Boy I gine tell ya the truth: if ya ain’t strong,ya ain’t gine be able tuh neither live through nor survive these times.
Ya see, these aresome very serious times we living in right now and if ya doan have something or someone strong, sure and truetuh hold on tuh, I ain’t know how ya gine make it from one day tuhthe next.
The type o’ workI do every day doesbring me in contactwid, as they say, the ordinary man in the street; meaning, all types o’ people and from all walk o’ life and it doesbe interesting listening tuh some o’ the conversations and arguments at times.
Some people does got some very strong views pon certain issues and does get real riled up when ya mash duh corns. Some o’ the conversations or discussions does be similar tuh the ones leading up tuh the last elections.
Only this time a loto’ people who used tuh jump up, carry on anddo the dog when ya start talking ’bout certain politicians or the party dat dem supporting, ain’t suh vocal nowadays because the word on the street is dat if ya knowya put certain people in Parliament fuh another five years and duh ain’t doing or saying a pang,ya should keep quiet and walk away wid-out letting anybody know who ya really vote for.
Look, you see dahword confuse? Dat isone o’ the words pon the street. Today I hear a man say dat people areso confused now, and some o’ dem doan know duh heads from duh tails so duh just dropping down dead. Uh meanit is a little insensitive tuh say but when ya look at it in reality, people like duh just deciding tuh stop living.
I doan mean tuh be negative, aw’right? But this is reality, this is the truth! Look, anotherword pon the street is madness: some people like duh gine mad as France. All kinds o’ weird things happening and fast too. Now look at this: starting from Sunday, ya hear dat there was a family dispute and a man get chop up in St Peter. Monday a man went fuh a walk, duh say dat he ain’t had nuh kind o’ complaints or nothing so, but he just drop down dead. On Tuesday, some man try tuh snatch a woman chain from round she neck in broad daylight at a bus stop.
It look tuh me dat this was a week of high drama ’cause Wednesday, a man get stab up and dead trying tuh part a fight. Nuhbody like duh ain’t know how nor why the man get stab up ’cause he like he wasn’t in the fight but he dead.
The same day a man get shoot and he chain get carried away and the same night another man get kill when somebody burst in he house and kill he and then another man who duh say nothing was wrong wid just drop down and dead out there by the Cheapside market. Ya understand wha’ I mean?
Another word pon the street is greed. When ya listen tuh some o’ the things ya hear people saying nowadays ya does have tuh wonder where the values and morals gone. Some people like duh just ain’t care who duh hurt, who backs duh step pon tuh get by or what they have to do in order tuh get up dah ladder, hear? Some people losing duh values, duh principles, duh seem tuh be getting greedierthan evah.
You think I making sport? In the workplace duh cutting one another throats tuh get by or the people at the top doing evah thing in duh power tuh keep you in ya place ’cause dem in the driver’s seat, dem can’t be moved. But duh lie; the twin towers in the States come down in one morning, carrying ’long real nuff people wid um.
Now I ain’t want tuh be political but I live here. My nable string buried right here in this sweet country, so the things dat going on or not going on wid this Government got me, like a lot o’ other people, offset. The word pon the street is dat people want answers; duh ain’t know wha’ gine on. It look tuh dem like the big sleeping giant who wake up wida mighty roar during the last elections like hegone long back tuhsleep again.
Duh cahn seem tuh understand how dem was hearing all the time dat things was going great guns and things was going tuh be rosy and cool and now all of a sudden, we in trouble,we in real serious debt, we in the red, we outtuh all, we ball-uh pop.
All this sort o’ thingso got people reelingand the Standard & Poor’s people down-grade Barbados before tuhjunk now it look likefrom the way how things going, it is only a matter o’ time before dem dung we even further, far less grade we.
But duh got twomore words pon the street: pray and believe ’cause God is still in control, talk wha’ya like.
• Mavis Beckles was born and raised in The Orleans. She has an opinion on everything.
