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Showing posts from July, 2008

Amsterdam

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Amsterdam is the perfect place for me to decompress before my return to life in Denmark. The faces are familiar and seem not too far from Trinidad, yet it prepares me for Denmark. How could I have ended up in a country so far removed from where I come from? Holland, unlike Denmark, has had a very active colonial life, and one can see this just by walking down any Amsterdam street. There are faces that recall the East, Africa and Europe. I see old women dressed in saris, who wear yellow gold, the type of gold we treasure in Trinidad, calling it Guyanese gold. There are young sisters with killer weaves, rasta men donning red, gold and green, elderly women in dresses as bright as hisbiscus. In short, one sees all the possibility. I've always loved Amsterdam. The Dutch have an unparalleled command of the English language and although I don't speak Dutch, you can see the similarities between Dutch colonial history and say, any other colony in the so-called new world. Take Suriname ...

On Leaving Trinidad

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While in Trinidad I didn't do 98% of the things I had envisioned doing. I didn't eat breadfruit (oildown). I didn't drink coconut water everyday, like I promised myself I would. I didn't take a maxitaxi into town to explore Frederick Street and the crumbling, yet vibrant city of Port-of-Spain. I didn't drive up to my old school, Providence Girls Catholic School, to peak at a bit of my past, so that a certain part of me within could finally, at last, come full circle. No, I didn't do any of that. I didn't eat mouth-watering mangoes or zabacas (avocados)as much as I promised myself I would. I didn't even get to go to Maracas--the beach which cradles memories from as far back as I can remember. I didn't sit and talk to my wonderful Uncle John as often as I had romanticized I would while here at home (but we did connect). I didn't call up most of the people from my past who I once feted with, worked with or even studied with. What I did do however, ...

Worthy Enough to Promote

Black In America- A CNN Investigation-Airing July 23rd &24th For more information www.cnn.com/blackinamerica Blackgirl on Mars is getting ready to return to the DK... lab