Carbon Conversations

So remembered about the lecture about 20minutes late and decided to go check it out. Didn't have anything new to say.. apart from warning Guyanese to use the revenues to invest in education and sustainable policies-- mmm-- like if anyone in the room would have ANY say in that!? A couple of 'new' ministers were sitting and still awake at the end of the talk, but seeing as the rumours that the allegedly previous holder of Natural Resources was happy to leave, I wondered if this new lot were going to follow in his very lucrative footsteps, allegedly.

Drilling for oil was assumed to be a given, and I guess as the lecture was sponsored by one of the exploratory oil companies, he didn't mention that China has done a great job on 'cleaner' alternatives: 'installed 5.04 GW of new solar capacity in the first quarter of 2015' and that the G7 nations recently agreed to phase out fossil fuel dependence by the end of the Century (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/08/g7-leaders-agree-phase-out-fossil-fuel-use-end-of-century).  Mind you he did mention that the world, as we know it, would not be able to shake its dependence on fossil fuels anytime soon.

He touched on the difficulties of finding new sources of silver and other metals required for electronics and that Guyana had potential as the world was now at a desperate level of recycling and recovering.. to the extent of scraping the walls of buildings for platinum deposits from catalytic converters.

Attendance was good but I left before the free food.

PS Nothing was said of any Health, Environment or Social Impact Assessment and afterwards I wondered if this exercise counted as a scoping exercise... limited to the few who had to means and inclination to attend the exercise at 7pm in the evening.

Indo-Guyanese fears post 2015 elections

On the eve of the 49th anniversary of Guyana's Independence the PPP, who in fact were the original political party of Unity, should contemplate their descent into ignominy and refusal to acknowledge the writing on the Wall since 2011 with the growing disillusionment of their supporters. Which is not to say that they had an easy ride with a resentful and unco-operative Civil service whose rules meant that it was difficult to fire and hire at will. I give them credit for managing to achieve when they did - the biggest impact on most Guyanese being the access to land to build a house, in my opinion.

Growing up under the PNC regime, although sheltered by parents who managed to keep their heads above water...when I reflect I remember the way the presence of over 50% of the population was effectively 'erased' - their presence and concerns not being reflected in the National media, and even papers for printing alternate news views being made difficult to obtain. It remains to be seen how new forms of communication and a hopefully better educated populace will respond ... apart from voting with their feet and migrating... here is what I 'lifted' from FB with minor editing for grammatical corrections:

"the PPP acted like an ass and get the jackass treatment. Blame you all self for being dotish. Several things could have prevented this tragedy from happening.
 
1. No need to fire DR. Bheri prior to elections. It showed signs of weakness.
2. For 23 long years yet PPP was not in control of police and army. Should have had more Indians in both army and police.
3. All the state jobs were in APNU people control. Every Government department were flooded with black APNU people.
4. Why was it so hard to find a minister of tourism? Irfan Ally had two minister jobs, minister of housing and acting tourism minister.
5. Why neglected Indian dominated areas where most of the PPP voters are living? At the end of the day, those same people votes PPP needed.
6. Why not being humble and visited all the villages frequently and find out the supporters problems and issues?( I would add --not only PPP supported villages!!) People felt abandoned and lost connection with PPP. Maybe COHESION would have be a good idea. Instead the ministers and hierarchy were like invincible supreme untouchables.
7. Why not put in place mechanism to control a proper process for elections? Including a pro PPP instead of pro APNU Gecom? How stupid is it to rule a country and let the opposition control the elections.
8. Why back bite and backstabbing each other in the PPP
9. Why listen to US when you knew their intentions. I KNEW!!!
10. Finally. I honestly don't see PPP getting back in power in the next 30 years. Be prepared to punish without power for a long time to come. May God help us all. The future under APNU will be strict and disciplinary and all the indians mouths will be zip shut.
We have no one to blame but ourselves. And we have to live with it for a long time because APNU will rig ever future elections from now on." end of copy/quote

I feel a bit gloomy about Guyana's future and hope some of the ten points above don't come to pass.

Coolie Woman by Gaiutra Bahadur

O....M...G ....... totally shocked by the revelations of Chapter 5 and had to take a break half-way through.  While there is intellectual understanding that single women traveling alone may be predated on-- the sheer scale alluded to by the Ship's surgeons' reports shocked me. NOW I understand the timorous hint that delicate Mr Tumbridge gave in his talk on The First Crossing - saying that it was the first sighting/contact between the two major races:   http://gtobserver.blogspot.com/2012/05/perspectives-on-first-crossing-by.html   but this chapter just blasts that remark out of the orbit...

I was left with more respect for the courage of my grandmothers to take that drastic step of emigrating without their husbands, and as the author observes-- the terrible conditions in Northern Indian at the end of the 19th Century contributed to the 'push' factor. I had become interested in my family's genealogy back in 1978 after reading Alex Haley's roots and being a strange child I took myself to the Archives across the road and located our family's emigration certificates as I knew the year and ship that my great grandmothers arrived in.

Ch 6 +7 alludes to the various ways the Indians sought to demonstrate their agency but in a World which was tightly controlled, there were limited ways and apparently many took refuge in suicide, as even wife-beating may have resulted in your wife been taken away and/or you being transferred away as the British deliberately skewed the sex ratio. I was surprised to learn than the British also tried to screen out the sepoys as they might have been potential trouble-makers and give the Planters 'lip'.
It is fascinating to me to read how the Indians were deliberately denied paths of rebellion and a voice and my contempt of their passive-aggressive nature subdued somewhat and my admiration for them  clinging to their religion and strong family ties increased.  I felt the author did good research to dig out folk-tales and songs to indicate that there were pockets of rebellion and when I consider Dr Jagan's book.. The West on Trial.. I begin to see a broader picture with him being part of the fight for all exploited people, race being irrelevant, in Guyana.  A recent lecture indicated that the trouble between the races began as a class struggle.. when the rural Indians didn't 'keep' their place in the countryside but began to compete for White-collar jobs... maybe just a continuation of the struggle  for a/their place in the world?

Reading this book comes at a particularly appropriate time as there are Elections in Guyana, which the Opposition, whose base is primarily from the descendents of Africa, have a good chance of winning fairly (which is a first for them) as the incumbents have tainted themselves with  blatant examples of corruption and nepotism and many of their base, primarily descendents of India are pissed off enough to vote against them.  In an effort the win over sufficient incumbent numbers and win, the incumbent supporters are being accused of being racist if they vote for their perceived Party with all its flaws, never mind that the Opposition has made little effort to show that there would not be discrimination as happened in the Past.... apart from saying so!   An interesting exchange has arisen in the SN between Indians who have documented post-Election violence directed against those of Indian origin perceived as voting for the incumbents, and those who claim that the incumbent Party has been stoking ethnic fears.... issues and focussing on the future falling by the wayside.

Nominations

I always remember my brother's comment that the only people left in Guyana are the losers when I find myself asking myself ...why am I here?

Yesterday there was a delay getting to work as the Police had, in their wisdom, decided to start blocking off the roads around the Courts and Town Hall during the morning rush-hour for the presentation of the Candidates at 2pm!! The Opposition Party who is always unpleasantly surprised to not be voted in at each Election turned up with the usual suspects--- the same old tired faces and ideas: purely out for what they can benefit for them and their families. Post-script-- apparently while claiming 'it's time' for a change they forgot to check that their List reached the requirement of 1/3 women and had to re-submit after being corrected-- yeah: these are people who can be trusted with following the rules?

The Ruling Party in order to present new faces opted for children of the old crowd as one disgruntled person with political ambitions himself stated:

'Rabin Chandarpal - son of Navin and Indra.
Rima Rohee - ogreish racist daughter of the goatman himself.
Ranvir Gajraj - son of Phantom Gang Ambassador, Ronald Gajraj.
Colleen Khan - daughter of Gail 'Rwanda' Teixeira
Thandi Luncheon - daughter of Chief House Slave, Uncle Ruckus Luncheon.
Shyam Nokta - son of Harripersaud Ten Percent Nokta.
Alexei Ramotar - son of the duck and fibre optic cable fucker upper.
Charles Ramson - vacuous but ambitious spawn of vacuous namesakent new faces/ideas'

A bit cruel but apart from the first person on the List who I know to be pretty decent, keeping a low profile in a government office, the rest are distinguished for not doing anything or even worse-- screwing up big time!
Unfortunately the Ruling Party also distinguishes itself by having people on their List who had brought the Party into disrepute and really need to be in the background where they can't do much harm.

It all looks even worse than before-- which of the bad lot to vote for?  The pragmatic coconut-water seller said better keep the old lot as they have already filled their pockets and it will cost us more to be dealing with new people hell-bent on the same.

Port Mourant -- microcosm of Guyana

Was shocked to discover this weekend about the near collapse of  the 'neighbourhood'.
The well-know family chatting to me until 8pm were a bit fearful when two young men in bicycles passed in the darkened street. I then noticed how I was unable to see the parallel street and that I hadn't noticed lack of street-lightening before-- probably because other families would be up with their lights on... now as with the rest of Guyana.. many have left and with the extension of new housing areas, new people have moved into the area, without any community coordination.
The traditional urban lack of involvement seems to have extended to the rural areas and people are developing a 'living under siege' mentality.

Groups of youths are waylaying those unfortunate to have to return home from late work shifts.. even the men are fearful.  An inequality among the working class seems to have arisen... those struggling to make ends meet and the rest preying on those who do. The woman next door, met up back with the man who she bred her second set of children with - now a drug dealer, who is supplying her with drugs to sell on to the local dealers while her teen daughters are allegedly well on their way to going the way of the elder daughter (with the drug supplier) flirting with prostitution, having been pulled out of school at varying times  to do babysitting duties as required by the said feckless 'mother'.

Article 3 of the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that 'Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.' Not happening by any stretch of imagination-- this can only lead to an increase in mental health problems ... the fact that half of mental health problems start by adolescence means more troubles ahead in a country that NEEDS the input from its youths.  Berbice already has a ridiculously high suicide rate .. figures sadly not readily available... I mean these should be published yearly and made public by Region -- one always gets an impression of a cover-up or that the folks in Georgetown responsible for statistics are dimly aware of what's happening in the Regions-- but in country of less that 1 million people, I feel that would have to be deliberate ignorance!
Sadly any change of Government would not result in any improvement as I gloomily forsee just a changing of pigs at the trough.

Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin

An elegant read which joins the two others about penniless American writers in Paris, this one set in the 1950s.  http://gtobserver.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-big-sea.html
http://gtobserver.blogspot.com/2011/12/moveable-feast-by-ernest-hemingway.html

I thought the writer captured tastefully well the ambivalence of the protagonist about his emerging homosexuality.  I always find American books rather strange in that they are deeply self-involved, one never gets to see Americans in the context of their families and friends-- it's always the 'lone-wolf' against the World.  The immediate exception that comes to mind is 'To Kill A Mockingbird' - where the story situates the children, father and  town in the wider society.
So in this one, we never really get an idea of how the protagonist developed after the death of his mother at 5yrs-- I rather got the impression he raised himself and then after having a sexual experience with his 'bestie' he shuns him and even bullies him... maybe accounting for the 'low-down' Caribbean men who are aggressively macho but then there is an apparently thriving trade in male prostitution.
 The real puzzle for me was Giovanni who came from, it seems, a solid working-class background and was married but abandoned everything when his child was stillborn, to arrive and seek his fortune in Paris... although considerable younger than the American I couldn't figure out how Giovanni was immediately comfortable in his homosexuality-- he sounded like the 'male' character in the coupling with the American and hence his humiliation when circumstances forced him to turn to prostitution and presumably act the 'female' of the older homosexuals who preyed on him. It was not so much about the sex as about power.

I was fascinated by the instant attraction of the two men, Giovanni comfortable and the American not.. though in the anonymity of Paris I would have imagined he should have been-- but he seemed to be in denial of himself. By the time the American acknowledged that he loved the Italian, tragic events had unfolded and I felt a bit of contempt for his cowardice. For me the book was about inequality and lost opportunities.  There are some sage observations about the lot of women but at least to give Hella credit.. she cut her losses and ran.

A Morning in the Office by Edgar Mittenholzer

Read this book for the first time about 30yrs ago (frightening how time flies by!) and was so taken with it-- I kept renewing it for over a year...and seriously fought with my conscience about returning it (after not finding it in the bookstores)! So was quite thrilled to see a republished version in the only bookshop in Guyana.
Not quite as I remembered it though. The writer uses the events of one morning to illustrate the different dispositions, interactions and aspirations of the different classes, sexes and races of the people working in a 1950s Trinidadian office. What a sentence!
Call me elitist but sadly the most repressed, reprehensible and least-likely-for-leadership characters seem to be dead-ringers for some leaders, past and present, in the Caribbean: Benson, who's on the 'take', Jagabir who's uncertain of his position and resorts to underhand snooping and scheming and Xavier the working-class pure Negro who develops a chip on his shoulder. Very insightful writer..shame the politicians didn't read this before they dragged us all down into the mess they created. Writer is Guyanese in the time when Guyana led the Caribbean in literacy and promise.