AntiguaBarbuda Romantic Rhythms International Music Festival

Its being a long time in coming, but following on the heels of the St. Lucia Jazz festival, St. Kitts Music festival, Jamaica Reggae sound splash and another music festival in Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda will be hosting an international music festival from June 12th to the 15th.
On Friday 18th April 2008 several sponsors of the event were introduced at a sponsors launch and include Abi financial group, Antigua Motors, Cable & Wireless, American Airlines, Antigua Hotels & Tourism Association, Liatairline, and Premier Beverages. Several Caribbean and local journalsits were able to interact with the festival's committee members and sponsors.
http://www.ab.gov.ag/gov_v2/government/pressreleases/pressreleases2008/prelease_2008apr22_1.html

In keeping with this Eastern Caribbean island being branded the romance capital of the Caribbean by several international publications, the twin island state will be hosting the likes of Lionel Richie, Brian McKnight, Kenny Rodgers, Keisha Cole, popular local artists who will include Claudette CP Peters and Tizzy Tanzania Sebastian.

Several mini-concerts will be held around the island to give residents and visitors a feel of different venues. To jump start the music festival, a mini-concert featuring Jamaica's upcoming raggea artist Etana will be held this afternoon at the famous Russell's restaurant at Fort James.
http://www.ab.gov.ag/gov_v2/government/pressreleases/pressreleases2008/prelease_2008apr23_1.html

NO SMOKING PLEASE!!!

I went gallivanting on Wednesday April 24Th to Barbados, one of the larger islands in the Caribbean, to take care of some private business. I enjoyed the journey apart for some passengers in the outer area of the Bajan airport, lighting up despite a significant number of No Smoking signs in evidence around the cafeteria area.

This brought home to me how these very people would not do be seen smoking in a public place in their own countries . Unfortunately I also saw an airport employee drawing deeply on a cancer stick in the same area, so maybe the visitors are not to blame!!!

Antigua Folk Dance Festival Launch

The Antigua Dance Academy is preparing to host the second Folk Dance Festival entitled 'Out of the Drum'. The festival has attracted groups from Tobago - Hands of Rhythms, Nevis - I-Afrikana Drummers and Rhythmz Dance Theatre, Montserrat - Emerald Shamioles Masquerade Dancers, Guadeloupe - Kombo: The Heart of Quadeloupe, Trinidad - Shashamane Dance Ensemble, and various dance groups from Antigua and Barbuda.

The Festival will be held from May 22nd to the 25th.

Festival Director and Founder of the Antigua Dance Academy Veronica Yearwood says preparations for the next festival geared for 2010 will begin as soon as this year's festival ends on the 26th of May.

To honour the second hosting of folk dance festival this year, the school has opened an office that will be open to the public from 10.30 a.m to 3 p.m to facilitate inquiries.

Gang ViolenceUpdate

The recently concluded Gang Violence workshop seems to have exceeded the Minister of Justice and Public Safety's expectations.
At least 300 students from schools around the island, instead of the 100 anticipated, turned up to participate in the proceedings. They took part in a survey and simulated scenarios about their perception of figures in authority like the police.
Senator Colin Derrick speaking on one of the popular radio talk shows this morning says the survey should yield insights into how gang violence can be dealt with.
He also says recommendations will be forthcoming in three weeks time. Only part of the report will be revealed to the public, while certain security related strategies will be kept under close wraps.
Looking forward to lessening crime on the beautiful twin island state of Antigua and Barbuda.

Gang Violence

The Ministry of Justice and Public Safety in Antigua and Barbuda recently hosted a two day workshop from April 14th to the 15th, that examined gang violence and its implications on the twin island state.
Drawing on expertise from the Organisation of American States (OAS), the ministry is seeking to come up with strategies of how to deal with the growing problem.
According to Minister of Justice Senator Colin Derrick in his opening address at least 12 gangs have been identified and while the majority of the members come from primarily low income areas, it is not unheard of for members to be recruited from well to do families.

The workshop is timely but it remains to be seen if government and other community based groups are willing to help curb this problem by actually coming up with viable suggestions /plans and that its not just talking to appease the public.
To find out more about the negative influence of gang violence check out the two websites and maybe you may have some ideas of how to stop it from escalating.

http://www.vpcla.org/factGang.htm

www.usc.edu/uscnews/stories/1376.html

Culture Diversity week celebrations

Thank you for visiting my world.
I have added a few more elements to my blog like the slide show at the top to give you a proper sense of life on the island.
Visited Fort James last Saturday when I took my nephew for swimming lessons and walked around the area.
Antigua and Barbuda's beauty never ceases to amaze me, and how blind we sometimes get focusing on work and family.

To appreciate the treasures that we often take for granted I took shots of the Anglican Church in St. Johns on my way from work, and as I go about trying to justify my salary, images that catch my eye.

The Culture Development department revealed their plans for this year's Culture Diversity celebrations week by unveiling several additions to the programme.These include a pageant, schools representing a particular country and 10x10 cricket tournament.

Culture Minister Eleston 'Namba' Adams flanked by Ag. Director of Culture Gilbert Luadat and Participating countries representative Maureen Lee Simon says this year's festival has attracted six more countries increasing the number to thirteen compared to seven in 2007.The celebrations start on April 27th until June 1st.

Please enjoy the Uprising dancers performing at the launch.

Multi-Media Packaging

Sorry for the delay in posting something new for quite a while now, but had exams to write and assignments to hand in before I could take a breath and shout with relief.

My hands off to all those adults who work and are pursuing a certified course all at once, because it takes commitment to have a good grade at school and still produce quality work at your job.

Yes I do go to school! With the constantly changing climate in computer technology, I enrolled with the Antigua and Barbuda International Institute of Technology (abiit.edu.ag) to have a better understanding of computers and their history so took on a course in Webmaster.

Anyway enough about me, as you may have noticed from the heading we are exploring the world of multi-media story telling in Journalism. This is part of one month online course am pursuing with the Knight Centre for Journalism based at the University of Texas.

From a list of 5 websites we are supposed to choose 3 great multi-media packages and explain why we picked them.

I picked

1. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/photo/?hpid=mmindex

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/metro/forcedout/index.html

'Forced Out': The headline and picture grab your attention first off compelling the reader to explore the story further.
This package is very informative and I was drawn to it because of its interactive nature with links, graphs, video, audio, text and photographs.

Its home page includes narrated photos, graphics showing how landlords use the vacancy exemption clause to their profitable advantage and an interactive map.

The links at the top entitled 'Day 1' - 'About Series' give readers a close look at tenants who are victims and what information was unearthed by the reporter's investigation.

2. http://www.nytimes.com/pages/multimedia/index.html

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2007/11/25/nyregion/20071125_DNAI_FEATURE.html

'Exonerated, Freed and what happened Then': Have you ever wondered what happens to all those who served time in prison and have now been found innocent of the alleged crimes? Well this package gives you photos, audio, video and text so that you can interact closely with these people.

The package allows the reader to navigate from one person to the other to hear their voices narrate their ordeal. And mind you this also includes life after prison.

Related links show how many are coping with the outside world, as several were incarcerated as teenagers.

It also gives a level of insight into how far government is willing to go to help these individuals and if they received compensation.

3. http://www.interactivenarratives.org/

http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-us&brand=msnbc&tab=m5&rf=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/&fg=&from=00&vid=2109100b-ca09-4ea6-a093-0580592f1721&playlist=videoByTag:mk:us:vs:1:tag:hotvideo_m_edpicks:ns:MSNVideo_Top_Cat:ps:10:sd:-1:ind:1:ff:8A

'Daily Life of Iraq Kurdistan': How many of us have seen stories about post war Iraq or Kurdish life after Saddam Hussein?

This particular package for me was an eye opener as it shows different aspects of the region. Unlike conventional multimedia packages, this is presented mostly in video with special effects, audio (eastern music) with some still photos and little text , the story really grabs you. It leaves you knowing that life has definitely improved for these people despite the tight security measures enforced.

The viewer is taken through various images all representative of life after Saddam Hussein's persecution. You see a boy forced to be the man of the house and provide for his family by looking for scraps.

On a lighter note you see children and teenagers playing in an amusement park. Soldiers in training and how motorists don't mind being searched at check points.

The most compelling video footage the hospital with victims of land mines being attended to by nursing staff.