Madness, death, gay, Jamzone - Occupy GT
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. One young woman stop. And write. And talk . and Talk.. and talk.
Older man, security guard says he has a lot to write .. he will pass back. He does, he passes back and he writes. Other people write, some say they want to talk only. Some say they air their comments on Facebook.
Then.. commotion over at the market. A lady is being attacked by her relatives. It is confusing. Then the crowd comes over. Some begging, some shouting, some cussing. A confused policeman. It is S. She is not in church. Two women are trying to hold her back. She is fighting them off. Her neatly combed hair in disarray. She is cussing. Begging.
A man in the people's parliament says.. we know, she is a psychiatric case. He is also shaken. His mother was also a mental case he says.
The women in the crowd speak. This is mad, some of them are laughing. Some of them say.. S. saw a man stab her sister and that trauma remains. Another man had attempted to rape S. The crowd knows this. The family knows this. They are also agitated. The faces are angry, not full of love. Then S is picked up, hands and feet and put in a pick up.
"Mommy died"
Another woman - teacher, sister, mother and daughter - says. Vidya. Mommy died. I hug her. There is the commotion a few feet away with people trying to subdue S. This woman though is shocked.. I wanted to be home she says. I tell her its okay, you were in a good place, not a rum shop. She had been caring and hoped to be with her mother. And so it all changes.. everything, in split seconds.
The teacher,sister,mother and daughter woman leaves the picket to go home to mourn her mother's passing.
S.'s mother was there trying to get S into the pickup with the mad police to go the hospital. The pickup speeds off.. crazy.
S. is not in the Brazillian church. She is not selling. Another woman says, S. will be back here.
Suddenly, everything on the blasted picket is meaningless. The country which does not have the mental health facilities to deal with the mental health. The same police who we cannot trust are coopted by people who want to subdue and oppress other people. The state which has a woman trying to assert her vision for a better Guyana while getting news that Mommy died.
So it must have been in Linden.
Jamzone
Then loud noise. A big truck, with speakers. Jamzone .. being announced. And a mad man, yep a mad man. Speaks loudly, to the truck.. quiet down.. instead of yall.. the people here. pointing at us, should have those speakers and that microphone. The man on the mic looks over a bit sheepish. But Jamzone will continue.
Gays
Place quiet again. S. is gone. We are still stunned by the whole thing. People passing. Lady from Lethem stops.. she writes angrily about the need for a change in Government. Some of us distracted and angered by S. And the woman who is grieving for Mommy.
Then three people talking. I hear the thing about homosexuality. Man with yankee accent. Woman. Older man. Man with yankee accent says he lives in NY and he has no problem with gays. He do not see why anybody should. Woman says the same thing, but not in yankee accent.
I go down to hear more. I ask them to write something. The older man says he not writing anything. I ask him. He told us his grandfather was a slave. He said he is 83 and he is healthy. He said everywhere, freedom had to come with bloodshed. I asked him.. how much more bloodshed he wanted. He walked away. He came back. He looked at me. He said.. "I was a volunteer, in the 60's.. I was there. I saw the ugliness. I do not want that to happen again, that I have to be put against you'. And he walked away.
The American/Guyanese gave a donation .
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. One young woman stop. And write. And talk . and Talk.. and talk.
Older man, security guard says he has a lot to write .. he will pass back. He does, he passes back and he writes. Other people write, some say they want to talk only. Some say they air their comments on Facebook.
Then.. commotion over at the market. A lady is being attacked by her relatives. It is confusing. Then the crowd comes over. Some begging, some shouting, some cussing. A confused policeman. It is S. She is not in church. Two women are trying to hold her back. She is fighting them off. Her neatly combed hair in disarray. She is cussing. Begging.
A man in the people's parliament says.. we know, she is a psychiatric case. He is also shaken. His mother was also a mental case he says.
The women in the crowd speak. This is mad, some of them are laughing. Some of them say.. S. saw a man stab her sister and that trauma remains. Another man had attempted to rape S. The crowd knows this. The family knows this. They are also agitated. The faces are angry, not full of love. Then S is picked up, hands and feet and put in a pick up.
"Mommy died"
Another woman - teacher, sister, mother and daughter - says. Vidya. Mommy died. I hug her. There is the commotion a few feet away with people trying to subdue S. This woman though is shocked.. I wanted to be home she says. I tell her its okay, you were in a good place, not a rum shop. She had been caring and hoped to be with her mother. And so it all changes.. everything, in split seconds.
The teacher,sister,mother and daughter woman leaves the picket to go home to mourn her mother's passing.
S.'s mother was there trying to get S into the pickup with the mad police to go the hospital. The pickup speeds off.. crazy.
S. is not in the Brazillian church. She is not selling. Another woman says, S. will be back here.
Suddenly, everything on the blasted picket is meaningless. The country which does not have the mental health facilities to deal with the mental health. The same police who we cannot trust are coopted by people who want to subdue and oppress other people. The state which has a woman trying to assert her vision for a better Guyana while getting news that Mommy died.
So it must have been in Linden.
Jamzone
Then loud noise. A big truck, with speakers. Jamzone .. being announced. And a mad man, yep a mad man. Speaks loudly, to the truck.. quiet down.. instead of yall.. the people here. pointing at us, should have those speakers and that microphone. The man on the mic looks over a bit sheepish. But Jamzone will continue.
Gays
Place quiet again. S. is gone. We are still stunned by the whole thing. People passing. Lady from Lethem stops.. she writes angrily about the need for a change in Government. Some of us distracted and angered by S. And the woman who is grieving for Mommy.
Then three people talking. I hear the thing about homosexuality. Man with yankee accent. Woman. Older man. Man with yankee accent says he lives in NY and he has no problem with gays. He do not see why anybody should. Woman says the same thing, but not in yankee accent.
I go down to hear more. I ask them to write something. The older man says he not writing anything. I ask him. He told us his grandfather was a slave. He said he is 83 and he is healthy. He said everywhere, freedom had to come with bloodshed. I asked him.. how much more bloodshed he wanted. He walked away. He came back. He looked at me. He said.. "I was a volunteer, in the 60's.. I was there. I saw the ugliness. I do not want that to happen again, that I have to be put against you'. And he walked away.
The American/Guyanese gave a donation .
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