https://www.hudsongeorge.blog

By Hudson George

 

October 19, 2020, marked thirty-seven years since Maurice Bishop was executed in a power struggle gun battle between two factions within the People’s Revolutionary Government, (PRG). However, the tragic event is still debated among Grenadians, why he was killed and six days later the American soldier invaded the country to restored law and order.

Basically, politics is a game politicians understand while their followers give them confidential support blindly, whether they are right or wrong and in our Grenadian society it is part of the norms for supporters of popular politicians to worship them as infallible beings.

Although Bishop tragic death created the end of the revolution, Bishop himself was a political trickster.  He used the New Jewel Movement (NJM) as a political front to overthrow Eric Gairy GULP regime,   on March 13, 1979 and then dumped them as garbage.

Therefore, if the NJM supporters were valuable and brave enough to capture all the parishes outside St. George parish to defeat Gairy’s security forces and to secure the revolution, how come they were not given important roles in the PRG regime?

The revolution was supposed to be the NJM revolution, but Bishop rebrand the revolution as the People’s Revolutionary Government (PRG).   This is also another important issue we need to discuss as Grenadians.

The comrade leader then popularised the slogan: “Forward Ever Backward Never.”  And unfortunately up to this day some Grenadians are still using the slogan without having any understanding of the true meaning of it.

Basically, the true meaning of the slogan, “Forward Ever Backward Never” means, in politics he does not care anything about people who were his political friends in the past.   He is now the leader of Grenada and his revolutionary goal is to achieve what he wants in the future ahead. Therefore, if those whom he dumped challenged his domain, he will get rid of them by any means necessary to save his political domain.

However, the March 13, 1979 was supposed to be a new beginning for change with new leadership role in Grenada’s politics.  Unfortunately, it was not the case and by the end of the first year of the revolution, the NJM members realised that they were not welcome in the process to create a new Grenada.

The power base of the revolution moved to the south of the island. St. Paul’s village became the central location for the revolution because it is Bishop home village. On the other hand, even his die heart followers had no clue about how the PRG regime functioned. All they care about was their comrade leader and whatever he told them they believed.

With the new brand of leadership style Bishop established, it was expected that he would not accept the decision of his party Central Committee members to share power with his deputy. Therefore, the move to replace him as the maximum leader was suicidal for the regime.

The comrade leader had too much to lose. He had already developed the characteristics of a political leader for life, so his removal could not have been a smooth transition.   Son on October 19, 1983, he died fighting to reclaim his hold on power as if God made gave him Grenada and Grenadians as his property.

And up this present time, his supporters still believe he had all the legitimate rights to be Grenada’s maximum leader.    But I personally still cannot understand why they still cherishing such a belief.    So the big question is:  Why he wanted to be Grenada’s maximum leader for life?

 

 

 

 

By Hudson George

Materialism stifles the truth, as people are searching for a better life at the expense of others.   Very few people are willing to stand for the truth because they have a family to feed, business organisation and their social status to protect at any cost.

Life has become like the Serengeti where the strong prey upon the weak.  Modern civilisations are referred to as advance societies where technology and natural resources create wealth for the developed countries.

Wealthy countries exploit the natural resources from poor countries similar to how lion, jaguar, leopard and crocodile eat the flesh of herbivorous animals.  For example, they extract valuable minerals such as fossil fuel, gold, diamond, coltan, copper and timber and manufacture into expensive commodities and converted the profit into financial resources.

Now it has become the norms for third world politicians waiting to grab some of the leftovers they can get from those reach countries, similar to how hyenas hang around to get some scrapes of meat when the dominant predators make a kill and feasting on a prey.

While this is happening technology keeps evolving because financial institution needs more and more advance electronics systems to protect their money, they need to track where the money is and who is after the money and who must control the global financial assets.

Materialism stifles the truth and it creates the environment for proxy wars.   For example, where there is oil and gas there is money and different kinds of social and political conflicts. And when there is ideological wars and ethnic strife people refuse to be their brother’s keeper.

Nevertheless, they still have to breathe the same air to survive in this big global village.  Presently the air is polluted with an unknown virus called COVID-19. The virus appears suddenly and surprising from nowhere affecting the lives of people without discrimination.

CCOVID-19 is not selective in attacking people. The rich, the middleclass and the poor are its targets.  But yet still politicians and global politics culture remain the same, as the greed for materialism and power remain the evil norms.

 

 

 

By Hudson George

Life is full of surprises as the older folks always say. Presently, wearing a mask is essential because human beings lives are being affected by a newly unknown deadly pandemic virus disease known as COVID 19 that does not discriminate whether a person is rich, poor or what race and ethnic background they belong to and where they come from.

According to World Health Organisation (WHO) experts, the main defense against the pandemic disease is to wear a mask for protection. In some countries it is mandatory for citizens to wear mask or face legal consequences of the state law. In some countries police are given legal powers to flog disobedient citizens or to arrest and charged them.

In other countries where it is not mandatory for citizens to wear a mask in open public, all business organisations are given the rights to enforce mandatory wearing of mask in their work place for both employees and customers so that the disease will not spread from person to person in crowded pace.

On the other hand prior to COVID 19 wearing of mask was a controversial topic, even though the practice is an old custom from the beginning of human civilisation. And even though some powerful countries that colonised other people tried to disband the traditional practice of wearing mask among tribal groups they colonised, the tradition still remains for entertainment and spiritual rituals and it will never die.

Nevertheless, although the colonisers scorned at tribal people who wear masks, they too have been wearing masks for their own personal benefits when it is essential for their wants, needs and protection. For example, prior to COVID 19 doctors and nurses always wear masks whenever they are involved in medical operations to save patients’ lives. For example, when a surgeon general is performing an operation on a patients the entire medical team is mandatory to wear masks because it saved and protect them from catching diseases that are contagious transmitted.

In addition, it is a known fact that not all human beings think the same. There are some people who refused to wear mask for various reasons. Some of them I talked to told me that if they have to die for COVID 19, it is their destiny to die from the disease, so they will not wear a mask. Others told me that the disease does not exist. It is a hoax created by the wealthiest influential people to create a vaccine with a microchip to track all human being globally.
However, with all the conspiracy theories about COVID 19, basically it is a scientific a fact that the disease is a contagious virus that is killing people, even though the percentage of patients who died from the disease is low to compare with the high numbers affected and survived.
In terms of Caribbean and CARICOM countries, the citizens are lucky. After Caribbean countries governments closed their borders to the outside world they were able to control the spread of the disease brought to the region by visitors coming mostly as a tourists and returning nationals living in the North America and Europe.

But the most interesting and controversial issue about wearing masks for protection is that, presently fundamental Christians are forced to abide the government laws to wear masks and close their churches in order to prevent the virus from spreading because religious prayers alone cannot stop the virus from spreading and affecting people’s lives. The fact is that evil spirit do not hide behind mask but wearing a mask can save a person from catching COVID 19 disease.

Additionally, it must be really uncomfortably for these strict Christian fundamentalists who believe that evil spirits hide behind masks and people who wear mask on carnival day are inviting the devil spirit, while they are masquerading and having a good time in the carnival Celebrations.

Well basically, I can speak for myself. I must admit that I am seared of catching COVID 19, so I bought five non-disposable masks that I can wash and wear. Therefore, I make sure that I wear a mask whenever I am outside in the public. However, I believe that prevention is better than cure.

Therefore, I am taking extra precautions to save myself and other people whom I interact with on a daily basis. So encouraging everybody to wear a mask as the best defense against COVID 19. For example, just recently a Chinese man told me that everybody wear a mask COVID 19 will extinct. The virus cannot survive without a host and the main host is a human being to spread it because it is contagious.

By Hudson George

I am very much disappointed in some Grenadians, the way they are behaving as the Coronavirus spread globally. I just cannot understand why they are trying to make the pandemic disease a political issue in Grenada, even though in developed countries medical scientists are struggling to eradicate the virus in order save lives.

There is a possibility, it could be natural, politics or too much emotions that are the causes but it is sad to see how some educated Grenadians are trying their best to create an atmosphere of fear and hopelessness among the general population, even before Grenada recorded its first Coronavirus case on Mar 22, 2020 when a visitor from Britain was tested positive for the virus.
And the funny thing is that after the government reported the first case of the disease on Grenadian soil all the critics became silent.

They stop protest on social media about their great concern for the health and safety of Grenadians in Grenada because the infected person is a British citizen who arrived on the island with the disease.

I can only assume that some of them were hoping for the virus to affect local citizens on Grenadian soil in order to create an atmosphere of fear among the general population to trigger anti government sentiment.

However, I just cannot understand their intention is to mix politics with a newly unknown dangerous disease.

I can remember when the disease started to spread in the Caribbean, some Grenadians were phoning me and asking me, if the disease have already hit Grenada. Some of them were even giving fake news about how many people they heard about who were infected by the virus and the government is covering up the medical results as a secret.

However, when I told them that it is impossible for the government to cover up a pandemic disease in a small country as Grenada without anybody else knowing.

Unfortunately, most of them became upset with me and accused me of supporting the government because deep inside them they wanted to hear bad news coming from Grenada saying coronavirus is killing Grenadians because the government was not prepared to deal with such a major disaster.

Most of them had the belief that because they are living in North America and Europe they were safe and protected from the virus. They really thought America and Europe were fully prepared and well equipped to curb the disease, until they release that in reality their chances of becoming infected with the disease is at a higher risk than people in the Caribbean islands, as we can see presently the number deaths in America and Europe.

Then again, I remember some of them who told me that the government should stopped Chinese nationals from coming to Grenada, even before the disease started affecting people in North America and Europe and the World Health Organisation (WHO) did not declare the virus pandemic. And when I told them that it was too early for the government to close the doors on Chinese visitors, they accused me of supporting the government.

In addition, as weeks gone by, some Grenadians back home were making demands, asking the government to discuss the situation with members of the National Democratic congress (NDC), which is the second largest political party in Grenada, even though the NDC does not have and elected member of parliament in the lower house. So it was more melee again, even though their idea had some good merits to it.

Now the latest political controversy is between Grenada’s Prime Dr. Keith Mitchell and St. Vincent & the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves about inter-island shopping between Grenada Grenadines islands and St. Vincent Grenadines islands as both countries have their own different approach dealing with the pandemic virus, plus a little bit of envy and grudged trading competition.

And the funny thing is that, there are some Grenadians who are applauding Ralph Gonsalves wild card behavior. Therefore, one can say that there is never a dull moment in Grenada’s politics. All because Grenadians are too politically arrogant, emotional and still struggling to accept the democracy that is written within the constitution.

Grenada jab jab mas’ and music culture origin is West Africa

By Hudson George

I have done my research on African culture and found out that Grenada’s jab jab masquerade has its roots in West Africa. Therefore, as Grenadians, we should be very proud to know that we have some West African traditions as part of our culture and as long as we exist as a people and nation, the tradition must continue. As long as we protect and preserve it.

Basically, our jab jab mas’ and music highlight is always a major highlight in Grenada Carnival celebration. As a matter of fact, since the days of slavery on the plantation, when Grenada was under French rule. However, the tradition continued after the British took control from the French as our last colonizer up to 1974, when Grenada became an independent country.

The jab jab mas’ and music always attract the majority of citizens to come out on the street during carnival celebration. The build up to carnival starts when jab jab mas’ players organised themselves throughout the different villages and practice to dance and compose songs for the two days carnival celebration on the streets. For example, skinny Banton song, “Soak it” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pEXRwbTAhY shows how organised the jab jab culture is. His lyrics in the dong tell a story about the jab jab culture.

Based on my research looking at video documents on West African cultural festivals and the various traditions they portray. I saw the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mryIfuVej2k from Cameron. It is very similar to jab jab mas’culture. Therefore, I come to the conclusion that our jab jab mas’ culture definitely has its origins in West Africa and it as remain as it is , on the street of Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique during our carnival celebration. There is nothing else that can change in the jab jab culture because it is historical.

In addition, in my research, I came to realise that Africans on Cape Verde Islands carnival and their version of masquerade is very similar to Grenada jab jab. This video of Cape Verde Carnival. For example, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hD3DCNluLBI&feature=youtu.bethis tells it all.

Additionally, I was in Grenada for the entire year 2007 and I used to travel from my village Hermitage and go to Sauteurs town, which is about four miles inside the northern parish, St. Patrick, on a regular basis. I travelled to just go sit down on the incomplete jetty and look at the activities on the sea water, where the fishermen anchor their boats. The environment on the jetty was peaceful and the breeze coming from the sea was an enjoyment to me.

Most of the time I visited the jetty, there was an elderly man from Prospect village, who used to come on the jetty to catch fish as a form of recreation. One day the elderly man told me some stories about jab jab culture and how Grenadian drummers made a fusion from different style of drumming during nation dance celebrations to create a new version of jab jab music that we enjoy today. Based on the story he told me, it is evidential proof of the fusion of jab jab music.

As a matter of fact the elderly man told me he is a Spiritual Baptists priest. He told me that some of the biggest nation dance festivals used to take place on Isle de Ronde, which is a small island outside Sauteurs town, where people do farming and fishing for their livelihood.

The reason why I wrote this article is make Grenadians aware that we must not divert from our culture and follow what is popular in the other Caribbean countries that have bigger populations than us. We must preserve our culture.

The roots of jab jab culture in the rural communities is very important as the La Fillette jab jab band portrays. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuo11F51UOk

However, I end this article with this video of jab jab masqueraders dancing street theatre during the carnival. Indeed, they beat traditional jab jab drum that can move the soul of Grenadians. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzEXNbqWV3c And I know they are the Tivoli Drummers moving the biggest jab jab band in St. George’s. Therefore, it is very important to keep the jab jab culture deep in the roots that lies in West Africa.

So, let us continue to play a wicked jab, Tallpree https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0bg1Mgxbjk

By Hudson George

It is becoming blatantly clear that organised religions are prejudice against us black people in third world countries where the majority of the population. For example in Grenada priests and pastors of Christian churches are behaving as though they are government elected the people.

Due to the fact that our ancestors dehumanized, enslaved and forced to accept Christianity by the French and British colonisers, the various Christian denominations think that they still have authority over our lives as citizens of this beautiful tri island state of Grenada.

Just recently a Roman Catholic priest and a local pastor of another Christian church criticised carnival celebrations and soca music as vulgar and agents of sinful deviant behaviours in society.

The local pastor goes as far as assuming that particular types of sexy costumes female masqueraders are wearing in the street parade and on stage, are encouraging rape in society.

Now I don’t know or even understand how the pastor could make such a bold wide sweeping generalisation linking carnival to rape. I can only assume that the pastor has lost connection with his own race, although he is a black Grenada. However, as for the Roman Catholic priest I can forgive him for his ignorance about black people spirituality because he is a European.

Basically, I can speak from life experience living most my life than I lived in Grenada and what I observe different between the two countries social and political cultures.

For example, Canadian government accept and protect different groups of people in terms of subculture groups rights. Church and state are separate and religious leaders have no rights to influence the government.

Just recently on January 12, 2020 Canadian who are living in big cities with underground subway transportation system celebrated “No Pants Subway Ride Day”, whereby commenters had the freedom to ride the trains without pants, so some passengers had the privilege and choice to wear only their underpants and panties.

In addition, every year there one day in the month of May, when Canadians celebrate a similar event called “No Pants Day” and some people chose to walk around going about their business without wearing pants.
I remember the first time I saw the “No Pant Day” in month in May I was shocked. I saw some young white women walking the streets wearing panties with full confidence.

So my question is: Why these Christian preachers only seem to be pretending that they care so much about the afterlife for black people but them never one day critcise deviant behaviours happening in the highly developed countries where white people are the majority?

If they are claiming that Grenada supposed to be a Christian country, therefore the only legal Christian religion in Grenada is the Anglican Church organisation because the Queen of England is the official Head of Grenada.

And I am positively sure that Queen Elizabeth is not a hater of Nothing Hill Carnival were soca music dominates the carnival parade as young beautiful British female masqueraders whine, grind, ramajay and dingolay to the sweet rhythm of soca music.

I am still wonder why they want to control our everyday living existence but they are not advocating for us the African children of slaves to be compensated for slavery.

By Hudson George

After the destruction of Isle Of Spice in 1955 by Hurricane Janet, the Janet house(s) became a popular building structure in the Tri Island State of Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique. The house got its name “Janet House” because of the time it was built and the purpose it was built for. It was built to shelter homeless people, who lost their original homes during the hurricane disaster. According to what my father told me about the Janet- House, is that the lumber that was used to build the houses came from Surinam, (Dutch Guiana), South America. During that period of Grenada’s history, the late popular leader Sir Eric Gairy was the leader of the country. Although Gairy political strength and power came from the working class, there was some bourgeoisie in the GULP
party, who had some power and influence. These upper class GULP were corrupted, so they gave some of the houses to their friends and family, while the people who needed shelter the most were deprived. (Grenada always has this class problem)

The Janet house was an open “cepulka”. Everything in one; as Grenadians would say: ” All in one” A sort of ‘Jupa’ kind of house. After the houses were built , people had a problem living in them, because the wood or board had an unpleasant odor…A stink smell. A Grenadian comrade told me that some people were not able to get a Janet-House because they were living on the estate property and the estate owners did not want them to build wall pillars on their lands. (A Janet-House was built on four concrete pillars pined to foundation running board) For example, in Hermitage, I can remember there was some Janet-Houses, but people who had middle class houses and middle class life style owned the majority of them. Some of these people were descendants of the plantocrats. So they were using the Janet-House as a “Bucan” to store their agriculture products, such as nutmeg, mace, cinnamon and clove. (Hermitage has lots of spices)

My father also told me that these plantocrat people were the middle class GULP who took these ‘Janet Houses’, although they were not homeless. Therefore, they robed the victims of the hurricane. He also told me that Sir Eric Gairy promised the people better houses with room and hall separated, by saying: ” I will give you houses with privacy so that the children won’t see what daddy and mommy doing in the night” However, Sir Eric Gairy never fulfilled his promise. In spite of all those political and social problems in relation to the Janet-House, the building becomes part of our history. People used to say that the Janet-House is very strong, but anytime you break it and rebuild it somewhere else, it never looks the same again. (visible spaces usually appear between the groove and tongue of the board and reflection of the bedroom lights become visible at night)

There is also cultural history tied to the Janet-House. For example, one of the baddest Shortknee mas band in Grenada (In the Mt Fendue-Mt Rich area in St Patrick) was called Janet. The brothers were tough. Real Bajohn! They had their belly. “Janet Shortknee” had warriors such as Vance Best and Dandoray. Vance was the fastest razor man Grenada ever had. Before you say: “Jack Robinson” Vance would give you about fifty razor cuts. The reason why the band was called Janet, is because one of the bajhon inherited a Janet-House from his fore-parents and all the ‘bajohn’ used to congregate in that Janet-house as a community centre. They used to cook people fowl, make fish broth and tannia log in the house. So they called their Shortknee band “Janet”. Those days, for a young man to play Shortknee with “Janet band”, he had to be a criminal. His resume must be a prison sentence or the prerequisite.

As a young boy growing up in Hermitage, St. Patrick, I remember when Janet Shortknee took over the Hermitage police station and beat up the police. Vance cut a policeman’s belt with his razor. If the police were not wearing his thick belt, the razor would have cut his belly. That was the first time I saw civilian with so much guns. (This is why I believe the Shortknee spirit played a part in the Grenada revolution) Janet Shortknee waved their guns and feloto in the air and sing the song: “Six O’ Clock gone already, Rose Hill mas dam had to come. If Ah did know was so, any dam thing could of happen.” Those days Janet and Rose Hill had the baddest Shortknee mas in Grenada. (Most of Janet Shortknee members were from Mt Rich Village. But there were rumours that Rose Hill Shortknee had stole some dynamite on the construction site in Bathway, where the Canadians were building houses. Plus they had guns too and they were taller. So the Janet-House is really part of our history. Although its real purposes were to shelter the homeless, the bourgeoisie and Shortknee used it as bucan and community centre. Even today, our young men are still using the Janet-House as a place to socialised, sleep and ‘snick’ in their girl-friends at night when their parents are sleeping in the family house.

There is also stories about how the Janet-House was a good habitat for bed bugs. Most Grenadians who lived in Janet-Houses prior to the hurricane would tell stories about bed bug hiding in the crevice of the board. When night comes and they turned of the kerosene light, those bed bug used to come out. During their sleep, those bed-bug used to bite them and drink their blood like vampire. They say when children peeing in bed, the bed bug used to be more vicious and numerous.
Those days people used to sing a song: “Bug O Bug O, Bug O in the island”

(C) 2001

By Hudson George

 

You standing at the top of the mountain

Watching the water as it flows through the fountain

You feeling the breeze coming from the sea

And shaking the leaves of the trees

 

You watching the river running down the valley

You see the village

You hate civilisation

You hate society

 

You dressed like the first human beings

You admire creation

You consider society as corruption

 

You standing at the top of the mountain

Looking towards society with pity

Saying it should not be a world of selfishness and vanity

Not knowing you are selfish too

You running away from the struggle which is life

 

You standing at the top of the mountain

Looking at life, the world uncertain

You don’t want to struggle any longer

You think tomorrow it will be all over

But you don’t know the fountain is a positive water

It springs life which is normal

(C) 1988

 

 

 

 

 

By Hudson George

 

Grenada carnival has multiply events of  bacchanal affiliated with politics and and cultural activities. The street celebration festival is no more an event of entertainment for people who only come out on the street, to dance to the music and have fun in a celebration atmosphere.

It is nothing like five decades ago, when the two days of the street festival was a time when food and drinks were almost free and the government and other interest groups were not involved in the activities of the celebration for political and financial gains. Carnival was just the people celebration with no strings attached.

Today’s carnival events is corrupted with all kinds of opportunists looking to gain something personal from the celebration.  It is no longer a community-based event with villagers participating in activities within their individual villages. Masqueraders are now attracted to big money prizes to participate in events at the national stadium in the capital city St Georges.

Now we have Spice Mas’ Corporation (SMC) which is the governing body of the celebration.  The SMC is not an independent body free from politics and it does not matter which political party that is in power governing the country, the SMC will be driven by political values of the ruling party and their friendly interest groups.

Then again we have a fast-growing tourism industry with an increase in numbers of large luxurious hotels recently constructed in the southern parts of the island. These hotel owners have an interest in the carnival celebration events, due to the high volume of visitors coming to the country for the festival. Their sole interest is to make money from the celebration by providing top class accommodation for the visitors at the highest at most secured standard.

In addition, for the past two decades or so, calypsonians and soca artists are involved in the political bacchanal of carnival due to tribal politics.  Presently, there are two different active calypso associations that are led by some influential calypsonians with opposite political interest. Therefore, the calypso fraternity is divided and politicians are ones who are benefiting from the divides.

It is speculated that the two different calypso associations are aligned to the two major opposing political parties. So, presently calypsonians are openly involved in party politics and those calypsonians who sing negative songs about the government are not likeable by the government supporters, while the opposing party supporters show them love and application. And if the there is a new government take control of state power in the next general election, the conflict will continue. Nothing much will change because of the mindset of the people

In terms of persons selected as judges to judge the various competitions such as soca monarch, groovy soca monarch, calypso monarch and queen show contests, it is speculated that most of the time, the judges make bias decisions based on their individual political affiliations and liking for some contestants.

The only good thing I see happening in the pre-carnival events is that, villagers are given the privilege and opportunity to practice mas’ on the streets in the rural community villages, as it used to be traditionally many years ago before some religious converts and a new bourgeois class became anti carnival, by complaining about noise pollution.

Furthermore, even though our local jab jab music artists are making new waves on the international entertainment market, there are some critics who are still opposed to the indigenous genre of music. And whenever they are asked for another alternative, they cannot explain what they are complaining about because they are just addicted to opposing things that are popular.

Anyway, t is expected that this year carnival celebration will be bigger than in previous years. And it is expected that some of the critics will attend the J’ouvert mas’ parade in the various parishes just to find fault and excuses fault to criticise.