One Nation

One of the great things about living on the Rock is the friends and acquaintances you have over a lifetime. When you add up how many people you know personally, family, friends, neighbors, work buddies, people you interact with for different reasons, one can easily count a couple hundred people. My life partner says that I am the only person she knows that has three hundred close friends. I do, I can't help it if I am that popular! One of the issues of having many friends is that you have many friends die. This year I lost a couple good friends. You used to go to funerals when old aunts and uncles died, now we are the old aunts and uncles. On Friday yet another good friend was buried, RIP Boyer. The Rock is hot this week. We have the annual fiscal measures being presented tomorrow at the Parliament. The Minister of Finance will sum up his Government's performance in the last financial year and then present his fiscal plan for the coming 2019 period.  Tomorrow people will b...

Last week there was a pan concert, which was attended by the elite of society, not for the 'hoi polloi'. This event was attended by none other than the greatest pan lover herself, Her Excellency Madam President. I have one story that says it all, pan is of the people. A friend goes to the bar and asks for a beer and is told that "it eh have no beers". Much to his dismay, he asks why and is told that "dis is a bring yuh cooler and so since everybody go bring deh own beers, it eh have no beers selling". He walks away from the bar obviously very disappointed. Within minutes a man approaches him asking "ah hear yuh looking fuh beers?" "Yes" is the reply and the response is "go by de corn soup man, it have beers sellin"'. Anyone being elected or appointed to a position in Government somehow experiences a change in who they are. Not all, however, are taken with the hubris. Some remain the same, some go full-blown 'never s...

I started to venture south to Chaguanas this morning completely forgetting about the Beetham Highway closure. As soon as I realized what was happening I made a legal U-turn and headed back into the city. Apparently, people were stuck for hours in a major traffic jam and the word coming out of the Ministry of Works was 'that is the price of progress'. I think not. That is the price of poor planning. No one considers that if during the closure, which was inevitable due to the works being carried out, there was a national emergency, like maybe a deadly earthquake, thousands of people would have been stuck in a massive traffic jam. Surely the powers that be can plan for all eventualities. The '1%' is the talk on many political platforms. In recent times a certain sector of the Rock's society, the Syrian/Lebanese community, has been vilified and condemned for being successful. This has stemmed from a TV show with now deceased Anthony Boudain on whose show about the Ro...

It was a good week for me. I am now officially 'an elder' by UN standards. I thought that this term would only be used when I actually felt like an 'elder' but who am I to buck the determinator of all things international. So I began this week at age 66 feeling great, not an ailment, no aching bones, a good head of hair, lighter by 33 lbs since April and feeling no different than when I was 36. Mighty Sparrow was right, age is just a number! The Rock seems to be coming of age by hook or by crook. The LBGT community won a landmark case this week where a judge declared that consensual sex between two male adults was not against the law. The AG is going to appeal and that apparently is a good thing because it is highly likely that the AG will lose the appeal and that then sets the stage for the sodomy laws to be once and for all struck from the law books. Whew! I did not think for one moment that this would happen. But the Rock is changing, imagine that. Next is the gr...

The week started with the release of a female kidnapped victim and the people of the Rock breathed a huge sigh of relief. Imagine that, a victim of crime, not finding lost boys in a cave, or a hurricane narrowly missing us. Crime, this is where we are, when it does not happen, like no murders in one day, then it is a celebration, it is a breath of fresh air, a relief valve goes off removing the tension in the society. The new Commissioner of Police quoted from Lovindeer and his 'Babylon Boobs' - Show what the police can do. He has assured the population, the CoP, that is, that he will deal with the high crime. We all hope so and we wait. He has the support of the majority of citizens, including the writer. The former Washington Post editor, Ben Bradlee of Watergate fame is quoted as saying, 'the truth will emerge'. On this Rock of rum and fun do any of us really feel that the truth will emerge? The decades of corruption and bacchanal and the fact that not a single a...

Sometime in the early eighties, I was part of a pan side called 'Honkey Tones'. The membership, you guessed, was a bunch of white boys, all friends, who came together to play, you guessed right again, pan. We actually played at a couple of functions, one being at the Lions Club. I cannot remember who or why but we had great fun. No, we never entered the small band category, this was strictly fun. The membership was never restricted, you did not have to be white to be eligible, it was just a fun thing amongst friends. What reminded me of the 'Tones' was listening tonight to 'Rock the Boat' by the Hues Corporation. This was our signature tune. Isn't it sad that pan pioneers like Ellie Mannette could just disappear without a note being played. No wonder we are obsessed with the Columbus statue, we do not even recognize our own. The Brian Lara Promenade should be a heroes square, Lavantille should be a national treasure. Instead, we focus on who wet down the MP...

It is Friday night and all seems to be quiet. Not so with some people as it seems that the kidnapping for ransom has reared its very ugly and dangerous head. This happened a number of years ago and was curtailed to a great extent and all of a sudden it has reappeared. Very worrying. I wish our new Commish well and hope that he can deal with the criminal element once and for all. Sorry to start off this blog like that but it is a real threat. The criminals, the politicians who support the criminals, and the equally corrupt police service all have to be dealt a death blow. Get rid of this scourge once and for all. This island is a rock, compared to other countries, we must be able to shut the crime factories down. Too bad who it affects! The PMOTT states that he is desperately trying to reign in public expenditure hence the pronouncements this week which we will deal with in a bit. My concern is that the majority of right thinking people support him with his actions but then he allo...

Sunday night, the new school term starts tomorrow. I do not remember my first day at Holy Cross College in Arima. I remember my last day, however. What would I do differently if I had the chance to do it all over again? Seeing that nothing much has changed in 54 years in our education system I probably would end up exactly where I am today. I really feel for these kids knowing that many would turn out like me, a dreadful thought. The school of hard knocks is just that, pressure. Years ago one could ask for a favor and get your child a job, not again. It is all based on education and experience. Those of us who do not qualify for a position based on your resume do the next best thing and work for yourself.  It's called entrepreneurship! It is in fact what makes the world go around. A bunch of mad people, hacking their way through a forest of rules and regulations and not taking on any of it. Sometimes it works sometimes it does not. I am very familiar with both. The PMOTT w...