Thoughts of a minibus traveller

The graffiti at the side of the station tracks said NO NAZIS.  I guess it was put there by people who wanted English speaking people to know that some Hungarians or Pestis at least do not want anything to do with the rise of Nazism. The train ride from Salzburg to Budapest passed through some of the most beautiful countryside - windmill farms, old time churches , one and two factories. The border with Hungary was clearer though, the houses looked a bit older, and there were glimpses of rural poverty. Some satellite dishes were rusty. I thought of Guyana. The Keleti Pu is a beautiful station, some parts in need of repair. I am pinching myself .. thinking, I am in Hungary, I am in Hungary.. what am I doing here. When I was younger, I had a stamp from Hungary and I used to wonder what it would be like there. Zsuzsanna and Gabor are there.. last time Zsuzsanna and I met, we had gone to Bourda Market. This is couchsurfing karmaThe apartment building.. character. The steps are wor...

The sheer joy of being able to say I dont know to that question is part of this respite from the organised life dat i carved out for myself. I remember inter-railing through Europe as a student, and saying if i ever come back, i aint coming on no budget and i will be staying in proper hotel - in other words, coming back a rich man. And now, almost 20 years later, i come back counting my pennies and staying cheap But is good. Once the Vienna crap done, the spirits lifted. The train ride from Vienna to Salzburg was amazing.. nice rolling countryside, rain falling, mountains in mist, and then different farm land. I had book to read but did not read the book. Couchsurfing Karma.. my first couchsurfer, Malvin who had come to Guyana for Cricket in 2007 and who I had told I have no plans to be in Austria.. well we meet. He is a lil older. And he glad to talk Indian with me, malvin has been going around the world to the countries where Indian labourers went, he himself is a kind of Indian l...

It wasn't a bad day, felt a bit better. I got some icecream (lemon, chocolate and vanilla) and went to sit down in the plaza to people watch. There were some old men in small groups. They were watching backgammon games. Turkish men, straddling the benches because there were no tables. One man was looking at me like if I should join in, but i had never learned to play properly like a Turkish old man, and I was not sure if money was involved. Money was not involved, warm July evening, old men talking, playing backgammon and smoking. No Turkish old women around though. A cultural thing, this gathering in squares and plazas. Not many old men in the Caribbean come out to play anything in the public, some rum shops still have dominoes for them, some don't. Definitely no chess - I remember watching two old men in Oasis playing chess and eating icecream. Lots of cultural shocks here. I was gaffing with Kenita and she went UGH.. i asked what happen, she say that lady with the baby j...

This was one trip which I was not very sure about because I had not had a chance to rest before. My body finally collapsed,I picked up the stupid cough bug which I am prone to.. so ever 20  or 30 minutes, there is a dry retching cough. When you sick, you probably should be home, but then is good to also push your boundaries and see. I like travelling, but conferences overwhelm me, so definitely no more for me. Today I stayed in and slept. It helped a little bit. In the afternoon, I sat down in a cafe and drank some peppermint tea. The tobacco whiffs are all over the place.  Is great to sit down and people watch. This is the Turkish district, and it is amazing to see how the families are, walking around and in their businesses. What is a bit evident though, is that you do not see too many mixed groups walking around. People probably keep to themselves. The Diwan bakery has a whole range of baklava and I buy about 5 pieces - divinely sweet, so that you get a sugar rush that ...

The American chinese Girl was shouting in her high heels for people to come and try condoms and play with them and do fun things with condoms.. (er except that).. she had lots of lubricant there and said it was okay to taste the lubricant (wondered if she put any on her icecream).. and with my cough and sore throat i pick up the eucalyptus one and she say. yes, it is like a massage gel and she put lil on my hand and I smell it.. and it smell awful, i was not going to taste it , but apparently it dont have menthol so no burning ....but she tell some of the older people who looking at her with the kind of look like is what wrong wid she.. that this man has tried it, you could try it too.. I mek condom badge because everybody has to condomise.. is funny, they have people walking around with condom and aids ribbon pin up on their suit jacket.. and I have one pin on my belly under a piece of green cloth because I had to make a 'badge' and then get a voucher for a teeshirt - I sh...

The woman kiss me and tell me that I am sweet. The day before, in the plenary, she hear my question and say that I smart, that I must be from Guyana. She is a smart woman too, a big woman. So I pinching myself, asking myself what am I doing here. All the angst of getting here, and then to reach the pension where the hotel owner seems to prefer that we were not there. I smell tobacco everywhere.. too many people smoke. Thank God the heat wave cracked on Saturday night, and the place cold now so I could wear my clothes for two or three days without worrying. The man who bring me here, I have seen him once. He has not paid us the per diem yet and I trying to budget and eat healthily and also eat as much of the pastries and ice cream as I could. but I am taking the stairs instead of the elevator and escalator. I am feeling sleepy a lot, but the blogging is going good. Trying to get different perspectives on the Caribbean here and also trying to do some things with podcasts in Spani...

Comrades, it is my duty to speak to you on one of my visits to Guyana. Thank you to all of those who have made me champion of the earth - especially the Mayor . Comrades, I understand that there are some imperialist foreign minded people amongst you complaining about the garbage in Georgetown. Do not listen to these imperialist foreign minded people. This is not garbage we have put here. These are the people produced indicators of economic progress which we , Guyanese, have made visible for the world to see. Every drinks bottle represents an economic transaction, and the disposal of the plastic bottle indicates that we do not have poor people who need to keep that plastic bottle. Every styrofoam box represents that someone has eaten, and eaten a lot. Every Carib bottle represents money spent on alcohol and that we have no one who wants that bottle to use for anything. Every Kiss Cake Wrapper is our contribution to the Trinidad economy. Every rum bottle a tribute to our industry...

This letter was published in Stabroek News and Kaieteur News . It took me a long time to write it, it was one of those things which was not easy to do, but people liked it, a few did not but that is how life go. Dear Editor, Recent public events have opened discussions of ‘cultural imperialism’ in Guyana. Dr Prem Misir in a letter in the Guyana Chronicle of July 4 (and published previously) appeals for an understanding of the context of President Jagdeo’s call for Guyanese not to succumb to “Western defintions of child abuse.” This letter was a response to a criticism of President Jagdeo’s position published in Stabroek News: ( http://www.stabroeknews.com/2010/letters/04/13/what-is-a-western-definition-of-child-abuse/ The President made his comment at an event organised by the Guyana Hindu Dharmic Sabha to promote child protection. Stabroek News reported on Tuesday, June 29, that  Mr Edghill, Chairperson of the ERC and member of the Inter Religious Organisation  listed...

I am the Nazi functionary who went for the communists in Niemoller's time. I am the soldiers herding Jews to the oven. I am the black overseer, and the Indian overseer who continues the master's oppression. I am a good worker, loyal employee, I do my job. Do not take it personally. I am the clerk who wrote up the slave names in the official gazette when the sales were made. I made records of who was whipped and who was not. I did my job well as evidenced in the records available even today. The standards have dropped now, not like those good old days when a clerk was a clerk with neat handwriting and knew his place (women did not work in those days) I am the activist turned UN/International Agency employee who stops speaking out because it is my job and I cannot speak out any more. But I will have lunch or a drink with you and tell you quietly I agree with you and ask you to understand that it is my job. I am the development worker who wants to speak out but cannot because ...

The guy looked at me as though I was one of the homosexual predators the pastors had warned him about. There was a mix of bravado and fear in his face. I probably had the curiosity of wanting to know what he was doing across the road from Sidewalk Cafe, on his cell phone. He told me he was just waiting on friends. I said, why not come in?.. he said no no, he can see the film from across the road (a little more small than the picture shows).. I say no , you cannot hear it, come in. And he did, and he stayed.. sat alone with many of the other people who came for the first time that last night of the 2010 SASOD Film Festival He did not sign the cloth at the end though.. The excitement generated by the IRO/ERC condemnation of the SASOD Film Festival had the effect of scaring some people away while it also brought out support in different forms. The Spectrum Celebration saw singing, poetry reading and expressions of hope and resistance. One irony was that a man who works with the US Gov...