I wish to salute the women of the world in general and the women of Guyana in particular during this month designated as Womens' History month.....

I support the struggles of women every where for political, social and economic equality...and justice.....

At this time I would also like to pay tribute to the memory of Kowsilla a/k/a Alice who lost her life on March 6th, 1964 when she was tragically killed during a strike demonstation at Leonora.....she and other workers were on strike for better conditions and for recoginison of her union the Guyana Agricultural Workers' Union....

Her body was severed when a tractor driven by a scab was driven into the midst of the demonstrating workers.....

(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) - The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat is honoured to salute the women and girls of the Caribbean Community today on the occasion of International Women’s Day 2008. International Women’s Day (IWD) is an occasion to review and reflect on the quest by women for equality, peace and development. It also affords an opportunity to celebrate women’s contributions to the strengthening of democratic governance, justice, peace, security and quality of life.
This year’s theme, “Investing in Women and Girls,” reiterates the commitments made since 1995 on financing gender equality and the empowerment of women, a Millennium Development Goal. It has been asserted and it remains no less true that women’s empowerment is fundamental to the achievement of equality, development and peace. To achieve that, it requires identification and mobilisation of resources from all sources and across all sectors. There are a range of factors which have impacted upon the financing of gender equality and empowerment of women including economic growth patterns that increase inequality between and within countries, persistent socioeconomic inequalities, social exclusion, youth unemployment, and crime and violence.
Violence still remains a major cause of concern for women and girls and boys. It is estimated worldwide that one in five women become a victim of rape or attempted rape and one in four women have been beaten or abused or will be during their lifetime.
To achieve traction on issues such as violence against women, the prevalence of HIV and AIDS among young women, poverty and representation in decision-making bodies there is a need for strong actors and even stronger commitments by the stakeholders.
The facts are that women as a group generally have a higher incidence of poverty than men and within the CARICOM region, women’s participation in Parliaments continues to be less than optimal, falling short of the target of 30 per cent.
It is essential then that adequate resources are provided to support the implementation of gender sensitive policies and programmes at the regional, national and local level that leads to a realisation of gender equality and empowerment of women.
As part of a theoretical and conceptual thrust towards achieving gender equality there has been a focus on achieving gender mainstreaming but there has been much less focus on women’s empowerment. This has led to reduced resources for women’s focus programmes and organisations.
Generally, strides in gender sensitive approaches have been more likely to be considered in the social sector namely education, and to some extent, health, but less so in the “harder” areas of finance, trade, transport, rural infrastructure and in the emerging areas of focus for the Region such as sustainable development issues. This, in no way, diminishes the progress made in some areas of legislation and policy, labour market participation and increased access to public resources.
Yet, the fundamental question remains - how can gender equality be achieved in an asymmetrical social and economic environment? Restrictive macroeconomic policies can exacerbate social inequalities and thus, women and girls and some men and boys experience. Economic policies have impacted disproportionately on women and girls, especially the poor. Addressing women’s inequality in employment, unequal access to productive assets and increased time burdens due to women’s unpaid work can help accelerate economic growth and pro-poor growth. Gender inequality limits pro-poor growth.
Aggressive attention to gender inequality means a more holistic and interconnected approach to development. In this regard, the implementation of gender sensitive public management reform realized through the public finance systems provides opportunities to integrate a gender perspective into the process of social, economic and political governance and rights based rationales. It provides the connection between economic and social policy outcomes.
Let us, therefore, as a region, resolve to promote gender equality so that sustained economic growth, poverty eradication and sustainable development would be realised.
To all, Happy International Women’s Day!!!

Mirror March 9th,2008

Hillary Rodham Clinton

During the 1992 presidential campaign, Hillary Rodham Clinton observed, "Our lives are a mixture of different roles. Most of us are doing the best we can to find whatever the right balance is . . . For me, that balance is family, work, and service."

Hillary Diane Rodham, Dorothy and Hugh Rodham's first child, was born on October 26, 1947. Two brothers, Hugh and Tony, soon followed. Hillary's childhood in Park Ridge, Illinois, was happy and disciplined. She loved sports and her church, and was a member of the National Honor Society, and a student leader. Her parents encouraged her to study hard and to pursue any career that interested her.

As an undergraduate at Wellesley College, Hillary mixed academic excellence with school government. Speaking at graduation, she said, "The challenge now is to practice politics as the art of making what appears to be impossible, possible."

In 1969, Hillary entered Yale Law School, where she served on the Board of Editors of Yale Law Review and Social Action, interned with children's advocate Marian Wright Edelman, and met Bill Clinton. The President often recalls how they met in the library when she strode up to him and said, "If you're going to keep staring at me, I might as well introduce myself." The two were soon inseparable--partners in moot court, political campaigns, and matters of the heart.

After graduation, Hillary advised the Children's Defense Fund in Cambridge and joined the impeachment inquiry staff advising the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives. After completing those responsibilities, she "followed her heart to Arkansas," where Bill had begun his political career.

They married in 1975. She joined the faculty of the University of Arkansas Law School in 1975 and the Rose Law Firm in 1976. In 1978, President Jimmy Carter appointed her to the board of the Legal Services Corporation, and Bill Clinton became governor of Arkansas. Their daughter, Chelsea, was born in 1980.

Hillary served as Arkansas's First Lady for 12 years, balancing family, law, and public service. She chaired the Arkansas Educational Standards Committee, co-founded the Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, and served on the boards of the Arkansas Children's Hospital, Legal Services, and the Children's Defense Fund.

As the nation's First Lady, Hillary continued to balance public service with private life. Her active role began in 1993 when the President asked her to chair the Task Force on National Health Care Reform. She continued to be a leading advocate for expanding health insurance coverage, ensuring children are properly immunized, and raising public awareness of health issues. She wrote a weekly newspaper column entitled "Talking It Over," which focused on her experiences as First Lady and her observations of women, children, and families she has met around the world. Her 1996 book It Takes a Village and Other Lessons Children Teach Us was a best seller, and she received a Grammy Award for her recording of it.

As First Lady, her public involvement with many activities sometimes led to controversy. Undeterred by critics, Hillary won many admirers for her staunch support for women around the world and her commitment to children's issues.

She was elected United States Senator from New York on November 7, 2000. She is the first First Lady elected to the United States Senate and the first woman elected statewide in New York.

Born: 26 September 1981
Birthplace: Saginaw, Michigan
Best Known As: Half of the tennis-playing Williams sisters

Serena Williams and her sister Venus became stars of women's tennis in the late 1990s. The sisters were African-Americans, then a rarity in pro tennis, and quickly became known for their powerful games and flashy outfits. Like Tiger Woods, Serena and Venus were child prodigies who began playing their chosen game before kindergarten. Serena is a year younger than Venus and (at 5'10") about three inches shorter, but she was the first sister to win a major tournament by claiming the singles title at the 1999 U.S. Open. Serena went on to become the dominant women's tennis player of the early 2000s; in 2002-03 she won the "Serena slam" by holding all four grand slam titles at once: the 2002 French Open, Wimbledon and U.S. Open titles, and the 2003 Australian Open. Her other major titles are Wimbledon in 2003 and the Australian Open in 2005 and 2007.

MELINDA GATES-in charge of 300 billion endowment, which benifits impovrished peoples all over the world; especially in the fight of preventable diseases like malaria, childhood diseases, and malnutrition.
she should have been on the top of the list!!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: PC,

Melinda Gates is the wife of the richest man in the world, which makes her one of the most powerful women in the world according to the Forbes business magazine (ranked 12th in 2006). Along with her husband she founded the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and continues to spend much of her time working in the organization.

She was born in Dallas Texas in 1964 as Melinda Ann French. Melinda received her bachelors degree in economics and computer science at the Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. She then went on to receive an MBA (Master of Business Administration) from the Duke University's Fuqua School of Business in 1987.

In the same year she also started working at Microsoft where she would meet her future husband. Melinda worked her way into the position of General Manager of Information Products. Bill and Melinda also met that year and were married on the 1st of January, 1994.

The couple started the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2000 with $106 million. It has now grown to become one of the largest charitable foundations in the world. Melinda is very active in the foundation as a co-chairperson with her husband.

Melinda's responsibilities at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation involves working on strategies to pursue, promoting the issues that they seek to solve, and reviewing the results that they achieve. Bill Gates still works with Microsoft, but plans to leave the software company soon to devote all of his time to the foundation.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation aims to improve health condition worldwide, eliminate poverty in some of the world's poorest regions, to promote education, and to provide technology to libraries.

In 2005 Time magazine chose Bill and Melinda Gates (along with U2's Bono) as Person of the Year. The magazine celebrated the charitable works that the trio were giving to the world.

Bill and Melinda Gates have three children together; Jennifer Katharine Gates born in 1996, Rory John Gates born in 1999, and Phoebe Adele Gates born in 2002.

Ida B. Wells-Barnett and Her Passion for Justice
Lee D. Baker
Ida B. Wells-Barnett was a fearless anti-lynching crusader, suffragist, women's rights advocate, journalist, and speaker. She stands as one of our nation's most uncompromising leaders and most ardent defenders of democracy. She was born in Holly Springs, Mississippi in 1862 and died in Chicago, Illinois 1931 at the age of sixty-nine.

Although enslaved prior to the Civil War, her parents were able to support their seven children because her mother was a "famous" cook and her father was a skilled carpenter. When Ida was only fourteen, a tragic epidemic of Yellow Fever swept through Holly Springs and killed her parents and youngest sibling. Emblematic of the righteousness, responsibility, and fortitude that characterized her life, she kept the family together by securing a job teaching. She managed to continue her education by attending near-by Rust College. She eventually moved to Memphis to live with her aunt and help raise her youngest sisters.

It was in Memphis where she first began to fight (literally) for racial and gender justice. In 1884 she was asked by the conductor of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad Company to give up her seat on the train to a white man and ordered her into the smoking or "Jim Crow" car, which was already crowded with other passengers. Despite the 1875 Civil Rights Act banning discrimination on the basis of race, creed, or color, in theaters, hotels, transports, and other public accommodations, several railroad companies defied this congressional mandate and racially segregated its passengers. It is important to realize that her defiant act was before Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), the U.S. Supreme Court decision that established the fallacious doctrine of "separate but equal," which constitutionalized racial segregation. Wells wrote in her autobiography:

I refused, saying that the forward car [closest to the locomotive] was a smoker, and as I was in the ladies' car, I proposed to stay. . . [The conductor] tried to drag me out of the seat, but the moment he caught hold of my arm I fastened my teeth in the back of his hand. I had braced my feet against the seat in front and was holding to the back, and as he had already been badly bitten he didn't try it again by himself. He went forward and got the baggageman and another man to help him and of course they succeeded in dragging me out.
Wells was forcefully removed from the train and the other passengers--all whites--applauded. When Wells returned to Memphis, she immediately hired an attorney to sue the railroad. She won her case in the local circuit courts, but the railroad company appealed to the Supreme Court of Tennessee, and it reversed the lower court's ruling. This was the first of many struggles Wells engaged, and from that moment forward, she worked tirelessly and fearlessly to overturn injustices against women and people of color.

Her suit against the railroad company also sparked her career as a journalist. Many papers wanted to hear about the experiences of the 25-year-old school teacher who stood up against white supremacy. Her writing career blossomed in papers geared to African American and Christian audiences.

In 1889 Wells became a partner in the Free Speech and Headlight. The paper was also owned by Rev. R. Nightingale-- the pastor of Beale Street Baptist Church. He "counseled" his large congregation to subscribe to the paper and it flourished, allowing her to leave her position as an educator.

In 1892 three of her friends were lynched. Thomas Moss, Calvin McDowell, and Henry Stewart. These three men were owners of People's Grocery Company, and their small grocery had taken away customers from competing white businesses. A group of angry white men thought they would "eliminate" the competition so they attacked People's grocery, but the owners fought back, shooting one of the attackers. The owners of People's Grocery were arrested, but a lynch-mob broke into the jail, dragged them away from town, and brutally murdered all three. Again, this atrocity galvanized her mettle. She wrote in The Free Speech

The city of Memphis has demonstrated that neither character nor standing avails the Negro if he dares to protect himself against the white man or become his rival. There is nothing we can do about the lynching now, as we are out-numbered and without arms. The white mob could help itself to ammunition without pay, but the order is rigidly enforced against the selling of guns to Negroes. There is therefore only one thing left to do; save our money and leave a town which will neither protect our lives and property, nor give us a fair trial in the courts, but takes us out and murders us in cold blood when accused by white persons.
Many people took the advice Wells penned in her paper and left town; other members of the Black community organized a boycott of white owned business to try to stem the terror of lynchings. Her newspaper office was destroyed as a result of the muckraking and investigative journalism she pursued after the killing of her three friends. She could not return to Memphis, so she moved to Chicago. She however continued her blistering journalistic attacks on Southern injustices, being especially active in investigating and exposing the fraudulent "reasons" given to lynch Black men, which by now had become a common occurrence.

In Chicago, she helped develop numerous African American women and reform organizations, but she remained diligent in her anti-lynching crusade, writing Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases. She also became a tireless worker for women's suffrage, and happened to march in the famous 1913 march for universal suffrage in Washington, D.C. Not able to tolerate injustice of any kind, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, along with Jane Addams, successfully blocked the establishment of segregated schools in Chicago.

In 1895 Wells married the editor of one of Chicago's early Black newspapers. She wrote: "I was married in the city of Chicago to Attorney F. L. Barnett, and retired to what I thought was the privacy of a home." She did not stay retired long and continued writing and organizing. In 1906, she joined with William E.B. DuBois and others to further the Niagara Movement, and she was one of two African American women to sign "the call" to form the NAACP in 1909. Although Ida B. Wells was one of the founding members of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), she was also among the few Black leaders to explicitly oppose Booker T. Washington and his strategies. As a result, she was viewed as one the most radical of the so-called "radicals" who organized the NAACP and marginalized from positions within its leadership. As late as 1930, she became disgusted by the nominees of the major parties to the state legislature, so Wells-Barnett decided to run for the Illinois State legislature, which made her one of the first Black women to run for public office in the United States. A year later, she passed away after a lifetime crusading for justice.

Lee D. Baker, April 1996. (ldbaker at acpub.duke.edu) Source: Franklin, Vincent P. 1995 Living Our Stories, Telling Our Truths: Autobiography and the Making of African American Intellectual Tradition. 1995: Oxford University Press

Dr. LaVerne E. Ragster

LaVerne Ragster was born and raised on St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. She graduated from Charlotte Amalie High School in 1969. Her educational career included completion of a B.S. in biology and chemistry (University of Miami) in 1973, a M.S. in biology (San Diego State University - algal physiology concentration) in 1975 and a Ph.D. in biology (University of California, San Diego - plant biochemistry concentration) in 1980.

During the first 10 years of her career, Dr. Ragster served as part of the teaching faculty at the (College first, then in 1986) University of the Virgin Islands, where she was promoted from assistant professor to professor of marine biology.

Additionally, she has held positions such as chair of the Division of Science and Mathematics, faculty trustee to the UVI Board of Trustees, acting vice president for Research and Land Grant Affairs, vice president for Research and Public Service, and senior vice president and provost at UVI. Dr. Ragster helped to link UVI to other higher education institutions in the region when she served as sub-secretary general for the Association of Caribbean Universities and Research Institutes (UNICA) and as the coordinator of the Consortium of Caribbean Universities for Natural Resource Management.

Dr. Ragster works with a number of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and regional organizations, including the Caribbean Studies Association (past president), Caribbean Natural Resources Institute (board member, past chair of the board), Caribbean Conservation Association (past vice president), Island Resources Foundation (board member), The Nature Conservancy (board member) and the Caribbean Council for Science and Technology (USVI representative). During the last eight years she has published a number of papers on the role of natural resources in resource management and development, produced programs for the training of faculty and resource managers, and developed curriculum materials to teach natural resource management at the university level in the Caribbean.

Hema Malini


Hema Malini is an Indian actress and Bharatanatyam dancer...
Updated On: 2/12/2007

Hema Malini, (born October 16, 1948 in Ammankudi, Tamil Nadu, India) is an Indian actress and Bharatanatyam dancer, who starred in several successful Bollywood films in the 1970s, most notably the extremely successful Sholay.

Career

Hema Malini was educated at Andhra Mahila Sabha, Chennai, Hema first tried to enter films in 1964, but was rejected; Tamil director Sridhar said she had no star appeal. She persisted and found her niche in Bollywood. She debuted in a 1968 film Sapnon ka Saudagar ("The Dreamseller), playing a young teen opposite the ageing superstar Raj Kapoor. With Dev Anand in Johnny Mera Naam (1970), Hema became a top star and with Dharmendra in Seeta Aur Geeta (1972) she was the top female star in Bollywood and became one of the reigning divas of the Bollywood film industry. Her fans called her The Dream Girl of Bollywood (an allusion to her first film, and one of her big hits).

She starred in many movies throughout the 1970s and 1980s and is perhaps best remembered for her glamour, style, and accomplished classical dancing. She formed a hit pair with Dharmendra and the duo gave a number of hit movies. She also achieved some strong dramatic or comic moments in films like Trishul, Joshila, Lal Patthar, Seeta Aur Geeta, Sholay, Meera and Satte Pe Satta. She wore bell-bottom pant-shirts in films like Trishul and Joshila, which was uncommon for women of that time.

After having a back seat from films for a number of years in the 1990s and early 2000s, she has recently made a comeback of sorts. She co-starred with Amitabh Bachchan after two decades since they last appeared together in the successful film Baghban (2003), and played a cameo role (also opposite Bachchan) in the 2004 blockbuster Veer-Zaara. In both films, she played a beautiful , self-possessed, middle-aged married woman rather than the ingenue role of her earlier career.

She tried her hand at directing and made the 1992 film Dil Aashna Hai which featured an all-star cast including Shahrukh Khan and the late Divya Bharti.

She also directed and starred in the TV Serial Noopur, in which she was depicted as a Bharatanatyam dancer going to America.

Personal life

Hema Malini is a dedicated Bharatnatyam artiste, a classical dance of India. Her two daughters have trained in the related Odissi school of dance, and the three have performed together at several charity dance concerts.

Top Bollywood stars like Sanjeev Kumar and Jeetendra proposed marriage to her, but she married Dharmendra (who never divorced his first wife) and they have two children: Ahana Deol and Esha Deol (born 1982), who is a successful Bollywood actress as well.

In 2005, on the TV show Koffee with Karan, she said that she taught her daughters Tamil very well, but had to hire a tutor to help her daughter Esha Deol learn Punjabi for a film. Apparently, Esha's father Dharmendra, whose mother tongue is Punjabi, converses with Hema and his daughters only in Hindi and English.

She is the daughter of Shrimati Jaya Chakravarthy who was a film producer. Shrimati Jaya Chakravarthy passed away on June 11th, 2004.

She and her husband have been involved in politics, as members of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). She was elected to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Parliament of India, with the support of the BJP. In February 2004, she joined the party officially. With her film career less hectic, she has been an active member of the party, attending party meetings and rallies and campaigning for the party through various elections.

She has once said in an interview that she would never wear revealing outfits in movies, and has been true to her words. It is said that after she shot for a swimsuit scene in a movie, her mother was was so offended that she promised never to repeat it. She exposed her navel in a low-waist saree for the first time on camera only in 2006, after over 30 years of acting.

Awards and honors

1973 - Filmfare Best Actress Award, Seeta aur Geeta

1999 - Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award

2000 - Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian award from the Government of India.

2003 - Star Screen Award Jodi No. 1, Baghban (with Amitabh Bachchan)

2003 - 'Lifetime Achievement Award for Distinguished Contribution to the Movie Industry' at the 'Bollywood Awards' scheduled at Trump Taj Mahal Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, on May 3.

Famous Movies

Veer Zaara, Baghban, Censor, Hey Ram, Himalay Putra, Maahir, Aatank, Vivekananda, Hai Meri Jaan, Jamai Raja, Lekin, Paap Ka Ant, Desh Ke Dushman, Santosh, Deshwasi, Galiyon Ka Badshah, Sachche Ka Bol Bala, Rihaee, Mohabbat Ke Dushman, Mulzim, Vijay, Kudrat Ka Kanoon, Jaan Hatheli Pe, Anjaam, Apne Apne, Sitapur Ki Geeta, Ek Chadar Maili Si, Babu, Hum Dono, Yudh, Ramkali, Aandhi Toofan, Durga, Phaansi Ke Baad, Ek Nai Paheli, Ek Naya Itihas, Qaidi, Raaj Tilak, Ram Tera Desh, Sharara, Nastik, Andha Kanoon, Razia Sultan, Taqdeer, Meharbaani, Rajput, Suraag, Satte Pe Satta, Baghawat, Desh Premee, Do Dishayen, Farz Aur Kanoon, Justice Chaudhury, Samraat, Teesri Aankh, Meri Aawaz Suno, Naseeb, Kranti, Aas Paas, Dard, Jyoti, Krodhi, Kudrat, Maan Gaye Ustad, Alibaba Aur 40 Chor, Bandish, The Burning Train, Do Aur Do Paanch, Hum Tere Aashiq Hain, Meera, Dil Ka Heera, Janata Havaldar, Ratnadeep, Apna Khoon, Azaad, Dillagi, Trishul, Palkon Ki Chhaon Mein, Chacha Bhatija, Chala Murari Hero Banne, Dhoop Chhaon, Dream Girl, Kinara, Shirdi Ke Sai Baba, Jaaneman, Mehbooba, Dus Numbri, Aap Beeti, Charas, Maa, Naach Utha Sansar, Sharafat Chod Di Maine, Sholay, Dharmatma, Do Thug, Kahte Hain Mujhko Raja, Khushboo, Pratigya, Sanyasi, Sunehra Sansar, Kasauti, Dost, Amir Garib, Dulhan, Haath Ki Safai, Patthar Aur Payal, Prem Nagar, Joshila, Gehri Chaal, Chhupa Rustam, Jugnu, Prem Parvat, Shareef Budmaash, Babul Ki Galiyaan, Bhai Ho To Aisa, Garam Masala, Gora Aur Kala, Raja Jani, Seeta Aur Geeta, Tere Mere Sapne, Andaz, Lal Patthar, Naya Zamana, Paraya Dhan, Johny Mera Naam, Aansoo Aur Muskan, Abhinetri, Sharafat, Tum Haseen Main Jawaan, Jahan Pyar Mile, Waris, Sapnon Ka Saudagar, Pandava Vanavasam

Reference Source

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Hema Malini : The Authorized Biography
Author: Somaaya, Bhawana
Year: 2007

ISBN : 817434676



Main Features »

Hema Malini, the quintessential ‘Dream Girl’ of Hindi cinema has truly nurtured a dream, and followed it to its realization. After being unceremoniously dropped from her first Tamil film as the director felt that she didn’t have ‘star quality’, Hema signed the Hindi film she was offered opposite Raj Kapoor. Just eighteen, she soon conquered the hearts of all moviegoers with her beauty, grace and charisma. From Johnny Mera Naam to Sholay, from Meera to Baghbaan, she has portrayed a diverse range of characters that will always remain a part of the film legend.

Raj Kapoor, Dev Anand, Sanjeev Kumar … she worked with all the leading stars, but it was with Dharmendra that the chemistry on screen was palpable. The special bond she shared with Dharmendra set the rumour mills buzzing but defying all conventions, Hema married her Jat hero in May 1980. Striking a perfect balance between her personal and professional life, Hema maintains a dignity about the little world she shares with daughters Esha and Ahana.

This intimate portrayal, the first authorized biography, by Bhawana Somaaya is a result of her long years of association with Hema as a film journalist and critic. Hema speaks to her more candidly than ever before about her life, with and without Dharmendra, her children, her mother and her twin passions of dance and acting.

Reference Source

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Black Writers - The transforming power of their literature

By Brenda M. Greene, Ph.D.



“I write not for myself, but to transform my life and the lives of others.” Those words spoken by author Marita Golden struck a chord with me as I interviewed her on her book Don’t Play in the Sun. With those words, Golden affirmed the transforming power that literature has in our lives. Reading literature as a child allowed me to imagine other worlds, other lives and alternative realities. It was both comforting and challenging as it expanded my knowledge, raised questions and reminded me about the value that remembering has for our lives.

We know well the adage that those who do not remember are forced to repeat the mistakes of the past. In his most recent book, Fanon: A Novel, John Edgar Wideman reminds us that in the tradition of the Igbo of Nigeria, “a person does not die until the living stop remembering, stop telling stories about the person.” Wideman is drawn to Frantz Fanon and feels compelled to tell the story of this philosopher, psychiatrist, activist and political writer whose book The Wretched of the Earth inspired leaders of diverse political movements across the world. Wideman’s novel provides the reader with glimpses into Fanon’s inner mind. Wideman recounts how the work and life of Fanon have transformed and motivated him to provide a way for others to connect to this extraordinary man who had an impact on so many lives. He reaffirms for us how remembered lives change the world.

Our motivation for writing often comes from a deeply felt desire to make sense of a complicated world. Writers are the griots, visionaries, mythmakers, documentarians and chroniclers of our realities. They tell those stories that have not been told and that need to be told. Their writing is multifaceted and complicated, representing a legacy of the triumphs and indomitable spirit of people from across the African Diaspora. Margaret T. Burroughs, founder of the DuSable Museum of African American History in Chicago, reminds us of the value of these legacies in her poem “What Will Your Legacy Be?”

As readers, we find pleasure in literature. We marvel at the aesthetics of a literary text, at how writers use language, manipulate words and create images. However, we should also be mindful of the impact of the literature produced by Black writers on our culture and society. When Black writers compose literary texts, their intent is to enter into conversations with other writers and contribute to a master narrative that represents diverse, national and global cultures. However, too often this master narrative has left Black writers out of the conversation and has distorted, marginalized or negatively portrayed the complicated stories and lives of Black people. If Black writers are indeed contributing to a master literary narrative, then it is incumbent upon readers to critically interrogate that narrative. The reader should be aware of how the experiences of Black people are placed and from whose perspective these stories are told.

The National Black Writers Confe-rence at Medgar Evers College of the City University of New York has been a venue for bringing together readers, writers, scholars and stakeholders in the publishing industry to discuss the literature produced by a cross generation of emerging and established Black writers. Founded in 1986 by the late John Oliver Killens, writer, literary activist, teacher and mentor, the conference had its roots in 1959, when Killens suggested to Sarah Wright and John Henry Clarke that the American Society of African Culture establish an annual conference for “Negro” writers. Killens served as writer-in-residence at Fisk and Howard universities and continued to sponsor Black writers conferences. When he came to Medgar Evers College as writer- in- residence in 1985, he called upon writers he knew and held one of the largest and most energizing conferences he had ever had. Writers for that first conference included Maya Angelou, Toni Cade Bambara, Amiri Baraka, Calvin Hernton, Ishmael Reed and Margaret Walker. It has been and continues to be the tradition of the National Black Writers Conferences at Medgar Evers to raise public awareness of the range and depth of literature produced by Black writers and to provide the general public, students, educators and academics with an opportunity to converse with writers, booksellers, literary agents, publishers and editors on the craft, aesthetics, themes and direction of Black writing. Our Ninth National Black Writers Conference, “Black Writers: Reading and Writing to Transform Their Lives and the World,” which is sponsored by the college’s Center for Black Literature, will examine the ways in which the literature of diasporic writers has transformed the literary landscape. The conference will serve as a reminder that in reading and writing we empower ourselves and the world.


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Brenda M. Greene, Ph.D., is professor of English and executive director of the Center for Black Literature at Medgar Evers College of the City University of New York.

This article was written by Dr. Dhanpaul Narine for the “West Indian” March 15th 2008 edition. Elizabeth Jennings: A Streetcar for Freedom
In those days, the drivers carried whips. Those who were deemed undesirables would be beaten and forced to leave the buses. This practice was quite common in New York but in 1854 one woman had the courage to stand up and change the system. Change usually comes from conviction and a desire to fight for what is right. When Elizabeth Jennings boarded the omnibus at the corner of Pearl and Chatham Streets little did she know that she would rewrite the history books.
It was high summer and the 24 year- old school teacher was on her way to church where she was an organist. In the 1840’s blacks were not allowed to use public transportation. The alternative was walking since the ‘colored buses’ hardly worked. By 1850, the administration had not decided as to whether blacks could ride the omnibuses. An omnibus was a horse drawn bus or a horse drawn street- car. The refusal to transport African- Americans at times provoked threats of legal action, but this was considered a joke by the establishment. Who could take on the city and win?
Elizabeth Jennings came from a well- connected family that was involved in a movement to end discrimination. This was based mainly in the church. Her father, Thomas Jennings joined with preachers such as J.W.C. Pennington, Henry Garnet, Peter S. Ewell and Peter Porter. This group would meet regularly to discuss ways and means to improve the condition of blacks in the city. Reverend Pennington, in particular, was vehemently opposed to segregation and his sermons at the First Colored Congregational Church were used to promote equal rights. No one knew that history was about to be made when on July 16th 1864, Elizabeth Jennings boarded an omnibus to play the organ at her church.
Manhattan’s pre-Civil War climate had more than a hint of radicalism. Although many people followed the “rules” buses with the sign “colored persons allowed” were a symbol of separateness in a city with the nations’ largest African- American population. As was common in those days, the bus driver would use his authority to decide who should be on the buses. On that July day, Elizabeth Jennings was seen as an easy target. As soon as he saw her, the driver refused to let her on claiming that the bus was full. When she pointed out that in fact the opposite was the case, the driver went on the defensive. Jennings was told that the other passengers were uncomfortable by her presence. She did not accept this explanation. She insisted on her rights to ride the bus but the driver took her by her hand and tried to forcibly eject her.
According to the New York Tribune, “Elizabeth Jennings resisted. The conductor got her down on the platform, jammed her bonnet, soiled her dress, and injured her person. Quite a crowd gathered, but she eventually resisted. Finally, after the car had gone on further, with the aid of a policemen, they succeeded in removing her.”
As can be expected, the community was angry and upset. A rally was called outside the first Colored Congregational Church. There were speeches by community leaders and Ms. Jennings in a letter stated what had happened on the bus. She said that as a “respectable person born in New York City” she had no right to be treated like that. She described the driver as a “good for nothing, impudent fellow” who had insulted a decent person on her way to church. Jennings then took the bold and unusual step to sue the bus company, the driver, and the conductor. In the 1850’s it was unthinkable for African- Americans to use the courts to win civil rights. This case attracted immense interest.
The black community began to mobilize itself for the impending court case by publicizing the event. It denounced racism and urged the people to remain calm. Jennings was represented by a young attorney, Chester A. Arthur. His involvement in the case was to prove extremely beneficial as Chester Arthur went on to become the 21st president of the United States, following the death of James Garfield in 1881.
In 1815, Brooklyn became a separate city. The case against the Third Avenue Railway Cany took place at Brooklyn’s Circuit Court with George William Rockwell presiding. After lengthy summations, the judge ruled in favor of Elizabeth Jennings. It was a historic decision tempered only by the wording of the ruling. According to the judge, “colored persons, if sober, well behaved and free from disease, had the same rights as others, and could neither be excluded by any rules of the Company, nor by any force of violence.” This appears to be a rather grudging and demeaning ruling since it cast African- Americans as boisterous, unruly and unclean. But the message was clear. Desegregation on the buses was a thing of the past. African Americans had won a major victory in New York. Her case was publicized by Frederick Douglass in his newspaper.
Elizabeth Jennings was awarded $500 in damages. However, she did not get the full amount. Some members of the jury, “had peculiar notions as to colored peoples rights”. Consequently, she was awarded $225 plus $22.50 for court costs. By 1860, all of New York’s street and rail cars were desegregated. Elizabeth Jennings went on to marry Charles Graham and to continue teaching in African- American schools. Jennings was to make another impact on American History. In 1863, a resolution was passed that allowed wealthy New Yorkers to buy their way out of the Civil War draft.
This resolution caused resentment and anger and there was rioting in New York that lasted four days. It was reported that more than seventy blacks were killed. Unfortunately, Jennings’ young son died of convulsions during the riots. As the rioting continued Elizabeth Jennings-Graham and her husband managed to get their son to the Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn for a proper burial. Elizabeth Jennings was a determined woman whose actions helped to change an ugly law in New York’s history. Her unflappable and unyielding courage would go on to inspire a host of other women. Sojourner Truth (1797-1883) fought against slavery and for the rights of women while Harriet Tubman (1823-1913) laid plans for slaves to be free with the Underground Railroad. Mary McLeod Bethune (1875-1955) believed in the role of education as an agent of change and spent much of her life equipping schools with the necessary curriculums to include stories about slavery.
In the political sphere, granting women the right to vote was always going to be resisted by the establishment, but the efforts of Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906), and others, led to a change in the law. The Nineteenth Amendment in 1920 made it possible for women to vote.
On a chilly day in 2005 the world gathered to pay their respects to Rosa Parks. It was Parks who had refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955 that led to changes in that city’s transit system. Her actions also resulted in the civil rights movement in which Martin Luther King was to play a prominent role.
But America needs to remember a young black schoolteacher, who a hundred years before Rosa Parks, refused to bend to the might of the system. In 1830, when the first omnibus routes were established black New Yorkers were told in ‘The Colored American’ that, “ Brethren, you are MEN-if you have not horses and vehicles of your own to travel with, stay at home or travel on foot rather than be degraded and insulted on city coaches.”
In 1854 Elizabeth Jennings lit a powerful torch that continues to burn brightly today for liberty and justice.

Michelle Paige-Paterson

Michelle R. Paige Paterson born April 1, 1961 in Fairfield, California is the wife of New York state Lieutenant Governor David Paterson, who, upon the resignation of Eliot Spitzer, becomes the Governor of New York on March 17, 2008. When David Paterson becomes the governor, Michelle Paige Paterson will be the First Lady of New York, the first-ever African American First Lady in the state's history.

Michelle Paige Paterson spent her early years in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn in New York City before moving to Staten Island, another New York City borough. She attended Syracuse University and earned a graduate degree in health-care management from the Milano The New School for Management and Urban Policy. She has been married to David Paterson sixteen years; he is her second husband. They have one child together and Paige Paterson has another child Ashley from her first marriage, who has been raised by Paterson as well; Ashley recently started at Ithaca College of the State University of NY, son Matthew attends school in NYC .

Paige Paterson is a "health-care management expert" at HIP Health Plans and previously worked at North General Hospital in Manhattan, where she did some work as a lobbyist.

Paige Paterson and her husband have a home in Harlem. New York's next first lady has always made one thing clear - she's more than just Mrs. David Paterson.

Friends use words like "smart" and "sophisticated" to describe Michelle Paige Paterson, who'll be New York State's new first lady when her husband, David Paterson, becomes governor on Monday.

"I don't think New York could have a better first lady," said Michelle Stent, who works in community and government relations at Harlem's North General Hospital, the job Paterson used to have. "She cares."

Expect Paterson, 46, who raised the couple's two children in Harlem, to use her position to put health-care issues such as disease prevention and early screening in the spotlight, friends said.

Paterson's job at North General included some lobbying work, but she no longer lobbies for the hospital, said Errol Cockfield, a spokesman for Gov. Eliot Spitzer.

"Mrs. Paige Paterson worked as a lobbyist for North General Hospital in 2003 and 2004 and has not been a lobbyist since," said Armen Meyer, spokesman for Paterson.

Dr. Samuel Daniel, president and chief executive of North General, said that in 2001, his hospital was in peril, and needed $150 million in debt refinanced to survive. Gov. George Pataki was prepared to let legislation governing a refinancing expire, Daniel said.

He said he recruited Paterson, who had just graduated from New School University with a graduate degree in health care management, to lobby the Pataki administration and Albany legislators to restructure the hospital's debt.

"Michelle was instrumental in getting me before the legislature," Daniel said. "Finally, the bill passed and was signed by the governor."

Former New York Comptroller Carl McCall said he's known Paterson for 20 years, first meeting her through her husband. Michelle Paige is "David's wife, but that's not the badge she wears,". "She likes to be accepted for what she is, as a professional."

"She cares very much about education and health care," McCall said Wednesday.

"She'll be very comfortable," McCall said. "She's very sophisticated and smart. I think she'll make an excellent first lady."

Gov. Eliot Spitzer announced Wednesday he would resign effective Monday, turning over New York's top government post to David Paterson, 53, who will become the state's first black governor.

Before her current job with HIP Health Plans, an HMO, Paterson worked as community and government relations director at North General, where she networked with elected officials, community boards and worked on health care policy, Stent said.

"Her support for this hospital has been total and complete," said Stent, who took over for Paterson three years ago at North General, and is also listed as a lobbyist for the hospital on 2007-2008 Commission on Public Integrity records.

"She is truly the first lady of Harlem. She believes in this community."

New York is getting a "first lady who knows how government works," Daniel said.

While at North General, Paterson started a men's health forum and expanded the list of hospital volunteers, called Friends of North General, and worked on obtaining federal grants for the private, nonprofit hospital, Stent said.

"I think health care is a very important issue for her," said Basil Smikle, a Washington Heights political consultant who has known Paterson for about eight years.

"It's hard to say how much time or exposure she'll have to focus on that. Certainly, she can be an ally to the governor on the health care issue."

Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga - CBK

Became president of Sri Lanka in 1994




President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga was born to one of Sri Lanka's most distinguished families on 29th June 1945. Her father, SWRD Bandaranaike, was a senior Minister of the Government at the time of her birth. He was later to become the Prime Minister of the country, while her mother, Sirimavo Bandaranaike, was to become the world's first woman Prime Minister in 1961.

The Provincial Council Elections held in May 1993 represented President Kumaratunga's first entry to electoral politics. She was elected to the Western Provincial Council with an unprecedented majority, and was appointed the Chief Minister of the Province, the country's largest. In August 1994, she contested the Parliamentary General Elections as a member of the People's Alliance party, and as the People's Aliance's Prime Ministerial candidate. She was elected to Parliament by an overwhelming majority, and was appointed Prime Minister in the People's Alliance government that was formed on August 19th, 1994. In the Presidential Elections held shortly thereafter in November 1994, she contested as the People's Alliance candidate. She was elected President obtaining a record 62% of the votes cast.

President Kumaratunga has had more than her fair share of personal tragedy in life. She was a school girl when her father Prime Minister SWRD Bandaranaike was assassinated by political opponents. Her charismatic film idol cum politician husband Wijaya Kumaratunga whom she married in 1978 was also slain by political opponents in 1988.

Reference Source

1960: Ceylon elects world's first woman PM

@ BBC 19601

1960: Ceylon elects world's first woman PM



Mrs Sirimavo Bandaranaike, widow of Ceylon's assassinated prime minister Solomon Bandaranaike, has been elected the world's first woman prime minister.

Her Sri Lanka Freedom Party won a resounding victory in the general election taking 75 out of 150 seats.

Mrs Bandaranaike only entered politics after her husband was shot by an extremist Buddhist on 26 September 1959.

She has become known as the "weeping widow" for frequently bursting into tears during the election campaign and vowing to continue her late husband's socialist policies.

This week's election was called after Dudley Senanavake's United National Party failed to produce a working majority after winning elections in March.

Aristocratic by birth

Mrs Bandaranaike was born into the Ceylon aristocracy and her husband was a landowner. She was educated by Roman Catholic nuns at St Bridget's school in the capital, Colombo, and is a practising Buddhist.

She married in 1940 aged 24 and has three children - and until her husband's death seemed content in her role as mother and retiring wife.

Her SLFP aims to represent the "little man" although its policies during the campaign were not clear.

Mr Bandaranaike attributed her success to the "people's love and respect" for her late husband and urged her supporters to practise "simple living, decorum and dignity".

Her husband came to power in 1955, eight years after independence, and declared himself a Buddhist which appealed to nationalists. But his government was wracked by infighting among Sinhalese and Tamils and lacked direction.

Mrs Bandaranaike inherits a country in a state of flux and her party's proposed programme of nationalisation may bring her into conflict with foreign interests in commodities like tea, rubber and oil.


Sirimavo Bandaranaike, Former Sri Lankan Premier, Dies at 84
The New York Times
October 11, 2000

Sirimavo Bandaranaike of Sri Lanka, the first woman in the world to serve as a prime minister, died yesterday shortly after voting in Sri Lanka's elections. She was 84.

Mrs. Bandaranaike's final act was to vote in a parliamentary election she hoped would return the family's party to power leading a governing coalition known as the People's Alliance. Her death from a heart attack on Election Day seemed poetically timed for a woman whose family business is politics and whose political career spanned four decades.

Mrs. Bandaranaike rose to power in 1960 as a bereaved wife and mother of three, just a year after her husband, Solomon, then prime minister, was assassinated by a Buddhist monk. She quickly established herself as the undisputed leader of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party — founded by her husband — and a formidable politician in her own right.

She also became the matriarch of a political dynasty. In the final years of her life, her daughter, Chandrika Kumaratunga, succeeded her as the standard bearer of the family party and has served as president of the country since 1994. The father, mother and daughter have led Sri Lanka for 21 of the 52 years since it gained its independence from the British.

"Mrs. Bandaranaike's legacy is this: After her husband died, there was so much confusion and the party was almost collapsing," said K. M. de Silva, a Sri Lankan historian. "She was an untried leader. But she not only survived, she sustained the party and the family in politics."

Her body was taken to her stately home on Rosemead Place in the Cinnamon Gardens section of Colombo, the capital. State radio canceled regular programs to play elegiac music and state television looked back on her life.

She will be buried alongside her husband on Saturday in a state funeral at the family's ancestral home in Horagulla. Friday and Saturday have been declared days of national mourning. All liquor shops, bars, cinemas and slaughterhouses have been ordered to close.

"She was a heroic mother of the nation," the Sri Lanka Freedom Party said in a statement.

But the Sri Lanka Freedom Party has come to stand for very different policies and values than it had in her day.

Mrs. Kumaratunga firmly repudiated her mother's brand of Sinhalese nationalism, which had inflamed ethnic tensions between the mostly Buddhist Sinhalese majority and the predominantly Hindu Tamil minority. The daughter's years in office have been dominated by her as-yet-fruitless efforts to end a 17-year-old war with separatist Tamil rebels. Mrs. Kumaratunga also steered the party toward a more open, market-oriented economy and away from the centralized, state-dominated socialism that had been her mother's trademark.

Mrs. Bandaranaike was born Sirimavo Ratwatte on April 17, 1916, into one of the island nation's wealthy feudal families, one that was at the pinnacle of Sri Lanka's social hierarchy. In 1940 — 60 years ago today — she married S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike, the scion of an elite, feudal clan that had thrived for generations with the patronage of the British Empire.

Mr. Bandaranaike made the transition from his Anglicized, upper- class background to become a populist and a nationalist. And his wife carried forward his passions with even greater decisiveness and vigor, historians say. She was a shrewd political leader with a wide base in the Sinhalese majority.

In a recent interview, Anura, the Bandaranaike's youngest child and only son, said their father had been the affectionate, demonstrative parent while their mother was aloof.

Mrs. Bandaranaike — known simply as Mrs. B — served twice as head of state, from 1960 to 1965 and again from 1970 to 1977. She nationalized many foreign and local enterprises and left Sri Lanka's economy into one that was heavily state dominated.

She also zealously pursued efforts to make Sinhalese the sole national language, a stance that deeply alienated the country's Tamil speakers. And she changed the university admissions policy to benefit the Sinhalese, disadvantaging the Tamils.

During five years of her daughter's presidency, Mrs. Bandaranaike served as prime minister, which had become a largely ceremonial role under the Constitution adopted in 1978. Increasingly feeble and unable to speak clearly, she resigned as prime minister in August, though she retained her seat in Parliament.

She lived on Rosemead Place with her elder daughter, Sunethra, a philanthropist who is 57 and never got involved in politics.

But the political family she had nurtured splintered in her later years. Her son, Anura, 51, who lives next to his mother's home in the family compound, went over to the family's despised rival, the United National Party, after his sister, now 55, won the right to succeed their mother. But both the son, as a leader of the opposition, and the daughter, as president, have carried on the family's political tradition.


Reference Source

The greatest Women in history??

MOTHERS

Sundar Popo reflects his thougts.

A Mother's love - Sundar Popo.

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=3bq2QNhutOc

Stabroek News | Local News | Feb. 20, 2000

Lynette de Weever Dolphin - A tribute
by Billy Pilgrim

Lynette de Weever Dolphin was a great Guyanese and one who directly affected the lives of so many of her countrymen; yet when one looks for a lofty word or phrase to describe her, what comes to mind is that she was a "doer" - she would disapprove of the pompous word "implementor."

From her earliest days, she didn't just learn to play the piano; before her teens she was an accompanist to singers and violinists at Sunday afternoon concerts on the West Coast and later in Georgetown. And less than a week before she died she completed her last publication, "Twenty Amerindian Folk Songs" to be sent to the printers.

Her early childhood was spent on the West Coast village of De Willem near Windsor Forest, and she was the second of the six children of Mr E. Linford Dolphin, a strict disciplinarian, after whom the Dolphin Government School is named. It was from her parents that she learnt the precepts of self-discipline, obedience, punctuality, and the other virtues that are mentioned but mostly ignored today.

Early in the 1930's, I think it was 1933, Miss Eleanor Brown arrived in the country and started giving piano lessons. Lynette was one of her first pupils, and in 1936 won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of music in London. Before this, however, she was already a pupil teacher from the age of 16, and was also busy performing solos and accompanying instrumentalists at the frequent Sunday afternoon concerts in the Town Hall and other venues that were such a feature of Georgetown, and indeed Guyanese, social life in the 1930's.

She took up her studies at the Royal Academy of Music in 1939, in the same month as the declaration of the war against Germany. During the war, the house in which she lived was bombed; Lynette was injured and returned home. She subsequently returned to England soon after the war and obtained the teaching diploma of a Graduate of the Royal Schools of Music.

Immediately on her return home she became completely involved in the musical activities of the country, teaching Music at Queens College and performing regularly. In 1947, she was one of the founding members of the B.G. Music Teachers' Association. In the 1960's she became the Honorary Local Representative of the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music. The same organisation which had given her the scholarship in the thirties.

Upon the achievement of Independence in 1966, Lynette was appointed Chairman of the National History and Culture Council, an unwieldly collection of some forty individuals from every conceivable cultural stratum in the infant country. Incidentally, she never approved of the term "Chairperson."

As was to be expected, this body was an overgrown talk-shop, and on the advent of the Republic it was reorganised as the National History and Arts Council, where she was in charge of a small staff to implement policies. Lynette then set about appointing directors in the various disciplines, who not only advised on cultural matters but also took the action required. For example, Mme Lavinia Williams was Director of the National School of Dance and Denis Williams, Director of the Burrowes School of Art.

It was at this time, too, that there was increased political and diplomatic activity internationally. The Non-Aligned Movement held its inaugural meeting in Guyana in 1971, and the Umana Yana was built for that purpose. This was Lynette's responsibility, as was the preparation of cultural programmes for the visitors. Then came 1972 and the first and still, according to our Caribbean brothers, the most successful CARIFESTA, out of which grew the National Cultural Centre which was opened in May, 1976. To give some idea of the pressures and activities at that time, the official unveiling of the "Cuffy" Statue of the Revolution and of the Cultural Centre took place on the same day.

Meanwhile the annual Flag Raising entertainments and Prime Ministerial Concerts continued on an annual basis, with other performances to be presented for other occasions or distinguished visitors.

Complementary to, and intertwined with these activities were the programmes of the National School of Dance and the National Dance Company, each