Ever since the Ferguson fiasco I have been both annoyed and disappointed, yet somewhat encouraged by the protests. You see, Thomas Jefferson (who finally admitted to being a Christian) once said "Dissent is both the right and the duty of every American citizen". But I am saddened by the fact that it takes murder and wrongful deaths to get people's attention - enough of it at least to cause outrage, no matter how fleeting and temporary.
We are supposed to be "The Christian Nation" yet we tolerate so many unChristian acts from our government it makes me wonder if we have become "CWCs" Christians Without Consciences for the sake of our own convenience, or have we just failed our children and become a classic case of boiling frogs? On a daily basis we are accepting the unacceptable as...
Politics
Dear Damion
I write to you as a fellow Jamaican. I could show you my passport to prove my Jamaicanness, but I do not know if you would accept that as credential enough. Most people, however, accept me as a Jamaican writer and academic. My 9 books to date have consistently thought through the complicated question of what it means to be Jamaican.
It is by no means an easy question to answer. Most of my work tries to expand the dangerously limiting ideas that are out there. At the University of Glasgow where I taught until recently, my students were mostly white and from the UK. They sometimes came to my lectures on Caribbean Literature with very naive ideas about the region. Sometimes they thought that we all looked like you and me – dreadlocked men – and that we were always smiling...
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Dear Mr Trump:
You have entered the political arena in much the same fashion as a Brahma Bull would traverse a china shop. There certainly has been a great deal of noise and clamor. You certainly have a knack of expressing exactly what a very downtrodden, voting public seems to want to hear, and expressing it at the top of your lungs. There are those of us who never voted for the current administration, and have braced for, and received the worst of one of the greatest economic recessions in history. Hope and change have totally passed us over for underemployment and unaffordable health care because we can't afford both the insurance and the health care. Transparency in government is actually an exercise in diversion, smoke and mirrors. We are constantly being told what to concern...
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Dear Donald Trump,
I am a nobody. A single father who has delivered mediocre sex to a spectrum of women. Some you'd marry and some you'd (no doubt) call a fat pig or something close. Your words. Not mine. Ever.
Sorry to start with the perspective of my sex life. It's as gross and irrelevant as your opinions on immigration, but I'm doing it to make a bridge to your sex life, or at least, how you see women and America.
You've done some outstanding things in your life. A lot of them, actually. You work hard. You're smart, shrewd and ruthless. We can argue all day as to whether or not you're teed up to do better than others because of certain societal constructs, but I won't do that. Let's give credit, where credits due: You're good at what you do (at least partially) because you...
3,101
Dear Governor Kasich and Ohio Legislators,
Test Stress
When I heard the news last week, my first instinct was to raise my fist in the air and yell "YESSSS!" You listened to the very public outcry from teachers and parents, and you got rid of the PARCC.
Then I began to think about the weeks of my life I spent training to prepare my students for the test. The summer days I missed being with my own daughter because I was in a workshop learning how the PARCC was structured. The days I missed teaching my students because I was taking the practice test myself with my colleagues, so we would know what we were preparing our kids to do. The time on my own that I spent revising my lesson plans and my assessments to mimic the PARCC style so that my students would be familiar with the format...
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First things first ...
YOU SUCK AT YOUR JOB
Since we Indians have no option but to elect from two solidly screwed-up political parties, every five years we sway from opting to either burn ourselves in hot oil or jump off the cliff.
Well, if you are an Indian you can pick the party that best represents this.
Let's look at the amount of stupid bans that have been imposed in recent months.
Beef ban – a democracy that decides what its citizen can eat and cannot eat.
Porn ban – the land of Kamasutra and second most populated country.
Irony has always been second nature to this country.
Let's not forget the godmen and spiritual leaders that are under the scanner for everything that's wrong, from being accused of rapes, indecent public behavior to deceiving people to...
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Dear Mr Abbott,
I am writing to you after just finishing a gruelling 12 hour night shift. I am tired, my eyes are sore, my head aches, and my body feels sweaty and dirty.
I am an Intensive Care Nurse, and last night I spent many hours resuscitating someone's baby. My amazing team and I just saved a life. And in some way - perhaps from providing that glimmer of hope during one of their darkest hours, we have saved the lives of the child's parents now as well.
You, and the Australian public need me. In fact you need my whole team. We are a group of highly trained and highly skilled individuals, who stayed awake all night - while the rest of the country slept in their nice warm beds. We left our husbands, wives, and our own children to go and care for the lives of strangers. We do...
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Dear Minister Hood,
Re: Broadcast of carnival events
I write to bring to your attention what I would regard as a disservice to the people of Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique.
For several years some radio stations in Grenada collaborated to cover carnival activities, in particular the semifinal and final rounds.
This year (2014) radio stations were cut off from doing so due to a “backdoor deal“ between the Spicemas Corporation (SMC) and another radio station.
To date I do not know of any radio station that was formally contacted by the SMC inviting them to participate in any bidding for the rights to broadcast carnival activities. To date I do not know of any radio station manager or owner who've been formally contacted by the SMC, informing them that they will not...
4,643
Mr Trump, with all due respect, I fail to understand your motive in attacking Senator McCain by suggesting that he has not earned a place of honor as a war hero for serving his country, getting shot down, surviving severe injuries from that shootdown, and then enduring 5½ years of brutal torture at the hands of the enemy.
It seems perhaps that your intention might have been to draw attention to the unmet needs of our veteran community. But I fail to see how you could possibly think that attacking and insulting a Vietnam veteran prisoner of war, and in turn an entire group of POW's from the Vietnam War, will serve to generate support for veterans in general.
Certainly we can always work to improve the lives of our veterans and both public and private sectors can always do more. But...
4,855
My dear fellow citizens!
Service, in our Indian ethos is the ultimate duty – Seva Parmo Dharma. One year ago, you had entrusted me with the responsibility and honour of serving you as your Pradhan Sevak. I have devoted every moment of every day, and every element of my body and spirit, in fulfilling the same with fullest sincerity and honesty.
We assumed office at a time when confidence in the India story was waning. Un-abated corruption and indecisiveness had paralyzed the government. People had been left helpless against ever climbing inflation and economic insecurity. Urgent and decisive action was needed.
We systematically went about addressing these challenges. Runaway prices were immediately brought under control. The languishing economy was rejuvenated, building on stable...
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