Thoughts of a minibus traveller

  Sinners and stones Guyana 2023 and it seems any criticism of the PPP administration is met with stones of "illegitimacy", 'defunct', 'enemy' and 'why you didn't talk when..." The  PPP responded to GHRA's criticism of the EITI debacle and the decision to go for electronic ID systems without engaging citizens. The response of  the PPP then used 'law' to say that the GHRA is 'defunct' and therefore should not be saying anything, and slurs like 'one man show' . Another commentator who has never gotten personal with anyone in the PPP has to ' set the record straight'  when the PPP leadership does not respond to the issues he lays out without cussing anybody.  In this time of Easter, imagining that the righteous in the PPP shout 'Those of you without sin should cast the first stone' , and then the PPP working hard to determine the sins of the critics and find stones rather than deal with the issues which th...

 Saturday afternoon and the rain is drizzling after a few weeks of no rain. I laugh as I get ready to fulfill the sankalp to go into the Botanical Gardens .  The book club is supposed to come out, fresh air, handle some books and talk face to face.  But I know that it is not reading alone as I feel I need to write something but something other than the things I wrote about and just write anything.   People are sheltering in the Bandstand and in the Mausoleum - Burnham's grave. Some people are sitting around with umbrellas.  The fountain is there . It looks like no water has moved for some time. I take pictures of the reflection in the water.  Come home and realise that there was a plastic spoon in the fountain. And there seems to be a reflection of the plastic spoon also in the water. I could write about the plastic spoon in the fountain which  was not visible in the drizzles when I was taking the picture and about the litter decorating the Botan...

  Hate The young professional on the phone is frustrated. The young professional is experiencing a vindictive campaign while in the employ of a Government agency.  A campaign of hate which is meant to destroy the young professional's integrity and livelihood. A campaign of hate which will not bring the same attention as  the most recent hate speech in oil rich Guyana.  The young professional condemned that hate speech while experiencing the hatred. Hate speech in which WPA leaders used their right to freedom of expression to express their thoughts as to how Africans in the police and army with legitimate guns in Guyana could overturn what they see as the PPP oppression nurtured by Indians. The young professional identifies Indian (or Indo-Guyanese), one of whom the WPA leadership might have been thinking about who nurtures the PPP oppression. The young professional though, has no legitimate access to guns. and the WPA leadership (and PNC leadership too?) has not exp...

  Bus pulls up with driver alone and I am glad to stumble in the front seat to half lie half sit down. I hear the driver's reply to the morning from the body which dealing with stomach bug.  Kind of short reply, polite. Radio playing Bus drives pass a man, and then stops after man waves hand from behind the bus. Man jumps in the bus. 'Sorry, I was on phone.... morning' Me and driver mumble morning. Man asks from the back 'You from Nigeria'.. My mind shifts from the stomach to the driver's response and curiosity about man from oil producing Nigeria coming to oil producing Guyana to join the minibus madness on the roads . Driver gives a quiet, 'yes'.. Man in the back says 'You bring any Nigerian girls wid you.. dem woman tick and nice' Driver is silent for a bit.. says 'I don't understand what you ask..' I want to know about transition from Nigeria to Guyana and trying to establish some brotherhood of the enjoyment of oil money..  man i...

  Guyana in Greek Saturday afternoon in the National Art Gallery at Castellani House. People sitting in half of the seats near the beautiful paintings. Professor  Stephanos Stephanides delivers the Martin Carter lecture. He talks about working in Guyana, about going to Blairmont to be involved in Kali Mai puja and about Martin Carter encouraging his poetry.  He is from Cyprus, more violently divided (fractured) than Guyana. He talks about the Mediterranean and Caribbean. He talks about reverse gaze and Greek and Sanskrit words and 'theory' and so on. And Memory Fiction .He says that when asked for his bio for the lecture, he told the moderator 'you are a fiction writer.. go on, write something and invent me.. ". I understood it all when listening but have forgotten some stuff as I did not make notes and the Ministry of Culture has not made the lecture public if they have recorded it. The moderator had to stop him because 'time' runs out and there was some space...

  "Buxton at it again" Sun is hot. The social media timelines in Guyana are full of the sound bytes from actress Letitia Wright - returning to Guyana after leaving as a child. Then the messages float up.. 'Buxton at it again.. ' and so on.  Some of the people sharing those messages were not sharing the admiration for Letitia Wright.   "Godfather" 300 to 400 citizens who remained in Guyana took to the East Coast Public Road on the day that UG conferred an honorary doctorate on Letitia Wright. The citizens were reportedly upset that the Police fired shots in Buxton as they chased a man they suspected of having marijuana. Some of the citizens call the man  their Godfather.   On the day that Baba Prezzy gave the framed birth certificate to her while  PNC leaders and supporters were expecting her outside City Hall, some of the citizens burned the truck which had transported rice. Some of the citizens who were blocking the road also robbed another c...

    A foodie Facebook friend shared a recipe for Butternut Squash and Chickpea curry and I bookmarked.  Not sure if I would ever make it as I wondered why would I curry butternut squash which tastes nice "just so' but curious as the recipe invoked 'Thai' curry and the lemon grass and coconut milk mix up. And as more oil being produced in Guyana, I have not seen butternut squash in the market so it was like save and keep. I got one at the oil country prices just around Christmas and but it was still lower than the supermarket so I chopped up and put in the freezer. I went back to the recipe, not sure , and went looking to see if is true that you could curry butternut squash.. and  Google showed a whole set of versions .  I never cooked with lemon grass and I think the lemon grass we use for tea in Guyana might be different from what is used in the pictures.  The recipe asked to 'mince the lemon grass' but the grass did not take cutting. Another chef said to ...