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Susan
Mangatal
Greetings
On-Line Family
What
a very "rough" week it has been for several Caribbean
Islands due to Hurricane Dean, who roared into Dominica, St.
Lucia, Martinique, Haiti, Jamaica, Dominican Republic and even
damaged Guadeloupe and Belize, and finally slammed into Mexico twice
tearing away roofs, flooding streets, knocking out power,
rooting up trees, blowing down billboards, causing some deaths
and devastated the agriculture in many of the
islands.
Hurricane
Dean first hit Dominica, and it has been reported that a woman
and her 7 year old son died from a mud slide that crushed their
home while they were asleep, and at least 150 homes suffered
major damaged. It continued on its destructive path to
Martinique, and it has been reported that an elderly man died
from a heart attack during the storm, 6 people suffered
injuries, and 95% of the homes was without power, as well as lots of
roofs being torn away. In addition to Martinique, Guadeloupe
lost 80% of their important banana
crop.
Late
last Friday Hurricane Dean passed north of the small island St.
Lucia with horrible winds that ripped metal from dozens of
houses, brought down trees, caused excessive flooding, tore the
roof off Victoria Hospital's pediatric ward in the Capital of
St. Lucia (Castries), and it was reported one man drowned.
Dean continued on it's destructive path, and brushed very
close to Haiti and destroyed tons of crops, where farmers have
seen their entire bean, plantains and yam crops destroyed.
9 deaths were reported and more than 12, 000 people have been
displaced or lost their homes, and at least 4,000 homes have
been partially or completely destroyed. As
for the Dominican Republic it was reported that 1 boy drowned
and waves destroyed several homes and damaged many more along
the Dominican coast.
On
Sunday afternoon, Dean slammed into Jamaica's capital Kingston
with 150 mph winds, causing extensive flooding due to torrential
rain, massive damages to homes, roads, toppled trees, and caused
lots of mudslides. 300,000 people have been displaced, and
thankfully only 2 deaths have been reported (so far), and 107
Schools across the island have been damaged. Due to the
country being in a state of emergency and is focusing primarily on the clean up of Jamaica Prime Minster Portia
Simpson-Miller has called for a halt to the August 27th
general Elections, which I believe has been granted and the
election has been rescheduled to take place at a later
date. Please
be aware that there is need for food, tarpaulins, cooking
utensils and hygiene items in Jamaican and and all the effected
islands in the Caribbean.
On
Wednesday Dean arrived into the Yucatan Peninsula as a Category
5 with 165 mph winds and caused catastrophic damage which hit
the town of Majahual causing lots of damage. It diminished
a bit to a Category 2 when it hit again in Mexico. Its
center hit the town of Tecolutla with winds lashing at a 60 mile
stretch of the Mexican coast in Veracruz. Tremendous
damage has been reported across Mexico, lots of roofs were
ripped off homes, and several homes were completely demolished
as well. Of course there have been tremendous amounts of
flooding, mudslides, and 4 people have been reported died (so
far). Unfortunately, it is unknown at this time how the
Mayan Indian communities are doing since most lived in stick
huts.
Even
though Dean has weakened and have been reduced to a tropical
depression, it is still causing lots of havoc, and there is a
chance that it may re-form over the Pacific Ocean.
Needless-to-say, another disaster has disrupted and tore many of
our lives apart, so we ask that you keep in prayer all those who
are suffering from the damages Hurricane Dean has placed on many
of our loved ones in the Caribbean and Mexico. I know many
of you would love to help with supplying food, medicine and
emergency relief supplies to these islands, so please contact
"Food For the Poor", the 3rd largest International
relief and development organization in the nation. They provide
help to the entire Caribbean area and is conducting relief
efforts for Dominica, St. Lucia, the Dominican Republic, Haiti
and Jamaica @ www.foodforthepoor.org
or call 800-487-1148. Additionally, the Red Cross launched
an appeal internationally for 1.6 million to help 35,000 people
affected by Hurricane Dean in the Caribbean. They need
supplies such as blankets, mosquito repellant and water
purification tablets. Finally, contact your Embassy for
further information on helping these islands.
Stay
in touch with all the clean up efforts taking place in the
islands that have been effected by Hurricane Dean at Jump
TV. Log on and tune in to all the free Channels in the
Caribbean. You can even purchase your favorite channel
packages from your favorite Island.
 
Jon Lucien -
Caribbean born Jazz Balladeer Dies at 65
This
week we lost a very exceptional Jazz Balladeer - Mr. John
Lucian, who to me is a very sensual and romantic singer. A
singer that completely soothes your soul through his music, with
his powerful voice, yet gentle, soft and warm. His music
to me is a nice mixture of jazz, soul, R&B and calypso,
which is full of melody and uniquely arranged.
Unfortunately, I never got to see Mr. Lucien perform live, but his
music on numerous occasions has helped me unwind and has taken
me into a mellow state of mind.
 Condolences
to the family and friends of Mr. Lucien, you have indeed lost a
very talented man. To learn more about this
smooth island born singer, see graphic details on his life below
written by Adam Bernstein, staff writer for the Washington
Post
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Jon Lucien, 65, a singer and songwriter of ultra-romantic
ballads whose recordings found a broad audience on smooth-jazz
radio stations in the 1990s, died Aug. 18 at Florida Hospital in
Orlando, near his home in Kissimmee. He had respiratory failure
and complications after kidney surgery.
Mr. Lucien was a forerunner of the melange of sounds dubbed
fusion. His melodic and rhythmic influences ranged from his
native Caribbean -- calypso, in particular -- to the beats of
jazz, bossa nova, soul and R&B.
Layered above this musical stew was a formidable baritone in
the mold of Luther Vandross that specialized in lyrics of
everlasting love. This preference was highlighted in songs he
wrote, including "Lady Love" and "Rashida."
His fans were also enamored of his version of Antonio Carlos
Jobim's "Dindi."
Mr. Lucien was never considered a commercially
successful performer. Critics were often unkind to his deep,
caressing style backed by prolific stringwork
"Macho clothed in velvet" was how his appearance at
the Newport Jazz Festival in 1975 was marketed.
"Affectation clothed in rhetoric," New York Times
reviewer John Rockwell wrote after the show.
The disco craze, combined with Mr. Lucien's cocaine habit and
other personal problems, all but cemented his demise.
He returned to the Caribbean, where he worked to recover his
health, and he reappeared on the U.S. musical scene in 1991. He
caught on with enough radio play to ensure continued demand in
concerts and clubs worldwide.
He was also said to have a particularly strong following in
England among acid-jazz fans and soul revivalists who enjoyed
his early music.
Mr. Lucien embraced what he thought was his music's
highest quality. "I would say that my sound is a romantic
sound," he told an interviewer in 1997. "It's water.
It's ocean. It's tranquility."
Lucien Harrigan was born in Tortola, in the British Virgin
Islands, on Jan. 8, 1942. "Billy" Harrigan, as he was
known, was raised in St. Thomas by his blind, guitar-playing
father and became a self-taught pianist, guitarist and bassist.
At 19, he came to the United States to sing at a Catskills
Mountains resort in Upstate New York.
Renaming himself Jon Marcus Lucien, he worked at the fringes
of entertainment, performing in commercial jingles and also at
bar mitzvahs and weddings on Long Island. One wedding guest was
an RCA music producer who gave Mr. Lucien his card and asked him
to go in for a test.
The result was his 1970 debut album, "I Am Now,"
followed by two more for the RCA label, "Rashida" and
"Mind's Eye." None sold particularly well. Subsequent
albums for CBS -- "Song for My Lady" and
"Premonition" -- also failed to boost his popularity,
despite top-notch arrangements and his covers of songs by
established composers such as Herbie Hancock and Jobim.
Mr. Lucien spoke of his disillusionment with the pop-music
industry in the late 1970s. He was married and divorced three
times, and in 1980, a baby girl from his third marriage drowned
in a pool. He developed a cocaine habit that lasted a decade.
"The truth is, I was scared of the business," he
told Essence magazine in 1991. "By the time I made my fifth
album I began to realize that I was doing all the music and
coming up with all the ideas. Not that I'm in dire need of
attention, but I should've been getting the producer credit. I
just thought, I've got to get outta here."
Settling in St. Thomas and then Puerto Rico, he struggled
with his health. He got married for the fourth and final time in
1988, to Delesa Williams, and slowly reentered the mainstream
music business.
In 1996, his teenage daughter from his third marriage,
Dalila,
was a passenger on TWA Flight 800 when it exploded and crashed
off Long Island. Mr. Lucien said he staved off depression by
throwing himself into work. He dedicated his 1997 album,
"Endless Is Love," to the plane's passengers, who also
included the wife of saxophonist Wayne Shorter (Mr. Lucien's
onetime brother-in-law).
"That was a heavy lesson," Mr. Lucien told the New
York Amsterdam News. "All that I had was my music and my
prayers."
In recent years, he made four albums for his own Sugar Apple
Music label and had completed a collection that included
Christian hymns and self-written spiritual titles.
Survivors include his fourth wife, of Kissimmee, and
their daughter; a son from his first marriage; a son from his
second marriage; three brothers; two sisters; and two
grandchildren.
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This week we lost another great musician
- 
Mr. Max Roach who was
a devoted
supporter of Steel Pan Music and who believed "the Pan
belongs on a world stage". Mr. Roach was a founder of
modern jazz, rewrote the rule of drumming and broke musical
barriers. Below you will find a very nice piece written by
"When Steel Talks Everyone Listens" out of New York on
Mr. Max Roach. Condolences to Mr. Roach's family!!!
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Pan
man dies from: When Steel Talks: Max
Roach Remembered
"Pan
belongs on a world stage" -
Max Roach
 New York - Master drummer extraordinaire, Max Roach, passed away on the
morning of August 16, 2007. He was a personal
friend of When Steel Talks (WST), and an ardent
supporter of the steelpan instrument, the steel
orchestra and the steelpan movement and community.
Max Roach was a giant whose genius will be missed.
He leaves behind a body of work that more than validates
the belief that he was the greatest drummer ever -
"Before he was 30, he had been voted the greatest
jazz drummer of all time by a panel of 100 peers,"
and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in
1995. Max. He constantly championed the
position that the "steelpan belonged on the world
stage," in words and deeds. (See Vol 24
No. 181 Daily Challenge newspaper - Monday
November 27, 1995 - pg 13 "Max Roach on the
Power of Pan"
New York - Master
drummer extraordinaire, Max Roach, passed away on the
morning of August 16, 2007. He was a personal
friend of When Steel Talks (WST), and an ardent
supporter of the steelpan instrument, the steel
orchestra and the steelpan movement and community.
Max Roach was a giant whose genius will be missed.
He leaves behind a body of work that more than validates
the belief that he was the greatest drummer ever -
"Before he was 30, he had been voted the greatest
jazz drummer of all time by a panel of 100 peers,"
and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in
1995. Max. He constantly championed the
position that the "steelpan belonged on the world
stage," in words and deeds. (See Vol 24
No. 181 Daily Challenge newspaper - Monday
November 27, 1995 - pg 13 "Max
Roach on the Power of Pan")
Indeed it was
Max who went to Trinidad in 1995, after a conversation
with WST, to seek out steelpan artist extraorindinare
Len "Boogsie" Sharpe . So impressed was
Max Roach with Boogsie's talent that he took him on
tour with him as part of his group M'BOOM, and was
interested in setting up a recording deal. Boogsie,
he felt, was the "real thing" and reminded him
of the great Charlie 'Bird' Parker. He was also a
great fan of the steelband music Panoramas.
This writer has seen
and interacted with Max Roach up close and personal in
many roles, for more than fifteen years. Father,
musician, leader, university professor, boss, friend,
historian, protector, mentor and fierce warrior and
competitor, just to name a few. But the
greatest role I will always remember him for - is that
of a 'buddy' to my then-four year old daughter, Kimya,
as the twosome (Max and Kimya) happily and gamely hunted
down jellybeans on the floor of his kitchen in his
Central Park West apartment! Max was a man who had
walked with Gods of Jazz, including the likes of
Dizzy Gillespie, Miles, Bird Parker, Coleman Hawkins, and
routinely rubbed shoulders with world leaders, and had
presidents call him. And, yes, he could pick
up the phone and call presidents himself - and they
listened. But it was this ability to break things
down to a level to where he and a four year old were
having a serious conversation about jellybeans, and
were now best friends - that was the key to
his genius and ability to inspire others on all levels
and to unlimited heights.
Max was obviously an
immensely talented, very intelligent and well-schooled
individual. He was a genius. He had the to
ability to see things that others saw in fast forward,
in real time; and things most people saw in
real time, in slow motion. He was so far ahead,
without even trying. Quite similar to another
genius in steelband we knew - the late master
arranger Clive
Bradley.
We will miss Max
Roach's humor, his great stories, knowledge of
history, integrity, non-comprising attitude and his
ability to inspire you to great things simply by asking,
"why not you"?
For more details on
Mr. Max Roach and his life, check out www.drummerworld.com
where you will find a more details written by Mr. Peter
Keepnews.
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Maximum
Respect to The Caribbean-American Weekly out of New York!!!
Late last week they contacted me regarding publishing the article
I wrote on Marcus Garvey, and yesterday I discovered they had
indeed published it. Check it out by clicking on to the
following link, and browsing through the pages to page 15: http://www.caribbeanamericanweeklyny.com/pdf/caw24.pdf
While there go ahead and purchase a subscription. To all the
folks at Caribbean American Weekly, especially Ms. Pearl -
thank you very much for appreciating my piece on Garvey and
publishing it. Hopefully, a lot more people through this
article have become familiar with Garvey and his works. www.caribbeanamericanweeklyny.com
 As
you know Trinidad
and Tobago celebrates its 45th independence on August 31, 2007,
and under our "Featured Events"
as well as on
"Events" page we
have listed lots of events that are taking place this weekend, and
until the end of the month. Today is
the screening of "Calypso Dreams" taking place at Howard
University and on Sunday in Baltimore at the Inner Harbor The
"RBTT" Redemption Sound Setters will be performing at
3:00 pm. Please scroll down to learn more about all the
festivities.
 
Support
Read Across Jamaica Foundation, Inc. with their effort to help
the children of Jamaica who has been affected by Hurricane
Dean. Read their PSA below. For
additional details log on to their site at www.readacrossja.com
or you can reach Ms. Wisdom at readacrossja@aol.com.
We've
stepped up our efforts to help the children of
Jamaica affected by Hurricane Dean.
Jamaica
has it's own GULF COAST and needs your help to bring
life back to normalcy for the children.
FACT:
School will not begin the first week of September as
many of the facilities have been devastated by last
weeks hurricane.
QUESTION:
How can the Caribbean community help?
We invite the community to step up and help pull much
needed materials together to HELP the children start school
with the minimum supplies.
You
may drop off childrens books (K-6), school
supplies & backpacks at the following
locations in Maryland & DC:
COLLECTION
BOXES ARE LOCATED AT EACH SITE
- Embassy
of Jamaica, 1520 New Hampshire Ave., NW, Washington,
DC
- Glad
Tidings Book Store - Reid Temple A.M.E. -11400 Glenn
Dale Blvd, Glenn Dale, MD
- Just
Jerk - 9005 Lanham Severn Road, Lanham, MD (after
Sept 3rd)
- The
Settings Restaurant & Lounge, 2063 University
Blvd., Hyattsvville, MD
- Taste
of Jamaica Restaurant - 528 H Street, NE,
Washington, DC
- Golden
Crust Restaurant, Prince George's Plaza, 3500 East
West Highway, (Route 410)
Hyattsville, MD
- Cyber
Learning, 911 Silver Spring Avenue, Suite 202,
Silver Spring, MD 20910 (240) 401-8258
Other
locations will be added. Check the Read Across
Jamaica Foundation website at www.readacrossja.com
for a location near you.
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To all of you our on-line
family, thanks for
reading and for always supporting us. As you may know without
you there would be no us. So thanks very much for your
support. Enjoy this weekend and the upcoming week!
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Happy
Anniversary to Sara
and Jerry!!! 
