c qoi o jus' ? ki sa sa ki sa yé ?

CARIFESTA : HISTORIQUE 1972-2008

Histoire de CARIFESTA

• L'histoire et l'évolution de CARIFESTA
• Thèmes des précédents CARIFESTA
• Comment est né CARIFESTA’72
• Qui est venu à CARIFESTA'72 ?
• Chant  « Bienvenue à CARIFESTA »
• Timbre-poste du Festival
• La Cité du Festival
• Les pays invités
• la Scène Mondiale
• CARIFESTA Festival Caribéen des Arts Créatifs
• Objectifs de CARIFESTA
• Nombre de CARIFESTA réalisés
• Renseignements sur CARIFESTA
• Paroles et chansons CARIFESTA’72
• Événements

    Histoire et évolution de CARIFESTA

    Carifesta pour public et pour sujet les habitants de cette région, le «peuple» qui demeure le fondement et le moteur de nos pays.

INDENTURESHIP DREAMS

Indentureship Dreams- my ancestral scene !!

T'was a long, long journey across the Kala Pani,
Churning sea and chilling breeze amazed our jahajies.

Food was rationed and everyone given a small portion,
Days were long & sad, nights filled with dreams in anticipation.

Alas!! many died from a lack of clean drinking water,
Their relatives will never know of this horrible torture.

Land ahead!!, land ahead!! came the scream from the tired sailors,
Behold!! the majesty of the promised land ripe for new labourers.

Slowly stepping on the land, hungry and tired but happy!!
The wonderful names of jahajies were recorded in a jiffy.

Their new homes were a mystery--barracoons aplenty,
This tiny living space was indeed a pioneer's misery.

Days were long and hard, early morning toil in the fields began,
They were not spared the whip, by the overseer a cruel man.

Their hands were blistered and their backs beaten by the Sun,
Ordinary humans could not this job have done.

Their labour resulted in the wealth of the British Empire,
Little was given to them by the greedy colonial masters.

Sun and rain attack their countenance,
Stealing their beautiful, youthful radiance.

The life we live today is their gift of love and sacrifice,
They came to a hostile land and paid this awesome price.

Jahajies zindabad!!, zindabad!! zindabad!! forever,
Zindabad !! eternal gratitude for your great fervor.

Khem Harrinarine

See also:

• MERE DESH, AN ODE TO TRINIDAD WORKERS
• MORE about the author

PROPOSITIONS FOR DOMINICA : A GREEN FIELD STUDY

      PROPOSITIONS FOR DOMINICA, WAITIKUBULI, NATURE ISLAND

     ■ I am neither industrialist nor environmentalist, but hear what I propose towards a better diversified Dominica:

• Avoid the pitfall of oil.  We all know for ourselves how dangerous it is to be involved. i.e. Iraq, Afghanistan, Venezuela, Iran, etc.
• Avoid becoming a museum of the past just to be looked at as zoo animals.
• Avoid getting the country in further debt just so we could make believe we are self sufficient.

    Instead, use the "Nature Island" status to draw a green field of study to our home. 

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

■ DANIEL BERNARD ROUMAIN, HAITIAN AMERICAN COMPOSER

■ 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