Daily Archives: 05/10/2014

Guyanese saves Ghanaian from drowning – by Francis Quamina Farrier

GUYANESE SAVES GHANAIAN FROM DROWNING by Francis Quamina Farrier

“All I can say is, it’s a miracle I am currently breathing”. So says Ghanaian Horatio Nii Dodoo, who was saved from drowning. The young man and three friends were having some fun on a beach in Ghana, when he was saved from drowning, by a Guyanese. “Can’t stop thanking the Lord for making Lawrence come to the beach that day.” The Lawrence who Horatio Nii Dodoo is referring to, is former Saint Stanislaus College student, Lawrence Lachmansingh.

The married Guyanese father of three, was on the beach with his family; being at the right place at the right time to save someone from drowning. Horatio Nii Dodoo, the Ghanaian who was rescued, informed me by e-mail, that he and others were at the beach, having fun, taking photographs, when he got into trouble in the water. “Unfortunately for me, I don’t know how to swim, so I struggled a bit and called for help”, Dodoo stated. However, the help was very limited.  Continue reading

Book: “RACING IN THE RAIN” – Ken Puddicombe – Review by Frank Birbalsingh

Book: “RACING IN THE RAIN” – Ken Puddicombe –   Review by Frank Birbalsingh

racing in the rain

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Racing With The Rain is the first novel of Guyanese born Ken Puddicombe who, since 1971, has lived in Canada where he works as an accountant. Racing offers a fictional version of political events during a turbulent period, from the 1960s to the 1980s, in the history of Guyana, formerly British Guiana. The novel is a roman a clef, one in which people and events may be identified through fictional names assigned to particular organizations, individuals or places, for example, “Liberty House” for actual Freedom House, “Arawak Hotel” for Carib Hotel, “Kingsley” for Sydney King, and “Jack Hill” for Kelshall.

The narrator Carl Dias is a Guyanese who lived through events in the novel before coming to Canada, and settling in Toronto where we first see him, in 1980, sixteen years after he left Guyana. He is Senior Economist at the Canadian Business Bank, and is separated from his Russian/Cuban partner Natasha and their two children -Alexei and Irina who play no active part in the novel. Continue reading

The Real Africa – by David Brooks

The Real Africa

David Brooks

By David Brooks – The New York Times

In 2005, Binyavanga Wainaina published a brilliantly sarcastic essay in Granta called “How to Write About Africa,” advising people on how to sound spiritual and compassionate while writing a book about the continent.

“Always use the word ‘Africa’ or ‘Darkness’ or ‘Safari’ in your title,” Wainaina advised. “Never have a picture of a well-adjusted African on the cover of your book, or in it, unless that African has won the Nobel Prize. An AK-47, prominent ribs, naked breasts: use these. If you must include an African, make sure you get one in Masai or Zulu or Dogon dress.”

Wainaina had other tips: The people in said book should be depicted as hungry, suffering, simple or dead. The children should have distended bellies and flies on their faces. Continue reading