Thoughts of a minibus traveller

"Keep it, keep it.." Josette Norris said . She had given me a copy of the poem '79' by Shake (pronounced Shak-ie) Keane. Shake Kean was a trumpet player and made a name for himself in Europe and North America. The poem is about the 1979 eruption of the St Vincent Soufriere volcano. It refers to 'rancid hope and Guyana rice'. I don't know if any other Caribbean poets have written about Guyana in their poems. I have never been to any event in Guyana where an artist gave me a poem written by a jazz musician. Josette Norris's tribute to Shake includes a broken 78 record - Fire Fire. She says that it might have been one of her grandmother's collection of 78 records which the children used as frisbees. There are three paintings featuring lizards. 'Lizards are beautiful' she says. I agree. There is an interesting range of work. She uses techniques to give some 3 dimensional effects.  There are other beautiful paintings of flowers,...

"Dis uncle does sand pun he word", the young woman said in the hairdressing salon. I had returned to cut my hair. My barber preaches on a Wednesday - and he never has to ask me what to be done on the hair. I was walking on the road, when I saw a slight, woman, wearing spectacles, beckoning to me "Come , come"and I said .."Who, me?" and she said yes.. she had seen me at mandir she said. "I cut gent's hair".. and I said okay, but I have a barber.. She said to still give her a try. I went and came back. She asked me how I wanted it .. I said well, low like.. .. I said that 'I usualy tell the barber to mek me look nice'.. the young woman said .. but you is a handsome man. I would not hear this in a barber shop The hairdresser, the young woman and me in the Salon.  Barber shop gaff is different. I asked how long she had been doing this work - it seemed almost thirty years.  "Do you dye your hair" she asked me, and ...

"So she can play the flute and sing?" the young woman asked in wonder as Ruth Osman started her part of the programme on the opening night. It was late .. way past my bed time.. but time did not matter really under the eucalyptus trees at the back of the Theatre Guild hearing the live music. Two young women said they did not normally listen to jazz, but they were enjoying the music  One young man said the show was good , he never really bothered with jazz either and he was there because of 'Doc'. Peanut punch was on sale and I finished mine some time around when Charmaine Blackman sang At Last Earlier in the afternoon, two men won the Jazz Dance competition, One of their dances was to Guyana born singer Nhojj's Love . I was blown away though by the Hamer family dancing to Ruth Osman's Rain . I heard that Kenrick Cheeks wowed the audience with his kathak/jazz performance. He got second. The music was good. Even if I have no ...

Man said that his uncle - 60+ years - drank poison for the third time. "De man like poison.. he put a shot of rum in de poison.. we kerry he public .. but when he hear he gun get charge $45,000 - he get away.. couple day after.. he come by me fuh lime.. he seh dat rum, lime and pepper does help get over de poison.. he had to go back to [private].. dem nah gun charge he $45000 but he mussee had to pay nuff million dollar ..man wife seh she sick and he chirren nah a do nuttin.. " No anecdote of whether any social worker intervened at any time from public or private hospital.  Another man said... 'dem gah fuh stop show Indian picture.. all ah dem a kill dem self'.. I tried to explain that things change and now people don't kill themselves as much in Indian pictures.. and then in 'My name is Khan'.. Kajol tells Shah Rukh "I will kill myself if you don't take him out" .. Every reported suicide in Guyana usually drives a series of lamentat...

You know you are a good person really and you want to be helpful to people and kind to people and do at least 7 hours of voluntary work in helping people a week. You see all the nice things about 100 things to say to a depressed person and 500 things not to say to a depressed person and you know that there are people who are depressed or mad around. You are annoyed because you do not want be guilted out into doing something about people around you who are mad depressed. 1. Manage  your social media account - Facebook is good Unfollow those Facebook friends who are posting those links about what to say and what not to say and how to listen to depressed, mad people. You can unfriend them if you like, that way you would not feel too guilted and be reminded that you should be trying something. Be careful that you do not become Facebook friends with actual mad people because you could then become inundated with really crazy posts when you are not awake ot moderate your page...

A couple of people said "we should have more like this'  after a couple of events I organised recently and not so recently . I know that people meet up and talk in different settings.  Over the years, I have been a great organiser and participant in conversation type events. Quite a few of them were meant to be long term series to revolutionise thinking and discussion in Guyana but they fizzled out after a few sessions. Some things like my book club are enduring. Many things like the mental health gaff did not get beyond the first session. The things which people liked tended to be those which they were able to learn and or teach and even meet new people. A couple of people have thought of organising different things. There are already Facebook discussion groups,  some public discussion sessions like the Ideas series,  structured religious study groups and rum shop conversations about life , faith, money, love etc  so why bother? I think face to face i...

I jump out of the bus with plenty other passengers near the Botanical Gardens and I realise that I still had the money in my hand. Some notes of the first steel band playing. Clouds provide a nice eclipse of the sun so 4pm it is cool. Gardens look nice and clean but some Guyanese can't make it to the rubbish bins. A former work colleague has her stand set up. She is a Jehovah Witness and preaches at the Gardens. Her grandson is one of the bands and she said that last year, the crowd seemed larger. The steel bands are around the bandstand. I ask her if she is not coming in and she laughs and says "I am doing Jehovah work while enjoying the steel pan music" I sit at the edge of the manatee pond. The music is kind of faint and there are some children talking excitedly because they see the manatees. I have not seen the manatees in years and feel foolish that I could not find anything to feed them, though I think we are not supposed to feed them. Imagine that there co...

The man asked on Facebook why I had not rainbowed up my display. He is a nice guy so I did not want to burden him with my politics. I did not want to rainbow because I am suspicious of Facebook's motives and Facebook as corporate entity joining the LGBT equality movement is not free from criticism .   The other thing is that Pride is a kind of foreign thing, and while foreign thing is not bad, it seem kind of like Thanksgiving and Turkey and Halloween and that it must be celebrated in a certain Globalised way with rainbow flag and so on. I mean.. while I have no solutions, it would be nice if Guyanese/Caribbean people could find ways to celebrate progress/mourn lack of progress in LGBT equality which have nothing to do with beer companies and cities making money.  And miserable anti-drinking anti-celebration-without-conscious cynic that I am, I keep thinking of how people who are concerned like #blackoutpride ,  that the thing is not protest any more and t...

  Two women reporters talked on social media about the sexual harassment they faced when having to deal with the former Minister of Health bheri ramsarran, while one male reporter said that , after the announcement of the firing, that he knows young female reporters would be happy. I saw a press release about this year's World Press Freedom Day from the US Embassy . The theme this year is “ Let Journalism Thrive! Towards Better Reporting, Gender Equality, & Media Safety " did not make much sense but then I read that the theme is about three different things.   The issue of gender equality seems to be about gender balance in the control of the media , and the gender based violence faced by female journalists and other media workers. My encounters with the media started in 1997 when I was  doing the public education and advocacy work on domestic violence and child abuse with Help & Shelter.  The topics were still non-partisan even though ...

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...

The NIS Inspector said "Sorry sir, we cannot reduce your assessed earnings without you having the tax assessment, etc". He saw my kind of stunned face and said "You know, why are you reducing it? You should have faith , and reduce the negatives" There were a set of Congrats on the 6th Anniversary of the 'Independent Consultancy/Contractor' job which I had put on my LinkedIn profile .  I had made a choice to leave a job with guaranteed salary for another contractor type position which the expired suddenly.  The shift to being 'self employed' which is sometimes a euphemism for 'unemployed and looking for wuk' was brutal . I have not made the adjustment as yet - as personal circumstances have taken up some of the planning time. While the initial intention was to hold on the 'self employed independent thing' , that has changed since flexible hours are needed to respond to adhoc personal demands. The 'Congrats' messages...

The Guyana National Youth Council  hosted a discussion event ' Conversations with Professor Danny Shaw - On Movements, Advocacy and Activism' at the Georgetown Club - Monday 12 Jan, 2015. I was curious as Professor Shaw's bio did not seem to be a man who would be encouraged by any of the donors. I was cautious though, because I not young . I know that these conversations could be dominated by people who like nuff talking. Nuff people come. One of organisers said they did not expect that amount. Two others kept muttering and grumbling about how they would not have come if it was not for the white man professor (my words.. they said 'guest' ). I thought maybe Georgetown Club was a nice safe space..rather than the streets for a protest. People dress up nice. I know why I aint see nuff of dese people before.. I does deh in some of dem protest pun de road and I doan really deh in youth forum and dem nice sounding ting. One of the girls did say that she is pol...

Spectrum of connections with people A man I know used to do over his address book every year end to remove contacts of persons who no longer were friends. On Facebook a lot of people do their 'culling' and post nice status messages about those who remain .  A woman told me that she don't bother whether the people she considered as friend would consider her as a friend. Once she thinks of them as a friend she will treat them that way. That friend word.. frequently used, different meanings for different people. Friends are needed for social nurturing and in Guyana, we are a 'friendly' people apparently. So many ideas about the nature of friendships, their duration, purpose and expectations. Most of us think of friends as persons we are not likely to be violent towards, and yet so many drinking buddies and loved ones harm and kill each other. I think of this spectrum of connection of persons.  I am sure other people will have other categories. I am not...

de bifocal glasses doan always wuk but when I see de man come up I realise he bald he head and he had a lil beard. dis ting bout locks.. i is a straight hair coolie man who glad dat wid odder tings falling apart, de hair still deh and I am fascinated by how black men and douglah men and coolie men and white men plait and do hair in locks. And I know woman talking bout hair and false hair and suh.. and dis tho' is like a man ting.. either is hair, or no damn hair.. no worries bout fake hair and dem ting So de fus ting dat come to mind is shoots, de man get a big wuk and had to shine he head and i glad fuh he dat he get a big wuk but wondering bout all dem years (8 years he seh) dat it tek fuh grow de locks And I aint know.. someting come to mind bout investment in locks, time, image, consciousness all now shaved off and well.. dey gone. I doan like see man in locks wearing suit and tie - and i wondering if my man here wid his big wuk.. gun wear suit and tie.. someting so con...

 The man at the back raised the opening lines "There comes a time when we heed a certain call When the world must come together as one There are people dying And its time to lend a hand to life.." and forty people joined in singing We are the World. Murder and violence The murder of Dwayne Jacobs and others in Jamaica, the murder of Delon Melville in Guyana who had received threats because of his perceived homosexuality, the attacks on others , mobilised by mobs and often with impunity was the background to a C all to Action : Everyone has the right to be! initiated by the CatchAFyah Feminist Network.  In a Caribbean in which no convictions have been made laid, and where the Churches muttering that their version of love means no one should be attacked but tempering that with 'homosexuality is an abomination'  apparently worse than the sin of righteous murder. Galtung's triangle of violence Guybow, the LBT Women's Network of Guyana and friends d...

A nice hot breezy afternoon. 2pm. Market. I stop at a cart to buy some onions, potatoes, garlic. Once banned in Guyana. Two young guys running the cart. I smell ganja smoke. I ask them.. 'Man wheh de smoke coming from'. One laughed and pointed to the other.. 'we got one. Yuh wan' two pull'? This is blog post number 300. I have been thinking about something that would be significant and ground breaking and inspiring. But then 300 is just a number. The Critical Thinking Circle was formed in January 2013. I did the first presentation which was along the lines of 'Decriminalisation of Marijuana is good for Guyana"  This is the gist of my presentation. Note: I do not smoke nor have I ever used ganja in any form. I do not advocate its usage. I am also against the consumption of alcohol. I have advocated that it is better to use ganja than alcohol since anecdotal evidence and medical and social research seem to indicate that alcohol has caused greater...