QC Alumni Association – Toronto: Newsletter for March 2013

             Download the latest newsletter: Scribbler – March 2013 Issue

Chutney Music – featuring Guyana’s Terry Gajraj – autoplay 10 videos

The first video, from the Terry Gajraj website, features  Mehendra Ramkellawan.  The nine other videos are by Terry Gajraj. 

See more Terry Gajraj videos at his YOUTUBE site: https://www.youtube.com/user/officialTerryGajraj?feature=watch

CHUTNEY MUSIC – [from Wikipedia]

Chutney music is a form indigenous to the southern Caribbean, popular in Guyana,Trinidad and Suriname. It derives elements from traditional Indian music and popularTrinidadian Soca music.

History

This contemporary fusion of genres was created by Indo-Caribbean people whose ancestors were from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Bengal and the South Indian area around Madras. They were taken as indentured servants by the British to replace laborers on sugar plantations after emancipation. Chutney music was established in the 1940s within temples, wedding houses, and cane fields of the Indo-Caribbean.

There were no recordings until 1958, when Ramdew Chaitoe of Suriname, a small country in South America, recorded an early rendition of chutney music. The album was entitled King of Suriname and all of the songs were religious in nature. However, Chaitoe soon became a household name with East Indians not just in Suriname but throughout the Caribbean.    

Visit by Officials of the Embassy of Guyana to Torrance, Los Angeles, CA

Visit by Officials of the Embassy of Guyana to Torrance, Los Angeles, CA

 Date:               April 20, 2013 –    Time: 10:00 am -5:00 pm

                           April 21, 2013-      Time: 12:00 pm -3:00 pm

           Place:                 20521 Catalina Street . Torrance, CA 90502

Purpose:            To facilitate the following Consular Services:

• –          Applications for Machine -Readable Passports & Renewal of Passports
• –          Authentication of Documents
• –          Signing of Life Certificates/NIS Certificates
• –          Doing Business in Guyana, Remigration & Tourism

Contact: Embassy of Guyana Washington, DC

Phone: 202-265-6900,  Email: guyanaembassydc@verizon.net

Mr. Joe D’Oliveira, Phone: 310-963-3370/310-768-0014 

Read/ Download Flyer attached: Guyana Passport Renewal – Los Angeles

Guyanese prepared foods and fruits in pictures + video

Star Fruit ,gooseberries, golden apples and mango

Media refuse to accept biased distribution of radio licences

MARCH 18, 2013 | BY KNEWS |

…Press Association calls for overseas intervention

Revelations that former President Bharrat Jagdeo farmed out radio and television licences to his friends and others close to the government just before the last elections have sparked widespread concerns and a statement of defiance from privately-owned media houses.

Yesterday, the Guyana Media Proprietors Association (GMPA) and Guyana Press Association (GPA) issued statements calling for an immediate reversal of the allocations.
Several private media houses and personalities who had applied for licences and are seen as critics of the government were bypassed by Jagdeo. The former President approved the licences as Minister of Information shortly before his constitutional term in office ended in November, 2011.  [read more]

A case of presidential deception

MARCH 16, 2013 | BY KNEWS |  EDITORIAL

When a president takes the oath of office he pledges to serve all the people of Guyana regardless of race, creed, colour or political affiliation. He then proceeds to administer the business of state, in the process making decisions that would impact the nation.

However, recent events seem to show that Guyana’s last president, Bharrat Jagdeo, failed to honour that pledge. Certain events seem to reveal a self-serving and selfish, almost dictatorial attitude. One is forced to reach this conclusion when one examines his release of radio frequencies to fulfill a promise he had made shortly before he demitted office.
Before the release of the radio frequencies there had been a rash of people scrambling to acquire frequencies for television broadcasts. The first of these was Anthony Vieira, the man credited with introducing television to Guyana. Others followed and they proceeded to allocate to themselves those frequencies that were available. [read more]

No meaningful discussions on the budget – letter by Carl Greenidge

Minister Singh never sought to have meaningful discussions on the budget

Posted By Staff Writer On March 17, 2013   In Letters | by CARL GREENIDGE

Dear Editor,

I have noted the spate of reports in the press apportioning blame for the stalled tripartite 2013 Budget talks. Dr Singh in his GINA statement of March 11th (and carried in ‘i-news’) has correctly indicated that I notified him that February 28th would not be convenient for the next meeting. His statement was however incomplete and deliberately misleading. My two pieces of communication to him made three points: first, the date he proposed clashed with the scheduled meeting of the Public Accounts Committee. That standing arrangement should have been known to him.

Secondly, we needed additional time to reproduce and read the pile of documents he provided. There were over 100 pages including tables.        [Read More]

Blame sharing on budget talks re 2013 Budget

Blame sharing on budget talks

Posted By Staff Writer On March 18, 2013 @ |  Comments

Leader of the Opposition David Granger yesterday said that APNU is still open to talks with the Government on the 2013 budget even though it does not believe that anything could come out of them at this late hour and dismissed the notion – reiterated again yesterday by Finance Minister, Dr Ashni Singh – that the Opposition was to blame for stalled discussions.

Dr Ashni Singh

And Granger brushed off reports of strife within the grouping as hinted at by a letter from APNU member Carl Greenidge in yesterday’s Sunday Stabroek, saying that there is a well established shadow Cabinet mechanism which means that the process does not have to wait on one man.

In his letter,  Greenidge said that Government was insincere in its approach to the talks. He also lashed out at the behaviour of unnamed members of the PNC for aiding a campaign of untruths against him. His letter followed statements from Minister of Finance  Singh in the media a week earlier stating that he had been waiting since the end of last month for a follow-up meeting to be scheduled between the government and opposition.    

Radio and TV licenses have been haphazard for over two decades – PM Hinds

Frequency Assignments in Guyana have been haphazard for over two decades

(CAPITOL NEWS)  14 March 2013- The Guyana Government has virtually admitted that it has copped the Frequency Spectrum in the country for itself and a few others including a company that printed the Mirror. The Prime Minister, Sam Hinds, in a written response to questions raised by AFC, MP Cathy Hughes, has admitted that only in the last ten years were frequency assignments more reflective of what transpired in that period.

The response by the Prime Minister illustrates a haphazard approach to the development of the electromagnetic spectrum over the years. The Prime Minister’s response did not indicate a clear plan for investors (other than for the State itself and a few others) in radio, television and cable services, to grow and develop throughout the length and breadth of Guyana.  

Researchers link Superstorm Sandy to severe Arctic ice loss

Hurricane Sandy – caused by Arctic Meltdown due to  Global Warming

NEW YORK, United States, Tuesday March 12, 2013 – While many believe that last October’s disastrous Superstorm Sandy was a freak of nature, a team of Cornell and Rutgers researchers have other ideas.

In the March issue of Oceanography, the scientists report that the severe loss of summertime Arctic sea ice — attributed to greenhouse warming — appears to enhance Northern Hemisphere jet stream meandering, intensify Arctic air mass invasions toward middle latitudes, and increase the frequency of atmospheric blocking events like the one that steered Hurricane Sandy west into the densely populated New York City area.   

New US visa application system begins in Guyana

New US visa application system begins

(Demerara Waves) March 15, 2013

GEORGETOWN – The United States Embassy in Georgetown on Friday March 15 began using a new system to process non-immigrant visa applications aimed at improving “service to the public.”

This, in part, means that the embassy is no longer accept cash payments for non-immigrant visas but monies are being paid through the Bank of Baroda.

This is in keeping with a contract between the US State Department of State and the Computer Services Committee (CSC).