Thoughts of a minibus traveller

Guyana is excited a week now, well a part of Guyana anyway after various media houses reported that there was a taped recording of one of the Commissioners on the Rights of the Child Commission, Mr Kwame McKoy who is talking to someone who is supposed to be a 15 year old boy called Julius and it seems to be making sexual advances. Mr McKoy has denied that his voice is on the tape and has subsequently obtained injuctions preventing several media houses from airing the tape. He has also made a report to the police about the fabrication. On Monday I was asked for my comments by Kaieteur News and I said I had no comment pending the allegations. I have not heard the tape nor do I have any interest in listening to it since I can make no judgement about whether the voice is Mr McKoy's voice. It is of no surprise that amongst the people who have listened to all or part of the tape, many believe it is his voice, some do not believe it is his voice (and both of these groups because th...

I am a self serving jackass, at least that is what a man told me Wednesday night and then called me on Thursday night to apologise for calling me a jackass before calling me a jackass again. Allan Fenty this week writes about the jackass in Georgetown who looking on at Guyana and its goings ons and trying to figure out what the jackass really think. Stabroek News had this nice picture of two donkeys in a bus shed  on Wednesday 23 September . Next thing we get is this fascinating letter from Randy Persaud, sometimes Dr Randy Persaud who we hear is an advisor to the President . The letter accused Stabroek News of all kind of underhand donkey things and I read the letter to say that the Government have plenty people who could analyse donkey business and jackasses. And that they have people schooled in semiotics which I learn is something about symbols . I wonder if a jackass did kick Dr Persaud and the other people in the government who are ready to kick up to  do a disco...

I watched a group of kids from FE Pollard come in the bus a day. Two of them were sharing a drink, and one came in the bus and then realised that the other had her drink and there was a big to do about the drink, and tomorrow the money and so on..  is always good to see laughing groups of children. Growing up I stayed pretty much by myself.. self preservation. I was the target of taunts in Prep A and home was also a mess, so I just found ways to keep to myself. Primary school was like that.. no close friends but the people you know and birthday parties etc. One time I tried to buy friends by taking some blank paper to school to share out for the kids to draw. I am not sure how people learn to make friends or be friends. I have been blessed, that despite my instincts to keep to myself and be alone, that there are some people who I have let in my life who have nurtured me.  When discussing rum drinking with some men, they talk about how you would never have 'friends' if yo...

A mad man took the feet of a bloated rotten dog carcass and moved it away from near the seawall and threw it in the ocean. He then took off all his clothes, put on some thing looking like a white cloth and went and bathe. It is not clear if the motivation to move the carcass was to do some public good for the sane people on the seawall who would not have done the same thing. He did not come back to the spot, so I do not think it was for him. I want to think that this mad man did some service. Last week, we learnt that British Prime Minister offered an apology to Alan Turing, who was called the Father of modern computers and who committed suicide. I am thinking of these two mad men. In Guyana, mental health has great stigma attached to it. Guyana has neglected mental health as a result and there are no Guyanese organisations which will focus on mental health or illness (and this is not about suicide prevention only). There probably is no funding available. I have not been diag...

Some people have found it funny when the President accused the private media like Kaiteur News of giving Guyana a bad name because of the promotion of bad news. The Government is concerned that tourists and diaspora people have a bad impression of Guyana because I think many Guyanese living here also have a bad impression of Guyana, though I am not sure how much reading the news in the President's favourite papers will change that.  Many of the people who have left Guyana think those who stay are either crazy, or that they are martyrs or as some have told me, I am not good enough to make it 'over there' So.. how do we survive in Guyana? How do we thrive in Guyana? How do we bury the bad news in the bottom pages of our minds and our lives and pretend that every time that the presidential promises and exhalations and flatulent outbursts will be the good news which will enable us to enjoy life here. As I write  this, I hear that a PPP MP thinks that Movado is good for G...

The Hindu traditions in Guyana date back to when the indentured immigrants came and some of them started to find ways to keep the traditions alive. One of the traditions is the singing of chowtaal and ramayana in groups, or goles. Chowtaals are songs sung at Phagwah time. The Ramayana is the story of Rama and Sita, which exists in various versions. The Tulsidas version - the Shri Ramcharitmanas is the popular one in Guyana. So, how does the gole work? The groups used to be men, usually from a village and affiliated with a mandir. The men mostly had to learn Hindi or Awadhi, or they would have learnt by rote the sounds. The tunes are called 'baani'. The instruments are the dholak which keeps the rythmn and the jaal which the singers use to keep the time. I have been singing Ramayana since 1987 or thereabouts when a random group was formed which consisted of men from all over Georgetown who had been part of other village goles. We called our selves the Torchlight Ramayana...