tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-66753107610748650422024-03-14T00:45:22.586-04:00Thoughts of a minibus traveller"..start a huge foolish project like Noah, it matters not what others think of you.. Mevlana Rumi"Vidyaratha Kissoonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12625176305422426967noreply@blogger.comBlogger1303125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6675310761074865042.post-61677058315109554482024-02-29T22:15:00.000-04:002024-02-29T22:15:02.796-04:00Respecting the rivers, the Berbice Art and Craft Collective and others in the leap year..<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0F3QlOdymrIPE8ZbT6KuZ0HziLis-3UV9WLSzrvtsWwYyPIfESKyBErrGTw1ZGKfsfT6kIgtAHhx_ON9-K80gnPPknc100qM6gnq4IfNq2eFPv7A5MJJFknpDlKCDco-F37KRR5GvNtz5YFhMg4pQqzU8N2L499o3lNgBaL0E9lHvElxdKWrUZgnFhlM/s600/rvart.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="462" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0F3QlOdymrIPE8ZbT6KuZ0HziLis-3UV9WLSzrvtsWwYyPIfESKyBErrGTw1ZGKfsfT6kIgtAHhx_ON9-K80gnPPknc100qM6gnq4IfNq2eFPv7A5MJJFknpDlKCDco-F37KRR5GvNtz5YFhMg4pQqzU8N2L499o3lNgBaL0E9lHvElxdKWrUZgnFhlM/s16000/rvart.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Thanks Esther for the photo<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p><b>Rivers </b><br /></p><p> "Mr Kissoon, you arite..." the boat captain asks me as I decide to be one with the river and not be afraid of it. I say yeah man.. I more concerned that he is arite because if the captain is not arite then we will not be arite no matter how much my soul and the river are intertwined.</p><p>Leap year and after years of working from the comfort of home , where commuting is clicking on keys in house clothes.. Universe says get off your flattened ... and get on the rivers to go to work.</p><p>And so I have to say yes to the fear, and yes to the work and I go on the rivers in the first months of the leap year. Dressed to protect from water spray but knowing really that should the water embrace me fully there will be no protection except to swim.. which I can't do.</p><p>But respecting the river seems to ease the discomfort of not being able to swim in the river. And to enjoy the river, the smooth and the rough, the bamboo and other plants on the banks..</p><p>and the flash of the blue and black butterflies</p><p>and the flock of black birds with the red on the breast</p><p>and the other butterflies</p><p>and the bird which seems to be racing the boat, ahead on the water.. skimming ... for a long time</p><p>and the other bird which moves ahead for a short time</p><p>and 'duck' when moving through creeks where the trees are closer..</p><p>and being on the boat where the children practice their dance moves..</p><p>and not being ashamed for help to climb/stumble/clamber on and off the boat..</p><p>of raindrops stinging the face .. <br /></p><p>and wondering how people brush teeth in the river where others pee and engines might leak some gasoline. </p><p>and not wondering about if boat capsize or engine catch afire or if I would need to go toilet... <br /></p><b>Berbice Art and Craft Collective</b><p>and crossing the rivers and the creeks now again, in car though, not boat, to drop everything on the day, to go pay homage to the Berbice Art and Craft Collective, a day I could have rested to do more of the work related to the rivers.. but rest comes otherwise..</p><p>so in the leap year, go do another thing randomly, first art exhibition in Berbice in a long time.</p><p>Going up not so much about the art, but to honour the organising and coming together of people to work and create, understanding that this is the first of what they hope will be other things. </p><p>Because in this place of division, where organising is about access to political power and the oil money and so, is nice that people could come together to work on developing their work in art and craft.<br /></p><p>So go in the room, walk around, gaff with people, watch at the work, moving slowly, interesting pieces.. rasta with spliff in he mouth, police with lollipop in he mouth, natural world, fantasy world, devotion. and we get lil poetry as Deodat shares a poem which Konyo reads in this way which will never happen again the same way. </p><p>Much like how you never step in the same river twice... </p><p>And so moving through the work, looking back at pieces, seeing new things in each piece, making different decisions about what we seeing and same man, same exhibition but like this river.. as you move, new ways of seeing things and possibly new ways of being..<br /></p><p></p><p><b>Leap year</b></p><p>We talk about what people say about leap year , and then it hits me that this leap year has me writing this blog to catch the last day of the month so that I could write something this month and that I hustling up because other things came up like the random conversations with the historian and with the banker .and having to learn new phagwah songs and remembering that the bad will come , but there will be new things, other rivers .. <br /></p>Vidyaratha Kissoonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12625176305422426967noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6675310761074865042.post-43575391241846600322024-01-26T12:32:00.004-04:002024-01-26T12:53:39.938-04:00"I want he to leave me alone" - lessons from walking with an 18 year old Indigenous survivor of gender-based violence<p> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUkEVfz8YKvogylXbNrKuqW3NmWRU0O2LuzhUMXqBRprDiUsFu2iIOzI0ojaW0bPh2rxYTPlV718VtN2ymoFe199aQvO1gzyub6Q96mvVJCKxb5FdIZOyMm_gPdLjNJw6YTu9ozC-lj5B4ts2_JzdukjOBqUTGjakJJFTlWu3VmWgteSv_iMmP25l5dMc/s600/walkwith.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUkEVfz8YKvogylXbNrKuqW3NmWRU0O2LuzhUMXqBRprDiUsFu2iIOzI0ojaW0bPh2rxYTPlV718VtN2ymoFe199aQvO1gzyub6Q96mvVJCKxb5FdIZOyMm_gPdLjNJw6YTu9ozC-lj5B4ts2_JzdukjOBqUTGjakJJFTlWu3VmWgteSv_iMmP25l5dMc/s16000/walkwith.jpg" /></a><br /></p><p>
<br />
<b>Walking with the 18 year old survivor</b></p><p>8pm or so, some drizzles in the night. The 18 year old tells her story. She was working with her friends. The man who is a powerful man in the village came up behind her, slapped her , took away the phone. She had ended the relationship with him. The man had started to contact her when she was under 16. He has 'spoiled other girl children'<br /></p><p>Her friend brought her on advice of a village leader. </p><p></p><p></p><p>The 18 year old says she will make a report, since the police cannot do anything unless a report is made. We feel that she is certain and understands the process. Even as she knows that he has paid off other persons he has attacked.<br /></p><p>My colleagues and I go, walking with the 18 year old and her friend. Rain drizzles a bit more. For the first time, I use the umbrella I bought- swag for the commemoration of the rebuilding of the Ram Ayodhya mandir in India. Ram returning to Ayodhya, Ram is not here though in the village.<br /></p><p></p><p>Her friend turns back at the station.. "No no.. I don't want that man to know I involved". We try to tell her, we are together, but she says no no.<br /></p><p>The 18 year old is calm. Her jaw is hurting. She does not want anything to eat and smiles when she says 'I will cook when I go home" Her friend is looking after her baby'. </p><p>Police take the report. </p><p>I learn meanwhile, that many people are scared of the man or of getting involved in murder one way or another.<br /></p><p> </p><p><b>Indigenous</b></p><p>Court is every three months in the village, so any woman , any person, who needs emergency protection via the justice system will not get it. </p><p>Probation officers and social workers are not always present in the village, visiting periodically or after cases are reported.<br /></p><p> In some Indigenous villages, some women volunteer or arrange their own funding to support survivors. </p><p>Here though, the 18 year old does not seem to have any support from the village. <br /></p><p>My colleagues and I are conscious we are outsiders and angry at how the abuser and rapist intimidates everyone. <br /></p><p></p><p>The 18 year old makes the report. <br /></p><p> My colleague checks and realises there is a problem with the way the police wrote on the statement. It takes time. </p><p>The policeman seems to want to be helpful. He has participated in training. He knows the rapist and abuser, but nothing can be done without the report. <br /></p><p>I learn that the man who groomed, raped an Indigenous child and then hit her when she moves on from him, the man is connected to big ones who are connected to the PPP as these things go in some Indigenous villages where National politics take precedence over village governance.</p><p>The 18 year old Indigenous girl is the collateral damage of the nastiness in Guyana's PNC and PPP politics where there is no unified platform against gender-based violence. </p><p><b>Gender-based violence</b></p><p>The village leadership has given permission for my colleagues and I to be in the village to do work on awareness of gender-based violence. </p><p>The awareness done by others and us might be working as people can make reports.</p><p> What though is the point of making a report, when court only comes every three months and emergency protection orders cannot be granted? When the abusers can lurk in the village while waiting for court and anyone making a report has to wait with fear?</p><p>We go with the 18 year old girl and a police to do a medical. A nurse takes preliminary checks. The doctor does an exam. The 18 year old comes out with a tablet in her hand, says the doctor said to take it. We ask another woman, a nurse we think, about water to drink the tablet.</p><p>There is no water in the hospital for the 18 year old girl to drink the tablet. </p><p>The police medical is done. We leave. The medical is not for the 18 year old girl we understand, but for the police. The girl gets some more tablets to take for the pain and to come back for an x-ray next day.</p><p>It is near 10pm when everything is done and the 18 year old girl goes home to her child. </p><p>Trying to imagine if she had to do this alone. <br /></p><p><b>"I want he to leave me alone"</b> </p><p>The next day we hear that another man connected to the rapist and abuser has contacted the friends who helped the 18 year old to go to the station. The man threatens them.. They are all scared as there is no guarantee in their village for their safety. They cannot report the threats.<br /></p><p>They agree that the only safety is for the 18 year old girl to leave the village. <br /></p><p>The 18 year old girl meets one of my colleagues and says that she does not want story, 'I want he to lea<b>v</b>e me alone'<b>. </b>She did not go back for the x-ray or to the police.<b><br /></b></p><p>My colleagues and I go through everything we said and did, wondering if we did something wrong, did we not respect her wishes. We are concerned for their safety, we are outsiders<b> . </b> </p><p>We do not judge the 18 year old girl who has to make a choice for safety. </p><p>She lives in a village which the police, the village leadership and the Government cannot guarantee her protection. I cannot guarantee safety and protection from the rapist and abuser who has indirect connections to the PPP leadership which does not want to hold him accountable.<br /></p><br /><p><b>Lessons</b></p><p>The reality is that as we try to use police and court and counselling
to stop domestic violence and protect survivors and punish perpetrators
, that many survivors of domestic violence just want the abuse and
violence to stop. to 'leave them alone'.<br /></p><p>And as a society and
community, especially in places where court does not work every
working day like in Georgetown, we have to think about other ways to listen to survivors and get
the violence and abuse to stop.</p><p> This is the second day in the village, and this is the second case I am aware of at the police. </p><p>The first case , the man drank and wanted to chop up the woman. She contacted the police and they came. The day we met her, she brought his baby son.. he said he was sorry in the lock up, he did not remember anything. </p><p>She and other relatives where there waiting for his release.</p><p> I am new in the village and don't understand the dynamics. <br /></p><p>I feel foolish as I could see, if only a group of men from the village . sit with this guy, apparently his first time doing this (I aint know if he mix guiness and high wine ) check in with him as he goes home .. to see that he is really sorry and acting on his word.</p><p>Another woman tells us that she also reported her husband to the police, then there was some 'counselling' from a nice corporal and others and her husband no longer is abusive. </p><p>Some perpetrators might change the behaviour with nurturing interventions from others. </p><p>Alcohol is playing a part in the violence in the communities, gender-based violence and other forms of violence. <br /></p><p>In Guyana, alcohol use is encouraged. There are no interventions to heal from the damage caused by alcohol.<br /></p><p> The man who had raped and abused the 18 year old girl and his colleague who threatened her and her friends will not get any body to heal them because they are powerful. </p><p>We understand that the man said 'he was disrespected' , wanted the girl to be fired from her work. His PPP friend in the village leadership has not offered any justice mechanisms. </p><p>I thought of reporting to the PPP leadership but could not think of anyone who I could tell without causing further harm to the 18 year old girl. </p><p>The 18 year old girl gave me permission to walk with her and others to the police station and hospital . I would need her permission to tell her story to anyone <br /></p><p> </p><p><b>Accountability and healing</b><br /></p><p>Some of the conversations about the violence, the fear are happening in beautiful settings. Under trees, near bamboo groves, in sight of rivers. </p><p>Accountable and principled leadership is needed, nationally and locally to stop gender-based violence. </p><p>And PPP, PNC or neither or both, men who do not think they are abusive have to hold other men accountable. </p><p>As I write this, I am sitting after a woman tells me that a man who I like and gaff with a lot, who has employed me, is 'rotten to the core' in his treatment of women. </p><p>And I have to figure out how to hold him accountable for this rottenness. Wondering who else I could involve in this. <br /></p><p> The justice system at the moment is not one for healing and since it requires reports and conviction before any rehabilitation can be started, there has to be ways to give the police perhaps and communities resources to go beyond 'he say he sorry, yall go and mek up back" and then to lament that 'the woman report and drop the case.. usual story'.</p><p>The Government must allocate resources to every Indigenous community to put permanent mechanisms in place to deal with gender-based violence. </p><p></p><p>The Government has to pay people do the work, not expect people to work voluntarily. <br /></p><p>But in a place where oil and gas flows and some health care workers do not have access to water to give patients who have to drink tablets, will these lessons lead to any action for change?<br /></p>Vidyaratha Kissoonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12625176305422426967noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6675310761074865042.post-13730781348949413332024-01-05T20:00:00.003-04:002024-01-05T20:00:32.228-04:00Writing the first mango first for 2024.. <p> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbi6UNOUyQx9S8FrNJXovTx1uY1T4p9j3WOd7dZsx39tCIOIrFur7d00H1clVzlhvkzT8rB9BGjydM4NxfkU3-Uulmg7bU2bDzf8JiLQP2DIwWC1qx2Nd_YEw82bl5Wk7hFzFVHf45CUJxjXZ85oi9vUP0MJuR2eAwZbF1FXLVxex0VZGiV7k7ib6No7w/s600/mango2024.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbi6UNOUyQx9S8FrNJXovTx1uY1T4p9j3WOd7dZsx39tCIOIrFur7d00H1clVzlhvkzT8rB9BGjydM4NxfkU3-Uulmg7bU2bDzf8JiLQP2DIwWC1qx2Nd_YEw82bl5Wk7hFzFVHf45CUJxjXZ85oi9vUP0MJuR2eAwZbF1FXLVxex0VZGiV7k7ib6No7w/s16000/mango2024.jpg" /></a><br /></p><p>
Writing... </p><p> "Keep writing" I tell the woman who sent me the links to the news stories about the Attorney General saying Venezuela using the criticisms of oil as part of their arsenal and to the stories about the General Secretary of the PPP saying they will be going after social media influencers and so who want to divide Guyana.</p><p>As though Guyana not already divided and cut up into pieces and segments which keep merging and joining from time to time for various things while splintering into other things as sometimes the stronger pieces push aside the weaker pieces and so on. </p><p>I have a thing left over from 2023 to write and then four other things to write before the first month.. but I been busy reading cozy mysteries and watching junk TV and I push everything to 'next' week when deadlines due. </p><p> And then I see the sunset coloured mango on the grass... <br /></p><p><b> First mango first.. </b></p><p> Weather dry and blossoms not turning into fruit like they used to. I see the tree has like two mangoes which might be good, last time they fall small and taste of the turpentine even though soft flesh and red orange yellow gold skin. </p><p>Sun going down. I wonder if I should pick them, and keep to ripen but the turpentine don't ripen good. It have to fall before it taste good. </p><p>A child who visited picked a green one 'to make pickle' though I warned her about the turpentine taste but she didn't bother with me.</p><p>Grass growing under the tree but you could still see the sunset flashing in the green when the sun comes up.. sometimes you see the good side and underneath is the teeth marks of the other animals that reach it.</p><p>Pick it up . Smell it.. faint turpentine but nice perfume of the sweetness. Softish.. full. I look for the other one. Nothing there and I wonder if a thief come for it and carry it away. </p><p>But I realise that this tree and mangoes don't belong to me and I have claim on anything. </p><p>Mango got lovely colour and I feel to take picture out and then thing I should write something about this mango today instead of the five other things which need writing about.</p><p></p><p><b>2024.. </b></p><p>So first thing for 2024, writing unexpectedly about a mango which I did not expect . The woman's voice telling me that she was wondering if her last post would result in some retaliation. I thought I would write about the self-censorship which is going on, and the fear of speaking out and so.<br /></p><p>I could write about trying to build stamina and courage to go face the passport office as people keep asking me if I aint gonna travel lil bit but the PPP has spoiled what the PNC had fixed five years ago when I last went to get a passport.<br /></p><p>I could write about trying to understand where to go do lab tests and so as people got stories about every lab and the double check, and that man test need to be done for prostate and cholesterol and so.</p><p>But them things write about before. And is easy in being consumed in them things to take things like a nice turpentine mango for granted.</p><p>And I learn over the last couple years, take nothing for granted, take nothing for granted. </p><p>So first thing I write about in 2024 is about the mango, which I finish eating. </p><p>Writing maybe to hold the memory longer than the eating, and the fragrance from the skin and seed left in the bowl to go through in the compost thing. </p><p>Writing and hoping that I could get ready to write the other things. <br /></p>Vidyaratha Kissoonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12625176305422426967noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6675310761074865042.post-6890517870051462692023-12-23T12:58:00.004-04:002023-12-23T12:58:47.813-04:00Lace, fruitcake and tangerine a year later...<p> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-KFIOaUWG9Ue6YH-pMo3IQSpauVhyphenhyphenoc2v4GugWyNX7aJeP0RqUs-MRR-euZPOVC_uo1ibQ2WTPS0jX2sVuCr29bUw1rDRRdLuT8WsLyyIzRzh3AdUzlhyphenhyphenVXq5JoM-kgzaRTO9Wqi-tVcew3Ltkps_d9akf1Drf4-RJ-kR3Pdz7nMv1XMhyphenhyphen0499IFK6oY/s600/tangcakedec2023.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-KFIOaUWG9Ue6YH-pMo3IQSpauVhyphenhyphenoc2v4GugWyNX7aJeP0RqUs-MRR-euZPOVC_uo1ibQ2WTPS0jX2sVuCr29bUw1rDRRdLuT8WsLyyIzRzh3AdUzlhyphenhyphenVXq5JoM-kgzaRTO9Wqi-tVcew3Ltkps_d9akf1Drf4-RJ-kR3Pdz7nMv1XMhyphenhyphen0499IFK6oY/s16000/tangcakedec2023.jpg" /></a><br /></p><p> </p><p> <b>Lace</b></p><p>I wake up at 4am on the day when the 'putting away' would have been completed with headache, nausea. </p><p>The year shraad has been completed. I am grateful that all cleaning done in time, all rituals completed even in the sadness as another chacha has died. </p><p>The two night satsangh was good but the memories of all the other janjhat come back and stress manifested itself<br /></p><p>You would not be pleased that I decided to just stay away from the rest of the funeral rites for the chacha, but this year, this time, I do not want headache and nausea.<br /></p><p>Moving around 4am and I decide, yep. put back the lace tablecloth and the red Christmas placemats.</p><p>Last year, the table was bare, no cloth, but some of the items needed to provide the care to you in your last days. <br /></p><p>Today as I write this a year later , remembering at this time you had pulled out the feeding tube, refusing all food, and then Yamraj took you Christmas Eve night. </p><p>So 4am on the putting away day, I clean the table and so, and unwrap the plastic and the lace and the mats which have been hidden for two years. </p><p>There is no mouldy smell. <br /></p>I fix in the middle as you would have wanted, make sure things are symmetrical. Headache and nausea did ease up as I moved around and shifted memories from jhanjhat to the Christmas preparation.<p>Realisiing that time and memory mean that it is possible to feel sorrow and invoke joy around the same time using different memories.<br /></p><p></p><p> I found some of the test crochet things and the balls of red and gold thread and the knitting hooks and the cryptic patterns in your handwriting. </p><p>You must have written those codes with ease, accustomed to the numbers and signs, <a href="https://churchroadman.blogspot.com/2023/01/differential-equations-indian-teacher.html" target="_blank">your notes for teaching</a> had those maths signs and symbols. </p><p>I put them on the lace too. </p><p>Everything looks nice, softened with the fabric and brightened with the colours.<br /></p><p><b> Fruit cake</b></p><p> "Vidya, come help with the washing up.. and you have plenty lickings here' you would say after you put the cakes in the oven. Sometimes if I was not at home, I would miss out on the lickings of the cake batter.<br /></p><p>Thank God I used to hover around the kitchen, not getting in the way. Back in the day there was a mill to grind fruits and so.</p><p>Baking day, 22nd Dec. Friday. </p><p>I read the recipe in your hand writing, for the basic sponge. </p><p>I forgot you used to average how much fruit to put in, so I have to average now. </p><p>Last year, this Friday , I was feeling hopeful that there was a path to comfort after a preliminary conversation with a doctor whose mother had given me a nice chunk of black cake and I had enjoyed because the AIC was normal and I felt I could consume sugar as I wanted.<br /></p><p>We did not bake cake last year. </p><p>This year, baking though, cupcake rather than cake but your recipe and my averages. Thinking of the old rusty dark pan which used to bake wonderfully but I do not trust the cake to stay high in the middle.if I use it.</p><p>Doing my own thing. </p><p>Not much batter as I have nice silicone spatula which scrapes out everything. I leave a bit though. It doesn't feel right not to have lickings. 'Too much gun give you belly wuk with the raw flour and so"<br /></p><p>Put the cupcakes in the oven, thinking to wash wares while they bake.<br /></p><p></p><p>I can't though. </p><p>Glad for the mindfulness to breathe, walk, message the friend , as the memories of the Christmas with your voice does not merge well with the present day reality that your voice is gone even if your handwriting is present.</p><p><b>Tangerine</b></p><p>I wake up on the day a year after you died , place kind of cloudy.
Cake and coffee before going to the market. Christmas breakfast for me <br /></p><p>Early to avoid rush if I
could. <br /></p><p>The chacha who died used to bring apples, pear, grapes and walnuts today or Christmas Eve. He used buy wholesale and then share around to everyone. </p><p>There are lots of grapes, apples, walnuts at Mon Repos market. </p><p>I used to gorge on satsumas in the UK around Christmas.. my Christmas fruit in Guyana is tangerine if the season is good.</p><p>I like the energy and vibe in Mon Repos and Bourda Markets. <br /></p>Laughing at a sign inside the market ;Welcome to Dubai market; and anotehr sign saying 'Haiti market is outside'.. apparently the nice new market is finished but the vendors have to all come back in at the same time or unfair competition with the road. The quiet inside the new market very different from the noisy hustle outside.<br /><p>Dubai vs Haiti. </p><p>Some people have laid out the rugs and carpets on the tables intended for the fish vendors and for one wild moment, you could imagine being in the Middle East somewhere. </p><p>A vendor laughs as I refuse the plastic bag. </p><p>I go outside in the "Haiti market'.<br /></p><p></p><p>Woman calls out to me. I have not seen her for over a year, the bananas she had always cheaper than the rest..</p><p>This time tangerine. I decide to leave wallet open and forget those other happy Christmas memories of tangerines giving away for 12 for $100 .. now is 10 for $1000. </p><p>Other kinds of mourning and lamenting. A traveller from Iraq via USA asked me how do locals manage with the cost of living in Guyana.<br /></p><p>I see more tangerines, the small ones, sweet. not the dancy oranges . I buy some , not sure. Can't always tell with tangerines. Tangerines are funny, they don't last too long. And in this weird weather, some could be sour. And I learn now, that I can't eat as much as I used to even if I want to. </p><p>I buy more because last year I did not have tangerines at Christmas. </p><p>Come home and tasted , honey seeping out and the fragrance all over. </p><p>I wished I had bought more.<br /></p><p>Because who knows what next Christmas would bring.</p>Vidyaratha Kissoonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12625176305422426967noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6675310761074865042.post-26180328986882684512023-11-19T10:37:00.004-04:002023-11-19T14:04:18.515-04:00Many Guyanas and the one Venezuela , etc?<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3bHGjt2GdtNqVK8ZQqHhf4uFeDN52aHC7d-t4QJW2Sn87pvg9_c-S_yiNhY-BCfe0Vz_fk3dtgBcyIMtl8ze2vWWsnezISXk55mUYrgjcViOOAsjhKxsYVZfd-jnOxmu2l3k0AmTB-VxdxbU6i_3xJKrpg-Jfu5zIEgL631-ih7Z4pCjps3Gr22Tk-m0/s700/manygy.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="700" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3bHGjt2GdtNqVK8ZQqHhf4uFeDN52aHC7d-t4QJW2Sn87pvg9_c-S_yiNhY-BCfe0Vz_fk3dtgBcyIMtl8ze2vWWsnezISXk55mUYrgjcViOOAsjhKxsYVZfd-jnOxmu2l3k0AmTB-VxdxbU6i_3xJKrpg-Jfu5zIEgL631-ih7Z4pCjps3Gr22Tk-m0/s16000/manygy.jpg" /></a><br />
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<b>Many Guyanas </b></p><p>"Please a tousand" the Indigenous child said in the open air restaurant/bar area to the coastlanders and any other person who would listen. A colleague assisted the child.</p><p>The hotel is nice, A/C and running water. I am in a village, Indigenous community. I am not writing the name because I did not seek permission from anyone I met or didn't met to write about the place, or about them.</p><p>The village centre seems to be around the airstrip, like other villages. Much like how other places might be built around rivers, the transportation hubs. I can't see any creek or river. <br /></p><p>"Today is holiday, only one person come to work.. Toshao say we must employ local people" the owner of the hotel said. I am not sure if he considers himself local. The woman who cleans the hotel, who comes to work every day, is the only Indigenous resident of the community with whom I speak.</p><p></p><p>There is a nice small shop, unpainted boards. Big TV. Grill to do 'roast'. I think it is a 'shack' .<br /></p><p>Portuguese sign. I mumble in Portuguese and buy Guarana ..'original do Brasil' , for money which I did not want to pay a Guyanese woman for a parcel of mangoes. </p><p>I buy a nice Brazillian cake of the cassava flour for money which I did not want to pay a Guyanese woman for a parcel of mangoes because I thought it was too much money to buy mangoes but enough to buy a Guarana. and a cake.</p><p></p><p>Listening in on conversation, couple of men sitting. Two speaking English, the rest speaking Portuguese. Miners, and labourers around the mining.<br /></p><p>First night, I wonder around to get a vibe as sun sets. Shack is nice to sit down. </p><p>One of the men gaffs with me as bored people do in random places. Border dangerous so he has moved here to wait awhile. He is glad to practice his English, shows photo of his TIN certificate and his home in Brazil which is far away. </p><p>He mixes English and Portuguese and I think he tells me he pays the Syndatico to avoid any trouble. </p><p>But it seems trouble is too much now.<br /></p><p>It is not clear where he mines.. whether in Guyana or Venezuela as it seems there is no border. I hear Spanish. </p><p>Early first morning and I get up, 515am or so to go for walk. In another Indigenous community, I walked to the creek, nice trail, plenty dogs, did the walk every morning and afternoon. A nice set of trees around it. <br /></p><p>In this community, I walk to the airstrip. Past the yards with machines and so, one yard has a nice flower plant. I walk on the airstrip.. fumes from the tarmac and from the diesel generators which will shut off once sun rises. Trees around here loom in a way, and I decide not to walk through them.</p>Wondering where water is, creek or so. People say yeah they have one but is a far away. Not like exercise walk away.<br /><p>I drink bottled water and brush my teeth with bottled water as colleagues advise me about typhoid and other water borne diseases. I wonder what the 'locals' use. <br /></p><p>The plane coming in was full of all the other civilised stuff like liquor, the snacks I buy in shiny packages , sodas and so. <br /></p><p>I meet coastlanders who are working in the community. One of them tells me things about the Indigenous peoples which I imagine colonisers said about all of us. That we rejecting civilisation and development if we did not want to be colonised. </p><p>That civilisation cannot mean drinking water coming on a plane from Georgetown. </p><p>In plastic bottles which have to burnt in the forest.<br /></p><p>The coastlander says '' yeah Christopher columbus was a long time ago, what that got to do with today?" The coastlander is a duty bearer of the State.</p><p>I try to listen and feel ashamed that the coastlander thinks I am somebody with shared values about the Indigenous communities. And ashamed that I am polite and not sure if I want to cuss up now. </p><p>We do not talk about Venezuela wanting to take over Essequibo. <a href="https://churchroadman.blogspot.com/2015/10/coil-whose-history-is-this-venezuela.html" target="_blank">Last time I talked about it,</a> I realised that it was out of my hands, and that Venezuela in Guyana was another one of those things. </p><p></p><p><b>One Venezuela, etc?</b></p><p>Come back from my walk, sun still rising and the man cleaning the restaurant area smiles and tells me .. cafe? and points to the
kitchen where another man is frying empanadas. <br /></p><p>Cafe in the flask, the
sweet strong Brazillian style. I ask the cook for 'leite' hoping that it is a word in <span>Portuñol/<i>Portunhol</i> <br /></span></p><p>The man who cleans tells me another day that he speaks Spanish. His employers speak Portuguese.<br /></p><p>Another man tells me that he cleans and works , he speaks Spanish not Portuguese but the woman he works with speaks Spanish. </p><p>Brazilians and Venezuelans. The hierarchy of labour in Guyana. <br /></p><p>And the hiring of the 'Spanish' .. for work which they get paid less than Guyanese and so. </p><p>And I wonder about the Venezuelan Vice President say that Venezuelans in Guyana are getting bad treatment. </p><p>The people who have left Venezuela because Venezuelan Government and others treating them bad.<br /></p><p>But hearing her owning the people who have left her Country for better. <br /></p><p>And thinking historically, when people who feel they are treated badly, when they rise up against those who are treating them badly. </p><p>Like at Elections and so in Guyana when we have periodic protests. But not at any other time.</p><p></p><p>The coastlanders tell me that many people do not speak English as their first language, and hence the coastlanders' work on behalf of the Government and others has to be translated sometimes.</p><p>I have not heard anyone speak the Indigenous language, but I hear the Spanish , Portuguese and English.<br /></p><p>We move around. Holiday afternoon, music and drunk people, one man lying on the ground. Latin Music. Another night, I hear Latin Music, and some Chutney<br /></p><p>Two men mumble to me one evening and I pass as I get the vibe of having to give a 'raise' or something.Drunk.</p><p><br /></p><p>Woman tells me that she advised the owners of a business 'nice people, church people, they didn't want to sell beer but i tell them to sell beer because that is how they will make money' <br /></p><p>The Indigenous child passes a day and asks a man sitting in the restaurant for money. The man speaks in Spanish on the phone, says hello to me. His English to me sounds like mine.</p><p>The Indigenous child does not ask me for money. </p><p>I am not sure if I would have given the child any money as my culture says not to encourage children with begging, and to find their parents and to report them to Childcare and Protection Agency. Or that I would protest with the child to get part of the gold money and oil money and so on.<br /></p><p>I do not know if the Indigenous child would have understood me. </p><p></p>Vidyaratha Kissoonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12625176305422426967noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6675310761074865042.post-12556564496665147712023-11-13T06:06:00.001-04:002023-11-13T07:42:03.964-04:00Laxmi Maa amidst the rubbish in Guyana 2023<p> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqPupTlY7GuZHYvhMWRaMh0O0PhezwSZGBjRqE5f49BXzPJV0Y37T_8suDtUCxP5R5LnqyqMMEi0rf8i2Q0XEbsj48ql4oBQu55-HFUzUedParyUtEu7oeEe5O5S0ypcoQMM2Xmwki2RJHQ26iWyYnhjv4sATx3_0Sr2jtWrPIo6FfiAZElRlkZ97QzHk/s600/light2023.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="458" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqPupTlY7GuZHYvhMWRaMh0O0PhezwSZGBjRqE5f49BXzPJV0Y37T_8suDtUCxP5R5LnqyqMMEi0rf8i2Q0XEbsj48ql4oBQu55-HFUzUedParyUtEu7oeEe5O5S0ypcoQMM2Xmwki2RJHQ26iWyYnhjv4sATx3_0Sr2jtWrPIo6FfiAZElRlkZ97QzHk/s16000/light2023.jpg" /></a><br /></p><p>
<b>Rubbish </b></p><p>Diwali morning early and I come out to go mandir. Place quiet, nice and cool. </p><p>Aunty V is out with her dogs - one on the chain, one with three legs running around. Someone had chopped off the fourth leg, Aunty V took the dog in and looked after it. </p><p>Is a kind of blessing, to witness this kindness to the animals. <br /></p><p>Walk towards the seawall. Rubbish all over. </p><p>The Diwali motorcade was successful the night before, thousands of citizens coming out to support and enjoy the spectacle. </p><p> The citizens left the rubbish all over. Not sure which HIndu scriptures say that people should worship and then litter the place.</p><p>Seawall would have been nice to look at.without the rubbish.</p><p><b>Laxmi Maa with the rubbish </b></p><p>Minibus passes the Kitty roundabout. There are Diwali decorations , the pink lotus. Important symbol - the lotus- for growing in mud while not having mud on it. </p><p>The ground is littered .. plastic bottles, bags, cups. Signs of the prosperity in Guyana and more to come. </p><p>And then I look up and realise there is a murti of Laxmi Ma.. seated there in the rubbish. </p><p>I could have stopped the bus, instead of going to mandir, come out and clean up the rubbish and so. That kind of action is also worship.<br /></p><p>The wind probably blew the plastic bottles and bags and cups and so , maybe people did not litter the place intentionally. </p><p>I don't know if the roundabout was sanctified to put the murti there but people are desecrating it, as they do the whole Earth generally as wealth flourishes. </p><p>Last time <a href="https://churchroadman.blogspot.com/2015/11/the-coil-diwali-nights.html" target="_blank">I went to motorcade</a>, it was the year of two Diwali dates. </p><p>I know that all worship is good. The ISKON chanting of the Maha Mantra comes on the breeze twice as the float passes streets away while I watch them live on Facebook. <br /></p><p>But..it lil weird for me to 'watch' the floats while people selling carcass and meat and alcohol and bombs and so on. I eat carcass but not around Diwali and other Hindu dates. </p><p>But there is some glass barrier between the people liming and enjoying the spectacle, and the mandirs and others showing the Hindu religion.</p><p>Diwali used to be quiet and nice. <br /></p><p>Diwali is this noisy spectacle now.. cultural tourism product as the President said while worshipping at another Diwali event- and Aunty V's dogs and other dogs and animals must hate Diwali. </p><p>Guyana is developing. and to hell with peace and quiet and tidy environment.. we have wealth, wealth evidenced in beautiful spectacles and mass events which draw people together , many of whom leave their rubbish behind.<br /></p><p><b>"Hindus worship wealth"</b></p><p>"Hindus worship wealth" the man tells me. The Swami explained that going after wealth is not bad, though wealth with destruction of other values like clean and safe environment is not good. </p><p>I imagine that the Diwali bombs are the Government's gift to the citizens to allow them to blow off and express their rage and anger. </p><p>Nothing in the Vedic scriptures about Diwali and rage and anger.</p><p>But Hinduism is diverse, different ways of worshipping and celebrating. <br /></p><p><b>Laxmi Maa and wealth </b></p><p>An 85 year old woman talks about the mangoes and the bananas in her yard. Doctors advise her one hour a day as blood pressure is low but 'I come down and get carried away'. </p><p>The reserve near her "I got permission to plant trees".. sourie tree and other trees which are no longer present in Residential areas as concrete low maintenance development buildings come up to show the wealth. Gardens require maintenance and as many of us wealthy people are finding out 'people don't want to work' or do the work we don't want to do or can't do.<br /></p><p>"The soil is fertile there" .. I am the only one planting, the rich people have extended their properties."</p><p>So wealth in Guyana 2023? </p><p>Wealth in how much we can consume and dispose of, or wealth in how much we can grow, sustain, produce? </p><p>A tomato plant springs up in my gutter near to the septic tank. I am not sure which waste channel the seed came down. </p><p>I decide, let me try a thing, move the plant, and it looks like it catch. I got one tomato from the previous plant before it died. I could buy tomatoes from Brazil if I want with the wealth I have , but given how the Earth is going what if Brazil stop sending tomatoes to us?</p><p><b>Wealth without waste</b><br /></p><p>I hope that all those decorations at Mashramani, Diwali, Christmas are recycled, reused. </p><p>I know fairy lights only last two years for me and then have to be dumped so I don't bother. I could buy more with my wealth.<br /></p><p>Can we show wealth now without waste? Sadhguru has this Save Soil project which is about the soil and food security. <a href="https://churchroadman.blogspot.com/2021/10/preventing-gender-based-violence-and.html" target="_blank">Pandit Deodat Persaud and others have written</a> about protecting the Earth, the environment. </p><p>Imagining a Diwali and the practice of Hinduism which pays people not to terrorise animals and humans. </p><p>Imagining a Diwali and the practice of Hinduism which is about transforming wealth to not terrorising animals and humans, to encouraging sustainable and reusable decorations, about events which do not leave rubbish to blow at the feet of any murti in public space. <br /></p>Vidyaratha Kissoonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12625176305422426967noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6675310761074865042.post-38552648846674580582023-10-26T21:38:00.005-04:002023-10-26T21:47:04.182-04:00Madness in the art gallery on the opening of Timehri Film Festival 2023<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO4QZTfPuW4HAwPv3MPIb89BCto6L6yURMPsVxDnOrJ8pgJ4t65yRPS-Py4Fv0KLu9sS2DlOuOSPFg7DWXdesIyP3PyEWAshIwlrHCTRtyIBZG2UgsFbVWfHlvcMfLRT7X1WARQz1saw-9r6sBZAYXgqEPpI2vhNPEFKPea3-afj88Wbxmr5_BanNxRoM/s604/Film-Still-1HewLockeProcessiontff.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="294" data-original-width="604" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO4QZTfPuW4HAwPv3MPIb89BCto6L6yURMPsVxDnOrJ8pgJ4t65yRPS-Py4Fv0KLu9sS2DlOuOSPFg7DWXdesIyP3PyEWAshIwlrHCTRtyIBZG2UgsFbVWfHlvcMfLRT7X1WARQz1saw-9r6sBZAYXgqEPpI2vhNPEFKPea3-afj88Wbxmr5_BanNxRoM/s16000/Film-Still-1HewLockeProcessiontff.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Still from <a href="https://timehrifilmfestival.com/films/the-procession-by-hew-locke/">The Procession by Hew Locke</a><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p> <br /></p><p>
<b>Madness </b></p><p>"What is wrong with madness?" Bassodee Dolly asks in the film playing in the art gallery which once housed Burnham as I explained to the people from Belize who did not know they were standing in the space Burnham might have stood over Guyana which Janet Jagan converted into the Art Gallery.<br /></p><p>Bassodee Dolly talks about being mad through Joan Cambridge-Mayfield in a film with some amazing archival footage which moved too fast. She wants to sell her land for 10 billion US dollars and dares anyone to say why the land is not worth that amount.</p><p>The film Just <a href="https://timehrifilmfestival.com/films/just-3-people-talking/">3 People Talking</a> doesn't seem to go anywhere or to be about anything really, but it is about everything now. Ancestors, African, Indian and others.. 'all our ancestors' , and imagining that they are speaking to ask to act now. <br /></p><p>Joan Cambridge-Mayfield explains that she and idea for a Jumbie Jamboree, and she felt The Procession by Hew Locke was that Jamboree. </p><p>The Procession was the installation by Hew Locke paid for - as he hinted in his opening comments- with the money from sugar made by enslaved and indentured peoples. In the evening of the Castellani House Art Gallery, dark , the brilliant colours and the intricate work of the 'figures who are not going anywhere really'. </p><p>In the art gallery in Guyana, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2022/mar/27/hew-locke-the-procession-review-human-history-in-all-its-variety">watching the 140 figures which were about Guyana</a> and other places far away. This is different from watching this film on a laptop or phone. It is as though the screen is a window now, extending the gallery in another time and place, and the work of Elodie Cage smith on the wall, in the shadow seems to form part of the guard in which we could imagine the figures in the Procession leaving the Tate last year and coming into Castellani House. </p><p></p><p>Madness.. what is wrong with madness?<br /></p><p></p><p><b>Art Gallery</b> </p><p>"You aint gun touch the ground as you go in' the brilliant photographer asks me as we go into the room with Vishnu Mahadeo's Ramlila. </p><p>I could imagine anyone watching me thinking I was mad to be touching the random floor.. would I be honouring Burnham, or to imagine the space as sacred because the student from the University of Guyana had converted the room into a setting of puppets playing Ramlila. </p><p>We discuss whether Ravan is the lion sculptured like how Winslow Craig would do one, as the lion in Hindu mythology is Narsingh.. an avatar of Lord Vishnu and not necessarily 'evil'. Many of us Hindus imagined Burnham as Ravan... if I did bend down and touch the floor I would have to make sure I orient myself correctly or it would seem I was honouring Ravan and not the tableau of Rama, Sita, Laxman and Hanuman.<br /></p><p>Ramlila is playing in other parts of the world this week, except in Guyana where it is fortunately an installation and reminder of what used to be<br /></p>And in Just 3 People talking, I catch glimpses of the sacred Hindu altar, which I come home and go look and realise is part of the worship space of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@592spiritualbaptist" target="_blank">St Paul's Spiritual Baptist Church</a> in Buxton, Guyana. <p>There are images of the procession of the St Paul's Spiritual Baptist Church too, people honouring the gods of all ancestors in Guyana.. things which others would say is 'madness'. Hew Locke says his procession pays homage to all ancestors too.</p><p>I have to leave though before the film about an ancestor who is not honoured too much in Guyana - Walter Rodney. Walter Rodney in the house where Burnham must have cursed him. Both dead now.<br /></p><p>There is nice moonlight, the procession of cars on the road going somewhere.. </p><p>the gates are wide open, the guard hut is closed, no guard with a gun like the last time I was here. <br /></p>The <a href="https://timehrifilmfestival.com/">Timehri Film Festival</a> continues until Sunday 29th October, 2023.<br />Vidyaratha Kissoonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12625176305422426967noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6675310761074865042.post-71034085214107665262023-10-20T09:29:00.004-04:002023-10-20T11:08:26.019-04:00The Guava on the ground far from any tree..<p> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5Txft4zPZAgd2Wtm8ZoJ2gpuvl2eEJeysP7KeQ_NxEX_mehGlGDqSPQatPhDTrIL0q4VykcfN4Qc_ANZQOs3QUiNFD_QJuisn0kDSW7MfbLLCxPdTJOk2eCrupPvnTnLOp5weZ9GBbqsCE7I_JTE0LgPgTWAoaK75J3A9NaEUuoOi3Zq6CsBVz54gw50/s600/guava.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="414" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5Txft4zPZAgd2Wtm8ZoJ2gpuvl2eEJeysP7KeQ_NxEX_mehGlGDqSPQatPhDTrIL0q4VykcfN4Qc_ANZQOs3QUiNFD_QJuisn0kDSW7MfbLLCxPdTJOk2eCrupPvnTnLOp5weZ9GBbqsCE7I_JTE0LgPgTWAoaK75J3A9NaEUuoOi3Zq6CsBVz54gw50/s16000/guava.jpg" /></a><br /></p><p>
<b>Guava on the ground </b></p><p>Woke up early and watched the sunrise through the windows open for breeze in between the reading about twelve year old Sai in a Thai fantasy world. </p><p>I mean to get up with the sun but I started The Last Mapmaker by Christina Soontornvat, and then the sun on the bed brings me back to adult stuff in the present day. </p><p>Come downstairs and thinking of the intense madness of the day and months ahead as the Universe gifts have come all at once.<br /></p><p>On the grey concrete, in the shadow of the fence as the sun has not risen yet there, small yellow fruit. I think oh no, small yellow mango again dropping from the tree before ripening as part of the climate change madness.
Pick up the fruit and look at it. It looks like a guava. </p><p>I smell it. Beautiful guava smell. There are no marks on the skin, no bites, no holes for worms. <br /></p><p><b> Far from any tree </b></p><p>And as I inhale the guava smell early in the morning, I think nah, what guava doing here , there are no guava trees in my yard, or in any of the yards around me. There was no high wind as far as I know. <br /></p><p>We had a guava tree a long time ago which died and came back to life a few times before finally moving permanently to join the afterlife. </p><p>(Do the souls of trees join with the Atman of us humans in the great Brahman? )<br /></p><p></p><p>Suppose I eat it and turn more demonic than I am already?<br /></p><p>But is Navratra now, and not well Halloween so the guava could be a blessing from some random place?</p><p>Did a bird drop the guava? But birds eat the fruit on the trees as far as I know, they don't move with them in their claws? Or do they?</p><p>There is 'guava cheese paste' , and think of the loved one who loved guava cheese but no longer accepts gifts of guava cheese from me, and of wanting the Latinx guava pastries.<br /></p><p>A monkey might have dropped it, but picked it up again. Sometimes there are sapodillas and leaves under the house which I then learned is from yowrie making next somewhere.<br /></p><p>Or is it a thief man like the one comes for the sapodillas and the mangoes, did this fall from his fruit salad in the area?</p><p>There is no warning about not eating the guava as say, not eating the apple. </p><p>Should I put back the guava on the ground? leave it there? I do that
sometimes with other bird picked mangoes when I think is okay, leave it ,
no need to cut around the bird pick or bat pick or yowrie teeth marks.
But then what if the animals leave their juta for me? <br /></p><p>Is this a ghost come back from the dead guava tree that used to be in the yard? And visible on the concrete to tempt me?</p><p>And as I think of the other temptation in the week, I say, this is blessing. I accept it, pick it up. Cut it in four, no worms. </p><p>No blemishes. Think , should I eat it. </p><p>Piece falls on the ground. I pick up and rub off the germs and so on as you do.</p><p>Eat the guava with gratitude . Fingers still smelling of the guava long after I have eaten it. Enjoy the temptation.<br /></p><p>And the only consequence of eating the guava so far is writing this blog instead of the others things which will be part of the intense madness of the days and months ahead.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>-----</p><p>PS. Looked closely and realise there is guava tree in the yard at the back of me, but still this guava was far away from the tree..<br /></p>Vidyaratha Kissoonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12625176305422426967noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6675310761074865042.post-55824491893173924322023-10-12T16:15:00.005-04:002023-10-12T16:23:21.349-04:00Afghani Borani Banjan Guyana style.. بوراني بنجان<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnEjIBySfQd5lat-nZ214v6pr30YGk3tU0SfjOoc92IebJ6P1OnobKELyp6WD85OwDnhkjiurDmsaqxlyAoVrbq6khKGo6mEb99d3ZKDUZ33a1-8ZHjswzgUbyjGU6d3nwrct6iBMfXxWGfTzOGP2UR-akNRgNh0_PonOIe-WmL1cnIONLALhqvcTheP4/s700/borani.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="700" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnEjIBySfQd5lat-nZ214v6pr30YGk3tU0SfjOoc92IebJ6P1OnobKELyp6WD85OwDnhkjiurDmsaqxlyAoVrbq6khKGo6mEb99d3ZKDUZ33a1-8ZHjswzgUbyjGU6d3nwrct6iBMfXxWGfTzOGP2UR-akNRgNh0_PonOIe-WmL1cnIONLALhqvcTheP4/s16000/borani.jpg" /></a></div><br />
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<b>Afghani Borani Banjan.. </b></p><p>Rough time as body feels the 'year ago' significant events even as calendars and time are just artificial things. But knowledge and opportunity are there to also shift things away and to let bring new memories for the body and soul to feel.</p><p>And strange things.. listening to a man talking about 'clapping lash on his children' and cussing silently to the man cutting my hair. Thinking of when is good for education to big men who beat their children that they are bullies. But then is a busy day.. no time to cuss up anybody and then try to recover from it. </p><p>Every day can be a cuss day. <br /></p><p>Wondering what else to make with baigan and thanks to the internet , end up with the Afghani Borani Banjan dish. And thanks to the Internet .. as one of the cooks says, there is no one way to make the Borani Banjan. The baigan is basically sliced, fried (lord that oil!!) first, a tomato sauce is made with garlic and spices, and then the baigan is mixed in. </p>The plating across the different recipes is consistent, first put some of the yoghurt mixed with garlic and herbs on a plate and then layer the baigan/tomato mixture. And eat with roti or with rice.<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1lzRlf0hYWU" width="320" youtube-src-id="1lzRlf0hYWU"></iframe></div><br /> <p></p><p>So I mix and match the various recipes, some do not have onions, some do. </p><p>Nuff tomatoes and I think nah, let me wait until tomato price
come down. Use all tomato paste.</p><p>But this week, some small ones for $460 a pound and I think man.. is two
pastry , buy the damn tomato and make the thing. </p><p>And there is a difference when real tomatoes in the mix with the tomato paste.<br /></p><p> All the recipes ask for mint and I am too lazy to go to get the fresh mint. Others want coriander leaves.<br /></p><p>Some cooks salt the baigan a bit to get the moisture out, some do not . </p><p>Some have plenty oil, others less oil. There are different spices in different quantities. <br /></p><p><b>Guyana style..</b></p><p>And so on a busy day, I stop what I need to do and decide right. Let's try a thing. There is dahee which has to be used out, grate the garlic and put lil salt in it and lil dry shellot (not a good substitute for mint but.. ) leave one side.</p><p>I will try with one small baigan and see. <br /></p><p>I slice the baigan and salt it. I will do it on the tawa, not in that oil thing! Baigan soaks up oil. The tawa does not create 'golden brown' but there is a nice charring... skin is there too.</p><p>Then make up the sauce, more garlic. </p><p>I am supposed to sing this evening and I think oh heck, hope the garlic is gone by then. Garlic in the oil, with the tomato and paste.the yellow seasoning pepper instead of the assorted chilli powder and paste and the place smell nice. <br /></p><p>A lil Fried Rice spice to make up for the other missing spices .</p><p>Turn heat low and simmer for 7 minutes as the stove low still high and sauce could dry out in the 15 minutes they ask for. Apparently the thing is not supposed to have too much gravy but it is not supposed to be dry either.<br /></p><p>Wash up wares and so.. is plenty wares. Garlic smelling all over.<br /></p><p>Then put in the baigan in the pan, spoon some of the sauce on top, baigan feeling a bit 'tough'.</p><p>Simmer all together for a few minutes more.</p><p>Then now to do the plating.. spread the dahee/garlic mix on the plate, then some of the borani , then some drops of the dahee/garlic and then some borani and finish off with the streaks. </p><p>Is the first time I 'plating'. <br /></p><p>Then dip the roti and take lil bit . Intense nice spicy flavour. I imagining the mint with all of it. </p><p>Rich. </p><p>Day looks better now.</p>Vidyaratha Kissoonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12625176305422426967noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6675310761074865042.post-13237660434073529772023-10-07T09:55:00.003-04:002023-10-07T12:48:06.744-04:00Are Hindus and Muslims dividing in dry weather oily OneGuyana 2023?<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGHk-ZaFlWgvSUMVd9OBdQ_vvC6Qw3HhO9y-69Z2pnIxnuZ-Fi2nhGZoIOGyOrFsr2a-oz57Re3EVkzpHFrhy2ktcN7SVI_ROp6laWqzBqem0a65hQWzSCh87x9RQbSx7Y3vN9H9SIKL8y8dVau8Hqq_5jm03eV5zsfWfwtmWEhaLnmkCN0YHE_kB5-bk/s550/mushin.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="435" data-original-width="550" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGHk-ZaFlWgvSUMVd9OBdQ_vvC6Qw3HhO9y-69Z2pnIxnuZ-Fi2nhGZoIOGyOrFsr2a-oz57Re3EVkzpHFrhy2ktcN7SVI_ROp6laWqzBqem0a65hQWzSCh87x9RQbSx7Y3vN9H9SIKL8y8dVau8Hqq_5jm03eV5zsfWfwtmWEhaLnmkCN0YHE_kB5-bk/s16000/mushin.jpg" /></a><br /><p></p><p>
<b>Hindus and Muslims </b></p><p>2021 and a Hindu man tells me that Muslims are saying that their time has come, in Region 3 where President Irfaan Ali is from. </p><p>According to 2012 census, 25% of the population say they are Hindu, 7 % say they are Muslim. There can be no assumptions about Hindus or Muslims vote.<br /></p><p>Hindu organisations condemn the Pandit from the PNC who asks if the President does not want to work with him because he is Hindu. </p><p>A man picks me up on the road to mandir and we talk about Bhagvad Gita, and the teaching and the lessons and consequences for the bad governance and the corruption in Guyana which many Hindus do not seem to object to.<br /></p><p>He tells me that .. "and now the Muslims are getting anything.. " and shares stories about the discrimination against Hindus in favour of Muslims in the awarding of contracts at local Government level. He has no personal experience because he tells me in his years of doing business in Guyana "I never get a government contract "<br /></p><p>I ask another man who is keen on Guyana's economics and politics and who is scientific in his thoughts. He tells me that he is also hearing. He is not really measuring. He reminds me that there was a Guiana United Muslim Party and wikipedia says that in 1964 and 1968 they contest elections, and states they were funded by the CIA and that they did not really split the PPP votes.<br /></p><p>Another Hindu man tells me that Muslims in Guyana were going to form another political party and split the PPP vote so the Hindus had to concede when the PPP selected Irfaan Ali as their President.</p><p>He also tells me of complaints among PPP supporters that is only friends and family getting things - not every single PPP supporter, and regardless of religion really. He tells me that Muslim resources are enough to convert many poor people who might have been aligned with the Hindu faith, but who might not have money for daily living.</p><p><b>Further dividing dry weather.. oily OneGuyana </b></p><p>I have not voted in National elections. I have eaten salt from Muslims and Hindus who support the PPP , and from people who think Modi's Hinduism is the best thing to happen to Hindus. </p><p>I have never heard before 2021, that Hindus felt that 'Muslims getting everything'. The economic discrimination is aligned with the Black/coolie and political party madness. </p><p>The few Muslims I speak to about governance have not told me they expect any more from Irfaan Ali than they do from any other PPP or PNC President. <br /></p><p>And so in this messy oily OneGuyana, where divide and rule is working hard as the Oil industry cannot thrive in a place with strong institutions, do we just mutter among ourselves? </p><p></p><p>The Ethnic Relations Commission is one place to deal with issues of discrimination on the basis of religion. The ERC though has to respond to complaints and then investigate . Complaints need evidence and affidavits and people willing to give testimony. </p><p>Bad feelings are not good, they grow and spread in ways and in a place with enough divisions, there should be no need to add another.</p><p>The irony though, is that the solution will require complaints, data gathering, evidence, discussion about the allocation of resources in dry weather OilyGuyana.</p><p>So maybe now is the opportunity for Hindus and Muslims to talk about this, openly and finding solutions. </p><p>And maybe in fixing the experiences of discrimination, contribute to the fixing of the racial and other divisions in the place.</p><p>Because the place is getting hotter and many Hindus and Muslims and others will not have access to AC, and divisions will not cool us down.<br /></p>Vidyaratha Kissoonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12625176305422426967noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6675310761074865042.post-37986459320707712862023-09-30T18:42:00.004-04:002023-09-30T18:54:58.186-04:00Yellow flowers, gallos de pelea and unimaginable hot September things..<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEpqwwf82F9LoGw7JIGYtFYyCdf42_VTIlr1UNRjuZ8AyHkVLn1qP51jTcWUfEw5kRXgXw456GbyBkhePcrMOGsOB76uAne05mJsPHF1u51VfBc6qTC8bCor-2AoCXbo-idixUUAUxnEI-8dqXBbXDmOInk3Dg9hyphenhyphenVdBCiw0PXwHCC458N688CRHmkyBM/s596/septflower.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="298" data-original-width="596" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEpqwwf82F9LoGw7JIGYtFYyCdf42_VTIlr1UNRjuZ8AyHkVLn1qP51jTcWUfEw5kRXgXw456GbyBkhePcrMOGsOB76uAne05mJsPHF1u51VfBc6qTC8bCor-2AoCXbo-idixUUAUxnEI-8dqXBbXDmOInk3Dg9hyphenhyphenVdBCiw0PXwHCC458N688CRHmkyBM/s16000/septflower.jpg" /></a></div><p><br />
<b><span style="background-color: #ffe599;">Yellow flowers </span></b></p><p> 'Mr Kissoon , I come for lil bird seed' the weed man tells me. The grass is thriving in the concrete cracks in the heat - grass, bush, pusilane (hog weed). Is nice to see the bird seed grass there. The man tells me it just does not grow in his yard, even as it grows wild everywhere else. Now I wonder if I should weed them down. </p><p>But the patch though, early morning -ish and the bush which survived the tomato and pumpkin and other things which died before bearing.. yellow flowers every early morning.. and then on the ground another 'bush with another kind of yellow flower and at some point the pusilane/hog weed has tiny yellow flowers.</p><p>Place hot, and mind is on snow and ice and days when the windows closed to lock out the cold breeze and not on three kinds of yellow 'wild flowers' which come and go...</p><p>I tried some of the pusilane a day which tasted nice but I think give me belly wuk so I will leave them to thrive and cover the concrete and bear small yellow flowers.</p><p>Thinking about yellow flowers as a way not to think about the things not done, exercising just not happening, things taking longer to do in the heat and when nerves on the skin are waiting for the breeze to check to see if the breeze is cool or warm. </p><p> Mind running on other things.. distractions.. while also ignoring some things.... imagining the sea wall and sea breeze though I remember low tide could be hot as well..<br /></p><p> <b>Gallos de pelea</b></p><p> And as though watching in another country, seeing the story about the migrants and remigrants from V<a href="https://youtu.be/I4YsVUJS8vc?feature=shared" target="_blank">enezuela arriving on boats at the Tuschen Sea dam</a>. In the week of the official back and forth about Venezuela and Guyana and Essequibo.</p><p>Shabna Rahman's voice is briefly interrupted by shots of palanquins like, and roosters crowing .. with an small caption .. fighting fowls. Place is hot and as I watch the story of the people travelling five days on the boar, arriving hungry, dirty, glad to be here.. I am trying to imagine the fighting fowls from Venezuela in Guyana. </p><p>The police man is polite, explaining that cock fighting is illegal in Guyana. Did he even imagine when he went to work that he would have to make a decision about this version of fighters from Venezuela in a week of Venezuelan aggression?<br /></p><p>The woman has brought these assets though from a place where cock fighting is not illegal. What will happen to her ?<br /></p><p></p><p>And I go to google to find out about the 'gallos de pelea' . And while I have indulged in arepas, and chicha and empanada on the Georgetown streets.. , I wonder if the gallos de pelea would be roaming around as well..</p><p></p><p>And I complain about heat and wondering what the journey on the ocean would be like from Venezuela to Guyana , if it as hot as it is on land.. </p><p>people commenting though, labourers needed.. yep.. as Guybai builds' , 'cheap labour' is needed as one of the guys I know who likes working a few days a week.. </p><p>Cheap labour in Guybai from Venezuela, like how cheap labour from Africa, and China and India..<br /></p><p><b>Heat..</b></p><p> Wake up and hear voices and there are young men mostly in the street cleaning drains.. according to one man they start work around 4am. </p><p>The guys are not wearing shirts, in the mud.. one comes later to ask for a blessing as he says they will not be paid until work done and they need to get things to clean skin and so on. The come from South Georgetown on the contract to clean.</p><p></p><p>Last time there were Venezuelan workers, two had asked me for water. </p><p>Guyana apparently needs 100,000 labourers like this, to work in conditions which seem not far from conditions like the other ancestors who had come on boats 'legally'.</p><p>Place is hot. I go to make a contribution and encounter a public servant, who is polite and friendly. The public servant sensibly asks the right questions, ignoring the nonsense on the form which has been provided. Place is hot and I realise I can't hail up the public servant because the public servant might be penalised for not asking the stupid questions.</p><p>Thinking of the policeman on the Tuschen Sea dam trying to explain to the woman from Venezuela about the gallos de pelea and of having to make decisions about them which have no bearing in 'law' but in common sense.</p><p>Didn't imagine that I could think of the two public servants trying their best. </p><p><b>AC on my head in the minibus</b></p><p>Last day of September and we getting ready for a hotter October. Head is bare though, sun is on the head. A cancer survivor who has lost his hair also in the sun, saying nah, he can't wear hat either.</p><p>Minibus pulls up.. loud music. I think heck is either the heat or loud music and reach home quick. </p><p>Go in and realise the AC is on. and there is ths AC on my head and I don't hear the music. And I remember how I must not go straight from hot to cold but I think my head already not good and take this blessing.</p><p>Come to Church Road and conductor says 'Mr Kissoon, do you still practice'? and I get a lil confused and say 'practice..' and he say yes 'counselling'..</p><p>And had to unfreeze the brain and say something about ;front line listening and referral and so on.. and we talk about 'help' and 'therapy'.</p><p>I don't tell him though that therapy in the heat is writing about random things which really make no sense.<br /></p>Vidyaratha Kissoonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12625176305422426967noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6675310761074865042.post-90596401166756214632023-09-17T14:07:00.009-04:002023-09-17T14:14:24.626-04:00Minding people business with a milkshake near a public toilet in Georgetown<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWv8DYz3yWNc_8xOKd9S9BLSkdeJhoZbZlRb4MUrmtNyhsK8YNncYzZPbVv_1j1MQah3xeIgDRXVALuJLhDec3BRGuWJMmcPzBkUhVvIlH_lFSTKLmL4neITHx9J03x44oyUY_5lmw7bqy8fVraa70tXKo_4RnlVYE0QQy7vWuC4A8pNEOyLxOoKQ8yT4/s600/milkshake.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="375" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWv8DYz3yWNc_8xOKd9S9BLSkdeJhoZbZlRb4MUrmtNyhsK8YNncYzZPbVv_1j1MQah3xeIgDRXVALuJLhDec3BRGuWJMmcPzBkUhVvIlH_lFSTKLmL4neITHx9J03x44oyUY_5lmw7bqy8fVraa70tXKo_4RnlVYE0QQy7vWuC4A8pNEOyLxOoKQ8yT4/s16000/milkshake.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>
<b>Milkshake <br /></b></p><p>
"Yes we have milkshake" the woman says with a smile. I had asked quietly, like back in the day going to buy condoms or sanitary pads, because well , it was 9am. </p><p>Call comes in as I am on my way to town for the 9am meeting and say meeting is now 10am. It make no sense to go home and come back , place hot, and traffic and so. I say 'no problems, I will go and sit in Demico' - one of Guyana's national treasures near the minibus hub and with AC. </p><p>I walk over the soapy water on the pavement with an apologetic look at the man in long boots and no shirt washing down. </p><p>Go in and try to ignore signs saying 'No Loitering' and I realise heck but is loiter I want to loiter and there is this thing about the thin line between customer and loiterer. </p><p>Go and stand up and look long long long at the piles of pastries. Demico. </p><p>I see a single swiss roll, and my heart jumps, but then I say wait wait.. is a single one, I am suspicious, and realise that swiss roll must have been abandoned by its batchmates a while ago. Demico. </p><p>The glass case don't look like it steamy. I examine closely, trying to gauge from the texture of the cake.. can I see some hint of softness or is there a firmness which has come from waiting for me for awhile,</p><p>looking beneath the lovely cinammon and icing on the roll, checking to see if the rolls have slightly indented as they cuddle each other, or if they like two strong man hugging up, and retaining their shape.. and </p><p>looking at the pastry flakes still dancing or if it kind of flat, because well Demico.. national treasure and reflective of people generally, sometimes you lucky, sometimes you not lucky .. (except buns because you can always crumble the buns and soak in milk, while some people no matter how much milk you soak dem in.. nothing will change)
.., . </p><p>I contemplate coffee but coffee need pastry ..</p><p>to hell with it.. and I ask about the milk shake.
I feel bad as I pay for the milkshake what I could have paid for a 2lb banana or 1 small pineapple or three bundle bhajee to make a smoothie.. </p><p>Look around the place and realise two women my generation or older are each sitting alone, eating cones, and there is a child. I am shocked .. wondering about these women and their health and diabetes I collect my milkshake. </p><p>Make sure I set , one door to my right, one door in front of me. Spy movies and so , you do not back the door. </p><p><b>Minding people business</b></p><p></p><p>
Milkshake is frozen. I didn't know I had to bring a book, and I don't have a smartphone. So I mind people business. I could have meditated but I don't know if people would notice me meditating, while they would not notice me minding their business.<br /></p><p>I seh rite, this gun last longer than say a hot coffee which get cold. I see one woman eating the cone slowly too. Looking to the door, and the phone. The other woman with her bag in front, eating the cone. She finishes the cone. I see her open bag, count money, change. I know that feeling after the end of market and deciding to go buy the things I should have bought. Some of us can just pull out the $1000 $5000 bill and just pay like it doesn't matter. Some of us have to count change, put aside the bus money.</p><p>Woman leaves her bag on the table. </p><p>Comes back with a nice cold looking sweet drink. I say oh lord lady, but is how much shugah you done tek and is not even half past nine. The milkshake soften so I could sip it slowly.<br /></p><p>Another woman my age or older , in scrubs, reading phone, face set in a relaxed smile. A young woman looking left and right, her toddler running around. I aint see no white bag or plastic cups or bottles on their tables. </p><p></p><p>Some other people sitting alone like me. Lots of people on their phones. Old people, young people.</p><p>Woman mopping the floor, smile on her face. I always feel weird when walking on wet floors and apologise to the women nearby. <br /></p><p>Three cheerful young men. Straining ears to catch conversation , sounds like Spanish. Maybe mixed with another language.</p><p>Rucksacks, tee shirt, knee length shorts, flip flops. Might be labourers, I think about miners. </p><p>The young men finish eating, get up. One of them points to a door in the wall and the woman tells him something and they both laugh. Nice to see this interaction, strangers laughing with other.</p><p>Woman opens the door and the man goes in. I imagine the door as a portal. </p><p>Eyes drawn to the door in the wall which is not far from the exit door in front of me. </p><p>And I realise that people opening the door, come in, go through the portal.</p><p><b>Public toilet</b></p><p>The portal is the toilet. </p><p>A big man with massive silver locks. A young man with a bag. A man who walks slowly, dirty shirt, dirty pants, dirty slippers. Comes in from the door to the right of me, goes through the portal, comes out and walks back slowly out. <br /></p><p>I always have an eye for mapping toilets. Knowing what could be the 'cheapest' thing to buy if I have to use a 'customer only' toilet. Buying random pastries and juices because I didn't want to use Georgetown as the urinal.<br /></p><p>I remember this book store in New York which had a sign, "yes, you can use the toilet. "</p><p>Realising that Demico has this public service going on. Do people go and use the toilets in the Parliament Buildings opposite? </p><p><b>Minding more people business</b></p><p><b> </b>An older man sitting like me, eye on both doors. Face a bit worried, , plaid knee length shorts wid a litle bow knot , hot red boots with a shiny swirl. I am in awe. </p><p>I watching big men fashion now. The relief security guard with his darkish pink shorts and hot pink short as he comes in the dusk to do night work, the pink showing up. Brave men. </p><p>I watch the older man in the red boots with my cowardly blue tee shirt and black pants and dusty black sandals dat had to stitch up.</p><p>He is calling someone who is not answering, and calling again.
I can see the phone icon. I can't see what name the contact saved on though. <br /></p><p>I see a man sitting with the young woman with the toddler. The toddler is laughing at him. He is counting some money too, but he put the money back in his pocket. Did the woman have to give him money? </p><p>He picks up the child and holds her above his h ead and the child laughs. They leave . Without buying anything. (His pants half down his hips.. and I wondering when old men wondering how young men dressing and I thinking about them hot red boots and pink clothes. </p><p>Maybe one day I will walk around with one of my pants falling down around my hips, all I have to do is to not tie the elastic tighter. A pink pants)</p><p>Milkshake is nice and liquid now. Sipping though because if I drink it out, I gun have to go and buy another one.</p><p>Cleaner clears some tables. She sits and laughs with another woman. <br /></p><p>Man walks in, long sleeved, cap, back pack. </p><p>Sits for a few minutes, Gets up, walks out the other door. </p><p>Another man, comes the door at the side of me. Nice black stick. He is walking across. I wonder if the toilet is disability friendly. </p><p>Man walks though, past the portal door, walks out the other door.</p><p> </p><p><b>Passing through.</b></p><p></p><p>Milkshake finish and I think arite, I can loiter lil bit. A young man comes in, black pants, gold shirt. Dressed like morning after a formal evening. <br /></p><p>Gold crucifix hanging on his neck, not too visible on the gold shirt. Tattoo on his face. <br /></p><p>No expression on the face, kind of serious. </p><p>Sits for a bit, Gets up, buys something, sits at another table and faces both doors to eat.</p><p>Message comes through. Meeting is now 11. I think of them pastries at the back of me in the glass case. And a coffee.</p><p>I get up and leave .. go find another place to sit down and eat a roti and pumpkin and bhajee. <br /></p><p>I don't know if anyone noticed me leaving.. like the man with the stick.. coming and going.<br /></p>Vidyaratha Kissoonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12625176305422426967noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6675310761074865042.post-89488840912872501332023-09-15T22:01:00.002-04:002023-09-15T22:01:52.098-04:00The Neglected totem pole and hope at the 2023 Indigenous Heritage Exhibition<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR08GgZcIEnRNqRAxiB_fEQtUNwbOpQLTHNc7nvDELYYcJrV24KlIHIa0H-c5Ho48XunfxA3l8SzAJTS1hhnh14CCy25HmQ2YDKLo01XSXulL5tRI4JpmGz6EctETbNXAxXP1zDRgGOsGoc16TzWmVqw74yB5-s2JnZXvst-GGsTu1yOJ86aQjRDAb_Xo/s550/ind2023.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="297" data-original-width="550" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR08GgZcIEnRNqRAxiB_fEQtUNwbOpQLTHNc7nvDELYYcJrV24KlIHIa0H-c5Ho48XunfxA3l8SzAJTS1hhnh14CCy25HmQ2YDKLo01XSXulL5tRI4JpmGz6EctETbNXAxXP1zDRgGOsGoc16TzWmVqw74yB5-s2JnZXvst-GGsTu1yOJ86aQjRDAb_Xo/s16000/ind2023.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">NO photography allowed so blog graphic generated by AI<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p><b>The Moving Circle of Artists</b></p><p> The young guard stood in the doorway of the hut and said 'the gate open'. His hands in his pocket and leaning on the post. I asked him if the gun too heavy (I see it on the desk in the hut) and he laughs. I don't ask him if he has seen the exhibition.</p><p>Castellani House grounds are cooler than the minibus which was stuck in traffic and which had two women with their children trying to sit away from the sun. Nice benches, but benabs which don't have seats in them. Not sure if the benabs without seats and the benches in the sun are some kind of art installation too.<br /></p><p>The booklet on the desk inside presents the Moving Circle of Artists. A mix of all genders and ages, experiences, and of people who produce art in different forms. </p><p>There is a nice mix of painted wood, sculpture, paintings on the wall. The paintings of hinterland landscapes, animals, and some human figures.</p><p>There is an installation of tie dyed fabric. I wish there was some breeze to move the fabric gently, give it life. The windows though are closed, no doubt to protect the installation.<br /></p><p></p><p><br /></p><p><b>Neglect and decay</b><br /></p><p>There is another installation. I thought it was a waterfall. Fabric flowing with red markings, white space and blue markings on the floor. </p><p>I go closer, looking for the name tag. I see the photos on the wall, beautifully framed. The black and white photos of the 50 ft totem pole lying on its side in the Umana Yana ground.</p><p>There is an explanation of the installation - the Chronology of Neglect. I am shocked - this is a powerful political piece. The neglected work, paid for by the Government, the neglect now a monument in its way next to the Umana Yana., with no clear explanation why it was not mounted.<br /></p><p>Reminder that the Government could keep the Indigenous people down while pretending to honour them by maintaining the Umana Yana? <br /></p><p>The installation has been created by a group of artists. There is an explanation of the different parts. I read it twice - the connection to the environment, the past and present, and the future in which the artists hope that Indigenous people will be appreciated .</p><p></p><p><b>The woman and the man on the road and hope</b><br /></p><p>Leaving and writing comments in the book. Look up again and see the painting<b> Tiger Pond </b>by Ransford Simon, point it out to the Gallery Attendant. She laughs and says it is her favourite too, she doesn't know why. We talk about the bicycle, kind of not straight, the man wheeling it, the woman next to him but away from him, backs to us as they walk on this winding road to distant mountains.</p><p>Something about the winding, the slowness. Imagining the man riding up to the woman and coming down and walking with her, but there is space where it looks like she could have walked alone. </p><p>They don't look in a hurry. Something calming about them. They exist in that space with the mountains, the trees. </p><p>And on the flat coastland with heavy traffic and heat, the mountains look cool and nice.. some kind of goal, might not reach there, but always present.<br /></p><p>So some hope in way.</p><p>Writing this now, as I messed up in a human interaction after the exhibition, and imagining that winding road towards the mountain still.<br /></p><p></p><p>Leaving the cool grounds, looking at the benches without people contrasting with the plenty traffic on the road outside.</p><p>The guard is sitting in the hut. The gun is on the desk, not too close to him.<br /></p><p><br /></p><p><i>The Moving Circle of Artists' work is presented in the 2023 Indigenous Heritage Exhibition at Castellani House until 30 September, 2023 </i><br /></p>Vidyaratha Kissoonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12625176305422426967noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6675310761074865042.post-20250013153567567042023-09-05T10:06:00.006-04:002023-09-05T10:17:20.361-04:00 4 women, 22 men and the image of the future of Islam in Guyana?<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijcybVRgGZElNkFzw84KZFPYINCje5CcviEf0dQgDwoyZ771qMN2_FbDanue8T11Bv4Q04pwM3myMLmk42iUy1U05yMmkq0G7aq9AQu-SRTvrII58HUqCENFcJAgJIYlLqDql1IlCldby7nudThL8D4i8TChvC9R7085vC-ldSmdIwjKFpLUrpYpru_vA/s798/gc5Sept2023.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="523" data-original-width="798" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijcybVRgGZElNkFzw84KZFPYINCje5CcviEf0dQgDwoyZ771qMN2_FbDanue8T11Bv4Q04pwM3myMLmk42iUy1U05yMmkq0G7aq9AQu-SRTvrII58HUqCENFcJAgJIYlLqDql1IlCldby7nudThL8D4i8TChvC9R7085vC-ldSmdIwjKFpLUrpYpru_vA/s16000/gc5Sept2023.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image from <a href="https://guyanachronicle.com/2023/09/05/education-dialogue-paramount-to-countering-islamophobia/">Guyana Chronicle 5 Sept, 2023</a><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p><b>The picture of 4 women and 22 men and the Government of Guyana<br /></b></p>
<p>Image has nice mix of black<b>, </b>coolie and others. Guyana and I keep looking at crowds and images, how many coolie, how many black people, how many others. </p><p>And then to count the women and men in the photo (and using gender binaries based on appearance as there might be other genders which are not expressed). </p><p>The Government of Guyana co-sponsoring a conference with the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation about the <a href="https://caribbean.loopnews.com/content/guyana-hosting-symposium-legacy-islam-caribbean">History& Legacies of Muslims in the Caribbean.</a> </p><p>The Government of Guyana did not think it was appropriate to show that Guyana must show gender equality in all of its activities especially, and to insist that Muslim women have an equally important and visible role as Muslim men in the legacy of Muslims in the Caribbean.</p><p><b>The all male opening ceremony</b></p><p>I nervously open the message from Dr Aliyah Khan. An invitation to the conference, which 'should be open to the public'. <br /></p><p>Dr Aliyah Khan has written <a href="https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/far-from-mecca/9781978806641" target="_blank">Far from Mecca: Globalizing the Muslim Caribbean</a>. </p><p>This is the second invitation this weekend from one of the people younger than me whose work opens up new histories of legacies of Indian indentureship in the Caribbean. <br /></p><p>I had said yes to the other invitation thinking there must be some ancestral prodding with the blue moon.<br /></p><p>I check the opening ceremony which is livestreamed. It is sickening, an all male opening ceremony in 2023 Guyana. </p><p>I think of one of the Muslim women I know of my grandmother's generation who ran her own business, and wore her orhini and had divorced her abusive husband at a time when coolie woman did not divorce. <br /></p><p>She and her sisters and daughters and granddaughters are not in this opening ceremony. The Government of Guyana apparently does not recognise that visibility.</p><p>Two of the men who are speaking refer to Dr Aliyah Khan's work. </p><p>One man from Guyana though refers to Dr Khan as 'he', probably could not imagine that Muslim women are writing books. </p><p>I wished that the Government of Guyana invited Dr Aliyah Khan and other Muslim women to be visible and speaking at the opening ceremony. </p><p>The media reports of the opening ceremony would have countered the idea that the idea that Muslim women cannot speak in the presence of Muslim men.<br /></p><p><b>Gender, Islamophobia</b></p><p>The work on gender-based violence and child protection means interacting with Guyanese in diverse settings. </p><p>The Muslim community in Guyana from the beginning has encouraged discussions about gender-based violence. </p><p>I have been anxious and nervous, Hindu man going into different Muslim spaces, some segregated, some all-women/girls, some all men/boys, some not segregated. And meetingh Sunni, Shi'a, Ahmadi Muslims and understanding that practice of Islam is diverse.<br /></p><p>I am conscious that I have facilitated discussions with more Muslims, and more Christians, than with Hindus. <br /></p><p>I also have to learn more about Islam in the world as the discussions around LGBTIQ equality show rejection from large sections of the Muslim community about homosexuality. And all of this after 9/11.</p><p>And also as the Muslim leader asks me if I would deal with alcohol culture as the Muslims do not want to lead it as it would seem anti-Hindu (Hindus are active in the alcohol industry and culture). Another Muslim leader explains that yes.. some Muslim men drink at the Hindu owned shops in the village except during periods. A Muslim social worker explains though that the rates of suicide are higher among Hindu men than Muslim men because of the difference in alcohol consumption.<br /></p><p>And I witness, thinking of Malcolm X in Mecca recognising the diversity of Islam, as a gay Bosnian Muslim man cries in relief, and joy after Friday prayers led by a gay South African Imam. </p><p>And I think of the absence of women from this opening ceremony, as the Taliban oppress women in Afghanistan. </p><p>And I have no business to decide who is a good Muslim or who is not a good Muslim. </p><p>I hope though that anyone's idea of being a good Muslim in Guyana should not clash with the rights of any other Guyanese.<br /></p><p><b>The image of the future of Islam in Guyana<br /></b></p><p>The young Hindu man asks me about separation of church and state. I know, the politics of Guyana and the co-operation with the OIC (and imagining co-operation with some of the emerging versions of other other religions in global politics to continue oppression of others ). </p><p>Do we expect the Government of Guyana to start looking at the History and Legacies of the Christians of different denominations, and the Hindus of different beliefs?</p><p>On the right, I recognise Shaykh Moeenul Hack-who is the Director of Education and Dawaa at the Centrial Islamic Organisation of Guyana, and current chair of the Ethnic Relations Commission. He has been one of the persons who has taught me about Islam, and the experiences of Muslims in Guyana. </p><p>And has a role as so many other religious leaders to come to terms with the past and the violent legacies in the unequal present.<br /></p><p></p><p>And to the right of the photo, the two young women ( I recognise Dr Aliyah Khan and <a href="https://nsengaknight.com/about-2/" target="_blank">Nsenga Knight,</a> ) to the right , in front, doing different work of history, and future and imagination.<br /></p><p>Thinking that these two women are in front , leading the men at the back with the knowledge from the man the side, and other women and men.<br /></p><p>Or leaving them behind.</p><p></p>Vidyaratha Kissoonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12625176305422426967noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6675310761074865042.post-64892613062339035802023-08-31T16:07:00.003-04:002023-08-31T16:09:46.435-04:00Guyana 2023 as we bury more and more of our children<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRuUM0cf49jEgRTI90Dhm-JpfMB4So5JkXM1-FPYCLIvLQd9FlplTNjJobAGkCirIlXUIvw3cEdsI0ZdIdJXAOmsJgbJUqECVjg2LHuPJvdgpcYK5u-mJ_fxnUdTw1BCvXfn6A4E3HDl9G6zKbEadz30kCENg1Qh0Zhx6L9ZHpY7GTb9QiDwXdFfKzzn8/s600/chil.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRuUM0cf49jEgRTI90Dhm-JpfMB4So5JkXM1-FPYCLIvLQd9FlplTNjJobAGkCirIlXUIvw3cEdsI0ZdIdJXAOmsJgbJUqECVjg2LHuPJvdgpcYK5u-mJ_fxnUdTw1BCvXfn6A4E3HDl9G6zKbEadz30kCENg1Qh0Zhx6L9ZHpY7GTb9QiDwXdFfKzzn8/s16000/chil.jpg" /></a><br />
<b> </b></p><p><b>Burying our children</b>
</p><p></p><p>How many of our children have we buried since the beginning of 2023?</p><p>Friends my age have children and grandchildren and I think of children as anybody who must be 23 sometimes 25 years and younger because they far away in age from me. </p><p>And 'our children' because all of us adults have responsibility for all of Guyana's children.<br /></p><p>Yeah, we know.. death is inevitable, we can only choose how we live and not how we die, and the soul is eternal.<br /></p><p>These work when people my age and older die. </p><p>And we know that no And that No parent should have to bury their child.</p><p>But something is wrong in Guyana. More and more children dying in ways which are 'preventable'.<br /></p><p>I am not counting, not all are in the newspapers. </p><p><b>Guyana 2023 </b><br /></p><p>But .. </p><p>The 9 children since Saturday 26th August, 2023 in the road accident who died , including a 10 month old baby and the child who visited a function I attended and was cheerful and hopeful about the future;</p><p>The two boy children who died by suicide in the same village even as the silence around suicide prevention has intensified, (The hotline at <span class="x193iq5w xeuugli x13faqbe x1vvkbs x1xmvt09 x1lliihq x1s928wv xhkezso x1gmr53x x1cpjm7i x1fgarty x1943h6x xudqn12 x3x7a5m x6prxxf xvq8zen xo1l8bm xzsf02u x1yc453h" dir="auto"> 600-7896 .)<br /></span></p><p> the boy who died by drowning, as other children have died by drowning on casual outings or near their homes<br /></p><p> the boy who died after someone chopped him and his mother, </p><p>the girl who died in fire after some one killed her aunt and her, and the other child who was nearly gunned down with the big man who was the target of another big man's bullets.<br /></p><p>the other children in fires around the country, including the 20 children in Mahdia. </p><p>The six who died by dengue , and maybe others we don't know about, we don't know because their deaths are only to matter to their parents and families and not to the oil producing thriving democracy.</p><p>The other children I was not counting because it did not seem important at the time because I didn't want to read bad news or to feel more powerless. <br /></p><p><b>Whuh yuh gun do?<br /></b></p><p>I tried to find out if the village where the two boy children who died from suicide had any mental health resources or if any of the other people mourning their death had access to mental health resources. There are none in Guyana really , maybe the public health system has just given up really and the news about oil and so would wash over the mental health challenges of our children.</p><p>We will not be doing anything about road safety really, there will be plenty roads, plenty people who want to drink and drive and so on, and some of us will die on these roads. Or get injured. We will not be able to improve the road users' attitudes, the police response.. the talk of corruption. We will keep encouraging drinking alcohol in Guyana, which means drinking and driving many times. And those who are charged with DUI will never get to understand alcohol as a problem.. they might just go out and repeat again and hope not to be caught.<br /></p><p>We will pretend that teaching children not to play with matches will protect them more than acknowledging that in Guyana, many children are left alone at home, by caregivers who have to go and find work and have no child care. </p><p>We will not talk about violence across Guyana and across all levels of Guyana, as we believe we can accept some forms of violence while condemning other forms of violence. <br /></p><p>And most importantly, we will not count, nor will we every know because those who are supposed to count, we can't trust them.</p><p>So we can't do anything really in Guyana 2023 to stop burying more and more of our children.<br /></p>Vidyaratha Kissoonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12625176305422426967noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6675310761074865042.post-71577927472139319342023-08-21T09:09:00.002-04:002023-08-21T09:24:44.334-04:00Yoga of hibiscus thriving in the heat<p> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQNDrV6CuqLqUemxN6EjTf9RczrVK9YHG2LnMe94MsoCDUbYehmbyscQn_6a1ENCxLfQCPhJFzqFQNMpTE3FR2NZbknhSazdoVq-fE_7X_nMiG5xkjbVX5V1-TRN5NqR4shhbrVFwVxMnvvfGsvOnsNJYVfnO6ExbpPnD3jepTlgct0hxce4JBjKzDbfw/s600/HeatHIbiscus.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="469" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQNDrV6CuqLqUemxN6EjTf9RczrVK9YHG2LnMe94MsoCDUbYehmbyscQn_6a1ENCxLfQCPhJFzqFQNMpTE3FR2NZbknhSazdoVq-fE_7X_nMiG5xkjbVX5V1-TRN5NqR4shhbrVFwVxMnvvfGsvOnsNJYVfnO6ExbpPnD3jepTlgct0hxce4JBjKzDbfw/s16000/HeatHIbiscus.jpg" /></a><br /></p><p>
<b>Heat...</b> </p><p>Place hot and the fan is a companion which doesn't dry the sweat on the skin which comes from just sitting and doing nothing. Moving and sweating in the heat is probably better than sitting and sweating. </p><p>Things to be done all over, but nothing urgent. </p><p>The drying out tree cutting which needs attention still has the 'falla me' insects on them but no rush to sort them out just yet. I try chopping one morning to move out but a bite on my elbow will remind me to leave it until I figure out what to do.</p><p>But "falla me" is not the only animal in the yard. <br /></p><p>New activity in the day as I move around the yard to look to see if the cat is here, </p><p>I don't understand what the cat is doing in the hot sun under the fragile shade of a kush grass bush when she could be under the house taking breeze. </p><p>Maybe I should crawl under the bush of grass and find out. </p><p>And remembering the man managing two tawa in an enclosed space as he cut the dough, fill with dhal , put to tawa, flip, oil, turn.. take off and I watching him , cool moving, locks under his cap, and wondering how he manage the heat. <br /></p><p>Contemplating whether to let grass grow to keep some things cool in the meanwhile, or to weed the yard in case people who pass by wondering if I am letting the yard (and myself) go.. </p><p>One day the cat is under the pumpkin vine which has only flowers and no pumpkins.
And there were birds flitting about on the concrete another afternoon, probably eating the seeds from the grass which I should weed. </p><p>And looking at things which have to be done, which I not sure what to do, and then realising that there are some things which are done like the double pink hibiscus with more flowers and buds and dead flowers than any cooler, more nourishing time <br /></p><p><b> </b></p><p><b>Hibiscus...</b> </p><p>Double pink hibiscus planted by the man who liked to plant different things, and who put the hibiscus in the back yard. Others died in other parts of the yard.</p><p>The tree looks dead sometimes, all leaves gone sometimes except for one or two. </p><p>But as I look away from the things to be done, there are a lot of flowers, some dead ones from yesterdays well lived, and buds which bring promise of tomorrows of visions of hope (sorry Kalidasa) in the bright green healthy leaves. </p><p>I don't water this plant really as I am not sure what interventions are needed. Sometimes best to leave the dead or half dead alone.<br /></p><p>I try with the camera, see if I can get them all , show the shades of pink and the green and the stages of life.</p><p>The camera though does not see what the eye sees, picture of birth, life , death on one reincarnated tree .. the buds and dead flowers don't look so prominent in the images , and camera chooses one flower at a time.</p><p> </p><p></p><p><b>Thriving..</b></p><p>
Place cools sometimes, rain drizzles, falls, stops, sun dries everything out, some of the ferns are burning but they will come back when the rain comes back.</p><p>The hibiscus might stop blooming when the rain comes. I am not going to work out what nourishes the hibiscus .</p><p>But maybe working out what causes the hibiscus to thrive in this heat, would help recognise the things which would help me thrive.. <br /></p>
Vidyaratha Kissoonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12625176305422426967noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6675310761074865042.post-69749478453501156702023-08-06T10:19:00.001-04:002023-08-06T10:19:16.312-04:00Weed; and the word of God - Groundings - 4 August, 2023<p> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1k6M2-lNW9o6zQWrXEvZC9F5aMGRH2glhCyFTj3HXGhg55KTb6qE3h1J7QDwxotBOb7sYFyEsdCpY-a0WWK7hMFz_vlqeOqceaHLaKSqeWyOiIvm5yRQ2OECWmFB1bFK-G9GQlWGVnDJhRCkfwNrE4r4ss0M3sdhikyCKLeiF7C3QNs4-tktNeUsoxKs/s600/gndaug2023.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="445" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1k6M2-lNW9o6zQWrXEvZC9F5aMGRH2glhCyFTj3HXGhg55KTb6qE3h1J7QDwxotBOb7sYFyEsdCpY-a0WWK7hMFz_vlqeOqceaHLaKSqeWyOiIvm5yRQ2OECWmFB1bFK-G9GQlWGVnDJhRCkfwNrE4r4ss0M3sdhikyCKLeiF7C3QNs4-tktNeUsoxKs/s16000/gndaug2023.jpg" /></a><br /></p><p><b>Main Street</b></p><p>Hot afternoon with gray clouds in the South. Main Street Avenue has some stalls selling items related to Emancipation. Some people are working on the Main and Quamina Street part, big speakers going up.</p><p>They are using winches and chains to put the speakers on the racks. It will be a big event. Watching the hoist and the chains and speakers , and thinking of Quamina, in 1823. The white men murdered him, and hung his body in chains to silence other rebels. They would have had to raise the body with the technology. <br /></p><p>Lay out some of the books on the nice bench. Two men watch from over the avenue, nice Shade still.</p><p>I start with the 'free books' and the older man comes over. Picks up a book. I tell him the price, to answer the question 'What do you know about the 1823 rebellion?" The man said he doesn't know anything. He from Kwakwani (the road side) and knows , like most of us, about the 1763 rebellion.</p><p>He tells the other man to come over and pick up a book.. 'is good to read'.<br /></p><p>The younger man comes, picks up a poetry book. He says he reads from his phone mostly, has two real books at home. He works as a security guard and reads at work , where it is quieter than home. He also reads the Quran. He opens the app on his phone to show me that he listens to the sura and then he can read in English. He does not know about the 1823 rebellion.<br /></p><p>I brought my phone with book and so on it but then I somehow darkened the screen and could not figure out how to restore it. </p><p>Another man with beer in hand comes over to say that Guyanese would want ration, not books. He does not take any books.<br /></p><p></p><p><b>Heads on a pole</b><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>People pass, look at us, ignore us. Some stop, look.<br /></p><p>One woman asks for Louis L'amour books. Another woman takes some books, and says yes she knows about the 1823 rebellion and that her village will be having a symposium... and that she hopes the two elderly speakers 'know when fuh done talk because dem got plenty knowledge and dem doan done"</p><p>A young woman said she had gone to an Emancipation event.. "is this the one with the 'heads on the pole' , the picture of the atrocity the white man had committed in putting the heads of the men they murdered on poles on the roadside. Another young man who lived all over Guyana and who likes romance and thriller books said he had a vague idea of the 1823, and the same thing.. 'the heads on the pole'. A different event from the one which the young woman spoke about.</p><p>We talked about the Rupununi Uprising and he felt that if people want, they could rise up still.<br /></p><p><b>Weed; and the word of God</b></p><p> Young man stopped and asked if we had any books about the Bible. We did not. He said he was interested in the Bible, and would be happy to talk about the History of Jesus. Lina said yeah.. you know they had history before Jesus, but he would have none of it. I asked him to tell us of his history, hoping we could get back to 1823.</p><p>He used to drink, smoke weed and do other drugs. He had three accidents. While recovering from the last accident, he smoke a joint and then heard a voice calling him and he realise it was the word of God. His face lit up as he talked about what knowing Jesus has done for him. Things are going good.<br /></p><p></p><p>He went on youtube to learn more about Jesus,the Lion of Judah. He stopped drinking . 'Yes, I still smoke weed.. I cut my own though.. so nothing mix with it'. He is working.<br /></p><p>He took two books for his children.</p><p><b>Freedom</b><br /></p><p> Rain drizzles and we shelter under a tent put up for barbecue later that night. Lina has some genip to give away as well. </p><p>Another price for the free books and free genip was to answer the question 'how free do you feel?" A young man under contract to the Government said he felt free to speak up and to live his life. A young woman said no, she does not speak out if she thinks there will be more conflict. </p><p>Another man said that the 'one guyana' thing not working as people still have to come to Georgetown to study and so, and leave home and family. <br /></p><p>Another woman said she curtails her freedom to be a role model for her daughter. Other women spoke about feeling free after divorce. </p><p><b>History</b></p><p>Three cheerful teenagers said the<b>y </b>were not doing history so did not know about the 1823 rebellion.<b> </b>One of the picked up the book of gay short stories to take - one man had said 'gay shit' and others had picked up and put down. I have a feeling she would be using this book as her way of being rebellious.</p><p>Another young woman said she did not always feel free and did not speak out. I told her about Amba walking with a gun in Enterprise and said don't let nobody keep you down. She laughed.<br /></p>A young man said ' I am 23 years old and I want any book to improve myself'. He took a call and went to a car without looking for any books.<br /><p>I took some Beano Comics and an Asterix, not really interested in improving myself.<br /></p>Vidyaratha Kissoonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12625176305422426967noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6675310761074865042.post-71547532661770350602023-08-03T17:13:00.004-04:002023-08-03T17:15:57.418-04:00Emancipation 2023 and naming some rebellious ancestors<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinOhxvPxd6LzDTQfk8p6ys8gkQh2ZWL0oU2rsdV-_HvByMgaMQGweB9xBvc85zkHDAZBwy5KyrNTeINHyF8NVQXogJAbzjxLXsx-PABnBBBZrdQqPLYUd6pjESaaQPIrtYsONeSX0GiJQcK1wlUhtuKNvD-vFNHFkPjKWEuHG5GxxolnIr3pmTR_99dgA/s434/1823ancestors.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="202" data-original-width="434" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinOhxvPxd6LzDTQfk8p6ys8gkQh2ZWL0oU2rsdV-_HvByMgaMQGweB9xBvc85zkHDAZBwy5KyrNTeINHyF8NVQXogJAbzjxLXsx-PABnBBBZrdQqPLYUd6pjESaaQPIrtYsONeSX0GiJQcK1wlUhtuKNvD-vFNHFkPjKWEuHG5GxxolnIr3pmTR_99dgA/s16000/1823ancestors.jpg" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><div>Monday before Emancipation Day 2023. There is a <a href="https://www.stabroeknews.com/2023/08/03/opinion/letters/lacking-confidence-in-the-cybercrime-unit/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Link: https://www.stabroeknews.com/2023/08/03/opinion/letters/lacking-confidence-in-the-cybercrime-unit/">petition to support Red Thread.</a>
Red Thread has reported to the police about death threats made against.
The police have not bothered with Red Thread. A white visitor to Guyana
is concerned about a friend he made, a young Black gay man who is using
cocaine and other drugs. The white man wants to help the young man.
2023 problems.<br /></div><div>Emancipation Day and there is a picture on front page of a newspaper of a woman prisoner - her face in distress, Black woman. <a href="https://www.stabroeknews.com/2023/08/02/opinion/letters/emancipation-day-image/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Link: https://www.stabroeknews.com/2023/08/02/opinion/letters/emancipation-day-image/">I write letter to the Editor </a>. </div><div> </div><div>200
years ago, enslaved people were planning to rebel against the white
Government of the day. I went to Bishops and QC during Burnham years and
after, and I did 'well' but did not realise that thousands of people
rose up in Demerara over two or three days. And that there was a brutal
put down. <br /></div><div> </div><div> Maybe because, mixed race coolie man that I
am, this history is not supposed to mean anything to me. Or that the
post-Independence powers did not want us to know that our ancestors were
rebellious. Did the ancestors who started arriving from India 15 years
after the revolt know about the revolt? Or that I should stick to my
race only, when thinking of rebellious ancestors. Did people warn the
ancestors from India that they must not revolt or that the white man
would shoot them, hang the bodies up , or cut off the heads and put the
heads up on long poles? A white man did <a href="https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=553228815&q=joshua+bryant+demerara+uprising+wikicommons&tbm=isch&source=univ&fir=U66FCFVRT8nNPM%252Cdjem8bHT9l2WSM%252C_%253BKphfLbXL00ISPM%252CZ2BzT-4spixdLM%252C_%253BTTD-adZ6QxonOM%252CwLeK934VhlyzCM%252C_%253B2LmfYdkNKLm3bM%252C7Tx29y8d8fpELM%252C_%253BY1qCa2VR74Jq4M%252C32A063UeXvzBaM%252C_%253Bz2srQOCyfbB4KM%252CVPf4omlX9RkxGM%252C_%253BSo6vYTpW2ZcHLM%252CUWWj7PDrEFkTOM%252C_%253BDS9gud2xQEvxbM%252C4T7sMgrnUtJUOM%252C_%253B4IoW_J_ZzwOnrM%252CGcFEhACd5aO5eM%252C_%253B7FaFU3OzM0Eo9M%252CDJ6Mt-QnmFr9VM%252C_&usg=AI4_-kQTEVmw3jncD_K34DNty30wOnMs8Q&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiAjJnklb-AAxVFSjABHdnqAbsQ7Al6BAguEBM&biw=1366&bih=615&dpr=1" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Link: https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=553228815&q=joshua+bryant+demerara+uprising+wikicommons&tbm=isch&source=univ&fir=U66FCFVRT8nNPM%252Cdjem8bHT9l2WSM%252C_%253BKphfLbXL00ISPM%252CZ2BzT-4spixdLM%252C_%253BTTD-adZ6QxonOM%252CwLeK934VhlyzCM%252C_%253B2LmfYdkNKLm3bM%252C7Tx29y8d8fpELM%252C_%253BY1qCa2VR74Jq4M%252C32A063UeXvzBaM%252C_%253Bz2srQOCyfbB4KM%252CVPf4omlX9RkxGM%252C_%253BSo6vYTpW2ZcHLM%252CUWWj7PDrEFkTOM%252C_%253BDS9gud2xQEvxbM%252C4T7sMgrnUtJUOM%252C_%253B4IoW_J_ZzwOnrM%252CGcFEhACd5aO5eM%252C_%253B7FaFU3OzM0Eo9M%252CDJ6Mt-QnmFr9VM%252C_&usg=AI4_-kQTEVmw3jncD_K34DNty30wOnMs8Q&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiAjJnklb-AAxVFSjABHdnqAbsQ7Al6BAguEBM&biw=1366&bih=615&dpr=1">draw pictures of the white justice and</a>
- pictures drawn, in a book written without any sense of horror, or
shame. I realise that we have heroes - Cuffy and Quamina - honoured in
and around Georgetown, but it was not them alone. And beyond monuments
which make them seem far away, high up, how to make them close,
immediate, family. <br /></div><div>The white people condemned others who rebelled, <a href="https://archive.org/details/accountaninsurr00bryagoog/page/n124/mode/2up?view=theater" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Link: https://archive.org/details/accountaninsurr00bryagoog/page/n124/mode/2up?view=theater">kept records of the condemnation of 73 people described as 'insurgent negroes' and the vicious forms of justice.</a> </div><p>So
now, from the comfort and privilege of 2023, is to write some of the
names now, invoke them again, not as condemnation, and in Hindu
tradition of naming ancestors as we pay homage, and to locate them
out of Georgetown where they lived and worked and
planned the rebellion, or as close as possible. And thinking of the
thousands of others whose names are not known now.</p><p> The story map is embedded below, or you can access <a href="https://uploads.knightlab.com/storymapjs/18eafdaf46d9b65915458d17f9646fef/testvk/index.html">by clicking here</a>. <br /></p><p> <br /></p>
<iframe frameborder="0" height="800" src="https://uploads.knightlab.com/storymapjs/18eafdaf46d9b65915458d17f9646fef/testvk/index.html" width="100%"></iframe>Vidyaratha Kissoonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12625176305422426967noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6675310761074865042.post-1030693832240992272023-07-28T20:59:00.006-04:002023-07-28T20:59:54.559-04:00Messing with the mind at the 2023 Burrowes School of Art exhibition<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizY_fXuxvYRgSmMjclm06Mjeqrs3AfHKfNBqWvd7RWCZO7X2kzpUsEPW_iu9C7G399Xlyf5Dp-7P2GLVq0A8A9__eTl-hBo2LJQKkszHOzPEbLAcSbLBqpmxRQ_kG4kYrkuHux_tY3-ZqkWFCCj1BRM83hcPbiqoUBOrA--ghOqGRj2KlbrgvCzolWmXk/s600/mask1.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizY_fXuxvYRgSmMjclm06Mjeqrs3AfHKfNBqWvd7RWCZO7X2kzpUsEPW_iu9C7G399Xlyf5Dp-7P2GLVq0A8A9__eTl-hBo2LJQKkszHOzPEbLAcSbLBqpmxRQ_kG4kYrkuHux_tY3-ZqkWFCCj1BRM83hcPbiqoUBOrA--ghOqGRj2KlbrgvCzolWmXk/s16000/mask1.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Extract from installation by Yedidiyah Gordon</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p><b>Mirrors </b></p><p>Cheerful security guard holding the large gun opens the gate and says yes yes go through when I say I am going to gallery. The heat is on , I am feeling fuzzy as two nights of bad sleep due to the heat and so. Coming to the exhibition as I think I need to do things I planned since sleeping in the heat doesn't make sense even with a fan.</p><p>Castellani House is cool inside. I go upstairs and see bright colours of the flowers on the wall where I had first seen Bernadette Persaud's Birth of Lotus when I had visited the gallery the first time. </p><p>I see myself in the jigsaw mirror and think right.. your face looking tired. Walk around the pieces, looking though I feel like I am not looking. Bright colours of musical instruments. Fashion, jewellery. I am not sure why I am not drawn to the bright colours and the jewellery.<br /></p><p>The mind.<br /></p><p>See the big mirror. Some people posted on Facebook with selfies. I like the reflections of Yedididyah Gordon's textile work in the mirror. I take the picture. I come home and look at the image and realise that the frame has some interesting shapes and forms, that I should have paid more attention to the frame, rather than the mirror. Or rather the image in the mirror.</p><p>Did the people who took selfies in the mirror notice the frame?<br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR_G7hIr3f9rRlJiflAnu5udxhkcnsiPpRW8BWy3wk1H1NTYOaGSXgTNHuU_x7NI7NDqkHomZ5Q27J43XNqBCye1w4wEWNekiZKLJYF2UTLK0JGkRrl53Fz0APSyoGJ4bX1KrDcD4fSStKpf54dsPpmLrwHpgidWF2AS8vDx7BRQ-CcesicahU9bGkvK4/s548/reflections.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="548" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR_G7hIr3f9rRlJiflAnu5udxhkcnsiPpRW8BWy3wk1H1NTYOaGSXgTNHuU_x7NI7NDqkHomZ5Q27J43XNqBCye1w4wEWNekiZKLJYF2UTLK0JGkRrl53Fz0APSyoGJ4bX1KrDcD4fSStKpf54dsPpmLrwHpgidWF2AS8vDx7BRQ-CcesicahU9bGkvK4/s16000/reflections.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Extract from work by Yedidiyah Gordon<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><b> Walking through the mask </b><p> The Burrowes exhibitions give an opportunity to interact with the students. "Please let me know if you would like me to explain anything", Yedidiyah Gordon tells me cheerfully. </p><p>I think of <a href="https://www.stabroeknews.com/sunday/eye-on-art/" target="_blank">Akima McPherson's Eye on Art </a>series and I realised I should have had a run through again to look at the elements. I think is good to have conversation with the artists. I also feel a bit weird thinking what if I see things which the artist did not intend to show.. and do I want to be told what I should see?</p><p>But I am glad that the artist is there. She encourages me to go through the mask. So I have to touch the work , split the mask and go beyond. I am a bit nervous hoping I don't bring down the whole thing.<br /></p><p>There is a dark cavern... like old time horror house at school fairs. Some fairy lights. Two mannequins, one with a white dress and one with a black dress. The artist explains this is her major task and it represents the dilemma and anxiety in deciding on the project. She says this is her mind. </p><p>The nets look like neural networks in the brain which could stimulate ideas, rather than her intention to show tangled thoughts and indecisions. Maybe the nets could be both things. </p><p>I ask her if she is doing an experiment.. because I mean.. why would people want to walk through a scary looking doorway into the unknown? Like I did.. </p><p><b>Messing with the mind </b> <br /></p><p>Outside the installation, I start a conversation with a young man. We talk about speaking our mind, and not being afraid. And that silence does not protect us. I continue the conversation with another person. Something about talking about the local oppressions and other things in the art space.. in the house which Burnham lived in the art.<br /></p><p> Another artist, Christopher Kilkenny goes down the stairs with me to his work. He asks if I am a budding artist or just interested. I tell him that the art is good to upset the mind. </p><p>I hope to turn up perceived ideas and to get new ways of seeing things, mess up my mind.</p><p>My eyes go to a piece , he explains 'discharge' , which is about the mind. He said a few people were drawn to it first. I am trying to work out the other pieces on the wall, figures moving, some parts contrasting with others. <br /></p><p></p><p><i> </i></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBjqAD4yl6BTxtdlKliA_VBnNdVPYpeEMTuSah5A6sJV10uXDsbwXMW9Cp89NAwv_O0h3PNJH_3IzMqJz1LLFLb9oggtR4npYEQja6Jyr7aPuHcHTsFlwCXvWS5wq4fa8D8lvxA21FLOys8uqK1pu_93dU6wFEO4j4S0gnSMp6Wzgr7sg40o8MIpxLmQY/s510/mindck.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="510" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBjqAD4yl6BTxtdlKliA_VBnNdVPYpeEMTuSah5A6sJV10uXDsbwXMW9Cp89NAwv_O0h3PNJH_3IzMqJz1LLFLb9oggtR4npYEQja6Jyr7aPuHcHTsFlwCXvWS5wq4fa8D8lvxA21FLOys8uqK1pu_93dU6wFEO4j4S0gnSMp6Wzgr7sg40o8MIpxLmQY/s16000/mindck.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Extract from Christopher Christopher Killikelly 's piece around the mind<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p><b>The artist as storyteller </b></p><p> I look at each painting individually. There are different. Christopher Killikelly then explains that the series are in sequence, part of a story. And told the story, starting with the World Cup Football . And there is this moment in the gallery, the artist as storyteller.. my eyes moving across the series as he explains, sometimes going back - a kind of futuristic science fiction fantasy thing which I don't normally read. And is not quite non-linear across the paintings as some parts of the story you kind of go back and forth.</p><p>My mind is a bit messed up too because I had a conversation with someone and I knew their life, what they did. But I forgot the name.. and while looking to open my mind to this story, another part of my brain was trying to work through clues to the person's name. I had to come home and go back on the computer and check. <br /></p><p><b></b></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjea-etV9apoCcr1MsR_RIFhdoVxyOkeIyXQsqSKMQ2fxKWdLHRuM0Pr7ZYmCNLjNrkU77sMUd0TkjZAjU_PVABRqDX-TKkYW4RXcbMkBED0-XOcSamXbO2LFEjF8tVBG0Dxjq2Shme1LAEeOHRVGEg6Clcfl5y_MVgTsjt8zfKcoE9BxtdJWuwMPj0-yI/s600/seriesck.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="290" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjea-etV9apoCcr1MsR_RIFhdoVxyOkeIyXQsqSKMQ2fxKWdLHRuM0Pr7ZYmCNLjNrkU77sMUd0TkjZAjU_PVABRqDX-TKkYW4RXcbMkBED0-XOcSamXbO2LFEjF8tVBG0Dxjq2Shme1LAEeOHRVGEg6Clcfl5y_MVgTsjt8zfKcoE9BxtdJWuwMPj0-yI/s16000/seriesck.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Paintings by Christopher Killikelly </td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-right: auto; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr></tbody></table>
<p> As I write this, I wonder when did the story evolve into the paintings? How did he decide which parts of the story go to each painting? Could there be other paintings for other parts of the story?</p><p>And could I mess up my mind so that I could make up different stories from the series?<br /></p>
<p><i>(The exhibition continues until 4 August, 2023 at Castellani House. I regret not making a firm note of the names of the pieces. )</i></p><br /><p></p>Vidyaratha Kissoonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12625176305422426967noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6675310761074865042.post-55450624210226022152023-07-05T09:44:00.005-04:002023-07-05T09:51:43.778-04:00Re-writing Irfaan Ali's disgraceful statement after accepting his comrade's resignation<p> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQegEBNasrNoLz39BFh97NG0vmwhRx6LFm2QNG57zsrnLRzjNNzzahS48waxj840v56C4PXkcTTRAbnU8T7dQkfFfnQBaYdcyxeCaiJwubTiBEBp5JPZ16MA1NsaQOTaG4VEutSs9pFK9TJXQJ4LltL-xLgtLN1UUYrTjI-SI1YhfwP_j-gSbnR8BoJRc/s400/sr.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="400" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQegEBNasrNoLz39BFh97NG0vmwhRx6LFm2QNG57zsrnLRzjNNzzahS48waxj840v56C4PXkcTTRAbnU8T7dQkfFfnQBaYdcyxeCaiJwubTiBEBp5JPZ16MA1NsaQOTaG4VEutSs9pFK9TJXQJ4LltL-xLgtLN1UUYrTjI-SI1YhfwP_j-gSbnR8BoJRc/s320/sr.jpg" width="320" /></a><br /></p><p>
<i>(President Irfaan Ali made a Facebook post in which he accepted the resignation of<a href="https://www.stabroeknews.com/2023/07/04/news/guyana/dharamlall-resigns/" target="_blank"> his comrade Nigel Dharmlall</a> from the Cabinet and the Party. This is an imaginary rewriting of that statement)</i><br /></p><p>Fellow Guyanese, as you’re aware, I am in Trinidad and Tobago attending the 45th session of the Heads of Government meeting of CARICOM and the 50th anniversary of CARICOM. </p><p>Tonight I want to address you in relation to the <s>allegation that was made</s> multiple allegations of rape and sexual violence which have been made against Minister Nigel Dharamlall. </p><p>From the inception, I advised the population that I would allow the system to work. <s> </s></p><p><s>I would never and the government would never intervene in the system.
We’ve allowed an independent investigation; the minister proceeded on leave to ensure that an independent investigation was conducted.</s> I recognise that many survivors of rape and other forms of gender-based violence do not trust the system to work because it has failed many times. </p><p>I admit to my own powerlessness in not taking action to fire my comrade and not listening to the reports which were made quietly by people who trusted me and the PPP to stop the violence happening in our name . </p><p>The Police did their investigation and also all the other agencies, including the DPP.
<s>This evening, you’ve seen the statement from the DPP in which she has advised that she will not proceed on any charges against the minister based on all that is before her.</s> </p><p>I recognise all the comments on this investigation and I commit to doing an inquiry so that the system can be improved.
<s> </s></p><p><s>However, Minister Dharamall has advised that he will tender his resignation as the interest of the government is important to him and he will not want anyone to bring the government into disrepute.</s> My government is committed to zero tolerance for all forms of gender-based violence. I have therefore dismissed Dharmlall as a member of Cabinet , and expect the Opposition Leader to remove him from Parliament. </p><p><s>He has also advised that these allegations have affected him personally and as such, he has offered to resign as minister and as a Member of Parliament.</s> </p><p> I recognise that many survivors of gender-based violence have been affected during this process. I will therefore request that there is non-partisan inquiry into the allegations, and to ensure accountability.
<s> </s></p><p><s>I’ve, therefore, accepted his resignation as a Cabinet Member and a Member of Parliament.</s>
<s>Nigel Dharamlall has committed to me that he will continue to support and be a member of the People’s Progressive Party and also be supportive of the government. </s></p><p> I have written to the General Secretary of the PPP to insist that there are procedures and polices in place to ensure that no person in the Party abuses any citizen. </p><p>There must be a procedure to accept reports and to provide support to survivors of gender-based violence. </p><p>I expect that the PPP to ensure that none of our supporters experience any form of abuse because they are loyal to us us.
</p>Vidyaratha Kissoonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12625176305422426967noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6675310761074865042.post-58761992499057063592023-06-24T15:51:00.005-04:002023-06-24T15:51:47.755-04:00Rape, fire and imagining justice beyond the "law" in Guyana <div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ0HA6zPrQOlCQNweW2RsTBwWcIoyIDyF3HqzHYfyK05cpsGFiUR187DiL-mcb9wwh6-0uEHJpA4GCH8mWySzFKBD0iKfkyIK2TtgYaXdDicA8_dSi_G6jQkPYc1JgP2dngmgUkN9K53uK8XK-A1g1DMWkxxy4Z_GOxRXsE5pt4QAokszxtRExJqqZDPw/s1600/lotusbud.jpg" style="clear: left; display: block; float: left; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ0HA6zPrQOlCQNweW2RsTBwWcIoyIDyF3HqzHYfyK05cpsGFiUR187DiL-mcb9wwh6-0uEHJpA4GCH8mWySzFKBD0iKfkyIK2TtgYaXdDicA8_dSi_G6jQkPYc1JgP2dngmgUkN9K53uK8XK-A1g1DMWkxxy4Z_GOxRXsE5pt4QAokszxtRExJqqZDPw/s1600/lotusbud.jpg" /></a></div><p>
<b> </b></p><p><b> </b></p><p><b> </b></p><p><b> </b></p><p><b> </b></p><p><b> </b></p><p><b> </b></p><p><b> </b></p><p><b> </b></p><p><b> </b></p><p><b> </b></p><p><b> </b></p><p><b> </b></p><b>Whose justice?</b> <ul style="text-align: left;"><li>One <a href="https://worldjusticeproject.org/our-work/research-and-data/rule-of-law/guyana-2022" target="_blank">analysis of how we feel about law and the justice system</a> in Guyana shows that only about half of us generally trust the justice system. </li><li>Most of us - 66%- believe that the justice system does NOT provide adequate protection and care when in the justice systems.</li><li>Cynics know that the verdicts in the courts depend on the skills of the defence lawyers and the prosecution. And that there are technicalities which can be missed.</li><li>'Not guilty' does not mean innocent. </li><li>It is not clear what the 'conviction' rate is and what impact this has on the prevention of sexual violence in Guyana</li><li>Section 87 of the Sexual Offences Act talks about a <a href="https://churchroadman.blogspot.com/2016/05/coil-picketing-in-jubilee-week.html" target="_blank">National Task Force for the Prevention of Sexual Offences.</a> The President is supposed to convene the Task Force. As with many other things, there has never been any sensible convening, no sensible working of it, no plan or sensible working of the plan. </li><li>Sexual violence thrives in rape culture where we have a high tolerance
for some forms of sexual violence, while selectively condemning others. </li><li>Sexual violence thrives in a culture of shaming of those who have
survived ; of not giving space for voices <br /></li><li>Sexual violence thrives in the culture where
there is a rush to deny and prove 'innocence' rather than look at
accountability and healing. </li></ul><p> <br /></p><p><b>Imagining justice beyond the law</b></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><b> </b>Justice beyond the law recognises that the children who have experienced sexual violence react in different ways. </li><li>Justice beyond the law recognises that public officials should be removed from their posts when they are dealing with allegations of sexual violence. <br /></li><li>Justice beyond the law recognises that the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs and the Ministry of Local Government need healing as the allegations include people who knew about the sexual violence</li><li>Justice beyond the law recognises that the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs, and the Ministry of Local Government are the places from which allegations took place.</li><li>Justice beyond the law recognises that there is a connection between the lack of accountability from the Government - the Ministry of Local Government and the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs especially - for the deaths in the Mahdia fires, and for the continued allegations of sexual violence in the communities by people associated with the Ministries</li><li>Justice beyond the law means transforming the culture of discrimination against indigenous peoples. <br /></li><li>Justice beyond the law recognises that many survivors have no space to share when the 'process' silences them rather than enables them to talk</li><li>Justice beyond the law recognises that many others are afraid to speak out, that they fear those who enable the rapists and abusers</li><li>Justice beyond the law recognises that comprehensive sexuality education is needed in all schools, where children and young people understand consent, their bodies , their desires and healthy ways of dealing with desires.</li><li>Justice beyond the law recognises that many adults also need to understand consent, their bodies and desires, and healthy ways of dealing with the desires.<br /></li><li>Justice beyond the law recognises that the denial and silence enables more sexual violence rather than stops it.</li><li>Justice beyond the law recognises that many men are also afraid to speak out. </li><li>Justice beyond the law recognises that space is needed to speak out, to shout and to scream about the injustices, and the violence which cannot be reported because there is no 'evidence'.</li><li>Justice beyond the law will happen when we listen and commit to safety and respect for every citizen, when we deal with the histories of violence and are able to examine our tolerance for violence.</li><li>Justice beyond the law is about transforming rape culture, for the political parties and other power based organisations to look at how they could prevent gender-based violence in those parties, how they could encourage accountability and healing rather than pretend that it is only a problem for other people.</li><li>Justice beyond the law is about a communal vision of what justice beyond the law should look like, and working towards it.<br /></li></ul><p><br /></p><p> <br /></p><p>Feature image by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@vanhdo?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText">Vo Danh</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/photos/mDbFIzZzWE8?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText">Unsplash</a>
</p>Vidyaratha Kissoonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12625176305422426967noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6675310761074865042.post-47248561348360250602023-06-14T19:05:00.001-04:002023-06-14T19:08:03.467-04:00Konfidenshal: GuyBai Intelligence Agency report on Chicken bones, gay Pryde and AI<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiew7Ah2bbvvFnfcGbOQ2X5EPkZ-3dxthZRKfVkOw8RA28WPVll8gaewYxHuaOSilPq0nJPG2KCofchSrOqwwOg4WJMbOjT9xc140oUrAYLq0Ayeo9Jd_BVYnbXfptlxYm4vbD7JT8bZ957D7ZlhHql1rb-UBeYeGoxB4b23EbnZkXT0aXPgx8KQogt/s400/gbia.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiew7Ah2bbvvFnfcGbOQ2X5EPkZ-3dxthZRKfVkOw8RA28WPVll8gaewYxHuaOSilPq0nJPG2KCofchSrOqwwOg4WJMbOjT9xc140oUrAYLq0Ayeo9Jd_BVYnbXfptlxYm4vbD7JT8bZ957D7ZlhHql1rb-UBeYeGoxB4b23EbnZkXT0aXPgx8KQogt/s16000/gbia.jpg" /></a></div><br /> <i>(This report is konfidenshal. if you are not de intended reader of dis report, den please try to mind your bizness. after all , we do not exist.)</i> <br /><p></p><p><i>From: GuybaiIA</i></p><p><i>To: Pappa Prezzy and Baba Prezzy (we continue to report to all Prezidents as in de law)</i></p><p><i>Subject: Report on Month 2</i></p><p><b>1. Division Chicken bones</b></p><p>Agents noticed that chicken bones were found at the door with some balls of fluff. The bones seemed laid out like a six point star. </p><p>The security footage did not show anything as the cameras were covered in strange flickering ways.<br /></p><p>In our briefing, agents felt that we have to be conscious of supernatural threats and people invoking evil forces against us. </p><p>Agents found articles on the internet which showed that all modern security agencies monitor UFOS. </p><p>We disposed of the one agent who said that lizards were mating on the camera lens; and that the bones were laid out by a stray cat who had mange . <br /></p><p>We have created a Division Chicken Bones, which conducts regular rituals to stay in touch with the other worlds.</p><p>The rituals do not include killing chickens, or eating Fry Chicken.<br /></p><p></p><p><b> </b></p><p><b>2. Lie Detecting</b><br /></p><p>We continue to use the standard to try to keep people who were lying and the machine did not blip. </p><p>The challenge though was when people were telling the truth and the machine said they are lying. </p><p>Well this one instance, we asked people 'Are you alive?". Some people, they said 'Yes' and the machines went crazy.<br /></p><p>We took note and added those people to Division Chicken Bones. <br /></p><p></p><p><b> 3. Gay Pryde</b></p><p>Agents listened in on the gay Pryde folkx. </p><p>The connections were not good or noisy, so agents used local intelligence to fill gaps. </p><p>There was an alert that some gay Pryde folkx were going to go to give do what sounded like give welcome embrace to some men from the Middle East. </p><p>We arranged the protection detail. </p><p>One agent inserted into the chatter that the men from the Middle Easte who were wearing beautiful robes were not cross-dressing in solidarity with the gay Pryde folkx but were coming to invest in GuyBai. </p><p>And we cancelled the protection detail. <br /></p><p>We heard there was going to be a Fyah. </p><p>The Fyah was going to be a burning of all laws and religious scriptures which say gay Pryde folkx are a danger to humanity and should not be part of OneGuyBai. </p><p>The Fyah was going to be on the tarmac of the Marryot Hotel, and lit with donations of excess oil from the Oil Companies. </p><p>The Fyah did not light though so it was all okay.<br /></p><p>There was some chatter about uncrowning the King of HEngland to "dismantle the monarchy which had created the colonial oppression." (We think that is what the chatter said , it make no sense to us)<br /></p><p>We alerted our counterparts in HEngland .</p><p>The King sent agents to make sure that the gay Pryde was a lot of fun, and party. </p><p>The agents made sure that there was no kind of ugly protest or riot, or in danger of taking away the Crown or anything of the sort. <br /></p><p>We recommend that next year gay Pryde will be part of the OneGuyBai events as it seems safe and no threat to the status-quo.</p><p><b>4. AI</b></p><p>We asked ChatGPT "What are the security threats to GuyBai"? </p><p>The results did not show anything about Opposition leaders, or any journalists or any people from defunct civil society organisations or so. <br /></p><p>We kept regenerating the answers but still, nothing much changed from the paragraphs related to :</p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>transnational organised crime</li><li>border disputes</li><li>Cybersecurity</li><li>Corruption <br /></li><li>Economic challenges <br /></li><li>National Resource Exploitation "However, the newfound wealth can also attract attention from international actors and increase the risk of corruption, resource conflicts, and disputes over revenue sharing."</li><li>Ethnic and political tensions</li><li>Environmental challenges</li><li>Climate change</li><li>Terrorism and Extremism because .. "the global threat landscape remains fluid. The rise of extremism and the potential for radicalization are concerns that require ongoing monitoring and preventive measures"</li></ul><p>We will not use this tool any more but will create our own Artificial Intelligence to give us the answers you want.</p><p><b> 5. Inter-agency collaboration</b></p><p>We had a monthly meeting in our offices. We scanned for the bugs after everyone left.</p><p>We found a note next to the army bug we left in the toilets. </p><p>The note said 'It seems that someone is poisoning your agents because there is frequent belly wuk which they are not reporting because they do not want to lose their jobs." </p><p>The police had not replaced the battery in the bug they left behind.</p><p>We will continue to collaborate.</p><p><b>End of Report</b><i><br /></i></p>Vidyaratha Kissoonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12625176305422426967noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6675310761074865042.post-13011354891121158162023-05-26T13:54:00.005-04:002023-05-31T09:54:30.033-04:00Transformative justice after the deaths of the children in the Mahdia fire?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzTB_L4JbnuRrxgfAn7FgFOr4N2JG1RvCZghgIfnH8M3dj6ek7RqjiOxe2UAz2V0VZVkao_OhjBWYoCXqvzL5Q43xNgfhst-jYbkVMbSHFYNapMAUM-Dhuh7ZO9O9SR6l5RBLpLe-FuS006Ej2urSQO33ntjb3ILuy9EcHseDMgT6cY9l7XzuFAoLl/s449/chenapou.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="338" data-original-width="449" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzTB_L4JbnuRrxgfAn7FgFOr4N2JG1RvCZghgIfnH8M3dj6ek7RqjiOxe2UAz2V0VZVkao_OhjBWYoCXqvzL5Q43xNgfhst-jYbkVMbSHFYNapMAUM-Dhuh7ZO9O9SR6l5RBLpLe-FuS006Ej2urSQO33ntjb3ILuy9EcHseDMgT6cY9l7XzuFAoLl/s16000/chenapou.jpg" /></a></div> </i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i>Some placards from residents of Chenapou Village, Region 8, Guyana<a href="https://caribbean.loopnews.com/content/guyana-chenapou-village-wants-justice-residents-kill-dorm-fir" target="_blank"> as they protested </a>on Monday 22 May, 2023 after the fire at the Mahdia Secondary School dormitory. Images taken from Facebook post shared by Michael McGarrell.</i></div> <p></p><p>On the night between Sunday 21 May, 2023 and Monday 22 May, 2023, Mary and Martha Dandrade, Bibi Rita Jeffrey, Sabrina John, Loreen Evans, Belnisa Evans, Omefia Edwin, Natalie Bellarmine, Andrea Roberts, Lorita Williams, Nickleen Robinson, Sherena Daniels, Eulanda Carter, Lisa Roberts, Cleoma Simon, Tracil Thomas, and sisters Delecia Edwards and Arianna Edwards along with five- year-old Adonijah Jerome died in a fire which at the Mahdia Secondary School.</p><p>On 30 May, 2023 - Sherana Daniels died at GPHC. <br /></p><p>The days since the fire had politicians spotlighting themselves as they exploited the grief of the survivors, the angry and sad reactions to the stories of the grilled windows and doors, the memories of other fires , the hosting of vigils and prayer services and the general return to normalcy as the PPP party promoters continued with their parties for Independence with promises to donate money to the families.</p><p>There is going to be a Commission of Inquiry, money given to families and most likely nothing will change about anything - normalcy. <br /></p><p>Normalcy though is what caused the deaths in the first place.<br /></p><p><b>Transformative justice</b></p><p>Monday after the fire and residents of Chenapou in Region 8 share images of the protest they held. The placards include calls for 'our children to be home' and for a secondary school in the community. </p><p></p><p>Other indigenous citizens shared about having to leave home to go to secondary school. Quality education was only available on the coast or in Georgetown. And Independent Guyana continues to ensure that injustice continues.<br /></p><p>The imagination of boarding school away from homes is not a good one - Enid Blyton's Mallory Towers, Hogwarts (which I know excites some people so they want to go boarding school), and the stories of violence and abuse around the world. Choice though, determines when many families decide to use boarding schools.<br /></p><p>The injustice in Guyana is that many indigenous families have no choice , if their children want to pursue secondary education, they have to leave. And not all the dormitories and experiences are like Mallory Towers or Hogwarts.</p><p></p><p>This fire then, did not start on Sunday night. It started a long time ago when the powers that be on Guyana's coastland resist the calls from indigenous citizens to have secondary schools close to home.</p><p>Transformative justice is a system which moves beyond 'punishment' , individual rehabilitation, 'restoration' , seeks to transform the societies which caused the harm and violence in the first place. </p><p></p><p>The Government has committed to support, and money for medical attention and promises of 'compensation'. There is no commitment to justice because there are different definitions and perceptions of justice. </p><p></p><p>Transformative justice would mean listening to the residents of Chenapou and transforming the education system so that indigenous children do not have to leave home to find quality secondary education. Instead of building back the burn down dormitories, the learning systems should be created so that children could be at home with families.</p><p><b>Community action</b></p><p><b></b></p><p>
</p><p>Many citizens have taken to social media to call for accountability and recognised that the deaths were solely the responsibility of the person who allegedly set the fire. </p><p>People have recognised that there was poor security, that the supervision in the dorms was not the standard identified in the Commission of Inquiry for the <a href="https://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2017/11/07/coi-finds-drop-in-centres-operation-wanting/" target="_blank">2016 Drop in Centre fire</a> (1 adult to every 7 teenage children). <br /></p><p>Others have called for review of the design of dormitories and the supervision. Other people have questioned the sexism inherent in 'locking in the girls to protect them', and connected this fire to the historical injustices against Indigenous peoples . <br /></p><p>Transformative justice requires action in the community to fix things. That the 'relevant authorities' are not just the 'higher ups' but the parents, teachers and children and other residents. <br /></p><p>Transformative justice is a 2023 review of the Drop in Centre to see if the recommendations from 2017 have been adopted across all the State facilities serving children.</p><p>Transformative justice is the community being involved in the supervision and being allowed to ask questions, and to get answers.</p><p> Transformative justice is also fixing the country so that there is no need for a Drop in Centre.</p><p>Transformative justice is recognising that 'professionals flown in from the coastland' are not the only experts in healing and resilience after the fire, that checklists /assessments do not tell the whole stories of wellness. Transformative justice is about giving space and time for healing in community, beyond the professional/client 10 minute interaction and prescription of medications. <br /></p><p>People shouted 'this is not the time for political talk' and we should 'join together in healing'. </p><p>This post disaster time is the time for political talk. </p><p>It is to keep calling for participatory and transparent management of all the aspects of our society. <br /></p><p>Transformative justice requires that there is no return to 'normalcy' . </p><p></p>Vidyaratha Kissoonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12625176305422426967noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6675310761074865042.post-46574424306320201112023-05-19T14:43:00.007-04:002023-05-19T14:49:18.024-04:00Gift of crying unexpectedly after cooking roti<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSTdztPYuettzZHqe95lZsCSP6wHjIn2QdH4Qsf4JkIb1CMAUP29t7DP9k4RTpFXm4i8y5njyh5I2Z5G-p0dNJ-iG9kL-5AcE9tyL7UdMu_GHbHAG6CaWXHh8bm2Hl-2s2ouWB8hYnZJjXNaw3N7hdfIw1aFL8t-y-YfXOBFYT2nytlIXCh68cAcHf/s600/gift2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="472" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSTdztPYuettzZHqe95lZsCSP6wHjIn2QdH4Qsf4JkIb1CMAUP29t7DP9k4RTpFXm4i8y5njyh5I2Z5G-p0dNJ-iG9kL-5AcE9tyL7UdMu_GHbHAG6CaWXHh8bm2Hl-2s2ouWB8hYnZJjXNaw3N7hdfIw1aFL8t-y-YfXOBFYT2nytlIXCh68cAcHf/s16000/gift2.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>
Busy day ahead. Got tasks lined up. Cook roti to put in freezer and so. Yoga routine, other things. Grateful that I seem to be moving on with things. </p><p>Strange week as pleasure in reconnections and new connections comes with the sadness and loss of what might have been as the reasons for disconnections come up. But spending some time in reconciling the 'I told you so' to myself with the 'It doesn't matter now' <br /></p><p>Mix up roti Mindless and mindful. New mix from the days when I used to cook roti for my parents. Special mix, and the anxiety that it would be soft and manageable for them. Until it no longer was soft and manageable and I stopped. </p><p>As I piece out the <i>loi, </i>roll it imperfectly as it doesn't matter to me.. memories of calling my mother to say 'it is ready'. As she would then stand and use her hands to make the same sized round smooth balls and call me to say she is done. I took a picture one time. Laid out in neat rows.<br /></p><p>I have done this for myself many times. So I do the sada roti, tawa, microwave.. it is not swelling but I don't mind as long as it will be edible, chewable. Mind on other tasks for the day<br /></p><p>Memory of my mother saying the roti was okay, until she said it was not okay. And of feeling a bit useless because our duties to parents and so on. And being consumed in those duties and realising that death comes at the end, and sometimes suffering and that some activities are not meant to result in growth and nurturing.<br /></p><p>Back hurting a bit. I exhale. Body a bit tense, mind a bit stiff . Glad that I could do the yoga. Sit on floor to move side to side, to breathe to get ready for the yoga. </p><p>And start crying, and I keep swaying side to side and trying to breathe , part of me going .. let it flow, keep breathing, keep moving, keep crying..the other part of me going Vidya what the hell is wrong with you.. Part of me saying like your tear ducts aint block up.. let it clean out. And got<a href="https://www.tarabrach.com/rain/" target="_blank"> RAIN</a> in my head while thinking now is not the time to investigate but I gotta 'Allow' and Nurture and then maybe investigate later.<br /></p><p>Like if I take some senna pod for the soul.<br /></p><p>Back pain eases. Crying stops and I continue the yoga routine. One part of mind focussing on breath, stretching .. feeling pain go.<br /></p><p>The other part of my mind analysing, investigating. (RAIN thing REco I have made the roti since the funeral, I have cried since the funeral.. </p><p>And then I stop questioning, as I realise that I have completed all the postures, the body feels lighter. Mind feels lighter. </p><p>I do the savasansa . the corpse pose. Thinking of the losses and there is no change in breathing, no stiffening of the body.</p><p>Grateful for the gift that crying happened after cooking the roti and before I completed the yoga and continued the day.<br /></p><p> </p><p> </p>
Featiure image by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@lazycreekimages?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText">Michael Dziedzic</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/photos/ir5gC4hlqT0?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText">Unsplash</a>
Vidyaratha Kissoonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12625176305422426967noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6675310761074865042.post-31699189527548306032023-05-16T09:45:00.012-04:002023-08-24T11:51:24.112-04:00Minding my business, media credibility, rigged elections, accountability and story telling in Guyana 2023<p></p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuHqTAQn66Rdj4nrS4Ggqb9yZSIsGq26zrElgfk7KSfjvBCXTdzxb3uzCkRie3vOHoVvcJUYOJzNKDASxg9C-hxIqu_S0Mts5wO3T4U7DlYra3GZ7HpANSBHKm1qDQJmWQR3-I6J69NohTGoRX6NG6_imMImqLCsCs2zTPH9fuwFJa3lFfRdlGRFNZ/s288/hand-writing.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="261" data-original-width="288" height="261" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuHqTAQn66Rdj4nrS4Ggqb9yZSIsGq26zrElgfk7KSfjvBCXTdzxb3uzCkRie3vOHoVvcJUYOJzNKDASxg9C-hxIqu_S0Mts5wO3T4U7DlYra3GZ7HpANSBHKm1qDQJmWQR3-I6J69NohTGoRX6NG6_imMImqLCsCs2zTPH9fuwFJa3lFfRdlGRFNZ/s1600/hand-writing.png" width="288" /></a><br /><b>Media Credibility</b><p></p><p>A media worker told me one time that the media sets the agenda. She was always pushed me to be careful. To be careful not only about when the issues I was concerned about did not get into the media, but to be careful too when people might seem to 'support' the things I support.<br /></p><p>I am a citizen who checks headlines and reads some stories daily, and shares some stories. I do not bother with some news outlets which might have nice stories from time to time , but who tell stories in ways which I do not agree with.<br /></p><p>I use the print media mostly to share opinions. </p><p>I actively engaged the media between 1997 and 2016 or so to support the advocacy work of organisations and groups with which I was involved. <br /></p><p>One journalist and I had personal problems and he told me he would not report any story in which I was involved. I would like to think he wanted to avoid unconscious bias, rather than a way to silence me. I ensured that I stayed away to avoid any lack of reporting.<br /></p><p>Another media worker/owner called me one night to cuss me up (using all the language). I wrote a letter to question their reporting of sexual abuse. The man cussed me because I was not vigilant about other issues and only about gender-based violence. The letter was published. I have not written any others since to that media house though my name might have appeared as signatory on others.<br /></p><p>I taught from 2009 to 2019 the practical components of the course at the University of Guyana called 'Online multimedia journalism'. </p><p>I realised early enough that the course was not so much a practical IT course as a journalism course and that I had to stray into the waters of assessing not only IT skills, but also journalism skills and practice. </p><p>I learned about journalism after reading what journalists like Gaiutra Bahadur and others were writing (not in Guyana) were writing about journalism. And what other engaged citizens around the world were writing about the media, and especially during the Donald Trump years in the USA.<br /></p><p>I stopped teaching the course when I realised the course had to be upgraded to skills and technologies which I did not use. </p><p>And I knew I was being unfair to the students, as I had never practised journalism or had gone through journalism training and was demanding things of them which no one had demanded of me.</p><p>In 2015, the <a href="https://churchroadman.blogspot.com/2015/08/stream-of-consciousness-and-2015.html" target="_blank">Guyana Cultural Association of New York gave me </a>the Godfrey Chin Prize for Heritage Journalism. For a short time, the United States embassy included me on their media list. It seems that the US Embassy media team considered blogs as part of the media landscape at the time. Until they no longer did.<br /></p><p><b>Media credibility</b><br /></p><p>I used <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_ngozi_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story/c" target="_blank">Chimanada Ngozi Adichie's talk 'Danger of a single story'</a> when teaching the journalism course. </p><p>I understand the dangers of a single story, have read multiple versions of the same story and lamented how some stories are told. </p><p>In May 2022, eight-year-old Timothy Kippins, six-year-old Triston Kippins and one-year-old Zhalia Fluein died in a fire in Barnwell, East Bank Demerara. </p><p>Kojo McPherson wrote on Facebook..about the reporting by two media entities. He wrote about how one media entity said that 'the mother was not at home' while the other media entity reported that 'the mother was at work'.</p><p> Kojo said.. both are factually true, and pointed out though, what impressions are left in the minds of consumers as to why the mother was not at home.<br /></p><p>So yep.. many truths, many contexts. For me now, credibility is not so much the reporting of truth, but rather the reporting of the hundreds and thousands of truths which exist, some of which violently contradict each other.<br /></p><p><b>Rigged elections</b></p><p>In July 2019, I participated accidentally in a workshop hosted by the Guyana Press Association around suicide prevention reporting. Guyana was making a lot of stories as suicide capital of the world. I had clumsily tried to assist the GPA in improving the reporting. Dr Paloma Mohammed is always in my head when making decisions on whether to call out, or to call in and try to help to fix things.</p><p>I also reached out to Nazima Raghubir when I was concerned about reporting on gender-based violence and wondered if I had read their guidelines wrong. She was always responsive, though powerless as the reporting guidelines are just well, voluntary reporting guidelines and it is up to the consumers of media to decide how to deal with the media houses. </p><p>Nazima Raghubir has also been involved in reporting on many of the issues I wanted to advocate.<br /></p><p>Neil Marks has<a href="https://www.stabroeknews.com/2023/05/16/opinion/letters/credibility-of-the-gpa-has-been-severely-harmed/" target="_blank"> written his truth about the 2023 GPA elections</a>. He asserts that the elections were rigged. .(Svetlana Marshall-Abrams <a href="https://www.stabroeknews.com/2023/05/17/opinion/letters/mr-marks-clearly-appears-to-be-part-of-a-wider-campaign-to-discredit-the-gpa/">has responded)</a> He also believes that citizens would now question the credibility of the Guyana Press Association executive as custodians of "decency, transparency, accountability, and fairness " <br /></p><p>I have shared, praised and referenced Neil Marks' work as good practice in my own work. I have also disagreed with many things he has produced and edited. As I have with other media houses and journalists in Guyana. <br /></p><p></p><p><b>Accountability</b></p><p>The GPA elections were the recent circus and I got engaged because I am not planting garden or doing anything else productive. Many citizens who are consumed in the Guyana's PNC/PPP politics were, some of the violently, in favour of one or the other candidate. The GPA elections were about PNC and PPP in this miserable place. I was also puzzled.<br /></p><p>Who were these other people who were disenfranchised? Not allowed to vote, long time members? Were the people who are not media workers voting still? Why aren't there pickets, long petitions by people known in the media? As with so many other political parties and organisations in Guyana's history, why not just form your own organisation and put in place all the things which are not meeting your needs? And why does it really matter to me what any group of people do in their own sphere of organising?</p><p>Sometimes journalists are good at telling their own stories - and to use journalism principles to tell their truths. <br /></p><p>I have had a problem with the media in Guyana, in that while the journalists demand accountability from others , they are not always accountable to the public. <br /></p><p>I have called in and called out media houses and journalists on stories which I found badly reported, or told in ways if truthfully, told in ways which were incomplete so truth , while 'untruths' of omission. </p><p>And the landscape changes and there have been problems when some things which were only true in the minds of the producer generated other violent truths. </p><p>I realised that while we all are custodians of decency, transparency, accountability, and fairness. that these values are subjective depending on whether we are PPP or PNC or neither. GPA then, is not the custodian at all, nor is any journalist who is either PPP or PNC, or neither.<br /></p><p><b>Storytelling</b></p><p>"Come on Vidya.. you must have some successes, some positive stories to tell" the woman and man interviewing me about the work for gender equality told me. </p><p>I do not believe there is any success really as men younger than me continue to kill and maim and abuse women, that people beat children and that violent and abusive men and women are praised for their contributions to national life while they are not held accountable for their abuse of others. </p><p>No success really as men and women who I thought were against child abuse and gender-based violence stand by their political leaders and friends who have allegations of child abuse and gender-based violence against them. </p><p>What positive story is there to tell? </p><p>And young Kapohn on Facebook laments for a Positive Guyana news page and the cynics point him in the direction of the DPI and other places which show Positive Guyana. And there are many who show versions of Guyana, which I do not recognise.</p><p>But in this weirdness of Guyana, we recognise that the media setting the agenda can decide how to highlight the positive and silence the negative. But at the same time, there is this other weirdness of who decides what is positive and what is negative?</p><p>The GPA elections seen as a triumph for many who feel that the PPP want to control the press, and a negative for those who think the elections are rigged. </p><p>The 2020 General elections are seen as a triumph for those who wanted free and fair elections and a return of the PPP, and a failure for those who thought the PNC had changed ; and a failure for those who see the PPP resuming their activities with a vengeance which had lost them the elections in 2015.<br /></p><p>Who decides what is decent, what fairness looks like, what is transparent and what isn't? What happens when those thoughts conflict and cannot be reconciled?<br /></p><p>A positive story I could tell was that I learned to be accountable to people , and that I have lost nothing in being accountable to 'friends' and 'enemies'. </p><p>That I am selectively transparent depending on who is asking, and that some think I am decent and some think I am not decent.</p><p>And that positive stories these days for me are that the yard did not flood after rain, that lights and water are staying on, that I walk on the road without getting robbed or knocked down, that I did not have to holler at a minibus driver to turn down the music, that my blood pressure did not rise when reading the news. Or that I was able to access quality health care at the Health Centre while other times I have had to go 'private'.<br /></p><p>But I not sure if that is positive for others.</p><p>There are positive stories too that I wish I could read about, or write myself or co-write. <br /></p><p>Like stories about how do we in this place with multiple truths, manage to move beyond violence and to reconcile those truths and create new truths which are nurturing for all of us. </p><p><i>(Updated on 17 May, 2023 to link response from Svetlana Marshall-Abrams)</i><br /></p>Vidyaratha Kissoonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12625176305422426967noreply@blogger.com0