Dissent, Power, and Politics

Well, from Jamaica, this is interesting:

PM Golding has invoked the Staff Orders rule that says governmental officials must keep their traps shut when their individual positions conflict with existing gov’t policy. Not an atypical move for him to make. But, it really does and should sweet us when we see cracks in the veneer of retrograde, unsubstantiated policies, that come in the form of truth-telling, even if the labba-mouth will probably lose their jobs.

Gagging Dissent « LONG BENCH

Especially given the exchange that's been occurring on Rick Lowe's BlogBahamas and Larry Smith's Bahama Pundit about the responsibility of civil servants to speak out about the wrongs and the cracks in the society.

Here's the source of Long Bench's commentary.

President of the Jamaica Civil Service Association, Wayne Jones, said the Government's Staff Orders outline a mode of behaviour for public officers, as it relates to their interaction with the public.

Jones told The Gleaner yesterday that Section 4.4 of the order points to how government material or documents should be shared with the media through the permanent secretary, head of department or designated spokespersons.Jones said Harvey would not be able to express a personal view, particularly on topical issues, without the media and other persons in society construing it to be government thinking.He acknowledged that public officials would be faced with situations where they might be asked to express a professional or personal view on a matter.

Come on, people of the Caribbean.  Do or do we not live in democracies? What is the responsibility of those of us employed in governments to our nation?  What is gained by the kinds of restrictions applied to civil servants that are outlined in the documents we inherited from the Brits (who remain subjects, and not citizens, in their own land, by the way)?  Weren't they written when only a small number of people worked for government, and when our lands were colonies anyway and when freedom of speech was not something anyone had at all?  Why are they still being invoked today, when our governments are major (in The Bahamas' case, the largest) employers?  Does this not seem to be at odds with the idea of a democracy?

Nevertheless.  General Orders stands.  Our Rules of Conduct may be found here.  Go read for yourself.

Shout-Out to Eemanee & Long Bench

Hypocrisy & HIV in the Caribbean (Eemanee)

Responses to HIV in the Caribbean are hampered by an entrenched hypocrisy, homophobia and false trotting out of “christian” values when convenient. meanwhile people continue to have sex, all kinds of sex, a lot of it unsafe.We feel free to talk around sex, to joke about sex, to sing about sex, to simulate sex, to have sex but we refuse to really talk about it- to talk about power and pleasure and vulnerability. So JFLAG, the Caribbean’s most progressive gay rights group, has been blocked from attending a UN meeting on HIV/AIDS and Jamaica’s poster girl for the Ministry of Health’s HIV education programme has been fired for getting pregnant! The heads continue to suffocate in the sand!As part of my job, i accompanied a group of young people all between 14 and 17 at an HIV Education workshop. Before the facilitators could begin one girl inquired loudly whether or not condoms would be distributed.“No!”“Well, how yuh supposed to protect yuhself without condoms?”“That’s what we’re going to teach you today.”

 When Women Violate The 5 Commandments (Long Bench) 

I’ve been thinking about sex a lot these days. And I’ve come up with the 5 Commandments that women are asked to follow here in Jamaica:1. Have as much sex as you want.2. Hide what you are doing at all costs.3. Tell one ‘hole ‘eap a lie when yuh buck yuh toe an mek dem see seh yuh fall dung.4. Expect all k’i'na fiyah fi bun fi yuh when backra fine out.5. Lie dung an beg fi mercy like sey yuh a ‘ungry belly mongrel dog.And those of us who, for all kinds of reasons, decide not to abide by all of these commandments - well, a pyere problems, yes? Kwame Dawes just wrote a really insightful piece in the Washington Post about Annesha Taylor, who was the poster girl for the Ministry of Health’s public education campaign about HIV/AIDS. Just like Sara Lawrence, the Miss Jamaica World 2006 who was the target of public scorn and hypocrisy when she disclosed that she was pregnant last year, Annesha was immediately disappeared by MOH when she disclosed that she too was bearing a child.

"Red"

Geoffrey Philp reads a poem here, called "Red". It's about being in between.As Philp writes:

And while this poem does not adhere strictly to the form [the ghazal], it did allow me to play with the word "red," which at the start of the poem refers to a biracial person or "half-caste."

  [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3dO8DKZr3g&w=425&h=349]

Freedom from Tyranny, Freedom from Fear

My father has been dead for twenty-one years. Is there a day when I don't think about him? Probably not, as I sit in his chair and attempt to restore the work that he did in the heady early years of our life as an independent nation. Certainly not, when I survey the land that he worked hard to plant seeds in, to create Bahamian citizens who were proud and free and self-aware.During the heady years leading up to Independence, when people were waxing patriotic, my father wrote music. The most famous of his songs, of course, is "When the Road Seems Rough". But my favourite, I think, is the anthem "Praise". Here it is, being sung by the CARIFESTA Chorale in 2006 at the closing ceremonies of CARIFESTA X.So the reason I'm thinking about my father today lies in the words to that hymn:

Praise to God the Almighty Creator,We render thanks to you in humble prayer.Guide us as we make these fair isles our homeland,Keep us forever safe in thy care.We will establish, guard and cherishFreedom from tyranny, freedom from fearGreat God, Deliverer, we praise Thee, we thank Thee,Bless us, Thy servants, forevermore.

And the reason that they come to mind today is that more and more often we're hearing stories -- apocryphal perhaps, but perhaps true -- that, thirty-five years after my father wrote those words, Bahamians are not living free from tyranny or fear.I don't think it matters who the tyrants are. At the moment, they're faceless. Sometimes they're the agents of the state, as was the case with the Millar's Creek incident -- which we haven't heard anything officially about. Sometimes they're outlaws, as was the case with the men who shot the tourist on Cable Beach, or the people who spent time spraying the former Prime Minister's house with bullets.Sometimes they're the thought police, who want to stand between us and our words. There's a controversy going on in writing circles these days. It's specifically to do with the Wednesday night spoken word celebration Express Yaself; one of the regulars has been banned from attending, and has allegedly had her poetry turned over to the authorities by her parents. I don't know enough about that incident to follow it up. It was published in the Tribune last week, but as that paper doesn't publish online, I can't link the story for you. What I can do is link to the commentary that it provoked, or post that on this blog.At any rate. I don't know what more to say on this topic, given that I don't know enough. But let me say that this morning I woke up feeling as though there was a thick gummy layer of gelatine over my head -- something too thick and yielding to ever push through -- and I began to think about my father's song, "Praise".Let us all work towards creating a homeland in which we are free from tyranny and fear. If we don't, we will have no home at all.

Changing Pace

Underwater Sculpture Park in Grenada, West Indies by Jason de Caires Taylor [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X33698McQ7g&w=425&h=373]I came across this gem while surfing poets' websites. It took my breath away.Go have a look.  Let's tip our hats to the dream that became amazingly, hauntingly, real.VicissitudesGrace Reef 

National Poetry Month

I mentioned this a couple of weeks ago, and am posting (irregularly) the poems I'm writing daily.

But I wanted to note that Geoffrey Philp has been doing a daily update on Caribbean poets all month long. You can find it here.

Today's is particularly good: Anthony McNeill (Jamaica):Somebody is hanging:a logwood treeladen with blossomsin a deep wood.The body stirs leftin the wind ...

He was the Greatest of Us All

R.I.P., Aimé Césaire.Cesaire's best known works included the essay "Negro I am, Negro I Will Remain" and the poem "Notes From a Return to the Native Land."His works also resonated in Africa. Former Senegalese President Abdou Diouf said Cesaire led a noble fight against hate."I salute the memory of a man who dedicated his life to multiple wars waged on all battlefields for the political and cultural destiny of his racial brothers," Diouf said.Born June 26, 1913, in Basse-Pointe, Martinique, Cesaire moved to France for high school and university. He returned to Martinique during World War II and served as mayor from 1945 to 2001, except in 1983-84.Cesaire helped Martinique shed its colonial status in 1946 to become an overseas department. As the years passed, he remained firm in his views.

--from the Miami Herald

Edit: Geoffrey Philp has an excellent article, here.

CARIFESTA XI

For people who haven't been paying attention, it turns out that The Bahamas is going to host CARIFESTA after all, earlier than originally announced.

Trinidad and Tobago has agreed to let The Bahamas host the Caribbean Festival of Creative Arts (CARIFESTA) in 2010, Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham announced Saturday.

He made the disclosure during a press conference at the conclusion of the Caricom conference, held in Nassau last week. The Bahamas was supposed to host the festival in 2012, but Trinidad and The Bahamas have swapped places. This will be the first time the country has hosted the festival.

Source: The Nassau Guardian Online

Bribery and Corruption

One of the clichés about the so-called third world is that nothing can get done without some money--personal money--changing hands.  It's not that you have to pay for everything you get; unless you live in some land touched by socialist thinking (i.e. almost every land, save the USA) you have to pay for plenty of stuff.  It's that you have to pay again, to hand over money to induce some civil servant to do the job you're already paying him (or her).One of the fortunate things about living in The Bahamas--so far--is that that kind of corruption is not a pervasive feature of our society.Now this is true of the Caribbean in general.  While it's certainly true that the civil service works slowly, and, for some people, paying money makes things happen faster, it's still possible to get what is due to us by waiting, by going through the channels, by doing things the right way.Correct me if I'm wrong.  Maybe I'm being a starry-eyed idealist as I write this.   But it seems to me that the kind of corruption that exists--for now--in our society mirrors the kind of corruption that exists in many small-scale governments, from local councils and municipal governments in places like the UK, the USA and Canada:  you call in favours, draw upon who-you-know.  It's only when you want to contravene the law, to outright cheat the system, that you pay bribes.Like when you want to get voters' cards, and you're not entitled to them.Or when you want to put up a business in a residential neighbourhood.Or when you want to get a driver's licence without having to pass the driving exam. Or when you want to get your phone hooked up before BTC gets around to doing it themselves.I read this article today, courtesy of Global Voices.  Here's what it could be like, if we let it:

I do have to say though that I do actively resist paying bribes, mostly because it bugs the hell out of me that people have so easily fallen into an expectation that ‘backhanders’ should be given for every little thing they do. There was a time when bribes were a way to smooth extremely difficult or lengthy processes. Now it seems we need to bribe ordinary people just to get off their bottoms and do ordinary jobs.

 In my case I had ‘no choice’ (that easy excuse): the failure to bribe would have caused me all sorts of personal paperwork problems and it was very clear from all the hurdles being thrown up that the government official I was dealing with had no intention of even blinking unless I gave him money.

So, R10, given to an intermediary to pass on (because I am chicken) suddenly produced activity and papers. It was so easy.

It worries me that it was so easy. Am I better off, as a person, for realising how easy it is to make my life a bit better with a bit of foreign cash? I think not. I can see now how so many fall into a pattern of bribing, their casual acceptance that bribing makes life easy leading to a casual expectation from all officials that accepting cash is the way to go.

So far, my experience as a civil servant has been that while there are scores, probably hundreds, of government employees who are accustomed to doing no more than is absolutely required of them, who do as little as possible to keep their jobs, who underperform with impunity, the average government official does not yet expect to be paid to do the basics expected of them. Not yet. But what is there to stop us from going the way of Zimbabwe, of fulfilling the myth that attaches to third-world societies?More on that later. For now, time to think.

Race/Colour in Barbados « Eemanee

Race/Colour in Barbados « what crazy looks likeEemanee blogs about race and colour, and throws out the following thoughts:

Even when we remind ourselves of just how fluid and contested race is we fail to reveal that race is in itself a fiction.When we refuse to see the difference between historical racial privilege and racial slurs we foreclose on any opportunity to dismantle the fiction of race.And when we recognise race as constructed we refuse to see its construction does not make it any less real.

What does it mean to be this Caribbean writer? - Tobias Buckell

What does it mean to be this Caribbean writer? at Tobias Buckell OnlineGot to this post courtesy of Nalo Hopkinson.edit: Back with comments:Tobias Bucknell writes about being a multiracial SF writer, and what response he gets when he identifies as such. For instance:

I jokingly have been called ‘an undercover brother.’ Vin Diesel calls people like me ’shadow people,’ neither one race nor the either due to circumstances and self-identity, and considers himself one, yet another reason for my close attention to his career.Things came to a head a couple days ago with a few emails challenging me to prove that I was actually multi-racial and not just a ‘poser’ who wanted the ‘advantages’ of being hip and multi-racial.For some people, any attempt to identify in ways that they can’t control are troublesome....... I was born on the island of Grenada, West Indies, and is one of the two Caribbean islands that shape what I think of as home. Grenada, with it’s spice and colorful flowers and deep jungles and people, that is my first home. No matter how split my parents are, my cousins and aunts and uncles are all Grenadian and that is the blood that runs through my veins because of my father. I can’t deny or wish to change that, it’s simply who I am. And I’m proud to have been born there and lived there for the first nine years of my life.

Go read it. Some interesting stuff to think about and to discuss.Thanks, Nalo.

Here's a shout-out

to all my peeps (and others) in Haiti, Cuba, Jamaica, Cayman, Belize, and everyone else affected by Hurricane Dean.Batten up, hunker down, and wait it out.  Our thoughts and prayers are with you.

Something to think about

The Barbadian national budget communication.The Barbadian Budget replyI found both on the Nation (the Bajan newspaper) site. While we bask in our smug conviction of our superiority in every way, it would be instructive to have a look at how Barbados is designing its economy to meet the demands of the 21st century.Then compare it with our plans. (Do we have plans? Or do we just have rhetoric?) Compare it with our budget communication, anyway.(To compare it with our other budget communications, go here for the budget archive.Last year's budget communication.)Draw your own conclusions.

Kadooment? Junkanoo?

This post by Dennis Jones about the Bajan Kadooment festival this year is interesting, specially in what it says about the similarities and differences between the two.Here's an excerpt:

We spent some time over the weekend arguing about the cultural content of Kadooment compared to Junkanoo (see link), which is a similar street event that takes place in The Bahamas (principally, in Nassau) over the Christmas and New Year period. I think every one of the Caribbean countries has strong feelings about its main people-in-the-streets event, whether Carnival, Kadooment, or Junaknoo or whatever. A lot of effort and energy is put in by all involved. In Barbados and Trinidad, for instance, costumes are mainly made for the performers to buy and wear. In The Bahamas, most performers spend a good amount of time making their own costumes (see picture of performer in Nassau).Each event has its own cultural richness, which comes from what people put into their part of the event (participating on the street or supporting from the side). It's funny, though, that the events seem to be mired in some sort of controvery each year, wherver they are held. In Nassau, one of the major controversies each year is about the judging. The festivals are also developing. Junkanoo costumes are essentially paper (now crepe) and card. Traditionalists may still feel that the event has good very far from its origins by moving from fringed newspaper, to now include beads, glitter, and feathers. If the style is to have costumes made for sale, so be it; this may give more people a chance to do what they want rather than finding scarce time to do another activity. It also creates another industry and that could be a benefit down the road (so to speak) when one thinks about ways of marketing the region's culture. Both events are now very colourful and energetic, and still manage to get a lot of people out of their homes to watch or jump each year. Junkanoo is also different in that the bands have their own music (with drums, horns and cow bells, which give the parade a very different kind of energy as the bands pass the crowds).

Seven Wonders of the World

Well, the new Seven Wonders of the World have been announced.Not surprisingly, the Caribbean hasn't been included. Maybe one of the reasons is that we tend to think pretty small, with the result that we haven't created anything of the magnitude of the edifices listed here.  Maybe there are other reasons too, but let's just make a note of the fact for now.Bajegirl has chosen to rectify the oversight by posting her Seven Wonders of the Caribbean.  They are cool, but they're all natural.Needless to say, The Bahamas has not been included in that list. So let me just open this thread up for suggestions, and provide just three with which to begin:The Tongue of the OceanThe Andros Barrier ReefDeans Blue Hole, Long Island (words don't express)Anybody want to play?

On CARIFESTA 2008

This post can only serve as an announcement of some basic, bald information that has already been shared elsewhere.The Bahamas Government has taken the executive decision that The Bahamas will not be hosting the Caribbean Festival of Arts in 2008, believing that The Bahamas will be unprepared to host the Festival.Instead, The Bahamas has bid to host the Caribbean Festival of Arts in 2012.Related links:Bahama JournalNassau GuardianCaribbean Broadcasting CorporationAt this moment, I remain a civil servant. Please feel free to add your comments here if you like. I will be unable to respond to them. However, given my earlier posts on the topic, I believe that it is important that I acknowledge the decision of the Government on my blog.A broader discussion is occurring here.

The difficulty of writing a Caribbean Harry Potter

And no, the above doesn't mean what you might think.In fact, this topic goes right back to the "images of savages". As Geoffrey Philp observes in his comment thread,

I was just speculating on how one kind of magic can be totally evil and another can have both good and evil, when if you look at them through archetypal lens, they share similar mythological constructs.

The difficulty in our context is quite different, though. In the first place, the Caribbean has yet to integrate its mythology into something that can have both good and evil connotations, because it's a jigsaw kind of mythology. I often think about Eliot when I think about the construction of our societies, which are literal waste lands salvaged from the residue the masters left behind when they left: these fragments I have shored against my ruins.In this kind of context, the hope of creating something with both good and evil sides to it is virtually impossible. Our ancestors -- the Calibans and the Sambos and the Coolies of our past -- were the demons against whom the angels (our other ancestors, the masters, the Europeans, the messengers-of-light) stood. We were all the Voldemorts, Harry's Xango-sign notwithstanding (and it properly should be an axe anyway; perhaps he's more like Zeus after all); our masters, were the warriors of good, not us.Until we can face up to this history of ours, name it, and beat it back into its proper place with our own fiery sticks, I wonder, as Philp does, whether a Potter-type story for children is yet possible for us.Course, Nalo Hopkinson's doing pretty well for us grown-ups. Go Nalo!