Review:VISIONS 2008 “An Evening of Songs & Dance”
November 2, 2008
Saturday Oct 1st 2008, VISIONS which can be described as an organization focused on nurturing the artistic/cultural talents of children and young adults in the West Indian centric community of Richmond Hill, had their annual talent show at Richmond High School. The evening was filled with songs and dance from young Benny Mitesh Parag, Sarika Sherman, Samatha Ramkissoon, Pt Manoj Jadubans, Denna Maharaj, Katherine Ann Ramsingh, Vauhini, Nikita, Rajendra Persaud, Dexter Raghunanan, Hema Devi Thakoordeen, Ranjeev Ramdeen, Lisa Balram, Samantha Persaud, Wanita Ramnarine, Annand Sayroo, The Natya Tilakam Dance Academy and The Shahara Dance Group. Read more
Sakhi.Org Support Group Meeting in Richmond Hill September 2008
October 16, 2008
Richmond Hill, an area dominated by Punjabi and Indo-Caribbean immigrants, is underserved and isolated from most government services and non-profits. We plan to make the following services more accessible to this community: Read more
My perception of West Indians in the United States
August 20, 2008
I feel that people are unaware of all the congregations of West Indians in the United States. Most people know about the Liberty Ave/ Richmond Hill area… but, seriously there are West Indians everywhere, some in larger groups and some in small but modest groups. For instance, my uncle lives in Iowa and there are a few West Indians that are there, they all know each other (because we all know how West Indians get when they find their own kind- it’s as if they have West Indian radar and can sniff your blood anywhere). I live in NYC, Queens to be exact. I don’t live near Richmond Hill, more closer to Queens Village. There’s a load of West Indians in those parts of Queens. I’ve noticed it’s most working upper middle class with houses and cars, professional, steady jobs and seem like nice hard working people. You can see the same description in Manhattan, Bronx, Manhattan and such. I think other WI’s aren’t aware that there are so many communities that are predominantly West Indian.
I have noticed though that you usually meet the African decent WI’s in Brooklyn and Manhattan while the Indian descents tend to reside in Queens and the Bronx. Why is that? I work in Manhattan and have met many WI’s in this area that are African decent and are such loving people, and them too- they just kinda know your West Indian and they talk to you a certain way as if they knew you for years. It’s nice to come to a strange community and be lovingly accepted by people from the countries your parents and ancestors are from. They have a wealth of information about how and why they migrated and what problems and issues they have faced or still face because of their cultural background and living in certain areas.
It seems that people that aren’t West Indian are more familiar with Jamaicans and are a little confused when they hear a slight dialect difference in a Trinidadian and Guyanese accent. It’s all English just spoken slightly different. I find it very peculiar how when some one asks me where I’m from, of course I’ll say NY (because I was born and raised here), continue on to ask where my parents are from and are totally flabbergasted of the fact I don’t have a west Indian accent at all. I don’t see how your accent defines who you are and then because I look predominantly Indian, they just assume I’m from Richmond Hill, which isn’t true. I guess because people only feel that West Indians congregate in the same places. They are all over! Think about how much family you have spread out all through out the Caribbean islands, South America, Central America, North America, and Europe- I know I do.
The cool thing about West Indian culture is that no matter where they go, where they migrate to or where they congregate, they still treat you the same open armed loving way, like you belong with them. Some people, its been years since they saw the land they were born and raised in and seeing your brown face makes them smile a bit and remember their youth. Maybe that’s why there are loving, maybe you remind them of their younger days or things that they miss that aren’t in the States they live in. One thing that always occurs at family gatherings are story telling. Older aunts and uncles always talk about the things they used to do when they were our age, where they used to be in their countries and remember simple things like the guava trees they used to steal the fruit off before they returned home from school.
I’m sure this sense of community and belonging occurs in most nationalities. I love to hear the stories and the way things could have been for me if my parents hadn’t migrated, it gives me a sense of gratitude because some eras of time it was much harder to live in West Indian countries due to hate crimes between different skin colors and other serious crimes- which are all silly. The way I see it we’re all eating from the same plate, some of us may use a spoon and fork and some may use their bare hands. Either way, we’re still eating the same food cooked with love.
Pady
A Short History of the Indo- Guyanese Community of Richmond Hill, ‘Little Guyana,’ Queens New York.
August 17, 2008
This Indo- Guyanese immigrant community of Richmond Hill, ‘Little Guyana,’ Queens, New York was born a little less than three decades ago. The total life- span of the Indo Guyanese community is 169 years. The first wave of movement of the fore- fathers of this community was started in 1838 with two ship- loads of Indentured East Indian Immigrants. They left India bound for the British sugar plantations of British Guiana [now Guyana]. The first wave of immigrants was to continue until 1917, when the system of Indian indenture labor was ended. Thousands of East Indians went to British Guiana, until they became the largest ethnic group in the country, and was followed by the Guyanese African group.
The efforts of Dr. Cheddi Jagan and Mr. L.F.S Burnham united the working classes of the country, in the early nineteen fifties. Together their political party The Peoples Progressive Party [PPP] won the first General Elections of 1953, held under universal adult suffrage for the first time. The right to vote was given to all eligible voters. That victory was short- lived. The British suspended the constitution, and some of the party members were detained including Dr. Jagan and his wife. Mr. Burnham was never jailed or detained. Dr. Jagan and his party were branded as communists. This was during the infamous Cold War Years. Eventually Burnham split from Jagan in 1955. The two men now competed for political power. The British and Americans favored Burnham, who became the first Prime Minister, then president in an independent Guyana. Burnham ruled the country for 28 years dictatorially, and with rigged elections, as the champions of world democracy stood by quietly. Under Burnham the country became economically impoverished like Haiti. In addition the social and economic factors under Burnham, caused the second wave of East Indian Movement, in the opposite direction to the United States, Canada and elsewhere starting in the nineteen sixties. That second wave gave birth to the Indo- Guyanese immigrant community of Richmond Hill, now unofficially known as ‘ Little Guyana,’ in Queens, New York.
Reflecting:
Living Indo- Guyanese History
Connected to:
Richmond Hill, Queens New York and Motherland Guyana
By:
Robert H. Mahesh
Indian Arrival Day: Glimpses of Indo Caribbean American Life by Robert Mahesh
August 17, 2008
A Historic Poetic Glimpse Into: “Indian Arrival Day”.
‘T was May 5th 1838, our fore- fathers first landed,
On the shores of Motherland Guyana,
Two ships, the Hesperus and the Whitby deposited,
First batches of our fore- fathers from Mother India.
Other ships followed and brought,
More batches of our fore- fathers,
Until the year 1917 when the British sought,
An end to the infamous labor- system that matters.
Rama and Khan were the first two immigrants,
Who first set foot on Guyana soil,
To begin the inglorious servitude that haunts,
Our imagination to this day of their inhuman toil.
‘T was from Dwarka Narth and Peter Ruhomon’s books,
We were the first to learn of their trails and tribulations,
To survive the inhuman conditions of suffering that looks,
So incredibly possible, of stark British inhuman exploitations.
Their sufferings were only surpassed,
By those of African slavery in our Dear country,
Which left a blotch on the Black Psyche so masked,
To this day with tastes still unsavory.
From their exploited sinews are we,
Their children in turn who became,
Infamously dislocated a second time to be,
Immigrants like out fore-fathers in the United States,
Canada and elsewhere, destined to remain.
Completely destroyed we’re not,
Despite the several cycles of dislocations,
But we have survived the odds- lot,
To tell, write and publish our living historic documentations.
In our Dear Motherland of Guyana,
Our fore- fathers became the back- bone,
Of the sugar and rice industries seemingly forever,
And fed and still feed the country, with their agricultural honey- comb.
We, their children left in large numbers,
In the infamous nineteen sixties, seventies and eighties,
Continue even now, for overseas- greener- pastures,
With resolute productive powers, with economic viabilities.
We, in Richmond Hill “Little Guyana” Queens, New York,
Have given the annual Phagwah and Diwali parades,
To be well- known Hindu institutions that mark,
Our Indo- Guyanese distinctiveness in the ethnically- mixed- city, of diverse shades.
So happy “Indian Arrival day” one and all,
Let us strive to be proud of our History of Survival,
Despite the several dislocations that failed to stall,
Our continuous push for economic and cultural revival.
Reflecting:
Living Indo- Guyanese History
Connected to:
Richmond Hill, Queens New York and Motherland Guyana
By:
Robert H. Mahesh
A Provocative View from an Unhappy Immigrant’s Window
July 29, 2008
From the very moment we made out entry,
Unto this “Unaccustomed Mother Earth” at birth in our disembark,
Unconsciously we have become a blessed ‘legal’ part of humanity,
With rights that none can take away from us, at that very start.
Who gave us that ‘legal’ entry at that time?
No President! No Prime Minister! No Legislator! No government’s court!
Without Visa, Green-card or Citizenship ever to define,
That status then, but now some seek our very presence to abort.
Imperialists, invaders and smugglers from among us, historically made,
Several illegal immigrants-entries on foreign shores,
For loot, business, trade, and other economic gains of raid,
Sometimes with force, bribery, intrigues and often through other corrupt doors.
They blatantly stole, robbed and exploited weaker human labor,
Often boasting of their unjust labors, as the initiators of human progress,
Which benefit only their exploitative group with undue favor,
Despoiling their weaker counter-part with nothing but retrogress of distress
In this age of Globalization and the Global Village and Market-Place,
Goods, people and services of all kinds selectively and daily move,
At greater speed than ever before and race,
To cash-in with handsome profits and leaving exorbitant groove.
Those who are left-out by way of not earning a living wage,
Live only with discontent that trigger
Immeasurable anger, hate and ruin which stage,
Protests, bitterness, disease and hunger of inevitable inhuman rigor.
Multinational Corporations spread their tentacles,
Cancerously around the world, controlled by one st of fortunate immigrants,
Who overpay themselves, overeat and exploit other immigrants’ receptacles,
With rigid exploitations, hunger, starvation and disease, to become hidden
recalcitrants.
Now we find in this so-called technological age,
Crippled with terrorism, military and guerilla maneuvers,
Competing desperately for the control f political social and economic terrain
that engage,
In open warfare and all sorts of terrorist activities,
Impeding positive economic endeavors.
Thus the world which should have had enough supplies for all humanity,
Now becomes engaged in all kinds of destabilizing fragilities,
With terror, death, squalor and disease among the unfortunate majority,
While the fortunate others dominate with their superior political social
and economic power-gravities.
Robert H. Mahesh
A Former Guyanese School Teacher
Written 4/14/2008
My Sincere opinion on domestic violence in the West Indian Community
July 15, 2008
Well, if you read my intro on domestic violence, this is my sincere opinion and thoughts on the issue at hand. I honestly feel that people who enact in domestic violence should be criminally punished. It’s hard to prove emotional, verbal and mental abuse but when so many young people are hanging themselves over the distraught their parents have bestowed on them, shouldn’t these people see what they are doing? I mean seriously, how many of you have parents that TELL you what to do rather than ask? If you didn’t hear the first time, you either got yelled at more or hit immensely because you didn’t do what you were told. Here I thought I was a human being not one of Pavlov’s dogs. Read more
West Indians and domestic Violence
July 15, 2008
In the West Indian culture, being a young female, it seems as if domestic violence is a normal behavior. People are not aroused when hearing about a victim and victims are also very secretive about their usually ongoing and increasing abuse. Domestic violence is not limited to men battering their wives but also wives battering their husbands, parents abusing their children and other people in their households. A behavioral psychologist would say enacting in domestic violence is a learned behavior and is reinforced by the person’s environment. For example: a boy hits a girl and the boy is praised by his peers. Studies have shown that males are reinforced by physical aggressive behaviors by getting attention and other males stating “that’s how boys play”. Also, females are reinforced aggressively but their outlet is more verbal and emotional by “not wanting to be friends with other girls” and etc. I’m not stating this is the case for everyone, just a generalized statement using psychological journals and observations. Read more
What’s missing from Liberty Avenue Richmond Hill?
June 28, 2008
Over the past 12 years or so the landscape of Liberty Avenue in Richmond Hill Queens has emerged as a major business center focused on serving the West Indian community from grocery stores, nightclubs, bars, eateries to churches temples and mosques etc. However, what I noticed a lack of was a book store like that of a Barnes and Nobles or a café with the atmosphere that inspires discussion on politics, religion or social life in general. If the residents of Richmond Hill would like to utilize a café, the closest ones would be in Howard Beach on Crossbay Blvd or Austin Street in Forest Hills. In like, if one needs to peruse a book store on a Saturday afternoon, the closest one would be on Austin Street in Forest Hills. Read more
Sybil’s Bakery - Richmond Hill, New York
March 23, 2008
I particularly like Sybil’s of Richmond Hill. I have sampled most of the restaurants in the area and by far I have found Sybils’ to have the tastiest pastries. In particular, the cheese rolls are the best. The curries and fried foods are also delicious especially the fried rice and Jerk Chicken, I usually have this once a month as treat for attempting to eat healthy all month long. Read more
Phagwah Celebration: Held in Richmond Hill, New York 3/22/2008
March 22, 2008
I attended the Phagwah parade this morning, which commenced at 130th street on Liberty Avenue in Queens and culminated at Smokey Park on 125 street and Atlantic Avenue in Queens. Read more