Thoughts of a minibus traveller

Kàzaklak melu, Kato, Region 8 (part of pic from Rhea Loo)   Anna Iles (1960 - 2026) was a very kind woman who generously supported people in their work. She had praised my blogs many times, especially those around mental health. Anna is in my mind as I write this . Indigenous lives  Reporter asked me why I was supporting the Amerindian Peoples Association -organised protest. I mumbled nonsense because I could not find the words which would say that the lives lost in the MV Barima, -  in the Mahdia Dorm Fires of 2023, in the suicides, mining violence, other violence, other injustices to the Indigenous communities used to be distant from mine until I re-learned they are connected to mine.  Learning  Burnham's 1980s social studies curriculum taught me that there were six races.  Orlando De Jesus from the 'hinterland' in my class at Bishops' High School died of malaria. I never got more details of his life as an Indigenous student in a Georgetown school....

Pride   "Nah, dem gun be talking about antiman and lesbian and dem ting" the young man said as I was passing after a woman asked him if he was not going to the gender-based violence workshop.  I told him to come and find out what we will be planning to talk about. He laughed.  Another young man in the workshop was concerned about only two genders. He said homosexuality is a mental illness. Hands across chest , defending his masculinity and maleness and his normalness. Another woman in the workshop said something different - everybody is human, June is Pride month.  Workshop has an uneasy consensus that while we might not agree with everyone's way of being human, everyone deserves a right to a life free from violence. Conversation in my head driving me to the Guyana screening of the Queer Cinema for Palestine No Pride in Genocide Walk into the yard and see all the Pride flags decorating the place. Sijan tree provides shade.. Moringa used by many for various hea...

Dear Reuters Your article about how the US-Israeli killing of Iranian children could be a bonanza to Tiny Guyana came out on a day when many yards and streets and houses were flooded after rainfall which should not be unexpected for any country which is developing in  harmony with a turbulent climate and which uses historical experiences, evidence and data to guide interventions. Your  article comes at a time when the stench of stagnant water  reminds us that this 'growth' seems to be 'decay', the stench arising out of insecure egos of politicians who abuse their  power who push bizarre decisions or not make decisions instead of investing in competent expertise guided by global experience.  After all, we are not the first country to be cursed with oil and to learn how to deal with the curse of oil.  Your article about how the US Killing of Iranian children could be a bonanza to Tiny Guyana (or as you framed it "the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran" does talk ...

Time Friday afternoon after I say right, let me pretend that I am in a modern progressive city and walk to relieve the stress from the difficult workshop which had to deal with geopolitics, gender-based violence and the powerlessness felt by Guyanese when dealing with 'outside' forces and local politicians. Lamaha Street with the fancy courtyard where the train station once stood, but no real pavement as these things go.  School children coming down laughing as they do, jostling each other. Some with umbrella to protect from sun.  Group comes up near me and I prepare for what I think is normal to allow them to get into single file and pass. The youths , the leaders of tomorrow like the leaders of today don't make room though.. determined not to break up their formation and collaboration and their unity,  they push me aside.. one girl shouts 'Uncle.. dis is nah time fuh you deh pon de road.. "  I manage to step out of their way and hope that no vehicle would als...

  Writing to the photograph   May Day in Guyana and the woman in 1979 Paris is lying in bed looking at me with a half smile . One hand is on her stomach and the other hand is behind her head. I am typing up with others from around the world on Zoom to answer "Why did you choose this photograph? What does it evoke for you? What does it remind you of?"  We are facilitated by author Julián Delgado Lopera who is leading the Writing Club at Home: On Intimacy organised by the Museum of Modern Art in New York.   Clock is ticking and I start typing up something and editing and so on. I am typing here because I do not want to be typing up on the blank documents which relate to work things - complex workshops, letters, emails, notes. And personal things like the deep journal - easier to write to a photograph from 1979 than to write to myself about myself. Day before, I sat in another Medium Writer Circle, with people around the world and writing Fiction. Deciding wher...

Tomato jubilee Man weeding the yard said look you have a tomato plant near the gutter and I said okay, not going to touch it, let me leave it, throw lil water on it.  Seeds from other tomatoes grown in other parts of Guyana (I try not to buy Brazil tomatoes but I not sure.. )settle in the sediment of the gutter which then generate at the side.  I am in awe even though last time the tomatoes dried up before they ripened and then the plant dried up   I have zero expectations when anything grows in the yard.  Tomatoes in the market were 600GYD a pound and visitors who live in other countries with rising prices keep asking me, why are prices so high in Guyana (even as they are high in other places)?  It is not as though we are further from the Strait of Hormuz than anyone else.  I don't know myself but as the nation which I am part of but feel apart from talks about Diamond Jubilee for the Independence and I see that it seems the Government has organis...