Through an agreement with Sheraton Nassau Beach Resort and Casino, North Andros High is providing that four-star operation with fresh fruits and vegetables. “I am very impressed,” said Glenn Sampert, Sheraton’s general manager. “The fields are larger than what I expected to see, the shade houses and other aspects of the operation are really surprising and I am happy to be here and meet with the students. We already had some produce last year and we were very happy with the results.”

TORONTO - Guyana Goldfields Inc. (TSX:GUY) said Friday that its Aurora Gold project will cost US$205 million to build, less than half an earlier estimate as the company scaled back its plans.

Trading in Guyana Goldfields shares had been halted pending the announcement.

Only a few of the descendants of the Madeiran immigrants to Guyana will have ever made it back to the island. The ties are too distant and the memories (if any) too unhappy.

Not suprisingly, the Madeirans who went to Guyana weren't the only ones to abandon the hard, slow life of the island. There are now 300,000 Madeirans in South Africa, perhaps 500,000 in Venezuela, and others scattered elswhere. In all, there are thought to be some 1.3 million Madeirans dotted round the world, nearly 5 times as many as live there.

The Madeiran immigrants of the 1830s were perfectly adapted to take over British Guiana's wholesale and retail trade. As farmers (see photo) they were natural savers, hoarders and investors.

Guyana (or British Guiana) has long been familiar with the wine of Madeira, long before the arrival of the Madeiran immigrants. Because it is fortified, it doesn't go off, and it isn't damaged by heat. For that reason, it was the tipple of empire-builders.

Although the Madeiran immigrants of the 1830s came to Guyana to work in the fields, the venture was not a success. They readily succumbed to the heat and to disease (and ended up being fed by the 'Africans'). In a relatively short time, they moved into trade, and became the colony’s shopkeepers. By 1851, ½ of British Guiana's shops were Portuguese.

Arriving in Georgetown, the early Madeiran immigrants of 1835 cannot have experienced a greater contrast with the land they'd left behind. Whereas the sugar fields of Guyana are hot, low and flat, the Madeiran landscape is unimaginably precipitous. The island forms part of a volcano that sits, twice as high as the French Alps, on the Atlantic Ocean floor.

There has understandably been some degree of unease among the APNU faithful over my criticism of the coalition on a Plain Talk television program aired on Sunday January 6. After all, I am an APNU member by virtue of the WPA’s membership of the coalition. But our political culture, as Professor Nigel Westmaas recently reminded us, does not take kindly to criticisms from the inside.

During my routine travels via the internet using Google maps/Earth, and Bing Maps I noticed on the Bing Map an interesting object lying off the north-east shore of Adamstown in the Pitcairn Islands. The object looks like a popsicle stick but I am hoping that someone from Microsoft who is the owner of Bing can shed some light on the matter.