Thoughts of a minibus traveller

Screen shot from " Items used in research into Coolie Woman: The Odyssey of Indenture"   (Re) writing ..  "How can all this work on the archives ,,, help us ?" the man asked in the discussion during the Launch activity for the digital collection of  Items used in research into Coolie Woman: The Odyssey of Indenture"  by Gaiutra D. Bahadur. The launch event was held virtually on 30 July, 2025.   This discussion happened before fire destroyed archives of the Guyana Trades Union Congress on 1 August, 2025. Dr Lisa Edwards of the Institute of Gender Studies at the University of Guyana welcomed the collection as it increased access to younger scholars who did not have access to the colonial archives in Europe and elsewehere. The Institute of Gender Studies hosted the event with the Guyana Gender Hub.  Gaiutra Bahadur read from the book. She talked about writing with the archives and writing against the archives, and filling the gaps and silences in the arch...

    Candice Ramessar led a conversation about home schooling in Guyana. The conversation was on 15 August, 2020.    There was a lot of discussion about education, education and the economy, credentials, getting a job, about the learning styles, the oppression in the current system, the need for varieties of testing such as oral and other non-written methods, how to bypass the system, and that home schooling should not be seen as a way out of changing a systemic problem related to schooling for a progressive society which values all human beings.   These are some of the things I learned from the conversation, noted from a presentation which Candice also shared.   What is homeschooling ?   Home schooling or home education is NOT bringing the school home and trying to replicate the school system in your house.  The definition which was shared is "is the education of children at home, typically by parents or by tutors, rather than in other formal sett...

Work thing was cancelled so day was supposed to be used for investment to make money but.. The email from the brilliant woman I was at school with whose personal crisis was exposed and who responded to my email in the most dignified perfect way which spoke to recovery and coping with that crisis and acknowledging my polite intrusion in a way which almost brought tears to my eyes; and the other woman who I was at school with dealing with another crisis which had nothing to do with the crises of school work which we used to talk about . Wondering wonder back to those days when we were all in school thinking of exams and careers and not family making and family breaking..and mourning the loss of how life turned out .. celebrating not the academic and professional successes, but that one woman (whose incisive intelligence and memory are amazing) is navigating her way through her family dysfunctions; another girl (who you used to compete with at school) left her abusive marriage; an...

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 Clerk of the Committee Special Select Committee On Guyana’s Commitment To The United Nations Human Rights Council With Regard To The Abolition Of Corporal Punishment In The Schools, The Abolition Of The Death Penalty And The Decriminalization Of Consensual Adult Same Sex Relations And Discrimination Against Lesbians, Gays, Bi-Sexual And Transgender Persons (Resolution No. 23 Of 2012) Committees Division Parliament Office Public Buildings Georgetown Dear Sir/Madam Re : Submission on the attitude of Guyanese, especially parents and children, to corporal punishment and its possible abolition; My name is Vidyaratha Kissoon . I am Guyanese. I have been beaten as a child and have witnessed other children being beaten. I taught in a secondary school for one year and during that year, I beat a child upon the request of the Headmistress. I used to think that it was okay to beat children. Thanks to the Guyanese who are working against domestic violence and child abuse, my ...

"What will you do now?" is the question asked after I explain that I have resigned from Help & Shelter , and from SASOD . A few people thought that something was wrong with me. Others thought I was employed and therefore would become out of work. A few wondered whether I would shut up. Which organisation do you belong to? None of the persons that I knew in my generation had ever imagined that we would be involved in social justice.. most of us wanted out of Guyana and/or dreamt of professions and making money.  But.. through middle-class ideas of doing charitable work, I was made aware of the important work outside of charity to deal with the injustices which fuel domestic violence and child abuse. The work became more than just a few hours a week in another office. The protests had to become political . But being in an organisation helped. I learnt a few years ago from others who were mobilizing citizens, that Article 13 of our Constitution states that  “th...

The young woman told me ".. a nd another thing, you are cute.. if you were ugly I would have been distracted by wondering why you so ugly" Due to some cosmic irony, fate has pushed me in the direction of getting invovled in doing training - mostly around domestic violence and child abuse prevention. Irony because I am inherently anti-social and do not like 'public speaking'; my preference is to avoid socialising with any group which has more than three persons. My inability to manipulate my karma has resulted in facing the challenge to find ways of animating so that people could learn the content.  Pedagogy has all kinds of styles.. and I think that the massa style.. wild cane, rote, examination , ridicule .. has prevented us from thinking of other ways of teaching and learning.  I was fortunate though that in the learning for the work to be done with Help & Shelter, the facilitators and trainers all used participatory methods and encouraged full interactio...

Presentation delivered at Research Seminar organised by the Centre for Communication Studies at the University of Guyana , 28 May, 2011

The One Laptop per Family project continues to generate controversy. I have been asked again about my views and I thought I should write this blog in response - as a follow up to the previous pos t when less was known publicly Ensuring that the poor have access to ICTs The President/Government's desire to ensure that poor people/kids/poor people's children/ (depending when the President is speaking) is commendable. It is unfortunate that the President seems to think that criticisms and feedback on the piece by piece public revelations about the project are attempts to kill the idea . Many people who have been asked about the idea have said that it is a good one, but there are questions about implementation to ensure that the money is well spent and also to dispel suspicions that this is a elections gimmick. One letter writer talked about the potential in the agriculture sector and the Junior Minister of Health has expressed his hopes for the enhancement in the health se...