UNIVERSAL CHILDREN'S DAY - NOVEMBER 20-2018

UNIVERSAL CHILDREN'S DAY - NOVEMBER 20-2018

Universal Children's Day - November 20-2018. United Nations Universal Children's Day was established in 1954 and is celebrated on November 20th each year to promote international togetherness, awareness among children worldwide, and improving children's welfare.

November 20th is an important date as it is the date in 1959 when the UN General Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child. It is also the date in 1989 when the UN General assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Since 1990, Universal Children’s Day also marks the anniversary of the date that the UN General Assembly adopted both the declaration and the convention on children’s rights.

Mothers and fathers, teachers, nurses and doctors, government leaders, human rights activists, religious and community elders, corporate moguls and media professionals as well as young people and children themselves can play an important part in making Universal Children’s Day relevant for their societies, communities and nations.

Universal Children’s Day offers each of us an opportunity to advocate, promote and celebrate children’s rights, translating into dialogues and actions that will build a better world for Children. This is a day for children, by children, all over the world to help save children’s lives, fight for their rights and help them fulfil their potential.

Reading is one of the best lifetime habits we can acquire and also encourage in our children. There are some tried and true methods that have worked in encouraging children to love reading. Read to your children, read with your children and let your children see that you enjoy reading. Buy books for your children and encourage relatives and friends who express an interest in buying gifts for your children to make some of those gifts books. Take your children to the library to borrow books and introduce them to some of your favourite authors. 

CULTURALLY RELEVANT BOOKS

Culturally relevant books display the cultural heritage of students and are directly related to their lives. Books are culturally relevant when there are similarities between the characters and the lives of students and their families. When there are relationships between the students’ experiences and those told in the stories the children are engaged. Books are also culturally relevant when students are familiar with the places and themes mentioned in the stories. Culturally relevant books may also contain familiar phrases or figures of speech.

What children read shapes what they think of themselves, of others and of the world. Children’s literature does not always reflect diversity. “The ways in which we are misrepresented, are marginalized, or deleted vary according to our identities,” Penn Graduate School of Education expert on children’s literature Dr. Ebony Elizabeth Thomas says, “but all youth-focused narratives that enter popular culture should be more representative. It's not just kids of color, kids from the margins who need diverse literature and media. It's all kids who need all stories about all kinds of people.”

Books and other printed materials should represent the interests of the students and reflect the diversity of students in any classroom. Some classrooms are devoid of reading materials written by racialized authors or which prominently feature the lively and rich histories of the diverse cultures represented in the school. In many cases there is no representation of racialized people not even the images on the walls of the school.

Many children have never been exposed to their own cultural heritage in the books they read. A culturally responsive classroom acknowledges and appreciates children’s home cultures and attempts to build upon the uses of language and literacy with which children are already familiar.  Familiar stories and predictable books may help children express their cultural uniqueness and share their personal stories. 

Culturally relevant books include books that represent the cultures of various races and ethnic groups in accurate and respectful words and images.

 

Caregivers and parents can foster an interest in and enjoyment of reading in very young children by reading to infants (less than one year old.)

READING

Patsy Liverpool © Thursday, November 8-2018

                     READING 

I have always been a voracious reader. I love to read and read everything I could lay my hands on from as early as I can remember. I loved books even before I could read. I remember looking at photographs in Ebony Magazine and Jet Magazine before I learned how to read. I read “fairy tales” and other children’s books when I was about four years old. Between 8 and 12 I was fascinated by stories of Greek and Roman “gods and goddesses” of Greek and Roman mythology. Aesop’s fables were even more fascinating because he was African (Ethiopian.) All the stories he told of animals with human qualities really fired my imagination. I would regale my younger siblings and cousins with tales of imaginary animals and surprisingly they believed my stories. As an adult I think back to those days and laugh. My mother loved to read and perhaps that is where my love of reading stems. We were a “reading family;” my parents, my siblings and I read varied authors during my teenage years. Some of our favourite authors were blatantly or covertly racist but we did not realize or care; we just loved the stories/plots. Louis L’Amour, Salvatore Lombino/Ed McBain/Evan Hunter, James Hadley Chase/René Lodge Brabazon Raymond, Nick Carter, Tintin, Dennis Wheatley were some of the suspect authors/books we read and just bypassed the racism, concentrating on the storyline/plot. Some of the books I read as a teenager and reread as an adult with a different perspective/better understanding; "The Scarlet Letter: A Romance" by Nathaniel Hawthorne and “The Good Earth” by Pearl S. Buck. “Tarzan of the Apes” by Edgar Rice Burroughs, which I read at 8 years old.

My family read comic books galore; old war comic books with tales of WW1 and WW2. Comic books from Britain with tales of white girls and boys attending boarding schools (Billy Bunter and Bessie Bunter etc.,) Enid Blyton was one of our favourite authors.

I discovered romance novels when I was a teenager. I would read those books much to the displeasure and against the wishes of my father. He actually forbade romance novels in our home; he thought they might be a bad influence. Those books were harmless but no one could convince my father; some relatives tried to no avail. I would smuggle the books home, hidden in my school books and read them when he was not at home. My favourite authors were Anne Mather, Barbara Cartland and Penny Jordan; there were a few others including Charlotte Lamb, Violet Winspear and Betty Neels.

I stopped reading romance novels when I began working because there was no time. I had to read books for work, for professional exams etc., Then I got married and those romance novels did not match up to the real thing! After my husband unexpectedly and tragically transitioned I discovered African American romance writers. At first, I would buy and read books by any African American romance writer. 

I eventually realized that I preferred the writing style and storytelling skills of a few of them including Sandra Kitt, Beverly Jenkins, Brenda Jackson, Rochelle Alers and Donna Hill. I recently saw a book by Sandra Kitt that I read a few years ago. Rereading “Significant Others” by Sandra Kitt has rekindled my interest in romance novels so I am on the lookout for books by my favourite romance authors including Rochelle Alers, Donna Hill, Brenda Jackson, Beverly Jenkins and Sandra Kitt. 

Patsy Liverpool © Thursday, November 8-2018

GUYANESE CURRY CHICKEN RECIPE

Patsy Liverpool © Wednesday, November 7-2018

I love to cook, to see the ingredients successfully come together to make a beautiful, colourful, delicious meal. One of my favourite things to cook and eat is curried chicken. 

GUYANESE CURRY CHICKEN

INGREDIENTS

1 large onion

3 tbsp. oil

2 tsp. salt

3 medium potatoes, parboiled

1 tbsp. Indi Madras curry powder

1 tbsp. cumin powder

1/2 tbsp. ground geera

1/2 tbsp. garam masala

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper or paprika

2 cups water

3 cloves garlic, grated, diced or crushed (or 1 tbsp. granulated garlic)

2 pounds or 1 kilogram chicken thighs

To debone the chicken thighs; turn the chicken thigh flesh side down. Using a knife, cut along the thigh bone and away from the flesh, until the bone is completely free from the flesh.

Cut the meat (deboned chicken thighs) into 1 inch pieces and wash the meat with lime, lemon or vinegar and water.

Season with the meat with the salt and cayenne pepper or paprika.

METHOD

Pour the oil in a pan/pot and heat the oil

Cut up the onion and add it to the heating oil along with the garlic.

In a bowl, make a paste by mixing together the curry powder, cumin powder, ground geera, garam masala and 1/2 cup of water.

Then add the curry paste to the browning onions and garlic.

Cook for 3 minutes.

Add the chicken to the pot, coating the chicken with the curry paste.

Cook for 25 minutes or until chicken is fully cooked.

Add the parboiled potatoes and stir.

Pour about 1 and1/2 cups of water and stir to make a gravy.

Cook for 15-20 minutes.

By then the curry should have made a thick sauce, the potatoes and chicken thoroughly cooked and ready to be served with rice, roti or dahl puri.

Patsy Liverpool © Wednesday, November 7-2018

BOX HAND PARDNER SUSU SOUSOU

BOX HAND PARDNER SUSU SOUSOU

Patsy Liverpool © Monday, October 29-2018

One of my favourite African customs that is still practiced by many Africans in the Diaspora is an informal banking system that has its roots in West Africa. This system although familiar is known by various names in the countries where it is practiced. In Jamaica this system is known as “partner”; in Guyana, “box hand”; in Barbados, Meeting; Haiti, “min”; in Surinam, Kasmoni; in Trinidad and Tobago Sou-sou.

The name Sou-sou comes from the Yoruba term “esusu” and originated in Nigeria, West Africa from where the ancestors of many in the Diaspora were taken. The Yoruba esusu was transported to wherever the Africans were enslaved in the Caribbean, Central America, North America and South America. Susu is also part of the Akan culture of Ghana, West Africa; another area from where many of our ancestors were taken and scattered. Although the susu system is now not well known to African-Americans, it remains popular among many African Caribbean, African Latino and African immigrant communities from Central and South America. Some use it to start businesses, others for substantial purchases, vacations, down payments on properties and cars and even to pay for the education of their children.

A sou-sou (also spelled sou, su-su or susu) is like an informal rotating savings club, where a group of people get together and contribute an equal amount of money into a weekly, bi-weekly or monthly fund. The total pool when collected, sometimes known as a hand, is then paid to one member of the club on an agreed-on schedule. In every sousou group there is a banker/treasurer who will collect the contributions of the members. The banker/treasurer will also create a payout roster, or members can request to receive their hand at any given date during the cycle. Everyone agrees on how much and how often they want to contribute. The pool rotates until all members have received their hand/share. The cycle would begin again after ten weeks when each member has received their “hand.” Weekly contributions can be any amount and run anywhere from $100-$5,000. Hands can range from $1,000-$15,000, depending on the size of the susu. Any member who can afford it, can also double their contribution and get paid two hands in one cycle.

The susu banker/treasurer assumes the responsibility for collecting and keeping track of the contributions and is someone who is trusted and respected throughout the community. In most cases the susu members also trust and know each other well. There is no interest on the money so the partners who “throw box” will always collect the exact amount that they contribute. In some cases once each member has received a hand, the susu is dissolved. A similar group (with the same or different participants) is usually reformed to continue its activities under similar conditions. Susu hands are used for various reasons including cash flow management, raising seed capital to start businesses, buying a vehicle, vacation funds or securing home mortgages.

In ages gone by, long ago and far away, housewives who did not have an income and those in rural communities who had no access to traditional banks used sou-sous. The women would save a little bit of money from whatever their husbands gave them and put it in a sou-sou to be able to treat themselves when they received a hand. Some of those women also helped their families to buy a house or started businesses.

In this centuries-old tried and trusted practice built on trust, equality and integrity that originated in West Africa, the prevailing and most important component is trust. Whether it is called box hand, sousou, partner, meeting or kasmonie trust is important. If you decide to join a susu it is important to ensure it is one with trusted friends, family members or co-workers who understand the importance of honouring the commitment; the integrity and trust.

Patsy Liverpool © Monday, October 29-2018

THESE ARE A FEW OF MY FAVOURITE THINGS

Patsy Liverpool © Tuesday October 23-2018

THESE ARE A FEW OF MY FAVOURITE THINGS

I am passionate about African culture and history. I love African inspired clothing, bags and jewelry. Over the years I have collected a few pieces that I bought from various festivals and a few are gifts from relatives. The gorgeously colourful necklaces and bangles attract my attention wherever I am.

I am fascinated by the unique beadwork and the carved chunky necklaces, the intricately carved bangles.

Patsy Liverpool © Tuesday October 23-2018