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The Rules of belief!

10/30/2014

THE RULES OF BELIEF (Or rather what I believe them to be)

Rule1. Believe everything but don’t believe anything.

Rule2. Believe anything but don’t believe everything.

Rule3. Believe rule1.

Rule4. Don’t believe rule3.

Rule5. Don’t believe rule4

Rule6. Rule2 is always true except when following rule5.

Rule7. Believe nothing but don’t believe in nothing.

Rule8. Believe in yourself but don’t always believe yourself.

Rule9. Believe

Rule10. Be.

Nala (The $2 Philosopher)

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The Coldness of my heart a trilogy by The $2 Philosopher

10/25/2014

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Poem I The poem of a deserted lover

When the coldness of my heart comes haunting
and my eyes, blind stones survey
not seeing your humanity
your needs
your worth
When I sit like a cold lead slug on the throne of self-righteousness
and my serpent's tongue lashes unrelenting
remember I was forged in the fires of your neglect
and the sermon that I now so callously preach
is the gospel of reciprocity...

Poem II The Poem of an unloved child to a neglectful mother.

When the coldness of my heart comes haunting
and my eyes, blind stones survey
not seeing your humanity
your needs
your worth
When I sit like a cold lead slug on the throne of self-righteousness
and my serpent's tongue lashes unrelenting
remember I was forged in the fires of your neglect
and the sermon that I now so callously preach
is the gospel of reciprocity...

Poem III The Poem of a citizen to the state

When the coldness of my heart comes haunting
and my eyes, blind stones survey
not seeing your humanity
your needs
your worth
When I sit like a cold lead slug on the throne of self-righteousness
and my serpent's tongue lashes unrelenting
remember I was forged in the fires of your neglect
and the sermon that I now so callously preach
is the gospel of reciprocity...

Three completely different poems with exactly the same words (lol)
Nala (The $2 Philosopher) #artistsandpolitics

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An Apology to the Minibus Men! (Part II)

10/23/2014

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What is the message being sent by the PSV drivers?

On the surface we have a bunch of men asking, not that questionable laws be changed (they seem to have no problem with the law per se) but rather that the penalties for breaking these laws be made less onerous as they want to break the laws several times a day and the stiff penalties act as a (ahem) deterrent... in theory.

It seems a pretty psychotic request when you think about it; even more so when you consider the omissions.

Would that it was, these men were only stopping illegally and failing to use their seatbelts. Anyone who has used our roads more than five times knows that that is simply not the case. No mention, whatsoever was made of the other sins they commit regularly such as speeding, or reckless frigging overtaking, or working off route, or overloading, or deliberately blocking the road when picking up or dropping off passengers so other vehicles (particularly other PSVs) can’t pass, or driving so obscenely slowly that their passengers run the very real risk of dying of old age long before they reach their (forgive me) RAS-HOLE destination.

And you know of course that PSV drivers will site “working off route” and claim that they only do this in an effort to provide a better service to their customers. However, if, like me, you’ve ever been told about your dear old mother’s parts for asking a conductor to turn down the blaring music or been brusquely reminded that “You could get to fuck out whenever you ready you know dads I ent studying you, I studying money!” when you asked that they not drive so unbelievably slowly (or quickly), you may suspect that that justification is mongooseshit.

So what message is it that they’re really sending us?

If you look at it they’re really being quite disingenuous and the sense of entitlement and disregard for the convenience and safety of others borders on sociopathic. Which should be a weird thing to say about a group of people that you’re trying to apologise to, but it’s not!

Although this is a sincere apology, it can’t be an apology for characterising their behaviour as nonsensical because it is, even a three month old poodle can see that! But far from condemning them we should be asking what could be going on in our society that would make a group of grown men feel comfortable in publicly making such an infantile declaration?

Could they have been lulled into a sense of correctness by the recent actions of the PSC (police Service Commission)? The PSC (which in essence is supposed to oversee the smooth running of our primary law enforcement agency… LAW enforcement) concerning a matter before the courts involving the promotion/non-promotion of fourteen officers, declared that, regardless of any decision made by the court, they were going to proceed as initially planned. Then, in a strong argument for social anarchy, did just that while court proceedings were… proceeding. No ridicule was heaped on them: the PSV drivers were asking for an (albeit ridiculous) ease, the PSC was, in essence, (in my opinion) saying “Fuck you!”

Or maybe their nerves were steeled by their observation of two administrations that, one after the other ignored the courts decree that they as government were to pay some dude for work done and rent owed on his buildings; A man who had to come, like the steel donkey, rattling his chains, in the dead of night (in the morning actually), to re-open “negotiations”. I know there are probably details that we are not privy to (duckspeak) but isn’t that true of everything?

Perhaps they were inspired by the faceless but known vote buyers who attempted to procure votes for a few hundred dollars (or more) here and there or bottles of rum or (rumour has it) weed. People who managed to remain so un-investigated that up to now no one has even said to the public “our investigations show that this NEVER happened” (because surely if it had someone would have been prosecuted).

Or mayhap it was the often overlooked vote sellers who happily took the “lil hundred” or the “big mout' drink” (whether they voted or not) and then felt entitled enough to gripe about incompetency and a lack of integrity in politics as if they were not an inherent part of the problem.

It is conceivable that the PSV drivers merely felt that the lack of accountability that exists in the upper echelons of our society should filter down to them. The lack of accountability that allows people to have questionable relationships with construction companies and never have to truly explain it, that allows diplomatic bags with questionable contents to remain unexplained, that allows people to commit fraud to the tune of four million plus dollars and get a slap on the wrist (I know that I DON’T understand the intricacies of the laws… but I am speaking to perception).

I don’t know they could have been motivated by the droves of people in the work for who feel that they are entitled to a paycheque but not obligated to a job. There are so many examples as to where the motivation for their unfortunate stance came. What is clear is that self-interest and avoidance of consequences and responsibility have become the norm.

And that, I think is the message.

I think that the minibus men are (deliberately or otherwise) asking us to take a long hard look at ourselves.

I want to apologise to the minibus men for missing that. I also want to apologise because we won’t, we won’t take that our look at ourselves.

If I cared I would be disappointed by that, but I don’t, so I’m not. I’ve lived here long enough to know that caring is a waste of time. We will continue to mock the minibus men until, as with everything else nothing what so ever comes of this and it fades from memory… into oblivion!

Nala (The $2 Philosopher)

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EVERYBODY/NOBODY

10/23/2014

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What would happen if everybody just "poof" disappeared?

Nobody would notice!

Nala (The $2 Philosopher)

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An Apology to the Minibus Men! (Part I)

10/17/2014

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Recently some minibus and ZR drivers (PSV drivers) were very vocal about what they considered to be overly “harsh” and “severe” penalties for road traffic violations. They complained that the fines (for example $600 dollars for stopping at a place, other than a bus stop) compromised their ability to make a sustainable living. One man observed that if one received three fines in one day (i.e. was caught BREAKING THE LAW three times in one day) it was virtually impossible to see a profit, another lamented that between December last year and October this year he had paid around $11000 in fines to the court. Though the issue of (maybe) needing more bus stops did come up (barely) the general gist of the discourse seemed to be that the penalties should be made less onerous. Nowhere in the discourse was there any real acknowledgement of the fact that the fines were as a result of breaking the law and thus no real examination of whether or not the laws made sense. The position of the PSV drivers seemed, on the surface at least, utterly fucking ridiculous and the idea that they were looking for (and may very well find) a lawyer to plead their case bordered on sublime.

When I first became aware of the story I actually had a seizure, I was so stunned; I must confess that I had absa-phaking-lutely NO idea that PSV drivers were penalised for misuse of and misconduct on our roads. The impunity with which some of them flout traffic laws led me to the (I think, quite reasonable) conclusion that some government or other had, in an uncharacteristic moment of implementation efficiency, granted PSV drivers immunity from all traffic laws. I’d always just assumed that I’d slept late that morning.

Once I had been disabused of my misguided notion, I responded to the minibus and ZR men, as did many Bajans, with derision! I mockingly suggested that the men were suffering from carbon monoxide induced brain damage from inhaling all the exhaust fumes while on the road, I marvelled at how grown men could entertain such silly notions and I glibly suggested that if they could not afford the fines all they need do is stop breaking the frigging law. I would like to publicly apologise for this.

I am not backing down from my position I still think that, “give me an ease so I can continue to break the law and recklessly endanger people!” is an asinine and untenable premise, but I recognise now that my finger pointing and othering of the PSV drivers was nothing more than a symptom of mental laziness and a gross failure to see the larger and profoundly profound (LOL) message they were sending. A message so profound and timely that it matters little if it was being sent advertently (there’s a word you seldom hear) or inadvertently.

My first inkling that I wasn’t seeing the bigger picture came when, whilst on a ZR, I noticed that when PSV drivers stop (and they do it quite often) at a place other than a bus stop it is almost NEVER to pee. I further noticed that when they overload their vehicles (this was not mentioned in the report but they are often fined for it too) it is NEVER with sacks of yams, which, as we all know science has proven lack the capacity to refuse to board a vehicle.

PSV drivers, it turns out, are very much like politicians, inasmuch as, like our politicians we often see them on the frontline… doing a buriffle of shite! And though (again like our politicians) they too have their “yard fowls” (people who have an irrational devotion to a particular driver or vehicle) most of us just thinly tolerate them because (one more time…like our politicians) they provide an essential service… badly.

It is precisely because of this high profile that they are very easy targets for ridicule and unrestrained criticism; We complain about how recklessly they drive, we gripe about their rudeness and the poor quality of the service they provide, how they only studying money, and they putting people’s lives in danger and they, and they, and they. We often speak about our PSV drivers as if they derive from a separate dimension or at least another planet and are really only connected to us inasmuch as they are here … now… fucking up road traffic and as with our politicians, we turn a wilfully blind eye to our own culpability in encouraging and perpetuating their deviant behaviour.

We are in total denial that “they” (Psv drivers and politicians) are EXACTLY like US (which makes sense since “they” are “us”).

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Say What?

10/16/2014

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He said: Did you really just say what I think you said??

I said: It depends... did you really just think?

Nala (The $2 Philosopher)

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The Rules of belief!

The Coldness of my heart a trilogy by The $2 Philosopher

An Apology to the Minibus Men! (Part II)

EVERYBODY/NOBODY

An Apology to the Minibus Men! (Part I)

Say What?

The $2 Philosopher!

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