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Showing posts from February, 2015

The yoga of limited edition honey and mustard chipz

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Relapse. Salara, Pine tart. Pine Tart and Salara. Snack chocolate pudding. Chocolate. popcorn junk. Devon cream biscuits. Thinking each time that I will just eat and then get on with real work. Picking up stuff from the supermarket shelf and not putting it back.  Cream stuff. Not moving. Deadlines due. Creativity needed. Words are to be put together to make sense out of nonsense or to highlight the absurd but it is work. Work words. Tea. Chocolate biscuits, Buns.   Email drafted several times to friend who can be counsellor and deleted because something about re-organising the brain and the thoughts and not using up the friend's reading support and keeping it for a rainy day when I really need the ear. Trying not to be dependent. A very rainy day. It feels like it should be used well. Belly feels puffed up with all the junk and the mind is also reminding you that the junk should not be there. Rain and flood and things out of your control. Things to put in order. Small

Self hate, love and eating cherries - Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin

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  Giovanni asks David " ne me laisse pas tomber, je t'en prie ' and I remember the two former loved ones in the early days of love and I say oh rass man James Baldwin. Giovanni Room is a love story which begins at the end with the main man David getting ready to leave the house where he is staying. Baldwin lets you know up front that the story is not going to have a happy ending. David is kicked out of his room. He is an American in Paris. His girlfriend Hella is in Spain.  David meets Giovanni and is attracted though he is not sure of the attraction.  It is the 1950s and the identities of gay/bisexual/homosexual/MSM have not been demarcated. Giovanni tells him they will be friends . Giovanni had also left his girlfriend in Italy. Two men loving/liking each other in Baldwin's France is not going to be easy. David/Baldwin describes the people in the bar where he first met Giovanni - like him and not like him.. with the description of the

The Coil: Ball your own Spliff in 2015

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Click here first for musical accompaniment by “First Born”  Ganja could be one of the  issues in the 2015 elections for those voting issues and not race. It seems that the PPP and APNU differ on how to talk about ganja and the criminalisation of ganja growers, sellers and users . APNU’s Joe Harmon said that APNU would open the debate on legalising ganja . It seemed that Mr Harmon was thinking of the potential voters who are in jail for smoking or selling ganja who can ‘help to build Guyana’.  Mr Rohee of the PPP said that the Government/PPP has zero tolerance for ganja.   He accused APNU of being immoral by  playing ganja politics and that the PPP will keep the status quo and weed will remain illegal and progress will continue with ganja growers, sellers and users fulling up the jails or doing community service depending on the scales which are used to weigh the ganja which is found. From this Kaieteur News report, it seems that some of the police under Mr Rohee’s

Real men buy sanitary pads for women they recently met

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The woman at the door said 'Over at the back' when I asked where the sanitary pads were (I had no idea what to call them.. ) . I went to the back and another woman came up and asked 'What are you looking for' and I realised that there were different kinds and brands and the only request I had was to get the pack without wings though the pack had different sizes. The saleswoman helped me choose one. I have a feeling she was accustomed to doing this. The cashier put the pack of pads in a black plastic bag. It seems most other  items were put in white bags. She did not ask me what bag I would prefer. These were not for a me but for a woman who I met recently .. and no, it is not as though we skipped the whole dinner, flowers, text 20 times an hour thing to get down to honey please buy a pack of pads.. it was more after a conversation of being helpful and I said I had no problem buying any 'personal products'. And while the context of the connection with the

The Coil: Coolie Janjhat

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Vidya Kissoon ( The word coolie  is shorter than “East Indian” and “Indo-Caribbean” and “Indo Guyanese” and  and “likely-to-be-ppp”. The word ‘coolie’ has been used as part of abuse, just like the word ‘love’ as in “we beat our children because we love them”) An Amerindian asked me if East Indian people were losing their culture. I was confused because I know that they have plenty soap opera and India Expo pushing clothes and other things ‘Indian’  and ‘fair and lovely’ cream is on sale in Guyana. She was not referring to the black man who was successful in looking for a larkie  and won the 2015 chutney competition . She said that when she was small, East Indian people worked hard, and kept their wealth private and did not get into much trouble with the law .  This conversation was happening at the same time Paul Sanders did an introspection about  coolie people at war with themselves . Paul Sanders reflected  on the ‘evil’ in the coolie New York community in the

Unexpected hugs and lemons - Black Friday Groundings and love

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A sixth form student from Bishops' was politely listening to me talk about listening when a felt one of those hugs from behind , nice and warm and I turned around expecting to see a woman who I had not seen a long time. It was a mad man (or man madder than me) who said something about he glad to see me and I showed him the newspaper origami heart with the quote and he said nice nice and took it and asked me if I had money. He laughed and left. Love. It had been  awhile since I had done the groundings. In addition to the Free Books, there were free condoms and poetry and I was sharing out newspaper hearts with quotes about love for people to discuss and talk. The Ecotrust group from the University of Guyana was there - first time a formal group in their Tee Shirts attended groundings. They were engaging people about loving the environment . I had my plastic bag of hearts made from newspaper and scrap paper.  A woman I know felt sorry for me and stopped and took one b

13 (and more) ting I glad about is Black Friday 2015

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Tomato and ginger on a newspaper heart A complex week of struggling to staying focused and trying to get things done and not getting things done and then thinking of Black Friday and valentine and love I glad fuh de tomato and de ginger and fuh de man dat plant dem and reap them and have joy in selling them. I glad for all the people who keep planting food. I glad that I learn that fresh ginger make the food taste nice and that it is easy to store the ginger in the fridge in a zip loc bag and cut piece piece as you need it. I glad that I have patience to cut the ginger as I need it. I am glad for patience. I glad that austerity measures mean that I downgrade my DSL to the molasses version and that in addition to patience sometimes, there is nuff stuff I cannot see and have and life goes on. I glad that life goes on and time flies, that the joy passes and the sorrow passess too I glad that despite feeling like I would like to just lie down in a cool dark room and not move

The Coil: Audacious Citizenry

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By Vidya Kissoon Mr Mohammed Ali , who once worked as a security guard, was audacious according to the charges against him.  He reportedly put on a tie and rode down to Queens College. He was able to convince a few people that he was a detective and then proceeded to steal cell phones. He had previously managed to con several people. He managed to pretend to be an employee of the Guyana Post Office Corporation during his rampage before he was caught.  According to the media reports, Mr Ali had served time in jail and the skills he learned there did not seem as useful to him as being able to get cell phones from people. Mr Damion Bailey was audacious. According to news reports, he was a computer programmer at the M inistry of Home Affairs and and a few months after his lawyer said he was not stupidee when he claimed to act on behalf of Minister  of Home Affairs Clement Rohee, he tried to claim to act on behalf of  Minister Irfaan Alli.   He was charged after he report

A Morning at the Office - Edgar Mittelholzer

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Image edited from http://www.openclipart.org "To hell wid you" love struck Horace shouts to the Laura Laballe before he walks off his job.  Trying to imagine Edgar Mittelholzer writing this and wondering if he said this to all the people who rejected his writing and before he killed himself less than twenty years after writing this book. I read My bones and my Flute in 2009 "A morning at the office" is set in the 1940's Trinidad office of Essential Products Ltd. The office has this mix of characters.. sexes, ages, class, shades and types of hair. Edgar Mittelholzer is unrelenting in his class/race/colour descriptions and how the people interact. The white expats come in for some cuss out  too.. Sidney writing home to his mother about ".. a club that considers you an aristocrat, and therefore eligible as a member, simply on the strength of your pink skin and English accent. I've met chaps there, who , in England, would be sniffed at by a Hoxton

Luv in de minibus wid Shah Rukh

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Bus man pass and come back fuh me. I watch de front seat.. i see de head wid de long hair dat dey lil close to de head wid de cap on de head in de front seat Kal Ho Na Ho.. playing.. I seh morning.. and start singing.. gyurl look at me like I gun spoil she bus ride. Bus man look at me and kind of look away shame shame. I aint ketch what going on.. gyurl like she whispering in de ears. Bus man like he deh lil bad. I want fuh seh.. I know texting while driving is illegal but should a bus man get bassidy and want fuh crash.. ah mean.. ow man, yall cyan wait.. I look fuh see if dem wearing wedding ring.. but nah.. if dem was wearing wedding ring ah tink she would ah been conducting de bus.. Me mind wandering. but gyurl sideways glancing at me like I cutting up runnings.. Next ting is see is bus man tek he hand down and dem holding hands.. now all dat is nice and so on ..but not when I is de bus driver.. but de music nice.. and dis is not young luv.. de bus man look lil fri

500 blog posts, 6 years, 97,000 views and an award..

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"Will you write about this call" my (former) loved one asked me.  I had explained that anybody who wants to know how I am doing can check my blog as I put my wellness business out there for all the world who cares to know. I wondered whether I should write another blog about love   as the 500th post.  The 500 mark was passed writing the  Facilitation Thoughts project The start  was noble . I certainly did not think about blogging about my mental health issues. T his piece about my insanity, was the start of blogging not to improve my writing skills or to provide intellectual analysis and solutions to the problems of Guyana and the World, but to keep within some kind of bounds of sanity.  And while the last 100 posts were being written, there was little no writing anywhere else. I wonder  about the intention to have improved the writing skills. The Universe has a way of  turning things upside down, as I certainly did not expect the award at the time when I

What kind of follow up and other activities to close on a positive note?

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This blog is one of a series of Facilitation Thoughts which look at various aspects of facilitation. "I have been to many workshops like this, talk talk, promises and no action"  "Y'all never come back .. "  "You got a list of problems and issues, it was depression, you did not use the opportunity to identify solutions" The facilitator could easily become a focus for the frustrations of participants who have felt that their contributions have not been dealt with or that they have wasted their time. This is especially true for situations where 'consultations' are being held and where people are cynical about how their input would be realised. There is one session which stood out in my head in which two of the participants said they felt that I should have done more to move the discussion to solutions even though that was not an objective of the session. There should be enough time to discuss some short-terms solutions to some o

How to report on the session?

This blog is one of a series of Facilitation Thoughts which look at various aspects of facilitation.  The facilitator should confirm the reporting requirements with the organisers.  There are some sessions which are organised for policy making or other planning activities. These kinds of sessions - consultations, planning, reviews - should have a  rapporteur. The rapporteur would be responsible for recording the questions, decisions, ideas, concerns, complaints, solutions etc discussed by the group.  There should be time for the rapporteur to check in with the participants to confirm that the reporting is accurate. Some rapporteurs might select a smaller group of the participants to review the draft  report to ensure the accuracy. If a rapporteur is not present, then the facilitator should plan time to capture summaries of the discussions and then transcribe them to the report of the session. Some persons might audio record segments of the session to keep as a reference.

The Coil: Bake and salt fish in a democracy

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Editor’s Note: We are are happy to announce that award wining blogger Vidyaratha Kissoon (Thoughts of a Minibus Traveller) has kindly agreed to contribute a weekly column to The Mosquito. This is a major coup for our star studded writing pool as Vidya brings a uniquely quirky style to his subversive commentary as one will see in his first column…    Bake and salt fish in a democracy Guyana is an emerging democracy and the politics are usually about the black and coolie people and who they vote for. However, Guyana’s rich human diversity includes the odd weird person who chooses to live here when they could live anywhere else. One person is William Walker who is that quintessential post colonial subject – white man who is living  in the developing  Republic and who has built a good reputation for high quality catering including bake and salt fish. He gaffs here about not getting into politics and miasma. VK : Would you ever endorse a political party or position? If