Memoirs of Ivan Fraser - new ebook on the early days of the Bahá'í Faith in Guyana

Ivan Fraser was one of the earliest Bahá'ís in what was colonial British Guiana. This publication includes the earlier part of his memoirs plus background information. It is set in British Guiana in the 1950's. His wish to have it published is finally fulfilled. He was my father-in-law.

This ebook is available now on Kindle. It will be for free download on July 1 and 2 and again soon after.

The printed version of the Memoirs is not quite ready. It will be announced soon.

Guyana Earth Tremor

We experienced a tremor of about magnitude 4 here on Tuesday 21st August as a result of a major (7+) earthquake in Venezuela. One of the strongest tremors I can recall in the past 40 or so years.

No significant damage in Guyana that I am aware of. Minor damage was reported in Trinidad - but not minor to the owner of the car that got totalled by a falling chunk of concrete... Some damage was reported in Venezuela and possibly some loss of life.

See also
https://guyanachronicle.com/2018/08/21/tremor-shakes-guyana
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_Venezuela_earthquakes

New Survey Report on the South Rupununi Savannahs

The WWF has released an important new survey report on the savannahs. According to the web site:
"The publication represents the most recent (and potentially, the first) broad-based documentation of floral and faunal diversity in Guyana’s southern Rupununi region, is based on work undertaken in the Kusad Mountain and Parabara areas. "

It can be downloaded from the same web page shown above. It is full of amazing pictures, maps and introduces the biodiversity idea using local examples. Just what is needed in schools.

Guyana and climate change - Jan 2017

Some recent developments reported locally:

Integrated approach to tackle climate change (Guyana Chronicle)
"The need for closer collaboration between agencies here in addressing climate change was raised on Thursday as the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) commenced a two-day stakeholder engagement in Georgetown.
..provision will be made through the Climate Change Adaptation Programme (CCAP), which will be implemented in several Caribbean countries, including Guyana."

Guyana to participate in Climate Change & ACTO Meetings (GINA)
"Guyana will participate in fourth board meeting of Japan Caribbean Climate Change Partnership Project (JCCCP) at the invitation of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) which will be held in Jamaica from February 1- 2 2017."

So why is climate change so important to Guyana? We need to pay more attention to this issue so here are a few things which come to mind:
- it is causing sea-level rise which will become a critical issue for obvious reasons, eventually much of our best farm land will be lost plus our capital
- the slowly rising temperature will have very serious effects in the future, agriculture will have to adapt
- there is a global shift away from using oil which has important implications
- we need to shift our energy sector (and transportation) away from fossil fuels to hydro and solar.

Making use of MOOCs

It seems to me that the Caribbean needs to make more of a major new educational opportunity - MOOCs. MOOC stands for Massive Online Open Course. These courses are available free on the internet and cover a very wide range of subjects. A very interesting example of how new technology can give us new educational possibilities which are truly global. Most courses are designed for the average person and require little or no special knowledge. Some are university level but most are not.

Courses usually last 5-10 weeks with around 4-5 hours work online per week. Common elements include weekly videos, quizzes, forums and reading. Generally they are done by major universities and are of high quality.

So far I have done eight or more and noticed very little Caribbean participation. I have not seen another Guyanese participant just one or two from the Caribbean islands.

Teachers could to do some of these and then encourage students. There are in fact courses for teachers. There are also courses for business people, for students, for engineers, for software developers (many on IT) and for those in the medical field. Participants range from pre-teens (not many I admit) to retirees.

While courses are free you can usually get a certificate if you pay for it.

Personally I have found the experience very rewarding and worthwhile. Courses are popular with young people and with older people. If you have a busy life with little time for browsing then it may not be for you. But you may still find something very relevant to your work which will make it a priority.

Can we do our own MOOCs in the Caribbean? I am sure we will but first we need to make use of what is already there and learn from it. Creating a good MOOC is no small task even for the large universities of N America and Europe.

Coursera
Popular and well-designed. Good forums. Very wide range of courses. Quality of courses generally very good but depends on the institution providing the content. Takes a while to find your way around.
A few random examples:
Introduction to Finance
Cryptography
Smart Growth for Private Businesses
Women in Leadership
Introduction to Acoustics 
Social Psychology
The Evolving Universe

EdX
Very good courses, perhaps slightly more slanted towards academic subjects.
A few random examples:
English Grammar and Style
Introduction to Computer Science
Human Anatomy
Psychology of Criminal Justice
Exoplanets

Futurelearn
Also very good. More Europe and UK institutions represented. Different forums style. Fairly simple to get started, less complex.
A few random examples:
The Science of Nuclear Energy
Cooperation in the Contemporary World
Preparing for University
The Science of Medicines
Religion and Conflict
Exploring Our Oceans

Life found in Trinidad pitch lake

An interesting find in our neighbour across the sea (Trinidad). According to this report in the blog "The Meridiani Journal":
"A recent discovery by scientists may have implications for possible extraterrestrial life: Bacteria have been found thriving in a lake of oil in Trinidad, again showing how life can exist in even the most inhospitable conditions on Earth. The discovery brings to mind the similar environment on Saturn?s moon Titan, where lakes and seas of liquid hydrocarbons (methane/ethane) exist at the moon's poles."
When you go to Trinidad make the pitch lake one of the sights to see.

ITCZ June

Just for the record the ITCZ is now north of Guyana and has been since early in June. Sorry am late making this post due to some health issues... :(

Handbook on Climate Change for Caribbean Journalists

Came across this publication which is available for downloading. An excellent resource for teachers and students. Comprising 60 pages it covers the facts and goes into some details for the Caribbean, country by country - including Guyana. It also deals with various conventions, has a FAQ and lists of resources.

Tremor

Felt a slight tremor this morning around 4.40am. Had I not chanced to be awake I would never have noticed it. A few objects on shelves rattled briefly.
On checking the cause seems to have been an moderate earthquake off Venezuela.
BBC news item
USGS report

Congratulations to the President

President Bharrat Jagdeo has been awarded the 2010 Champions of the Earth Award by the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) for Biodiversity Conservation & Ecosystem Management. Also awarded was President Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldives. Only a few Heads of State have been awarded since the first awards in 2005.

Links
Guyana Chronicle
UNEP

And also in the Caribbean - underwater volcanic vents

Explorers in the Cayman Trough have found the world’s deepest known underwater volcanic vents called smokers which emit very hot mineral solutions and gases and provide an envionment for exotic and strange creatures. The Cayman Trough lies just north of Jamaica and south of Cuba.
See this picture of a smoker from Wikipedia:

For more on this see:
http://www.compasscayman.com/caycompass/videos/Black-smokers-found-in-Cayman-Trough
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/100412/world/eu_britain_volcanic_vent
http://www.noc.soton.ac.uk/nocs/news.php?action=display_news&idx=723

New interest in Pitch Lake (Trinidad)

Researchers have found microbial life in Pitch Lake - a lake of hot 'tar' in Trinidad. This is surprising since it is a hostile environment for typical bacteria being hot and there being no oxygen available in the 'tar'. See this article:

"These alien conditions have made Pitch Lake a place of more than passing interest to astrobiologists. Various scientists have suggested that it is the closest thing on Earth to the kind of hydrocarbon lakes that we can see on Saturn's moon Titan. Naturally, these scientists would very much like to answer the question of what kind of life these places can support."

Here is picture of the lake from a Wikipedia article:

Progress with Suriname-Guyana Submarine Cable System

There was some concern about vandalism in Surinam affecting this project but this appears not to be the case according to Stabroek News.
According to the original news release from Global Marine Systems this cable when completed this year will "ultimately have the potential to increase current telecom bandwidth to more than 3,000 times what is currently available in these areas". Note that the initial bandwidth is not specified but presumeably will depend on what GTT pays for.

The name of the project is misleading since it is really connecting Trinidad and Guyana as well as Trinidad and Suriname. It appears that the only connection between Guyana and Suriname is via Trinidad. Of course it is the Trinidad connection we are mainly interested in since that provides the increased bandwith to the international internet services. See the nice map at Columbus Networks which connects the Trinidad end.

Affordable streaming video at last? Currently we are paying US$50 for a nominal 128Kb DSL service. No word yet on how the new bandwidth will improve DSL services to consumers.

CIVIC - the Caribbean Virtual Community

I recently returned from the Dominican Republic where I attended an uplifting and inspiring workshop on IT issues for CIVIC - the Caribbean Virtual Community.
The community presently revolves around its email list and related web sites. Beginning on 2002 after a conference in Barbados, the community has grown steadily from 80 to more than 300 and continues to grow and prosper. The email list is used primarily to share information about Caribbean ICT issues.
The meeting in DR focused on strategies for the future of CIVIC and was a great success.
A new web site is under development which makes use of improved online tools. This is being done by the Carisnet Consortium which is working to strengthen CIVIC.

Links
Carisnet Consortium
Caribbean ICT4D Clearinghouse

President Bharrat Jagdeo on BBC

See here where "President Jagdeo sets out his views on how to reduce the 18% of greenhouse gas emissions caused by tropical deforestation."

Carifesta - retrospective

Carifesta has undoubtedly been a success. The multitude of people involved in making it successful need to be congratulated. Quite an accomplishment for Guyana given the short timetable and other challenges.

Guyana will reap many benefits from what visitors have learnt about Guyana.

Lessons learnt - many I am sure, most of which I am not qualified to comment on. I do suggest that the next Carifesta be more forward looking, use the internet more and make more use of the interest youth have in such things as video, blogging, social networking etc. Of course by then the technology will have moved on ...

Cariscience, UNESCO and Guyana

Walter Erdelen, UNESCO’s Assistant Director-General for Natural Sciences and Professor Harold Ramkissoon Executive Secretary of CARISCIENCE met the Head of State President Bharrat Jagdeo. The occasion was a UNESCO report called "Using Science, Technology and Innovation to change the fortunes of the Caribbean Region". Various related issues were discussed.
Science in Guyana is in dire need of a boost - let us hope this helps. It has few champions and has to compete with many other pressing Government priorities...
Looks like Cariscience needs a boost too since their domain name cariscience.org has expired... they have done some good work in organising conferences around the region in recent years.
A quick search using Google and a look at UNESCO's web site failed to locate the report.

Links
GINA reports here, here and here

Dr Trotz on climate change in Guyana

On Friday there was an excellent presentation on climate change from a Caribbean and Guyanese perspective. The event was initiated by the GMTCS with support from several other organisations. The speaker was Dr Ulric (Neville) Trotz, Science Advisor for the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre in Belize. He is, of course, well known and much respected locally
He was introduced by Joe Singh who needs no introduction to Guyanese.
I only realised that the event should be blogged afterwards - clearly I am new to this and should have made notes...
Dr Trotz did a good job of reviewing the facts and the development of the international action (and lack of action) on the issue. He also talked about the struggle of developing countries to get recognition for their point of view. There is much that needs doing and the international political climate is not very favourable. He mentioned improvements in computer models used for forecasting - of particular interest to me since I worked on such models years ago.
I will not attempt to summarise all that he said but the links below should help.
Following the presentation there was a lively question and answer session. Both Minister Robert Persaud and Navin Chanderpaul made remarks in repsonse to questions to the effect that the Government is trying to take climate change in to account within limits imposed by resources available and international political considerations (I do not recall their comments in detail). Work has been done locally over a number of years - see link below.
Mention was made of further presentations and there was talk of an email list to help share information about such activities. I am sure DevNet can help with that.

Links
Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre - see Downloads for reports etc
CARICOM page for the CCCCC
2004 Presentation by Dr Trotz on Climate Change (PDF)
Guyana Initial National Communication (UNFCCC) (PDF)

Guyana - where we're at

Guyana has a great future. We all need to understand that. Our population is small for a country this size. Most of our natural resources are unexploited and probably largely undiscovered. Large parts of the country are rainforest and mostly uninhabited.

Not that Guyana is undeveloped but the development is limited to small parts of the country. We do have ATMs, a university and fast food...

Our human resources are significant though much of it lies outside Guyana due to the extraordinary migration rate which has kept the population fairly constant for many decades. We need to focus on what will bring us to work together and put aside all forms of prejudice - not just racial prejudice.

The UNDP

The United Nation Development Programme. Does that ring a bell? Here in Guyana, as in other developing countries I am sure, everyone knows the name. It is a respected institution. It played an important part in giving us an orderly national election back in August. Over the years it has assisted in many areas of development including governance, environment, entrepreneurship and ICT. In most developing countries it is UNDP which also represents the UN.
Yet, strangely, in developed countries few know of it or the role it plays. A search of a web site for a major paper in the UK yielded very few stories for 2006 mentioning the UNDP and only two of some substance, neither really saying much about its role.
The UNDP does not have country offices in developed countries for obvious reasons but needs some kind of presence. And the media needs to be a bit more searching and pay more heed to UNDP and other UN agencies that work in the developing world and are so important to them.

Recommended:
UNDP
UNDP Guyana