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gamer2002 · 1 year ago

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Troll like Jesus

After my last essay, in which I explained the basics of the Bible, in a probably better way than anyone had for two thousand years, I was wondering which more advanced religious topic I should tackle next. I was torn between the reliability of the Scripture, the nature and purpose of the Holy Trinity, or scientifically proven Christian psychology. Being the type of a person who, when everyone goes left, goes upside-down, I’ve decided to take the course of action I myself wouldn’t take, by elaborating on our Lord and Savior’s trolling game.

To quote Oxford’s dictionary, trolling is to write false or offensive messages on the internet in order to make other people angry. This is not a perfect definition, as Jesus Christ did not live in times with internet access, nor he did write much, and none of that is actually required for trolling. So, let’s modify that definition to spreading false or offensive messages in order to make other people angry.

Now, it goes without saying that the Perfect Lamp did not spread any falsehood, so we are left with the Prince of Peace being offensive in order to make other people angry. There is no doubt that the things that Jesus was saying were offensive to many of His listeners, due to the numerous attempts to take his life, culminating in an angry mob demanding His crucifixion. Moreover, this outcome was intentional on Jesus’ part, as not only Him being numbered with criminals was prophesied (Isaiah 53:12), but also Jesus Himself constantly was telling the Apostles that this was going to happen. Jesus gave His life for our sins, and He did that by trolling people into killing Him, by being offensive.

Now that we have established what Jesus did (troll), let’s focus on whom, how, and why, in this exact order.

The wicked people

Jesus’ main opponents were the Pharisees, who have studied the Law but were hypocrites. The best example of how maliciously twisted they were is in John 8 1-11, where they bring an adulteress in front of Jesus, to ask Him what they should do with her, given that Moses’ Law orders to stone her. The idea here wasn’t just to trick a pacifist Jesus to go against Moses, though that was half of the plan. The other half is more apparent from the historical context of Judea being a Roman province, and that under Roman law it was illegal for non-Romans to decide about the death of anybody. Therefore, has Jesus followed the Moses law and decided for the adulteress to be stoned, the Pharisees would be able to accuse him in front of the Romans. Either break Moses’ law or break the Roman law, that was the choice they have maliciously given to Him. So, Jesus, being a master troll, tells them that the one among them that was without sin should throw the first stone.

That was a passive-aggressive way of communicating to the mob that they were a) a bunch of sinners, and b) also bloodthirsty hypocrites, which was absolutely offensive. Jesus, being God, naturally knew that none of them was without sin. Thought that was rather obvious anyway. He also knew what their reaction was going to be. The Bible divides the mob into two groups – the old ones and the young ones.

The old ones were first to leave because they quickly started to see where this was going. Each one of them knew that they weren’t without sins, and they were also aware that nobody was going to turn out to be any different. They were fully aware enforcers of a bullshit morality system, where some sinners got publicly stoned, for the sake of everybody else pretending to be sinless. The appearance of having values mattered more than having values, and all the blood they spilled was on the altar of their society’s made-up reputation of the pure Chosen People (while Chosen, they were far from pure). They knew it, always knew it, they just didn’t want to be the ones whose blood was going to be spilled. They were, after all, the full-grown and disillusioned version of the young ones.

As for the young ones, each of them also was aware of not being without sin. But they stayed longer because they hoped that somebody among the mob was different. They could be hypocritical bloodthirsty sinners themselves, but they actually believed that some holy figure was going to enable them. They believed in the reputation of their society, which did not prompt them to live up to it, but was a source of excuses for pursuing their worst impulses. I may not be better than the woman I want to be stoned, I don’t even care about that enough to change myself, but I am of use for my betters. Not that I’m telling them about my sins either, as I prefer to be on the better side of a thrown stone. But fuck that woman.

No thief, murderer, adulterer, or any other outlaw, has ever attempted or plotted to kill Jesus. It was always those wicked people, proudly proclaiming themselves to be the proper and righteous ones, with a right to judge and kill others, while being just a bunch of self-serving and cruel cowards wanting only to keep their positions. They wanted to protect themselves from what they were imposing upon others. And to enjoy any gain that was coming from it.

In short, the most common kind of people that are among all the outspoken ideologists. All those that use ideology for personal gain, even if that gain is nothing more than feeling accepted by the group. Or dopamine hits. Rules for Radicals were written to get the kick out of utilizing shame with shameless hypocrisy, which is older than the Pharisees, who were radicals themselves.

There is a saying “If you aren’t a left-winger at youth, you lack a heart. If you aren’t a right-winger at old, you lack a brain.” The truth is that you can remain old as a left winger and still have a brain. You only never had a heart in the first place, you always were cynical and abusing others’ naivety. But I digress.

It’s not hard to recognize such people. When they accuse you of wrongdoing, they are guilty of it themselves, because they are hypocrites. When they can’t accuse you of any wrongdoing, they will try to shame you for associating with wrong people, or whatever else allows them to claim your impurity.

But how He did it? How did Jesus troll those people?

Our Lord, Savior, and Master Troll

It goes without saying that Jesus, being the Son of God, knew people better than they knew themselves. This advantage allowed Him to handle any social situation, and this is something we cannot actually reproduce. Still, Christ, in His unmistakable divine knowledge, has utilized master troll techniques we can learn ourselves.

The first one is taking them further than they are willing to go. Radicals never do anything without a prepared excuse of serving the Greater Good™. They will often shout it because emotions make it harder for people to notice how full of crap they are anyway. But they also have a strong foundation in a grand and vague idea you don’t want to argue against. Pharisees had the Will of God, Hitler had good of the “wronged” Germany, commies have equity (not even equality anymore), etc. The Greater Good™ isn’t a thing that you are recommended to even downplay, because it has been cynically picked up to justify any amount of theft and murder. This is why Jesus counters it by telling people that they aren’t that great at following the Greater Good™ themselves.

As everyone there knew, the stated in the Scripture purpose of stoning adulterers was to remove the evil that was among the true believers. Purity, not just from sin, but also in the sense of general hygiene, was a big thing in the Old Law, which was all about self-preservation of the nation of Israel. So, Jesus has agreed with the Law being the Greater Good™, and that it does require an actual true and pure believer to be in charge of realizing It. And that, rather an obvious and simple observation, has caused everybody present to feel consternation.

Of course, this approach is just a single technique for dealing with evil people. You do undermine the fundamental lie they hide behind, by exposing them to not exactly adhering to their own flimsy justifications. However, this does not guarantee they won’t simply say “Fuck it”, drop all pretense, and get rid of you. This is what they have done to Jesus, eventually. But Jesus was smart, and He knew they needed the Romans’ permission to kill Him. And trolling is done in order to make other people angry. And Jesus made Pharisees so angry that Christianity has spread all over the world. Trolling mixed with martyrdom is incredibly powerful.

But if you don’t like the martyrdom part, don’t feel discouraged. As Jesus has dispensed some other techniques.

Turn the other cheek to troll

When Jesus talked about turning the other cheek when getting slapped in the face, He was saying what to do during attempts to insult or humiliate you. It was a demonstration of being above such trivialities, as you are with God. And, as every good troll knows, losing control over your emotions is losing the entire troll game. Jesus instructed us to be in control of ourselves and demonstrate, with defiance, that we aren’t bothered by petty insults.

When Jesus talked about walking two miles when somebody wants to force you to walk two, he was talking about trolling oppressors into breaking their own laws. Back then, a Roman soldier could conscript a non-Roman citizen to carry his stuff, but only for a single mile. This is why being eager to carry things for two miles could cause problems for the soldier, as he was not legally allowed to make you do it.

Do you think nobody would give a damn about the additional mile? It only takes for the soldier to have one comrade who hates his guts. Such a guy would not miss his occasion to report the incident to the soldier’s superior. And the superior would have to act on it, because it only takes one of his peers to hate him, for him to have a good reason to fulfill his duties. And it isn’t even about the hatred among members of an oppressive organization, the entire promotion system is a rat race where you rat out others to make them undeserving of the promotion you aim for yourself. Jesus knew how such groups work, and instructed us how to take advantage of it.

And what was Jesus’ advice to tax collectors, who were working for the hated Roman regime? Do what you are ordered, nothing more. The only reason why I won’t say it was a devilishly clever subtle troll is that it was holy and divine. Think about it. Let’s assume you are a moral person stuck in an immoral organization. If you leave an oppressive organization, somebody else will take your place anyway. Assuming they are less moral, they will be ambitious and proactive, not to mention also corrupted in their own right. And this will result in them doing far more evil things than you would have done in their place.

But what if you only do what you are being told? Well, your superior now needs to micromanage you. So, not only you are preventing your position from being taken by somebody who would abuse their power, but you are also taking time and energy from somebody above.

Successful organizations aren’t successful because everyone micromanaging everyone. They are successful because of proactive individuals. You don’t believe me and Jesus? The CIA’s manual for sabotaging organizations also advises to be against short-cuts, proactivity, and to force everything to be discussed and decided by the people above. Jesus was two thousand years ahead of the CIA.

Jesus’ teaching was to be harmless like a dove and clever like a serpent. Understand how evil people and their organizations work. Deconstruct their excuses and rules, undermine their self-proclaimed mandate to do heinous things. Demonstrate their petty insults do not bother you. Turn their rules against them, force them to break them, to give an opportunity for in-fighting in their groups. And if you are within their ranks, be a weight that takes a spot of a potentially ambitious individual. Troll the hell out of them.

This is God’s way of doing things.

#jesus #bible #troll #trolling #religion #Christianity #philosophy #philosophy2002 #jesus christ

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indie-struggle · 7 years ago

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Books and Reading

There are a few books out there, any screenwriter/filmmaker has searched for them, but, often a few come to mind when thinking of how to deal with two major things that are vital to telling stories: structure, plotting, and formatting. I say two because between those three things, one is always flexible. For every film I can name that follows the go-to formulaic approach of every aspiring, big-money making screenwriter, I can name 15 that don't follow typical structure, plotting or were written on a napkin with a stain on it; that have substance and longevity for cinema. I don't name drop, so I'm only going to give the titles and important information about the book (which is name dropping). When I think back to the start of my long filmmaking journey to the small innertube I'm floating on now, a couple of books come to mind that I came across far too late. So, I'd like to give them to you in hopes they reach someone sooner rather than later-- assuming you're a young, or maybe old, aspiring filmmaker or writer. There are things about aspiring filmmakers that people often forget or simply don't care about (I forget which is predominant). They're impressionable, they don't like to read, they feel watching movies and imitation is the shortcut to the promise land and there is no real need to understand how the engine was built, what parts were used, or even who put it together: all they care about is ideas they have in their head with no real direction and that the engine runs. Think about this for a moment as you ponder how much you hate reading even this. Every filmmaker that has made anything worth a damn; with meaning, has read and seen more movies than you would believe. Now, if you think you can achieve what you want without even attempting that, stop reading here and go do your thing. And so, you're serious about filmmaking. You've searched everywhere and you cannot find anyone who is as motivated about filmmaking as you are, and everything you read you don't like because it doesn't fit your sensibilities, you don't understand it, or just fuck everyone else you're a jack of all trades and don't know what to do. Does any of that sound familiar? Well, it isn't unique and you're not alone, so: Your Screenplay Sucks! - This book is looked over by many, and by many I mean the people in Starbucks and places like fuckin' reddit (which are really the same thing). It doesn't matter who wrote it, what matters is the material inside that is invaluable to an aspiring screenwriter. Why? Because the formatting tips. That's it. That's all. Formatting. You don't know it, you need to know it. This is A-to-B on how to do just that, ignore all the other stuff because it's subjective fluff, but the format information in this book is no where else-- not even in the screenwriter's bible-- not even in scripts you read, because every script you read, while they have sluglines and exposition, they are still different. They are all different. No two scripts are written the same, they may use the same margin and slugs (some don't), but the grammar used, the notes, and camera shots all make them unique in regards to format. The formatting that you must know before writing should be taken from this book (before you even start reading scripts). Why? Because without understanding the general foundation of formatting, you can misinterpret scripts by professionals as the common way of writing which is incorrect and could cause damage that may take you years to reverse. Writer/Director's write scripts much differently than career screenwriters. This is fact. So, if you don't know dick about formatting and you scratch and worm the internet for tips and easy tricks about formatting, but all you get is contradicting answers-- start here. Don't rely on a program to do the job, either. Start with this book. It's an easy read, the guy is nice (even if the title isn't), and trust me, the formatting in the book is 100% accurate and regardless of what any other screenwriter tells you, the foundations of formatting never changes. You can take Citizen Kane and read it, and then read your favorite space movie, and the only thing you're going to notice is that the exposition is longer or shorter. That's it. Start here. Story - The book says it all. There's a lot of mixed feelings about it, but who cares; it's a must read. Why? Because the writer has studied storytelling structure of film, both foreign and domestic. The hardest part of this book for you depends on your film history. If your film history starts with Star Wars or She Got Game, you're going to find this read difficult. However, if you're serious about writing that won't discourage you and you'll get the points. A lot of books use their own jargon, their own languages that are often repeated by shitty writers, like "character arc" (good writers never use words like "arc intelligence" or "central character space")-- this book has that, but in a language which has already been used because he stole it from Hitchcock's writers and Billy Wilder; Plot methods, good vs sad vs neutral endings, and want vs needs and blocks (and all the other things writers know about, like reversals (acts)). The only difference between his jargon and some you may of heard on a podcast, is he puts them in a manner which you can relate directly with: the level of conflict that's vital to your story. There are also comparisons that he uses in regards to "classic" films and why they're significant in the world of storytelling. This book is a bit advanced if you're just starting out, and something may go over your head, but that's okay. You can always re-read it. Don't be afraid to read. You will learn valuable film-storytelling tools from this book. One thing I must stress is that a lot of people misinterpret the way he writes and what he says as being make or break/mustn't do, when it isn't. The man is passionate about good stories, foreign, domestic, commercial, it doesn't matter. And if you read it with this in mind, that he wants substance not more garbage from the garbage factory, you will understand that when something is said like, "Don't you dare use voice over in your story," he is talking about a level of story which relies solely on narration to spoonfeed rather than tell with pictures, which is a sin in cinema. I suggest you read this only after you've watched at least these films: 400 Blows, Chinatown, Kagemusha, Tokyo Story, Barton Fink, Weekend, Through a Glass Darkly, La Dolce Vita, and Casablanca. If you have not seen those films, you will only have limited perspective. On Directing Film - This book's title is misleading. It isn't only on direction, in fact, if you haven't figure it out by now, I hate reading how-to books, I'd much rather read actual stories (novels and scripts). But, this book has a special place in my heart. I don't care for David Mamet's films, personally. I find them stagnant and wordy, but the man is a master at writing and there is simply no denying that. He may not have anything to say in his goal to entertain people with impressive dialogue and plotting, but he has a lot of important things to say about how to go about doing what you want to do. He understands story, and he understands that different people like different stories, and they can be and tell what they want to tell, for whatever reason they want to: money, art, poetry, morals, existential philosophy on life, or even how to bore people. He knows it, and he tells this in the book. Those important lessons of storytelling and why they're approached the way they are is important to storytelling, and that is what writer and filmmakers do. It isn't for everyone, but I found it valuable because it gave me peace of mind. It made me realize that I can do what I want to do and who gives a shit if I fail, at least I tried and I'm truckin' on-- which is more than most ever do because most give up. This book can give you that reassurance, too. And since it isn't complicated or a hard read (which other books he has written most certainly are), it is worth reading even if you have zero interest in directing. It's about storytelling and what it's like to tell a story, which is what this is all about. Save the Cat (alternative) - I was asked once during an interview at Dreamworks (this isn't a joke), how I felt about this book. I told the executive that I hated it. It was formulaic and everything wrong with film today, it encourages a cinema with no heart which isn't cinema at all, and it is an insult to everything I stand for and it teaches filmmakers that film is just a machine and this is the only oil to grease that machine (I didn't think I was getting the job anyway, so I was blunt about it). I worked for them for a couple years as a ghost writer as a result, and then I was fired. Now, that's for a different time and my opinions on this book, just like the others, belong to me. Some people swear by this book-- swear by it. I often read this in these exact words, "If you want to be successful in this industry and make it your career and make money, you must have this book in your back pocket at all times," (which is also said about the book "Movies for fun and Profit") Fuck those people. Those types of people wouldn't make films if there were no money in it, and that's the exact poison which is killing the art in cinema, the personalization of cinema, and the heart of cinema. It's that consume and disposal: eat, and then throw in the gutter that kills but does not grow. Ignore those people and you'll be saved a lot of grief-- nobody knows what makes a film "successful" or how to crowbar your way in without nepotism. These people are liars. This book teaches you how to make a protagonist lovable (hence the title), how to write sentimentally (not sentiment), and why the audience is important (for money). It is filled with familiar, inescapable jargon that is used by screenwriter slash how-to novelists. I'm biased about this book as you can tell, I do not hide it. I get nothing from it other than the overwhelming feeling that I, as an artist, must aim to be a player without integrity because the audience is the only thing that matters, money is my god, it is only an industry, blah-blah-blah fuck everyone else-- do this-this and this and collect your fat paycheck. You may have a different opinion, though, which is completely fine. As I said, some people swear by the book and you may be one of those people. But, you have to read it for yourself to find out. I will give it one thing: read Story and this, and you will have all sides covered when a producer asks, "Hey, have you read this, which do you like better and why?" On Writing Well (alternative) - Not going into a long description about this because my fingers are tired and this is way longer than I wanted it to be. This book has to do with novels; it teaches you how to edit; how to get rid of the bullshit and be concise. Concision is important. This book has that. It is written concisely, proving its importance and giving actual examples, too. It's old, but its points remain and it may help you with your exposition abilities, who knows. It isn't always necessary to say, "John is exquisitely handsome, extraordinarily round around the hips, and whistles profusely while he ethereally walks, and he's twenty years of age." I fell asleep writing that. If you want to learn how to cut, this book might help. It also reassures you to be personal with your work, "John, twenties, is fat and black, and he stutters." Who the fuck am I to give you this advice? No one. I am no one at all. But, these books may help you, and if there are other people out there helping you you probably don't need to be reading my advice. If you want to write, if you want to make films you have to read, you should read, and you must read. Read-read-read-read-read-read (as Herzog said). I know, it's a pain, it's a bore, it's all of those things that you don't have time between work and smokin' weed for, but you have to do it. It's the secret. You must do it. Not just scripts, either. Let me tell you a secret about reading scripts: you'll get to the point where you'll fall in love with the aesthetics of how words look on a page rather than story, and you'll completely forget about story, which is the only damn important thing. You'll imitate instead of innovate, which is what you started for. Reading scripts is good to learn, but once you've read 25, if you're not reading them simply to dissect why a scene worked a certain way or merely out of interest of the writer's way of writing it, or to do coverage for an asshole boss, you're wasting your time. You can read the same 5 scripts over and over and learn everything any script will have to offer you as a writer. You must read, though, everything: novels, screenplays, magazine articles, old news articles from masters you never knew wrote for a newspaper (Vonnegut). Read. There is no other way and all the behind the scenes DVD featurettes in the world aren't going to replace one masterly written book. Reading is the only way you will learn about good story, and good story is the only thing you should be interested in if you're a filmmaker or screenwriter.

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Up next: Why the grammar correctness that should be good ain't that presently common, and how to write dialogue. screenwriting, writing, filmmaking, film making, film-making

#screenwriting #books #filmmaking #film-making

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krisrampersad · 7 years ago

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Celebrating Jamettry - the Sacred and the Sacrilegious

Jam-ett-ree Vulgar/Slang Trade of a -

Alt Jah-mee-tree – point from which the universe emanates; equity; golden ratio Literarily by Dr Kris

Dear Lizzy,

You coming to meh jamettry party? Consider this your invite eh. I going get a distinction in meh post graduate degree in jamettry: the synergy of ying and yang, unification of the arts and sciences, centrepoint of the golden mean and meanness.

Since plenty people asking about what is jamettry, although I in hibernation trying to finish my Tale of Murder, Madness and the Love of Words like that Professor who turn Madman – you might know him as the Surgeon of Crowthorne, Liz. He give the Oxford Dictionary 10,000 words with definitions and meanings, I writing a definition here so although my friend didn’t reach out to me, the people go know and not keep bothering me with emails and phone calls to do a Literarily by Dr Kris for the word jamettry. This is only one percent of my 100,000 entries into Literarily. I know you have some influence with your pardner, Britannica and have friends at Oxford who make the English Dictionary so help me get it in there nah while I finish these Letters. Ent we is Famalee and good friends too, gyul? Do me a lil favour, nah.

As you know, Liz, I have for long been an avid student, even a proponent of the art and science, of jamettry, so you, Britannica and the OED could say I am an expert in this jamettry art that is as ancient as the oldest profession in the world.

It is not only today I studying jammetry so I am well qualified to add Jamettry to Literarily, my compendium of words and their meanings through classical to now times. Some was published in the Guardian and in Demokrissy and as evidence of that Panama paper trail I sending you some of these Literarily (See image this page). I gone for higher/hire now, so talk to Britannica and the OED for me nah, you could tell them we is good friends. I see they just admit the ‘c’ word Ma say she doh ever want to hear me use so you go and find it in the OED along with c-tish, and c-ed endings. They describe it as vulgar/slang for ‘a woman’s genitals or ‘an unpleasant or stupid person’ so they wouldn’t have any problems adding jamettry - which is also a vulgar slang word associated with a woman’s genitals and its functions.

And while you at it, I have a whole series of ‘C’ monologues (C because Ma say doh use THAT word!) They get banned from the newspapers, because although I didn’t use that word, people say too much jamettry in the the explanations and definitions of social actions that they ’fraid would enlighten the universe about golden ratio and ration, meanness and mean, how to stay in divine balance and not get involved in thiefery and thuggery and corruption and thing and to come out of they ignorance and sycophancy (Sycofancee Entry # 5783 in Literarily). So the C Monologues get ban by the powers that be when somebody call they pardner like how they ban all them books across the world, like the Bible and the Quran, Grimm’s Fairy Tales, Alice in Wonderland and Animal Farm - all them nice nice storybooks by Hemmingway and Chaucer and Dr Seuss and like how my books ban in some place that call themselves university.

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I make a full list of them banned books I have in meh library, Liz, so you be the judge or take it to the Privy Council and let’s see if that is any reason for anybody to want to raid and censor meh library, meh blog, meh Facebook; to be pawing and poaching through meh Instagram and Twitter; hack meh website; make threatening phone calls, pelt stones, smash meh face, shoot at meh car and house… You be the judge Liz. That is only the list that get banned, eh, I have plenty more books they might as well ban as nobody reading anyway. I sure you have some of them in Buckingham Palace too and check the British Library, I put some there too. You might want to keep them under lock and key before you little Lizzie granddaughter and Master George get their hands on them. They say these books could corrupt the mind of children, just like all this jamettry corrupt the mind of adults and public officials and make we private sector so enterprising. (See definition of Enterprising in Literarily by Dr Kris, entry #547). So I sending you the list banned in different places (see below) and I sending you here the Literarily, on jammetry. Tell Britannica and OED that I already do all the research on cont-texts and everything right here, so they could cite as the source ‘Literarily by Dr Kris’ in Demokrissy.

Jamettry Meanings & Definitions from Literarily by Dr Kris

1. Noun. Vulgar/Slang. Pronunciation Jam-ett-ree. The trade of a jamette. From Jamette: promiscuous (wo)man. - As illustrated in Denise Belfon calypso, Jamette, 2002 (See below).

Origin: Jamettry is as ancient as the oldest profession in the world.

2.Jamettry/Geometry: Pronunciation Jah-mee-tree. Corruption/colloquial pronunciation of geometry: Branch of mathematics. Associated with the way parts of an object fit together involving deduction of properties, measurement, relationships of points, lines, angles, figures. Assessment of shape, size, relative position of figures, and the properties of space.

The single point from which all lines, angles, relationships of the universe emanate and can be measured to assess and assert balance, harmony, unity in diversity, divine proportions, golden ratio.

3.Abusive term: Term of verbal violence, usually against women. Judgmental of (wo)man’s character. Implies sexually immoral.

Connotative Cont-ext: Used to assert moral/sexual superiority. To cast aspersion on character.

(Denotes/suggests) insecurity/inferiority complex, bullying mentality. Attitude towards opposite sex when insecure about sexual or other competencies such as how to run a country or a government or how to respond to media.

4.In Now Times: Further additional meanings - Related to:

i. Jami-it: To grind on sensually. To wine on suggestively. ‘Jus hold Dem & Wok Dem’!

ii.Jamming The art of mindless disassociation from social reality as in ‘We Jamming Still’;

iii. Hooliganism: See blog, ‘Jus’ Call Me Cooligan’ #Demokrissy.

5. Additional Applications

a. Loss of objective understanding of unity in diversity; of the way the parts of an object fit together by manipulating properties, measurements, distorting angles, points, lines, accentuating relationships with public figures in exploitative relation to their community/society/country

b. Association of government, business and other sectors to plunder and pilfer resources and properties of any shape, sizes generally utilizing relations to figures in positions of authority in a manner deduced to be corrupt. (As illustrated in David Rudder’s 1988 calypso, Panama, see below)

c. Illegal activity conducted in full view of the public, fully and publicly sanctioned by the authorities and justifiable in law;

d. May invoke verbal or physical abuse, censorship, raids on offices when exposed, against anyone attempting to investigate, explore or uncover jamettry;

e. To maintain status quo of one percent versus the rest: ie. To keep ‘the remainder’ in state of impoverishment and dependence and dotish defence of indefensible; golden mean vs meanness.

f. Discordance between payments and receipt of goods or income and supply of goods ie distortion of angles, processes, principles of business, manipulation and skewing of divine proportions; rationingof t he golden ratio.

g. A society so engrossed with jamming that it has forgotten how to take stock of itself and demand accountability from those it assigns mandate to serve.

h. Friendly associations between government and business that influence and impact on the nature of business transactions between state agencies and its suppliers.

i. Term used to stimulate jamming – ie mindless forgetfulness so as to deflect from focus on issues of the day as ‘in a pappyshow land where nearly everything is a pappyshow’ (See David Rudder, Panama below)

Jamettry: Attribution: KrisRampersad: LinkedIn/Instagram/Pinterest/YouTube/Demokrissy

So Liz gyul, you see why I too humming, the tune of the day:

Bring out the Jamette inna meh oh oh oh oh

With Denise Belfon I adding the angles of the kankalang in relation to the music of the spheres that tangential to the raging winds and waves and uproar outdoors, the violence, the disrespect, the slaughter of men, women and children and the rot and chaos all around so you, me, we could sing along:

Bring out the Jamette inna meh oh oh oh oh

Jamettry in meh school bag future

To give you some cont-exts, Liz, because I know Britannica and the OED going ask, let me go back to the beginning, Liz, the source and origin.

On the first day of high school, Ma remind me that she put the jamettry in meh school bag.

“Use it well,” she say, putting me in the car with a big sticker that say ‘Licensed for Five Passengers’ though the car cram with ten and might pick up others heading to the Tong.

Ma exudes all the anxiety and expectation on what may lie ahead for my future, as she stands, staring at the smoke trail of the car long after it disappears around the corner and down the hill, trying to find a whiff in the air if here is a dactar or a laayaa in the making. (See definitions in Literarily. Entrees #265 and # 777, respectively).

I will disappoint her, Liz, in that respect because in truth, it was not dactaring or laayaing I would study, as I would focus my time on the study of jammetry. Since there is a lot of jammetry in storybooks, Ma didn’t know that the first thing I plan to do is to join the Princes Town library.

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As soon as the school bell ring to say school finish that first day, I walk up the hill, through the shortcut by Knolly’s Recreation Grounds. It name for your Acting Governor, Sir Courtney Knollys, who open a few things including the Knolly’s Tunnel in Tabaquite when the Governor away and leave he to act, so they name these things after him like Hollywood name things after actors. Later they will rename it Yolande Pompey Recreation Ground after some fellah who was the first oxymoron light heavyweight boxer to fight in an international ring. Although he never win a world title, we like to let people here know we have fighters like all yuh, Liz. We is real badjohns and we could knock out all yuh colonial signs with we boxing because if you remember yuh ban we real badjohns, the stickfighters, who could buss plenty heads. So down came the Knolly’s sign and name and up went the oxy-moron light heavyweight into we Sports Hall of Fame! Just so too, we go knock down the Queen Street sign you put up in Port of Spain and put we own Penny who is also a Queen, not just of a Commonwealth, but of a Universe! Take that Liz. Jamettry woking for we!

As soon as the school bell ring, I pelt out, through the short cut and up the hill on meh way to the library, pass the signboard for Knolly’s Rec. Scrawled at the bottom of the sign is a reminder that the grounds governed by the Recreation Grounds and Pastures Act Chapter 41:01, Laws of Trinidad And Tobago, Act 10 of 1909.

I dodge a corkball from the guys playing cricket on one end of the field, keeping meh eye on the football players, too, although I think that law say ‘No person shall play cricket, football, rounders, or other games dangerous to young children, in any recreation ground.’ But who care ’bout laws here, eh – jamettry everywhere! We would have plenty football and cricket match there, and then one day, irregardless (entry #4677 in Literarily) of the law, they will name the pavilion there after a cricketer. Talk ’bout jamettry!

Liz, that make me wonder if there is a law against reading story books as Ma and Pa had ban me from reading storybooks like Enid Blyton with all them drawings and pictures. They say it just fill up meh head with mumbo jumbo airy-fairy nonsense and I should be reading to become a dactar or a laayar. It is okay to read literature books if they on the school book list, and now I had a loophole if I say I borrow it from the library – always a way to beat the system! I learning jamettry well! You would be proud like Ma, Liz.

Shillingford – the district vagrant – is running around the Knolly’s-soon-to-be renamed Yolande Pompey field, as we would see him doing every evening when the schoolbell ring. The field shouldda really be named after Shillingford because he so exemplify all we national ambitions. He was the brightest boy in he years in the same school I just starting and watching him I shouldda see how the future in my schoolbag with the jamettry. Shillingford so bright that we place couldn’t findda place for him so he gone mad, yes, and so he get enterprising begging for a shilling here and a shilling there so he could live as he wish without working in a land flowing with oil and he had plenty time to run round and round the field in celebration of his emancipation and freedom as I too would one day. People say he mad, and a vagrant – just like that Professor and a Madman who help write the OED – he too bright. I find out ’bout him when I was researching the school history for the school magazine, Dedicated to Excellence. I shouldda see the signs Liz, because he was one of the school best example of Excellence, Par Excellence, but I would lorn good, just how I lorn jamettry real good. It in meh future and in meh schoolbag, as the Doc ruling the country say.

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Is my first day, so I keep Shillingford in the corner of my eye in case he pounce, as I labor up the hill and onto the Naparima Mayaro Road, towards Princes Town. The library just outside the Town named for you grandfather Liz. The taxi stand inside the Tong, so I tell meh brother with the taxi that I will wait for him when he heading back home at the corner by the library so the police wouldn’t stop him for overloading more than ten in he ‘licenced for five passengers taxi’. Because it only had one or two taxis going into the village he just pick-up everybody he see on the way who need a ride, Liz. The village people didn’t mind, because all ah we is one. We live in unity in diversity in the finest principles of universal harmony that jamettry professes. No meanness. We share everything according to the golden ration in divine proportions. He didn’t finish wok till late so it give me good time to stay in the library until it close.

Liz girl, I start to lorn all about jammetry, from the story books and poetry available. By the time I graduate I could see why Ma and Pa think storybook full of jamettry, oui. Just look at meh list of banned books and you go see how much jamettry in there: Fifty Shades of Jamettry and more: The Scarlett Letter, Fanny Hill, Harry Potter, Beloved by Toni Morrison, Gone With The Wind…

Jamette. Jamettish. Jamettry of Poetry

Liz, I start to read poetry with gusto – the real jamettry poetry, like Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (See Poem below) that I read and I sure you read it too. I real spend time on that, eh, analyzing the ‘stately pleasure domes’ and ‘cavern measureless to man’ and ‘deep romantic chasm’, ‘sinuous rills’ and then climaxing ‘in fast thick pants were breathing/A mighty fountain momently was forced…’ That aint sound like jamettry to you Liz? Coleridge write in Kubla Khan about,

‘Woman wailing for her demon lover’.

It sound just like the chorus from that Denise Belfon’s song, Jamette, ent?

Bring out the Jamette inna meh oh oh oh oh

Coleridge in Kubla Khan decree:

And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,

As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,

A mighty fountain momently was forced.

Denise Belfon sing in Jamette:

I need a man dat hard dat hard/To never treat meh bad real bad

When he go I must feel sad real sad/When he come I must feel glad

In fact Belfon song sound no different from that poem with its ‘stately pleasure domes’ and she too, like the Damsel, wailing:

I need a man who's hype who's hype

to stand up like a pipe a pipe

De banana must be ripe be ripe

I will stop there for now, in case they want to buss meh mouth and censor meh analyses for getting too jamettry, Liz. Inbox eh nah, and I will send you the full comparative analysis of Denise Belfon Jamette and Samuel Taylor Coleridge Kubla Khan.

Jamettry, Jamette, Jam-it and We Jamming Still culture cont-exts

There is a lot of other Jamette music filling the spheres around that time, Sparrow, and Kitchener, and David Rudder and Super Blue, plenty plenty singing all kindda Jamette woman, Bacchanal Woman, Mae Mae, Ethel, Bethel and Skettel…

I lorn well about the Jamette culture that grow out of the barrack yards from which all this comes, how it was frowned on by the snobby nose upper classes as lewd and crude but celebrated in the protest literature of the 1930s. Jamettry was a way to rebel against oppression, exploitation and violence. The proponents of what was being called the Literature of the Yard were the likes of the early nationalists/writers like CLR James, and Alfred Mendes, Albert Gomes and Seepersad Naipaul adding his own two-piece with his Daisy chumkaying through The Gurudeva Tales – you have to read meh book Finding A Place to find out more about that time. Rikki Jai will later tell the story of his Sumintra exhibiting the same kind of jamettry as Belfon and she pardners Destra and Allison, and Draupatie too coaxing Bissessar into she jamettry.

You know, Liz, by the time you had over to we to be freeto practice we jamettry, jamettry was already an important part of the lexicography in the intellectual construction of nationhood. Nation-language defined by Edward Kamau Brathwaite (Barbados) developed in conjunction with jamette folk culture in the barrack yards that came to be celebrated at Carnival time. Liz, you start the barrack yard housing development style so I don’t have to tell you that barrack yard people live close close together folking up the place so of course everybody inside everybody business, and everybody could spot jamettry in everybody else that now inside every housing development scheme you could think of. It make for good bacchanal, Liz, and political fork-tongue speech.

Carnival Jamette bands was jamettry Par Excellance in protest of and in imitation of the massas of the French Creole plantocracy and other classes. I would see for myself, covering J’Ouvert later, the doh-kay-damn attitude and behaviour, pouring onto the Savannah Street and stage.

Now that is freedom! I couldn’t wait to join! My particular favourite is the Dame Lorraines sporting and wiggling gi-normous jamette parts stuffed up butt, hips and breasts – there is hope for me yet Liz. That’s where the likes of Nikki Maharaj Minaj get it from, in case anyone wondering. She music is a prideful product of this jamettry, packaged for exportation.

The unsuspecting celebrants maybe did not know that when they think they laughing at the upper echelons one percent - who put on masked balls wearing costumes like Dame Lorraines, in imitation of their maids - they were really laughing at their massa laughing at themselves eh. Nobody sure who the jokes on who, but everybody laughing and having a goodtime. Pure jamettry. And we jamming still!

I became an aspirant, so by the time Belfon sing that song, me too could chip along in full fervor, now deep into meh education about the art of jamettry:

Bring out the Jamette inna meh oh oh oh oh

Although me aint no feminist, I applaud the Jamettry long-celebrated by feminists too, as an indication of women taking charge of their own destiny, they bodies, their sexuality, the independent spirit and rebellion against oppressive patriarchy with the roots in the complex colonial plantation system with its intertwining of race, class and wealth stratifications: all that really mean mean men who like to abuse and take the golden glow from women and make them blue black with hard slap and blue by calling them jamette and thing….blue in every colour and pigment.

Though most of the intellectualising fall short of telling anybody about the damage that all this causing, making people like sycophants, lapping up and internalising and blindly replicating the massahood culture of dominance, exploitation and oppression so they even calling themselves and everybody else jamette because people tell them they is jamette long time so they say let’s celebrate we jamettry.

I join in too, yes. In the struggle to end violence against women, I talk to and interview plenty women, telling about how they man call them jamette to put them dong, and about verbal and other abuse to degrade them and make them feel small. Plenty women in high and low places tell me how, when men feeling they not as bright as them and cannot respond on equal footing to any argument, they man would call them jamette and other names so they go shut up.

We join-up to get the government to sign the United Nations Convention on the Discrimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and in UNESCO trying to make sure them gender-sensitive things included in other culture conventions too.

In all of this, I didn’t give up meh own jamettry. I coming up to be an expert, for sure.

Monumental Jamettry in heritage

In London and Paris there was plenty pus-pusuring (Pus-pus refer Literarily entry #893) and whispering in drawing rooms about jamettry. So I gone there to advance meh studies in jamettry and get some hard slap for doing so, too, because they doh want to lorn bout they own jamettr they think nobody else should – typical jamette-man.

In Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables,

With all that, Paris is a good soul. It accepts everything right royally; it is not too particular about its Venus; its Callipyge is Hottentot; if it but laughs it pardons, ugliness makes it merry….

A Hottentot cannot be changed into a Roman outline

In Thackeray’s Vanity Fair, more whispering:

"Marry that mulatto woman?" George said, pulling up his shirt-collars. "I don't like the colour, sir. Ask the black that sweeps opposite Fleet Market, sir. I'm not going to marry a Hottentot Venus."

I get curious about this Hottentot Venus who sound like she is a jamettry hottie like Belfon Saucy Wow!

shake your body around, like you's a blender

bend down and touch the ground and mek dem holler

for de jammette, de jammette, de jammette

I study she a lil bit, and even follow the trail to the British Museum and the Musee de l’Homme. While I suppose to be studying journalism in Cambridge I take a weekend to study jamettry in London and Paris – and what better place to lorn about jamettry than in Paris eh?

This Venus Hottentot was not no play act. She was real woman. When she was living, she was paraded around London and Paris and people pay to see she or to poke she big behind and other jamette parts. She was dead at age 26 and even when she dead, she parts was put on display in the museum. She was used in studies of the human anatomy to support stereotyping and racial applications of Darwin’s theory of origin of the species and the theory of natural selection.

I join my friends lobbying for the return of her parts for a respectful burial in her homeplace in South Africa which was finally done in 2002, the same year Saucy Wow and all ah we singing,

Bring out the Jamette inna meh oh oh oh oh

Saucy Wow itself! This Venus Hottentot, aka Sarah Baartman, who endure the epitome of the worst kinds of humiliations to which women have ever been subjected was the image of images of the jamette women that the French planter class women use to dress up like at their masked balls, the same kindda masked balls they had in Port of Spain too – frowning upon jamettry and mocking it so they dress up like that. In turn, to mock the uppity French massas, the maids dress up like their mistress who dress like the jamette they call Hottentot. So the maids thinking they mocking the massas when the massas were mocking the maids – really a whole lot of jamettry all around.

In Trinidad, they call this Hottentot figure Dame Lorraine, the quintessential jamettry character of Traditional Mas in the Trinidad Carnival, and I hoping to be one and wave a jamette flag for me lovely nation.

It is the most succinct example of how we have internalized colonial stereotyping and replicate it without knowledge of implications and meanings and symbolic representations that have resulted in the entrenchment of racism and prejudicial attitudes and behaviour. Pure jamettry!

I guess that’s why reading so painful because the truth not nice an we just want to jump and wine and have a good time everybody say the word, jamettry, and that’s why they threaten to buss yuh head and damage yuh if you read too much because it okay to have no censure for your jamettry, and censor you learning nah. Though all them long list of books that all these governments ban people still reading them, ent?

While you think about that, I getting my Panama Papers ready because like David Rudder I tell Mama I going to Panama, on the trail of the golden ration of Paradise in El Dorado….

Jamettry: Holy Dread! Drinking Honey/Mountain Dew to enter Paradise

Inspired by Kubla Khan, I get a brainwave that I could make good use of me jamettry for distraction from that hard and naked truths so I pull out the jamettry tool box Ma put in meh school bag.

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The tin metal box is the same colour like my freshly starched uniform - navy blue skirt and white shirt - Ma iron it good after she sew it on she brand new sleek, sexy looking Singer sewing machine that she save up and buy from she lil market gardening and sewing for people.

It is a second-hand jamettry set but this jamettry really look like it pass through many many hands and might even be as old as the oldest profession in the world - the rubber missing, the wooden tips unsharpened, the nibs rusting, the face scratch-up…

You could still recognize even with the scratches, the words in white against navy blue background, "Oxford Mathematical Instruments complete and accurate Helix”. So now I had the tools to wok hard to find the double helix to unlock the secret of this jamettry DNA.

It make me take meh head outta story book long enough to look at the tools in the box. Inside the scratch-up goldy-silver tin case is a compass with one long leg and one short leg with a screw hole. Next to this had some transparent flat plastic with writings on them. I would learn that I should call the two plastic triangles set squares though I can’t figure out why because they look to all intents and purposes like triangles not squares. But that is scientific logic against creative dreaming, I guess. There is a straight ruler and one that look like a semi-circle with markings on it that I would learn is a protractor, and there is a stencil with the alphabet in capital and common letters.

I look at the set meh new friend Debbie, sitting next to me, have. It brand new, no scratches, and it have a brand new sharpener, eraser, and lead pencils too. I borrow Debbie sharpener to sharpen my long pencil. I break it in two and put the jagged edge part in the compass hole and screw it on. I save the other part with the eraser to come in handy.

Liz, in all the years of friendship although we share plenty things, she never once give me a contract or me she, and we still friends, eh. Debbie - who never let anybody know, except one day we talking and she tell me she related to Sir Solomon Hochoy who you appoint as we last Governor, Liz - had none of the airs of the any of the plantocracy. She is no one percent, she part ah the majority. Is unity in diversity and all ah we living as one.

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I attach the pencil on the compass, stick the long point on the page and by rotating the pencil was making a perfect circle. This is quite an accomplishment for me whose every attempt at a straight line always turn into squiggles and curls. I couldn’t even baylay roti round good so it could fit on the chowki and the tawa, much less draw a circle (refer to Literarily entries #7561-5). Most time it come out looking almost like a map of Trinidad - the roti and the circle. Doh laugh nah gyul. The ruler and the stencil would help my cause of writing my name and subject on the covers of my book, too. Jamettry Par Excellence!

Liz, just as I was getting use to experimenting and using meh jamettry, they stop me in meh track. They tell me that all I would do now is dabble and to really use meh jamettry, I have to take Applied Maths and Applied Physics.

I puzzled. Maybe the math I lorning all this time is not to apply to anything? Maybe that’s how people who graduate from this place don’t know how about applying maths and using they jamettry to understand the associations and relationships between angles, and sizes and shapes, to structure and form and how one thing could affect other parts of the universe based on the tangential relationships in the divine proportion of the golden ration, as you would know if you use you whole jamettry Liz.

If they know how to use all the parts of the jamettry they would know how to do sums better, as I tell meh pardner the contracter son, who sit next to me the next year, because Debbie place in a next seat. He inherit he father company but he never give me a contract, Liz, and we is still friends.

Since he in the private sector and maybe know how them does deal, I have a mind to ask him about divine proportion and golden ration which as a business man he must know we in the same class together and we could finish that Conversation on the question that nobody ask:

If a Kaiser Ball – that is the head huncho of balls - is one dollar, how much Kaiser Balls you should get if you pay one hundred million dollars, how much tanks that would fill, and how much you would have left to bank in Panama after you get your Panama Papers and buy a DC-9 and build two towers in Canada when you convert that to United States green bucks dollars (see contexts, David Rudder calypso, Panama, below Liz, for easy reference).

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And we could even talk about what angle I should take on this thing that puzzling all ah we: If all of we is one famalee and one percent have ninety-nine percent of everything, how much that leave for the other remainder of the ninety-nine percent; and if the one percent pay off the one billion dollar debt of one State Enterprise how much it would leave to free-up all ah we to develop we jamettry since as one famalee all ah we have the same DNA and double Helix jamettry set. All these things puzzling me to ask meh pardner in the public and not so public sectors.

Ah tempted eh, Liz, when they trying to bully me to take this advanced maths and physics where I they say I could really use meh jamettry. They ask me to choose, but TELL me to do Science because I bright, I already gearing up to pursue professional jamettry so I exercise meh democratic rights and choose the Arts so I could continue to read story books and full meh head with mumbo jumbo airy fairy nonsense on the path to my own version of professional jamettry.

All this time I find a loophole in the system. Because jammetry is all about twists and turns and angles and measurements I figure I would try to put me jammetry to use on Kubla Khan for good measure. I would apply maths and physics anyway to meh jamettry poetry.

Jamettry Flowers to Life

Is Jamettry that help me put the missing parts of the world story, together, Liz. From the single point of where the compass sticking on the paper, I make this multi-petalled flowers and then copy them on to cloth to make embroidery and string art.

I later learn that you call it the Flower of Life. That is the same flower Dan Brown write about in the Da Vinci Code, that get people vex and some ah them ban it in some places too.

I already know this flower of life, Liz, not from the Da Vinci Code and western literature and art and architecture and monuments, with the triangle that there was identified as the Masonic symbol. Not from Milton Paradise Lost which I could also compare with Kubla Khan Paradise though one is a big thick book-poem and one is a couple pages.

As I learn to use my compass and the protractor and ruler and the squares that look like triangles from meh jamettry set, not just the Flower of Life taking shape. But triangles and pyramids and pentagons and hexagons, and circles within circles and circles, all emanating from this single static point of my compass.

Jamettry Angles, Tangents, Twists & Turns of Seething Chasms

Liz, like a damsel with a dulcimer, I start to make the music of the sphers, latitude and longitude and everything. I check the angles of the ‘deep romantic chasm which slanted/Down the green, the circumference of domes, towers; the heights of rills and Mount Abora; the breadths of walls. For that I study plenty of your castles, Liz.

I project measurements for the ‘caverns measureless to man,’ ‘five miles’ and the ‘twice five miles’ on the dimensions to stately pleasure-domes’, ‘walls and towers.’

I calculate the movements and pace of the ‘earth fast think pants’, ‘half-intermittedly’, ‘fragments vaulted’, ‘meandering mazy motion’, ‘dancing rocks’...

I estimate the time factors in ‘ceaseless’, ‘forests ancient as the hills, ‘momently,’ ‘half-intermittedly’…

I look at the spatial physical cont-exts in the natural environment and its elements water, air, earth: of the chasm, earth, hill, Mount, dale, grove, moon, sea, ocean, river, garden, cave, mound; and the built environment: fountain, dome, rill, tower, walls…

I circling Kubla Khan domes and gardens, and the one in the UNESCO yard, the patterns in monuments and landmarks which form the building blocks of everything around. It show how well constructed building blend art and nature, how point and angle related to form and structure and create order out of chaos. Jamettry on a solid foundation show how to make proper calculations of how much of what could fit into what and in what proportions. Jamettry aint nothing like corruption, Liz, that’s how, Coleridge and the Masonic Master Milton find they Paradise and Copernicus read the stars, and Da Vinci reconstruct the anatomy of Vesuvius Man and he abstract thing like a Mona Lisa smile in immaterial painting and in material architecture; like I find in Gaudi building he Templo de Sagrada Familia, and the Egyptians building their pyramids of Giza and the Mexicans theirs, and in Belfon and Rudder music. And all this time what I know about Fibonacci and Pythagoras and Phi/Pi and thing, eh? I use meh jamettry to analyze Kubla Khan.

I find the divine proportions and a golden ratio to synergise poetry analysis with Sciences and Arts Liz. Ma, and I hooe you too, proud! Apply geometrical calculations and relationships that show Fibonacci formula and Pythagoras theorum and Phi/Pi and all of them things I know nothing about because Arts is only about dream, nah. In this fragment of a dream, I get a whole new angle on analyzing poetry that I would apply to analyzing plenty monuments and artefacts and lost civilisations too, Liz. A whole new world of jamettry open up, oui!

From the sunless sea and lifeless ocean to Mount Arora I sure we could find the secrets to global warming and climate change too, eh, Liz. You think? This poetry full of imagery of all the heritage of sacred jamettry – ask Tromp - not that Trump, the Donald; Tromp - the one all you beat to take away Manhattan from the Dutch, then called New Amsterdam, and rename it New York! Jamettry rules!

With a lil help of some mountain dew made in the towers of your own sugar factory here, Liz, (For mountain Dew refer to entry #4852 in Literarily) like Coleridge and Kubla Khan, I come up with the formula of divine proportions for rationing honey dew, El Dorado, the Paradise everybody looking for!

Jamettry, the Sacred Geography

It is then I realise that even before Ma put the jamettry made ‘complete and accurate’ by Helix Oxford Mathematical Instruments in meh school bag, it already in meh DNA. You want to know how?

One day we having puja, I aint start school yet. Ma ask me to help prepare the bedi. She running late for Sona Pundit – the same Pundit who would use this jammetry which somehow connected to astronomy to read meh Patra (but that is a next story for another time, Liz). I start with putting Hibiscus flour – not flower - all round the edge of the bedi, like I see him do once before. I was about to draw one big Aum and leave it there but he stop me.

‘This just like Aum,’ he say. ‘Start here, from this point, in the centre.’

Before even reading meh Patra, Sona Pundit show me my beginning and end too. Guiding my hand Sona Pundit show me how to start from the centre point and move outward. We draw a triangle with this point in the middle, and then start to draw other triangles on both sides and build them up like a pyramid, using the centre point he do one pyramid on his side and I do one on my side and they join. He say one side is the upperworld and the other is the underworld. I could see pentagons and hexagons jumping out at me. We add circles and inside the circles we add semicircles with stately pleasure dome peaks to look like lotus petals – the Flower of Life that my compass would later make.

On the single point at the centre of the bedi sona Pundit put the kalsa with a deeya and light it.

‘Bindu,’ he say. ‘That is the point from which all of the universe emanate. Bindu.’

‘You mean bindi?’ I ask. I small but I already questioning even big people like Sona Pundit. Is the jamette inna meh!

‘Bindu, yeah, like bindi,’ he say, looking at me like if I just discover the New World, Liz!

“Bindi, like Ma wearing?’ Ma come to sit to do puja and had put on she sindoor on the path in she hair and a bindi at the centre of she forehead.

‘Exactly,’ he say. ‘That point is bindu/bindi. The foundation of creation, mother, Ma, from which the whole universe, earth, emanates.’ I have more questions but he start the puja.

He hand Ma some flowers, and begin he long Aum, take out he bell and ring and blow long and hard on he conchshell to signify the puja start. All the questions on my lips gone silent as the sound move from the bedi out and out as far out in the world as anybody could hear.

I start lookin for bindi in everything: the point at which all creation natural and manmade, hold the universe in balance when everything has an equal share in divine proportions, the golden ratio, make for harmony, unity in diversity. Is what you might call the sacred feminine, Liz. Ma gave it a name when she give me the tools in meh school bag. Jamettry.

Liz, I find El Dorado. It really was dong in South.

David Rudder: Panama

Panama https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9l6s3joSKy0

(Lyrics by David Rudder, 1988)

Ay senor, you see any Trikidadians pass here

You must know them

Big fat men with plenty blue money in they pocket

You no see them senor? No man

Ayee eeeeaye aye

Aye they thief the money

Ayee eeeeaye aye

I find El Dorado

It really was dong in south

But it wasn’t Mexico that them was talking about

Them rich Trinidadians show me this whole El Dorado ting

They here living like lords, but they gone they live there like kings

As they get a lil money in they pocket

They hiding the kakada

And when you miss them scamp and them

They somewhere in Panama

So I I IIIII going to Panama

I got to go to Panama mama

What it is they have over there

Making Trini just gone clear

Some say that they gone with thousands

Some talking bout tens of thousands

I here they mention millions

And so they mention billions

I doh like ole talk so I talking a walk

Look I done buy duty free rum

Pardner, stamp meh passport

Panama here I come

Some say that they gone with thousands

Some talking bout tens of thousands

I here they mention millions

And for they pension millions…

Look, it had a big Chinee gentleman who I doh know he name

They say he was a big businessman and racing was he game

They even call him some kindda ambassador I really doh know

But in this pappyshow land nearly everything is a pappyshow

They say he had a riding pardner they call this pardner the worst

I have to finish the mauvais lang when I reach in the next verse

But meanwhile I I IIIII going to Panama

I got to go to Panama mama

What it is they have over there

Making Trini just gone clear

Some say that they gone with thousands

Some say that is tens of thousands

Them talking bout - millions

I hear they mention - billions

I doh like ole talk ah taking ah walk

Allyuh doh spoil meh fun

Here’s the ticket Panama here I come!

Thousands, thousands, millions, millions…

First of all they used to call him a hero

Now they say he is a son of a gun

They say before they coulda holla Johnny O

How de fellah run

How he life was wide like Moon River

More money than chip chip

But just so the young man make a turnabout and make this Panama trip

How he set up a halfway house in Miami and Canada

He look left and right then left again and then buss it to Panama

So I I IIIIIII going to Panama

I got to go to Panama mama

What it is they have over there

Making Trini just gone clear

Some say that they gone with thousands

Some say that is tens of thousands

Them talking bout - millions

Them talking bout what? - billions

I doh like ole talk you see ole talk jus chip up meh grey hair fine

So Lee Sing and all yuh warm up that DC-9

Warm it up marn warm up the DC-9

That is what I want to fly on

I doh want no L10-11

I want the DC-9

Is we taxpayers money buy that boy, we petro dollars

You hear meh? Warm it up!

This place they call Panama gotta be the hardest hardest

This place they call Panama harder than Trinidad

Them doh wine and march ‘round no Red House

Is molotov gun and thing

And they say the biggest man over dey is the biggest corruption king

And just to prove that Panama could beat we in bacchanal

Jimmy Carter went dey, they watch him in he face

And they take back dey damn Canal

So I I IIIII going to Panama I got to go to Panama mama

What it is they have over there

Making Trini just gone clear

Some say that they gone with thousands

Some say that is tens of thousands

Some talking bout being millions

Ah hear they mention billions

I want a no smoke seat I doh eat meat

Now warm up the plane breda

On the runway we going by Noreiga

Some say that they gone with thousands

Some say that is tens of thousands

Some say that they mention millions

And they mention what…billions

Thief the money thief the money

Thief the money thief the money thief the money

They gone they gone

Thousands…millions….

Jamette https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kXrob3Z6L8

By Denise Belfon

Yes... this is for all the J-A-M-M-E-T-T-E out there, not just woman, man too!

I need a man to come to come

No matter where yuh from yuh from

Could ah be blind or deaf and dumb and dumb

He need plenty not just some

Bring out de jammette inna meh, bring out de jammette inna meh oh oh oh oh

I need a man who's hype who's hype

To stand up like a pipe a pipe

De banana must be ripe be ripe

And that's the only time

Bring out de jammette inna meh, bring out de jammette inna meh oh oh oh oh

Bring out de jammette inna meh, bring out de jammette inna me oh oh oh oh

Make dem whine to the ground and see you later

Twist and turn it around ‘cause we don't cater

Shake your body around, like you's a blender

Bend down and touch the ground and mek dem holler

For de jammette, de jammette, de jammette

sexy jammette, de jammette de jammette

Hotttie jammette, de jammette, de jammette

Saucy jammette, de jammette, de jammette

I need a man in shape in shape

Big and strong just like ah ape ah ape

Who don't stand up deh and gape and gape

Who eh ’fraid to go on tape

Bring out de jammette inna meh, bring out de jammette inna meh oh oh oh oh

I need a man dat hard dat hard

To never treat meh bad real bad

When he go I must feel sad real sad

When he come I must feel glad

Bring out de jammette inna meh, bring out de jammette inna meh oh oh oh oh

For de jammette, de jammette, de jammette

Sexy jammette, de jammette de jammette

Hottie jammette, de jammette, de jammette

Saucy jammette, de jammette, de jammette

Ha ha ha ha how yuh like dat? I like it too

De kindda man I want is de kindda man to bring out de

De Real me. Yuh get it?

Bring out de jammette inna meh

For de jammette, de jammette, de jammette

Sexy jammette, de jammette de jammette

Hottie jammette, de jammette, de jammette

KrisRampersad:Linkedin/Instagram/Pinterest/Youtube

Kubla Khan

Or, a vision in a dream. A Fragment.

By Samuel Taylor Coleridge

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan

A stately pleasure-dome decree:

Where Alph, the sacred river, ran

Through caverns measureless to man

Down to a sunless sea.

So twice five miles of fertile ground

With walls and towers were girdled round;

And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,

Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;

And here were forests ancient as the hills,

Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.

But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted

Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!

A savage place! as holy and enchanted

As e’er beneath a waning moon was haunted

By woman wailing for her demon-lover!

And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,

As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,

A mighty fountain momently was forced:

Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst

Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,

Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher’s flail:

And mid these dancing rocks at once and ever

It flung up momently the sacred river.

Five miles meandering with a mazy motion

Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,

Then reached the caverns measureless to man,

And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean;

And ’mid this tumult Kubla heard from far

Ancestral voices prophesying war!

The shadow of the dome of pleasure

Floated midway on the waves;

Where was heard the mingled measure

From the fountain and the caves.

It was a miracle of rare device,

A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!

A damsel with a dulcimer

In a vision once I saw:

It was an Abyssinian maid

And on her dulcimer she played,

Singing of Mount Abora.

Could I revive within me

Her symphony and song,

To such a deep delight ’twould win me,

That with music loud and long,

I would build that dome in air,

That sunny dome! those caves of ice!

And all who heard should see them there,

And all should cry, Beware! Beware!

His flashing eyes, his floating hair!

Weave a circle round him thrice,

And close your eyes with holy dread

For he on honey-dew hath fed,

And drunk the milk of Paradise.

KrisRampersad:Linkedin/Instagram/Pinterest/Youtube

Yo Ho Ho Piracy and Heritage: https://goo.gl/TvXOHU

Demokrissy https://goo.gl/FHs3Fr

Arresting the Tears Hayti I’m Sorry https://goo.gl/6sy3y6

Noble Tears of a Nobel Bard https://goo.gl/WXbMpv

Towards State of the Art Museum: https://goo.gl/FfHfJL

Jurisprudence An Ode https://goo.gl/Gmn7l0

Ah Drinking Babash https://goo.gl/GhMncz

The Human face of constitutional reform https://goo.gl/6escjj

Lagahoo-tribute-to-independent-spirits https://goo.gl/P6gP2Q

Murder and the Museum http//goo.gl/FHs3Fr

Woman in the mirror https://goo.gl/pvnX9d

Links to Demokrissy blogs