We’re back with a new Around The World! This time we’ll teach you a little about the South American country Suriname! Suriname is situated at the northern part of South America, surrounded by 3 countries, French Guiana, Guyana and Brazil. The capital of Suriname is Paramaribo.

The country can be divided into two main geographic regions. The northern where most of the population lives and the southern part, that mostly consists of tropical rain-forest and sparsely inhabited savanna which covers about 80% of Surinam’s land surface. This Rain forest is a part of worlds biggest tropical rain-forest, The Amazon Rain-forest. The nature of Suriname has many great things to offer, like many rivers, marsh, savanna and mountains. Some of the animals you can run into while you’re enjoying the nature are, the Leatherback Turtle, the Jaguar, the Leopard, the Cayman and the Howler monkeys. Of Course you’ll find many more excotic and smaller animals there.

Suriname is made up of several distinct ethnic groups, the most common ones are; Hindustan , Surinamese Creoles, Javanese and Surinamese Maroons. These ethnic groups all have different descendants that goes from Indian, Indonesian, African and a mixture of Africans and European. Even though Dutch is the sole official language, there is a variety of languages are spoken in Suriname. These languages are the main ones and spoken in most house holds; Sranan Tongo, a local creole language originally spoken by the Creole population group, is the most widely used language in the streets. Surinamese Hindi or Sarnami, Spoken by the Hindustan, Javanese and Saramaccaans which is one of the dialects spoken by the Maroons.

What I personally love about Suriname is their food! Because of the many different ethnic groups their food is very diverse. My favorite dish is Roti (a flour pancake traditionally wrapped around a meat and potato)! Roti is mostly eaten with your hands. Other dishes are Nasi, Bami, Moksi Meti and Pom. Their snack and sweet are also delicious, some of them are Bakabana (baked Banana), Bojo, Maizena Cookies (soft cookies that melt/fall apart when you eat it).

One of Surinam’s traditional clothing is the Koto; it’s a dress from the Afro-Surinamese women or Creoles in Suriname. The Koto was developed during the slavery period in Suriname; its special purpose was to protect the woman. Different kotos exist for various occasions like weddings or funerals. With the Koto, women wear a head or body covering called an angisa or anisa.

I hope that you all enjoyed learning a bit about the country of Suriname! Maybe one day you may be able to visit!

Brandon Kane, rising young artist, has just posted his new music video for his song Shine. The video looks nice & fun and the song sounds good as well! Shine’s music video was filmed by Guerrilla Film Junkies director Deji Laray. Brandon has been entertaining for a very long time and is certainly moving on up. Check out the music video above. Visit Brandon Kane on the web via Myspace and YouTube.

Hey YBS Readers!! Speaking of reading, I am currently reading a book titled Saved Folk in the House by Sonnie Beverly. The book is 55 chapters long and so far so good. I’m really liking it! Saved Folk in the House tells the story of 3 women journeying through life while dealing with different issues. As you learn more about their struggles, you also learn more about the women and their characters. I would recommend this book to the teenage age group, although it may be good reading for those of other ages as well!

Are any of you currently reading any good books?! If so, please do share!

If you would like to read Saved Folk in the House by Sonnie Beverly, you can check it out HERE.

Are you looking to change up your style and try a new hair color but are worried about how the dye may affect your hair? This may be the perfect product for you! Clairol Professional Jazzing contains no-ammonia and no-peroxide formulas—so you can apply it immediately after relaxing treatments. Since you can use it as a temporary color, you can try out different hairstyles for “wild weekend hair” or do a simple touch up for special occasions!

Young Black Starz is kicking off the new year right with our first giveaway of 2010! Two (2) random readers will be chosen to receive Clairol Professional Jazzing temporary hair coloring! The two colors that we will be giving away are Spiced Cognac (a goldish color) and Cherry Cola (a reddish color). If you would like to try for a chance to win, enter your name into the drawing and winners will be randomly selected and contacted through email to find out how to receive your prize.

*ENTRY RULES

• (Optional) Once you’ve received and used your prize please contact us and let us know what you think of the product for a chance to have your review posted in our Beauty and Fashion section.

Don’t forget to join Clairol Professional Jazzing Facebook Fan Page or follow them on Twitter @FierceFridays for your chance to win other great prizes through their Fierce Friday contests!

Get into the spirit of the season with these festive designs I came up with. For once, I’ve done a step by step guide for each design so you can try it out for yourself. Although I’ve told you the colors I’ve used, feel free to experiment and change them up. I did use some thinner brushes to create some of the designs but if you don’t have any then you can achieve some of the finer details with our trusty friend the TOOTHPICK.

CANDY CANE

Colors needed: Red, White & Gold

FYI: All of this will be made easier with the use of a thinner brush.

1. After applying the all important base coat, paint your nails with a white polish.

2. Using a red polish with very little paint on the brush to achieve a thinner effect, paint the shape of a walking stick or a hook. This is the candy cane.

3. Use the white polish again with a small amount of polish on the brush to create the white stripes and then use a gold to make the bow.

SNOWMAN

Colors needed: Blue, White, Black & Red

FYI: Use a toothpick to make the dots of snow & the snowman’s buttons and eyes.

1. After applying base coat paint your nails with the blue polish.

2. With the white polish, make two blobs with the brush – one larger than the other. Then, dab a toothpick in some white polish and dot around the snowman’s shape to create the snowflakes.

3. Again using a toothpick, this time with black polish, make the snowman’s mouth, eyes and buttons. Then with a toothpick or very little paint on the brush, use the red polish to make the nose and scarf.

CHRISTMAS TREE

Colors needed: Red, Green, Black & Gold

FYI: Using less paint on the brush with make it easier to create the triangles as you can flatten the brush out more to create a sharper edge. Thin brushes will make this a WHOLE lot easier though!

1. After applying base coat, paint your nails red.

2 & 3. With the green polish, make three triangle shapes on top of one another.

4. Using the black polish, make a stump for the tree. A toothpick might be useful for this.

5. Finally, make a star with the gold polish and you can also create some tinsel around the tree too.

HOLLY

Colors needed: Gold, Green & Red

FYI: If you don’t have a thin brush I would recommend doing this one on your thumb as you’ll have more space.

1. After applying base coat paint your nails with the gold polish.

2. The easiest way to create the holly shape is to draw an ‘M’ and a ‘W’ on top of one another, then add a point to each end. Then put three red dots in a triangle at the center.

ORNAMENT

Colors needed: Green, Purple, Black & Gold

FYI: Sparkly nail colors will make this design stand out more and make it look more like the real thing!

1. After applying base coat, paint your nails green.

2. With the purple polish make a large round dot in the center of your nail.

3. Make a little round hanger at the top of the circle with the gold polish, then decorate the ornament or bauble with the black. You can create whatever design you like inside the ball – hopefully you can be a little more creative with yours!

Ok, so that’s it for the designs. Hope you like them and can attempt to recreate them yourself. Once you try it I think you’ll see that they’re not THAT hard! Have fun and Happy Holidays!
For more nail art like this, check out my blog, Phresh Mentality at www.phresh-mentality.com