In De Mood…
Kidnappers strike Nollywood again

According to president of the Actors Guild of Nigeria, Segun Arinze, who broke the news to the Nigerian media Monday, Owoh was at his country home in Enugu when he called his Personal Assistant, Mr. Cino, in Lagos, telling him he was on his way to Port Harcourt.

Shortly thereafter, Arinze said, Cino got another call, this time from a man claiming to be a member of a gang that kidnapped Owoh and demanding ransom in the sum of N15M. In Edochie’s case, the kidnappers had initially asked for N50M, but later agreed to N10M after striking a deal with relatives.

Owoh’s abductors, it was gathered, did not say where and when the ransom should be dropped, nor could it be confirmed where the kidnapping had taken place, whether in Enugu or on the way to Port Harcourt. The incident is believed to have occurred around 5:30pm last Monday.

All calls to Owoh’s cell-phone since have gone unanswered, as the instrument appears to have been switched off.

A fellow actor of Owoh’s said Cino called him as soon as he heard from the alleged abductors.

Former president of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Ejike Asiegbu, has come out against the incident.

“It is unfortunate, and I do not think it is proper. It shows the kind of environment that we live in. No one is safe. That they have decided to face entertainment people as targets for kidnap is unfortunate. It is no longer safe to go on location and produce films now, as anybody could then become a target for kidnap,” he said.

Another film-maker, Amayo Uzor Philip, has also added his voice in condemning the action of the kidnappers, expressing shock at the development.

“If the kidnappers have started looking the way of filmmakers, then it is a serious problem,” he lamented.

‘Imelda J’ just loves a gown
-but in sober colours
Photo saved as: Imelda Ada
WHEN she’s on stage, she looks everything like Beyoncé, right down to her mellifluous voice.

Her name is Imelda Ada Okwori, and she’s the toast of the Nigerian music industry. Her forte is R&B and Dancehall. Her stage name is ‘Imelda J’, and in another few days she’ll be all of 23.

A graduate of Federal University of Agriculture, she recently sat down to talk fashion with NigeriaFilms’ Damilola Adekoya.

Asked to define fashion, Imelda said: “For me, it is anything that has a good colour combination and fitting. Some people think that it is only what is in vogue that you can call fashion, but I disagree. I think it’s the fit the clothing has on you.”

As for her dress style, she says: “I love gowns a lot. Ball gowns, dinner gowns, you name it! It brings out my figure, and I enjoy going on stage with it. I also love jean trousers, but gowns are just my style. I love and enjoy using ankara fabrics to sew them a lot. I also consider colours when choosing the fabrics, because I love moderate colours.”

Her favourite hues are pink and green, while her most cherished possessions are her bangles. “I love pink… and I love green, because it’s so natural.”

Among her other favourites is jewellery. “I’m always specific about it,” she says. “If I use a gold chain, then it has to be gold.” In the line of foods, Imelda said: “I love pounded yam and egusi soup, but specifically my native type. I also love bush meat; my grandmother always sent me that when I was in school.”

Asked what she has in mind for the future, Imelda said: “I want to be not just a superstar but a mega star also; I want to be recognised anywhere I go. I would also love to give back to society in my own way… that way, I can actually come back to say thank you to those who have made me and stood by me.”

The second of four children, Imelda said when asked what she would like to change in Nigeria if given a chance: “I will change the mindset of Nigerians, because I think change begins with an individual who works positively towards changing and branding a new Nigeria. Greed is a major problem in this country, and it has to be eradicated. The club, ‘Re-brand Nigeria’, should also be established in schools, and an anthem should be composed so that it will be sung at the beginning of every meeting held.

“With that alone, I think they will always remember that they have something good to do towards Nigeria. So, I would like to change the mindset of people through music and right now, I’m working on an anthem, to work towards a positive change in the country for a better tomorrow, because tomorrow is bigger than today.”

Tales from way back when…
19 Guianese soldiers return from Trinidad
Clifford Stanley
NINETEEN Guianese, who are members of the South Caribbean Force, and who were stationed at Trinidad for the past two years, arrived in BG yesterday by the schooner, ‘Cyclorama’.

They were waiting for demobilization, and took nine days to reach the Colony.

They are Gunners, G Beaton, G Briggs, B Cato, H D’Andrade, J Jerrick, C Lord, A Parker, J Benjamin, D Bevins and C Braithwaite.

Lance-Bombardiers W Liverpool, C O’Brien and R Burgzorg; Bombardiers, M Agard, B Lewis, H Hamilton, Sgt F King and R Haynes; and H Bunyan.
(Guiana Graphic: August 20, 1945)

The Great Fire
THE CITY Engineer, Mr J Rattray, was the first witness called by the Georgetown Fire Advisory Committee which is examining the causes of the Great Fire in Georgetown on February 23, 1945.

The Committee comprises Mr J A Luckhoo, Chairman, and Messrs A A Thorne, MA, and J H McB Moore, members, along with the Secretary, Mr RM Holder.

The Committee is meeting in the Legislative Council Chamber Public Buildings Saturday morning.

The Terms of Reference of the Committee are as follows:

To consider the report on the cause and circumstances of the fire in Georgetown on February 23, 1945, submitted by SL Van Battenburg Stafford, Esq. KC on the 4th May 1945, and make recommendations regarding additional precautions (if any) that should be adopted to minimise the risk of fire in Georgetown and other built-up areas, and in particular (a) to consider and report if any further prohibition or restriction of or control over any trade or business or any manufacturing process is desirable in built-up areas, and (b) to consider and report on the organisation, efficiency, disposition and equipment of the Georgetown Fire Brigade.

After Mr Rattray had explained the layout of the City and the construction of the buildings therein, the Committee adjourned to 9:30am Saturday next, August 18, when his evidence will be continued.
(Guiana Graphic: August 13, 1945)

Frenchman’s Creek
YOU ARE a Baroness….I am a rebel. You are a mother of two children; I am the Lord of my Ship. Come with me now! Forget your past, pleads the dashing French pirate, Jean, with the tempting enchanting Lady Dona St Columb. You can meet me at Frenchman’s Creek.

Should she give up her children for this man, whom she had dreamed of all her life?

What will be her decision?

See ‘Frenchman’s Creek’, a daring revelation which opens Saturday, September 22, 1945 at Astor Cinema.: The stirring drama of a family, starring: Joan Fontaine, Basil Rathbone and Arturo De Cordova, daringly revealed that all may learn.

Now showing to capacity houses at the Astor Cinema.
(Guiana Graphic: September 21, 1945)

viding drinking water for animals
A STAND-PIPE will be installed by the Town Council outside the Market Square in Cornhill Street for the purpose of providing drinking water for animals.

The Public Health and City Works Committee, in their Report to the meeting of the Town Council Monday afternoon, so recommended.

The decision was consequent on a letter forwarded to the Council by the Honorary Secretary, B G Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals complaining of insufficiency of drinking water at the drinking trough at the Market Square.

The present trough was misused, and it would serve no purpose to install an additional one, hence the decision.

This was agreed to at the Council’s meeting yesterday afternoon.
(Guiana Graphic: September 27, 1945)

Sold rum on Sunday
JOHN TIAM, salesman at the Spirit Shop at Rosignol owned by Mr Henry James, charged by P C Gobin Singh with selling a bottle of rum costing $1.44 cents to Cecil Ogeer on Sunday May 20, was convicted and fined $25 (costs $5.76) or two months.

Warrant Officer, F De Abreu Prosecuted, and Mr Mungal Singh appeared for Tiam.
(Guiana Graphic: September 26, 1945)

Excursion to Surinam
UPON THE urgent requests of many patrons, the excursion to Surinam, which was scheduled to leave Georgetown on the 29th instant, has been brought forward to the 27th instant and is to return to Georgetown on the 3rd September, 1945.

A vessel has been chartered, and many improvements will be made for the convenience of our travellers.

Ship will be at the disposal of excursionists during the entire stay at Paramaribo -- all persons who have booked passage for this trip are requested to call for their tickets immediately.

Tickets obtainable at the New Victoria Hotel every day, from 9am to 4pm. Secure yours early, and avoid disappointment -- only a limited number are allowed.

The Sponsors: J OLDENBROEK & COMPANY.
(Guiana Graphic: August 14, 1945)

ASHRAF ALI
Expert in all branches of modern photography. ACME PHOTO STUDIO – next to Town Hall, Regent Street, Georgetown.
(Guiana Graphic: August 18, 1945)

Wismar Market site available
AT THE monthly meeting of the Christianburg-Wismar Local Authority, held on September 3, Mr DA Foo, JP, Chairman of the Authority, intimated that the Authority had received a letter from Mrs E Ho-a-Shoo, proprietrix of Wismar, offering to lease a piece of land by First Avenue and Public Road suitable for the erection of a market.

Members regarded the site as ideal for a market, and agreed that the matter be placed before the District Administrator, and their acceptance of the offer be stated to him.

The Local Authority were in need of a site for the market for more than three years, and their patience in waiting has been their good fortune in securing a central location for its erection.
(Guiana Graphic: September 16, 1945)

‘Bushy’ maker fined $500
AT A recent sitting of the Stewartville Magistrates Court, West Coast Demerara, Mr RS Persaud, Magistrate (Ag), ordered a penalty of $500 (costs $120), or in default, six months imprisonment with hard labour for a man named Ernest O’Neal, who pleaded guilty to the unlawful possession of bush rum.

The charge was brought by Sergeant 4125 Sealey, of Wismar Police Station.

County Superintendent of Police, Mr IN Gordon told the Court that the manufacture of bush rum was prevalent in the Demerara River District.

The Magistrate noted that O’Neal had been hitherto of clean character, otherwise, he said the sentence would have been severer.
(Guiana Graphic: August 20, 1945)

Unlicensed radios
CHARGED BY Sergeant Beeramsingh, investigating officer, GPO CID at the City Police Court yesterday, ten persons were convicted and fined $2.00 each by Magistrate RS Miller for having in their possession unlicensed radios.
(Guiana Graphic: August 21, 1945)

‘The Song of the Blessed One’
TODAY, FRIDAY September 14, at the Public Free Library, the Discussion Circle meets to consider the ‘Bhagavad Gita’ under the Chairmanship of Mr Lloyd Searwar.

The ‘Gita’ is the song of The Blessed One , a Third Century dialogue between Krishna and Arjuna.

It is the high-water mark of Hinduism, the Spiritual Adventure that began with the Vedas. Here, Action, Wisdom and Renunciation fuse to form a creed, in which the reflective self can find complete realisation.

A book like the ‘Gita’ can be used to measure our modern civilisation.

The public is invited to attend what will be a stimulating afternoon’s discussion.
(Guiana Graphic: September 14, 1945)

$9,600 for China War Charities
THE CHINESE Red Cross Committee in BG has forwarded a further donation of $9,600 to Madame Chiang Kai-Shek in Chungking, China for use on war charities in China.

The Chinese Consul, Mr Shao-Wen-Liang, forwarding this amount on September 10 to the Colonial Secretary, asked that the amount be sent in the usual way, through the Crown Agents for the Colonies to Lady Cripps, Chairman of the British United Aid to China.

It is worthy of note that on September 14, the next day, Sir Gordon Lethem received a telegram from the Secretary of State conveying thanks for a previous donation of $960, which had been forwarded by the Chinese Council on August 1.
(Guiana Graphic: September 27, 1945)

Ice sloop salvaged
THE SLOOP, ‘Liberty’, which sank on a voyage to New Amsterdam as it reached a point off Belfield, East Coast Demerara on Thursday night, September 20, has been salvaged and is now alongside Messrs. Wieting and Richter Ltd Wharf.

The ‘Liberty’ was taking a cargo of ice to New Amsterdam, and when she was two miles out of Port, the engine started to falter.

It was, however, rectified and all went well until it reached Belfield, when there were explosions, and the sloop caught afire and sank.

The Captain and crew were rescued by the SS Rockfinch.
(Guiana Graphic: September 29, 1945)

HUBBUCKS
Get your requirements now! Hubbucks patent white zinc (pre-war quality) at S Davson & Co Limited Berbice.
(Guiana Graphic: September 16, 1945)
Clifford Stanley can be reached to discuss any of the above at cliffantony@gmail.com or 592-657-2043.

Preserving our literary heritage
The First Encounter of Caribbean Magazines

Casa de las America was founded “four months after the Cuban Revolution, for the purpose of developing and extending the socio-cultural relations with the countries of Latin America, the Caribbean and the rest of the world” with a mandate that “discloses, investigates, supports, awards and publishes the work of writers, plastic, musical, teatristas and studious artists of Literature and the arts; whose communication foments the interchange with institutions and people worldwide.”

According to Yolanda Wood, Director, Centre for Caribbean Studies, Casa de Las Américas, the event is bringing together “a great number of magazine representations from a lot of countries, with the expectation to achieve an ample exchange and to enrich our work and knowledge.”

Yours truly, as editor of ‘The Guyana Annual’ magazine, will be making a presentation on Guyanese magazines, with emphasis on ‘The Annual’, which was launched in December 1915 under the title: ‘Chronicle Christmas Annual’.

Other presentations will be made on various types of magazines, including cultural, art, cinema, music, tourism and museum. Various issues related to the magazine will be ventilated, including its role, themes and challenges. Here is a list of some of the presentations:

Bim (Barbados, 1942) y Kyk-Over-Al (Guyana, 1945), Emilio Jorge

Tropiques (Martinica, 1941), Nancy Morejón, (Cuba)

Marcus Garvey y el Liberty Hall en sus publicaciones, Nicosia Shakes, editor, (Jamaica)

Jamaica Journal: Status, Challenges, Future Prospects. Kim Robinson-Walcott (Jamaica)

Conjonction, Guy Maximilien, Puerto Príncipe (Haití)

Revolución y Cultura, Israel Castellanos (Cuba)

Revista Epicentro, Gina Ruz Rojas, Cartagena de Indias (Colombia)

The José Martí National Library Journal. Its Centennial tribute. Yolanda Wood (Cuba)

Genealogies of Small Axe. David Scott: Columbia University (USA)

Apart from the presentations, there will be numerous magazine exhibitions. The First Encounter of Caribbean Magazines is a packed five-day programme.

This trip to La Habana, Cuba, in 2009, has its genesis in the staging of Carifesta X, 2008, in Guyana. As the Chairman of the Literary Arts Sub-committee, I came into contact with representatives and contingents participating in the tenth Caribbean Festival of Arts. I also made contact with persons who did not make it to the festival for one reason or the other.

It was during the execution of the plans for the Literary Arts that I came into contact with the Cuban delegation, comprising of Yolanda Wood, Nancy Morejon, and others. Hence, I was informed of the numerous annual activities of Casa de las Americas and its 50th anniversary plans for the year 2009. In a mutual exchange of information, the delegation learned more about Guyana’s literary landscape, and was impressed by what we had to offer.

After Carifesta, we corresponded via email. Then the invitation came to participate in the First Encounter of Caribbean Magazines….
To respond to this author, either call him on (592) 226-0065 or send him an email: oraltradition2002@yahoo.com

WHAT’S HAPPENING:
• Casa de las Americas will be hosting ‘The First Encounter of Caribbean Magazines’ in November 2009 to coincide with its 50th anniversary. Presentations on Guyanese magazines with emphasis on The Guyana Annual (formerly The Chronicle Christmas Annual) will be made by yours truly.

• The Guyana Book Foundation’s Annual National Book Fair continues at the Hotel Tower, November 2009

• Look out for the launch of Peter Jailall’s new collection of poems for children.

Musical pleasure and social stability (Part VI)
By Terence Roberts
Photos saved in ‘Musical VI’ folder in Graphics
THE MOST constant value conveyed by European and American Pop music is musical and social pleasure. The concept and communication of pleasure in art is one of the most influential and beneficial cultural methods for inspiring and providing continual mental and social stability in nations today.

The invention of recorded Pop music in Europe and America helps us to understand how this is possible. Of course, centuries ago, popular music existed in most societies via festivals and live performances. But the concentration on musical pleasure began to take prominence due, paradoxically, to the scourge of civil and international wars.

Music therefore became a popular way of boosting the morale of troops, and inspiring their will to survive. It also guided the post-war temperaments of soldiers towards relaxed, non-revengeful civilized attitudes towards prisoners, the vanquished and their nations.

During the Second World War, the vital importance of pleasant European vocalists and American Jazz singers, especially females in both cases, advanced the social idea of musical pleasure as a route to necessary social stability, which later matured into a full-blown international industry with post-war optimism and rebuilding, and especially the blossoming of the youth-inspired ‘Hippie’ counter-culture of the 1960s.

In each of these cases, it is the initiative of the musical artist which took the lead in producing recordings of musical pleasure, there being no dictatorial governments in either Western Europe or North America which imposed demands on their artists, or compromised their freedom of expression (except for the shameful case of the 1950s State censorship of outspoken Hollywood films of the 30s, 40s, and 50s), cultural scenes created by their artists therefore took the lead in delivering positive and progressive values via the various arts, since it neither benefited the artists or their society to do otherwise.

The Rolling Stones
It is such a cultural example, independent of control by Western European and North American States, which created a separate and free musical standard capable of enhancing a positive, progressive mental and therefore real effect on any nation which heeded such a cultural example, even if late into the 1960s, such States still had colonies or colonial prejudices abroad.

In the mid 1960s, ‘The Rolling Stones’, perhaps the most notoriously rebellious British Rock & Roll Pop band to emerge, recorded a brilliant song called ‘SALT OF THE EARTH’, in which these lines: ‘Say praise for the hard-working people/ raise a drink to the salt of the earth’ were sung , and were obviously intended not only for the British working-class – their coal miners, bus drivers, factory workers, market people etc – but to all workers, labourers everywhere.

This is an example of conscientious, constructive music creating its own social relevance, independent of the bad record of European colonial history. Not surprisingly, ‘The Rolling Stones’ were once the subject of a major essay revealing the band’s working class sympathies in the New Left Review, one of the world’s best critical socialist periodicals.

Another song of the same mid-60s, at the height of the birth of the Western Pop culture revolution and its refreshing influence on music, fashion, literature, and films, is the masterpiece, ‘DOWNTOWN’, sung by Petula Clark.

This amazing, vivacious, forever socially relevant pop song internationally epitomizes not only musical pleasure, but actual social pleasure and stability in real civic environments. In this Pop song, the slim Petula Clark, in cool ‘Mod’ fashion preserved from a vintage TV performance, sings about persons in need of companionship, social pleasure, romantic and intellectual stimulation etc, repeating these and other brilliant lines:

‘There are movie shows, downtown / just listen to the rhythm of the gentle Bossa Nova / you’ll be dancing to it before the night is over / happy again…so maybe I’ll see you there / we can forget all our troubles, forget all our cares / and go downtown, things will be great when you’re downtown / everything’s waiting for you…’

Downtown
We cannot classify ‘DOWNTOWN’ as just a personal fantasy of the singer, or only praise for downtown London. She is doing much more than that, by identifying an actual social environment all over the world, wherever cities nurture downtown centres bustling with cinemas and their crowds, cafes, restaurants, bookstores open late, nightclubs, stores, supermarkets, store-window displays etc, all of which come more alive at night with electricity, neon lights and traffic.

What songs like ‘DOWNTOWN’ prove is the ability of art, especially music, creative literature and film to reflect and promote real civic and social environments. Imagine ‘DOWNTOWN’ being heard while one sat in a café or restaurant, strolled through a mall, sat in a cinema awaiting the beginning of a movie, etc? All this did actually occur (and continues to occur) when this song first climbed the music charts and airwaves like a breath of fresh air in the mid-60s.

The song’s reference to foreign Bossa Nova music is a beautiful hint to cosmopolitan cultural pleasure such Brazilian music exudes and encourages. Are there cases where a Pop song like ‘DOWNTOWN’ can appear to be obsolete or irrelevant? Sadly, yes.

In a nation like today’s Guyana, where this song was once immensely popular and heard daily and nightly, in cinemas, stores, restaurants etc -- when it emerged in the 60s and Guyana’s capital Georgetown was bubbling brightly at night with cinemas, nightclubs, unprotected glass window displays, especially from two or three months preceding Christmas -- the depressing destruction of this downtown civic scene can make the content of this song now feel somewhat irrelevant to Guyanese.

Above all, it was six nearby Georgetown cinemas with their international films and crowds on major close downtown streets like Middle, Camp, and Wellington, their bustling sidewalks, in the core of the Georgetown shopping district, which included Guyana in the metropolitan relevance of Petula Clark’s ‘DOWNTOWN’.

Citizens and foreigners who knew Georgetown between the 1940s and 1975 and could attest to the pleasure and attraction of its downtown core, are now sad nostalgists of those unforgettable decades, since there are no cinemas left standing, except one which cannot be compared to its past, there are no crowds of ordinary well-dressed citizens at night produced by cinema-going, or strollers, diners, window-shoppers in the dismal, derelict, even dangerous appearance of downtown Georgetown at night today; there are no large public buses with uniformed drivers who once took citizens to and from downtown Georgetown at night without incidence.

So, Petula Clark’s ‘DOWNTOWN’ remains an outstanding classic Pop song because of its relevance today to the preservation of pleasure-oriented social functions downtown city centres in most nations continue to offer their citizens.

Both European and American Pop music often challenged and defied the prejudices of their societies with witty songs, defending the individual’s right to intimacy, romance, and cultural pleasure beyond racial barriers.

Inter-racial nuances
Lulu’s famous mid-60s Pop song, ‘TO SIR WITH LOVE’, clearly refers to affection by an English female for a foreign black man in Britain. But the suave, sensual female white American songstress, Dusty Springfield, delivered a tongue-in-cheek Pop classic with her hit song, ‘SON OF A PREACHER MAN’, which subtly exploits the notorious southern American phobia for inter-racial romance by hinting that the son of a preacher man was not simply different because his father was a preacher, but in the tradition of Southern inter-racial secrecy, was also non-white, hence the song’s disguised admittance of something forbidden, which the sultry singer with the suggestive name, Dusty Springfield, who once appeared on TV and sang this song in a tight-fitting green velvet suit, hints at with these lines:

‘The only boy who could ever reach me/was the son of a preacher man/the only boy who could ever teach me/was the son of a preacher man/he was, he was, oh yes he was…’ Later in the 1980s, the sexy white Canadian songstress, Alana Myles, also sang a powerful secretive Pop song called ‘BLACK VELVET’, which describes the pleasure of a brief inter-racial attraction.

The 1960s all-black female American dance band, ‘Martha & The Vandellas’, on the other hand, brilliantly shared the intimate and social pleasures of an exclusive Afro-American lifestyle in unique classic pop songs like ‘JIMMY MACK’ and ‘HONEY CHILE’.

The musical pleasure generated by eclectic influences achieved classic standards since the 1960s, when both white and non-white Pop musicians successfully went beyond their own cultural or ethnic heritage to broaden the possibility of music’s pleasure in general. Sade, of African and English parentage, created some of the most beautiful and sensual Pop songs influenced by the pleasure-oriented percussive rhythms of the Brazilian Bossa Nova beat, with names like ‘SWEET TABOO’ and ‘PARADISE’.

New-Wave
Later in the 90s, one of the most vivacious and exciting Pop songs by an all-black band, ‘London Beat’, mixed New-Wave exhilaration with driving Soul rhythms in its outstanding number: ‘I’VE BEEN THINKING ABOUT YOU’.

Other Pop musicians like Madonna looked back to classic Hollywood and the 1920s Swing era, producing fresh progressions with songs like ‘VOGUE’, or under Oriental influence , the profound ‘FROZEN’.

In the 1990s, an American New-Wave band like ‘Blondie’ briefly flirted with both Reggae and Rap in a Punk fashion, but knew that their true role was to deliver an atmosphere of pleasure, based on the search for personal gratification, songs like ‘CALL ME’ and ‘RAPTURE’ ooze such pleasure in true style.

Both European and American Pop musicians of depth and quality understand the ability of music to change one’s life for the better, rather than simply offer one’s anger and negativity to others.

European New-Wave bands like ‘The Police’ and ‘Duran Duran’ mastered clever self-conscious songs, which helped them get over their own various insecurities, and others get over theirs as well, defying obstacles in their way to stardom.

‘WALKIN ON THE MOON’, by ‘The Police’, was their first profound song which brilliantly fused the Reggae beat with unique New-Wave instrumentation, while its lyrics echoed the band’s brave bohemian lifestyle of poverty as a stepping stone to success. ‘Duran Duran’ has to be regarded as the most humane and original Pop band to emerge from Europe since ‘The Beatles’; their songs and the special voice of lead singer, Simon Le Bon touched the hearts of all sorts of people by sheer honesty and human sympathy, especially with unforgettable songs like ‘PLEASE, PLEASE TELL ME NOW’, ‘PLANET EARTH’, ‘RIO’, ‘GIRLS ON FILM’, ‘NEW MOON ON MONDAY’, and the outstanding Oriental influenced masterpiece, ‘SAVE A PRAYER’.

Sweden revealed itself as a top producer of European pop music in English with ‘Abba’ leading the way, but ‘Ace Of Base’ showed its special talent for blending Reggae and Oriental tones into their work, which balances social criticism with realistic optimism, songs like ‘ALL THAT SHE WANTS’ and ‘IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE’ will not age. Numerous other European and American Pop bands provide a vital and necessary library for pursuing musical and social pleasure; a radical band like ‘U2’ made a late masterpiece with the release of ‘BEAUTIFUL DAY’ (don’t let it get away!), and it diminishes our personal education and social pleasure to ignore the continued airing of all these songs on radio or TV channels.

NEXT WEEK: Bossa Nova and Latin Pop

Ghandie

Full Court errs in construction of language
-Sets aside Magistrate’s ruling
- Appellate Court restores decision
by Barclay
IN 1976, an alleged error in the construction of language ended with the Full Court wrongly setting aside a magistrate’s guilty decision in an unlawful assault case, and finding the respondent, Hardatt, aka Ghandie, not guilty.

The State took the matter to the Guyana Court of Appeal, which found that the trouble arose through the construction of language that led to the wrong interpretation.

The Appellate Court set aside the ruling of the Full Court and ordered that the decision of the magistrate be restored.

The facts disclosed that the respondent was charged with the offence of unlawfully assaulting one Mari Muthoo so as to cause him actual bodily harm.

During the course of the trial, the magistrate admitted in evidence the medical report of a registered medical practitioner issued within forty-eight hours of his examination of the injuries found on Muthoo.

In order to rebut Muthoo’s story that the assault on him was unprovoked, counsel for the respondent, Hardatt, tendered in evidence a document from the same doctor, which purported to be a report made by that doctor and issued within forty-eight hours of his examination of injuries found on the respondent. Proceedings were never instituted against Muthoo.

The magistrate ruled that the document was inadmissible, as the injuries sustained by the respondent were not the subject of a prosecution for a criminal offence, and thus not caught within the ambit of Section 43 (4) of the Evidence Act, Chapter 5:03. The magistrate therefore excluded the contents of this report from his consideration and found the respondent guilty.

On appeal to the Full Court, it was held that the document was within the ambit of Section 43 (4) and the appeal was allowed and the conviction and order set aside. The State appealed from this decision of the Full Court to the Court of Appeal.

That Court held that:

(1) Only a document purporting to be a post-mortem report of a duly registered medical practitioner, and a document purporting to be a report made by a duly registered medical practitioner within 48 hours of his examination of any injury or condition of a person, and which said injury or condition is the subject of a prosecution for a criminal offence, can be admitted in evidence under Section 43 (4) of the Evidence Act, Chapter 5 :03, and that accordingly, the ruling of the learned Magistrate was right.

(2) There is no ambiguity or lack of clarity in the words used in Section 43 (4), which must therefore be given their ordinary natural meaning.

(3) Although the Court has the power to develop the Common Law in certain cases, this was not such a case which would justify a judicial extension.

(4) Since the respondent’s injuries were not the subject of a prosecution for a criminal offence ,the respondent’s medical was inadmissible, and accordingly, the judgment and order of the Full Court would be set aside and the decision of the Magistrate restored.

The Guyana Court of Appeal, constituted by Justices of Appeal Victor Crane, Ronald Luckhoo and Dhan Jhappan, ruled as they allowed the appeal and restored the Magistrate’s decision..

The appeal was brought by DC 7294 Henry Chester against the decision of the Full Court setting aside the conviction and order by the Magistrate of the respondent Hardatt, aka Ghandie.

Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions, Mr. GHR George Jackman, SC, appeared for the Appellant, while Mr. KA Juman-Yassin represented the respondent.

Justice Luckhoo, in delivering the judgment of the Court, said: “The only point which calls for consideration in this appeal is one of construction of the language used in Section 43 (4) of the Evidence Act, Chapter 5:03 with respect to the admissibility in evidence of a document purporting to be a report made by a duly registered medical practitioner.

“The facts giving rise to this appeal are briefly these: The respondent was charged with the offence of having on the 30th June, 1973, at Leonora, West Coast Demerara, unlawfully assaulted Mari Muthoo so as to cause him actual bodily harm, contrary to Section 30 (a) of the Summary Jurisdiction (Offences) Act, Chapter 8:02 . During the course of the trial, the magistrate admitted in evidence the medical report of Dr.Sahai, a registered medical practitioner, issued by him within 48 hours of his examination of the injuries found on Mari Muthoo.

“During cross-examination of Sergeant of Police Primo, a witness for the prosecution, counsel for the respondent, caused to be tendered in evidence through that witness a document, also uplifted by the police from the same doctor, which purported to be a report made by that doctor and issued within 48 hours of his examination of injuries found on the respondent.

“The object of the defence was to show that far from the story of Mari Muthoo of an unprovoked assault on him being true, it was Mari Muthoo and his family who had unlawfully assaulted the respondent.

“Neither the police nor the respondent instituted proceedings against Mari Muthoo for any assault alleged to have been committed by him on the respondent. This document tendered under cross-examination was admitted by the magistrate in evidence, and marked as Exhibit ‘B’.

“The respondent was found guilty, and in his reasons for decision, the magistrate said with respect to this latter medical report, Exhibit ‘B’, that it was inadmissible as the injuries sustained by the respondent were not the subject of a prosecution for a criminal offence, and thus the document was not one caught within the ambit of the provisions of Section 43 (4) of the Evidence Act, Chapter 5:03.

“The magistrate, therefore, excluded from his consideration the contents of Exhibit ‘B’.”

In closing arguments, Justice Luckhoo said: “In the Full Court, on appeal, the learned judges there disagreed with the view taken by the magistrate and held that he had misdirected himself when he stated that the medical report, Exhibit ’B’ was inadmissible. The Full Court came to the conclusion that it was admissible in evidence under the section of the Act, and that the exclusion by the magistrate from its consideration of the medical report relating to the injuries which the doctor had found on examination of the respondent amounted to a grave miscarriage of justice, rendering the entire trial a nullity. The appeal was accordingly allowed by the Full Court and the conviction and order of the magistrate set aside.

“It is our view that the section under review is a statutory exception to the hearsay rule. At common law, a medical certificate was inadmissible to prove the facts stated in it , as the best evidence of those facts was the oral statement on oath of the person who gave the certificate. [See Richards v Sanders and Sons (1912) 5 BGWCC 352 C.A]

“As a general rule, hearsay evidence is not admissible. It is not given on oath, and cannot be subjected to the tests and safeguards provided by cross-examination, which alone can either confirm and enhance its cogency and value or expose it as unworthy of credence and devoid of any probative value.”

In conclusion, the judgment added: “We regret we have to differ from the learned judges of the Full Court in their construction of the sentence under review . The appeal is allowed, the judgment and the order of the Full Court are set aside and the decision and the order of conviction made by the learned magistrate are restored, save that we propose to set aside the penalty imposed and to substitute a reprimand and discharge in its place.”

The Denham Suspension Bridge…
A poignant reminder of our glorious past on the verge of extinction
By Clifford Stanley
Start on Page 2, turn to 14 if necessary: Photo saved as: Denham too

THE DENHAM Suspension Bridge, located over Garraway’s Stream on the Potaro River, was built in 1932 and officially opened on November 6, 1933.

This elegant structure represented a chapter in the opening up of the hinterland in the early days of gold and diamond mining in the Potaro. It is still standing, and is reputed to be the only one of its kind in the Caribbean still in existence.

But it is an aspect of Guyanese history which may soon be lost.

That is the view of a number of residents in Mahdia and nearby areas.

Azad Ally, a resident of Mahdia who had no difficulty being quoted, said: “The cables that holding up the bridge are still in good condition, but the part where they clamp at the base has become rusted.

“It has been seventy-six years on, and nature is taking its toll on the bridge.”

Ally, who has a photograph of the Bridge of which he is very protective, said that action needs to be taken to rehabilitate these sections, or the bridge may eventually plunge into the Potaro and be lost forever.

“We see this suspension bridge as an important part of Guyanese history. Everybody should get involved in preserving this bridge, so that future generations can see it and enjoy it and understand what our history is about,” he said.

Information from the National Trust of Guyana revealed that the Denham Suspension Bridge was officially opened on November 6, 1933 by the then British Governor, Sir Edward Brandis Denham.

A road had been built from Bartica to Konawaruk around 1898 and 1900.

The bridge was important because it connected the Bartica Triangle with the Potaro District, and facilitated travel from the hinterland to Georgetown.

It was constructed to carry a pedestrian load of 30lbs per square foot and could sustain a 12-ton tractor.

The steelwork and cables were imported from the Tees Side Bridge Co in Middlesburgh and Wrights Ropes Ltd. In Birmingham, respectively.

The suspension bridge was in heavy use from 1933 up to the early 1990s, when traffic traversed the Bartica/Potaro road, from Bartica to Mahdia 111mls.

Along this route, too, was (and still is) the fabled ‘Cassandra Crossing’, a long timber bridge over a valley between two hills.

The name was given to this bridge because of its precarious nature, reminiscent of the bridge in the popular 1976 movie, ‘The Cassandra Crossing’.

This was a movie in which passengers on a moving train are quarantined because some have become infected with a deadly disease.

In the movie, which stars Sophia Loren, the authorities divert the train to a railway crossing over a deep canyon.

The crossing is known as ‘The Cassandra Crossing’.

An old timer on board the train knows the legend of ‘The Cassandra Crossing’.

He knows that the bridge is precarious and cannot bear the weight of the train.

He knows that this was the solution that the government had come up with to contain the deadly disease: The death of all on board the train.

The bridge along the Bartica/Potaro road made many travellers remember that blockbuster movie. Someone began referring to this bridge as ‘The Cassandra Crossing’, and the name stuck.

This bridge, the Denham Suspension, as well as the Bartica /Potaro road, fell into disuse after a new road was built to Mahdia, partly along the Linden/Lethem route.

Governor Edward Denham, after whom the Denham suspension bridge was named, was transferred to Jamaica in 1935.

He died of a heart attack in 1938, five years after the official opening of the Denham Suspension Bridge.

Residents in Mahdia see the Denham Suspension Bridge as an icon of the Potaro.

“It tells us what life in this area was like in the past. It is good for tourism, too. The authorities should take urgent action now to ensure that the Suspension Bridge remains intact as long as possible for future generations to see.”

The HIV/AIDS mailbox…
An HIV mother’s dilemma
AS HIV continues to spread its tentacles across borders, increasingly, children, like women and young girls, continue to suffer disproportionately, ultimately bearing the brunt of the disease’s burden … directly and indirectly.

Here are the three main ways in which they are likely to suffer:

• becoming infected with HIV

• becoming affected by HIV, and

• becoming vulnerable to HIV

Children are always the most vulnerable during crises, and it is no different with HIV, which has surpassed crisis proportions in every sense of the word.

A 42-year-old (middle-stage HIV) mother of three beautiful girls, hospitalised and on ART, broke down in tears when asked how she was doing. She replied that she was feeling okay in body, but that her mind was in turmoil and that of late, she could not even eat when served her meals.

Vulnerable
Probed further, she confessed that she had been carrying a burden on her heart for her three beautiful young daughters, because she dreaded the very thought that any of them should ever contract HIV and have to suffer the way she did, until she was eventually placed on therapy.

According to her, from all indications, they were “very, very vulnerable.” In fact, she said their lives were at risk, and that she really wanted to get out of hospital as soon as possible so as to be able to watch over their safety.

I became concerned, nay curious, and enquired further. She then explained that there was a young man (an upstart you might say, with not one shred of decency) who would always try, in very curt and unbecoming ways, to get the girls’ attention, but they had flatly put him down. Embarrassed and bitter, he swore he would do anything to put them to shame.

Threat
The beleaguered mother related that one day, the young man, who’s no older than 18, sent her a rude message saying that she should “try and dead fast from that virus that killing she slowly,” so he could “forcefully deal with them” in a variety of ways.

Counselling was arranged for the grief-stricken mother, who was on the verge of compromising her treatment therapy while consumed in her grief. We never managed to find the young man.

What immediately comes out here, is the story of how vulnerable young adults and children can become when their parents or guardians become sick and/or die after contracting HIV -- not only in the sense of contracting HIV through exposure to bodily fluids when caring for them.

It also speaks to the issue of vulnerability to extraneous forces, such as abusers, rapists, negative peer pressure, backed by the negative influence of some in the film, music and advertising industries today that hardly do anyone any good.

While Faith-Based Organisations and Non-Governmental Organisations have joined forces with programmes advanced by the Ministry of Health to address the issue of Prevention of the spread of HIV, it is clear that something needs be done urgently to arrest, vigorously purge, then refill the minds of decadents in our midst whose intention is only to destroy.

Our research/investigations have revealed that not only do the children of sick PLWHA grieve over the temporary separation from, or impending loss of, a parent or other loved one, but so too do the parents (infected) living with HIV/AIDS, for fear of the uncertain – just what is likely to become of the children after they die. Indeed, it is more or less a dual grieving process.

Solution
While persons, in the main, sympathize and empathize with such families, Persons Living with HIV (PLHIV) and on ART can play a great part in delaying disease progression and improving their quality of life so as to be assured of spending some more years with the family. This can be done by taking their medication consistently, and without interruption, as prescribed by their doctors.

And for those children who would have escaped death in households where parents are infected, invariably they become orphaned.

HIV Statistics
According to the 2008 UNAIDS Report, at the end of 2007, there were 33 million people living with HIV around the world, and of that amount 2 million children (under-15). Children infected in that year were 0.37 million and of an overall global HIV/AIDS death rate of 2 million, 0.27 were children. Additionally, worldwide, it is estimated that more than 15 million children under 18 have been orphaned as a result of AIDS with more than 11.6 million of them living in Sub-Saharfan Africa alone.

Researchers project that, even with the expansion of antiretroviral treatment access, by 2010, the number of orphaned children will still be overwhelmingly high by 2015. This is due mainly to the global economic crisis which is exepcted to negatively impact AIDS treatment programmes significantly, beginning this y ear..

The global crisis and HIV Treatment and Care
As the economic crisis continues to deepen, it can lead to widespread disease progression and eventual death of heads of households who cannot afford to access antiretroviral treatment (ART), or who are forced to discontinue their medication due to nutrition.-related problems.

Millions of PLHIV in developing countries around the world die without ever getting an opportunity to be placed on antiretroviral treatment (ART or anti-HIV medication), the function of which include delaying disease progression, and helping the person to enjoy an improved quality of life, among other things.

This is so, because their Governments cannot afford to bring ART to them free of charge. Others still, even though they may initially be able to access the medication, have already had to, or at some point in time will have to eventually discontinue taking them, because of the impact the global economic crisis is having on households’ ability to enjoy the standard of nutrition necessary when on ART.

PEPFAR and the Focus 15
In Guyana, thanks to the [US] President’s Emergency Fund for AIDS Relief, the situation is different, and we are fortunate in that people needing HIV medication can access these from clinics around the country free of charge. With the accelerated roll out of the treatment and care by the Government of Guyana, in keeping with the Universal Access by 2010 target, hundreds are continuing to benefit from this facility locally.

By the end of September 2008 PEPFAR was supporting treatment for over 2.1 million people around the world, exceeding its 2 million target. This includes 2,007,800 people in the programme’s 15 focus countries. The focus countries are: Botswana, Cote d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Guyana, Haiti, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia and Vietnam.

At the end of September, 2008, Guyana had placed 2,300 persons on antiretroviral treatment, and that amount has increased considrably since.

PEPFAR has a comprehensive plan, the goals of which include: the prevent 7 million new AIDS infections; to treat at least 2 million people with life-extending drugs, and to provide humane care for millions of people suffering from AIDS, and for children orphaned by AIDS." By 2009 some 4 milllion persons globally were on ART.

As usual, we urge that if you have any further questions, or would like to share your experiences with us, to please contact us at waronhiv@yahoo.com, or send your letters to: HIV/AIDS Mailbox, Guyana Chronicle, Lama Avenue, Bel Air Park, Georgetown.

Next week , we will look at how children are infected, affected, and made vulnerable to HIV.

Choices and Change: Life’s Realities
This week on Merundoi

Mr. Durwin Humphrey, Reinforcement Officer (standing second right) being trained at the recent GHARP2 Counselling Workshop facilitated by Mrs. Beverley Braithwaite-Chan (seated fourth right). Photo courtesy of Merundoi Inc

Take care, Ulric! Watch out for Mark! Don’t bite off more than you can chew.

Cupid shines on Sunita and Jason, and they end the week on a positive note.

Why does Rhonda get all hot and bothered when Aubrey calls?

Now that Kevin is supporting Devine, how will they deal with peer pressure from Stacey?

June did encourage James to support Jamal, his child with Candace, but the proof of the pudding is in the eating. How far will she go?

Don’t miss this week’s episodes!!

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