What happening arong de region boy?

I not only does be asking mihself dat, buh I does go an’ get answers. I find it good tuh look arong an’ see how de neighbors doing. Not fuh gloating, buh tuh get ah sense as tuh eef, ‘is just you’.

Is just you struggling wid harden chirren?

Is just you who house ramshackle?

Is just you driving ah ole arse car dat does smoke more dan you?

Is just by you everybody does be always fighting?

Alternatively, eef yuh is ah country:.

Is just you dat have dotish leaders?

Is just you where people does say de police, ‘too wicked?’

Is just you where communities does get so damn frustrated dat dey does see de only way tuh get needed attention is tuh bun rubbish in de middle ah de road an’ get everybody else blasted vex by de inconvenience?

Is just your criminals constantly forcing de redefinition of what ‘normal’ mean?

Is just ah good idea tuh not be overly parochial an’ tink everyting could be solved if only dem in charge would do tings different, or tink dat is only, ‘by you’, tings does happen so yuh always shame.

Ah leaving now tuh make ah small run arong de region an’ see how answers shaping up.

Guyana up fuss.

Ask people who motto is, ‘One people, One Nation, One Destiny’, an’ most eh go know. Ask dem where Jonestown an’ de Peoples Temple happen an’ ah tink you go get more right answers. Both places is Guyana, so forget Google.

Guyana is ah interesting place tuh me. Dat is de onlyest place where I see dey does call dey police officers ‘ranks’. Plus, dey newspapers does use military time in dey reporting. Tings does happen at 23:15 hours an’ ting. Anyting I read happen after 12.00 and ah does have tuh do maths tuh figure what time it was oui.

Ah notice when Guyanese vex wid de Caribbean, dey does pull out ah, we-is-actually-de onlyest-English-speaking-country-in-South-America-so-take-allyuh-Caribbean-and-shove-it-someplace-dark, card. When Barbados was demanding all illegals find dey way home, it turn out plenty ah dem who was indeed illegal had tuh look towards Guyana. Ah few even get help packing by de Bajan authorities. Well dat make Guyana blasted vex an’ some ah dem start reading from dat, ‘we-is-actually-de onlyest blah blah blah’, card.

While de country struggling on many fronts, wid de focus on providing sustainable levels of service tuh citizens, crime continues tuh be ah major picker.

If dey CoP introduced ah police initiative tuh upgrade dey police force, I eh tink he would call it ‘21^st Century Policing’ nah. He would have tuh have several initiatives, over many years tuh reach dey.

Larse month, September time, de former CoP get kill in ah car crash. He had left de job before dat because of what was ah inflammatory an’ unbelievable accusation against him.

Rape.

Some woman claim she went tuh him fuh help an’ end up wid he helping heself tuh she against she consent. It was ah explosive charge an’ his initial response was perplexing. He tork bout having tuh meet wid he lawyer an’ she lawyer an’ find out why she was sayin’ what she was sayin’. In de end, he say it wasn’t rape. She wanted he like he wanted she. Regardless, it happen when he was on de clock and it eh get de kind of immediate attention it needed. Fuh four months it had dis interesting scenario of de head of de police still on de job wid ah serious charge hanging over he head while he lawyers trying tuh prevent him facing ah judge or losing he wuk. I wonder if tuh de man in de street, dis eh how it was sounding:

‘You fire him!’

 ‘Me? Why me? Why you doh do it? Yuh fraid he or what? Ent you de borse?

 ‘Yes I is de borse, dat is why ah telling you do it!’

None of it said in Trinispeak of course.

Finally de accused went on leave, den he submit he resignation. When he dead in dat car crash, de outpouring of grief was minimal an’ lukewarm tuh me.

It have ah commission of inquiry going orn now into ah next rank action. Dis one is ah huge ting although de one wid de rape charge was no small change. Dis is de story:

It recently had ah protest march against electricity rates an’ ah bridge in ah place call Linden geh block. De regular ranks move in along wid riot police. After de people geh tell tuh behave deyself, unblock de bridge an’ go home, gunfire break out an’ three protestors fall dead. Even doh all fingers was pointing at de police, de police wasn’t admittin’ shootin’ nobody. De place get hot wid continued demonstrations an’ buildings getting’ bun dong. It wasn’t shaping up tuh be no ten-day wonder nah wid de people even callin’ fuh de president tuh visit de area. Foreign experts geh called in tuh help examine de bodies an’ determine what kind ah gun(s) geh used. Finally, de commission of inquiry was scheduled wid Jamaica an’ T&T getting ask fuh help.

In de inquiry so far, de acting CoP say lethal force was unjustified. He call de Division Commander in charge during de protest, ah, ‘short man with a hot temper’. When de short man tork, he say he eh had no authority over de riot squad dat was on de scene and people tink do de shooting.

What I get from all de back an’ forth is dat in de Guyana Police Force, ah rankin’ police officer cyar do nuttin widout calling he borse. While people stonin’ he ranks, de hot temper man was on de phone updating he borse. Buh he do he own castrating too. He take ah ‘tear smoke’ canister from one ah he lesser ranks an’ pelt dat, den he take ah gun from ah next one an’ fire dat.

In de middle ah all de action, one ah de ranks get ah cell-phone call. On de udder end was protestors. Dey tell him dat dey recognize he face and dey goin’ by he mudder tuh stone she house.

On de economic front, from what ah could tell, de gap between de rich an’ poor is not really ah gap as yuh could bridge ah gap. De poor in Guyana really scrunting an’ some ah dem pictures I see of where dey does live an’ what dey does call dey ‘home’, does leave mih shakin’ mih head.

One T&T dollar go get yuh about $31.75 cents in Guyanese money. Dat mean fuh one US dollar ah Guyanese go get about $204 of he money.

On the ruling front, de govahment does buy pirated text books tuh supply to stores tuh sell tuh parents fuh dey chirren to take tuh school tuh learn dey A,B,Cs from.

Ah go wait fuh dat tuh sink in. An’ yes, ah did say ‘pirated text books’.

What is ah ‘pirated text book’? From what I understand it is ah school book ah entrepreneur buy an’ den proceed tuh copy over an’ over an’ over an’ den sell de copies tuh people who cyar afford de original book.

At roughly three dollars fuh ah copied copy versus ten fuh ah original, ah govahment official call it, ‘value fuh money’. Dat value disappearing farse now dat de practice out in de open, an’ some publishers’ association in London threatening ah lawsuit in de govahment baxide.

T&T does geh caught up in Guyanese tings far more dan de udder way arong an’ more often dan de average Trini realize. It sound like when anyting big happen somebody dey does end up using de word, ‘Trinidad’. Ah was watching ah clip of de protest and somebody off-camera ask if people tink dat could happen in Trinidad. Exactly what de ‘dat’ was, I eh know. Buh I venture to say dat in some circles Guyanese see T&T as de kind ah big brudder dey want dey country to be like when it grow up. When de Golden Jaguars beat de lame-arse Soca Warriors, eliminating dem from de World Cup prelims boy Guyana went crazy. Dey was ready tuh bestow knighthood on de coach. Dat coach? Ah Trini. Ah tink he ban from Triniland now. Still, ah suspect Trinis would wonder eef dem Guyanese mad tuh look up tuh T&T so.

I eh ignoring de issue of race in Guyana. It right there and it raw. I eh know about udder places but de successful Guyanese ex-pats I does see are mainly one ethnicity. What dat mean? I go tink about it and when ah wrap up dis tour ah go express mih torts.

Well night reach an’ ah still in Guyana. It too dark tuh continue. I tort I could ah hit all mih stops in one swoop buh dat eh go happen at dis hour so ah pitching tent. When de next stop start it go be tuh ah island. Dat, ah promising.

After all de stopping over, mih plan is tuh name all de places ah get de information I eh make up. Dat way people go know who tuh tell tanks fuh what.