir to combine. Just combine the hot sauce and margarine in the saucepan over low heat and

stir

until margarine is melted and ingredients are blended.

When chicken pieces are done frying, remove them to a plate lined with a couple paper towels. Place the chicken pieces into a covered container such as a large jar with a lid.

Pour the sauce over the chicken in the container, cover, and then shake gently until each piece of chicken is coated with sauce.

Pour the chicken onto a plate and serve the dish with bleu cheese dressing and sliced celery on the side.

Fruity Curry Chicken Salad Ingredients 4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cooked and diced 1 stalk celery, diced 4 green onions, chopped 1 Golden Delicious apple - peeled, cored and diced

1/3 cup golden raisins 1/3 cup seedless green grapes, halved 1/2 cup chopped toasted pecans 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper 1/2 teaspoon curry powder 3/4 cup light or non-fat mayonnaise

Method In a large bowl combine the chicken, celery, onion, apple, raisins, grapes, pecans, pepper, curry powder and mayonnaise.

Mix all together.

This salad is best if eaten the day after preparation. This allows the ingredients time to blend, giving a fuller flavour.

Make party favours the centre of attention at the table by displaying them in bowls and vases for guests to simply pull out and get partying. You can also fill them with confetti

W

Greatest Cooking Tips

hen grilling fish with the skin on, there is no need for turning; the skin can protect from burning or overcooking.

If steaming fish in a wire steamer basket, line basket with lettuce, onion, herbs or citrus before adding fish to prevent it from sticking.

For best results, remember that fish will continue to cook for a few minutes after it is removed from the heat source so plan accordingly, noting that “if you think it’s almost done, it’s done.”

Apply marinades – barbecue, teriyaki and fruit sauces – just before fish is done cooking to prevent burning.

S

Home Help

tart putting torn newspaper in your plants; work the nutrients in your soil. Wet newspapers, put layers around the plants, overlapping as you go; cover with mulch and forget about weeds.

Weeds will get through some gardening plastic; they will not get through wet newspapers.

Reducing Static Cling - Pin a small safety pin to the seam of your slip and you will not have a clingy skirt or dress. Same thing works with slacks that cling when wearing panty hose. Place pin in seam of slacks and static is gone.

For the whitest socks, boil them in water to which a lemon slice has been added.

guyanatimesgy.com

December 29, 2013

Times Sunday Magazine 17

Times Sunday Puzzle

In each sentence below, two words are incomplete. The two words end in the same three letters, so they look like they should rhyme, but they don't. See if you can figure out the missing letters in each sentence.

Example: One symptom of bronchitis is a ro___ co___.

(The two words are: rough & cough.)

1. When you g___ up, I will let you climb the ship's p___.

2. Do you want to be a ri___ swimmer or an ocean di___?

3. The strongest oarsman in the boat is a po___ ro___.

4. The cheap tickets didn't al___ them to go be___ deck. see solution on page 22

see solution on page 22

see solution on page 22

18 Times Sunday Magazine

December 29, 2013

guyanatimesgy.com

Times Creative Writing

Essays of Life

By Sr. Shamane Hassad

I

remember a special Sunday lunch in Corriverton.

Mother, father, children – we were all there. My good husband baked a chicken, golden brown with mashed potatoes, crunchy sweet corn and carrot fried rice. I made lime and lemon drink with lots of ice, and the children bought freshly-made buns and ‘chiney’ cakes.

We ate that chicken to the bone. We all said it tasted so good and we all had seconds. Afterward, I cleaned up, but my husband did not look very happy.

Even by dusk, he was still quiet and fretful.

Later that night when the children went to bed and we sat alone looking at the television, I asked as humbly as I could why he was upset.

“None of you said thank you,” he said. “I worked all morning to fix that lunch and no one said thank you.”

I was floored. We continuously said how good it was and we ate it all, but sometimes, I guess being grateful means actually saying “thank you”.

Well, damage control!

I said all that he wanted to hear and he went to bed smiling and woke up smiling – for which I did not get a ‘thank you’ but that was okay with me.

It is important to give thanks for the little things and the big things in life.

We were taught that most of good conduct is based on the words, “please” and “thank you”.

Thank you to the taxi driver who takes you to your home and readily helps with

Funeral Blues Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone, Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone, Silence the pianos and with muffled drum Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

the full bottle of gas and the five-gallon water to your front door. Thank you to the fast food cashier who gives you your well-packed bag at the drive-through line, and a special thank you to the lady who allows you with the two items in your hand to go past her full cart to the front of the checkout.

For most of the people we encounter only once, we say the words that mean we are grateful, please take care. To those we interact with over some time we express our thanks by words and gifts.

Like the teachers who mother and mould our munchkins, and the garbage collectors, (I welcome their Christmas envelopes),

and the regular supermarket cashiers and packers and the regular market vendors. Thank you to all.

These may be simple gestures but they show that we appreciate and are grateful for the time, effort and attention that someone has given to us, and it makes that person happy to know that the act was accepted and the recipient was pleased.

Sometimes it’s the little ‘thank yous’ that make us willing to keep doing our jobs as well as we can.

We acknowledge the world around us, but, as my husband made me realize, we must also remember those in our homes and families. I have seen my

eight-year-old smile and glow when I thanked her for making me a sandwich. She wanted to make me more every day.

My adult children are also much happier, though they try not to show it, when I say I am pleased, and thank them for their efforts in doing some chore in the house or they make some special input to our family life.

My husband is now gone but I still thank him every day for the positive way he did things.

We must always thank our mothers and fathers and those who give us love and help us along in this maze we call life – like my “going strong” aunt and 80plus years-old uncle. Thank you and I love you.

But all this gratitude would be tasteless unless we recognize the base of our existence and acknowledge the One who makes our hearts the way it is and puts people and things around us so that we can grow and mature and succeed at life and living.

Let us give thanks to the Eternal Force, the Patient Provider, the Caring Creator, the Giver and Taker.

My God this day I bow and plead To you I list my every need My tears say thanks for what I know For good health that takes me to and fro For life with promise to do more still And guidance you give to do thy will The trials, the hurt, the mount, the fall My heart cries thanks to you for all.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead Scribbling on the sky the message “He is Dead”.

Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves, Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West, My working week and my Sunday rest, My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song; I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now; put out every one, Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun, Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood; For nothing now can ever come to any good.

W.H. Auden

Remember

Remember me when I am gone away, Gone far away into the silent land; When you can no more hold me by the hand, Nor I half turn to go, yet turning stay.

Remember me when no more day by day You tell me of our future that you plann’d: Only remember me; you understand It will be late to counsel then or pray.

Yet if you should forget me for a while And afterwards remember, do not grieve: For if the darkness and corruption leave A vestige of the thoughts that once I had, Better by far you should forget and smile Than that you should remember and be sad.

Christina Rossetti

Send your creative writing to sundaymagazine@guyanatimesgy.com

guyanatimesgy.com

December 29, 2013

Times Sunday Magazine19

Times World

2013: Top science, space stories Our world of science and space has seen many discoveries, innovations and advancement of our understanding during the past year Mars

Exploration of our planetary neighbour, Mars, was the focus of much science and space news this year.

In a field dominated by the U.S, Russia and the EU, Mars received its latest attention from newcomer the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), which launched the Mangalyaan (Mars Orbiter Mission) – India’s first interplanetary mission to planet Mars with an orbiter craft designed to orbit Mars.

The mangalyaam lifted off Nov 5 to embark on a nine-month journey to the red planet after orbiting earth for some 20-25 days.

While in orbit around Mars, the ISRO hopes to take photos of the planet and study the environment, looking for signs of life.

The spacecraft is expected to travel for some 300

wrote that NASA should focus its “efforts on establishing a permanent human presence on Mars by the 2030 to 2040 decade."

The rest of the universe

One of the biggest milestones for 2013 was the announcement by scientists of the passage of the Voyager I spacecraft out of our solar system, to become the first man-made object to leave the solar system.

According to CNN, the twin spacecraft Voyager 1 and 2 were launched in 1977, 16 days apart. As of October 2013, according to NASA's real-time odometer, Voyager 1 is 18.8 billion kilometres (11.7 billion miles) from Earth. Its sibling, Voyager 2, is 15.3 billion kilometres (9.5 billion miles) from our planet.

Travelling at more than 38,000 miles per hour,

The Kepler Mission, according to NASA’s Ames Research Centre, developed over several decades as a way of answering the question: How frequent are other Earths in our galaxy?

However, the spacecraft ran into some trouble this year with the failure of a control mechanism used to keep the device focused on distant stars with pinpoint accuracy.

The universe too close for comfort

While we have sent spacecraft far and wide, and stared through telescopes to the far reaches of the universe, the universe has not lain dormant. A 150-foot wide asteroid: “2012 DA14”, a huge chunk of space rock, whizzed past earth on Feb 15, passing just 17,200 miles from its surface.

While astronomers were

India launches the Mangalyaan orbiter toward the Red Planet atop a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle on Nov. 5, 2013 from the ISRO's Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota

trusion since the 1908 Tunguska explosion over Siberia.

Scientists later determined the meteor (what an asteroid is called when it burns up upon entering earth’s atmosphere) was about 60 feet (17 meters) across, with as much power of about 30 Hiroshima-type atomic bombs when it exploded.

On Earth

A contrail from the meteor that exploded in the sky above Russia as it entered the Earth’s atmosphere, injuring more than 1,000 people

days, to arrive in Mars’ orbit Sept 2014.

In a separate development, NASA's Maven probe was launched Nov 18 to find out why Mars lost much of its atmosphere. It is expected to touch down on the surface, also in Sept 2014.

In more news about the planet this year, a company called Mars One announced its intentions to land four astronauts on Mars in 2025 to begin the first human colonies there. Applications began being accepted, and about 200,000 earthlings have so far applied for the one-way trip.

Another company, the Inspiration Mars Foundation, said it wants to send a man and a woman to pass by Mars in 2018, in a round-trip flight without stopping. That means the couple would be spending 501 days in space together.

Such ideas gained the approval of astronaut Buzz Aldrin, best known for his Apollo 11 moonwalk, who

Voyager I, said project manager, Suzanne Dodd, is the little spacecraft that could – with only 68 KB of memory onboard, far less than a smartphone.

Both Voyager probes carry time capsules known as "the golden record," a 12inch, gold-plated copper disc with images and sounds so that extraterrestrials could learn about us.

Voyager 2 will likely leave the heliosphere (the magnetic boundary separating the solar system's sun, planets and solar wind from the rest of the galaxy) in about three to four years.

Another significant development has been the Kepler discoveries. The Kepler space telescope has led scientists to believe that most stars in our galaxy have planets circling them. Three Kepler planets announced this year, located about 1,200 light-years away, are considered some of the best candidates so far for hosting life.

watching that space rock, another asteroid plunged into Earth's atmosphere and exploded high over the Russian city of Chelyabinsk in the biggest cosmic in-

There were several discoveries and developments here on earth over the year, proving that there is still much to know of our planet as well.

Archicebus Achilles was the name of the species represented by the old-

Olinguito

est primate skeleton found, as described in the journal Nature in June. It is considered to be a missing link between the anthropoids and the tarsiers.

Then along came the olinguito, described as "a cross between a house cat and a teddy bear"; the first mammalian carnivore species to be newly identified in the Americas in 35 years. Another discovery for scientists was the Cape Melville Leaf-Tailed Gecko of Australia.

Then science unearthed ancient humans. A find in Dmanisi, Georgia gave us the most complete skull of an individual from the early Homo genus; though there is yet to be consensus on its

place in the genus.

Another important development was the reconstruction of the nearly complete mitochondrial genome of an ancient human relative. It is the oldest DNA to be recovered from an early humanlike species: about 400,000 years old.

Climate change was also a focus in 2013. CNN noted that a key moment was when the average concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide hit 400 parts per million in Mauna Loa, Hawaii, in May; levels that haven't been seen in about 3 million years.

The Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, released in September, found increasing evidence that ice sheets are losing mass, glaciers are shrinking, Arctic sea ice and global snow cover is decreasing, and permafrost is thawing in the Northern Hemisphere.

Science went into science fiction in 2013 when physicists announced they had taken a step in the direction of making an invisibility cloak by making objects "invisible" within a limited range of light waves –specifically, microwaves.

Then in September scientists said that they had made "light-matter", molecules made of particles of light called photons that don't behave like traditional light. (Think “Star Wars” and “light sabres”).

Stay tuned in 2014 for more developments in science and space...

20 Times Sunday Magazine

guyanatimesgy.com

December 29, 2013

Times Tech

IBM: iOS crushed Android in Christmas shopping with 5 times the sales iOS crushes Android as shoppers' favourite platform

Breaking down those numbers by mobile platform, IBM reported that iOS devices accounted for more than 5 times the total sales of Android or over an 83 percent share of mobile-oriented sales (above), with 23 percent of all online sales occurring on an Apple mobile device versus just 4.6 percent on Android products.

IBM stated that iOS users also spent an average of twice as much more per order: an average sale of$93.94 versus an average order of just $48.10 on Android devices.

A

pple's iPhone and iPad represented the vast majority of U.S. online shopping and sales during Christmas, accounting for more than an 83 percent take of sales compared to Android.

Despite having minority market share in the U.S., Apple's iOS is being used to do the most mobile shopping and placing the most sales by a wide margin, according to IBM's Digital Analytics Benchmark Hub. The group has tracked similar numbers since the holiday shopping season kicked off during

Tech news

S

Black Friday after Thanksgiving.

A series of regular reports by IBM's Digital Analytics Benchmark group, tracking a "digital analytics platform that tracks millions of transactions and analyzes terabytes of raw data from approximately 800 retail sites nationwide," have profiled mobile shoppers.

Online sales on Christmas Day were up 16.5 percent over last year. IBM stated that mobile devices accounted for 48 percent of all online traffic (a 28.3 percent year over year increase), while mo-

bile sales were nearly 29 percent, an increase of over 40 percent compared to 2012.

The group noted that while smartphones drove 28.5 percent of all online traffic, leading the 18.1 percent traffic share tied to tablet devices, tablets drove 19.5 percent of all online sales, significantly larger than the 9.3 percent share of sales connected to smartphones.

Tablet users also placed higher average orders: $95.61 per order on average compared to the $85.11 average order placed via smartphone.

Researchers: 'Critical Vulnerability' in Samsung's Knox-Secured Phones

amsung's Knox mobile security solution for smartphones like the best-selling Galaxy S4 has a "critical vulnerability" which could enable "easy interception of data communications," according to researchers at Israel's Ben-Gurion University (BGU) of the Negev.

The university said earlier this week that the "vulnerability was uncovered by Ph.D. student Mordechai Guri during an unrelated research task." The BGU discovery of the vulnerability in Knox was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

"To us, Knox symbolizes stateof-the-art in terms of secure mobile architectures and I was surprised to find that such a big 'hole' exists and was left untouched," Guri said.

Knox, built on TrustZone security technology available for ARM processor cores, adds a "secure container" to a regular mobile phone environment for protected data and communications activity to take place. It is supposed to protect all the data within the secure container even if malware has infected the non-secure section of the mobile device.

"However, the newly found breach can be used to bypass all Knox security measures. By simply installing an 'innocent' app on the regular phone (in the nonsecure container) all communications from the phone can be captured and exposed," researchers in BGU's Cyber Security Labs said.

The vulnerability "enables easy interception of data communications between the secure container and the external world including file transfers, emails and browser activity,"

Apple's iOS devices also made up 32.6 percent of all overall mobile traffic, compared to just 14.8 percent for Android. Microsoft's Windows Phone, BlackBerry and other mobile platforms didn't represent enough activity to mention.

(Information by Global Tech) The leading share of online shopping grabbed by iOS users parallels the 84 percent share of tablets claimed by iPad in Chitika's web analytics, the leading share taken by iOS in app developer's revenue seen per download, and the over 80 percent usage stats reported among education and enterprise users.

they added.

"Knox has been widely adopted by many organizations and government agencies and this weakness has to be addressed immediately before it falls into the wrong hands," Guri said. "We are also contacting Samsung in order

to provide them with the full technical details of the breach so it can be fixed immediately."

Mobile devices using Knox are now being reviewed for deployment in highly security-dependent workforce

environments by the U.S. Department of Defence and other organizations.

Samsung's Android-based phones running Knox were among the devices recently approved by the DoD to supplement the Blackberrys that make up the majority of phones approved for work-related use by its employees. The department was already supporting nearly 50,000 iDevices and Android devices as of March of this year, according to Lt. Col. Damien Pickart, an official DoD spokesman.

"Samsung Knox delivers fundamental security at the platform level, while leaving the user experience consistent. Samsung Galaxy devices powered by Samsung Knox are highly secure mobile devices," a spokesperson for the South Korean tech giant said earlier this year.

Samsung did not immediately respond to PCMag's request for comment about the BGU discovery, but a spokesperson was quoted by The Wall Street Journal as saying that the company "takes all security vulnerability claims very seriously."

The company's "preliminary investigation" into the issue showed that BGU's exploit of the vulnerability "appears to be equivalent to some well-known attacks" and was "conducted on a device that wasn't fully loaded with the extra software that a corporate client would use in conjunction with Knox," according to the spokesperson.

"Rest assured, the core Knox architecture cannot be compromised or infiltrated by such malware," the spokesperson was quoted as saying.

(PCMag)

Tech Byte

I

Scientists jump "air gap" with hidden acoustic networks

Computer scientists have successfully transmitted data between laptop computers using only their built-in microphones and speakers

t could be assumed that the most effective way to safeguard your computer against the threat of cyber attacks would be to disconnect it from all networks: wireless, LAN, network cards or the internet.

However, research from the Fraunhofer Institute for Communication, Information Processing and Ergonomics (FKIE) has demonstrated a malware prototype with the ability to jump the "air gap" – meaning even that once sure-fire security measure might not be enough to ensure the protection of your computer.

Computer scientists Michael Hanspach and Michael Goetz conducted an experiment involving five computers which connected to one another using their built-in microphones and speakers to form an inaudible acoustic network. The data was able to be transferred from one computer to another until it reached one with a regular internet connection that was able to take the signal "outside."

Hanspach says the same technique might also be used to transfer data between smartphones or tablets.

In the past, we have seen similar technology using inaudible sound frequencies to create an alternative to NFC and to transfer inaudible QR codes. However, the network proposed by the German scientists is the first to establish a data transmission between computers purely through acoustical communication.

The scientists are sceptical that their research demonstrates an effective way of spreading malware at present.

However, they are mindful of the potential dangers "audio botnets" may present in as little as five years, citing critical infrastructure as something that may one day be susceptible. (GIZMAG)

guyanatimesgy.com

December 29, 2013

Times Sunday Magazine 21

Times Art

H

ailing from the Pomeroon River, Everley Austin has been creating ceramic masterpieces for more than 43 years, incorporating his ar-

tistic flavour of colour and distinct designs.

Of Warrau and AfricanGuyanese descent, Austin started making ceramics pieces from the early age of nine. He copied the designs from Chinese vases and used ordinary paint for the finish. The pieces were unfired: lathered water colour and a coat of lacquer

were used.

In a previous interview with Guyana Times Sunday Magazine, Austin said that his mother provided scope for his creation by giving away his work, so there was always a space in the home for another piece.

Born March 3, 1948, Austin noted: “Since from childhood I would create many ceramics pieces; it came naturally to me, and my mother would always encourage me. She kept giving away my ceramic work so

Austin with a few of his pieces at a past exhibition at Castellani House

that there is always room for more pieces, which motivated me to continue.”

In 1969 he was exposed to finished ceramic pieces when he participated in an exhibition of clay and clay products. Then in 1970, after an interview for the entrance to the Pre Service Teachers’ Training College, he was recommended for a scholarship to study ceramics at the Royal College of Art in London.

After training college, he continued to create his ceramic pieces and went back to the Pomeroon to continue teaching, but not for long.

He was requested to return to Georgetown in 1973 to teach where he and several of his colleagues startedthe Sophia Centre for delinquents. He taught Art and Craft.

Later, he became a parttime student of the Burrowes School of Art in 1975 and in 1976 was awarded a conditional scholarship to study fine arts at the Jamaica School of Art. At that school, Austin graduated with an Honour. Returning to

Brilliant work of glazed vases and goblets by Everley Austin

Guyana, he graduated and commenced working at the Burrowes School of Art in 1980. In that year, he participated in an exhibition at the Jamaica Pegasus, and later that same year mounted a one-man show at the John Pear Tree Gallery Jamaica.

From 1982 to 1990 he was the judge for Guyfesta Art and Craft Exhibitions.

He was also a judge for the Children’s Mashramani Costume Competition for many years, and later became the Chief Judge. He was responsible for decorating the National Park for the Mashramani Anniversary celebrations. In 1992 and 1996 he took works from Guyana’s art collection to Trinidad for Carifesta, and in 1994 set up a special art exhibition for Her Majesty Queen’s Elizabeth’s visit to Guyana. This exhibition was later one of the first displayed at the National Art Gallery at the Castellani House. Austin was the first curator of Castellani House from 1994 to 1996, and was responsible for mounting the exhibits for the open-

ing of the African Heritage Museum (then called the Museum of African Art and Ethnology) under Dr Denis Williams.

In 2001, he migrated to Botswana where he taught the general subject of Art for 2 years. He returned to Guyana in 2006 and recommenced his teaching at the Burrowes School of Art. “When I’m sculpting I think of nature. Most of excitement is from glazing them, and when I create these too I think about the likes of people which sometimes motivate me to create extraordinary pieces. Clay is very exciting and easy to work for me because of being in it for many years,” Austin noted.

For decades, Austin has been responsible for introducing the elements and practical methods of ceramic-making to scores of students in Guyana and elsewhere.

(Information by National Gallery curator Elfrieda Bissember) For more information on the artist, contact Castellani House on 225-0579.

22 Times Sunday Magazine

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December 29, 2013

Times Heritage

Guyana: A Heritage of water The Christianburg Waterwheel, a well-known historical structure in Guyana, was constructed in 1855 to provide hydropower for a sawmill

Kaieteur Falls has become an icon for an emerging ecotourism industry

The most common interior mode of travel. Boats surround a landing on the Pomeroon River

T

Often the only way to get from one place to another on Guyana’s vast waterways

he National Trust of Guyana published a booklet that focused on Guyana’s “Heritage of Water”. The Trust looked at water as a catalyst for Guyanese economic, environmental, cultural and social development and achievements.

It noted that water “inspired var-

ious aspects of educational and vocational endeavour, especially in areas of art, poetry and literature, while shaping our intangible cultural values associated with beliefs, religions and other practices.”

Guyana’s waterways have helped shape our infrastructure, exports,

environment and human settlement from the moment the territory was discovered and explored. Guyana’s many historical and modern structures often arise from early and contemporary inhabitants’ need for and use of water, as do its main ports and crops.

Brain Teaser Answer 1. grow prow 2. river diver

SUDOKU

3. power rower 4. allow below

KID SUDOKU

Georgetown Cricket Club, British Guiana Nd

CROSSWORD

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Times Sunday Magazine 23

Times Travel & Tourism

A typical house in Annai

Annai A

nnai has developed a cultural tourism product that gives visitors an insight into the traditional lifestyle of the indigenous population, rather than offering only mountain hikes and nature-based tours to visitors.

The central hilltop location of Annai is the perfect setting for the role it plays in the Rupununi region. The village is located just over a mile south of the main road.

The thatched roof houses are mainly made of clay bricks and are built close together along the top of the hills. It is a direct contrast to the sprawling villages located on the flatbed of the savannahs, which also makes the entire village much more accessible to visitors.

The small Amerindian village, made up of Makushi residents, is home to the regional administrative compound which has a health centre, police station, guesthouse and administrative offices. Although it is equipped with modern facilities, Annai remains a traditional village. (Information from Kirk Smock “Guyana Bradt Guide- Edition 2�. Photos by Ravena Gildharie)

Horse back riding

Aircraft taking off from Annai airstrip

Children having fun in the village

The view entering Annai

Scenic view of the mountains

24

Times Sunday Magazine

December 29, 2013

guyanatimesgy.com

Times Last Laugh World Sikh Awards Recognize Outstanding Sikhs

By Melvin Durai

T

he World Sikh Awards were held recently at London’s Hilton Hotel, recognizing achievements by Sikhs in a variety of fields all over the world.

Khushwant Singh of New Delhi took the prize for “Outstanding Sikh Writer,” Harminder Singh Dua of Nottingham, England, took the prize for “Outstanding Sikh Doctor” and Ravinder Singh Atwal of Yuba City, California, took the prize for “Outstanding Sikh Stay-at-Home Dad.” “I accept this award on behalf of all Sikh stay-at-home dads,” Atwal said in his acceptance speech. “This one’s for you, guys.

All those years of diaper-changing and bottle-feeding have not been in vain.”

To qualify for a World Sikh Award, Atwal had to first win a Yuba City Sikh Award, then a California Sikh Award, and finally a United States Sikh Award. “The tough part was winning the Yuba City Sikh Award,” Atwal said. “Do you have any idea how many Sikhs there are in Yuba City?”

Among other award winners were Avtar Singh Sohal of Kenya, who was recognized in the sports category, Harpal Singh Saggu of India, recognized in the business category, and Waris Ahluwalia, recognized in the special category of designer/actor/hunk.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award, while Sardar Singh and other members of India’s hockey team received a Lifetime Under-Achievement Award.

Announcing nominees in the “Outstanding Sikh Veterinarian” category, presenter Piers Morgan caused laughter in the banquet hall when he said, “The nominees are Singh, Singh and Singh.”

Even more laughter ensued when six people stood up to take a bow. As it turned out, three of them had been nominated in a similar-sounding category: “Outstanding Sikh Vegetarian.”

While Parminder Kaur Gill of London’s All-Veg Buffet was thrilled to win the latter award, running on stage and hugging

Morgan, the most excited awardee of the evening was Lakhwinder Singh Dhillon of Melbourne, Australia, who received the “Outstanding Sikh Taxi Driver” award.

Dancing on stage with his award, Dhillon was so overjoyed that he offered to drive the entire audience home. “This means so much to me,” he said. “It has always been a dream of mine to win a World Sikh Award. I never thought it would be possible, because there are so many deserving Sikh taxi drivers in the world.”

Dhillon was selected for the award largely because of his honesty – he returned 110,000 Australian dollars to a group of people he had dropped off at a casino. “It was easy to return it, because the money didn’t belong to me,” he said. “But I have to admit that when I found the money in my taxi, my first thought was, ‘Ah, here’s my chance to finally win a World Sikh Award.’”

Dhillon’s enthusiasm was almost matched by Gurvir Singh, who received the award for “Outstanding Sikh Bouncer.”

Formerly known as Gary Smith, Singh converted to Sikhism partly because he wanted to win a World Sikh Award. “It’s nice to be in a community that recognizes its own,” Singh said. “I also get free food on Sundays at the gurudwara.”

Inspired by the World Sikh Awards, a businessman in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, announced that in September 2015 he will organize the inaugural World Muslim Awards. Within minutes of that announcement, a businessman in Israel announced that in October 2015 he will organize the World Jewish Awards. “It will be bigger than the World Muslim Awards,” said Yitzhak Rubinstein. “That’s why we are having it a month later, so we can see how big theirs is first.”

The World Hindu Awards were scheduled to take place in June 2014, but disagreements within the organizing committee about eligibility criteria have caused the award show to be broken up into several separate events, including the World Brahmin Awards, World Vaishya Awards and World Dalit Awards.

Sayings of the Wise and Zany

- Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine.

- As long as there are tests, there will be prayer in public schools.

- Laugh alone and the world thinks you’re an idiot.

- Sometimes I wake up grumpy; other times I let her sleep.

- The gene pool could use a little chlorine.

- I didn’t fight my way to the top of the food chain to be a vegetarian.

Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?

RICHARD M. NIXON: The chicken did not cross the road. Repeat, the chicken did NOT cross the road.

JERRY SEINFELD: Why does anyone cross a road? I mean, why doesn’t anyone ever think to ask, “What was this chicken doing walking around all over the place, anyway?”

OLIVER STONE: The question is not, “Why did the chicken cross the road?” Rather, it is, “Who was crossing the road at the same time, whom we overlooked in our haste to observe the chicken crossing?”

DARWIN: Chickens, over great periods of time, have been naturally selected in such a way that they are now genetically dispositioned to cross roads.

GRANDAD: In my day, we didn’t ask why the chicken crossed the road. Someone told us that the chicken had crossed the road, and that was good enough for us.

MACHIAVELLI: The point is that the chicken crossed the road. Who cares why?

The end of crossing the road justifies whatever motive there was.

EINSTEIN: Whether the chicken crossed the road or the road moved beneath the chicken depends upon your frame of reference.

RALPH WALDO EMERSON: The chicken did not cross the road; it transcended it.

ERNEST HEMINGWAY: To die; in the rain.

COLONEL SANDERS: I missed one?

Classic Church Bulletin Bloopers

The Ladies Bible Study will be held Thursday morning at 10. All ladies are invited to lunch in the Fellowship Hall after the ladies’ B.S. is done.

The Pastor would appreciate it if the ladies of the congregation would lend him their electric girdles for the pancake breakfast next Sunday morning.

For those of you who have children and don’t know it, we have a nursery downstairs.

The pastor will preach his farewell message, after which the choir will sing, “Break Forth into Joy.” The concert held in Fellowship Hall was a great success. Special thanks are due to the minister’s daughter, who laboured the whole evening at the piano, which as usual fell upon her.

Do you remember this?

Vintage computer ad promotes the Lotus 1-2-3 software.

Lotus 1-2-3 was released Jan. 26, 1983 and would become both IBM's and Microsoft's first killer app before it was overtaken

by Excel and Quatro Pro in the 90s.

On June 11, 2013, IBM announced it would withdraw the entire Lotus brand.

Pastor is on vacation. Massages can be given to church secretary.

Sunday School

Nine year old Joey was asked by his mother what he had learned in Sunday school.

“Well, Mom, our teacher told us how God sent Moses behind enemy lines on a rescue mission to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. When he got to the Red Sea, he had his engineers build a pontoon bridge and all the people walked across safely. Then, he used his walkie-talkie to radio headquarters for reinforcements. They sent bombers to blow up the bridge and all the Israelites were saved.”

“Now, Joey, is that really what your teacher taught you?” his mother asked.

“Well, no, Mom. But, if I told it the way the teacher did, you’d never believe it!”

----------------------A Sunday School teacher decided to have her young class memorize one of the most quoted passages in the Bible; Psalm 23. She gave the youngsters a month to learn the verse.

Little Bobby was excited about the task.

But, he just couldn’t remember the Psalm. After much practice, he could barely get past the first line.

On the day that the kids were scheduled to recite Psalm 23 in front of the congregation, Bobby was so nervous. When it was his turn, he stepped up to the microphone and said proudly, “The Lord is my shepherd and that’s all I need to know!”

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