He aint dead

....yet!

Wuhloss! The Barbados Prime Minister, the right honorable David Thompson is sick. So much so that he is currently in North America seeking treatment for his ailment and has left the country in the capable hands of his deputies and parliamentarians. I wish him much better and gine say a prayer fa he.

Saturday evening, I chilling at the return of a somewhat watered down Barbados on the Water (yes um wasnt as good as previous years I says so) when all a sudden my cell phone beep.
"Whichpart you is?"
I still down hayso at Barbados on the Water.
"You hear anything?"
Anything bout wha?
"Somebody from Barbados juss ring me an tell me that David Thompson dead."
Whoa! My heart skipped a beat for a minute. Imagine the man dead the same day all we Toronto bajans down hay at the Harbourfront celebrating Barbados doah. Cuhdear!
"Naa I aint hear nuttin so"

And it proved just to be another false rumor thankfully but one that apparently was making its rounds bout de place as I noted from a few internet searches later that evening.

All I have to say is cuhdear why wunnah trying to kill poor David fa? He do wunnah someting dat wunnah wanta see he dead off? Cuhdear nuh! That is typical of a lot of we Bajan and by extension West Indian people once dem hear somebody sick doah ya know. We duz revel in killing people before dem time and speculating bout what u is dem got.

I mean de man say he sick, we see dat he loss some weight and he say he gine New York fa tests and evabody got a say and opinion now. Bout the place ya hearing that he got evating from Leptospirosis to strictsha to goadies. (I gine gi wunnah $5 if wunnah kno wha strictsha is, if ya living in Barbados now ya disqualified from entering doah)

And is not only bajan people speculating and rumor mongering too ya kno cause last week my wife come home and tell she dat one Trini woman say she hear he suffering wid such n such to which I had to ask my wife but wait how this woman know suh good unless somebody from TnT gi um ta he. And den I wud gotta start wondering why de Trickidadians like dem trying to get ridda we head a state.

But I aint kno wha wrong wid des wufless people. The man sick yes but why wunnah got to be killing he off. All a we aint gine dead in due course nuh. Chupse. Looka leff Mr Thompson whapart he is ya.

And when people sick try an pray fa duh instead a trying to play Dr House and speculate pun wha um is dem got an wha um is dem doan got.

ps: as ya can see from the sidebar ya can follow Doan Mind Me on facebook. I aint suh sure how um duz work and wha all this following ting is yet but keep that in mind cause um like um would tell ya when I post an such.

Postpone??

Not sure who's following the crazy situation in Jamaica at the moment and I hope all my Jamaican bloggers and commentators stay safe.

Now I dont have any other info on whats happening there at the moment but reading through the articles on the Jamaica Gleaner website this one sort of caught my eye.

While Education Minister Andrew Holness and his technocrats were busy yesterday with the technicalities of easing disruptions to the sitting of external examinations because of the violence in Kingston, there were hundreds of students living the reality.

For these students, struggling to get to an examination centre - possibly at institutions they had never before visited in their lives - was the easy part.

Sitting an external exam while gunfire echoed was much more difficult.

"We heard a lot of guns barking, and every time I hear them, I jumped," said one student of the Convent of Mercy (Alpha) Academy yesterday.

She was among a group of sixth-form students who sat a Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) yesterday morning.

While the exam was in progress, gunmen and police engaged in a more-than-hour-long gun battle metres away.

Hmmmmm

Ya mean to say nuhbody couldn't cancel these exams? I would give GCE and A level a blige but CAPE is a Caribbean exam thing. Ya mean they couldn't say ease the children instead of having them run through dangerous situations to go sit an exam? Cuhdear! And who can concentrate on an exam when gunshots lashing all round the place an ya not even sure ya can mek it home or ya gine have a home to mek it back to when all said n done?

Looka exams duz be hard enough as it is under normal situations but then to be doing exams in what for all intents and purposes is a war zone. You expect dem children remember anything them learn or read in a book when two gunshots let off and dem jump? How is this a fair test anyways unless ya preparing them to go to University in Afghanistan or Iraq.

Come on now, no matter external or not these exams could have been postponed cause this goes way beyond unusual circumstance and it really not fair to these young people. Even if ya tekkin it into consideration when ya marking the exam this still not right. The exams shoulda postpone till the shooting stop and things better. This is really a dumb move on behalf of the people that running this show.

Exposed

I just love this story.

I'll give you the basic details. Woman is cheating on husband and is found out when her private cell phone listed in her maiden name was added to the household "bundle" so that all their services from Rogers cable came on one bill. The husband was able to see her cell phone calls on the bill and figured out that she was cheating on him which her cheating partner readily admitted to the husband. Husband leaves marriage. The end.

Except its not. Woman is upset cause she thinks the Cell provider did her wrong by bundling her cell phone with the home stuff and is now suing them for about 1/2 million dollars. Actually to be honest I think she has a point and may win but still..........

Well well well aint she brazen though? I mean imagine she horning the poor man an get ketch and she vex now and want to sue the phone company. She aint have no shame though? Looka what the world come to when these sort a people can cheat an get on so and dont have no shame at all. Imagine that.

But I'm also looking at this from another perspective. If I'm working in marketing for one of the other rival cell providers like Telus or Bell this is gold, jerry gold. I mean lets face it those Rogers ads with the dude who cant get cell reception cause his carrier isnt Rogers and the other ones with the guy who cant get HD tv cause his cable isnt with Rogers are pretty good digs at the competition so here is their chance to get back at Rogers.

If I'm in marketing at Telus or Bell I'm signing ol cheating girl to a contract and building a series of ads around her and this situation. Something like "Bell at least we wont bundle your ish without your permission" or "Telus so you can always keep your downlow on the downlow." or "Bell cause ya husband dont need to know about ya outside man"

Trust me like I said the situation is gold, I got a whole campaign mapped out but I not giving it to them fa free on my blog. Is mad ya think I mad? No star if they want it call me an we cud work a ting but I doan want the wife find out. Oh shoot mi phone bundle I gine an switch to Bell or Telus. :-)

Mother of the year

So Saturday at the supermarket, I'm pushing our shopping cart merrily down the aisles when I see this lady with two kids. One around 3-4 and the other around possibly 5 or 6. The 3 year old is perched on the front of the trolley, not exactly safe, and falls off leading to a cacophony of noise which is par for the course for a three year old mind you.

Still it is as I watch the mother go to pick up the three year old that I catch a glimpse of something that almost makes me jump. No it cant be! Yep, the 6 year old has a knife in his hand. What da??

Ok now granted on closer inspection it wasn't a real knife but it was still a toy knife about 12 inches long and it looked pretty real from a distance and even from close up cause I wasn't the only one that reacted the way I did as I saw a couple of other cats jump when they first noticed the knife. It looked like it might still be able to do some damage even if it was just plastic painted to look real to be honest.

Now from the looks of the fancy handle it looks like it belongs to some sort of role playing game or something. I have no idea what kids games have realistic knives as part of their ensemble but yea it was a toy.

Anyways I pointed it out to my wife who while agreeing with me that it was wrong said its the same thing as kids playing with toy guns. I'm not sure I agree here. While I'm anti-gun for kids toys, I think playing with a plastic colorful clearly not real, water spewing gun in the backyard is a bit different from walking around with a realistic looking 12 inch blade in a crowded supermarket. Does it have the same effect on the kids? Hmm possibly but my feeling isn't that strong so I can be swayed if you think both are equally wrong.

Still I really had to bite my tongue from not saying anything as this chile palance up and down the people supermarket with this fake weapon and I was just thinking what type of mother allows their child to play with such a thing for one and t make it even worse play with it in such a public place. Wow!

Subway mugging

Ok I dont usually write this late at night or with music (Guru (RIP) tribute mix from Dj MK in the background) but I've wanted to speak on this issue for about the last 5 days.

Last weekend a 79 year old man was robbed on the Subway here in Toronto. It wasnt like he was in an empty subway car when it happened though as he cried for help from some 20 or so fellow passengers who did nothing to assist this senior citizen. True the assailants timed their crime with precision so that they were able to run away just as the train pulled into the station but still the fact that no one as much as helped is kind of disturbing on many level.

Its a sad story and one that has prompted much conversation and well warranted criticism of Torontonians.

Still from my perspective I'm like who are all these people who are complaining about the actions of Torontonians and have they ever sat on a TTC subway car? I mean seriously why is the fact that no one tried to help this victim surprising? I take the TTC every day to work and I'm not surprised at all. Disturbed by it yes but definetly not surprised.

Ok, I'll give you that its the wrong type of behavior and in a society such as ours we should demand better and it is shameful but still that it actually happened is not surprising to me. This is Toronto, these are your typical TTC riders.

Look the fact is most people on the TTC dont really want to be there. This is indisputable. Yes you have your greenie, environmental types who think that taking the subway is saving the earth from the excess greenhouse gases of the gas guzzling personal vehicles but they are a minority.

The majority of persons are on the subway because its their most affordable way to travel. They either have no other option for getting to work meaning no car or cant afford to pay the exorbitant costs of downtown parking. They are (and I include myself here) praying for the trip to be over as quickly as possible and trying as much as possible to create a fantasy world around themselves to drown out the low whine of the overly loud teenagers mp3 player or the stench of the folks who threw on perfume but forgot to shower that morning, or to pretend that the lack of personal space as they are squeezed in next to strangers isnt really happening .

They are aware but still not really aware of whats going on around them to the extent that they're going to jump up in a flash and play hero for a stranger cause their whole mindstate is one of avoidance. Avoid staring at the strangers, avoid listening to random conversations, avoid touching anyone by accident, avoid offending anyone or bumping into anyone or eye contact for more than a second or stepping on someone's foot and just avoid any and all interaction that could possibly occur.

Its like if they had the power to generate personal force fields they would but they cant so they instead read the newspaper or sleep or stare off into space or down out their surroundings with music or do other personal task that they can do to forget where they are and let the trip time fly by.

That's the simple truth and thats why no one helped old dude. Folks were probably blissfully unaware of what was happening, caught up in their own worlds until the last minute or were in their avoidance mode and just couldn't get going in time to help him.

So lets not act surprised. Judge all you want, its bad, it should be so but dont be surprised. Its horrible and says something about mankind yes but it is what happens in this society so dont make me laugh with your shock. All your shock tells me is that you're not a regular rider cause if you were you'd see it as pretty much par for the course.

Sad, disturbing, shameful yes, surprising naa not even a little bit.