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Vol 1. No 3 May 2007

Indo-Caribbean

TIMESTIMESIndo-Caribbeansmark 99th year inCanada in 2007

Kenneth Mahabir arrivedlong ago in Halifax in 1908

President of the Guyana Trades UnionCongress (GTUC), Lincoln Lewis, has crit-icised political parties for their failure to ad-dress the pressing issues affecting theAfrican-Guyanese community. Two hundred years after the abolition of

the slave trade, Lewis said, Africans are stillstruggling to be treated as equals. Lewis made this disclosure during a con-ference, which was organised by the GTUCand included members of the African-Guyanese community and members of thepolitical opposition. The conference was held to explore the

progress made by African-Guyanese sincethe abolition of the slave trade. “We are second class citizens in a land ourfore parents built with their blood, sweatand tears. We are still struggling for ourrights to identity, expression, association,self determination and advancement,”Lewis lamented.

He said that Africans are being told thatthey are wrong to vote for the party/par-ties of their choice, that they are racistwhen they align with self and demandtheir rights to representation, equality andjustice. However, he noted that Guyana 's polit-

ical history and reality are of race-basedparties with each party having sprinklingsof other races. Lewis posited that the 2006 elections

confirmed that there are two African-based parties- the People's National Con-gress and the Alliance for Change.He said that the extent to which they arerepresenting the African community con-tinues to be troubling.

(CONTINUED ON PAGE 3)SEE REPLIES TO LEWIS ON PAGE 4 AND PAGE 7.

KENNETH Grant Mahabir, who arrivedin 1908 at Dalhousie University, Nova Sco-tia to study medicine, is the earliest knownIndo-Caribbean to come to Canada, andmaybe the first Indo-Trinidadian to gradu-ate as a medical doctor in Canada.Young Kenneth, born in 1890 in San Fer-nando, came to Canada when he was 18,and was reportedly a brilliant student atDalhousie. Soon after graduating in 1912 asa doctor, he enlisted in the army whenWorld War 1 broke out in 1914. He servedas a major in the Royal Army MedicalCorps, spending time in the battlefields ofEurope.

(SEE SOUTH ASIAN HERITAGE ONPAGE 9)

May is South Asian Heritage Month

Young achiever:Musician andsinger RandyMahadeoPage 11

Why I left Guyanato come to CanadaBy Roop Misir

Page 19

PPP accused of economic genocide onAfrican-Guyanese “second class citizens in a land our foreparentsbuilt with their blood” says trade union leader

Panday dominates Trinidad-political news Page 5

Profile: Indo Caribbean Cul-tural Society of B.C. Page 11

Chanderpaul is the newWest Indies cricket captainPage 22

Another kidnap horror story Page 10

The Aishwariya Rai and Abhishek Bachan wedding in India Bollywood royalty tie the knot in the “wedding of the century”

More pictures on Page 12

One million South Asians in Canada cel-ebrate South Asian Heritage Month thisMay. They mark the 110th anniversary ofthe coming of Indians to Canada, whichhappened in 1897.Punjabi soldiers in the British Army who

had gone to England for Queen Victoria’sDiamong Jubilee, passed through Canadaon their way back home. They were spe-cially impressed with British Columbia anddecided that some would return to begin theIndian presence in Canada.

The 200,000 Indo-Caribbeans in Canadagladly acknowledge the coming of the In-dians from India in 1897, but we havesomething special to celebrate too. This isthe 99th year since young Kenneth Mahabirfrom Trinidad arrived in Halifax by boat indistant 1908. He is believed to be the firstIndo-Caribbean person to become a resi-dent of Canada. Since that time, many others have fol-

lowed, from Guyana, Suriname, Grenada,St Lucia, St Vincent, Martinique, Guade-loupe, Jamaica, and Belize. They havespread out through every province and ter-ritory in Canada, with the biggest group ofaround 150,000 concentrated in the GreaterToronto Area and Southern Ontario.With dozens of temples, churches and

mosques, numerous organizations and hun-dreds of businesses behind us, Indo-Caribbeans have said we are here to stay.(CONTINUED ON PAGE 9)

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Hong Kong Regiment visiting Vancouver,enroute from London, England where theyhad celebrated Queen Victoria's DiamondJubilee in 1897. Some stayed and otherslater returned and remained in Canada.

FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK Indo-Caribbean Times May 2007 Page 2

Many of us Indo-Caribbeans in Canadahave been looking atthe coming electionsin Trinidad with moreattention than we nor-mally pay to our own

elections in Canada. We are not asworried about the Ontario electionsdue this year, or Canadian electionsthat could come any time, than weare about the Trinidad elections alsodue this year. We have good reasonsfor that.Many people don't vote in Cana-

dian elections because Canadianelections don't really change theirlives. Things continue in very muchthis same way no matter which partyis elected.It's not the same in Trinidad. Gen-eral elections are a life and death,prosperity or misery, stay or leavethe country issue for entire groupsof people like the Indians and theAfricans. Just look at what hap-pened to them both when the UNCleft office and the PNM took over.My interest in the 2007 elections

is mostly in the fate of my Indianbrothers and sisters I left behind

when I came up to Canada 18 yearsago. Quite frankly, it doesn't lookgood for them. All the signs arethere for another crushing victory bythe mostly African backed rulingPeople's National Movement overthe Indian community split betweenand the United National Congressand the Congress of the People.It's all very simple mathematics.

The PNM has massive support ofmore than 90% of the Africans andthe mixed race group and can counton the votes of at least 15% of theIndians. The UNC has a partial share, no-

body knows exactly how much, ofthe Indian voters, and less than 5%of the Africans and the mixed racegroup. The Congress of the Peoplehas a partial share, probably lessthan the UNC, of the Indian voters,and also only a tiny slice of theAfricans and the mixed-race group.If it sounds like I'm confusing poli-tics with race, it's only because pol-itics in Trinidad is all about race andnothing else.So if things continue as they are

today, the PNM will win the elec-tions with ease, and run the govern-

ment for another five years. Thou-sands of Indians will probably de-cide to run away from Trinidadbecause they can't stand the barelydisguised racism of the PNM gov-ernment, the discrimination, and theincompetence that comes with thepackage. They can't take the crime,the kidnapping, the high prices, thelack of basic resources like waterand affordable food.That would be a tragedy for Indi-

ans who decide to leave. Theywould becomes exiles like theGuyanese or Fijian Indians, forcedto flee the land of their birth. Theywould become us, who left Trinidadbecause we did not see a bettter-future for ourselves in the land ofour birth.So what message can we send

from Canada to the UNC, COP andthe Indian community in Trinidad?It's just this. A house divided cannotstand. You have to get your act to-gether or the PNM will roll over youlike an express train.The UNC in its present condition

cannot beat the PNM. Neither canthe COP. Even the two of themunited are not a guarantee to beat the

PNM. But together they have achance. They owe it to the Indiancommunity to give them thatchance.I know a dozen people will jump

up to tell me why the UNC and COPcan't get together to oppose thePNM. I don't want to hear it. I don'twant explanations, excuses orapologies. They have got them-selves in this mess and they have toget themselves out of it.I am not going to tell them how todo it because I don't know. I’ve beenliving in Canada, but I maintain adeep interest in my people inTrinidad.Politican unity in Trinidad is not

my horse to ride, but I can tell theUNC and COP that if they don't geton the horse together they are bothheading for a hard fall. And theywill be taking the Indian communityin Trinidad with them.So I say again, the fate of Indians

in Trinidad for the next five yearsrests in the hands of the UNC andCOP. Do what you have to do to pre-vent Indians from rotting in a PNMjail until 2012.

Unite or suffer under PNM is only choice in TT

Ram Jagessar

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COMMUNITY NEWS Indo-Caribbean Times May 2007 Page 3

PPP accused of economic genocide (Continued from Page 1)

“ It is public knowledge the African community's disappointment with these two par-

ties in standing up and speaking forthrightly on Black issues. In other parts of the world, like the USA and South Africa , the issues and rights of raceare frontally discussed. Yet in this the 21st century in Guyana we are refusing to honestlyacknowledge the race factor, or to put in place mechanisms to ensure the equality andrights of all races,” Lewis told the gathering which included the AFC's 2006 PresidentialCandidate Raphael Trotman and PNCR Leader Robert Corbin. “We do not ask you to ignore your other constituents. What we have been asking is thatyou pay attention to the gravity of our situation,” Lewis said. He noted that in the US , England and other developed nations, Black leaders representAfrican issues from various platforms. Lewis gave the example of William Lucy, an African who is the International SecretaryTreasurer of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AF-SCME), one of the largest unions in the US . He is the highest ranking African American in the USA labour movement, founder and

president of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU), which body represents andarticulates the interests of the African community by establishing linkages with leaders atthe federal, state and local levels. “We have to represent our interests for it is naïve of us to expect other groups to initiateour programme of empowerment. But we expect them to be decent citizens and hold anygovernment accountable for acts of destruction against its citizens. “To do so would be a noble human rights task…We invite rights' activists and advocatesto be part of the solution for we cannot develop our beautiful country with half of its pop-ulation oppressed and the majority in poverty as we keep afloat with narco-economic,narco-politics and narco-security,” Lewis stated. On the business front, Lewis pointed out that the present regime has adopted a strategy

to ignore the retooling and optimizing of any industry in the African community, prefer-ring to let that industry fail. “Millions are found to optimise the performance of the sugar industry, on the Skeldon

Sugar Project and modernizing of Enmore factory, to name a few in a predominantly In-dian-centered labour force. “The government deliberately destroyed the bauxite industry's pension plan, the largestsingle pool of money ever owned by Africans in this country,” Lewis stated. Compound-ing the situation, he said that while this is done the government instructs Guyana SugarCorporation (GUYSUCO) to find money to sustain the sugar industry's pension fund inorder to protect the pension of a predominantly Indian work force. “Even the little that we have is being forcefully taken from us. This is a process of eco-nomic deprivation, of subjugation, of control, of enslavement and ultimately destruction.This is economic genocide,” Lewis claimed. He also pointed to the criminalisation and demonisation of Africans in Guyana and the

incarceration of Mark Benschop who is in prison awaiting a second trial for treason. Lewisalso expressed dissatisfaction that Commissioner of Police and his team cannot identifyeven one suspect in the execution-style murder of Ronald Waddell. The GTUC president also called on the elected members to consult with him from timeto time and anchor their presentation in parliament, based on issues that have direct ben-efits to communities. The museum, which is bound to attract visitors from across Canadaand the U.S., will act as a cultural bridge, said Opposition Leader John Tory."I think it will address what I think will be one of our biggest challenges that we still haveas a society namely improving our understanding of each other."As tourists come to visit, not only will they enrich our economy...but they too will learnabout and join us in celebrating the diversity we have in Ontario."

"I think it will address what I thinkwill be one of our biggest challenges thatwe still have as a society namely improv-ing our understanding of each other."As tourists come to visit, not only will

they enrich our economy...but they toowill learn about and join us in celebratingthe diversity we have in Ontario."Being able to build such an edifice marksa coming of age for the Indo-Canadiancommunity, said Patel."Initially as immigrants, you are focused

on settling down, doing a balancing act oftrying to fit in while preserving your her-itage."As the community has prospered and es-

tablished itself, now is the time to think ofour legacy. And that's what this is allabout."The museum joins a very short list of in-stitutions with exhbits on Indo-Canadians,which includes the Canadian Museum ofHindu Civilization in Richmond Hil, theRoyal Ontario Museum and the Matsqui-Sumas- Abbotsford Museum Society inAbbotsford, British Columbia.There is as yet no museum in Canada thatfocuses on the 200,000 Indo-Caribbeanswho have a 99 year history of settlement inthis country.

TT 50 Plus & Seniors Executive Ready for Year 12Farouk Hydal has been re-elected to lead the Trinidad and Tobago 50 Plus and Seniors As-sociation into their 12 year of existence. Elections took place at the Birkdale CommunityCentre in Scarborough. Executive members in the picture above are, seated front row,from the left, Secretary Indra Mohammed, Assistant Secretary Monica Edoo, TrusteeYolanda Russell. Back row standing, from left, are Director Shazak Ali, PRO and FounderRasheed Sultan-Khan, Second Vice President Anthony Mohammed, Vice President SteveKhan, President Farouk Hydal, Treasurer Frank Taylor, Director Joseph Chadwick andTrustee Clyde Gill.

(TORONTO STAR)

Slated to open this July, the $25 million1,800-square-metre museum is designed toshowcase and preserve the heritage ofnearly one million Canadians who tracetheir roots to the Indian subcontinent.Located on a 7-hectare site just off of

Highway 427 and Finch Ave., the museumis part of the Swaminarayan complex,which includes a Hindu temple and Haveli(meeting hall).Construction of the museum, which beganin April 2005, is based on Vedic engineer-ing principles, without using steel or nails,said Naresh Roy Patel, a trustee of the com-plex.The museum will include exhibits on the

contributions of Indian civilization to theworld in such areas as science, mathemat-ics, medicine, art and language.It will also serve to chronicle the history

and the migration of the Indian Diaspora toCanada via Africa, the Caribbean and Fiji.The aim is to educate the broader Cana-

dian society, as well as enhance a sense ofpride in Indo-Canadians in their heritage,said Patel."This is the new Canada," said provincialImmigration Minister Mike Colle, one ofseveral guests at a recent tour of thesite."This is what is so special aboutCanada because where else in the worldwould you have the introduction of a civi-lization that goes back 10,000 years...thatwe as Canadians of all walks of life willforever be grateful for." The museum, which is bound to attract

visitors from across Canada and the U.S.,will act as a cultural bridge, said Opposi-tion Leader John Tory.

Swaminarayan Temple in Torontoto open Indo Canadian MuseumDiaspora Indians from Caribbean, Fiji to be included

Swaminarayan Temple in Toronto

SOUTH ASIAN HERITAGE MONTH 2007

The Indo-Caribbean Times &IndoCaribbeanHeritage.com

invite you to

�� Celebrate 99 years of Indo-Caribbean presence and heritage in Canada

�� Launch the indocaribbeanheritage.com community web site

Sunday May 27, 2007 From 4.30 p.m.

Venue: To be announced

Indian Cutural program Stories of early Indo-Caribbeans in Canada

Buffet available

Admission freeDonation welcomed

Contact: Ram at 416-289-3898, Reynold at 416-540-0192

IInnddoo--CCaarriibbbbeeaann TTiimmeess is pub-lished monthly in Toronto byIndo-Caribbean Times Ltd.EEddiittoorr//PPuubblliisshheerr:: Ram JagessarEEddiittoorriiaall CCoommmmiitttteeee::Reynold Ramdial, Gulcharan Mo-habir, Lloyd Harradan, SandyKissoonsingh, Roop Misir, DeorajNarine, Jiantee Jagessar,KrishnaNankissoor, Rudy LochanOOfffificcee: 17 Gaiety Drive, Toronto ON Canada M1H 1B9TTeell:: 416-289-3898EE--MMaaiill: ictimes@rogers.com

Opinions given in this newspaperare those of the authors and donot necessarily reflect the viewsof the Indo-Caribbean Times.

We welcome letters, e-mails andcomments on matters relevant toIndo-Caribbeans. All contentmust comply with the require-ments of Canadian law

Come on Indianmen, stand andfight for what isyours!Dear Editor,

I must thank you and commend you onyour strong voice on what is happening inTrinidad, to the Indian community inTrinidad. The funny thing about this wholesituation is all the Indo- Caribbean peopleare thinking the same thing. But the Indianpeople there seem to be oblivious of what ishappening to them. Why aren’t the Indian men and Indian

community doing some thing about what ishappening to them there? Why don't theystand together strong and proud and fightfor their very existence in Trinidad? I visit Trinidad almost every 3 months andall the men there are concerned about is"rum and where is the next lime." They areliving demon lifestyle, this is the truth. They are forgetting where they came

from, how hard our ancestors worked tomake Trinidad the country it WAS and canstill be. Every time I go there I see the dras-tic changes in the Indian community, all thevalues, morals, culture and knowledge tolive as one human community in a society,all going down the drain. The Indian community is living like

demons and they are allowing the blackcommunity to walk on them and destroythem. What happened to equality in theeyes of god and in the law, is that just forthe black community? Does the Indiancommunity think they are not worthy of liv-ing in peace and security in their ownhomes? Come on, Indian men, stand and fight forwhat is rightfully yours. I am a proud 24year old Indian woman from Trinidad and Ibelieve that if the Hindus and Indian com-munity stand together there isn't a force in

Trinidad that can shake us. Stop allowing,yes, we are the ones allowing this to hap-pen. Trinidad is very precious to me and like

most Indo-Caribbeans I know the value ofjust visiting there if just for 2 weeks, the joyand feeling of being HOME. But our ownpeople there see us as outsiders just watch-ing from a distance. They don't know thedeep sense of loss and helplessness we feelwhen we hear and see what is happening inTrinidad. How sad to see all the good thatonce existed in Trinidad being destroyed bya few men in black clothes. Please, editor, keep informing us Indo-

Caribbean people of the truth and it is timethat we do something to help our Indianpeople in Trinidad, not just talk about it.

THANK YOU K.S

Guyana school seeks teachersThe Editor,Saraswati Vidya Niketan (SVN) estab-

lished five years ago is already one of thetop four secondary schools in Guyana. Tobe able to continue this brilliant traditionand to avert a possible crisis we are nowlooking for teachers, people with a mis-sionary zeal with a comittment to furtherHindu education.We are completely autonomous. The

government of Guyana has no hand in ouraffairs.We are looking for teachers to prepare stu-dents for CSEC, GSCE, CAPE, A-levels.The academic areas are: English Lan-

guage, English Literature, Caribbean His-tory, Social Studies, InformationTechnology, Physics, Chemistry, Biology.Persons with a frst degree, diploma in ed-ucation, retired teachers, persons trained atthe teachers training college etc are wel-come to enquire.

Swami Aksharananda swami_aksharananda@hotmail.com

The statement by Guyanese trade unionleader Lincoln Lewis about economic geno-cide against black people is nothing morethan so much garbage and historical lies. But I have to reply to this sick nonsense

if only because so many black people inGuyana believe this sick nonsense. Theyare the ones who have the gall to call Indo-Guyanese ‘tenants’ in a country owned byblack people. They are the ones who sup-ported the racist dictator Burnham when hestole Guyana through crooked elections andinflicted over 25 years of economic and eth-nic genocide against Indians in the countrythat we built. They were the ones who sup-ported Burnham when he made Indians sec-ond class citizens, when he made Guyanathe second poorest country in the hemi-sphere. The hundreds of thousands of Indo-Guyanese in the USA, Canada, andEngland are there because of the racisttreatment they received from people likeLincoln Lewis and his black supporters.Let’s set the record right. Did Lewis’

black foreparents build Guyana with theirblood, sweat and tears? No sir. The blackslaves helped build the old slave labourGuyana, the old slave sugar plantationGuyana. That Guyana collapsed and diedwhen the slaves were freed in 1834.Guyana as a country was basically dead

on its feet when Indians were brought infrom 1838 to save the economy. They didit magnificently. It was Indians who built

modern Guyana with their blood, sweat,tears, cutlasses and grass knives. We don’tsay we own Guyana, but ‘tenants’ we arenot.Indians were the ones who were made

second class citizens by Burnham, his manLewis and his black supporters in the PNC.It was we who couldn’t get jobs, places inthe university, who couldn’t get dhal andrice to eat, and fair elections to vote in.Meanwhile Burnham emptied the treasuryover the heads of his black supporters likeLewis. They got the good government jobsthe special food supplies, the places in theuniversity, the houses. Burnham made themfirst class citizens, and many of them stillhave those good jobs and priveleged placesin the country. Is the PPP depriving and subjugating the

African-Guyanese and denying them anequal place? Absolutely not. What the PPPgovernment has been doing for the last 15years is not giving the blacks the lion’sshare of the resources they had enjoyedsince the sixties. The PPP has been tryingto give the Indians and the Africans equalshares. People like Lincoln Lewis don’t likethe message that they have to earn theirshare. They have to work for it, instead ofgetting it handed to them because of theirrace or party card. They’re getting what wewant, which is a fair chance. Welcome tothe 21st century, Lewis & Co.Jewan Lall, Toronto

Letters

COMMENTARY Indo-Caribbean Times MAY 2007 Page 4

A Reply to ‘Economic Genocide’ charge against the PPPIt’s Indians who built modern Guyana

By Nalini Mohabir

More than fifty years have passed withbarely a mention of an important momentin Guyanese history. On September 41955, the M.V. Resurgent sailed fromGeorgetown to Calcutta, the last officialship to return ex-indentured labourersfrom the Caribbean back to India. Returnships often made more than one stop inthe colonies before going back to India,but on this last voyage, although Suri-name, Trinidad and Jamaica were asked tojoin the ship, no other government ex-pressed an interest in return. Even for the vast majority who had

made Guyana their home, the last returncaptured the popular imagination. Twothousand people travelled from across thecountry and gathered in and around Spros-tons' No.1 Wharf and the Dharm Shala inGeorgetown to honour those determinedto go back.While the right of return passage was

written into indentured contracts, nearlyforty years had passed since the end of In-dentureship, and six years since the previ-ous ship, the M.V. Orna, had sailed.Consequently, repatriation was discour-aged by the BG colonial administration,certain urban Indo-Guyanese profession-als, and Pandit Nehru himself, all of

whom distanced India from Indo-Caribbeans by advising ex-indentureds tostake their future in the colonies. Notwith-standing official disapproval, these ex-in-dentureds successfully claimed theircontractual right to return to a liberatedIndia.The reasons for desiring return were as

complex and individual as the returnees,and included hope for deliverance fromhardships, dreams of Hindi film stardom, ora desire to have one's ashes scattered in theriver Ganges. However, the last Repatria-tion Officer (my great-uncle, the late Chh-ablal Ramcharan), attributed the mainreason to sentimental longing. Indenture-ship historian Hugh Tinker suggested thatthe suspension of the constitution in 1953contributed to the Resurgent's voyage. According to Ramcharan's first-hand ac-

count, this was not accurate as most re-turnees were from villages and estates, notthe urban areas affected by political insta-bility. Although Ramcharan's use of "senti-mental" is open to many interpretationsincluding nostalgic desire for the mother-land, I prefer to understand "sentimental"as a desire to belong somewhere - to find away not to be left behind by history.Based on agitation for return, the colonialgovernment expected at least a thousandpeople would register to sail, but the Resur-gent sailed with only 250 passengers. Forty-four people changed their mind at the lastminute, some before and others on the dayof departure, with one older man jumpingship just before it sailed - "Nah me bhaaya!"Upon reaching India, many discovered this'sentimental' journey was not quite thehome-coming they had anticipated. Con-fronted with the realities of India, aboutforty people asked Ramcharan to take themback home - to Guyana. India was home inmemory, but not in actuality.East Indians were not the only ones

"going home." In the mid-1950s, someAfro-Guyanese also attempted to charter aship, the Coptic, to return to Mother Africa,

and some Afro-Trinidadians were also plan-ning a return to Liberia.Can one ever travel back to find home?

This desire is complicated by our history ofdisplacement and forced migration. As Iwas trying to understand why - after a lifebuilt in Guyana and only distant memoriesof India - a small but strong-minded groupso desired to return, the front page ofCanada's national newspaper caught myeye. As if speaking directly to me, the head-line asked: "How Canadian are you?" Thenews of the day reported that both immi-grants and their children born in Canada(like me) continue to feel vulnerable to ex-clusion. Surely, this contributes to thesearch for home and belonging in placesother than where we live. Partly, this is myinterest in the M.V. Resurgent.The question that Alissa Trotz has posed

("What kind of tribe are we?"; January 15,2007) calls for the input of second-genera-tion "Guyanese out of Guyana." Existing ina state of hyphenated breaks, "Indo-Guyanese- Canadian" (not necessarily inthat order and missing my Trinidadianroots, my mother being Trinidadian) has itsdrawbacks, like the perpetual sense that Iwill never simply be Canadian. However,travelling through the connections of theseterms I can find my roots and seek continu-ity with my history.Canada has only been seen as a multi-

racial society for forty years. Guyana andby extension the Caribbean, has been rec-ognized as multi-racial for centuries.Guyana has many lessons to offer, onebeing reckoning with the inheritance ofmultiple homelands, not as a threat to "onenation, one people" (although at times it hasbeen misconstrued in this way) but as an ac-knowledgement of the places where ourroots emerged, and also where our homeshave become. Sometimes going home isnecessary to make peace with the processof change.Nalini Devi Mohabirmohabirnalini@ yahoo.com

Lessons from the Last Ship: Going Home

TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO NEWS Indo-Caribbean Times May 2007 Page 5

By Ram Jagessar

To the utter consternation of his many po-litical opponents, former Prime MinisterBasdeo Panday’s star has risen again. Theageing , silver haired Panday was countedout from politics after his trial began oncharges of failing to declare his assets Panday was forced to give up his positionas Opposition Leader, and when he wasconvicted and sentenced to jail, he wasquickly stripped of his parliamentary seatby the President. He remained chairman ofhis United National Congress, and still apowerful politician, but observers saw himas a spent force who should step aside frompolitics entirely.All that has changed in quick time since

the dramatic collapse of charges againstCheif Justice Sharma. When Chief Magis-trate Sherman McNicholls refused to giveevidence earlier this year, the case againstSharma failed. Since McNicholls was themagistrate who had sentenced Panday to aharsh jail term, Panday’s appeal against hissentence was allowed. It appeared as if thechief magistrate had been prejudiced andPanday’s conviction was quashed, and anew trial ordered. It is unlikely that therewill be a retrial soon, certainly not in timeto prevent Panday leading his party into the2007 elections.Panday is greatly feared by Prime Minis-ter Manning for his feat of bringing downthe PNM from power a stunning threetimes. No politician in Trinidad has comeeven close to his record against the PNM. This may be the cause why the PNM

through the Speaker of the House has beentrying to prevent Panday from returning tohis seat in the House. His return has beensent to the High Court for a ruling, thoughthere seems to be no reason why theSpeaker cannot simply allow Mr Panday toresume his seat after his jail sentence wasquashed. When Panday tried to force the issue andtake his seat, the country was treated to thespectacle of a large police squad blockinghim from entering the Parliament building.This was a clear denial of Mr Panday’s rightto enter the Parliament even to to to thepublic gallery. If Mr Panday was believedto be without his seat in Parliament, then hebecomes an ordinary citizen who is entitledto see Parliamentary activities from thespectator’s gallery. Panday has beenwronged, and the whole country can see it.The other casualty of Panday’s rebirth hasbeen former Panday heir Winston Dook-eran and his Congress of the People, whichis largely stocked with ex- UNC politiciansand supporters.After a nasty break with the UNC, Dook-eran started his own party and decided totake a run at unseating the PNM in 2007.Things seemed to be developing well, withthe COP scoring heavy points against aUNC led by a convicted criminal.The removal of Panday’s conviction is a

definite setback for COP, which was plan-ning to contest all 41 seats and steal awaythe bedrock Indian support from the UNC.That looks very doubtful now.Few observers believe the COP can beat

the PNM in a rough and tumble generalelection. All it can do is split the votes thatforrmerly went solidly to the UNC, and letin the PNM to greater victories. The UNCcan’t win either, so now both parties haveto try to swallow the impossible. Unite tounseat the PNM or make electoral agree-ments to make the best of their popular

support. Neither looks likely to happen, inwhich case both opposition parties take ahit, and have to try a long haul to confrontthe PNM again in distant 2012. Manythings can change in five years. Panday isin his seventies, and he doesn’t have thetime. But he may have enough gas in thetank to spoil the COP playbook.

Hearing on Panday return to start in JuneALL STEPS are being taken to have a

speedy resolution of a lawsuit which willdetermine whether United National Con-gress leader Basdeo Panday can return toParliament, and the trial was yesterdayfixed to proceed at the end of June.Panday's Couva North seat was declaredvacant on October 24 last year, after nosteps were taken by members of his partyto extend the time to allow him an opportu-nity to appeal against his conviction andsentence, on charges of failing to declare aLondon bank account to the Integrity Com-mission.House Speaker Barendra Sinanan had al-

lowed Panday a total of 150 days to appeal,but the conviction and sentence was onlyoverturned on March 20 this year.The Appeal Court ordered Panday to facea retrial on the basis that there was an ap-pearance of bias on the part of Chief Mag-istrate Sherman McNicolls, who had foundhim guilty on April 24, 2006.Panday is insisting he can contribute in

debates in Parliament because the court'sruling, in effect, rendered his entire criminaltrial a nullity, but Sinanan disagrees.Clerk of the House of Representatives,

Jacqui Sampson, in compliance with a res-olution approved by Parliament, filed an ap-plication to present a vacancy petition onMarch 29, seeking to have the High Courtpronounce on Panday's right to return toParliament.On April 3, Justice Charmaine Pembertongranted Sampson leave to present the peti-tion and Panday was subsequently servedwith a copy of the proceedings on April 13.Lawyers representing Sampson filed a no-tice before the court on April 23, seeking tofix a date and time of the trial.After an hour of working out an agreedtime-table to complete pre-trial arrange-ments, the judge fixed three days for thehearing of the matter-June 27, 28 and July2.

Armed police block PandayUnited National Congress (UNC) leaderBasdeo Panday is considering legal actionafter he made it only as far as the steps ofthe Red House late last month, before beingblocked by armed police from entering theParliament.It was a dramatic lead-in to the resump-

tion of Lower House sittings which had al-ready been on hold for three weeks becauseof Panday.Accompanied by his daughter Mikela and

UNC MPs, Panday was blocked by policewhen he arrived at 1.05 pm, to enter theParliament via the Knox Street entrance.Panday was informed by Senior Superin-tendent Wayne Gilbert that on instructionfrom the Commissioner of Police, he couldnot enter Parliament.Gilbert, who held the gate against Panday,was supported by a team of police behindhim. Panday subsequently vowed to remainthere along with his team. The stand-off onthe steps, at the front of the entrance, lastedfor almost 72 minutes.Panday said of his conversation with theSpeaker,”I said the Appeal Court quashedthe conviction against me and that nullifiedthe vacancy declared in the seat, so I?m en-titled to enter Parliament and do the workfor which 25,000 people elected me.?Panday said Sinanan hinted about action

to block him.“I didn”t realise it was going to be here onthe doorstep...But thissituation had to hap-pen since it forms the basis of legal action,”headded.He said blocking him from entering thebuilding was an illegal act and breach of theConstitution.“This is clearly a conspiracy between theSpeaker and the PNM to keep the issue ofthe seat in the court until elections, sincenothing has happened on the court?s endsince the matter was filed,” he said.

PNM womenconvicted ofvoter paddingTWO FEMALE supporters of the ruling

People’s National Movement (PNM) havepleaded guilty to voter-padding. This wasthe first time someone was actually con-victed and sentenced for voter-padding.Voter-padding reared its head in 2000

when allegations were made against theUnited National Congress (UNC). SeveralUNC supporters were arrested and charged,but most of them were later discharged.However, the arrests of two PNM sup-

porters were kept low-keyed. The prelimi-nary inquiry at the Port-of-SpainMagistrates’ Court was also kept away fromthe glare of the media. The only time themedia found out about the arrests of thePNM supporters was just before their guiltyplea yesterday.Judy Joseph, 52, and her daughter Aleena,29, were before Justice Rajendra Narine inthe Port-of-Spain First Criminal Courtcharged with making a false statement tothe Elections and Boundaries Commission(EBC).They claimed that they moved from the

constituency of Morvant/Laventille becausetheir Member of Parliament FitzgeraldHinds, gave them nothing. They furtherclaimed they moved to the San Juan/Barataria constituency, but when the EBCand police caught up with them, bothmother and daughter confessed.The two Josephs entered in a plea agree-

ment with the State and their lawyerspleaded for a fine. In passing sentence, Jus-tice Narine said the offences were very se-rious. He said the court could not condonesuch offences, but he took into account theirclean record and the fact they did not wastethe court’s time.

Narine imposed a $3,000 fine on eachwoman and gave them six months to paythe fine. He ended by telling them he hopedthat they would not get themselves involvedin this sort of thing in the future.It was alleged that on Octo-ber 5, 2000 atBarataria, both women made false state-ments that they changed their address fromShende Street, San Juan to Water Lane,Sunshine Avenue in San Juan, in 1996. Thecourt heard that both women lived at 43Shende Street.On October 5, 2000, they went to the EBCoffice at Fifth Street, Barataria and tenderedtwo Form 22 forms to the Commission.This form re-quires a person to notify theEBC of a change of address.Investigations by the EBC later revealed

that the two forms were invalid. The EBCthen handed over the forms to AssistantCommissioner Gilbert Reyes, of the CID.Two policemen were appointed to investi-gate the matter. On November 1, 2000, thelawmen went to the home of both women.When questioned about the Form 22, JudyJoseph said: “I really did that because MrHinds never really do nothing for me.” Fivedays later, both women were arrested andcharged. They both gave statements to thepolice.In her statement, Judy Joseph admitted

telling the EBC she was living at WaterLane and wanted to vote in the SanJuan/Barataria constituency, not Morvant/Laventille. Judy Joseph said she committedthe offence on her own. “Nobody told meto do that. When the police came, I toldthem what I did and why,” she said in herstatement. Joseph did not want to call anynames, neither did she want to make thePNM look bad.

Robinson l a w s u i tagainst BasdismissedA DEFAMATION lawsuit filed by formerpresident Arthur NR Robinson against for-mer prime minister Basdeo Panday hasbeen dismissed in the High Court.The lawsuit, which was filed on July 1,2002, and had remained idle for more thantwo years, was thrown out by Justice Zain-ool Hosein.It was related to statements made by Pan-day on April 24, 2002, which criticisedRobinson's decision to appoint PatrickManning as Prime Minister, following theunprecedented electoral 18-18 tie in the2001 general elections.Panday had filed a defence denying

Robinson's claim. It is open for Robinson'sattorneys, led by Douglas Mendes SC, toseek to reinstate the lawsuit.Attorneys Devesh Maharaj and Shiva

Sawh represented Panday.

Panday dominates TT politics despite having no seat

TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO Indo-Caribbean Times MAY 2007 Page 6

entry and exit routes.With no way out the kidnappers tried to

hide Shiva in a lonely area, but he put up astruggle and after a fight he was thrown outof the car. He was beaten and bruised, butsafe. The kidnappers escaped but withoutany ransomNow that's how the police should respond,every time. We hope it's not just accidentalthat the police party was headed by Sgt.Harrilal and Inspector Jagdeo.

BOLD FACED CRIMINALS

Trinidad criminals have absolutely no fearof the police, and they are showing it by re-ally bold faced crimes out in the open.Item 1. A man tried to abduct a woman inthe centre of the capital city of Port ofSpain, just after 8 o'clock in the morning. Aprivate security officer driving along Aber-cromby Street near the National Libraryobserved a screaming woman trying tojump out of a passenger car. The driver ofthe car was trying to hold on to the woman.The car sped off but the security officer fol-lowed and blocked the car in front of theMinistry of National Security, where armyofficers rescued the woman and arrested thekidnapper. That entire area of Port of Spainholds several courts, the Parliament, PoliceHeadquarters, and the Ministry of NationalSecurity, and is usually packed with police.Not enough to scare this kidnapper, itseems.Item 2. A San Fernando thief was busy

breaking into a store next to the trafficlights at Rushworth Street and Ciperostreets at 2 am one night recently. This is avery busy main intersection in San Fer-nando, well lit and busy with traffic stop-ping at the lights. The thief was spotted by a passing busi-

nessmen who had stopped his car at thelights. The businessman said he shouted tothe thief, and had to shoot him when theman ran towards his car.Item 3.One day after she was kidnapped,gang raped and beaten, police officers res-cued a Debe businesswoman at the side ofthe M-2 Ring Road, in La Romaine on Sun-day night.

The woman, whose identity police are with-holding, reported that she been brutalisedby four men after being snatched from out-side of her businessplace on the SS ErinRoad, Debe, on Saturday.

In her statement to police, the 23-year-oldwoman said she had gone to dump garbagein a public bin around 2.30 pm on Saturday,when a black car pulled up.

She said four men walked up to her andlocked her neck. The men then covered hermouth, lifted her up bodily and placed herinside the trunk of the car, she said. Theythen drove away.

Around 9.30 pm on Sunday, a team of offi-cers from the Southern Division were onpatrol along the M2 Ring Road, when theysaw the woman lying on the road. She wasbleeding heavily and was in a semi-con-scious state.

The woman was rushed to the San Fer-nando General hospital where she remainswarded in a critical condition. The woman

told police she was blindfolded, gagged andhog-tied, before being gang-raped.

In the meantime, officers are appealing tothe public to assist them in solving thecased. Senior officers said they found itstrange that nobody had witnessed the kid-napping even though it had occurred inbroad daylight.

9 WEEKS WAIT FOR PASSPORT

Not even a one man protest demonstra-tion could get a Trinidad man his passportafter waiting nine weeks. Imam Iqbal Hydalapplied for his passport since February 21and was told that it would take 21 days orthree weeks. But nine weeks passed and he still did notget his passport. That's why he staged hisprotest outside the Immigration Divisionoffice on Frederick Street in Port of Spain.The frustrated man added that he paid the$250 fee but believes that hehas not received his passport because he didnot pay $50 more to expedite the process.Last week Friday nothing had changed.

People could not get their passports or com-puterized birth certificates. The computerhad reportedly broken down. The ministrysaid a technical problem was caused by apower outage two days before.It looks like people have to “hold strain”and have patience. Now where did we hearthat before?

PNM plans to postpone local pollsPRIME Minister Patrick Manning pro-

poses to seek Cabinet support to postponethe local government elections, giving wayinstead for a 2007 general elections.With both local government and generalelections also due this year, Manning saidtwo elections in the country at the sametime "could lead to a tremendous amount ofconfusion, which we do not want".According to political sources, Manningcan postpone the local government elec-tions up to six months or a year by a simplemajority.

The Lighter sideMissing the old NDP days

An old lady from Trinidad was taking theoral Canadian citizenship test some yearsago, but Aji wasn’t doing so well. She hadalready made two mistakes and the citizen-ship judge told her if she made another mis-take she would fail. “Just two more questions now,”said thejudge. “What is the capital of Ontario?”“Ottawa!” said Aji. “Right.” said the judge. “Last question now.Who is the premier of Ontario?”Aji didn’t know the answer to that one. Shefigure now she fail. Aji hold she head andsay, “Bap ray!”(Father help me!)“Correct!” said the judge. “Bob Rae is thePremier of Ontario. You pass!”

By Ram Jagessar

113 CEPEP MILLIONAIRES TAKE IN $200m ANNUALLY

It was suspected all along but is nowproved. The People's National Movementis creating millionaires of the 113 CEPEPcontractors who get over $200 million eachyear. That amounts to over $1 billion overthe last five years.Government has released figures show-

ing $207 million was paid out to 113CEPEP contractors for the financial year2005-2006. Everybody already knows whatCEPEP workers do, which is little morethan collect money for standing up by theside of the road. They are supposed to cleanup the environment by cutting grass, pick-ing up garbage, cleaning drains and the like,but the country has certainly not seen a bil-lion dollars worth of that.Opposition politicians say CEPEP is re-

ally nothing more than a handout to sup-porters of the ruling PNM. The CEPEPworkers, up to 60 per contractor, know thatthey are not being hired to work, so theydon't do much work. They are being paidoff because they support the PNM. Those who think no harm is done have tothink again. It's no surprise that the rise ingun violence and murders in the East-Westcorridor, and specially around Port ofSpain, coincides with the rise of CEPEPand about a dozen similar make work proj-ects. Most of the violence seems to be aboutcontrol of the CEPEP money. Men whoused to hang around the street corners withempty pockets are now contractors han-dling million dollar budgets. People willkill for that kind of money, and they aredoing just that.

S ugar cane worker- gone forever

GOVERNMENT SAYS NOHELP TO SUGAR INDUSTRYDIVERSIFICATION.

Government has dished out more punish-ment for Trinidad's dying sugar industry.Caroni Ltd is already closed down and itslands being divided. After this year government will not buy and more cane from canefarmers, so they are on their own.Cane farmers tried a desperation move tocontinue their livelihoods. The SugarcaneFarmers Co-operative Society proposed tobuy out the Sugar Manufacturing Companywhich owns the sugar mills, to make paperand other products with a French companyCIVM. That would secure the livelihoodsof about six thousand cane farmers, theirfamilies and their workers and producesomething useful.Government turned down the proposal

just like that. They said it would requirelarge subsidies for five years before break-

ing even. It would be too expensive.Would it be as expensive as subsidising

CEPEP workers to stand by the side of theroad, to the tune of $200 million a year?Probably not, but then cane farmers don'tusually vote for the PNM. In stark comparison, Guyana has pledgedto continue and expand the sugar industry,and is enthusiastically supporting a projectto turn bagasse into ethanol. Trinidad iswilling to help Guyana sugar, but not itsown,

MOST OF TRINIDAD IS ARIMA - NO WATER

Thousands of people are talking aboutwater in Trinidad, water they don't have intheir pipes. In Arima, Central and especiallySouth Trinidad, there are a bunch of angry,thirsty, and smelly Trinis complaining abouthaving to tote water in buckets and evenbox carts like the old days. This is beyond incredible, that a country

with such high rainfall and oil money toburn cannot deliver a basic necessity likewater in the taps. Trinidadians who mi-grated to Canada as far back as the 1960'scan remember that same problem over 40years ago. The PNM government of the daycouldn't deliver water either.Prime Minister Patrick Manning has

called for people to hold strain and have pa-tience. The government is working on theproblem. It's the same message we used toget in the sixties.He admits that only 30 per cent of the na-tional community receives a 24-hour watersupply on a seven-day basis. This is a verydry season. The desalination plant in PointLisas has broken down and is not deliveringits 24 million gallons of water a day. A big36 inch main is leaking. The main problemis "substandard equipment in the transmis-sion and in particular the distribution ofwater.” The whole water system will haveto be replaced at a cost of $27 billion. Gov-ernment is sensitive and is giving the mat-ter high priority.Haven't we heard that kind of story over

and over and over before? Mr Manning hasno shame. Most of Trinidad has no water.

FINALLY A GOOD KIDNAP STORY

A young Princes Town man has escapedkidnappers for the second time this year,this time with some surprising help fromthe police.Shiva Sieunarinesingh ran into trouble onJanuary 22, when two kidnappers tried topush him into a car outside his parents'business place Mona Sieunarinesingh andSons Hardware and Transport. Shivaknocked out the gun from the hand of thearmed kidnapper and escaped.Last week kidnappers struck again, grab-bing Shiva outside a gym in Harmony Hall.The kidnappers immediately called thefamily and demanded $200,000 in ransom.But Shiva would have none of it. Heshouted out to his parents not to pay theransom ? ”Don't pay it!Let them kill me,”Sieunarinesingh shouted.The family made a call was made to the

Gasparillo Police Station and the Anti-kid-napping Squad immediately responded. Of-ficers led by Sgt Harrilal and Insp Jagdeo,quickly locked down the area, blocking all

$1 Billion for wasteful CEPEP idlers,nothing to diversify TT sugar cane industry

Samuel Hinds has indicated that the legalopinion at the moment is that the lump sumpayments cannot be made as the recipientscould legally return at their retirement ageand ask to be paid a pensionThe government is seeking a legal opin-

ion on whether the provisions of the trustdeed of the bauxite industry pension plancould be changed to allow for Linmineworkers with more than twelve years serv-ice to be repaid their contributions.This pension plan seems to be another ex-ample of PNC maladministration which thePPP has to sort out, with no hope of gettingany thanks. Pension plans, under the lawsof Guyana are either self-administered (bytrustee) or by a company offering suchservice, usually an insurance company. Ac-cording to the Supervisor of Insurance theBIPP is administered by the HHIT (for-merly GNCB). We feel that the HIHTshould be left to wind up the BIPP.It is strange that Lewis made no mention

of the golden parachutes that the bauxiteworkers got. All the Linmine workers as atJuly 31 were made redundant and receivedtermination benefits which included sixweeks pay for every year of service up to104 weeks and a training grant equivalentto 10 per cent of the termination pay. Bothpayments are tax-free.Compounding the situation, he said that

while this is done the government instructsGuyana Sugar Corporation (GUYSUCO) tofind money to sustain the sugar industry'spension fund in order to protect the pensionof a predominantly Indian work force.The government is doing everything to

ensure that the bauxite workers’ pensionsare preserved. Why shouldn’t they do thesame for sugar workers? And why doesn’tMr. Lewis want them to? As a trade union-ist, shouldn’t he be speaking for all work-ers, and not just for black workers?He also pointed to the criminalisation anddemonisation of Africans in Guyana and theincarceration of Mark Benschop who is inprison awaiting a second trial for treason.He lamented the death of Afro-Guyanesecriminal Ronald Waddell.Eusi Kwayana in an article posted at

guyanacaribbeanpolitics.com lamented that“The Masterminds have made a village

which was not their own into a cemetery.At last I am joining the number of personswho have expressed alarm or sorrow at therecent crimes on the East Coast, or con-demned them, or sympathised with thoseleft to mourn or to care for the disabled.When the disturbances started many at

home in Guyana and also many abroadthought they saw some kind of liberation atwork. They poured scorn on those of usAfrican Guyanese who condemned the vio-lence directed first against Guyanese of an-other race.One trigger-happy writer even went so faras to hint that we received "benefits" fromthat position.Many saw the well known, actual povertyamong large groups of Africans, as thecause of, and even the reason for the vio-lent attacks against the "other". I knowabout the poverty as well as those persons.I have lived in it and shared in it.

(CONTINUED ON PAGE 8)

GUYANA NEWS Indo-Caribbean Times May 2007 Page 7

By Lloyd Harradan

President of the Guyana Trades UnionCongress (GTUC), Lincoln Lewis, has crit-icised political parties for their failure to ad-dress the pressing issues affecting theAfrican-Guyanese community. Two hun-dred years after the abolition of the slavetrade, Lewis said, Africans are still strug-gling to be treated as equals. “We are sec-ond class citizens in a land our fore-parentsbuilt with their blood, sweat and tears”This is a fantastic misrepresentation of re-ality. Afro-Guyanese were the oppressorsfor almost three decades and have beencommitting atrocities against Indians forhalf a century. Their actions against Indianshave been characterized as genocide. Some500,000 Indians have fled Guyana . The vi-olence against Indians continues. Robbery,kidnappings, murder are daily threats thatIndians still face. Suddenly, we are told thatAfro-Guyanese are the victims.What kind of blithering idiot would makesuch a claim? Lewis is not the only one.But let’s deal with Lewis. Why is the

President of the Guyana Trade Union Con-gress, an umbrella organization, whichshould be embracing all Guyanese unions,representing workers of all races, speakonly on behalf of Afro-Guyanese? Is he try-ing to tell us that only Afro-Guyanese areworkers? And why is he assuming thatAfro-Guyanese are struggling to be treatedas equal? After 15 years of PPP government, Afro-Guyanese are still up to 95 per cent of theArmy, Police and Civil Service. To attainequality, this percentage has to be de-creased. They would be in a worse positionif they got equality. So that far from beingsecond class citizens, in a land their fore-parents built, they are first class citizens,still oppressing everyone else. And what ex-actly did these black fore-parents build withtheir blood, sweat and tears?It became clear after Indians arrived in theWest Indies that African slavery was themost inefficient system of production everdevised. Productivity only increased afterAbolition. By my calculation, only onethird of slaves were engaged in productiveactivity. And this third was not very pro-ductive. They bankrupted the West Indianplantocracy.After emancipation Afro-Guyanese es-

tablished what has been described as thevillage system in Guyana . They boughtbankrupt plantations and shared out theland. These villages became rural slums,and not centers of production. The verynames of these villages – Buxton , Victoria,Golden Grove, and Agricola – are synony-mous with black ineptitude, destitution andcriminality.“We are still struggling for our rights to

identity, expression, association, self deter-mination and advancement,” Lewislamented. Their rights to identity? Who isdenying them that? They can identify them-selves as anything they want – Guyanese,Africans, Afro-Guyanese, thieves, bandits,choke-and-robbers, murderers – but wewould discourage them from using the nword. It isn’t polite. And all the world re-members that under the Afro-Guyanesegovernment there was no freedom of thepress in Guyana . Now that there is freedom of the press

under a PPP government, blacks are usingthat freedom to claim marginalization of theblack community. Neither has the govern-

ment banned any group or association. Noone is blocking the advancement of Afro-Guyanese. The have had nearly 200 yearsto advance to whatever position theywished. So far they have only advancedinto criminalityOn the business front, Lewis pointed out

that the present regime has adopted a strat-egy to ignore the retooling and optimizingof any industry in the African community,

preferring to let that industry fail.He did not give examples, but he proba-

bly meant the bauxite industry. Guyana wasknown to have a 350-million-ton bauxitereserve, one of the world's highest concen-trations of the valuable mineral. But pro-duction of bauxite dipped sharply after thegovernment nationalized the industry in the1970s. In the mid-1980s, bauxite produc-tion hovered around 1.5 million tons peryear, or half the annual level of the 1960sand 1970s. The state-owned Guyana Mining Enter-

prise Limited (Guymine) suffered repeatedlosses as a result of inefficient management,declining world prices for bauxite, and pro-longed strikes by workers. The lossesdrained the company's capital reserves andled to deterioration of plants and equip-ment. Guyana 's single alumina plant, lo-cated in Linden , used to separate 300,000tons per year of aluminum oxide from rawbauxite ore until the facility closed in 1982.From then on, Guyana was forced to exportonly unprocessed bauxite ore, foregoing theadded revenues to be gained from refiningthe mineral.In the 1970s, Guyana had the advantage

of being the world's leading supplier of so-called calcined bauxite, a high grade of themineral used for lining steel furnaces andother high-temperature applications. After1981, however, China emerged as a majorsource of calcined bauxite, and Guyana be-came known as a less reliable supplier. By 1990, China had displaced Guyana asthe leading exporter of calcined bauxite,even though Guyana had the advantage ofbeing closer to the major North Americanand European markets. Today China isflooding the market with cheap bauxite, andGuyana , faced with high production costs,especially the high cost of fuel, cannot com-pete. The PPP is currently negotiating withthe Chinese to take over bauxite.Apart from the bauxite industry Afro-

Guyanese are not involved in large numbersin any other industry. They monopolise theArmy, which isn’t fighting anybody, the Po-lice, which isn’t fighting crime and theCivil Service which isn’t providing service.Inefficiency, discrimination and corruptioncharacterize all three services. Black po-licemen routinely stop Indian taxi driversand demand a “towel” (Guyanese slang fora thousand dollars). To get anything doneby any civil servant you have to pass abribe.

Many new hotels have been built. Eco-tourism is being contemplated. But with thepoor service and the high crime ratetourism, the regions highest money earner,isn’t going anywhere. “Guyana,” RaymondChickerie writes, “is not ready for tourism.Yes, there are claims that tourism is in-creasing but that is merely due to an in-crease of expatriates visiting Guyana. ADanish tourist was robbed recently in broad

daylight and on my arrival inGuyana on April 14, 2006 atabout 3 pm on BWIA flight426; there were only two im-migration officers there toprocess incoming passen-gers. None were at the boothsfor non-Caricom visitors.Nothing moved, and the

place was packed with pas-sengers. Eventually, I madesome noise and three moreworkers crawled to theirposts arguing with passen-gers and further delaying the

process.I guess they were liming and not aware

when international flights were arriving.The episode did not end there. Some dayslater, on April 21st, on a Meta Flight fromParamaribo to Georgetown, which arrivedat CBJIA at about 7 pm, the same fiascowas repeated.I had to make some noise again. Where

are the supervisors? Who supervises thesepeople?I have pictures to prove that these are notallegations but facts. This is where Guyanais in stark difference with its neighbours;there is no customer service, and service inall sectors is “rude and crude.”But Lewis, like Jeremiah, continues his

lamentation. “Millions are found to opti-mise the performance of the sugar industry,on the Skeldon Sugar Project and modern-izing of Enmore factory, to name a few in apredominantly Indian-centered labourforce.It makes perfect sense. Sugar production

has doubled in the last ten years. Thatmeans Guyana now produces 160,000 tonsmore sugar. That is a lot of sugar. The gov-ernment is correct in trying to maximizethese gains, by improving processing effi-ciency. Lewis should have said somethingabout the rice industry, where productionquadrupled. If he, or his PNC buddies. arereading this, that means it increased fourtimes.“The government deliberately destroyed

the bauxite industry's pension plan, thelargest single pool of money ever owned byAfricans in this country,” Lewis stated.How exactly did the government do that?Once a pension plan ceases to have con-tributors, it ceases to exist and must bewound up. With the pension plan frozen atJuly 31, 2006 the retrenched workers areclamouring to be paid the contributionsmade on their behalf. The provisions of theplan do not provide for such payments to bemade. The plan covers not only the Linmineworkers but also those at Bermine, andBidco and has an estimated 4,000 membersincluding the existing pensioners. Duringtheir employment they contributed 4 percent of their pay and Linmine paid 11 percent.At 2001, according to actuarial estimates,the value of the plan was about $2.6 billion.Since then the government has paid overthe outstanding contributions owed by Lin-mine and Bermine. The Prime Minister

Afro-Guyanese cry .. Race

Open pit bauxite mine at Linden

GUYANA NEWS Indo-Caribbean Times MAY 2007 Page 8

ON THE LIGHTER SIDE OF GUYANACONFESSIONS

Rakesh was on his death bed. His wifeLeila was maintaining bedside. She held hisfragile hand, tears ran down her face. Herpraying roused him from his slumber.

He looked up and his pale lips began tomove slightly. "Mih dahlin Leila," he whis-pered.

"Hush mih love," she said. "Rest.Shhh...doh talk." He was insistent. "Leila"he said, in his tired voice. "Me have somet-ing me hafa confess to yuh." "Yuh have nut-tin to confess." replied the weeping Leila."Everyting alright, go to sleep mih love."

"No, no, me hafa die in peace, love. "Mesleep wit yuh sister, yuh best friend andyuh mudda."

"Me know," answered Leila, "dats why mepoison yuh rass.”

CHECK THE VOICESA Guyanese and a Trini man were havinga magnificent meal at one of the finestrestaurants in New York .At the end of theevening the waiter came over to present thecheck and a Guyanese voice said "dat's allright man, jus gimme the check". The headlines in all the local Caribbean

newspaper next day proclaimed "Trini ventriloquist found beaten to death".

Afro-Guyanese Cry Race (FROM PAGE 7)

If poverty was the cause, why did the Mas-terminds not deliver fifty, seventy comput-ers, and get teachers to train the youth in theskills needed to use them? Lessons Placewould have helped with the language, themathematics, and the culture including thesex education. No! all that was old fash-ioned.I want to leave aside in this letter the at-

tacks on the "other", the stranger, the non-belonger which were so boldly explainedaway, even defended. I come to the attackon the self, on fellow African villagers. Ialso am not discussing here the fate ofworkers in uniform, nor their abuses. I amalso not discussing the Phantom. I am try-ing to show where the Masterminds, byusing people they can fool, have landed us.I am dealing with the fiction that the vio-lence was at any time serving an Africancause.When the young businessman, Bryan

Hamilton, fell, his killers and their friendsthen killed his reputation. He became a sus-pect. But they had first ruined his business,these liberators of Africans, who are with-out a doubt under- represented in business.Many, perhaps not all of the gunmen, thankGod, did not feel threatened by women.They raped many causing them to suffer

this "fate worse than death" in silence.…Now, days after attacking two villages in-habited by Indian Guyanese, they kill oneof the finest examples of the young Africangeneration Nigel Amsterdam, young,gifted, black, industrious and poor. He wasa trained manual worker. At a quick esti-mate perhaps he was the tenth local victim,I am omitting those even assumed to bekilled by the police, or by the Phantom, thedeath squad of the other side…There are liberators attacking residents ofGolden Grove and Victoria. These villages,like fallen Buxton itself, are part of the his-toric village movement of two centuriesago. Victoria should be sacred to the mem-ory of all descendants of the enslaved…The Masterminds intervened in a bad sit-uation and left it worse, with a smaller pop-ulation.Their programme worsened relations withBuxton's neighbours. earned for the villagea criminal reputation, endangered women,placed the residents under a reign of terrorand fear, destroyed the village as a place forbusiness, created child soldiers, made manyof its poor youth into self -paid mercenariesand robbers, destroyed their chances of em-ployment, wiped out several youth with afuture, brought escaped prisoners into thevillage and encamped them there, made avillage which was not their own into acemetery…Are the Masterminds taking any blame forthe results? No. They cleverly divided their

politics into clean work and dirty work andleft the poor youth and others to do the dirtywork.No one has put together a narrative of

these series of events that began around1997, when the PNC having lost the elec-tions again tried to destabilize the country.Marches and rioting in Georgetown werenot enough. By 2002 they set up someblacks to turn to criminal activities. This iswhat Kwayana is talking about. As hestated they started to attack Indians andthen turned their guns on black people.Then they attacked the wrong people,

whoever they were. These people are theones who wiped them out. Between 2002and 2004 fifty people were killed, includ-ing eight policemen. Robberies, nettingmillions of dollars, were committed. Afterevery robbery there was a celebration inBuxton. Money floated around like leavesfalling from trees. Kids went to school withthousand dollar banknotes.But the masterminds did not give up.

After this bunch of criminals were killedthey arranged for their supporters in thearmy to allow some AK-47 rifles to bestolen. These rifles were used to murderMinister Sawh and his family. The crimi-nals then went to a black village, Agricola,and slaughtered their own kind.So who is criminalizing and demonizing

Africans in Guyana ? The PNC (sorry, Imean the masterminds) tried to create “free-dom fighters” who would kill Indians, cre-ate disorder and allow the PNC to return topower. In a strange twist of fate, the “free-dom fighters” became criminals andslaughtered the very people they were sup-posed to “liberate.” To blame President Jagdeo, or the PPP orIndians for this type of behaviour is to ab-solve Afro-Guyanese from responsibilityfor their action. That type of irresponsiblepeople are not the type that should be incharge of any country, least of all Guyana .

Killers turn to the ChineseTHREE Guyanese residents are murderedand eighteen armed robberies occur everyweek, on average, according to last year'spolice statistics. But, given their tiny num-bers, Chinese restaurateurs seem to be thevictims of a disproportionate amount ofthese murders and armed robberies.Yun-Sun Chen, the owner of the Carrefourrestaurant on Hadfield Streetin Georgetown, was one of the the most re-cent victims. Shot in his chest by bandits athis business probably after misunderstand-ing his assailants who left empty-handed,he died soon afterwards in hospital. But hewas not the first and, certainly, will not bethe last.Back in January 2005, five armed men

barged into Li Kechao's Village Restaurantat Kuru Kururu on the Linden-SoesydkeHighway, dragged himfrom his kitchen,stripped his clothes off, emptied the cashregister and then shot him in the abdomen,after which he died. And in December last year, Ru Fu Hua,

proprietor of the Phoenix Chinese Restau-rant at La Grange, West Bank Demerara,was stabbed to death. Wong Lee Dong wasalso shot during a robbery at Green Farmon the Coverden Public Road, East BankDemerara, but he survived his injury.The list of armed robberies is long and

alarming. A gang of four robbed Zhou'sPearl Restaurant at Vreed-en-Hoop, WestCoast Demerara in January 2006. The nextmonth, another gang of four robbed WongTon Woon, his cashier and a customer at theEastern King restaurant on Sheriff Street,Georgetown. The next month, March, an-other armed gang robbed the Chinese-oper-ated Bonny's Supermarket on Church Streetand Seiko Garden Restaurant at Regent andOronoque streets.Jiang Li Yan on the Soesdyke Public Roadon the East Bank Demerara; Thong Hung-Wang at Melanie Damishana on the EastCoast; Leung Kam Sing; Lin Hao Biao andSuta Quing at Sparendaam, also on the EastCoast; Yang Mei Lan of the Cambo Restau-rant on Regent Street, have all been victims.As recently as late March, two armed menrobbed the Ming Xing restaurant at Indus-try on the East Coast Demerara.How many gangs can exist and operate

undetected? The number of cases is enor-mous and certainly, by now, the PoliceForce's Criminal Investigation Departmentshould have discerned a pattern, determinedthegangsters' almost amateurish modusoperandi, and decided on a course of actionto enforce the law.Robbers seem to be very young, fre-

quently teenagers; they enter thepremisespretending to be customers; robberies occurin good light, in the evening between 20:00and 22:00 hours; they do not bother to con-ceal their identities by wearing masks; theyare armed with hand guns which they areprepared to use with deadly accuracy andwithout provocation; their booty, often nomore than a single day's takings, are sur-prisingly low in relation to the high risk oftaking or losing life; and their escape, nor-mally unhurried, is on easily identifiablemotor cars or motorcycles on long road-ways with little traffic.Although both urban and rural premises

have been attacked, the attraction has beentowards isolated rural restaurants. The re-action of the poorly-manned police stationshas been notoriously slow. In addition, rob-beries occur so swiftly that there is hardlytime to activate security alarm systems tosummon contracted private security serv-ices. In light of the mounting evidence,there certainly needs to be better protectionand swifter reaction, and better identifica-tion of the gangsters and their capture.

Science being marginalized in Guyana schools Although science is designated a core sub-ject in Guyana's school system, few Gen-eral Secondary Schools (GSS) enter all oftheir fifth form students - or at least all ofthose students who are entered for EnglishLanguage - for at least one science subjectat the level of theCaribbean Secondary Ed-ucation Certificate (CSEC) examinationClassroom observation of the quality ofteaching and learning in some of these sci-ence-based programmes reveals that inade-quate resources dictate that students workin large groups in order to complete theirpractical activities. Discussions with un-dergraduates during and /or upon comple-tion of their practical activities indicate thatmany of them are unable to hypothesise,design experiments to test hypotheses, pre-dict possible outcomes or evaluate theirmethodology.

Sick Indianwoman beatento death as “old higue”In one of the more bizarre cases in recenttimes of superstition gone wrong, a men-tally disturbed Good Hope woman wasbeaten to death by residents of Bare Root,East Coast Demerara, in the belief she wasan Old higue” who had sucked the blood ofa village child.Fifty five year old psychiatric patient, Ra-bika Singh, of 713 Phase Two, Good Hope,East Coast Demerara, wandered half nakedinto Bare Root Village and was killed byfearful villagers. Near to her body were rice grains, a man-icole broom (made from fronds of the palmtree) and three pieces of wood.According to a resident, around 5 am twomen who were on their way to work saw aperson who they thought was a girl from thevillage. They reportedly called out to herand were greeted by a snarling sound fromthe woman. Scared, the men called out toother residents who ran out. At the sametime a resident nearby discovered that hersix-month-old baby had a red mark on hischest.Residents surrounded the woman, who it

was claimed at the time was just a ball ofhair. They threw rice around her, which shedid not count as an old higue is supposed todo. Ssome threw kerosene and tried to burnher, but she did not ignite, according to awitness. The residents then "waved" a man-icole broom over the woman, whose dreswas only halfway on. She was apparentlybeaten with the wood by by some villagers.According to local legend, an "Old Higue"is an evil spirit, usually a woman, whotransforms into a ball of fire and sucks theblood of people.She must remove her skin in order to per-form this act. She can be stopped by grainsof rice, which she is apparently forced tocount and by being beaten with a manicolebroom.A man and a woman, believed to be part

of the gang that killed Rabika, have beenarrested by police.

$22 million, 20 ft. statue of Pres.

Jagdeo to go up next to CuffyThe famed Cuffy statue at the Square of

the Revolution is to have a companion - astatue of His Excellency President BharratJagdeo.

A GINA press release said the 20 ft highstatue would be created by famed Hungar-ian sculptor Mikhail Shropozovich whowill carve it out of Italian marble, nowbeing shipped to Guyana. The total cost willbe G$22M.

The statue will recognize the president's nu-merous achievements in bringing peaceand prosperity to his country.

SOUTH ASIAN HERITAGE MONTH Indo-Caribbean Times May 2007 Page 9

What did you want to know about Indo-Caribbeans in Canada and our heritage? Try

IndoCaribbeanHeritage.comA community web site for Indo-Caribbeans in Canada

Some of the materials available on the site include:

After the war he returned to Canada andconducted a successful medical practice inHalifax, Nova Scotia until his death in theearly forties. He was married to Jean (nowdeceased), and had no children.Kenneth was a San Fernando boy, the

son of Kate and James Mahabir , an or-ganist and piano tuner at Susamachar Pres-byterian Church on Coffee Street.He attended Grant C.M. School and Na-

parima College in San Fernando. His sixsisters worked to send him and his twobrothers to university abroad, with somehelp from the Canadian Mission. One brother, a pharmacist died young.

The other, Jules Mahabir, studied law inEngland, practiced in Trinidad, and was thefirst Indian to be appointed a magistrate inTrinidad.Kenneth's relatives in Canada include hisnephews the late Winston Jules Mahabir, aretired doctor and former Trinidad and To-bago cabinet minister, and Rodney Ma-habir, a psychiatrist practising in Toronto,both sons of Jules Mahabir.

THE CARIBBEANPhotos: 198 photographs of Indians in the

Indentureship Period Our Roots In India: The castes of theindentured Indians

Why We Left Indian Indentureship: Thenew slavery of British capitalism

Voyages: 90 Days of Horror: The voyageof the Fatel Razack

Arrivals:1.Indians indentured in 14 colonies2. Indian Emigrants to the Caribbean bycountry 3.Indians in St Vincent 4. Indian arrivals in St Lucia 5. Arrivals of Indians in St Vincent6. Indians in St Vincent: 1861 to the present7. The coming of Indians to Trinidad Indentureship System List of Plantationsby country that received indentured East In-dians

New Settlement:1. Indians in St Vincent and the Grenadines2. Indians in Belize3. Tamil migrations to Guadeloupe & Martinique

4. The Arrival of the Indians in Jamaica 5. A brief history of East Indians in Suriname

6. East Indians in Guyana After Indenture:1I. Indians, Indo Jamaicans rooting forchange by Beryl Williamson

2.The Jahajis of Maracas Valley (Trinidad)

Survival In New World:1.The Attenuation of the Caste SystemAmong Hindus in the Caribbean2. Amongst the Indians of St Lucia by Martin Latchana

3. Racism in St Vincent Against Indians

Publications: Indo-Caribbean Writers National Development1. The East Indian legacy in St Lucia2. Pausing to reflect:.Indian presence inJamaica

3. The importance of the Indian to Trinidad Agriculture: The Rice Industry in GuyanaCaribbean Achievers1. The Indian achiever from GuadeloupeErnest Moutoussamy

2 The legendary Siewdass Sadhu, builder of the Temple in the Sea

3. Ria Ramnarine, Trinidad's first female world boxing champion

What's Our Name? Indian Arrival Day

Religious Heritage1. Hindus of South America 2. Religion in St Lucia by Richard Cheddie3. Muslims in GuyanaPreserving Our Culture 1. Indian Culture and its transformations inTrinidad

2. Researching the Indian presence in St Lucia

Sense of Identity1. Commemorating Indian Arrival inGuadeloupe 1854-2004

2. Osley Baptiste Vincentian of Indian descent

3. Jamaica: Indian Heritage Day is May 104. Indian Arrival Day in Florida 5. Dougla: The double/triple heritage

CanadaEarly Settlement1. Indo-Caribbeans in Canada2. Kenneth Grant Mahabir, Indo-Caribbeanpioneer to Canada (1908)

Cultural Artistes1. Where do we go from here? By ManshadMohammed

2.Madeleine Coopsammy: Winnipeg poet3. Indo-Caribbean Canadian writers:A bibliography

Achievers in Canada1. Journalist Ian Hanomansingh2. Ken Hussain: Academy Award winner3. Dev Bansraj Ramkissoon: Indian musical teacher supreme

4. Evans Morgan (St Vincent): Politician5. Dr Unus Omarali

Indian Arrival Day:Indian Arrival Day in Canada

Local Essays and Articles 1.Sharing experience with our children2. Carnival culture irrelevant and meaningless

3.Web sites on Indo-Caribbeans by LloydHarradan

South Asian Heart Health 1. South Asian HEART: Another enigmaof ARRIVAL

2. The rising toll of coronary heart disease

3. South Asian Heart: Action Plan forChange

4. Coronary artery disease and diabetesin South Asian emigrants

5 Heart Healthy Eating for South Asians

�Set up and maintained by Indo-Caribbeans in Canada��Freely available to all with internet access��Specially useful for students ��Contributions from the community welcomed��We aim to become a “one stop shop” for everything you wanted to know about Indo-Caribbeans�View the web site at www.indocaribbeanheritage.comContact us: Ram Jagessar 416-289-9088 gaiety17@yahoo.caLloyd Harradan 905-796-1683 lharradan@hotmail.com

KENNETH MAHABIR(From Page 1)

Indo-Caribbeans celebrate 99 yearsin Canada (From Page 1)Indo- Caribbeans have been the driving

force behind South Asian Heritage Month,which is often acknowledged by formerMPP Raminder Gill who piloted the SouthAsiah Heritage Month Act in the OntarioLegislature.In the Caribbean Indians started the pat-

tern with Indian Centenary celebrations inGuyana in 1838, and 1845 in Trinidad. Inthe late seventies Indo-Trinidadians revivedthe celebration as Indian Arrival Day, nowa public holiday.Indo-Caribbbeans in Canada took up the

challenge in 1988 when the Toronto groupOSSICC (Ontario Society for Services toIndo-Caribbean Canadians) marked the150th anniversary of the coming of Indiansto the new world (on May 5, 1838 inGuyana) with a series of events. For manyyears later OSSICC carried on an annualevent called Indo Caribbean Heritage Day. The Indo Trinidad Canadian Associationpicked up the baton from 1997, and to-gether with several other groups began pro-moting Indian Arrival and Heritage Monthin May . Groups in Hamilton, Winnipeg andOttawa joined in and soon there were overa dozen celebrations of Indian Arrival inCanada.It waas this concept that Raminder Gill

took up in 2001 when he successfully sawthe South Asian Heritage Act through Par-liament. The Act is now low in Ontario, andSouth Asians from places other than theCaribbean have taken up South Asian Her-itage Month and greatly broadenied itsscope. The celebration of South Asian HeritageMonth is now entering the school systemand the media. Indians, Pakistanis,Bangladeshi, Sri Lankans, Fijians, Mauri-tians are among the groups who considerthemselves South Asian enougth to cele-brate. May 5 rightly remains South AsianArrival Day, as it marks the arrival ofIndo-Guyanese ancestors of people whohave now made a second migration toCanada. Jamaica has been celebrating May 10 asIndian Heritage Day, and the NationalCouncil for Indian Culture in Jamaica hasbeen sponsoring a week of activities in Mayaround the them of Indian Arrival and Her-itage.This year the St Vincent and Grenadines In-dian Heritage group marks an Indian Ar-rival week of activities commencing WhitMonday, May 28, 2007 and climaxing onIndian Arrival Day, Friday June 1, 2007with activities for the entire day. These in-clude a cricket match in the morning andperformance by contingent from India inan afternoon’s programme. The St Vincentgovernment has officially declared June 1as Indian Arrival Day and pledged to helpthe group preserve the Indian heritage.This year is another first for Indo-

Caribbeans, as a group of Grenada Indianshas decided to stage that island’s first everyIndian Arrival Day celebrations.In Trinidad, where Indian Arrival Day is

a public holiday, the month of May hasbeen taking on the appearance of IndianHeritage Month, with dozens of celebra-tions being held all over the island.Multiple celebrations with extensive pub-lic support have also been seen in Guyana,where community groups continue to cele-brate Indian Arrival Day in defiance of thegovernment that seems to prefer ArrivalDay for all immigrant groups in Guyana.

SOUTH ASIAN HERITAGE MONTH

An Act to proclaim May as South AsianHeritage Month and May 5 as South AsianArrival Day

Assented to December 14, 2001

Preamble

South Asian immigrants began arriving inOntario at the start of the 20th century.Working primarily in the sawmill industry,South Asian immigrants settled in variousparts of the province. For South Asians, themonth of May has been a time of celebra-tion and commemoration of their arrivalfrom the Indian subcontinent to the Ameri-cas beginning on May 5, 1838.

While most South Asians came to our coun-try from India, many others came to On-tario from such places as Pakistan, SriLanka, Bangladesh, Uganda, Kenya, SouthAfrica, Mauritius, Singapore, Malaysia,Fiji, the United Kingdom, Trinidad and To-bago and Guyana. Today, South Asiansmake up a significant proportion of On-tario's population and are proud to drawupon their heritage and traditions, con-tributing to many aspects of culture, com-merce and public service across thisprovince.

It is appropriate to recognize and pay trib-ute to the contributions South Asians havemade, and continue to make, to the devel-opment and general welfare of Ontario.

Therefore, Her Majesty, by and with the ad-vice and consent of the Legislative Assem-bly of the Province of Ontario, enacts asfollows:

South Asian Arrival Day1. May 5 in each year is proclaimed asSouth Asian Arrival Day.

South Asian Heritage Month2. The month of May in each year is proclaimed as South Asian Heritage Month.

Commencement3. This Act comes into force on the day itreceives Royal Assent.

Short title4. The short title of this Act is the SouthAsian Heritage Act, 2001.

MORE KIDNAP STORIES Indo-Caribbean Times MAY 2007 Page 10

first came into the police station and shestarted begging the officers, literally, to dosomething. They eventually agreed to ac-company her back to her home, but saidthey had to wait because there was no ve-hicle currently available. She offered totake them with her, but they said that thatwas “contrary to policy because she was acivilian.” They had to wait until the official police

vehicle, which was on inquiries, returned,they told her. Her belly started churningwith a mother’s grief and gut-wrenchingpain. She telephoned her husband who hadalready marshalled several vehicles withfriends, villagers and family to go in searchof their daughter. She was comforted a bit and found herselfprofusely thanking her husband who an-grily retorted, “What stupidness yuh talkin,is my child yuh know?” She gave the offi-cers the “good news” only to be told thatthey were wrong to take the law into their

o w nh a n d sand notwait forthe po-l i c e .“Allyuheh needno po-lice, al-lyuh isall yuhown po-lice,” an

officer told her. She left the station. An hour later, two po-lice officers arrived at her home saying thatthey had come in connection with “someting about some kidnapping.” They said thisnot only with an air of disbelief, but alsowith more than a hint of sarcasm. They thenproceeded to ask the same question that thepolicemen at the station has asked her:Whether her daughter had a boyfriend. They then interrogated her about whethershe had any enemies. Unable to cope withthe trauma and confusion of the thoughtsthat were now assailing her, she called forthe neighbour who had witnessed the kid-napping, to speak with the officers.

Worthless police theories

She swears that as long as she lives, shewould never be able to forget the snidecomment she overheard from one of the of-ficers that “she (her daughter) probably runaway with a man for a few days.” She panicked as she heard the cop say

this, remembering reading about the grue-

Two police officers sat behind the desk.They stared at her blankly. Neither manmoved a muscle; they stared at her asthough she had horns growing out of herhead. She realised she was not commanding thepolicemen’s attention nor conveying anysense urgency of her plight. She tried again.She cleared her throat and raised her voiceto repeat: “My daughter has just been kid-napped!” One of the policemen, rising sluggishly,

a s k e d ,“So howyuh knowshe getk i d -napped?”F r a n t i -cally, sheexplainedthat herdaughterw a ssnatchedwhile shed r i v i n g

through the front gate of their home. As her words poured out, she began to cry.The policemen asked for a description ofthe vehicle, but she couldn’t give any be-cause she, the mother, was not at home atthe time her daughter was kidnapped in thedriveway of their home. She said a neigh

Victim Neisha Seeteram, nine years old

bour who saw the entire incident describedthe vehicle as a heavily tinted, white B13Sentra. The policemen asked her whether her

daughter had a boyfriend. She said no. Theother officer picked up the photo of herdaughter from the counter and exclaimed,“Yuh mean to say ah good lookin gyul likedis eh have a boyfriend? Yuh mean you dohknow if she have one?” Confused and dazed, aware of the fact thattime was passing quickly and frustrated bythe casual attitude and irrelevant questionsof the policemen, the mother asked, “Whatdoes whether she has a boyfriend or nothave to do with the fact that she was kid-napped?”

Dead silence.

The officer asked his colleague (who washolding the picture) whether he should callthe Anti-Kidnapping Squad (AKS). Hereplied, “For what? We eh have no proofdat dis gyul was kidnapped.”

Contrary to policy

Almost 30 minutes had gone since she

some rape and murder of 12-year-oldRadha Pixie Lakhan whose body had onlyrecently been discovered, she had beenmurdered. She remembered that littleRadha’s mother had expressed a cruel andironic sense of relief that at least her daugh-ter’s mutilated corpse had put to rest thenasty rumours leaked to the media by thepolice that her daughter had gone off witha man. She remembered that that was themain theory and lead the police were work-ing on until a search party stumbled uponthe child’s lifeless body. A few hours later, three officers from theAKS arrived at the family home. She saidthey appeared more concerned and gen-uine, unlike the other officers who the fam-ily has seen so far. The AKS officers treated

her daughter’s disappearance as a real kid-napping and not a missing person’s case. The AKS officers told her they needed totap her phone line. She agreed, the exces-sive protocol and bureaucracy took twowhole days. The officers told her that it wasnot necessary for any technician to visit herhome as the phone line could be tapped atsource through TSTT. It was that easy. Acrude tape recording device was then usedto monitor and record all telephone calls.The unimpressive, archaic recording de-

vice led her to question the officers aboutthe availability of more modern equipment.The officers explained to her that althoughsuch high-tech equipment existed, it wasnot available to the AKS because it was“being used for other purposes by theState.” They confessed to not having the neces-

sary equipment and resources to do theirjob, but seemed committed to getting thejob with what they had, she said.

Praise, criticism for AKS

The mother was full of praise for the AKSofficers as they lived through the ordealwith the entire family with great empathyand understanding. She wondered whetherthese officers receive counselling as theymoved from one case to the next. There was, however, one particular offi-

cer whom she said she did not trust — heseemed more interested in providing finan-cial advice as to how she could raise theransom money as opposed to trying to findher daughter. Truth be told, she felt thatwith only the odd-looking tape recorder attheir disposal, the AKS officers were morehelpful at counselling the family than con-ducting a serious investigation into the kid-napping. The kidnappers knew that theresidential line was tapped, they contactedthe family through friends and relatives,she said.

Good cop, Bad CopNo. 4 in Anand Ramlogan’s sensational exposé on the ugly truth of Trinidad kidnapping

And she revealed that during one fright-ening conversation with the kidnappers,they actually called the name of one of theAKS officers who was assisting the familyin negotiating the ransom payment from thehome phone.The kidnappers called this officer’s name

in an effort to prove their claim that the po-lice too, was involved in the crime. Thoughit frightened her, she did have her doubtsabout this claim. She had been reading up on kidnapping

on the Internet and read that the kidnappersclaiming the police were involved was acommon tactic designed to erode trust andconfidence in the cops so that the familywould bow to the wishes of the kidnappersand pay up. But still, she did not ignore ordiscount the possibility that the police couldbe involved. She thought of that particularofficer who was so intent on advising thefamily on how to go about raising moneyto pay the ransom; who constantly soughtinformation from her about local and for-eign bank accounts, properties and other as-sets. He had told her to sell off a piece ofland she had inherited from her father andseemed to be more than just disappointedwhen she appeared to be reluctant to takethis advice. He had even jokingly offered topurchase the land himself, commentingaloud that he was looking for a nice place,she recalled.

One good Samaritan

The ransom money was eventually paid andher daughter was released. She walked formiles in the dark, until the sun was comingup and a kind and brave motorist stoppedfor her. While she was walking, severaldrivers slowed down, observed her dishev-elled and tattered appearance, but refusedto stop. The duct tape that had been repeat-edly ripped from her mouth during her twoweeks of captivity had left the flesh raw.With her hands having been tied behind herback, she had been unable to drive away theflies and mosquitoes; her face was coveredwith the insect bites. Back at the police sta-tion, the police refused to allow the motherto see her daughter saying they were await-ing instructions. She almost went insane. How could they prevent her from seeing

her daughter? As she sat in the waitingroom, she saw an officer enter the station,look at her daughter and heard him say,“How all yuh have dis woman smelling upde place so. W’appen to she? Like she getrape or what?” Her daughter was eventuallyexamined by a doctor and allowed to gohome with her.

Secret and death

One of the AKS officers who was stationedat her home while her daughter was in cap-tivity subsequently paid her a secret visit.This officer confessed to having grave mis-givings about one of his senior colleagues.She saw him as one of the more profes-sional and caring officers and she allowedhim to speak with her traumatised daugh-ter, to see if she could be of any assistancein his attempts to investigate the possibleinvolvement of his senior colleague in thekidnapping. She never saw or heard from this officer

again, but was to subsequently read in thenewspapers that he had been killed in a po-lice station by another officer whosefirearm had allegedly been accidentally dis-charged.

Police ignore mother’s frantic plea “My daughter’s been kidnapped!”

Pixie Lakhan kidnapped, killed

Reshma Boodoo-thrown outof kidnap car and killed

Saada Singh, 3 year old kid-napped at nursery school

Victim Nadie Rampersad, 16

ACHIEVERS Indo-Caribbean Times May 2007 Page 11

By Staff WriterFlashback to 1999, Randy’s debut per-

formance at age 6 is at York University , forthe Scott-Mendez cultural program. At firsthe is nervous, but after his performance

deafening applause breaks out. This makeshim feel a little less nervous, a little moreproud of himself, a little more confident. Itgives him a sense of accomplishment. Hedoes three film songs, "Kuch Kuch HotaHai" title song from the film of the samename, "Suraj Kab Door" from "KaranArjun" and "Karlo Karlo", film not known.Now fast forward to April 28th, 2007 , hismost current performance is at his homeduring a family puja. In addition to theusual slate of bhajans, he renders "JheeneRe Jheene" in different ragas. This drawsspontaneous applause from the small reli-gious gathering even though culturally it isunusual to applaud at religious functions."Applause is always nice. It makes me feelproud of myself," says Randy, recalling theoccasion.Meet Randy Mahadeo, rising star, child

prodigy in Indian music and a young rolemodel for all young people everywhere.

Age: 14 years Grade 9, West Humber Col-legiateStarted music:Age 4 First public perform-ance: age 6Activities: sings, plays tabla, and keyboardFavourite singer: Anup JalotaFavourite actress:Aishwarya RaiFavourite film: Umrao Jaan 2006Favourite sport: basketballFavourite TV show: Eye on AsiaFavourite season: summerFavourite summer activity: playing sportsFavourite subject in school: Music, bothEastern and WesternRole model: My Guriji (BansrajRamkissoon of Saaz O Awaaz MusicSchool of Brampton)Wanna be: I want to explore my opportuni-ties probably in music, preferably Easternmusic.Award received: 2005, “For ContributionToward Enhancing the Lives of TablaKendar Students" from the Tabla KendarSchool.

Randy lives with Mom Sheila and youngersister Racquel. Mom speaks in a soft, hum-ble voice about Randy:“He is devoted to his culture and is a verypleasant child, humble and loving. He al-ways liked going to the mandir, doing pujaand singing bhajans.“He gets along well with Racquel. There islittle misunderstanding between them andif any misunderstanding does arise, Randy

The Indo Caribbean Cultural Society ofBritish Columbia has over 75 paid up mem-bers today, just six years after the groupwas formed in 2001. That is just amazingwhen you consider that by most accountsthere are just a few hundred Indo-Caribbeans in all of British Columbia.ICCSBC members and their families couldbe as much as half of the Indo-Caribbeanpopulation in the province.When a group of nine Indo-Guyanese andIndo-Trinidadians got together in Rich-mond to form a group six years ago, all theywanted was to have a Divali celebration.The Trinidad and Tobago Association that

most of them belonged to refused to have aDivali event, so they walked away andformed their own group.Former president Naraine Mohabir relatedthat he, his wife Joyce, Ena and ArnoldBridgelalsingh, Ram Ramsaroop, HarnanSingh, Hollis Kelly, Ruben Paul and SheilaOmaid just got together and started thegroup with a bang. With strong supportfrom Indo-Caribbeans not only in Rich-mond, but also in Victoria, Vancouver, Sur-rey and Burnaby, their Divali celebrationwas a huge success. Over 400 people turnedup, among them the mayor of Richmond,and then BC Attorney General UjjalDosanjh (who later became the first Indo-Canadian Premier of BC).Starting as a Diwali Committee 2000,

the group registered as the ICCSBC in2002. It filled a need for East Indians,whose ancestors had left India in the midnineteen century and whose interpretationof Indian Culture is based on a homelandfrom another time and largely based inUttar Pradesh and Bengal .Diaspora Indians from Trinidad , Guyana ,Mauritius and Fiji , have enjoyed a com-mon camaraderie and even their names aresimilar.From then on it was full speed forward.

Next year the group added Holi celebra-tions, Indian Arrival Day and a summer pic-nic in August to their annual agenda. It haspulled the Indo-Caribbean community to-gether in ways they never expected. Mem-bers are very generous in supporting anyprojects. They socialize and support eachother, and operate almost like a villagecommunity that just happens to be spreadout over hundreds of kilometers.Many of the members are Hindus, who

have yagnas and pujas in their homes. Asyet, they don’t have their own Hindumandir, but visit the Vedic Cultural Soci-ety/Ram Krishna Mandir run by Fijian Hin-dus.Naraine said the Hindi speaking Fijians

is always the problem-solver. He even playsin lead role in getting her to practice hermusic more often”, says a very proud Mrs.Sheila Mahadeo who has successfullypassed on values from back home inTrinidad to both her children.“Randy has received trophies at his

school of music for things like best per-formance at school ceremonies.People love Randy to perform and they

pay him what they want, but are alwaysvery generous."Randy has been learning music from the

Saaz O Awaaz school under teacher DevBansraj Ramkissoon since he was 4. Noth-ing keeps him away from class, not evenheavy traffic in winter and he has missedonly one or two days at most.Being so focused is rare in for most chil-dren, yet Randy has kept up his attendanceat school and perseveres with regular prac-tice on a daily basis at home when otheryoung people would be doing other funthings! He has been going to his musicclasses for the past ten years, no mean feat.A love for music coupled with his Guruji’sbacking make for a powerful mixture in hismusical life.

What is your motivation, what keeps yougoing in your music?

"Music inspires me, but an even biggerinspiration is Guruji. He makes me want toadvance more, go deeper. About me, hethinks I have a lot of potential. However,he won’t say who his best student in schoolis. He never wishes to make anyone feelbad or make them stop music. He loveseveryone the same. Guruji always says thatpractice makes perfect and recommendsone hour of practice every day, but I do twoto two and a half hours a day.”"Because of my music, I have grown a lot.It doesn't interfere with my school work andall my grades are good.”

How has the transition from childhood toyouth and adolescence affected yourmusic?

“Moving from elementary school to highschool has not interfered with my music.When my voice changed, though, I had topractice more. Although love for music ismy main motivation, I get a lot of encour-agement from my cousin Ramona Sylvan.She often accompanies me on the tabla andis extremely enthusiastic. She attends theTabla Kendar School that gave me the 2005award. My sister, Racquel, is also intomusic. She also practices regularly, and shealso does well."(CONTINUED ON PAGE 17)

in the beginning didn’t have a high impres-sion of Caribbean Hindus, who speakmostly English and appear somewhat west-ernized. That ended when the notedGuyanese Pundit Prakash Gossai held hisfirst yagna at the Fijian mandir in 2004. The Fijians were surprised and greatly

impressed at Gossai’s ability to read inHindi and Sanskrit, and to explain so wellin English. His bhajan singing was a reve-lation to the Fijians, who also learned thatCaribbean Hindus practiced very accept-able Hinduism. Gossai will be doing ayagna again at the beginning of June, andNaraine has graciously invited Caribbean

Hindus from all over Canada to come astheir guests.

Today the ICCSBC is moving tostrengthen itself and prepare for the comingyears. Several young people have beenbrought in at the board level to make surethere is another generation of leaders tocarry on. There is an active 20 memberyouth group that handles the dances andperformances in their programs. Theyhave Indian dance classes and Hindi class-esThey have set up a web site, and are busymaking contacts in Canada and back in theCaribbean. A magazine could be on thehorizon. Some of the Hindu members havepublished their own Lakshmi Handbookthis year.There are challenges, which should be ex-pected for a tiny community far away fromlarge Indo-Caribbean communities inplaces like Toronto and from their homecountries.Naraine says one challenge comes from

the older Trinidadians, who came to B.C. asearly as the 1950’s. “At the time there werefew Trinidadian women here, so they mar-ried white Canadians. Now many yearslater, they are searching for their roots andwe are trying to accommodate them.”An equally tough challenge comes from

the young people, who are an ultra tiny mi-nority in B.C. “While they are young andin school it’s okay, but later they seem tohave problems with their identity as Indo-Caribbeans. Some are marrying outside ofthe group and find their partners not tooready to relate to our culture and commu-nity,” he says.But these challenges are the same for

larger Indo-Caribbean communities in On-tario, Quebec and elsewhere. B.C. with itsfive hundred odd Indo-Caribbeans is noteven 1 percent of the 200,000 Indo-Caribbeans in Canada, but its ICCSBCgroup may have some lessons for us as awhole on how to make an Indo-Caribbeancommunity in Canada.

A young music prodigy Indo Caribbean Cultural Society of B.C. keeps the heritage alive in the West

Racquel and Randy Mahadeo perform at a recent cultural program in Mississauga

Former ICCSBC president Naraine Mohabir and wife Joyce at a recent function

SAY IT IN PICTURES Indo-Caribbean Times MAY 2007 Page 12

Guyana President Bharratt Jagdeo and wife Varshnie, seen here inhappier times at their wedding, have disclosed that their marriageis over and they are getting divorced. The announcement came as asurprise to many Indo-Caribbeans in Canada who were not awareof any problem in the marriage.

They’re still talking about Hollywood actorRichard Gere’s kiss with Bollywood’s ShilpaShetty that shocked millions of Indians. He wasmaking the point that AIDS cannot be spread bykissing on the cheek, but Indians didn’t buy it.

An Indian woman carries her child into a pollice sta-tion in Kampala. Uganda, after rioters targetedAsians.Scores of Asian Indians were beaten and oneman killed. In 1971 dictator Idi Amin expelled all75,000 Asians , with much popular support.

What’s the biggest tourist attraction in Trinidad these days? It’s the world famous,and unique Hindu temple in the sea, originally built by one man, Sewdass Sadhu.

Dhoom 2 and its raft of stars, including newlweds Abhishek Bachan and Aishwarya Rai,are up for numerous awards at the Bollywood Movie Awards on May 26 in New York.

It is no exaggeration to say that over a billion people were intensely interested when top Bollywood stars Abishek and Ash married in what many called the Bollywood of thecentury. India alone has over 1.2 billion people and most of them were definitely interested. Many Indo-Caribbeans were just as interested, though some of the Trinidadianswere not too happy with the balisier flowers in the curtains behind Aishwarya (see picture at top left).

CONSUMER WATCH Indo-Caribbean Times May 2007 Page 13

This writing is not intended to educate thereader on facts about foods or tell you howto choose what you eat. These facts areavailable from various sources includinggovernment issued guidelines etc. The in-tention is to point out that it is entirely up toyou, the consumer to make the rightchoices. One would hope that in this day of healthconsciousness, that consumers would makechoices based on information on labels offood packages. This information is quiteuseful and includes things like the amountof fat, sodium, calories, fiber, etc of the con-tents. During a recent trip to the grocery, a boy

caught my attention. The way he walkedlooked strange. He was actually dragginghis feet rather than lifting them in the nor-mal manner. I noticed his face was swollenand puffy and his expression was one ofdiscomfort. Further along I saw that the kid was quiteoverweight. Both parents looked to be nor-mal size, not overweight at all. I thoughtthat maybe the kid had a medical conditionbut what I saw confirmed otherwise. The father was just filling the shopping

cart with all of the wrong things, chips, pop,candy etc. It turned out that the majority ofitems purchased by this family were thingsthey should be avoiding. The shopping cartwas full of things like muffins, burgers,homo milk and cheese, a variety of snack,croissant and white bread. Is there any wonder that the kid was in

By Reynold RamdialBy way of definition, a Caribbean Hot Spotwould be an area where one can find au-thentic Caribbean cuisine, food stuff andother items not normally found in the mainstream shops. Thirty five years ago, one ofthe few truly hot spot in the Toronto areawas a single specialty grocery store calledPiri’s Dixieland at Lawrence and Pharmacy.If one wanted some traditional food, pep-pers etc. that was the place to get it.Chances were that one would run into ac-quaintances there.

A major Caribbean hot spot nowadays isthe Albion and Islington area,1 block eastand 1 block west of Islington. In this areais located three of the GTA’s best knownand most popular Indo Trinidad eateries.Saturday special is breakfast buffets and thechoices are incredible. The food is totallywholesome, healthy and home style What’smore; these establishments are not like holein the wall but places where families andfriends can enjoy comfortable dine-in ac-commodations.

There are also two major specialty gro-ceries and convenience stores where onecan get just about anything tropical.Choices of fresh vegetables, fresh andfrozen meat and ground provision are asgood as one could expect to find in a mar-ket back in the Caribbean.

To the competing business owners thiscould be viewed as either not desirable or

beneficial. After all, when there is competi-tion, isn’t there a chance that business willbe lost to the guy next door or that theremay not be enough business for everyone?

The Indo Caribbean Times has both sur-veyed all of the businesses and gotten opin-ions from patrons and owners. It is aresounding affirmative that everyone winsin this situation. From the survey, the resultis that all establishments are very ade-quately patronized with no shortage of cus-tomers and business. As for the patrons,they get good value for their money andchoices galore. Talking about value, Tues-days are known as “Toonie Tuesday” whenfood can be bought for somewhere arounda Toonie.

We have come a very long way from thedays when we had to travel long distancesto get our kind of stuff. We are no longer atthe mercy of the merchant with “take it orleave it” prices and attitudes. Service isfriendly and prices are reasonable.

These Caribbean Hot Spots are good meet-ing places weather by accident or design. Itis likely to have a good ole talk with abouteverything and anything and especiallyabout back home affairs and politics.

My personal experience is that I alwaysenjoy good food, meet interesting peopleand enjoy the back home style atmosphere.Indo Caribbean Times, in fulfilling its com-mitment to the community, will continue tobring readers up to date with and informthem of more Caribbean Hot Spots. Thenumbers of these locations are on the riseand sometimes not quite as noticeable to thepasserby.

If you know of a Caribbean Hot Spot inyour community, give us a call at 416 2893898 or email to ictimes@rogers.com.

Check out sizzlingCaribbean hot spot atAlbion & Islington

such shape? I was tempted to speak to theparents but decided against doing so. I see this as an example of typical unin-

formed consumers buying based on tasteand or to appease their kids. There is ab-solutely no thought given to health. It bothers me to no end and it should

bother you too, that manufacturers wouldmake and sell goods that they know are un-healthy. I dare say that the vast majority offast food is unhealthy. This includes burg-ers, donuts, muffins, fried chicken andFrench fries At one time, muffins were pro-moted as healthy. Coffee with added caf-feine to get us addicted, pop and juices withtoo much sugar and artificial sweetenersare proven to be bad for us. Even healthy foods like salads and some

sandwiches become unhealthy when dress-ings and sauces are added to them. It isequally bothersome that consumers buythese items. The decision to buy is based toa very large extent on taste, convenienceand lower prices. The results of eating thesefoods are more kids like the one in the gro-cery. Not to mention obesity at epidemicproportions. It is up to consumers to know what is

good for them and to make the rightchoices. If we must buy then choose thehealthier items and maybe we will send astrong enough message that we do not wantthe other junk items. This may influence theproduct offerings and no doubt we wouldbe better off health-wise.

IT IS UP TO THE CONSUMER

AFTER

BEFORE

COMMUNITY Indo-Caribbean Times MAY 2007 Page 14ANNOUNCEMENTSDEVI MANDIR at 2590 Brock Road,Pickering presents the contemporary danceperformance Nrityargha on Saturday May5, at 6.30 pm. Dances will be performed bySukalyan and Entourage, an ensemble oftalented artists from India, Canada and theUnited States, and directed by SukalyanBhattacharya. Children from the DeviMandir will also perform. Entrance is $15for adults, $5 for children under 12. Forinfo contact the mandir at 905-686-8534,Amar at 416-249-3579 or Sam at 905-428-6905.

SOUND SENSATIONS present a GalaDinner Concert on the Father’s Day Week-end, Saturday June 16 at 7 pm. Venue is theRoyal Banquet Hall, 185 Statesman Drive,Brampton (North of Derry, off EdwardsBlvd. East of Hwy 10 and West of Hwy410). Featured artistes include Rajmini,Romena Ali, Jaya and Devarti from India,Bebe, Shanti Jackree, Shalindra, Sherry,and Bobby Armoogam. Music by SoundSensations led by Bobby Armoogam. Ad-mission is $30 and dress code is formal. Forinfo and tickets call Bobby at 905-450-8420, Shalindra at 905-812-1887 or Shantiat 416-588-7827.

June 1-3, INDO-CARIBBEAN CUL-TURAL SOCIETY OF BRITISH CO-LUMBIA holds a Three Day Yagna at theVedic Cultural Society, Ram KrishnaMandir, 8200 #5 Road, Richmond BC.Pundit Prakash Gossai will conduct theyagna.

THE CANADIAN COUNCIL OFAHLESUNNAYATWAL JAMAAT, acoalition of 29 masjids in the GTA, invitesall to Prophet’s Day on May 20, from 1.00p.m. at Queen’s Park, Toronto. The event,which is a celebration of the birthday of theProphet Mohammed, begins with a paradedown University Avenue, prayers for thesick in front of Sick Kids Hospital, andends at City Hall with a public function.Addresses by dignitaries such asStreetsville MP Wajid Khan are included,along with Islamic singing, and Fun Dayfor children.

THE CANADA HINDU HERITAGECENTRE’s Kala Niketan (School of Per-forming Arts) presents RabindranathTagore’s Laadakwai (The Spoilt One), alive dance drama in English on SaturdayMay 19 at 6.30 p.m. The drama, which ischoreographed and directed by Ella Devaniand Sunil Lakhani, is being held at theMeadowvale Theatre, 6315 MontevideoRoad, Mississauga (off Battleford, West ofErin Mills, and South of the 401). Also fea-tured is the annual dance recital of upcom-ing stars of the school. Tickets are $15 and$10. For info contact Tara at 905-696-8886.

THE NAPARIMA ALUMNI ASSOC-CIATION OF CANADAwill hold its An-nual General Meeting and Election ofOfficers on Satuday May 26, from 1.30-3.30 pm at the Montessori Teacher TrainingCentre, 1050 McNicoll Avenue, Scarbor-ough. For info call Ian Ramdial at 905-844-1254.

APPLICANTS for 2007 bursaries fromthe Naparima Alumnia Association ofCanada are asked to download applicationsand guidelines from the group's web site atwww.naactoronto.ca/documents/NAACBursaryApplication.pdf. The deadline for ap-plications is November 16, 2007. The group

VEDIC CULTURAL CENTRE

ANNUAL EXHIBITION &CULTURAL PROGRAM

FOR SOUTH ASIAN HERITAGE MONTH

Saturday May 5, 2007Exhibition from 5:30pm, Stage Program from 7:00pm# 4345 14th Avenue. Markham, (905) 475-5778

Theme of Program: Scientific and techno-logical Contributions from South Asia

Keynote Speakers: Dr Desai from UFT; Dr Naresh Singh, UNDP scientist, Dr V. Rambihar, Cardiologist, Scarbor-ough Grace Hospital

Other attractions: Ethnic Food Bar, Cultural Program of songs, music anddance

Admission FreeDonations welcome

awards five bursaries annually, each val-ued at $200 each, to students who must begraduates of an Ontario high school andfirst year students in an accredited Cana-dian post secondary institutions. Appli-cants must also be a NAAC studentmember for the last two years.

ISLAMIC FORUM OF CANADA in-vites you to their International FoodBazaar 2007, on Sunday May 6 at the Is-lamic Forum of Canada, 200 AdvanceBoulevard, Toronto (next to the FabulousFlea Market).This family experience begins at 1 pm,and features delicious foods fromAfrica,Bangladesh, Canada, Egypt, Guyana,India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palestine, StLucia, Trinidad and much more. For infocall 905-799-0763, 416-790-8859, 416-840-5714, 41-791-7173, or e-mail atinfo@islamicforum.net.

GUYANA AWARDS (2007) GALA incommemoration of the Independence ofGuyana will be held on Saturday May 26at the Sheraton Hotel, Richmond Hill,starting at 6 pm. The Gala, held under theauspices of the Consul General ofGuyana, honours notable Guyanese liv-ing in Canada. Past recipients include DrBhudendra Doobay, Ken Singh, ShereneShaw, Ron Fanfair and Norman Sue.Music is by Byron Lee and the Drago-naires and Victor Shim. Tickets are $100and dress is formal. For info call 416-412-6093 or 905-686-4711.

SATYA JYOTI CULTURAL SABHAcelebrates its 18th anniversary with a for-mal dinner and Evening of Film, Ghazaland Chutney Music on Saturday May 5,starting at 7 pm. Venue is the Royal Ban-quet Hall, 185 Statesman Drive, Missis-sauga (Highway 10 and Derry), withentertainment from Hewant Panwar,Sachin Sharma, Shanti Jakree, Neil Suru-jdeo,Karan Persaud and Dennis Latch-mana. Tickets are $30 a person. For infocall 416-543-5357, 905-913-0131 or 416-989-5571.

BHAGVAD GITA FOR EACH HOMEBulk distribution centres. The Gita can be available in bulk at thefollowing contacts: Donations are ex-pected to fund further copies; any indi-vidual or organization wishing to assist inthis project can contact us.

CANADAToronto, Mississauga, BramptonRamnarineSahadeo 905 671 9233 e-mailramjihindu@rogers.com, Omesh SharmaOmesh@flexomark.com, Chandan Per-saud 416-754-2382,Gulcharan at 416 481-5777 gmo-habir@hotmail.com, Ram Jagessar416 289 9088 or ram@eol.ca

Richmond HillO m o P e r s a u domo@globalspectruminc.com 905-886-1724

Winnipeg:Ajodhya Mahadeo 204-661-6643

GUYANASaraswati Vidya Niketan ph. 2760013/14 Swami_aksharananda@hotmail.com

TRINIDADHindu Students Council:hsclink@gmail.com

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CANADIAN Museium of Civilizationpresents Festival of India, August 24-26,at 8640 Yonge Street, Richmond Hill.Over 10,000 are expected per day toenjoy a panorama of experiences fromIndia including:Ayurveda and Health careYoga and MeditationAstrology and PalmistryEthnic FoodsMusic ConcertsSpiritual DiscoursesBollywood Playback SingerFolk dances and PuppetryIndian movies and documentariesFashion showsPuppetryChildren’s theatreHandicraftExplanations of Indian religionsArtist’s VillageIndian booksRituals for Indian gods and goddesses

BUSINESS AND FINANCE Indo-Caribbean Times May 2007 Page 15

By Rudy Lochan

Why is a good credit rating so necessaryand important? If you wish to purchase ahouse, a car, furniture, get a phone, cableTV, etc. The vendor will check your creditrating. If your credit is good you are fine.However, if you have bruised credit, you’llhave some challenges. The vendor may re-fuse to work with you or he may request aguarantor or co-signer. But most often youare seen as high-risk and will therefore at-tract a higher interest rate as well as morestringent credit terms.In Canada it is relatively easy to borrow

money at competitive terms if you have agood credit history. A good credit historyincludes making all your payments on time. It is easy to develop or establish good

credit. It is even easier to harm or destroyyour credit. Here are some key points tobear in mind with respect to your credithealth:1. You need to have debt to create a creditrating. When you borrow, the loan is regis-tered with the credit bureau. As you repayyour loan it is recorded and monitored bythe bureau’s computer tracking system.Not having a loan is bad and the conse-quences can be the same as those for some-one with a bad credit rating2. Equifax credit rating (called Beaconscore) ranges from 300 to 900. Excellentbeing 900 and very poor being 300. Above680 is considered fairly well and above 720can be considered excellent.3. Check your Equifax bureau at lease oncea year to ensure that your credit report is ac-curate. About 75% of the credit reportshave inaccuracies that can harm. You mayget your report directly from Equifax online at www.equifax.com or by visitingtheir office at 110 Sheppard Avenue East,Suite 100 Toronto, Ontario M2N 6S1.4. If you don’t have any credit rating, startdeveloping one immediately. Get a creditcard or a loan from an institution that willreport your payment to the credit bureau.

This will start generating a credit score onwhich you will be rated.5. If you have bruised credit or there areinaccuracies on your report you need toclear these up. For inaccuracies on the re-port you need to contact Equifax and re-quest that the report be corrected. Forderogatory items on your report, you needto contact the reporting institution to re-solve them. Once it has been resolved, theywill request Equifax to update the report toreflect the correction.6. To maintain good credit you need to:� make all payments in a timely mannereven if it is the minimum payment.� try not to exceed 75% of your creditlimit. For example if your credit limit is$1000.00 then your balance should not ex-ceed $750. Maxing out or exceeding yourlimit can hurt your rating. Better yet; payoff the entire balance every month if youcan.� have a minimum of 2 cards/loans/trade-lines for 2 years. A good track record is im-portant. Generally a minimum of two yearscredit history is needed. Many lenderswould also like to see a minimum creditlimit of $2000. So just remember 2:2:2 (2trade lines, for 2 years with a minimumlimit of $2000)� limit Equifax credit enquiries to 1 every4 months. Too many enquiries will hurt therating. Once an institution pulls your creditit is recorded on your credit report and staysthere for 3 years. If you make a soft inquiry(one done directly by you to the credit bu-reau) this will not be recorded and it willhave no adverse impact on your credit re-port. A report can be obtained through a softinquiry directly from Equifax for a smallfee of just $23.95.� do not take out more that 3 cards orloans. Overextending your credit limit canadversely affect your credit score. This list is not exhaustive but taking thesefew advices will surely help you to main-tain excellent credit.

Rudy Lochan is the President and Brokerfor Anava Financing Inc. He has been inReal Estate Investment and Financing for20 yrs. He can be contacted directly at 416-410-7501 or by email atanava@rogers.com.

How to establishand maintain anexcellent personalcredit rating

By Ijaz Hosein

It's a common condition for home ownersin Canada to find themselves struggling topay their bills, pay their mortgage, pay fortheir car loans and credit-cards, as well assaving towards their retirement. Theirsalary is not enough to go around, and theyhave no other way to bring more into thepot. Cutting down on expenses is almostimpossible for most people.What they don't know is that most of themare sitting on an asset that is not being usedto strengthen their financial position andbuild for their future. This asset is the eq-uity in their home, which can be valued upto several hundred thousand dollars in cash.In most cases the equity in their homes is

just sitting there doing nothing while theypay off the typical 25 year mortgage ontheir home.Let me explain equity in the home. Eq-

uity is the difference between the currentvalue of your home and what you owe onyour mortgage. So if you bought a house 10years ago for $250,000 and it went up invalue by $100,000, then $350,000 is thecurrent value of your home. You still owethe bank $100,000 on your mortgage, soyou have $250,000 in equity in your home.That's a lot of money to leave lying

around unused. There is no way you cansave that kind of money from your salary,or by accumulating RRSP's a few thousanddollars a year. When you pay off your mort-gage you will have a hundred percent eq-

uity in your home, but no cash unless yousell your house. It makes all the sense in theworld to use your equity wisely now.The key word in that phrase is the word

wisely. You can get a home equity line ofcredit from the bank and buy a new car, thebig screen TV or other things that depreci-ate in value. But that is not so wise, anddoes not help your financial position in thelong term.What you can do instead let a reputable fi-nancial adviser get you a home equity lineof credit, and use that to secure your finan-cial future. He can get you a loan of 75% ofthe equity in your home, which would be,for example, $187,500 of that $250,000 eq-uity. By yourself you can only get a 50 per-cent loan.With that $187,500 he will pay off your

mortgage on the house, and maybe your carloan as well, leaving you with around$75,000 to be invested. You will pay thesame amount for the line of credit as youdid for the mortgage. Your $75,000 will beinvested in safe and protected funds thatwill double it 10 years or less.So here you are now with your mortgage

paid off, your debts consolidated and paidoff, with no extra payments and money ac-cumulating in your retirement fund. In 10years time when you would have paid offyour mortgage and found yourself houserich but cash poor, you find yourself withat least $150,000 in investments. And it wasall done with an unused asset, your homeequity, with minimal risk.This is not something we knew in the

Caribbean, where many of us own housesbefore we came to Canada . But it is cer-tainly something worth considering for ahome owner now living in Canada .

Ijaz Hosein is a financial adviser withBoosterlink Financial Inc. and the abovedescription is their Wealth Booster Plan.He can be reached at 905-470-9997 ext.255 or ihosein@boosterlink.com

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A new study suggests that most Canadi-ans are consuming far more salt in their av-erage daily diet than is necessary orrecommended.The Statistics Canada study, based on a

2004 survey, found that average dailysodium intake was far beyond the recom-mended upper limit, regardless of age.Among adults ages 19 to 70, the upper

limit was surpassed by more than 85 percent of men and 60 per cent of women.The tolerable upper-intake levels for

sodium established by the independent In-stitute of Medicine in Washington, D.C.,range from 1,500 to 2,200 milligrams a dayfor children aged one to three, to a maxi-mum of 2,300 mg for people aged 14 orolder.

The Globe and Mail

The study found that in 2004, the averagefor all Canadians was 3,092 mg of sodiuma day, one-third more than the point beyondwhich the risks of adverse health effects, es-pecially those linked to hypertension, risesignificantly.Sodium consumption exceeded the rec-

ommended levels throughout the country,but two provinces stood out, Quebec andBritish Columbia, where the average dailyintake for people aged one or older wasabout 3,300 mg.A relatively small grouping of foods ac-

counted for close to one-third of all thesodium Canadians consumed in 2004: The“sandwich category, pizza, sandwiches,submarines, hamburgers, hot dogs”, led theway, representing 19 per cent of sodium in-take, while soups accounted for 7 per centand pasta dishes 6 per cent.

HEALTH AND WELLNESS Indo-Caribbean Times MAY 2007 Page 16

By VS Rambihar MD, cardiologist.

Make every day a Heart Healthy Day,and everyday ask yourself -

What have I done for my heart today?

This month we celebrate our culture aspart of South Asian Heritage Month. Weshould also plan for the future and makeit one filled with health and happiness byalso making it South Asian Heart Month.

Our culture is rich and vibrant but there afew aspects we must change. SouthAsians worldwide are very sensitive tomoving to places like Canada where weput on weight, eat less healthy than weshould and exercise less. Studies haveshown that this causes much earlier andmore severe diabetes, heart and bloodvessel disease and early death in SouthAsians than others.

We now know how to prevent this, and itrequires your help. We now have tochange our culture to one of health, eat-ing more healthy, exercising more, find-ing out our risks early and livingaccording to our risks.

We have to include our children in this,to teach them healthy habits or let themteach us, and share these as families andin the community. We have to start righthere in the community, before it becomesbad enough to see doctors.

All of us are at greater heart risk than wethink, and we should use the great thingsabout our culture to change this. So talkto your friends, plan things for yourself,and plan community things to makehealth happen.

Find out your risks and make healthychoices, for yourselves, for your childrenand for the community. Make hearthealth a part of every community event.Some people have called this a crisis so itrequires different methods. Ask your doc-tor to treat you the usual and different be-cause of increased risk – increasedprevention and treatment. The usual isnot good enough.

Talk about health for 2 minutes at everyoccasion, even weddings, pujas, services,community event and everywhere else.It’s a new rule that whoever has a micro-phone in their hands must speak abouthealth for 2 minutes. And plan special ac-tivities for South Asian Heritage Monthand South Asian Heart Month to remindus to do more.

It is time for action. It is a crisis that weshould not let continue. Your health andyour life is at stake. Each one of usshould ask - what can I do for myself andfor the community to make for betterhealth and happiness.

Start a walking group, dancing, yoga, etc,and change things at home, at the templeand in the community to make healthhappen – eat better, get more exercise,keep as slim as possible and talk to eachother about health..

Most Canadiansare “too salty”,study findsWe have to ease uponthe salt shaker or faceheath risks like highblood pressure

Check your heart health this South AsianHeritage Month

Avoid the sauce and ask for brown rice, say the experts

Favourite sleeping position may give painA new survey suggests that our favouriteposition in bed may be causing headaches,tendon strain and sleepless nights.

The "Arrow" -- where snoozers sleeplengthwise on their sides -- is the most pop-ular position for Canadians, but causesstrain on the back and pelvis, according toa poll released by the Better Sleep Councilof Canada.

To help promote Better Sleep Month, theBSCC has released a survey on Tuesdaythat shows the sleeping habits of Canadiansmay be causing neck and back problems.

"If left unchecked, improper sleep posturecan wreak as much havoc on our bodies asspending long hours seated improperly at acomputer," Kathy Kawaja, a certified er-gonomist, said.

Sleeping regularly in bad positions mayalso deform the structure of a sleeper's backbone and lead to chronic joint and musclestrain in the neck, shoulder, and back, aswell as chronic headaches and poor posture.

"Considering we spend approximately one-third of our lives in bed, it's just as impor-tant for our bodies and overall health topractice the same good posture while asleepas when we are awake," Kawaja said.

The survey shows four in 10 sleepers haveawoken with some form of pain or discom-fort and 43 per cent of that group said it wasa result of an improper sleep position.

Men are most likely to prefer the "Arrow,"with 39 per cent of males surveyed sayingit is their preferred slumber position.

Women tend to favour the "Tummy Tuck,"which resembles the fetal position whenthey sleep.

Experts recommend a comfortable versionof the "Tummy Tuck," with a pillow be-tween the legs to keep the spine aligned.Sleeping on your back with a pillow underthe knees is another recommended sleepposition.

Sleeping on your stomach, also known asthe "Skydive," is another position to avoidbecause it causes overextension of the

lower back and awkward neck and shoul-der postures.

The third most popular sleep position is the

"Zombie" position, 15 per cent of Canadi-ans say they sleep on their back with theirarms by their side.

Meanwhile, the least popular position is the"Surrender" position; five per cent of Cana-dians say they sleep on their back with theirarms up by their head.

Married Canadians are said to experiencemore pain than solo sleepers, with 44 percent saying they sleep separated from eachother in bed, while just 28 per cent said theyboth sleep on their side.

"The best advice for couples is to rememberto apply some of those critical individualsleep posture tips when someone else isthere," Kawaja said.

"You might want to try hugging or spoon-ing, but if you're uncomfortable, are feelingpain or have limbs falling asleep that obvi-ously isn't the best sleep position to be in."However, experts say the position you pre-fer while asleep may not be the only thingto cause discomfort.

Kawaja says sleepers should think of theirmattress and pillow as tools to help them at-tain a restful slumber.

"People need sleep to recover from theday's activities, so it's obviously importantto consider what you're sleeping on to fa-cilitate that recovery," Kawaja said.

A good mattress, usually with a lifespan be-tween 8 and 10 years, should allow thesleeper to maintain the same natural spinealignment they have when standing.

Experts also recommend pillows should be

placed under the head but not under theshoulders, and that they should be thickenough to allow the head to rest in a com-fortable position.

The Arrow is the most popular position,specially with men, with 39 per cent ofmales surveyed saying it is their preferredslumber position. But the Arrow tends tocause strain on the back and pelvis.

Women tend to favour the Tummy Tuck,which resembles the fetal position whenthey sleep. It’s better than the Arrow.

Sleeping on your stomach, also known asthe Skydive is another position to avoid.

The third most popular sleep position isthe Zombie.

Five per cent of Canadians say they sleepin the Surrender position.

RELIGION Indo-Caribbean Times May 2007 Page 17

A young music prodigy(Continued from Page 11)

How has music changed your life?

"Music relates to religion. It promotes culture and love for your parents and Guru.It provides discipline and is a factor incharacter building," he says. "My sisterand I don't fight, don't want to fight. Wedon't compete with each other becausemusic brings a lot of love. It grounds youand if you are really inspired you want topractice more and more."

Do you get a lot of admiration from thegirls in the audience?

Randy laughs, "Yes, I do get admired bythe girls. It never bothers me. It is alwaysnice to have female attention."

And what are your plans for the future?

"Even though I am good in both Western

and Eastern music, I would much prefer topursue a career in Eastern music.

Can music heal people?

"Music can heal people because it workson your emotions. Each raga deals with adifferent emotion. Depending on the raga,it could heal. Bhajans also heal.

What sort of public exposure do you get?

"My public performances are on and offevents mainly for the Scotts and Mendezcultural shows. We get an opportunity toperform once a month at the Saaz O AwaazSchool in Brampton before an audiencemade up of all the parents and friends.Every year we have a graduation cere-mony and we move up one level. I alsoperform at my regular school functions atWest Humber Collegiate. The communityon the whole is generally very supportive.”

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HINDUS, Muslims, Jews and vegetariansgenerally are expected to react with disgustto the news that the American oil companyConocoPhillips and Tyson Foods, theworld's biggest meat producer, will producediesel from pork fat. Cows and chickenswill also be transformed to power motor ve-hicles. The companies say that this renewable

source of energy will be cleaner than con-ventional diesel. It is hoped that it will beavailable at petrol stations by the end of theyear.In two years, ConocoPhillips expects to

produce in the region of 175 million gallonsof animal diesel a year.While animal diesel may be an environ-

mentally friendly alternative, there are fearsit may not be to everybody's tastes or ethics.Mr Webster admitted that they were yet todiscuss this new product with vegetarianand religious groups. The diesel when pro-duced will be pumped into a network andmixed with other types of diesel. It will notbe possible to tell at petrol stations whetherthe diesel is made from animal fat or not.In a statement, the animal rights groupPETA expressed its dismay. "Clearly, theanswer to global warming isn't to fill gasguzzling cars with ground up remains oftortured animals, it is to go vegetarian,which is something every person can affordto do and should do for the sake of theirown health, animals and the environment.”

US company to produce diesel fuelfrom beef, chicken and pork fat

He said Botox injection were still allowedfor medical treatment but only in extremecases and if administered by specialists. "This decision refers to situations where

there are no alternatives for medical treat-ment," Shukor said. "Since its introduction, there have also

been many fake products in the market andthat is another reason why it is 'haram'," headded, using the term for something for-bidden under Islamic precepts. Botox injections have become popularamong affluent people in Malaysia, amainly-Muslim country, where many pre-fer to use it as an alternative to cosmeticsurgery which is also generally prohibitedunder Islam.

Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia's highest Is-lamic authority has banned Muslims fromusing Botox injections for cosmetic pur-poses. The National Fatwa Council on ruled thejabs were unsuitable because they containprohibited substances, including somemade from pigs, the New Straits Times re-ported. The council has no legal powers but Mus-lims who ignore their decrees are said to becommitting a sin. It made its decision "after studying reportsfrom abroad, local specialists and fatwasmade in Middle Eastern countries", councilchairperson Shukor Husin told the newspa-per.

No botox for Muslims in MalaysiaCosmetic surgery also not approved

CANADA Indo-Caribbean Times MAY 2007 Page 18

Canada Striving to Accommodate ImmigrantsBy Roop Misir, PhD

Recent Census

Immigration continues to be the drivingforce behind Canada's population growth.Data from the recently released 2006 cen-sus puts Canada's population at 31.6 mil-lion, an increase of 5.4 per cent since the2001 census. During the intervening period,Canada admitted some 1.2 million immi-grants. Currently, four out of five peoplelive in the urban centres. Those cities withpopulations in excess of one million includeCalgary, Edmonton, Toronto, Montreal,Vancouver and Ottawa-Gatineau. Alto-gether, some 45 per cent of Canadians re-side in these six metropolises. Immigrationis also having an impact on smaller citieslike Barrie and the town of Milton (both sit-uated on the outskirts of Toronto) .http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2007/03/13/3742894.html.

According to Doug Norris, formerly aStatscan official and now chief demogra-pher at Environics Analytics, “Births arepretty much matching up with deaths. It'sclear that the number of immigrants willdrive the growth.” If present trends con-tinue, the net influx of immigrants is likelyto become the only source of populationgrowth by about 2030. (http://www.the-globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070313.wcensuslede0313/BNStory/Front)

Immigration Essential to Economic Health

Canada continues to be a country with amodern lifestyle and very high standard ofliving. Yet as some of us appreciate,Canada’s population is also growing old. Incontrast, rapidly ‘developing’ countries(like Brazil, China and India) are now get-ting more affluent, but before their popula-tions become old. In the Canadian situation,controlled immigration may be having thepositive impact by attempting to offset theeffects of an aging national population.Since immigrants are significantly youngerthan residents, one result is that our agingpopulation becomes rejuvenated or is made“younger.” Of course, there are some Cana-dians who feel the need for curbs to immi-gration. However at least for theforeseeable future, the reality is that largeintakes of immigrants are essential to main-taining Canada’s economic health. The cur-rent low replacement level birth rate thataccentuates Canada's aging population cer-tainly casts doubt that Canadians can con-tinue to enjoy an affluent lifestyle and otherthings we now take for granted—like pen-sion plans, health care, income redistribu-tion programs and other social services.

Since immigrant workers are engaged invarious industries within the economy, theycontribute directly via taxation. In addition,they produce goods and provide servicesfor domestic consumption and export. Fur-thermore, they are consumers of food, livein houses, drive cars and visit places of en-tertainment. Thus, increased numbers ofimmigrants mean that there are more chil-dren to educate, ensuring continued viabil-ity and high standards in our schools,colleges and universities. When viewed inthis light, it is apparent that Canada willhave to admit increasing numbers of immi-grants, at least in the short term. Or untilperhaps such time when Canada’s natural

birthrate increases to the point where it cansustain a viable national population.

Accommodation to Minority Groups

With immigrants from all over the globenow being part of the Canadian ethno-cul-tural mosaic, the demographic mix can betruly overwhelming. The Charter of Rightsand Freedoms enacted in 1982 stipulatesthat essentially every citizen should betreated with respect and with dignity. Be-fore the enactment of the Charter however,things were not so clear cut. And there wereinstance of racial and cultural preferences,prejudices and biases.

However, we can now ask: Should weblame our present generation for historicalwrongs committed by Canadian politiciansof a different era? Those people in govern-ment with different mindsets from currentCanadian thinking? At times, it is easy tocondemn others for things that used to bethe norm in bygone days. Thankfully, in re-cent times governing political parties in theGovernment of Canada have made boldmoves to redress previous wrongs as theyseek to win the confidence of the electorate.

Japanese and Chinese Canadians

Some 22,000 Japanese Canadians were in-ternally displaced and interned duringWorld War II. Economic losses and mentaltrauma experienced had to be redressed.After much negotiation, the government ofCanada agreed to pay $21,000 for each sur-vivor, plus $12 million to for a communityfund, with the pledge to set up a CanadianRace Relations Foundation. Not enough totruly compensate victims for economic andother losses suffered, but nonetheless arecognition that an honest attempt wasbeing made by the government to correct ahistorical wrong. This settlement marked "agreat day for justice and human rights" and"a historic day for Canadians of Japaneseancestry who have been struggling so longto resolve the injustices of the 1940s".(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Miki).

Some years ago, Chinese Canadians alsoreceived a similar settlement and an apol-ogy from the government of Canada. Thearrangement was for a one-time payment of$2.5 million to Chinese Canadians to cor-rect wrongs for the hated “head tax”, im-posed exclusively on Chinese immigrantswho were admitted to Canada between1885 and 1947.

Justice for a Tortured Canadian

The recent case against Maher Arar servesas a fine example of the extent to which theCanadian government is prepared to go inorder to ensure justice for all citizens. Adual-citizenship (Canadian/Syrian), Ararwas nabbed by US authorities shortly afterthe 9/11 incidents while changing planes inNew York City en route to his home inMontreal. Contrary to international law, hewas sent to Syria, tortured there for tenmonths, and then released with no chargeshaving ever been laid. After a lengthy andcostly Commission of Inquiry, a settlementof $10 million plus another $2 million tocover his legal fees was reached. Accord-ing to some sources, the actual dollar valueof the inquiry and Ottawa's court costs putthe settlement somewhere in the area of $30million. In addition, Mr. Arar got hiswish—to clear his name—that of a unani-

mous apology from the House of Commonsfor his detention and torture in Syria(http://righttruth.typepad.com/right_truth/2007/01/maher_arar.html).

Any Closure for Air India Tragedy Inquiry?

The tragic downing of Air India Flight 182off the coast of Ireland in 1985 has been de-scribed as the greatest terrorist incident inCanadian history. Of the total 329 peoplewho lost their lives, 82 were children. In-cluded among them were 280 people (manyformerly from the Indian subcontinent) butholding Canadian citizenship. Over theyears, there have been lengthy investiga-tions and trials, and now an ongoing Inquirylaunched by Prime Minister Mr StevenHarper. The hope is that a "thorough andcompassionate investigation" will provideanswers, and thus bring satisfactory an-swers to this tragedy. But what questionsthat still demand answers still linger in theminds of the victims’ relatives and friends.Such as: What form of closure can Canadi-ans expect? An apology? Some sort of apol-ogy plus a compensation package modelledafter the Arar example? In this context, it isnoteworthy that Canada looks forwards toreceiving substantially increased numbersof immigrants from India in the yearsahead.

Future Immigration Trends

Immigrants from all over the world cometo Canada to seek better opportunities. Intheir efforts to earn an honest living, theymay also quite unwittingly help makingCanada an ethnically diverse society. Tra-ditionally, immigrants used to come mainlyfrom parts of Europe. However, as moreand more of us started coming from Asia,Africa and Latin America, the demographicshift is becoming increasingly palpable.Today, at least one in five persons living inCanada was born outside of the country. Inlarger cities like Toronto and Vancouver, thefigure is much larger. Undoubtedly, there isbroad consensus that immigrants enrichvarious communities economically as wellas culturally. Indeed, the ever increasingnumbers of ‘visible Canadians’ in theGreater Toronto Area (GTA) add a kaleido-scope of colours to our “melano-cultural”mosaic.

Conclusion

Undoubtedly, the latest census data showsthat immigration is having a positive impacton the national and provincial economies ofCanada. Certainly, a honest dialogue on im-migration is vital. Discussion must focus onnot only on strategies of skimming thecream of talent from developing countries,but also to take meaningful measures to ac-commodate these newcomers. Undoubt-edly, this would maximize immigrants’contribution of their talents and skillswithin the Canadian workplace and busi-ness arena. Perhaps if these noble goals areto be achieved, no doubt Canada will be onthe road becoming a coveted place whereall citizens can coexist peacefully in dig-nity?

[Dr. Roop Misir is a Teacher with theToronto District School Board. He can bereached at roop.msir@gmail.com].

A Guyanese inToronto won’t celebrate on day ofWismar massacreThere are people in Guyana who are afraidto say it. There are some in Canada whodon't want to think about it. So I will say itfor them. Guyana Independence Dayshould be changed from May 26th.Guyanese should not have to celebrate theirindependence on the same day as the worstday of the Wismar massacre of Indians.

Many Indo-Guyanese in Canada say quiteopenly that May 26 is not their Independ-ence Day. It is Forbes Burnham's inde-pendent day, chosen deliberately by thatracist dictator to humiliate Indians. Guyanahas gotten rid of much of the BurnhamLegacy. His Independence Day should bethrown out along with the other rubbish.

May 26th remains an important day forIndo Guyanese in Canada and in other partsof the world where they fled to get awayfrom Burnham's Guyana ahead. It marksthe real beginning of the Indian Holocaustin Guyana at the hands of Burnham's goon-das and thugs. Those murders and the de-struction of an entire Indian settlement ofthe first blows in anti-Indian pogrom thatchased tens of thousands of Indo Guyaneseout of the land of their birth, their dhartimata. people will tell you simply that theyare here in Canada because of Wismar andwhat Wismar started.

You cannot forget something like the daywhen your brother and sisters were slaugh-tered and driven from their burning homes.Most of the people who committed thesecrimes are still alive in Guyana today.should we forgive them? Would those Wis-mar Indians lying in their graves agree thatthese murderers should be forgiven? prob-ably not.

Should we put Wismar behind us and seeIndependence Day on May 26th as just anunfortunate coincidence with the massacre?There are some who are suggesting this.But it is doubtful they represent the major-ity of Indo-Guyanese in Canada. We knowthe saying that those who forget the lessonsof history are condemned to suffer thoselessons again and again. I shouldn’t need toremind people that since Wismar we haveseen numerous smaller scale attacks on In-dians in Guyana. Indo-Guyanese have beensuffering the lessons of Wismar.

Now for the practical details. There is noreal problem with changing the date of In-dependence Day. May 26 has no particularsignificance over May 22 or June 10 orSeptember 14. We have changed the nameof the country from British Guiana toGuyana. We can change the date of Inde-pendence just as easily, if enough peoplesay noisily enough they want it changed.

I will not be celebrating Guyana Inde-pendence on May 26. I am a citizen ofCanada now, as well as a citizen of Guyana.But I remain a proud Indo-Guyanese nomatter where I live. So Instead I will 'Re-member Wismar' and ponder the lessons Ihave learned from that terrible day, one ofwhich was my physical independence fromthe land where I was born. I will keep mycelebration for July 1, Canada Day.K. Singh, Scarborough

SOUTH ASIAN HERITAGE MONTH Indo-Caribbean Times May 2007 Page 19

My coming to Canada- Choice or Expediency?One story of Indian Arrival from Guyana to a new land

lighted one’s differences!So what does this say about the British

and the demanded loyalty expected of herGuianese subjects? Was our connectionwith the Crown and Mother Britain fading?Despite being taxpayers and free men andwomen of the British Empire, are we nowbeing abandoned? I guess that as the colonywas “maturing”, Guianese were expected tosolve their domestic problems—regardlessof the consequences!Shortly thereafter, Guianese were to learnthat our country would be granted politicalindependence two years thence.And what would be that date? You may

guess it by now. May 26 1966.Who set that date? Why was that date cho-sen? Your guess may be as good as mine!

Forty years later at the May 2006“Guyana Festival” in Toronto, talking aboutWismar is still a taboo topic. Why? Na-tional political leadership groups have thusfar remained mum on the topic. Was it be-cause its severity was overblown in the firstplace, as some might have suggested? Nodoubt, future generations of Guyana’s sonsand daughters may not know, or be able tospeak and come to terms with this Wismarincident. Presumably, part of the politicalsilence of collusion designed to promotenational harmony and integration—aimingfor the utopian ideal of One Country, OneNation, One Destiny?Can we see any parallelism of the GuyanaWismar Massacre with the consequences ofpre-European occupation and ethnic cleans-ing in India? Not on the same scale inBritish Guiana, perhaps! But still not verypleasant!The hearts of reason clearly clashes with

the mind of acceptance!As I watched helplessly, Indians were in-creasingly kicked around. Many taking iton the right cheek would at times be forcedto turn the other cheek. An eye was not foranother eye. Mahatma Gandhiji once saidthat this tit for tat thing would make theworld truly blind. And wasn’t it Lord JesusWho saw it coming, didn’t He, when Hespoke these prophetic words:“Verily, I say to you, Do not resist one

who is evil. But if any one strikes you onthe right cheek, turn to him the other also.”A consolation for the helpless many? Butcertainly this ahimsa and UN-cheeky stuff’snot for me!With almost every economic entity, ex-

cept the corner cake shop or rum shop, nowthe property of the Cooperative Republic ofGuyana, jobs were plentiful yet scarce formost of us. And job-seeking Guyanese hadto have party cards to be considered forplacements. Plus, monthly monetary con-tributions to the Party were a must. And toe-ing the party line were required to keepone’s job.With no hope in sight for the restoration

of sanity in our country, many Guyanesewere forced to stake their future and fortuneoverseas, mainly Canada, the USA, and theUK. Later, as things got really desperate,others were forced to go to any country thatwould take them, including impoverishedHaiti and parts of Mother Africa. Our coun-try and its people were in a state not unlikepresent-day Zimbabwe. Here with anotherAfrican strongman for life Robert Mugabereigning supreme, he blames former colo-nialists for his errors of governance andsheer incompetence. Another third rate po-litical misfit with a trait for ignorance andarrogance, if not downright stupidity?

For me though, life was reasonably all-right. Having completed studies in Scienceand Teaching at the University of Guyana,the only way for me was up. And yet some-how, I felt uncomfortable that some day Imight be required to fall in line with partypolicies if only to achieve my career objec-tives as High School teacher, and not beharrassed by the local politburo informants. Then a party hack confided with me:“Comrade, times are changing. You “cooliepeople” are behaving as if you are still INDIANS, not GUYANESE.”“So how could I be a Guyanese, a patri-

otic one too?” I inquired."For starters, join the Party. Someone as

bright and smart as you should command amuch higher status—in your profession, inthe party, in the community, and in thecountry.”To me this sounded like a religious zealotadmonishing me that world peace can byachieved only through mass conversion tosupposedly the only religion that seeks truepeace! Eliminating the problem rather thanaddressing it in a rational way seemed to bethe Party’s stated unofficial policy. So I toldhim that while I could understand his lineof reasoning, I’d have to get back to himshortly. But for how long more could I take it?Shortly afterwards, I left the shores of mybeloved country. Having been convincedthat I would live to serve our country, I pro-ceeded to Universities in western Canadawhere I studied agricultural sciences, ma-joring in Animal Science. A growing popu-lation needs food, much of which isimported, but which can be produced lo-cally, I thought.My father, himself a rice farmer was not

too thrilled at the prospects of me studyingagriculture—the same type of work forwhich our ancestors were shipped likebeasts of burden from our ancestral homeIndia to Guyana, the Caribbean and otherparts of the Empire following the abolitionof African slavery.Indeed, he said: “Babu, why not study

Medicine? If not Law, why not Accounting,or Engineering?Eventually, I was able to convince him

that my choice was not unreasonable inview of my stated determination to be partof Guyana’s nation building team if andwhen conditions improved. Hopefully bythen, a new and more representative gov-ernment would be in charge of the affairs ofthe nation.And so after studies at the University of

Manitoba, and thereafter at the Universityof Alberta, and some work experience, I feltqualified to return and make my contribu-tion in the land of my birth.Just about this time, we heard stories of

hardships unimaginable. Of Guyanese fromevery walk of life leaving in droves. And ofhow professional people and rich farmerswould drive up to Timehri InternationalAirport, park their Morris Oxford andVauxhall Velox cars, board the plane andhead off to distant lands. Leaving all theirworldly possessions including mansions,lands, cattle, tractors and combines, and noteven looking back!As one friend having established himselfin Winnipeg reminded me later:“Babu, once there’s life there’s hope. As

long as I live in peace, I can always startover fresh and rebuild.”So after graduation and working for a yearwhen I asked my wife if she wanted me to

Dis a na wan Brer Anancy Story! [This isno cock n' bull story.]

By Roop Misir

During our study of British Empire his-tory and geography in colonial BritishGuiana, no other country fired my imagi-nation so much as far away Canada. The de-feat of French General Louis Mountcalm ina decisive battle in the French and NorthAmerican Indian wars by General JamesWolfe in 1759 heralded British supremacyin Canada. Like the much later (Indian Mutiny/ War

of Independence) in 1857, we were condi-tioned to believing that colonial Britain waschosen by some higher force to civilisenon-white savages. Thus we had littlechoice but to take pride in our empire overwhich [in the minds of loyalists, at least] thesun would never set. But the independenceof India was to prove that even though thesun is fixed in the firmament, what goesaround does come around….eventually.We were subjects to the Crown though

still not strictly British citizens. Yet wecould travel to certain sister counties likeCanada without the need for travel visas.The expansive Canadian prairies, literallyas a major breadbasket of wheat for a hun-gry world, and major port cities Halifax onthe east coast, and Vancouver on the westcoast, conjured in me vast opportunies forthe future. If there was any place I’d like tovisit, certainly it had to be Canada.Many British Guianese had shown the

way by going abroad. During WW II manywent overseas to defend the Empire. A fewreturned, but many decided to settle andstay in foreign lands. Those who returnedon rare visits would paint pictures of whatwonderful places there were beyond theshores of our tiny country. Stories like thesestood in striking contrast to those Guianesewho went to study at overseas institutionsof higher learning. Having concentrated on their studies and

graduated as accountants. doctors, engi-neers and lawyers, the vast majority of themwere only too happy to return home wherethey could be placed in plum positions upontheir arrival. Many would get married, andlive happily while serving the country withdedication and at times distinction ever af-terwards.As I was fast tracking my studies in Highschool, the now infamous politically-in-spired riots of the early 1960’s were in fullswing. Undoubtedly, these left on my im-pressionable mind memories so indeliblethat perhaps one explanation for their ever-reminding presence is that some events be-came imprinted into my gene pool ofpermanent recall. One such incident some-times referred to as the “Wismar Distur-bance”, or the “Wismar Massacre”—aperiod in May 24-26, 1964. During this or-deal, Indian people were murdered, Indianwomen raped, Indian-owned propertiesburned, and hundreds of Indians forced toflee from their homes. Why were fellow Guianese victimized

and demonized? No doubt, amongGuianese one’s ethnicity defined and high-

go and work in Guyana, she exclaimed:“You maad, nah man?’ (Are you mad,

man?).Then later: “If you really want to go, youcan go and give it a try. Myself and the chil-dren will wait and see how if you like it.Then we will let you know what we’ll do.”That was over 25 years ago.Later with the restoration of democracy

following free and fair elections in 1992,Guyanese from every walk of life were ec-static, if not euphoric. Many who couldwere heading back home. I myself didmake the trip after an absence of overtwenty one years. But sad to say: Did I feelso truly welcome in what is supposed to bemy home and native land?“Ah weh you bin deh all dem year wen

abbee poor peeple dese bin a punish?”(Where were you all these years when ourpeople were punishing?), some of my veryown friends would ask me?“Now dat tings OK yu wan fu come to

hang yu mout weh de soup a leak. Da deprablem bout yu foreigner!”(Now thatthings are OK, you want to come and hangyour mouth where the soup is flowing.That’s the problem with you foreigners!)Deeply hurt, I soon realised that I might

have been too long away from my matribhoomi (mother country).Perhaps, I may have to adopt Canada, andconsciously adapt myself to life in my newcountry, I thought. Did I have much of a choice then? Canadaand other recipient countries need skilledimmigrant to fuel their economic enginesof growth. Was this why these countriesdidn’t raise any objection while Guyanesewere fleeing with their lives and scant pos-sessions by the scores of thousands for theirshores?With my parents and most of my siblingsand relatives safely out of Guyana, are wenow the new crop of Guyanese exileswho’d love to return, but somehow feel un-welcome in the country of our birth by thevery people who've grown up with?True, reality can strike hard, especially

when it does sink in.In my heart of hearts, I’d like to think

that I vowed always to be Guyanese. Butsince by culture and no accident of historyI’m Indian, I am now living in Canada.Here though I may be a citizen equal inlaw to every other citizen, I have since re-signed myself to being referred to as Indo-Guyanese Canadian.So here we are, and coming full circle.

Born and raised in one colony now livingin another former one, far removed intime and geography. One now fighting forits survival as it haemorrhages throughbacktracking, politicking and intriguing;the other, the envy of the world in termsof economic prosperity and the quality oflife. Both sharing aspects of the samecolonial history. Perhaps what is consoling is that I can

still intermingle amongst so many of myGuyanese compatriots that I feel as if myproverbial navel string (umbilical cord) issomehow now transplanted into myadopted country. A land where citizens oflong standing welcome me and addressme by my first name. In contrast to myown people in my very own Guyana whocall me funny names, citizens of my newcountry are not ashamed to welcome meas a friend and greet me as a fellow Cana-dian!

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT Indo-Caribbean Times MAY 2007 Page 20RememberWismar

mantras in Hindi and Sanskrit are providedfor those who normally communicate inEnglish. According to the BC Hindus who assem-bled the handbook, many Indo-CaribbeanHindus do not have a temple they can at-tend on a regular basis. There are fewCaribbean pundits available. They thereforeconduct their worship at home, and need toknow how to perform their favourite poo-jas and rituals on their own.Copes are being sold for $10 and can beobtained in Ontario by callling Ram at 416-289-9088, or in British Columbia by e-mailing vssg@hotmail.com.or callingNaraine Mohabir at 604-274-8938.

A group of Indo-Caribbean Hindus inBritish Columbia have taken a giant step inpublishing their own Hindu Handbook inPraise of Maha Lakshmi.The 86 page book has a complete collec-

tion of information and explanationsneeded for worship of the Goddess Lak-shmi. Among them are the eight Legendsof Ashta Lakshmi, and hymns to supportthe legends, and lists of the special days forthe worship of Maha Lakshmi. A complete step by step guide to complet-ing a Lakshmi Pooja is given, as well asmantras in praise of Mother Lakshmi, LordVishnu, and the Gayatri mantra. English translations of prayers and

A short story By Rena Toolsie

"Ladies and gentlemen, please buckleyour seat belts as we prepare for take off."The flight attendant’s voice broke into

Shani’s reverie, bringing her back into thepresent. She breathed a sigh of relief as theplane soared into the clear blue sky, takingher away from the island she loved sodearly. An island immortalized in calypso,"Sweet, sweet Trinidad, how I love mycountry bad."It happened one year ago when she was

making her way to the village shop in En-deavour, Central Trinidad. She was goingto purchase some grocery items she had runout of. The shop was a fifteen minutes walkfrom her house, where she lived alone, hav-ing been widowed recently.It was late in the evening. The sun had al-ready gone down and the only light camefrom the dim bulb of the street light. Thevillage was alive with activities. Young menliming in clusters. Other women strolling tothe shop. Cars zooming past. Dogs barking.Then she heard it.Bang! Bang! Followed by screaming. Be-fore she could even react the street becamedeserted. Everyone, even the dogs, dashedfor the safety of their homes. She had un-fortunately become transfixed to the spot.Suddenly a tall dark figure loomed overand, lifting her eyes slowly, she stared intothe barrel of gun, hovered over by a maskedface - the face of death.Before she swooned into a dead faint, sheheard the gun click and the blare of policesirens in the distance.

Shani regained consciousness in thenearby health center. She was informed bythe police who stood guard over her that theowner of the shop was shot dead in a rob-bery that was executed by a lone gunman.Family members notified the roving policecar that was in the area and they respondedimmediately.In his bid to escape the gunman came

upon her standing at the side of the road."You are very lucky to be alive, Madam.The bandit was about to pull the triggerwhen we arrived. Why didn’t you run?""I just froze when I heard the shots and

the screaming. I wanted to run but it waslike if my feet were glued to the spot. Whathappened to the bandit? Did you all catchhim?""We had to shoot him. He died on the

spot. It was you or him."Shani decided there and then that she

would move to Scarborough, Ontario assoon as it was legally possible for her to doso, both with respect to the investigationinto the crime and getting her immigrantstatus for Canada. She would join her sisterand her family. They would walk in thepark. Whisk away for a weekend in Niag-ara. Go shopping in Gerard Street. Savourthe picturesque fall season. Enjoy the latestBollywood movies and shows.And in time Shani would forget the islandshe loved so much. Even more importantly,she would forget the mask of death."Ladies and gentlemen, buckle your seatbelts as we prepare for our descent into thePearson International Airport."

TThhee MMaasskkooff DDeeaatthh

CaribbeanHindus inBritishColumbiapublishhandbook

India’s top actors and film makers will becoming to New York for the annual Bolly-wood Movie Awards 2007 to be held onSaturday, May 26th, 2007 at the NassauColiseum, New York. The celebrities slated to perform at this

year’s magnum opus include Bipasha Basu,Arjun Rampal, Vivek Oberoi, Urmilla Ma-tondkar, Soha Ali Khan, Neha Dhupia,Kangana Ranaut. Mona Singh (“Jassi JaiseKoi Nahi” and winner of “JhalakDikhlaja”), UK's Raghav, Pakistan’s top ac-tress and singer Shahida Mini, CaribbeanSinger Ricki Ramdehal and Pakistan’s pop-ular singer –Waris Beg. Other stars confirmed to attend are DannyGlover, Mira Nair, Phylicia Rashad of TheCosby Show, Anupam Kher, Kirron Kher,Upen Patel, Lage Raho Munnabhai Direc-tor, Raj Kumar Hirani, Anuj Saxena andmany others.

Nominees for Best Film include Dhoom 2, Lage Raho Munnabhai Omkara Rang De Basanti Kabhi Alvida Na Kehnaa

Best Director Rakesh Roshan (Krrish) Karan Johar (Kabhi Alvida Na Kehnaa) Rajkumar Hirani (Lage Raho Munnabhai) Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra (Rang De Bas-anti) Vishal Bharadwaj (Omkara)

Best Actor Aamir Khan (Rang De Basanti) Ajay Devgan (Omkara) Hrithik Roshan (Dhoom 2) Sanjay Dutt (Lage Raho Munnabhai) Shah Rukh Khan (Kabhi Alvida NaKehnaa)

Best Actress Aishwarya Rai (Dhoom 2) Bipasha Basu (Corporate) Kajol (Fanaa) Kareena Kapoor (Omkara) Rani Mukerjee (Kabhi Alvida Na Kehnaa)

Best Actor in A Supporting Role (Male) Abhishek Bachchan (Kabhi Alvida NaaKehna) Arshad Warsi (Lage Raho Munnabhai) Kunal Kapoor (Rang De Basanti) John Abraham (Baabul) Vivek Oberoi (Omkara)

Best Actor In A Supporting Role (Female)Kirron Kher (Rang De Basanti) Konkona Sen Sharma (Omkara) Preity Zinta (Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna) Soha Ali Khan (Rang De Basanti) Ameesha Patel (Ankahee)

Best Actor In A Negative Role (Male/Fe-male) Aamir Khan (Fanaa) Esha Deol (Ankahee) Saif Ali Khan (Omkara) Shah Rukh Khan (Don) Shiney Ahuja (Gangster)

Best Actor In A Comic Role (Male/Fe-male) Chunky Panday (Apna Sapna MoneyMoney)Anupam Kher (Khosla Ka Ghosla)Arshad Warsi (Lage Raho Munnabhai)Tushaar Kapoor (Golmaal)Uday Chopra (Dhoom2)

Bollywood awards comingto New York on May 26

By Naraine Datt

It was a dark and red-lettered nightWhen they swept down on peaceful Wis-marLeaving a people in a miserable plightLeaving each with an indelible scar

The mastermind was the infamous ChippyWhose ambition was to kill every manWoman and child in that peaceful commu-nityBy carrying out the X-13 Plan

They swept down viciously on doves likehawksWith blazing guns and set bayonetsAnnihilating all that walks and all thattalksSparing none with their racial bullets

Not even the sleeping babies escapedNot even the pregnant women and moth-ersEven the young and aged were rapedEven the children, and little sisters

And as if that was not enough for theseanimalsAll the innocent females were defiledAnd many were crippled as in historicalannalsOf wars of the barbarous and the wild

After they butchered the inhabitantsThey did their looting and burningPillaging the shops and restaurantsAnd swiftly left Wismar a-smoking

Yes they left the city ablazeAnd the waters red with bloodThis was only the first phaseLeaving body parts in the mud

Death was welcomed by those in excruci-ating painAs the waters of the Demerara carry thechillMany committed suicides and many be-came insaneAnd their plight is always rememberedstill

And on a very still or clear day one canhearThe cries of babies and their groans fromafarThe wailing wenches and women inagony and fearAmidst the flow and ebb of the waters ofWismar.

Best Music DirectorKabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy)Rang De Basanti (AR Rahman)Omkara (Vishal Bharadwaj)Dhoom 2 (Pritam)Pyar Ke Side Effects (Pritam)

Best Playback Singer (Male) KK (Tu Hi Meri Shab Hai – Gangster) Shaan (Chand Sifarish – Fanaa) Sonu Nigam (Kabhi Alvida Na Kehnaa -Kabhi Alvida Na Kehnaa) Sukhwinder Singh (Omkara – Omkara) Himesh Reshimiya (Jhalak Dikhalaja -Aksar) Karan Johar (Kabhi Alvida Na Kehnaa)

SPORTS Indo-Caribbean Times May 2007 Page 21Cricket World Cup review

Awesome Australia, but awful organisingBig fish India, Pakistan, West Indies disappointed millions of fans

couldn't make it to the final.Percy Sonn and Malcolm Speed, the top-

level ICC officials, were booed at the pres-entation ceremony. The contrast couldn'thave been sharper because the same crowdgave a thumping ovation to Garry Sobersand Everton Weekes moments later. When hosts are booed at their own party,

you know how much it has soured. Admin-istrators who feel no kinship for sport willnever find affection from its supporters. En-tirely fittingly, it was Sonn who presentedthe trophy to the winner, for it was his pre-rogative as the president of the ICC. Sobersis merely the greatest cricketer that everlived.Of course, the players were not blameless.Many teams played soulless, spiritlesscricket. And it didn't help that India andPakistan, two of the tournament's biggestdraws, combusted before the party began.Ironically, Bangladesh and Ireland, theteams that provided the most exciting daysin the first round, also doomed the SuperEights to a series of meaningless matches.But they could hardly be faulted when

teams worthier than them featured in equalmismatches. England were an embarrass-ment before South Africa, who capitulatedeven more abysmally before Australia.West Indies lost horribly to South Africaand New Zealand even more horribly to SriLanka. Matches went from bad to worse atsuch pace that in the end no expectations re-mained. It was a tournament in which jour-nalists spent more time focusing on thepoor performances than celebrating stirringones.Good moments were scarce. There was

Tamin Iqbal's sensational charge againstIndia, Boyd Rankin's energetic bowlingagainst Pakistan, Herschelle Gibbs' sixsixes, Muttiah Muralitharan's magical spellagainst India, Lasith Malinga's sensationalfour-in-four, AB de Villier's turbo-chargedhitting on one leg against West Indies, Ma-hela Jayawardene's sublime hundredagainst New Zealand in the semi-final, andultimately, Adam Gilchrist's demolition ofSri Lanka in the final. Too few for a tour-nament lasting 46 days. One thing thatmight emerge from this is a shorter event,but it may be for the wrong reasons. Spon-sors and television channels can't afford tolose India early. So expect the format to betweaked to ensure India's presence at thebusiness end.In the end, it will be a tournament that willbe remembered for the bad, ugly and terri-ble. A horrible death, under-performances,resignations, sackings, and retirements keptus busy. The legacy of this vast and mean-ingless World Cup will be despair andemptiness. It couldn't have ended sooner.

Sambit Bal is the editor of Cricinfo andCricinfo Magazine

Getting intohealthy sportsThe Indo-Caribbean Times plans to en-

courage, endorse and promote sports in anyform. The community is full of enthusiastsand practitioners who are willing to helpmeet the need for us to get involved for thesake of fun, fitness and discipline. The com-munity is growing not only with new im-migrants but 2nd and 3rd generations.Sports should be a major activity.

Golf: Play or Learn

Golf has become quite a popular sportamong Indo Caribbeans. There is a largecontingent of golfers from Trinidad andGuyana flocking to the courses, having funand keeping fit. There are golfers at levels2 and 4 handicap. What that means is thatthese players can score 2 to 4 strokes overpar for the course. These players are ac-complished amateurs, playing for the loveof the sport. There are many tournamentsthroughout the season. Some of these players would like to offerfree clinics and form a players group opento anyone interested in both playing gamesand learning to golf. This is an opportunityfor parents and children alike to take part ina sport for fun and fitness.Anyone interested can contact IC Times at416 289 3898 or ictimes@rogers.com

Cricket

Cricket has long been one of the favouritesports for Indians back in the Caribbean,and it is still quite popular here in Canada.There are cricket fields all over the GTAand in other parts of Canada as well, wherecricket is played and enjoyed. Many of theschools have cricket programs, including aspecial exciting kind of indoor cricketplayed in gymnasiums. You have to seethese school cricket matches to appreciatethe excitement they bring. Remember wewant to see our boys and girls (and the par-ents too) fit and healthy and enjoying life.The Horizon Cricket Club (www.horizon-cricketclub.com) is just one group that isbringing cricket, as well as chess, to ourcommunity. We don’t lack for role models,not with Sunil Dhaniram on the Canadiancricket team, Ramnaresh Sarwan as WestIndies captain, and stalwarts like Chandra-paul and Denesh Ramdin on the team, aswell as Indians dominating cricket inGuyana and Trinidad.

Soccer

Community members of the Peel regionare heavily involved in soccer. Some areamong the best coaches and have beendoing this for many years and not surpris-ingly; this includes both men and women.IC Times has also learned that there is anover 35 soccer league operating in Peel andhas been for more than 4 years. The spirit of sport is teamwork, disciplineand achievement and as pointed out by oneof the coaches, there is no greater lessonand forum to teach our kids these values.This sport can be played year round as thereare outdoor facilities for summer and in-door’s for winter. Anyone interested in getting themselves ortheir kids involved in playing in the Mis-sissauga area can contact IC Times at 4162893898 or ictimes@rogers.com

Brian Lara took his leave from Test andOne Day cricket during the Cricket WorldCup, but he leaves behind fabulous memo-ries. He was for years the best batsman inthe world, holding numerous records in-cluding the highest Test score, and highestscore in first class cricket. In the end whatmattered most was the answer to the ques-tion the Trinidad cricket legend asked at hislast match. Did he entertain the fans? Yeshe did. He sent them over the boundarywith excitement.

Brian Lara says goodbye,leaves good memories behind

By Sambit Bal

It was hardly Australia's fault theyreached such heights that no team camewithin touching distance. It was entirely appropriate that a sorry

tournament should have a sorry end, thoughit must be said that the embarrassment inthe final moments far exceeded anythingthat preceded it. That the magnificent Aus-tralians were reduced to pleading for somepositive coverage for themselves was a re-flection of the pathetic depths this tourna-ment had slumped to. But even they knew itwas futile: even their towering, majesticand wholesome performance could not riseabove the shambles.In a sense they contributed, though in an

entirely different and positive way, to thehollowness of this World Cup. But it washardly their fault they reached such heightsthat no team came within touching distance.They dominated the tournament like noteam has ever done in the history of cricket,and had it not been for the disgraceful fin-ish, they would even have been entitled totwo victory celebrations. They were almosttwice as good as their opponents.Sri Lanka, their closest competitors in theone-day arena, kept apace with them forabout 20 overs in their first-round match,and for a few overs today, Kumar San-gakkara, and to a lesser extent, Sanath Jaya-suriya were able to match them with theirskills. But over the whole length of the tour-nament, they were overwhelmingly awe-some. It could have been hardly imaginablethat they could better their performance of2003, when they didn't lose a game. Butthey have, and in doing so, they have setnew limits for execution of cricket skills.The organisers have done exactly the

same. It was thought nothing could getworse than the World Cup in South Africa,which felt interminable, tiresome and sti-fling. The ICC has succeeded in draggingthe level even lower. They have brought theWorld Cup to the most joyous and sponta-neous part of the cricket world andsqueezed every ounce of enjoyment out ofit. Since they measure success in terms ofcash, it has been bragged that the tourna-ment has broken records in cash receipts,but in all other ways, it has been an abysmalfailure.Such has been the level of alienation

among the passionate fans here that manylocals have come to view the ICC's organi-sation of the tournament as occupation oftheir land. Cricket lover after cricket loverhas lamented the pricing and the fact that"they have taken the party, the culture out ofour stands".It can be argued the tournament has been

conducted in an efficient manner. Thegrounds have been spruced up, the playershave been looked after well, and from amedia point of view the facilities have beenexcellent. But they have failed to grasp thepriorities. Perfection has been achieved inthe most trivial things. Not a can of Cokehas entered the stadiums, fans have beenasked to turn their garments carrying of-fending logos inside out or face eviction,but they failed to feel the pulse of thecricket fan, a far more significant "stake-holder" in cricket than the sponsors.Herschelle Gibbs' six sixes in an over

were a highlight for South Africa, but they

Brian Lara

Lara breaks Garfield Sobers’ longstanding 365 run Test score (1994)

Reaching 501 runs in an inning

The big one- passing Alan Border’s recordof 11,000 runs in Test cricket.

SPORTS

By Tony Cozier

Rev. Wes Hall, someone who has spentall of his adult life intimately involved inWest Indies cricket, touched on a theme thathas recurred time and time again during itsheadlong plunge into mediocrity over thepast dozen years.The West Indies, he noted in his address

to the Rotary Club last week, have some ofthe most talented cricketers in the game. Al-ways have. What has led to the presentmess is indiscipline at all levels and its cer-tain derivative, a non-existent work ethic.As player, selector, manager and West In-dies Cricket Board (WICB) president, Hallis well placed to appreciate where much ofthe responsibility lies.When Pat Rousseau became board presi-

dent in 1996, one of his first decisions wasto drop the last word of the organization'stitle that had existed since its formation in1927. So "Control" disappeared.It was, no doubt, simply an exercise in se-mantics. Instead, the board has, on all evi-dence, taken it literally, especially inrelation to its attitude to the matter of disci-pline.It has appointed as captain two players,

Brian Lara and Carl Hooper, with more dis-ciplinary charges against them than anyother and allowed both to be laws ontothemselves.During his long and otherwise celebratedcareer, Lara has issued no fewer than sevenpublic apologies for his own indiscretions.The eighth, last week, was on behalf of histeam. Yet he has been twice persuaded toreturn to the leadership.There are countless other examples that

condemn the control-less WICB.It turned a blind eye to the astonishing

choice of four players to head for the par-tying Red Stripe Mound at Sabina Park im-mediately after the West Indies had beenhumiliated by an all-out total of 47 andheavy defeat by England.It slapped a few offenders on the wrist

after the disastrous 'A' team tour of Englandin 2002 that prompted Wisden, the game'sbible, to comment on some of the youngerplayers that "their behaviour made more ofan impact than their cricket".And do on, ad infinitum.It is no wonder that players now have

such a disregard for curfew times. It ex-plains why they can walk off the ground inthe middle of a training session, complain-ing it is too taxing, as has been the case in

this World Cup.Nothing exemplifies the WICB's com-

pliance to such defiance than its inactionover the behaviour during the 2007 CaribBeer Challenge Final between Trinidadand Tobago and Barbados at GuaracaraPark in Trinidad.At the televised presentation ceremony

that followed the match, Deryck Murray,the former West Indies vice-captain,founder member of the West Indies Play-ers' Association (WIPA) and now, as Pres-ident of the Trinidad and Tobago CricketBoard (TCCB), a WICB director, wastedno time in expressing his disgust."I don't think I have ever played or been

a spectator at a game where the umpires'job has been made so difficult," he said.Anyone watching the live television cov-erage of the climax of the domestic WestIndies season would not have considered ithyperbole. It was nothing short of dis-graceful.

Murray revealed that seven incidentswere reported to the match referee, addingthat these did not take into account the oth-ers that were not."Here are the two best teams in the re-gion, role models for our cricket in the fu-ture," Murray noted."We need in the West Indies Cricket

Board and the West Indies Players' Asso-ciation to address that issue and ensure thatit doesn't happen again."He was over-optimistic in believing thatthere would be any action from the WIPA.It didn't, after all, involve increased moneycontracts.He would surely have expected some re-sponse from his own organization but, as arecently appointed director, he might nothave appreciated just how inefficient it hadbecome.It is almost two months since that con-

tentious match and nothing has been heardfrom the WICB. Not a word. Zilch.It is not known whether match referee

Clarence Shaffralli has lodged his reports.He summoned the Barbados players, cap-tain Ryan Hinds, Floyd Reifer and DwayneSmith, all West Indies representatives, to ameeting during the match but that's aboutfar as it has gone.There is enough blame for the state into

which West Indies cricket has dipped to goaround several times over. WICB weak-ness deserves more than an even share.

WORLD CUP CRICKET Indo-Caribbean Times MAY 2007 Page 22

A NIMBLE, Chaplinesque right-hander,Ramnaresh Ronnie Sarwan has been con-firmed by the WestIndies CricketBoard (WICB) asthe man to takeover as captainfrom Brian Lara,who quit interna-tional cricket dur-ing the CricketWorld Cup..Being entrusted

with the arduoustask of taking WestIndies cricket for-ward, `Sars’, as heis familiarly calledby team-mates andclose friends, be-comes the seventhGuyanese cricketerto captain the WestIndies. He is alsothe fourth personof Indian descent tohold the top job in West Indies cricket. Sarwan is following in the footsteps of hisillustrious compatriots Maurius `Pacheco’Fernandes, Rohan Bholalall Kanhai, CliveHubert Lloyd, Alvin Isaac Kallicharran,Carl Llewellyn Hooper and ShivnarineChanderpaul. Brought up in Wakenaam, Essequibo,

Sarwan made his first-class debut forGuyana at age 16 and his Test debut in 2000against Pakistan at age 19. After Sarwan’shis first Test innings of 84 not out againstPakistan, the former England captain TedDexter was moved to predict a Test averageof more than 50 - an unfair millstone tohang around any young player's neck.But on his first tour, to England in 2000,

Sarwan lived up to the hype by topping theaverages.His footwork, which seemed to require noearly trigger movements, was strikinglyconfident and precise. It was a surprisewhen he then produced a horror run of threeruns in five innings in Australia, but againstIndia in 2001-02 he was back to his com-posed best.Sarwan, who took over as Brian Lara's

vice-captain in March 2003, required 28matches and 49 innings to post his maidenTest century, 119 in December of 2002 -

Indiscipline causing themess in Windies cricket

and even then it came against the less-than-m i g h t yBangladeshis.But, as the likes

of Graham Goochand Steve Waughcan testify, thefirst time is oftenthe hardest, andsince then, his bat-ting has achieveda greater level ofconsistency. A dream series

against SouthAfrica in 2003-04,where he averagednearly a 100 runs aTest, was followedby a lean runagainst England.But he battled

on, and returned toform in a stunningmanner with an

unbeaten 261 against Bangladesh in June.Then came the England tour in 2004

where he began and ended the tour on a lownote, but was prolific in the middle. How-ever, West Indian fortunes were on the as-cendency in one-dayers as they reached thefinals of the NatWest Series and then wonthe ICC Champions Trophy with Sarwanplaying a big hand in both tournaments.However, he was one of the players in-

volved in the contract dispute between withWICB and missed the first Test againstSouth Africa in 2005. On his return hescored attractive runs, but was again over-looked for the captaincy when it washanded back to Brian Lara. He didn't farewell with the bat in the 2006-07 season, av-eraging just 25.90 in 13 games he playedtill the end of the Champions Trophy. In a shocking gesture, he was dropped

from the second Test against Pakistan in theaway series in November. He returned forthe third

Test and sustained a foot injury which kept him out of the one-dayers against Pakistan and the tour ofIndia.More misery was in store when he was

sidelined for three weeks after suffering ahand injury in February 2007 while battingfor Guyana.

Sarwan takes over asnew West Indies captainFourth Indo-Caribbean captain after Rohan Kanhai,Alvin Kalliecharan and Shivnarine Chanderpaul

Ramnaresh Sarwan

Massive start to Toronto soccer seasonA sold out crowd of over 20,000 at the first home game of the Toronto FC signalled abrave start to top class club soccer recently. All home games are also sold out.

CHESS, DRAUGHT ANDCHESS, DRAUGHT ANDDOMINO TOURNAMENTSDOMINO TOURNAMENTS

Players of all skill levels (beginners to advanced) areinvited to participate. Tournaments held every month during the winter.

See schedule at www.horizoncricketclub.com or phone905-794-5423. Also, adult and kids CHESS LESSONS(beginners to advance). Learn to play the world’s best board game.

Registration information at www.horizoncricketclub.com

OUR ANCESTORS Indo-Caribbean Times M ay 2007 Page 23

Saturdays & Sundays - Big Breakfast BuffetIncludes Katahar, Carailla, Bora, Bygan Chokha, Tomato Chokha, Shrimp with Bygan, Eddoes, and much, much more.

Doubles Buy 5 Get 1 Free Aloo Pies $1.00

All Day Breakfast $2.99Lunch Special with Pop $4.99

(From 11 am to 2 pm) Open 7.00 am. 9 Items $5.99

Jumbo Dhalpuri & Jumbo Paratha $2.00

THE ORIGINAL LENA’ S IS BACK!

LENA’S ROTI & DOUBLESNew West Indian Restaurant with delicious food at great prices

SSPPEECCIIAALLSS ��Barbecue Chicken Chowmein & Fry Rice Wednesdays $4.99��Wedding Size Paratha (feeds 8-10 people) $9.99��Jumbo Frozen Paratha available $1.00 ��Curry Fish and Fry Fish available with Dhal and Rice

Catering for all occasionsOpen 7 days a week for your convenience from 10 am until ???

Contact Kish or Lena 416-745-00091152 Albion Road (at Islington)

Toonie Tuesdays��Fish Broth

Goat & chicken, rice/ roti $2.36+ tax

A Brief History In Perspective:

Though many have written about the In-dian Diaspora, there is much that remainsundocumented, unsaid and unknown, wait-ing for the DECENDANTS to take a peekinto their forebear’s past. India of the early1830’s was ravaged by famines, droughts,drastic land reforms that resulted in starva-tion & poverty which led the Hesperus &Whitby to land in B.G. on 5th May 1838. Against such severe conditions, several

Colonial Emigrant Acts were written witha series of statutes, legislated to regulate theEmigrant process and facilitated transplan-tation of migrating individuals and familymembers of the Indian population as IN-DENTURED Laborers to British Coloniesby the East India Company. The ColonialActs lead to compilation of Annual Reportsthat tabulated the Departures and Repatria-tion of the Indentured Emigrants to distantforeign lands beyond their expectations,some realizing this committed suicide;jumped overboard.Rules and Regulations did not ensure pro-pitiatory designation in recruitment stan-dards. The processes involved illegal agentsand sub-agents; abducted, duped, coercion,enticed villagers, kidnapped unwilling fe-males, used force, beatings of old & youngto embark on a perilous journey that be-came a death sentence to many widows andminors. Even orphans were not spared theharsh whip of cruel recruiters nor youngworkers by unrelenting Owners/ Managerson Colonial Plantations. Labeled “HillCoolies”, the tribals’ villagers were classedas animals; their sole requirements to be fedand given a bed; as they serve no other pur-

pose but to work.A standard Charter party (shipping con-

tract) for transporting Indian Indenturedlabourers to the West Indies was introducedand legislated. This confirmed the BritishGovernment's new policy of trying to en-sure that indentured labourers were giventolerable conditions on the voyage toGuyana, Caribbean. The document revealeda great difference between the earlier trans-portation of enslaved Africans, and that in-tended for Indian labourers. Africans hadbeen bound by chains in the lower decks ofslave ships and fed meagre rations; whereasthe Indian workers were to be supplied withall their dietary needs, including rice, dhaland chillies, as well as the medicines theymight need on their long voyage.However, this did not, guarantee that

these rations were supplied in all cases, al-though workers were of no use to the Plan-tation owners if they arrived in poor health,emaciated or died enrouted as was the casewith many of the Emigrants on board.Documents have been systematically andextensively researched to assist researchscholars and descendants to trace their an-cestral roots. This is possibly the shortestbridge to a lost era in time.

I would like to bring to my fellowGuyanese attention the absolute mandatoryco-operation of all descendants of our In-dentured Jahajees in support of digitizingthese precious records of our forefathers.These records are kept at the NationalArchives at 26 Main Street, Georgetown.The Ledgers with the Emigrant’s Pass arelocated at the Guyana Archives. All Gen-eral Registers with the BR info on birth cer-

tificates of 1st Generations are located atthe National Archives.Wouldn’t you like to know the Lineage ofyour Ancestry?Many of the 1st, 2nd , 3rd, generations ofour Jahajees have relocated to AU, EU, UK,US, Canada and other foreign countries,these new-gen foreign born nationals willeventually lose touch with the ancestralroots of their forefathers, not knowing thatthe original “root” came from India.The older generations were not aware ofthe great importance of these records; toquestions their grandparents, record andpreserve documents pertaining to their Em-igration & Repatriation.In order to facilitate this long denied task,the Guyanese communities abroad need tobecome aware of the horrendous conditionsthese records are kept in, the misplaced,mismanaged and non systematic researchprocesses, and the difficulties to manuallylocate Emigrants information. It is imperative that the Guyana Govern-

ment, President B. Jagdeo, Members of theCabinet, in collaboration with theArchivists, GPO Staff, IAC members, IDP- Indenture Database Project, and other Or-ganizations be supportive to work towardsachieving this goal. The Government ofGuyana is probably unaware that theGuyanese abroad would like to have theseIndentureships records digitalize unless wepublicize it. Hence, we need to write and in-form ‘the powers that be’ how importantthese documents are to us; to trace our An-cestral Roots back to its original source. Several countries have started this Digi-

tizing Records process inclusive of Surinam

and Trinidad.In the past, many researched these recordsbut only a fraction was successful and thiswas only partial research for studies or tocomplete their own personal family ge-nealogical records. These records must be‘Preserved for Posterity’. This is our His-tory. Our forbears struggle to create aGuyana that lived, breathed and survivedfrom the sweat and blood of the IndenturedJahajees.Active participation is absolutely neces-

sary to inform the Government of the criti-cal situation these records are being kept inand to stop the deterioration of these pre-cious documents. It is feared that the lackof preservation, and climatic conditionshave already taken their toll and damagedthe once well kept Ledgers and Registersthat the Colonial Masters spent time, effort,energy and cash to document for ourRecords. We the descendants need to spendour energy and time, cash if needed to pre-serve this Legacy bequeathed to us by ourIndentured forefathers.As we approached this memorable day,may the descendants abroad; around theglobe reflect on their Indentureship, hard-ship and struggle to survive in these for-eign lands under such intolerableand challenging conditions for our benefit.Today, let us all put our hands togetherand whisper a special prayer with Love,Reverence, and Gratitude for their Acts ofBravery without Medals.

Respectfully,Ruby IshakCambridge, Canada.

Remembering Our Indentured Ancestors

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