Thoughts of a minibus traveller

Urticaria is a new friend in my life. In the last five weeks, I have met Urticaria and had to embrace Urticaria since trying to fight Urticaria is not going to work. I have played in gutters, had my hand in all kinds of earth and mud, waded through flood waters - and nothing really happened. I have never had hay fever - just the periodic coughs, childhood ring worm,  chicken pox and the other things. The body though really changes. Friends tell me about growing lactose intolerance. Another friend discovers new allergies.. malta being the most recent. People are allergic to painkillers, food colourings, some foods- some raw food.. all kinds of things. Here I am, 42 year old Guyanese coolie man, who used to eat everything and touch anything without problems Marabunta stings would go down, ants bite would heal. A couple of things would linger. But this new allergy reaction - this intense itching which resulted in blotches and swelling in the hands, and then swelling in the f...

There were 84 students in this year's DPC2204 course . 28 of the students responded to a survey which was created using the free version of SurveyMonkey .  The responses are cut and paste here. The charts are created with the 'Sample' watermark. I hope that they can be viewed easily. 1. How many lab sessions did you attend? 2. 3. What was your favourite or most enjoyable part of doing the assignment ? What did you learn about the topic you did? (26 responses) The most enjoyable part was actually going out into the public and interviewing people and their take on makeup. People indeed have different preferences when it comes to the brand and the application on makeup. The podcast should have limited or restrained my audience to specific point,time limits and interacting with persons   doing the video and podcast, I learnt that one should not be limited by his/her difficulties Creating audio slide shows. I learnt the importance of of the audio slide sh...

(The United Nationals Population Fund (UNFPA) in Guyana engaged in a consultative dialogue with faith based organisations on 19th June, 2013 in Georgetown, Guyana. This is the rough text of a presentation which was made as part of a panel on perspectives related to the ICPD Programme of Action  ) Namaste - which means I bow to the divine in you. I also am a bit nervous as I contemplate that I am talking from behind a pulpit to persons who are accustomed to speaking from pulpits or singhasana s, so please bear with me. Hinduism is diverse, so this is rightfully - a Hindu perspective. I think however that many Hindus would agree with some of these perspectives. The topic is interesting as it starts with the issue of Positive masculinities - contemplating I think that there is a diversity in masculinity, and that some of it is not good. I have never heard of positive femininity though - and I wonder if it is because each woman or female struggles in finding their way in a s...

Published in Diaspora Column, Stabroek News 24 June, 2013 (2013 is an interesting year in the Caribbean for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) equality. Belize, Guyana, and Jamaica have court cases pending. Guyana also has a select committee in the National Assembly to discuss the repeal of the laws that discriminate against LGBTI persons. Vidyaratha Kissoon has been associated with LGBT activism for the last decade in Guyana and was a member and Trustee of the Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination (also celebrating its 10th anniversary this year) until his resignation in June 2012. He reflects on the nature and responses to the LGBTI activism). History When did the Guyanese LGBT start attempting to find a place in society? Was it in 1959, in the all men Wedding of the Year? The Guiana Graphic of 12 July, 1959 had reported “..ANOTHER strange ‘wedding’ ….an all men affair… sent the down-town Charlestown area into a furore on Friday nig...

The first piece of the clip was perfect. The lighting was good. Audio was good.  Speech was flowing nicely Background was the nice blue wall in the room with natural light streaming in from all over. However, I had forgotten to put on a shirt. Since the video was going to be for a semi-formal presentation, I did not think my nipples and chest hair should distract from what I was going to say. I could not attend the conference so I asked the organisers if I could do a video presentation. I had fantasies of using participatory video techniques with a couple of persons, but time ran out. This video was a bit more complex, because I was not sure what I wanted to really say - Harmonizing Advocacy Strategies. But on the last day, I prepared a script.. yes I started with a script. Camera I have a nice Canon point and shoot camera, with internal mic. The mic is good, it picks up sound.. including ambient sound. So as the day progressed, I had to change the idea of the yard.. m...

Picture taken from here The plane was about to land and I was hooked on the last few pages .. there was no plot really in Love, but the book had me hooked. So Dadland Maye suggested reading with a writers eye too.. check the text and tell the story and engage with it.. but well Love had me kind of going all over the place..  It was a bit heady trying to understand who was who and where the 'Love' was.. because there was a lot of anger and desire and lust and jealousy until the end,, when the love story emerges.. because, well love is like that for many, full of anger and so on. So the characters are Heed, Christine, May, L, the dead Mr Cosey, Junior (thinking of Junot Diaz' Yunior too here and wondering about the two very different characters both of whom seem to rebel though.. ) and Vida and Romen.. the 14 year old boy who in my mind turns out to be a hero. Ms Morrison aint easy.. she talking about teenage sexuality in ways which are well.. only teenagers mi...

The revolution dun' aready! The man told me that when he finished high school in 1987, he got a scholarship to go Cuba but his mother didn't send him. He said his mother told him that the revolution dun' already. He became a police officer though he wanted to do agronomy. He told me that he understood his mother's views, but he felt that he could have gone and studied. He was home on 19 October, 1983, listening to Radio Antilles (since they did not trust the local Radio stations.. which is what we used to do as well in Guyana, listen to Radio Antilles). He was relieved after the Americans came and restored 'peace and order' to the place. He remembers the Bishop years as the best years for Grenada - his mother and grandmother were able to make money . He said that it was good that the Americans came and things were restored to normalcy. The security guard,  at 5am talking said that all the things they said about Gairy were not true. His parents were farm worke...