Fares from the bay on orbitz are as low as $242. Contact us if you are interested in a 50% hotel discount at the Radisson in downtown Miami (right next to Bicentennial Park (carnival Sunday) and the newly redone American Airlines Arena (Carnival Monday Beach Fest). Check and print our Miami Carnival Events file now and the socafestmiami carnival map. Over 21 events in 5 days with Machel & Xtatik, Wyclef, Rupee, Alison Hinds, Dawg E Slaugher, Bunji Garlin, Burning Flames, Destra Garcia, Denise Belfon, Fat Joe, Onika Bostick, GT Ninja Band, Krosfyah, DJs Back to Basics, Dorenzo & Tony Tempo and so much more.

.

1. 1 in every 10 houses is completely destroyed or badly damaged. The official residences of both the Prime Minister and Governor General are
   destroyed. My sister's home is also destroyed.
2. There is no food, water or gas being sold anywhere.
3. There are thousands wandering around without food or shelter.
4. A dusk to dawn curfew is vigorously being enforced by RSS troops (Embarrassingly, there is as yet, no Guyana delegation on the ground.)
5. A 24 hour curfew is in place for the city of St. Georges. Not even business owners are allowed in.
6. The Parliament and High Court and Registry buildings are 70% destroyed. Records are missing or destroyed by water.
7. There is no electricity and few homes have generators.
8. Telephone service is probably at 10% of its former strength. Only a few Cable & Wireless cell phones work.
9. The airport is still closed to commercial traffic and clean up began only yesterday. There was no immigration and customs officers in place when I
   arrived and left. I was able to get a T&T Coast Guard plane to fly me in and returned via Barbados with the Regional Security System (RSS) jet last
   night.
10. Fewer than 10% of hotels are operational.
11. The university is closed until January, 2005.
12. I sat in on meetings with the Prime Minister and the Prime Ministers of St. Lucia and St. Vincent and there was a sense of helplessness as the
    first cabinet meeting was only held on Sunday evening.
13. There is growing anger at the lack of co-ordination or presence of officials to provide answers and point to the way forward.
14. Rumours are rife that the PM is still on board the British battleship and has suffered a heart attack-both are untrue but his absence on the
    ground is a matter of concern.
15. Security wise there are several concerns: The police force is pressed to the limit as many members of the force never reported for duty following the hurricane. It appears that the force was not kept in line prior to.

-The frustration and anger being voiced is potentially a cause of concern and if by Thursday or Friday there is no tangible relief on the ground, ordinary law abiding citizens are likely to take to the streets to loot and destroy. There was earlier, looting and damage to property which is tapering off but the new wave will be different.
-There is no army only a Special Services Unit (SSU) whose headquarters houses the units from other CARICOM countries and also quite mistakenly I
believe is being used to store and distribute food. People are gathering on the perimeter and cursing the ranks. I spoke to the Police Commissioner and
the Commander of the RSS yesterday and they seemed to recognise this problem of combining security and law enforcement with food distribution.

Who would have thought that a mini interview with Buju Banton in San Francisco in 2003 would put us deep in discussions with Gay Rights activist Peter Tatchell of London's based OUTRAGE or Germany's gay rights group LSVD? The year was 1999 and the Maritime Hall was the most consistent spot for reggae in the San Francisco bay area. It was my first time seeing Buju Banton live and also the first time that Complex and I would be in the same event. Though we did not know each other, I vaguely remember a crew of Caribbean folks with flags waving up under the front of the stage. Ingrained in my memory is also the scary crowd response when Buju's Boom Bye Bye song began to play. Since undergrad I refused to dance to it and would walk off the floor and leave an American partner a little puzzled as they did not understand the lyrics. Some people use this argument that folks don't even understand the lyrics to somehow make them acceptable. So, there I was at the Avalon Ballroom in San Francisco in 2003 up under the stage listening to Buju and equipped with a recorder and questions for an interview. The interview became a mini interview after I asked about Boom Bye Bye. I thought it was a fair question given I heard it play that night in 2003 and made some reference to that at the bottom of my interview in our newsletter.

Fast forward to Summer 2004 and the latest in reggae news is that Beenie Man's performance at the MTV music awards was cancelled and Salem sponsored concerts in the US dropped. His homophobic lyrics incite violence. The same Beenie Man who in 2002 during his Tropical Storm tour in San Francisco spoke about the diverse nature of people's lifestlyes and the need to accept that as a part of life. Websites like afiwi.com started discussion boards which, according to the webmaster were to provide a forum for people to voice their opinions on the issue without any censorship and hopefully open the door for healthy discussions to begin. Though the responses were diverse, many are ten times more offensive than the lyrics in the songs. There began many heated arguments on the issue then came an email from Germany:

"In Germany in recent weeks there has been a lively discussion about Buju Banton as he prepared for a tour of German cities and festivals. The question of whether he has performed “Boom Bye Bye” in recent years has played a big part in this. LSVD, the German gay rights group, made reference in its campaign on Buju Banton to your mini interview and report in Jouvay in February 2004 on a concert of Buju Banton in San Francisco in 2003 where he performed “Boom Bye Bye”.http://www.jouvay.com/NewsletterFebruary2004.html

In a meeting last Sunday in Bremen before his concert at the “Modernes” venue (attended by the management of Modernes, promoters involved with Reggare concerts in Germany and the Bremen gay group Rat & Tat) Buju Banton claimed that he has not performed “Boom Bye Bye” in many years. You can find two written reports on the meeting at the discussion board of “Modernes”. He says, “I am confronted with a song I barely remember, since I have not sung it in years.” Buju Banton stated in the conversation, that he has not played the song in years – specifically also not in Jamaica.

So in fact Buju Banton is claiming in Germany that your article from February 2004 is factually wrong. We would be very interested to get your response on Buju Banton’s statements."

READ ON

Preview her 23 minute documentary, "My Mountain Trailer" here and order directly from her today.

"We made a lot of progress with the project we were fundraising for which involved animal husbandry in order to generate income on the mountain so the families can send their kids to school. We're coordinating with a veterinarian there who is doing just incredible work under very difficult conditions. We're not about to solve any of the huge economic and political problems in the Haiti (which the area wasn't directly affected by because it's in the mountains and most of the violence had been in the cities) but there are definetly small improvements. One immediate change was made possible by Olivia, who is Haitian American and a civil engineering major at Stanford. She brought tools and we bought tin in Haiti and together with some of the kids there, we built rain gutters on the roofs of all the houses on the mountain so that they can collect rain water instead of going to the river and carrying it back on their heads all the time. I actually have some pictures of the rain gutters (called "dal" in creole) as well as some of the other projects we were working on this summer, that will be up on the site soon.

Our project is called Moving Mountains, and has several components. We had a student group that did arts projects with the kids, including the kids creation of "about me" books with writing and drawings about their lives, tracing and painting of the kids resulting in a life size portrait, the first ever theatrical production (complete with face paint), the construction of the rain gutters, and measurement of the kids heights (to get some sense of the kids growth or lack thereof over the years. We also paired up each student with a Haitian child who would serve as their guide and teach them about culture, language, food, games, etc.. We also helped to fund the work of local veterinarian, Toma Abraham. He also teaches agricultural techniques for the local peasant organization and encourages reforestation, which we helped fund and also replanted some coffee plants ourselves. We have some ambitious goals for next year. I was hoping the website could be a way to show people what we've been doing, and encourage support for our future plans." MJ

Refreshing new music from Shaggy's lead guitarist.

Shurwayne Winchester (2004 Road March winner in Trinidad) official website. Log on and listen to music from his new album.