c qoi o jus' ? ki sa sa ki sa yé ?

ANTILLAIS A PANAMA

    ■ Au début du XXème siècle, entre 1846 et 1914, des milliers de Guadeloupéens et Martiniquais partent en vagues successives pour Panama participer, aux côtés d'Américains, d'Européens et d'autres Caribéens, aux travaux de creusement du Canal inter-océanique.

    Les facteurs essentiels qui ont poussé ces personnes à s'embarquer pour Colon, souvent de façon définitive, sont les crises sucrières successives et l'éruption de la Montagne Pelée.

    Les recrutements d'ouvriers sous contrat étaient effectués par la Compagnie américaine du Canal qui organisait le transport des émigrants. Les registres du Canal, du 28 octobre 1914, montrent que la Compagnie a ainsi recruté en Martinique : 2.733 personnes en 1905, 585 seulement en 1906, et 2.224 en 1907.

    En définitive, sur les dix années qu'ont duré les travaux, 5.542 Martiniquais et 2.052 Guadeloupéens auraient été recrutés.

    Encore faut-il noter que ces évaluations sont sans doute sous-estimées, car elles n'incluent pas les départs individuels; de plus, après la fin des travaux et jusqu'au cours des années 20, des individus sont allés rejoindre des membres de leur famille qui s'étaient installés au Panama.

    Les conditions de travail difficiles et les maladies ont été la cause de nombreux décès. Non loin de l'écluse de Miraflores, dans le cimetière de Paraïso, reposent des Antillais décédés pendant la construction du Canal; une stèle y a été édifiée à la mémoire des Français.

    Pour les familles restées sur place et leurs descendants, la vie n'a pas été toujours facile, malgré la création à Panama-City, en 1917, d'une société de secours mutuel, "La Fraternité", qui regroupe, aujourd'hui encore, les Martiniquais et Guadeloupéens de Panama.

    Il a fallu 13 ans pour que les lois discriminatoires prises à l'encontre des émigrés soient abrogées. La minorité antillaise francophone, restée sur place, fut longtemps victime de sa marginalité et il faudra attendre 1981 pour que les droits de ses descendants soient officiellement reconnus.

    Dès 1917, la communauté a créé une société de secours mutuel, la "Société française la Fraternité", qui survit encore de nos jours. Depuis quelques années, l'association "Martinique- Panama" a renoué les contacts, elle organise des rencontres, dépouille les registres des compagnies et de la mutuelle.

THE CHINESE IN CUBA

    Chinese were brought to Cuba by the Spanish Colonists in 1847 from the Portuguese colony  of Macau and English colony of Taiwan these were all very poor destitute chinese.

    Then, in the late 1800's over 5,000 Chinese workers left the USA to settle in Cuba to escape vicious discrimination and in the early 1900's as the Chinese revolution began to take form and the horrific japanese invasions many escaped the political chaos for any country outside of Asian hemisphere, Cuba received a substantial number.

    They intermarried other races, Spanish, Black, Amerindian etc., to integrate quickly for their survival based on the fears experienced in China, the USA, Macau and Taiwan where the feudal systems were far more rigid and oppressive than Europe.

    When Fidel Castro came to power he appropriated Chinese businesses and holdings as state property and many had to flee Cuba despite the fact many were very mixed racially, had Spanish first and last names. This was much like Haiti's Tom Tom under Papa Doc.

    By 1949 most of them abandoned Cuba to which they had contributed  so much and fought so many wars for, to return to California, Florida, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic where they continued to integrate racially.

    Some went to South America and established big businesses. When Indo-Caribbeans talk about suffering and punishment, it is pale compared to the experience of the Chinos of the West.

    - Contributor.

ATAHUALPA YUPANQUI : CON UNA MODESTIA ENVIDIABLE

MUSIC VIDEOS TO EASE YOUR PRESSURE

Listening to music is soothing and has often been associated with
controlling pain or anxiety and acutely reducing blood pressure.

So, just click and listen!

■ HARIPRASAD CHAURASIA

• Bansuri flute
• Raga Bhopali with Pdt Shiv Kumar
• Raga jog with Ustad Sabir Khan on tabla
• Live with Subhash Dhunoohchand

■ PRASAD BHANDARKAR : BAMBOO FLUTE SITE

• Raga Shivranjani on Bansuri

■ PANDIT BHIMSEN JOSHI

• Raag Darbari Kanada - Drut teental
• Yaman Kalyan with Dr Balamurali Krishna
  

■ RAVI SHANKAR, SITAR

• On the Dick Cavett Show
• Raga Rangeela Piloo
• Rag Charukeshi with Alla Rakha

■ ANOUSHKA SHANKAR

• Concert for George

■  ASHWIN BATISH : SITAR MANIA

■ JIT SAMAROO :  PAN IN A MINOR

■ RAVI AND ANOUSHKA SHANKAR : RAGA RANJEELA PILOO

■ ZUBIN METHA TRIBUTE

■ J.S. BACH

• Toccata and Fugue in D minor
• On steel-pan

■ BEETHOVEN

• Symphony No. 9 : Part 1
• Part 2
• Symphony No. 5 - Part 1
• Part 2
• Piano concerto no 4, 3rd movement
• Moonlight Sonata
• Moonlight Sonata on Pan !
• Fur Elise

■ MOZART

• Piano Concerto No. 21 K.467 - 2nd Mvt
• Allegro of Symphony 41 in C Major
• Piano Sonata C Major K.330 3rd Movement
• Symphony No.40 1st Movement

■ RAVEL

• Bolero

■ MASTER CONDUCTOR JEFFREY TATE (INF0)

■ WRITES OUR GOOD FRIEND DEOSARAN FROM TRINIDAD & TOBAGO

    When I arrived in New Jersey, I took a liking to the Classical music played in our offices. It has been established that soothing melodious music helps in concentration, health, productivity, and lifestyle.

    In fact, the mantra for Classical music promoters was "Classical music makes you smarter". That's stretching it, but I can tell you from personal experience that life is much more enjoyable, soothing, calmer, serene, and you can be extremely productive, and you work much harder, and for longer hours, with classical music in the background. I have it on all the time, 24/7.

    The downside - if you can call it that- is that you have almost zero tolerance for loud, jarring music.

    Fortunately, you don't need to buy music - it's FREE !

    YouTube has thousands of classical pieces - of the East like Shankar, Sharma, Joshi, Chaurasia et al, and West like Mozart, Beethoven, Bach et al. 

    Enjoy. Share.

    In Trinidad, there was a time when many steel orchestras (or Steelbands, although Orchestra seems more apt) played classical music - I remember Catelli All Stars etc.

    From what I observe today, pan music, and what's left of calypso, survive only because the State, and some business entities,  pay the artistes to perform; it is State-subsidised in the Land of Steelband and Calypso.

    But, we will not leave out steel pan - included in the playlist are pieces on pan, too.

   Deosaran Bisnath

 
■ RESEARCH HAS IT...

    Houston (PTI) : According to researchers at the American Society of Hypertension's 23rd Annual Scientific Meeting and Exposition (ASH 2008), patients with mild hypertension who listened to just half an hour of classical, Celtic or Indian raga music a day for four weeks experienced significant reductions in 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure (ABP).

    "Listening to music is soothing and has often been associated with controlling patient-reported pain or anxiety and acutely reducing blood pressure," said study investigator, Prof Pietro A Modesti, Professor of Internal Medicine in the University of Florence in Italy...

    But for the first time, today's results clearly illustrate the impact daily music listening has on ABP. We are excited about the positive implications for both patients and physicians, who can now confidently explore music listening as a safe, effective, non-pharmacological treatment option, or a complement to therapy."

    At first, the patients wore a device that tracked their blood pressure for 24 hours.
   
    Next, they were given a CD of classical, Celtic, or Indian music.

    Top Photo : J.S. Sahai ©2008.

 

CEREALES DU MATIN, MALADIE PLUS TARD

You Should be Worried if Your Kids' Cereal is Widely Known                                                             

    Breakfast cereals marketed the most aggressively to kids have the worst nutritional quality, according to a new analysis of 161 brands.

    Children's cereals were classified as those that had a character on the box, toys or games inside, or the company's Web site listed the brand as a children's cereal.

    Kids’ cereals had more sugar, sodium, carbohydrate and calories per gram than non-children's cereals, and less protein and fiber.

    Sugar accounted for more than one-third of the weight of children's cereals, on average, compared to less than one-quarter of the adult cereals.

    Source :

• Reuters April 23, 2008

MANGO ! MANGO ! MANJÉ SÉ MANGO-LA !

• How to eat your mango.
• The history of Mango

    Akbar, the Moghal emperor, planted over 100,000 mango trees in Darbhanga, known as Lakhi Bagh(India).

    Mangoes have been cultivated in India since time immemorial. The famous Indian poet Kalidasa  sang its praises.

    The fruit Mango, of the tree Mangifera indica, is one of the most widely cultivated fruits of the tropical world.

    This juicy, delicious fruit is a rich source of Vitamins A, C and D.

    In India there are hundreds of varieties of mangoes, in different sizes, shapes and colours etc.

    King Alexander relished its taste, as did the Chinese traveller Hieun Tsang.      

    FROM PANAMA :

    We're getting an early mango season and I have been harvesting and processing a lot of fruit from my mother's trees. As a matter of fact, at my side as I type these words I have a mango milkshake in my mug. (Chunks of mangoes, crushed ice, milk and sugar, liquefied in the blender).

    Last night I did a panagringo variation on a Cuban recipe. I thawed a couple of frozen turkey legs in the microwave, then stripped the meat away from the bones and tendons and cut it up into bite-sized chunks. Meanwhile in a saucepan I simmered about two cups of diced mango (not including peels or seeds, for those of you who are unfamiliar with the concept), a small onion (sliced), a couple of cloves of garlic (minced), dashes of powdered ginger and Chinese mustard powder and a few drops of aji chombo sauce.

    After heating and stirring, when the mango chunks have dissolved into goo and the onions are transparent, the sauce is ready. The chunks of turkey go into a casserole dish and the mango sauce goes on top of it and it all goes in the oven.

    When the meat is thoroughly cooked, then the night's main dish, turkey in mango sauce, is ready.

    Put mango slices away in the freezer now and you'll be able to have mango sauce and milkshakes when the season's over. Dry bits of mango in a food dehydrator and those can be the basis of another set of recipes, if you don't eat them as sweets first.

SOURCE

   

STORE WARS !

Not long ago in a supermarket not so far away...

• Organic Rebellion
• Buying Organic

POVERTY : THE MICROFINANCE EXPERIENCE

 ■ POVERTY IS NOT CREATED BY THE POOR

    It is created by the structures of society and the policies pursued by society.

    Change the structure as we are doing in Bangladesh, and you will see that the poor change their own lives.

    Given the support of financial capital, however small, the poor are fully capable of improving their lives.

    - Muhammad Yunus, Grameen Bank, Founder, father of the microloan.

MANMAN, TANPRI SOUPLĖ : VEDRINE, EMELINE MICHEL

■ MANMAN, TANPRI SOUPLĖ

Manman, pa ban m tété ankò
Li lè pou sèvé m
Mwen fè dan
Mwen ka mòdé ou
Tanpri souplè
Ban m bonjan manjé
Pou m manjé
Mwen bezwen bonjan
Vitamin pou m kanpé
P ap ban m ti jèbè
Ak ti labouyi nan ti kiyè!
P ap ban m bwè nan bibon
Mwen pa tibébé
Pa pran m pou égaré!
Manman, tanpri souplè
Pa kontinyé
Ban m tété
M wè lèt ou sale
Li ka ban m vant pasé
Kité m bwè lèt bouyi
P ap ban m ti labouyi
Ou konnen m pa timoun piti
Manman, pa ban m tété
Mwen kòmansé palé.

Emmanuel W. Védrine
Collection : Poetry in Haitian Creole

■ QUEEN EMELINE MICHEL

BREAKING FREE FROM SUFFOCATION

RAGHUVIR SAHAY (1928-1990)

    ■ Raghuvir Sahay belongs to a tradition of literature that looks forward rather than to the past for inspiration, for whom the golden age would come when the aspirations of all the millions of people are fulfilled.

   Sahay, like most literary figures of his generation was not merely a significant poet. He was a writer-journalist, a social commentator, a literary critic and a partisan for secularism.

   From late 60's till  the beginning of 80's he was editor of Hindi weekly Dinman, whose  status as the best political-social journal in Hindi is yet to be surpassed.

    He advocated the use of a language that preserved the heritage of Hindustani, the Hindi-Urdu synthesis.

GHUTAN KE BAHAR : BREAKING FREE FROM SUFFOCATION

■ It is true that one can realize one's human side even while continuing to live in one's own little village.

But it is not possible to cross from one village, one social group, one kind of suffocation, and one kind of freedom to another, while remaining within the boundaries set by one's birth.

If one is to pass over into some other language, some other mode of being, some other country and some other history, some other enclosure, in short -- though only to free oneself from that as well, even sooner than before -- one must break through the seige laid by a closed society, which is a partisan of its own language and which all the while keeps the creative person under observation.

My strength does not come from knowing what I have joined myself to.

The joy I feel in creating springs from the knowledge of what I have broken from, so as to establish a new dwelling place. And if I could also be certain that my new world was built on the debris of the old, I'd be perfectly satisfied.   

  MUJHE KUCHH AUR KAMA THA : I OUGHT TO BE DOING MUCH ELSE

■ I  OUGHT to be doing much else
        in this unwhole world
        not just keep the promise
        to a landlord
        or shriek at
        a world of horrors
        I ought to be doing much else
        not stand and eat
        a plate in hand
        in a hall teeming with men and women
        maybe I ought to break
        much more than an empty plate
        this year I
        should have made it
        not just gaze in the looking-glass
        shaving a stubble on my chin

I ought to sing and thunder with rage
          or just laugh
          I ought to be going places
          making the salad
          with my sleeves rolled
          I ought to have roughed the bully up
          outbrag the braggart
          dare the dandy
          I ought I ought to put
          my child to sleep
          with a nice lullaby
          I ought to perform much more
          than a mere salute
          gasping in the morning
          and not look atforty
          dazed at the ways of the world
          yet it's amazing
          no one took the note
          when the success
          succeeded

I've watched it happen
          aflimsyfaith everyday
          vanishing bit by bit
          between the jaws of a glorious people
          with survivor's guilt
          of five famines
          I ought to be doing much else
          instead I sit in a reading room
          looking for a familiar face
          now and then for a hefty tome
          I ought to know I know I know
          when my own generation
          took over the reins of the nation
          yet this way the world acts
          doting on rebels
          shunning the revolt

Translations from Hindi : Harish Trivedi/Daniel Weissbort.

• English translations of RS poems
• Article in Delhi Magazine