Amina Blackwood Meeks
WELL, LIKKLE Miss Bang should have been a lawyer. She doan have a chick nor a chile but she find herself into de people dem school bout she gane vindicate on behalf of a neighbour's child who, ascardin to Jing Bang, the principal send home widout due cause.
Well, to how Miss Lady get it, de principal threaten fe expel de chile on de allegations sey de pikney, Samson by name on account of him always beleaguered and always outnumbered, did always a fight inna school yaad. She inform de principal sey de Ministry of Education done regulate dat expulsion kean jus happen so an de Ministry of Justice uphold innocence till proven guilty. So everyting could only remain at de allegations stage till all alligators had been dealt with.
In de meantime, she was very perturbed sey de pikney deh a him yaad wid nutten more productive fe do but trouble ants nest, thereby to further widen de education gap dat de Minister of Justice is concerned about. Aldaogh who knows, de chile might turn out to be a scientist, appear all pan National Geographic. Still, fe trouble ants and doan get bite yu need a proper foundation. Dat is where Jing Bang step in.
PROOF OF FIGHTING ABILITIES
She march herself direckly to de principal office an demands proof of de pikney fighting abilities. Before she cudda finish de wud, de teacha produce wan lotto line a pikney full of nutting but scratches and bruises, nuff teet mark. Well it didn't look like de self-inflicted variety and, as you know one smaddy kean fight. So de line of de battered did only goes to prove dat nuff fighting was taking place an nuff people never come off so good. That made it rather difficult for JB to disprove dat dere had been a few incidents of scuffling, as she call it, so she decide to dig into de cause of same.
Well, it turn out dat de said Samson did live nutten more dan a 20-minute drive from de location of him school. Dat is if yu try to drive dere pan a Sunday, some Saturdays, maybe public holidays and any weekday after 9:00 pm. Should you try to meck de journey at any odda time, yu haffe prepare fe a trip of at least two hours pack you breakfast, wan likkle just-in-case snack, a bokkle of water frozen to witstand de heat an a rag fe daub sweat offa yu brow. An dat is if yu fortunate enough to be going by private transport.
If yu haffe ketch a bus now, everyting about de journey is unpredictable. Is de vehicle legal? Is de driver jus tryin a ting fe eat a food an feel sey him nuh need no licence fe do dat? Will police attempt to run a check? Will de driver sight up what a gwaan an fled? At dat point any number could play an not one passenger in dat vehicle might be able to make any connection between where dem set out to go an which part dem end up.
FIGHTING MISSION
When JB put herself into Samson position, she fine sey jus to get to school is a fight. An is poverty him madda a sen him go school go learn fe fight. But him learn plenty adda unintended lessons enroute. So de very mission whey him deh pan from de beginning is a fighting mission. Fight fe wake up early. Fight chu de dark and fear of tings dat lurk in de dark fe reach de bus stop first a mawnin time. Fight fe bigga smaddy nuh shub pass yu an cause yu fe haffe wait pan a later bus. Fight off de thought sey de bus a go come late ... again. Fight fe meck sure sey nobaddi nuh push yu off ... again. Fight chu de crowd fe come off before de ducktor senoff de bus inna fe him impatience fe meck de next trip.
So, by de time poor Samson reach school now, any likkle good attitude get fight outa an de ongly ting whey him value is to defend himself. JB put it to de principal dat de conditions pan de road predisposes de Jamaican children to do battle. And she instance de case of Sleepy.
Sleepy usually go to school pan de school bus. But hear fe him story. Ascardin to de route, a him fus get pick up an ascardin to him luck, a him laas get drap off, going an coming. So him always a sleep. Sometimes when him step off de bus after de two hours of driving, de balance of de sleep dat leave over since him premature waking up at four o'clock cause de likkle innocent fe stagger. How could a teacher in dem right mind accuse de likkle bwoy of coming to school drunk? How she mean fe plant idea inna him head sey in order to confront de traffic him have to start de day wit something strong.
JB sey a mussi dat why de traffic does not appear to move in certain places. Everybody unda two. Dem jamming so a nuh nutten if traffic jam too. She sey is nuff tings in de society cause from traffic jam. For she see people inna car, madda, chile, fadda or any permutation thereof an nubaddi nah talk to de nex wan. So-so long face. Sometime de wan who nat driving glad fe de chance fe form-sleep. An she always wanda how dat could be.
Once upon a time driving into a vehicle was occasion fe sing valdaree-valadaraa. Samson an Sleepy enlighten har sey dat kean gwaan again. No happy wanderer nuh deh inna no vehicle, private or public, except maybe Sunday. An be de time dem ketch whey dem a go an recover from de ordeal, is time fe start de return journey. Eida way, if smaddy nuh try physically batter-bruise yu, de spirit teck a licking. An by de time yu open yu front door an meck sure nubaddi neva bruk in while you were out, is time fe bade an go back whey yu a come fram.
She sey she conclude sey fe help change how we relate to wan anedda, major changes haffe gwaan into how we jamming. As far as she is concerned we shudda give tanx sey summuch a we too poor fe afford de Highway. Yu can imagine de jam a people a wait fe pay de toll. But she sey a de people dem who pay de toll need some overhaul into fe dem daily conditions. For she hear wan a dem sey how him bex after him pay him money an reach de point of exit at de overhead bridge outa Ferry an haffe slow dung an merge back into de jam. Him lucky him can pretend sey him a fly at leas fe couple minutes. Suppose him journey did teck him pan a route wid no escape, no side road an nuttin to toll?
Anybaddi did know sey diabetes is a ting dat cause bad fluctuations into people's mood an temperament? JB sey dat is de problem wid de population, lifestyle diseases a go kill we, too much jam inna dem life. Likkle a it fe cut out. She put it sey Samson an Sleepy kean bear de cross alone while de res a de worl a wanda is how dem tun into such likkle bad-behaving fighting machines. Bes dem fine a way to solve de situation before dem tun into grown-up, well-conditioned fighting machine. De traffic a meck monsters outa whole a we.
