One Nation

In 1987 I started my own business, in the worst recession to hit the island, ever. There was simply no foreign exchange, none, and the IMF had to intervene with the inevitable consequences. The economy today is not the best, businesses are suffering from both foreign exchange shortages and a real slowdown in trading. People are not spending unless they have to. Of course not having a government leading the charge to get us out of this recession is very worrying. I don't see the vision, the very clear path ahead, the words that are spoken are not exactly inspiring. Will we survive, probably, but just barely. What it does do of course is create opportunities, makes you look in other places, forces you to change the way you do business, helps you to become that more efficient. Today our youngest, launched an enterprise with his good friend and together it has great potential. The restaurant/food business is extremely competitive, very price sensitive and has the highest failure ra...

We are experiencing weather that is by no means June. Today, doing my afternoon constitutional, there was a 'dry season' wind coming off the north coast, nice and cool but definitely unseasonal. We have not had the June downpours, accompanied by thunder and lightning. There are people in this world who do not believe that there is such a phenomenon as climate change. I guess they will all be long gone by the time it becomes dangerous even though two (2) Category 5 hurricanes, one behind the other, actually happened during last year's hurricane season. Well, of course, it was just a couple of the islands that got hit so that means climate change is not real. I am becoming more and more disillusioned with the political systems of the world. I cannot say that there is a single political system that is working. It may have something to do with the fact that I am looking at a series on the Vietnam war. Or it could be the ridiculous politics being played out on the networks e...

We had two of the four grands spend the weekend with us whilst the parents went off to the North Coast for some rest and relaxation. From all reports, the sojourn was well spent with both singing the praises of our North Coast, no beach, just R&R. We are ten minutes from the coast and I hate to admit it but it is rare that we venture north. One of the selling points of coming to live in the wilds of Maraval in 1983 was the fact that Maracas Bay was a mere 30 mins away. Maracas could have been next door it did not matter, we just do not do it. Having grandchildren I think puts you in a very different place. When our kids were growing up we were struggling with building a business from scratch, living off of a teachers salary, impossible then as it is now, and generally ketching. But as it is with all things in life we survived. Looking back at those years it was difficult, kids, dogs, mortgage and other loans, but you knew why you were putting yourself through all this hard...

June has kept its commitment and the rains have arrived in earnest. This year's dry season really did not happen, the hills were kept alive with the intermittent rains and we can only hope that the wildlife was given a chance to recover. The hunting season is four months long ending in February. Typically the wildlife is then put under further threat by a dry season which inevitably ends with the forest being burnt to a crisp. A double whammy for the hapless animals. And the politicos go on about votes, votes from hunters. A good friend died this past week. He was family and also a friend. In the 70's he boarded with us in Arima, he was working at a nearby car assembly plant. Peter was most famous for his absolutely terrible jokes, the worst, but he loved giving them and we all somehow enjoyed them. His most memorable was, A Grenadian arrives at Piarco, jumps in a taxi and asks to be taken to a store to buy a 'sax', at least that is what the taxi driver heard. Tax...

One of the great things about walking on a very regular basis, besides the obvious, is that after a while you get to notice things. You meet fellow walkers, you can spot them a mile away by their gait, you can guess which vehicle is behind you, an SUV or a sedan, a maxi taxi, a truck. Where I walk, twice per day, I notice things. Like the strange placement of 'pickets' in a square pattern near a fence. The 'pickets' were wrapped in decorative patterned paper with safety tape wrapped joining the four poles, like a police tape barrier. The next day I saw stones being placed in a particular pattern in the area of the four 'pickets'. This is when I got concerned. What was this? some sort of shrine? This was on a fence surrounding a huge water tank. You walk the area long enough all will come to light. Met a neighbor attending to the shrine only to find out that she was the person who had planted a 'coralita' vine to grow on the chainlink fence and the neig...

Today was one of those 'why I am still on the Rock' days. Children and grandchildren, friends, noise, food and drink, great conversation, men only in the kitchen ( for the most part ), family and happy times. No talk about crime nor the economy nor politics, plenty picong. We work hard and one day a week is all we need to regenerate, to bring ourselves back to being relaxed and to enjoy the simple things in life, family and friends. We traveled to the east coast during the week and it is still one of the most beautiful drives ever. Matura, Balandra, and Cumana.  In my early days, we would vacation at a house in Cumana. I cannot remember whose house it was but we were there with family friends. In my early teens, we stayed at a house in Salybia. We would walk everywhere, exploring the river, going fishing in a boat, great times. In our later teens, we then ventured further north to a 'lime tree' estate on the road leading to the Toco Lighthouse.  A friend's fath...