Alice in One-Day land

After watching that spectacular opening ceremony of the ICC World Cup Championship last Sunday night, ah could say one thing foh sure, Caribbean people all over de world could feel proud when dey walk de streets, it was ah Blow Out. We hope Lara and our cricketers could match dat presentation wid good cricket and tek back de trophy. And we hope too dat de paying crowds turn out to watch de matches, ‘cause already de signs are saying dat when it’s all over “de dance won’t be able to pay foh de lights. Tell us about dat in SVG. From day one when ah heard dat we were bidding foh ah venue to host ah real match, ah write say we should not even think of applying. I believe dat “Monkey must know way he go put his tail when he order pants”! It was going to tek ah fortune, money we can’t afford, to get SVG in shape foh any kind ah matches.{{more}}

At dis stage we don’t have de required number of hotel rooms to hold people, we don’t have Airport facility foh big planes to land here wid de crowds dey anticipated. And further to dat, Arnos Vale has been ah “don’t touch dat” white elephant foh years, and upgrading dat facility would only compound de folly mek it ah more untouchable, whiter elephant with ah bigger trunk. Ah said it den and ah saying it now all dat money on Arnos Vale could ah been better spent thru-out SVG upgrading and building a number of small playing fields, hard courts foh Basketball, Netball, Volleyball, tennis and light up all ah dem. Talking bout Rural Transformation?

It was really ah blessing when we didn’t get ah venue foh one ah de Real world cup matches, but instead ah keeping we tail quiet; we tek “false” pride and bid foh Warm Up matches. De problem wid these lickle countries wid dey force ripe I-con-ah-me and poor bragging leaders, dey all have an inflated ego, is I do dis and I do dat; dey all want to leave ah Leg-ah-see, Sir James did say he will “Change de Face” ah Kingstown, now-ah-days we only got to watch de light bill foh de New Kingstown Market alone and we “Face does Change” instead. At de rate Gonsalves going he will “Change de Face” ah de whole ah SVG, and later when we see de National Death den, not only we face but we whole body go change…

Anyhow we got de Warm Up games and de officials here promised us too much! SVG was to experience ah ocean ah visitors, hotels and guest houses will be ram-pak and home owners should get dey houses ready to accommodate de thousands coming to watch these War Up games; De Prime Minister himself went into ah slumber, he’s on record as saying dat we can expect de biggest movement ah people thru-out de region since de Slave Trade. Even Lie-Za laughed and asked way happen to de thousands ah tourist boats dat bringing millions ah tourist to de region yearly. Guv-ah-mint in support, put pressure pon we own Rasta Farmers at Buccament to get off ah Jah Land to allow de Far-reigners to build ah hundred Con-de-minions, de Rastas were holding up progress dey said, remember? Somebody even suggested renting ah tourist boat to sleep de visitors. All dis Alice in One-day-land behaviour over ah Bermuda team coming here to practice wid Australia or England.

In desperation we started late, very late too upgrading Arnos Vale, first de say thirty million, den forty, den fifty million, was like ah Auction Sale. And don’t mention de number ah times dey hit de panic button trying to keep de preparations on schedule. Still it took dem up until de week before de matches were to be played to find out dat de Contractor was lapsing and would not be finished on time, so dey fire him! Talking bout not knowing yuh R’ce from yuh L-bow?

Den dey ICC start to drop de Bum: “ Yuh got to buy yuh tickets On Line, people in de big countries buying up all de tickets, it’s all in de hans ah de ICC, Bla! Bla! Bla! Bla”! But over-did it and drove ah twenty penny nail in de box, de Security measures, no dis, no dat, no terror! Obviously de tickets were not selling, so dey got to find sales Gay-mix, ah Hollow-day to see Australia vs England, dat didn’t wuk, so in de middle ah CXC exams preparations ah decision was made to close de schools foh ah whole week foh de cricket. No consideration foh parents who travel daily to de city with de kids to school. And last of all de final desperate attempts, dey gave out free tickets to school children, dey were literally begging dem to tek de tickets, ah real Fee-ass-Co it turned out to be. Clearly SVG’s decision to mek ah bid to host de Warm Up Games could be described in two words “Tote-all Disaster and maybe we need to remind ourselves dat de story with Alice in One-day-land was only ah Dream!

THANK YUH MOTHER

Back in de 1940’s when Education was a scarce commodity, tutoring of de membership of de Religious Communities was handled by Greats like Cadman Fraser, George Edwards, Ms John and T.V. Keane at Wesley Hall (Methodist School”); G. C.H. Thomas and Teacher “P” Peters held de Anglicans together; and Teacher Compton, Katie Wilson and ah very strongly built Irish Nun name Mother Ender held de Roman Catholics in check at St Mary’s. If ever there was ah Disciplinarian Nun it was Mother Ender, her name was synonymous with discipline, de good ole licks Ah great Teacher, ah God fearing Servant and ah Loving Mother who would go looking foh her students at dey homes when dey missed school. Mothers brought dey children to Mother Ender to pray foh dem.

And Mother Ender had de good ones as well as de Bad ones to deal wid, it was she who moulded people like Gloria Ballantyne, Yvonne Patterson, Horace Lewis and his siblings, Jus Edwards and others. De Good Lord knows she tried with de bad ones too, Ralph Clarke, de Bibby boys, black Bibby’s as well as de red Bibby’s, de Abrahams, not ah easy bunch ah boys back den, but Mother stood up to dem.

She is still around and will be attending ah function (Tea and Concert) at St. Mary’s on Sunday afternoon and she wants to see all of her children, good as well as bad, no doubt to Bless dem all again.

Dey tell me dat de only bad behaved boy who seldom felt de wrath of Mother Ender’s strap was Luke Bibby, ah skinny lickle fellar who had no skin to tek licks. When Luke went up foh punishment he would drop on his knees in front of Mother Ender and pray to de Lord foh forgiveness and to bless Mother, and den he would walk untouched. Dey tell me too, dat when Mother Ender finishing flogging yuh, yuh had to put ah smile on yuh face and say “Thank Yuh Mother”! So dis Sunday we will all go to see Mother Ender again, have ah cup ah tea wid her and say to her : “Thank Yuh Mother”! May God Richly Bless Yuh.

And wid dat ah gone again.

One Love Bassy.