Monthly Archives: April 2013

University of Guyana: Fifty Years Serving the Nation

28 Sunday Apr 2013

Posted by in Guyana

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University of Guyana - Turkeyen Campus - GuyanaUniversity of Guyana – Turkeyen Campus – Guyana
Source: Google Earth

Fifty years serving Guyana since its inception on 19 April 1963. A remarkable achievement for a young developing nation with a population of less than 800,000.

The University of Guyana is the legacy of a leader whose mother never went to school and father who left school before he was ten. Ignoring the naysayers, Dr. Cheddi Jagan, an American trained dentist, had pursued his vision for Guyana’s future as an independent nation. Together with other founding members, he initiated evening classes in the country’s top secondary school building and rented buildings around Georgetown.

Dr. Jagan knew that realizing a big dream started with small steps.

From a small beginning of 179 undergraduates, the university has grown to over 5,000 students at its Turkeyen Campus opened in October 1969.

Small beginnings did not mean low educational standards. Socialist scholars in the United Kingdom and the United States assisted in staff recruitment. Academics from renowned universities designed and assessed the curriculum.

The founders of the University of Guyana saw the crucial need for preparing Guyanese to take their roles in developing the nation after its independence from Britain. Very few citizens could afford pursuing higher education overseas. A nation needs qualified teachers, nurses, doctors, agricultural and industrial technicians, high-level public service professionals, scientists, and much more.

They also envisaged the university’s role in on-going research and as a means to creating a group of intellectuals capable of defining the goals of a young nation and finding solutions to persistent socioeconomic deficiencies.

Over the past fifty years, the University of Guyana has indeed played a vital role in the nation’s development.

As a member of the alumni, I can say that my years of study at the university have made an invaluable difference in my professional life and, as a geographer, the way in which I perceive the world and my role in contributing towards a better society for all.

Today, we live in different times. We have different needs. We face different challenges. Since 2008, the world struggles to recover from a global economic crisis. According to a news report from the International Labor Organization, global unemployment rose again in 2012. There are not enough jobs available for all the graduates leaving our universities. Private companies continue to cut labor costs to remain competitive. Governments have to tighten their budgets and reduce the number of civil service jobs.

University graduates cannot apply their knowledge in the service of their communities where job opportunities do not exist. Are they prepared to take control of their own careers? When they fail to obtain job placements, are they equipped to work freelance, start their own sole-proprietor or small businesses?

If high unemployment rates persist worldwide, will our young people still see a university education as a means to achieving their goals in life? Will the University of Guyana still remain relevant in its mission in serving the nation? Will it survive for another fifty years?

Earth Day 2013: The Face of Climate Change

21 Sunday Apr 2013

Posted by in Nature and the Environment, United States

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Colorado River - United StatesThe Colorado River from space on March 12, 2013 – NASA Earth Observatory
Source: http://www.livescience.com

On Monday, 22 April 2013, over one billion people worldwide will take part in the 43rd anniversary of Earth Day. The theme this year is The Face of Climate Change. We are invited to take a photo and tell our story of the way in which climate change affects us and what we are doing to be part of the solution.

In my corner of Planet Earth, the Colorado River is the face of climate change. On 16 April 2013, the annual release of America’s Most Endangered Rivers ranked the Colorado River as our nation’s number one endangered river. This lifeline through the desert sustains over 40 million people in seven Western states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming. Our water demands are so great that this mighty river dribbles and dries up for some fifty miles before it reaches the Gulf of California.

Colorado River Delta Colorado River Delta – America’s Most Endangered River 2013
Source: press.nationalgeographic.com

Lake Mead reservoir behind Hoover Dam shows signs of the worst ten-year drought in recorded history along the Colorado River. A white mineral “bathtub ring” along its rocky banks lies 100 feet up from the current water line to the 1983 high-water mark.

Lake Mead - Hoover Dam - Colorado River - United StatesLake Mead Reservoir behind Hoover Dam 2009 – Colorado River – USA
Source: http://www.millennium-ark.net

American Rivers, the leading organization working to protect and restore our rivers and streams since 1973, warns that warmer weather and below average snowpack in the Rocky Mountains are expected to reduce Colorado River’s flow by 10 to 30 percent by 2050. Assuming a life expectancy of 80 years, my sons and all inhabitants of this region between 0 to 43 years old will face dwindling water supplies and subsequent effects on food production and industries.

During the first three months of this year, California experienced its driest first-quarter on record since 1895. And we are not alone. Sixty-seven percent of contiguous states are drier than normal and the population in some places still struggle with exceptional drought. The weekly updated U.S. Drought Monitor Map shows the extent of drought across the United States.

The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported in February 2013 that the 2012/2013 drought affected our nation’s agricultural production, river transport system, recreational enterprises, and municipal water supplies. America’s economic loss to drought is estimated at US$35 billion.

With its dependence upon the waters of the endangered Colorado River, will Los Angeles still maintain its glory as the nation’s entertainment capital a hundred years from now?

As an Angeleno, I am the face of climate change. I cannot claim innocence. I have to let go of my complacency. I have to change my ways and my habits. I have to conserve energy, gas, and water. I have to buy more locally grown food. I have to reduce my waste. I have to stop craving useless stuff that depletes Earth’s natural resources and heats up our atmosphere for its production. I have to walk and use public transport as often as possible to reduce my carbon footprint.

I am the face of climate change. I cannot claim innocence. I am the cause and the solution.

Community Gardening: Transforming Urban Food Deserts into Food Forests

14 Sunday Apr 2013

Posted by in United States

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Community Gardening - Oakland - California - USACommunity Gardening – Oakland – California
Source: www2.oaklandnet.com

For yet another week, I have watched with mounting frustration our dysfunctional government’s failure to pass legislation needed to resolve the myriad and pressing problems facing our nation. Disenchanted am I to witness the leadership of the world’s greatest nation handcuffed and in stranglehold.

After conquering the world market and becoming powerful transnational behemoths capable of toppling governments of developing nations that fuel their growth, America’s great and admired innovative corporations are now intent in dominating the government of the Fatherland and commanding its armies. Think not that I exaggerate. Consider our current struggle against the National Rifle Association (NRA), lobbyists for our weapons manufacturers, to get common sense reform for gun control in our communities. Reform demanded by the majority of Americans, including gun owners and NRA members. Reform that will save lives. Our children’s lives. Your life. My life.

Our transnational corporations have morphed into Franken-corporations, feeding and fattening themselves until all is consumed, contaminated or destroyed. Despite obtaining personhood status, through their political clout, they have neither heart nor soul. Atop the heap of human deprivation and waste they leave in their wake – the underpaid, unemployed, homeless, sick, and hungry – they live in a world of excess and self-indulgence. They learn not from history. How could they? Corporations are not people. They are incapable of self-introspection.

On Friday, the unexpected happened to dispel my gloom. I watched two TED Talk videos, posted on the Guyanese Online Blog. I learned about the work of Ron Finley and Stephen Ritz in transforming their communities through community farming. This new urban garden revolution in America is a surprising development. I grew up in a poor developing nation where we maintained kitchen gardens out of necessity.

Ron Finley, a community activist in South Central Los Angeles, started growing his own food when he couldn’t buy healthy food in his neighborhood. As one of the founders of L.A. Green Grounds, he transforms neighborhoods once considered Food Deserts into Food Forests.

Stephen Ritz teaches at-risk kids in the South Bronx, New York. Starting in his classroom with an indoor edible wall, he works with students and their families in growing their own vegetables through community gardening, thereby transforming their lives and community. With growing interest in his green project, he founded the Green Bronx Machine to grow, re-use resources and recycle our way into new and healthy ways of living; complete with self sustaining local economic engines.

The seeds of transformational change have been planted and will continue to spread. I am now considering adding vegetable plants to my flower garden. Many more individuals across our nation are working to bring about real change in their battered communities. Others, through organizations like Public Citizen, are working to purge our government of corporate control. Given their social predatory nature, Franken-corporations will eventually self-destruct. In the meantime, we can each do our small part in building a more equitable and humane society.

Hope lives!

Rewards of Brazil’s Market for Perfumes, Toiletries & Cosmetics

07 Sunday Apr 2013

Posted by in Brazil, Working Life

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Perfumes Natura BrazilPerfumes Natura – Brazil
Source: naturavendas.wordpress.com

Brazilians adore perfume. In Northeast Brazil – the region with 42.5 percent of perfume sales – 79.7 percent of the population use perfumes, according to the Union for the Industry of Perfumes and Toiletries of São Paulo (SIPATESP). I was therefore not surprised to learn that in 2010 Brazil overtook the United States as the world’s largest market for perfumes with US$6 billion in sales (Euromonitor International).

At Ceará Importers,* we imported a wide selection of perfumes and toiletries of several popular American and European brands. Our suppliers provided us with the declarations of manufacturing and quality controls required by the Brazilian health authority for obtaining our import licenses. Translation of product labels from English to Portuguese, required for commercialization of these products in Brazil, became my responsibility.

When import regulations became more rigorous, we had secured contracts with two American manufacturers for retail and distribution of their products, one for toiletries and the other for Alternative Perfumes, throughout Northeast Brazil. Under the new regulations issued by the National Health Surveillance Agency (ANVISA) in Brasilia, importers in the sector had to obtain an Operational License, as was required for national manufacturers. This meant the provision of a laboratory and qualified technical staff for quality control, as well as special storage facilities (Portaria SVS/MS nr 71/1996).

While construction was underway, I became the contact person between our American partners and the pharmacist contracted to prepare the product dossiers for our registration applications. Without a chemistry background, I found translations of the chemical formulas from English to Portuguese a laborious task. The time-consuming process for regularization with ANVISA must have frustrated our American partners.

Current norms and procedures required by ANVISA for the registration of perfumes, toiletries and cosmetics – including the documents required for product registration – are set out in Resolution RDC 211/2005.

To avoid excessive delays or deferment during the application process, our firm’s directors contracted a health professional in Brasilia, experienced in working with ANVISA. When dealing with government bureaucracy, it pays to work with those who understand the system. It took time. We experienced setbacks, but it all worked out well in the end.

Regulations for importing products controlled by ANVISA can change without advance notice. I kept abreast with changing norms and procedures through daily perusal of the Diário Oficial da União which publicizes legal federal matters.

With more and more Brazilians entering the middle class, the demand has grown for perfumes, toiletries, and cosmetics. In their Panorama of the Sector, published in April 2012, the Brazilian Association of the Cosmetic, Toiletry and Fragrance Industry (ABIHPEC) demonstrated growth of 340.9 percent and 293.5 percent in imports and exports respectively during the period 2002 to 2011. Today, the Brazil market for this sector ranks in third place worldwide behind the United States and Japan.

* Fictitious Name