12302022 WEEKEND

A year of Weekends looking back on 2022

By JEFFARAH GIBSON | Tribune Features Writer | jgibson@tribunemedia.net

As with every passing year, there are some big moments and stories hard to forget and if forgotten are worthy of reflection.

Today, we look back at some of top stories, not to mention the exciting images, that made for great features and were worthy of a special place on our Tribune Weekend cover this year.

As we take this blast to the not-so-distant past, you may remember some of them too. If by any chance you don’t, we encourage you to log onto to www.tribune242.com to catch up on the great stories you missed out on this year. Hurry, before the calendar flips to 2023,

Real House Wives of Atlanta star Porsha Williams

Thanks to Bahamian fashion and lifestyle photographer Shawn Hanna who teamed with up Real Housewives of Atlanta television star Porsha Willaims we scored this photograph and story. Shawn teamed up with Porsha for the inclusive clothing collection featured on Amazon: The Drop.

The collaboration with Porsha Williams and Amazon’s The Drop is the photographer’s latest venture to grow his brand and appeal to Atlanta’s influencers and socialites.

The Drop - features limited edition fashion collections designed by global influencers.

This story was published in our Weekend Edition dated November, 18.

Bahamian photographer Stanley Babb

With each passing month more celebrities are being added to the portfolio of Bahamian photographer Stanley “Stanlo” Babb, whose brand is becoming well known in Hollywood for capturing romance at its height in some of the most picturesque locations around the world.

The South Florida-based photographer’s constant up-hill climb recently landed him an October feature in Essence Magazine, a popular international a publication with a focus on lifestyle fashion, beauty, entertainment, and culture.

We chose this photo because, come on, it’s not everyday people take photos with a giraffe poking its head through a window. It was a cool photo to say the least.

This story was published in our Weekend edition of October 28.

Bahaman musician Chavez Parker

The Bahamian musician accomplished a great feat this year when his song was chosen as the theme for world renowned producer and filmmaker Tyler Perry’s newest show “Zatima”.

Chavez created and produced the theme song for the show, which is a spinoff of Tyler Perry’s “Sistas” that follows Zac and Fatima as they take a huge step to strengthen their relationship.

Chavez currently resides in Atlanta, Georgia. He has worked as a recording engineer at multiple studios and as a freelance music producer for various projects ranging from albums to full documentaries.

The story was published in our Weekend edition of September 30.

Model & Reality TV star Jameson Strachan

As a newly minted reality star, winning the “Bobby I love You Purrr” dating show, the Bahamas model and former athlete has stars in his eyes. And rightly so. He told Tribune Weekend’s Alesha Cadet in a very colourful interview back in September about going viral and booking gigs with Naomi Campbell. He dreams of working with Beyonce and may start starring in future Marvel movie.

The story was published in our Weekend edition dated September 23.

Ashanti and Rob Thicke at Atlantis

It was one of the biggest concerts of the year when Atlantis Paradise Island booked both singer Ashanti and Robin Thicke to share the stage. Our Alesha Cadet covered this sold out and packed showcase that live up to its expectation and even featured an on-stage proposal by a Bahamian man to his lady.

This story was published in our Weekend edition dated July 22.

This is far from an exaustive list of all the great stories (not to toot our own horn) that we publish year-round. This is though all we can fit on the page for now.

From the Tribune Weekend team, we wish you a safe and Happy New Year!

Grammy award-winning performers

celebrity

The highs and lows of 2022 - and the slap heard around the world

By CARA HUNT | Tribune Features Writer | cbrennen@tribunemedia.net

What a rollercoaster ride 2022 has been.

As the world came alive following the lockdowns of a global pandemic, it seems there was no end to the concerts, parties and celebrity gossip that kept us entertained - and shocked - throughout the year.

This was certainly the year for celebrity babies and, yes, the majority of them had one dad - Nick Cannon, who has taken the biblical principles of go forth and multilpy to epic portions. The star welcomed four children this year and is poised to welcome another in 2023. He has 12 in total after losing son Zen last year.

Other celebs who gave birth included Diddy who welcomed daughter Love Sean Combs, and Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and his wife Brittany had a son Patrick.

Singer Rihanna had a son with boyfriend A$AP Rocky. Singer Nick Jonas and his wife Priyanka Chopra welcomed their daughter Malti Marie via surrogate.

The Khardashians added to their clan when Kylie Jenner and Travis Scott had a baby boy. Her sister Khloe and former partner Tristan welcomed their baby boy via surrogate.

It was also a big year for the movies. CODA won the Oscar for best picture, Jessica Chastain won best actress for The Eyes of Tammy Faye, Ariana DeBose was named best supporting actress for her role in the musical West Side Story and Troy Kostur took home the best supporting trophy for Coda. But it was the best actor winner Will Smith who was the talk of the award show and not for his performance in King Richard.

Nope, it was because of the slap felt around the world. The former Prince of Bel Air raced on stage and slapped Chris Rock after the host made a hair joke at the expense of Wil Smith’s wife Jada Pickett Smith.

This was truly a blockbuster year at the cinema with Top Gun: Maverick, Jurassic World: Dominion, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,

Minions: The Rise of Gru and Avatar: The Way of Water, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, The Batman, and Thor: Love and Thunder dominating the box office.

On the musical front, Silk Sonic’s “Leave The Door Open” won the Grammy for Song Of The Year and Jon Batiste’s ‘We Are’ won the Grammy For Album Of The Year.

Beyonce dropped her seventh studio album, Renaissance, and Taylor Swift dropped her album Midnights.

Celine Dion announced she was taking a break from music after being diagnosed with a rare neurological condition known as stiff-person syndrome.

One of the biggest court trials of 2022 was the defamation trial between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard.

They battled in court over an op-ed Heard wrote for The Washington Post in 2018, in which she described surviving domestic violence -- without mentioning Depp by name.

However, the Pirates of the Caribbean star claimed that her comments had a damning affect on his career and that she was in fact the abusive spouse. Amber countersued that her actions were ever only in self defence.

The jury awarded Depp $10m in compensatory damages and $5m in punitive damages in his defamation suit. The jury awarded Heard $2m in compensatory damages, but $0 in punitive damages.

Love came and went in 2022.

Reality TV star Porsha Williams, 41, and Simon Guobadia, 58 got married in November in a lavish two-part wedding. Empire star Gabourey Sidibe, 39, and her now husband Brandon Frankel, 37, secretly got hitched this year. Taylor Lautner and Taylor Dome also wed in November.

And love was 20 years in the making for Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez who tied the knot two decades after calling off their

SIDNEY Poitier receiving the medal of freedom from President Barack Obama

WAKANDA Forever

engagement and marrying other people.

Tia Mowry shocked fans when she announced her spilt from husband Cory Hardrict. Kim and Kayne’s divorce was finalised after Kayne staged an internet war on her ex Pete Davidson and Judaism.

Celebrity breakups included Toni Collette and Dave Galafassi, Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen, Cynthia Bailey and Mike Hill.

Other celebrity headlines included Elon Musk’s disastrous takeover of Twitter, the collapse of FTX right here on Bahamian soil, Brittany

Spears’ drama with her family and in reality TV, and the conviction of 19 Kids and Counting disgraced son Josh Duggar who was sentenced for downloading child pornography. Reality Stars Todd and Julie Chrisley were also convicted of bank fraud and tax evasion.

And of course in 2022, there were many goodbyes.

The Bahamas mourned the death of its Oscar-winning son of the soil, legendary actor Sir Sydney Poitier.

England led the world in mourning the death of its longest serving monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, who

this weekend in history

December 30

• In 1916, Grigori Rasputin was murdered by Russian conservatives—who reportedly

poisoned, shot, and then drowned the Siberian mystic—in an effort to halt his influence over Empress Alexandra and the royal family.

• In 1984, American basketball player LeBron James, who was one of the NBA’s superstars, was born.

December 31

• In 1999, the United States, in accordance with the TorrijosCarter Treaties, officially hands

died at the age of 96 after a reign of 70 years.

A quarter of a million people viewed her body lying in state in epic queues that snaked around the city. Her son, King Charles II, ascended to the throne upon her death, a few months before his son Harry and wife Meghan released a tell-all documentary about the Royal Family on Netflix.

Other celebs who passed this this year included rock superstars Meat Loaf and Christine Mcvie, singeractors Olivia Newton-John and Irene Cara, country stars Loretta Lynn and Naomi Judd, singer Aaron

over control of the Panama Canal, putting the strategic waterway into Panamanian hands for the first time.

• In 2019, the World Health Organization first learned of “viral pneumonia” cases in Wuhan, China; the disease was later determined to be COVID-19, which became a global pandemic the following year.

Carter, “Sesame Street” actors Bob McGrath and Emilio Delgado, rappers Coolio and Takeoff; Stephen Twitch Boss (the DJ on the Ellen Show), actors Angela Lansbury, Leslie Jordan, Tony Dow, Kirstie Alley, Nichelle Nichols and Robbie Coltrane, who played Hagrid in the Harry Potter series. And yesterday saw the death of soccer legend Pele, who lived long enough to see the completion of the World Cup, complete with victory for Lionel Messi, one of the few to contend with Pele for the title of the greatest footballer the world has ever seen.

• In 1863, Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation ProclamationThe proclamation declared “that all persons held as slaves” within the rebellious states “are, and henceforward shall be free”.

• In 1994, the North American Free Trade Agreement between Canada, the United States and Mexico removed most of the trade barriers between the three countries.

JOHNNY Depp and Amber Heard

THE SLAP heard around the world as Will Smith slaps Chris Rock

THE TRIBUNE’S supplement to mark the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

Sudoku is a number-placing puzzle based on a 9x9 grid with several given numbers. The object is to place the numbers 1 to 9 in the empty squares so the each row, each column and each 3x3 box contains the same number only once. The difficulty level of the Conceptis Sudoku increases from Monday to Sunday

Across

CRYPTIC PUZZLE

1 They avoid humiliation with visors (4-6)

6 Heroic tale in ‘The Pickwick Papers’ (4)

10 Manor transformed into a type of villa (5)

11 Performer appearing all bare in movement (9)

12 School of painting (3,5)

13 Claw that can pick up a pound in weight (5)

15 It contracts to continue one’s circulation (7)

17 Fruit gathered in fall (7)

19 It’s plain it was the place for ancient games (7)

21 One giving a talk - on the radio? (7)

22 Refuses to face about fifty charges (5)

24 Strikebreaker promises to pay for a plant (8)

27 Fears to be converted to traditional English food (5,4)

28 An animal or bird that runs from left to right (5)

29 Wild rose as a symbol of love (4)

30 A country unable to exercise self-control (10)

Down

1 Consolidated company (4)

2 Doesn’t like being snapped at? (6-3)

3 Describing a boom in restored icons (5)

4 Be all atremble yet brave it somehow (7)

5 Arrives in bundles (5,2)

7 A number after a new hip flask (5)

8 Secures rent for one of a group of shops (5,5)

9 Taken by those who are sick and tired of work? (4,4)

14 The police chief’s last resort (3,2,5)

16 It is brought in to resist on the other side (8)

18 Reconciliation officer who works behind the scenes? (6,3)

20 Harsh wind from south and east (7)

21 A bit that’s appropriate (7)

23 Uplifting holy books are an inspiration to poets (5)

25 Did little after I’d made the running (5)

26 Beg audibly for a victim (4)

Yesterday’s Easy Solution

Across: 1 Bulwark, 5 Basis, 8 In tatters, 9 Leg, 10 Soft, 12 Bestride, 14 Pariah, 15 Ferret, 17 Turncoat, 18 Onus, 21 Elm, 22 Fancy-free, 24 Total, 25 Renewal.

Down: 1 Bliss, 2 Lot, 3 Anti, 4 Keeper, 5 Besotted, 6 Soldier on, 7 Suggest, 11 Far from it, 13 Fanciful, 14 Patient, 16 Garner, 19 Swell, 20 Hymn, 23 Raw.

Yesterday’s Cryptic Solution

Across: 1 Returns, 5 Cover, 8 Situation, 9 Roc, 10 Nice, 12 Migraine, 14 Chides, 15 Across, 17 Unfetter, 18 Asti, 21 Spa, 22 Great Dane, 24 Linen, 25 Tadpole.

Down: 1 Resin, 2 Tot, 3 Rear, 4 Spirit, 5 Contract, 6 Verminous, 7 Rackets, 11 Chieftain, 13 Pentagon, 14 Counsel, 16 Defect, 19 Irene, 20 Stud, 23 Ado.

EASY PUZZLE

Make provision (4,3,3)

Landlocked SE Asian country (4)

Confess frankly (3,2)

Obsessively anxious (8)

Proficient (5)

In a huff (7)

A fishing boat (7)

To raise in rank (7)

Throw into confusion (7)

Hickory nut (5)

Estimate value of (8)

Restore to friendship (9)

Jack in cards (5)

Egyptian port (4)

Shrouded in secrecy (5,5)

Down 1 Game played on billiard-table (4) 2 Retribution (9) 3 Drunkard (5) 4 Worked up (7) 5 Fruit of plum genus (7) 7 Astound (5) 8 Consider valuable (3,5,2) 9 In the present age (8) 14 Resort to fighting (4,2,4) 16 Great desire (8) 18 State of southern US (9) 20 Prevarication (7) 21 Lessen greatly in quantity (7) 23 A recurrent round (5) 25 Crookedly (5) 26 Report of recent events (4)

Yesterday’s Sudoku Answer

3 Heaven, 4 Path, 5 Unusual, 6 Schismatic,

9 Discerning, 12 Shameful,

14 Traduce, 16 Call-up,

19 Omits, 20 User.

cAn you crack the Alphabeater? each grid number represents a letter – or black square. As in Alphapuzzle, every letter of the alphabet is used. But you have to complete the grid too! use the given letters and black squares below the grid to start. the grid is ‘rotationally symmetrical’ – in other words, it looks the same if you turn the page upside down. Solution tomorrow

targEt thE alphapuzzl across: Colour, (clue), Whine, Moor, Cynic, Looting, Befall. down: Sceptic, Snack, Outer, Shocked, Seaweed, Dozen, Onset, Wriggle.

kidNappEr

akin dank dark darken dike dirk drake drank drink inked irked kepi kidnap KIDNAPPER kind kinder kipped kipper knead naked nark narked park parked parkin peak perk perkin pike piked pink pinked prank prink prinked rake raked rank ranked rink

Yesterday’s Kakuro Answer

fashion

Nature’s design

By ALESHA CADET | Tribune Features Writer | acadet@tribunemedia.net

LACORY Noel and her family always had a natural talent in being creative. With her father being a carpenter, he made sure his daughters expressed their creative talents with their hands, and that they certainly did.

“When we would get some downtime, you can always find my father creating a new woodwork piece and myself either sewing or crocheting. And like most of us who had more than the usual downtime during the COVID-19 pandemic we decided to expand our art work into jewelry making,” said Lacory.

In an interview with Tribune Weekend, she spoke about her jewelry brand, Nature’s Design.

“We are a home-based business that has been growing a little under six months. In finding new ways to be creative and get into jewelry making, we looked at the natural resources we had around us and thought it would be an awesome idea to take what we have and make it into jewelry. With my younger nine-year-old sister Kaleah joining us in on the idea, she came up with the name of the company ‘Nature’s Design’ and it stuck ever since,” said Lacory.

She said joining together in this business allows herself and her family to have an additional source of income, all while combining their joy of creativity.

Currently, Nature’s Design offers retail customiwed jewelry in the variety of earrings, rings, necklaces and more items in the works. They also offer wholesale items that can be resold by the buyer.

“In the past six months, we have of actually made a dream a reality. By first making products to sell and wondering if they ever would - to seeing the collections my dad and I built and being almost sold out. We have appreciated the support of our valued customers,” said Lacory.

“Our most memorable client experience is with the experience from the owner of Craft Cottage here in Nassau where she bought a number of earrings from our ‘Bougainvillea Collection’ to showcase in her store. This brought us joy to see our once just ideas showcased in a store front.”

Speaking about the inspiration behind the designs, Lacory said it has to do a lot with her love for the outdoors.

“I myself am a beach lover and being at the beach, our ‘Seashell Collection’ inspired us to come up with a way to always have the beach with you and look fashionable while at it. Also, our yard is filled with Bougainvilleas like most others. Being outside and seeing all the vibrant colors inspired me and my dad to take those items and craft them in to our most popular ‘Bougainvillea Collection’,” she said.

Lacory said they take the most unlikely objects and craft them into amazing items that become the jewelry pieces that most people are starting to see and love.

“With making sure they are beautiful pieces we also try our best to make them resilient and sustainable for all wear forms. We just love to share what brings us joy with others and I hope that eventually our collections will be well known and we are able to come up with new out of the box ideas to one day having a store front displaying our products ourselves,” said Lacory.

Going forward, Lacory said the Nature’s Design team hopes to get more recognition for the brand while staying unique to who they are.

“We also want to attend and possibly host our own pop-up event to showcase our and other talent that is here in The Bahamas,” she said.

LACORY Noel

gardening

Holiday Gardening

Good day, gardeners. The Christmas and New Year’s long weekends this year both may allow some of us to spend a little more time in the garden, and it is a great time to reassess what is growing and what we will grow next. The first round of vegetable plants that we here at the nursery had put in the ground are well into their growing cycle. I see some of the folks that planted early have been harvesting some of the longer cycle crops such as cabbage.

Our cabbages are doing well but this is the time that we must keep an eye on them for the caterpillars. With the cool and wet weather that we have been having, also look out for snails and slugs as well as signs of caterpillars being around.

We were late in planting tomatoes this year, along with many other things that we normally grow. This year I have been pinching out the sucker growth more than usual to see how the yield compares to how I normally grow them, by leaving much of the sucker growth.

What is sucker growth? Suckers, as they are called, are the secondary branches that emerge from the individual nodes along the stem. What is a node? A node is the place on the main branch where an individual leaf grows from, and when the top growth is pinched, this encourages secondary branches to grow at the point where the leaf grows from the main stem.

Nodes are also important when it comes to propagation, but I will leave that for another day. While

allowing the secondary branching of a tomato plant to grow will promote a fuller and bushier plant, there are some that say that this leads to a less fruit and that the quality of the fruit is less than when the suckers are pinched out.

I am not convinced yet, except to say that it does make it easier to control the size of the plant and this becomes more valuable when tomatoes are grown in containers or when growing an indeterminate plant variety.

What is an indeterminate tomato plant? An indeterminate tomato plant is a variety that rambles and grows in a relatively uncontrolled manner, as compared to a bush variety, which are termed determinate, ie, determinate plants only grow to a relative certain height. Indeterminate tomato varieties typically require staking or alternate support such as a cage of sorts, to support and hold up the vining and rambling branches that indeterminate growing varieties will produce.

Watch for whitefly on all tomato plants. I’ve been noticing them hovering around for several days now on my plants, and I am waiting for a break in the weather before I can spray them to control the whitefly. Notice the use of the word “control”, rather than a word such as eradicate, or kill. In an outdoor setting, eradication and killing all pests is an impossible concept. There must be some tolerance for the presence of pests of all kinds, and particularly harder to control pests such as whitefly. I will only spray with non-toxic solutions such as neem oil or other oil sprays.

When I see people saying that neem oil didn’t work for them, the only answer that I can give is that

obviously it wasn’t done correctly. Please follow label directions and ensure a thorough coverage of spray on the underside of all the leaves of a plant, with a sprayer designed for the purpose.

Consistency is key. Never once have I had a pest control “not work”, regardless of what it was, if I followed the label directions. Is the target pest listed on the label? If so, there’s no such thing as “didn’t work” save for human error.

Neem is a contact spray and will only work when the target pest is contacted by the spray. I will only use contact sprays on edible crops, as I do not wish to ingest pesticides on homegrown produce. Contact spray vs systemics is also a topic for a later date. So, I hope that you can find time in the garden to grow something that can be consumed as food. Best wishes to you and yours for the coming new year, and I do hope that it was a healthy and happy Christmas for all. Get into the garden! As always, I wish you happy gardening.

• Adam Boorman is the nursery manager at Fox Hill Nursery on Bernard Road. You can contact him with any questions you may have, or topics you would like to see discussed, at gardening242@ gmail.com.

literary Lives - Leonard Woolf (1880-1969)

Who’s afraid of Leonard Woolf?

Leonard Woolf was a British political theorist, author, publisher and civil servant - but his fame is overshadowed by that of his wife, Virginia Woolf. SIR CHRISTOPHER

ONDAATJE revisits Woolf’s days in Ceylon.

“It was a strange world, a world of hope and brutal facts, of superstition, of grotesque imagination; a world of trees and the perpetual twilight of their shade; a world of hunger and fear and devils, where a man was helpless before the unseen and unintelligible powers surrounding him.”

Leonard Woolf - The Village in the Jungle

It is a sweltering hot, humid afternoon. There is not much wind. I am sitting here writing in a wildlife bungalow on the western perimeter of the Yala National Park overlooking Bandanarewa – a small reservoir only a few miles for Beddagama (which literally means village in the jungle) and the site of Leonard Woolf’s acclaimed masterpiece The Village in the Jungle, which was published in 1913 two years after the author had left Ceylon. Yala’s arid and sandy terrain is really of group of five Parks, covering almost four hundred square miles. It emerged from the reserve set up at the turn of the last century by British sportsmen interested in controlled hunting. Its first warden was Henry Engelbrecht who had come to Ceylon as a prisoner of war in 1905. Because he wouldn’t swear allegiance to the British Crown he was not allowed to return home – so he stayed on. Woolf described him as “hated”, “very stupid” and “completely without fear and without nerves”. He apparently had three local wives and numerous children. He wasn’t much liked.

Leonard Woolf was born in London in 1880 into a prominent and wealthy Jewish family. After a spirited five years at Trinity College, Cambridge where he established lasting friendships with young men like Lytton Strachey, EM Forster and John Maynard Keynes, he applied for the Civil Service expecting a position with the Home Office. However, with disappointing examination results, he was only offered a post overseas and he was sent out in 1904 to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) as a cadet in the Ceylon Civil Service – an appointed

group of white administrators who ruled the island.

Woolf disembarked in Colombo and spent two weeks at the Kachcheri (office) signing letters for the Colonial Secretary. He next set out to take up his first appointment as a Cadet in Jaffna, a province (one of nine) in the very north of the island. Jaffna, until recently the devastated stronghold of the Tamil Tigers (LTTE) in their battle for independence against the Sinhala-controlled island, was in those days an area of sandy austerity encompassing a peninsula that curved towards the southern tip of India. To get there, he traveled by train to Anuradhapura, and then by mail coach – “an ordinary bullock cart in which the mail bags lay on the floor and the passengers lay on the mail bags”. The last few miles to the Jaffna peninsula were again by train. A fierce blazing sun shone down on this flat unforgiving land populated almost exclusively (except for a few hundred Muslims) by the predominantly Hindu Tamils. Woolf spent two and a half years, from January 5, 1905, to August 29, 1907, attached to the Jaffna Kachcheri responsible to the Government Agent. He was then 24 years old and his letters back home (especially to Lytton Strachey) together with his autobiography Growing (1961) gave a comprehensive and frank expression of his thoughts, feelings, sentiments and recall of his time in Jaffna and indeed his entire seven years in Ceylon. He describes some of his own liabilities, one of which he believed was “the social defect which I have suffered from ever since I was a child”... namely that he was mentally and physically a coward. The white community in Jaffna when Woolf arrived there, consisted of a dozen Government officers, some ten missionaries, and an ex-army officer “with an appalling wife and an appalling son”. Woolf developed an outspoken, confident and almost arrogant attitude. Nevertheless, with his superior Agent away attending to municipal responsibilities, Woolf was often in charge of the entire province. In a letter to Strachey, he laments “but there is nothing to say to you, nothing to tell you of except ‘events’. I neither read nor think nor – in the old way – feel”. Of these events Woolf mentions the loss of his virginity to a “Burgher” girl. He developed typhoid; was sent to Bandarawela to convalesce; and later suffered from chronic malaria. He learned Tamil first

LEONARD Woolf

during his stay in Jaffna and Sinhala later after he was promoted and sent to Kandy on August 19, 1907.

As soon as Woolf got to Kandy, he realised he had entered into an entirely new world – very different from the “flat, dry, hot low country with a very small rainfall which comes mainly in a month or so of the north-east monsoon.” Kandy was then a town of 30,000 inhabitants and unlike Jaffna, was “full of white men”. There was an air of European Cosmopolitanism, which to Woolf was extremely distasteful, and it did a great deal to complete Woolf’s education as an anti-imperialist. The climate of course was a great deal better than Jaffna - being “hill country” and more than 1500 feet above sea level – a “beauty spot” easily accessible from Colombo. Woolf’s sister Bella came out at the end of 1907 to stay with him – and she stayed until he was transferred to Hambantota in August 1908. This made a great deal of difference to Woolf’s life in Kandy. Woolf played tennis, squash and hockey, and his day usually ended at the Kandy Club – “a symbol and centre of British imperialism”. Perhaps the most exalted social responsibility of Woolf during his stay in Kandy was entertaining the ex-Empress Eugenie of France showing her the Dalada Maliyana which housed, as it does today, Buddha’s tooth – one of

the most sacred of Buddhist relics. Hosting Sir Hugh Clifford, the Colonial Secretary, to escort the Empress; and then later organising an evening of Kandyan dancing at the King’s Pavilion somehow impressed Clifford enough to influence his appointment as Assistant Government Agent in Hambantota sometime later. Certainly the most unpleasant work Woolf had to do in Kandy, and indeed everywhere in Ceylon, had to do with prisons. One of his duties was to be present in a prison when anyone was flogged or hanged, and to certify that the sentence had been carried out. “The flogging of a man with a cat-o-nine tails is the most disgusting and barbarous thing I have ever seen – it is worse than a hanging.” Woolf was repulsed by capital punishment. Although he believed that law and order should be strictly maintained Woolf believed that much of British criminal law was an uncivilised method of punishing and deterring crime.

Woolf’s efficiency and organisational abilities after only a year in the post of Office Assistant in Kandy convinced the Colonial Secretary, Sir Hugh Clifford, that he should recommend Woolf as Assistant Government Agent in Hambantota – the youngest AGA in the British Civil Service.

Woolf arrived in Hambantota as AGA and took over from his predecessor on Friday, August 28, 1908. He eventually left it on leave for England on Saturday, May 20, 1911. It was the third and final phase of Woolf’s stint as a British Civil Servant. Long before this he had almost given up his weekly letters to Lytton Strachey. The Hambantota district was a 1000 square mile hot, dry, malarial area bounded on the south by the sea in

VIRGINIA and Leonard Woolf

LEONARD Woolf during his time in Ceylon

LEONARD Woolf and his dog Charles in Jaffna

A BUST of Leonard Woolf at Monk’s House in England

the south-eastern corner of Ceylon. Again it was different from the comfortable hill country climate of Kandy and the uncomfortable arid unprotected Jaffna peninsula. It was almost entirely a jungle area and had a population of about 100,000. He was given the Residency in Hambantota to live in on a high promontory jutting out to sea overlooking the harbour “with walls of astonishing thickness and an enormously broad verandah and vast high rooms”. I know the Residency well. It is very near the Hambantota rest-house and only about 20 miles from where I am sitting today in Yala. I have spent many hours at night listening to the unique smacking sound that the sea made

as its waves rose and fell on the beautiful curved beach below us. It made the same impression on Woolf.

“All year round day and night, if you looked down that long two-mile line of sea and sand, you would see, unless it was very rough, continually at regular intervals a wave, not very high but unbroken two miles long, lift itself up very slowly, wearily, prise itself, for a moment in sudden complete silence and then fall with a great thud upon the sand. The moment of complete silence followed by the great thud, the thunder of the wave, became part of the rhythm of my life.”

There were no other Europeans in the town. Working 16 hours a day and being responsible for salt and rice production, education, combating cattle disease, judging local disputes, and looking after visiting dignitaries, Woolf made the area the most efficiently governed in the country. He was tireless and spent his almost three years in the district riding his horse, walking, traveling in a bullock car and bicycling over the entire area; his severe administrative work ethic did not always make him popular but he achieved results and enormous respect. Woolf also, although he detested big-game hunting, developed a fascination for the wildlife in the area and for the jungle. Sometimes alone but often with Henry Engelbrecht, he experience some alarming encounters in the Magampattu jungle very near here, once literally digging out a wounded leopard from a cave which Woolf luckily shot at point blank range when it charged. A terrifying experience.

Every AGA in the island was required to keep a daily diary of his work. Woolf’s diaries with a long erudite introduction were published in 1962. His working day is documented in detail. Being an inveterate letter writer nearly all other of Woolf’s experiences in Ceylon are thankfully preserved in 125 letters, edited by Frederic Spotts, published in 1989. Most of these, and by far the most outspoken, are those written to Lytton Strachey. Other revealing correspondence was to Saxon Sydney-Turner, RC Trevelyan, GE Moore, Desmond McCarthy and John Maynard Keynes. This correspondence was an obvious emotional lifeline for Woolf and it is unfortunate that letters to his family have been lost as they may have revealed something other than the political and geographical issues of which he wrote to his Cambridge associates.

Apart from these letters, his diary, and three short stories published in approximately 1920 under the title Stories of the East, only the masterfully empathetic The Village in the Jungle (which many believe had an authenticity unequaled even in works by Conran and Forster), remained of Leonard Woolf’s writings in Ceylon. This was until his autobiography Growing was published in 1961 when he was 80 years old. In Growing, Woolf tells the complete story of his seven years as a civil servant in Ceylon, and it is obvious that he applied the same method to the towns and jungles as he did to the Sinhalese and Tamils, and to the strange Anglo-Ceylon society into which he was plunged when he was twentyfour years old. Today, almost a century later, it presents a vivid picture of a curious way of life which has already disappeared.

• Sir Christopher Ondaatje is the author of The Last Colonial. He acknowledges that he has quoted liberally from Wikipedia; Call Me Lucky (1953) by Bing Crosby; Bing: The Authorized Biography (1975) by Bing Crosby with Charles Thompson; Bing Crosby: A Pocketful of Dreams (2001) by Gary Giddins; and Bing Crosby: Through the Years (2012) by James Fisher.

GOVERNMENT agent Nissanka Wijeyeratne with Leonard Woolf in 1960 at Abhayagiri vihāra, Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka

history

PAUL C ARANHA FORGOTTEN FACTS

sick, so I stayed home.”

Cockroach nebber drunk enough to cross fowl yard. Don’t open your mouth till your brain in gear.

Fisherman nebber say he fish stink.

If ya can’t fish, ya better cut bait.

If ya can’t cut bait, get off the boat.

If yer talk da talk, yer better walk da walk. This can also be said the other way around.

Nebber mind da noise in da market, only mind da price of da fish Not every ting for tell doctor. Shut mouth catch no fly. Spider and fly no make bargain.

Tief tief from tief make God smile (When a thief, thieves (steals) from another thief, God smiles.)

Time longer dan rope

When ya point ya finger at someone, ya pointin 3 fingers at yerself.

Why buy cow, when milk so cheap? You can lead horse to water, but you cant make him drink.

You catch more flies with honey, than with vinegar.

You tink you got me fer poppy (puppet) show

If yer talk da talk, yer better walk da walk. (This can also be said the other way around.)

If you would like to know more about the way Bahamians express ourselves, I recommend you read Patricia Glinton-Meicholas’ book “Talkin’ Bahamian”.

• For questions and comments, please send an e-mail to islandairman@gmail.com

PROVERBS

Aproverb is a brief and popular saying, generally in the form of a phrase, used to illustrate a specific point.

“If crab no walk…” is a proverb that I wrote about in November. It brought me many messages, for which I thank the numerous writers. This proverb, with a variety of endings, is used throughout the West Indies, as well as in the Bahamas.

Jamaicans say “Crab no walk, crab no get fat; if him walk too much, him lose him claw”. Translated, it means that if a crab stays in one place, it finds no food, going on to say that it loses its claw - a warning that If you don’t seek out opportunities you

won’t be successful and might end up in trouble.

Exuma: “If crab no walk, he don’t get fat” is a Bahamian proverb, meaning that you have to stir yourself to get ahead.

New Providence: “Crab no walk, crab no get fat.”

Bahamians use many “international” proverbs, but the following examples are believed to be “true, true” Bahamian expressions. Michal Craton and I once talked about Bahamian proverbs and came up with several of the following, most of which are self-explanatory.

Blood ticker dan water – meaning that family relationships are stronger than other relationships. “I had a party to attend, but my Granny was

Animal matters

Kim Aranha

A time to pause

As we get ready for tomorrow and the new year, it is a good time to pause and reflect on more than just Junkanoo! It is wonderful that life is returning to normal and that we are able to enjoy and celebrate the way we were used to!

New Year gives us a chance to look back at the good and bad things that have happened - and even more so, to right the wrongs and improve what we have done.

This is a wonderful time to add new things to our daily lives and remove others - making more time for important issues and prioritising is one of my big resolutions.

It is so easy to get caught up with small inconsequential details that in the big picture don’t matter.

In the animal world, there are so many steps that need to be made to improve the overall situation for animals in the Bahamas.

Awareness is paramount, it is too easy to put the plight of the homeless animal out of mind. You pass a stray dog, skin and bones, no fur, on his last legs, you keep going and do not give him a second thought. Back in April 2022, a lady was driving to work. She passed a very sick, dirty white, dejected looking pit bull. She could not stop, she could not help him psychically, but she didn’t just ignore him. She contacted me, she took photos of where he was, she cared enough to go that extra mile. I, in turn, sent the Bahamas Humane Society ambulance to find him. The rest is history: White Boy flew to New York by private jet and now has an amazing home in New York state. All because that lady bothered to help. It didn’t cost her anything more than a message and two snap shots! We are eternally grateful to her for caring sufficiently to go that extra mile. White Boy was very near to death, she undoubtedly saved his life, he was only 18 months old, and thanks to one caring gesture will live to enjoy a long and happy life!

I would be remiss to not mention the amazing donors who have kept the

Bahamas Humane Society open over the past 12 months. Fine and generous individuals have stepped forward and donated funds to enable us to pay the remarkable team who, day in and day out, run our shelter.

I believe that when people think of the Bahamas Humane Society shelter they do not remember that every animal has to be cleaned up after, they have to be fed, vet care administered, and constantly monitored, water bowls get knocked over, they have to be refilled! Our team repeat the same thing over and over again just to keep all the dogs and cats in residence healthy! Our kennel staff, the unsung heros, the

glue that keeps it all together. There is so much more to a shelter than just fluffy pups and kittens looking for homes.

The ultimate goal is to home every animal in residences, whilst they await those homes our duty is to keep them safe, healthy and as happy as any animal can be in a shelter.

We hope and pray that 2023 will bring more awareness: we need more donations, more volunteers, more people to spay and neuter their peat, more people to keep their pets on their property.

Our corporate donors have been absolutely amazing, generous to a fault,

regularly donating food, items, and desperately needed assistance.

I have not listed names because of the fear of leaving someone out. It is amazing how many people do care, but we need more, we need the general population on board and to be aware of the need for responsible animal ownership.

Kindness speaks volumes - kindness to animals should be a natural emotion, cruelty to animals invariably leads to spousal violence, abuse towards children and the elderly. We must never loose sight of the correlation between animal abuse and abusive family relations.

The beauty of our country hides some ugly little secrets as far as our treatment to animals, domesticated and wildlife. Our dismissive attitude of things we find difficult to face resolves nothing. The Bahamas Humane Society can only do so much, we need the involvement of the citizens of the country, the involvement of churches and schools.

It will take more than a village to change things, it will take a nation.

I invite each and every person to accept my challenge to make a difference in 2023. Step up and speak out.

PHOTOS BY STEPH HICKMAN.

If you wish to become part of the solution, please contact me or Percy Grant at the Bahamas Humane Society.

Remember that if you are not part of the solution it is very likely that you are part of the problem.

Happy new year to you and your pets. Protect your dogs from fireworks. Secure them indoors before you go out, please… your first step at being part of the solution!

Happy Holidays

from the staff of the Bahamas Humane Society!

Thank you to all who have supported us through the year - donating (funds, food, items for the shelter, items for the Thrift Shop), volunteering, adopting, educating, shopping at the Thrift Shop, and so much more. All the best for 2023!

If you can’t adopt, foster. If you can’t foster, volunteer. If you can’t volunteer, donate. If you can’t donate, educate! Help make a difference!