Notes from a small island A weblog by Jonathan Ali

Monday, December 30, 2002   Why bother? When there’s going to be a war, rather a blitzkrieg in Iraq? When there is still no end in sight to the Israel/Palestine conflict? When there’s civil war rending Cote d’Ivoire? Another terrible famine staring Ethiopia down? When the dead are piling up in Chechnya? Nuclear brinkmanship in North Korea? Why bother when Venezuela is barely able to prop itself up from collapse? Why bother when Trinidad’s murder rate keeps spiraling ever upwards? And Tobago’s Aids rate? When our two main racial groups appear to be at the greatest divide they’ve ever known? And politics as usual frustratingly keeps us from any real progress? Why bother when so much of the world continues to live in absolute filth and squalor, under oppression of one form or another, not really living, but simply existing, in an endless, mirthless sea of misery and suffering, as their parents and their parents’ parents did before them? Why bother, when every effort, every gesture to try alleviate poverty, hunger, disease, hatred, and conflict worldwide seems piffling and ultimately useless? Why? Because we have no other choice. Not if we care, not if we feel that there is a point to it all, which isn’t to let things be, and let them all just work themselves out, or be worked out by (enter munificent deity of choice here). Not if we feel that this world could be a place filled with beauty, with joy, with love. No. If we feel any sense of duty or obligation – wherever such a sense comes from – to mankind, if we feel at all that happiness, freedom, justice, a good quality of life are not risible ideals but real, attainable qualities that are not just worth fighting for but demand to be fought for, then we have no other choice. Pope John XXIII (I believe – one does tend to lose track) said the greatest sin of our time was the loss of a sense of sin. No. Our greatest sin – our greatest failing, rather – has to be our loss of imagination. Our utter inability to transcend the greed, the jealousy, the prejudices and look to truly find ways to cure all that plagues us. To put truth above all else and strive to maintain it in every aspect of our lives, always. It cannot be that hard, not if we believe that what is right, what is true, as opposed to what is easy, expedient and safe, must be the way to go. Yet we continue to wallow in apathy, selfishness and stupid sanctimoniousness, unwilling to condemn, willing even to condone what is unfair, what is unjust, what is simply wrong. Too often not by act, but by omission, by silence we let the unthinkable, once, twice, three times happen, and soon we’re wondering how things got to be as bad as they are. We are all to blame, and we are all to help, if only we’d just use our imagination. “Few men seem to realize how many of the evils from which we suffer are wholly unnecessary, and that they could be abolished by a united effort within a few years. If a majority in every civilized country so desired, we could, within twenty years, abolish all abject poverty, quite half the illness in the world, the whole economic slavery which binds down nine tenths of our population; we could fill the world with beauty and joy, and secure the reign of universal peace. It is only because imagination is sluggish, and what always has been is regarded as what always must be. With good-will, generosity, intelligence, these things could be brought about.” - Bertrand Russell posted by Jonathan | 11:57 PM 0 comments   Last week I took him to task over the Roy Dubay case; today I fully endorse Kim Johnson's opposition to the ubiquitous presence of ketchup in local cuisine: 'Not that I have anything against ketchup. A hamburger isn’t a hamburger unless it has a dollop. Without it fries soon become too boring to be worth the effort. 'Too besides, it’s supposed to prevent prostate cancer. 'Nor have I any objection to culinary innovativeness. Some of our most wonderful haute cuisine was created by that restless Trini urge to try a thing. Or maybe that Trini ignorance as to how it should properly be done. 'I love it, even if I don’t use much. A touch of this, a dash of that, and I good to go. 'So I have no problem with either ketchup or novelty, but the two combined — no thanks. Why would an adult want to put ketchup on pizza? 'Children I understand. “Polymorphous perversity,” is how Freud put it. They can eat things forbidden to adult palates. 'Yet it is much worse to see someone buy a box of Chinese take away, say, char siu kai fan, and submerge it under ketchup, so that the bits of pork gristle become mere islands in a sea of red. 'What next, roti? Boil corn? How about ice cream? 'Officer, I’m willing to be a witness. This thing must be stamped out.' Call me up, too. I can think of no greater culinary crime than the one with ketchup perpetrated daily in homes and eating establishments across this nation, the red plastic squirt bottle the usual weapon of choice, the person wielding it with such impudent abandon himself the victim. As I wrote in the Roy Dubay post, the law exists to protect people from themselves - perhaps there should condiment abuse legislation to save us from drowning in that awful sea of red. 'Tell me what you eat, and I'll tell you who you are,' the saying goes. I truly shudder to think what our ketchup fetish says about us. posted by Jonathan | 8:47 AM 0 comments Sunday, December 29, 2002   I was gearing myself up for a huge post on the crime situation in T&T, but Nicholas went and beat me to it. He also went one better and added an excellent post on the link between the crime situation and education. (To this end, I believe civics, and ethics - as distinct from religious education - should be on all primary and secondary school curricula.) Anyway, instead, here's a post on something Nick would never deign to touch, cricket. The 15-man squad for the World Cup has been announced. Brian Lara is in (not that I ever really doubted he would be) and so is Nixon McLean, the Vincentian pacer out of favour with the WI selectors for a few years now, but included because of his past two seasons playing in South Africa, where the World Cup is being held. Selector Vivian Richards says McLean's inclusion is part of the team's "horses for courses" strategy, which also sees veteran quickie Vasbert Drakes, with six seasons of experience playing in South Africa, also getting a call up. Funny how they never talk that "horses for courses" stuff when things are going well with the team. While the batting has recently shown definite improvement, the bowling is at the least wobbly, and the inclusion of both Drakes and McClean smacks of desperation. I think it highly unfair that the promising young Jamaican Darren Powell is being left out at the expense of one of these two. As for Lara...well, once again, it would seem that the WICB continues to hold him to a different standard to the other players. The question at hand, however, is at whose expense will Lara's place on the team be? Here is the full squad and the team's first round itinerary: Carl Hooper (Capt), Ridley Jacobs (vice-capt), Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Pedro Collins, Corey Collymore, Mervyn Dillon, Vasbert Drakes, Chris Gayle, Wavell Hinds, Brian Lara, Jermaine Lawson, Nixon McLean, Ricardo Powell, Marlon Samuels, Ramnaresh Sarwan. WEST INDIES’ FIRST-ROUND MATCHES Feb 9 v South Africa, Newlands, Cape Town Feb 13 v New Zealand, St. George’s Park, Port Elizabeth Feb 18 v Bangladesh, Willowmoore Park, Benoni Feb 23 vs Canada, SuperSport Park, Centurion Feb 28 vs Sri Lanka, Newlands, Cape Town Mar 4 vs Kenya, De Beers Diamond Oval, Kimberley posted by Jonathan | 3:39 PM 0 comments   It was the playwright Arthur Miller who said, "A good newspaper is a nation talking to itself, I suppose." I agree completely, and bring up the point because a few people have mentioned to me that many of my posts on this blog involve me quoting stories and opinions from newspapers, particularly T&T's two main dailies, the Express and the Guardian. While this is true, I do not however, simply cut and paste. I add my own two cents' worth as well, as do most other bloggers who quote from the media. In this way, blogging is, as a friend put it, a media critiquing tool, and one that it would seem is gaining steady ground and legitimacy. I just think that if a newspaper is a nation talking to itself, then what I do here is in its own little way, the self talking back. posted by Jonathan | 3:16 PM 0 comments Saturday, December 28, 2002   In or out? That's the question being asked of West Indies batsman Brian Lara and his place on the team for the World Cup in South Africa come February. Jamaican journalist and sports writer Tony Becca, according to a Trinidad Guardian article says he should be dropped now, both for his physical unpreparedness and his repeated insubordination both where West Indies and Trinidad & Tobago cricket are concerned. Meanwhile over in the Express, Barbadian writer and commentator Tony Cozier (who obviously has a crystal ball) reports that, having been given the all-clear by doctors to return to cricket, Lara "will be in the West Indies 15 for the World Cup who were picked over the past two days and are expected to be announced Monday". But what if he isn't chosen? What would happen then? Would planets tilt and mountains crumble and cities fall? Well Port of Spain might, but so what? Our capital could use an overhaul anyway. As our recent sojurn in the subcontinent showed, the West Indies have a talented cadre of young warriors eager and willing to take up the gauntlet. No, Lara's injuries and illnesses are not his fault (and his off the field indiscretions are another matter entirely) but if, in the interest of the team, it is decided he would be better off out of it then we all should accept the decision, for the greater good of the team. For the greater good: the philosophy we island people need to believe in if we are to even matter in this new world of gods and terrorists, and not just in cricket. posted by Jonathan | 10:21 AM 0 comments Friday, December 27, 2002   Won't Nicholas be pleased: WG Sebald's After Nature tops the Village Voice's favourite 25 books of the year list: 'The late maestro's initial act of literary imagination, only posthumously Englished, now stands as his accidental summa, a crepuscular blank-verse triptych that ranges across centuries and latitudes before arriving at his own coordinates.' One of my favourites, Ian McEwan's Atonement - 'an object lesson in what the novel—and only the novel—is still capable of' - comes in at number three. posted by Jonathan | 9:43 PM 0 comments   'What a relief to read criticism of South Asian fiction that is immune to "the desperate grasping for authenticity that produces . . . the mistress of spices, the heat and dust, the sweating men and women in lisping saris, brought together in arranged marriages, yes . . . and the whole hullabaloo in the guava orchard."' - The Village Voice verdict on Professor Amitava Kumar's new collection of essays, Bombay-London-New York. The review also opines that '(Kumar's) subjects—Arundhati Roy, V.S. Naipaul, and Hanif Kureishi, among others—would surely agree.' My memory is a bit faulty - weren't there a whole heap of spices and fruits in God of Small Things? posted by Jonathan | 9:31 PM 0 comments   Bye bye, Bina. Our woman in Karachi has decided to bring the curtain down on her blog, quoting a need to return to "serious writing" as the reason. Adaab aarz, Bina, and khuda hafiz. (Don't worry folks, the non-serious writing at Notes from a small island will continue.) posted by Jonathan | 9:00 PM 0 comments   The UK Guardian has announced its readers' picks for best articles of the year. Topping the list is an essay by Arundhati Roy, Not Again. (That's the name of the essay, not my thoughts on it.) Also on the list is a moving piece by the actor Woody Harrelson, I'm an American tired of American lies. Which way it moves you is another matter entirely. posted by Jonathan | 8:48 PM 0 comments   The race is over, apparently. The first human being has been cloned. A cult known as the Raelian sect, in association with a group known as Clonaid, claims to have cloned a human baby girl, which they have named Eve. No proof has yet been given to back this claim but the Raelians say scientists will be allowed to verify the cloning with DNA tests shortly. And when they do, I will have more to say, believe you me. posted by Jonathan | 8:40 PM 0 comments   From Infinity to oblivion? Harrack Balramsingh, president of the group Citizens for a Better Trinidad & Tobago, CBTT, has once again called for the Infinity bar at the St. Augustine campus of the University of the West Indies to be closed, according to a Trinidad Express story today: 'Balramsingh’s call came in a statement on the death of renowned psychiatrist of Dr Michael Beaubrun, who did extensive research on the effects of and prevention of alcoholism. 'Balramsingh said: “As a mark of respect for Professor Beaubrun, UWI should remove the Infinity Bar from the school compound because our highest educational institute needs to set an example for our youth. The late Professor was not in support of alcohol being sold at UWI during class hours nor did he believe that it was appropriate to have a bar on the compound of the school. Let’s heed the late Professor’s advice if we wish to have fewer crimes and broken homes.” 'Balramsingh also called on the government “to do all in its power to implement the breathalyser test in tribute to Beaubrun’s outstanding work in the prevention of substance abuse.”' I meant to post after Dr. Beaubrun's passing. His pioneering work in the field of psychiatry in T&T went a long way in helping this society understand mental illness, its causes and effects. (We still have a long, long way to go.) His call for the implementation of the breathalyser test, which sadly and stupidly continues to go unheeded, was notable. Dr. Beaubrun's understanding of alcohol as a depressant and its link to clinical depression was behind much of his thinking in his views towards alcohol. But a social phenomenon like alcohol consumption needs more than scientific reasoning to be brought to bear in understanding it. No doubt Dr. Beaubrun knew this; he never called for its outright prohibition. But people like Balramsingh don't help matters when they make unhelpful generalisations and staggering leaps in logic when they say things such as banning alcohol on the UWI compound would result in fewer crimes and broken homes. It may seem far fetched, but infantile attitudes like Balramsingh's towards such issues as alcohol are part of a mindset that continues to prevent us from becoming a serious nation. In any serious country, on any serious university campus, the campus bar is a hotbed of discussion, where the future leaders, thinkers, poets, artists come together with passions enflamed to debate the pressing issues, or just unwind after a day of slogging over mathematical formulae and literary theories. (It's also a place where drunken louts go to get wasted, but in serious countries people tolerate what they personally find undesirable along with what they do find desirable.) Unfortunately Balramsingh doesn't see it that way. To him UWI is 'school' with set hours, and the students are not adults, but children who need to be told what they can and cannot do. No doubt he sees the university experience as just as extension of secondary school, where one goes simply to take classes, learn by rote, not question, sit your exams quietly, get your degree and head off into the world of work. But perhaps I do agree with Balramsingh's call for a ban on Infinity, though not for his silly reasons, but because Infinity is not a campus bar worthy of the title, just a rum shop by another name. At least in rum shops you get some political talk, partisan though the views usually are. At Infinity all you get is an argument over whose game of pool it is next. posted by Jonathan | 8:32 AM 0 comments Thursday, December 26, 2002   All this was a long time ago, I remember, And I would do it again, but set down This set down This: were we led all that way for Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly, We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen Birth and Death, But had thought they were different; this Birth was Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death. We returned to our places, these Kingdoms, But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation, With an alien people clutching their gods. I should be glad of another death. - TS Eliot, "Journey of the Magi" posted by Jonathan | 6:49 PM 0 comments Tuesday, December 24, 2002   Bah humbug and a Merry Christmas to all my readers. See you in a couple of days. posted by Jonathan | 9:21 PM 0 comments   Desmond Hoyte's passing is the big regional news story these days, and Nicholas writes about it, noting with admiration that the former Guyanese President was instrumental in founding the Stabroek News, as well as the setting up of the Guyana Prize for Literature. He also quotes from yesterday's Stabroek News editorial, which paid glowing tribute to Hoyte. Thank goodness for today's Trinidad Guardian editoral: 'Mr Hoyte became Prime Minister and first Vice-President in 1984. After the death of Mr Burnham in August 1985, Mr Hoyte was made leader of the PNC and President of Guyana. He quickly confirmed himself in office with another rigged election. 'However, in spite of the succession of ministerial posts he had held, and his close identification with Mr Burnham’s state-planned economic policies, which had impoverished the country, Mr Hoyte moved Guyana towards an open economy, democracy and rapprochement with the International Monetary Fund. 'He was an able leader who showed great sensitivity in cultural matters and environmental awareness. He also sought to heal the ethnic wounds that divided Guyana, for which he was dubbed “Desmond Persaud”. 'Confident in his achievements, Mr Hoyte set the stage for fair elections in 1992, and went so far as to threaten to resign if PNC attacks on the electoral commission did not stop. 'Unfortunately, here Mr Hoyte departed from the path cleared by greater men, such as (Mikhail) Gorbachev. 'Mr Hoyte found it difficult to accept defeat. After a near-fatal heart attack, he returned to politics as Opposition Leader, and attempted to undo much of the good he had done as President. 'He blocked constitutional changes and the establishment of a race relations commission. 'His deep dislike for Janet Jagan, who was made President on the death of Cheddi Jagan, fuelled Mr Hoyte’s obstructionism. He launched a vicious campaign after losing the 1997 election, and promised to make Guyana ungovernable. 'Even after Mrs Jagan’s resignation, Mr Hoyte remained ready to condone political rioting and violence, and he kept the PNC out of Parliament. 'The overall result of Mr Hoyte’s political policies, which remained to the end subject to his explosive temper, contributed significantly to keeping the society ethnically polarised. 'Unable to sail with the winds of change, he tried to hold them back. It was a mistake for which Guyana continues to pay dearly.' posted by Jonathan | 8:08 AM 0 comments Monday, December 23, 2002   Kim Johnson in today's Trinidad Guardian takes up the case of Roy Dubay, the man who last week was sentenced to five years for rape, stemming from an incident in which he persuaded a woman that he was a mystic healer and needed to have intercourse with her to rid her of a demon, a case which I posted about. In his column (entitled "Don Juans beware!") Johnson expresses sympathy for Dubay and argues that the point of law on which Justice Soo Hoon instructed the jury, Dubay's false inducement of the young woman in question to obtain her consent, sets a dangerous precedent: 'Poor Mr Dubay. For his efforts he has been tried for larceny once (without success), and four times for rape. He has spent three years in jail awaiting trial, and now has been given an additional five years by Justice Alice York-Soo Hon. 'On the basis of what? Rape, in the Sexual Offences Act, includes sex obtained by false and fraudulent representations as to the nature of the act. 'Did Mr Dubay misrepresent the nature of the act? I think not. 'Such misrepresentation would be, for example, a claim, made by a gynecologist, that he was conducting an internal examination on his patient with a specially sensitive instrument. 'Justice York-Soo Hon didn’t punish Mr Dubay for pretending that he and his victim weren’t having sex; the judge punished him for the untruths he used to persuade his victim to have sex with him. 'Such a definition of rape must send shivers down the spine of every Don Juan. After all, who hasn’t stretched the truth, or abandoned it completely, when under the thrall of an urgent desire? 'How many scoundrels, while harbouring ulterior — or interior, if you may — motives, have claimed an impending divorce, promised eternal fidelity, and threatened to die of heartbreak if their love wasn’t reciprocated? 'Mr Dubay’s argument had the even more compelling premise that she, not he, would die if she didn’t extend her favours. 'But how different was it from the normal, much frowned upon but perfectly legal lyrics men often perpetrate?' I have no problem with Johnson batting for cads and lotharios if that is his desire, but on a point of law - and not just because he believes the victim, to use the local phrase, "Look fuh dat" - on a point of law he is mistaken. Johnson claims Dubay did not misrepresent the nature of the act. But this is exactly what he did do. Dubay told the young woman, in essence, that he was having intercourse with her, not for the purpose of obtaining gratification, but to rid her of a demon. In that case, then, the sex is not sex. The woman would not have seen it as sex, even if she "went along" and obliged Dubay. Everything she did, she did out of the (sadly mistaken) belief that Dubay would rid her of this non-existent demon. In fact, as Dubay had told her she would die if she did not have sex with him, she may well have "put more effort" into the act. Dubay's intent was to bring about the desired effect, and he succeeded, and so has rightly paid the price. What Johnson also fails to take note of is a primary maxim of the legal system: Take your victim as you find him. (Nick probably knows the Latin phrase.) No matter how foolish the young woman was (and she was, very, very foolish) she was in no way intentionally complicit in her own duping. She genuinely believed she was possessed by a demon and that the only way to get rid of it was to have intercourse with the convicted. Madame Justice Soo Hon, the attorneys, the jury, everyone in the court may have believed personally that this woman was a complete idiot to fall for Dubay's ploy, but that doesn't matter. One of the reasons the law exists is to protect people from themselves, no matter how stupid their actions; in fact, it is so designed knowing that humans are capable of engaging in the most unbelievably asinine acts. I hope the next time Johnson decides to take on such a delicate legal issue, he won't be so cavalier and instead does his homework. posted by Jonathan | 1:11 PM 0 comments   Goodness. Bina seems to really have a bee in her bonnet over the word "solipsistic". What can I say? It's not my fault they didn't teach it to her at Hahr-vard. posted by Jonathan | 10:14 AM 0 comments   Former Guyanese President Desmond Hoyte is also dead, and also apparently of a heart attack. posted by Jonathan | 8:43 AM 0 comments   Joe Strummer, the former frontman of the Clash, is dead. Strummer died at his home yesterday, aged 50. Cause of death has yet to be established, but it is thought he suffered a heart attack. Along with the Sex Pistols, the Clash led the British punk scene of the late 70s and early 80s. Unlike the Pistols, a gimmicky, musically lightweight collective thrown together by svengali Malcolm McLaren, the Clash were a highly talented group with strong leftist leanings. Their 1979 magnum opus, the double album London Calling ("London calling to the faraway towns/Now war is declared, and battle come down") remains one of the greatest rock albums of all time. The band's two biggest hits were the driving "Should I Stay or Should I Go" and the new-wave influenced "Rock the Casbah", their take on the Middle East oil crisis. With the death earlier this year of Ramones drummer Dee Dee Ramone, (and Ramones frontman Joey Ramone last year) punk music has lost yet another legend. Rest easy, Joe. posted by Jonathan | 6:21 AM 0 comments Sunday, December 22, 2002   According to a report in tomorrow's UK Guardian, Yasser Arafat has decided to indefinitely postpone elections of a president and legislature in Palestine. The reason, he says, is because Israeli occupation of of the West Bank makes a free ballot impossible: "First, Mr Arafat says, the tanks must go, and then comes the vote. "The Israelis say the opposite. Ariel Sharon argues that without the election of a new Palestinian leadership "the terror" will not stop, and so the troops must stay. "In the event, it is highly unlikely that Palestinian voters would dump Mr Arafat in favour of another leader, not least because it would be seen as bowing to Israeli pressure. "But the Palestinian leadership has, over recent weeks and months, undergone a creeping but fundamental shift in thinking. "A growing number of senior Palestinian officials are criticising Mr Arafat's handling of the past two years of intifada, and specifically the brutal and traumatic wave of suicide bombings. Some blame Mr Arafat directly, some do not. But his deputy, Abu Mazen, recently said that attacks on Israeli civilians had brought only ruin and destruction to the Palestinian people." Israeli occupation of the West Bank is certainly not the most desired of situations, for both parties. But Arafat, I believe, is making a mistake in postponing elections because of it. He may not be able, as he says, to do anything about the suicide bombers. But the ability to hold free, fair and transparent elections is in his hands entirely, and would greatly increase his standing, if not with Israel or the US then certainly with Europe, whose support he should be looking to. It may be that criticism within the Palestinian Authority and among sections of the Palestinian population against his leadership and the corruption in the PA is the real reason he does not wish to hold elections, as well as the fear of Israeli support for opposition parties, like the Palestinian National Initiative. These fears are without basis. Not only are the indications that he will be returned as the Palestinian Leader, but to unseat him would take massive collusion on the part of Israel with parties like the PNI, which would not only be impossible to hide, but also impossible to bring about. And even if he is returned to power and Israel refuses to acknowledge him, it would not have been his fault: the people would have spoken, again, as long as the elections are free and fair (perhaps Jimmy Carter and his monitors can be called in). Yasser Arafat has nothing to lose and everything to gain by holding these elections as soon as possible. The ball, on this issue at least, is squarely in his court. posted by Jonathan | 8:45 PM 0 comments   Trinidad features in the latest issue of National Geographic Explorer, though not in a light one would have hoped: the piping-guan bird, or pawi as it's commonly known and the only bird endemic to this island, is the subject of the December "Wildlife as Canon Sees it" ad, the latest in the famed series that highlights endangered animal species across the globe. Before I go any further, a bit of history. As a child I, like many other children, had a passion for animals. Unlike most children, however, I had a particular fascination with rare species - the rarer the better. Not that I had some perverse desire to see all species of animal become extinct. It was that for some reason I felt an affinity for those creatures that existed in ever-dwindling numbers. I imagined them, practically the last of their species, alone, solemnly soldiering on, against the rest of a world that had pushed them to the brink and didn't know them at all. They reminded me of me, also (as I saw myeslf) alone, misunderstood, battling the world and totally (here it comes, Bina) solipsistic. And so, every month when the National Geographic arrived (both my primary and secondary schools had subscriptions) and I got my grubby hands on it, I'd turn automatically to the back cover or back inside cover, where the "Wildlife as Canon Sees it" ads almost invariably ran. I'd stare with fascination at that month's animal, captured in vivid Canon colour - the brilliant seven-coloured tanager of Bahia, the imposing white Javanese rhino, the elusive Arabian oryx. Then I'd stare with equal wonder at the little map that accompanied the ad, with the land masses in orange, the ocean in blue and the habitat range of the animal in question in a little strip or blob of white. That was when I was a child. Now I am an adult, and the fact that there are, according to the Canon ad's stats, only an estimated 70-200 pawi left in Trinidad, and therefore in the world, is no longer exciting, no longer elicits a thrill, but another feeling entirely. posted by Jonathan | 6:02 AM 0 comments Saturday, December 21, 2002   If I see another local Christmas greetings ad with an image or collage of images made to look like a pine tree, I think I will retch. (And before anyone says anything, no, my agency did not do any of those ads.) posted by Jonathan | 6:18 PM 0 comments   Did some more Christmas shopping today, at West Mall, and am quite pleased with my purchases. Only one person left on my gift list, and I know exactly where I'm going to get the gift, and what it will be. After shopping I had lunch in the food court. While eating (lasagne) I noticed a group of people at the table adjacent to mine. It was, to judge by their clothing, a Muslim group, in fact a family - husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, cousins, what have you. But I looked closer, and noticed just a single man, a rather large fellow with a big shrubby beard, and three women, and assorted children, weaving their way in and around the grown-ups. It took a moment to process this, during which I realised what I was, undoubtedly, and for the first time in actual life, looking at - a polygynous family. The husband appeared in his mid to late thirties; two of the wives in their late twenties to early thirties. The third seemed not a day older than twenty. She had taken off her chador while eating. She was pretty, with light brown eyes, long brown hair, and endearingly crooked teeth, which showed constantly, as she smiled and chatted animatedly with the other wives. The husband sat in silence. Two of the children, obviously full sisters and wearing matching long-sleeved electric blue dresses with gold flowers and similarly patterned trousers, clung to the backs of two chairs, stretched out at an angle (the food court chairs are secured to the floor) and tossed their bare heads back and forth. Smudges of polish decorated the nails of their stubby fingers and the toes of their sandalled feet; red mendhi patterns covered the backs of their little hands. A smaller girl sat next to her mother, and a baby boy, blissfully asleep, reposed in a stroller next to his mother, the youngest wife. As they began preparing themselves to leave the food court, she (the youngest wife) unfurled her chador from around her neck and still chatting away, secured it around her head. She then reached into the folds of her burqa and pulled out a bit of black cloth with a visor-like slit. This she attached to her chador and let fall over her face. They then collected their things, got up, and left. I finished my meal and left not long after. As I made my way out of the mall I passed the family. Because of the crowd I practically had to squeeze through, and almost brushed against the youngest wife. Our eyes met for an instant. She quickly turned her head, and I walked on, on and out of the mall. posted by Jonathan | 3:09 PM 0 comments   In yesterday's Trinidad Guardian, Lennox Grant took on the problems of vagrancy and refuse in our nation's capital. These, of course have been serious issues for many years, and Grant's ironic tone (the article is titled "Love this city, vagrants and all") is saddening: "Everywhere in the town, food, in its abundance - half-eaten by workers in the city, garbage-bagged and left on the pavements - keeps the Port-of-Spain system going. It keeps vagrants alive and nourished. And it keeps vagrants part of the picturesque landscape." He goes on to describe the plan of the Downtown Owners and Merchants Association, DOMA to install transparent rubbish bins that he says will make it easy for our capital's homeless to know if they're worth rummaging through. I can understand the frustration behind this article. As it is, I hate downtown Port of Spain. It is a filthy place. Grant is many years my senior so he may remember a time when it was not so, but I have always known it like this. The vagrancy, the garbage, the poor drainage (which causes flooding in the rainy season), the sidewalk vendors (not to mention those annoying music trolleys)...the list goes on. Much has been written and said about all of this, about the lack of vision and planning in the development of Port of Spain, and still nothing truly effective has been done. I do not pretend to know the answers; this is what, supposedly, we have planners and engineers and architects for. (The vagrancy problem is something else entirely.) But with the city, as with so much else in this country it's a case of la plus ça change. I recall the artist Carlisle Chang years ago saying that at independence there was a vision for Port of Spain, Athens in the Caribbean...where did it go? posted by Jonathan | 7:40 AM 0 comments   Notes from a small island goes Arctic! Yesterday someone in Iceland visited my blog. I wonder if it was Björk? posted by Jonathan | 6:51 AM 0 comments   Picked up two Christmas presents for myself yesterday: Zadie Smith's Autograph Man, and Björk’s Greatest Hits. ("I thought I could organise freedom/How Scandanavian of me" - isn't that just a killer lyric?). posted by Jonathan | 6:48 AM 0 comments Friday, December 20, 2002   Two more music bits: the American National Film Registry has chosen This is Spinal Tap, for my money the funniest rock movie ever made, to enter the Library of Congress for preservation. To those who don't know it, This is Spinal Tap is a mocumentary about a washed-up British heavy metal band trying to make a comeback. Successive drummers all mysteriously and inevitably spontaneously combust, critics pan them at every turn, no one shows up to their gigs but still they soldier on, true to the rock n' roll cause, blissfully unaware of their own buffonery and their ridiculous mullet hair cuts and too-tight leather clothing. The totally deadpan irony and the mordant humour are what make this film so laugh-out-loud funny. I can't recommend it enough. In other news, Paul McCartney has decided that the songs that he had the lion's share in writing with the Beatles will from now on be credited as "McCartney/Lennon", instead of "Lennon/McCartney", the way all of their songs have always been credited and the way fans have always known them, as Lennon/McCartney compositions. Sir Paul says that he hopes fans (and Yoko Ono) won't get upset. "This isn't anything I'm going to be losing any sleep over," he says. This is all very interesting cosidering that on John Lennon's first solo album there was a song that criticised McCartney for selling-out the Beatles' ideals. The name of the song? "How do you sleep". posted by Jonathan | 9:26 AM 0 comments   Talk about surreal: I'm staring at the American modern rock chart and just can't get around seeing both Nirvana ("You know you're right") and Foo Fighters ("All my life") nestled almost against one another. ("Always" by, um, Saliva sits between them.) Bina doesn't think much of "All my life" and says that if Nirvana had done it, it would be a much better song - just imagine Kurt Cobain singing it, she says. But "All my life" isn't a Kurt Cobain song. (Could you imagine Cobain chanting the song's key lyric, "Done, done, on to the next one"?) Besides, and this is one of the reasons I quite like the Foos, in founding the band Dave Grohl didn't try to challenge history and outdo Nirvana. He just stuck his tongue in his cheek, put a grin on his face, and tossed together a pretty decent rock band that makes hummable, foot-tapping tunes about love and loss. Rock on, Dave. posted by Jonathan | 8:36 AM 0 comments   A story I've been following with interest has had a major development: the New York City Council has voted overwhelmingly to ban the use of cell phones at public performances. Mayor Mike Bloomberg has said he plans to veto the bill due to its impracticality, but the council has enough votes to override his veto (which, incidentally, is a feature of the American constitution that I much admire - a majority of both houses of Congress has the ability to override a presidential veto, although I can't recall it ever being exercised, at least not in recent history). Though I agree this bill, if it stands would be hard to enforce, I am much for it in theory. It is not, as many people think, that I am anti-cell phone, although I don't own one or have plans in the forseeable future to get one. It is simply that I believe it is against all norms of social etiquette to use a cell phone in certain places. You'd think mostpeople (to use e e cummings' word) would believe this, too, but of course so many of them don't. How many times have I been at a film, or a lecture, and the annoying Casiotone beeping begins from somewhere in the crowd, and the guilty party, when he or she is finally able to retrieve the offending object from within the recesses of a tight pocket or cavernous handbag, instead of switching off the infernal thing, begins blathering away to whoever it is on the other end of the line. Locally, the telephone company tried to do their bit for cell phone etiquette by running a campaign but I don't believe it had much effect. We need, as in New York the government to get in on this but I suppose with more pressing issues on its plate like crime (not that its doing much of a job there) people like me will just have to wait. I'd love to know what others think about this. (Where are Jerry, George, Elaine & Kramer when you need them?) Maybe we could form a pressure group with a ridiculous acronym of a name, something we Trinis are so good at making up. How does Citizens Against Cellphone Abuse, CACA, sound? posted by Jonathan | 7:48 AM 0 comments Thursday, December 19, 2002   Someone I know said to me recently that at 28, she feels old. She did not say it with anxiety, or sadness, or even resignedly. She just said it. To her, and to anyone else who, whatever their age feels time's winged chariot drawing near, I dedicate these lines from Ogden Nash: Time is timelessness for you; Calendars for the human; What's a year, or thirty, to Loveliness made woman? Oh, Night will not see thirty again, Yet soft her wing, Miranda; Pick up your glass and tell me, then - How old is Spring, Miranda? posted by Jonathan | 10:13 AM 0 comments   Speaking of Star Trek, here's a bit of trivia: how many ears did Captain Kirk have? Three - a left ear, a right ear, and a final front ear. posted by Jonathan | 9:00 AM 0 comments   Time to boldly go home? Nemesis, the tenth film in the Star Trek franchise, has opened to less than stellar notices and box-office returns in the US. Perhaps it is time to put this universe-exploring, infinitive-splitting baby to bed once and for all. As much as I enjoyed the TV series, none of the films with the Next Generation cast made much of an impression on me. The last of the films I enjoyed was Undiscovered Country, with Christopher Plummer as the Klingon general, Chang, declaiming Shakespeare ("You haven't read Shakespeare until you've read him in the original Klingon") while his bird of prey - that could fire while cloaked! - did intergalactic duel with the original Enterprise and her inveterate crew. Still, if this is the last outing of the Next Generation crew, I'll miss them. Most of all the elegant, cerebral, solipsistic Captain Jean Luc Picard, played so well by Patrick Stewart (who I first encountered, with hair, in the RSC film version of Hamlet, playing Claudius) and to my sensibilities much more attractive than William Shatner's space cowboy Captain Kirk. And I look forward to seeing Stewart in the wheelchair once again as Professor X in the next X-Men movie. His hammed-up sparring with Ian McKellen (another actor I admire, and whose Gandalf is the only reason I have any interest in The Lord of the Rings) as Magneto was about the only worthwhile bit in the otherwise unremarkable first film. But then, I've never been much of an X-fan. posted by Jonathan | 8:25 AM 0 comments Wednesday, December 18, 2002   I had lunch today at Olives Mediterranean Bistro, on the corner of Elizabeth St. and Sweet Briar Rd. in St. Clair and spitting distance from my apartment, for the first time. I'd heard mixed opinions of it, and walking past it every day to and from the office I was naturally curious to find out for myself what the food was like. And what it was like was pretty ordinary, truth be told. I had the "executive" special, a set two course meal and a glass of wine, for $90. My starter was a deep-fried vegetable cake that was nondescript, with greens (literally, a leaf of iceberg lettuce and a sprig of parsley) and yoghurt and cucumber dressing. My companion had the bruschetta with olive paste, aubergine paste and tomatoes; that was a bit better. My main course was roast leg of lamb, tender and moist, but somehow not particularly flavourful. My companion didn't think much of her gourmet club sandwich, either. But the service was good, and the manager charming and attentive to a fault - she stopped at our table some five or so times, which was completely unnecessary. The bill, which included a glass of wine for my friend and two non-alcoholic drinks, was just under $250. I want to try the lunch special at A la Bastille on Ariapita Avenue next. The same two courses and a glass of wine, but for $100. Having dined there previously I can say I find the cuisine better than at Olives. posted by Jonathan | 8:42 PM 0 comments   Just thought of this one: if I wrote a post about an equine creature that lost its life, what would that be known as? Blogging a dead horse, of course. posted by Jonathan | 10:10 AM 0 comments   Gender equality takes another proud step forward in our nation. The Queen's Park Cricket Club is finally allowing women into its halls, or that should be, onto its walls, as a Guardian story (no link) explains. The club has produced a pin-up calendar, featuring some six female models. According to calendar committee chairman (how does one get that job, exactly?) Roger Henderson, "It is a first for the club, but there was no reason for it." Judging by the expression on club president Willie Rodrguez's face, though, as he looks at the calendar in one of the photos that accompanies the story, Henderson is sorely mistaken. posted by Jonathan | 9:10 AM 0 comments   Ashes to ashes... The Trinidad Guardian reports today that Hochoy Charles, Minority Leader of the Tobago House of Assembly and currently in a power tussle with his party, the National Alliance for Reconstruction, plans to revive the Democratic Action Congress: 'Charles and his supporters on Sunday reactivated the DAC, the party which was formed by former Tobago East MP, now President, Arthur NR Robinson, in the early 1970s. 'The decision was made at a meeting led by Charles, chairman Ashworth Jack said in a statement yesterday.' Is there any clearer illustration of the pathetic depths politicians in our nation will plunge in the quest for power? What exactly does Charles hope to achieve? Isn't being minority leader of the THA humiliating enough? Yet it doesn't matter what the title, however insignificant and meaningless, to men like Charles, such inanities, and the piffling perks that come with them are better than nothing. Meanwhile, the population continues to be woefully under- and misrepresented by its elected officials. I can't wait to hear what Lloyd Best has to say about all of this - though to him, I'm sure, Hochoy Charles isn't even worth thinking about. posted by Jonathan | 8:45 AM 0 comments   I don't mean to be telling tales out of school, but according to a friend who worked with the Trinidad Theatre Workshop in the 60s one of the reasons its founder, Derek Walcott was so notoriously intractable to work with was the fact that he would come to rehearsals roaring drunk. His tipple of choice? Bourbon. Of course, it was probably the perennial frustrations of trying to be a playwright in this land that drove the old master to the bottle. posted by Jonathan | 4:10 AM 0 comments   My web counter is also finally up. Now I can keep tabs on all two of you who visit my blog. posted by Jonathan | 2:42 AM 0 comments Tuesday, December 17, 2002   Finally, links to my bio and a spiel on my decision to blog. Thanks to my friend Marc for hosting these pages. posted by Jonathan | 11:00 PM 0 comments   I just noticed: the time between my second to last and my last post was exactly 12 hours. Talk about coincidence, which is all it is. Right? posted by Jonathan | 12:31 PM 0 comments   Roy Dubay, the charlatan who passed himself off as a psychic and then duped a woman into having sex with him, was sentenced to five years' imprisonment yesterday, the Trinidad Express reports. 'Justice Alice Yorke Soo Hon told Dubay when he fooled the woman, a librarian, “you acted like a wolf in sheep’s clothing. You led her to the slaughter”.  'Justice Soo Hon also questioned how the woman, who the court was told was well educated, could have fallen for the rape plot saying, “it is difficult to understand how she was so gullible, naive, so careless for her own safety”. 'The judge said she could not understand the victim’s gullibility, since she was a librarian, had five CXC subjects and three A-level passes, was ready for tertiary level education, and seemed an intelligent person.' I may not have the credentials of the learned Madame Justice, but I'd like to venture a guess, and it has nothing to do with formal education, which Soo Hoon erroneously equates with intelligence. Our nation continues to labour under the yoke of religious superstition. From the Prime Minister's office go down, our blind, irrational adherence to superstitious mumbo jumbo is yet another stumbling block to our progress. Usually the results are largely harmless (if annoying), resulting in such things as Venezuelans with supposedly clairvoyant abilities making the front pages of the newspapers with their predictions for the year to come (and it's about that time again, folks, get ready - will we be informed yet again that a senior politician will meet his demise?). Too often, however, the results are far more tragic, as in this case. posted by Jonathan | 12:11 PM 0 comments   Random thought: if I changed my surname by deed poll to Nobody, I could retitle this blog Diary of a Nobody, or better still, Nobody's perfect. posted by Jonathan | 12:11 AM 0 comments   To blog or not to blog? That is the question that a friend posed to me recently when I informed her of my having started a blog. Her concern wasn't so much my intent, as the sagacity of my opening myself and my personal life to the world. In reply I said, among a great deal of other things, that not only is the blogosphere (slowly blog-speak invades my vocabulary!) hardly the world, but also that I have no intention of getting up close and personal. Not only is my personal life boring as hell, as Holden Caufield might say, but frankly, it's no one's business, unless and until I decide to share it with them. Still. What would be the great harm if I were to lay myself bare, like a patient etherised upon a table? Ultimately, what would it matter what people knew of me, even and especially if I told them everything? And what is "everything" anyway? We are large; we contain multitudes. It would take an infinite number of lifetimes to even begin to scratch the surface of the being that is Jonathan Ali. Okay, maybe not an infinite number. But you get the point. Here is what Dave Eggers, he of the Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, has to say: "What am I giving you? I give you nothing. I am giving you things that God knows, everyone knows. They [his parents] are famous in their deaths. This will be my memorial to them. I give you all these things, I tell you about his legs and her wigs - I do so later in this section - and relate my wondering if I should be having sex with my girlfriend in front of their closet the night of my father's service, but what, after that, in the end, have I given you? It seems like you know something, but you still know nothing. I tell you and it evaporates. I don't care - how could I care? I tell you how many people I have slept with (thrity-two), or how my parents left this world, and what have I really given you? Nothing. I can tell you the names of my friends, their phone numbers, but what do you have? You have nothing. They all granted permission. Why is that? Because you have nothing, you have some phone numbers. It seems precious for one, two seconds. You have what I can afford to give. You are a panhandler, begging for anything, and I am the man walking briskly by, tossing a quarter or so into your paper cup. I can afford to give you this. This does not break me. I give you virtually everything I have. I give you all the best things I have, and while these things are things that I like, memories that I treasure, good or bad, like the pictures of my family on my walls I can show them to you without diminishing them. I can afford to give you everything." posted by Jonathan | 12:02 AM 0 comments Monday, December 16, 2002   Neophyte that I am, I continue to stumble and fumble my way to Blogger competence. As such, Nicholas has flayed me for my ignorance in using HTML on the Mac; specifically, in not being able to italicise. All I can say, from the safety of the "tiresome protuberance" that is my PC, is mea culpa. posted by Jonathan | 5:35 PM 0 comments   I want a GW Bush doll. posted by Jonathan | 11:39 AM 0 comments   Speaking of the death penalty: Nicholas Laughlin, in a post on the nature of good and evil, approvingly quotes Christ's "Do unto others" dictum and Immanuel Kant's categorical imperative as maxims we as humans would do well to follow, in that they ask of us to "imagine what the world feels like to someone else." All well and good, but the problem I have with the categorical imperative is that it justifies the death penalty (of which I am an opponent, not incidentally). Kant would justify the death penalty if the convict has shown that he no longer treats people as ends in themselves but means to an end. If the convict has shown this, and according to Kant this is what the murderer has done, then he is no longer a human being, but an animal, and killing the convict is perfectly fine, indeed required. I know that Nicholas is an opponent of the death penalty. I wonder how he reconciles this and his support of the categorical imperative? posted by Jonathan | 10:16 AM 0 comments   Today's Trinidad Express carries an Associated Press story on the fall in the number of prisoners on death row in the US: "The death row population fell from 3,601 in 2000 to 3,581 in 2001, the first year-to year decrease in 25 years. Last year's total of 155 was the lowest number sentenced to die and put on death row since 1973. It was the third-straight year of declines." Before the death penalty supporters out there jump to the conclusion that the supposed deterrent effect of the death penalty is working, consider: "Death penalty experts say juries and prosecutors appear to be exercising greater care in using the death penalty, particularly considering recent cases in which DNA evidence has proved that people were wrongly convicted." What does this say about us here in T&T and our antediluvian criminal justice system? We are still years away from implementing DNA technology in criminal investigations, far less having such technology admissible in criminal cases. How many wrongly convicted murderers are on death row because of inefficient forensic investigations? posted by Jonathan | 9:36 AM 0 comments   Today's Trinidad Guardian carries a photo of Nelson Mandela and South African Aids activist Zackie Achmat (who has Aids) both wearing t-shirts with the slogan "HIV positive". Achmat has a hand on Mandela's shoulder. I wonder if a local politician would ever show solidarity in the fight against Aids this way? posted by Jonathan | 8:49 AM 0 comments   For anyone who cares about these things, the book titles in my last post should have been italicised, but were not. The reason is that I am currently blogging at work, on a Macintosh, and the Mac browser does not support that capability. Can someone please explain to me again why the Macintosh exists? posted by Jonathan | 8:33 AM 0 comments   Matt Beaumont, author of the novel "The E Before Christmas", is back with his follow-up, "The Book, the Film, the T-shirt". Here's the story: Beaumont was an advertising copywriter before he was sacked for emailing a death threat to a senior account director. "E..." was his revenge, a novel composed entirely of emails, about an ad agency pitching for a Coca Cola account. "The Book..." is also set in advertising, at an agency with the glorious name of Fuller Scheidt. I wonder, who will write the much needed Trinidadian advertising novel? Nicholas? How about it? posted by Jonathan | 7:39 AM 0 comments Sunday, December 15, 2002   My friend Bina Shah has started a blog of her own. A writer from Pakistan, with a novel and a collection of stories to her credit, Bina is a regular contributor to various Pakistani journals and newspapers, and also has a column at the online magazine and community, Chowk. posted by Jonathan | 12:02 PM 0 comments   The UK Guardian again. (Forgive me, I've a whole heap of issues of the actual newspaper in my hands). This time it's the review of the Kurt Cobain journals, available in print for the first time since his death and written in Cobain's own chaotic scrawl. As such, it's fascinating, 'But is it worthwhile literature? Well, certain passages stand out...Then things start to deteriorate. There is a lot of tedious twaddle about the liberating spirit of punk rock that would not be worth the space even in a fanzine. Then fame happens and the tone suddenly turns very petulant and whingey. By the time heroin enters the picture - just over half-way through - Cobain's capacity for objective reasoning has been shot to hell. He tries to write, on occasion, like his hero William Burroughs circa Naked Lunch and the results are just pitiful. Towards the end, his self-loathing is overwhelming. He expresses a psychotic hatred of English journalists, alienates all his old cronies, drops constant hints that he is not long for this world and tries to tell himself that he's addicted to heroin simply because the drug helps alleviate his chronic stomach condition. There are several entries where he tries to express the torment of what drug addiction and depression are putting him through, but too often he settles on a position not a million miles from flat-out denial.' This is precisely why I have no interest whatsoever in these journals. Kurt Cobain had the gift of being able to distil his tortured life into three and four minute sonic riots that mixed pathos and irony, self-deprecation and wry observation, cynicism and heartfelt passion. Songs that - and here was the essence of Cobain's genius - knew the difference between true angst and the ersatz drivel that a thousand imitators began churning out almost the instant "Smells Like Teen Spirit" landed on MTV. So why would I want to shatter the myth of the latter-day Hamlet, the modern Meursault, by reading the actual man's whiney quotidian rantings? Today the art is no longer enough, we need to satisfy our prurient cravings for the details of the artist's life any way we can. Certainly knowing something of the life can make experiencing the art more satisfying, but surely one can go too far, particularly if it detracts from the experience, the understanding, what the art itself is trying to say. The music makes the man, and that is all I need. posted by Jonathan | 12:54 AM 0 comments   A collection of essays by Arundhati Roy, The Algebra of Infinite Justice, has just been published, and the UK Guardian's review takes Roy to task for careless use of language and obtuse judgements: 'Her strengths as a polemicist are clear, but now that Roy's journalism has been collected, rather than being seen one article at a time in newspapers and magazines, its weaknesses are also shown up. This is a writer who is very self-conscious about her standing as an artist, who tells us that far from being just a journalist she notices those things that lie "outside the realm of common human understanding". But, oddly, her essays often read as though she hasn't weighed her words too carefully. She litters her prose with overused tags and journalese: "One country's terrorist is too often another's freedom fighter"; "Big dams are obsolete. They're uncool"; "The borders are open, folks! Come on in."' I have read a couple of the essays in this collection, and find myself agreeing with these sentiments. Roy's passion is unmistakable, and her criticisms are pretty fairly distributed. But the sort of oversimplifications and quick conclusions she is prone to are unhelpful at the least. If, with no sign of a second novel on the horizon, this is the writing we can expect from Roy in the future, she's going to have to hunker down and get really serious about how she goes about things. posted by Jonathan | 12:02 AM 0 comments Saturday, December 14, 2002   The UK Observer has a review in its December 1st issue of the CD London is the Place For Me, assembled by Damon Albarn of Blur and released by Albarn's indie label Honest Jon's. The Observer reviewer has this to say about the compilation: "A forgotten genre, calypso, has made a comeback, thanks to London is the Place For Me, a collection of 1950s Trinidad rhymers like Lord Kitchener which celebrates life in the 'Mother Country', a landscape of landladies, underground trains, test matches, the 1953 coronation and the colour bar ('If you're not white you're considered black'). A charming, engaging evocation of a bygone era." I've been trying to get this CD for some months now, but apparently it's only available in select UK indie record shops, and also at Amazon. (For anyone yet to purchase my Christmas gift.) I want to write more on this, and challenge VS Naipaul's assertion that true calypso is unintelligible to the non-Trinidadian, as well as Gregory Ballantyne's vacuous notion that calypso is, to use the patronising phrase, "world music". After I get the CD. posted by Jonathan | 10:25 PM 0 comments   There are few joys to compare with those afforded by a good meal, enjoyed with great company. This evening found me at the Swan Chinese restaurant on Maraval Road in Port of Spain partaking of both. I cannot praise Swan's cuisine enough - chef/owner Kenny (I'll get his surname next time) is simply a genius, an artist, no less. Our menu consisted of shrimp, two types - one deep friend, Szechwan style, the other butterflied and done Japanese style; tofu and vegetables sizzling in a hot pot, jasmine rice and Singapore noodles. Chinese tea (complimentary) ended proceedings. I also had my first Carlsberg, the latest foreign lager to land on our shores, and found it wonderfully light and clear. A perfect complement to the meal. posted by Jonathan | 9:48 PM 0 comments   Does Camille Paglia not write for Salon anymore? I disagree with a healthy chunk of what she says, but always find her thought-provoking, if somewhat obsessed with her own cult. Her broadsides at some of the more wishy-washy, overly PC elements of the liberal media and entertainment industry are usually spot on. Who's going to take Ellen de Generes and Rosie O'Donnell to task now? posted by Jonathan | 2:31 PM 0 comments   First of my links belongs to my colleague and fellow blogger, Nicholas Laughlin, whose own foray into bloggerdom has inspired mine. I hope my own musings can be as half as insightful and entertaining as his. His blog also has links to a host of other excellent blogs around. posted by Jonathan | 2:13 PM 0 comments   My list of links may seem random, much like my thoughts, but click on one and you're sure to find something worth your while. Don't get too engrossed, though, remember the reason you're here is to check out my blog. posted by Jonathan | 2:05 PM 0 comments   Linking like mad now. posted by Jonathan | 2:02 PM 0 comments   Well, I've just figured out how to add links. posted by Jonathan | 1:59 PM 0 comments   Adam, in the Garden, naming things. posted by Jonathan | 1:52 PM 0 comments   Forgive me, I'm new at this... posted by Jonathan | 1:52 PM 0 comments   And there was blog. posted by Jonathan | 1:25 PM 0 comments		archives links Bina Shah Nicholas Laughlin Caribbean Free Radio Antilles StudioFilmClub Global Voices Jessie Girl Club Soda and Salt Caribbean Cricket Seldo Titilayo Jai Arjun Singh email me