Vibes And Pressure

Greetings everyone. Well here on the Vibes and Pressure blog we are seeing many changes in and around our world, which will affect our personal, political and economical lives. In the UK, a new coalition government is the order, with some saying it’s a match made in heaven, others saying it’s a match made in Thatcherism…. Hell in other words. It says a lot about the Labour party that a union between their sworn enemies (the Tories) and their sometimes allies (LibDems) is a better alternative than the party whose mandate has always been about the people. No one I’ve spoken to seems very enamoured by this union, but most seemed sure they wanted a change. I’m not too sure if the right choice has been made. Personally, I felt more bickering and uncertainty with government, would’ve been better for the country. That way, a new election would have to be called and people would have to make a more definite choice. Maybe we should all vote Green next time, and give a real shock to the system, because it’s the same usual suspects, preaching the same usual nonsense, and doing the same usual crap!

Then there’s the trouble in Greece. Civil unrest due to a feeble economy that is being propped up by other European nations, themselves in great debt. Constant demonstrations on the streets of Athens, with people’s anger being violently directed toward the government and the financial institutions. Europe itself doesn’t look too healthy on the whole. The Germans are in debt, the French aren’t great financially, and the Spanish could be even worse. The UK has a bigger deficit than Greece but apparently the UK is in a better position to manage its debt. Nonetheless the new government will be making some ‘generous’ cuts, mainly from schemes and projects intended for society. It feels like there could be civil unrest in quite a few places across Europe over the next few years, with mounting debts and society having to pay the price for inadequate, inept or nepotistic leadrship.

Coalition government seems to be the order of the day. My home country, Trinidad & Tobago, has just elected a coalition government and in the process it’s first female Prime Minister. Whether there will be real change is another matter. What is certain is that the level of cronyism and schism within the former ruling party was getting out of hand. Add to that an upward trend in poverty and crime in a country that is by far the richest in the Caribbean with regard to GDP, and you have to ask ‘What de hell was really going on?’. Hopefully a woman’s touch might get some of these things right.
Speaking of a woman’s touch, what about Mother Nature, eh? She’s been in the headlines these last few months, firstly inflicting a lot of damage and pain upon Haiti, and recently her erupting volcano in Iceland, spraying ash through international airspace that left many people stranded and also left many airlines upset at having to cut their losses. Mother is trying to tell us something. Are we listening?

Been listening to Erykah Badu’s new album, New Amerykah: The Return of the Ankh. Brilliant! I haven’t stopped listening to it since I bought it last month. For me she is the female artist of her generation, the embodiment of soul. Look out for tracks ‘Get Munny’ and ‘Window Seat’, whose controversial video, filmed close to the site where JFK was shot, has given the album the best publicity it could’ve ever had!! Other than Erykah, I’ve rekindled a liking for Brazilian reggae band Natiruts, formerly known as Nativus. Check out songs ‘Beija Flor’ and ‘Deixa O Menino Jogar’. Brilliant music, and some serious lyrics too! You can find the lyrics and translations online, if you feel like singing along or just to know what they’re saying.
So that’s it from me for now. I’ll leave you with a quote from the Honourable Dr. Martin Luther King Jr – "I submit to you that if a man hasn't found something he would die for, he isn't fit to live…"

Love, Light & Peace

John Blood

So I’m sitting here thinking what I shd write 4 this blog abt Vibes and Pressure. My overstanding brings me 2 a place of turmoil. What do the masses wanna hear?

Do they wanna drink and smoke their pressures away, whist vibing on the irony of their discontent? Shd I tell them that it’s all good? Let the polytricksters and beaurocheats play their games whilst we tune in 2 music, the true heartbeat of the people? Now I’m thinking abt something I an’ I heard yesterday, abt how the yout’ dem a gwaan like beast, how “daggering” is the norm in a bashment dance, how the young r so ready 2 stay that way that they kill each other rather than move up and take their place eventually as older heads. We used 2 worry abt babies having babies, now babies r killing babies.. just 2 get a rep.. (peace out 2 Gifted Unlimited Rhymes Universal)

Now, while my 1st urge is 2 tell them 2 fix the phuc up, my overstanding tells me that it’s mayb not so simple. The polytricksters use the opium of the nation 2 tell us that we r out of control, that more “punitive measures” must be enforced, that we need more skisms of control 2 protect them – and us – from us. Now I an’ I know some of u r reading this and saying “ Corrd, wtf? Why u saying “us”? Is the yout’ dem, we just vibes out, smoke a likkle sumpt’n, hit a likkle henny, an’ watch the madness.. is the yout dem u must talk 2!”

But c.. I disagree. Rastafari (not tryna preach, just showing u a vibes, no pressure) has a fundamental principle, I and I. Me and mine. And, if mine is in turmoil and war, how can that make me ok? Dietrich Bonhoeffer said "The test of the morality of a society is what it does for its children", and we sit and watch the madness unfold, shaking heads and kissing our teeth. Not that the polytricksters r right. While they try 2 scare u into making the world a safer place, the truth is that, 4 the poor, 4 the disenfranchised, 4 the masses, this economic slavery in which we exist downpresses the expression of this plight with the post modern mores applied through the media. So we feel the angst, the fury, the hopelessness, yet everything around us tells us we have no business even thinking such thoughts. But even a negative vibe must exert pressure. So the yout’ dem rampage and older heads run to the embrace of southern comfort, all the while supporting the skism with consumption.

My general, the Hindu in the Cave, 1ce told me “bruv, sometimes just being smart ain’t enough”. As outer perception turns 2 inner penetration the question is this…… by being a good man, by exercising good citizenry, how have I an’ I helped me and mine? I haven’t. So by this logic, is being a good citizen the same as supporting this skism? That question in itself is conflict.
I look over at the opium box and the man I can c tells me 2 vote 4 him, while some other man’s voice is telling me (objectively, of course, no impropriety in Aunty’s House) that the 1st man probably won’t get my vote…. U muthaphuccing right!!

The truth ( check me back a next time so we can reason more abt “truth”) of the matter is that while our morality is tested by our childcare, our success, the true measure of our worth is reflected in what we do 4 the least of us, the most vunerable of us, the disempowered. When I an’ I stands and marvels at our accomplishments, where r the monuments 2 the disenfranchised? Scorn is the acceptable expression of belonging, and sarcasm is the benchmark of our humour. Who wld want 2 sit amongst the trash any way? Funny that, cos Bob did, yet now he’s used as an icon for cosmopolitanism. Phuccing hilarious…..

The conflict is this. The success of good citizenry is speaking 4 the voiceless, I an’ I included. Yet all this exists within the skizm, which must b maintained, and is not the good citizen the building block of society? I look back at the opium box, I hear a whole bag of blah. We need other voices, unheard voices, untold stories. Mayb, instead of telling the yout’ dem abt themselves, mayb we shd fix the phuc up and listen. What the polytricksters and beaurocheats will never tell I an’ I is that the truly good citizen will stand up and defend his brothers and sisters, will stand beside his troopers and troopettes, and won’t abide by any skism that downpresses the defenseless in order 2 maintain the veneer of civility.

"Of all the preposterous assumptions of humanity, nothing exceeds the criticisms made of the habits of the poor by the well-housed, well-warmed, and well-fed." Herman Melville

Mayb this isn’t what the masses wanna hear after all…..

p.l.h.o.

Corrd the Seeker