We are coming to the end of the year of the Rat and unto the year of the Ox.
Ox means hard work.
Strangely, the year of the Rat has been good for me.
I have just the right balance of sameness and change.
Here's to looking forward.
Turns out the annuity, lead me to realise that my PAYE was wrong.
HR going to hear my mouth in the morning.
I can't bring myself to correct a lot of the bad spelling of my students. I, myself without autocorrect can't even spell potential correctly half the time and I use it on a fairly regular basis.
I'm not sure it call all be attributed to dyslexia either. The English Language is a funny thing, words don't look, how they sound. Take a simple word like "because" it should look like becoz.
The next thing is grammar. My grammar is also appauling, but like I say, no one pays me to write. But due to force, my programming syntax is getting better these days, but that will quickly dissappear once I stop doing it on a daily basis.
I think that is the point, my students don't really need a high level of written language on an every day basis. One drives, we don't really read when we drive, driving requires the exact sort of 3D perception that dyslexics are supposed to possess. So if you can't tell that on a 2D piece of paper which way "the" is pointing, who really cares.
Anyway, gone to look for some pictures for the spelling review next Jan...
Scissors - maybe I am not that bad.
Have any hope that the person who is in power during the next boom will build us a hospital before giving themselves a palace?
Around this time of year, I watch the tax payable on my bonus and think. I should get an annuity. Unfortunately in this respect, I have too much knowledge to be sold by a regular agent.
An annuity is by nature a long term product. In my case it matures in 20 years. Therefore the decision in choosing your pension provider is not one to take lightly.
You must have a reasonable belief that the company will be around when you come to collect.
I've boiled it down to Tatil and Scotia. It's not that I don't have confidence in Guardian, Sagicor, Clico etc. It's just personal preference really and I have a hook up in both.
Second are you being sold the correct product. Whilst I was living in the UK there was a huge misselling of pensions scandal.
Basically they would sell you the product they got the most commission on, not the product that best suited your needs.
In the end the law judgement was that agents were liable for the first ten years of the policy life and persistency rates became part of regulatory reporting.
The persistency rate is the number of policies sold x number of years ago to which policyholders are still actively contributing. It is expected to decrease over time.
All the local insurance companies are front end commission based, hence the same incentive for misselling exists in the market. In one case the commission is as high as 40% of contributions in the first year. Evil.
So question for agent. What is your persistency rate? Even if I have to explain what it is, you should still be able to give it.
Second question, What life expectancy are your commutation factors based on?
The commutation factor is what is $1.00 worth at maturity for the rest of your life. Now we don't actually work out life tables for this country so you will be assumed to be living in the UK, US or Canada depending on the affliation of the company.
However hopefully as medical advances continue, it should be assumed that life expectancy also increases so that $1.00 should be worth more. Ideally the commutation in the quote should consider this.
For myself female at age 50 it should be somewhere between 12 and 15.
Next question is how are the assets managed and do you have control to balance the fund. This is a valid question for Scotia not for Tatil.
They should ideally have some long term bonds in the fund but the government doesn't issue many of these so we are always mismatching the durations of the assets to the liabilities in this country.
And at the end of all this I'll probably still end up banking on my tree farm.
We usually go to the Central Market on a Sunday morning. You have to leave the house by 7am if you want to meet a good range of products. On arriving to the market, we drive around to the back to look for a park. There are no lines in the car park but Trinis do a pretty good job of spacing out the lines of cars.
Whilst going through the back entrance you get a very pungent whiff of urine as it is down wind from the public restrooms. There is a large skiff and usually by this time, piles of cork husks once corn is available. Just pass the entrance is a pineapple/ watermelon vendor and a coconut vendor.
Vendors tend to specialise. Citrus vendors sell citrus maybe some banana, odd grap of coconuts. Paw Paw vendors paw paw and so on.
These speciality vendors tend to be in the back (priority side) and sell off their pickups.
Under the shed are the clothes vendors on the back and dry good on the front. On the front side are assorted vegetable vendors. Here you get the imported carrot, cabbage etc mixed with the local cucumber, christophene etc.
I'm afraid I don't know most of the vendors names, but I can split up with my shopping partner and say "meet you by sours" Sours is the always sour potato man. Or I will say I gon by rover. Rover is a lady fish vendor who drives a rover. Clearly fish vending is good business.
Some of the strangers who are not regulars with spring balance scales don't give true weight. Beware.
Generally market comes up to $300 these days, it used to be $200, this does not include fish. But considering how much time it takes the fruit to grow the prices are good.
Paw paw - 6 months
Banana - 3 months
Coconut - 3 months
Years to grow, minutes to go.
Going to look for some articles on what to do if due to current economic outlook your project now has a negative NPV.
Surely this must be a very topical subject at the moment.
"The world has gone crazy. Who ever heard of a black man ruling white men. There is going to be a lot more oppression... "
Whilst I do think the old woman is depressingly pessimistic, she is by no means addled.
Harsh economic situations, tend to make us most divisive like crabs in a barrel.
Still I am young enough that I dare to hope.
All my things I no longer use? Create some space ?
Michelle Shocked CD
Indigo Girls CD
Linoleum for carving, Linoleum carving set.
Art straws
Raffia
Wool assorted crochet and knitting stuff.
Embroidery stuff
Match stick model never completed
Trivia Pursuit sets
And what ever else lies in storage on my top two shelves.
Uhmm all that effort.
Was seriously screwed over at work this week.
On to Other Things:
I got five okra and two bodi this week.
The Bodi is coming nicely, but it has too much vine on that trellis between it the pepper vine and poui.
Corn is a dismal failure, as was trip to land.
Unlike everyone else in the house, I have not gotten the flu.
And I am officially on track for the course. Very pleased about that.
And to look forward to:
It is only five days to one week's vacation
Finally get the pj, multiple user development done by someone else.
A good visit to the beach.
Uhm... so now that the market price has fallen, the "opportunity" cost of the subsidy no longer exists. So...any bets that it takes two more IMF reports to revert the Premium gas price to $3.00...
Education is about learning to think for yourself. Maybe the Mrs. could help.
It's going to take at least eight months for the slow down to hit Trinidad in full. Why, because the government has the heritage fund to spend.
And for the naive who believe that they can't do a "Prevatt" again.
Do you really trust any of the signatories on the fund?
Sometimes you have to go around the world and back to arrive at a point two steps away.
It is sad but true fact.
If only Brom had just taken Eragon to the elves and told him the truth, (pg 101, Eragon).
Yeah I'm rereading after the revelations of Brisingr. Everything is obvious with hindsight.
Then two years to await the conclusion.
Tomorrow I'm going to negotiate my future.
I am past anger.
I am almost at defeat.
The thing I want most is something intangible.
It is a chance to glimpse what might have been.........
It's probably a delusion.
And the other party will never understand why it's a deal breaker for me.
Is there a point when the wrong choice for the right reasons, becomes the right choice?
Uhm...
Just came back from The Price of Sugar.
And I have to say I am grateful.
I've spent the last few days moping because I'm not happy with the current work situation. But I have to say, my life is really not very shitty. In fact it's pretty spectacular.
I have running water, more or less constant.
I have electricity and unlimited broadband.
And I have never had to make hard financial decisions.
I have always had enough, perhaps not all I wanted, but enough. Bastante.
I have just finished reading Dreamfall, the final in a series by Joan Vinge. I can't believe that after what Cat has gone through, Ms Vinge intended for him to end up still drifting. But we'll never know since the author had a debilitating car crash shortly after she wrote it and hasn't written anything since.
I need to find a more hopeful book, Brisingr, is next. After that I'll probably taper off the sci-fi/fantasy theme.
But this was a good time for me to read Dreamfall, It reminded of the need for compromise and well that sometimes you have to make hard choices...
"None of this would have happened. But other things would have. Maybe they wouldn't have been any better"
There have been several news reports about dengue over the last few months.
Still the official status is that there is no dengue outbreak in Trinidad.
So what do I believe?
Unfortunately the dengue reality reached me over a month ago. Since then friends, family and co-workers have all come down with the disease. A few have reached hospital, thankfully none have died.
I think Patrick is like Cornelius Fudge, and it is only when the serpent appears in the ministry itself that he will believe the truth that is plain to all.
I am going to work tomorrow.
Well, short of Inshan getting arrested under the terrorism bill again.
Why, because I don't know what exactly we are protesting.
I am not for this general protest thing, it is too oanti.
At some point you have to stop being anti and start being for something.
The opposition still hasn't figured out what they are for.
So if you invited me to
....
For what is a man, what has he got?
If not himself, then he has naught
To say the things he truly feels and not the words of one who kneels
The record shows I took the blows and did it my way!
Breadfruit is in season again, this is the second time for the year. If we would pick and process it, if only to use it for livestock feed, we could probably cut down on the wheat/rice import bill and dependency.
I want to get some ole time hill rice to try an experimental bed. Just to see how it comes out.
The corn is doing OK, but it is suffering from too much water. The rain is really taking a toll on the other plants as well.
Bodi is being eaten by the birds, heck everyting is being eaten by the birds and some insect or other. Organic is not viable for commercial production.
Sickier is coming along well.
Need to make a professional tree climber friend.
Heh heh.
When things go wrong, Trinidadians resort to clan mentality. It was one of the most infuriating things I found when I returned. Everyone asks you so is XX your family? Forget individuality, someone will judge you because of what your grandfather did to his father.
Between that and a commissioner of police who can't secure his own house, we are doomed to self destruct, sooner rather than later.
So what was the real reason the current prime minister and leader of the opposition were NOT in the Red house on July 27, 1990?
Absolute Hogwash!
Reminds me of another theory I once bought into. That you could change your life by travelling. Travel as a road to transformation.
But somewhere, I realised I was just running. It gets kind of tiring to keep running. Don't get me wrong Travel can be enlightening but it doesn't transform you. There is no quick fix, well not for me at least.
Sometimes it takes more courage and strength to face the known, than the unknown. Sometimes you close your eyes and take the risk to stay rather than flee to somewhere "better".
"If you leave for a better life
You will have to fight for that life wherever you go.
You do not choose to fight in this life.
To live is to struggle, to fight
But you can pick your battleground."
Well if they had known all it would take to kick in avatar state was a rock on the back, I think Saka would have done it a long time ago.
At least the authors did not feel the need unlike some others(HPDH), to needlessly kill off some of the main characters.
The next serial I am looking forward to is the last book in the Eragon series.
All's well that ends well.
The corn is now taller than me but the paw paw is suffering from fungus. Too much rain.
I'm thinking about volunteering for the evening shift for a while. 4-10pm everyday. They will be providing dinner and transport so it's not a bad deal.
I am a night owl anyway. The final season of Avatar is here. I'll miss it.
Can't wait to find out how his chakra gets unclear.
Wow, OK this is officially my longest lasting blog. The others usually died before this.
Haven't been blog reading much, mostly because I have been reading books. I read by vaps. One month it is like a book a day, then I don't read for months.
Haven't been to the Logos as yet, but they aren't good for fiction books, but might have some non-fiction bargains.
Now that the school term is over I have six hours a week extra, need to find something constructive to do with them. Thinking about taking up sowing. Never mind my friends who laugh. The best deal I have found is a $700 Brother at Standard.
The variance on small appliances like this is enormous in this country, mostly because of the large number of small resellers.
I'm bored at work. It's not there is not a lot of work to do, but I have passed the learning curve. Now it's just a bunch of nonsensical bureaucracy. So I am vaguely looking to move, not something better necessarily just different.
It is my greatest weakness this instinct to flee. To unroot myself and look for a thermal to catch.
Primary School - Didn't change school, but essentially became part of the class I took lessons with at another school.
Secondary School - Changed school in the middle of lower six- turned out to be a good move.
University - Dropped out in the middle of final year, completed a different final year programme the next academic year.
Since then I have as many jobs in as many years.
There's a voice
That keeps on calling me
Down the road
That's where I'll always be
• Yuh get ‘licks’ with a guava whip.
• Yuh could name three kinds of mango.
• Yuh know how to scootch somebody.
• Yuh use to collect FRICO milk toys.
• Yuh know how to brakes a fall with a drink in yuh hand.
• Yuh could point with yuh mouth.
• Yuh could make chow with anything………anything!
• Yuh know how to storm a party.
• Yuh have a ‘jep ness’ in de gallery.
• Yuh get sting by de same ‘jep’ and try to kill the ‘jep’ with a broom and get sting again!
• Yuh drink anything with ice in it.
• Yuh EAT the ice when yuh finish the drink.
• Yuh eat doubles for breakfast on a Sunday morning or any morning.
• Yuh does bite up chicken bone then spit it out on the plate even if eating out.
• Yuh eat bread and condensed milk.
• Yuh does call any hot drink ‘tea’.
• Yuh does say “boy” at the start of a sentence.
• Yuh does say “man” at the end of the sentence. So the person grow up between de sentence ent?
• Yuh does get “vex” and not angry.
• Yuh does call any vaccination an “injection”.
• Yuh once own a bata or a 'flame' to go to school and coast them.
• “ENT” means yes, no, really, true etc.
• yuh mother does make de best sweetbread and pelau.
• Yuh father beat yuh for no reason. (abuse) and when yuh cry he ask “what yuh crying for?”
• Yuh shorten sentences by saying “whayuhsaying” and “whahappening”.
• Fellas, yuh flirt by having a foolish grin while raising yuh eyebrows.
• Yuh know what is de meaning of “dotish”
• Yuh own a cutlass.
• Yuh break biche at least once in yuh life.
• For you rain is a good excuse to miss school and work. Yuh could be living on a hill and somehow the place get flood out.
• Yuh know what a macko is....
• Yuh don't like when a macko minding yuh business but yet you guilty of mackoing...... dont lie! yuh know yuh fas!
• Yuh guilty of saying at least one of these expressions on a daily basis: 'waaay boy', 'dread', 'for real', 'nah man', 'stop it nah', 'scene', 'yuh done know', 'daz my one', 'wham to she boy'
Spoke a little soon, the rains aren't quite here. But I've already planted so I am committed. The guvament corn seed are growing quite nicely. Also planting sorrel for the first time. Cane season is almost gone. Pigeon peas is still fruiting he must be confused.
Oh how very special are we
For just a moment to be
Part of life, eternally
Oh how very special are we
To have on our family tree
Mother Earth and Father Time
He turns the seasons around
And so she changes her gown
But they always look in their prime
Sometimes the truth behind a situation continues to defy logic until someone else verbalises what has been eluded you for ages. Unfortunately in this case if proved to be true, there are very serious consequences.
If anyone who reads this knows of an agency who successfully conducts drug interventions, please leave a comment.
That was quite good.
I am going to admit the first words I asked my only openly HIV positive friend were "What are you doing here?"
It is only due to his great sense of humour, we became friends.
We were in second year university and he was talking about going to the clinic and I am there like what clinic. That's the real bother about having a chronic disease you spend a lot of time at doctor's.
Anyway S took a double take when I asked the question and so I explained "I don't mean why do you exist, I mean what are you doing here, bothering with all this, why are you in university" And in my little head I am thinking what a waste of resources - to educate someone who is dying.
Well S taught me. We are all dying. Every one of us.
And how can you deny a bright young person of any sexual persuasion the opportunity to broaden their mind.
HIV doesn't kill in months like in the play, but in years. Some people are even living over 20 years with the drugs we have now.
So after you spend some time moping and waiting for death to come take you, you might as well use your remaining time doing something productive.
I have since lost touch with S. But I hope..NO I KNOW he is out there touching other people the way he touched me.
Thank you S. I am a better person for having known you.
Never to try shopping downtown on the monday after a month end long weekend. It was absolutely horrendous.
Too many people and the shops were only starting to restock.
I'm going to wait til Friday or later til I try again.
We'll see if the guvament corn seeds grow.
There is something very wrong with our attitude towards Hope's killer.
It's a whole three weeks til the next holiday.
At last I can text the green team.
Someone should send an SAS team after the Lord's Army leader.
So how ah supposed ta grow plant without wata????
Bee four dey jus plant some bread fruit tree down by de riva.
An put sum peeple to fite de fire on de hill.
Seesh.
It's funny how sometimes you don't realise how much you would miss something until it isn't there anymore. Today I lost hope/ expectation. Intangible yet so fulfilling.
Iz need something else to focus me attention on.
Going to see Harold and Kumar. Need to laugh.
Balata
Sapodilla
Pomme cythere
Padoo
Chinese Downes
Rambutan
Pomegranates
Pollock zaboca
Our corn
I've just got a live free chicken. However none of us knows how to kill it so we are going to give it away to some country folk.
Ah.......the things we do not learn in school.
I suppose I'd have to become vegetarian (fish eating) if the supermarket closed down.
I am not in favour of push inflation. But if increasing the taxi fare for Cascade from $3.00 to $4.00 will attract more drivers then I am willing to pay the extra dollar.
Still having a $120 a month, 15 minute commute is sweet.
Scotiabank has managed to launch a new website for the Be Money account.
The problem is I can't login in after I registered. Then the feedback form promises a response in 48 hours if my feedback requires a response.
Suppose it isn't meant to be up yet.
The other thing that is slightly annoying me about this better account- 3% and half the fee I am currently paying as a Scotiamax customer is that I can't book an appointment to switch account type.
Shall go line up one day next week at any rate before the next time the fee is due which is on the ... end of the month.
OK so I have a month.
Meanwhile the GAM funds are doing OK.
Home mortgage remains the highest TT Dollar Money market available.
I am debating whether I should include pictures in this blog.
I am not really a picture person. I never travel with a camera, I buy postcards and leave the picture taking to persons far more talented than I like Chutney Garden or Bookman.
But I do have some OK pics to illustrate the key to the small garden for food growing.
Uhm ............
And yes Angie I did kill the fish, I always kill and clean the fish and crabs.
Even though I had no water for a few days I would still have to say I have a good life.
I leave and return to my home in daylight.
Tonight I am having fresh fish I caught and killed myself.
And for desert there is sweet sugar cane.
And I still dare to hope....
I can't remember who had this on their blog but I visited the Rich List over the weekend.
This is the same weekend I had no water.
Turns out my household is in the "TOP 0.76% richest people in the world!"
Just proves Money can't buy you many things including a reliable supply of water.
I remember saying that my second degree would be some sort of biological field in form 3.
Why my second degree? Because even then I realised that biology doesn't really make money, at least not in this country.
Turns out my first degree was destined to be Maths. And I do have a high aptitude the type of work I do now.
But this isn't what I want/wanted to be when I grow/grew up.
I still want to go ECIAF and do an internship at Iworkama.
One day....
I have mahogany seedlings!
The Agricultural Expo was OK. Very spread out. But not enough practical demonstrations.
The ADB loan rate is 6%. Not bad.
No offence but has Lisette ever tried to grow anything.
I have seen numerous letters to the editor with suggestions as to how to grow more food. But all the letters show is that most people have not a clue as to how to grow anything, including myself.
I work in the "knowledge" economy. My deliverables are generally pieces of paper filled with flow diagrams and a bit of code here and there. They are all positively intangible and useless.
My best achievement is that I have four sickiay and ten baby padoo plants around the house. But there is much I do not know.
How to taste the acidity of the soil.
Where the sun moves over the year.
How to create a breadfruit sucker.
The fact is that planting and rearing animals are skills.
Important as, if not more so than any in the "knowledge" economy.
But we discount agriculture as a subject...
Until we realise how dangerous it is that most of us do not know how to grow or recognise food, we are doomed.
This is the third week of rain and so the citrus has started to flower again. This means that we will likely have a bad crop next year.
Last time there was this much rain in April was in 1979.
I need to learn how to create breadfruit suckers.
That's a fact. Food is something that must be nurtured and grown.
Actually looking at the Cocrico (Chachalaca) I will say that there is no reason we cannot breed and eat this pheasant.
It's just like the agouti.
If we spent any time domesticating our indigenous species we would have protein sources that are far more suitable and economical than those we do now.
As it is I must plant some cassava, not that I am for hybrids but M Mex will give me a harvest every six months which can't really be beat.
One day we will realise that we can feed ourselves but we must change our diet and eat what we can grow and sustain.
My former employers can eat concrete since they are so fond of it and don't see the need to rehabilitate land after surface quarrying.
The decision to eat local must begin in the grocery and market.
It must be a deciding factor in what you buy.
Of the non-local, stuff I will still buy
Soya oil - although I do use coconut as well.
Onion
Garlic
Breakfast - Hong Wing Coffee
Nestle Milk
Sugar
Lunch - Dasheen
Pork
String Beans
Watermelon
Snack - Otnick orange
Sucking cane
Dinner - Bay leaf tea - cold
Dasheen
Pigeon Peas
Local lettuce
Dessert - Flavourite sandwich bar.
I hereby give up carrots and irish potatoes for the rest of the month, for starters.
300 seeds planted and counting.
Overall I would have to say that these have been a few very productive weekends. I managed to plant 30 mahogany seeds for planting in June.
And got 8 crocus bags of soil for the rest.
Oh must go down and see if there are more seeds on Independence Square on Friday.
Now we need some manure.
One day I will give up the city job and become a full time farmer.
I have been quite enjoying watching " Chinese school" on BBC.
However, I do worry at how hard these students seem to be pushing themselves. Although I know there must be a greater number of slackers who were not profiled.
Having also been very study oriented myself, I do wish that I had failed if that meant enjoying myself with wanton abandon.
I wish I had spent more time doing in my youth even if it changed my CV.
1. - Cooking,
My skills remain rudimentary at best and many of my mother's recipes have died with her. For this I will happily take four I's instead of seven.
2. - Planting trees,
If I had spent time planting trees ten years ago I would have a ten year head start in my alternative retirement plan as well as reducing my carbon footprint. For this I would take a II in English A and a III in English B.
3. - Hiking around Trinidad,
I wish I knew had seen more of this tiny island so I would have a memory given how fast it is changing. I give up Biology completely to know the taste of the soil, the phases of the moon and how to track tattoo.
Whilst I do think Harry was intent on grandstanding. The fact is that he was right. I'm losing my indian looking friends and coworkers much faster than my african looking ones.
Do some Indian businesses have racist hiring policies?
Definitely.
Are Indians being systematically targeted by "criminials" ?
Definitely.
No Kikuyu in the Karen District should really say they are surprised by what they are seeing.
Yuh need a commission of inquiry to tell you the reasons we have high food prices? After they done pull up the irrigation from the farmers down in wallerfield not to mention the pile of rock on the abandoned roadworks from Arima on part of the IDB Loan OC932-TT for US$300 Million to be repaid over the next 20 years by we, the citizens.
Anyway a commission of inquiry don't have no teeth. If they was serious they would establish the fair trade commission for the act that was passed in 2006 that could impose a fine of 10% of a company's turnover if it is found to be engaged in price fixing.
Steupz.
Edited 24 Feb 08.
Trini Girl Blue please see quote page 22 paragraph 5 of the "Food Prices and Food Security in Trinidad and Tobago" report by the FAO in September 2007.
"In certain commodity markets, scope for gaining significant profit by exercising market control has materialised into oligopolistic behaviour of wholesalers."This is my point. They ALREADY KNOW what is causing the high food prices and REFUSE to do anything about it.
Every so often I take a day off to enjoy the good things about this country.
First no driving.
During the hike on the river trail, not a single drop of rain although earlier the sky seems set up as we headed out. Also no mosquitoes.
Then fresh coconut to quench your thirst after a long morning walk.
Got a nice big bad of coal for $100.
Sweet watermelon at $3 a lb.
Spent the afternoon bathing in the sea and digging chip chip for dinner.
Must try to do this once a month.
I see all the Trini Bloggers are finally back in full force.
First please sign petition for the Gingerbread house, please please.
Second to Mango
What pay would you be happy with?
As for underutilisation- I face that too, but it comes with working with your crazy trinis. But I do have a job that seriously challenges my critical thinking skills I want to palm off, send me an email if you are interested.
Limited access to cutting edge technology - the fact is that Trinidad cannot afford development trials.
A large part of the reason I have been reading Kenyan Blogs is because dem Trinis not blogging. Come on ppl carnival done.
But in the search for some news I found an excellent post by a trini expat.
http://trinbagoblog.com/social/the-trouble-with-love/
This describes exactly why I returned home. For good.
While it aggravates me, how we money waste and I can't use half my educashun.
I do get a sense of peace that comes with walking the 'filthy' streets, listening to the taxi news and eating doubles and calaloo on a regular basis.
And Kathryn, we will leave the light on so you can find your way home.
On seeing this on the news I could not help think about the 'pc' word, Kenyans are using to describe their situation - 'Internally Displaced Persons".
Apparently you are only a refugee if you cross an international border.
I wish I could understand what this says, it sounds nice.
There are really only two tribes.
Time to stop reading Kenyan Blogs.
I applaud the bloggers for giving me a better understanding of the issues involved. Thank you.
The western media is not interested in portraying a fair and holistic picture of the issues involved. The fact is that what is going on in Kenya is not 'tribal'. It's economic. Also no one is really disputing the fact that the incumbent rigged the election.
One blogger said that it is in crises like these that nations are formed and true leaders emerge.
I hope that someone steps up and they find a way to live in peace.
I am going to make some real racist comments in this post. If you are easily offended desist now.
Having spent a couple of hours reading Kenyan Blogs, despite the fact that the view "is limited to a particular socio-economic group (upper to middle class)" as Mango so elegantly puts it. I conclude.
The upper/middle class is generally tribeless, classful but tribeless. That is clear from the scorn at which some described the post-election violence in December. - It was the people in the shanty towns killing themselves over the scraps.
It's like the railway people in Longdenville, decide the PNM didn't win the election fairly and decided to go on rampage of all the African homes in the area. The Lange Park people don't care.
Then the president who took power refused to send the military in because he was too scared that the generals would take power for themselves.
So keeping in mind that the crime situation had been worsening for some time the Africans decided that they had to go out and get justice for themselves. And so they did. With no operational government mayhem ensued.
Kenya had a coup in 1982, the issues underlying the unrest were never addressed, so as one right-wing commenter crassly put it, Africa is like a woman who must bleed periodically when she doesn't get enough %@*&.
Have we addressed what caused the coup in 1970? and when all hell breaks loose will the international community label it as civil "tribal/racial" strife.
I end with Mzalendo's comments(amended):
The fallacious logic is as follows
I hate Ramesh;
Ramesh is Indian;
therefore I hate Indians.
Is that logical? Would we not be closer home if we argued,
I hate Ramesh;
Ramesh is a politician;
therefore I hate politicians.
my money that is. With the market crash it is starting to look grim. That said if you had enough money to do individual share buying there are some really sweet deals. But for the average person with a few thousand TT to spare it is looking very bleak at the moment.
Guardian/Bourse/Home Mortgage Bank have all topped off at 7% for now.
Scotia is actually offering 8.6% but that has an 18 month tie in, not instant access.
UTC has picked a very bad time to go international and they lack experience to deal with this kind of volatility.
Zopa and Prosper can't offer anything better either.
So I suppose I am stuck.
This is for Girl Blue
bpTT Corporate Security Advisory: Assault on Lady Chancellor Hill
2007.12.17
Many persons make jogging a part of their exercise routine and Lady Chancellor Hill is one of the most popular areas for this type of activity.
Unfortunately, last Saturday (15 December 2007), a female jogger was raped on Chancellor Hill just after 6.00 a.m. As she got to the top of the hill, two men who were sitting on a railing as she ran pass, grabbed her, took her into the bushesand assaulted her.
bpTT Corporate Security Department
Telephone: (868) 623 2862 exts: 5223,5434,5890,5732,4234,4476
Notwithstanding, would it be so difficult for us to defend our borders.
Be it dengue spreading chinese or swimming pool americans.
Notice the immigrants never get kidnapped.
Sorry if that sounds mean, but so are your references to "Trini on Trini" crime.
Clearly I do not find time to blog during the week.
I see that ScotiaBank has given the prize to Sharene Gaitor for a version of the VarInstall Loan that caused the demise of Workers Bank.
Lol!
Iz jus not feelin d carnival vibe.
And I know why. Iz too stress out over the pending eye surgery for E.
The next two weeks will be filled with doctor's visits and trying to find a reliable caregiver post surgery.
Speaking of which I don't know why the tradesmen and domestic workers out there keep trying to jook out yuh eye so.
I know is de trickle down theory and so but the fact is what I take home is just about a decent sized fridge.
Contrary to popular belief by the trade classes, the professional classes are for the most part up to their eyeballs in debt, and most of the money we making going to the government (15%) and the Bank (25%).
Just as well I don't have no vibes since de dinero lacking too.
I know Seldo is happy.
But I feel sad that he felt he has chosen to leave.
I hope that one day what Mango heard will be true.
I am happy Julia has the courage to stay.
____________________________________________________
"You do not choose to fight. To live is to fight to strive.
But you can pick your battleground"
Notes for Footie.
Clearly I was feeling bored over the weekend and decided to google Kenyan Blogs to find out what is the real deal on the "humanitarian crisis".
Things I found out
Kenya had a coup in 1982.
Apparently, the underlining causes of the situation were never addressed and have once again come to a boiling point.
People in West Nairobi (the posh part) don't see the people in East Nairobi.
Just to gain some perspective Nairobi has 5 million people.
The most resonant part of what I read is this - written by a blogger about my age (twenty something).
"they forgot to give us the details in school."How many Trinis, my age and younger, know what happened in 1970 and 1990 ?
I woke up to shot gun shots. At first I thought it was a transformer blowing. Then my sister put the light on. Then she opened the window. No lights in the sky. Not fireworks.
I never moved from my bed. Not that hearing shot guns is an everyday occurrence in this neighbourhood. Eventually I went back to sleep.
So why didn't I get up? Was I not concerned?
Actually you could tell that the shots were being fired somewhere away. ie. there was nothing for me to see. (Linda Baboolal must have thought the same, she's the reason I know I will not go without water this dry season.)
And also, like Jean in a Winter's Tale, or more to the point like Jean says.
And nobody see nuttin'.
You see we are not so far distance as you think.
I'm a little older than Footie, so it is only fair I can say.
I am happy with the person I am. It took a long time.
And I've learned to walk with my dead.
I'm OK with dying tomorrow, I have no regrets.
I have lived and fought well. I know my best weapons and old wounds.
It's OK if my room is not clean, as long as I can find what I need.
I will not do my masters because I have come to believe in the university of life.
Jobwise- I am drifting, yes, but quite happily bobbing, enjoying the scenery.
I've found my Home at last.
