“My inspiration for music came from my father. He introduced me to Bob Marley and Dennis Brown, and I just fell in love with reggae from there on.”

MOST would be surprised to know that these words were not said by a Jamaican artiste, but that of Belizean songstress Tanya Carter. She told teenAGE, for our Flexxing With that “Belize is very much in love with Jamaica, their culture and their music.”

The Belize City native is currently making a splash locally with her Christopher Birch-produced single My Ex-Boyfriend.

Before testing the waters in Jamaica, Carter has become a household name in her homeland, winning a plethora of awards, including the “Best Female Vocalist of the Year” Award at the Belize Music Awards for the years 2010, 2011 and 2012.

“My breakout song was Hero. I wrote it about my parents at a time when I wanted to quit music, because I felt I wasn’t getting anywhere. It became a real huge success to the point I was opening up for Etana, Luciano, and Morgan Heritage because of it,” said Carter.

Her follow-up hit was the patriotic, I Am Belize. The song would go on to be a promotional favourite to use by the Belizean government that commissioned a songwriting contest, in which it won.

Carter would further represent Belize in a series of concerts throughout Mexico, in a cultural exchange between the nations where Belizean artistes would perform at Mexican music festivals.

Speaking on her reasons for visiting Jamaica, she elaborated that, “I came here to get to know this warm place, to find out the culture, and to get more familiar with reggae. I wanted to get a feel of what Bob Marley and Dennis Brown are talking about, when they sang about Jamaica.”

It was also during Carter’s initial visit to the island in January that she teamed up with Jamaican music stalwart producer Birch, the co-writer and man behind the boards for Ex-boyfriend.

“I wrote the song with someone in mind, and also it comes from the personal experiences of other persons that I talk to. Everybody has that one ex-boyfriend that they can’t get enough of, but eventually have to leave,” said Carter in describing the track.

Listeners can look out for another Birch produced single entitled Secret, which was written by reggae artiste Duane Stephenson. In addition, the Belizean artiste will be trying her hand at dancehall releases this summer.

Writer — Dominic Bell

Photo Courtesy NAPHTALI JUNIOR and The Jamaica Observer

Source:  The Jamaica Observer

Kalilah Enríquez (born February 11, 1983) is a Belizean journalist and poet. She currently resides in Kingston, Jamaica, where she is the news anchor for CEEN Caribbean News.

As a Journalist

From 2010 to 2011, she worked as a broadcast journalist at CVM TV in Jamaica, where she became known for the infamous “duppy story” about a Spanish Town boy seemingly haunted by a ghost, as well as her coverage of the Jamaican security forces incursion into Tivoli Gardens in search of reputed drug lord Christopher “Dudus” Coke.

In February 2012, CVM TV aired a documentary produced by Enriquez, entitled “Man a Gallis: Jamaican Dancehall and HIV/AIDS”, which received critical acclaim. The documentary was also aired onChannel 7 in Belize. It was funded with a grant from Caribbean Broadcast Media Partners (CBMP) and is distributed by them.

Enriquez has also worked as a video presenter on cable entertainment channel, Hype TV, a producer for Reggae Entertainment Television (RETV), and has also been a guest contributor to the Jamaica Gleaner newspaper.

Before settling in Jamaica, Enriquez was host of KREM Radio’s Wake Up Belize Morning Vibes alongside Evan “Mose” Hyde.

As a Writer

Enriquez is the author of two books, “Unfettered”, an anthology of poetry published in December 2006 and “Shades of Red”, a collection of original poems, short stories and essays published in 2007. She has been a featured reader at the Lik It! Poetry Festival in Belize City, Se Sup’m Poetry in Kingston, and is scheduled to read at the Talking Trees Literary Festival at Treasure Beach, Jamaica in February 2012.

Her Master’s thesis, “Jamaican Cultural Imperialism? Examining Dominance of Jamaican Music and Language on Belizean Radio” is available at the University of the West Indies library.

Early life

Enríquez was born in Belize City but, raised and attended school in Belmopan, Belize. After graduating Belmopan Comprehensive High School she attended St. John’s College Junior College in Belize City, then left on scholarship to Fordham University in New York, where she earned a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism. Upon returning to Belize she joined KREM Radio as host of the Vibes and KREM’s news editor in 2005. She has on occasion contributed to the Amandala.  She later obtained a Master’s Degree in Communications Studies from the University of the West Indies’ Mona campus in Jamaica. In January 2010 she was the organizer of the “Help Haiti Benefit Concert and Telethon”, the biggest show ever in Belize.

Kalilah is the mother of one daughter.

Source:  Wikipedia

Mr. Cherrington was born in Belize City, Belize, on 10 December 1980. He studied at St. John’s College inBelize City and completed his undergraduate work in biology at Loyola College in Baltimore, Maryland,U.S.A., in 2001. As a 2002-2004 Organization of American States Fellow at the University of Washington, Mr. Cherrington received a Master of Science degree in natural resource management.

Currently, Mr. Cherrington serves as Senior Scientist at the Panama-based Water Center for the Humid Tropics of Latin America & the Caribbean (CATHALAC), where he assists in the coordination of the Regional Visualization & Monitoring System (SERVIR), a spatial data infrastructure platform jointly implemented with NASA, USAID, the CCAD, the World Bank and other partners. Emil’s work focuses on expanding regional application of geographic information technology.

Source:  oocities.org

Governor General of Belize – Sir Colville Norbert Young

Sir Colville Norbert Young (Born 20 November 1932) is the Governor General of Belize, and also patron of the Scout Association of Belize. He was appointed Governor-General in 1993, taking office on 17 November of that year, and was knighted in 1994.

Sir Colville studied at Belize’s St. Michael’s College (now part of Anglican Cathedral College (ACC) and not to be confused with the one established recently, and earned a B.A. in English from the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, Jamaica prior to his doctorate in linguistics from the University of York in England.

Sir Colville was one of the founding members of the Liberal Party, a short-lived political party that ultimately became a part of the United Democratic Party (UDP). Young was interested in seeing Belize’s development in academia and education and after returning from England began trying to advance the nation in that regard. In the late 1980s Young became president of the University College of Belize, one of the five parent institutions of the University of Belize, and was one of its senior lecturers. He also got involved in music, composing all manner of musical pieces from operas to cantatas to others. He published a series of books of and about Belizean literature, including “Literature and Education in Belize”.