One Nation

Countries all over the world celebrate their history by proclaiming a public holiday to mark the event. Religious holidays are also part of the deal. It could be the end of a war, birth of the 'father or mother of the nation', Melon Day in Turkmenistan or Alphabet Day in Korea. It really does not matter, it is your sovereign right to celebrate whatever. Sometimes you will hear people commenting on a particular holiday in a country and smirking at how ridiculous it sounds. Well tough luck, if you don't want to celebrate it then stay home, we will gladly have a herd of vexed bulls run us down and pelt ourselves with tomatoes or cover ourselves with mud and old crankcase oil. On the Rock we are no different, we have National public holidays, for instance, to mark our Independence and we have religious holidays for each major religion that has a following on the Rock. We also have a number of other holidays that I am not sure if I totally agree with. To put things in their...

Today will always be remembered, as it is the anniversary of the last time I saw my good friend Keith Noel. On this day in 2005 at around 8.00pm, we told Keith goodbye after we had a lime at a local bar, the following day was Corpus Christi, a public holiday. The next morning at around 4.00am I received a phone call informing me of Keith's murder. My life changed, our lives changed as my life partner and I became heavily involved in trying to make a meaningful change as to how we lived here on the Rock. Our children were involved, our eldest son was Keith's good friend as were many co-workers and friends of Keith Noel. Keith's murder was classed as no. 136 on the police files. During our awareness and petition campaign, we were called names by many people who obviously disagreed with what we were doing. I guess the success of the movement, then called the Keith Noel 136 Cmt, created quite a concern amongst those who should have been concerned. Keith would have been 55 ye...

It is so nice to be back home. As much as I (we) love to travel and experience all kinds of things there is something about your home that other places just cannot compete with. Bonnie of Williamsville, no, she was not a guest at the wedding, was so happy to see us she has not stopped racing around and jumping. At least there is a welcoming party when we arrived home. We were able to see parts of the wedding and thought why not? If you can, do it. At least for the next week or so we will be treated to all kinds of behind the scenes information, dress issues, the now famous kiss, the ceremony, driving off in the E Type Jaguar. One thing I learned today was that I was actually born the same year the Queen was crowned Queen. That is about all I would have in common with the Royals. No, I don't have anything in common with the guy on the other side of the pond. One of the reasons for the recent travel was to attend a conference on investment in tourism plant and infrastructure in ...

One of the things I think I learnt in politics is that it is better to 'take in front before in front take you'. By coming up front and dealing with a situation is by far the preferred way rather than others setting the tone, you must control the narrative. Seeing the pictures of the MP in Washington D.C after recovering from a long illness was for me a sad indictment of how we treat people on the Rock. The MP became ill almost a year ago and even though the population knew of it the Government tried every which way to disguise, deny, gave information that did not stand up to scrutiny, avoiding the inquiries and basically telling the citizens to mind their own business. All the Government had to do was level up front with us, yes he was ill, he is suffering from 'X', he is in recovery, the Parliament has determined that he should be given leave of 'Y' months, we will keep you posted, full stop. No, instead we are given the old 'heave ho', with the pop...

May Day is significant both as a spring festival in the northern climes and of course as the International Labor Day. The latter was started in the 19th century by the communists and socialists and strangely enough in commemoration of an event in Chicago. May 1st on the Rock is just that May 1st. Within recent times a couple trade unions have recognized the day but our big labor celebration is on another day. On the Rock, you get to celebrate Labor Day twice and get paid for it. The dreaded SEA examine is happening this week and if you somehow forgot one is reminded by the number of photo-ops taken by persons of import. These persons visit schools hand out 'SEA packs' (consisting of pens, pencils and other trinkets), call for all God's best wishes on the poor children and to me scare the hell out of these kids who are about to sit an exam that will mark them forever. The SEA is as bad as it gets and to further stress the kids is simply not something that should ...

I find for two senior citizens, at least me who is over 65 and by international definition, I am a senior, we had a very busy weekend. First, we went to the Horticultural Society's Flower Show then later that afternoon headed into the city for the Bocas Lit Fest and enjoyed every minute of it. During the week we attended various 'Bocas' functions and went back to NALIS over the weekend. For those of you who missed it this time look out for it next year it really is a first class event. Next on the calendar would be the Film Festival. The Rock has talent and creativity oozing from every pore. You should be asking the question why are we not concentrating on our people instead of hoping and praying that the price of oil and gas rebounds? Driving into the city this morning I could not help but remark how clean the place was. Down Frederick St across Queen ( Penny Commissiong) up Abercromby, all spotless. Yes, there were a couple homeless persons who, if dealt with, would h...

Today was 'retired Friday'. I stayed home for most of the day heading out only to forage for pumpkin, tonic water and 'papers'. So, my interaction with the populace was really very limited and therefore I cannot give any great life experiences on this blog. What I did, however, was to tune into the Parliament channel and view the goings on at the Honorable House. Today of interest was the no-confidence vote on the Minister of Works and Transport. It was Private Members Day so the debate stopped early with only five Members speaking. The current Administration has totally screwed up the ferry service and that is the end of that. Between the Minister, who actually had to defend himself, his Prime Minister was nowhere present to witness his own Minister being roasted, confusing the entire issue and his sole defendant the very English, rasta who absolutely hates the Opposition in a real way, things did not go too well for the Minister. Then came the Opposition who real...