Summer of the Gun part deux

Knew I'd have posted about Toronto's crazy gun violence a few years ago. Just found it here.

Well 7 years later it appears that we are experiencing another summer of the gun. Last Monday, 19 or more people got shot here in Scarborough at a blocko on Danzig street including a 2 year old kid. A 14 year old girl and 23 year old man were both killed. Both innocent bystanders it appears.


Of course as is typical somehow the Mayor and the Conservative government found a way to blame it on immigrants and started this whole silly discourse on exiling or deporting gangsters when mind you no one has actually claimed or been able to prove that the shooters were immigrants.

But this seems to be the typical play worldwide so why be surprised. Seems like no one is willing to step up and deal with the facts to be honest. All we get is a lot of rhetoric on how safe the city is which may be somewhat true but in light of events like this one and the shooting at the Eaton Centre about two months ago and the execution style murder on College street last month one really has to take into consideration how safe the actual denizens of this city feel.Which at this moment is not so much.

Its funny though some of the same things I said 7 years ago still apply today. I just feel like we've really done nothing in the interim to deal with gun crimes and the gangstas are getting more brazen and prolific in their shootings and a lot less accurate at hitting their real targets. Its enough to make one want to stay home or buy a bullet proof vest.

Rocks thrown

Yesterday in one of their rare recent good performances the West Indies cricket team beat home team Bangladesh at the Cricket World Cup and then

Angry Bangladesh fans, whose team was bowled out for 58, the lowest total by a Full Member at a World Cup, threw stones at both team buses, cracking two of the West Indian team buses windows. None of the players were injured. 

Now I don't intend to make a mountain out of a molehill here but I wasn't pleased with these comments by International Cricket Council (ICC) chief Haroon Lorgat:

Lorgat played down the incident, calling it "minor," and explained why it was not as serious as had been originally reported. "It was a few individuals who threw pebbles at the bus, and they were pebbles." 

 Well I guess it must have been a whole truckload of pebbles to be cracking the glass on these buses which I assume would have been reinforced in some way.

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.

G20 - The Aftermath

Despite the lock-down of the Canada’s largest city, the wanton destruction by vandals and the hundreds of arrests, Mr. Harper said he believes that “99.9 per cent of Torontonians were very pleased and honoured to have these leaders here and were very hospitable.”
Globe and Mail newspaper

I was nowhere near the G20 protests this weekend but after watching the events unfold on tv all weekend I actually feel like I have some sort of post-traumatic stress. And if that's me, a simple tv viewer, imagine all the folks who were involved in the war that occurred on the usually peaceful streets of Toronto. It got so bad for me that at one point I switched from watching the live coverage to watching an extremely gruesome episode of Band of Brothers just to relax lol.

Now much will be written about what went down this weekend but I just wanted to say my two little cents based on a few more things I noticed Sunday.

First off, Prime Minister Harper judging by the above comment is sadly mistaken about Torontonians' views on this conference. We didnt want it here, we were unhappy that it was here and we were getting even more unhappy as the events on our streets were unfolding. The city was turned into an armed camp, draconian if temporary laws were passed, violence was inflicted on both our citizens and our businesses. Not exactly anything for us to cheer about Mr PM so why would we be happy? My mother always says you dont poke out your eye to please people and that is exactly what we in Toronto did here today or was done to us. To please foreign dignitaries Toronto had its eye poked out.

The Police whose response had been relatively measured on Saturday seemingly resorted to heavy handed tactics Saturday over night and into Sunday. It seemed to be a case of what was it George Bush called it some years ago preemptive strikes or basically if you looked suspicious or were someplace we didnt think you had no right being we were going to arrest you. Seems like they vacillated from one extreme of passivity on Saturday allowing the burning of police cars and vandalism of businesses along two of our major thoroughfares to an extreme of excessive force against citizens on Sunday. Shouldn't there have been some balance point in between doing nothing to what happened with numerous citizens claiming to have been arrested for no reason or hit by police batons? sigh!

Also where were our elected representatives and opposition politicians condemning what was happening as Toronto was getting a black eye. I only heard Adam Vaughn and Oliva Chow give their feedback. Oh and Mayor Miller who was soooo surprised by what was happening. Whatever dude! But I at least expected Michael Ignatieff, the Liberal opposition leader, who has been floundering in the polls to take this opportunity to say something positive and try to show that he actually is up on whats happening in this country. Dude you suck!

And while I'm calling out politicians and police leave no doubt that citizens too take much of the blame for this debacle. If ya see people doing foolishness stay your ass home. Dont leave to go down and add more conflict to the mayhem already ensuing.

I was shocked by the number of just curious onlookers and gawkers, taking photos as policemen tried to keep the peace. People who didnt really look like they knew what was being protested or didnt care one way or the other but just came out to be part of it as one youth said in a television interview just to say that they were there. Maybe its this generation weened on reality tv but for me I would think that violence on the streets is not a photo op. Seriously people you have a responsibility as citizens to be better than that.

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.

Terror in the Pie

Throwing a pie in the face of Canada's fisheries minister to protest the seal hunt should earn animal rights group PETA a "terrorist" label, a Canadian lawmaker said Tuesday.

A seal hunt protester hit Fisheries Minister Gail Shea with a cream pie on Monday as she gave a speech in Burlington, Ontario.

The animal rights group, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, later claimed responsibility for the incident.

Me and the wife was talking bout this tonight. The story is this. Some 37 year old American woman, on behalf of PETA (People for Ethical Treatment of Animals), left home in New York to come all the way to Ontario, Canada, to throw a pie at a Canadian Government minister to protest Canada's seal hunt. PETA claims responsibility for the incident.

Now on the face of it, the Canadian government opposition member who made the comments about seeing if PETA fits the terrorist bill can just be laughed off cause we think of terrorists as bombers and shooters, jihadists, killers of infidels, fundamentalist religious types with an axe to grind not pie wielding American white female types. I mean nuhbody never get kill by a pie in the face right? Well I guess its possible but still a bit improbable.

But on the other hand think about it. An organization with a fundamentalist agenda based in another country sends an operative past the Canadian border into the country to assault a Canadian government minister. Sounds alot like terrorism when I say that right?

Now lets for arguments sake say what if. What if say the other country in which the organization who sent the assaulter was based oh lets say somewhere in the Middle East and the government official was oh lets say American. Would not people be screaming blue murder about terrorists and harboring of criminals that aint true?

Why even a Canadian fella once tried to go across the border to the US to bomb something or the other and since then we ben hearing about what a bastion of terrorism lovers we have over here and how porous our borders are. That aint true?

Plus this act was an assault by a fringe organization (PETA) in an attempt to make a foreign (Canadian) government change their policies. To intimidate and to endanger and to make a point. Isn't that what terrorist do? I dont know what the official definition of terrorism is and I really wouldn't want to stick my neck out here and claim the pie thrower is a terrorist but yea you really have to think about this one carefully dont you.

Now yes it seems a tad frivolous on the surface cause we have bigger fish to fry right but today a pie tomorrow what will they throw? Who knows.

Now we all will say yes the act was wrong but how wrong was it? Has PETA overstepped its boundaries? I mean in my opinion, sending operatives to assault government ministers cause you dont like their policies seems to be going too far in my opinion. And then claiming responsibility for the incident. I mean whenever I hear about groups claiming resposibility for insidents I think Al Quada and Hezbollah and the IRA and those sorts of groups that happy happy that they do something to injure folks. Hmmm think about it!

Three things I think here though and they might not makee alot of seense but bear with m

One if this was olden times an a cat from another country come and assault someone in your country that would have been grounds for war. I lie? Not that we gine get we two row boat navy and a battalion of Eskimos to attack the US but still.

Two in these modern times, post 9/11, if the assault was on an American the American government would get on dixie, do bad and the attack would seen as grounds for the American government to ask for the extradition to face charges of the ringleaders of the organization that plan the attack or if the other government wasnt willing to send them they might just invade or attack them just so inside their country (Again not that we gine do nuttin so but I making a comparison).

And three if the person who assaulted the Canadian minister was Muslim or black or Indian or some sort of minority then people would be kicking up nuff fuss and looking to ban and put embargoes and other restrictions on the country of origin of that person, asking what kind of country they running that they are a haven for such deviant characters and putting all sorts of extra scrutiny at the airport on people who were the same minority as the pie thrower. Can we now assume that 37 year old American women will be put to additional scrutiny at the Canadian borders cause they might fit a profile of a PETA pie throwing operative?

Yea you know the answer to that as good as me but still think bout it. And like I said I'm not saying PETA are terrorists but hey the Canadian opposition fella statement aint as stupid as people would make ya believe at first. Think bout it.

with this post I've probably gotten onto the PETA watchlist. nuhbody better doan come throwing nuh pie at me doah cause Isa bajan an I duz throw back big rocks.

Ramping Shop

Ok this aint no Easter post!

Now nuff words have been said about the banning of Ramping Shop and other songs of its ilk by the Jamaican authorities. Although I have a view, I wont weigh in here on whether it was right or wrong cause some will argue society echoing art and others art echoing society, is a chicken or egg dilemma and too much interaction between the two for me to win an argument on that in a lil 200 word blog.

Now I hear the Ramping shop song a few times cause it been on the mixes for a few good months but I really aint pay much attention to anything besides the riddim. That was until this past weekend where I was walking around with the ipod and the song came on and I finally listened closely to the lyrics and realized how slack they were. I mean yea I've heard worse in my day but still ya cant consider this song decent nuhway ya look at it. Dem people was talkin bout some things dat turn mi head boy! Wha, I even had to google some of them lyrics to figure out what them was talking bout.

But one particular lyric in that song had me. It was the line Vybz uses about "Deal wid yuh breast like mi crushing irish". Potatoes I assume. Actually it reminded me of the Mavado "squeeze her breasts like the trigger of my gun" lyric from another dancehall song. So I stop in my tracks and was there visualizing some fella with a potato masher or a fork in he hand and he mashing way hard hard hard on the poor woman's boobs or another fella squeezing breasts like he is a shotta in a Die Hard II or Terminator movie and wondering if while he squeezing he duz stay low and keep firing, whether he shooting a regular handgun or a semi automatic and whether he duz dive bout like dem fellas in the movies while still shooting cause damn that sounds like some serious pain infliction to me. Ouch! And I was wondering but is how dat could be pleasurable to either party involved? Wha dat doan mek nuh sense. Wuhloss !

But that one line was an eyeopener for me. I mean I been listening to dancehall from since Yellowman and Lovindeer was running tings and it never really hit home for me until now. I mean I know the music is misogynistic an all but still something dawned on me that I hadn't considered before.

Ya ever notice that sex in dancehall songs doan sound pleasant at all? It duz sound like war and violence, murda in de market like somebody getting beat kill. I mean if I personally was an alien from another planet (and I not confirming that I am or am not) and my first introduction to Jamaica was via current dancehall music my first thought would be that sex in Jamaica is something akin to an ancient gladiator brawl or the WWF with all these wicked slams and that Jamaican women quite frankly must long time ago either have invested in full body armour for sex or are alternately all dead from being "killed with it" or are walking around crippled or handicapped from the nuff bruises, broken limbs and war wounds which are sure to have been inflicted courtesy of all the stabbing, jukking and daggering that duz be going on in songs. I mean 100 juks, 1000 stabs, wha ya cant pass that off as manslaughter no way ya look at it. Something so could only be premeditated murder in the first degree to me.

And then I was reading a ting on the Nation website yesterday and realize well is not only women suffering from this daggering thing cause according to them lately penises in Jamaica breaking rather fracturing at a record rate. Apparently all the daggering and juks and stabs backfiring and fellas getting wounded. Well a so it a go I guess.

Cuhdear!

Still all I saying again is if you follow dem dancehall fellas you cud only find yaself in trouble. All them juks and stabs somebody gotta get hurt and that is my perspective whether i is an alien or not.

Ok I'm Rhi-loaded

The brother Bajan Reporter has a very nicely put together article over at his site about Miss Rhianna and a whole heap of celebrities in the news for the wrong reason and our societies occupation with schadenfreude. Check that out!

I myself had some more to (ramble) say on this whole situation.

He said, she said, I heard it through the grapevine!


For one when I first posted I really didn't realize the extent to which the alleged beating had gone. I using that word alleged cause although the man has been arrested it all still really hasn't been confirmed entirely and we're inundated with rumors, truth, slander, speculation and photoshopped jpegs all rolled up into one ball right now and being distributed as fact.

But still a discerning spectator could probably make a decent read of all the information out there and come to some valid, hopefully at least semi-factual conclusions which is what I'm trying to do right now.

For one as I was trying to say with that other sentence that started for one, the only fact, semi-fact, we know appears to be that Rhianna if she is indeed the victim (as might be concluded by her sudden cancellation of two concerts a foreign this week) was beaten pretty badly. This wasn't no two slap push thing (not that we condone those either. This was on some punks jump up to get beat down, i caught you tiefing my grandmother money or troubling my chile, pugilism 101 type ish. Punches were not pulled. There seems to be no doubt of that. Blows were shared, a young lady's face was rearranged, buss lip, black eye, contusions etc and there is possibility of cosmetic surgery to fix the damage (speculation on that last part so far though).

But what caused the incident? Speculation galore! Was it flirting with Leona Lewis, somebody sharing his and her peas (without the rice to go along with it), text messages, Rhianna's supposedly controlling and jealous nature, car keys getting tossed, the natural reaction to hearing the Umbrella song just one time too many or Chris Brown's out of control latent mutant powers flaring up nuhbody can tell and likely never will be able to say what really happened between the two of them. He say, she say!

What is fact though is that the reaction around the world, online, on radio shows etc has been varied. Now I'm not one to say guilty until proven innocent and yea I'm bajan like Rhianna (although I don really dig her music and was probably a bigger fan of Chris Brown than her prior to this) so I may be biased but could we strip this situation down to its essence, remove the celebrity statuses and the biases towards the individuals involved. If we could do that I find it difficult that anyone could justify or give a pass to a dude who would beat up his girl like that (allegedly).

But like the saying goes everybody cant hate ya and Chris Brown for all the discussion about his actions still seems to have a fair amount of fans who can justify his actions by rumours of stds (still trying to figure out what this got to do with standard deviation?), jealousy, Lamborghini keys being dashed way and feisty uncontrollable too jealous Caribbean female traits. I'm sorry I really cant understand how anything like that comes close to justifying his actions but maybe its just me.

Stop spreading rumours rumours rumours about me.

Then there are the rumours as to this not being their first battle and Chris's alleged destroying of this that and the third that belonged to Rhianna on his last trip to Barbados possibly the result of alleged jealousy as well. Who knows! But it does bring into focus a question as to whether this was his first (alleged) abuse in this relationship or whether Rhianna had already felt his wrath (allegedly).

That of course leads to the old "well how stupid is this girl that she would stick with someone who abuses her" question which has been asked of thousands of women, celebrity and non-celebrity over the years.

If this isn't the first time why did she stick with him? Should we write her off as an idiot and feel less sympathy for her and less derision for him if she didn't leave him at the first sign of trouble?

Does repeated domestic offense make it more palatable or less worthy of condemnation?

How will this affect both of their careers?

I'll leave the answers and conclusions up to you cause my brain just rambling.

The spectre of fear

Stupidee!

Imagine that!

These got to be desperate times boy cause desperate measures surely being used these days. Desperate like Ashley Todd, a McCain volunteer, who told a story last week of being mugged by a 6'4" 200lb black man who on realizing she was a McCain supporter took a knife and carved a big B on her cheek. Cuhdear! Poor girl!

The only problem was the whole story was a fraud, fake, a lie, a fabrication, she mek it up den if you don't believe me.

But I had to ask myself what kinda idiot would carve a B into she own face just to make it seem like she get assault by an Obama supporter? Desperate woman I guess. And then I read more of the story and the woman is such an idiot she couldn't even fabricate the story properly.

For one she carve the B upside down on her face. Now she could have said the man had he upside down when he carve it but she din even say that so now unless she was attacked by a dyslexic Obama supporter dat wun din mekkin it at all. Then apparently she was on Twitter posting at the same time she was supposed to be being attacked. These young people dont think at all, at all. Ya mean they cant even go into communications silence for two minutes to fake a proper attack!

Dat is why I keep saying the technology advancing but the common sense decreasing. Real eediat girl!

If she did pick a O to draw pun she face she mighta get way cause ya can draw a O backwards an nuhbody doan notice.

Anyways and why is always got to be a big black man that attack somebody? Wha happen to being attacked by midgets or bony white people? These people been abusing dis particular big black man boogieman to the extreme these days. The ruthless big black man lurking in the shadows to attack and rob and beat and murder and rape. Poor fella, he musse would get tired if he was actually guilty of 90% of the things he duz get accused of. Tiefing babies and attacking this and the next body and carving upside down B's, done obviously from his spider man like perch hanging upside down on the wall.

I mean really isnt it time to move on to another boogieman stereotype! How about I was attacked by a crazed moose shooting hockey mom. I mean that one scares the crap out of me.

This n That

I really dont have any coherent thoughts. Sleep deficiency and allergy season will do that to ya. So anyways

1) Tv's back. yipee! Think I'm going to like the new series Fringe!

2) The Conservatives are going to kick series ass this election in Canada. I'm calling it as they finally get their majority. The Liberals are dithering.

3) It was like something from out of a movie in my opinion. Woman shoots man and throws body from moving car on a crowded highway. Oh and of course there was the obligatory police chase afterwards. Damn T-Dot is getting real.

4) Doesn't it make you wonder about our leaders when election campaigns become contests between childish individuals with feigned reactions to comments taken out of context. Like Obama called folks bitter a few months back and we're still on that and he made this pig comment yesterday and thats going to be news forever. Just grow up and deal with the issues. Damn!

5) Kardi's new album is pretty nice. However I find he rhymes like a toned down version of dancehall's Dr. Evil (as opposed to Austin Powers Dr Evil) on that Dangerous track with Akon.

6) Speaking of Austin Power's Dr Evil. Why'd that dude have to wear a nehru jacket? I've got conspiracy theories about that. I will be starting a campaign to bring back the Shirt Jac! Folks are going whats a shirt jac? If you're from north america you probably wouldnt get it. and i'm too tired to explain.

7) I've got a 10 reason's Obama will not win the election idea rattling around in my head. #10 because non-Americans love him to death. #9 because this election isnt about the issues, #8 because he's muslim (or at least some american still think he is), #7 because he will be mauled to death by a pack of rabid hockey moms, #6 because Michelle is a black revolutionary (power to the people), #5 because he's elitist, ... well i'll leave the rest for now but you get the drift.

When you least expect

Before I start I found this today and thought I had to share. Classic Satire! I love those guys.

Anyways I had a whole post planned on a different topic to what I'm going to speak on now but sometimes blog posts just fall in ya lap.

I'm on the bus coming home this evening when we stop to let off a passenger at a stop and then I noticed that the bus isnt moving at all. Look outside and some sort of disturbance, disruption thing coming down the road. Now I had noticed the 6 or so youth but just assumed they were playing.

Alas no, looked like a big fight about to break out.

So Bus driver stops the bus to report disturbance. Interesting I thought, disturbance on the street not on the bus, well sidewalk if you want to be more precise so what did he stop the bus for? Maybe its protocol, maybe he was just being a conscientious citizen. I don't know.

Anyway I couldn't hear what was going on so although I could see the actual incident I really don't know what it was about although I can sort of guess it had something to do with ownership of a bicycle.

Then two guys had this one young man, in an Iverson jersey, (henceforth called AI jersey fella) restrained and the bicycle was on the ground where they stopped.

Now by the way, I thought about not mentioning the Iverson jersey just cause it's like hip hop. If I mention that somebody was listening to hip hop when something happen suddenly hip hop going to be blamed so I figure somebody going blame AI for this or the guy will not be as sympathetic or going to get labeled some sort of thug because of the AI jersey but oh well I cant leave out details just so.

Anyway some older folk came down the street including one woman who looked like she should have stayed inside considering the top she was wearing. They pulled AI jersey fella away and then there were two camp on the sidewalk gestering vociferously (but not vociferously enough that I could hear them in the bus).

Now this incident went on for a good 10 minutes all of which we were park off by the bus stop. The interesting thing to me was the reaction of one cat in AI jersey fella's crew. Now there were three young guys in that camp and the two older folk trying to calm down things or at least it seemed that way from my viewpoint.

Now AI jersey fella was at the heart of the incident and he was talking to the older folk while one of the other guys looked like he was ready to rush in the other crowd and share some liks. Then there was another smaller chap with them who ran back inside a house. Now he to me was the person of interest.

Now I dont know about you but anytime something happening so and I see somebody run back to a house I get a lil worried. I could just imagine the conversation outside from the gesturing.

"Oh yea alright then, if you is a man wait dey til I come back"

Now any bajan will tell you that the phrase wait dey til I come back really means you better start running now cause this other person is going do something stupid. They going to come back with rocks or knives or guns or their big brother or father or mother with rocks and guns and knives and then trouble going really start.

So I in the bus imagining these words being exchanged and all sorts of scenarios and wondering to myself why this foolish bus driver don't start the bus and report the incident from someplace safer like perhaps three bus stops up the road. I mean doesnt he have an obligation to his passengers first? Suppose the fella that run back inside come outside letting off shots like he mad and something happen to one a we on the bus?

As it stands if it was me we wouldnt have stopped at all. Sorry but as it stood looked like a fair battle to me, sides were pretty even and I've seen enough crap to know that you dont really want to get into any sort of crew battles. Next thing ya know somebody decide to lik me cross my head or worse so no not I in this one.

But it was interesting because it caused me to ask a couple of questions. What is the bus drivers obligation to report the incident and what is his obligation to the people under his care.

I still waiting on answers on both. What y'all think?

Generation Lost

Ever so often lately I'm forced to put on what appears to be my old fogie hat and grumble about the young people of this generation all the while shaking my fist and walking cane at those gosh darned whippersnappers and repeating the mantra things weren't like that in my day.

Today is again one such day.

The thing is, its not like I don't expect today's youth to be different from the ones of my age. And its not that I think the ones of my age were without fault, saints if you wish, or weren't given to a certain degree of lawlessness and causing general mayhem. Its just that some of the things today's youth engage in, well just leave me rather speechless.

Yes I know we usually only get the bad news and society's changed and kids are growing up faster these days and all that but still doesn't it seem like some and I hesitate to generalize here, doesn't it seem like some of today's kids are out of control in a way that we could have never imagined while growing up?

For example just this February in Toronto a 16 year old was arrested for attempting to rob a bank. Ok so when you're 16 I know you can get into a lot of mischief but robbing a bank at that age? Damn. At 16, I would never have even considered taking people's money at a bank. I was probably afraid to even go into a bank and legitimately fill out a withdrawal slip and take out my own money for fear that my parents would beat the hell out of me for withdrawing and wasting my own savings.

Whoa!

Then last week in Georgia there was the case of the group of 8-10 year olds who plotted to attack their teacher because the teacher had scolded them in class. They brought to school a knife, duct tape, a paper weight, to knock the teacher unconscious of course, and handcuffs. 8 year olds. 8 year olds are you kidding me? And although the so-called experts are now trying to play this off like even though these kids had the equipment they wouldn't have done anything if I'm that teacher I'm on my guard and I'm oh just a bit afraid of these kids right now.

Of course I'm thinking to myself at 8 to 10 I couldn't have dreamt of plotting against my teacher no matter how much I felt that my teacher was unfairing me. My teacher was this rather large lady with arms the size of picnic hams who had no fear of using and lots of practice at wielding the strap or a bamboo on our behind for the slightest infraction. Plot against my teacher? Nope. I might get vex and secretly rant about how unfair live was when big people was unfairing you but plot umm nope. Wouldn't think of it. Man if I even dreamt about plotting against my teacher I would have apologized just in case she was a mind reader and decided to be proactive in sharing out liks.

I try not to blame the media, and video games and music and movies and the whole ilk but its hard to not get caught up in that whole blaming game and I do sense that although they may not be the root cause they should share some of the blame too.

My man says its the parenting. The parents of our generation are slack. Kids have a bigger sense of entitlement. Parents don't want to or don't know how to say no to children or not give them every latest gadget, toy or clothing accessory for fear that they will be left behind in our consumer mad society.

The h'experts say dont discipline the children dem, it will stunt their creativity and their growth. Be all friend friend wid dem and laugh when they get out of hand or say things to older people that clearly out of order. Relax nuh man is just children being children. Nuh bother ya head wid de lil children chat and behavior they will still turn out right. Discipline is over-rated anyways. In fact if ya ease off dem they might be the next Einstein or Michaelangelo or one of those super creative uber-geniuses.

Well alrighty then. If the h'experts say so a so a it go.

But then I see another story like this one today. Bunch of teenage girls beat the living daylights out of another teenage girl just because they wanted to make a video to put on myspace and youtube? Lawd come fa ya world!

I mean fights amongst teenagers are nothing new. I mean as far back as you can think there have been fights amongst teenagers some which made sense a lot which really didn't in the grand scheme of things. I mean Cain was probably body slamming Abel back in the day and I can see Esau picking on Jacob as a yout and giving him two slap cross him head for being pops favorite.

As for my generation we fought over girls, guys, property, ignorant stuff, out of pride, respect, and sometimes just to gain a rep but fighting just to make a video for the Internet? I'm sorry but to me that takes things to a new low.

The 16 year old girl who was beaten suffered a concussion and eye injuries amongst other things. All in all though looking at the video I've seen more brutal beatings and I've seen fights of passion, some caused by lost anger and fights for just plain ol silly things (which sort of made sense to those involved at the time) but still something about planning to beat someone just to have an Internet video seems a bit disturbing and callous.

Plus its girls who for the most part are involved (two guys played lookout apparently) and maybe its naive and partially chauvinistic of me although I do know that teenage girls can be pretty cruel, but I really didn't think girls would do something as pointless as this.

All I can say and I probably echo many of former generations is man I just don't get today's younger generation.

I'm feeling old.

Follow up

(1) Ok so now we know what OBAY is all about.

Its actually an ad for the Ontario Colleges. Great promotion I think but as my bredren say not as cool as new Diamond Shreddies lol.

Oh and for anyone who is disappointed by this revelation that Obay isn't real don't despair Liks is definitely real.











Actually courtesy of my boy poeza we have added a new product to the Liks line. We call it "THE LOOK". It can take the place of Liks if you don't have the time for Liks or ya out in public and you dont want anyone to see you using Liks. The Look can be used as a stand alone product or as a precursor to Liks. Unlike Liks we dont offer a guarantee on the Look though.


(2) A 16 year old bank robber was arrested here yesterday. 16 years old?? blouse n skirt! As another friend of mine was saying this morning, when we were 16 the worse we were doing was stealing Pepsi bottles for a 25 cent refund at the school cafeteria not trying to take $150Gs from a bank while armed. Damn

(3) I found this rather ironic. The 21 year old son of the publisher of Today's Parent was sentenced to 4 1/2 years in jail for drug dealing and weapons possession. If ya not familiar with Today's Parent its a magazine for parents giving them suggestions and tips on raising their kids.

Of course give him two pounds of blow and a glock 19 isn't one of the suggestions they give and I don't think they've published a story on "the 10 ways to increase the efficiency of cooking your crack"and hopefully likely never will yet I just saw this story and had a "but wait you mean she giving people advice on how to raise dem children an she chile is a criminal getting lock up?" moment. Sorry it just doesn't help the credibility for me. Others I know disagree with me cause they say she is only the publisher but I say if ya telling people how to raise their children and yours turn out this way I would really got to question the advice ya duz give.

(4) Quick celebrity post from the you got to be a idiot file. I wasn't really following this whole Charlie Sheen, Denise Richards storyline but apparently they were in court again because she wants their two kids to be on a reality show and he says no way. I didn't really follow all of it but I thought well maybe Charlie was onto something. Then I was reading a brief article on the subway the other day and realize that Denise Richards' argument is that the children said they want to be in the reality show and she wants to do what they want. Court sided with her too and she won.

Is only then I realize that these clearly rational decision making children are ages 2 and 3. What kinda eediat ting dat? You going to let your 2 and 3 year old decide that they want to be in a reality show? What madness is that?

This n That

(1) Its bad enough they're sending Marion to jail but now they trying to mess with my girl Mary.

A new report claims that certain entertainment stars are linked to the steroid scandal. They named 50 Cents, Mary J Blige, Wycleff Jean, Timbaland and Tyler Perry.

Anything to get Roger Clements out of the spotlight I guess. Chupse!

Look who really cares if these stars used steroids? Do steroids or HGH help you to sing better? Is it like those Ghost Weed skits from De La Soul's Art Official Intelligence album where the Ghost weed helped you to drop rhymes like certain rappers? Was Tyler Perry on an HGH binge when he came up with his Madea character?

Look these Hollywood types have been going under the knife, botoxing, enhancing, siliconing, bleaching, tanning and the like for donkey years in order to enhance appearance. If they are using HGH and steroids now its not the same as an athlete who is using this stuff to compete against another athlete and break sporting records. So big deal!

I can just see congressional hearings into Entertainers and steroids?
Congressman: Mr Perry, And is it true that Madea's tirades are fueled by your rampant steroid abuse?
Perry: What? You do know Madea is a fictional character right?
Congressman: Just answer the question Mr Perry, stop trying to throw us off track here.

(2) BET founder Bob Johnson criticizes Obama? What? Seriously? You mean Bob 'I sold out the black community with my shucking and jiving channel' Johnson can criticize anyone? Ok maybe Obama did some drugs or did some questionable stuff in his teen years but ummm isn't that like 99% of the folk you promote on your channel? You've made money off promoting and giving voice to dudes who have claimed to slang rock, peddled yayo, carried weight, moved fishscale and God knows what else (While giving some credible real artists the shaft I might add) and you're going to get on a high horse here?

Look I'm not saying you need to support Obama cause he's black or anything I'm just questioning what gives you the moral high ground to attack Obama given your record of exploiting and demeaning black culture.


(3) Random and completely innocent dude accidentally gets shot and killed on Yonge street Friday night by some cats who were trying to shoot a strip club bouncer. The victim just happened to be walking up the street to the subway to go home to his family when the incident occurred.

Tell me where's the outrage? Where's the we're being slack on crime and innocents are suffering outcry that followed Jane Crebe's death two years ago? I mean there are similarities right? Random innocent bystander gets shot downtown, in the heart of the city, on Yonge street right? Where's the outrage man? A child is left without a father and a wife without a husband. I'm just saying.

More than Culture

I kno mi roots n culture (murderer!)
Shabba Ranks - Roots n Culture

The facts are this: A Mississauga father strangled his 16 year old daughter Aqsa Parvez to death last week. The media pounced on the story because the two had apparently been arguing over whether the Muslim girl should wear her hijab or not.

It became a story not about domestic violence or child abuse but rather a story about how
cultures clash or how some immigrants can't integrate into western society or basically those evil Muslims.

I tend to disagree somewhat with the media's coverage.

To me, assuming that the hijab was part of the issue since I've read other stories that say it was just a fraction of what the arguing was about, its more a story of a child who challenged her parent's rules and a parent whose reaction to that challenge got out of hand. There was a cultural aspect because of what they were allegedly fighting about but this story could have played out exactly the same way in other cultures or religious families.

So to me I just see the media's reporting as sensationalizing the story to get us to fall for that "evil Muslim" or that look how different these immigrants are from us angle that they would like us to always believe.

Yes the killing was unique because a Western raised non-Muslim would probably not be killed by a parent over a hijab but he/she might have been killed or attacked over dating someone from what was perceived as the wrong ethnicity or race, over wearing something that the parent considered improper or even not wanting to follow the parents religious beliefs. It has happened before, it will happen again. Its the same thing just no hijab involved.

The problem is that our society likes to categorize incidents involving minorities. One drug dealer of black or Caribbean descent becomes all black men sell weed and carry guns and are in general dangerous. One Muslim father who went way too far in disciplining his child becomes look at these Islamic folk. See how they behave and why cant they just assimilate to the dominant culture. Its a reinforcement of the fear of the unknown and the different. Different means scary in these parts and these stories reinforce this.

Somehow the positives never get distributed that evenly do they?

To be honest when I first heard the story my thoughts were look how teenage rebellion can go wrong. Look how she play she disobeying the old man and the man get ig'rant and kill she just so.

Teenagers can get on your last damn nerve regardless of their culture and some parents do see red when they think that their child is disobeying some fundamental tenet of their law. As a West Indian I've heard plenty of stories of parents who would throw at or lash their kids with whatever was handy including shoes, clothes irons etc if the kid disobeyed them or as we would say in Barbados "feel dat duh big" or "get too big for he/she boots".

I'm not saying that's right I'm just saying that is/was how it was. I've head similar stories from other cultures.

The facts are parents need to discipline kids. They don't need to throw stuff at them or choke them to death or indeed get violent to do it but they need to exert strong discipline. Everyone does this differently and sometimes stuff gets out of hand as it apparently did with Asqa and her dad. Don't get me wrong its a dreadful story and her father deserves full punishment because parents should protect their children not kill them.

But its a story that's not unique to any culture or religion as some media outlets would have you believe. No need for cultural or religious labels this is simply a tragedy.

Rest in Peace Aqsa. What a sad way to go.

Church Shooting

I guess one isn't safe anywhere these days.

I'm referring to the folk who were killed in a church in Colorado yesterday.

What I find interesting though is that the gunman was shot by a security guard at the church. (OK disclaimer I really haven't followed all the info on this incident particularly closely so forgive me if I'm wrong but the reports said the gunman was shot by church security.)

Whoa! Hold up! Did I miss something? Since when Church had security guards? I neva been to church with security guards have you? I mean I know earlier this year I mek joke about fete church but security at church? Armed security at church! Fa real?

Blouse n skirt!

Church must really turn into bashment. Wha kinda rowdiness a gwan at church that dem need security guard. OK so it did come in handy this one time but church shootings are not a norm are they? I reminded of that Shaggy's recent Church Heathen song. Maybe next we will see dress code at church. Actually hmmm that might not be such a bad idea. Make it so number one.

I'll leave it there though and not make any comments about these watered down mega churches and their self-help Tony Robbins style sermons.

All I have to say is things ruff when church have armed security. Wow!

Random

Ok a few stories that caught my attention.

- The MinnesotaVikings fined one of their players for missing a game two Sundays ago because he had to attend the funeral of his grandmother. His grandmother who raised him as a kid. Damn that's cold.

- While I feel for Kanye's lost I just think its so senseless that she died during elective surgery.

-kid gets killed for brandishing a hairbrush. damn! reminds me of that Michael Moore skit where he said black men shouldn't carry dark colored wallets

-Man in India marries a dog. No no no, fa real I mean a actual female dog, no fa real no insult the man marry a real mutt. Seriously. Ah hell no one will believe me anyway.

-Remember the judge who sued the dry cleaners. I blogged about it a while back. Well he lost his job. Cuhdear!

-Black girl suspended for purple hair. Good for her, she feel she name Prince or what. Oh wait he had purple rain not hair my bad.

-Michael Jordan's divorce is costing him 168 Mil. Van Dammmmm!

Seriously there was more but I cant remember where it went. Oh well enjoy.

Scary

I wake up grateful that I'm breathin first
Cause dudes'll kill you, they don't need a reason first!
These ***** still hit em
They know the hood is too poor to hire CSI, and Gil Grissom

Ol School Mouse - Joe Budden

Not been in the blogging mood lately to be honest. Life's happening and I'm not really in a blogging zone.

But yesterday a 15 year old was gunned down in the halls of his high school here in the T.Dot and folks keep asking me what my thoughts are. I usually wait until all the info is in to process whats going on but this time I'll just shoot (bad but not intentional pun) without all the details so here goes.

On the one hand I wouldn't say that I was shocked that this occurred because black youth have been getting killed in Toronto at what to me is a ridiculous rate in the last couple of years but on the other hand I really feel for the loved ones of this lost one.

Cranky is surprised that no one saw anything or has come forward yet. Me not so much. The don't snitch, see n blind hear n deaf attitude is prevalent in Toronto as much as it is anywhere else in North America if not more much to my chagrin. Or maybe its just an atmosphere of fear where you keep quiet because there is threat of retaliation. I really cant say as I don't move in those circles. Whatever it is its a shame however you look at it.

From my perspective the story is also quite scary. Yes its really scary that this happened in a schools hallways and all but its also scary for another reason.

I used to worry about becoming a statistic a lot when I was a bit younger now I'm more afraid for my son. Yea he's still a baby but dammit if I ain't already fearful for his future. I mean its bad enough in my opinion raising black kids especially sons in this society where they are undermined, looked on as thugs, and told they aren't good enough at every turn but now you got to deal with the possibility that at some point they could just get randomly killed because well just because. And don't give me the its a ghetto thing argument cause that's not true because there are black families from all socio-economic strata in this community dealing with these issues and fears.

My wife thinks I'm joking but I'm giving the issue of packing up and leaving this place some serious thoughts. Yea shit like this could happen anywhere you go but that don't mean you need to accept it, stay put and court danger.

Sometimes the public assumes that these kids and young men must be guilty of some crime somehow and that's why they got killed. I tend to think that many of them are innocents or kids who just got caught up in the wrong place at the wrong time or who were killed for some trivial argument that really shouldn't have gone past a raised voice.

They are now saying that he may have been killed over some firework prank he pulled the previous day. You have got to be kidding me.

Its messed up out there man.

Anyway when Jane Creba got killed there was crazy outrage and demands for change. Lets see what happens here. Rest in peace Jordan.