Stet

First they came for the verbs and I said nothing, for verbing weirds language. Then they arrival for the nouns and I speech nothing, for I no verbs.

Comments Posts

Linguist with wanderlust,
From the hills of New Guinea to the halls of the Sorbonne,
From the beaches of Bassam to the fields of Friesland,
From the catacombs of Rome to the Blue Mountains of Jamaica.
From the heather of the Veluwe to the dust of Dakar ...

Currently resident in the Land of Sea with a small tribe of kids and Mr B.

Bonga

This is one of the most beautiful songs I know.

Tech note
If, like me, you suffer from a poor Internet connection then initial playback may be a frustrating experience. In this case, press STOP, read the post (giving the track time to load), then try PLAY again.

My personal discovery of the singer was one

Continue reading Bonga

4 comments to Bonga

rachie

May 30, 2006 at 3:32 am · Reply

Ria, it’s beautiful. It made me cry. I’m going out to find his album at lunchtime.
Luuk

May 31, 2006 at 11:27 pm · Reply

Ria, Bonga’s Maiorais is one of favourite albums. Some friends of ours brought us a copy from Paris! We’d never heard of him before, so it was a nice surprise.
Ria

June 1, 2006 at 12:31 am · Reply

Nice friends ;-)
Half Swede

June 5, 2006 at 3:20 pm · Reply

I’m very glad you shared this, what beautiful music. Thanks for “tuning” me onto something new.

Googly nubs

Just a quickie … too much work, too many deadlines. So it’s over to you, dear visitor.

Item 1
Imported corn from the USA

Item 2
Local corn

Continue reading Googly nubs

6 comments to Googly nubs

revolution island

May 25, 2006 at 3:05 pm · Reply

Da ugly one taste better though.
Fyr

May 25, 2006 at 3:55 pm · Reply

Coupla things come to mind:

(1) boy – the indiscipline extend even into de fruits of the land.
(2) plumpier, more friendly and laid back kinda fruit
(3) our’n more real; their’n mostly artificial hormones n’ stuff
(4) mebbe the local one isn’t finished growing?

*scratches chin*
vishnik

May 25, 2006 at 4:09 pm · Reply

“now she mekkin’ it look like we doan ‘ave corn wah look like the imported one
is tru we no fool fool and dash weh good good food.”

TRANSLATION:
Basically I’m sayin’ that that particular local corn must be the most irregular one to be found. We got nice corn with the grains all laid out in a straight line too. That being said, it’s still perfectly good corn, when it gets in the stomach it doesn’t matter the order they were in on the pod … know what I mean?
Ria

May 25, 2006 at 4:58 pm · Reply

RI – who says the local one is uglier? It has better colour and fatter, juicier nubs (niblets?)

Fyr – (1) great comment; (2) & (3) agree; (4) it was ripe and ready to eat.

Vishnik – it’s interesting that you assume the comparison is a bad reflection of the local, Jamaican corn. If anything, my view was the contrary – that the local corn was more attractive because it was more natural (natural colour, tones and irregularities) and the imported corn was an insipid and artificial attempt at improvement. By the way, I had to bring up the colour and contrast of the imported corn in Photoshop in order to make the comparison fairer.

As you say, the straight, identical nubs may look better (although I don’t think so), but they may not taste better (they didn’t).
Mad Bull

May 25, 2006 at 9:30 pm · Reply

Must have corn… must… have… corn…

must…
rachie

May 30, 2006 at 2:57 am · Reply

The imported one looks so…. regimented. It’s like it’s been chivvied into submission and it’s one aim in life is to be as bland and conformist as possible. Sad.

Rainy Day

The wind picked up yesterday, gusting so hard that I took down the shade sails in the back garden for fear that they blow away or snap their wooden fixture posts. It was obvious that this was not an innocent wind, but that it was carrying some force far more malevolent than itself.

Sure enough, by nightfall

Continue reading Rainy Day

2 comments to Rainy Day

waterhot

May 19, 2006 at 12:05 pm · Reply

Love this new genre you’ve created here, Ria – the mini-docu-video. Your writing has always been evocative, but its a wonderful addition to get to see where you’re writing about.
Thank you.
revolution island

May 22, 2006 at 4:31 pm · Reply

Ria

Hope you don’t get too much water..

Video: Barbican Road

Tech note

Reload page if video thumbnail does not appear. From experimenting with various online video hosts, YouTube seems to be the most efficient. Blip.tv gave me some problems uploading and with playback, and as for Google video, I’m still waiting for their broadcast approval, three days after uploading the clip.

My heart sank when I saw the

Continue reading Video: Barbican Road

5 comments to Video: Barbican Road

Fyr

May 17, 2006 at 11:14 am · Reply

:-) I really like – nice shots. Have to go home and play it there cos I can’t listen the background music at work…

Gonna link you in on my blog too – widen de exposure :D
the .: fyr :. place » Homeward, Jamaican-style!

May 17, 2006 at 11:19 am · Reply

[...] But, before I bore y’all to death, go check out Ria’s post today…Â It RAWKS SAWKS!!! [...]
CGCOLLINS

May 26, 2006 at 9:14 pm · Reply

Have spent many an afternoon trapped along this route. I was expecting to see me in my car on my phone
Dennis

June 27, 2006 at 4:17 pm · Reply

I haven’t been back to JA in many, many years and that video brought back memories! See, I grew up in Barbican and remember riding my bicycle on those roads. Especially the road at the end of the video right in front of the church. Traffic was never that bad back in the day tho. Thanks for the trip down memory lane!
rory

January 30, 2007 at 12:28 am · Reply

i remember those roads well too, i grew up in the lane beside the church, called (ford pen lane or castle heights), especially when passing my old school, sanders, if you from barbican you know where mia talk

Amor vincit omnia fe true

We have 125 channels on TV.

I watch very little and very irregularly: The Daily Show, The Colbert Report and, the main advantage of so many channels, reruns of great US comedies such as Seinfeld, Frasier and vintage Cheers. Yet it’s one of the mysteries of the universe that I seem condemned to see the same six

Continue reading Amor vincit omnia fe true

10 comments to Amor vincit omnia fe true

Revolution island

May 12, 2006 at 3:04 pm · Reply

Heard about those movies. Saw my son’s preschool teacher perusing a list of them. Bootleg copies are going around like wildfire.
charles

May 12, 2006 at 8:41 pm · Reply

These movies are the hottest thing in Jamaica right now.
plk

May 13, 2006 at 6:02 pm · Reply

I am a bit disappointed that you did not find out in which European coountry the Mercedes was stolen.
Mad Bull

May 14, 2006 at 10:51 am · Reply

plk, I am sure there are a few ppl in Nigeria who could actually BUY a Benz, especially an old one like that. Nice little movie clip, Ria. Was the final heartwarmer the “Koldsweat”?
Ria

May 15, 2006 at 8:49 am · Reply

You got it!
plk

May 18, 2006 at 2:10 pm · Reply

Mad Bull: My comment re stolen cars is based on the fact (as reported in last weeks papers) that legit used car importers on the west coast are going belly-up because they cannot compete with stolen car dealers. The legit people have called on their own and on European government agencies to step up law enforcing.
evelyn

May 23, 2006 at 7:23 pm · Reply

You can believe what the western press wants you to believe. Nigeria is the no. 5 oil producer in the world. There is money in that country and a lot of luxury cars. The problem is that it is in the hands of only 10% of the elite. Yall can keep feeding on white folks propaganda.
Ria

May 23, 2006 at 10:07 pm · Reply

Your point is unclear, Evelyn.
Sola

June 13, 2006 at 11:34 am · Reply

Her point is actually very clear in relation to plk’s miseducated comments above. Whatever country he lives in may not even have enough luxury cars to rival the ones in Nigeria. Instead of him commenting on the Nigerian movies, he insinuates Nigerians steal cars. If we wanted to steal cars, you think it would be these 20yr old Benz types? Stop swallowing everything they feed you. Conduct your own investigation so you can sound a little informed when you comment in public places.
Ria

June 13, 2006 at 7:59 pm · Reply

I agree that his first comment was misplaced and insensitive; however, he did try to clarify himself in his second comment: Nigerian car importers are complaining to the Nigerian government and the EU about the high number of illegal imports. Nigerians are complaining, with justification, about other Nigerians. Nothing to do with “white folks propaganda”.

Stet

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