Living in ah world of 100 people

Paddy Corea and I sat in class foh nearly all our stay at Grammar School. He was into music, ah pan-ah-main-he-act, he plays de Sax too, we actually had ah lickle musical ensemble when we were in fourth form; Cooper Prescod played trumpet, Carver James de violin, Ed Bailey and Ardon Paynter guitars, Paddy and I played ukelele (Cuatro). Not to mention de year 1956 or 1957, when Paddy and Brian Huggins, junior schoolboys took Vincy Mas by storm and won what would ah been Band ah de Year.{{more}} He was into History, mainly foh his ideas foh Mas. He is still hooked on Black History and Mexican mythology.

We got disconnected at age 19 when his dad, de legendary Dolly Corea ah “Jack-of-all-trade”, put him on ah boat and shipped him off on de Exodus No 2 to de Mother Country. Now-ah-days we keep in touch by e-mail; yuh should see his mailing addresses, is like everybody who is ah 1940/1950/1960 Vincy on dat list. Dis week ah want to piggy back on ah interesting e-mail on “world population” dat my brother Paddy sent me.

Is like yuh wake up one morning and find yo-self in de world way de population is reduced to a village of 100 people, wid all existing human ratios remaining de same. De demographics in dis 100 villagers setting is worth reading. Sixty persons will be Asians, 12 Europeans, 5 would be North Americans, 8 Latin Americans, 14 Africans; no Cha-vez? No Guns-ah-lez? Ah Castro maybe? Unfortunately dey’ll need Bush even if it’s ah shrub. Looks like no Vincy will be there, so yuh are already ah lucky person to wake up among dis 100.

Forty-nine people will be females and 51 males, ah ratio similar to de SVG population census, never mind fellars trying to defy de statistics wid six women to ah man, Lie-za say is six man to ah man d’s days and very much de same wid de opposite sex. Mother!

Of the 100 people in dis world village, 18 will be white and 82 non-whites. Yuh notice dey say non-whites, even in dis dey trying to keep out black people. Sixty-seven will be non-Christian and 33 will be Christian. My bet is dat every one ah dem 33 Christians will be pastors and dey’ll have churches all thru de village.

Still in dis world village of ah 100 people, 80 people will live in sub-standard housing – like dis village is Parl Lat or Rose Place. Seven people will have access to de Internet, so de remaining 93 would not have seen dis e-mail dat Paddy sent me, dat’s why ah writing bout it. Problem is, 67 persons in de village will not be able to read dis.

Village got to be SVG. Hugh Wyllie wid his “Adult Education” team will have dey wuk cut out and it will tek more dan ah Education Revolution foh dis one. One person in de village will have ah College Education, thank God foh dat. Fifty people will be mal-nourished, one will starve to death, one will be near death and two near birth. Thirty-three will be widout access to safe drinking water, Garth Saunders boy, no matter how small de world gets is de same problems foh yuh at Central Water Authority, and Thorn-lee My-ears will have no rest at Vinlec wid his over and other charges, and power outages because 24 people will be out ah electricity. One person will have HIV/AIDS, my bet is dat dis will spread like wild fire, because 89 of de 100 people in de village will be heterosexual. And dey will be 11 homosexual, not many Gays foh Minister Walters to bun! Ah believe d’s condensed figures are true and all dat it is saying is dat we need to reflect deeply.

But de e-mail ain’t done, is more, dis time we looking at de world in its fullness of size.

If yuh woke up dis morning wid more health dan sickness, yuh are better dan de one million dat will die dis week.

If yuh have never experienced ah war, de loneliness of an imprisonment, de agony of torture and famine, den yuh are happier dan de 500 million people in dis world. Vincentians take not!

If yuh are able to go to Church, a Mosque or Synagogue widout fear of being arrested, tortured and killed, yuh are happier dan three billion people in de world. Vincentians go to Church.

If dey’s a meal in de fridge, yu’re dressed and have ah good pair ah shoe, yuh got ah bed and ah roof over yuh head, yuh better off dan 75 % ah de people in de world. Ah still saying dat 5% pon public servant pay is not enough. How come Guyana could pay 9%?

If yuh mother and father are alive and married and still to-get-her, yuh are ah rarity. In SVG de first thing to ask is if dey were ever married.

If yuh have ah bank account, money in yuh purse, and change in yuh piggy bank den yuh belong to de 8 % of well priveleged people in de world. In SVG everybody got ah bank account, only foh de mortgage to pass thru; what purse? De salaries so small dat is no time to put money in purse, is only dem ladies wid de cosmetic purse. Men prefer de Hairy Bank to de Piggy Bank ask, Kaisonian Poser.

Five persons in de village of 100 people will control 32% of the village world’s wealth and dey will all be Americans. It says dat de food dat Americans waste daily, ah say daily, could feed 30 million people and this is 10 % of de population of de USA. So Castro is making ah strong point when he says dat de US is setting de world up foh ah famine when de taking corn to mek fuel.

But is dey ah solution to all ah dis? Well dey say we should Wuk like if we don’t need money, dat’s exactly what we do in SVG. Love like if nobody ever hurt yuh, we do de opposite, we love like if everybody did hurt we. Dance like nobody watching, now be careful because Uncle Louie tried dat, and de TV cameras were spot on him foh de nation to see him stiff winding. Sing like nobody listening, not if yuh singing foh yuh supper, dey’s always someone hiding behind some poor key-hole listening to every note yuh sing. Be surprised like yuh were born yesterday, dats all we doing, nothing surprises us any more.

Dis next one is de toughest ah dem all, “tell de truth and yuh don’t have to remember anything”. Nah, it’s easier to lie and forget everything. And finally dey say to live like it’s Heaven on Earth. Really, and what would we do wid all dis Hell people catching, I might ask?

Now if yuh can read dis article minus de creole, yuh are blessed because yuh do not belong to de two billion people in de world who cannot read. And wid dat, ah gone again.

One Love Bassy.