'cow's feet'

The oldest person living in the world died this week. Violet Mosse Brown was born in 1900 in Jamaica  and died on the 15th September 2017 at around 2.30 in the afternoon. Imagine 117 years old, living through every hell on earth and yet many great things. She swore by the bible, never drank rum and ate cow's feet. It's strange how we humans mark our lives by our age. What age did you do what, your first romance, education, drunk, career, marriage, children, mortgage, travel and maybe the first time you ever ate cow's feet.

Growing up in Arima during the sixties I was kind of a hippie, mixed up with black power, did not smoke the weed, drank the rum, I guess did not know who I was or what exactly I was supposed to be. Finished my formal education in 1968 and made my way in the world.  Like Vio I saw a lot of things, good and bad. Looking back on how the world has changed in my lifetime I wonder if it had stayed like the way I experienced it in Arima in the 50s and 60s, where would I have been today.
As one gets older you tend to harp on the good old days. Of course the good old days were great and one should have great memories of growing up, the simple things, life was uncomplicated. Of course the generation before you also boasted of how great life was. Stories of the war, rationing, the job market, how different carnival was, 1956 politics and other happenings. Every generation is different and I marvel at the successes of humankind, I see our grandchildren growing up, slightly different to Arima in the 50s. Playing in hundreds of acres of bush, with no supervision, it is not all that different to a smart phone.

The one thing that does not change is how we, as humans, live our lives. We are taught early in our lives about respect for others and basic tenets for living. Honesty, compassion, responsibility, freedom, authority, give more than you take, do whatever life expects of you. Sad to say with instant communication and social media we see things that are not part of our being. It is not that it never existed, I think that it was always there but not in one's face. Trampling through the bush in Arima I am pretty sure that the crazy people were all around us.

Speaking of crazy people, its Saturday night, and I really do not feel to go there. But if we do not stop, and that is the first thing we need to do, stop and examine what is actually happening in our country, try and figure out where we are going to be in the next five years, make sense of it all and make the right decision to chart our way forward we will only have memories of how it used to be. Our country does not have to be the way it is. We should not have to depend on totally incompetent people to attempt to save us from guaranteed economic collapse.

This country has a tremendous future, its all there in front of us! We need to have visionary leadership, people who have clear sight to our success. The carefree days of running through the bush in Arima not knowing and not caring about tomorrow are long gone. I leave that to the grans, they too will find their way, in the mean time we must provide the start.

Tomorrow I am officially retired from all things official. Just another date in the life of a human!

'I hope I die before I get old'. - Roger Daltrey, 1965

Good night and good luck!