Sex and travel writers
Only occasionally do writers describe their exotic encounters overseas. Although famously interested in prostitutes, writers like Leigh-Fermor (Greece), Leonard Woolf (Ceylon) and Burton (everywhere) never went into the detail. Nor did the great homesexual writers like Thesiger (Arabia) and Chatwin (West Africa).
Guiana thrusts forward in the Space Age
Last month, the European Space Agency (ESA) met in Naples and agreed to spend 10 billion euros over the next five years. This puts ESA into the big leaugue, just behind NASA but ahead of China.
The fortress lost in the Jungle
This is all that remains of Fort Nassau, on the Berbice River, Guyana. Only one 18th century description of this building remains, from a Dutch traveller called Hartsinck.
In "Beschrijving van Guiana of de Wilde Kust", he’d described a structure 100 feet long and 50 feet wide, which had served as a church, a storehouse, the government, and the home of the ‘corp de guarde’.
The travellers of the medical world: Nurses
The tragic death of Jacintha Saldanha in London yesterday (following the Australian radio Hoax) is a reminder how much we value our nurses. Londoners are deeply upset by this news. It's also a reminder that our nurses come from all over the world, making an invaluable contribution to the NHS.
A great colonial legacy: The government guesthouse
You can find them all over the former British Empire; clean, sparse and functional. They don't even differ much from Kenya to Sri Lanka. You can wake up in Nkarta Bay (Malawi) and happily believe that you're in Bartica (Guyana), where this picture was taken.
Bartica is a typical specimen; utilitarian 1950s furniture, and run by two elderly la
Death of a slave-owner
This is the tomb of a Dutch planter at Peerboome (or 'Pear Tree') in Berbice, Guyana. The tombstone was probably made in Europe during the planter's life, with only the dates left blank.
Ghosts in the sugar cane
On my last trip to Guyana, I went in search of an old sugar estate called Reynestein, which is described by a traveller called Dr Bollingbroke in 1799. It is now part of the super-estate, Wales. Back then, the good doctor had described the life of the Dutch planters; billiards, good coffee, the finest linen, floors scrubbed with citrus juice, farmland ‘like gardens’,
National and Patriotic Songs of Guyana
- The National Anthem of Guyana: Words by A. L. Luker, Music by R. C. G. Potter
- Song of the Republic: Words by Cleveland W. Hamilton, Music by Frank Daniels
- My Native Land: M. A. Cossou
- A Poet's Prayer: Valerie Rodway
- Hymn For Guyana’s Children: Valerie Rodway
- Arise, Guyana: Valerie Rodway
- Guyana The Free: Valerie Rodway
- O Beautiful Guyana: Valerie Rodway
- My Guyana, Eldorado:
- A Song Of Hope: R.C.G. Potter
- The Song Of Guyana’s Children: W. Hawley-Bryant
- To Serve My Country: George Noel
- River Song: Hugh Sam
- Way Down Demerara: R.C.G.Potter
- The Berbice Ferry: Sr. Rose Magdalene
- Let Us Cooperate: W. R. A. Pilgrim
- N.A. (New Amsterdam, Berbice): Anonymous
- Salute To Guyana: W.R.A. Pilgrim
- Twilight: Cecile E. Burgan-Nobrega
- The Golden Arrowhead: Sr. Rose Magdalene
- To The Hibiscus: Horace Taitt
- Blue-Saki: Jodina
- Children Of Guyana: Sr. Rose Magdalene
- Beautiful Guyana: Hilton Hemerding
- Treat All Guyanese Equal: George Noel
- Citizen John: Jodina
- Me Cawfee In De Marnin: P.M de Weever
- The Mango Sellers: Sr. Rose Magdalene
- In An Aeroplane: Sr. Rose Magdalene
- My Kitchen Garden: Sr. Rose Magdalenee
- Out Of School: Sr. Rose Magdalene
- On The Banks Of The Kako River: Words and Music by Walter E Hewick
- This Land is My Land:
The National Anthem of Guyana: Words by A. L. Luker, Music by R. C. G. P
The National Anthem of Guyana: Words by A. L. Luker, Music by R. C. G. Potter
Dear land of Guyana, of rivers and plains,
Made rich by the sunshine, and lush by the rains,
Set gem-like and fair between mounts and sea-
Your children salute you. dear land of the free.
Song of the Republic: Words by Cleveland W. Hamilton, Music by Frank Daniels
Song of the Republic: Words by Cleveland W. Hamilton, Music by Frank Daniels
From Pakaraima’s peaks of pow’r
To Courentyne’s lush sands,
Her children pledge each faithful hour
To guard Guyana’s lands.