De war of words between Arm-in and Sir James reminds me of Aesop Fable No 5, when Come-pay Lion and Come-pay Bear cornered ah goat and killed it! No sooner dey finished cooking “De Pot ah Goat,â dey realized it had shrunk and was not enough to share foh de two giant belly animal in de pull-it-tek-all jungle. Big argument break-out dah ended up in ah bitter fight. Dey beat-up pon each other foh nearly an hour! Tired, exhausted and out-ah-breath, Come-pay Bear wid his big fat self, could fight no more, he drop down! flat pon he face.{{more}} But Come-pay Lion was equally as exhausted, he passed out too! And den Brer Fox, who had witnessed de duel and was even urging dem to fight on, stepped forward, took up “De Pot ah Goatâ and walked away. All Come-pay Lion and Come-pay Bear could ah do, was to watch in learned helplessness! Yes at de rate Arm-in and Sir James going at each other, come de next Elect-shun, Ralph will walk wid “De Pot ah Goat!â
Arm-inâs first and last chance to defeat Guns-soft will be in 2014 or 2015, whenever de Elect-shun is called. Ah hear de crate-is-size-him bout Arm-In and his leadership style, chief of which is he naah smile! De question is, does he have de skills to manage de affairs ah SVG? Lie-Za says he does and beg to differ wid Sir Jamesâ Mathematics, which incidentally is still good and not deserting him. She feels however, dat Arm-inâs pull-it-to-kill graph is climbing and showing me Stats as well. How Arm-in done reverse de ULPâs margin ah victory from 12-3 in 2001, to de same 8-7 in 2010, like when ULP had NDP scrambling in 1998. So she showing me dat Sir James had to bleach patiently pon Frangi Pan-he beach, foh 10 years before Catoâs Labour Guv-ah-mint tun salt in 1984! And how Ralph wear-he stressed-out pon Con-are-we long stretch, to de point ah desperation foh 17 years, until Sir Jamesâ NDP Guv-ah-mint tun salt! She is adamant dat de ULP Guv-ah-mint tun-in Salt! She draw to my attention how even Senator Lint-on Lewis chanting down de PM in de House on Choose-dey, telling him how he bring to Par-liar-mint ah piece ah ledge-is-lay-shun dat even Ralph he-self ainât understand. And all Ralph did was to wink he eye give de Speaker ah-licks-under, who immediately told Lint-on: “hurry up senator, yuh time up!
So Lie-Za showing me dat right now, Arm-in and de NDP would be well advised to ignore Sir James, lef him ley he talk. Sir James is no bodyâs Acolyte. He has made his mark on SVGâs landscape, and will always be her Prime Minister. She herself agrees he was not kind in his comments about de present leadership of de party, but dat should be de challenge foh Arm-in, to prove to Sir James and all who want him to smile ah hog oops⦠and hug wid reassuring k-says, dat not only can he win big in his constituency, but can also win de big prize dat has been deluding him foh three consecutive Elect-shun. But if Arm-in and Sir James ainât patch up, just watch and see if Brer Fox ainât tek up âDah Pot ah Goatâ and walk away⦠again!
SHOW YUH PARTY CARD LUZETTE
Ah listened to ULP card carrying member, number 2656, Luzette King as she addressed de NDP Convent-shun two Sundays ago. She is now ah ULP back-slider who is brave nuff to come out and say so. Luzette is disappointed wid de performance ah de ULP Guv-ah-mint dat she help to put in office. She gave dem hell at de convention, ah lot ah Truth, so much so dat Senator France-cease, ULP General Secretary declared her membership null and void, and he made it retroactive. “Luzette was never ah card carrying member ah de ULP,â he said. Dis is ah hard one to swallow Julian, she been paying Party dues off and on, she has ah Party Number and got ah Party Book, but she is not ah member because she ainât got ah Party Card? Well Luzette, show dem yuh Party Card!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JIM
Bully Robertson, my foundation Math Teacher at Grammar School is in town. Ah former Elect-to-rule Officer in NDP time. Came in foh his grand-daughterâs birthday. He told me he ran into Lie-Za in town, and de first thing she asked him, is if he come to un-rig de Elect-shun. Bully is ah Rose Hall man who fancies himself as ah full citizen of Murray Village, our noble hamlet. Ah remember de days going foh milk by his Sister, Mrs Lock-heart. Was three strong young men in dah house going Grammar School: Bully, Ormond Ferdinand and Albert Lock-heart who is de Doctor/Sigh-an-test Marie Warner dah mek medicine, eye drops foh Glaucoma. Dah Lock-heart family was bright, ah think is de cow milk dat helped. Was Albert ah doctor, Ben, oh he was bright, he got ah PhD in science and Kay ah doctor. Jim, Cocoa Judge Jr. my contemporary who celebrates his 70th birthday, declared war on Books, dah ainât mean he was not smart. He was de smartest, he fooled around lime-in all de girls. Jim and I uses to pitch marbles, he couldnât play but he uses to cheat me, ah real bully he was. One day we played “button tipâ and ah won all his buttons. Next thing his dad, Cocoa Judge Sr. pants dropping off, no buttons. “Those were great days, and Jolly days, de best (school) days of all!â
And wid dat is gone ah gone again.
One Love Bassy
Bassy Alexander is a land surveyor, folklorist and social commentator.
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