Thoughts of a minibus traveller

Kàzaklak melu, Kato, Region 8 (part of pic from Rhea Loo)   Anna Iles (1960 - 2026) was a very kind woman who generously supported people in their work. She had praised my blogs many times, especially those around mental health. Anna is in my mind as I write this . Indigenous lives  Reporter asked me why I was supporting the Amerindian Peoples Association -organised protest. I mumbled nonsense because I could not find the words which would say that the lives lost in the MV Barima, -  in the Mahdia Dorm Fires of 2023, in the suicides, mining violence, other violence, other injustices to the Indigenous communities used to be distant from mine until I re-learned they are connected to mine.  Learning  Burnham's 1980s social studies curriculum taught me that there were six races.  Orlando De Jesus from the 'hinterland' in my class at Bishops' High School died of malaria. I never got more details of his life as an Indigenous student in a Georgetown school....

Dear Reuters Your article about how the US-Israeli killing of Iranian children could be a bonanza to Tiny Guyana came out on a day when many yards and streets and houses were flooded after rainfall which should not be unexpected for any country which is developing in  harmony with a turbulent climate and which uses historical experiences, evidence and data to guide interventions. Your  article comes at a time when the stench of stagnant water  reminds us that this 'growth' seems to be 'decay', the stench arising out of insecure egos of politicians who abuse their  power who push bizarre decisions or not make decisions instead of investing in competent expertise guided by global experience.  After all, we are not the first country to be cursed with oil and to learn how to deal with the curse of oil.  Your article about how the US Killing of Iranian children could be a bonanza to Tiny Guyana (or as you framed it "the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran" does talk ...

Time Friday afternoon after I say right, let me pretend that I am in a modern progressive city and walk to relieve the stress from the difficult workshop which had to deal with geopolitics, gender-based violence and the powerlessness felt by Guyanese when dealing with 'outside' forces and local politicians. Lamaha Street with the fancy courtyard where the train station once stood, but no real pavement as these things go.  School children coming down laughing as they do, jostling each other. Some with umbrella to protect from sun.  Group comes up near me and I prepare for what I think is normal to allow them to get into single file and pass. The youths , the leaders of tomorrow like the leaders of today don't make room though.. determined not to break up their formation and collaboration and their unity,  they push me aside.. one girl shouts 'Uncle.. dis is nah time fuh you deh pon de road.. "  I manage to step out of their way and hope that no vehicle would als...

Tomato jubilee Man weeding the yard said look you have a tomato plant near the gutter and I said okay, not going to touch it, let me leave it, throw lil water on it.  Seeds from other tomatoes grown in other parts of Guyana (I try not to buy Brazil tomatoes but I not sure.. )settle in the sediment of the gutter which then generate at the side.  I am in awe even though last time the tomatoes dried up before they ripened and then the plant dried up   I have zero expectations when anything grows in the yard.  Tomatoes in the market were 600GYD a pound and visitors who live in other countries with rising prices keep asking me, why are prices so high in Guyana (even as they are high in other places)?  It is not as though we are further from the Strait of Hormuz than anyone else.  I don't know myself but as the nation which I am part of but feel apart from talks about Diamond Jubilee for the Independence and I see that it seems the Government has organis...

  Passion Fruit Walk in the market and see apples for GYD100 each and a young woman with a tub of passion fruit. I ask her how much and she doesn't turn around as she tells me 5 for GYD1000 .. she leaves me to pick out the five because I think passion fruit is good for me, and that a passion fruit a day has benefits like an apple a day though the way things are in Guyana.. it seems like is foreign things, things imported from outside are cheaper, and so economically better (even for rich people like me) than things from Guyana  Bus driver says 'dis guvament is stupid' as the bus with people from different origins laughing and celebrating the wheelbarrow of coins which one friend take to pay his other friend costs a few weeks ago. 'New Wheelbarrow..' Does the guvament care that locally grown passion fruit is more expensive than imported apples? Do people care anymore? 1616 to 1966 to 2026 1616 - the Dutch come and found Essequibo  1966 - British Guiana turn Guyana...

  Invasions  Day after USA invade Venezuela and kidnap the dictator Maduro, the man who supports PPP because he feel that no one else better while also afraid of the PPP - asks me 'So what yall gun do now about Farnum Playground"?   Residents of Subryanville  have been calling on the Government agencies to restore Farnum Playground to the community after the occupation of the land by private business interests who to this date, remain unknown. Much like the appeals to the United Nations on the other occupations in the world, it seems the residents' calls on the Central Housing and Planning Authority, the Ministry of Education, The Ministry of Local Government, the Mayor and City Council are going to be useless because the only thing matters as the USA Government showed last Saturday.. law does not matter, only power.  Venezuela/Guyana In April 2002, a woman sitting next to me in the square in Havana who offered me one of the cakes she was eating asked me i...

Image derived from OpenClipart Hot sun  3pm and sun hot bad on the railway line outside CARICOM headquarters.    There is a gathering , a protest, to call on CARICOM leaders to break diplomatic ties with genocidal Israel if they really serious about ceasefire on Gaza. No trees for shade, lots of concrete and glass and some token plants. I imagine this is what heat must be like in the Middle East. There is breeze here, but the tent - tents can also be hot as well. Israel has uprooted olive trees in Palestin e as part of the genocide. (In Guyana, though DDL has tied bundle with the genocidal Government to do agriculture ) The Government of Guyana has started destruction of a Samaan tree in my area which has provided shade for people. Tree apparently standing in the way of progress and development, and near to community land being invaded by private sector interests without objection from the Government.   Guyanese for Gaza  British traveller waves the Palestinian...

  Acid Attacks in the week of PPP/C Victory  Someone inside a white car threw acid on Nirmala Sukraj and Jilicia Leitch at midday on the Wednesday of Guyana Elections 2025.  In April 2025, two people threw acid on pupils and teachers of Chateau Margot Primary School as they walked home. Politicians and the ERC and other condemned and visited the students. There are no reports yet of any condemnation of the recent acid attack or visible support to the survivors. The throwers of acid in April 2025, like the killers of Adrianna Young, have not been found.  Three acid attacks on women and girls in a year.   Bullets in the week of PPP/C Victory  On the night GECOM declared victory for the PPP/C, someone on a bike shot Lolita  Callender. outside her home. The shooter was waiting on a bike for her,. Another man shot and killed Gavin Major on the Thursday after elections when the PPP/C supporters were confident of victory. Other men have shot and killed ...

Disconnecting Ishwar Singh killed Paula Abraham the day after news that 240,000 or so people voted back for the PPP/C. Ishwar Singh killed Paula Abraham the week after another man shot and killed his wife , and shot his son. In a year when the PPP/C Government had said they would 'reduce' the femicides to 10 , and we now at 21 , 240,000 people or so voted for progress to continue. Ishwar Singh and I have one thing in common, we were disconnected from the elections, could see no connection with those who voting and winning including those men who have abused women and children and the women who enable them. Real Majority "Good afternoon, checking to see you if you vote"  5pm or so Elections afternoon and a young black man and a young coolie man (yes, I use the word coolie to refer to those like me who are descended from indentured Immigrants from India as distinct from 'Indian' meaning those citizens of India who voted as 'Commonwealth'  ) at my gate,...

Guyana Hot afternoon , I jump in a bus and sit next to man shorter than me, wearing short pants just like me.  He is on his phone. Language sounds like one of the Indian dialects We come off at the same stop. He is walking behind me slowly as he finishes his conversation. I stop at a junction and he comes next to me. "Hello sir, you look like you are a North Indian Hindu" - he tells me . "Yes, yes.. I am Hindu but from Guyana.. which part of India are you from?" "Bangalore.. but I live here .. my great-great-grandfather came here .. .. are you born here? " I say yes. I try to find out more about the great-great-grandfather.. did he come, leave family behind, or did he come and go back..  He repeats.." yes yes.. great great grandfather came here.. hundred years ago".   "I walk with you , I go in the same direction.. "    We cross the road and he is walking with me.  Astrology  "I am a pundit.. I do astrology.. very good reading...

    Writing "I know you like to write.. you are kissoon right.. hope you write about this " the woman told me, 730am as she leaves the OneGuyana Immigration Office. She and others 'have to come back.. , another day , earlier, try than 4am perhaps when some OneGuyanese had first come to apply for passports A PPP man had posted on his social media that 'Guyana going places and all who don't like it should book their ticket and leave' . I had wanted to ask so why yall doan mek de passport ting easy so we could go long we way, but is pointless 'yes we still working on the bad things which the PNC had broken and so" May 2017, the PNC led coalition had fixed the PPP's mess at the Passport Office , decentralising services and reviewing the obstacles in the processing.  I had gone in and handed in application during a normal working day and not taking long. PPP man told me  'yeah.. APNU did one or two good tings but you know.. de SOPs and de rigging a...

Walking  Sun come out in between the rain and I decide to go walk on the road as they say movement is medicine. People in my street try to keep road and parapets tidy but development.. road had been fixed, then edges broken again by GWI to replace pipes and sand and mud in the rain, then sand again.  Walk in the corner is a joke now on many parts of the development roads as the corners might have puddles, holes or rubbish. But movement is medicine... and I think right, is Sunday, could walk away from where the sand gathers at the edge because walking on sand is not easy to do.  Trees touching me The low hanging branches of some of the flamboyant trees, lush after the rains brush my head and it feels nice.., like if trees blessing me. Part of my street has a kind of canopy where the people behind the trees have not cut them down to concrete the parapets as happened in other parts and so the branches meet across the road.   Parapet  Rubbish bins out as peop...

Extract of NAILS by Stanley Greaves, 1984 available on Stabroek News   Listening to Stanley Greaves   On the morning after police killed Ronaldo Peters and on the morning when police killed Keon Fogenay called 'Dan' I was listening to Stanley Greaves respond to questions in his usual generous, warm way , explaining things in simple language that I could understand.   Moray House Trust had organised "Ask me anything … about the creative arts: Stanley Greaves, and that was the spirit of the discussion, that kind of open exchange which is nurturing. I liked Nails, which I saw for the first time , in the newspapers on the Sunday. Something about reusing bent nails, and using them not discarding. On the morning the police killed Ronaldo Peters and on the morning when citizens were enraged at the police explanation of why they killed Ronaldo Peters and when police then killed Keon Fogenay called 'Dan' I was in a nice online bubble, being in this other Guyana where peop...

  Dear fed up and frightened Hindus in OneGuyana Seeta Ram. The morning after the OneGuyana Phagwah , one of you expressed your frustration about how the OneGuyana Phagwah thing at the stadium was very far away from what many Hindus would have been hearing in mandir the morning of Phagwah. While OneGuyana did have a line about 'no alcohol, no meat' , as with so many of the 'messages' is that you can talk one thing but don't really bother about any thing and from my timeline I realised that nuff people enjoyed the OneGuyana Phagwah and as they do with many other of the OneGuyana rules and laws, didn't bother.. Alcohol and Phagwah Yep, the alcohol and Phagwah thing, like the 2025 Ramnavami date, got different Hindus thinking different things. Some devout Hindus on my timeline ignored the Guyana Hindu Dharmic Sabha's appeal for no alcohol and shared proudly their enjoyment of alcohol with the love and unity.  is controversial. Some of us acknowledge the history...

Microsoft Designer AI Image 'the sea and the jungle'   The Orishas Saturday afternoon and clouds have promise of rain. Minibus man asks if I going right down as he swing on Lamaha Street and I said yes no problem because I getting drop close to Fresh, the 'lil cafe shed place next to the bank ' as the taxi dispatcher later described. The woman in the painting looks at me , I am her equal. There are iron implements around her. She is young, strong and assertive - not fearsome.   I keep coming back to the painting as I am early and I can move around the room.  Later on, I am helping out a bit and in between helping, I feel as though Ogun as woman is looking at me, in a kind way.  Alyce Cameron's Ogun formed part of the Art Exhibition  hosted by the Alliance Française of Guyana and members of the Guyana Women Artists Association. The exhibition was curated by Pekahiah James. The artists who displayed their work are Alyce Cameron, Elodie Cage Smith, Jennifer G...

Translation of Bhartal - Chalo Piya Soyi Rahi from "Chowtal Rang Bahar" done by Ramnarine Sasenarine and Peter Manuel(2010) Sacred and erotic The Pandit shouts at me "Do you know what kind of bollywood song they were dancing Diwali night, don't they read the translations before they decide.. the lyrics are vulgar" .    "Nah we not singing that" one of the devout Hindu men I know says as  we read the translation to my favourite bartaal. I was like what the hell.., somebody planning a night of passion with the 'beloved " and not wanting the husband, elder brother wife to hear anything.. and while beloved means 'Hari, possibly Krishna.. I mean yeah.. we Hindus sing about adultery with God and so as part of the sacred. And when at the end of a chowtaal/Holi programme in the mandir, and the Pandit sings Rang Baarse .. and I think of the context.. I mean is a man singing to he lover while her husband deh bout.. .. and the language is clear.. the...

    Suckers are always there with broad leaves which turn gold then brown. One day wind blows and the large leaves move and there is a large purple bud full with the promise of bananas. And so watching over the next days as the bud moves down, shedding purple skin which turn red then brown. Becoming more visible as the leaves now hide the emerging bunch.  Wondering about the variety as the yard has only had 'apple' but these look different.  And not wanting to look too much or too close to stop bad eye? Revealing the rows of delicate white trumpets which hang like bells with yellow tips.  Humming bird hovers over the yellow tips, and then some bees. Banana already starting to feed. When does the banana begin? There is a magic as these white bells , instead of falling, curl upwards in a kind of yogic way  and hard skin is formed to protect solid white flesh as the yellow tips turn brown.  Farmers say when the bud has finished about 12 inches from the la...

  Dear Janelly David, I am sorry we , your nation,  your community, other men around you could not stop t he man from killing you. Y ou are 16 years old and many people hope that 16 years old would be close to completing school. I am sorry that we could not make things good for you to be in school. What dreams did you have? What did you like to do? What did you want for yourself? What did you want to be when you grew up?   I am sorry that if you were experiencing problems, that we did not do enough to make sure that you knew how to be in a good relationship, and where to get help if things went bad.   I am sorry, that even though you are living in a place with a lot of gold, and a lot of oil, that the man killed you.   Did you know about the One Guyana Ministerial Task Force which was set up to tackle the "social ills" , which resulted in the man killing you? Did you feel a part of President Ali's One Guyana, living in the mining camp?  The Village ...

Watching India from far "Why don't you want to come to India. how can you not want to see India.. aren't you Indian"? the man asks and texts me after. 2am where he is in India as he is home for the wedding of a lover. He is tired and emotional  so I try to tell him.. look, I don't need to go to India, India comes to me.  Modern  India with its sophisticated foreign policies has been embedded in Guyana long after the first indentured immigrants came.  Modern India with Bollywood and other things pushing 'Indian clothes' and 'Indian culture' which means consumption of Indian goods and services , far away.. I don't need to apply for the visa to go. And even if there were no prominent political visits after Indira Gandhi, India has contributed education, technical assistance, cultural connections, money and many other things to Guyana. The man does not understand my not wanting to visit India.. His residence and income are in the Middle East, and h...