Thoughts of a minibus traveller

(This picture comes from A merrier world and the cake I baked looked just like this. First time that my cakes ever look like a glossy picture.) The first time I heard about carrot cake I thought the people were mad, carrots usually went in fry rice and chowmein. I tasted it anyway, with the banana frosting and found that it felt healthy eating it, and it was delicious. Kind of like when I heard of pumpkin pone the first time, and then pumpkin pie - apparently many Americans dont eat pumpkin except in pie - they missing out on pumpkin and sada roti. Carrots apparently are used in many sweets around the world. This morning as I lay in bed contemplating whether I should get up and go for a run, I decided to make a carrot cake ( I could have done that contemplation while running but that is besides the point) I had no recipe, and used half of this one after browsing through many. I made a mistake with half of 1 and a quarter cups of oil and ended up putting 3/4 cups of oil inste...

The friend who gave me this book is  a fan of bell hooks and has been reading one after another of her books. He inscribed this with "here's hoping that you find all the love deserved and desired.." I am not inclined to too much touchy feely books about love and so on, but I must admit that I loved this book, I might not agree with or believe everything. bell hooks is an American feminist writer and cultural critic. bell hooks affirms that love is the will to nurture our and another's spiritual growth. So nothing like romanticism and valentine's day and so on, valentine's day being part of what bell hooks refers to as consumer greed which along with patriarchal masculinity - believing that men superior to women, denies love. The thoughts are very buddhist, and bell hooks is influenced by Thich Nhat Hanh My experiences with love have been varied, a lot of people have told me they love me - one or two them are in various stages of hating or pitying me no...

Today, the young guy asked me if I was a social worker, said he had seen me on TV talking about something to do with alcohol. We started gaffing, all kinds of things, barber shop, work,  church, God.. things were not going good for he said, that his personal life was a bit messy and even his work dreams were not being realised. I asked what he meant, he said he started working at Customs so that he could make money.. fool me, I said, oh, the pay not good, and then he said no not that, that he hoped to work at Customs to make a few dollars and build a house and then move on.. it was stressful to watch everyone else making the money, but he was excluded.. this said to me who he did not know without any sense that it might be a bad thing.. I had to leave the gaff, nice enough chap, but such is life  , probably many young people all over the place who ketching a lil raise to help pay their tithe

Albert Camus wrote this philosophical novel in which Clamence, a judge-penitent , narrates his story to a drinking buddy in a seedy bar in Amsterdam (or the reader). Clamence used to live the high life and has a "weakness for the subjunctive mood and fine speech in general." Clamence had "this satisfaction of being right" and on being on the right side of the law, and he felt good, liking heights to look down and around at people. There are many reviews on the internet,and I like this one which says that the book can be interpreted anyway you want since there is no real authority to interpret the book. Clamence had his moral crises, and his justification for the way he handles those crises. There is a lot of Christian allegory. Clamence becomes cynical from being once passionate in what he believed in. I laughed as I read the book, there is much to quote.. "True debauchery is liberating because it creates no obligations. In it you possess only yours...

The minibus stopped at the traffic light on Regent Street and the two women behind me start talking very loudly about how the "chinee tekkin ova". I turned my ears, not my head though, to hear more. They said eh eh, you see how much of dem Chinee deh pun Regent Street now and how dat dey leffin Suriname to come Guyana. Dey say dat in French (Guiana) de Chinee have to employ locals, but in Guyana it dont seem so, and dat the chinee putting the vendors out of business because they selling cheaper than the vendors. One lady say is not only Guyana, even USA where everything now making in China. The other lady say but is what will happen in Guyana, and that the chinese have to be grateful to the Guyanese traders who used to go and buy from them in Suriname and make them happy. I started looking at the stores on Regent Street, it is true, there are many retailers , and the Sindhi/Indian and Chinese retailers seem to be sharing store space. A friend from Bangalore who lived for ...

The minibus driver is a former coach so we started gaffing about exercising, whether morning better than afternoon. He, the conductor, another man and me in the bus. He tell me that I need to sex plenty as well. I say that I masturbate, I dont have to worry with that. He stutter and say, what you saying, the conductor look at me like my head not good, and the other man laugh. A 61 year old Trinidadian man I know say that masturbation has saved him from disastrous relationships because he does not need to go to women looking for sex as a base for a relationship. In Guyana, hushed discussions and talk here, not too many people willing to deal with that and celibacy and abstinence for some includes masturbation while for others they say it not good since you using energy which could be put to better purposes. The driver recover himself, and say that boy, that thing not good, be careful, Mrs Palmer could get tired and one side muscle would get bigger than the other. I say, how so, he d...

Sections of an Orange by Anton Nimblett is a fantastic collection of short stories. Nimblett is Trinidadian born, and his stories and characters move between Trinidad and New York Thanks to CD Valere for making this book available to SASOD. Rosamond King's review on GSPOTTT also pushed me to read it. Anton Nimblett's stories are like stories you might hear around the place, ordinary stuff, about people you might know, and see on the minibus or in the market. Many of the stories are about men as well, a change for me since it seems a lot of stories from the Caribbean recently are about women, maybe I am not reading all of the stories which are published. Visiting Soldiers is a moving story of a woman whose son died in the US War on Terror. There are a few Caribbean nationals in the US army and we are not too sure what is happening with the families when they are killed, this story reminds us of those families I know of one young man whose friends think it is glamourous...

Krik? Krak! is Danticat's second book. The blurb tells us that When Haitians tell a story, they say Krik? and the listeners answer Krak! and so we start on the journey into Haitian culture. Danticat is the only "Haitian" author I have read, since she writes in English. I am drawn to her style of writing, short sentences, uses of Kweyol, local colour in descriptions, so that I get a picture of Haitian life outside of the newspapers and television.  The characters move between stories and between locations - usually Haiti and USA and then between periods of time. Some of them are bleak but the writing gives honour to the characters in them, despite their circumstances. Children of the Sea is about the Haitians who travel on the boat, told in a unique way of letters. 1937 is about the old history of Haiti, and the cruelty when state and faith do not meet. A wall of fire rising is about imagination and dreaming to escape situations. Night women is a tale from a woman ...

Tuesday night, the 44 minibus driver and conductor were angry, they had just seen the accident involving what they said was a speeding prison van which had hit down a child. They talked abotu the torture of the 14 year old child. The driver said, Jagdeo is a good man, but that he needs to get rid of the black people from around him.. I asked which ones, they were not sure which ones or who was black around Jagdeo. (I heard a big pandit say a similar thing about Berbice officials, that Jagdeo is a good man but he dont have good people in Berbice working for him - these are 'indian' though) The gaff turned to the torture. The bus driver said he dont understand how come people are not on the road outside the police station, he say that Demerara got too much 'black' and coolie, that in Berbice where he come from black and coolie people would come out and picket and behave bad for any child that get bun up. But that town people, they dont hold one head.  They said the  b...

The first letter to the editor I wrote was to the editor of National Geographic way  back in 1982 or sometime like that. The letter was not published. A lot of my letters to the editors have not been published. Writing a letter to the editor is a nerve wracking thing. You never know if it will be accepted, and you wonder if it will generate any negative consequences if it is published.  Sometimes I have written things in anger, which, when I see published, I cringe and think I could have written differently, while others say that those letters tend to be much better and clearer than the ones I would agonise over which in the end apparently are not clear. I am glad to see letters which are from people who were nervous about expressing themselves, especially young people, and I have encouraged a few people to write their letters and send them in. Stabroek News has been the leader in encouraging the letters columns. A few people tell me that is the first place they look in t...

The media reports allegations that a 14 / 15 year old boy was tortured while in custody of the Police in Region 3. A group of lawyers , and other organisations have strongly condemned this act of torture. It is reported that the Police have started investigations and that two officers are in police custody. The investigations would hopefully reveal who else is accountable for the ill treatment of this child. This is the second report of a child being tortured while in police custody. There was another report in Region 6 of another child who had been brutalised in police custody and his lawyer had made several attempts to seek justice. The condemnations of police brutality seem not to work when sections of the society believe that it is okay for the police to behave this way. The child must receive the best medical care possibly and there must be appropriate psychosocial support. In Guyana's circumstances, that support might have to come from the private sector and I hope ...