(no subject)

I'm temping with a firm that does consulting for the oil and gas industry.  I believe it's something to do with geology and well drilling.  Aberdeen, the oil capital of Europe.  They eat, sleep and breathe oil, they ponder new projects, they suggest new ways of drilling and cheaper ways to do it, the risk involved.  We despise our dependence on oil but I know in Trinidad we are grateful. 

Oil was discovered in the 19th century for us; we were one of the first to begin oil production.  Now we are the travelers, the nomads.  In the past the Mongols followed the meat and wandered over the Bering and through the Americas.  Vikings plundered the coasts, Arab traders traveled with their goods, and in this way we continued.  But oil is scattered amongst the heated tropics, the arctic and antarctic regions, the interior of continents and beneath oceans.  The men follow it, and the women follow their men.

So this is why I answer on the switchboard impatient voices from all over Europe, needing assistance to help push this monolithic beast that is oil.  They  want to develop Brazil, they are delving into Russia, they look here at Aberdeen's northern sea, and of course they center on Dubai and the Middle East.  D is another tiny ant in this giant structure.  I am an even tinier ant.

Today I spent the morning destroying old records of maps and data for shredding.  Large maps detailed in Russian, data in Russian.  Spreadsheets, minutes from meetings, testaments to our survival.  Voices are never the same here; French, Norwegian, American, they all have the same purpose.  There are a few more Trinidadians here; word travels.  They go where the oil goes.

I may not be posting for a while; I need to concentrate on writing seriously.  I can only pretend to be smart for so long...after a while it catches up with you.  Pencil to paper for a couple weeks.

The Nation/A World/A Place to be Human: Earl Lovelace and the Task of “Rescuing the Future”

The Nation/A World/A Place to be Human:
Earl Lovelace and the Task of “Rescuing the Future”

by Jennifer Rahim

"That Carnival, I see Earl. He is wearing a pair of white and blue track shoes. I am too far away to make out the brand, maybe Nike or Adidas. In his right hand he carries, warrior-like, the typical cane associated with the sailor mas’. He images the cultural translation that consolidates what being New World and modern means. Earl is not really jumping or chipping. Like an athlete whose aim is to participate and finish the race rather than to win, he is jogging ahead of the small band of sailors. All kinds of people, Trinidadians, other Caribbeans, foreigners—maybe the world is jumping up behind him. A group assembles before the judges and begins what is obviously a rehearsed choreography of traditional sailor dances. There is a group of white women dancing in the self-conscious way of the newly initiated. The smiles on their faces say that they feel proud that they can do the moves. The locals dance from a deeper knowing, comfortable in their space.

I am on the sidewalk, more or less a spectator, watching all this—Earl is jogging by and the band is behind. Somewhere in that moment, I try to wave. He does not see me. I feel he does not really see anyone at that moment, for his eyes are fixed on some place ahead of him, the rest of the band behind him, the nations of the world all around him—masqueraders, band-crashers, spectators—all there with him. And he with them, sharing their space, looking forward. On that day Carnival Tuesday, I encounter greatness. It is the stubborn surrender to the gift, and question of a place echoed in Eva’s potent existential question: “What to do?” in The Wine of Astonishment. A nation, a world, torn by the fear of chaos and violence of every sort is in dire need of the truly contemplative stasis that is an agreement to stay in dialogue with the Other."

Excerpt from here.