Aha it was a hit. Carnival as I never experienced before up close and pesonal displayed a wide range of shapes and figures not applicable to technical drawing but more like human works of art. Yes, in addition to bikinis and beads, which I don't object to at all, there were a few bands of Red Indians accentuated by the 19 section work by McFarlane, Africa, who of course had no real competition out there on the road. As it was mainly bachannal right through. However since time does not allow for a long winded discourse on what is now a week old celebration ladies and gentlemen enjoy the pictures and there are more to come!
Chris Yaw
Blog Editor
 
 
     

Check the new pics later.

Tell you what the thing at Den Amstel on May 26 was the bomb early in the night that is with the bikes and hot girls creating a stir. But then father rain decided to attend with his whole entourage and that was it. The people mash up the whole party but also brought the vibe that only rain could to a wet fete. Plus it was a good thing Guiness was giving away buckets that night as ones had several buckets of rain water to collect.

Check the photos mostly provided by D. Williams/Xclusive Photo Studios 

Every year there is always the great expectation that Miss Guyana Universe or World will make it into the top ten and this year, with word spreading that the BBC was showing an interest in Meleesa Payne, Miss Guyana Universe 2007, was no exception.

The Miss Universe 2007 pageant came off in Mexico City, Mexico on May 28 with some 77 delegates from around the world. The preliminary competition was run off on the previous Wednesday.

Payne, related early on Friday before competition from her hotel room that she was enjoying Mexico noting that Mexico City is a "really big beautiful city". She said   also that she was able to visit Cancun and Jalapa. 

Representative of Mc Neal Enterprises, the Miss Guyana Universe franchise holder and Member of Parliament Odinga Lumumba said of Miss Guyana on Thursday, "I think what Meleesa has going for her is a good physical presence, she is disciplined and focused which are some of the qualities the judges will be looking for." Host of Miss Guyana Universe 2007 and veteran pageant coordinator Pamela Dillon noted that Payne was making waves on the internet site Global Beauty.

The local delegate was unaware that the BBC had been enquiring about her contact information but believed she had what it takes to break the top ten barrier because of her desire to improve the welfare of children, "not only in Guyana but worldwide".

She pointed out that she was gaining some approval there saying in that regard that the Guyanese public should not take her word for it but check to see her performance in the preliminary round which she said was of a high standard.

As a result Payne who was expecting a home crowd of ten persons to meet her in Mexico said, "I'm expecting to do a very good job, check me out at the preliminary competition, I'm expecting to do extremely well".  

 

 Check pics in album

    

The largest show for the year is coming off on June 16 at Guyana's most used cultural venue the National Park when Lion Heart and Conscious Minds Promotions pull off a reggae extravaganza featuring DYCR, Tanya Stephens and Natural Black.

Internationally rated Tanya Stephens whose latest highly acclaimed album 'Rebelution' was expected to be nominated for the 2006 Grammy Awards, dub poet DYCR and Guyana's own Natural Black is a line up any reggae fan would appreciate. As usual the home grown artistes cannot be left out with likely appearances by Fojo, Little African, Malo, Gialiani and Typheon. The line up of obligatory sounds includes Stereo Sonic, Lion Heart, Slingers, Gold Stone, Riddim Squad and Aristocat.  

Promoter O'Neil 'Lionheart' Lawrence told the Scene that Tanya and DYCR who are coming to Guyana for the first time had to be confirmed for that date because of availability of the venue, and tour commitments. All the artistes would be in Guyana on the Thursday before the show to let folks know 'everything is everything'.

The career of Vivienne Tanya Stephenson kicked off free-styling with her crew on the corner. As the penultimate child of seven, her musical influences were determined by "whatever everyone in the house was listening to." It was a mixed bag, including Smoky Robinson, Buddy Holly & the Crickets, American R&B, her mother's "suggestive calypsonians, like Kitchner and Sparrow. That helped me develop wit," Tanya recalls. "I discovered what they were talking about at a real early age."

Singing on the mic at local sound system dances completed her musical education and it wasn't long before she recorded her first track in 1993 'Is This For Real'. She dropped her first album in 1994 called 'Big Tings A Gwan', the same year her daughter Kelly was born. Later in 1997 'Too Hype' was released which Tanya said was without her approval. This was followed by 1998's 'Ruff Rider' then in 2003 she released 'Gangsta Blues' a disc that included the hype track 'It's a Pity'.  This was followed by her latest and probably most far reaching track to date 'These Streets' that is a part of her full length 2006 effort 'Rebelution'.

Delroy 'DYCR' Chandler says that the inspiration for his dub poetry, such as 'Barber Chair' and 'Delroy', is generated as a result of his life experience. The artiste has had his struggles and his materials are derived from them, and the rest from his observance of the system or through the experience of others.

DYCR originally aspired to be a singer but his friends fortuitously warned him that, "I was either running away from the rhythm or the rhythm was running away from me!"

Realizing he wasn't going to make it in the singing world, DYCR turned his attention to poetry writing and recital. The 'artiste' who wants to make a difference through his poems which he hopes would be his legacy discovered the latent talent while attending the Temple Hall New Testament Church of God where he had a chance to show what he could do.

He did a poem called "She Fi Come" that according to him, "wreck the place." Even the pastor was laughing his head off so his brethren encouraged him to think seriously about dub poetry, telling him about Mutabaruka, and he saw the possibilities. Going this route has led to performances at Unity Splash, Reggae Sumfest, Sting Miami and Western Consciousness.

 

Natural Black born Mortimer 'Duke' Softley in Guyana worked on his skills on the mic. in dances where the music was provided by live bands rather than a sound system singing the songs of his two biggest influences: Jamaican kings of the microphone Buju Banton and Terror Fabulous. After a short spell in the army Mortimer moved on to welding and then decided that if he really was going to make it as a reggae artist then he had to reach the source.

In early 1995 Natural Black relocated to Kingston, Jamaica and started work immediately for Beres Hammond's Harmony House label, Freddie McGregor's Big Ship organisation and Jack Scorpio's Black Scorpio set up. The soft spoken, but very determined, artist quickly made his mark not only as a singer and deejay but also as a talented and prolific song writer and the music fraternity welcomed him with open arms and he has steadily built reputation as one of the brightest hopes for the future of the music in the twenty first century.

The impeccable standard of Natural's songs meant he was one of the artists chosen by Bernard Collins of The Abyssinians to contribute to the recent groundbreaking 'Tree Of Satta' project where top artists updated the legendary 'Satta A Massa Gana' rhythm.

Tickets for the June 16 reggae party go on sale at the usual outlets, Clairans, Johnny P, Giftland Office Max and Beepat's on the day of the show as the promotion team are not entertaining bootleggers. Security is also set to include various check points to maintain control and eliminate weapons.

Freedom of Information (FOI) is a concept that has been in the making for more than half a century. In 1946 the UN General Assembly recognized the concept as a fundamental human right. "Freedom of Information is a fundamental human right and the touchstone for all freedoms to which the UN is consecrated."

 

The right has therefore been enshrined in Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. This led to more than 65 countries presently having passed national legislation entrenching the right in to their domestic law.

The road however from secrecy to openness requires much more work than simply having an existent law on FOI. "Entrenched bureaucratic cultures of secrecy, inconsistent legislation, process and systems constraints and lack of understanding of the law by officials are all hurdles that would have to be overcome."

Opening up of government procedures calls for the review, amendment and harmonization of all legislation, rules and guidelines. Subsidiary legislation is also necessary to open up meetings, protect whistle blowers and clarify procedural access issues.

Key individuals with responsibility for providing public access in and outside of government, implementation units or information commissions need to be developed and supported. Effective processing and monitoring systems would also need to be created along with training and guidance resources for officials implementing the law.

One of the major necessities for proper implementation of freedom of information laws is unequivocal political commitment to remove obstacles to access in support of a transparent democratic system.