On Writing, Measurements of productivity, Success, Growth and Sustainable Development

This post may be considered to be not well organized but really its a summary of all I need to say right now right before I move on into a new phase of my life fueled by a renewed energy & passion.  

Writing: 

The Lunatic by Anthny C Winkler (1987) 

Two days ago I was at the SALISES 50-50 at the Jamaica Pegasus and I was having a really interesting conversation with another young aspiring writer  and she told of a story she heard of Anthony C.  Winkler. She said Winkler when explaining his writing process shared that he woke up early each  day and devoted time to writing. He simply documented his ideas it did not matter if the material would be used or not but it deemed important to actually write. This is something aim to adopt. So for here on I will attempt to write a blog spot every other day. I always have ideas and things to share but I have been simply lazy. So I will take up an hour earlier and simply write. I have two short story fiction prose that are incomplete and I want to complete those stories. I have a deadline of October 24 for my deadline to produce those 2 stories. I also want to set time out to read more. I have a list of books that offers analysis of the internal and external  factors that influence  Caribbean socio-economic, cultural and political narratives. In order to clear through the chaos of mind and order my work I must read more. I must write more. I want to write true authentic honest and open stories about the Jamaican consciousness to infuse the histories I know and share the vibrant energies that I experience each and every day.    

Measurements of Productivity 

I need to set clear timelines and schedules and to mark my accomplishments. Thus far I feel that I have not given my energy to producing meaningful work that is tangible and so I am now drafting schedules to organize my work and set clear realistic goals. 

Success 

I do not believe there are formulas for success or that there are standard instruments to measure success for me my success will be determined when I truly happy when I am content with my health and fitness; saving;  investment and security; the creation of wealth

and building strong relationships with my family and friends. These are areas that I need to work on.  

Growth and Development 

As the excitement of the Jamaica 50 party and the 2012 London Olympics I think it is time for serious reflection and deliberations on the strategies necessary to move forward and attain sustainable development. 

Personally, I have been reflecting on my own growth and development, one where I am and where I am going. In 2008 I received a Bachelor of Arts in History and Philosophy from the University of the West Indies, Mona. This broad generalist study has enabled me to work within several areas from media to ethnographic research. However I need to know more. I applied and was accepted to the Centre for Development Environment and Policy (CeDEP) International Programmes to do a MSc. in Sustainable Development with focus on poverty reduction and rural development.  I seek to acquire knowledge in sustainable development best practices and most importantly the correct application application of these principles to build Caribbean rural communities. 

FREEING OUR MINDS EMANCIPATION DAY 2012

Ivan Van Sertima and Africa's Contribution to Global Civilization

Ivan Gladstone Van Sertima (26 January 1935 – 25 May 2009) was an associate professor of Africana Studies at Rutgers University in the United States.

He is best known for his Olmec alternative origin speculations, a brand of pre-Columbian contact theory, which he proposed in his book They Came Before Columbus (1976). While his Olmec theory has "spread widely in the African American community, both lay and scholarly", it was mostly ignored in Mesoamericanist scholarship, or else dismissed as Afrocentric pseudohistory to the effect of "robbing native American cultures".

Van Sertima was born in Karina Village, Guyana, when Guyana was still a British colony; he retained his British citizenship throughout his life. He completed primary and secondary school in Guyana, and started writing poetry.He attended the School of Oriental and African Studies(SOAS) at the University of London from 1959. In addition to his creative writing, Van Sertima completed his undergraduate studies in African languages and literature at SOAS in 1969, where he graduated with honors.  During his studies, he learned Swahili and Hungarian. From 1957 to 1959, worked a Press and Broadcasting Officer in the Guyana Information Services During the 1960s, he worked for several years in Great Britain as a journalist, doing weekly broadcasts to the Caribbean and Africa. Van Sertima married Maria Nagy in 1964; they adopted two sons.

In doing field work in Africa, he compiled a dictionary of Swahili legal terms in 1967.

In 1970 Van Sertima immigrated to the United States, where he entered Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, for graduate work.

He published his They Came Before Columbus 1976, as a Rutgers graduate student. The book deals mostly with his claims of African origin of Mesoamerican culture in the Western Hemisphere, but among other things also writing that the kings of the 25th Dynasty of Egypt were Nubians. The book, published by Random House rather than an academic press, was a bestseller and achieved widespread attention within the African American community for his claims of prehistoric African contact and diffusion of culture in Central and South America. It was generally "ignored or dismissed" by academic experts at the time and strongly criticized in detail in an academic journal in 1997.

Sertima completed his master's degree at Rutgers in 1977. He became Associate Professor of African Studies at Rutgers in the Department of Africana Studies. In 1979, Van Sertima founded the Journal of African Civilizations, which he exclusively edited and published for decades.

He published several annual compilations, volumes of the journal dealing with various topics of African history. His article, "The Lost Sciences of Africa: An Overview" (1983), makes claims for early African advances in metallurgy, astronomy, mathematics, architecture, engineering, agriculture, navigation, medicine and writing. He claimed that higher learning, in Africa as elsewhere, was the preserve of elites in the centres of civilizations, rendering them vulnerable in the event (as happened in Africa) of the destruction of those centers and the disappearance of the knowledge. Van Sertima discussed such "African scientific contributions" in an essay for the volume African Renaissance, published in 1999 (he had first published the essay in 1983). This was a record of the conference held in Johannesburg, South Africa, in September 1998 on the theme of the so-called African Renaissance.

After divorcing his first wife, Sertima remarried in 1984, to Jacqueline L. Patten, who had two daughters.

On July 7, 1987, Van Sertima testified before a United States Congressional committee to oppose recognition of the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's "discovery" of the Americas. He said, "You cannot really conceive of how insulting it is to Native Americans . . . to be told they were discovered".

Van Sertima retired in 2006. He died on 25 May 2009 aged 74.He was survived by his wife and four adult children. His widow, Jacqueline Van Sertima, said she would continue to publish theJournal of African Civilizations. She also planned to publish a book of his poetry.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_van_Sertima