Thoughts of a minibus traveller

The law student looked at me as though I was mad when I asked him if he would come spend a few minutes at the People's Parliament.  We were talking about law and so on and rights.  But this is not how he imagines public discussion about rights. The carpenter said that he passed plenty times but never stopped. He said is a good thing to have this thing where people talk. He finds that Guyanese are not proud of their country like how Jamaicans and Trinidadians are. He said that this race thing got to stop.. he is mixed race and he learns from everybody. He says that we need each other - he said that as a carpenter he could look down on the labourers who work on his worksite, but then the carpenter would not do the labourer work. He has a lil cough though, so he going home. He cannot stay on. He did not want to be recorded. The teacher is young. He pass and then stops. He teaches at one of the problem schools - he has been a teacher for 7 years. He does not have to beat chi...

[ A student,  Vieira Linderova,   is doing a survey of telecentre use around the world and sent this questionnaire to ask for my views. I had worked on one telecentre run by the Cummings Lodge Hindu Society and organised by SEWA. The telecentre closed for various reasons. There are many other telecentre models in other parts of the world.  1. What role can MCTs play in social and economic development, particularly in rural communities of developing countries? I believe there is evidence that in many parts of the world, telecentres have been part of the economic and social development of rural communities. Rural economies have faced serious challenges . The theory goes that communities with limited access to telecommunications and technical capacity can use the MCTs to access information and knowledge. There are telecentre models in urban communities as well with poverty.  2) In your experience, what have been some successes (especially concrete examples) o...

Two guys this week asked how things .. and when I told them, I got the kind of shocked question and reaction which implies that there is nothing for me to be depressed about. I agree.. there is nothing for me to be depressed about. However, I have to manage the depression which creeps up from time to time. Sometimes it is easy to do, sometimes it is not. Masking depression is often easy to do. Sometimes it is not. Sometimes the masking leads to more feelings of anger and failure that I am not being honest and just pretending. Or when I do talk and get a reaction, I feel I should not be imposing my miserable self on people - that is not mannerly.  It might be easy to say to avoid people. Coping mechanisms do work but sometimes, they do not. The important thing is to realise what is happening and to do healthy things to manage the feelings and the mind. Don't indulge in the sweet or the crunchy snacks.  Avoid people who seem noisy and loud. Go and feel the heat of the sun...

I floated through the clouds hovering over me and walked down to High Street to Occupy GT.  Two women are there and some of the guys. I sit down. Place cloudy. The posters are there to write up. High Street has bursts of traffic. Plenty people with their children A woman sees me. I recognise her from a temple and say Seeta Ram. She says she recognises me from TV and she reads my letters in the papers. She comes and sits down on the embankment. We talk Ramayana, domestic violence, her children school. She tells me she is looking for work but like older Hindu women cannot find work. She balancing home life and work. S. comes up. She passing. She is going to church she said. She hopes to be selling later. She will pass back when she is finished. S. has been supporting the picket. Other people come up, they write on the card board. Change the Government. Overcome race hate. Some do not write. Some pass by. Some ignore and look at us like if we mad. Some say they coming back. O...

You think you can plan a day to get through some important tasks. Some tasks require prior knowledge and are simple, others rely on brain work. The routine is good,, get up, do the yoga. Part of you wants to lie down flat but there are things to do. There are emails and messages to respond to. There are things in the head to do - projects and ideas which float. But some people ask for things and thankfully, those are like sparks. It is like taking small steps at moving. I am craving food and I understand how it must feel to want alcohol and drugs. I feel like going on a chocolate binge but my body is not moving to change the clothes to go on the road.  I know it is wrong. Like how the person who is married who wants to meet up , and the other person who is married who say that I would have been the perfect choice. There is some moral compass which is there, so I am not dead yet. I contemplate what it must be like to be dead - not the dying part thinking of those who are dy...

[ In September 2003, I took a minibus to Paramaribo. I wrote this and I keep fantasising of taking a minibus to ... different parts of Guyana - trying to write about our own travel here ] Georgetown to Suriname - overland Bobby, the bus driver calls at 3am, they coming in 15 minutes or so, then they reach about 6am and we start off. people snoring in the bus, reach rosignol, one must have fish and bread. cross the river in the morning, have this book i am reading which i did not know was funny, so i was laughing and people watching me funny. one nice lady asked me to share the joke with her. so i stopped reading. we reached moleson creek, and wait two hours for the famous ferry, humidity high, and only flocks of birds moving. ferry eventually arrives. takes awhile for customs and immigration. soldier on the ferry says how stupid life is, we inherit these crazy border structures from english and dutch, and we descendants of colonised people fight over things which the original pe...

The Ramayana is a complex text, an important Hindu narrative which is part of the rich culture. We sing from it, we make ballet dances, we act and tell stories from it. The graphic arts are part of the Indian art tradition as well. Sita's Ramayana, according to the blurb on Tara Books, "shifts the point of view of the Ramayana – the saga of a heroic war – to bring a woman’s perspective to this timeless epic. Narrated by the heroine Sita, it is a powerful meditation on the fate of women, as they become pawns in the wars between men and kingdoms. But Sita is not just a patient victim of events – she endures her fate with fortitude, until the moment she decides to challenge it. The book unites two women from very different backgrounds: young urban writer Samhita Arni collaborates with Patua scroll artist Moyna Chitrakar to create this unusual graphic novel." The Hindu traditions of the feminine are complex - the divine energy Shakti is feminine , and in so...

Naguib Mahfouz was a Nobel prize winning Egyptian writer whose works brought to life different parts of Egyptian history. Voices from the Other world is a collection of five short stories which were written in the 1930s and 1940s. They might have been ancient fables which Mahfouz rewrote.  The stories are related to Pharonic Egypt but have some very interesting themes. Evil Adored satirises the do gooders.. those who fight for justice who then will have nothing to do when justice is achieved; King Userkaf' s forgiveness is about a happy man who questions the loyalty of his friends and relatives - 'people seek refuge in the shade of a leafy tree, but when winter strips it bare, they cut the branches for  for firewood".  The Mummy Awakens is a satire on the modern Egypt's relationship with the old; The Return of Sinuhe is about decisions made in haste while A Voice from the Other World is a tale told from the tomb about detachment and death.  The stories have h...

De bus man ask if I going down - I seh yeh. He got a cigarette in he hand out de window an' he ask me fuh a excuse - he seh he gun dun jus' now. I seh nah man, if yuh smokin' yuh gah fuh smoke de real ting. De man laff an' seh.. true true.. he wife is a rasta. He tell me he doan drink, so smokin' is he vice. He seh he wife does cook de food wid de herb , she doan smoke either. She does only cook ital. He seh when yuh eat de food, it nice. And dat de herb good fuh cold an' astma. De bus man ask me if I does drink or smoke - I seh nah nah. he seh man, you mussee gat nuff woman den.  I see nah, suh he seh man, someting wrang wid yuh.  De man tell me he wife is a nurse.. he like she bad bad, but she doan live hey no mo'. He seh she outside an' dat he does kerry her everywhere. He seh she does doan min' when he calling out fuh gyurls an' suh.. when he kicksin'. An when she come back, he gah fuh tek a week leave. A nex' bus man - he t...

Dear Comrades I am writing this letter myself because the person who supposed to write my letters is asking me to pay his  money for the assault fine first. First of all, I want to address important matters related to things I am supposed to know about. I am glad that the Finance Minister shared that list of people who getting paid and how much they getting paid. I am as shocked as many of you are.. since as you well know, I do not make the decisions as to who advises me and how much they get paid. And I dare not question this. Further more, if you notice, I am not on that list of Advisors to the President.. that is because as Bharrat told yall last year before the elections, I do not collect any salary for advising the President.  In fact, I still advise the President when he wants to listen to me. Otherwise he just does his own thing and I have to fuddle along. Yes, I know yall think I am the President, but internally we have an joint collective arrangement where t...

One man told me 'Be careful, do not be fooled by the smiley faces", another person told me "Why you going, what is wrong with you?". The nice coloured leaflet in my letter box announced the Jehovah Witness Convention - "Safeguarding your Heart". I threw away the leaflet.  I know - a lot of people joke and cuss up about Jehovah Wickedness - and the door to door thing. But I am secretly in awe.. I mean, I did a survey once and after about the 10th refusal after knocking on a gate - I was like to hell with it But the last couple of weeks have been rough, and I have been avoiding crowds, people, difficult situations - facing inevitable realities. I will go to the Convention at the National Park. It is open to everyone. I know a few Jehovah Witnesses - two people from school, work colleagues, a man who does anti-violence work, another woman who is a survivor of domestic violence, my favourite barber, another colleague. I know of the condemnation of ga...

The old rasta man jumped on the fender at the back of an old red canter truck and asked me whether I wanted a lift.  I laughed and said no. I was walking in to the National Park. Last time I had been in the park for August 1st, Emancipation,  was 2009. The old canter truck parked and I reached walking about the same time. Two men came out. One in all over white, including a small headwear. Long locks almost down to his ankle. His partner in another style of 'African' outfit. The man was watching in the car mirrors as he walked, and fixing his hat.. I envied the white, if I dressed like that it would get nasty quick quick. Linden on my mind. I had been in one or two protests. This week, I am doing a couple of things, I am trying to head to places to find some grounding and connection with those who are not thinking like me. I hope to go to the Jehovah Witness convention as well to put  closure to the end of a friendship, even as I remember other connections with oth...