Lavish wedding angers cash-strapped Indians

• 15 November 2016 – From the section India  – BBC News

Image copyrightJANARDHANA REDDY FAMILY

Image captionJanardhana Reddy (left) with his daughter and other family members

The lavish wedding of the daughter of an Indian politician has sparked outrage as millions across the country are in the midst of a cashflow crisis.

The five-day wedding of businessman and ex-state minister G Janardhana Reddy’s daughter, Brahmani, is estimated to cost about 5bn rupees ($74m; £59m).

But with gold-plated invitations and Bollywood stars expected to perform, the nuptials have proved controversial.

Critics have described it as an “obscene display of wealth”.

President Obama Lauds Caribbean Roots Media Icon Gwen Ifill

Gwen Ifill

News Americas, WASHINGTON, D.C., Tues. Nov. 15, 2016: U.S. President Barack Obama was among thousands around the world paying tribute to Caribbean-roots media icon Gwen Ifill, who passed away Monday after a battle with cancer. She was 61.

Ifill, who was the moderator and managing editor of Washington Week and co-anchor and co-managing editor of PBS NewsHour, both of which air on PBS, was born in New York City to a mother from Barbados and a father who was a Panamanian of Barbadian descent and a church minister.    

A SHORT HISTORY OF VICTORIA VILLAGE – By Joseph Barlow Snr.

A SHORT HISTORY OF VICTORIA VILLAGE –  By Joseph Barlow Snr.

With the advent of the 2016 INDABA I decided to offer the wider community a bit of the history of this colourful hamlet named Victoria Village.

Victoria Village, originally Pln. Northbrook lies some eighteen miles East of the capital city Georgetown. As far as records go it was owned by the Scottish family, The Baillie’s who also owned Pln. Dochfour. There still remains, a few miles into the farm lands, an area known as Baillie’s Polder which is famous for its yams.

Latterly, the mulatto, Hugh Rogers became the owner and on his death his executors sold the abandoned cotton estate to 63 manumitted Africans who hailed from neighboring estates of Ann’s Grove, Dochfour, Hope, Enmore and Paradise. The date of the purchase was Thursday, November 7th, 1839. In the year, 2013 November 7th was a Thursday and in the following years of the first half of this century, Thursday November 7th will occur 5 more times: 2019, 2024, 2030, 2041 and 2047.  

First-Village Indaba & Observance of Inaugural National Day of Villages

First-Village Indaba & Observance of Inaugural National Day of Villages

The Fourth First-Village Indaba will commence on Thursday, November 3^rd under the theme of “Reconstruction” and conclude four days later on the evening of the inaugural observance ofa National Day of Villages. The Indaba Planning Committee shifted the event that is usually held during Emancipation Week as a way of acknowledgement of President David Granger’s foresight and the significant symbolic decision to designate November 7 – National Day of Villages.

The Indaba Committee is in harmony with the breadth of the Head of State’s designation of the observance as it honours and celebrates the pioneering contribution of all villages and acknowledges the continuing pivotal role of villages in the economic, social, and political life of Guyana. We also view the selection of the date of November 7 as a posthumous honorific bestowal on our Ancestors – the 83 Proprietors who daringly purchased Plantation Northbrook and emerged a code for the management of the village they named after Queen Victoria.