Monday 30 July 2018

Media Release:-1838 Gala: Brown Sugar


Media Release

2018-07-30

Re: One Love Media presents 1838 Gala: Brown Sugar-  A Fundraiser for Children of Guyana

Friday Aug 17th   at 7:00 pm at Elite Banquet Hall 1850 Albion Rd Toronto

Celebrate the Presence of the East Indian arrival to Guyana as Indentured labourers on the sugar plantations of British Guiana in 1838. Slavery of Africans ended in 1834. A historic year for sugar when new labourers arrived from India. A new history in the making of Guyana and the contributions of both Muslims and Hindus will be highlighted!

Today sugar workers are laid off after the recent closing of sugar factories in Guyana. Their children's future is bleak without basic food and financial support to educate them. More sugar workers commit suicide besides the social ills of losing one’s job in Guyanese male dominated society.

The funds raised will continue supporting the 250 poor students in Skeldon- through Service to Humanity- a registered NGO- towards the new school year- with free lunches every day and back to school supplies for September.

Also we will be doing Qurbani in Guyana and using it to feed the children- strictly lamb. We will continue to support the poor families- like the families of the piracy attack in Berbice river during April this year leaving ten devastated families, etc.

We are adding the Orphanage in Albion Berbice as an additional recipient this time.

Keynote Speaker is Dr. Mohan Ragbeer, Pathologist and notable writer from Guyana who will be speaking to the theme of the contribution of the East Indians to the sugar economy of Guyana since 1838! 

We will be honoring two young Guyanese living in Canada as an inspiration to the youths of Guyana- MPP Sara Singh- the politician and Aftab Maxi Shamsudden- the cricketer!

Entertainment includes live performances by Naaz Khan of Trinidad plus Karan Singh and Dj Slim Robin Mohamed of Guyana!

For more information contact
Habeeb Alli
416 823 1738

Sunday 22 July 2018

Rumi turning ecstatic


Rumi turning ecstatic


I saw in your eyes
The revelation of a thousand songs
Fireflies have martyred themselves
Into the night where you belong

Why this fast that reveals nothing
Sip from the tavern and read
The eyes are the window to the soul
I saw innermost self on fire

When you crawl around this modernity
You kill the wings every human was born with
Because the lion lives with lambs
The courage to face adversity

Was loss long before the roar was learnt
Sip slowly from the spring of inner peace
The knowledge you gain by silence
Outweighs the scholars ink and keys

I know your time is spent on smart phones
Your strokes are recorded for impunity
Yet like Rumi was lost in Shams Tabrezi enrapture
He wrote nothing yet his heart memorized each wisdom

This night is too long
The love has gone wrong
Why would Divine love find carnal expression?
What makes a European wed a Trinidadian

What gives color to the rainbow colors
This fascination with life is cheap
By death we learn to live yet we run
I know your days are like jewels in a glass

The Kohinoor was taken and placed on her Royal Highness
Yet the head now has tea with the slave child
Let the dreams of imagination run wild
Only in the dug up ground could wildflowers grow

Only when your pain is embraced will you see
Creator is another name for Om and Allah
The universe is just a spot in the galaxies of His creation
Yet you strut about as if you will preside forever

Even Pharaoh and Hitler didn't escape the angel of destruction
What sweetness you emit from these wicked stares
That fragrance the mountains of Kush couldn't bear
Nowadays the Abraham of yesterday is born weak

I see fathers and mothers make children who will cross barriers
This time of unease is the souls stirring
The name I call on has no language
The thrust of the Niagara is so powerful

Yet a man walks over like a child on bicycle
The contortionist swings through the taut rope like a butterfly
I think with these prayers you will find nirvana still
Cause your search is more important than your findings!