Category: Features

“Two packs sausage fuh $500.” “Come get yuh bora, fresh garden bora.” “I got nice tops fuh yuh wife, bai; come buy two.” These are some of the words one would hear on passing through what was once the busiest place on the West Bank of Demerara on Friday. That place was the Wales Market, but now the once-busy area is a ghost town with very few vendors on a Friday. “Right now, what I can tell you, this market is a dead place. Almost everybody stop coming to sell,…

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By Lakhram Bhagirat If someone told Jason Lampley a few years ago, that he would give up his love for graphic designing and marketing to enter into the uncertain world of baking, then he would have definitely laughed at them. Now here he is, in a world where he is still trying to find his footing but is destined to leave his mark on the taste buds of every Guyanese and even those far afield. Jason, along with his business partners Alan Ferreira and Roger Welch, recently opened Kupkake-inator Café…

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…miniaturising sugar: Guyana’s historically largest agricultural enterprise Ironically, just over a week ago, as “Agriculture Month” was launched, the nation had to grapple with the fact that all a mother could do was cry when her children woke in the middle of the night asking for some food. We heard that she would give them a cup of water because that is all she can afford to do, but she is just one of thousands of persons so affected and the common cause – the closure of several sugar estates…

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By Lakhram Bhagirat While growing up I would always hear my grandmother, who was a vendor at the Bourda Market in Georgetown, talking about the bargains at the Parika Market, East Bank Essequibo. She would boast about the freshness of the produce, as well as the great bargains one would receive. I mean that alone was enough to grasp the attention of everyone she spoke to. She, in my mind, was the unpaid spokesperson for the vendors operating at the Parika Market. I remember my first visit to the Market.…

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By Lakhram Bhagirat The agriculture sector is dubbed as one of the most important sectors in any economy, given its ability to provide nourishment to us humans, yet the struggles of farmers are quite often downplayed. This is because many of us do not see the farmer rising before the crack of dawn or fighting to ensure that the crops are well-irrigated or even coming up with the right methods to eradicate pests and maximise yields. Since ancient times, humans have been planting and rearing what they eat and to…

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Professor Lomarsh Roopnarine Ever since our Indian foreparents stepped aboard the ships that sailed across the kala pani and brought us to the New World, we have become world travellers. The most recent publication from Dr Lomarsh Roopnarine, Professor of Caribbean and Latin American history at Jackson State University, Mississippi, USA, follows our journeys since that initial embarkation which brought us from the known to the unknown with all the opportunities and advantages as well as the setbacks that came with colonialism and plantation life. The main thrust of the…

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The Sanatan Vaidic Dharma Pandits’ Sabha Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara) last Sunday embarked on its second “boat cruise satsangh” which saw hundreds of individuals taking part in the numerous spiritual and cultural festivities. The event, which materialised in collaboration with the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS), the Hare Krishna Movement, the Nirvana Humanitarian Society and generous sponsors featured discourses from prominent speakers and cultural performances with many from as far as Berbice, Bartica and other sections of Guyana’s coast. Chants and singing were accompanied by henna designing, face painting and…

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by Petamber Persaud After exploring a part of Guyana’s heartland via Stan Brock (‘Jungle Cowboy’) and Gerald Durrell (‘Three Singles to Adventure’) a few other books and their authors vied for a mention in my column. I was unable to get my hands on ‘Ninety-two Day’ by Evelyn Waugh (an account of his travels in Guyana and Brazil) and I had already written about ‘Zoo Quest to Guiana’ by David Attenborough (his three months spent in Guyana filming and collecting animals), so I focused on Charles Waterton of Walton Hall,…

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By Lakhram Bhagirat The strength of a thousand soldiers is not even close to the amount of strength and courage it requires to fight a disease so deadly that it is among the top five killers in the world. The strength of a thousand soldiers is not comparable to the strength it requires to watch that disease ravage your family, taking two loved ones. The strength of a thousand soldiers is insignificant when compared to the strength that is required to beat cancer. Rosaline Clarke is a strong woman, a…

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The Breast Cancer Awareness Month, marked in countries across the world every October, helps to increase attention and support for the awareness, early detection and treatment as well as palliative care of this disease. There are about 1.38 million new cases and 458 000 deaths from breast cancer each year (IARC Globocan, 2008). Breast cancer is by far the most common cancer in women worldwide, both in the developed and developing countries. In low- and middle-income countries the incidence has been rising up steadily in the last years due to…

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