ISSN 2562-9948
Of course, it’s Monday Morning Madness again, and on this blog when “we” (readers, correspondents, myself) are not laying intellectualized explosive devices on the highway of imperialized knowledge, we’re wining! This is probably the fourth time that wining has been the subject of a post, and this time it comes thanks to a German comedian, […]
Read More…My comrade Guanaguanare has published a different take on “The Mongoose.” Naipaul has been a deeply problematic figure in Trinidadian cultural politics, loved and reviled, admired and scorned. I had the pleasure of seeing him speak in Port of Spain, in 1991 I believe, in the company of friends from the University of the West […]
Read More…“It’s going to be nasty,” Derek Walcott said, prefacing his war on V. S. Naipaul with a warning. “The Mongoose” was the last of Walcott’s new poems at the Calabash Literary Festival in Jamaica last weekend [May 2008]. He’d wondered whether he ought to read it, Walcott said, “and then I figured if I don’t […]
Read More…Another episode of “Monday Morning Madness” — and given all of the posts that dealt with Trinidadian “wining” (here, there, and over there), I felt it necessary to introduce some sense of balance, a sense of decorum, of good old fashioned propriety. I want to first send my big thanks and a big hug to […]
Read More…True scientific knowledge, on the contrary, demands abandonment to the very life of the object — G.W.F. Hegel, Preface, The Phenomenology of Mind Discourse of all kind is heavily embedded with speech that has previously occurred, typically in the form of the first person direct quotation. — Joel Sherzer, quoted in Michael Taussig (1993, p. […]
Read More…Following up on the last post that featured wining, a Trinidadian blogger in the UK, Sheree Mack, who authors the Every Day Creativity blog, has posted two items on wining. One is a simple poem, akin to a soca road march at Carnival time, and with some key lyrics that coincidentally will reappear in my […]
Read More…Did my post here bring forth this reality? There I was, a mere 13 days ago, talking about my Bachchan conversion experience in Trinidad, and now I read that he landed in Trinidad last night (Saturday, July 19, 2008), in the company of 150 performers for his Unforgettable Tour … which began where? Next door […]
Read More…Putting some red herrings to rest, in a pan with hot oil Re-reading some of David Price’s online articles about the militarization of social science research has been rewarding for the important insights and questions he raises (see Counterpunch 2005/05/12, 2005/05/22, 2008/06/24). Anyone who doubts that there is a “national security state” at work in […]
Read More…News of a link, kindly sent to me by a commenter, relating to a previous post here on Caribbean responses to events in Zimbabwe. I have forgotten to link to the overall site before, http://www.raceandhistory.com, a Trinidadian umbrella for a mass of websites, and certainly one of the best developed websites in Trinidad, in terms […]
Read More…Aside from being an installment of “Monday Morning Madness,” I need this video as background for at least two coming posts, especially for readers unfamiliar with Trinidadian or Indo-Caribbean cultures, with their dances, and some of the terminology that is used. This post follows the previous (Video) Notes from the Indian Diaspora. This video, featuring […]
Read More…I have to begin by thanking Guanaguanare, one of the Trinidadian bloggers I admire most, for having already done such an excellent job discussing the popular Trinidadian music video below, Sumintra. I will distill some of those notes and add a few comments and sources of my own. So, yes, this is a “derivative” work […]
Read More…I found my captor and tormentor! I found my captor and tormentor who subjected me to an afternoon of torture, appearing in noisy, nauseating technicolour dreams for long afterwards, until I learned to love him and all those like him. I am referring not only to the supreme Amitabh Bachchan (see this biography as well), […]
Read More…This week’s installment of “Monday Morning Madness” (missed last week’s I am afraid, as the real madness of an imperial anthropologist seemed much more entertaining). You won’t be seeing Trinidadian artist Ataklan walking naked in this video, not literally anyway. One of Ataklan’s messages in this interesting video, which takes us with him from a […]
Read More…Monday Morning Madness Trinidad & Tobago’s Ataklan urges optimism in the face of despair. Ataklan has gone through a real transformation over the years, acquiring a new music style and producing some of the more interesting contemporary songs and videos. I envy these videos for the beautiful filming of Trinidadian villages, countryside, street scenes, and […]
Read More…Monday Morning Madness, the sixth installment — and not that much madness today in fact…some sobriety for a change. I love this video, featuring Ras Shorty I and The Love Circle, one of the most serene modern calypsos ever composed, and a gorgeous video that shows the beauty of Trinidad’s landscape and its children (and […]
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ZERO ANTHROPOLOGY 