The Tramping Man + Duenne

 I happened to be in Guyana when the Theatre Guild put on a production after a hiatus due to COVID. Both productions had a strong Trinidadian link and the former was written 60 yrs ago and adapted to Guyanese circumstances.

Duenne, I was later told, is used as a CXE book for Literature and explores themes of relationships and what happens in pre-life. The stage was set closer to the audience and gave a more intimate feel with the actors utilizing all parts of the auditorium, reminding me of the warehouse theatres in London-- sadly mostly closed down. I thought the actors were very good - having to shift scenes in near darkness!

The play opened with the Creator getting ready to send one of his creations to earth and we were also introduced to the recipient of this creation - an artist living a bohemian life. Luckily I am not a parent but I wondered how I would feel about the description of (happy!) post-coital musings to my 15 yr old. My view is that the young of today already have the joys of childhood stripped away from them way too fast. Another friend who attended observed to me that the average 15yr old in Guyana would have been exposed to enough sexual views just riding the minibuses! Sheltered middle class must be a dying breed?

The spirit child was not keen on leaving her comfortable existence but as her father God explained - how could she be said to exist if her presence on earth is not manifest? Our bohemian artist meanwhile been abandoned by her 'love' and finds herself pregnant with all the misgivings about her condition being voiced. Meanwhile the spirit child has had a change of heart and is prepared to manifest as an earthly presence and tries to console the potential mother although they are in different planes of existence. I liked that the Guyanese description of 'throw the baby away' was worked in and kudos to Paloma for an original play with a nod to the Trinidadian concept of duenne.

The Tramping Man I had a bigger problem with as the only noticeable Indian actor in both plays was the policeman who was carrying out orders of his commandant to bully the happy go lucky and probably mystical working class local 'Pied Piper' of all men. The blurb in the program explained the play was written 60yrs ago most probably while the writer was in Trinidad. The play was re-written using Guyanese locations and must have been performed around the mid to latter part of the 1960s.

Before I proceed, I should point out my background: I was brought to Guyana as a 4yrs old after my mother was appalled when my older brother came home to ask her 'what is a paki' - being called that at a school she gave up her career to become a teacher in -  a private Kindergarten. I think at that time I did not question why most visible public people were white and it never occurred to me the complete change in colour of the population when we moved to Guyana. HOWEVER, when the maid took me to the Empire Cinema around the corner from the rented house we were living in - my first Indian movie was a complete RELEVATION- here were Indian people doing regular things - and covering the whole spectrum - the goodies, the baddies, the comics and ordinary roles! Somehow my 5 yr old self now had a picture of how Life could be.  My Nigerian friend in London amused me in 1996 by buying black magazines to scatter around the home so her toddler could also have these positive images. 

The local Guyanese newspapers both at that time and now have mainly pictures of people of African origin and mixed races. It has always irked me how the images never reflected the silent and largely bullied majority - thanks US and UK.  Today's Stabroek News has a letter with this observation: 'George Lamming argued that the Anglo-Saxon was taken over by the Afro-Saxon in the Caribbean since little has changed. This is the birth of neo-colonialism.'  In London currently the pendulum has swung completely the other way to ridiculous where Anne Boleyn is black and when practically every family in TV Ads is a Black and White mix, in spite of the population having more people looking like they came from the Indian sub-continent than the African one - however with a lot of Africa planning on jumping on little boats to get to Europe and the UK - I m guessing that might change and it may be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

But back to the play, the main story is that the powers that be are threatened by a country (Berbice) upstart who is uniting the masses cutting across class lines. As a Guyanese, the play would make more sense to me if the Indian actor was the Tramping Man upsetting the status quo - that would represent pre-independence Guyana.  However I concede that he was not as good an actor in terms of projecting his voice as the actor who did play the Tramping Man. One can argue that the audience ought to look past the race of the actor but in the Guyanese context  - post 1998 certain segments of the black working class took to tramping the streets at the behest of Hoyte as he had lost the elections and I thought having a Indian police in this play represented the perception of the Government at that time as promoted by Hoyte.

My friend who was also there said it never occurred to him about the significance of the race of the actor who was the police and thought he represented the colonial powers and I suppose the tramping man those colonies agitating for independence.

Poison for the Fairies

This was a more modern Mexican film than the previous ones shown at the Mexican Embassy in Guyana. The Ambassador explained that this film was released about the same time they started the Film Institute to celebrate Mexico’s film industry making this year its 40th anniversary.

The film started with one isolated, orphaned child, Verónica, being assigned to help a late comer, Flavia, who was also an only child and a bit of a loner. Veronica’s imagination is encouraged by the tales of witches by her nanny but she is also fairly strong willed and manipulative and gradually starts to dominate and bully Flavia who becomes scared to resist her.

Veronica makes Flavia get her invited to Flavia’s family’s ranch for the holidays and the girls spend a lot of time collecting witchy ingredients to make a potion to kill the fairies as they have the power to kill witches. The idea being to sprinkle the potion on any places where the fairies might hang out. Of course the girls break the parents’ rules but the film concentrates mainly on the girls’ activities and the mainly faceless adults seem oblivious to gradual domination and change of character of Flavia. The final straw for Flavia is the demand for her beloved pet - a small black dog, who Verónica thinks would be a good substitute for the traditional witches’ black cat to help with the spell. There was an unexpected twist at the end. The Ambassador  revealed at the end that the actress playing Verónica went on the be one of the famous telenovela actresses in Mexico who specialised in playing villainesses!

Guyanese Abroad

So there were a couple moments of mirth on reading a report in SN today (pg 20) about a Guyanese who got pulled up for bad driving in Montana.  The sheer stupidity on the roads that push one to fantasize about having a shotgun when a slow moving vehicle pulls out from a side road in front of you, forcing you to brake when there is NOTHING behind you and when you are driving behind someone who clearly doesn't know or care about the rules of the road and who immediately slows down when passing a police vehicle to show deference; showed up in mid-America.  I was amused to think that a sane police patrol on the lookout for terrorists and illegal migrants must have been bemused at the 'ignar' Guyanese driving and there must some anthropological thing involving the Guyanese man's car veering into the shoulder when being passed by the police car and not using an indicator to change lanes (another pet peeve) that alerted the American police that something was amiss!

Admittedly there was a strange connection with the other person in the car-- who sounded like a native Chinese-- and clearly they didn't co-ordinate stories-- the Guyanese going to sell local products in a neighbouring state and the Chinese going to a more distant state to sell cosmetics!  Turns out the alert police hauled in 70lbs of ganja-- wonder if the Chinese are diversifying into other local products now that the timber avenue seems to have dried up?

Jumping to conclusions

My sympathy for a young British-born and bred Muslim teacher rose after reading that he was turned back from a flight to the US.  His apparent crime - having a Muslim name.  The US authorities quite rightly state that they don't have to give a reason for refusal - it's their prerogative after all to decide who they want in their country.  My sympathy rose because I had been in a similar position - I had just finished university and literally picked up the letter confirming that I had qualified from the University on my way to the airport as I had planned to spend the summer break with relatives in Canada.  While I was there, some cousins decided to drive over to New York as another cousin was getting married and I thought that it would be fun to go. I went to the US embassy in Toronto confidently not expecting a problem, only to encounter a know-it-all middle-aged woman who questioned why I had not applied for a visa in London (hadn't occurred to me as I hadn't thought of going over to the US!) and informed me that I was just the age of Guyanese looking to 'disappear' in the US (a couple of years younger than this teacher).  I was suitably astonished and I informed her that I had just received my degree and had a job lined up for my  pre-registration year and that my degree was not recognised in the US. I would have loved to see my face when she  turned me down...as it never occurred to me that THAT was possible. I was sooo annoyed I thought to myself they could stuff it and it would be their loss and I wouldn't ever go there.

Ten years later, I decided to open a business in Guyana and logically the best place to source equipment was ... the US!   Pragmatism won, and I had to fill in the part that asked if I had ever been turned down for a Visa before. Well I have to say, I found the Americans to be a very generous people on the whole and black Americans willing to go the extra mile and in return I have spent many thousands of (US) dollars in their country.

Really is it worth the Badwill generated by randomly targeting  and antagonising people with a different name/culture?  Surely a better tracking system should be instituted? My Iranian friend had to report to the British police on a monthly basis although she had lived in the UK since she was 13yrs old before she presumably applied to be a citizen.

I really wonder about the stupidity of the officers carrying out the duties of their paranoid and ignorant leaders. I had to endure a more rigourous search at Miami heading to the Caribbean (not exactly a target of terrorists!) on a Caribbean airline with mainly Caribbean passengers. What annoyed me was, I had only a couple of hours been through a similar but less invasive procedure from a connecting internal US airport, which I told the officer while being poked and prodded and if that officer didn't find anything, they were unlikely to! But I hasten to add it's usually the disgruntled working-class person OD-ing on power who is being ridiculous, most of the Immigration officers and men with dogs are very pleasant and respectful.  There is always a danger of doing more harm than good.
 PS..I would have said Wales, where this teacher hails from, is not exactly a hotbed of militant terrorist types but remember listening on BBC to an interview of a native Welsh woman who married a muslim and had five children.  Her only son became withdrawn and then left to join IS secretly one day and she was relating how she found out he had died subsequently; that son would have been about the same age as this teacher and I wondered if guilt by association meant this teacher was refused entry to the US?
PPS... a 10yr old girl-child??    http://abc11.com/news/family-upset-over-tsa-check-of-10-year-old-girl-at-rdu/1148445/
PPPS... and a 65yr old American woman??  https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/a-panty-liner-triggers-a-tsa-pat-down-just-one-step-removed-from-a-pap-smear/2017/03/30/ec86c10c-154d-11e7-ada0-1489b735b3a3_story.html?tid=sm_fb&utm_term=.09216d8633bf 
My gut feeling that the Americans are morons confirmed: http://theweek.com/articles/441310/confessions-former-tsa-officer

Parking Meter Fiasco

So backwards Guyana, unable to institute a fair Tax collecting system, put questionable people in City Hall...their election seemingly rigged and repellent to decent folk who could make positive changes...who must have been approached by 'smarter' foreigners out to make an easy buck. Then, only in Guyana..it gets crazier..an apparent entrepreneur Jewish guy associated with a Russian telecommunications company (Russian mafia?) is uncovered to be behind it all...see photograph...all decidedly unGuyanese and without Guyana's interest at heart.

  The result was second-hand units shipped down and dodgy underhand deals with a select group of ignorant people signing the City of Georgetown to 49yrs of 80% of the takings given to 'brains' and 20% to City Hall to apparently pay themselves inflated salaries as services are likely to remain poor in the foreseeable unaccountable future! Super smart move to have the citizens pay for the nooses around their necks!
Their local PR person who it is alleged, contributed to the racial strife back in the day has mounted a slander campaign against the newly politicised citizens - even including suggestive remarks towards their employers.  Of course, this has limited use, as the ignorant seem firmly in driver seat, like under the last Administration, and the chattering (and more capable) class can only gnash their teeth and hope for a few crumbs of consultancies to eke by as most not in an employed situation.
Because the meter attendants are paid a bonus and there is virtually no-come back for the hapless parkers..see ticket and charge below..people will be under stress even if they ARE within the time zone-- having no higher authority to appeal to! 

The ultimate joke being that the parking Laws are not gazetted implying that the current practice is illegal.  Looks like the only thing to do that will be effective would be to not use the system as it is basically a shake-down operation-- I may actually miss the tramps on the street begging for $100 to 'watch' ya car!

Hidden Figures

Having grown up without the distraction of TV, the boredom of Sunday was relieved by Sunday School/church and a trip to the cinema to see a double (two films) in the afternoon, possibly with swimming at Pegasus in between.  With the re-entry of cinemas in Guyana, I reflected that my time must be drawing to a close as I have come back almost to full circle of going to the cinema at weekends.
Hidden Figures was a pun on the coloured female mathematicians who worked on the Space program in the 1950s/60s. While the three black actresses were very believable, I thought the white actors were very good...Kirsten Dunst played the HR person talking down to the women who were her intellectual superiors, to perfection.  Jim Parsons brought his constipated look from The Big Bang Theory as the silently outraged white male whose turf was intruded on but reluctantly acknowledging the genius of Katherine Johnson.  Both characters played were fictional ones - but stuck in as gentle reminders of the Black scientists' grace under fire.  I was disappointed though that the film resorted to imagining that KJ took 40 minutes to go to the coloureds' washroom when in fact she simply used the whites' bathroom-- showing more gumption than the meek character on screen. The director said the film's portrayal was to indicate the help of the decent Whites.  I thought that was subtly done when the astronauts came to NASA and John Glenn made a point of coming over to the coloured women to introduce himself and ask their role; as I was reminded of an American Embassy staffer on duty here, who would acknowledge the help staff like the waiters when she went out, by asking their names and remembering to use said names during whatever event - I was quite impressed with that-- people simply just want to be acknowledged and appreciated.....shame that couldn't translated to American foreign policies!
The film did try to stay close the actual events and I was glad Katherine Johnson is still alive at 90-something to see it and finally be acknowledged on a larger scale-- to NASA's credit they named a building after her. As with Sully, the film ended with pictures of the real people...truly to tap the potential of a large pool of people will lead to things greater than the sum total...if only the Americans can figure THAT out.

Worrying developments

Ironically while sorting out taxes, I happened across a YouTube video by a journalist speaking about aid. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C30bJBcM_0c  Her point was - that countries NEED good governance, particularly poorer countries, not just emergency handouts when the shit hits the fan. Unfortunately, aid doesn't go to less sexy projects such as training inspectors to ensure that buildings respect codes to lessen damage in the event of a natural disaster-- Japan has done remarkable work based on bitter experience so the knowledge is out there...and tax inspectors: doing so would ensure sustainability and lessen the need for aid as countries would learn to be self-sufficient.
With that in mind, observing what the elephant in the World is doing raises flags of concern! The new Trump administration is continuing to target journalists covering stories of groups of people protesting government actions which seemingly support corporate actions by insisting on implementing policies without bothering to consult with the people directly affected.  In effect, suppressing publicity which could garner further support and force said companies/corporations to back down - looks like numbers might be the only effective tool as the thinking class is a under threat and the strategy seems to be to keep them occupied by increasing the struggle to keep their heads above water starting with increasing the cost of living and removing social supports.  Amy Goodman of Democracy Now was charged for giving air-time to the protests against the Dakota pipeline which the Obama administration eventually bowed out of but now Trump, who had/have shares in the company, has repealed said backoff so it looks like the pipelines are back on.   Of course, I am against stupid things such as damaging cars and property that are associated with the protests but it is not unlikely that the opposition put in vandals to give the protesters a bad name.
This upcoming scenario is what Snowden feared could happen....a sizeable proportion of the population are interested enough to educate themselves about an issue but are opposed by the might of  government resources who are representing the interests of a small handful of people benefiting from short-term gains and divesting themselves of Public Bads and long-term losses such as environmental damage and pauperisation of the rest- consciously heading for bad governance by dismantling regulatory checks and balances.
I would shrug my shoulders and say-- well that's their problem but their stupid decisions affect the rest of us- starting with American funds not being given to worldwide programs which offer abortions as an option for some women.  BTW I have no sympathy for the tears being shed by those shaking their hands that their last election was possibly influenced by outside forces as the US  has been tampering in other people's elections a long time now-- karma!  I would say thanks and well done Russia except we all suffer from ignorant policy decisions arising from a greedy, ignorant and corrupt administration most likely to arise from a Trump-led one, or one that put Trump at the head.

Children of the Spider

by Imam Baksh.   I liked very much the beginning of the book..located in Mabaruma - familiar enough to locate in my mind's eye and recognise some markers, but relatively unknown enough to suspend disbelief and follow a science-fiction plot involving Amerindian youths.
I was happily thinking of buying a copy to send to my pre-teen nieces then I hit Chapter 3 with its rather precocious discussion of how far along sexual initiation each teen had gone and my thoughts of sending the book screeched to a halt-- it seemed inappropriate as a pre-teen gift...I figure children should be left in the ignorance of childhood as long as possible..the cruel world will be out to mash them up soon enough!

So the book was fast-paced indeed, side-slipping the daily grind of survival but then I felt it got too complicated and twisted, although it was an easy read.  I particularly enjoyed trying to guess places mentioned and was amused the bother of poor English was bypassed by using a sort of creole dialect. It was interesting about highlighting Dog-Fights in Guyana as I hadn't realised this could be a big thing but clashed a bit with the overall theme of the spiders planning to wipe out the dogs when they got to rule..likewise cloudy was how Daisy, the dog the teens befriended, ended up in the Dog-fight pit.
I felt the writer tried to be innovative...mixing local myths with Greek ones, or rather a Greek one and throwing in a touch of science-fiction for good measure, while locating the story in Guyana.

Snowden

This was chosen as my Old Year's Night film simply because the video shop had slim pickings ...Queen of Katwe not yet out.  I must have been in a cloud as I had my nose deep in books during the whole hoohah with the Snowden scandal, coming soon after Wikileaks and mixed up in my mind with the abominably-treated Manning youth.  While I appreciate the dangers that operatives would have been exposed to in 'the field'; on the whole I welcome an airing of Big Brother techniques if only so that those on their supposedly high moral horses can see that they are no better than those they are purporting to judge!

I thought the film tried to be fair and give voice to poor Mr Snowden whose life got tumbled up, following his revelations of the extent to which we are all electronically tracked.  I remember seeing a 60 minutes clip about how certain key words can be picked up and investigated but didn't realise the extent of the gross invasion of privacy until being interested enough to follow through with Mr Snowden's interview in Citizenfour on You Tube.  So yes, great to have readily accessible information but bad that at anytime someone can have access to the fact that I viewed it and extrapolate God Knows What from that information.
Mr Snowden was portrayed as someone who believed in his leaders until he got in there and saw it was not subject to rigourous checks and balances - with innocent people as collateral - rather like the policewoman in Whistleblower and his concern was that if it got out of hand, the machinery would be too big to stop.  I came to the conclusion he was a brave, intelligent person and am sorry some view him as a traitor as in the first 40 minutes of Citizenfour, when he handed the documents over to responsible journalists, he did tell them to try and not endanger other people lives with their revelations; and thought what a shame it was that the US could not find a 'slot'/position to use him as part of a check + balance system.  Pretty similar to where we are heading here now- no explicit criticism allowed.
As it was, I was surprised that he managed to hold interviews for several days in a hotel room in Hong Kong, assuming he was still using his passport to travel and check in.

Ironically, today a news item came out that Donald Trump was of the opinion that really important things should be hand-delivered by courier!  We really come to full circles eventually!  I think this must be the first thing that I have read about Trump that indicates he has a smidgen of common sense.

Here is a prescient observation: http://on.msnbc.com/2dEJrrz
There is a part when he comments about the ignorance of  civic knowledge leading to the loss of democracy

So what is it really with Syria?

https://www.facebook.com/100011508494298/videos/317445908649023/
From those of you not on FB, a Canadian journalist- Eva Bartlett - reported to the UN that the Western media is spreading misinformation (not for the first time I imagine!). So she said the information being displayed and the 'news' reported are heavily influenced by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) - which is a one-man show in Coventry, England and the White Helmets (founded in 2013 by ex-military officer) which has drawn a lot of international funding - to the tune of U$100 million, to help the people of Eastern Aleppo but no-one there has heard of them or has been helped by them!  She said unnamed activists are not credible and I recall several video diaries of frightened young people recording their final goodbyes as the soldiers of Assad's army drew near.

Initially, the blame was laid at the feet of climate change - a prolonged drought forced farmers to migrate to urban areas, who then couldn't find work and resulted in a sort of rebellion which provoked a strong reaction from Damascus. http://gtobserver.blogspot.com/2015/09/syrian-refugee-crisis.html

But looking at the larger picture: Assad's Syria and Iran (according to a nutter illuminati-warning video on YouTube)- and North Korea are the few countries remaining where the Rothchilds' bank is not influencing fiscal policy.  Also, Assad like Saddam Hussain had dared to defy the West's concerns about their fuel supplies and Assad had refused the allow a natural gas pipeline through his country from the Middle East to Europe-- apparently the reason why Afghanistan was invaded according to conspiracy theories abounding at that time.   I can't help thinking-- so much violence and disruptions in ordinary people's lives and wondering about all the repercussions and unwanted consequences....

Good movies

Was lucky to view two movies, which could be considered extended documentaries, that highlighted the actions of two extraordinary Americans-- Captain Chesley Sullenberger in the movie Sully and the ex-Nebraska cop, Kathryn Bolkovac in the movie Whistleblower.
It is always good to see people who are good at their jobs in action.  The first was a re-enactment of a jet airliner being successfully landed on the Hutson river; the opening scenes were the Captain's nightmare of crashing into a skyscraper in NYC, bringing up memories of the 9/11 tragedy. The director made note of the other first-responder teams which resulted in no loss of life, considering people were in the Hutson River in January!  Surprisingly, the film highlighted that it was not plain sailing for the Captain who lost quite a few sleepless nights in the immediate aftermath, having to justify his actions which were later proved to be the only feasible course as there were initial disputes about the left engine still being viable. Literally seconds counted!  It is still a mouth-opening feat however you look at it and one I find still unbelievable...except it happened!

The second was a bit more stomach-turning. Whistleblower noted the big-money contracts given to corporations during crisis situations and how there is no accountability and cover-ups on a grand scale with the accompanying exploitation of the poor and vulnerable who all this money is purported to be helping.  The real life corporation DynCorp - given a similar name in the Movie had since renamed itself as DynCorp International and basically carrying on with the same shit of/with no accountability. And the perps in this case got off scott-free!  So in the movie this cop applies for a post to police post-war Bosnia, she gets lucky to befriend a Dutch soldier earlier on and a policeman in the Bosnian police force who actually wants to do good. The movie gives glimpses of the lives of traffic-ed young women lured from Eastern Europe with promises of jobs-- not prostitution -- and who are forced into prostitution.  In this instance it seemed the US policing branch were heavily involved-- first as clients then as enforcers for the traffickers and even trafficking the girls across borders themselves. I had backpacked in that area before the War and found the grey concrete jungle creepy-- the movie shot several scenes that I got worried for her while she investigated, as she didn't have the usual other cop watching her back...
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/un-sex-trafficking-whistleblower-feted-in-film-2192045.html
and she earned the disapproval of her fellow (male) officers and superiors.  Those in charge in the UN accepted the goings-on as part of the human collateral of the post-War. Sadly because there appears to be no mechanism in place - French UN peacekeeping soldiers were accused of rape and sexually exploiting girls and children in the Central African Republic and other African soldiers within the UN peacekeeping force were accused of something similar in the early part of 2016...the film was set in 1999...so looks like the movie didn't make the impact it should of!
My only criticism of the movie was that they tried to be authentic by using accented people but I found it difficult to understand what they were saying - also in some scenes when the actors were using low voices - and feel subtitles would have been handy.

The US is a 'Nation of Law'

Smiles-- the sarcastic tone is unfortunately unreproducible in print.... Ps-since writing this piece I am pleased to report that there has been an announcement that the pipeline would be re-routed to avoid the Indians' land/water source AND Trump sold his shares in the company running the pipeline to avoid conflict of interest!

Was watching this video on a friend's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/ajplusenglish/videos/843137762494399/ 
and when I went back to check the dates..it did not come up in the regular posts and she had to specifically put it on my page.

So for those of you who don't have FB accounts..here is it in a nutshell leading up to the present violation of the Sioux nation rights at Standing Rock:

An environmental assessment was commissioned out by the company who is building the pipeline - Energy Transfer Partners (ETP)- a U.S. Fortune 500 natural gas and propane company, founded in 1995.This sadly is par for course as over here it is only the mining and forestry (foreign) companies who can afford to do environmental assessments using local people involved in environmental issues, usually called in after the project has already started.  A Google search revealed that they have had mishaps with pressurised gas or liquid gas facilities but have not had much experience with crude oil management. So the Indians have valid concerns about the possibility of the Missouri River and by extension, their drinking water being contaminated. In view of concerns expressed, the Federal body granting approval is reconsidering and has been taken to court for that by ETP-- delaying until Trump and his climate change disbelievers get in to give the green light - confident of course because the President-elect has stocks in the company, which will naturally escalate with approval..it's all about the money!

The 1852 Fort Laramie treaty which the (white) settlers forced the Sioux people to sign stipulated that 'they shall never be invaded of disturbed'. This lasted until someone decided the Railroad across the new nation took precedence and violated the treaty-- leading to over-hunting of buffalo-- the Indians' main food source leading to conflict and a second treaty...it's all about the money!

The 1868 Treaty which stipulated that the Sioux were restricted to their new assigned places and no whites allowed - this lasted until gold was discovered in The Black Hills in 1874 (clearly the whites were not respecting it!). General Cluster invades and opens up the area to white settlers - the Sioux refuse to sell the Black Hills and Cluster meets his end in the Battle of Little Bighorn...hardly noble!...it's all about the money!

In 1890, The US Army is called in to avenge and show the coloured people who is more powerful at the massacre of Wounded Knee and wipes out a South Dakota tribe, rewarding their soldiers for bravery in action and precipitating the decline of the Sioux people. The wrongs done to them were acknowledged by the Courts in 1980. So they were offered compensation--- how can you work out what cultural and actual genocide is worth in monetary terms?....some things are not all about the money!

Leading to today's news of the native peoples being charged for trespassing on their land and again the law enforcement and army being used to protect corporate interests...not unlike their foreign policy of putting puppets into place and using that country's police and armies for corporate interests--  Nigeria springs to mind but really it can be any country you care to think about...it's all about the money!
But from the link below: officialdom say: 'senator-john-hoeven-addresses-misinformation-nodapl-protests-floor-speech/

"Twice challenged and twice upheld – including by the Obama administration’s own appointees – the federal courts found that the Army Corps had followed the appropriate process, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe was properly consulted, and the project could lawfully proceed,” Senator Hoeven said. “In total, the Army Corps held 389 meetings, conferred with more than 55 tribes, and conducted a 1,261-page environmental assessment, before finding that this infrastructure project has no significant environmental impact.”

Surely the EIA (environmental impact assessment) would document the people's concerns and in the appraisal stage try to resolve the the conflicts of interest BEFORE proceeding?  A reporter from that area on YouTube reported that the tribes did not turn up for the consultations and are just protesting  for monetary gain but the Senator reported above that correct procedure was followed. Those with time and inclination can follow the link below but it begs reason why they would not have stuck to the original plan and bypass the put-upon Indian tribes with a their long history of being discriminated against.

 The blow by blow account:https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1bKBWD8yEq3sw82_SOXxtjAEM9-wm2Yj99CnZBUtMx2M/htmlview#gid=0

From the online newspaper: The Independent

When America sneezes, the rest of the World catches a cold!

So it was with some astonishment that I noted the changing tones of the desperate TV presenters as the Nov 8 changed to Nov 9 and the supposed 'safe' Democrat states weren't looking like 'a sure thing' and then switched off to listen to the BBC - coming awake to hear Trump's moderate acceptance speech at 3.30am, missing him thank Melania but singling out his children and sisters.

The British presenters gave their analyses but avoided the elephant in the room of the 'whitelash' -to use a term by an American TV presenter. Like Brexit, this was the vote of those who felt marginalised that Michale Moore http://gtobserver.blogspot.com/2016/07/cold-war-continuing.html had noted and had dreaded.  Exactly how closing borders and trade protectionism will create jobs that white Americans would want, Trump did not say-- but I am still to work out whether the man/those behind him worked out any strategy further past getting elected!

The knock on effect of a rise in zenophobia would not be too good for the rest of the world - one can debate whether a slow-down of emigration of the desperate from the countries in a mess precisely due to exploitative policies, would occur further down the line. If the UK's Jeremy Corbyn can note: "Trump’s election is an unmistakable rejection of a political establishment and an economic system that simply isn’t working for most people. It is one that has delivered escalating inequality and stagnating or falling living standards for the majority, both in the US and Britain." - the fore-mentioned falling standards are more keenly felt in countries being exploited by the same economic system that is failing the UK's +US's majority!  Usually the pressure being kept in check by the hope of migration and a 'better life'- or at least one where you can earn a living and not be killed by those who can't/don't - a very real fear in the Americas bar Canada + the USA.

The last time the Republicans ruled completely must have been in Reagan's time-- and the country's deficit climbed astronomically, Trump with his history of bankruptcies and bluffing does not bode well for the future - but an improvished America does not bode well for the rest of the World!

Books

Am reading and being unpleasantly informed about about what it was like to live as a dissident under the Cuban regime: Becoming Reinaldo Arenas by Jorge Olivares, as 'Before Night Falls' was suggested by a bookclub member who always introduces surprising choices-- her first and last being the sex one by Anais Nin (interestingly born to Cuban parents).  The beginning of the Olivares book was a bit of an eye-opener but not that surprising to discover that Cuba like Russia heavily censored their artists, especially those not following the Party line (bizarrely artistic licence seems to be challenging the status quo to push boundaries).  I mused a bit as I remember given 'Mother' by Gorky to read by an aunt who espoused socialist ideas and was well read and  then returning the book with the comment that it seemed gloomy and boring; having been brought up on a diet of primarily Enid Blyton and not realising the (bad) golliwogs most probably referred to people like me!   Likewise in the climate of non-availability of books, my mission was to go into other people's houses and borrow their books, I made it to a prominent Portuguese family's house and while the father was railing at his fun-loving child for not reading I defended her by saying some of the classics were boring-- having just struggled through the first part of Lorna Doone and abandoning it mid-way, missing the whole point of the story as it seemed to be a novel about being cold and hungry and written in a way designed to bore an average 11yr old.  On the other hand I ended up reading porn quite by accident, thinking a book called the Honeypot was about Winnie the Pooh- not expecting to get it from a fairly conservative Muslim family's house - but that's Guyana for you!

On a separate note I was relieved to read that Amy Goodman, she of 'Exceptions to the Rulers' was freed of possible prison charges for merely reporting encroachment of an oil company on Native American reservation land!  Sad to think that the country crying freedom of the press/information is itself guilty of the sins they accuse others of! Although I did not agree that American agents should be exposed I was glad of the Wiki-leaks scandal as it confirmed a lot of things that people suspected - such as the US blocking an increase of the minimum wage of Haitians after the devastating hurricane-- and one should wonder what business it is of theirs to be involved in Haiti's public policy? Also looking bad for them is the terrible infringement of Human Rights to keep someone in solitary confinement  for ages-- the young soldier who gave the documents to Wikileaks people.

Bazodee - Trinidadian film

I enjoyed several aspects of this film-- kudos to the Trinis!

The drama revolves around a very attractive Indo-Trinidadian girl - I liked that she was normal-coloured and not the usual washed-out aspiring-to-white of the heroines of Indian/Bollywood movies. I thought she acted well enough but felt sorry for her to have to wear some pretty weird asymmetrical outfits featuring a lot of purple...maybe the producers were trying to promote Trini haute couture which missed the mark and just looked weird. I also liked that the 'heroine' was a normal-sized female with back fat and heavy-ish thights (I would have outfitted her in something more appropriate in the last scene!) and not a skinny stick-insect; she also seemed to have a good singing voice.  That said, poor Montano with his squashed nose didn't quite make it to believable as the alternative to a hunky, rich guy who clearly adored the said heroine...AND whose father was going to bolster said heroine's father's grandiose business plans.  So apart from that obvious plot weakness and a rushed ending, it was a good attempt and the rivaled the Indian/Bollywood pictures with good original music.

I appreciated the small comic touches, like some men in the background leaving as someone comments that they wouldn't do that. Also, the choice of scenery and photography were fairly good. I would have worked in some steel pan music but the J'overt scenes was good and clearly no vulgar whine was included in the Carnival scenes, unlike Guyana where the participants sometimes try to out-vulgar each other!
At roughly one and a half hours, they had to speed up the plot and veered towards the unbelievable with the father signing away his business and the evil brother having a change of heart in the end so that all ends well. I must be getting old as I thought the kissing scenes at the end unnecessary and becoming a bit too graphic for a PG-13.  But on the whole..good effort with room for improvement Trinis!

Cold War continuing?

Being where I am, it is difficult to avoid the near continuous coverage of the upcoming American elections.  However several intriguing things are being revealed...the chief one for me was the involvement of Russia in US's politics...talk about reversal of fortune!

Various internet sources imply that it is Russian money financing the racist buffoon Trump, and I was much amused by Michael Moore's observation that the American general public, like the British, are happy to stir the pot and sit back in awe to observe the disaster to come.  It's almost as if we need to go back to square one and just have the educated few as the voting public-- but then who decides who counts as 'educated few'? Even worrying for me was Moore's observation that Hillary is a war hawk and firmly behind 'the establishment' - it seems the USA just can't get over their lucky break of World War II which propelled their economy to the top, and who seem determine to set the stage for various repeat performances...what the heck..there are too many people in the world already,eh - and after all it's not the war hawks' kith and kin who are doing the actual fighting?

The latest revelation that it may be hackers, probably of Russian influence, who were responsible for revealing emails that the Democratic Party apparatus worked against Hillary's main opponent Sanders is another worrying sign that elections are not about individuals in their countries but in fact, about other 'outsiders' manipulating the system....after reading Zero,Zero,Zero....it is intriguing that international crime syndicates could even be putting in their two cents worth!
this sums it all up:

11-Nov: Yikes, how accurate is this: http://www.globalresearch.ca/hillary-and-bill-clinton-pay-to-play-racketeering-the-bonnie-and-clyde-of-american-politics/5554804  
 and the answer - not very-- it is pro-Russian, anti-Clinton (surprise,surprise) but always good to hear the dirt dished up!

Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris

It all started off so well... I was giggling to myself about the way a person had to humiliate themselves to just get a job, a demeaning one at that, to pay the bills...when somewhere in the thirty pages of the first story, it moved from funny to tedious and outright vicious. I was initially amused with the slapstick American humour but then it moved from laughing WITH people to laughing AT the underclasses and snobbish.  I guess some types of humour are difficult to share..the reason I limit Facebook friends as those acquaintances who may not 'know' me might get offended by some of the things I find funny.

By the third story, I thought the writer was trying too hard and lost interest in the rest of the book but soldered on to get to the end as it is December's bookclub book...I am sure I shall forget most of the book by then.

Our Changing World

It was with incredible sadness I listened to BBC Radio about the man driving a rented truck into a crowd in Nice...and with each update...the death toll grows. The current count is about 84 deaths. I mourn the further discrimination against anyone with a vaguely-sounding Muslim name who wants to rent any vehicle on the Continent and the further loss of personal freedom for the young who would not know the world I experienced after finishing my degree.  I was fortunate enough to be able to buy an Interrail ticket which allowed me unlimited access to most of the railways of Western Europe. The friend I was with got quickly bored of the standard town Square with obligatory cathedral and we reduced some countries and cities to a quick walk-around after chucking our backpacks in the lockers at the Train-stations-- long removed since the 'terrorist threats'. Those opportunities I rather suspect are gone forever.

The increasing intolerance and growing resentment on both the haves and have-nots seem to be escalating to a boiling point which will only increase the tragic and maybe avoidable events. The US, self-elected World police are themselves indulging in home-grown plots by the revelation of bad policing, the lash-back by the short-sighted and the further call to arms by other racist groups-- where would it all end?

Baijrao Mastani

So this was the film I was to meant to see a few months ago.

It is an Historical epic about a warrior king of India - in Maharasthra- the middle bit of India - who fought the Muslims.  Based on a true-life character, I thought the film tried to be historically accurate in illustrating the interplay between the two groups of people.

Mastani is the daughter of a Rajput king and a Muslim woman..such allegiances were common although more common in the other direction as the 'proud' Hindu kings frequently sacrificed their sisters and daughters for momentary peace to retain their kingdom. She was brought up as a warrior princess, so this must have been before the Hindu kings in the Northeastern India got overwhelmed by the muslim invaders and resorted to 'selling off' their women. In this film an opening scene is the women of Mastani's household preparing themselves for sati..group immolation..preferring death to dishonour. Mastani is tasked with persuading Baijrao, a famed warrior Prime Minister who is en route to another battle, to divert and support/save her kingdom of Bundelkhand.  Interesting for someone like myself interested in History.. touching on the origins of child marriages, widow suicides, the mutual distrust of Hindus and Muslims and loss of women's rights.

They develop a mutual admiration for each other and when he gives her his dagger, he seems to be unaware that it is one of the many ways a man can be betrothed to a woman in that part of the world.  Mastani herself says that she decides her fate and 'takes' him as her husband ..that should be the end of it but against her mother's wishes goes to cause trouble for the man in his home..where it turns out he was happily married with at least one older son, his household seemingly run by his mother.  I surprisingly felt some sympathy for the man as basically the rest of the film shows him torn between his love for the two women (two wives)and I mused about marriages...is it reasonable to seek outside one's marriage for things that your partner is unwilling or unable to provide for you? Or would it make you a cocky bastard if you are a man and a slut if you are a woman?  Really, India back in those days was very liberal-- that was about the time the erotic temple of Khajuraho  must have been being built-- so this strong intelligent woman decided/accepted being the second wife of a powerful man.

I found the film tried to deal sympathetically with all sides..the Brahmins coming out as the baddies, manipulating Mastani out of the way to preserve the 'purity' of the caste and displaying dreadful ignorance making them so unsuited for being called that!

Needless the say, the other American film couldn't compare.

Hollywood vs Bollywood

The half-Indian, teenaged boy in the video store proudly informed me that he did not watch Indian films in a tone reminiscent of my childhood when all things to do with Indian culture was regarded as backwards and just good for making fun of.  I had dragged my nose out of my books and YouTube videos to get a few DVDs to see in the New Year with my parents who used to make a big traditional celebration of joining to book a table at one of the many New Years' parties around the City.... these days it has gone dead except for the few organised parties..vastly overpriced and full of bored people watching each other and spending half their time on their cell phones: http://gtobserver.blogspot.com/2013/01/but-but-why.html   So not following the current vogue in films I asked for suggestions...I vaguely remembered a comment in a keen blogger's post about Dilwale about Bajirao Mastani but of course by the time I shut the computer and made it to the video store all I could remember was two Indian words beginning with 'b' and apparently set in the past. Mr Teenaged-helpful came up with Bajrangi Bhaijaan cos that was what he had on his shelf that fitted that description.

I wanted something light and wandered to the children section to look for Frozen, as I must be the only person to have not seen it, but Mr Helpful said The Good Dinosaur was better, then at the desk changed his mind to Pixels, if I had known Adam Sandler was in it, I would not have taken it, but that is what happens when you can't read the blurb.  As a back-up I looked to the wall for a rom-com and selected Some Kind of Beautiful, with the advice of Mr Helpful.

After dinner, we settled down with our bags of crisps and wine to watch Some Kind of Beautiful. Within the first 5 minutes the director's idea of fun was a young boy wandering through a party looking for his mother seeing a couple having sex on the kitchen counter and being told to 'bugger off' ...turns out later that it could have been his father who is a womanising Literature professor who the boy grows up to be like...everything bad about the West seems to be thrown in... dysfunctional families, rampant promiscuity, drinking to get drunk to the point when dangerous decisions are taken .... the list could go on... I don't even know why they bothered to make such a movie.. there were the odd funny moments but on the whole not worth watching. [http://gtobserver.blogspot.com/2012/09/who-decides-normal-sex.html]

Not expecting much we slipped in the Indian movie and were pleasantly surprised... humourous, a cute child, not much gratuitous violence, an uplifting storyline of goodwill of the common man, nice photography, and a catchy qawwali at the end... it took us to midnight but we were more interested in the end than going on the verendah to see the fireworks.... even my stepfather stayed up to see the end, well after midnight..ending the night with a beer!

Sweetened up, we moved onto Pixels and switched off in disgust at its inane stupidity, glorifying Adam Sandler's rude smart-assed remarks... no wonder American kids are so screwed up if this is the rubbish that passes as entertainment for them!

NO competition.  In American movies' defence, I enjoyed the 3D and other effects of The Force Awakens but the Guyanese public voted with their feet and there were a mere 15 people in that part of the cinema showing it while the Dilwale was sold out... take THAT Hollywood.