Thoughts of a minibus traveller

I did not vote in 2015 and will not be voting in the next General elections and people say that I should shut up. With all the interest in STEM and so on, and all the  Maths I did in school, apparently it is possible to write Constitutions and create Nation States so that you need 34 rather than 33 people out of 65 to form a 'majority'. On the day that the highest court in the land by a 'majority' said that what we learn in Maths and STEM and so on is not the same thing as in what is written in law, and that when you dealing with 65 people, 34 rather than 33 is the majority. On the day of the ruling, the minibus is driving on the parapet, playing loud music, school children inside , and trying to jump a traffic light. On the day of the ruling, another bus driver curses the traffic police.. 'good fuh yall, yall gah deh in de hot sun.. .. yall only harassing bus driver'... the war between some bus drivers and the police part of the division in the co

Lying on floor to do the yoga and reach up to open the window which the nice breeze had blown shut and the crack of the glass was a sharp reminder to the many broken unfixed things in  my life. Said to hell with the broken pane, and finished the yoga. There is another pane being held together with tape for about two years now. I was cleaning and it cracked, but I managed to hold the pieces together and put tape on them. I have to sort out some work. Do some other things.  Rain might come and come through the space. I say to hell with it. Manage to feel mindful, and carefully extract another pane to carry to the glass store. Man comes out of the story and said yes, should be about 200 each, but ask the boss man, Tony. Tony says  yes, looks at me and says three for a thousand.  I want three, to replace the one broken today, the one with tape, and one just in case any of them break. Another time I had broken a pane while trying to replace it. He speaks in a language soundi

When the photographer Hilton Chan is the subject of the photo Poems shared in hearts made from newspapers "Rodney bunnin' up in his grave.. " "So yall is WPA" the man asked us when we explained what Groundings meant and that Walter Rodney went into communities to talk about African history. "Rodney must be bunnin' up his Grave with all the f..k..ery that going on now.. ".  We laughed.. not only people in the grave bunnin' up.. even people outside the graves fed up. The man said it was  a good thing to come out and share books. He wanted marketing books. He said that he reads every day, and sometimes he listens to audio books 'when I am  helping my mother wash wares.."  We were on the corner of Main and Quamina Streets. "No time to read.." "I don't have time to read.." the cheerful 13 year old boy said. He was still looking for books though.. "I will keep for when I have time". He t

  Statement in support of women’s rights to non-discriminatory access to sexual and reproductive health rights and services: The Need to Decriminalise Abortion in Jamaica We, the undersigned social justice and women’s organisations and individual advocates, note the parliamentary consultations on the law on abortion in Jamaica. Within CARICOM, Barbados (1983) and Guyana (1995) have led the way with legislation that decriminalizes the termination of pregnancy. Belize, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines have expanded the exceptions that allow for abortion under the criminal law. In the Caribbean and internationally, access to safe termination of pregnancy is a social justice and human rights issue. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), unsafe abortions make up 20percent of all maternal deaths globally.  Women between the ages of 15-49 in Latin America and the Caribbean have a rate of unsafe abortions of 41 per 1,000 women, the highe

Screenshot from HGPTV Protest "You might a see me, I was in de protest. De police lashing you now .. 26 disc, den 14 disc from de camera, saying is obstruction of traffic.. not jumping traffic light. Since September, thing, now they brining in January.   I picking up passenger. on de route, i got a road service license which say i can pick up passenger on the route.. traffic flowing side of me.. magistrate giving 25,000 for each disc, he don't like minibus driver because a minibus kill he brother..." Quiet Sunday morning on Regent Street. White minibus pulls up. Driver alone in front seat. About 50 years old or so. No Conductor, Soft reggae music playing. "You going Kitty" he ask. Everyone on social media had mocked the protests outside the court. 'Dem lawless'. Dem tink is PPP time. , dem wutless.."   Unlike say, transgender sex workers protesting cross dressing laws, the minibus drivers it seemed want to break laws, but pay reasona

Orange "O h ah dem fin' orange yuh want" the woman told me, holding up the tied net of the small golden brown rusty oranges. I had seen them at the bottom of her basket next to the mangoes.  I am glad for the oranges, using teeth which are slowly being ground into uselessness to get the syrup from them. Glad for pleasure of the senses, at a time when my body and soul are failing and erections seem to happen rarely. Flaccid penis Two men are talking about masturbation. "I does do it, but is not right, it not good for you" one man said as he did not want to be convinced by the other man that nothing is wrong, except if you do it too much. I wanted to laugh and tell them ,, if you think too much is a problem,. imagine if you could not even masturbate? Impotence is one of the side effects of Depression, sometimes it was for me, sometimes there was no problem as my penis functioned as the rest of my body and mind did. Other health problems, the exhaust