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CarnivalJunction.com - A Last Minute Carnival One Stop Shop

BROOKLYN, NEW YORK - April 17, 2006 -- “[This] is the best thing since sliced bread [and] is the best thing that could have ever happened to Carnival searches,” remarked one avid fan of CarnivalJunction.com, an innovative new Carnival web site that was launched early this year to help Carnival lovers around the world connect with one another.

The site is the brainchild of Trinidadian Nikkia Reveillac who resides in New York. According to Reveillac, the concept for CarnivalJunction.com first originated from her desire to bridge the gap between Trinidadians living abroad and Trinidadians living at home during the months and weeks leading up to Carnival. With the phenomenal growth in popularity of Caribbean Carnivals among foreign nationals and tourists over the last few years, the demand for Carnival-specific information during the Carnival season had become essential.

“I conceived of an online Carnival community where Carnival enthusiasts could connect to organize their Carnival trips. People wishing to sell their costumes, tickets to fetes/concerts/parties or advertise available accommodations and car rentals would simply register with the site and create a classified ad there for free. People looking for those services would visit the site daily to check back for updated listings and contact sellers directly if interested. It would be a one-stop Carnival shop.” Reveillac explains.

Following its January 2006 introduction, CarnivalJunction.com was met with great support. Word spread quickly and within days the site was averaging over 300 visitors a day. The section of the website dedicated to ‘Costumes’ emerged as an immediate favourite - one day before Trinidad Carnival, there was 171 classifieds posted under that category.

Today, Reveillac has high expectations for CarnivalJunction.com. She recently added new locations to the site including popular Carnival destinations like Jamaica, Barbados, Toronto and Miami and hopes that the response will continue to be positive. She adds, “for those of us who love Carnival but no longer live in the Caribbean, planning our trip is an exciting yet sometimes complicated thing to orchestrate. CarnivalJunction.com makes it easier because it doesn’t just connect you with information, it connects you with people.”

Nikkia Reveillac, info@carnivaljunction.com

The Commentator has potential

I am a Jamaican journalist/publisher residing in the British Virgin Islands, am currently interested in The Commentator online. Is it also produced in print? It reads really interesting and has a lot of potential.

Merrick Andrews, reporter_18@yahoo.co.uk

BBC research – looking for Bertram Jackson

I am working for a BBC television series in London about family history. I am tracing a Jamaican family for one of the programmes, but have got stuck! I am looking for information about a man called Bertram Jackson who was born in Kingston/St Andrews in 1914. I wondered if I could put an advert or a letter in your newspaper in case any of your readers knew him or his family.

Anna Llewellyn, anna.llewellyn@walltowall.co.uk

RE: Is the blackman really inferior?

Michael Dingwall’s argument supporting this theory and the rationale offered is so pathetic it borders on the obscene. While he worships at the alter of the white man’s mental superiority, one can only pity his advanced affliction of self-hatred. This condition afflicts a fair number of black people who would give anything to be white or anything but black.

Aldred Ricketts - CLS aldred@clscorp.com

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Rape Victim Marries Rapist

KOLKATA, INDIA--Call it karma or simply the overwhelming will power of a girl from New Zealand, An amateur Indian Yogi could not get away from his sin. Raping the girl, Lilian a year ago in Indian tourist hot spot Goa. Paritosh, the self taught Yogi, used the yoga expertise, earned by watching a popular TV show to befriend an unsuspecting young woman from New Zealand in Goa, where both were holidaying last year.

But the young Kolkatan, who raped her and fled Goa, had little idea about the Kiwi woman’s grit and tenacity. Tracing him all the way to Kolkata, she finally caught up with the rapist who was eventually forced to marry her. Paritosh, who lured the New Zealander into his cottage regularly with the yoga bait during his visit to Goa, gradually gained her confidence. One day, taking advantage of the situation, he drugged her drink and raped her before fleeing to Kolkata. But the woman refused to give up. After lodging an FIR with the Goa police, she made the police draw up several sketches of Paritosh and send the best of them to Kolkata.

Even as the sketches reached the Kolkata police, nothing much had been done to trace the culprit till she decided to fly here to persuade the police to look for Paritosh, especially in South Kolkata. After a manhunt, sleuths from the Lake Police Station found him, attending a yoga class and produced him before the New Zealander who immediately identified him as the absconding rapist.

The intimidating scene of being handcuffed and taken to prison and the attendant shame left Paritosh shaken. So he made a desperate attempt to evade arrest by proposing to marry her. Surprise was in store for the police as well, when lilian, the woman-in-distress sought 24 hours’ time before giving her nod. Later a letter was drafted, where both signed pledging to marry each other on their own volition, and the marriage was solemnized, first in a temple and followed by a grand ceremony. However, there was an element of shock awaiting the family members of Paritosh after they saw the police escorting their daughter-in-law to their house. Willy nilly, they obliged the newly married couple.

After the first night of legally wedded Hindu wife Lilian had this to say--"I never disliked Paritosh. I was rather impressed by him and his talks. I will return to my country with my husband and ask him to teach yoga there. As far as rape is concerned, I have forgiven him. He could have asked for my consent", said she blushing.

From Alok Tomar in New Delhi, editor@datelineindia.com

Countries love and hate America

Countries love U.S. materialism, but they hate U.S. policies and wars. Well, U.S. materialism was built on wars, both military and economic ones. They keep their economy going by preparing for wars or selling weapons to others who are fighting wars. And there's many an economic and trade war that America fights that you never hear reported in the papers--the wars where they trounce their competitors in selling goods or force others to open their markets to U.S. goods and companies, often in coercive or sneaky, underhanded, illegal ways.

So it's no wonder other nations hate the U.S., and the selfish, superior, self-righteous attitudes of many American leaders and politicians don't help much. The image of the Ugly American lives on around the world.

The funny thing is, there are a lot of Americans who feel the same way about their country--they hate the wars and oppression that take place in the name of U.S. policy or commerce. But there's very little they can do about it, because the control the government and the economy now and run it all to suit their purposes, just like they do many other nations around the world.

Ted Rudow III,MA, 650-814-1077 or Tedr77@aol.com