individuality1977

Hanzala: The Conscience of Palestine

2007-08-29T22:45:00.000-05:00

I have been busy at work recently and have not been motivated when I come home to update my blog even though there were a few issues I wanted to write about. I am going to do a little “cheating” and backdate some entries in the next few days. Today’s post is about Naji al-Ali, the Palestinian artist who died on August 29th, 1987 after being shot in London a few weeks before on July 22nd.

Ali was born in Palestine in 1937 but the creation of Israel and the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their ancestral homelands meant that in 1948, he was forced to leave for Ain Al-Helwa, a refugee camp in Lebanon.

It was this experience of forced exile as a young boy and growing up in a refugee camp that one witnesses in his creation of the cartoon character Hanzala. Hanzala, which means bitterness, was born homeless, in a refugee camp in southern Lebanon, and quickly became a symbol of the loss, the despair, the courage and the hope of Palestinian refugees everywhere. In all of the hundreds of images in which he is featured, Hanzala’s face is either obscured or turned away from viewers and his hands clasped behind his back. Hanzala it is said, will never show his face until he returns home to Palestine.

In an article on Hanzala, Ali wrote:

"I had friends with whom I shared my work, protests, and prison days until one day they became "tanabel" running businesses and buying stocks. I was worried about myself from turning to a "tanabal" too and being consumed. In the Gulf I gave birth to this child and offered him to the people. He is committed to the people that will cherish him. I drew him as an ugly child, with hedgehock-like hair because the hedgehock uses its hair as a weapon.

Hanzala is not a fat spoilt comfortable child, he is bare footed like the other bare feet from the refugee camps. He is an icon that protects me from wrong and disarray and despite his looks he has a pure heart with a conscience that smells like musk and unbar and for his sake I am ready to kill anyone who intends to harm him. His hands are clasped behind his back as a sign of rejection during a phase that this region is undergoing with "solutions" offered by the US and "the system". I made the shape of his hands after the October war when I smelt the scent of developments in Kissinger's briefcase.

Hanzala was born at the age of ten and will always remain ten. At that age I left my country and only when Hanzala returns to Palestine will he grow up and exceed the age of ten. The rules of nature do not apply on him. He is an exception and things will only be natural in his case when he returns to Palestine. The child is a symbolic representation of myself and the group who lives and endures the situation we are all in. I offered him to the readers and called him Hanzala as a symbol of bitterness. In the beginning I offered him as a Palestinian child and with the development of his awareness he had a patriotic and a human outlook."

In another explanation, he stated:

"This child, as you can see is neither beautiful, spoilt, nor even well-fed. He is barefoot like manychildren in refugee camps. He is actually ugly and no woman would wish to have a child like him. However, those who came to know 'Hanzala', as I discovered and later adopted him because he is affectionate, honest, outspoken, and a bum. He is an icon that stands to watch me from slipping. And his hands behind his back are a symbol of rejection of all the present negative tides in our region."

Though he was never aligned to any political party or movement, his art was inherently political and critical of not only the brutal Israeli occupation and its American patrons but also the Arab governments who had let their Palestinian brothers down. His angry, sarcastic cartoons which sometimes bordered on despair won him many enemies but Ali believed his work was part of the fight against injustice and oppression:

"I started to use drawing as a form of political expression while in Lebanese jails. I was detained by the Deuxi'me Bureau (the Lebanese intelligence service) as a result of the measures the Bureau were undertaking to contain political activities in the Palestinian camps during the sixties. I drew on the prison walls and subsequently Ghassan Kanafani, a journalist and publisher of al-Huria magazine – he was assassinated in Beirut in 1971 - saw some of those drawings and encouraged me to continue, and eventually published some of my cartoons."

"Working for al-Safir newspaper in Beirut in 1971 was the best part of my life, and the most productive. There, surrounded by the violence of many army, and finally by the Israeli invasion, I stood facing it all with my pen every day. I never felt fear, failure or despair, and I didn't surrender. I faced armies with cartoons and drawings of flowers, hope and bullets. Yes, hope is essential, always. My work in Beirut made me once again closer to the refugees in the camps, the poor, and the harassed."

"When I was younger I thought I would actually be able to help achieve all our aspirations for independence, unity, justice. Many died for those aspirations and things are only getting worse. That, certainly, can make one; despair. But more than ever, I feel a sense of duty to go on doing what I have to and can do."

Ali was assassinated at the beginning of the first Palestinian Intifada. Twenty years later, images of Hanzala continue to persist throughout Palestine, the Middle East and indeed the world and his legacy remains strong as dozens of artists throughout the region use him as an inspiration. Hanzala will one day return home and turn to face us, smiling.

The official Naji Al-Ali website can be found here, while these (1, 2, 3 and 4) are some interesting sites with articles etc.

Let Your Motto Be Resistance

2007-08-25T21:30:00.000-05:00

African-American history and the fight of black Americans for their rights is a subject that is of great interest to me. In addition, I love photography, so it was natural that I thoroughly enjoyed an exhibit I went to see on Saturday at the International Center of Photography entitled Let Your Motto Be Resistance: African American Portraits. The exhibition explores African-American history and achievements through the medium of photography and included portraits by both famous photographers such as James VanDerZee, Gordon Parks, Irving Penn and Carl Van Vechten and unknown or lesser-known known photographers.

Information about the exhibition can be seen on the ICP website.

I then spent about four hours in Bryant Park talking with a friend about topics ranging from but not limited to racism, black and white America, Barbados and the Caribbean to climate change, genetic engineering and organic food and New York. All in all, an intellectually fulfilling day!

Literacy and Healthcare: Cuba, Venezuela and the USA

2007-08-22T22:53:00.000-05:00

Education and healthcare are considered by most countries to be a right and not a privilege. Sadly many developing countries struggle to provide even the most basic of health and education to their citizens due to the fact that they simply cannot fiscally afford to. There are also a few countries rich enough to provide both to their population but don’t view either as a right.

I read an article today which noted that one in four Americans did not read a book last year and it brought to mind another article I read recently about a unique approach to promoting literacy in Venezuela. The programme uses mules to transport books to remote communities which would not normally have access to libraries.

Health care and insurance are major political issues in the US, the world’s richest country, where so many people are unable to afford basic healthcare and one of the news items today concerned a city health department report which states that one in six New Yorkers do not have health insurance. It made me recall an article of a few weeks ago about Cuban trained US doctors.

Of Migratory Birds, Recycling Roma, Palm Oil and Disappearing Deltas

2007-08-19T23:29:00.000-05:00

Some interesting articles I came across in the past few weeks and thought I would share:

Article one is about the destruction of ancestral land and rainforest in Western Kalimantan in order to grow palm oil plants. The growing demand for palm oil products in India, China and Europe and which Indonesia is hoping to cash in on is having a negative effect on the native Dayak Kanayan people. I had posted about Borneo, palm oil and the Penan people in a previous post.

The second article is also about environmental degradation, this time in the Indus river delta region in southern Pakistan. Keti Bandar was once a thriving river port but it is now struggling to keep from being submerged and it appears as if it will go the way of another nearby town, Kharo Chhan, which in 1946 used to be part of the mainland but is now an island about 30 minutes’ boat ride from the shore. Significant irrigation infrastructure and over extraction of water are the causes cited by experts for this sad situation- displacement of people, dwindling poultry and livestock, sea intrusion, shortage of drinking water etc.

The third article is about a rare colony of flamingos leaving Camargue, a marshy region in southern France. The birds have nested on an artificial island in the delta of the River Rhone for thirty years but a strike at the local saltworks has meant that no saltwater from the Mediterranean has been pumped into the lagoon in which the island sits. The brine shrimp in the area and its relative safety provide ideal breeding ground for the flamingo. There is however hope for the flamingos as the saltworks and employees seem to be heading to a solution which will include conservation efforts.

Climate change is being blamed for a drop in the numbers of migratory birds visiting Britain each winter and is the subject of the fourth article.

Philosophy and Recycling in Albania is about the Roma community in Albania and their efforts at recycling and reusing scrap. One of the persons mentioned in the article is a chemist whose job is to assess the toxic levels of the country’s dumps but whose real passion is translating the works of Bertrand Russell from English into Albanian.

Of Colonialism, Partition and Legacies

2007-08-16T22:28:00.000-05:00

I have an absolute hatred of colonialism and imperialism and I don’t mince my words about this. As far as I am concerned Europe’s imperialism and colonialism were brutal, exploitative, oppressive systems and there was nothing positive about it. There are apologists including from Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East who try to point to supposed benefits of European domination such as education systems, infrastructure and governmental structures. The fact is that all those places that the Europeans went to possessed their own way of living, dynamic cultures and systems of governance and the only positives from the experience were felt by Europe who enriched herself at the expense of black and brown people and on their blood, sweat and tears. Obviously there were cronies and traitors who collaborated with the oppressors for a few pieces of silver.

All of this brings me to the date August 15th when the British formally ended their physical colonisation of India and two nations were born through a disastrous partition- India and Pakistan. India and Pakistan celebrated their 60th anniversary of independence on August 14th and 15th respectively.

60 years on, India rivals China and Brazil for the status of new economic power while Pakistan grapples with political unrest and economic stagnation. The central question that remains to this day is whether partition was the correct decision. It is a difficult question to answer.

Oppressed people inevitably rise up to fight their oppressors and it was no different in India. By the end of the 19th century, nationalist movements had started to become stronger and by the beginning of the 20th century were calling for the end of the British presence. The were organised largely along the lines of religion- Hindu and Muslim- with the Congress Party representing the majority Hindu population and the Muslim League representing the minority Muslims. British divide and rule policies which worked so well throughout its empire also reaped much success for them in India and allowed for their dominance.

The 1930s and 1940s saw increased calls by the Muhammad Ali Jinnah led Muslim League for a Muslim state to accompany the exit of the British and this was not helped by the non-reconciliatory position of the Congress Party which further convinced Jinnah and his party that a separate state was the only solution. The end of World War Two and the economic realities of Britain made it clear that the practical move for the British would be to grant India independence. The Labour Party won the 1945 elections and Lord Mountbatten was dispatched to India as the last viceroy in March 1947 with an agenda to transfer power as quickly as possible. The deadline for British withdrawal was brought forward from June 1948 to August 1947 and on August 15th, the British formally ended their rule of India. The months preceding the exit had witnessed all manner of discord, rioting, communal fighting and unrest and this only served to cement the British view that they needed to leave as quickly as possible.

Many historians have argued that this hasty withdrawal was one of the major causes for what happened next- the largest ever migration of people as 10 million Hindus and Muslims made the move into India/ Pakistan. Ironically, the borders of the new states were only announced on August 17th. They had been drawn up by a British lawyer, Cyril Radcliffe, who had no knowledge of local conditions and who used outdated maps and census information. Communities and families were cut into two and estimates put the figure of people killed in the resulting slaughter and riots at one million- a tragic loss of human life.

While both countries inherited ruined economies, poverty, social and economic malaise and instability, in 1947 it was obvious that India had gained much more than Pakistan from the partition. Pakistan was a state made up of two parts separated by India- West Pakistan and East Pakistan- and this logistical nightmare for effective governance would result in East Pakistan becoming independent Bangladesh in 1971 after a brutal civil war in which India intervened on the side of East Pakistan. Pakistan only inherited 17.5% of the colonial government’s financial reserves and by the time the army was paid, there was no funding remaining for economic development. Its economy was mostly agricultural and controlled by feudal elites while 90% of the subcontinent's industry, and taxable income base remained in India, including the largest cities of Delhi, Bombay and Calcutta. The core of the Muslim League’s support was based in central north India- Utter Pradesh- and as such, those Muslims had to migrate westwards into Pakistan. This meant competition with local populations for access to resources and employment, a recipe for conflict.

The issue of Kashmir also erupted shortly after independence and resulted in a war between the two new states. Kashmir was a princely state with a Muslim population but ruled by a Hindu Maharaja who faced with an uprising at partition fled Kashmir and decided to cede it to India. Pakistani tribals moved into the area and clashed with Indian troops and this intensified into outright war. The war ended in 1948 and a ceasefire came into effect on Dec 31st, 1948. Kashmir was divided into two with the ceasefire line known as the Line of Control demarcating the pseudo-border. The UN Security Council called for a plebiscite in the region to enable the people there to determine their own future. While Pakistan claims that it in principle accepts a plebiscite, India has refused to agree to one. In 1989 an armed insurgency rose up against the Indian presence and it continues to this day. I visited Kashmir in 1999 for a few weeks during my four month trip to India. It is a beautiful place and it is so sad that the wonderful people there have had to live in the midst of political conflict. I am sure if they are given the chance, they would overwhelmingly choose to be an independent nation.

Jinnah’s death, ethnic and religious differences and the inability to agree on a constitution paved the way for a military coup in 1958 and since then Pakistan has mostly been ruled by the army. Indian secularists managed to gain an upper hand, a constitution was ratified and democratic elections were held in 1951, making India the world’s largest democracy. India has however not spared from ethnic and religious conflict and tensions between Muslims and Hindus and Sikhs and Hindus have often turned violent. While India’s economy continues to grow phenomenally, the disparities between rich and poor are extreme and in both India and Pakistan a large proportion of the population live in poverty.

A look at India and Pakistan today makes one wonder if all the bloodshed, suffering and billions of dollars spent on defence were worth it. On the one hand, an undivided Indian subcontinent would have been much more economically viable and definitely so for Pakistan and Bangladesh. It also is rather ironic that in 1947 far more Muslims were left in India than incorporated into the Muslim state. One wonders about the political strength of this combined Muslim body in an undivided India. While it would still be a minority bloc it would be much larger than what it is today. On the other hand, the violence met out to Muslims at different points since independence and most recently in Gujarat in 2004, the rise of Hindu fanaticism, the election of Hindu nationalists who view India solely as a Hindu country to government and events such as the destruction of the Ayodha mosque in 1992 seem to confirm the fears of the Muslim League for Muslims in a majority Hindu India.

It is a complex situation that historians will continue to grapple with and disagree about for years to come. What is most striking though is that while millions of people go hungry every day and lack access to basic health, water and education in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, billions of dollars are spent on arms and weapons.

New York City, Indian Victories, Biomechanics and Left-handedness

2007-08-13T23:30:00.001-05:00

I’ve been lazy about writing recently even though there were a number of issues that I had thoughts about. I’ve decided to just do a “digest” today!

New York City

New York City experienced an unforgettable summer in 1977: scorching heat, a crippling July power blackout which saw widespread arson and looting and resulted in millions of dollars worth of damage, a serial killer dubbed the Son of Sam, rising crime and financial crisis.

Fast forward thirty years and there seems to be no improvement. A few inches of rain last week caused total chaos in the city, disrupting the entire transport system for hours. A few weeks ago a manhole cover blew up causing one death and traffic chaos in mid-town Manhattan up until a few days ago. Add to that the huge power outage in Queens last year and the black out that affected the entire North East corridor in 2004. In other words NYC is pretending to be a first world city when in reality it isn’t. The subway system is archaic, nasty, inefficient and expensive, the city streets are dirty and smelly and sidewalks are forever overflowing with garbage bags and stink of dog urine and faeces. The traffic is unbearable and the air polluted. Housing standards are poor unless you are rich and can afford decent accommodation. Similarly if you cannot afford insurance forget about proper health care. Now, don’t get me wrong- I generally like living in NYC because there is so much else to it beyond some of the negatives I have listed. My problem is with those Americans and New Yorkers who act as if their way of life is the only way to live, as if their city/country is the best in the world and who complain incessantly about the minutest of inconveniences they experience when travelling overseas.

Speaking of New York City, Thursday, August 9th marked 10 years since the day Abner Louima was beaten, brutalised and sexually assaulted by NYPD officers. Louima had intervened in a fight between two women and was arrested by police who were summoned. He was beaten up on the way to the police station and then further beaten up and sodomised with a plunge while there. Louima suffered massive internal injuries as a result and several of his teeth were also broken when the plunger was forced into his mouth! When he was finally taken to the hospital, the police alleged he had received them from abnormal homosexual activities- a nurse who doubted the claim raised the alarm. The police tried to cover up but protests and public outrage meant that some of the guilty persons were punished. Some were acquitted because of technicalities! Fox News and one of its right wing ideologues Sean Hannity backed the police and insisted that Louima had sustained his injuries through homosexual activity. The main perpetrator Justin Volpe confessed to sodomising Louima with the help of another officer and changed his plea to guilty during the trial. Fox News still continues to spread its right wing propaganda and lies and 10 years later, black or indeed Muslim men would be foolish to assume that their basic human rights are assured in this city!

Indian Overseas Victory

India won a rare overseas victory and their first in England since 1986 when the last test was drawn. A 1-0 margin may not seem great but to rebound and totally outplay England in the last two matches after fighting to save the Lord’s test is testament to the team unity, belief and spirit in this team that combined youth and experience. The English are as usual whinging! What makes the Indian victory even more gratifying to everyone who dislikes the English team is that it came in the face of sledging and unsportsmanlike behaviour from most of the England players.

Foot and Knee

Therapy for my knee is coming along fine and I finally got rid of the cane over the weekend. I had actually stopped using it for two days in between but had to start back because my limp came back with a vengeance! My foot is still not used to all the walking, weight bearing and work shoes and I have decided to wear semi-casual shoes/loafers and no tie to work in August as there are hardly any meetings going on. If there is a meeting I wear a suit and proper footwear. I was actually becoming worried about my painful foot and went to the podiatrist last week Tuesday. His partner was there and attended to me as he has done the other two times I was there. Basically it is just a matter of my foot getting accustomed to normal usage and until it does so I will feel discomfort. Biomechanics also play a part as some tendons are still tight from lack of use and so other tendons overcompensate and then hurt.

Lefthanders Day

Today is left-handers day- A day for left-handed people to celebrate their left-handedness and raise public awareness about being left-handed. I have no idea if I am right of left-handed. The usual indicator used by society is the hand one writes with so on that basis I would be considered right-handed. However, I can also write with my left hand but having never practised, not very well- not that my writing done with my right hand looks much better! I play all sports with my left hand/foot. There are some things I can do comfortably with both, some with only one, for example, if I am hammering I use my right but if I am chopping with a cutlass I have to use my left, I prefer to use a mouse with my left but I can also use it with my right, I dial and text on my mobile with my left but I dial on my home phone with my right, when I point at something or I react if something is dropped it’s with my left hand, I stir coffee or pots with either and I serve food from pots and bowls with either, I use the remote control in my left and I cannot imagine shifting gears with my right. I always thought that I read magazines and newspapers from back to front because of being taught Arabic and Urdu (Arabic and Urdu script like most Eastern languages go from right to left) from a young age but it seems as if most lefthanders also do this!

Left-handedness is genetic and about 10% of people worldwide are left-handed. One of my four sisters is totally left-handed and cannot do anything with her right. She has a left-handed daughter. The other three are right-handed but one of them has two children that are both left-handed. As for me, I like to think I am non-conformist- physical reaction as an extension of my thought process!

Icons- Amiri Baraka, Sonia Sanchez and KRS-One

2007-08-04T14:25:00.000-05:00

I went to one of Central Park’s SummerStage events last Thursday evening featuring Sonia Sanchez and Amiri Baraka, two African-American educators, poets, authors, activists and pioneers of the 1960s Black Arts Movement. It was inspiring to hear them reading from their work and talking about the Black Arts Movement, contemporary African-American culture and other social and political issues. Although both were critical about much of what is happening both domestically in the US and externally, Sanchez came across as eternally optimistic while Baraka appeared cynical and disappointed in the direction black America has taken. I first read about Sanchez and her association with Malcolm X when I was a teenager and have always had the utmost respect for her but I tend to lean towards Baraka’s pessimism. An excellent evening ended with them signing two of their books for me.

On Friday I went to Prospect Park where Celebrate Brooklyn’s evening of conscious rap was headlined by hip hop legend KRS-One, one of the pioneers of socially and politically aware rap music. I have no time for modern hip hop and its sexist, violent message that perpetuates negative stereotypes of blacks in America and tells black Americans that the ideal life centres around guns, “bling bling”, drugs, skimpily dressed bimbos, champagne and limos, so this was refreshing. I think my Public Enemy and Gill Scott-Heron (the real grandfather of political rap) cds will be playing a lot over the next few days!

Emancipation Day

2007-08-01T22:54:00.000-05:00

Today, August 1st, is celebrated as Emancipation Day in many parts of the Caribbean. The day that the August 1833 Slavery Abolition Act came into effect for the British Empire. While the slaves were emancipated, under the terms of the Act they were to be indentured to their owners for a further six years to help ease the transition from slavery to free labour. The Act also stipulated that all slaves under the age of six were to be freed and that the slave owners were to be compensated 20 million pounds for the loss of their “property”. The apprenticeship system under which the slaves were to be bonded to their owners until 1840 proved to be a failure and was discontinued two years earlier in 1838.

Freed from bondage, ex-slaves throughout the Caribbean would form free villages and a dynamic peasantry that existed alongside and often in conflict with the plantation system. The abolition of slavery also saw the introduction of first Chinese and then Indian indentured servants to the region by the British Government. From 1838- 1917, approximately half a million Indians were brought to the Caribbean- predominantly to British Guyana and Trinidad but also to Jamaica and some of the Windward Islands- to toil on plantations and in conditions not exactly very different from those that existed during slavery.

The history of the Caribbean is one steeped in blood, tears, sweat and oppression. It is also a history of resistance, human will and survival in the face of extreme cruelty and barbarism. The institution of slavery, abolished 173 years ago, still continues to haunt the region- the social and economic realities in many parts of the Caribbean and the ownership of economic power is still linked to slavery and colonialism; the attitudes of people, the prevalence of social and economic hierarchies based on skin colour, the fact that concepts such as “good hair” and “pretty brown skin” still prevail and that people can still adamantly state that if not for slavery and colonialism they would still be “swinging around in trees in Africa” or “suffering in Africa” are an indication that the psychological shackles on some people need to be removed. Unfortunately, too many of our people are ashamed of the past or believe, in agreement with many of the descendants of the former slave masters, that we must “move on”. Ironically these same people are the first to speak about the Holocaust or other acts of genocide! I do not advocate dwelling on the past or focussing on the wrongs of the past to such an extent that an individual or society does nothing to improve their situation. However, I do advocate that people be taught their history and that in the same way other races, cultures, nations and societies ensure that their history is never forgotten, the descendants of African slaves should ensure that their story is never marginalised or ignored. As Marcus Garvery said, ‘A people without knowledge of its past history and culture is like a tree without roots’.

I posted a lengthy entry in March for the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the trans-Atlantic slave trade by Britain. It encompasses most of my views on the slave trade, slavery and abolition so I will cut this post short and not repeat what I wrote before.

Lizz Wright

2007-07-31T21:59:00.000-05:00

I saw her perform live a few years ago at the Barbados Jazz Festival- an absolutely brilliant voice! Not to mention, she is quite pretty too :)

I can’t say I have a favourite Lizz Wright song because they are all so good but here are three live performances I came across on YouTube:

Hablas español?

2007-07-29T22:24:00.000-05:00

Immigration is a very sensitive issue in various parts of the world and often time it becomes a political tool at election time. In the US it has been a prominent item on the agenda of politicians, the media, non-governmental organisations and the general public for quite a while. Most of the immigrants into the US are from Latin America and Hispanics now make up a larger part of the population than African-Americans. The effect of this is that Spanish is now basically the second language of the US- much to the chagrin of those who see America as an Anglo/European country.

I came across this feature on the BBC where a team is going to go across the southern USA from San Augustin, Florida to Los Angeles, California with the sole aim of speaking only Spanish throughout the journey. The team will have a daily blog, photos of the trip on Flickr and a group on Facebook and I think it will be interesting to follow their experiences.

The topic of immigration is also very popular in Barbados with many Bajans uncomfortable with the influx of Guyanese. I stumbled upon this article in the Guyana Chronicle which makes some important points about the cyclical nature of the movement of people and the large numbers of Barbadians who previously moved to Guyana in search of jobs. The critical point the article fails to mention is related to size, capacity and sustainability. Barbados is a tiny, overpopulated island with scarce limited physical resources including most importantly water and land. Guyana on the other hand is a vast under populated country with immense physical resources and can fit little Barbados on one of its rivers furthermore its land mass.

The debate over immigration inevitably degenerates into emotional diatribe and fear mongering and race become a central part of the arguments. While this must be resisted, practical realities such as scarce resources and abrupt social and cultural changes must be acknowledged and addressed in a sensible manner. A failure to tackle these concerns of the native population can provide convenient fodder for racists and right wingers and can have serious consequences.

TGIF and Freecycling

2007-07-27T23:22:00.000-05:00

My first week back at work and already I am happy to see the weekend! I’m back in the groove and don’t feel as if I was away. I am tired though and it is going to take my foot some time to get used to walking so much, climbing subway stairs, bearing all my weight etc.

I also had my first session of physical therapy for my knee this afternoon. It is a similar routine to when I started therapy for my foot- electrical stimulation, ice pack and ultrasound- except that I am doing exercises right from the beginning instead of after a few sessions. I also have to do the exercise twice a day at home as I had to do for my foot.

One of the links on my sidebar is to freecycle.org, an excellent site that allows people to give away items instead of throwing them into the garbage, thereby reducing waste and saving landfill space. I was able to get an ankle weight from someone who had used it as part of their rehabilitation from a knee injury and so as soon as the physical therapist introduces weights into my routine I will be able to do the same at home.

70th Anniversary of the 1937 Barbados Riots- What Future for the Island?

2007-07-26T23:00:00.001-05:00

July 26th, 1937- today is 70 years since the Barbados riots. Compared to rebellions, riots and revolutions that have played out in various parts of the world throughout history, these riots were negligible in terms of size and scale. They however had a considerable impact on the modern history of Barbados and helped to shape the island as we know it today.

Barbados in 1937 was a country sharply divided along the lines of race, with a small white elite holding economic and political power and a majority black population largely employed in the agricultural sector and suffering from poverty, lack of opportunity, unemployment, dismal labour conditions and general social and economic malaise. The racial structure that permeated the social, economic and political landscape rigidly reinforced these conditions. The economy was dominated by sugar and land ownership policies and patterns that promoted peasant agriculture and made it impossible to address poverty. The same open economy also made it difficult to redress poverty through wages and employment-related benefits. Barbados was a country still dominated by the plantation a hundred years after the abolition of slavery.

In any situation where people are oppressed, courageous men and women speak out and agitate for change and it was no different in Barbados. Men like Clennel Wickham and Charles Duncan O’neal were followed by a Trinidadian of Barbadian parentage, Clement Payne, who stood up for the working people of Barbados and advocated labour reform and the formation of trade unions.

Payne was able to inspire the common man and such was his influence that the Barbadian authorities deported him to Trinidad on July 26th, 1937. Crowds gathered at the news of his deportation and the anger and frustration that had built up erupted into riots that lasted for four days. The immediate result of the riots was 14 dead, 47 wounded, 500 arrests and millions of dollars worth of damage. The long-term consequences were far reaching.

The British Royal Commission of Inquiry headed by Lord Moyne was appointed in 1938 to investigate disturbances and unrest in the British West Indies and it recommended in its 1939 report that Britain invest in development and provision of social services.

The years following the riots would witness significant social and political reform in Barbados as black Barbadians emerged to rule a country where they were a majority. Payne, who died in 1941, did not live to see his dreams realised but his bravery in rebelling against the status quo was not in vain as generations of Bajans have benefited from his actions. Payne along with O’Neal are National Heroes of Barbados, an honour many also believe should be accorded to Clennel Wickham.

70 years to the day the riots began, Barbados is at a crossroads, with a widening gap between the rich and poor, extremely high cost of living, dissatisfaction among the population over widespread sale of land to foreigners and the inability of normal Barbadians to afford land and a lack of opportunity for the youth. I often wonder what Barbados will look like in 10-15 years time and I think I have a clear picture. It saddens me. I cannot imagine what it will look like in 70 years!

This is New York: Wasted Time Reprieve

2007-07-25T22:30:00.000-05:00

A man with a noticeable limp and a cane gets onto a train. Not a soul offers him a seat. He stands uncomfortably and holds onto a pole with other people as the train slowly moves off. He then shuffles to the middle of the car to grasp a longer pole which allows him to be a bit steadier. The train progresses slowly along the track and across the bridge into Manhattan; his left foot is getting tired from the weight on it because he is hesitant to put too much weight onto his injured right one. He has to wait until a number of stops later to grab a seat when someone gets up to exit the train. This is New York!

I guess if I want a seat I will have to leave home at 6:30 am! On the television programme House, House makes a comment once about what people allow him to get away with because he walks with a cane. Obviously this doesn’t pertain to New York!

I left work around 7:15 pm and luckily I got a seat on the way home.

A tough day made even worse when I saw her. The lessons one must take from the past two and a half years.

First Day Back- Déjà Vu

2007-07-24T22:10:00.000-05:00

I returned to work and went right into the midst of everything! Barbados is co-chairing some consultations and so there I was at 11 am on my first morning listening to people talk about human rights. Files piled up in my absence and there is so much to catch up on. Luckily I have been in this job just under seven years so I just need to rev the engine once or twice and I will be right on track.

I took a cab to and from work. I had planned to take the train but I managed to find myself running a bit off schedule in the morning and by the time I was ready to leave home, it was already 7:30- the trains would be packed. In the evening I didn’t feel like waiting till after 7 for the crowds to die down a bit so I hopped into a taxi. I obviously can’ be doing this all the time so I have to make sure I leave home at 7 am tomorrow morning.

July 22nd marked 20 years to the day that Naji Al-Ali, the Palestinian artist and creator of the iconic cartoon image Handhala, was shot in London. Ali spent five weeks in a coma before he died on August 30th, 1987. I had planned to write a post on Ali and Handhala but as I mentioned yesterday, I had many ideas but kept procrastinating when it came down to the actual writing and so I will just put my thoughts down sometime between now and August 30th for a post on the anniversary of his death.

Back to Work

2007-07-23T21:55:00.000-05:00

I did not get around to writing anything this past week. I kept having ideas for posts but I also kept procrastinating when it came to writing. One of my posts was supposed to be about the WICB, the report of the Cricket Committee and WIPA and I still hope to do it.

I went to the podiatrist today and got the all clear so I go back to work tomorrow- exactly 6 months to the date I went on leave. Six months of inactivity and lack of sun also mean I am about 15-20 pounds heavier and rather pale! I have mixed feelings about going back to work. While I am glad to be able to leave my apartment like normal, I am not enthused about my job or the UN. The Foreign Service can be a demoralising place to work and while to outsiders overseas postings seem glamorous and exciting, the reality is totally opposite.

Chondromalacia

2007-07-16T23:51:00.000-05:00

I had my post-surgical appointment with the orthopaedist today and everything is in order. He showed me the images from inside my knee of the problem and the repair job that was done. Basically the cartilage under the patella or kneecap was damaged- the image showed it looking as if it had been shredded! Chondromalacia is the term usually used to describe damage to the cartilage under the patella and it generally affects young people who engage in physical activity. I have to do physical therapy twice a week for eight weeks which should help me regain full mobility in my knee. At the moment it is quite tight and I cannot bend or stretch it out fully. I also have some pain that varies between mild discomfort and bad and which he said would take time to go away, with some days being bad and some being good! I have had a few rough nights already and I hope that is the worse it gets. He said I could go back to work next Monday, the same day I see the podiatrist and once he gives me the all clear, I will be back to work on July 23rd.

It has been six months now that I have been home! I honestly never thought I would have been away from work for so long when the MRI results in January showed a torn tendon in my foot! I am thankful to Allah that the problems with my foot and knee were diagnosed and that unlike millions of people around the globe, including right here in the richest country in the world, I have been able to receive treatment. The next step is to work on strengthening the different tendons and muscles in and around my foot and knee while avoiding over exertion. It will probably still be a while though before I can go back to the gym and resume my training programme.

The Plight of the Environment

2007-07-15T23:17:00.000-05:00

Some articles on man and his assault on nature:

Biofuels - 1 and 2.

The Everglades and Drought in Florida - 1.

Borneo, Palm Oil and the Penan People - 1 and 2.

Live Earth - 1.

Scepticism about Corporate America’s “Embrace” of Environmentalism - 1.

Barbados’ First World Champion Athlete

2007-07-13T23:39:00.000-05:00

* Photo from IAAF website

Barbados is the island of cricket, producing more cricketing greats and test players than any other country based on its size. However, when it comes to atheletics, we have never produced a world champion; the closest we have come being James Wedderburn’s bronze in the 4 x 400 metres relay as part of the British West Indies team at the 1960 Rome Olympics, Obadele Thompson’s bronze in the 100 metres at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and Ryan Brathwaite’s silver medal in the 110 metres hurdles at the 2005 World Youth Championships in Marrakech.

Well all that changed yesterday when 17- year old Shane Brathwaite won the octathlon at the Fifth IAAF World Youth Championships in Ostrava, Czech Republic. The St. James Secondary School student who comes from Spooner’s Hill, St. Michael registered a new personal best record along the way and made his country proud. Congratulations to the young man.

The Barbados Nation and the IAAF have articles on Brathwaite's triumph.

Surgery!

2007-07-12T23:49:00.000-05:00

The surgery went well yesterday morning. One minute I was on the operating table and the next I was in the recovery room! The lead up to the surgery was the nerve racking part. I got to the hospital around 6:15 am, checked in and waited to be summoned inside. There were quite a few people in the waiting room at that early hour, some scheduled for surgery and some accompanying them. After I was summoned to a little room, I was visited by a number of people: a physician’s attendant who asked me a number of questions about my medical history and lifestyle, a nurse who give me my hospital clothes and explained to me how I had to wear everything, another nurse who took my vitals and asked me questions about medical history, a nurses aide who shaved my knee, the orthopaedist who went over what was going to happen and what I should do after the surgery until I saw him on Monday, the anaesthesiologist who also asked me questions about my medical history and lifestyle and discussed the anaesthetic options and finally one of the nurses who was going to be in the operating room who asked me a few questions and signed some forms. Most of the others also had me sign various consent forms and in between I was asked to change into the hospital outfit. After that I was led to the operating room nearby where I climbed up onto the table, got the intravenous drip inserted and asked the anaesthesiologist how long it would take before I went to sleep; when I woke up I was in the recovery room with an oxygen mask on my face!

The anaesthetic options were either regional where I would be numb from the waist down or general where I would be asleep. While I contemplated the regional so I could view the procedure on the monitor, the anaesthesiologist said that there was only one monitor in the room I would be in and so I would not be able to see and that recovery from the spinal anaesthesia was longer than from general. We therefore decided on general.

I woke up with some pain in my knee and the nurse reluctantly gave me some morphine. I was groggy so I can’t recall if she give me more when I complained again about the pain but I do remember her saying that they didn’t want to give me too much morphine because it would make me sleepy and I was already woozy and they wanted me to be able to leave shortly! The orthopaedist came around to see me while I was still a bit dazed so I am not too clear about what he told me. Subject to correction he said something about shattered pieces of cartilage which he had to remove. When he passed back he said he would discuss it with me on Monday. Overall the service and care was excellent and very professional. After some crackers and juice and a trip to the bathroom- they have to make sure everything is functioning before release- I was able to leave with my friend who came up to meet me.

So that was my surgery. The orthopaedist prescribed some Percoset but warned me not to take any unless it was absolutely necessary since the drug is addictive and has narcotic properties. I was given me this contraption like a cooler which is filled with ice and water and via a hose circulates cold water through a cooling pad on my knee. It has to be worn for three hours, followed by a one hour rest and then worn again for three hours and so on. I have to remove the bandage on Saturday and take a shower.

Surgery Early in the Morning!

2007-07-10T21:35:00.000-05:00

My knee arthroscopy is tomorrow. I have not really been thinking about it much and actually just wanted it to be over and done with as the pain in my knee has just been increasingly getting worse. However when the hospital called me around 5 pm today to give me the time of the surgery and the time I have to get there etc it hit me that I was going to be on an operating table in less than twenty-four hours! The procedure is scheduled at 8:30 am and I have to report to the hospital at 6:30. Thankfully the driver from work will take me. I should be ready to go home around 12:30/ 1 pm so a friend will come to the hospital around that time and will call the driver when I am released to take us back home. I have to stop thinking about it before I get too nervous! I am a bit of a loner and prefer my own company but it is at times like this that you miss your family!

Truth and Reconciliation, Sporting Victories and Cooking

2007-07-09T10:33:00.000-05:00

I had a great weekend. As I am more mobile and can walk further distances now, I was able to go to Prospect Park to see a show on Friday night. It was a collaboration based on South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission called “REwind: A Cantata For Voice, Tape & Testimony”. The Celebrate Brooklyn website describes it perfectly:

“Cape Town composer Philip Miller's extraordinary international collaboration is based on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings that led South Africa from apartheid to democracy. Opera superstar Sibongile Khumalo joins other South African soloists, a string octet, and a 100-voice chorus composed of Brooklyn's Total Praise Choir of Emanuel Baptist Church, the Williams College Choir, and a South African ex-patriot choir led by Lion King choirmaster Ron Kunene. The music blends seamlessly with samples of recorded TRC testimony and stunning projected images. "The Cantata brought together the cry of our country—our pain and fears, our hopes and especially our triumphs and joys in the way we as South Africans can best express these emotions—in music and song. It was a deeply moving, most powerful and uplifting experience." (Archbishop Desmond Tutu).”

The show was excellent and the company made it even better.

Saturday saw the West Indies beat England to win the one day series 2-1 and Venus Williams win Wimbledon. I didn’t get to watch the West Indian innings live but I saw England being bowled out and that was good enough. I watched highlights of West Indies batting later in the evening. While I prefer Serena of the two sisters, once one of them wins I am happy. When I read the nasty, negative comments (many bordering on racist and from envious people and those who can’t bear to see two black women dominating a traditionally white sport) that are made in public fora about the William’s sisters, it makes their victories even more satisfying!

Sunday I cooked dinner for some friends. The theme was Indian and the menu consisted of green pea fritters with tamarind and coriander/mint chutney as a starter and pumpkin curry, coconut chicken curry, sweet peppers stuffed with minced meat, basmati rice and raita (condiment made with cucumber, yoghurt and a few spices) for the main meal. Good food, good company, good conversation and an enjoyable evening!

“Take a Rest”

2007-07-07T18:33:00.000-05:00

*Photos from www.cricinfo.com

A calypso by the band Tradewinds telling the WICB to “Take a Rest” has made for popular listening in the past week around the region and after the West Indies win today to secure a 2-1 series victory in the one day internationals, it is even more apt for the Board to take the advice and leave our cricket be! Ken Gordon may be resigning but nothing will change when his replacement comes into the job. The old boys network will continue as normal and life will go on.

Blunder after blunder characterised the WICB’s approach to the tour of England and ironically one of them- the row between the parasites and Gayle- served to unify and motivate the team in the one days and helped salvage some West Indian pride. Obviously nothing can take away from the inspired performances of Chanderpaul who continued to bat on a separate level from everyone else, Edwards who bowled with pace and much better control in the past, Powell who again looked like the bowler we saw in the World Cup, Rampaul who bowled with heart and commitment and the cameos of Samuels, Bravo and Morton on different occasions. While I didn’t think that Gayle should have been awarded the captaincy based on his poor performances in recent times, I admit that he did a good job in leading the team and hopefully this bit of responsibility will also translate into his batting. Once again the attitude of the team was encouraging and it warmed my heart to see the enthusiastic fielding, chatter and celebrations when English wickets fell.

Tony Cozier wrote an article earlier this week about the drastic transformation of the team when it came to the shorter form of the game while Will Luke in a cricinfo.com article says that the West Indies deserve to celebrate.

Arthroscopy and Indigenous Sacrifices

2007-07-05T23:49:00.000-05:00

I went to the orthopaedist on Tuesday. I saw a different one who came to the same conclusion as the first- the ongoing and worsening pain and the laxity in my knee was a cause for concern and an arthroscopy would shed some light about the cause and also allow for proper treatment. I am therefore scheduled to have the procedure done on July 11th. I am due to go back to work on the 9th but I also have to see the podiatrist the same day so he can give me the all clear. Obviously I will not be going back to work until later in July now that I am having surgery on my knee!

In February I had written a post about environmental dilemmas and I came across an article today that markedly highlights this predicament. The Madidi National Park in Bolivia is rich in biological diversity and indigenous culture. It is also rich in natural resources and is therefore being viewed as a source to drive economic development for the entire country. While the notion of the collective good and economic prosperity for all is lofty, the issue of irreversible damage to the environment and native culture is just as critical. For centuries, indigenous people have had to pay the price for the desire of other people to enrich themselves and the cycle shows no sign of stopping.

My Apartment Just Doesn’t Feel the Same

2007-07-05T15:05:00.000-05:00

My sister and her family left early this morning at 6 am. My apartment is eerily quiet and doesn’t feel right after the past few days of activity. The two little ones are a handful but they brought lots of joy to my place for a few days and I am going to miss them.

They will now have to readjust back to life in Barbados after spending almost two years in a totally different environment in Athens, Ohio. My sister will go back to her old job teaching Sociology, my brother in law will have to look for a job and my nephew will have to go to school. He is going to have a shock because his idea of school is what his mother did in Athens! My niece is still too young to go to primary school so she may get to stay home another year if they decide not to send her to pre-school.

Of Storms, Flight Delays, Indian Cuisine and Calypso Cricket

2007-06-28T23:47:00.000-05:00

My sister was due to come into NYC tonight from Ohio on her way back home to Barbados. Unfortunately, after repeated delays caused by bad weather their flight from Columbus was cancelled. Initially AA told them that the next available flight into NYC that would allow the whole family to fly together was July 4th but fortunately they have been placed on a Continental flight to Cleveland tomorrow evening where they will have to transfer to an AA flight bound for NYC. Delayed and furthermore cancelled flights are not fun and I can’t begin to imagine the hassle it must be with two little children. They left Athens around twelve today to drive to Columbus for what was supposed to be a 5pm flight. The most frustrating part for them must be that they were on the plane and about to leave when they were taxied back to the gate. On the positive side, at least they were able to get a flight out tomorrow and a friend of my bro-in-law in Columbus was able to meet them at the airport and take them to a hotel etc.

I cooked up some chicken curry for their dinner tonight and marinated some tandoori chicken for tomorrow, so they will now have to eat tonight’s dinner tomorrow night and the tandoori will have to stay marinated an extra day!

I like to cook and since being allowed to gradually put weight on my foot a few weeks ago, the kitchen has proven to be a place of solace. I’ve been cooking up a storm every few days and it has been a welcome break from the food I was forced to order since the end of January. I’ve made mostly Indian dishes and especially things my mom cooked and which my sisters now cook. My mom would be shocked if she saw me because there were not many Indian dishes I liked eating when I was growing up. It took going to London to study for me to begin eating a variety of Indian food and now Indian cuisine is my favourite.

Speaking of London, the West Indies brought some Caribbean flair to first of two Twenty20 Internationals to put some smiles on West Indian faces after a tough past few weeks. I am a purist; I love test cricket; one day internationals provide entertainment but are not a substitute for the real thing; Twenty20 is simply a slug fest and far from authentic cricket. However, I know that cricket is a billion dollar business and the powers that be will spare no effort to market the game and its entertainment value to those with no appreciation of all the intricacies and nuances of genuine cricket. I am therefore realistic and accept there is no point fighting it; I watch it just to see some big hitting; and big hitting it was from the word go. I could not believe my eyes when I saw Devon Smith hitting out as if his pants were on fire. Chanderpaul played some innovative shots and Marlon Samuels decided to turn up and bat. Despite a big hitting knock by the England captain, the West Indies total proved just enough and it was the English with all their Twenty20 experience who were made to look like novices by a team playing only its second Twenty20 at the international level.

What pleased me was the attitude of the West Indies players. I can’t remember the last time I saw a West Indies team being so enthusiastic. The laughing, smiling, shouting and encouragement of each other were a joy to watch and the young team actually looked as if they were enjoying themselves for the first time this tour. Have the events of the past week galvanised the team and has the Board unintentionally motivated the players? It would be wonderful if this sprit continues and I hope the team can go on to win tomorrow and do the same in the one-day internationals that follow.

Ongoing Madness

2007-06-27T23:32:00.000-05:00

The idiocy continues in West Indies cricket. The first 20/20 game begins tomorrow but all the hype is on Gayle and the WICB!

The Madness Continues

2007-06-26T23:46:00.000-05:00

The farcical drama that our cricket has been reduced to continues to play itself out in front of the world. The idiots that call themselves the WICB decided to censure Chris Gayle for critical comments he made about the Board a few days ago in his tour diary. Gayle’s refusal to apologise led to the censure. The West Indies Players Association then came to Gayle’s defence, revealing that the article was vetted by the tour manager as part of normal protocol and approved. Guess who met Gayle along with Ken Gordon to discuss the issue before Gayle was censured: the tour manager Michael Findlay. What does this make the Board and Findlay look like: bloody fools!

Chris Gayle has been a failure with the bat and doesn’t even deserve a place on the team furthermore the captaincy. He needs to do his talking on the field with the bat and with a change of attitude. However, I must admit the comments he made were totally correct: the Board has no legitimate authority to demand anything of the players when it is the reason for the mess we are in. It is rather large of the Board to speak of Gayle embarrassing it; every member of the Board should resign and apologise to the West Indian people for what they have done to the one regional institution that was a success.

Read two articles on cricinfo.com here (1 and 2) and one from the UK Telegraph here on the whole fiasco.

Indian Test Cricket’s 75th Birthday

2007-06-25T23:45:00.000-05:00

June 25th, 2007 marks seventy-five years that India has been playing test cricket, a game which is now so popular in the country it can be considered a religion. Since that day in 1932 when the Indians walked onto the field of Lords, Indian cricket has never looked back. On June 25th, 1983, fifty-one years later, they would shock the mighty West Indies team in the finals to win the World Cup. In the past seventy-five years, India has produced a host of legendary spinners and wristy stroke makers ranging from Bishen Bedi, Chandrasekhar, Erapalli Prasanna, Venkataraghavan and Anil Kumble to Gundappa Viswanath, Dilip Vengsarkar, Sunil Gavaskar, Mohammad Azharuddin, Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar as well as allrounders like Kapil Dev, Polly Umrigar and Vinoo Mankad and to round it off flamboyant wicketkeeper Farokh Engineer.

Here are some articles on India’s seventy-fifth test anniversary: 1, 2, 3 and 4.

Cricketing Mismanagement

2007-06-24T23:41:00.000-05:00

The thrashing of the West Indies on the field of play on the current tour of England is symptomatic of the malaise that afflicts Caribbean cricket. As if the embarrassment on the field wasn’t enough the WICB has made a series of blunders in the past two weeks that serve to highlight the way this old boys network has destroyed our cricket. I cited some articles in my post of June 14th and here are two even harsher ones, one by Tony Cozier and the other by Martin Williamson.

The ICC also demonstrated how much of an incompetent organisation it is when last week it announced the banning of the five officials who had stood in the farcical World Cup final in April from the Twenty20 World Championship in South Africa in September. Now I have no problem with disciplining those idiots who presided over the ludicrous situation on the night of April 28th, but what I do have a problem with is Malcolm Speed’s pompous statement: “It would have been easy to let sleeping dogs lie and pretend nothing happened, but the reality is that the playing control team made a serious and fundamental error that caused the final of our flagship event to end in disarray and confusion.” This is the Chief Executive of a body that along with West Indian officials mismanaged the running of the World Cup and who refused to accept that the ICC bore any responsibility for the tournament’s failure! If the umpires and match referee can be disciplined for their part in the farce, then surely Speed and the rest of the inept and corrupt should also be held accountable!

Sadness at Thierry Henry's Departure

2007-06-23T18:12:00.000-05:00

I’m a huge Arsenal fan which may be surprising to anyone reading my blog as there is no mention of the football team in any of my posts. I made the decision to place my support on hold a little while back when Arsenal started a sponsorship partnership which I could not bring myself to accept. I may like football and Arsenal but there are some issues too close to my heart and about which I am too passionate about that I cannot compromise on. Until Arsenal ends the partnership, Real Madrid and Juventus, two other team I like (though not in the same way I am an Arsenal fan) will be the focus of my attention.

However, the news which broke today of Thierry Henry’s departure for Barcelona did sadden me- he is one of my four favourite Arsenal players, Ian Wright, Tony Adams and Dennis Bergkamp being the other three. Arsene Wenger’s signing of Henry and then playing him as a striker was a superb move and Arsenal (and Arsene Wenger) transformed his career just as much as he helped the team reach a new level. Ultimately the prize of European glory proved to be elusive and I think the fact that Arsenal doesn’t seem interested in buying big name players preferring instead to groom a young team is one of the main reasons for Henry’s decision to leave rather than the exit of vice-chariman David Dein as he has claimed. Cesc Fabregas stepped into Vieira’s boots when he left. Who will fill Henry’s?

Here are two interesting articles about Henry’s move to Barcelona and what it means now for Arsenal- 1 and
2.

Of Artic Wolves and Springs, Disappearing Lakes and Desalination

2007-06-21T23:26:00.000-05:00

I am going to share some articles on the environment and nature today:

Earlier this year I had written an entry about wolves and my fascination with them. Professional explorer Jim McNeill along with a BBC crew has travelled to Ellesmere Island to film the elusive Artic Wolf. The Artic Wolf which maintains it white coat year-round lives in Greenland and the Canadian Artic. The BBC website will be featuring McNeill’s diary of his experiences and it can be seen here.

The second article is about the Magellanes region in southern Chile where a five-acre lake has mysteriously disappeared, leaving behind just a huge crater and some chunks of ice.

The third one is about the Artic spring arriving weeks earlier than a decade ago according to a team of Danish researchers. The obvious effect of this situation is the disruption of the natural eco-system and the threat to the various species that comprise it.

A number of countries have embraced or are exploring the possibility of adopting the process of turning salt water into drinking water to address water shortages. However a recent WWF report has cautioned that desalination is not the solution to global water scarcity as the technology used is energy intensive and would therefore only increase emissions and damage coastal and river habitats. The WWF’s contention certainly provides food for thought.

Arthroscopy of the Knee

2007-06-20T23:01:00.000-05:00

While everything has largely been going well with my foot recovery process, the pain in my knee has not decreased and has worsened as I put more weight on the foot and do more exercises at therapy. It reached a stage where it was difficult to fall asleep at night and so I took a trip to the orthopaedist on Monday. He did x-rays and neither those nor the MRI from January explain why the pain is so severe. He now wants to perform an arthroscopy of my knee to enable him to diagnose and treat the problem. For those who don’t know (and I didn’t either until he told me) it’s a minimally invasive surgery that allows the surgeon to diagnose and treat problems without open knee surgery- a few small incisions are made through which an arthroscope (pen shaped instrument which has a tiny video camera and light source attached) is inserted, allowing the surgeon to view inside the joint and if necessary operate using small instruments inserted through tiny separate incisions. As arthroscopy only requires a few small incisions, there is usually no need to stay in the hospital more than a few hours after surgery, the healing and recovery process is much quicker and there is not much scarring. Most patients are able to return to work within a week and once all the post surgery recovery exercises and steps are done, full recovery is expected.

This all sounds rather straightforward but it is a surgical procedure, something which I am not exactly enthusiastic about! I was relieved that the tendons in my foot healed without surgery but now my knee has decided to be stubborn! The doctor’s office has scheduled the arthroscopy for July 11th subject to insurance approval, but I have not yet made a final decision on if to have it done- while the pain I am feeling has me leaning towards the surgery, I still have some doubts. I am scared that I may not be able to run, play cricket, swim, scuba dive, work out at the gym or do all the travelling I plan to do in the future. I have been doing research and I also plan to go back to speak to the doctor about the lingering doubts.

As if my knee’s misbehaviour isn’t enough my foot has been hurting more than the usual since yesterday evening and today I started using the cane again to take some of the weight off of it. I can definitely see myself taking a painkiller tonight to help me sleep.

At least is wasn't 4-0!

2007-06-19T19:43:00.000-05:00

At least West Indian fans can console themselves with the fact that it was a 3-0 and not a 4-0 whipping! From a dominant position at the start of the fourth day to fighting for a draw at the end and ultimately losing today in a match that lost a day and a half to rain! Poor captaincy and bowling enabled England to pose a lead and the continued poor batting of the top order meant that defeat was going to be the only result. Chanderpaul continued his defiance but even he couldn’t stave off the obvious.

Hopefully this series will have proven to Ganga fans that he is not a test class player and the appointment of a man as vice-captain who can’t even justify his place on the team was a ridiculous move by the selectors. Devon Smith still looks out of place, Sylvester Joseph does not convince me that he knows how to bat, Runako Morton is neither here nor there, Marlon Samuels is a waste of time and Chris Gayle needs to be dropped for his attitude and poor performances not rewarded with the one day captaincy! Ramdin has promise but he needs to work hard to improve his wicketkeeping; some proper competition for his place would force him to raise his game and be more consistent. The bowling is pathetic with the exception of Edwards but even he needs to work to improve his mediocre returns. Powell looked a different bowler from the one who played in the World Cup and he obviously is lacking in the brain department since there can be no other explanation for his playing the same nonsensical shot in both innings. Taylor has been struggling for a while and I think he needs a rest while Collyslow has gone past his sell by date. The only positives from the series were the immovable Chanderpaul, Bravo to an extent although he needs to convert his starts and stop throwing away his wicket and Darren Sammy’s debut.

Chanderpaul has received a lot of praise for his performance this series and it is richly deserved. If only the heart and fight he has demonstrated was replicated by a few more of his teammates! This is another article written about him in the UK Guardian.

So another series and another dismal performance. The solutions to the problems plaguing West Indian cricket are rather obvious but as long as they entail disturbing the status quo and restructuring the corrupt and inefficient old boys network- WICB- nothing will happen.

Of West Indian and Siberian Tigers, the Amazon and the Nile

2007-06-17T23:47:00.000-05:00

For the first time this series, the West Indies ended a day actually ahead of England! Starting dismally on Saturday and then fighting back, the Windies almost threw it away today with some poor shots, but the ever impressive Chanderpaul, ably supported by Collymore, managed to give the score some respectability. Chanderpaul, the West Indian tiger, continued his defiance of the English bowling and has now batted for just over 13 hours without being dismissed. In the process of this innings, he also became the seventh West Indian to pass 7000 test runs, joining an illustrious group comprised of Brian Lara, Viv Richards, Garry Sobers, Gordon Greenidge, Clive Lloyd and Desmond Haynes. Poor bowling at the start of England’s innings was fortunately negated by the quick loss of three England wickets just before close of play. This is the West Indies we are speaking about however, and while they may appear to be on top, I would not be surprised if the tables are turned around by lunch tomorrow. This is after all a team which has not won an overseas test for several years and has no culture of winning.

I came across this article on the BBC website about researchers in Brazil claiming to have scientifically proven that the Amazon River is actually longer than the River Nile. The researchers claim that an expedition has found that the source of the Amazon is in the South of Peru and not in the North of that country as was previously thought.

I also read an article which reported good news for wildlife- the endangered Siberian tiger has seen a population increase with the birth of 84 cubs in captivity in China. It can be read here.

1976, Grovelling and West Indian Pride

2007-06-15T23:24:00.000-05:00

I went to therapy today without my cane! I felt like new! I have to concentrate so I don’t limp and for the most part I walk quite normal. The stairs were a bit tricky and it will take a bit more practice before I can use them with confidence. All in all, I was quite pleased with myself! The next step will be to wear another shoe besides a sneaker but that will entail doing away with the ankle strap as it is bulky and can only be worn with the sneaker.

1976 was an eventful year: Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai and Chairman Mao both died that year; Pol Pot became Prime Minister of Cambodia; earthquakes in Guatemala, Honduras, China, Iran and Philippines killed and injured hundreds of thousands; the Soweto riots erupted in South Africa; the Socialist Republic of Vietnam was officially proclaimed; military coups occurred in Argentina and Uruguay; Jimmy Carter defeated President Gerald Ford to win the US Presidency; the summer and winter Olympics were held in Montreal, Canada and Innsbruck, Austria respectively; July witnessed the US Bicentennial; Trinidad and Tobago became a Republic replacing the Queen of England with an elected President as their Head of State; Air Cubana Flight 455 was blown up off the coast of Barbados shortly after take off in a CIA-linked terrorist attack by anti-Castro Cuban exiles; the Barbados Labour Party led by Tom Adams defeated the Errol Barrow led Democratic Labour Party in elections; Alex Haley’s Roots, Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s Autumn of the Patriarch, Alice Walker’s Meridian, Maya Angelou’s Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas, James Baldwin’s The Devil Finds Work and Ishmael Reed’s Flight to Canada were published.

In cricket, 1976 is remembered for the West Indian cricket team’s tour to England. As I have written before, for the Caribbean the game of cricket is much more than a sport and is intertwined in the social, economic and political landscape of these small islands. Issues of race and nationalism are intrically linked to the success of the West Indian team and there are not many people in the Caribbean who would deny the feelings of racial and national pride whenever our team wins. In May 1976, the West Indies arrived in England and in the build up to the first test, the English captain Tony Greig give an interview to the BBC in which he boldly stated that his team would make the West Indians grovel. The comments, coming from a white South African, severely offended the region and its team and only served to motivate the players. Tony Greig’s team was severely thrashed and he was subjected to huge amounts of barracking from the West Indian fans in the grounds as well as special targeting by the West Indian bowlers. By the end of the series it was Greig who was doing the grovelling- on the afternoon of the fourth day of the last test, he walked over to boundary, sunk to his knees and grovelled to the West Indian fans in the stands. BBC has a feature on the 1976 tour here and cricinfo.com also did two interesting articles which can be accessed here and here.

UPDATE:

I came across another article in the UK Guardian about the 1976 tour here.

Of Podiatric Progress, Vacation Days and Captaincy Quarrels

2007-06-14T23:43:00.000-05:00

I had a doctor’s appointment along with therapy yesterday. I can now basically walk alone without the cane except for when I go up or down stairs so the doctor told me I could stop using the cane and also try to get accustomed to using the stairs without it. I am still not supposed to do any unnecessary walking. I still have tendonitis in parts of my foot and I am still feeling some pain and stiffness in different areas. Overall there has been much progress though. I hope when I see him in two weeks time I am given the all clear to go back to work on July 9th. Beyond that I also am looking forward to going back to the gym. I weighed myself on Monday night and I have put on fifteen pounds!

I also have to take at least fourteen days vacation each year or I will lose them and since I can’t take any time off from September to December because of the UN General Assembly I have to take the days sometime in July and August. There is no way I am losing my hard earned vacation so I guess the office will not be seeing me for two weeks in July or August!

Yesterday I spoke about the pathetic handling of the captaincy issue for the upcoming one-day series and this morning the news media reported that the WICB board as a whole had sided with the selection panel against the Executive Board and therefore Gayle will captain the side with Chanderpaul as his deputy. The Barbados Nation and cricinfo.com both carried stories which can be read here and here.

UPDATE June 15th

Tony Cozier has an article in the Weekend Nation on the captaincy situation which can be read here.

Back in Action, West Indian Resistance and West Indian Folly

2007-06-13T23:08:00.000-05:00

I was out of commission for a few days as my laptop had to pay another visit to the office to get fixed. Apparently nothing was wrong with the wireless adapter because it functioned normally there. Now that I have it back, it is working but not consistently- annoying situation!

The West Indies surprised everyone with a great fight back after being thrashed for the first half of the third test even though in the final analysis they lost yet another overseas test. Chanderpaul continued to highlight his worth to the team while Darren Sammy who I did not think should have been on the tour made a remarkable start to his test career. Will he build on this performance or will he go the way of so many players of the past decade who showed promise and then regressed? Only time will tell. Even though Fidel Edwards’ final figures did not look impressive, his extra pace made a difference and at least we did not have to bear the sight of Pieterson charging down the pitch to one of our “fast” bowlers like he has been doing to the rest, especially Collymore.

Tony Cozier and Andrew Miller wrote two good articles on the last test and Chanderpaul respectively so have a read.

While on the field the team was fighting against England, off the field the West Indian administrators were fighting among themselves on the choice of captain for the one day series that follows the tests. The selectors chose Gayle but the WICB Executive Committee rejected that choice and instead headed by Ken Gordon advised the selection panel to appoint Darren Ganga (who was not even selected as part of the one-day team)and Dinesh Ramdin as captain and vice-captain respectively. The latest news seems to be that the selection panel has refused and so yet again the Caribbean fulfills the stereotype of a bunch of inefficient fools who can't manage the simplest of tasks. While I would hate to see Gayle captain the team, Ganga with his inability to make the one-day side and even struggling in the test team is not exactly a much better choice!

The absence of West Indian fans at cricket grounds during the Caribbean team’s tours has been noticeable in recent years. In addition, besides Alex Tudor a few years ago, there have been no black players on the England team unlike the 1980s and early 1990s. Two interesting articles about this can be read here- 1 and 2. Fellow blogger Colonise This! also writes about the issue here.

40 Years of Further Occupation

2007-06-05T23:41:00.000-05:00

On June 5th, 1967, Israel launched an attack on Egypt, Syria and Jordan, decimating their armies and air defences in a few hours. At the end of the so-called Six Day War, Israel had succeeded in capturing even more Arab land- the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza, along with the Sinai and the Golan Heights- and had basically doubled the amount of territory it controlled. Sold initially by its officials, Western backers and media as a pre-emptive strike against an increasingly threatening Egypt and Arab world, later pronouncements and admissions by Israeli government officials along with declassified documents and information have discredited this claim and revealed that the attack was an aggressive move aimed at gaining territory.

The War led to the displacement of 400 000 Palestinians, about half of whom were already refugees from the 1948 creation of the Zionist state. These people and their descendants, numbering in the millions continue to live as refugees in various parts of the Arab world today. Forty years later, the people who remained in the West Bank and Gaza continue to live under a brutal and oppressive military occupation (and the settlement regime that accompanies it); an occupation which endures contrary to international law and despite various Security Council and General Assembly Resolutions.

The Six Day War is often viewed as a watershed in the history of the region, but in reality, the real watershed occurred in1948 when the right to self-determination was denied to one people, the indigenous Palestinians, and their land was taken to create a state for another group.

A New Cold War?

2007-06-03T23:43:00.000-05:00

There has been talk in the past few days of the emergence of a new cold war as the US and Russia and Russia and the UK have been engaging in a war of words over missiles and spies. On the face of it, it does look like a page from the past but some deeper analysis demonstrates that it is more about post-Cold War power politics than a conflict rooted largely in ideology.

Both Russia and the US are governed by highly nationalistic administrations seeking to further what they consider to be the national interest. The US has decided that unilateral withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty in 2001 followed by plans to build a missile defence system in Eastern Europe as part of a larger global network (for the stated aim of countering threats by “rogue states” such as North Korea and Iran and non-state actors) is in its national interest; Russia has decided that the presence of such a system in its geographic sphere is a threat to its security and interests and has retaliated by testing a ballistic missile and announcing that it will target missiles at Europe. NATO has condemned the Russian threat and the French and British have also voiced concern.

All this comes at the same time as the row over the murder of a former Soviet intelligence agent in London and British demands for the extradition of another former Soviet spy who they claim is responsible.

Add to the mix the following: some Eastern European politicians are worried about a remerging Russia and view the US plan favourably even though the US has explicitly stated that the missile defence system is aimed at countering threats by “rouge states” and non-state actors and not at Russia; many of the people in Eastern Europe and particularly those who live in the areas where the system will be built are not supportive of the plan, environmental and health risks being primary concerns; many in Western Europe are unhappy with the idea of the US unilaterally going ahead to build a missile defence system in Eastern Europe and not consulting the EU; Russia has increasingly felt that it is not being accorded the respect it deserves in the international arena by other large powers and under Putin has been seeking to reassert itself; the US is caught up in its own “war on terror” and all of its actions are inevitably tied into the new realities of international security and politics; Russia possesses vast energy supplies on which Europe is dependent and the EU relationship with Russia is invariably influenced by this.

In other words, the current situation is complex and vastly different from what prevailed during the Cold War. Talk of a new Cold War is premature but the danger of arms proliferation are however very real and the only way to deal with the current impasse is for both sides to engage in dialogue and arrive at some form of a practical agreement.

My Sister's Masters Degree, Viv Richard's 189 and Nature's Battle with Man

2007-05-31T19:36:00.000-05:00

My sister who is doing her Masters in Ohio defended her thesis today, thereby completing the work for her degree. Graduation is next week. The doctor says I can go but I will have to restrict my walking and I will obviously have to be be given disability assistance at the airport since the walk from check-in to the gate will be too much. Naturally I am very proud of her especially as she has had to overcome some major obstacles to arrive where she is today. My sisters and I are not the boastful kind. We just do what we have to do unlike most of the people in Barbados who share our surname and who sit and boast endlessly- ironically none of them have achieved anything in their lives and are generally failures and losers. Being boastful is a bad habit, but being boastful while not having done anything with your life is just plain old stupid! All this to say that my sister will just go on back home with her husband and kids who had joined her in Ohio and return to teaching etc and the simple but fulfilling life she lives with her family. Hopefully she will have her excellent thesis (Ethnic Minority Dominance in A Small Island Developing State and the Implications for Development: The Case of Barbados) published. The Committee who evaluated it was extremely impressed by her intelligence, analytical skills and the fact that the research and conclusions go much further than what is required at the Masters Level. Unfortunately, the university only gives out two grades- pass and fail- so while the Committee wanted to bestow a distinction on her, they will be unable to do so. Ok enough of that before I begin to sound like the idiotic relatives who I have nothing to do with!

A few days ago I wrote about Saeed Anwar’s record breaking innings of 194, which still remains the highest ever one day international score. The record Anwar broke was Viv Richard’s 189 runs made in 1984 against England at Old Trafford, an innings still regarded by many people as the greatest ever one-day knock. To put the 170 ball innings (21 fours, 5 sixes) into context, the West Indies were 102 for 7 and then 166 for 9 but ended up with a score of 272 for nine and won the match by 104 runs. Michael Holding made just 12 in the final wicket partnership of 106 and only one other batsman in the team reached double figures- Eldine Baptise making 26. Unfortunately I can’t locate a video of the innings on YouTube although there are some short video compilations comprised of clips of various innings. You can find them by doing a simple search for Viv Richards.

I was reading an article yesterday that once again highlights how in the clash between mankind and nature, nature disproportionately ends up on the losing side. This time it is bison that are at man’s mercy; in Montana the authorities have announced a plan to capture and kill 400 bison, including about 100 calves, which have been roaming outside the confines of Yellowstone National Park. Public protests have led to a stay of execution but the Montana Department of Livestock has said that it still plans to go ahead with the cull. The story can be read here.

In something a little lighter, this article about cheating female cheetahs brought a smile to my face.

Feeling Loss and Further Confinement

2007-05-30T22:07:00.000-05:00

I was out of commission for a few days- my laptop needs a new wireless adapter and so I give it to a colleague on Monday morning so that it could be fixed. Three days without internet and I felt extremely loss! No access to email, all my favourite alternative news sites, cricket news, msn, bank etc. Should I be concerned that I am so dependent on the internet?

The laptop was returned this evening, unfixed, because of unforeseen circumstances. Needless to say I will have to resend it at a later date and for now I will have to contend with an immobile laptop.

I will not comment on the record West Indian loss in the second test except to say how unfortunate it is that Sarwan has been ruled out for the remainder of the series because of injury and that Sidebottom’s performance only serves to highlight the value of playing regular competitive matches. West Indian cricketers play a few regional matches each year along with playing in their domestic competitions. The level of domestic cricket throughout the Caribbean is poor and does not serve to improve the skills of our cricketers. The short regional tournament’s standards are not much better! Sidebottom is no genius with the ball but playing regular cricket at a certain level day in and day out means that he has been able to hone his skills and professionalism. He simply translated this onto the test match arena, bowled a certain line and length and achieved success.

On another note vice-captain Ganga will likely be named captain and it should be distressing to any true West Indian fan to see a West Indian captain with a batting average of 27!

My friend Steve had a barbeque on Memorial Day so I spent most of Monday at his place in Long Island. It was refreshing to be out of my apartment even if it was just for the day! The usual highlights the past few months have been doctor/ therapist appointments and this state of affairs seems likely to continue for another few weeks.

I went to the doctor today and while there is progress- I can now wear the sneaker for most of the day and can actually walk a bit without the cane- I still have some tendonitis and cannot bear too much weight. The latest verdict is that I should keep on taking it gradually as I have been doing, slowly increasing the bearing of weight, lessening the dependence on the cane and discarding the boot- the new date for my return to work has been pushed forward by four weeks to July 9th. I don’t miss the UN or my office but I am so sick of being confined to this place that I would return to work tomorrow if I could! I had what has become the norm- cortisone shot- and the physical therapist told me that I had gotten approval for a further twelve sessions of therapy. My usual therapist is on vacation for a month and his colleague who has been working with me and who is more aggressive, succeeded in persuading the middle man company to approve more sessions. Kudos to him!

Another Day, Another Cricket Massacre

2007-05-26T22:02:00.000-05:00

Unlike the journalists writing after the first test about a turn around, a new era etc. I did not allow myself to get carried away and my approach to the 2nd test was, as has become the norm, one of pessimism. Yes, it still hurts and frustrates to see the team performing so poorly and getting a whipping but at least I don’t have to suffer the huge disappointment that comes after such high expectations are not rewarded. It is my way of coping.

At the end of the day, the West Indian bowling attack is pathetic and at no point during the current series, or for that matter most series recently, has it looked capable of bowling out England. We can argue about the inclusion of Pedro Collins or Dave Mohammed, but I am sure the England batsmen would still run amok. The batting, with one batsman having an average over 40, and prone to collapse, is almost as weak. With that batsman injured and the captain seemingly out for the rest of the series, the batting looks worse than most county line-ups! When Sylvester Joseph, Runako Morton, Darren Ganga, Chris Gayle and Devon Smith are the crème de la crème of regional batting, one could as well quit test cricket!

Like any true West Indian fan, I will continue to follow the team, get frustrated, angry, depressed, lose the ability to speak at certain points during a game, come to the brink of tears and swear. I will hope for a win or even a fight, but I will not be so naïve to see some new dawn on the odd occasion of a reasonable performance nor will I let my hopes get so high that the disappointment after a thrashing is unbearable. I’ve had enough of that in the past decade and I learnt my lesson a long time ago.

Some of my Favourite Quotes

2007-05-24T21:56:00.000-05:00

Not an exhaustive list:

"Dipped in chocolate,
Bronzed with elegance,
Enamelled with grace,
Toasted with beauty.
My Lord, she is a Black Woman!"
-Yosef Ben-Jochannan

Listen or your tongue will keep you deaf.
-Native American Proverb

Sorrow shared is halved. Joy shared is doubled.
-Native American Saying

"Seduce my mind and you can have my body. Find my soul and I’m yours forever."
-Anonymous

"Since the time of Homer every European, in what he could say about the Orient, was a racist, an imperialist, and almost totally ethnocentric"
-Edward Said

“Remember the solidarity shown to Palestine here and everywhere... and remember also that there is a cause to which many people have committed themselves, difficulties and terrible obstacles notwithstanding. Why? Because it is a just cause, a noble ideal, a moral quest for equality and human rights.”
-Edward Said

"My final prayer: oh my body, make me always a man who asks questions"
-Frantz Fanon

“He replied that he suddenly felt overcome at the thought that he had to stand there, before the assembled representatives of African nationalist movements, to try and persuade them that the Algerian cause was important, at a time when men were dying and being tortured in his country for a cause whose justice ought to command automatic support from rational and progressive human beings.”
-Peter Worsely, Professor of Sociology at the University of Manchester speaking of Fanon’s reply to his question of why Fanon had appeared to break down while delivering an address to the Conference on Positive Action in Accra, Ghana, 1960.

“As far as I knew white women were never lonely, except in books. White men adored them, Black men desired them and Black women worked for them.”
-Maya Angelou

“The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it.”
-George Bernard Shaw

Why should we take advice on sex from the pope? If he knows anything about it, he shouldn't!
-George Bernard Shaw

“A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.”
-Mark Twain

“Propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state.”
-Noam Chomsky

“Resistance is feasible even for those who are not heroes by nature, and it is an obligation, I believe, for those who fear the consequences and detest the reality of the attempt to impose American hegemony.”
-Noam Chomsky

“Everybody's worried about stopping terrorism. Well, there's a really easy way: stop participating in it.”
-Noam Chomsky

“You're not to be so blind with patriotism that you can't face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who does it or says it.”
-Malcolm X

"I'm not going to sit at your table and watch you eat, with nothing on my plate, and call myself a diner. Sitting at the table doesn't make you a diner, unless you eat some of what's on that plate. Being here in America doesn't make you an American.... No I'm not an American, I'm one of the 22 million black people who are the victims of Americanism. One of the 22 million black people who are the victims of democracy, nothing but disguised hypocrisy.... I'm speaking as a victim of this American system. And I see America through the eyes of a victim. I don't see any American dream; I see an American nightmare."
-Malcolm X

“I am America. I am the part you won't recognize. But get used to me. Black, confident, cocky; my name, not yours; my religion, not yours; my goals, my own; get used to me.”
-Muhummad Ali

A Celtic Tiger and an Island of Ice

2007-05-23T23:03:00.000-05:00

*Photo from BBC website

A few days ago I mentioned Ice Island, a huge chunk of ice which broke off of the Canadian Artic coastline, changed the geography of the area and further highlights the effects of climate change. The BBC team and scientists landed on the Island yesterday and their latest report can be seen here.

Ireland, Europe’s model of economic success and labelled the Celtic Tiger, goes to the polls tomorrow in what is expected to be an extremely close election. This is despite the significant economic gains achieved in the past decade. Ireland has witnessed the same phenomenon as every country before it which experienced a serious economic transformation: conflict between the new and traditional ways of life, prosperity not reaching everyone, ecological/environmental challenges, immigration and a construction/real estate boom putting the price of property beyond the reach of the average person. The BBC website has a series of articles devoted to the Irish election and the various issues that have formed part of the debate leading up to polling day.

Insurance Battles and a Superpower’s Dim-witted Population

2007-05-22T22:26:00.000-05:00

I had another doctor’s appointment yesterday- cortisone shot, reminder that I was not to be tempted into going out in the nice weather and advised to keep on alternating between boot and sneaker with a view towards giving up the boot. I am now up to three hours a day in sneakers. It has been ok, although the ankle strap and still slightly swollen foot means that the shoe starts to feel tight towards the end and my foot hurts a bit. My therapy has been put on hold this week as the therapist battles the insurance company to get authorisation for more sessions. For physical therapy, the insurance company works through a middle man company that assesses the therapist’s progress reports and makes a determination on the number of sessions required. In the first instance twelve sessions were authorised and upon a further request for twelve more, they only approved three. So some guy sitting in an office decides that someone who has only now reached the stage of walking with a cane and boot doesn’t need anymore physical therapy. I am far from regaining full mobility in my foot, I still cannot walk without assistance, my big toe still does not have the range of motion it should have, I still have tendonitis and pain in various parts of my foot, but this idiot in his response to the therapist has said that I should do foot exercises at home. What is worse is that when I called the insurance company, I was told that my plan allowed for as many sessions as the doctor and therapist thought I needed. However the request for authorisation must go through the middle company hired by my insurance and they have taken it upon themselves to be anal. I would like to see the fool face to face- my cane can be used for much more than helping me walk! I can only sympathise with the millions of people who cannot afford insurance and must suffer in the world’s most prosperous nation!

And speaking of the world’s most prosperous nation, have a look at these two videos posted on YouTube. There are other similar videos there so help yourselves to a laugh. I have lived in New York City for 2 ½ years and each day it perplexes me how this country remains a super power with such a stupid populace!

Saving a Lord's Test and Saeed Anwar's 194

2007-05-21T23:51:00.000-05:00

Did the rain save the West Indies from yet another defeat or did it save England from a humiliating ten wicket loss? West Indian fans would wish that the latter was true but the realists among us fans know that based on the past decade, the former is closer to the truth. Who can forget being bowled out for 54 in the second innings in the corresponding Lord’s test in 2000, a turning point as the West Indies has not beaten England in a test match since. I am just happy that the team showed some fight despite the limitations in the bowling department and the fragile batting line up and I hope they remain positive and keep battling on. The catching needs some serious work, the bowling needs to be more consistent and the top order needs to score hundreds. I would be tempted to play Fidel instead of Collymore or Taylor, both of whom looked out of sorts for most of the match. “Collyslow” produced a good spell on the fourth morning but I honestly can not see the value in playing a fast bowler who bowls slower than the part time slow and medium pace bowlers in either team, rarely gets wickets these days and is not exactly as economical as he is made out to be. It would be a better long term strategy to develop Morton’s medium pace and use him as a Collymore type bowler and play an extra pacer!

Ten years ago in Chennai against India, Saeed Anwar smashed 194 runs off of only 146 balls, breaking West Indian legend Viv Richards’ record of 189 runs made in 1984 against England at Old Trafford. Anwar’s 194 still remains the highest ever score in one day international history. On his day Anwar was as good as any bastman in the world and was a joy to watch when he got going with his graceful stroke play. Someone posted the highlights of his 194 on YouTube:

Will Rain Save the Day?

2007-05-20T21:54:00.000-05:00

The Windies could not survive until lunch but at least the tail wagged, added some valuable runs and consumed precious time. Lacking any real bowling fire power, it was expected that they would find it difficult to restrict England to an overall lead of less than 400. England on the other hand erred by being too defensive earlier on- it would have been in their interest to start the hitting out a little while before they did, declare a bit earlier and bowl at least 10 overs to the West Indies before close of play putting the tourist’s fragile batting line up under pressure. Needless to say none of this may matter with rain being predicted tomorrow. It is probably best because I still cannot trust the West Indies to bat out 90+ overs and save the game. The coach’s statement about going out to win is just an attempt to make the West Indies appear a confident team.

West Indian Fightback, Monty's Magic and Malcolm X

2007-05-19T22:08:00.000-05:00

It was wonderful to see the West Indies fight back today. I was expecting the usual collapse and at 187-5 it seemed business as usual. Excellent innings by Bravo, Chanderpaul and Ramdin along with a gritty knock by Ganga ensured that the follow-on was avoided. Monty who many did not even expect to be selected to play on a pitch thought to be seamer friendly weaved his magic, but West Indians will feel that he was ably assisted by umpire Asad Rauf who give out three batsmen LBW in contentious circumstances. Some umpires have only recently begun giving batsmen out when struck in front playing forward to spinners. I believe that cricket is a game between bat and ball, I hate to see batsmen playing with their pads and I think in the past spinners have been disadvantaged by batsmen lunging forward with their pads in the knowledge that they will not be given out. However, if there is going to be a change it has to be across the board and it has to be implemented consistently- by each umpire every time he is called upon to make a decision and by the entire panel of international umpires. Yesterday Rauf made a mockery of the game- he had denied the West Indies a plumb LBW decision against Collingwood on the first day but then decided to undertake his experiment in interpretation of the rules when the West Indies were batting. I don’t want to appear paranoid but one must wonder if he has something against the West Indies.

West Indies did a lot yesterday but the game is still far from saved. It would have been ideal if one of the top order had made a significant contribution and Ramdin had not gotten out a couple of overs before end of play. England will still feel they have a chance of winning while West Indies will need to keep fighting hard to save the match- they will have to bat till lunch and reduce the England lead to fewer than 100. One plus for the Windies is Harmison’s miserable bowling performance. The man who destroyed us in 2004 was made to look just as bad as our bowlers looked during England’s first innings! Hopefully his confidence will be severely affected for the remainder of the series!

On May 19th, 1925 one of the greatest men of the 20th Century was born- Malcolm X, also known as Malcolm Little, Detroit Red and El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz. I read his autobiography when I was about 14 years and it has been a source of inspiration for me since then. Besides the fact that he had the courage to stand up and tell it like it is without any thought of the consequences for himself, what is outstanding about Malcolm is that firstly, unlike any of the other black leaders of his time, he made the link between the fight of blacks in America for their rights and the international fight of colonised people for freedom and secondly, he was man enough to stand up in public and say that what he believed when he was a member of the Nation of Islam cult was wrong. Not many people and furthermore those in the public eye have the guts or the humility to admit in public that they were wrong. His bravery in defying the status quo would ultimately lead to his murder but his message continues to inspire and enlighten millions.

An Ice Island and West Indian Woes

2007-05-18T21:40:00.000-05:00

Torturous viewing! West Indies did not bowl badly in the morning session but they dropped catches; after lunch it was all England as the weaknesses of the bowling attack were cruelly exposed. Of course, poor umpiring did not help as Collingwood was plumb LBW to Taylor in the morning and was not given out by umpire Asad Rauf. It is amazing how many times poor umpiring decisions go against us, whether we are batting or bowling.

I was not at all surprised that Prior scored a century on debut. We have made it a habit in recent years to gift centuries on debut to batsmen and from the time the fools started bowling short at him and he kept swatting them away, a century was there for the taking. What sense does it make to bowl short at a batsman if he keeps putting you away? Nothing makes my blood boil more than to see a pathetic so-called fast bowler from the West Indies bowling sugary short balls to a batsman and then giving him chat and glares. You should be on a plane back to the Caribbean in disguise! I wish I could feel positive but it appears as if an innings defeat will be the result.

In more depressing news- almost everyday we hear negative news about the destruction of the environment and climate change- I saw a feature today on BBC about Ayles Ice Island, an iceberg that broke away from the Arctic coastline in summer 2005. The iceberg is huge- 10 miles long and three miles across- and while it separated almost two years ago, it has only now received public attention. The event is significant as it has transformed geography of the region and provides more evidence of the effects of climate change. A BBC team along with two scientists have departed for the island and will be providing daily updates.

New Day, Same Old ^%$

2007-05-17T21:38:00.000-05:00

I bought the package to watch the cricket just before I went to bed last night and diligently woke up early… another day, another overseas test, another bad start! Sarwan began on the right foot by winning the toss and choosing to bowl first in bowler friendly conditions. The bowlers, not exactly boasting much pedigree in the first place and woefully short of match practice/ preparation in English conditions could not capitalise on the environment. To their credit they did put in a much better performance after lunch but England had already been given a platform to build on. Sarwan did a good job in his first match as official captain, especially his 7-2 field in the afternoon which forced the bowlers into bowling a much more disciplined line. I do think however that he should have bowled Bravo much earlier.

A special paragraph of criticism must be reserved for that entity which has largely destroyed our cricket and which is doing its utmost best to ensure that the game stands no chance of returning to its glorious days- WICB. Only idiocy can explain the Board agreeing to merely one three day practice match before the tests in a country where conditions play a major role in the game and where players from all over the world struggle to adapt. As if not having the most talented or mentally strong players is not enough! Obviously, the fact that the rain falls a lot in England was also ignored- the only practice match was ruined by bad weather. The WICB in its wisdom sent a poor team into a test series without any preparations! A pat on the back for the old boys!

Sarwan’s Initiation, Honouring Lara and Not Having an Impact

2007-05-16T22:16:00.000-05:00

The first match of the four test West Indies versus England series begins tomorrow at Lords. I have not yet decided whether to purchase the package being offered by willow.tv. I am still contemplating whether I should waste $100 to watch the West Indies get beat. I would love for the team to win but I know better than to get my hopes up high. Fazeer Mohammed has written a good preview which can be read here.

While the West Indies play England on the field, off the field the MCC Museum at Lords is holding an exhibition in honour of Brian Lara. The exhibition which charts his career and numerous achievements will feature various types of memorabilia including the bats with which he scored his 375, 400 and 501. Here is the BBC’s take.

I came across an interesting blog about a man and his family’s attempt to live in New York City for one year and not make an impact on the environment. I try my best to do whatever I can for the environment but I know it’s far from enough. This guy must be admired for going to such lengths. His fascinating story is a must read. I have also added it to the sidebar.

Hydrogen Bombs and Ankle Straps

2007-05-15T17:37:00.000-05:00

50 years ago, the British exploded their first hydrogen bomb over Malden Island as part of a series of tests in the Pacific. Operation Grapple and Operations Grapple X, Grapple Y and Grapple Z were the names given to the nuclear testing operations conducted in 1957 and 1958. While the main base for the Operations was Christmas Island (now called Kiritimati and part of the Republic of Kiribati), an inhabited atoll two degrees north of the Equator with an economy based on the export of coconut, the tests for Operation Grapple (May 15, May 31 and June 19, 1957) were carried out over Malden Island (now part of the Republic of Kiribati), an uninhabited atoll about 400 miles south of Christmas Island. The test for Operation Grapple X was carried out over Christmas Island on November 8, 1957 and resulted in widespread damage to buildings and infrastructure there. Operation Grapple Y was detonated just off of Christmas Island on April 28, 1958 and Operation Grapple Z, the largest of the four Operations was conducted at different points in 1958 on Christmas Island.

The British tests were part of a major escalation in the arms race and would also lead to them signing a comprehensive nuclear co-operation treaty with the US- 1958 US-UK Mutual Defence Agreement. The treaty allows for extremely close collaboration between the two allies but the heavy UK reliance on the US for assistance in developing and maintaining its nuclear supply has been criticised as being in breach of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Of course contraventions or allegations of contraventions of major international instruments are afforded differing reactions depending on the country accused of undertaking such an act.

I had therapy and a doctor’s appointment today. I’ve been having some pain this past week just above my toes and around my ankle where the straps of the boot are located. The doc says it’s just the muscles that have not been used for so long and the foot getting used to the weight combined with the stress placed by the boot straps. He thinks its time I start getting used to life without the boot so I am now supposed to wear an ankle strap with my sneaker, beginning with one hour a day and gradually increasing till I see him next Monday when an assessment will be made. I will still be wearing the boot when I am not wearing the sneaker. If by next week all I am feeling is discomfort rather than severe pain, I will continue the gradual move back to sneakers. If there is too much pain, I will have to be in the boot for longer! I also received what is becoming normal now- a cortisone shot- and was warned not to go out for a stroll in the park or go and hang out etc. I am still supposed to rest my foot and my walking must be restricted to my apartment. It seems as if spring will come and go while I am stuck inside : - (

Young, Gifted and Black/ Aicha

2007-05-15T00:24:00.001-05:00

Nina Simone. No need for commentary!

Khaled performing Aicha in 2005 at the BBC.

Neither of the two videos was posted by me on YouTube. I am just taking the liberty of sharing them.

Nina Simone was posted by this person.

Khaled was posted by this person.

Jamestown

2007-05-14T23:07:00.000-05:00

400 years ago, a group of Englishmen settled on James River and established Jamestown, the first English colony in North America. It was the beginning of a grim history of oppression, genocide and slavery as Native American tribes were systematically slaughtered and driven from their lands and African slaves were brought to the new colony to provide labour. Today, the US commemorates 400 years of settlement, but as I sit here in my apartment in New York City, a thought goes out to those millions of people who suffered and died over the course of the past 400 years so that a certain group of people could enrich itself.

Books and Pests

2007-05-12T23:25:00.000-05:00

I have been working on cataloguing my books on librarything.com and have nearly finished. I have done it the hard way: taking a set of books at a time in a bag to my computer. It’s not that I have much else going on in my life at the moment anyway and I am also a bit more mobile these days since I progressed from crutches to cane! The little red and black librarything widget close to the top of the page should take you to my list.

The pests next door have kept up their circus act. I was awoken this morning by shouting, screaming, running and doors slamming. When I looked at my clock it was 7:23 am! I am a deep sleeper so it takes a fair bit of noise to wake me up! I called the landlord later in the afternoon and told him that the situation had gone beyond ridiculous and there was no way I should have to wake up so early on a Saturday morning because of noisy neighbours. He said he would speak to the guy but either he didn’t or they ignored him because the noise continued for the rest of the day until I heard them leaving in the evening. Please don’t come back. Ever!

South Africa’s First Black President

2007-05-10T23:43:00.000-05:00

On May 10th, 1994 (I was still in secondary school!) Nelson Mandela was sworn in as South Africa’s first black president after more than three centuries of white minority rule and the country’s first ever democratic elections. It was the culmination of a long journey from lawyer to co-founder of the ANC’s armed wing to political prisoner to symbol of the fight against apartheid and ultimately President.

Speaking at his inauguration, Mandela stressed reconciliation and forgiveness, stating: “We saw our country tear itself apart in terrible conflict... The time for healing of wounds has come... Never, never again will this beautiful land experience the oppression of one by another.”

Of Canes, Crutches and Books

2007-05-09T23:23:00.000-05:00

I have finally managed to reach the stage of walking with a cane. I bought it last week and started using it last Friday. It has gone pretty well and I can now even take a few steps without the cane. I am obviously still wearing the boot though.

I bought a number of books recently when Amazon had a sale; mostly political works but a novel, short story collection and photography book also. I also bought some books for my nephews/nieces.

I have been meaning to do an inventory of all the books in my library for a while but I have not gotten around to doing it. I also joined librarything.com in February but because of my mobility issues I have not been able to catalogue the books. The wireless adaptor on my laptop going dead hasn’t also helped since I can’t take the laptop to the bookshelves and be connected to the internet. Technology can be such a nuisance.

Needless to say this is what I bought:

Tragedy & Farce: How the American Media Sell Wars, Spin Elections, and Destroy Democracy By John Nichols, et al

It's the Crude, Dude: Greed, Gas, War, and the American Way By Linda Mcquaig

Failed States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy By Noam Chomsky

And We Are Not Saved: The Elusive Quest for Racial Justice By Derrick Bell

Mad Sheep: The True Story Behind the USDA's War on a Family Farm By Linda Faillace

The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals By Michael Pollan

Holy Cows And Hog Heaven: The Food Buyer's Guide To Farm Friendly Food By Joel Salatin

Mecca and Main Street: Muslim Life in America after 9/11 By Geneive Abdo

Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People By Jack G. Shaheen

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier By Ishmael Beah

George Orwell: An Age Like This 1920-1940: The Collected Essays, Journalism & Letters (Collected Essays Journalism and Letters of George Orwell) By George Orwell (Author), et al

My Country Right or Left 1940-1943: The Collected Essays Journalism & Letters of George Orwell (Collected Essays Journalism and Letters of George Orwe By Sonia Orwell (Editor), et al

George Orwell: As I Please, 1943-1945: The Collected Essays, Journalism & Letters (Collected Essays Journalism and Letters of George Orwell) By George Orwell (Author), et al

In Front of Your Nose, 1945-1950 (Collected Essays Journalism and Letters of George Orwell) By George Orwell (Author), et al

Face Time By Patrick De Wilde (Photographer), Laurel Hirsch (Translator)

Short Stories of Langston Hughes By Langston Hughes (Author), Akiba Sullivan Harper (Editor)

Their Eyes Were Watching God By Zora Neale Hurston

Noisy Neighbours

2007-05-07T22:51:00.000-05:00

I moved into my apartment in Park Slope in November 2004. I like my apartment and its location and I enjoyed whatever little time I got to spend in it until recently. I have a new neighbour and his three kids make tons of noise. It is only since he moved in a few months ago that I realised the walls are paper thin! My building is a new one and has seven floors. I am on the top floor which has four apartments and when I came here I was the only person living on the floor. A weird woman with a parrot and two dogs (one morning she told me that the dog was still a baby and went to nursery school!) then moved in, an elderly couple followed by her and then a couple with a little girl. Weird woman I smelt more than I saw or maybe it was the dogs; either way the scent in the corridor or inside the elevator always meant she had just came/went. She moved out just over a year later and a young couple with a little boy moved in. The elderly couple seems to live part of their time somewhere else and is very pleasant. The couple with the little girl lived in the apartment next to me and it is when they moved out a few months ago that my nightmare began. I never had any problems with them and I even remember asking the lady once when we were in the elevator if she by any chance ever heard my music and she said no but she wished she did becaue her bedroom faced the street and the noise from the traffic bothered her.

Now, instead of my peaceful retreat from New York City, I feel as if I am living next to a school. My apartment is filled with constant loud screaming- both babysitter and kids, doors banging, balls bouncing, kids thumping hardwood floors as they run up and down, and toilet seats, yes toilet seats slamming! I say my apartment is filled because that is what it seems like- the noise is so loud and the walls so thin it appears as if it is next to me. I love children and I believe in them playing and being happy so I refrained from complaining at first. However, there is also something called discipline and consideration for others and when it got to a point where it became unbearable I knocked on the door and politely asked the babysitter (father was not there) to ask the kids to tone it down a little. A few minutes of peace and then the ruckus resumed. I called the landlord next day and told him that I was having a problem with noise from my neighbours and I was letting him know before I went to speak to the father. The landlord said that the guy was a reasonable man but if the noise continued he would have a word with him. I waited a few days to see if there would be any change but there was none so I went to speak to the father. Before I could finish what I was saying, he bluntly said that they were kids and there wasn’t much he could do! I said I know they are kids, but the noise is quite a lot and I am just asking for them not to bang on the walls, not to scream so loudly and not to run up and down so much. He then stated that I should be grateful as they only stayed with him for two weeks each month- he is divorced and they spend the other two weeks with their mom. So I should be grateful that children who don’t belong to me or are not related to me only invade my apartment with noise for two weeks a month!

The noise abated for the next two weeks but today it returned with a vengeance- the twirps are back. They came home from school and the noise began. I started to get a headache so I called the landlord who told me there was nothing he can do as it is just kids playing and not loud music in the middle of the night! I was flabbergasted. He was insistent that there is nothing he can do. I decided to go and once again ask them to keep down the noise. The babysitter answered, I was very polite, she gave me attitude and parroted the father- they are kids, full stop.

I am at my wits end and I have no idea what to do. I love children. I have 14 nephews and nieces and I know how noisy they can be, especially boys and for the most part the noise does not bother me. However, there is a limit and I don’t see why I should have to sit in my apartment and be subjected to a racket caused by a stranger’s kids!

The Doha debates

2007-05-06T22:42:00.000-05:00

The Doha Debates broadcast on BBC World are a forum for public debate in Qatar and organised similarly to the traditional “Oxford Union” debate. They focus on issues related to the Arab and Islamic worlds and the format allows for open debate: two teams of invited speakers (speakers have various backgrounds and hold diverse views) debate a topic which is usually controversial and the audience participates by asking questions. The debate is chaired by Tim Sebastian who formerly presented the BBC programme “Hardtalk” and at the end the audience takes a vote in favour or against the motion.

I watched one of them earlier today entitled “This House believes the pro-Israeli lobby has successfully stifled Western debate about Israel's actions.” It took place at Oxford University, the first time one of the Doha Debates has been held outside Qatar. A very interesting discussion and appropriately, the House decided in favour of the motion.

If you want more information or want to watch past programmes, check out the website.

No Surprises in Squad for English Tour

2007-05-02T23:13:00.000-05:00

The West Indies squad to tour England was announced today on the recently retired (forced into retirement?) Brian Lara’s 38th birthday. Given the pool of players to choose from, it comes as no surprise that there were not any major changes from the World Cup team. However, I think the selectors made some key mistakes by the inclusion/exclusion of some players. Why is there no back-up wicketkeeper? On what basis was Sylvester Joseph selected? It certainly cannot be because of his poor performance on the A’ team tour to England last year. Darren Sammy is more suited to the one-day game. He does not strike me as a genuine batsman or bowler and someone like Ryan Hinds or Narsingh Deonarine would have been better options being authentic batsmen who also bowl well. I am also not sure why Collymore was picked. He never seems like he will take a wicket and he rarely does. I think it is time to move on with respect to Collymore. On a tour to a country that favours swing bowling, Pedro Collins would have been a more appropriate selection. Samuels deserved to be omitted based on his attitude and I would have also liked to see Chris Gayle dropped!

Weight Gain, Swimming and a Cricketing Legend

2007-05-01T22:53:00.000-05:00

The doctor give me another six weeks home when I saw him yesterday, which means I will be indoors for most of spring! Spring is the best time of the year and I have to be inside. I am not a winter person but I also don’t like the extreme heat of a New York summer, so the arrival of the mild temperatures of spring is to my liking. I am not happy about this at all. It also means six more weeks of minimal activity and more time to put on weight. The time I have spent immobile at home has resulted in a realisation of one of my worse fears- putting back on all the weight I had lost last year. I will now have to work extra hard when I get back into the gym. The therapist has strongly suggested that I do some swimming to strengthen the muscles in my foot and the doctor agrees. The resistance in the water would help the muscles but there will be no weight bearing on the foot. I checked the YMCA near me yesterday but I have to be a member to use the pool. Membership is $55 a month plus a $110 initiation fee which I am not inclined to pay as I am already paying a tidy sum for my gym membership. Oh how I long for the sea! I have never been in a pool- the idea of a small body of water filled with sweaty bodies doing God knows what does not appeal to me. I prefer the sea but I guess in the interest of healing my foot I may have to bite the bullet and take to the pool. I will probably have to try and obtain some guest passes and at least get in a few sessions.

While I hate being stuck at home, I honestly do not miss my office, the UN or my job! My job can be exciting at times, but for the most part it is stressful, frustrating and an exercise in futility. Besides all of this I have to deal with various personalities and that is one of the most difficult and exasperating things to be burdened with!

On May 1st, 1951, Gordon Greenidge, one of the greatest openers in cricket history and a member of the finest opening pair cricket has seen was born. He possessed an excellent technique and matched it with brutal strokeplay- who can forget those vicious cuts and off-drives and the hook and pull executed with one foot in the air. Exactly forty years later, he would play his last test innings against Australia in Antigua. He made 43 before he was run out. He went on the subsequent tour to England but hurt his knee in the second one-day international and would never play for the West Indies again. Since his retirement and that of his opening partner Desmond Haynes, the West Indies has not managed to find a real opener. It is a sad indictment on our cricket when Chris Gayle is touted as the premier opener of the past few years!

A Poisoned Chalice, Cortisone Shots and Overcoming Injection Phobia

2007-04-30T23:47:00.000-05:00

The World Cup is over. It kept me occupied for the past seven weeks and also provided me with much material for my blog! I now have to readjust to a World Cup less World and also think a bit more about what to write. Speaking of cricket, the West Indies has a new captain, coach and manager. My sympathies go out to Sarwan for he has truly been handed a poisoned chalice albeit for one tour- he has only been appointed for the tour to England after which his performance will be reviewed (by the same administrators who have no knowledge of the concepts of transparency, democracy and accountability and are in dire need of removal). I don’t know much about the coach David Moore except that he was the assistant coach under Bennett King. Will he do a better job? Mike Findlay’s appointment as manager is classic WICB old boy’s network at play and a case of recycling failures. A former chief of selector is now manager; there is no attempt at introducing new blood; in dynamism; in progress.

I had a doctor’s appointment today as well as therapy. I have been going to therapy about 2-3 times a week and every other session the therapist introduces a new exercise. Since my alarm two weeks ago at having forgotten how to walk, I have progressed to a point where I can stand on the foot that is injured and with the help of crutches lift my right foot. I can also stand on my left foot and take a small step forward and back with my injured foot. The doctor thinks that I need to wean myself off of the crutches now as my foot is progressing and I need to get back to using it. I will continue wearing the boot to protect the foot though. I am therefore using one crutch and within a few days I am supposed to switch to a cane. Using one crutch takes some getting used to and I instinctively want to resist putting any weight on my right foot. My foot is also hurting with the increase of weight on it and I now realise that what I was told about therapy being very painful is true. The first part with electrical stimulation, ultrasound and massages was good and the exercises while painful at some points were generally bearable. The part with walking without support is another story!

Besides all of that I had another cortisone shot today, the fifth one so far. I still cannot look at the syringe so I just glance away while the doctor sticks my foot. For those who don’t know, I have a huge syringe phobia. I didn’t actually have it when I was smaller and I remember getting injections at the doctor without any fuss and even getting a vaccination when I was in secondary school when there was a measles scare in Barbados. However, when I was about 14 my mother became very ill. She needed to be given injections everyday and one of my sisters was the one who volunteered to do it. Needless to say, the injections would hurt very badly. When she was hospitalised, she had lots of drips and needles stuck in her and this coupled with the nurses never finding her veins and sticking her all over freaked me out and I developed a serious fear of syringes. I can take a needle and stick my skin or use it to take out a splinter but show me a syringe and I will cringe. I took a significant risk in 1999 by not getting vaccinated for my four month trip to India and I absolutely refused to get any blood tests done until my doctor finally managed to persuade me to get one in 2005 as part of a physical check up. I still close my eyes when there is an injection being administered on tv and this is the first time since my mother died almost 14 years ago that I have had one. I think the last injection I had was in December 1993 when I had some fillings put in at the dentist.

LA Riots Fifteen Years On

2007-04-29T20:05:00.000-05:00

Fifteen years ago, Los Angeles, California broke out in riots after an all-white jury acquitted four white police officers charged with the beating of black motorist, Rodney King. The brutal beating of Rodney which was captured on video followed by the appalling decision would serve to highlight, that in “the land of the free and home of the brave”, the black man was still not an equal. The four policemen were retried, two were acquitted again and two were found guilty and sentenced to two years in prison. King’s treatment was not isolated and before the end of the century, a number of other incidences had occurred involving police brutality and abuse against black men. The cases of Haitian immigrant Abner Louima who was severely beaten and then sexually abused by New York City police officers in a Brooklyn station in 1997 and Amadou Diallo, the unarmed Guinean immigrant who was shot 41 times and killed by New York City police officers in 1999 stand out.

Of National Heroes and Farcical Endings

2007-04-28T23:16:00.000-05:00

It was apt that what has been failure of a tournament would end in a farcical manner. No one had any control over the rain but the ICC’s rules destroyed any prospect of a complete and competitive game. Once the rain had delayed play to such a large extent, the logical step would have been to play the normal 50 overs match over two days but the ICC, pandering to the television networks and focused on extracting maximum profit, had in place rules to reduce the overs and try as far as possible to finish the game in one day. It is absurd to play a final or a semi final for that matter of the most important event in international cricket in 38 overs.

Gilchrist plundered Sri Lanka’s highly rated bowling but I think that if the rain had not intervened or if Duckworth/Lewis had not come into effect, the Sri Lankans stood a good chance of chasing down the Aussie score. We will never know though, because in their greed, the ICC robbed the tournament of a really good game. The umpires and match referee obviously had to join in the act and their bizarre interpretation of the rules meant that international cricket had to be subjected to the indignity of players playing three overs in darkness. Anyone watching who was not a cricket fan would have been amazed at the silliness of it all. The ICC has repeatedly stated its aim of popularising cricket all over the world. Once again it failed miserably in its task.

Two articles expanding on the above can be read here and here.

Today is Barbados’ National Heroes Day and normally there would be activities to commemorate the lives of the ten outstanding Barbadians who played critical roles in shaping our country’s history. Hosting the final of the Cricket World Cup meant that the Day had to take a backseat this year. However, the only living Hero, Sir Garfield Sobers, was present at the presentation ceremony and presented one of the awards. It may seem strange to some people that a sporting icon is a National Hero of a country, but for the Caribbean the game is much more than a sport and is intertwined in the social, economic and political landscape of these small islands. For Barbadians, Sir Garry is more than the greatest cricketer to have walked the globe; he was a man born in a tiny British colony but who would stride the cricketing world like a giant, earning the respect and admiration of millions. Cricketing success instilled a pride in West Indians and in the words of C.L.R. James, it goes “Beyond the Boundary”.

CWC 2007 Comes to a Close and Memories of Kensington Oval

2007-04-27T21:10:00.000-05:00

*Photo from www.cricinfo.com

The biggest event to ever have been hosted by the region is drawing to a close. It has been a financial success for the ICC. For fans from all over the world, Caribbean people and cricket in general, it has largely been a failure. Much has been written about all the problems that have plagued the tournament so I will not dwell on that. Needless to say, I have very strong views on the issues but I think its best for me to stick to the actual field of play.

Tomorrow’s game will be a rematch of the 1996 final. Eleven years ago, the Sri Lankans were not regarded by anyone as having a chance of winning. Their victory and the manner in which they played the game was the stuff of fairy tales. A team which had only recently been the whipping boy of international cricket was now world champion. In 2007 they are an established side with genuine world class players and a few cricketing legends to spice things up but they will still go into tomorrow’s game as the underdogs. Such is the dominance of the Aussies. I will be rooting for the Sri Lankans as I have been doing since the West Indies knocked themselves out of the tournament.

A good preview of tomorrow’s game can be read here.

And for added measure, here are two articles (1 and 2) about the home of West Indian cricket, Kensington Oval. Holding’s over to Boycott and Rowe’s 302 were before my time, but I did see among many other stand out performances, Marshall smash Salim Yousuf’s nose with a bouncer in 1987, Ambrose run through England’s batting on the last day of the test in 1990, Carlisle Best score 164 in the same match, Greenidge brutalise the Aussies in his last test innings with a double century in 1990 and Haynes score a century off Wasim and Waqar in 1992. Unfortunately I was in England studying in 1999 when Lara scored 153 against Australia in what is regarded as his best innings and could only watch on tv. Good memories but there are also bad memories like 1994 when Alec Stewart scored two centuries in a match as we lost a test at Kensington for the first time since 1935 and 2003 when Ponting and Waugh scored centuries to help Australia to a mammoth 605 on a slow dry pitch that was an insult to Kensington. That was the last time I went to Kensington. I chose not to go in 2004 when the English were there because I knew we would lose and I refused to suffer the indignity of seeing in person the old enemy securing their first series triumph in the Caribbean for 36 years at what was once our fortress.

Perennial Chokers

2007-04-25T23:18:00.000-05:00

International cricket’s recurrent chokers lived up to their billing and handed a finals spot to the well oiled Aussie machine. Who would have thought though that the manner of choking would be of such magnanimity? I could not believe my eyes as one after the other, South Africa’s batsmen threw away their wicket, playing like primary school children. Australia bowled well, but there was nothing in the bowling to justify a score of 27/5 after 10 overs. No score attained after this would have been enough to defend and especially against a team like the Aussies. So South Africa came to the Caribbean ranked as the number one team in one day internationals. They return home with their reputation of choking on the big stage and especially in World Cups enhanced just as New Zealand go home after falling once again at the semi finals stage.

Sri Lanka versus Australia, Kensington Oval, Barbados, April 28th- can the exciting and likeable Asians defeat the arrogant Aussie juggernaut?

West Indian Turmoil and a Sri Lankan Demolition Job

2007-04-24T23:07:00.000-05:00

Sri Lanka completely dismantled the New Zealanders today to reach their second World Cup final. It was an outstanding performance and they dominated from the time they won the toss and decided to bat. Any attempts by New Zealand to fight back were strongly resisted and the captain led from the front with a perfect example of how to pace a one day international innings. He followed that up with some excellent captaincy, reflected by his decision to bowl Dilshan when New Zealand was trying to wrestle control after the loss of two wickets. Besides Jayawardene’s performance, that of the umpires and in particular Rudy Koertzen stood out but for differing reasons. Two extremely poor decisions went against the Sri Lankans when they were batting and I find it hard to believe that two top umpires can make such huge mistakes. Koertzen added to his howler in Sri Lanka’s innings by denying them an extremely close LBW call and then singling out Fernando for shocking treatment. To warn a bowler twice in his first over for running onto the pitch without speaking to him before was a bit harsh and I felt that New Zealand was playing with 12 men on their side today! While Fernando had a bad day at the office, the rest of Sri Lanka's varied attack all did well. Vaas bowled his normal line and length, Malinga was fiery and Muralitharan hiw wily self; will this bowling attack be enough to stop the Aussies in the finals? I am assuming that they will beat South Africa tomorrow although I would so love to be wrong!

While the Sri Lankans celebrate, West Indies cricket continues its downward spiral. Lara’s retirement was followed by the resignation of the coach Bennett King and rumours that the WICB President, Ken Gordon, had also resigned. Ken Gordon has since stated that he has not resigned but there has been confusion over the selection of the team to tour England, with Gordon, in response to Lara’s comments in his press conference that he had met with selectors to select the team to England and had selected himself, claiming that the selectors did not meet to select a team. To add to all of this, the WICB and WIPA are locked in another battle; this time it is over the WICB seemingly going back on its agreement with WIPA on the status of the England tour in relation to the ICC’s Future Tours Programme.

Amongst all of this, Ian Bradshaw has announced his retirement. Bradshaw may not be the most naturally gifted player in the team, but he has made the most of his abilities, is a thinking cricketer and has shown total commitment to the West Indies. The West Indies waited until Ridley Jacobs was in his 30s before deciding to select him and it is obvious that they did not learn from that situation for they waited until Bradshaw was 30 before handing him a maroon cap. All manner of undisciplined, uncommitted players were given a chance but Bradshaw, a shining example of hard work, discipline and civilised behaviour was kept out. When he was finally given the chance he performed admirably. Unfortunately his form dipped in this World Cup and he only played three matches. West Indies needs many more players with his attitude.

So what does the future hold for our cricket? I am, to be honest, pessimistic. The WICB cabal/politburo has stubbornly resisted any type of meaningful reform and continues to function almost like a secret society. Unless there is a revolution in the way the game is run in the region, our cricket will fail to lift itself from the lowest ground it has now reached. Rawle Brancker was supposed to deliver the Sir Frank Worrell Lecture tonight on the topic of the WICB. I am looking forward to hearing what he said.

Have I Entertained You?

2007-04-21T23:53:00.000-05:00

*Photos from www.cricinfo.com

Yes, bellowed the huge crowd who had turned up to say goodbye to a West Indian legend.

West Indies lost the match; appropriately many may say, as during his time playing for the regional team, it rarely won! Unlike so many times in the past though, he did not shine with the bat but it was not due to any fault of his. He was run out because of a poor piece of cricket by Marlon Samuels who symbolises much that is wrong with our cricket- lack of commitment and mental strength. Samuels will be forever remembered as the man who ran out Brian Lara in his last match. A number of fans have been saying that it was deliberate or that at the minimum selfish, as he called for the run and should have kept running and given up his wicket. Interestingly, according to press reports, when asked during his press conference if Samuels had apologised, Lara fumbled for words and then said “It would have to be a yes, or a no. So I will leave it.”

The whole affair of Lara retiring has a bitter taste to it. Only recently he had made clear his intentions to carry on playing for another couple of years until he was 40 and the manner in which he batted late last year on the tour of Pakistan demonstrated that his hunger for runs and his physical fitness have not waned. One wonders if he was, like many of our other cricketing greats, pushed out. He certainly hinted at it in his press conference. Lara has always been the consummate diplomat and once again he refused to bite at the bait the reporters threw out. However, he did say enough to let people make their own conclusions. Lara, like all of us, has his faults, but he cannot be blamed for the malaise that envelopes our cricket. For that, we must blame the administrators, their incompetence and obsession with power and money along with the way our society has moved towards a culture of mediocrity, materialism, indiscipline and instant gratification. Until we admit the deep-rooted structural problems facing us instead of finding convenient scapegoats, we will never be able to fix our beloved game. Until there is a drastic transformation instead of superficial changes to appease criticism, we will continue to languish at the bottom of the cricketing rankings. Plain and simple!

Brian Charles Lara did entertain. He entertained like no other batsman in his era. The statistics and the records are phenomenal but there was nothing like actually watching him bat. He also had the burden of playing in a team of mediocre players and of having to carry the batting for over a decade. Other great West Indian batsmen (besides George Headley) never had that burden and this makes his achievements even more admirable. We will never see that extravagant back lift, the exquisite cover drive, the deft late cut, the dismissive flick or pull; that seemingly supernatural ability to pierce fields; the utter destruction and total domination of bowling attacks all over the cricketing world. While he has left international cricket, his fans will hope that he goes on to play county cricket for a while still in England. The stage may not be as grand as that of the test arena, but it will still afford some the opportunity to see art in motion.

A transcript of Lara's interview can be seen here.

A Legitimate Sold Out Match?

2007-04-20T22:19:00.000-05:00

The news coming out of Barbados today is that there is a mad rush for tickets for tomorrow’s match with the Barbados Defence Force and police being called out to control the crowds coming to buy tickets. It is rather ironic that the only legitimate sold out match will be because Brian Lara has announced his retirement from international cricket! Even with thousands of free tickets being given away for other matches, none have witnessed a full house.

The Aussies annihilated a team that many were saying may challenge them for the title. Well any such thoughts were laid to rest today. They just look totally unstoppable. Can the off day Australia is due come in the semis or finals?

A Legend's Announcement

2007-04-19T22:25:00.000-05:00

“I want everybody to know that on Saturday I'll be bidding farewell to international cricket as a player. I've already spoken to the board and my players.” With these words, a batting colossus announced his retirement from all international cricket today. Saturday’s match in Barbados against the old enemy will be his last. Before the World Cup began, I had hoped to see him lift the trophy on April 28th (I knew it would require a miracle but one can still wish!) and then end his career on a high on the tour to England. It wasn’t meant to be.

Lara is a man who evokes extreme emotions in West Indians. There are people who hate Lara and nothing he does is ever right. Then there are others for whom Lara can never do any wrong. I like to see myself in the middle. I will never blame Lara for the ills that have befallen our cricket. He is just one man in a team of eleven and for most of his career he has been the only batsman (besides Chanderpaul) worthy of wearing the maroon cap. Those who attack Lara as if their life depend on it conveniently ignore the real reasons behind our failure- a complete failure of the administration of the game in the region combined with a general change in attitudes and behaviour of young people. Lara however has his faults and captaincy was not one of his strong points. Many a time he made questionable decisions on the field and those who adulate him refuse to acknowledge this. They also refuse to admit that at some points in his career he acted like a prima donna and as if he was above the rules.

At the end of the day though, Lara was a genius playing in a team of mediocre and often time poor sportsmen. For over a decade he carried the weight of the West Indies and his retirement is our loss. I am sure that if the West Indies miraculously starts doing well, his detractors will say I told you so. If the West Indies keeps declining (is it possible to go any lower?) they will say that he destroyed West Indian cricket beyond repair. Lara, as the saying goes, just cannot win. I will cherish the memories of Lara’s many great innings, from his 277 and 375 to his 153 and 400 and everything in between and after; for me he will always be one of the greatest batsmen to ever walk this earth, better than Tendulkar and better than Ponting! What I have also always admired about him is that despite being faced with criticism for his entire career, he has rarely ever hit back, instead letting his bat speak for him. I look forward to reading his memoirs and to hearing the story from his point of view.

As for Saturday, it will be fitting for him to end on a high. A century against those English whingers, one last time, for us the fans, at the home of West Indian cricket, Kensington Oval!

English and American Humiliation and 35 Years in Solitary Confinement

2007-04-17T23:36:00.000-05:00

It was immensely satisfying to watch the England team suffer a humiliating defeat at the hands of South Africa. Abject batting and poor bowling from the English was matched by excellent bowling (particularly from Andrew Hall) and swashbuckling batting by South Africa who approached their innings like a 20/20 match! The South Africans also seemed intent on throwing off their tag of chokers in this match which assumed knockout value. The over rated Freddie Flintoff once more failed with the bat as did Michael Vaughan. Is this the end of the line for him as one day captain and indeed his one day career? They do play West Indies next however and we have a tendency in recent years of bringing severely out of form batsmen right back into form. I won’t be surprised if Flintoff makes some runs or if Vaughan does the same and manages to save his one day career.

On April 17, 1961, American-trained Cuban exiles invaded Cuba with American support from the sea and air. Vastly outnumbered, their expectations of massive Cuban defections to their side never materialised and they were soundly defeated with over 100 killed and 1 189 taken prisoner. The Bay of Pigs invasion was a major foreign policy embarrassment for the US and President Kennedy and would serve to both strenghten Castro's hold on power and bring the Soviet Union firmly on to his side.

Also on this day, thirty-five years ago, three black men were placed in solitary confinement. One, Robert King, proved his innocence and was finally released in 2001. The other two, Herman Wallace and Albert Woodfox still languish in solitary confinement today! The men, known as the Angola Three, were put into solitary on the same day that a young white prison guard was murdered and then convicted of the guard’s murder in a trial later exposed as a farce. 12 775 days in solitary confinement for a crime they never committed. Most Americans will have never heard about this case, of the men unjustly confined to a 6x9 cell, of this severe abuse of human rights, of this glaring example of what it means to be black in the US. An article about this can be read here.

I Have Forgotten How to Walk!

2007-04-16T21:23:00.000-05:00

Since January when I was put in a cast, I have gotten around using crutches and my left foot. My right foot has not been used at all. While I have been “walking” with both feet in the past two weeks, it is still with the aid of crutches and the medical boot. I had appointments with both the doctor and the physical therapist today. The doctor checked my foot and said that the physical therapy would help further healing. He also said he would give me a cortisone shot after therapy was over in a part of the foot which was still painful from the tendonitis. If within a few days the pain lessens, then it means the cortisone is working and I have to go for another shot in two weeks. If the pain is the same it means that the cortisone is not having an affect and only rest will help. Physical therapy was the same as before except that this time I had to stand on my feet at the end of the session. This was the first time I was standing on both feet without any support and besides the pain that shot up from my toes right up to my knee, I was unable to move my right foot. I almost freaked out. To widen my stance I had to hold on to a beam and then lift my foot. I had to sway from side to side about ten times in that position. After that I had to move my right foot forward so I would be standing at an angle. Once again I had to hold onto the beam and move my foot. I performed the same swaying exercise and then changed my stance (using the beam for support again) so that my left foot was now in the lead and swayed again. Using the crutches and medical boot to shuffle/walk with both feet, I had not realised that I had lost my ability to walk and so I was somewhat mortified. I thought that my foot was just stiff from the cast/ not being used and that therapy would reduce the tightness enabling me to put weight on my foot and walk normally. The body and mind is amazing. Just under three months of not using my foot and it has totally lost its ability to function! I have to do the swaying exercises at home twice a day and I guess as physical therapy continues, I will regain full mobility. It is a bit scary though.

Because of my double appointments I was only able to watch Sri Lanka’s innings which folded timidly in the face of good bowling. The only resistance came from the middle-order partnership between Chamara Silva and Mahela Jayawardene and some tail end hitting out. This was not unexpected however, as besides Sangakkara (who was the recipient of a poor umpiring decision), none of the Sri Lankans have a good record against Australia. I also don’t think that the Sri Lankans approached this match with a desire to win. They rested their two best bowlers and it appears to have been a strategic decision to play a weakened side in a match which was of little consequence- both sides had already reached the semis. The intention seems to be to spring a surprise on the Aussies in the finals rather than compete or win in a Super Eights match and then have them bounce back ruthlessly. Once they can increase the momentum in the semis and reach the finals, the tactic will have worked. The top order needs to make some runs in the last Super Eights match against Ireland on Wednesday and be in a proper frame of mind for next week.

Of Nor'easters, Irish Upsets, South African Chokers and Salvaging the World Cup

2007-04-15T22:55:00.000-05:00

As I write, the nor’easter that has been pounding the East coast is still raging outside. I just watched the news and there has been record rainfall, flooding, damage, cancelled flights and trains and chaos in general.

I was watching the cricket this morning when I got a call. It was one of my sisters in Barbados. She was at Kensington Oval and asked me if I had just seen her on tv! The organisers were forced into making admission free today in light of the consistently poor sales and attendance at all the matches this World Cup and so two of my sisters took advantage of the “freeness” and took their kids. Unfortunately she seemed to have been on tv just when I had stepped into the kitchen to grab some breakfast. I guess they took the kids for the experience and to give them something to do. Hopefully it stimulates some interest in the little ones. They seem to be much more engrossed in playstation and cartoons! However, if I was in Barbados, there was no way I would have gone, even if they had paid me! Besides the actual play on the field, the World Cup has largely been a flop. There are a few main reasons and there are quite a few people who are to blame. They are now trying to salvage something from the tournament by giving away tickets and relaxing the regulations which had taken the Caribbean element out of the venues and deterred fans. I feel insulted by all of this and if I was there, there is no way that I would have dignified them by attending.

In the battle of the giant killers today, Ireland came out on top, convincingly dismissing the inconsistent Bangladeshis. While Ireland has had a hard time in the Super Eights, Bangladesh has been hot and cold. Whippings by New Zealand and Australia were followed by a win against South Africa and a close lost against England. Even if winning consistently against top teams is too much to ask of the Tigers, they should have won today. Instead they played like an Associate team while Ireland performed like a team of seasoned professionals. From the time the Irish captain took the bold decision to bat first so as to negate the threat of Bangladesh’s left-arm spinning trio, they dominated the game and thoroughly deserved their victory.

The World Cup has had its fair share of highs and lows (for us West Indian fans, largely lows) but as the Super Eights has progressed, it has become much more interesting. The results from the last few games mean that the match between England and South Africa on Tuesday assumes quarter-finals proportions. Speaking of South Africa, they continuously justify their tag as the perennial chokers of international cricket. They came into the World Cup as the number one ranked team in one day internationals, but have suddenly began to look very ordinary. They almost snatched defeat from the jaws of victory against Sri Lanka, lost to Bangladesh and put in a dismal performance yesterday against New Zealand. South Africa is not one of the teams I like, but at this point I am supporting anyone who may somehow halt the Aussies. When the South Africans returned to international cricket after their ban was lifted, they were right there at the top of the list of teams I dislike. A post-apartheid South African team still full of players from the white minority was a definite no for me! I did feel sorry for them in 1999 when they somehow managed to lose to Australia in the semis, but not when they botched up the Duckworth/Lewis calculations in 2003 and had to exit in the first round. As their team has become a bit more diversified (it still doesn’t reflect the country’s racial composition) I have somewhat thawed towards them, although their captain Graeme Smith remains one of the biggest whingers in cricket!

Don Imus, Hip Hop Culture and a Sri Lankan Stroll

2007-04-12T19:56:00.000-05:00

The controversy over Don Imus’ comments about the Rutgers women’s basketball team has dominated headlines in NYC and the US in general this past week. While his comments were disgusting, at least a real issue was being discussed by the media instead of some silly celebrity event. After protests and pressure led by Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, MSNBC dropped the simulcast of his show on Wednesday and CBS finally fired him today.

Imus has apologised profusely but his punishment is deserved. If he had made this sort of comment about another prominent New York minority group, he would have been immediately fired. It is time that people like Imus realise that you cannot make nasty, racist and sexist remarks, then apologise and expect life to go on like normal. Imus and his morning show crew have repeatedly made similar remarks, including calling African American sports columnist Bill Rhoden a "New York Times quota hire" and African American PBS anchor Gwen Ifill a "cleaning lady", often referring to Arabs as “ragheads”, suggesting that Serena and Venus Williams were animals better suited to pose for National Geographic than Playboy, and stating that Palestinians mourning the death of Yasser Arafat were "stinking animals" upon whom the Israelis "ought to drop the bomb right there, kill 'em all right now...".

However, in all the uproar over Imus’ comments, what needs to be highlighted is that many black people use terms like those Imus used and today’s hip hop culture is synonymous with words like “nigger”, “hos” and “bitches”. The artists who have made these words acceptable need to be criticised and whipped into shape just as much as Imus. Imus should never have said what he said, but hip hop culture has in many ways set the standard for words like “hos” to become part of conventional vocabulary. Will Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson now lead a campaign to reform the hip hop industry? I doubt it.

Sri Lanka clinically disposed of New Zealand today. The Black Caps have been playing excellent cricket this World Cup but met up with a Sri Lanka team that came out with all guns blazing and once they had gained a stranglehold in the first over, refused to let it go. Interestingly, the Sri Lankans were without their key bowler, Lasith Malinga. At this point it seems as if the semi-finalists will be Australia, Sri Lanka, New Zealand and South Africa. After being brushed aside by the Aussies and barely winning against Bangladesh, I cannot see England beating South Africa to gain a semi-final berth. On current form, it also seems as if the Aussies will win the World Cup for a third consecutive time. Can Sri Lanka stop them? I hope so!

Brixton Riots 1981

2007-04-11T19:46:00.000-05:00

On April 11, 1981 the arrest of a black man sparked off three days of riots in Brixton, south London. Rioters fought police, attacked buildings and set fire to vehicles; over 300 people were injured and the damage amounted to approximately £7.5 million.

The riots shocked the UK but tensions had been building up for a while and finally boiled over. Brixton was (and still is) an area with a large minority population and especially West Indians. Half of all black men had no jobs and many young black men accused police of discriminating against them particularly through the unfair use of the “Sus” law which allowed police to stop and search anyone they suspected of planning to carry out a crime. While an amended Race Relations Act had become law in 1976 police forces were exempted from its provisions. The week before the riots, a special police operation called “Operation Swamp” had seen police stop and search over a thousand people under the “Sus” law supposedly in an attempt to crack down on street crime. The operation caused widespread resentment among the young men of Brixton who felt that they were being unfairly targeted and heightened tensions. On the evening of April 10th, a crowd had gathered to confront police after rumours of police brutality against a black man but they had dispersed. The following night, an arrest resulted in full scale riots.

Although the arrest of a man had sparked the riots in Brixton, high unemployment, deprivation, racial tensions and poor relations with police were not unique to Brixton. The next few months would witness a host of similar disturbances including in Manchester and Liverpool.

An inquiry was commissioned by the Government and headed by Lord Scarman. His report published in November 1981, stated that there was "no doubt racial disadvantage was a fact of current British life". He recommended that "racially prejudiced" behaviour be made a specific offence under the Police Discipline Code with offenders liable to dismissal. The report also led to the end of the “Sus” law, the creation of the Police Complaints Authority and police/community consultative groups and new approaches to police recruitment and training.

However, he concluded that "institutional racism" did not exist in the Metropolitan force and it would be another twenty years before the scope of the Race Relations Act would include the police. Ironically, eighteen years later, Lord Macpherson’s report stemming from an inquiry into the police investigation of the murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence by a group of white youths would arrive at a totally opposite conclusion: that the Metropolitan Police were institutionally racist.

The Brixton riots drew national attention to the situation of black people living in Britain and led to blacks becoming more politically active. However there were sporadic disturbances in the 1980s and 1990s and black people continue to face numerous problems ranging from discrimination, deaths in custody, racist attacks, poverty, unemployment and low academic achievement among boys. With the focus of Britain now on its Islamic population and particularly those of Pakistani origin, the challenges facing blacks have assumed even less importance.

Pathetic West Indies

2007-04-10T22:05:00.000-05:00

Another mauling in the Super Eights, this time at the hands of South Africa and it was not unexpected. What else can a team lacking in commitment and proper management give to its supporters but heartache. Its time for resignations and heads rolling but this is the Caribbean so a few minor changes will be made to appease the people and life will go on merrily.

I went to my second session of therapy yesterday. It was the same process as the first one. The therapist also told me to apply an ice pack to my foot two to three times a day and do the exercises after that. The next session is on Friday.

Remembering Deir Yassin

2007-04-09T21:47:00.000-05:00

"Never again shall we forget:

Len nensaa!
Len nensaa!"

(From the poem Never Again Shall We Forget
"Len Nensaa"
By Randa Hamwi Duwaji)

On April 9th, 1948, Jewish terrorist group the Irgun, led by a man who was to become Prime Minister of Israel in 1977, Menachem Begin, entered into the Palestinian village of Deir Yassin and proceeded to systematically rape, mutilate and murder 250 men, women and children. The Irgun was joined by two other terrorist groups, the Stern Gang and the Hagannah, the former led by Yitzhak Shamir and the latter by David Ben Gurion. Both these men would also go on to become Israeli Prime Ministers, Ben Gurion in 1949 amd Shamir in 1983 when he succeeded Begin.

Deir Yassin was strategically situated on a hill top in a corridor between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Its inhabitants were primarily stonecutters and they had been in the area for 700 years. On that April 9th, 59 years ago, the innocent people of that village were attacked and brutally slaughtered. Some survivors of the original attack were paraded down a street and then executed. It was a calculated event and part of a wider plan to terrorise Palestinians and expel them from their lands in order to repopulate them with new Jewish immigrants. The carnage was widely publicised by the terrorists and bodies were heaped and displayed to the media. Survivors were also deliberately left so that they could recount the horrors. Speaker trucks went around nearby villages and towns warning that if the people did not leave then they would suffer the same fate as Deir Yassin. And many others did as places such as Lydda, Ramle and al-Dawazyma witnessed massacres. The strategy worked, as the fear of being murdered led to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fleeing. UN estimates, which many argue are extremely conservative put the figure at 750 000. Today, those refugees and their descendants number around 4.5 million and comprise the largest and longest standing refugee population in the world. To this must be added the further 300 000 refugees created by Israel’s 1967 War and occupation and their descendants.

Up to this day, it is not known exactly where the victims of the Deir Yassin massacre were buried although some survivors speak of the bodies being thrown into wells and quarries. In the days following, orphaned children were gathered up and left at Jaffe Gate by the terrorists. One woman, Hind Husseini, took in 55 children. The site of her orphanage is now the site of one of the largest schools in Jerusalem. As for Deir Yassin, whose people were ethnically cleansed and driven from their land, its original structures still remain, but it has been wiped off the map and is now an Orthodox Jewish colony called Giv'at Sha'ul Bet.

Earth-torn roots yearning
Palestine Landscape mourning
Displaced descendants

The words of Randa Hamwi Duwaji inscribed on the Deir Yassin memorial in
Geneva, New York

The Tiger Roars

2007-04-07T20:20:00.000-05:00

*Photos from www.cricinfo.com

Even though they had upset India in the first round, heavy defeats to Australia and New Zealand meant that no one expected this from Bangladesh! The lowest ranked one day team totally outplayed the top ranked one and opened up the Super Eights. This was even bigger than their win over India and it was wonderful to watch the youthful exuberance of the Bangladesh team as they outclassed the South Africans and made a mockery of the rankings system. What the result has also done is given hope to West Indies and England and Tuesday’s match between West Indies and South Africa in Grenada will now assume much more importance for the South Africans than they would have thought this morning.

The Aussies play the English tomorrow. I can’t stand either team and when they play each other I usually back one or the other depending on the situation. During the 2006 Ashes series, I backed the Aussies because the English media and all of England for that matter were overdoing the whole “we are better than Australia” story in the lead up. They had finally beaten Australia in a series after eighteen years in 2005 and they were parading as the best in the world! 2006 certainly brought them back to earth! In the context of tomorrow’s match an Australian victory will be in West Indies’ favour and so let’s hope for an Aussie administered whipping for the English.

Climate Change and Physical Therapy

2007-04-06T23:37:00.000-05:00

I went to my first session of physical therapy today. It went quite well. After an in depth discussion about my foot and checking to see what sort of manoeuvrability I had, the physical therapist started with electrical stimulation and an ice pack. It hurt a little bit at first but after the initial pain, it was just a bit uncomfortable. The electrical stimulation is supposed to increase muscle strength and promote blood supply and healing. After that, he used ultrasound, massaged my foot and ended with some stretches and exercises. The ultrasound is used in conjunction with a gel and while you don’t feel anything on the surface of the skin, it creates deep heat which in turn aids in vasodilation, relieves pain and accelerates healing. My foot actually felt much better when he was done and the heavy feeling and tightness is not as acute as before.

The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued its second report for 2007 today, the findings of which are pretty much obvious to anyone with a brain and/or a conscience: climate change is getting worse and the affects of it are being and will be felt most by the poor and vulnerable, particularly in the poorest countries. In its first report published at the beginning of February, the IPCC had concluded that it was very likely that global warming was being caused by human activities. The Panel will issue two more reports this year to complete its Fourth Assessment Report. The First Assessment Report was published in 1990, the Second in 1995 and the Third in 2001.

The IPCC was founded in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organisation and the United Nations Environment Programme to assess the scientific, technical and socio-economic information relevant to understanding the scientific basis of risk of human-induced climate change, its potential impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation. The body does not carry out research of its own nor does it monitor climate related data or other relevant parameters and bases its assessment mainly on peer reviewed and published scientific/technical literature.

While the evidence and the initial draft are provided by the scientists, the summaries in the reports are the result of discussions between the scientists and government officials from around the world. The end result of these negotiations is that the reports are not as strong as they originally were due to the various economic and political considerations of the many countries present. While some may argue that this compromise leads to reports being watered down and scientific certainties being turned into ambiguous language, pragmatists would argue that it is better to have governments at the table and making firm commitments to address the problem than for a group of scientists to publish an extremely strong document which is rejected by key countries and then have no action at all.

At the end of the day, the fact is that climate change is happening, it is getting worse each day and unless there is urgent action by the chief emitters of greenhouse gasses, our children will inherit a world from us that is not worth living in. I often wonder if those people who reject the notion of climate change because of greed and economics and actively contribute to the destruction of our planet do not think about their children and grandchildren.

Apartments Available for Rent in Barbados

2007-04-05T21:12:00.000-05:00

I am going to play the role of marketing and advertising man today as I promote my brother-in-law/sister’s apartments (Maxwell Park Apartments) in Barbados:

-Four fully furnished, self-contained two-bedroom apartments in Maxwell
-Within walking distance of nightlife, shopping area, restaurant, bank, post office
-Located two minutes walk from a bus route
-Two minutes walk across the street from the beach
-Available for short term and semi-long term rental at very competitive rates
-Package deals are also offered if for example someone wants to rent all four apartments or rent two for a month etc.
-Professional service with a smile

So if anyone is planning to visit Barbados or has relatives/friends visiting and they are in need of accommodation, please get in touch with my sister or brother-in-law at maxwellparkapts@yahoo.com

What about the Tebbit Test?

2007-04-04T23:08:00.000-05:00

What would Norman Tebbit have said? England’s South Asian connections (Sajid Mahmood with four wickets and man of the match Ravi Bopara with his cool half century) almost won them the game against Sri Lanka but in the end England just was not good enough. I had expected them to be on the receiving end of a whipping but to their credit they played well to restrict Sri Lanka and then recover from 133-6 to come within three runs of victory. While an England win would have been better for our extremely slim chances of advancing to the semis, I was supporting Sri Lanka. Even though I hope for a miracle and Lara doing an Imran Khan, the sad reality is that we are not good enough and I can not see us beating England or South Africa. I also can’t stand the English cricket team (the Aussies are arrogant and crass but the English are just poor losers and whingers, and not to mention the old enemy and former colonial masters) so I was rooting for Sri Lanka all along. With the Windies seemingly on their way out and Pakistan already gone, I am backing Sri Lanka now.

Staying with England, Keith Richards has denied that he snorted his late dad’s ashes while using cocaine. The Rolling Stones guitarist claims that he was joking when in an interview with music magazine NME he said “… I couldn't resist grinding him up with a little bit of blow” and that the ashes "went down pretty well". Now I like the Stones but even by Richard’s standards this is sick and I don’t know if to believe him or not. He has done some crazy stuff, much of it narcotics related, so on the one hand this can’t be put past him, but on the other, he is a man who doesn’t care what people think so the fact that he has felt the need to come out and say that he was not serious, could mean that it was indeed said in jest. Who knows! I am not one for wasting my time reading about celebrity lifestyles but I like the Stones and the headline caught my eye.

Of Achilles Tendons, Equinus and Physical Therapy

2007-04-02T23:44:00.000-05:00

I went to the doctor today to discuss the results of the latest MRI. The good news is that the Achilles tendon is not ruptured and so it is just the tightness and tendonitis that is causing the pain. My heel and the area above it were so tight that to prevent any pain I had to keep my foot in a position where my toes were pointing downwards (equinus) and I had to put inserts in the boot to maintain that position while I was wearing it. The doctor told me that while he had allowed me to do this for a few days until the MRI results came back (to prevent further rupture in case there was a tear), now that it was clear that the Achilles tendon was not torn, I had to keep my foot in a normal position even if it was painful as failure to do so would make everything tighter and also make therapy much more difficult. He also said that I could now put a small amount of weight on my foot while using the crutches as long as it is only to go to the bathroom or kitchen. I was warned against going outside for a stroll on a nice spring day! Well, needless to say, putting on the boot when I was finished and then walking- and he stood there and made sure I walked correctly, putting weight on the heel and not gingerly on the toes- hurt although after the initial pain, it is much better and I am wearing the boot normally for the first time in a week. It may seem minor but for me it’s significant. I also spoke with the physical therapist and he is supposed to call me back to let me know when I can start therapy.

My GP and podiatrist along with a number of other specialists all share office space and the physical therapist is located in the basement, which meant I had to go down and up a flight of steep stairs. This was the first time I have done that since January and it was difficult. I am not sure how much sense it makes having the physical therapist in the basement and only accessible via stairs when many of the people he would be treating would have suffered injuries and may not be able to cope with stairs. On the other hand, therapy comes after the injury has healed or is almost healed and is meant to enable a person to regain full use of the limb etc, so it may be that the stairs are part of the therapy process!

A Cruel April Fools Joke?

2007-04-01T22:21:00.000-05:00

April Fools Day and all the West Indian fans must have been wishing that what happened in Guyana earlier today was just a cruel joke and that the actual game is scheduled for tomorrow. The West Indies played like true minnows. Actually, it was even worse because none of the minnows has displayed this type of sickening behaviour on the field- lethargic, apathetic, lack of unity and spirit, poor body language. The Windies team of the past decade has been notorious for putting in some poor performances but I can’t remember having ever seen the players act like they did on Sunday. There was a total absence of life and it is obvious that the team is disunited and beset by internal problems like never before.

The bowling (with the exception of Powell) and fielding left a lot to be desired and as has become the norm, the batting collapsed. Chris Gayle once again confirmed that he is severely limited when it comes to mental capacity as did Dwayne Smith. Even after Lara got out, I still think that Sarwan and Chanderpaul could have pulled it off but for some odd reason they played as if it was a test match. I agree that there was a need to consolidate and rebuild after the loss of three wickets but playing out dot ball after dot ball was not the answer. Singles and with the size of this new ground twos would have kept the run rate manageable and the batsmen to follow would not have been placed under so much pressure. It is absurd that two part time bowlers can go for 20 runs off 7 overs while Muralitharan went for 59 off of 9!

Mathematically we still have a chance of qualifying for the semis, if we win our next three matches and the win/losses in the other matches go in our favour. However, while I would love for the Windies to win the World Cup, deep down, I know that they do not deserve to qualify for the semis based on how they have played. If by chance they manage to qualify, it will still not disguise the fact that West Indies cricket is in need of a serious revolution, starting with a purging of the administrators and a creation of a body that is truly transparent, democratic and accountable and followed by a proper restructuring of the game throughout the region from primary school right up to the senior level. This is the ideal. The reality is that I am speaking of the Caribbean. I need say no more.

Worries in the West Indies Camp

2007-03-29T23:44:00.000-05:00

Thursday and the Windies made the previous day’s performance look good. Another horrible batting performance characterised by the same don’t care attitude along with an unexplainable team selection and it now is two losses in the Super Eights. It seems as if the only team the West Indies may beat is Bangladesh and even then that cannot be taken for granted. I will not waste my time going through the individual batting performances but what really baffles me is that a fast bowler is dropped for a batsman and this team of so-called batsmen can still only muster 177 runs. Nine batsmen in a team and they cannot even manage to make 200 and then with only one strike bowler, this lowly total has to be defended!

On top of the worries on the field, all the organisational problems continue to grab headlines. The stadiums are empty, fans are crying out about the expensive ticket prices/ ridiculous regulations about food, drink and musical instruments and the expectations for large numbers of tourist arrivals now seem to have been unfounded.

Is all this gloom justified or are people too quick to rush to judgement with four weeks still remaining?

Podiatric Problems Continue, West Indian Reality Check and Slinga Malinga’s Beaver Trick

2007-03-28T22:21:00.000-05:00

*Photo from www.cricinfo.com

I got up on Monday feeling some pain and lots of tightness in my heel, especially the back of it. I couldn’t even wear the boot with my foot in the position it should be in because of the pain and tightness in my heel. I decided that I should seek a second opinion just to make sure that I don’t end up with my foot in a worse situation than it was in January so I called a podiatrist who was recommended by a colleague and was lucky to get an appointment the same day. It was reassuring to hear that the treatment I have been undergoing is normal. The podiatrist also said that the tightness in the heel was expected as tendons and muscles became very tight when casted and from lack of use. The only thing he stressed was that I should begin therapy soon and that he expected I would require it for a lengthy period of time. I made an appointment to see my podiatrist and saw him today. He told me the same thing about cast, inactivity and tightness but he was also worried that it was so painful. He said that in some cases, patients would unknowingly tear a tight tendon with a sudden foot movement when sleeping and so I had to go to do an MRI to make sure I have not ruptured my Achilles tendon. I must admit that this is becoming rather frustrating as it seems to be one step forward two steps backward. As usual I quickly did some research on Achilles tendon ruptures, symptoms, treatment etc and while I have been worried I think it may just be severe tightness and tendonitis. If it is only this, then according to the doctor I can begin therapy next week. If not, then ….

Comprehensively beaten by a ruthless Aussie team. As I expected, the Aussies rattled up a huge total. It began well for the Windies as they got an early wicket and kept the scoring rate low but some poor bowling and captaincy coupled with a brutal Hayden assault meant that the good start was negated and Australia ended up with 40-50 more runs than they should have gotten. Special mention must go to Bravo who has taken to bowling his “slow ball” so often each over that one wonders if he has a brain and also to Lara for not bowling Smith. The batting performance was pathetic today as we witnessed the usual batting collapse. Chanderpaul was the beneficiary of a poor umpiring decision (this is not an excuse but it seems that an abnormal amount of poor umpiring decisions go against the West Indies and particularly Lara and Chanderpaul) but most of the batsmen deserve a serious hiding for gifting their hands. Gayle did all the hard work by surviving the early bowling test only to play a stupid shot. Samuels is back to his old self obviously because I cannot in any way fathom why he ran down the pitch and swiped at McGrath. Sarwan once again played himself in and then played a poor shot and what was worse was that it was a rank full toss. Bravo needs a whipping for his poor shot and Smith did the norm- hit a six and get out. Lara and Ramdin fought hard but it wasn’t enough. All that was required was some sensible batting and mental toughness, but to ask that of this current crop is like asking them to squeeze water from a rock.

Lasith Malinga, with that slinging action that is such a joy to watch made history as he became the first bowler to take a beaver trick in One Day Internationals. Those two overs were unbelievable and as one cricket journalist said, “if only stumps had hair” Malinga would have had five in five balls and Sri Lanka would have won the match. Fidel Edwards who burst onto the international scene a few years ago in sensational fashion has a similar action to Malinga and is just as pacy if not pacier, but obviously as seems to be the case with our cricketers compared to those from other countries, ours do not possess the same discipline and commitment. A West Indies team playing with an on song Fidel would have been a much better one.

200th Anniversary of the British Abolition of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade

2007-03-25T15:30:00.000-05:00

Today marks the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the trans-Atlantic slave trade by Britain. Much has been written and will be written about the slave trade and slavery but I don’t think justice will ever be done to the topic until some people face the truth and are completely honest with themselves. Just as many have produced excellent literature on the subject, many have tried to reduce it to a certain epoch in history and as something to be forgotten. Of course it is easy for the descendants of the perpetrators of this crime against humanity to say this, for after all their riches have been made, their societies have industrialised on the blood, sweat and tears of African slaves and they do not continue to suffer from the negative legacy of slavery. Not to mention, the countries which benefited from slavery are fundamentally opposed to any mention of reparations. However, while these people are despicable, even worse are the revisionists, pseudo-intellectuals and apologists (many driven by right wing evangelical zeal) who attempt to shift the blame onto Africans, arguing that it was Africans who sold their people into slavery and then seek to paint a picture of humanitarian European acts to abolish the slave trade and slavery. I have nothing but contempt for people like this, especially when they are black.

However the truth is the truth and despite their endeavours to propagate lies and mislead people, these are some facts about the slave trade, slavery and colonialism:

The trans-Atlantic slave trade and the enslavement of Africans by Europeans are without doubt one of the worst cases of barbarism, cruelty and injustice in history and is a crime against humanity.

Europe and America industrialised and enriched themselves on the blood, sweat and tears of African slaves. Slavery and colonialism fuelled their economic growth for over three centuries and the exploitation, rape and pillage of the people and raw materials of the colonised lands served to underdevelop Africa.

Slavery has always been a part of human history and there was slavery in Africa before European slavery. However European slavery was a totally different type and there is no comparison between slavery in Africa and the Middle Passage, the total reduction of a human being to mere chattel and the sheer brutality and magnitude of the European system. Revisionists also like to point out somewhat triumphantly that Africans sold their brothers/sisters into slavery. This may have been true but it is nothing like the picture they paint. Slavery was a part of African customs but was not an integral aspect of the local economies and one of the first things my history books noted was that Europeans raided villages to obtain slaves. Obviously as time went on and the corrupt ways of the Europeans began to influence the local populations, slaves were brought to them, but as it stood, the European economies’ thirst for slave labour was fuelled by slave raids.

The slave trade and slavery were abolished mainly for economic reasons as brilliantly argued by Eric Williams in his seminal work, Capitalism and Slavery. Slavery as a form of labour had become unviable and hence it was abolished. The role of abolitionists like Wilberforce and Clarkson was important but has been rendered undue prominence to convey the impression that the Europeans in some great moralistic and ethical wave granted freedom to the enslaved. The fact is that if it had not become an economic liability to maintain the status quo, the British government would have never changed the system.

The role slave rebellions played in the end of slavery has also been largely ignored. The planters lived with the constant fear of slaves rebelling and of another Haiti. In the end it was better to agree to free the slaves than to live with this fear or worse to experience a rebellion.

Opposition to slavery did not necessarily mean being a Wilberforce. All those who died during the middle passage and all those who rebelled and resisted either passively or actively played a significant role which cannot be marginalised. There were also quite a few blacks who were involved in the “intellectual” opposition to slavery in the US and UK, such as Harriet Jacobs, Frederick Douglas and Olaudah Equiano (incidentally Equaino was first brought as a slave to Barbados). They wrote books, pamphlets, memoirs and give lectures but as is the norm, Wilberforce, Clarkson et al are afforded all the praise and attention.

Race and economics were the two primary reasons for European slavery and are so intertwined that they cannot be treated separately or one given prominence over the other. A desire for empire and riches was conveniently married to the belief in superiority and the quest to civilise the dark world. Greed, lust for power, notions of racial superiority, religious fervour and pure evil all merged and reinforced each other to enable and justify the oppression of fellow human beings.

Compensation and reparations, words that many regard as taboo, are very real issues which must be addressed. It is not only logical that Europe pays reparations but also moral: the wealth of Europe and America was gained on the basis of the exploitation, oppression, blood, sweat and tears of African slaves and on the rape and pillage of the raw materials of Africa and the developing world; there must be some form of compensation, plain and simple. The notion of reparations is not unique or new. Slaveholders in the US and Caribbean were compensated for the “loss” of their slaves; Haiti had to pay reparations to France for having the audacity to win independence; the Germans paid reparations after World War One and paid between 60 and 100 billion US dollars to Israel and the Jews for the Holocaust; banks and insurance companies and other institutions which benefited financially from the Holocaust are still to this day paying reparations. However, when black people speak about reparations, they are told that it is not possible after such a long period of time has passed, that they should move on, stop dwelling in the past etc. When one speaks of reparations, one does not necessarily mean cash payments to countries or individuals. For me, compensation is about international policies to reverse the negative effects of racism and slavery, partnerships between developed and developing countries to promote social and economic growth, investment to foster the human resources of developing countries, fair international trading rules, a transparent and democratic international economic and financial system and international relations acted out on the basis of morality and decency rather than economic greed and quest for power. I guess this is probably asking too much!

One of the lasting legacies of slavery and colonialism is the mental enslavement that still continues to negatively affect the way people think and act. The absolute dehumanisation of the slaves and the systematic destruction of religion, language and culture, creation of stereotypes and a hierarchy based on race and the denial of African history would serve to and continues to define Africa, the African diaspora and relations between and within races. The fact that concepts such as “good hair” and “pretty brown skin” still prevail and that people can still adamantly state that if not for slavery and colonialism they would still be “swinging around in trees in Africa” or “suffering in Africa” is an indication that the psychological shackles on some people need to be removed.

Despite all of this, the endurance of African slaves and their descendants in the face of everything they faced is amazing. Living in a world where they were at one point not even regarded as complete human beings, the people of the Diaspora have managed to create pluralistic societies (in the case of the Caribbean) and have contributed in every way to the world, from music, cuisine and culture to science, literature, politics and sports.

Alrighty, I began with the intention of just making a few points and instead have ended up with much more. I can’t help it! I like to write and if I get started about something I am interested in, it is difficult to stop.

South Asian Disaster

2007-03-23T20:17:00.000-05:00

*Photo from www.nationnews.com

*Photo from www.cricinfo.com

The marketing men will be fuming, for after all, a large number of the major sponsors of CWC 2007 are from India or have an Indian connection. The television people will be devastated after purchasing the rights to televise the tournament. The fans, anyone familiar with cricket knows, are fanatical and already the outcry and worse has begun.

The highly rated Indians appear to be joining Pakistan on their way home, barring a miracle victory by Bermuda over Bangladesh. After slaughtering minnows Bermuda mid-week, they met up with an inspired Sri Lankan team who clinically showed them the door. The Indian batting giants once again failed, with Tendulkar out for 0. Instead of India and Pakistan, the Asians will be represented by Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in the next round.

The West Indies won convincingly against Pakistan’s tormentors Ireland, but my doubts about whether they will be able to compete with the in form teams- Australia, South Africa, Sri Lanka and New Zealand- continue to linger. When Jeremy Bray was flaying the bowling, the bowlers had no clue about how to respond and the captaincy was poor. Bray is a one dimensional batsman and the solution as the commentators kept pointing out was simple, yet still the bowlers continued to feed him short balls wide outside off and the captain showed no signs of leadership. If they do this in the second round against top batsmen they will be subjected to a massacre. It was good to see Chanderpaul return to form and he played some great shots; Samuels looked in good nick; Ramdin did well behind the stumps. Gayle bowled well, but batting wise, after a few big strokes he gifted his hand and demonstrated once again that he does not have much of a cricketing brain!

Onto Antigua on Tuesday for the first game of the Super Eights- West Indies versus Australia- where hopefully West Indies can produce some magic. Before that we still have South Africa versus Australia tomorrow in the final game of Group A. On a track which has seen some huge scores so far, I expect a run fest.

Sharpeville Massacre 1960, Inzamam and the End of a Glorious Career

2007-03-21T20:50:00.000-05:00

On March 21st, 1960, policemen of the apartheid South African state opened fire on innocent civilians participating in a Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC) organised protest against the notorious segregationist pass laws. The demonstration which numbered around 5 000 - 7 000 was a peaceful one but turned violent when the police force, unprovoked, opened fire and slaughtered sixty-nine people, including eight women and ten children. Of the 180 people who were wounded, thirty-one were women and nineteen were children. Many of the bullets fired had hit the victims in their backs, further indication that they had been trying to escape and were not attacking the police as the government claimed. The massacre was followed by protests and demonstrations and on March 30th, 1960, the apartheid regime declared a state of emergency and detained thousands of people. It also banned the PAC and the African National Congress (ANC). The Sharpeville Massacre was also greeted by international protests.

While the years leading up to Sharpeville had seen a marked increase in resistance against apartheid, the massacre proved to be a watershed as black South Africans realised that non-violence could not solely be relied on to defeat the forces of the apartheid regime. Speaking during his trial in October 1962, Nelson Mandela stated: “Government violence can do only one thing and that is to breed counter-violence. We have warned repeatedly that the Government, by resorting continually to violence, will breed in this country counter-violence among the people till ultimately if there is no dawning of sanity on the part of the Government, the dispute between the Government and my people will finish up by being settled in violence and by force”.

On this day also in 1992, a young man playing in his first World Cup would slam a 37-ball 60 against New Zealand and lead his team to a win in the semi-finals. He may not have reached anywhere near his heights of 1992 in subsequent World Cup campaigns in 1996, 1999 and 2003 but in the fifteen years since, Inzamam ul Haq proved himself over and over as one of the all time one day international batting greats. His test record is even better! Exactly fifteen years later to that semi-final game in which he announced his arrival on the big stage, Inzamam played his final one-day international. It was a far cry this March 21st from that March 21st in 1992, as this World Cup has gone from bad to worse for the great man and his team: defeated by West Indies in the first game, embarrassed by minnows Ireland and then the suspicious death of their coach Bob Woolmer in his hotel room. As captain, Inzamam may be public enemy number one in cricket crazy Pakistan at the moment, but I am sure the sight of him walking off the field in tears as he bid farewell to the cricketing world today would have softened hearts towards a man who give so much to Pakistani cricket. He was a joy to watch when in full flow and beyond his cricketing prowess he was a character, from the chubby beardless young man prone to running out his partners to the bearded elder statesman who began all his interviews and press statements with a “First of all thank you to Allah” and interspersed them with numerous “Inshaallahs”. Thank you Inzamam.

Cricket is my passion, so there!

2007-03-20T22:02:00.000-05:00

A friend from Barbados was reading my blog today and made a comment to me on msn: "who cares about cricket". Hmmmmm. Well for one, me. It is a passion of mine and this is my blog, so I will write about cricket if I feel like! Besides me, over a billion people around the world. Cricket World Cup is the third largest sporting event after the Olympics and Football World Cup! So cricket is one of my many passions (and one of the relatively non-political, hence something I can write about in a public forum) and its World Cup time, so naturally my blog will now witness a certain bias in favour of this glorious game which for West Indians is more than just a sport.

And speaking of team sports, I will take the liberty of sharing this article on the CEO of the International Cricket Council, Malcolm Speed, hailing the West Indies cricket team as the 20th century's greatest phenomenon in world team sports. On second thoughts, I will just share the link since the whole article may make this post too lengthy. Read it if you get a chance; it is very interesting.

More Time Home, an Indian Massacre and a West Indian Struggle

2007-03-19T23:41:00.000-05:00

I went back to the doctor again today. The swelling has diminished quite a bit but my foot is still painful. The limited walking experiment of the past few days has been called off as not only did I feel tingling sensations because of the tightness from being in a cast (which alone would have been fine) but also because my foot is still very painful. Mr. Podiatrist decided that it was best to just rest my foot and allow the tendons to heal fully and the tendonitis to disappear. He give me another cortisone shot again (which hurt more than the previous two, maybe because this one was closer to my ankle while the others were on my heel) and told me he wouldn’t cast me again as he trusted me not to abuse the boot and walk in it but keep my foot up when using the crutches. He averages that I will be home from work for a minimum of another six weeks! Thank God for the Barbadian social security system, which despite its many flaws, is still better than what prevails in many developed countries. If I was an American or living here as a normal immigrant, I would probably be out of a job by now.

The status quo was restored today when India massacred Bermuda. Actually it was restored yesterday when Australia slaughtered Netherlands. Order was also restored when West Indies won unconvincingly against Zimbabwe. There is no way that a team like Zimbabwe should have made 202 especially after losing those early wickets. The batting was not as disappointing as the bowling but it could still have been better. The openers were going along at a steady pace when Chanderpaul was drawn into a false stroke and then for the umpteenth time Gayle got out the same way he always does- caught behind the wicket. I just hope Chanderpaul can inject some life into his batting for the next match. Gayle seemed to be getting back into some sort of form but I find it so annoying that after all this time playing international cricket he still gets out the same way over and over. There is absolutely no excuse for mediocrity. Sarwan is also very annoying in his inability to play the short ball. How many times now has he been hit on his head? The way he took his eyes off the ball was also so school boyish and frankly pathetic. We saw the Samuels of old today but let’s hope that it was a one off and his new found maturity returns next match. There are many who will criticise Lara for batting so cautiously but I thought he played the perfect innings. It was a much better strategy to pace his innings and make sure he batted to the end. The fact is he should never have even been required to come out to the middle as the runs should have been knocked off with the loss of a maximum of one wicket. The batsmen who gifted their hands should be criticised, not Lara who did the smart thing and ensured a victory rather than attempting some big hitting heroics, losing his hand and overseeing the inevitable collapse. It was a captain’s innings.

Revenge of the Minnows on a Green Day

2007-03-17T23:07:00.000-05:00

Sabina Park, Jamaica. Pakistan decked out in their green outfit versus Ireland also playing in their green team uniform; a green tinged pitch; St. Patrick’s Day.

Queen’s Park Oval, Trinidad. Bangladesh dressed in their green kit playing India.

Two huge cricketing upsets, both on the same day.

Ireland did the impossible and caused one of the biggest upsets in recent cricket history. Their victory ranks with Sri Lanka v India (1979), Zimbabwe v Australia (1983), Kenya v West Indies (1996), Bangladesh v Pakistan (1999) Kenya v Sri Lanka (2003) and Canada v Bangladesh (2003) among upsets in World Cup matches. Congrats to the Irish.

Bangladesh’s victory over India, while not as much of an upset as Ireland’s win over Pakistan, was still unexpected. It was great to see a team of young players, some still in their teens, defeat an Indian team filled with modern day batting giants.

If India lose to Sri Lanka and follow Pakistan home, it will be a nightmare for international cricket’s marketing people! Imagine CWC 2007 second stage without the two teams with the largest and most fanatical fan base. Disaster for the businessmen!

A lot of people who have called for the minnows to be excluded from the World Cup will have to eat their words after today’s proceedings. Honestly though, upsets happen in every sport and add to the romanticism of these events. The fact is that they are far from the norm and order will be restored tomorrow when Australia play Netherlands and England play Canada. In my opinion, the jury still remains out on the issue.

Persistent Podiatric Woes and Musings on Cricketing Minnows

2007-03-14T23:43:00.000-05:00

I went to the doctor again today. He delivered good and bad news. Good news is that the MRI shows that the torn tendon is healing. Bad news is that there is some new tenosynovitis and tendonitis, no improvement on the existing and there has been some worsening in two parts- Achilles tendon and posterior tibialis tendon. Even worse is that the MRI has revealed that the posterior tibialis is slightly torn. So now I have two torn tendons one on each side of my foot! My foot is also very swollen which I understand is from the tendonitis and inflammation etc. So it appears to be one step forward and two steps backward. The doctor said the MRI results sound worse than they really are. I am on antibiotics and anti-inflammatory medication for the swelling and inflammation and now wearing a special boot that allows me to “walk” on both feet while still using the crutches. I can take it off to sleep and shower. I am still supposed to rest and not put any weight on the foot if standing still. The boot is heavier than the cast but I guess the advantage is that I can take it off for showering and sleeping. The boot and continued rest are meant to heal the torn tendons and tenosynovitis and tendonitis; the medication is meant to help with the swelling, inflammation, tenosynovitis and tendonitis. The doctor also give me a cortisone shot which was the second one I have gotten. The first was in January. I have heard stories about how painful they are and so each time I expected acute pain; it actually wasn’t that bad.

I am going to be positive about this. At least the tendon which was so badly torn is healing and rest and the boot should heal the new tear. The tendonitis and tenosynovitis can also be healed by the rest and the medication. So hopefully just a few more weeks being immobile and some physical therapy afterwards and I will be ready to go.

I watched the last two hours of the Kenya/Canada game today. Kenya is in my opinion leaps and bounds ahead of the other minnows. It is a pity that the team doesn’t get to play top class opposition so often and even more of a pity that Steve Tikolo who is so much better than some batsmen in test playing teams will never get to play test cricket. I have mixed feelings about minnows competing in the World Cup. On the one hand they will never improve without competing against better opposition and to tell Ireland, Scotland, Bermuda or Canada that they shouldn’t play in the World Cup because they are not good enough is like telling Trinidad and Tobago or Jamaica that even though they qualified for the Football World Cup, they shouldn’t play because they are not good enough. Realistically however, how can two matches in a competition every three to four years help especially when they get massacred? Australia beating Scotland today by 203 runs in a one-day match is absolutely ridiculous! Not to mention, the “outstanding” and record breaking performances of players from top teams playing against minnows only serve to artificially inflate and exaggerate their averages etc.

Sir Frank Worrell- West Indian Hero

2007-03-13T23:20:00.001-05:00

40 years ago on this day, the Caribbean lost one of its greatest leaders. He was not a Prime Minister or Premier, but the first black captain of the West Indies cricket team. Sir Frank Mortimer Maglinne Worrell succeeded in doing what no politician before him or since has been able to do- unite an archipelago of islands with a similar history but each with its own insular view of itself. It may not have been a political or economic union, but his achievement in bringing the region together through a beautiful game that is much more than a sport in the West Indies is unrivalled. Notwithstanding this, he was also a great batsman and a member of the legendary three Ws from Barbados. While Weekes was regarded as the best batsman of the trio and Walcott was a powerful hitter of the ball, Worrell was the poet and artist, being described as one who never made an ungrammatical stroke. Tragically, like quite a few other leaders and activists in the 1960s who challenged the status quo (Fanon, Malcolm X, MLK, Che, Lumumba), he died very young.

It was therefore fitting that the West Indies team which defeated Pakistan in the opening game of the World Cup today played like a cohesive unit instead of a bunch of disparate individuals like they have been doing so often in the past decade. While they started badly, once they had recovered, they never looked back. There were some questions over strategy but in the end everything worked out fine. Even more pleasing was that some of the players who have failed miserably to fulfil their obvious potential- Dwayne Smith and Marlon Samuels in particular- stepped up today and led the charge. If they continue to play like this and work on the weak areas, they can prove to be serious contenders for the Cup.

Surgery Imminent?

2007-03-12T23:44:00.000-05:00

I spent a large part of my day at the doctor’s office today. I got the cast taken off and unfortunately, the pain in my foot has not diminished. So, another MRI and some nerve conduction tests were done and I return to doc on Wednesday for results. At this point it seems as if I will have no choice but to do surgery as six and a half weeks in a cast has not resulted in any improvement. I will keep holding out hope till Wednesday that the MRI indicates improvement thus negating the need for surgery, but honestly, my instincts told me long before today that when the cast came off the second time the pain would still be ominously present.

West Indies (Jamaica) Welcomes the World

2007-03-11T22:28:00.000-05:00

So the Cricket World Cup 2007 was officially rendered open earlier tonight by the greatest cricketer to ever walk this earth- National Hero of Barbados, the Rt. Hon. Sir Garfield St. Auburn Sobers. It was pleasing to see him accorded this honour and to see part of the ceremony dedicated to him- Barbadian stilt walkers performing a cricket playing skit with a Barbadian flag in the background. This was the high point of the opening ceremony. There were some other positives but these were largely eclipsed by the negatives, in my humble opinion.

Positives

-Tribute to Sir Gary
-Performances of Alison Hinds, Buju, Beres, Half Pint, Dean Fraser and David Rudder and the choir.
-Some of the colourful and beautiful visuals and costumes, especially the segment with butterflies, flags, sun etc.

Negatives

-Anyone who watched can be forgiven if they mistook it to be a Jamaican rather than West Indian event. There were far too many Jamaican reggae performers for one. Many of them were mediocre and their shout outs to Jamaica only reinforced the idea that this was a Jamaican event or mini reggae sunsplash. Besides the token Trini and Bajan soca artist and Arrow from Montserrat, there was no significant representation from any of the other islands. Hell, South Africa and Ireland had more artists than the rest of us. Can the entire Caribbean be summed up by a short sitar/pan piece? What happened to Zouk and chutney; and for the amount of people of Indian descent living in the Caribbean, there was hardly any representation of them. It would also have been totally appropriate to include an act by indigenous Caribbean people.
-The audio and video work was amateur and in some parts of the show downright poor- I could not hear the pan/sitar piece. There should have also been more shots of the crowd to highlight the atmosphere in the stadium, although this may have been difficult as the stage looked very far from the crowd. .
-The worst part for me however, was the Jamaican PM’s address in which she repeatedly spoke about Jamaica and failed to mention the West Indies. Listening to her speak, one would have thought that CWC 2007 was being held solely in Jamaica and that only Jamaica played cricket. She did a similar thing a few years ago at a presentation ceremony during the South African tour of the West Indies when she spoke of Jamaica versus South Africa. I find it hard to believe that the singular focus on Jamaica was a coincidence.

All in all, while many have been lavishing praises on the opening ceremnoy, I can only honestly give it a 5/10 mark.

Asides

Mello is bloody annoying! I always get this urge to punch mascots or those guys dressed up like chickens etc advertising some product on the street. Don’t ask me why! The official song has not impressed me either.

Fifty Years of Ghanaian Independence

2007-03-06T19:28:00.000-05:00

Today is fifty years since Ghana gained independence from Britain. I don’t feel entirely comfortable saying "happy fiftieth birthday" because it seems to diminish centuries of history. It somehow implies that Ghana only came into existence fifty years ago. Ghana the modern state with its defined international borders may have become an entity fifty years ago, but Ghana, the ancient Western African Empire goes back hundreds of years, to a time when Europe was still in darkness! Needless to say, it was the first place in sub-Saharan Africa where the Europeans arrived and started trading in gold and slaves and began to enrich themselves. It was also the first black country nation in Africa to gain independence from colonial rule and within three years, another seventeen African countries had won independence. Not a bad trend to have started!

Coincidentally, as Ghana celebrates fifty years of independence on March 6th, March 25th marks the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade by Britain, another occasion for Africa and the peoples of the African diaspora to commemorate.

World Cup Kick Off

2007-03-05T23:30:00.000-05:00

World Cup 2007 kicked off with four warm-up matches today. As expected the minnows were soundly beaten although South Africa was given a scare by Ireland! These were warm-up matches and hence were not given full coverage. However what annoyed me was that cricinfo.com, the most popular cricket website on the internet had live scores and bulletins for two of the matches, did a bulletin for one game after it was over and totally ignored one game- that involving the hosts. One wonders if two black teams playing each other- hosts West Indies versus Kenya- was not important enough to be afforded any coverage. I just checked again and they have now posted a scorecard and bulletin after the fact!

The Aussies and South Africans were complaining about their training facilities. Maybe they were justified, maybe they were not. What I do know is that we are always held up to a higher level of scrutiny than others and particularly developed countries. Only last year, the West Indies turned up at a training session in Australia to find that the usual courtesy of the host country providing local bowlers to bowl at the batsmen in the nets was not provided. A few weeks ago the Aussies warned their fans about crime in the region but didn’t mention that the same time they issued their warning, some members of the English team were attacked and robbed in their hotel in Australia. They also did not mention the vicious attack a few years ago on some members of the West Indies team that left one player unconscious.

A few warm up games left, the official opening ceremony this coming Sunday in Jamaica and then the opening game next Tuesday- West Indies versus Pakistan. Go Windies! I hope to have everything organised by then to enable me to view the games. I tried to purchase the package on willow.tv but was having some problems which hopefully should be ironed out soon. I also hope that despite all my concerns about almost every aspect of the organisation of the World Cup, the tournament is a success.

The Cricketing Price of Living in NYC

2007-03-01T21:57:00.000-05:00

A colleague from our Consulate here in NYC provided us with the information on how we could watch Cricket World Cup in the so-called capital of the world. Basically, it will cost $450 if you don’t have Dish Network- $250 for installation and rental of equipment and $199 for the cricket! The price one has to pay for living in NYC. If I was home, it would have been on tv for free. I will have to resort to watching it on the internet which will cost me $199.

I watched a Globe Trekker feature on Venezuela with Ian Wright, one of my favourites of the Globe Trekker team. It’s a beautiful and physically diverse country. There are so many places on my list of countries to visit, from Venezuela, Brazil, Mali and Kenya to Italy, Algeria, Mongolia and New Zealand and everywhere else in between. I love travelling, exploring and learning about different peoples and cultures and one of my dreams is to take a year or two off from work and life and just travel around the globe. Anyone willing to sponsor me? I can guarantee thousands of photos and volumes of journals!

I had my cast changed on February 19th. There was no real improvement but the doc said this was normal after only three and a half weeks and that when I came back to have it checked in another three weeks- March 12th- he expected to see a marked change. I hope so because I really don’t want to have to do surgery and be stuck home for even longer. At the beginning there wasn’t as much itching as I had anticipated there would be, but in the past two weeks it has flared up. I have been using a wire hanger but sometimes it can’t reach certain spots so I just sit and swear like I was doing a few minutes ago!

Call of the Wild

2007-02-23T18:09:00.000-05:00

I watched a programme a few days ago called “Caribou and Wolves” about the Canadian Artic Tundra and two of its most important species and their complex relationship. I have always found wolves fascinating. Besides their beauty, they have this haunted look in their eyes and the howl of a wolf strikes right at your inner core, the call of the wild. I read Jack London’s book by that name when I was about twelve and absolutely loved it, but this feeling turned lukewarm when I became an enlightened teenager- I did not like his portrayal of the Native Americans. I learnt from further reading that while espousing socialist views, he held many racist views about non-whites and believed in the superiority of the white race.

Historically, human attitudes to wolves have varied, from the reverence of Native Americans and Ancient Rome to the largely negative image of Western folklore. In Europe and particularly North America, the fear of wolves combined with “modernisation” and a desire to conquer the wild led to wolf populations being decimated. However, significant research beginning in the first quarter of the last century, public education programmes aimed at demonstrating the importance of wolves to the eco-system and countering the myth of a dangerous beast and specific laws protecting wolves have resulted in some change in public perceptions of these beautiful animals and an improvement in their numbers. However, much remains to be done. Recent reactions to growing wolf populations caused by reintroduction programmes highlight that this fear is deeply rooted in humans. Hunters also continue to argue, erroneously, that wolves compete with them for prey, while ranchers and farmers view them as a threat to their livestock instead of acknowledging that continued destruction of natural habitat and therefore their food is what leads wolves to attack domestic animals.

I read an article earlier today about the reappearance of some twenty wolves on the heaths of Lusatia, a region along the German-Polish border. While wolves were largely killed off in much of Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries, there are now isolated groups of wolves in Spain, Portugal, Italy and France and bigger populations in eastern and Central Europe. Ecologists and biologists have welcomed this development but old fears have emerged and a campaign has been launched to have the wolves shot. Let us hope common sense prevails.

Giving Jack His Jacket

2007-02-17T14:35:00.000-05:00

West Indies cricket has caused its fans in the Caribbean heartache after heartache in the past ten to twelve years as the team has sunk to depths never before thought possible. Much of the blame rests with the administration and structure of the game in the region, but blame must also be apportioned to the players, many of whom demonstrate a total lack of commitment to West Indian cricket, its past greats, its history and its place in West Indian society. I think the carefree, materialistic, undisciplined, prima donna type behaviour of a large proportion of the team is a reflection of the times we live in and the direction we are going. Many people make excuses about a young, inexperienced team that is now learning, but I don’t buy that. So many players cannot remain young and inexperienced after five and six years in international cricket. The comments they make, the performance on the field, the conduct off the field and the general deportment only serves to highlight their disregard for the rich history of the game in the Caribbean and for us the fans.

However, while I believe in constructive criticism, I also believe that praise must be rendered when it is due. Ramnaresh Sarwan is one team member who I have criticised heavily for not living up to his immense talent. However, I came across an article yesterday about an educational and sports trust fund he has set up in Guyana to assist less fortunate primary and secondary school students. The Ramnaresh Sarwan Education and Sports Trust Fund will award a financial grant to be used to purchase uniforms, footwear and educational materials to a total of fifteen students, to encourage them to stay in school and obtain an education. This venture of Sarwan is commendable and I am happy to see him giving back to his community. Let us hope that this social consciousness is an indication of his maturity and furthermore, that this maturity is manifested in his performance on the field.