Thoughts of a minibus traveller

The young man told me "you are a kind, thoughtful caring person" and I felt guilty thinking of the woman and the men who had told me similar things and then stopped talking to me or issued restraining orders in various forms when they would have realised that I was not they expected. Another young man was angry that I would not engage him in discussion about my not voting.. he constantly expresses his disappointment in my lack of objectivity and so on. I know I know.. there is this thing that human beings are inherently good and they do bad things and that hope is in trying to get them to realise their goodness and so on. In the madness around condemning Bheri Ramsarran's contempt for women while not calling for his resignation, a lot of people talk about how 'good he was/is' . One woman I know who is not partisan in any way said she was shocked because in all her dealings with bheri ramsarran ,  she never had any disrespect or problems. She is an ol...

By Vidya Kissoon Angel shouted “Bheri needs a…” and the two dozen or so picketers outside the Ministry of Health in Brickdam under gray skies shouted “..a psychiatrist” .  The chant was not used for long because the word  “psychiatrist”  does not have the rhythm required for a protest. Angel is transgender – or “batty man” or “anti man” as used as curses when the civilised citizens want to discriminate against people who they do not consider normal. Angel and Gulliver and other members of the Guyana Trans United provided the energy to keep the chants up for Bheri must go.. Who must go.. bheri must go.. ,  No Stripping.. No Slapping; Minister.. Women Abuse.. during the pickets against the Minister of Health this week. Up to a few years ago, being transgender was considered a mental illness  in the United States where the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) talked about “gender identity disorder”.  And so it i...

Walking through the YWCA compound from Croal Street to Brickdam and hearing the voices shouting "bheri must go". Back ginching all the time - emails to be answered with tasks related to work which should have been completed seven years ago and then three years ago like some karma relapse. Moon is all over, and mental health is tough to manage. There is something about picketing the Minister again, the PPP and its sickness when instead I could have been working on new things and being creative rather than feeling as though things keep going backward with every step forward. Something though about the women at the gate of the Ministry of Health moving to the chants. It is like if they want to be there shouting bheri must go. Marvelling through the clouds that the Guyana Trans United is the most vocal and leading the chants.  Seeing some people who don't normally come to pickets. Watched a young man go by who used to cuss up the PPP but now defending them .. and ...

Dr Peter Weller from CARIMAN asked what are the research gaps for masculinity to help with the gender equality work. This is happening at the same time that Guyana's minister of health bherri ramsarran threatens to slap up a woman who asked him about his record on maternal health and claims provocation as his defence and there are men who are encouraged by the misogyny. My questions for answers :- Why are men dyeing their hair? Are they afraid of aging and there is no respect for gray hairs of older men? Why are men using viagra? Why are men cheating on women they marry? Why promise monogamy when you know you not built like that? What drives men to chop, rape, stab, shoot women and other men? How do three young men plan to kill and chop up a woman and dispose of her parts - and one of them wants to move to a jail near his family because his family will visit him? How are men experiencing gender changes? Are the men who comb their daughter's hair and cook any less se...

Dear Woman Reporters and Man reporters who heard the Minister of Health talk about slapping a woman who asked him some questions What was going through your mind? Are you afraid for your jobs if you condemn his  behaviour? Do you think that sometimes women look for it? The slaps? have you asked any of the women supporters who were there if they would go and strip Sherlina who asked about the Berbician women and other women who have been killed when they thought they were getting quality health care?  Or are you afraid of what the coalition would say if you get back into power? Why is your head bowed? What did you do with the recording you might have had? What protections exist for you? Or do you think that the women who go up and ask the men who are responsible for them deserve to be slapped and stripped? Do you care about the violence against women or is it only some women? Have your bosses advised you whether you should make police reports on what you heard? Would you...

The young people were stunned by the task 'Introduce yourselves , give your name and one nice thing that you did in the last month' . Some persons asked for more time. In the gaff afterwards, they said that it was not so easy to think about the good thing as the bad thing, and that in looking at bad things in life it is easy to miss good things. Mental health management requires keeping in the present and getting through things, one at a time.  A set of ironing which was put off and completed gets the same kind of joy as the being able to fix Skype to do an interview for a challenging job and the same satisfaction which comes from trying to assist remotely a young man who in a crisis and same as the pot dhal which taste good . And then seeing the double hibiscus blooming on the tree which I thought had died. And the lesson here.. with the bud, the blossoms and the dead flower, all in one shot representing the whole damn cycle.. birth life death.. though sometimes it seem...

By Vidya Kissoon The young Catholic man plans to engage others in making the New Evangelization relevant to social justice in Guyana. He is conscious of the historical injustices of the Catholic Church against his people. “I don’t mind being expelled” he said with a smile. He knows the complexity of his people’s history and that he has to acknowledge it while moving forward. Sweet memories of when young and thinking that you could do anything. A woman of my generation sighed when she saw the launch of a youngish people NGO Blue Caps – ‘Over to the youth’ she said. I then realised thought, what the hell, over to what youth? And then realised that oh shoots, we were supposed to be the future a decade or so ago, time went by and then next thing we already passing on responsibility to young people and expecting them to do better than we did. There is heavy demand on young voters this elections season. From deep analysis like this from GHK Lall to the admon...

Image from http://www.amitavghosh.com/riverofsmoke.htm l They don't tell you much that England and America were involved in the Opium Trade back in the day but the Chinese wanted to stop it. I picked this up in the National Library - the nice blue cover and I had heard the name of the author before. The book is heavy - 520 pages. This is the second of a trilogy based on a ship which had problems in the Indian Ocean. It starts sometime when one of the survivors , now in Mauritius, looks back on the story. The story then moves back in time to Canton and the years before the First Opium War . There are different characters - white merchants, Parsi merchants, Chinese merchants and people of different nationalities. There is some moral discussion about the opium trade. Ghosh introduces Mauritian dialect (French/Hindustani) and pidgin English and other languages. It was easy to get confused by the timeline and the different characters. Some of them were connected. There is Dee...

By Vidya Kissoon The car man said that driving up to Skeldon is rough sometimes. He said that another car man had a passenger who put a box of ecstasy in the glove compartment . That car man had no problem transporting passenger and ecstasy but he was scared all the way in case police stopped them. My car had driver, me, Suriname man who in a hurry to catch the last boat from Springlands – the back track boat. The other passenger the driver know from a long time ago from when he was a student (now he has two children) and the driver used to drive minibus.. and he was wicked in he days – “carrying dem chirren wid nuff money to de beach.”   Minibus wasn’t making sense because police was harassing him he said. Car man talking. Casual-like as we do here. I say Ecstasy? He say yeah man, come from Suriname – he ask the Suriname man at the back seat.. “you know Ecstasy right?” Man say yeah yeah.  I do not know Ecstasy. I remember another time in a minibu...

A week with varied work including a workshop with young people which I did despite my inability to be patient with the fidgeting and the fussing which happens when gaffing with teenagers especially and a two hour drive from No 68 village, Corentyne to Church Road, Subryanville - yeah.. driver who was in a hurry.. So I boiled up some hot water with ginger and a 'sweet sage' tea bag. I don't know what the sweet sage is good for, but maybe sipping the tea is a good thing as you can calm down. A Shopkeeper asked a friend and me to taste his iced tea made with sage, lime and nuff sugar.. I have no clue what sage is supposed to taste like. It tasted good and since I have been looking for caffeine free things to drink in the evenings, I bought a pack of his sage tea , stored in a dusty showcase which had things like Golden Cock and Silver Pussy. No dates on the pack of tea bags. Made by Guyana Rainforest Herbs. The taste is not bad.. not too strong. It is strange how w...

Domestic violence and the 2015 Elections By Vidyaratha Kissoon The man, a senior manager in the macho Guysuco back in the days when sugar was on the rise, told me ‘You are doing good work. I respect all women and men should respect all women’ . I was younger then, having just started doing the public education work on domestic violence with Help & Shelter. Domestic violence was a woman thing and a couple of men at Guysuco frequently threw the ‘antiman’ thing at me. It was nice to hear the acknowledgement. Two months or so later, I read a report in the newspaper that the man was being charged for assault on his wife. He had chased her around the estate compound and had to be restrained by security officers. He had a gun. I keep this in mind when hearing people talk about domestic violence and gender based violence now.   Domestic violence is one of the themes for the cuss out in the political culture of the day. The lesson learned from th...

Something about the sour. It is made with cucumber, mango and pepper and other things I think. It seems like everybody who sells food in Mon Repos market buys from the same person. I like baiganee. Even if I am not hungry, I buy it if I see it. And even though I know it is too oily, something about the baigan fried with the batter.. and I keep saying this is the last and it is useless. The food cases have all the baiganee and other fried stuff piled up with together.. fish cake, cassava ball, egg ball.. so I dont know if somethings help to press the oil out of the other things or what. I am obsessing about how I need to lose weight . Every time I put on  clothes are tight and I feel heavy. Plans not working out for many things, struggling with resolutions and maintaining wellness. Nothing working except eating. and Eating. I say I have had enough sweet.. and I know the mental health thing requires a healthy body of sorts and there are pains all over again.. then I pass ...

The reporter said.. don't worry wid him, he got issues wid .xx.. . I had been trying to navigate the issues .. .. there was a restraining order of sorts against me and I did not want to discuss that but the reporter seemed to know the story already. Thirty  years ago I would never have expected to have a series of restraining orders, some of them broken from time to time by those who impose them. Restraining orders, people who do things contrary to my ethics, whose contradiction of their values is draining - who say one thing in private and do another in public. Mental health considerations mean not being able to mask any more to spend time trying to hide the discomfort. Age has meant that I could refuse to attend social events and so as nicely as I could.  Work has meant that I have to perform and deliver as a social being many times. Karma says no. You have to deal with your crap all at once. It is one thing about compassion and empathy, it is another to have to ...

It is All Fool's Day before the 2015 elections and perfect for a Fool's Manifesto for those who not voting but might have dreams of things to come which have not been planned. My Fool's manifesto for Guyana is in the table below. It isn't complete because I am limited in my  Foolishness. Human Rights Guyanese human beings will be centre and priority of any development strategy for Guyana.  Guyanese Human beings will not destroy the environment. Guyanese who want their rights to be recognised will not litter. There will be no beating of children in schools, regardless of what the beaters say. The beaters will be sent to the Marriott for one week for workshops on how to be decent people facilitated by former Presidents and Prime Ministers. If they continue to beat their children, they will be allowed to stay at the Marriott until they learn how to deal with children without abusing them. Parents of children who are sent to NOC, wil...