Thoughts of a minibus traveller

(Viewpoint from 2005) How tolerant are you? How much difference of opinion and views can you handle? How rigid are your own thinking and views – have you changed your opinion about anything recently? What has caused those changes? To what extent would you go to get others who think differently from you to convert to your views? How much would you accept others trying to confront your beliefs and values without wanting to pick a fight with them? I believe these questions are important at a time when it would appear that there is rising intolerance and displays of prejudice, which have resulted in violent conflicts - between nations or between people. In Guyana, it is important for us to address our own prejudices and levels of intolerance as we create a plural society. My parents this year were accosted by a Christian missionary who felt that the jhandhi flag in our yard was a symbol of our evil and hence it was necessary to save us. My normally tolerant family were shocked at th...

First Published in the Weekender in 2006 Sanity A man urinated on me in front of Igloo Ice cream parlour on Camp Street. It was a Sunday evening, and there were a lot of people buying ice cream . The man was standing around begging and then started to urinate, Yes, right there in front of everybody. And no, nobody could do anything. There were mutterings around him from the crowd, some embarrassed shouts and curses, but the man was in his own world and happily ignored everyone. I passed behind him, thinking a good distance, when he turned around and moved suddenly. His face had this expression of happiness, he was smiling and his eyes were toward the sky, oblivious to any of the people around him. It is not very often you see such expressions of pure joy and glee on any of the adults around Georgetown. My preoccupation with his face caused me to neglect what was going on at my feet. What would you have done? The man did not care about any reaction from the sane people around him. ...