KNOWS NOT… KNOWS NOT… HE KNOWS NOT

If ah was PR Campbell, Cheerman ah de CRC, ah would ah reflect deeply on de way ah show off me scholarship pon Shuffle-on Ballantyne foh no justifiable reason at all, and den ah must ah feel chupit. Forty plus years ago ah group ah young Vincy scholars returned from University, brilliant sons ah de soil, dey grouped dem-selves into ah Forum foh Education and people yearned foh dey teachings. Among de’s stalwarts was one PR Campbell. Cato and de Labour Party saw de’s young men as ah threat to Guv-ah-mint and set about to hound dem down, night and day!{{more}} Today forty years after, I read de consistent writings of one Shuffle-on Ballantyne, and ah say to Lie-Za, “dis youngster is de reincarnation ah PR”. Sorry Shuffle-on I do apologize if ah insult yuh. Dey tell me dat Shuffle-on went to UWI and gained an Upper Second Class Hons degree in Accountancy. He teaches at de Community Collage. So de gentleman might not be “ah Lawyer” but he is no dud. My challenge to PR is if he disagrees wid what Shuffle-on writes, and thinks he missed de point, resort to de humble PR style and tell him dat he missed de point and dat he PR, has had many years of practical experience dealing in constitution matters, and would be willing to sit down wid de youngster and explain what is intended in de Doc-yuh-mint. One is left wid ah feeling dat PR’s response to Shuffle-on is tinted wid an heir of intellectual arrogance, like he want to say: “hush up young man, I know it all, you don’t know nuttin!” Ah case ah Mr Knows Not! On de other hand PR might have ah point, maybe one ah de reason why de Draft Doc-yuh-mint is meeting so much ah resistance, is because de Commission was made up of too many Non-Lawyers.

SOMEBODY UNLOCK DE BOLT AGAIN

Prime Minister Gold-in of Jah-mek-her say: “Bolt is ah gift from space”! Mr Gold-in is right, Yuh-see-him Bolt is ah gift to de people ah de Caribbean. It is not easy trying to talk Race (100m, 200m etc) and not stray-way from or stir-up de real Race. It must mek we feel proud dat we in de Caribbean, wid all ah we disadvantages: we Jog-ah-fee, de many barriers, least of which is de sea; we his-story, poverty and poor economies created from dutty politics, limited facilities and lickle opportunities in de various fields, yet our nationals can still rise to de occasion when placed on de world stage. It was an emotional moment on Sunday to see the eight finalists in de Men’s 100 metres: ah Black Wash: two Ah-merry-cans, one from de Yuh-kay of Caribbean roots and de remaining five from de Caribbean, two Jah-mek-hans, two Three-knees, one Aunty-gone. And on Monday in de Women’s 100 metres finals, another Black Wash wid Jah-mek-her first, second, fourth and eight, de USA was third and fifth and de Bahamas sixth and seventh.

Clearly de people from our tiny islands, disadvantaged as we are wid struggling economies, we got talent. And all de need to do is develop dat talent, harness it, nourish it, hone it, protect and cherish it! Trinny-dad and J’ca have been producing world class athletes foh years now, mainly because dey have provided de opportunities and training facilities foh dey athletes. In T’n’T ah visited three of their five Stadia, hey dat’s Latin, ah bet dey got several Stadia in J’ca. But in SVG, we have been promised one, actually we broke ground foh ah Stadium at Die-man, yes de ground broke den de country broke too. Lie-Za went to watch the Windward Island Athletes compete at Arnos Vale, she said she saw de Athletes running on ah sand track, and some ah the Vincentian sprinters running bare-foot, knowing Lie-Za she meant Bear-foot! Sports in SVG is lip service and foh athletics “Dis, Is An Act, Of Divine Restlessness” check Johnathon Peters foh de meaning ah dat. We spent fifty plus million dollars refurbishing Arnos Vale foh World Cup Cricket, and we didn’t even get ah match. Remember de PM prediction, dat World Cup Cricket would ah see the largest mass movement ah people since the trans Atlantic Slave Trade! We still seeing our White Elephant at Arnos Vale, shouldn’t dat be ah Black Elephant! Some ah dat money would ah been better spent on ah proper Stadium sorry Stay-dumb! Fire foh yuh Keith Joseph, dat’s “just another look” foh yuh! Keith Joseph is Trinidadian now national-lies Vincy, very disliked by Guv-ah-mint, hated ah should say, but he is like ah John de Baptist of sports, de lone voice crying in de wilderness, bawling out loud foh athletics and sports in SVG and de wider Caribbean.

ARROWROOT VS OUR-ROOT

My wife bought me an interesting gift from T’n’T ah pack ah “Miss Anna Arrowroot Flour”, a healthy alternative, product of Tie-land, (Thailand), packaged by A-plus Ind. Ltd Trinidad. Dey’s ah Tobago and Guyana phone number, de package reads: “Arrowroot, ground dry rhizomes (root stock) of a West Indian plant. The name was derived from the Caribbean Arawak Peoples aru-aru (meal of meals) for which the plant is a staple. It has also been suggested that the name comes from arrowroot’s use in treating poison arrow wounds”.

One ting I know is de taste ah Arrowroot, my first meal in life was Arrowroot pap. My mother says she was very young and de breast milk didn’t flow as heavily as de lickrisk newly born demanded, so she boiled some Arrowroot pap and fed me wid ah spoon. Ah never stopped eating Arrowroot, until de factory stopped producing. So when ah tasted de non-cents from Tie-land, ah called Chief Agric Officer Robertson to complain. Was he ever mad, he informed me dat what ah eat was Tapioca – ah bastard Arrowroot. Ley Tie-land keep dey Arrowroot and we Our-root! De trouble is we don’t have any on de local shelf. Robertson assures me dat Our-Root is alive wid ah potential US market, it’s “well on de way” to recovery. Ah want to believe him except in SVG is ah lot ah Guv-ah-mint projects dat “well on de way”: Cross Country Road, Stay-dumb, Airport, Cane Garden Turn-ill ah better stay dumb on dat. And is gone ah gone again.

One Love Bassy

Bassy Alexander is a land surveyor, folklorist and social commentator.