COLUMBUS DAY PARADE IN NEW YORK CITY

History is a profoundly beautiful subject to some and boring to others. Listening to or reading History can evoke all sorts of emotions inside the human being. Emotions such as patriotism, admiration, love, courage, dislike, respect, disgust, etc.

Take the Mahatma, for instance. Majority of people the world over has great respect and admiration for his indomitable courage and great human spirit. Even the great American scientist Albert Einstein paid tribute to him by saying: "Generations to come will not believe that such a man as Gandhi has walked the face of this earth."

In Guyana, one of my favorite subject was History. In First Form, the History teacher told us about the travels of the ambitious Christopher Columbus, who landed in the New World in October in 1492 (If memory serves me right). He sailed with a group of criminals at the behest of Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain in search of land and wealth.

At that tender age, it was hard to distinguish the good or bad behaviour of the sailors of The Pinta, Santa Maria and (can't remember the 3rd ship's name) towards the native people of the New World.

In college over here, I recalled my professor had the good human decency to question the barbaric behaviour of Columbus's men towards the native children, women and men of the countries they landed.

I'm not going to go into details, but that professor was correct. And I wonder how the Mahatma would have thought of these historic events.

Heroism is not heroism if it is recognized at the immense pain, hardships and suffering of other group of human beings who were less fortunate and less arm than the more powerful groups. True courage is the hallmark of men and women who stand up against injustice at all cost.

Anyways, I was able to snap at some of the floats-in-waiting for the Columbus Day Parade on 6th Avenue. Enjoy ...

These little kids seems to be enjoying all the hoopla...

Chilly me ... all bundled up even before winter arrives...

This is important ... US Census 2010 ... take notice.

My favorite ... I like ships and boats...

GREAT DIWALI PARADE 2009 ON LIBERTY AVENUE

Hindus across the globe will be celebrating Deepavali - the Festival of Lights - on Saturday 17th October. In the NYC Metro area, the Hindu community organized a huge Diwali Parade, which started at the Arya Spiritual Center on 133rd Street and Liberty Avenue. The Diwali Parade here is reminisced of the Diwali Motorcade that the Guyana Hindu Dharmic Sabha organized in Guyana.

It wasn't so cold, so folks came out in large numbers to support this grand event and at the same time, enjoy the cultural presentation that is one of the main feature in the program. The floats, which were beautifully decorated, slowly made their way on Liberty Avenue and through the streets in Richmond Hill.

It was nice the see New York Bravest's participation to the fullest in helping to block streets and keeping traffic in order. Thank you very much.

I also met Rick Ramdehal, after a long time. Rick, one of our most prolific singers of many genre of music, was the host of the Diwali program. He came over to say Hi (very nice of him) and briefly talked to me about the documentary I'm producing on our ancestors' history. That was the first time "Footpaths of Our Indentured Ancestors" was talked about for one of the local television stations. Thanks, Rick! Hopefully, I did justice to the time.

I had fun at the Diwali Parade. Many thanks to the organizers of the Parade .. and for making all effort to keep our culture and the mighty flag of Sanatan Dharma flying very high. Keep up the good work folks.

Shubh Diwali to all .... May Mother Latchmi shower all with Happiness, Health & Wealth....

Some photos of the Diwali Parade - 2009 ....

Some of the women folks with their diyas ....

Robby Soman, DP of the documentary, is he taking a break?

Beautiful float with a live Maha Latchmi .....

The Tassa group really had it going .... Great job fellahs!

6TH AVENUE MANHATTAN STREET FAIR

It was a lovely Fall day. I had to be in the city today -a day when the trains were experiencing big delays. My ride wasn't too bad, though.

As I was coming out from the subway at Rockefeller Center, lo & behold! A street fair was well under way on 47th Street, 6th Avenue. Streets were blocked and we were able to walk aimlessly in the middle of the busy street!

It was nice to see New Yorkers making the most of the warm weather for outdoors' activities. And well, haggling for the best bargains in high spirits.

Here are some photos of the street affair...

Beautiful semi-precious pendants .....

High Fashion --- the Big Apply way ....

Wanna go on a bicycle ride...

GANDHI PEACE MARCH IN RICHMOND HILL

It was a beautiful day in NYC, brilliant sunshine minus the heavy wind - a great day to be out and about. So, how did you do spend your day? Care to share?

My cousin invited me to an important meeting at 3 PM today at his office - Main Street Insurance on the Avenue.

I went with good intentions to listen and participate. But, somehow, I couldn't bring myself to tune in to the meeting. It was an important meeting about a political campaign to elect one of the local officials to represent the folks in the Richmond Hill area. But, it wasn't my day to be at such meeting. So, after some time reading the local papers, I left.

And, I went to see the cultural show at the Gandhi Peace March - a march which took place from Liberty Avenue and Lefferts Blvd to the Arya Spiritual Center Ground on 133rd Street and Liberty Ave. I enjoyed this outing so much more.

October 2nd was Gandhi Jayanti in honor of the Mahatma. The Gandhi Peace March was organized by the Federation of Hindu Mandirs USA, Inc. and the speeches were delivered in his memory. His legacy of Truth and Non-violence lives on and are universal in their scope. These are values we need more than ever. For me, the Mahatma is the only person whose life was a reflection of the sacred teachings of the Bhagavad Gita.

Some photos of the cultural presentation.

A picture of the Mahatma in repose ... (Wikipedia)
These little ones were having a blast. They represent the ISCON group....
Youngsters from the Shri Trimuri Mandir singing for BapuJi ....

The Guyana Community Development Foundation Tackles Serious Issues in Guyana

Mr. Vince Ramcharran is the Chairperson of the Guyana Commmunity Development Foundation (GCDF) - a registered Non-Governmental Organization (NGO). GCDF's main purpose is to help stop domestic violence and suicide among youths, particularly in Berbice and Essequibo.

Mr. Vince lives in Prince George, Canada, but travels quite frequently to Guyana to see his work being done. He has an office in Belvedere, Albion, Berbice.

I'm very impress with the great work he, his foundation and team are involved in Guyana for our women folks and the youths. He is also very courageous and brave to tackle two of our society's greatest ills - domestic violence and suicide. These two issues have been plaguing our society for ages and going unchecked. It's time someone help put a STOP to these issues.

Thank you Mr. Vince for having the wisdom, understanding, courage and perseverance to tackle these problems. It must involve alot of work, but you persevere. Keep up the great work. The folks back home must be very grateful to you and your team.

Often time, I hear people say they would like to do this and that to help the folks back home, but Mr. Vince is actually doing the hard work and seeing results and making major difference in people's lives.

In March, he organized three community enhancement conferences held at at the University of Guyana, Tain Campus to enhance young people's leadership skills and to help them to make responsible decisions.

Topics discussed included, "Leadership,” “Peer counselling” and the final conference was on “Suicide Intervention.” I'm very happy to see one of my former teacher from Corentyne Comprehensive Secondary School, who is now the headmaster of the Winifred Gaskin Secondary School, Pandit Kamal Dhanessar, participated in the Suicide Intervention seminar. Good to see great work being done, one step at a time to help our youths back there.

At the end of each presentation the youths were involved in workshop sessions and members of the groups were then given the opportunity to present their findings on various topics to their colleagues.

The GCDF is working with a women’s group at Airy Hall, Essequibo to provide a program for domestic violence prevention with a grant of G$2 million [ US$10,000 ] which the women received from the Canada Fund. The GCDF has provided funding to a group at Vilvoorden in Essequibo for computer training, with an objective of producing a DVD for their centre, for fundraising purposes.

According to statistics, in 2006, Berbice had 74 suicides, while the figure for the previous year was 50. In 2007, there were 63 suicides in the county. Alarming indeed.

Mr. Vince noted that there is a great need for suicide intervention in Berbice as it has been found that counselling services are inadequate. He also hopes to have “outreach programmes at schools to implement these programmes effectively.”

Mr. Vince is one of the nice person who writes to me frequently and gave me pointers on how to improve the work I'm doing. I really appreciate his emails. I'm very impressed with his great work, I dedided to write about it too. Excerpts for this article was taken from emails he sent to me. Hopefully, he wouldn't mind my doing this. But, I also want folks to know about his great work and the people's need in Berbice.

Mr. Vince can be reached at: Lot 26 H, King Street,Belvedere North, Albion, Berbice, Guyana, South America.Office: 592-322-4044Cell: 592-698-2224.

Folks if anyone of you can help, please do so. Your intervention can save a life or stop the next domestic abuse. Let's act today!

I've searched for photos of the UG - Berbice Campus onl ine and I downloaded few from GINA.

One of the youngsters at the conference at Tain Campus ...

Berbice UG - Tain Campus ....
Berbice Campus ....
Mr. Vince Ramcharran .....