VernetteOutLoud

My 'O' Face

In Loving Memory

It occurred to me when I read today’s daily post prompt that if I fell in the shower or choked on my vomit in my sleep (this would have been two weekends ago though…vodka is a bad bitch) that it would probably be days before anybody knew that I had died or even suspected something was wrong.

I live alone and while I have lots of friends and my family is involved in my life, I am quite independent and I cherish the solitude of home. It’s not unlike me to go a whole weekend home alone, no contact with the outside world. So the first alarm bells would be rung by my office most likely. Or maybe my neighbour. But then I’d have to have bought the farm in the living room and even then it would be because I’d started to smell for them to suspect anything. This is quite possible though, if let’s say I came home after a night of vodka and choked on my vomit on the futon.

If I happen to fall in the shower, it would definitely take a while for anybody to smell notice anything. Not this weekend though, if I had fallen in the shower this morning and died…by tonight someone would have found my body because I have plans for the weekend.

But let’s say it was like last weekend, where I had no plans and just wanted to sleep in and I had fallen in the shower Friday morning, I’d have been dead for probably four, maybe five days before anybody suspected something was amiss. And that somebody would have been the office most likely, wondering if I had abandoned the job or something.

It’s a sad thought but not really because I’d be dead, but it would be a horrible and traumatic way for my family to find out. And my poor landlady. She might have a hard time getting the stench out of the carpet and then the issues with getting the place rented again because Trinis are “superstitious” people…and nobody wants to live in a “dead house”.

Thinking about it some more…quite like the world ending on Dec 21st, four days before Christmas, dying this weekend would be most inconvenient for me unless there are Keurig coffee machines in heaven. Yes. I believe in heaven. And yes. That’s where I’m going when I die. No discussion.

You see, I’ve been lusting after this particular item for months. I have lovingly picked out the coffee mugs I will be drinking those steaming hot creations in and I have also delayed purchasing my Keurig so that it will arrive juste à temps for my Christmas morning breakfast. If I bought it any time before the designated date and it arrived before Christmas, I would use it…because I’m greedy and have no self-control when it comes to shiny new coffee-making gadgets. Soooo in order to keep myself in check, I’ve delayed my purchase. To thine own self be true.

My date for this most-wanted purchase is Tuesday 11th, because after factoring in delivery time, that date ensures my B60 arrives on Friday 21st December and well…you see where I’m going with this right?! The world cannot end on December 21st just like dying this weekend is out of the question.

However, I have no problem talking about death or me dying and if nothing else today’s prompt made me think about what I leave behind for my family to pack up. It also shows me how vulnerable I really am and that I should have some kind of plan in place. So here goes:

    1. Get to know my neighbor. My landlady is probably going to have come through on their side anyway to get into my apartment should something happen because she does not have keys for the locks on the gate to my porch.
    2. Make spare keys and give one to my brother and sister. Give my neighbor their contact numbers as well.
    3. Keep my cell phone close when I’m in the bathroom.
    4. Get rid of all the paper/bills/article clippings I no longer need but hoard because I’m an information hoader because there is no reason to burden anyone with the task of going through them to see what’s important or not.
    5. It would be best to have a fatal shower accident on a Monday or a Tuesday since my body would probably only have two, maybe three days to be found.
    6. I should probably cut back on the vodka on Friday nights…

Oh and as for writing the actual obit…I balked at the idea at first but decided to make it fun, while my fingers, toes and eyes are crossed that life does not imitate art in this case.

Deuces.

p.s. If I had died this weekend though, the one thing in my house I’d like to explain is the bottle of peppermint oil on top of my toilet tank. You see yesterday Awesome Stacy over at one of my favourite blogs, Stacy Makes Cents, posted this list of stocking stuffers and #10 on her list is the reason for the oil. Ladies, it can be a problem when we have to GO in public. Two drops of oil in the bowl solves the uh….smell problem. I used peppermint oil and trust me..it works!

You’re welcome!

Muse

Book Front Cover
Muse by Susie Hanley

My rating* – 3

This review contains spoilers.

Books like Muse, are the reason I joined the book club at work.

This is an urban fantasy set in modern times in a world like ours. Only in this world Muses and Guardians are real. Guardians, who have superhero powers and qualities, protect Muses until they die. This book is written from the point of view of Shelby, a 25-year-old divorced mother of two and talented artist. The book is well written and characters are well-developed, they have layers quite like real world people.

Shelby has worked hard to make a life for herself. Her parents died when she was young, and her husband left her with two kids. When her ex-husband comes back to town, he has more to say than just I’m sorry: he’s a Guardian, and his new assignment is her. She is a Muse now, one coming into her own no matter how hard she fights it, and trouble stalks her wherever she goes. Her ex-husband can’t keep up and, with their history, she doesn’t want him to. To complicate matters, there’s another Guardian around when she needs help, and they are falling for each other. He has a dark past that’s trying to reclaim him, and Shelby is in the way. But she has to accept her Museness and figure out fast what being a Muse really means if she is to keep herself and her children alive. – Book Description courtesy Amazon

However, I have issues with the book: In this world Muses and Guardians are not a secret, so I did not understand why Shelby seemed so ignorant about them. Even though she has reasons for not wanting to know about them, in this world they are everywhere, celebrities even, so she should have known something. I’ve also already connected the dots about her parents…I don’t understand why after learning the truth about herself, she hasn’t made the connection.

I get that Shelby spent half of her teenage years being a single mother but her prickly personality with her ex-husband Cal, was more than a little overbearing at times. There was one instance where she gets information about her “musedom” and from her suitor Guardian, who wonders why Cal didn’t explain things to her…and that was because she never gave him a chance to.

“A Guardian is only as strong as its Muse.” ― Susie M. Hanley, Muse

I like Shelby though. She’s a young mother, student and now Muse and I see potential in her development as a character. There is light and darkness to being a Muse, and Shelby has both within her. I laughed out loud when she described the darkness in her as her “dark passenger”. I thought to myself that it was an Ode to Dexter.

There is a lot of action towards the end of the book which I liked. But when Shelby’s son is in danger it takes far too long for her to tell the necessary parties about the situation. For such a strong and protective mother, that should have been the first thing out of her mouth and then she could have filled in the rest of the story on the way to defuse the situation.

I am a romantic at heart, so when the love triangle was introduced between Shelby, her ex and her super fast Guardian boyfriend; Hanley developed the ex-husband so well that he seemed to have a deeper story to tell, I must admit I’m rooting for him. Team Cal all the way.

My go-to books are memoirs and spiritual/inspirational books Muse felt like a guilty pleasure for me. I’m so over vampires who glow in sunlight and paedophile werewolves and other shades of meh…that this was a welcome and fresh change. I like this world of Guardians each with their own unique super powers and Muses who are talented and strong but also vulnerable and just looking for love. This book has everything, romance, action, suspense, Menage-a-Guardian, I am looking forward to the second book in the series.


*my personal quality ratings are the scores I give books on a scale of 0-5 based on my personal opinion of a book. 0 is “birdcage liner” and 5 is “off-the-hook good”

Hunger Strike – Day 21

21 days later and Dr Kublalsingh who has been showing end of life symptoms for two days is still on his hunger strike.

I could not bring myself to write anything before now, because I was hoping to write a positive update to the hunger strike and it just never came. Dr Kublalsingh enters Day 21 today, with new conditions to ending his hunger strike. These are:

    1. Point 3 of framework must state clearly no construction on the Debe to Mon Desir section while the committee meets.
    2. Cost benefit, social impact and hydrology reports to be included.
    3. The terms of reference must include provision for oral and written submission made to the committee by residents.


… these “conditions” come on the heels of a meeting the Prime Minister and the Works and Infrastructure Ministry had with members of the Joint Consultative Council (JCC), and other civil society organizations who were seeking to bring some resolution to the impasse.

Coming out of that meeting, the agreement made:

    1. Nidco undertook to make available to the JCC all the relevant documentation in its possession on the project in respect of the Debe to Mon Desir segment of the highway extension.

    2. The JCC undertook to examine all the documentation on the project provided by Nidco and all other relevant documentation and to produce a report within 60 days from yesterday’s date to Nidco for its consideration and its publication thereafter.

    3. Work will continue on sites of the highway released to the contractor.

So in the now 21 days of one man’s courageously brazen act of standing up for what he believes what have I learned about the People’s Pappyshow and their oh so caring leader:

    The PM knows how to flip a man the bird:
    – She never met with Dr Kublalsingh, thus she maintains her stance. (There will be no early elections – this apparently is a very real fear of hers and her cohort)

    – By giving the JCC 60 WORKING days to review the highway documents she has effectively and indirectly given Dr Kublalsingh a death warrant or another reason for detractors to ridicule him. Dr Kublalsingh cannot last 60 more days on a hunger strike, he will die. If he continues with the strike after this “resolution” has been made, he runs the risk of being seen/maligned as a nuisance.

    – Right after giving the JCC 60 working days to review the docs…Kamla said to supporters that “nothing will stop the highway” so thinking people ask yourselves…what pray tell is the point of the JCC “reviewing the documents”?

    – You can support her party but if you speak out against it you will be insulted and denigrated in public.

    The PM knows how to flip the bird at the rest of T&T:

    – Dr Kublalsingh is a warning for what will happen to you if you ever decide to disagree with the People’s Pappyshow. You will be allowed to waste away to skin and bones and be ridiculed for it.

    – Take note thinking people, old people say “when your neighbour’s house is on fire, wet your own.”

Go home bird...you're drunk!

Go home bird…you’re drunk!

Hunger Strike – Day 8

People often say Trinidadians are a bunch of ten-second-Toms…ok the truth is, I say it. News headlines will hold our attention for all of 10 seconds and then we’re on to the next thing. Maybe we’re really a nation suffering with ADHD and they should just put Ritalin in our drinking water. But short of that, what will it take to make this nation sit up and take notice of issues with grave national implications?

An extreme hunger strike apparently.

The issue engaging citizens and the media right now is the extreme hunger strike being undertaken by Dr Wayne Kublalsingh. Today is Day 8. It’s extreme because he has refused food and water as well. This man, who has lost 42 pounds since he started this strike, is now visibly thinner almost skeletal with dry, cracked lips; no doubt evidence of a body thirsting for nourishment.

Persistence.

Bulldozed and arrested. Ridiculed by many. He has been called a madman, a professional protester and an attention seeker, dismissed by the prime minister who mockingly sent an ambulance instead of taking an elevator down to see him; derided by Housing Minister Roodal Moonilal who appeared on a local morning talk show and sneeringly said “he has about 3 to 4 days to go with that.” Dr Kublalsingh has taken a personal stand, which perhaps is one of the strongest in this time of our young nation’s history.

This group, The Highway Re-Route Movement (HRRM) has been fighting albeit quietly to keep their homes and communities in tact since 2005 under the then PNM government. But you should know that talk about this proposed highway has been around since 1981. Dr Eric Williams in his last budget address in January of that year said it would begin in that fiscal year. Since then it has made appearances in many budget speeches by different governments over the years.

Protests escalated when the actual plans for the highway were made public in 2011. While the extreme tactics now being employed by Dr Kublalsingh are just that extreme, would anyone have taken an interest in their plight otherwise? Dr Kublalsingh has achieved that at least: The nation is taking notice whatever stance they’ve chosen to take on the issue.

However, this “issue” has implications for all of us.

As long as you’re paying taxes (which is just about everybody) this affects you. The initial budget for this project was estimated at 9 BILLION dollars, a huge chunk of that goes to the Mon Desir-Debe section of the highway, because there are compensation costs involved.

This is also flood prone area. What is going to happen when it rains and the water has nowhere to go? Taxpayers’ money will be used in clean-up efforts, road repairs and compensation. Is this how you want your money spent?

This part the highway affects the environment. They intend to build the highway through a lagoon. The HRRM’s claim is that this section of the highway project is “destructive and contrary to modern planning approaches to development.” When it comes to adverse effects on the environment, it’s everybody’s problem. There is no negotiation or compromise when it comes to the environment. Or at least in a right thinking world, there shouldn’t be any.

What the proposals are.

“I’m tired of being crushed under the weight of greedy men
who believe in nothing.” – Jax Teller

I fully support and respect Dr Kublalsingh’s stance. It irks me that he has been likened to Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr and even Nelson Mandela. He is none of the above. He is Dr Wayne Kublalsingh, a “social warrior”.

I am not an environmentalist. I like to think of myself as a social warrior. No guns, no ammunition. Just principles and persistence.

And that’s what this hunger strike which is entering its 8th day is really all about. Principles and persistence.

For those of you thinking that the HRRM is against the entire highway project that is incorrect. For those of you who think this is about “land” that is also incorrect. This is about the segment of the highway from Debe – Mon Desir only. This is about community. This is about growing your family and a peaceful way of life. This is about accountability. This is about honesty.


We have produced evidence to show that Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, Housing Minister Dr Roodal Moonilal and former Works and Infrastructure Minister Warner, from March to June 2012, all made promises to us that the construction would be reviewed. – Dr Kublalsingh and the HRRM have said.

What is disgusting about Roodal Moonilal is that he supported this group when they were in opposition and now in the seat of power and upon realising that they could not bamboozle or confuffle or spin the HRRM away…he is now resorting to derision and sarcasm. Yesterday, “supporters” of the highway extension project came out and one Lorris Supersad has begun his own “hunger farce” in retaliation for Dr Kublalsingh’s strike.

“Right now my mouth dry and I can’t speak to the media. But I proposed to start a hunger strike today from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. because I want a highway.”

Again the HRRM is not “against the highway project” just the segment that is going to destroy their homes and families and the environment. Do not be fooled by paid CEPEP workers who have now come out like cockroaches out of cracks and crannies to cause bacchanal and mock Dr Kublalsingh. This kind of behaviour is what the People’s Pappyshow likes. They are on familiar ground here. And I can already see and hear the disgusting comments and insults.

When will we hold this People’s Pappyshow accountable? When will this government actually follow through with a promise they made? What will it take for the prime minister to be the “mother” she so conveniently turns into when there is some political mileage to be gained and soften her position and end this?

The AG Anand Ramlogan also weighed in and has said the prime minister would be setting a dangerous precedent if she gave in to the demands of Dr Kublalsingh and the Re-Route Movement. I’m confused by this though, because she promised the group that she would look into their concerns and meet with them. That is their demand, that she follow through on the promise SHE made.

Claiming that it is “sub judice” is more bullcrap and they will only fool the ones who allow themselves to be fooled. The prime minister can meet with this group. She can end this. Instead of trying to show how big her lady balls are, she could follow through on the promise she made to these people and end this.

Dr Kublalsingh has taken a stand and has called the government out on its deceit. He has specific demands…not vague airy-fairy wishes that the PM or her cohorts can bullcrap away. This hunger strike is a desperate attempt to get the attention of the PM. Dr Kublalsingh is doing what he believes to be the right thing, no matter the personal cost. And that alone makes this a worthy cause in my eyes. The HRRM is demanding that the prime minister follow through on her promise to look at their concerns and meet with them.

Kamla seems to have forgotten that this pappyshow government of hers is supposed to be the “people’s partnership”. Meeting with them may not change government’s position or change any policies but it will show that the voice of those vulnerable in society, the voice of people fighting for their homes and the right to grow their families in peaceful communities, the voice of people who voted for her, matters and that it can be heard in the face of a mighty government.

If this paPPySHOW government is not careful, Dr Kublalsingh could very well be our “murdered archduke”. All eyes are on you Kamla.

A cry in the wilderness?