A Conversation

I present to you snippets of a conversation I heard a Lower Class citizen (yes it is necessary for me to classify her this way) telling a Middle Class citizen. That I was in hearing space did not stop her from expressing herself.

LC: ‘Mi waa yu come roun’ where mi live. Yeah man mi waa yu fi meet mi fren. (Chuckles) wen she si yu she a go come to yu an’ seh: beg yu a something fi a spliff?’

MC: I don’t think I would want to meet her.

LC: (Laughs) Yu fi come man. Yu know how many times mi jus sit outside a look out fi one a unno walk by so mi can seh hi. But a only di ambulance mi si an him only wave, im no stop.

MC: But, don’t you live near KPH – I wouldn’t stop there either.

LC: (Laughs) Where mi live now use to be Ms. X house. She a PNP so wi run har out an’ tek har house. Di room whe mi deh use fi bi fihar bedroom. Yeah man.

MC: But isn’t it a PNP area?

LC: Yeah, but when man like Y come true everybody haffi run.

MC: So, you run to? – Big woman like yu?

LC: Yeah, wen ‘im com true im will all kick down yu door and beat and kick yu up.

MC: An’ a deh so yu waa invite mi fi come?

LC: Yeah man, a per excitement. Yu know seh one girl di go a country an she did well bored. She seh she miss di excitement when di bwoy dem run true di place and fiyah shot an everybody a run an scream an drop a groun. No man she did well sick, belly pain and pap down. She couldn’t tek di quiet country, so she gwaan back a town.

MC: So a so she need some excitement? She don’t work?

LC: No sah.

MC and Me: Dats why.

MC: So dat is fun?

LC: Ehe. Listen man. All wen police come roun. Di young gyal dem jus go wine up in fron a dem or pan dem wid dem short skirt and tight blouse. (Laughs) Yeah man, dem jus go wine pan dem. Or dem fling stone affa dem car and van. (Laughs)

MC: So big woman like yu do dat to?

LC: No man, di young gyal dem. A nuff excitement. Yu need fi come com visit my ends.

So where do I start to dissect this?

1. This just showed up for me in glaring colours the realities of how far apart different socioeconomic groups are from each other. For me, inviting someone to my house is not a trivial thing. I think of the people in my household, I think of the state of the house and the surrounding area definitely comes into thought. You just don’t invite people (MC was just a casual acquaintance) to your house. Furthermore, on more than one occasion MC refused the invite. This left LC unfazed – she was not the least bit insulted. Bway, mi no know, but inviting someone into a potentially dangerous situation is not my idea of a friendly thing.

2. And I have to ask: do you sit down and look out your window expecting people from your place of work to walk by so that you can have them say : ‘Hi Z’, so that everyone else around you can know that you are known? My brain is not wrapping around this.

3. Her very vocal talk of running out a lady out of her own house shows a wanton disregard for anything that anyone owns. It doesn’t matter that the house is not her own and that the lady was actually in it at the time of capture. And we want to be logical with these people? How can we? Clearly, they will have no problem stealing your wallet, car or life.

4. We all know that the devil finds work for idle hands. But that girl who could not enjoy the quiet of country is hilarious. Actual, physical, torment because she couldn’t hear the gun shots that used to send her running to preserve her life?!

5. Gyrating on police officers? Throwing stones at their vehicles for the fun of it. I maintain that only a saint can tolerate anything. This is why I still take with a grain of salt some reports of police brutality.

6. And while policeman and woman is ‘Babylon’, there is a slight respect and admiration for the local don who will come and tear of door and kick up pickney and woman.

How can anyone think that we can solve problems in our society with a few programmes and peace walks and talking ad nauseum on these numerous talk shows? We need a long term structural, spiritual and developmental revolution for this. We cannot expect that in a few years this will be over. And we have to stop sopping up the water and ignoring the gaping hole in the dam. How do you change the minds of the people who willingly announce that they are ‘ignant’. How do you change the mind?

And what does the rest of the nation do? Build more gated communities. Hire security guards to follow you around. Lock yourself in your house trying to keep others out.

We are a nation in trouble. (But you knew that, right?)