By Ralph Seeram?I was watching my four-year-old grandson in his Wrangler jeans. As I was admiring him, my thoughts wandered back to when I got my first jeans, actually my first long pants.I was way into my teens and still wearing short pants. The old people had this silly notion that if you wear long pants you will think “yuh ah big man” or “yuh gun play big man”. For girls, well they could not even entertain the thought, much less ask their parents for jeans. I am sure many of my older readers experienced this.Anyway Christmas was coming up; all my friends had long pants, and there was no way I was going out Christmas Eve night with short pants. I was always called an “own way boy” so I decided to live up to my reputation. I ordered a pair of jeans—- at least get “bad name for something I did.Now in those days there were no ready made jeans in the store as you see these days. You had to go to a tailor to have it custom made. And if you live in New Amsterdam in those days the man to go to was Dooley, who had his tailor shop at the back dam end of St. Ann Street, more popularly known then as Chinee Lane. I look at the fancy stitches on jeans these days and said Dooley did all that way back then. As expected coming on to Christmas, everybody wants their new jeans or pants. Naturally, Dooley was overwhelmed. If you were lucky to get your pants before Christmas Eve count yourself lucky. Coming on to Christmas Eve Dooley started celebrating in true Guyanese style, liquor. Don’t even think of coming back before January, Dooley closed his shop till day after New Year’s day.I was fortunate to get mine before that Christmas and subsequent Christmases. Even with the introduction of ready made jeans in the stores in the later years, like so many others I still went to Dooley for a custom made jeans or dress pants,NFL Jerseys China, long of course. Dooley was the best tailor in New Amsterdam when it came to jeans.Is it only Guyanese who feel that they have to get a new outfit for Christmas? Christmas is not only the time everybody gets a makeover and the entire house gets a new look. The house gets “cob web out”, steps got scrubbed or scraped, floors got polished— later years it was lacquer— not to mention new blinds or curtain as well as a painting.I couldn’t understand why the Guyanese housewives waited to the last moment, sometime on Xmas Eve to put up their new curtains. One explanation was they did not want the neighbor to see it before Christmas, lest they go buy the same one. I guess it was a “woman thing”.A Christmas Eve stroll down Main Street, in New Amsterdam, is something most people looked forward to, especially families with kids. First it was a much cleaner town. Unlike the present there was not the atmosphere that exists today with the loud music from cars,Cheap Football Jerseys, the “hanging out” crowd that molest women as they pass by, not to mention the criminal elements.Here in the Diaspora Guyanese still maintain their Christmas tradition. This week I went to the largest Caribbean grocery store in the Orlando area, the Caribbean Super Center, to get my supplies. I was thinking of beating the rush. Apparently other Guyanese had the same idea. You won’t believe the long lines in the meat section for cow heels, ox tails and so forth. I went to the shelf to get some cassareep and was amused. There was one that said ‘Pomeroon Casareep’. I explained to my son that the people who made the casareep don’t know where Pomeroon is. It was made in Canada.Then there was another labeled ‘Amerindian Casareep’ and yet another labeled Guyanese style casareep. Next to me I overheard a man telling his wife,cheap jerseys online, “If you want good casareep you have to bring it yourself from Guyana” As I purchased my cow heels, I remarked to my son that this was a difficult thing to get at Christmas in Guyana, as the cow only has “four foot” and one tail; some people had to make their pepper pot without heels. You had to be on good terms with the butcher to get your supply. Actually the trick was to buy it well in advance of Christmas and freeze it. (These days cow heels and pig trotters qabound. There is no shortage)Here in the Diaspora, Christmas has been so commercialized? that the true meaning has been lost, the commercials make you feel that you not only have to give? gifts to? your relatives and friends, but to everyone you see in the street.Gifts should be for children period. My four-year-old grandson has already placed his order, a fire truck, an ambulance, a garbage truck, a passenger plane, all with moving parts and sound and the list goes on.As he is writing his list I am thinking how far we have come, from when I had to settle for short pants and a gun and holster, for Xmas, and I was way older than him.I extend to all my readers a Happy Christmas, and a special

CARICOM’s relationship with Australia comes to the fore once more as the 13th Annual Meeting of COFCOR convenes in Dominica over the next two days.? Australian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Stephen Smith will address CARICOM’s COFCOR (Council for Foreign and Community Relations) on a number of issues.Recently designated Australian Ambassador to CARICOM Philip Kentwell spoke on their “overarching interest”. He said Australia’s focus would centre on building better relationships between the Pacific Island Region and the Caribbean Islands.? A process, he noted, where Australia’s knowledge of small-island-state, vulnerable-country issues would be helpful.Kentwell’s appointment follows the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between CARICOM and Australia in November of 2009. In that MOU, Australia pledged the sum of US$60M to development efforts in the region.? Before his official installation, Kentwell traveled to all of the CARICOM capitals except Haiti to meet with leaders and other government officials. These visits were fact-finding missions for the Australian Government which will be working through an Aid Agency in Canberra, Australia.The subject MOU covers several areas of collaboration that are at the forefront of the region’s attention. These include climate change and emergency management, regional integration and trade facilitation, diplomacy, renewable energy, food security and agricultural cooperation, sports,Cheap Jerseys USA, youth, culture, education and human rights.According to Kentwell,Wholesale Jerseys Free Shipping, Smith will address the Council at the meeting on scholarships, diplomatic training and Institution Building. In an attempt to avoid preempting his Minister,China Jerseys, he said that he could not elaborate further on the details up for presentation. He did however comment on the fact that although Australians have been traveling to the region for years in pursuit of sport, there has been a lack of investor and trade relations. Outside of those fostered through the Commonwealth and World Trade Organisations the time has come to “… broaden,Cheap Jerseys Online, deepen and strengthen …” relations between the two regions.Dominica’s Minister for Employment, Trade,Cheap Jeseys NFL, Industry, and Diaspora Affairs the Honorable Dr. Colin McIntyre will chair the two-day meeting. The matters to be tabled for discussion range from Border Issues to Piracy in the Gulf of Aden.Other issues include a focus on the response to Haiti by CARICOM nations, with emphasis on future responses in cases of such cataclysmic events. The ‘geopolitical dynamics’ of the hemisphere will be looked at and closely following those will be the previously mentioned border issues which are currently stand between Guyana and Venezuela as well as Belize and Guatemala.The member states’ relations with other countries outside of the Community are going to be discussed by the delegates and will take into consideration the Agency’s relations with a number of International Organizations.