| Desi Dialogues
If I cherished one special day during the year, besides my birthday, it was the New Year - not Jan. 1, but a day in August when members of my tiny Zoroastrian community in Mumbai, India, celebrated the beginning of their calendar year. Colloquially referred as Parsi New Year, the day was extra-special as community members, the Parsis, party all day long. One prime reason that this day was special is that unlike the scores of Hindu festivals, which are an all-year-round affair, our community celebrates only two others in the year. Navroze, a celebration of spring equinox, and Khodadsal, the birthday of our prophet Zarathusthtra. You see, our forefathers landed in India in the eighth century after fleeing the Arab invasion in Persia, refusing to leave their Zoroastrian religion, which is said to be one of the world's oldest monotheistic religions, founded around 1200 B.C.
New Orleans' fifth-graders envision future: Fixed houses, crime-free city, flying cars
NEW ORLEANS -- Since they're going to be the Class of 2015, we asked fifth-graders at the newly opened Langston Hughes Academy Charter School to tell us what their city will look like on the tenth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Their answers ran the gamut from hopeful to uncertain _ but all were in agreement on one thing. New Orleans does have a future. Here's a sampling: ___ "In 2015 New Orleans will look new. All of the flooded buildings will be rebuild. New Orleans will be bigger. They will have new schools and new parks. ... Many of the houses will be raised so the won't flood again." _Jozeff Lee, 10, who is still waiting to return to his New Orleans East home. ___ "New Orleans will look like they never had a storm.
Today-Aug. 31
The Covington Historical Society will meet at 7 p.m. in the Dixon Room of the Andalusia Public Library. Dr. JoAnne Smith from the Lower Alabama Arts Coalition will speak about Carlos Alpha "Shiney" Moon, a photographer and businessman who became an award-winning artist.Click here for more events... .
Labor Day openings and closings
FEDERAL OFFICES U.S. District Court: Closed Monday. U.S. Attorney's Office: Closed Monday. Postal Services: Closed Monday. Chatham County offices: Closed Monday. Savannah city offices: Closed Monday. Garden City offices: Closed Monday. County Health Department: Closed Monday. Department of Driver Services: Closed Saturday-Monday; will reopen Tuesday. BANKS All area banks will be closed on Monday except for the Heritage Bank's PX branches at Fort Stewart and Hunter Army Airfield, which will be open Monday 10 a.m.-4 p.m.; all other branches will be closed. GEORGIA POWER For outages, call 1-800-891-0938; Residential Customer Service: 1-888-660-5890; Commercial Customer Service: 1-888-655-5888; Headquarters: 404-506-6526.
Hands-on, hand up
THERE ARE two great challenges for Georgia's high schools: Preparing students for continued schooling or the workplace; and demonstrating to students who might otherwise drop out the real-life value of getting an education. The newly opened Woodville-Tompkins Career and Technical Institute should be a big step in the right direction on both fronts for the Savannah-Chatham school system. Starting this year, students will be able to take classes at Woodville-Tomkins in financial services, health care sciences, hospitality and information technology programs such as CISCO Systems. Students who are interested in studying one of the career fields offer at Woodville-Tompkins will begin their course of study there in their junior years. For their final two years of high school, the students will go to the technical school every other day to study in their career paths.
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