Thoughts of a minibus traveller

Guyana's politics has been divisive and this coming election is going to be characterised by A Partnership for National Unity (APNU - not apnooo ). This week, there was a group of non-APNU people who met a team from APNU to have a conversation about  APNU. APNU did well to be a part of this conversation, and have committed to others. Everybody admitted that APNU is not generating too much excitement, for various reasons.  APNU has less advertising budget than say Jamzone and that the partnership between Mavado and Kartel / Gully and Gaza was of much more national interest a few weeks ago. So.. why did I bother? Unity terrifies me because I feel that once people are united and unified, then somebody gun tek ovah and it will mean the end of dissension and the space for skepticism. Partnerships on the other hand are intriguing. Forgiveness and Reconciliation but not as yet Those of us who old enough to remember the WPA would know that it was a party which opposed the PNC...

Bus stop and I jump in the front seat. Bus driver know me.. ask how de old man and den ask me like I aint wukin today. The music is about man checking to see what under a girl skirt.. as with the lyrics of the music you never know if it is a school age girl or what. I ask is why he playing.. he said is not he, is the conductor. The conductor is the owner. I get racial now. I ask the conductor to change the music, put on some uplifting music or play some coolie music because i aint want to check under nobody skirt. the conductor seh he aint got no music like dat. I seh black people like gospel music too. People in the back saying well well. big lady got smile on she face and I vex bad, because is nuff stupidness.. others looking straight ahead like they aint hearing. So I shut meh mouth.. the man aint change the music and if i start sing Amazing grace at the front of the bus, it would not have the same effect like when I sing at the back of the bus.. other lyrics about man bunnin...

The Pandit at the wedding said that  a Hindu woman stays with her husband no matter what. A Hindu survivor of domestic violence got her inspiration from the Bhagvad Gita and the Mahabharata.. she said that story of standing up to family meant she should stand up to her abusive husband. The work with Help & Shelte r to combat domestic violence and child abuse involved working with religious and non-religious people; and in the beginning Help & Shelter was accused of being anti-family  - family apparently being this place where women were supposed to take whatever was meted out to them. Things changed though.. and one of the radical shifts which has come about has been the shift in how sections of the religious community have invested in and joined the work against domestic violence. One of the blessings I have  is that in doing this work.. I have had to learn about different faiths, and the way in which they are organised and also to learn from the survivors ...

One time a minibus driver said gospel music was only for the morning.. and another time a passenger said I cannot sing Amazing Grace.. because that it have time and place for dat. I said God dont have time and place and a girl who was winin' up in front suck her teeth while others look a bit embarassed. I am an unrepentant invoker of God in minibuses when I want the minibus to change the music which I think is dutty and calling for women to take off their underwear. Sometimes it works.; sometimes the drivers pretend they not hearing me, or in some of the minibuses which might have the murti of Laxmi or Durga on it, I would get a good cuss out from the drivers who expect me to understand that they have a god given right to make their money at any costs. I am as guilty as the politicians who have cleverly ensured the adequate supply of the opium to the masses, in different forms and of high quality and have themselves become involved in dealing it. The President himself gave ...

A woman talked about a relative she has a problem with. The relative met with an accident. The woman thought it was God punishing the relative for the bad things.. and the pandit apparently agreed with her. This week, I got into an exchange with  a Jehovah Witness and then carried that exchange to Facebook. The exchange was about how Hinduism is condemned by the Jehovah Witnesses.  The Facebook comments protested the kind of ownership of truth by many religious denominations. Many people avoid those discussions.   When growing up, we used to take all the tracts and the magazines and so on.. but when someone left a magazine in the letter box saying Hinduism was wrong.. then things turned a bit at the insult. I would not give out any tract to any Christian or other person to tell them that their faith is wrong. I don't think anybody should do that to anyone else. There is a Hindu 'backlash' to all the crap which has come from especially sections of the Christian d...