The Coil: Woman and Man and Neither Story
The young woman who owns a snackette not far from the place where the National Conference on Gender and Development Policy was taking place said, “It aint really bodder me, de equal woman in government. I want young people .. is pure ol’ people. I aint know why dey doan have young people’.
“Ah mean, look de woman, Webster [Westford], wid de $600 million ting. Stupes” (Editor’s Note: No charges have been laid to date regarding any missing funds)
I pleaded about equal rights and that not all woman bad and so, and she said “man mo mek fuh dem ting, dey know fuh manage an suh” and I said, ‘But you got yuh own business’.. she said “yeah yeah , woman could got mo sense dan man.. but is where de young people deh?”
We talked about work.
“Yes, is good fuh wuk pun yuh own..’I went fuh wuk wid an Indian store, and dey had a vacancy sign, and dey she dat dey doan have wuk, but a Indian girl come and get de wuk.”
“But dem store does have black people buying and black people gotta sell.”
She said, “no, dem bhowjie and dem chacha does keep dey money, and save it and put in back.. you ain’t see even if dey wearing rubber slippers? I said, “but ow man, you doan save yuh money? She said, “I not meking enuff to save” I said, “man even if is a 20 every week “. She laughed.
She asked me, “You wuking at Gifland”? And I say no, “I do a lil bit of dis and dat, training, research and I cook and clean too,” thinking that I could open up the discussion about valuing unwaged work.
She said “You is Hindu right? Dem Hindu does got dey place clean clean” I said, “No, I mean me yard aint clean”. She said “Yeah, when you go in dem Indian villages, place does be clean”
I told her I was going to the conference, and asked if she had heard about it. She said “nah, I aint see nutting about it. Dem ting does like it does be secretive, is only one set of people”
I say, nah, mostly groups and so, and ask her if she in any group and she said no.
I was not in any group too but had been invited to the conference. I asked one of the women working at the conference who also works as a taxi driver if I could get her to say something at the conference. She smiled and told me that she is working.
There were some stalls from groups selling their products.
I asked at another stand where they had cushions and chair backs and so on if they had any carpenters and masons. The women laughed and said, yes they have plenty woman mason.
Maybe by the next gender conference there will be additional stands with women who are offering engineering and construction services as well as the craft.
There was a group selling dressed dolls. The dresses were made from different materials. The dolls were all fair skinned. I asked the girls ‘Y’all aint got no dark skin dolly, wid skin like me own?” They said, they did not have any – “they sell out quick” and at Christmas they usually get more.
I wonder to myself why would people buy ornament which would only get more dust and den make it more work to clean?
The girls looked at me: “You was de man who did come yesterday and say you coming back?” I said no no, though the idea that there were men buying dollies dressed up at the gender conference is a nice one.
One man at the conference said that a woman he did not know accused him of sexual harassment: “She went all over, she had nuff place to go, where does a man have to go? Women getting all de rights, man aint got none” A lot of men seemed to agree – another village leader said that in his village “the women know their rights more than the men.”
The Government of Guyana Budget Estimates (Volume 2) though have two activity codes, one for Protecting Women’s Rights (4820801) and another for Protecting Men’s Rights (4820802). The budgeted figures are not there.
Other men and women were concerned about how the word gender seem to include “male, female and the ‘neither’ male nor female. One man in the group I was in wanted to warn people that it will bring immorality and so on. One young woman got pretty vocal. “I aint want dat when is women rights we talking, den dem LGBT coming behind…Is beetee bruking up home now, man outside dey house and going cathedral… I ain’t got no problem wid dem, but I ain’t condoning… I agree wid Edghill , put dem pun an island” The young woman is a proud PNC supporter.
Who knows, if Juan Edghill should have campaigned harder with the gays on an island thing and then he and bheri would have been in the Government instead of being the moral Opposition. (Editor’s Note: It was Pastor Ronald McGarrell who suggested this)
Another man wanted to understand the terminology and issues around gender identity and sexual orientation. There was discussion about the transgender issues and the LGBT issues in different thematic groups. God did not only come up in the discussion about immorality and abomination of accepting LGBT rights, and wives submitting to husbands but also in the resistance to the discrimination. The group I was in started to talk about Ephesians and scriptures and so on and I had to beg off as it was not Sunday or as one woman said, Sabbath had not started as yet and there was argument, thankfully about what Ephesians verses really meant and submission and so on.
The Bible tended to dominate the discussions. The day started with Christian prayers.
One day the Government will learn how if they want to have prayers, they could do so with a minute of silent meditation so that people could pray themselves while others who do not believe in God could think about other things or peep their phones for recent updates.
The men I talked to did not seem to be bothered about alcohol the same way as that they were losing their rights. In another forum, a coolie man had insisted that there should be a specific discussion about alcohol because of the connections between alcohol and violence in Indian communities.
It could be that because there were not so many coolie people in this conference so the issue did not come up as very visible.
A young man who was not at the conference asked me if I would ever write about coolie boys especially Berbicians and de rum drinking. I did not ask him about his own drinking. There is an ad I heard about a beer fuelled car show at Tuschen Ground , with all the drunk driving and so the beer company must be interested in killing and maiming more on the roads.
I wanted to tell him that it might better to write about the coolie boys who are not drinking.
Taxi man who driving at speed limit and me talking about the heat and air-conditioning and getting sick. He said “I don’t drink, I don’t smoke and I am vegetarian, nothing can’t happen to me.” I said, “good, a man who don’t drink and so and I feel glad.” He did not appear to be a coolie bai and I did not ask him.
I asked “So man, what do you do for fun?”
He said, “I don’t go to parties”.
I said, so how you socialise”.
“Let me tell you, women. Women is the most fun”
“Oh oh. So you have plenty woman or one woman?”
“I have a woman I live wid,. But if I meet a woman who want to have fun, I go with her. “
“But what about money?”
He said, no, is about love.. showing love, that is all. Woman is the best fun.
I ask.. in that nice non-judgmental way in which men encourage other men, so you use condom?
“Yes, it is wrong to give blow and den bring home something.” I ask what about if she tek somebody.
He said, “once I don’t know is arite. She would never know because I make sure dat I keep it separate.” I did not ask about whether going to the cathedral featured in his fun.
The ethics of giving blow might not make it into the national gender policy but it seem like is something that people talk about.
Professor Kempadoo who spoke as part of a panel encouraged the people at the conference to understand gender with the other identities of race, ethnicity, geography, sexualities, etc. The gender/sexuality discussion came out in presentations from working groups.
A woman came out to wait on a bus after the last day of the conference. We chatted. I asked her how it was. She smiled and said she was glad she had come. She said that her manager “mek me come. I tell her I don’t like crowds, but she send me”. She said, “It is the first time I have come to anything like this and I learn a lot.”
She was in a group which was fortunately led by a woman who could share important knowledge about human rights and gender equality which did not include submission.
We laughed about how things turned out, that look how she did not want to come and she had benefited. She planned to give her manager a full glowing report.
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