Thoughts of a minibus traveller

Have you ever received a document and did not have the software to open it? Have you ever thought you had the software, but then you were told you did not have the correct version of the software? Do you know of people who have old files on diskettes which they cannot open because they no longer have the software? Document Freedom Day  is celebrated on the last Wednesday of every month The day is meant to advocate for the use of Open Standards in digital data so that knowledge and information can be freely exchanged. Document Freedom does not only mean the freedom to access documents and spreadsheets, but also images, audio, video , emails, statistics , spatial data on different devices, without any ties to any supplier or vendor of software. In Guyana, the computerised systems tend to exist independently. There is no transparent interconnectivity or evidence that data is shared. Citizens could benefit from data exchange between GRO and GECOM for example, or GRO and the Min...

Participants in the 11th Annual Wildlife Festival, March 2016 held under the auspices of the North Rupununi Junior Wildlife & Development Council by Vidyaratha Kissoon The teenage girl raised the bow and aimed at the target. Her face was relaxed. One arrow was mounted and the other two were on the ground. The girl managed to hit the target twice in the second round. The sun was up, the wind was high and sand grains were blowing from under the dry savannah grass. Many Amerindians use bows and arrows to hunt. The girl and other children were participating in the Archery competition in the 11 th Annual Wildlife Festival in the North Rupununi. The bows and the arrows are light. In the Hindu epic, the Ramayana, there is a story of a heavy bow from Lord Shiva– Shiva Dhanush . The bow was given to King Janak. His daughter Sita, as a child , had lifted the bow while playing. The story goes that King Janak decided to use the bow as a test to find a husban...

by Vidyaratha Kissoon (Images of picket from Red Thread/Sherlina Nageer) Headlines like “ Lawrence bats for LGBT ” and ” Minister Lawrence calls for gender equality, acceptance of LGBT community” are normally exciting. Caribbean Ministers talking support for LGBT equality are rare. In a time when Guyana had Local Government Elections, all indications of good governance should be encouraging. The remarks were not made in the official International Women’s Day 2016 message but reportedly at a cocktail hosted by the British High Commission. In June 2009, the then Minister of Human Services ventured into the SASOD Film Festival . LGBT rights were now making their way into the priorities of the American British Canadian agencies, and Ms Manickchand’s venture into sodom and gomorrah was a bold step for a Caribbean minister. In September 2009, the LGBT friendly Minister of Human Services sidestepped   the allegations of child sexual abuse about her nominee to ...

by Vidyaratha Kissoon “What should I wear?” the candidate called to ask. It was a nice breezy afternoon – around 5pm. The DYC lawns were dry in the El Nino.   A resident of Subryanville had an idea to invite the First Past the Post Candidates for Constituency No 2 : Kitty North, Central & South and Subryanville to have an interaction. Other residents agreed and the meeting was organised. The intention was to hold the meeting in the evening and to finish before it got too dark. The first person arrived before 5pm. She said she did not know the candidates even though the elections were a week away.  Only two of the five candidates had pasted up their flyers on the lante’n (lantern/lamp?) posts in the area. An independent candidate in another constituency had talked about the cheese required to run the campaign. The journey to City Hall/NDC Office/Parliament starts with the lante’n post. A young candidate in another constituency had m...

On Thursday, 10 March, 2016 - residents of Subryanville hosted an interaction with candidates from Constituency No2 in the 2016 Local Government Elections. These are two media reports. From Guyana Chronicle 12 March, 2016 ((L-R) APNU+AFC candidate Carlyle Goring; Team Benschop’s candidate Jameel Rasul; Healing the Nation Theocracy Party’s (HTNTP’s) candidate Alfred Park; and independent candidate Albert Cromwell Kitty-Subryanville LGE candidates square-off — drainage, infrastructural development among priority issues March 12, 2016 By Ravin Singh KNOWN to be a constituency that is relatively quiet and not prone to many social ills, Subryanville and sections of Kitty are really still far from fitting this description. And with the highly anticipated Local Government Elections quickly approaching, running candidates have laid out their plans for the constituency, should they be elected to serve as councillors. Perhaps one of the more pressing issues in the area...

The man in the ticket window said yeah.. you could go up and pointed in the general direction of the jetty heading out to the ferry in the distance. I was tired, but curious about the whole ferry thing and also worrying about late departure, being stuck in the middle of the river and wondering about the minibus from Parika at whatever hour I reach.  But curiosity mostly.. the nice feeling of doing something new, and nice breeze and then of course, saying.. what the hell, nothing I can change at this stage, let me leave it to the Universe long as I am safe and I am not causing any harm anywhere. A woman asked me to explain what I meant about 'adjusting to where I live' in   a Coil where . She was on anti-depressants and she felt that she needed stability, and that change and unpredictability created more problems for her. Another man said that the adjusting, is what caused him , to sometimes be silent about things , his way of adapting. He wondered if the sa...

by Vidyaratha Kissoon The bus man said, “dem man deh stupid. Dey mussee tink dat when dey light de fire, de officer dem would ah open de gate and let dem out.”  He was playing nice oldies in the bus. He sneezed into his hands and wiped his hands on his pants. I was wondering whether to collect the change from him. Near the Camp & Lamaha Street junction, there was a traffic jam as usual.  The sirens of the outriders of some dignitary sounded on Lamaha Street but the traffic could not really move. Some men in black clothes jumped around trying to clear a path. The bus driver said, ‘watch dat nuh, cyan do nutting.” We talk some more about the prisoners. The driver said, “dem man stupid, dey tink dat dey would ah get away. De whole town would ah shut down.” Earlier in the day, in another bus, the driver and conductor talking about the night after the day that 17 men died.  I had my ears open because I knew I had write this Coil.  The conduc...