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Facebook has close to 800 million subscribers worldwide. Internet World Stats.com reports that the world’s number one social networking site registered 799,092, 160 subscribers at yearend 2011.

Europe has the largest number of subscribers in the world, 223 million and a penetration rate of 27.4 %.

“North America has the largest Facebook penetration rate, 50.3 %, indicating that one out of every two persons in America has a Facebook account,” says Internet World Stats CEO, Enrique de Argaez.

The web-information company Alexa, lists Facebook the the top ten websites in the world, ranking it number 2 with Google in the top spot. YouTube is ranked number 3.

Forbes, meanwhile, reports that Facebook’s advertising business is enjoying an upswing. Citing a report released by Facebook Marketing firm TBG Digital, Forbes states, “Facebook saw rising ad rates as well as better performance on those ads in the fourth quarter of 2011.” Forbes further notes, “Facebook provides strong incentives for advertisers looking to amass Facebook fans or get them to install an application to stay within the Facebook platform rather than send traffic to other sites (like, say, their own), by providing an effective 45% discount in cost per click to advertisers that don’t go offsite.”

Against this backdrop of seeming financial success and a steadily growing subscriber base, word in the air is that the privately owned Facebook is preparing to go public in May with an IPO that could raise $10 billion at a $100 billion valuation.

For now it’s blue skies ahead for Facebook’s 27-year old founder, Mark Zuckerberg who has sailed through the US economic downturn to become (by Forbes’ reckoning) the 9^th most powerful person in the world. He’s ranked number 14 on Forbes’ list of America’s 500 richest people, number 52 among the richest people on the planet, and 22 among the wealthiest Americans.

“What the CIA failed to do in 60 years, Zuck has done in 7: knowing what 800 million people – more than 10% of the world’s population – think, read and listen to, plus who they know, what they like and where they live, travel, vote, shop, worship,” says Forbes dotingly. Zuckerberg’s estimated personal net worth is $17.5 billion.

All indications are there are exciting times ahead for Facebook users as Zuckerberg and his crew work to improve the site’s appearance and user settings and make it even more enticing to advertisers eager to capture the attention of the 1.6 billion eyeballs that will potentially continue to be under it’s spell.  Their introduction of Timeline is a good indication of where they’re headed. This new feature, according to Facebook, “gives you an easy way to see the things you’ve shared, and collect all your best moments in a single place.”

Internet World Stats provides a compendium of online information sources that analyze and document Facebook’s amazing growth, and they make for very interesting reading. One of them is Famecount, an independent website which generates statistics across Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and other networking sites daily, and purportedly helps you track the trends and rank celebrities according to their popularity on online social networks. Rihanna, for example, has 49,203,450 Facebook fans, more than Justin Beiber (39,254,702), Shakira (44,145,550), Harry Potter (38,618,499), Barrack and Michele Obama (24,432,233 and 6,395,357 respectively) the Dalai Lama (2,416,076) and many others.

Another site, Checkfacebook.com, tracks data reported via Facebook’s advertising tool and helps marketers and researchers analyze the content, compare results with other users and understand how Facebook’s allure is spreading across the globe.

Altogether, those sites attest to Facebook’ remarkable dynamism and its developers’ almost messianic drive to connect virtually everyone on the planet with friends, family and associates once they have internet access. It’s all about creating a more open and connected world they claim.

And lest there be any doubt about his good intentions, or that he is on top of his game, Zuckerberg reassured followers of the Facebook Blog that he’s committed to safeguarding users’ privacy and making the site an enjoyable experience.

“When I built the first version of Facebook, almost nobody I knew wanted a public page on the internet. That seemed scary. But as long as they could make their page private, they felt safe sharing with their friends online. Control was key. With Facebook, for the first time, people had the tools they needed to do this. That’s how Facebook became the world’s biggest community online.  We made it easy for people to feel comfortable sharing things about their real lives … With each new tool, we’ve added new privacy controls to ensure that you continue to have complete control over who sees everything you share.”

Facebook’s Jake Brill has been equally reassuring, especially when it comes to protecting user accounts from being compromised by spammers and cyber criminals. Way back in July 2009 he admitted that one of the biggest challenges Facebook faces is helping people whose accounts have been compromised by hackers understand how it happened and how to fix the problem. “The vast majority of people who use Facebook have never experienced a security problem. For the small number who do, knowing how to fight back is key,” he added.

Notwithstanding the Facebook team’s seemingly genuine commitment, the site’s vulnerability to attacks is becoming increasingly apparent these days.

Earlier this month security researchers Seculaert reported that a “bank account-raiding worm” had begun spreading on the site and was stealing login credentials. The malware, dubbed Ramnit, had by then stolen 45,000 Facebook passwords and associated email addresses. Most of the victims were reportedly from the UK and France.

Seculert CTO, Aviv Raff said, “Ramnit started as a file infector worm which steals FTP credentials and browser cookies, then added some financial-stealing capabilities, and now recently added Facebook worm capabilities. We suspect that they use the Facebook logins to post on a victim’s friends’ wall links to malicious websites which download Ramnit.”

By Facebook’s own admission, hackers using stolen usernames and passwords try to break into at least 600,000 accounts every day on the site. They subsequently claimed on a Facebook blog post that “only 0.06 percent of 1 billion logins per day are compromised.”

Spokesman Barry Schnitt said, “600,000 times a day we stop a bad guy from getting access to an account even though he has guessed, phished, or stolen the login and password of an account … This is something we’re very proud of.”

Nevertheless, msnbc.com’s The Red Tape Chronicles, noted, “Facebook ID theft” is a serious problem which lays the foundation for all manner of other cyber misbehavior. Recently, msnbc.com reported on a woman who sent $2,000 to a criminal, believing she was communicating with her sister through Facebook chat. Other common scams include criminals hijacking friends’ accounts and trying to talk users into coughing up money. Much cyber-bullying also begins with compromised FB accounts.”

In November last year numerous Facebook users were reportedly flooded with graphic images depicting pornography, acts of violence and bestiality. Facebook’s Help Centre is evidently doing its utmost to help users tackle the security problems. Nonetheless the litany of woes that have been aired by users on the Facebook Blog itself, shows the challenge they’re up against.

And as if they don’t have enough to mull over, Reuters earlier this month disclosed that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s command center “routinely monitors dozens of popular websites, including Facebook, Twitter, Hulu, WikiLeaks and news and gossip sites including the Huffington Post and Drudge Report.” Reuters cited a “privacy compliance review” issued by DHS which says that  from at least June 2010, “its national operations center has been operating a “Social Networking/Media Capability” which involves regular monitoring of “publicly available online forums, blogs, public websites and message boards.”

The Reuters report has been corroborated by the news and current affairs website datacide.c8.com. It cites “previously undisclosed government documents obtained by the Electronic Frontier Foundation through Freedom of Information Act (FIOA) lawsuits” as providing “hard evidence” that the various spy agencies including the FBI, CIA, and others under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) are monitoring social media sites, including Facebook, to gather “evidence” of criminality against suspects.

Off course, none of this detracts from the reality that Facebook is a force to be reckoned with, millions love it and it’s here to stay. What’s more, it can count on the financial and moral support from corporate advertisers who are more than happy to take advantage of the opportunities afforded them by their New Media darling. After all, what savvy business can resist the temptation to mine the treasure trove of  Facebook’s 800 million-strong captive audience. Maintaining their trust could ultimately prove to be Zuckerberg’s greatest challenge yet.

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If you think ereaders and instant book downloads, and being able to carry a virtual library with you everywhere you go is cool, imagine being able to read comfortably in the dark.

Chicago-based lighting company, FLEx Lighting, has developed a lighting system for ereaders which, for the first time, allows you to do just that. It uses an ultra-thin and transparent illuminated film which the company touts as “the world’s thinnest film-based light guides” for reflective display-based e-reading devices.

FLEx’s film is is laminated to the display and provides an embedded light for crystal clear viewing. According to the developers, it’s “10 times thinner than other ereader front lights” and forms a completely invisible layer over the screen that emits light when needed.

The FLEx system only uses 1-2 LEDs for a 6” display, and conserves power by maintaining battery life for “several weeks” before it requires recharging. It can be integrated with both colour and black-and-white screens. The light reflects off the display and provides a soft glow for the reader unlike the intense lighting from an LCD screen.

When the light is turned off, the film remains invisible. This allows the e-reader to still be used in sunlight.

Commenting on the FLEx Lighting technology, the Ebook Reader Blog said: “One of the shortfalls of E-Ink ebook readers like the Kindle and Nook is that they can’t be used at night or in low-lighting conditions without an external source of light because they emit no light themselves. They require a lamp or reading light just like paper books.

“Flex Lighting aims to change that with their new front light LED film… When turned on the film produces a soft, uniform glow that draws minimal power because of the efficiency of LEDs and the fact that only 1-2 LEDs are required for a 6″ screen. It works with both color and monochrome displays. This could be the edge that color E Ink needs to become more popular.”

Founded in 2004, FLEx Lighting says it has “pushed the limits in pursuit of the world’s thinnest lighting systems using LEDs and thin film.” The technology can be customized for a wide range of applications, including consumer electronic displays and signage.

 

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As recently as 10 years ago, when most of us thought of books and publishing, a printed hardcover or paperback automatically came to mind. However, judging by the latest developments in ebook technologies, this deeply entrenched mindset forged in the groundbreaking creation of the printing press and nurtured over the past 600 years, is gradually giving way to new modes of reading that are equally revolutionary.

“The e-book market is developing very fast, with consumer attitudes and behaviors changing over the course of months, rather than years,” said Angela Bole, Deputy Executive Director of the US-based Book Industry Study Group (BISG).

According to the BISG’s recent Consumer Attitudes Toward E-Book Reading survey more and more readers are showing “increased loyalty to and satisfaction with the digital format.”

In the US and parts of Western Europe, including the UK, sales of ereaders are growing exponentially. The North American market leads the way in ebook sales and the development of digital publishing platforms. According to the findings of BookStats, an annual statistical survey of raw sales revenue and unit data provided by nearly 2,000 publishers, ebook net revenue increased by 1274.1 percent to $878 million between 2008 and 2010, while e-book net sales increased by 1039.6 percent to 114 million between 2008 and 2010. The Digital Reader cites some eye-opening reports and statistics showing how ebook sales in the US are accelerating while print sales are “plunging.”

In contrast, the developing world, including Africa and the Caribbean, are lagging far behind in the ebook adoption and digital publishing and the gap between the developed and developing world is widening – not only regarding the availability of ereading technologies but also internet access. According to Internet World Stats, Africa and the Caribbean have internet penetration rates of 11.5% and 25.2% of the population respectively as of March 31, 2011. Nevertheless, in both regions internet usage is growing steadily. Internet penetration in North America is 78.3%.

At the 1st International Conference on African Digital Libraries and Archives held 24-26 June 2009 at the United Nations Conference Centre (UNCC), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia it was noted that the continent had not “engaged in any significant discussions and dialogue on strategy and policy for preserving and accessing its resources in digital form,” including developing digital libraries and archives. At the time, the same could be said of the Caribbean and to date both regions are dogged by the same issues.

On the bright side, there is an ongoing drive to build digital libraries and archives aimed at making culturally diverse books, manuscripts, journals, magazines and other related materials accessible to users around the world. These initiatives are largely being spearheaded by institutions in the US and Europe. As a result, an ecosystem is evolving where readers will increasingly be able to digitally check out books from libraries by clicking on the library’s Web site, download books and other reading materials unto their computers or reading device and read them almost anywhere. When their lending period is up, they return the books back to the library with a mouse click.

One of these libraries, the International Children’s Digital Library (ICDL), says one of its goals is to “create a collection of more than 10,000 books in at least 100 languages that is freely available to children, teachers, librarians, parents, and scholars throughout the world via the Internet.” It’s one of a shortlist of international digital libraries I’ve decided to highlight in this post, each of them an altruistic venture in spreading reading matter and knowledge to the world through book digitization and distribution. These pioneers seem to make universal access (a primary aim of the World Wide Web itself) and maintaining the cultural and linguistic integrity of source materials the overriding priorities. This is what I find particularly impressive. How ‘free’ public access ultimately turns out to be, and how successful they are at coping with copyright restrictions and licenses, and the proprietary demands of commercial interests remains to be seen. For what it’s worth, here are some of those I find most inspiring.

International Children’s Digital Library (ICDL)

The ICDL’s stated goal is to make the “best in children’s literature,” available online free of charge and accessible to readers – both kids and adults – around the world. It is working to build a collection of books that “represents outstanding historical and contemporary books from throughout the world” and to have every culture and language represented so that every child, regardless of where they live, “can know and appreciate the riches of children’s literature from the world community.”

“It is hoped that through a greater understanding of one another that tolerance and acceptance can be achieved,” says the ICDL.

The library is administered by the ICDL Foundation, a non-profit corporation initially created by an interdisciplinary research team at the University of Maryland in collaboration with the Internet Archive. It comprises of hundreds of volunteers from around the world who identify books for the library collection; secure rights, package and send the books either physically or digitally and get the word out to users. Members of the team include computer scientists, librarians, educational technologists, classroom teachers, graphic designers, and graduate students from the University of Maryland’s (UMD) College of Information Studies (CLIS) and the UMD Human-Computer Interaction Lab (HCIL), a leader in children’s interface design.

ICDL are the innovators of Storykit, a free iPhone app which children can use to create stories on their phone or iPod Touch with text, pictures and other story elements. It allows them to create their own picture books from scratch using photos stored on their device, or they can edit and customize old classic picture books. All they need to do is type in text on each page and attach the photos, or draw their own illustrations.

The ICDL won the American Library Association President’s 2010 Award for International Library Innovation and was also named one of 25 Best Websites for Teaching and Learning by the American Association of School Librarians.

 World Digital Library

Another notable international digital-library initiative is the World Digital Library project (WDL). It brings together on a single website rare and unique documents from countries and cultures around the world – books, journals, manuscripts, maps, prints and photographs, films, and sound recordings – “that tell the story of the world’s cultures.” The site is intended for general users, students, teachers, and scholars. The materials can be accessed online free of charge and in multilingual format. Ultimately its aim is to make digital resources from all over the world available from one access point.

The WDL interface operates in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. The documents on the site are presented in their original languages.

WDL was developed by a team from the US Library of Congress, in collaboration with the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Technical assistance was provided by the Bibliotheca Alexandrina of Alexandria, Egypt. Several institutions contribute to the project, including libraries, archives, and educational and cultural institutions from the United States and around the world.

Cambridge University Library

The Cambridge University Library’s collections have reportedly grown over the past six centuries into one of the world’s leading libraries, with an accumulation of books, maps, manuscripts and journals. Included among its prized assets is the world’s largest and most significant collection of the scientific works of Isaac Newton (1642-1727). According to the library authorities, its collections cover “every conceivable aspect of human endeavour, spanning most of the world’s cultural traditions.” Although, part of Library’s manuscript collections has been published in print, microfilm and digital formats, it is now building a substantial online resource so that its vast collections can be more accessible to students, researchers and the wider public.

“Cambridge University Library contains evidence of some of the greatest ideas and discoveries over two millennia. We want to make our collections accessible to anyone, anywhere in the world with an internet connection and a thirst for knowledge,” says University Librarian, Anne Jarvis.  

Internet Archive

The Internet Archive is a non-profit organization set up to serve as an Internet library. Founded in 1996 and based in San Francisco, the IA, two years ago, launched BookServer, an open platform that allows publishers, booksellers, libraries and authors to make their books available directly to readers through their laptops, phones, netbooks, or dedicated reading devices. The aim of it is to enable consumers everywhere to use the service to buy or borrow any text they wish. BookServer facilitates pay transactions, borrowing of books from libraries, and downloading free, publicly accessible books.

IA also offers researchers, historians, scholars, and the general public free access to historical collections converted to digital formats. Their archives include texts, audio, moving images, and software as well as archived web pages. It also provides specialized services for adaptive reading and information access for the blind and other persons with disabilities. It collaborates with various institutions, including the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian.

IA founder, Brewster Kahle

It was founded by Brewster Kahle, a computer engineer, internet entrepreneur and activist, and a co-founder of the Web ranking system Alexa, which Amazon purchased in 1999. He told the Los Angeles Times he’s trying to build an archive that includes a copy of every print book ever published.

“There is always going to be a role for books.. We want to see books live forever,” said Kahle. To date IA reportedly has 20 scanning centers in 5 different countries and they currently host over 1.6 million titles. About half of them are Google scans of public domain texts that internet users have since uploaded to the IA network.

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Click here for the online application form >>

The Commonwealth Foundation is inviting filmmakers from across the Commonwealth to submit an idea for a short film about relationships. Individual filmmakers or collectives should submit a proposal which explores the theme of love in its broadest sense, whether inter-racial, inter-generational or within and between the sexes. The theme should be relevant to the filmmaker and their community.

“We’re looking for original, bold and authentic films in any genre which entertain as well as stimulate and encourage debate both locally and globally,” says the Commonwealth Foundation.

Deadline for receipt of applications is 31 January 2012 (5pm GMT)

Eligibility criteria

Application guidelines

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Australian publisher Hardie Grant Egmont has launched The Ampersand Project — a global search for “thrilling and compelling” manuscripts by unpublished YA writers.

“It’s an ambitious idea, but we’re excited about bringing new voices to the YA fiction scene,” say the editors. “We want to cater to our teenage readers who just aren’t into fantasy or paranormal romance, and show them a world just like this one. Real life can be just as dramatic and thrilling as other-worldly adventures, and any teenager who’s climbed out their bedroom window for an illicit adventure knows it.”

Read more

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Historical fact meets fiction in this adventure story by Dominican-born author Joanne Skerrett, set in the Caribbean “Nature Isle” of her birth.  A couple of 14-year-olds, twin brothers James and Jerome, on their journey into the unknown in search of treasure which they have been reliably informed is destined for them, must as they go along, decode clues in order to find their pot of gold.  Conflict comes in the shape of the evil contender, Julius, who shadows the young lads on their expedition and is out to claim the treasure as his rightful inheritance.

The tale appears to be loosely based (whether intentionally or by utter coincidence) on the jè lajan (money jar in Kwéyol) custom prevalent in the French colonized territories (such as Dominica and Saint Lucia) during the era of slavery.  With no banks existing in the islands at the time, slave masters were known to secrete their money and other precious assets in jars which were then buried deep in the ground.  First, the hole would be dug, the treasure placed in it, and a trusted slave carefully selected. He would be asked to bend over and look into the hole, and in so doing would be decapitated.  His head was promptly buried in the hole, which was then securely covered over.  It was the firm belief of the slave owners that the spirit of the trusted slave would faithfully and forever guard that treasure.  After the death of the slave masters, the whereabouts of the jar would be told to the rightful heir/s in a dream.  If anyone else should try to discover that wealth, he would end up dying a nasty death.  How much of the surrounding events of the jè lajan  custom is fact, and how much fiction, is certainly open to conjecture…

But, similarly, in Abraham’s Treasure, we see James and Jerome, the young descendants of Abraham, to whom the treasure had been promised, being given intelligence, albeit indirectly, about the hidden treasure, and we also see Julius perishing in a terrible manner as he attempts to capture it first. Then there is Mr Brown, the gatekeeper of the mountain, as well, who has been given strict instructions to guard the treasure and allow only the two boys and no one else to have it.

Abraham’s Treasure should entertain boys and girls looking for a tale of adventure and should resonate with young Caribbean readers especially.  In any case, the stories of our ancestors need to be told in whatever genre. With the continuing absence of Caribbean history in many of our schools’ curricula, there is an unfortunate disconnect between then and now.  It is up to our practitioners of the arts, in their own way, to instruct the young, and, in fact, not let any of us forget.

As in any good adventure story, there is in Abraham’s Treasure  intrigue, there are twists and turns, there is dramatic irony.  There are lessons also – of the nature of determination, of man’s inhumanity to man, of greed, of justice, of being able to let go of one’s dreams once daunting reality sets in.  Though, we are told, in the words of Mr Brown, when in the final pages he is asked how the boys should get the treasure if it is indeed theirs:  “I don’t know.  We will have to see what they do next…” – no doubt, leaving the gate wide open for a serial publication, as fans of Abraham’s Treasure would be pleased to hear.

The action and lessons of Abraham’s Treasure should inspire the imagination of boys in particular – and that is surely a very good thing for all of our Caribbean youth, their parents and teachers.

Abraham’s Treasure (2011, 170 pages) is published by Papillote Press.

Nahdjla Carasco-Bailey is an educator and the author of the children’s book Telling Tales from St Lucia (2010) and Time for Poetry (1988) which was used for many years in schools throughout the Caribbean. She has journeyed the globe and taught in several countries, including her homeland Saint Lucia.

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Anansesem Caribbean children’s ezine is accepting submissions for its December issue – Submission Deadline: December 15th, 2011

We are looking for poems, art, nonfiction articles and stories that Caribbean children will enjoy and relate to. Although Caribbean writers and artists are given first preference, you absolutely don’t have to be from the Caribbean to submit your work. We are looking for work by kids ages 8-16 and also material for children by adults.

If you are an adult, submit poems to anansesempoetry@gmail.com, fiction to anansesemfiction@gmail.com, art to anansesemart@gmail.com and nonfiction to anansesemnonfiction@gmail.com. If you are a child 8-16 years of age, please submit poems to anansesempoetry@gmail.com, fiction and nonfiction to anansesemkids@gmail.com and art to anansesemart@gmail.com

Featured Illustrators

Children’s illustrators are invited to apply to be a Featured Illustrator in our December issue. Featured Illustrators have their work displayed prominently in the slideshow on our homepage. They also get their own page on our site. For our December issue, we are especially interested in Christmas-themed, Caribbean-themed children’s illustrations, but other subject matter is welcome as well. To apply to be a Featured Illustrator, submit 1-4 illustrations 1000px wide x 395px high (larger images are fine as long as they can be effectively downsized) to anansesemart@gmail.com

For more details about how to submit your work to Anansesem ezine, please see the Submission Guidelines on our website: www.anansesem.com

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Fr. Lambert St Rose is a Catholic priest from St Lucia who has been serving in his homeland for the past 24 years.  To the delight of his many admirers he has just published a book of narrative prose and poetry – Helen and her Sister Haiti. He presents it as a “theological reflection on the social, historical, economic, religious, political, and national consciousness,” as it relates to the Caribbean, with a particular focus on St Lucia (also known as “Helen of the West Indies”). Although the majority of the poems have a St. Lucian setting, there is an unmistakable allusion to Haiti – not surprising considering that the two islands share a similar history of slavery, resistance and rebellion in their struggle for liberation. They’re also connected by the Kwéyòl  language, St Lucia having changed hands between the French and the British 14 times during the 17^th and 18^th centuries.

In order to fully grasp the intent of Fr. St Rose’s work, you must first understand the nature of the man and his theology. A graduate of the Regional Seminary of St. John Vianney in Trinidad, he holds a Masters in Theological Studies (MThs) from St. Norbert’s College, De Pere Wisconsin, with a year’s stint at Catholic Theological Union (CTU) in Chicago. He co-authored Theology in the Caribbean (1994) and Into the Deep, Towards a Caribbean Theology (1995).

Deeply spiritual, and a skilful orator, he is known to be very outspoken and not afraid to speak out against the oppression of the poor and other forms of social injustice, even at the risk of ruffling feathers in high places.

Lately he was diagnosed with a heart ailment which has rendered him unable to serve from the pulpit, much to the chagrin of his parishioners. Although it has slowed him down physically, it did not extinguish the passion for social justice which burns like a fire in his belly.

The introduction to Helen and her Sister Haiti encapsulates his sentiments. He identifies strongly with the sentiments of Pope Paul VI who, on a visit to Africa, reminded missionaries serving on the continent that it was not their duty to Christianize Africa but to Africanize Christianity by doing everything in their power to preserve the African culture in their liturgy and theology.

Father St Rose believes that in seeking to commune with God, one shouldn’t feel compelled to deny one’s heritage and culture, or feel ashamed of one’s past.

Comparing the Caribbean Diaspora to the nation of Israel – a people noted for their deep-seated pride in their ancestry, and a penchant for memorializing their past – he maintains that it’s important for Caribbean people to embark upon a reflection on Christianity within the context of the Caribbean in order to cultivate a theology that is authentic and reflects their own history, symbolic language  and culture. It should also move them to show appreciation for the struggles of their ancestors by memorializing them. It’s a theology that sees the workings of God in the history of the Caribbean people, and acknowledges the richness inherent in all cultures, including those of the West Indies.

On that point he is unequivocal. “Our narrative as Caribbean people does not start in the Caribbean; it must start in the land of our origin. Hence the need for Caribbean people to develop a uniquely Caribbean theology. We must hold sacred in our collective memories our fathers’ journey from Africa and East India. We cannot be indifferent nor can we afford the luxury of forgetting their plight, and their suffering, in the Caribbean, when the Caribbean was their Egypt and their Babylonian experience … Our narrative must embrace our total life’s journey and bring us to the point where we are at present. Unless we do so, we are not showing appreciation for what they endured.”

In his book, the poem I am my Ancestors’ Face underscores those sentiments.

We are the progeny of many felled trees

of the massive jungle of Ham’s land.

Like Pòyé our seeds germinate,

Our saplings grow where we are planted.

We reproduce our own specie

In the rhythm of the wind we find our traditions;

millenniums come and go,

we sing their songs,

we dance their dance.

We dance for our fallen fathers.

For the song we sing,

the dance we dance is their own, our tradition.

Fr.  St. Rose believes that a new form of slavery is creeping into the post-independent Caribbean and it disturbs him. He sees signs that the region has lost its way morally and spiritually, and, to a large extent, has lost its memory of the harrowing journey from slavery and colonization to independence. Under the influence of the “Ahabs and Jezebels” among them, and swayed by political corruption and deception, a host of social ills and injustice has taken root and, once again, the people are yearning for deliverance.

“Partisanship over patriotism is reshaping the consciousness of this generation. The new Massas are poised to replace the old Massas of the colonial days. Our countries are becoming their personal estates. Tribalism is rapidly becoming the order of the day … we encounter many Ahabs and Jezebels demanding total submission at all cost. They are willing to silence even God himself, restrict the voice of the Holy Spirit and more so the voice of the prophets in preference for half truths.”

In Helen and Haiti, “two diamonds in the rough with tremendous potential,” he finds justification for his misgivings in the way they have been wounded and disfigured by colonization and their post independence experience. In the latter case he views the wounds as having been self inflicted at the hands of “own sons and daughters and their apparatchiks, bereft of national pride, with a preference for partisanship.”  His vision of the future, however, is by no means a dark one. He calls for conversion, reconciliation and forgiveness and makes a heartfelt plea for a return to national pride.

Helen and Her Sister Haiti emerged out of his need to confront those stark realities by exploring the islands’ post-colonial histories and their traumatic rite of passage through to nationhood. In the process he assumes the posture of the Israelite prophets Jeremiah and Amos.

Jeremiah who lived during the penultimate and most crucial period of Judea’s existence as a kingdom, foresaw the destruction of Jerusalem as an independent state and the razing of its temple, after he had continuously warned his people to mend their ways and curb the wave of spiritual depravity and moral degeneration which was threatening to engulf the nation, before it was too late.  Even as he lamented the terrible fate that eventually befell Judea after its destruction by Babylon in approximately 607 BCE (recorded in the Book of Lamentations) Jeremiah went to the exiled tribes of Israel to encourage them and give them hope by showing them the path that would lead to restoration and redemption.

Amos, in turn, lived in the eighth century BC in the Northern Kingdom of Israel when it was at the height of economic prosperity, a time marked by social injustice and religious and political corruption by a ruling class that “trampled the head of the poor into the dust of the earth” (Amos 2:7). Amos echoes the lamentations of the sufferers and exposes the rulers’ reckless extravagance and their indifference to the people’s suffering. He calls for justice and righteousness.

Convinced that there are many similarities between the Israelite narrative and that of West Indians in the Diaspora, Fr. St Rose proceeds to chronicle his insights and perceptions using free verse in a form that pulsates with the cadence of speech and reflects the sensibilities and rhythms of the Caribbean.  He weaves a tapestry of religious imagery infused with Creole folklore, Greek mythology and poignant social commentary.

The book is comprised of 10 sections – Presenting Helen, Welcoming the Ancestors, Agony, Duplicity, Hope and Redemption, Values, Family and Friends, Emotions, Nature and Hope. Part I of the collection pays homage to the natural beauty of his native St. Lucia in a praise song to Helen. It also captures the island’s rich, vibrant African and European heritage, which is later reflected in the fecund culture and landscape of the wider Caribbean. It also traces the social and political evolution of the region, exploring the timeless themes of West Indian identity, independence, neo-colonialism, politics and modernization. It employs the protest-poetry genre to capture and decry the social ills that continue to afflict the islands in the 21^st Century.  Protest poetry is popular in South Africa where its rise coincided with the advent of the grass-roots anti-Apartheid activist movement, Black Consciousness led by the martyred Steve Biko, and it became a powerful vehicle of protest during the 1976 Soweto Uprisings.

World-renowned St. Lucian artist and muralist Sir Dunstan St Omer painted the piece which graces the cover of the book. It’s the acclaimed Holy Family Mural at the Church of the Holy Family at Jacmel, Roseau. St Omer designed St Lucia’s National Flag and his murals grace the altars of many St Lucian churches.

Commenting on the book, Fr. Patrick Anthony, director of the Archdiocesan Pastoral Centre and founder of the St Lucia Folk Research Centre said, “The priest and poet is an ancient Catholic tradition. Fr Lambert’s collection of poems is structured meticulously to illustrate literally, the journey of St. Lucia’s struggles, our failings, our mistakes, our hopelessness but eventually our hope.”

In his article Priests and the Power of Poetry, American cleric Father Dwight Longenecker noted: “Poetry is important to the priest because poetry is naturally sacramental in its ambition.”

Helen and her Sister Haiti bears testimony to this.

It’s available at Amazon.com and all other major online bookstores.

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Hugh McGuire, founder of PressBooks

A mere 8 years after it was launched with just a handful of users, WordPress has grown to be the largest self-hosted blogging tool, hosting 15% of the world’s top 1 million websites and is viewed by tens of millions of people daily. Numerous companies are also gravitating towards the blogging engine to take advantage of its open-source, full content management system.

The latest is PressBooks, a new book-publishing platform designed to make it easy for writers and publishers to format their work for digital and print publication.

PressBooks is a digital-first book publishing tool built on WordPress. It lets authors use a content management system many users would be familiar with, to produce ePUBs, typeset PDFs and other XML formats. XML (Extensible Markup Language) is a set of rules for encoding, transporting and storing documents in machine-readable formats, with emphasis on simplicity, usability and accessibility, particularly over the Internet. PressBooks also makes a web version of all books — which can be private (for production only), or public (free or behind a paywall).

PressBooks, a Montreal-based start-up, is the brainchild of Hugh McGuire, a writer and web-developer and a co-founder of Book Oven, a cloud-based publishing tool that allows people to collaborate in writing, editing and proofreading a book, all through online tools. He’s also the founder of LibriVox.org, an all-volunteer project whose aim is to make all books in the public domain available, for free, in audio format on the internet. It was once hailed as “perhaps the most interesting collaborative cultural project this side of Wikipedia.”

McGuire touts PressBooks as “the best digital publishing solution for anyone publishing a (mostly text-based) book.” He and his production team spent the last six months working with authors and publishers, developing and fine tuning the platform.

PressBooks has been given thumbs up by O’Reilly Media. O’Reilly publisher, Joe Wikert said: “We were really excited about testing out a new, easy-to-use platform for making books.”

Among the first fruits from PressBooks is “Book: A Furturist’s Manifesto (Part 1) … Essays from the bleeding edge of publishing,” published by O’Reilly Media and edited by Hugh McGuire and Brian O’Leary, a publishing veteran with 25 years of operational, management and consulting experience.

PressBooks is still in beta, and improvements to the system are ongoing but according to the developers, “it’s now solid enough for professional production of ebooks.”

Along with O’Reilly Media, another big-name player seems sold on the project. Harvard Business Review Press has produced and published an ebook using PressBooks. Managing Editor, Quoth Ania Wieckowski said: “PressBooks played a key part in the production process for our first ‘HBR single,’ ‘Nine Things Successful People Do Differently, by Heidi Grant Halvorson. It’s a helpful tool with powerful potential to shift how we think about book production.”

For more info email Hugh McGuire at hugh@pressbooks.com
or give him a call: +1.514.464.2047.

 

Google Knol moves to WordPress

WordPress, meanwhile, has become the new home of Google Knol, an open-source platform originally developed by Google to provide users with a place to share their knowledge and publish scholarly articles – along the lines of Wikipedia. In December 2009, two years after it was launched, Google stopped developing Knol and it virtually flopped, making nonsense of predictions by some sections of the US media who claimed it would be a “Wikipedia-killer.”

Google has now created Annotum, an open-source platform set up on WordPress and invites authors with content on Google Knol to move their articles and collaborative journals to WordPress. They have the choice of moving to a self-hosted WordPress installation powered by the freely-available Annotum themes, or they can have their Annotum-powered site hosted for free on WordPress.com. Knol will slowly shut down over the next year.

WordPress.com users who would like to start new sites powered by the Annotum platform can activate one of the two new Annotum-enabled themes on new blogs and get started straight away.

“It’s yet another way the WordPress platform and WordPress.com are enabling the democratization of publishing and sharing of information with the world,” says WordPress.

For more detailed information visit http://annotum.org/ If you’re moving to WordPress.com and have questions about the process, see their step-by-step guide and their list of frequently asked questions.