Monkey business

Organizers of this year's Commonwealth Games in New Delhi have had their share of problems, not the least of which are wild animals said to be infesting the stadiums and housing areas.

Athletes and other visitors may take comfort in the fact that organizers have hired a well-trained team to keep the area safe ... although they may be slightly alarmed to learn that they are being protected by a team of monkeys.

According to the UK's Daily Telegraph, a team of trained langur monkeys has been brought in to scare off wild animals, including wild dogs, snakes and other monkeys. Langur monkeys are said to be very intelligent but also aggressive and territorial, making them very effective in keeping other animals away from a given area.

Taken from The LA Times here.

Uh huh! Wunnah see dat right? Well I sure to the organizers um sound like a good idea, something cheap and inexpensive to get rid a de vermin that coming in the housing areas but to me that sound like bare truble in de making.

See how dem say the monkeys aggressive and territorial? Well wha is to stop dem said same monkeys from being territorial against humans? Didnt think of that did they?

I betcha before these games dun ya gine hear some athlete get attack by the same security monkeys. Especially if ya get on a dem igrant jock type athletes that aint kno nuttin bout monkeys or feel dem cud mek mock sport wid de monkeys. Wait deyso an see. Mark my words ya, um aint gine be pretty.

I juss hope sumbody ketch um pun video.

The Banton

Ah here waiting to see what verdict the jury will bring back in the Buju Banton case. Been waiting since all Friday when they were rumors he was found not guilty and released but that was false and now it look like they all deadlock over the fate of the dreadlock seen.

Actually breaking news is new trial set for December hmm.

Anyways Karel have a nice little article about buju and what to learn from his trials over at Outlish which worth a read but I have a lil something to say.

Now before I say what I have to say though let me start by saying mi love Buju to the max. Ask anybody he is by far and aways my favorite dancehall/reggae singer. Now I came of age in the Lovingdeer/Shabba Rankin doan bend down, peeny peeny pun you era but when Buju hit with tunes like love black woman and the like that sealed it for me. Then later on tunes like Deportees, Murderer, Easy Road, Untold Stories, Til I'm laid to rest, Tribal War etc just blew me away. Actually I will argue that Til Shiloh is undoubtedly the definite dancehall/reggae album of the last two decades but then considering that many albums of the dancehall genre arent that good that dont say that much so let me say that stacked against any album of any genre in the last two decades Til Shiloh will be in my top 5. The Banton is a lyrical champion my yout!

And so seeing as I have so much respect and admiration for the man's work and find so much of it inspirational (one day things must get better) it is hard for me to say this and nuff people wont agree but say it I shall.

Buju ya deserve jail!

Wunnah hear me good? Buju ya deserve pieca jail fa true.

An no I aint arguing bout whether ya guilty or not or whether its fair for you to be in jail I just saying ya deserve jail. Why? Well ya show a real lack of common sense by getting yaself into this situation. This is the ultimate in igrance and I would have thought a big man like you would know better.

Is not only that ya cavorting with the wrong crowd which is a no no but ya act like eddiat and see the man come round ya wid cocaine so an stand up and let the man set ya up easy so (if that is the true story). Ya was complacent and ya should know better. I mean first off ya well know that nuff people dey in America naa like you. Nuff a dem still vex bout Boom Bye Bye and complain ya homophobic and would like nothing better than to be rid of ya so ya shoulda walk easy and know ya place star. If I was you once I land in America I would be acting like a veritable choir boy. I din looking fa anytime crime related at all at all, man I din even jaywalking then. Straight and narrow my yout. Like an arrow!

It aint like ya was back a yard where the man dem might gi ya some respect. The man dem in the US naa like ya. Ya shoulda well know at some point somebody woulda try to mess ya up but yet ya went an fall fa this setup. Ya shoulda never put yaself in this situation.

Eediat you a eeediat my yout!

Look from the time the man come roun you wid cocaine talk, you shoulda shift he, driva move off doan stop atall, leff him there one time. Or tell him you not into that business. Tell him you a studio gangsta, tell him story an lie that ya used to do dat but no more, tell he whatever but dont get involve in that at all. Dont be trying no show off business, dont let them get ya in trouble so. Even if ya shady remember is you self say tief never love fi see tief wid long bag. Doan get tie up in foolishness man. Stupid stupid stupid!

An this is why I feel ya deserve jail. Cause ya really aint had no right in this situation at all. Big man like you shoulda know better by far.

But even though I say ya deserve it cuhdear I still hope ya get off though. I mean nuff odda people do worse hat you an walk so dem could gi you a ease too. Free the Banton! I hope this will show ya to be more careful in the future but ya is still an eediat.

Running Scared

Looks like barring some significant occurrence in the next few weeks Rob Ford is set to be the new mayor of Toronto. Yea I talked about him here in case anyone read it. And man are some Torontonians, including the newspapers running scared over Ford as mayor.

You see basically Ford has nothing going for himself except he has always been an anti City Hall maverick, complaining about wanton spending and using his own money to run his council office etc. Turns out that in a recession, and after the horrid last term we had from our outgoing mayor these traits are enough to give him thirty something percent of the expected vote and in a fractured mayoral race basically the win.

Oh it also doesn't hurt that Ford is running somewhere on the political right while the other 10 or so dudes fighting it out are running on the left and centre and splitting those votes. Also doesn't hurt that Fords campaign is based on cutting things that cost money and holding down property tax. Also doesn't hurt that his chief rival Smitherman is well Smitherman. Also doesn't hurt that he's pandered to the old white anti-immigrant vote in some of his speeches either. Low taxes, keep out pesky foreigners, hey its not just the U.S where that rhetoric will win you some votes.

But what does Ford stand for besides cutting things? Doesn't seem like there is much to his campaign besides that, but then again his opponents don't really stand for anything either. It has been if anything a race of the mediocre with no one candidate really capturing the excitement of the populace. Ford like some of the better more successful politicians seems to be in the right place at the right time with the right backlash against city hall to win by default here. Sad it is, but so it a go!

Unless we see some alliances and coalitions start happening just to keep Ford out of the winners circle well I guess it will be 4 years of Ford. Can only image the backroom meetings that are currently happening as the other candidates try to keep him away from the prize.

Ah doan kno

Well de news outta Barbados aint suh good these days. Prime Minister David Thompson battling pancreatic cancer. Wuhloss!

Now allwe did know he was sick and going to New York for treatment but is only last week that his physican came out and told us what was wrong with him. Poor fella, I wish he well and I saying muh prayers that he will be healed even though the medical people and the internet say that this cancer is a cruel wun that hard to shake off. But like I duz say doan count out the man yet cause he still living and where there is life there is hope.

Two things got me bout this situation though. One was that when we hear the man was sick and going for treatment leaving his deputy in charge that was all bajans knew aside from we lil speculations yet fa some reason or the other people from odda islands did know fa sure fa sure what wrong wid de man. I aint even joking bout that ya! I see people from odda islands online months ago saying with most certainty what the man had (an dem was right too) and even a trini woman dat de wife know come one day early this summer an straight off tell she hey I hear ya PM got such and such.

So I wanta know how dem dpeople from odda islands did know wid such certainty bout the man illness and we bajans din know? IS them gi he um, well I doan think that possible but still. So I eliminate the outta de question options and come up wid the certain reasoning that um cud only be espionage. Dem odda island spying pun we man! God knows what other a we secrets dem know, all like now they might even know who kill Pele (for the uninitiated that was an infamous murder unsolved murder case in Barbados when I was growing up). So bajan authorities looka wunnah better check Ilaro court fa bugs and listening devices ya. I telling wunnah dese people spying pun we business.

The second thing I got to talk bout is how people act when the PM wouldnt say conclusively what was wrong wid he. Man some a everybody was vex and arguing we got a right to know the man personal business. Well see me I din agree wid dat and to be honest wid all the talk I see now that the man tell we he affliction, I glad he din say nuttin nuh earlier. Cause now they know looka people already got the man mark off fa de grave and talking bout he successor and ting so. Dat is disrespectful man! Ya shun treat nuhbody that sick so. Suppose you did sick you wanta hear you spouse talking bout who she next man/woman gine be? No man, dat wud hurt ya cruel cruel and wun help ya recovery process at all. Same way here so ease off the successor talk while the man alive.

Man allya should be shame a yaselves doah. I mean I understand having contingencies but cheese on bread the man still alive and got he full mental capacities wha wunnah trying to rush he to the grave and replace he before he dead already.

Like I say I hope he recover and when he do I hope all wunnah feel real bad fa all this successor talk business. I dun.

Smartphones

So Premier Mcguinty wants the school boards to allow cellphones in class arguing that teachers can show students how to use smart phones to access information on the internet.

To this I simply ask is which cellphone company you promoting Mr Premier? Rogers, Bell, Telus and the rest duz already mek tummuch money off all we. Smartphones don't grow on trees ya kno! And besides phone duz need contract, and de stupid smartphone specially duz need smarter and more expensive data plan pun top a contract to do anything smart-ish which duz leff ya pockets smarting and ya duz cann even afford two Smarties when the day dun.

Ya want we now to have to buy cellphones for the children now on top a books, on top a computers, on top of every lil fund raising thing every two minutes at the school? cuhdear man. Dem cell companies aint mekkin enuff profit off we. Play you smart deyso den.

Recession

So they, the powers that be, keep saying that the recession is getting better, that things are looking up. But me, I beg to differ cause even though I don't have no figures and no all compassing idea of what is happening all around the nation common sense tell me that this recession still going full bore.

Every time I walk by certain streets I see more and more businesses closed. A few weeks back three days in a row I close different lunch spots in different areas only to get there and see the store fronts closed. Yes blame me I is a blight on restaurants (and tv shows too but that is another story.)

Then there are the amount of people I know who telling me they cant find jobs, specially recent grads in certain fields. People who say we been looking for almost a year and things brown like grass when the heat wave hit we this past summer. I mean how um duz feel when you go an wuk ya behind off at university, borrowing dollars and spending money to further education so that you could have a better life an then you finish school and skkkrrrrzzz jobs scarce scarce like seeing black people in de winter.

So what really going on. The official story is the worse dun pass but at ground level um aint really looking so ya kno.

An ya know I juss had to laff although um aint funny cause I now realize I post something similar so just last year too. So things like dem aint getting nuh better. hmmmm

Tragic

SIX PEOPLE perished last night in a blaze that could go down as one of Barbados’ worst human tragedies.

A fire believed to have started by two men who robbed the Campus Trendz store in Tudor Street, The City, engulfed the two-storey building along the busy shopping street, trapping the hapless victims within the inferno...........

According to police, the two robbers, in view of shocked customers, threw an incendiary device into Campus Trendz just before 7 p.m., after taking an undisclosed amount of cash.

I spent parts of the last two days thinking about what I could say in response to this tragic event and to be honest I was coming up totally blank.

The shock of six young lives cut short, the absolute devastation that the families of the deceased must feel and the grief shared by bajans at home and abroad means to me that nothing that I really have to say, to me seemed significant enough to actually share. I'm not sure the feelings I have can be put into words truthfully.

Six young females all between the ages of 18 and 24 snuffed out suddenly in such a senseless manner. May they rest in peace.

What can be said though, what thoughts do I have. Its all a jumble in my head.

For one I wonder what is going through the black hearts of the criminals who did this? It was not enough to rob the business but they had to firebomb it as well. It wasn't as if the workers refused to hand over the money either, they had what they came for why attempt to burn down the business and take lives as well?

I truly hope the correct culprits are found and made to pay for this crime.

For another, I think if only we followed a fire code back home and businesses had to have alternate exits the 6 who died would have been rattled somewhat over the incident but still alive at this moment. Its time that the Barbados government do something about this. There are potentially tens if not hundreds of businesses who are in this same predicament and I hope that this tragedy, while we cant bring back the lives lost, will serve as a catalyst to spur our authorities into action to make sure that businesses are brought up to some fire code or standard where this can never ever happen again.

Third, I've seen comments online and in the local bajan press alluding to the possibility that the murderers were not bajan or that even if they were it is foreign influences that have caused us to become like this. When something like this happens the shock of the situation usually leads us to believe that outside forces are the reason for such an event happening in our community. We'd like to believe that everyone in our community is an upstanding citizen with pure intentions. Alas this is never so. I dont know if the perpetrators are local or foreign or what influenced this act but all I do know is that we have recently seen some senseless violence perpetrated in various Caribbean countries; beheadings in St Vincent, murders and outrageous violent crimes against small children in Trinidad etc. The time has come to realize and accept that our small islands aren't what they were 20-30 years ago. Like Biggie says "Things dun changed". Accept that and then maybe we can move in the right direction to fixing what is wrong. Its not likely that things will return to what they were but there are things we can do to fix these things.

One of my friends says we only have ourselves to blame because we have sat back and allowed our morals and our rules and regulations to be infringed upon while we sit back and just watch and did nothing. I agree with this to some extent but at the same time I believe that most of us realize that things aren't the same as they were and there is some fear in confronting the crime and criminals, hell there is even some fear in confronting small children who you could have once corrected for wrongdoing further less big adults committing wrongdoings.

I don't have a simple solution, I'm not sure anyone does. Maybe it starts with the children, maybe it involves education, maybe it involves finding useful outlets and employment for idle hands, maybe it involves full enforcement of the law and respect for our lawmakers, maybe it involves instilling a renewed sense of community in our youth, maybe it involves the church, maybe it involves communication across age and gender divides and political and social status affiliations.......... maybe it involves all of those things or none and maybe that's all too grandiose and Utopian and its really much simpler. Like I said I don't know.

The fact is though, lives were lost in a senseless incident, lives that didn't need to be lost. One of the most tragic events in the history of Barbados has taken place and I would be remiss, actually we all would be if we didn't stop and take stock of where our nation is, the direction its heading in and what we can do to make things better.