Blah Bloh Blog

Yet another move

2008-04-07T11:42:00.002-04:00

I got a notification that Stunner left a comment on the last post here at BBB on Blogspot and I realised I forgot to post the new address of BBB. My bad!

Anyone who still reads this can find me at blahblohblog.wordpress.com. Or you can point your RSS feed reader here.

Come on over!

CWC Super 8 in Grenada!

2007-04-10T08:10:00.000-04:00

Today is the first Super 8 match in Grenada - Windies vs South Africa. The moment we have been waiting for!

Well it's 8:30am and so far there appears to be only light traffic on the road. Here's a pretty poor picture of Tanteen Playing Field which has been desgnated as one of the official parking lots; from here you must hop a shuttle for the onward trip to the stadium. As you can see there are not many cars in the lot. Yet.

Now here's something you don't see everyday. All of the Windjammer yachts in harbour at the same time! I suspect they may be part of the "floating hotel" thing.

And to add a little bit of perspective, behind this hill (Cemetery Hill, Old Fort Road) lies the stadium.

I might take a ride around today for some picture-taking. I'll be sure to post anythng interesting, such as the "friendly match" between the Gov't and Opposition MPs! Hah!

UPDATE: We lost. sigh. Need I type anymore? Why? Why??

Crying for cricket

2007-03-28T10:51:00.000-04:00

Windies vs Australia
10:52am
39 for 3 wickets.

Oh lord above! Why?!?!?

What rubbish!

2007-03-19T10:25:00.000-04:00

Controversy is brewing in Tobago over the archdeacon's opposition to Sir Elton John's headlining act at the Tobago Jazz Festival.

"The artiste is one of God's children and while his lifestyle is questionable he needs to be ministered unto. His visit to the island can open the country to be tempted towards pursuing his lifestyle," the clergyman said.

PEOPLE! Really!? Aren't we, in the Caribbean, a little further along the common sense pathway than this? Tell the church leaders to spend more time ministering to the lecherous, pedophile priests and pastors rampant in our churches, and leave Sir Elton the hell out of it. So now Tobago and the homophobic region is international headlines news, just in time for CWC 2007. What? Like no one attending the World Cup is gay? Stupid, stupid, stupid crap like this just makes my blood boil.

His visit to the island can open the country to be tempted towards pursuing his lifestyle.”

Say wha'? Elton John performing in Tobago will make people become homosexual? Are these people for real? The man owns a house on Mustique and has for years - I sincerely doubt that anyone on Mustique has "turned gay" because of Sir Elton's landownership.

Festival organizer Anthony Maharaj, however, insists the artist is coming. "Elton John is coming as what he is, one of the world greatest performers. He has performed in every country around the world. In Christian countries there has never been an objection,” said Maharaj. “He is not coming here to preach about what lifestyle people should have. This country should be honored to have Sir Elton John perform in Tobago."

Elton John has a reputation for being a bit of a diva, and not taking any crap from people, and I am hoping that he unleashes a public hailfire of vitriol on the Tobagonian church officials. They deserve it.

Bushisms

2007-03-12T14:59:00.000-04:00

George Walker Bush, President of the United States, also referred to as "Dubya", "Shrub" or "Jackass" (depending on who you speak to) is the subject of an article by Jacob Weisberg writing for Slate magazine. The article documents some of Bush's frequent tongue-slips, malapropisms and verbal mis-steps and sadly (because it is real) is hysterically funny.

Some choice snippets:

"It's in our country's interests to find those who would do harm to us and get them out of harm's way." — Washington, D.C., April 28, 2005

"The president and I also reaffirmed our determination to fight terror, to bring drug trafficking to bear, to bring justice to those who pollute our youth" —Speaking with Chilean President Ricardo Lagos, Santiago, Chile, Nov. 21, 2004

"Natural gas is hemispheric. I like to call it hemispheric in nature because it is a product that we can find in our neighborhoods." —Austin, Texas, Dec. 20, 2000

"And there is distrust in Washington. I am surprised, frankly, at the amount of distrust that exists in this town. And I'm sorry it's the case, and I'll work hard to try to elevate it." — Speaking on National Public Radio, Jan. 29, 2007

Weisberg apparently updates the Bushisms whenever a new one occurs, which, knowing this President, is pretty regularly.

Miss Grenada World

2007-03-07T09:57:00.000-04:00

The government issued this press release on their official web site: Olivacce to Serve as MC for Miss Grenada World Pageant

Olivacce who has worked with NBC in New York for the past thirty years just retired and is returning to his native Grenada next month specifically to serve as Master of Ceremonies for the grand affair.

Begging the question, what EXACTLY is the problem with having the show MC'd by a resident Grenadian?

And furthermore, doesn't the government have anything else to do but issue press releases about a beauty pageant?

For more information on the Miss Grenada World Pageant, check out MissGrenadaWorld.com.

TEMPO in Grenada!

2007-03-05T09:55:00.000-04:00

On Saturday March 3rd 2007 was the first ever TEMPO Concert in Grenada. It was held at the old Drive-In Yard on the Maurice Bishop Highway, a pretty good spot for an open air show. Listed to appear were Richie Spice, Gyptian, assorted local artists, and the finals of the Grenadian VJ Competition. Showtime as stated on the ticket was 6pm.

So of course I get there at 6pm.

Wrong move. The show finally began somewhere around 8:30-9pm. I wish the TEMPO people had indicated on the tickets that were going by Caribbean Standard Time and that we shouldn't seriously expect them, as a professional organisation, to actually start the show at the advertised time. Steups. Silly me, huh?

While waiting we indulged in some good food..

.. and drinks...

Meanwhile, we start hearing chat about how Gyptian is a no-show, and that TEMPO secured Rupee as a replacement performer. By now I was starting to have serious doubts about TEMPO's ability to pull this concert off successfully.

Anyway, when the show finally started, close to 9pm, first up on stage was Keith Simon singing the national anthem. Keith has participated in the Caribbean Song Festival and the Digicel Rising Stars, and his rendition was excellent.

Zingo on stage

West the Cowboy singing Wild, Wild West

Elo - Block De Road

Soca Banton says to wave your flag Over Yuh Head

Flag Party by Sheldon Douglas

Reigning Grenada Calypso Monarch Scholar

My favouritist local calypsonian of all time - The Inspector. Madness Time!!

The BabyKilla Hollis Mapp rocking the place - Balance Yuhself!

Spontaneous tired go Fuh Crown

HoneyLaLa, Jeanille, Nishka and Gary "Mr Smooth". Gary is a local radio DJ who was co-hosting with HoneyLaLa. Frankly I felt that they should have scrapped the VJ Competition and just offered Gary the job. He was fabulous!

The TEMPO chairman or vice-president or whatever. You know the guy - he's always featured on the channel. Yeah, came on stage and mistakenly refered to our island as Jamaica. Twice. Hmph!

Rupee (seXXy!!! but boring) filling in for the missing Gyptian

Now I wish I was able to show you pictures of Richie Spice on stage, but I finally left the concert at about 12:30am, while Rupee was still singing. As of that time I had been on my feet in the Drive-In Yard for over 6 hours and still no sign of the headline artists. From reports I have heard Richie Spice didn't perform until around 2:30-3am. Totally and utterly ridiculous! As far as I am concerned, the line-up of local singers was worth my EC$40 ticket, and I would certainly have paid that to see them alone in concert. (Actually I would pay that to see BabyKilla alone in concert. His stage presence and performance is really good.) However, that does not excuse the TEMPO management for a poorly planned and managed show. The 3-hour delay, during which the TEMPO big-wigs were allegedly eating dinner at The Beach House, was unacceptable.

Shame on you TEMPO. Boo!

Politics, Politricks

2007-02-27T14:39:00.000-04:00

The ongoing local taylaylay continues over allegations that Opposition MP Kenrick Fullerton allegedly beat up his wife following an incident where his wife allegedly smashed his alleged girlfrind's windscreen. For his part MP Fullerton denies the alleged wife beating attack and apparently hinted that it might have actually been he that was attacked by his wife.

So now everyone's got an opinion about politicians and their domestic issues. Needless to say, I won't hesitate to weigh in. Frankly, I could care less what public officials do in the privacy (or non-privacy as the cae may be) of their bedrooms and the sheer hypocrisy of some of the other MPs, politicians and government officials towards this incident makes me laugh. There is not ONE among them who does not have an "outside" woman. Allegedly. Jeez. The way some of them carry on you would think they were 60-year old virgins or something. Come on - even the female ministers/MPs (allegedly) have their own little boy-toys, married-man boyfriends and such like. If it is one thing the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal highlighted, it was that sex and its related "morality issues" are largely irrelevant when it comes to the core issues of governance.

Far more interesting to me is the question of public officials' business and financial dealings, for we all know that from hence springs the seeds of corruption and wrong-doing. And speaking of Mr Fullerton, it seems that he was also embroiled in some sort of mini-scandal pertaining to his insurance agency's finances. Now THAT is something that I care about because how he handles his own business affairs reflects how he will handle the country's own.

In any case I am pleased to see that Fullerton is stepping down from the Opposition NDC's executive body and the party leadership has indicated that they will be seeking a new representative to contest his seat in the next election. Although it has come with some prodding, it is great to see the integrity of the party being put before one member's individual pursuits.

Road Works Grenada-style!

2007-02-16T08:09:00.000-04:00

I recently promised some photos of one of the major roads presently under reconstruction, assumedly to be finished in time for CWC 2007. This road is the Lowthers Lane thru to Tempe main road, and apart from driving through the city itself (which I hear will not be allowed anyway), this road is the only way to get to the stadium from the south of the island.

The bottom of Lowthers Lane, close to the Botanical Gardens (where the ministerial offices are).

Section between Knights Auto and Blue Danube.

Corner by Blue Danube.

Section heading up to the Government Gate round-about.

The Government Gate round-about.

Talk about mud!

More CWC musings

2007-02-15T13:34:00.000-04:00

I came across a relatively old but somewhat embarrassing article from the Telegraph regarding Grenada and the Cricket World Cup 2007.

The article is generally scathing, in that "sharp and witty" way that the British seem to enjoy, but realistically it is probably pretty accurate. Some choice snippets:

.. but there are only 2,000 hotel beds on the island and if the planned home-stay programme works out there will be a further 2,000 beds in locals' houses and apartments.

Then, according to Brenda Hood, the tourism minister, "there will be at least two cruise ships berthed in the harbour during the cricket," providing up to 2,500 more beds. So, I make that a shortfall of some 8,500 beds if they're expecting to fill the new stadium.

the generally shambolic nature of the islands

[Prime Minister Mitchell] says that one of the keys to a successful World Cup for Grenada will be the development of tourism in remote rural areas, like the one we are in.

"Twenty-five years ago you would not have seen electricity or fresh water or roads or telephone services out here. This will be one of the practice grounds next April and it will bring more foreign visitors. And that is just what this area needs."

Huh? He mad or wha'?!

When I ask Brenda Hood why the Chinese are funding the £13.5 million stadium as well as building it, she shoots me a look that suggests I am a simpleton. "Officially, the trade-off is political support at the UN, but we see it as a partnership… we have Grenadians in China and we're expecting Chinese tourists over here in the near future," she says without a smile. The fact that those mortal enemies of the Chinese, the Taiwanese, have already financed and built an 8,000-seat stadium in St Kitts may also have something to do with it.

The drive back to St George from Grenville at the end of the cricket match is shambolic. We inch past oncoming traffic and gridlocks, along narrow, crumbling, ill-maintained roads

But the Caribbean is all about travelling at different speeds and the World Cup will be no different. British cricket-lovers will have to chill out, be prepared for all sorts of inefficiencies, calamities and discomforts… and if they relax a bit they may find that this will be the best Cricket World Cup ever. If they don't, they are going to be driven mad.

Deep sigh....

A perspective on West Indians in the U.S.

2007-02-11T11:11:00.000-04:00

I came across this post today, discussing the possible reasons for the "differences" between African-Americans and West Indian immgrants in the U.S. Although the article is a trifle full of generalisations, I found it interesting reading. See what you think.

To a West Indian, black is a literal description: you are black if your skin is black.

The implication of West Indian success is that racism does not really exist at all--at least, not in the form that we have assumed it does. The implication is that the key factor in understanding racial prejudice is not the behavior and attitudes of whites but the behavior and attitudes of blacks--not white discrimination but black culture. It implies that when the conservatives in Congress say the responsibility for ending urban poverty lies not with collective action but with the poor themselves they are right

This idea of the West Indian as a kind of superior black is not a new one. When the first wave of Caribbean immigrants came to New York and Boston, in the early nineteen-hundreds, other blacks dubbed them Jewmaicans, in derisive reference to the emphasis they placed on hard work and education.

she lived in a country that had blacks and browns in every position of authority, so her personal experience gave the lie to what she read in the encyclopedia. This, I think, is what Noel means when he says that he cannot quite appreciate what it is that weighs black Americans down, because he encountered the debilitating effects of racism late, when he was much stronger. He came of age in a country where he belonged to the majority.

The success of West Indians is not proof that discrimination against American blacks does not exist. Rather, it is the means by which discrimination against American blacks is given one last, vicious twist: I am not so shallow as to despise you for the color of your skin, because I have found people your color that I like. Now I can despise you for who you are.

There is also no small measure of guilt here, for West Indians cannot escape the fact that their success has come, to some extent, at the expense of American blacks, and that as they have noisily differentiated themselves from African-Americans--promoting the stereotype of themselves as the good blacks--they have made it easier for whites to join in. It does not help matters that the same kinds of distinctions between good and bad blacks which govern the immigrant experience here have always lurked just below the surface of life in the West Indies as well. It was the infusion of white blood that gave the colored class its status in the Caribbean, and the members of this class have never forgotten that, nor have they failed, in a thousand subtle ways, to distance themselves from those around them who experienced a darker and less privileged past.

In the new racism, as in the old, somebody always has to be the nigger.

You know, this is why I choose to live in the Caribbean. Coming to terms with your personal and collective identity is difficult enough without having to take into consideration an outsiders' set of rules.

A little bit of WWW maccoing

2007-02-08T12:25:00.000-04:00

The SpiceIslander Talkshop is an online forum board frequented by Grenadians here and abroad. All manner of local news, gossip and tay-lay-lay is debated in a fairly haphazard and sometimes clique-ish fashion - it's obvious that many of the "regulars" know each other. Personally while I sometimes enjoy checking out the Talkshop reactions to Grenadian current affairs, I'd be the first to say the posts can become pretty petty, tedious and hard to read, and the ability to spell (even in dialect) appears to be non-existent.

Anywhoo, I came across this post and the comments are absolutely HILARIOUS! In fact the photos at the head of the post, of Prime Minister Mitchell with young school children, simply beg to be captioned!

My favourite comments:

By just looking at their beautiful faces the kids seem to know more about genuine independence than our beloved Prime Minister.

Wha he go teach them how to TIEF Grenadian money?

and ah say to me self...but dat man also have a devious kinda smile. well lets say..a strange kinda smile check it out...
like he saying ..."is not only me hand ah have up me sleeve"...

Next thing you go hear he wearing his underpants and ah Wifebeater for the Port Louis opening.

What I was trying to say is that soon Grenada may be carved up. Half belonging to China, the other half belonging to Taiwan. I wonder who will get the half with Grand Anse?

Browse around and enjoy!
_____

Of course, true to usual Talkshop form, some of the posters go far off the topic and start yabbering on about Prince and Jimi Hendrix at the Superbowl. God! Like we Grenadians have permanent ADD or something.

33rd Anniversary of Grenadian Independence

2007-02-07T11:41:00.000-04:00

On February 7th, 1974, the state of Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique became the first of the Windward Islands to achieve independence from Britain.

Happy 33rd Birthday! Oh Beloved Land of Mine.

Taiwan to Grenada - "Pay us we money!"

2007-02-06T11:14:00.001-04:00

Seemingly lost in the kerfuffle over the Anthem Fiasco is this startling bit of information that came to light late last week. Taiwan, our previous BFFs, are suing Grenada for repayment of defaulted loans.

The Export-Import Bank of Taiwan brought the court action against the Grenada government in the United States District Court, Southern District of New York for four loans that the NNP regime took and defaulted on payments. The bank is seeking to recover US$ 21.6 million from the Mitchell government plus interest payments for the loans that were taken to facilitate construction of the first sporting stadium at Queen's Park, the Ministerial Complex at the Botanical Gardens, the agricultural sector, and for road construction projects on Mainland Grenada and the sister isle of Carriacou.

This lawsuit comes as a complete suprise to the ordinary Grenadian, as no one seems to have had any clue about these loan arrangments. What is difficult to comprehend is that the legal action has been going on for a while, with the government retaining counsel in the U.S. (the wife of the Foreign Affairs minister - but OF COURSE!) and the government has never seen it fit to advise the country of this situation before. Ah well, why should they? We are only, after all, just the uneducated masses that keep electing these people into office, over and over and over.

Have you ever heard a more ironic statement than this?

"This matter has severe legal, political, and embarrassing consequences for all of us in Grenada," the article quoted an official from the Ministry of Finance as saying.

Of course let us not forget that this lawsuit comes on the heels of another suit against our Minister for Energy Gregory Bowen, brought by oil investor Jack Grynberg:

[Co-defendant]Korchagin, described as a Russian lawyer, has been sued along with Minister Bowen and two other Russians Mikhail Fridman and Len Blavatnik by U.S oil investor Jack Grynberg for US500,000.00 in damages for breach of contract. Grynberg is alleging that Bowen and the Russians have conspired to prevent him from cashing in on a controversial oil and gas agreement that he signed in 1996 with the ruling New National Party (NNP) administration.

.

sigh

You know - I, for one, just cannot WAIT for the Windfall of Humiliation and Embarassment (aka CWC 2007) destined to be heading our way in March. Wait 'til I show y'all some pictures of the main roads in the hotel district and around the "stadium". Soon I promise.

And the band played on...

2007-02-05T11:57:00.000-04:00

So.... as the international media busts a collective gut giggling at our infamous China/Taiwan Anthem faux-pas, us Grenadians are reminded - yet again - that our shameplates have indeed surpassed maximum capacity and are now useless to us.

Chinese Ambassador, Qian Hongshan, and scores of blue-uniformed Chinese labourers who built the new US$40 million Queen's Park stadium as a gift from Beijing, were visibly uncomfortable as Tai-wan's anthem echoed inside the 20,000-seat venue on Saturday.
Describing it as a blunder, Grenada Prime Minister Keith Mitchell pledged an investigation into how the Royal Grenada Police Band could have prepared the anthem of Taiwan instead of China, which has waged an aggressive campaign in the Caribbean to woo nations away from relationships with its rival.

Just to remind all of you, our "investigatory" P.M. is the Chairman of the Caricom Sub-Committee for the World Cup. Allyuh better start praying he don't play de Pakistan anthem for the Indian team!

ps: Dat man is ah eediot oui!

edit: pps: Um... I didn't say which man!

pps2: As per local news this afternoon, it appears a cabinet-level witch-hunt is on the move to pin the blame on the fiasco on the Police Band leader Brian Hurst. Poor guy.

UPDATE Feb 7: As of Feb 6th, Brian Hurst was suspended from the Police Force pending further investigation. Scapegoats Unite!

LaSource Sailing Festival

2007-01-29T10:28:00.000-04:00

Local workboats preparing to race in the 14th Annual LaSource Sailing Festival, January 28th.
Click here for larger photo

And here they are undersail!
Larger photo

Larger photo

I'm back again...

2006-09-08T16:06:00.000-04:00

Lord can y'all ever get rid of me?

Major upheaval in the YY household (impending divorce) has contributed to the relocation of BlahBlohBlog from a private server to BlogSpot and I've been trying to contact my fellow blogrollers/blogrollees to advise of the blog address change. Here's hoping some of them will visit me here! I miss them terribly. *hugs*kisses*

Link up wit' y'all soon.

Grenada and the CSME

2006-06-06T10:10:00.000-04:00

Well, well, well. Looks like the OECS heads of government are concerned about Grenada’s readiness for CSM.

In and of itself this is not surprising. One would be justified in being concerned about Grenada and the Single Market, particularly since the average Grenadian knows next to nothing about the CSME, its implications, and the process of its integration.

It's very disingenious of Dr Mitchell, our "venerable" prime minister, to make a statement like

Grenada may not necessarily be ready because with the advent of Hurricanes Ivan (2004) and Emily (2005), Grenada would have been marginalised

How convenient! Why is it that these 2 hurricanes are a perfect excuse, in Dr Mitchell's eyes, for his country not to be ready for a socio-economic-political transistion that has been over a decade in the making, but yet these same 2 hurricanes become irrelevant and inconsequential when it comes to the question of Grenada being in a physical and fiscal position to host matches for CWC 2007? Dr Mitchell appears to be fervently concerned about loosing face by not being able to host these matches, yet as a Grenadian I find it infinitely more embarassing to admit that not only is Grenada not ready to join the Caricom Single Market, but also that the overwhelming majority of the population are grossly uninformed or misinformed about exactly what the Single Market is supposed to be.

Are we going to be ready for World Cup next year? I guarantee that Dr Mitchell is figuratively going to die trying. Pity he doesn't feel the same sense of committment to the CSME.

Heh. You know us Grenadians - we shameplate done break a long time ago.

I'm back

2006-06-01T15:22:00.000-04:00

T'is me - the yingity yang. Back after a rather long hiatus, capped off by a complete blog address change. Here's to hoping that blogspot is marginally better than a really, crappy web host.

I hope to be able to backup and re-post my archives one of these good days. Meanwhile check out my last, and hopelessly outdated post, which had been eaten by aforementioned Really Crappy Web Host.

CWC 2007 Update #2

2006-04-22T12:08:00.000-04:00

While idly checking out the CWC 2007 website, I came across this venue summary. Wow. Don't those stadiums look sweet?

Hey - check out what they say about Queens Park in Grenada.

Status: minor upgrade required

I must say that I did a double-take reading this line. Minor Upgrade? Are they serious? Who fact-checks that site? (I promise to post some new photos of present progress at the stadium as soon as possible.)

So this led me off again on a new hunt for commentary about Grenada and CWC 2007. Some snippets:
1. The Grenada Today

The trouble with Grenada, though, is that it was spending money on the World Cup at a time when it must rebuild its infrastructure after Hurricane Ivan. "In Grenada there are some definite question marks. You are in a situation in which your fiscal position doesn't have a lot of flexibility. You do face some revenue shortages and you do face pressure on capital expenditure"

2. The Grenada Today again

The countdown has started in Grenada towards the hosting of the 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup games allocated to the Spice Isle with the unveiling of plans to train 3,500 volunteers.

Successful volunteers on completion of training will be certified and receive top quality brand name uniforms for the matches. Chairman of the local Board of Directors of Grenada LOC, accountant Henry Joseph stated that the volunteers to be chosen will have to do everything possible to ensure that every visitor coming to Grenada is welcomed in the Spice Isle.

The internet cannot convey the expression on my face right at this moment.

3. DAWN.com

Parliaments in the nine countries hosting the 2007 cricket World Cup will soon likely take up legislation to expedite the immigration process for visitors attending matches.....

.....The free flow of cricket fans could be facilitated by putting a special stamp in their passports, Jones said, noting that this area hadn't yet been worked out.

The countries -- Barbados, Jamaica, St Lucia, Grenada, Antigua, St Kitts, Trinidad, Guyana and St Vincent -- will have to approve the legislation since there is no regional authority.

4. Australian Sports Tours. Hey, hey, hey! Proposed trip/tour itinerary for matches in Grenada.

5. Barbados Advocate

Scathing comments were reserved for Grenada, though. "Nowhere, though, does work seem as far behind as in Grenada, where Hurricane Ivan wiped out Queen's Park stadium in September 2004 and washed out roads and bridges throughout the island. China, which two years ago persuaded Grenada to drop its recognition of Taiwan, offered to foot the $40-million bill for the stadium's reconstruction and has flown in labourers to man the 24/7 operation. China is not competing in the World Cup".

It was also suggested that the provision of accommodation would be a challenge. "Home to about 100 000 people, Grenada will have to accommodate an estimated 35,000 visitors during the matches, which is likely to overwhelm a hotel industry still rebuilding after Ivan damaged all but a few of its 1 000 rooms. That could give rise to bed-and-breakfasts, but community development specialist Denyse Ogilvie points out that government demands for hefty licensing fees, insurance and service guarantees are deterring most would-be innkeepers from making the investment. Even the prospects for souvenir sales are dim, as few Grenadians can afford to pay franchise costs for use of ICC event names and logos".

::nervous frown:: Righty-o. I think I'll stop on that note.

More updates soon.

Losing weight: Update #2

2006-03-20T13:03:00.000-04:00

Just an update on the weightloss/exercise programme - 17lbs hit the dust. 33 left to go!

Grenada and World Cup cricket

2006-03-19T22:32:00.000-04:00

Now I know you folks have heard the countless stories and reports that some of the islands (chief among them Grenada) are in a state of unreadiness in preparation for the Cricket World Cup 2007. The Chairman of the Caricom CWC 2007 Committee, none other than Keith "Yuh mad or wha?" Mitchell, aka the Grenadian Prime Minister, vigorously asserts that Grenada's National Stadium will most definitely be ready in time for the "testing" that is supposed to take place in October. Yes people, this October. October 2006. Seven months away.

Let me give you a little backstory about de Grenada National Stadium & Cricket Ground. The existing stadium, which was less than 5 years old and had been built under much tay-lay-lay, scandalous confusion and diversion of funds, had been destroyed by Ivan in 2004. After much back-and-forth begging and demanding, P. M. Mitchell managed to persuade the Chinese government (not that they needed much encouragement) to rebuild the stadium in time for World Cup.

Now let me interject here and state that it is my belief that Grenada will have its 6 World cup matches taken away. Will the stadium be ready? Who the hell knows. Those Chinese workers are certainly racking up some overtime, and two separate contractor friends of mine have stated that they believe the stadium could be ready for October. Note well, the stadium could be ready. The pitch now.... well... that's another issue entirely. Correct me if I am wrong but doesn't it usually take a long time to prepare, groom, tender, roll, press and test a pitch? I mean, in the previous stadium, the pitch had taken at least a year and a half to get to an "OK" playing condition. Right now what's left of the pitch is sitting underneath piles of Chinese steel and rebar. There's less than a year to have this pitch not just playable, but World Cup cricket-playable. Hmmm... I doh know nuh.

Then there's the issue about getting Grenada itself ready. [Insert laugh track here] The stadium is right on the northern outskirt of the town of Saint George. Given the current traffic and vehicular conditions on an average workday, taking into consideration that the country's central bus terminus is less than 1/4 mile away from the stadium, and factoring in the state of the roads in and around St. George, I am totally baffled as to how these thousands of cricket fans will be able to get to the stadium on any given day. Not to mention where exactly will these cricket fans be staying? Grenada has approximately 1,800 hotel rooms; yet we "hear" that we can expect at least 5,000 cricket followers to descend on our shores. Oh, I forget... the visitors can avail themselves of our Homestays Programme:
Successful applicants would be required to provide a high level of safety, comfort, cleanliness, and hospitality to all guests. Inspections will therefore be held on an annual basis to maintain prescribed standards.

I happen to know someone who has applied for this Homestay Programme and she was griping that she is required to pay a "license" fee of US$2,500 for the priviledge of being a Homestays venue, and in order just to recoup this fee she'd have to charge US$250 or more per night. That's most than most hotels. And that's without her clearing a profit!

So people. Tell me. What do you think? Can we do it? Can we salvage what's left of our pride and hang on to those 6 matches?

Only time will tell. Stay tuned.

PhotoTime

2006-02-26T17:02:00.000-04:00

Holy cow! It's been nearly 3 weeks since I posted and I guess it's nigh time to do something about that. But today is Sunday - siesta-day, and I'm just to lazy to compose a post of any great significance. So what's a lazy girl to do? PHOTOBLOGGING!!!!

I'm actively exercising my beloved Fuji. That camera has so many features I don't know what to do with half of them.

1. Panoramic of St. George's: Lagoon Road/The Carenage area.

Click here for the larger version.

2. Panoramic of gorgeous Grand Anse Beach (No I do not get tired of taking shots of Grand Anse).

Click here for the larger version.

3. Yet another beach shot. I was on this beach this morning and a newly arrived tourist couple walked onto the beach a few feet away from me. The wife looks around, taking in this vista, and says "Oh Billy-Bob! It's just so...so.... Caribbean!"I guess it is indeed.

4. And isn't this shot rather "Caribbean" as well! Mist & fog rolling down from Mt. Maitland into the suburb of Mt. Parnassus on a miserable rainy day. Do excuse my clothes-line in the foreground.

5. And because no photoblog is complete without some eye candy, I present for the ladies' enjoyment my two favourite actors....*sigh*

.. and before some fast person points out, no I didn't take those shots myself; if I had allyuh would ah hear some news story about a crazed woman pouncing on Terrence Howard and Wentworth Miller at the Golden Globes, bawling out "Oh gad! Oh gad! Ah luv ya bad bad bad!"

Meme....

2006-02-08T19:56:00.000-04:00

OK then, I guess I'll take on Mad Bull's meme since I have't blogged in ages, and I really should.

A meme about 4 things.... how fortuitous. Four is my favourite number - it's my birthdate. So this Meme about Four better bring some good vibes my way.

Four jobs you've had in your life:
1. Hotel/Front Desk
2. Hotel/Cost Control - after working shifts for about 4 years combined, you ain't catching me back in a hotel.
3. Sales - Aww hell naw! I suck at sales. Only job I was fired from for being terrible.
4. Office Management - Well, there went 4 years of college. I now work in a field fairly unrelated to my degree (marketing).

Four movies you could watch over and over are:
1. Face/Off - Nic Cage and John Travolta. I don't care how sucky it was. I love it.
2. Harold & Kumar go to White Castle. That shit is funnyyyyyyy.
3. The 5th Element - Bruce Willis. Yeah, I'm a Bruce Willis girl; I love this movie - campy and fun.
4. The Matrix Trilogy - Keanu "Sexy" Reeves. Mmmm. I can't believe I'm such a Matrix freak since I generally don't like Sci-fi. And yes, I even like the last one.

Four places you've lived:
1. Springs, St George's, Grenada
2. Castries, St. Lucia
3. Miami Shores, Florida
4. Lucas Street, downtown St. George's, Grenada

Four TV shows you love to watch:
1. Prison Break!!!!!!! I *heart* this show!
2. Law & Order (all of them)
3. In Living Colour
4. A Baby Story (yeah, Mr YY is always on about didn't I have enough drama with my own labour and delivery, why I want to continously relive the event)

Four places you've been on vacation:
1. New York.
2. Clewiston. (hah! Look it up. It's in the sticks in Central Florida)
3. Staffordshire. (Look that up too! In the sticks in North England)
4. Carriacou. Technically still Grenada but really different in feeling/personality.

Four websites you visit daily (excluding my blogroll)
1. Television Without Pity
2. The First Church of Wentworth Miller
3. MSN
4. CaribbeanNetNews

Four of your favorite foods:
1. Italian
2. Chinese
3. West Indian
4. Indian

Four places you'd rather be:
1. A deserted island off of Sicily. I have no idea why - I have always wanted to go to Sicily.
2. Shanghai. Keeping my 'net sistren Tilary - a tall, black woman with red dreads - company in a place far from home.
3. India. Because I have always wanted to see where my great-grandparents came from.
4. Carriacou. Because Carriacou in small doses is great fun.

Four albums I like best
1. Confessions on A Dance Floor - Madonna. Yeah, as a kid of the 80's, I have undying fondness for Madonna, even though she needs to pack it in already.
2. Jagged Little Pill - Alanis Morissette. *sigh* Days of angst, nights of singing with a hairbrush microphone.
3. The Joshua Tree - U2. Still one of the best rock albums ever.
4. Kanye West - mixture of the 2 albums. Kanye's a bit of a jackass, and can't rap worth shit, but I love a lot of his songs

..... and .... MUSIC THAT WILL BE ON MY PLAYLIST FOREVER:
Any 80's compilation, Bob Marley, Jah Cure, Damian Marley, Sean Paul, and Destra.

Time to fire up iTunes. I feel a vibes coming on.

Strike! Update

2006-01-22T13:36:00.000-04:00

Well, Friday's strike was quiet enough. No the country did not grind to a halt. And no, the government has refused to abandon the Levy. Instead, they propose to have a 3% levy, effective immediately, and introduce the 5% in July. And to quote the Finance Minister as he presented this proposal as part of his Budget Speech in parliment on Friday - that is that. End of story.

Ooooooo-Kay then. 5 months paying 2% less tax to the government. [pause and reflect on that]

Anyway, I haven't heard what the unions plan to do in response.

Tempo TV finally reaches GND!

2006-01-22T12:48:00.000-04:00

Hellooo!! Flipping channels this morning and I see that Ch29 (BET) is showing Tempo!

H-excitement! Oh lord, I am hoping that Cablevision is planning to keep the network on our cable line-up permanently.Of course, as a 'net junkie I'm slightly annoyed that I can't seem to find a Tempo Network web site. Hey Tempo/MTV execs... what up wid that?

ps: Rupee so sexy 'ey? I never seen him sing live.

EDIT: Tempo TV's website is GotTempo.com

Strike!

2006-01-18T16:07:00.000-04:00

Thanks everyone for all the encouragement and good words re: the Exercise and Diet Plan. Things are going well. Started exercise class (aerobics & step) 3 times a week, and am plucking up the courage to wake up extra early 3 mornings a week to go walking.

As some of you may be aware, Grenada is nary 2 days shy of a full-blown general strike, being called to protest the Reconstruction Levy. The Levy (it’s a levy, not income tax. Income tax requires pesky things like proper paperwork, deductions, credits, etc) is 5% of your earnings over $1,000 per month. People making over $5,000/month already pay a form of income tax, so their Levy percentage is 2%. Well, the Trades Union Council has taken great issue with this Levy, particularly in light of the massive increase in the cost of living since the Gas Price Increase of October ’05.

Long story short, the government refuses to budge, the unions refuse to budge. The Chamber of Commerce, Conference of Churches, and the Employers’ Federation are all trying to mediate the situation. Not a day goes by that there isn’t some breathless announcement on the radio that “An agreement has been reached!”, “The agreement has been refused!”, “The government insists…”, “The unions insist….” blah blah blah.

On Friday there is a national day of protest called by the unions. Of course, day of protest = STRIKE, so that will prove to be hilarious [/tongue in cheek]. The bus associations are expected to strike in support as well so…. good times!

Oh, would I be on strike too? Nope. Not unionised, so no chance of that. Besides I’m traditionally not terribly pro-union anyway. My take on the Levy is this: Sure I want to pay my share towards the rebuilding of the country. But I have serious concerns about giving any more of my hard-earned money to this government (Yeah, I’m not an NNP/Mitchell supporter as you can guess) and I’m not alone in this concern. Read Lloyd Noel's weekly column here as he discusses the situation.

However, to allay the fears of those out of the country, we are not on the brink of another coup. Please! Enough with that bit of rumour-mongering! My mother-in-law called from St. Lucia the other day in a fit of panic as the talk over there was ::drum roll:: another revo in Grenada. I swear Mr YY and I had a fit of laughter that lasted 3 hours or so. No fear of any armed uprising in Grenada any time soon. The old revolutionaries are all middle-aged and more worried about mortgages, nice cars and the shareholders meetings than about socialism, and the only thing the young generation would revolt for is if Cablevision stopped carrying BET. Hah!

Will post a report on Friday! You can keep up to date with The Happenings
here.

Losing weight

2006-01-13T14:58:00.000-04:00

I forgot to blog about the fact that I began a weight loss programme on January 3rd. I had a fat version of a "lightbulb moment" after viewing the hundreds of Christmas photos in which I looked like a land-based version of a submarine. In not one of the photos did I look "nice" and the startling appearance of a double chin (where the hell did THAT come from!) has galvanised me into action.

So, I joined SparkPeople.com. It's a great online diet and exercise web site. I just entered my current weight, my goal weight, and my ideal per week weight loss (2lbs) and the SparkCalculator promised me that if I adhered to the daily calorie/carb/fat/protein limits, and met the required weekly exercise goals, that I would loose 50lbs by July.

If I loose said 50lbs - I will undoubtedly be Grenada's hottest, sexist, sweetest looking, finest-ass woman!

So far, 1.5kgs lost (sorry, my scale is a kilogram scale much to my annoyance) which translates to 3.3lbs. God! I hope that is not just water weight. I am being a very, very good girl. I have cut out all refined sugar, bread, pasta, root veg, rice, and most dairy. I am learning to read labels and count calories. A fit of aerated-drink withdrawal has led me to discover Diet Sprite, which tastes much, much better than any other diet soda - you can't taste the sweetener at all. Yay! I am faithfully chopping salads, measuring quantities and logging everything that passes my lips. And to tell you the truth, it's actually been easier than I thought. If I feel tempted, like today when a client dropped off BARS of Swiss chocolates for us, I just remember that the Christmas picture in which I looked the best (read: least bad) was one of me with my mouth full of food. Talk about motivation.

I still have not begun my recommended exercise routine and I know that unless I do I will definitely not start seeing the type of results I want to see. So..... next week's committment is to get moving.

And guess what? I'm kinda looking forward to it! July - here I come!!!

Happy Belated New Year to all!

2006-01-04T09:52:00.000-04:00

This is what I saw at midnight December 31. If you look hard you will see Yamfoot - that's her resort! :D

And I must show off a little bit - our hapless Canon Powershot died recently (don't buy one!) and then someone gave me this little beauty.

Sweet!!! This camera, even though it is older than our expired Canon, is far superior in features, options and zoom. *happy sigh* See? When one door closes, another one opens.

Happy 2006 everyone.

Tuesday Watts : Top OECS Sportswoman for 2005

2005-12-22T14:21:00.000-04:00

Congratulations to Grenada's swimming queen Tuesday Watts retaining her title achieved in 2004 as the OECS Female Sports Personality of 2005.

Watts has done her country proud by winning 13 gold medals in regional meets,
setting seven OECS records and being named the OECS Female Sports
Personality.Tuesday topped the list of female athletes, followed by St Lucia’s
high jump star Lavern Spencer and St Kitts-Nevis 400m runner Tiandra Ponteen.

It's quite exciting to see Tuesday continue to reap regional accolades. Grenada's swim team is really up-and-coming with strong, young, female swimmers like Watts, Melissa Ashby (who represented Grenada at the 2004 Olympics) and Samantha LaQua. Just watching these girls compete inspires all Grenadians to dream of international medal ceremonies!And as a woman, it's both humbling and awe-inspiring to see these little kids (Watts is only 14 I think) undergoing the serious physical training and excercising the mental and emotional desire to win big. When I was their age, no one in Grenada swam competitively at all. In fact, in my day the only sports that girls participated in were basic track and netball, maybe tennis occassionally. Nowadays it is not unusual to see little girls at football practice, or volleying on the tennis courts, or swimming laps at the Good Hope pool, or drilling on the basketball courts.Wait until Little YingYang reach up dey on de podium in de 2016 Olympics. Allyuh better be cheering for her loud loud!

IMF Report

2005-12-21T13:20:00.000-04:00

The IMF was checking up on us here in Grenada the other day. Highlights of their observations:-

despite signs of economic recovery, the economic situation in Grenada remains challenging, both in the near-term and over a longer horizon

and they had

very productive dialogue with Prime Minister Dr. Keith Mitchell and members of his Cabinet

It's nice to see how the article left out the fact that leaders of the Grenada Chamber of Commerce and the Grenada Trades Union Council had met with the IMF delegation, and asked the delegation to mention to the Prime Minister, that they would really like it if he could return their phone calls. Yes, you read right - the P.M. has literally ignored all requests from the Chamber, the TUC and other private sector organisations to meet face-to-face, since Hurricane Ivan some fifteen months ago. Can you imagine that? Sure, other ministers have ongoing dialogues with the aforementioned organisations, but can you just imagine a P.M. being so.... so.... so.. shortsighted (??) as to basically refuse to meet with some of the major economic players of the country? Particularly in a time like this when you are hoping (one would assume) for their cooperation and participation in the rebuilding process.But then again, very few could say our P.M. possesses a great deal of foresight. More on that soon.*grumble*

Wha' happening

2005-12-06T13:50:00.000-04:00

Still here – drying out from the terrible weather this past weekend. Tropical Storm Epsilon out in the Atlantic – what a season, ey?And to add to my joy – Grenlec (Grenada Electricity Services) finally discovered that we were hooked back up after Ivan without the proper inspection certificate (yeah yeah – a pankwai) so guess who has been minus power? Mr YingYang has been frantically driving around looking for electrical parts that the electrician requires in order for us to get certified. *sigh* Hopefully by tomorrow we’ll be back up and functioning. Yeah, that’ll teach the YingYangs (and countless other Grenadians) to circumvent the proper procedure. From experience let me tell you that having no water is definitely, infinitely worse than having no power. Every day the generator goes on for a few hours – this keeps the fridge cold overnight and we catch a few minutes to check emails, etc; we get accustomed to going to bed early. But no water? God lord! Just one day of no water is enough to throw a household into utter chaos. I should know – we don’t have a water tank either, and NAWASA is prone to shutting off the water supply on a whim.Anyways.. I gone. More soon.

Change is good II

2005-11-27T03:10:00.000-04:00

Might it be that I am perhaps a bit too idle? Blog skin change again. Header photo is my own - gorgeous Grand Anse beach.

YY Thoughts

2005-11-26T11:42:00.000-04:00

All men and women are born, live suffer and die;
What distinguishes us one from another is our dreams, whether they be dreams about worldly or unworldly things, and what we do to make them come about...
We do not choose to be born.
We do not choose our parents.
We do not choose our historical epoch, the country of our birth, or the immediate circumstances of our upbringing.
We do not, most of us, choose to die; nor do we choose the time and conditions of our death.
But within this realm of choicelessness, we do choose how we live.
Joseph Epstein

Yes oui

2005-11-24T10:53:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, I attended my second PTA meeting at my daughter’s school. As usual, the principals of the primary (junior) and secondary (senior) departments gave a report on the term to date, an overview of the school’s ongoing rebuilding plans, etc.

In his report, the secondary school principal mentioned that as part of the end-of-term activities, Forms 3, 4 & 5 would be participating in a seminar/workshop regarding the CSME and its implications as relates to their future educational/employment opportunities.

It is sad to realize that a bunch of 15 years-old students are going to know more about the Single Market than 99.5% of the Grenadian population. Heck! They’re going to know more than I do. What I know about the CSME I learnt from reading Barbados newspapers. Our government has long been criticised for a lack of coordination, consultation and foresight on other issues of national importance and their handling of CSME has been no different. The vast majority of people barely know what the CSME is, what our plan is to deal with the critical issues of freedom of labour, investment and trade, what it really means to the average person on the street.

Couple this with the revelation that come January 2006, we are supposed to start paying our 5% income tax... oops.. um... our contribution to the Rebuilding & Development Fund (or whatever fancy name they call it this week) – I tell y’all, I don’t know how we go be making it next year nuh.

Makes me feel like going back to high school. Remember those days? Life did look nice back then, eh?

p.s.

2005-11-24T03:40:00.000-04:00

Oh, quick p.s. post:

This afternoon is the general staff meeting where the managing director breaks it to the employees that there will be no Christmas bonus this year.

Yeah boy! Good times. If allyuh don’t hear from me again, is because I get hit in me head with a stray big stone during de riot.

Here I am

2005-11-15T02:43:00.000-04:00

I’m not dead. I swear. Problems with blog which the host site’s management - ie: Mr YingYang - has finally solved (yes, after much nagging and a back rub or two). New posts soon.

Oh yeah, its rainy and cold. Brrrr…

Total :eyeroll: post

2005-11-01T10:56:00.000-04:00

The latest World Trade Organization rejection of proposed European Union banana tariffs was greeted with dismay Friday by Caribbean nations fearful that they will be unable to compete with Latin American nations.

::eye rolling furiously::

What? Somehow, somewhere, the banana-growers of the region really expected the outcome to be something different? Why, in this day and age, are we still Shocked! Horrified! at these WTO rulings? Could it be because Shock! Horror! we still haven't managed to diversify our crops or our export markets?

Note to banana farmers of the region: The rest of us have accepted that the extra-regional banana trade is dead. Time for you guys to do the same.

It's raining.

2005-10-27T11:02:00.000-04:00

Today is one of those chilly, wet, grey days that make you long for a nice cuddle in bed under a warm blanket, with a significant other. You know what I mean - weather for leather! Yeah baby!

Needless to say, I am at work. The air conditioner is really cold today because of the external temperature, so we are shivering at our desks because The Server must enjoy cool temperatures. Who cares about the humanoids in the office. You all know what I mean by The Server. Heck if you work in any good sized office, you too must pay homage, loose blood, sleep and tears, make regular sacrifices and tithes all in the name of The Server. You know, just so The Server will allow you to access your machine with a minimum of frustration and crying. Ours is a black Dell, probably just a bit bigger than an average CPU, and cost our boss more than we do. I shouldn't complain since The Server is the only reason our office is air-conditioned now. I guess that means I'm indebted to The Server, right? I'd better say "yes" in case it decides to go click-whirrr and erase this blog post. Can you tell I'm rambling? It's because I'm cold.

Tuesday was our Thanksgiving Day, the 22nd anniversary of the U.S. intervention. I don't like the fact that it is called "Thanksgiving"... did we run out of alternative commemorative names and just borrow one from the U.S.? What about Democracy Day (stop rolling allyuh eye!) or Freedom Day (ah go roll mine instead). I didn't write an indepth spiel about the day, its significance, etc etc, but I see that didn't stop Rickey Singh from doing so.

My thoughts on the intervention can be summed up as such: Our experiment with communism had failed terribly. The nation was in a state of massive crisis. The invasion was (relatively) swift and painless... well relatively so... it could have been much worse. The island was restored to a semblance of normality and life rolled on. I'm not going to get into a great debate about U.S./Caribbean policy in 1983, or any of that. Let me just tellyou what all those regional "thinkers" don't tell you when they're sitting somewhere far removed from the issue at hand. Grenada, following the events of October 19th 1983, was not in a position to take care of it's own political problems. There was no viable alternative government or potential leader that wasn't already in prison for being a dissenter. Heck! The population was under a shoot-to-kill curfew! And contrary to some hard-liners, I have never considered Bernard Coard to be a viable political player - frankly he just would not have been able to muster the support of the people. ::deep breath:: Anyway, I said I wouldn't go there, so I won't. (But I already did, didn't I? I'm still rambling. It's cold.)

Talk to you soon chickies. Keep warm today.

Depressed

2005-10-01T13:06:00.000-04:00

On Friday my boss advised us (the accountant and I) that it looks like we will be letting go 7 people next week.

Thankfully I am not one of them. But it still sucks.

Then he went on to say that it doesn't look like we will be getting any Christmas bonus/gift/profit sharing/always-welcome-extra-money this year.

That really sucks.

*cloud of broke doom descends on YingYang household*

One year ago (cont'd)

2005-09-25T08:51:00.000-04:00

Before

During

Just before we dove for cover

_____________
I awoke at around 5:30.. first light. It was cold and there was a cloud of damp everywhere. everything around the couch was damp. I picked my way over the “dyke” and stood in about 3 inches of water. Water was flowing quite freely throughout the house, like it was a water feature in a Chinese garden.There was water and broken roofing shingle everywhere, on every surface; on the kitchen counters, on the stove, on the fridge. To this day I still can’t figure out what all of this glass was from; there was so much of it. Looking up you could see the sky, still a little overcast but so serene. A large section of the kitchen roof was gone, of course this is the section below which is the fridge, the microwave and the stove. And of course they were all waterlogged. Up to now I have never plugged back in the microwave.

I couldn’t get to the front door, there was so much debris, so many items like chairs and computers that MrYY had moved. I waded to the bathroom that we were considering using as shelter – boy! Would that have been a bad idea! There was about 6 inches of water in there, broken sections of plywood had fallen through a hole above the bath. Even more strangely (and annoyedly) the toilet had backed up! Someone later told me that this is common with hurricanes and tornadoes – the fluctuating air pressure acts like a huge plunger sucking waste back up the sewage pipes and drains. Gross.

MrYY and John got up and cleared the doorway. When we opened the doorway – I tell you it was like nothing I ever imagined. I often say we are very spoiled and comfortable here in the Caribeban – we don’t know abject poverty, or true illiteracy, or even what daily death from violence and social upheaval is like. Our islands are pretty, and picturesque, prosperous, clean (for the most part), green and lush. That is not what we saw that morning.There are a lot of pictures of post-Ivan Grenada that show the damaged trees and uprooted vegetation but it looked so much worse in reality. Almost no tree standing had leaves on them. In many cases, even the bark was peeled off. As days wore on these trees and shrubs would dry out and turn brown, making the hillsides look (no offense here) like if we were in Haiti. Or drought striken Africa. Honestly, it was the sight of the dried trees, the brown, singed environment, that disturbed people, perhaps even more than the destroyed buildings. Grand Etang forest was flattened. 50 foot trees lay like match sticks. There are still people here who refuse to travel to Grand Etang even now; they don’t want to retain a visual memory of the forest dead and dying. I guess its like St Lucians waking up and finding one of the Pitons gone, or New Yorkers and the World Trade Center towers; its disorienting to realise that something so large and magnificent and omnipresent could just vanish like that.

Needless to say the front of my car was smashed in, the windscreen shattered, the radiator and front grille crushed, but it started when cranked! Our house? Well, see pictures below……

Toddler YY's room.

Guest room. Luckily John had his laptop bag on him rather than in this room.

Our bedroom. Notice the broken French door. And my missing curtain$!!!!!

Amazing to imagine the wind moved the bed like it was a piece of paper. At first, that chest of drawers was actually wedged against the bedroom door which is to the left of the shot. Flying debris in the room actually chipped plaster off the walls.

_________________
Since last year, many have pontificated about the significance of Ivan, its effect on Grenada and on the Grenadian people. There has been endless discussion of who was to blame for the lack of preparedness, the failure of the emergency relief agency, the breakdown of law and order and government immediately following. I'm not going to get into that on this blog; Hurricane Katrina has shown the world how easily the best-laid plans can go awry, how quickly communication and co-ordination can break down. Katrina reinforced a lesson - for me at least - you just cannot sit on your ass and wait for help. You've got to get off your butt and try to piece your life back together as best you can. Here in the West Indies we do not have the luxury of a limitless federal treasury, massive government assistance, state-provided debit cards for cash, etc. That we each have to figure out ourselves. What we (as a country) did get was the overwhelming generousity and support of our island friends and neighbours. Let me take the opportunity here and now to say thank you to everyone who gave money, time, food, clothing, prayers, thoughts and good wishes. They were, and will always be, appreciated.

I remember listening to CBC radio [Barbados] - our lifeline for news and information - on the day that they held the telethon. The station was hoping to raise BDS$250,000; in the end the pledges and donations totalled more than BDS$1mil. Many Grenadians cried that day, listening to the radio. The support of the Barbadian people stunned and overwhelmed us; it would be days and weeks before we would become aware of the other massive relief efforts going on in Trinidad, Guyana, St Lucia, etc. Sport fishing boats, trawlers, and private yachts brought in food, ice, water, medicine, diapers, good cheer and hugs of comfort. Planes were landing at the airport with boxes of supplies, not labelled to anyone in particular; the pilots spoke of ordinary citizens of St Vincent or Antigua who would show up at the airports with boxes of food and ask them to "just bring it to Grenada and give it to someone, anyone". At work, our clients (all foreign) created an Relief Fund for our employees. The donations totalled over EC$125,000!

So, what have I learnt from Ivan?
1. BE PREPARED. Have adequate supplies of water, medicine and food in your house at all times.
2. Have a bag/bags packed with dry clothes and important documents (passports, IDs, bank things).
3. Keep your shoes for the duration of the storm... :) Yeah, that would have saved us all a lot of pain and suffering.
4. Have a plan. Know what to you are going to do in the event of the house collapsing, in case you get separated, in case someone is injured.
5. Being without water is worse than being without power, cable, telephone and internet combined.
6. Every bad situation creates opportunities for change or for good.
6. Hold the Scotch bottle close! *smile*

And in closing, behold the VapMat-O Deluxe, the carefully thought out invention of MrYY and John. VapMat anti-mosquito tablets on a soup can being heated by a candle. We doh need no electricity, yo!

One year ago

2005-09-07T16:24:00.000-04:00

For most Grenadians, Tuesday September 7th 2005 is a date that will haunt us forever. Today is the first anniversary of Ivan, which as you know, wrecked devastion across the island during a 2 hour rampage.

Explaining the lead up to Ivan is odd – it sort of going from being an anti-climatic bother to being a rather climatic event. We had just come off a “kind of” alert for Tropical Storm Earl the weekend before. As can be expected, Earl was little more than some breezy rain, because as we all know, bad weather doesn’t come to Grenada! During my 34 years, I had never even experienced even a tropical storm in Grenada, so it is not a joke when you hear it said that most Grenadians just didn't know what to expect or how to prepare. Looking at TV is one thing. Living it is another.

On the Sunday the Weather Channel was full of news of Hurricane Frances in Florida. Because of Ivan’s position at the time all indications were that it would veer north west – missing Grenada of course.

At work on Monday, our clients were abuzz with the “impending” storm. We locals were like “Oh crap, here we go with yet another storm drill again”. I was irritated with having to pack up all the office stuff AGAIN, waste a whole day emailing clients updates. Particularly since we were going to spend forever unpacking trying to find exactly where we put that folder we had been using just before we put it away. But we plodded on, determinedly packing up the office; storing computers, electronics, etc, away in huge plastic storage bins. [Which no one actually locked so when the office broke apart, the bin lids flew off and the computers.... floated..] By afternoon, the word was that this storm was definitely going to be affecting us. Local boats were calling up my boss, asking if they could be hauled out to shelter the impending storm; we were only able to take nine boats, apart from the three scheduled hauls – for a day’s record of 12 boats lifted. [Of the 200 boats under our care, only 31 toppled over, versus the nearly total losses in the other major yard] There was a little bit of excitement in the air, particularly when at the 2pm advisory Ivan had been upgraded to a hurricane. At that time it was still south east of Tobago and expectations were – of course - that it would swing sharply northwest, skimming north of Grenada. Poor St Vincent and St Lucia we thought. The hurricane is definitely going to hit them. Because, as we all know, hurricanes don’t come to Grenada at all!

One of my co-workers, an Argentinean called John [not really called John but the need for privacy reigns] , had just taken his wife and son to the airport that morning to catch a flight to Miami and then on to Argentina. Hurricane Frances in Florida had affected her travel plans that previous weekend and she had just managed to get on the first flight out to Miami. I asked John where he planned to go to “weather the storm” and suggested he come over and stay with us; we’d cook some food, John and MrYingYang would talk “computer techie” talk and we’d all have a few drinks and relax on our bad weather day off. John agreed to come over after but he had to get his boat hauled out first, so he’d drive over to our house later that night.

Leaving work that day I decided to pass by the supermarket to stock up on food and drinks. The supermarket was rammed. Looking back it is so ironic what people were shopping for! Like me, there were trolleys full of booze, drinks, snacks, one or two packs of batteries, the occasional tin of tuna. On a whim I picked up 2 gallons of water. I also tripped over a box of candles, nearly full; I took 3 packs. On the urging of one of my co-workers who was with me I also bought a flashlight – because hey! it was a good price! Besides, we didn’t own a flashlight so say what.Got home, offloaded groceries, put Toddler YingYang to bed, settled in for some TV (Law and Order). Around 11pm John called to say he was on his way. The crew at the boat yard had only just finished lifting boats by the light of 2 fluorescent bulbs in a kind of makeshift spotlight system. John crashed in the spare bedroom; I went to bed and left MrYingYang working in his office.The next morning Toddler YingYang, John and I were up early. The morning was slightly overcast, with a faint breeze. We ate breakfast, browsed the net, checked out the storm’s position. This time it looked like it was heading for a position between Tobago and Grenada. I was still optimistic. After all the day looked a bit like most “storm warning” days do… cloudy, cloudy and just plain old cloudy. I knew that NAWASA would cut off the water if the rain got heavy as they don’t like mud getting into the system through the reservoirs. Toddler YingYang and I took a shower around 11:30am, a decision that would turn out to be a good idea in retrospect. [The water would go around 2pm and we would be without running water for the next 2 weeks]By noon John was convinced that the storm was coming for us. The wind had picked up quite a bit, periodically gusting, and some rain was falling. MrYingYang, like me, was very relaxed about the whole thing. We kept telling John not to worry. Hurricanes don't pass over Grenada!The wind kept getting stronger. It was not steady and constant, but an erratic, squally, gusty wind. I called my dad to see what was going on in Grenville, the eastern side of the island and the first to get a ‘taste”. He said there was some wind and rain but nothing major. I called my mum; same story.

By 2pm the weather was getting really crappy. We started to feel a little apprehensive; maybe the hurricane WAS coming! Wow! Excitement! I called my dad again. He reported that a couple of trees had fallen close to his house. I looked out the front windows and noted, with great relief that a small cedar tree on the other side of the road had fallen in a direction away from my car. Thank the Lord! I couldn’t bear to have to face paying for repairs again!The weather deteriorated. Time and incidents were becoming blurred. I had towels down on the floor in Toddler YingYang’s room to stem the literal flood of water pouring through her window frames. I fretted that one of her window panes, which was already loose in the frame, would not make it through the day. Electricity went off abruptly. The internet had been off since about 1pm. MrYingYang decided to brave the elements and rescue one of his precious classic car windscreens off the back verandah; he opened the door and it slammed shut in his face, nearly braining him. Within 15 minutes the windscreen was in pieces.We were running from one end of the house to the other. Look at the coconut trees – look at two down over there. Look at the rain – wow! Frigging hell…! Check out the roof on that guy’s house down there… the galvanized sheets are going! Damn!

MrYingYang shouted "Sh*t, there’s something on the car!". I remember getting annoyed with him, as if he was jinxing the car or something. "Oh no there isn’t!" I said, even though I could definitely see the sheet of something, galvanise or plywood, on the car.Have you ever seen rain fall UPWARDS? The rain was so horizontal that it was literally coming up from the road. Outside was white; visibility was crappy. It was about 3:45. I called my mother. She was shouting “The roof went! The roof is gone”. I was beginning to get really worried. What the heck was she talking about? I thought maybe some galvanised sheeting had blown off her roof. [Her entire roof, rafters and ring beam went]Shouts from MrYingYang.. John ran to his assistance. The doors in the master bedroom that led to the little master verandah were rattling violently, like a giant was outside trying to shake them open. Seeing two grown men hanging on to the doors, and seeing these doors tossing the around men like matchsticks – amazing. MrYingYang let go of one and it flew outward. He grabbed it and tried to pull it shut, but the door was literally bending; he let it go again and it flew open… and broke in half. “Forget the room” I said. “We can’t do anything, just grab the TV and clear out”. They did. MrYingYang closed and locked the bedroom door leading to the hallway.

I was panicking now. We heard crashing on the roof, and saw galvanise tumbling past the house. The neighbors’ roofs were coming off and falling on ours. The telephone poles close to the house were rocking violently back and forth.Then out of nowhere the wind suddenly changed and became 10 times stronger. You could almost feel the force of the wind speed – it was like a gigantic pressure pushing on your chest. Our ears were popping; low and high air pressure. Unbelievable. Incredible noise from an incredible wind screamed overhead. I heard the verandah doors in the bedroom crashing and horrible, horrible noises; I looked in awe as my new and very expensive bedroom curtains flew past the front windows, still on the curtain rods.

Then, as easy as you can imagine, the roof directly above us went off. I can’t recall hearing it creaking or “breaking”. It just was there one minute and not there the next. Water poured in through the hallway that leads to what was MrYingYang’s office. John and I fled into the living room and we dived into a corner. I was shouting for MrYingYang to join us but he was frantically trying to save his computers from the flood going on in his office; he was moving everything he could get his hands on; later I would find out that he even went into Toddler YingYang’s room grabbing clothes. Toddler YingYang was a brave little trooper; she held on for dear life, and laid her head on my shoulders. Ever so often she would say “Rain.. rain..” I held her for 3 hours, that heavy 27-lb toddler. Ordinarily I can’t carry her for more than 5 minutes. I can’t remember thinking she was too heavy to carry.I don’t know if what I felt that day was what people call true fear. It didn’t feel like what I thought fear or panic or fright is supposed to. In fact, it felt very, very numbing. I can’t actually remember feeling anything but blankness. And disembodiment. Sort of like it wasn’t really happening. I definitely remember a horrifying feeling though, a feeling that only parents can appreciate. The feeling, the mental fright, that maybe you wouldn’t be able to keep your child safe, that the life of your baby might REALLY be in danger. Explaining this feeling is strange. It too is paralysing. But until you have looked at a virtual stranger, like I did with John, and asked them to take your child, if something should happen to you, and run to the only place you can imagine that might be safe (the retaining wall under the house)… Until you do something like that you cannot comprehend the feeling of not being able to protect your child, the feeling of total and absolute helplessness.The noise was incredible. I have never heard anything like this in real life before and don’t want ever want to again. It was like a hundred trains… the wind was SCREAMING. Have you ever heard wind scream? Like in the movies? Really screaming? Like in that movie “Twister” – exactly like that except it isn’t sound effects. The rain was like a big tap had opened above the house. MrYingYang was moving everything he could get his hands on. He was bare foot and his feet were getting cut with glass.Then house began to sway. I nearly peed myself. A massive frigging house, swaying every time a gust slammed into it. The French doors in the living room were shaking in the jambs. A pile of old computer hardware that MrYingYang had stacked up to throw away a couple of weeks before stopped the doors from opening. Those these old computers, in jamming the doors shut, actually saved the rest of the roof. If those doors had opened, the roof of the living room would have gone off too.

About 5:15, John was fretting about the eye of the hurricane. By our calculations the eye should be on us at any time and he was worried that the shift in wind would result in the living room windows that were 15 feet away from us, blowing in. As it was we were against the west wall of the living room, facing the east. The shrieking, howling, white freight train was at our back out of the west. In all my life in Grenada, I have never known wind to come from that direction. We debated back and forth about whether we should move location. MrYingYang warned that the corridors were flooding and full of glass. He reported that none of the west facing rooms were safe. We waited and waited, barricaded behind a large rattan coffee table. We had a last ditch plan to relocate to the guest bathroom if the living room was compromised; MrYingYang reported that a part of the roof was off in a section of the bathroom, but it would provide some rudimentary form of shelter if worse came to worse.

More sitting and waiting. Swaying house. I vowed to myself that if the roof of the living room stayed on we would buy the house (we have always felt the roof was shitty. To this day I am impressed at how well it stood up. However we have since decided not to buy the house and will be building out own). MrYingYang continued to pull the remnants of his computers out of his wrecked office. I still have a vision of him holding his precious computer and water streaming out of it like a sieve. The screaming slowed a bit. The wind gradually (very gradually) became less constant, wider gaps between gusts. John and MrYingYang agreed that we should move locations. It was dark; only about 6pm. The hallway still had its roof, even though it was under about 4 inches of water. We sat on the coffee table. The consensus was that the hurricane had passed; we didn’t want to think that there was more to come. The heavy winds and rain continued but the walls of the corridor blocked a lot of the noise out so it was more bearable. Unfortunately, I could hear, through the closed bedroom door 3 feet away, water falling like a waterfall into our bedroom.MrYingYang and John ventured around a bit. They moved Toddler YingYang’s crib out her room. They were grabbing anything they could find and moving it into the living room. They brought food from the fridge and milk for Toddler YingYang. Her bedroom door kept banging; it had been closed during the storm and the wind had wrenched it open, shattering the door handle mechanism and disintegrating the frame of the door itself.The late evening is really blurry. We sat and ate. MrYingYang and John were ankle deep in water and we made jokes to keep spirits up. I drank Scotch and water….. ordinarily I hate Scotch but…. you know…. special circumstances. The weather was slowly getting better. Wind was coming in gusts, 1 minute, 3 minutes, 5 minutes apart. The time between the gusts increased, although the intensity of the wind didn’t seem like it was decreasing. We decided that we had no choice but to spend the night the living room, and set about making up some form of living space. Water was pouring down the corridor steps and threatening to flood the living room. MrYingYang and John rigged a dyke from sealing putty and wooden shelves. The dyke worked beautifully. We lay down on anything we could find; Toddler YingYang and I shared a couch, John was on a door that MrYingYang used to use as a work bench, MrYingYang was on the crib mattress.

Around 2am the winds picked back up and it started raining again. I cried. I couldn’t help it. I just wish it would stop. It struck me that there were no mosquitoes [and wouldn't be for another week or so]. I finally fell asleep.

..........continues tomorrow------------