Conference on Caribbean Asians: The Journey Continues – Biographies

Ramin Ganeshram is a veteran journalist and professionally trained chef who attended Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism and the Institute of Culinary Education. She writes for publications such as Islands, Four Seasons, Saveur, epicurious.com and more. For many years she was a regular contributor to Newsday’s food section and the award-nominated food columnist for Dragonfire an online publication of Drexel University. Ganeshram is also the author of the critically acclaimed Sweet Hands: Island Cooking from Trinidad & Tobago a cookbook/memoir/travelogue of the islands that are her ancestral home. She is an acknowledged food expert and is currently the Editor In Chief of canvas a sustainable lifestyle magazine in Long island.

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Rohit Jagessar
 Indo – Caribbean music got its commercial start from a bedroom at the corner of 121st street and 101 avenue in Richmond Hill, Queens when entrepreneur Rohit Jagessar, at the age of seventeen, set up shelves around his bed to stock phonograph records for world – wide distribution.

At the time very few copies of home – grown music, better known as “chutney” or “local music” from countries such as Guyana, Trinidad and Suriname were available to the growing Indo – Caribbean population in the US, Canada and places as far as the Netherlands, UK, Fiji and Mauritius.

Jagessar produced his first recording in 1979 and commercially jump -start an industry that is widely known today for its achievements.

By 1980 Jagessar signed distribution deals with such labels as Windsor Records from Trinidad, Acme from Suriname, Tropical Melodies and HMD from Canada and Paloloe from the Netherlands. Jagessar employed a series of strategies to enable him some modest success in those early years. Methods which sometimes involved by – passing foreign exchange regulations in countries such as Trinidad where foreign exchange were difficult to obtain at the time.

He would supply his recordings to Windsor for sale in Trinidad and neighboring countries and import home – grown music from that territory back into the US. All done by exchanging recordings instead of exchanging money. He would then distribute these exchanged recordings in North America, Europe, Fiji, Mauritius and other countries for money. This method of trading music would earn him the nick – name Music Merchant. A name that would take on an entirely different turn in the years that followed.

During those early years, Jagessar signed distribution deals for recordings with such artists as Jagjit & Chitra Singh, Sundar Popo, Lakhan Karrya, Ramdew Chaitoe and the brightest stars of the time through their respective recording labels.

Within a short span of time he extended his distribution arm to India wherein he signed distribution deals with every major recording company in India at the time to distribute their recordings in North America and other territories. These labels included HMV / EMI, CBS and T – Series. Within a year he would hand back these companies their distribution to focus on the growing demands of his own independent productions and the label which bore his name.

During the early nineteen – eighties he would return the favor to India when he produced a string of recordings with India’s famous musical duo Babla & Kanchan. Through arrangement with Polydor, later PolyGram India, Indo – Caribbean music was now introduced to India and widely distributed across the country. Jagesar’s production of the widely popular song Kuchh Gadbad Hai would cross cultural barriers to become the first Indo – Caribbean recording to score a Number One position on radio charts in the US.

By 1985, he added concert promotion to his slate of activities and launched the Babla & Kanchan world tour that drew record crowds in Guyana, Trinidad, North America and other countries. By the end of the tour, some 300,000 tickets were sold and promoters from these countries became certain that Indo – Caribbean music was now commercially viable.

Before the decade ended, Jagessar added world – beat music to his portfolio. He would go on to serve as compilation producer on recordings of legendary superstars Bob Marley and Dennis Brown among others and Executive Produce some recordings of the then dance – hall superstar Yellowman among others. He also briefly rode the Lambada wave by serving as compilation producer of the popular sound on the Hot Hot Lambada compilation and released the hugely popular American Top 40 dance classic ” I Say Shut Up ” in English and French languages which also scored quite well in Germany and France as well.

As the nineteen – eighties came to a close, Jagessar realized that emerging technologies would someday change the way people get their music. That digital methods of delivering music directly to homes would someday close – in on the traditional way of record distribution to stores and so by 1989 he started to change the way he delivered music to consumers.

Instead of supplying to distributors and record stores, he licensed his music catalog through an arrangement with another international distribution company and started RBC Radio by having chips installed in radios and piping music directly into homes.

Jagessar would give up all other ambition to focus on his dream project to produce a film about the history of the Indo – Caribbean people. A project he strongly believes is the most fulfilling in his now modest twenty – eight year journey through music, entertainment and communication.

By 1997 his film Guiana 1838 started to take shape and finally saw the light of day when it was released on September 24th, 2004 in New York. Ten years after it went into production, the Guiana 1838 DVD would soon become available to audiences world – wide.

There is a good chance that there is one more round left in this entrepreneur’s journey which started on that bright but uncertain spring day from his bedroom in Richmond Hill, Queens as he was nearing his 18th birthday . And this time it’s going to be television.

Jagessar will be launching Anthology Television on two channels for world – wide distribution in year 2009. Anthology of the people of the West Indies and Anthology of the people of India with all original programming celebrating the rich and diversified cultures, food, art, architecture, poetry, fashion, and music of the people from lands that were once known as colonies and after centuries of struggle and challenges are now independent countries which collectively, is today home of more than a billion people.

Jagessar believes that reminding people of colonial history is the clearest path to ensuring that ” that which happened in the past must never be allowed to happen ever again.”

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Walton Look Lai studied Law at Oxford University in the 1960s, and History at New York University in the 1980s, where he received his Doctorate.  Dr. Look Lai lectured on Caribbean history at Rutgers University-Newark and the City University of New York during the 1970s and 1980s.  He taught in the History Department at the University of the West Indies in Trinidad & Tobago in the 1990s, and has just recently retired.

Dr. Look Lai is the author of three books and one CD database on Caribbean Asians:

(1)  Indentured Labor, Caribbean Sugar: Chinese and Indian migrants to the
British West Indies 1838-1918;
(2)  The Chinese in the West Indies 1806-1995: a Documentary History;
(3)  Essays on the Chinese Diaspora in the Caribbean;
(4)  The Chinese of Trinidad & Tobago since Independence: a Who’s Who and
Social Portrait 1962-2006 (CD-ROM database)

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Glenn D. Magpantay, Esq. is a Staff Attorney at the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, where he is coordinates AALDEF’s voting rights program.

He has represented Asian Americans in notable voting rights lawsuits against New York City, New York State, and the City of Boston.  Glenn has published a number of scholarly legal articles, authored several reports, and has given commentary to numerous media outlets including The New York Times, USA Today, Boston Globe, CNN, and National Public Radio on Asian Americans and the federal Voting Rights Act, bilingual ballots, redistricting, and Asian American voting patterns.

Glenn serves as a Commissioner to the New York City Voter Assistance Commission.  He attended the State University of New York (SUNY) at Stony Brook on Long Island, and graduated cum laude from New England School of Law in Boston – after being admitted as an affirmative action beneficiary.

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Sham Rampersad hails from Trinidad where he started playing music from the tender age of seven. He has since mastered the art of playing twenty-seven instruments, including Steel Pan, Madolin, Harmonium, Dholak, accordian, tabla and Dantal.

Between the age of twelve and seventeen, Sham, a product of Sitara Hind Orchestra in Trinidad, toured several countries throughout the world, representing Trinidad & Tobago and playing with the most renowned artistes from India inlcuding Anoop Jalota and C.H. Atma. He competed with Sitara Hind Orchestra against the most powerful orchestras in Trinidad and was awarded the Prime Minister’s trophy-National Champions Orchestra. He still holds the title as the unbeaten champion for musical instruments.

Sham has a special aptitude; he has several recordings to his credit and has recorded music with various artistes inlcuding Solo Ghirdhary and Surendra Abel Peters. He also accompanied Hari Om Sharan.

He also performed for the late Prime Minister of India, Mrs. Indira Gandhi.

On the 18th day of September, 2005, Sham was inducted into Radio 103FM’s Hall of Fame, Best Instrumentalist, in recognition of the outstanding and pioneering contribution in defining a permanent place for Indian culture in Trinidad and Tobago.

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Harold Robertson currently serves as the Consul General for the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago in New York, United States of America.  Born in Port of Spain, Trinidad in 1948, Dr. Robertson received his early education at Tranquility Boys School and Queen’s Royal College.  He then completed a Trained Teacher’s Certificate before embarking upon higher studies from which he graduated with a B.A. (Upper Second Class Honours) from the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine in 1974, M.A. (History) from Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia, Canada in 1975 and a Ph.D. (History) also from Dalhousie University in 1978.

After a brief sojourn as a lecturer in History at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad, Dr. Robertson joined his country’s diplomatic service in 1980.  He has served abroad as First Secretary at the Permanent Mission to the United Nations, Geneva, Deputy High Commissioner of Trinidad and Tobago to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean and High Commissioner of Trinidad and Tobago to Nigeria, with simultaneous accreditations to Ghana, Sierra Leone, Cote d’Ivoire, Cameroon, Liberia, Benin and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

At the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Robertson has served in all aspects of the work of the Ministry including Political Affairs, CARICOM, United Nations, Information and Protocol.  His last post in Port of Spain was Director of Administration of the Ministry.  Prior to arriving in New York, Dr. Robertson served as Consul General for Trinidad and Tobago in Miami.

In his intellectual life Dr. Robertson is the author of several scholarly articles and contributions to research texts.

Dr. Robertson is an avid sports fan and time permitting his recreational activities center around jogging and reading.

Dr. Robertson is married to Patricia and they have one son.