In one of my trips to Jamaica, I got me an amusing booklet purporting to help you understand Jamaican.

It’s not that I need to get me a dictionary to help me converse with anyone of our brethren and sistren from the Caribbean.

I have no problem understanding Jamaicans, Barbadians, Trinis and people from the small islands.

Put me among a group of fine Caribbean people and I’ll be able to talk and get on well with them, when it matters.

I don’t need a dictionary for the English-speaking Caribbean because when it comes to talking and getting along, I am like Georgie in that Bob Marley song who “would make the fire light, as it was love was burning through the night.”

No woman, no cry – I have no problem understanding the sistren and brethren from the Caribbean (although one has to be always careful with those really guttural Barbadians who can sometimes have you straining your ears to understand what they are saying.)

So, it was not a problem of comprehension that led me to grab that booklet on understanding Jamaican.

I saw it, I liked it and I had to get it. That’s just me.

Several years ago, a lecturer in Communications and Effective Speaking had predicted to my class that it would not have been long before curse words (u know those #%@***&%%# words) become accepted in everyday conversation.

He was so right, because it was not long after that those (expletives deleted) were being used left, right and centre, in movies and in novels and even in dictionaries.

My lecturer rightly reasoned that there are no better words than curse words that could best vent one’s feelings.

Man, was he soooooo right!

Imagine being polite and telling someone who offends you simply, “I am upset with you” as against “You tek you raas and pass me” or something even stronger. U know what I mean.

We Guyanese have our very effective terms to tell people just how we feel when we feel offended.

Just stand back and listen to a good busing session between two neighbours, or others who fall out, and tell me if I am not right.

I love our Guyanese vernacular and wouldn’t trade it for the world.

But, the Caribbean man that I am, I like to go regional at times and spread the love, making sweet music with words as I go with the flow.

So it is with me and that booklet on understanding Jamaican. I keep it handy because I find Jamaican very apt to describe some situations when the vernacular of other places would not do.

And raas to rhaatid is what I found fitting to describe the freaking mess that’s being tossed around in this country of ours.

I just couldn’t believe it.

Power for the street lights in Georgetown may soon be cut off because the City Council owes Guyana Power & Light (GPL) $243M!

That was the word from Mayor Hamilton Green last week when he announced that the Bourda Market Constabulary Outpost and the Constabulary Training Complex had already been darkened since November 21.

He said those places have since been forced to use generators and current to the Municipal Abattoir and South Road Day Care Centre was also cut off Friday.

Mayor Green said next on the list to be discontinued is street lighting.

Yeah, right!
Raas to rhaatid!
Traffic lights not working for years, and now the city may be in darkness because City Hall cannot pay its light bills!

Raas to rhaatid!
GPL cuts off lights to poor citizens who dare to fall behind for a couple of months and the City Council runs up a bill of $243M and the Mayor is pouting! Raas to rhaatid!
And what’s even more overbearing is the finger-pointing. “It wasn’t me!” Raas to rhaatid!
Mr Green blamed the looming “potential crisis”, which would adversely affect citizens and workers, on the council’s narrow revenue base, the attitude of the Government and a “stubborn” City Hall administration.

Yeah right!
Raas to rhaatid!
Oh, Most High, when will this foolishness in this city end and righteousness prevail?

If u find a term better than my Jamaican to describe the s..t that’s being heaped on us, email me at khan@guyana.net.gy but be careful because my spam guard would not accept those choice curse words u may have in mind.