Although it is forty years after the first Earth Day, Earth Day 2010 can still be a turning point to advance climate policy, energy efficiency, renewable energy and green jobs. Earth Day 2010 is a pivotal opportunity for individuals, corporations and governments to join together and create a global green economy. Join the more than one billion people in 190 countries that are taking action for Earth Day.
Appended are a number of actions that you can take to make the earth a better place.
· Pick up litter when you see it
· Shop at local farmer’s market and buy organic food
· Take shorter, cooler showers and use less shampoo
· Install water saving shower head
· Abstain from eating meat one day a week to curb carbon emissions from the livestock industry
· Write to your local utility company and ask about their plans to offer a green energy programme using solar or wind power
· Use environmentally friendly cleaning projects
· Use a reusable water bottle and take a mug to work for coffee or tea
· Organize a clean –up in your neighborhood
· Use recycled paper
· Plant a tree
· Clean a beach
· Use a reusable shopping bag for groceries
· Turn off lights when you leave a room
· Pay bills online instead of receiving bills in the mail
Growing up we always had an endless supply of West Indian Gooseberries this time of the year. Trees droop with West Indian Gooseberries borne in small clusters straight from the trees trunk and limbs of the tree. This hard berry with a ribbed surface compelled us to oblige in-spite of the sour/acidic, zingy/tart taste.
My secondary research reveals numerous notable mentions of various types of gooseberry (excluding the West Indian Gooseberry). In Montserrat the fruit is called gooseberry, Cayman Island it is called chelamela. In Jamaica it is known by various names in different Parishes such as chermina, jimbelin, Otaheite gooseberry, sour barge. In Grenada it is called damsel, Trinidad raspberry.
There are other types of gooseberries as well. The other well published name for the gooseberries outside of the Caribbean are the Cape gooseberry with a Chinese’s papery skin, the European gooseberry which is green and the American gooseberry that is deep purple. Gooseberry is also known as Grosille a Maquereaux in French, Stekbes in Flemish, Stachelebeere in German and UveSpina in Italian. It was very interesting to learn that these gooseberries bear June to July.
These firm berries whether West Indian European or American all supply varying amount of Vitamin C, which is good for our immune system, and potassium which maintain the bodies mineral and fluid balance.
Smack, smack, smack, smack I can now see our friends squirm after biting into of these tangy berries. In Montserrat when things are sour we say that they ‘cut your courage.’ This Caribbean fruit has many uses include drink, jam, wine, currents and syrups. For children of the West Indies, we are hypnotized during gooseberry season as there is a natural compulsion to have another and another. I guess when you think about it “sour taste promotes salivation.” Sour foods are generally cleansing as well as stimulating to the appetite and just typing this is making me want to eat just one more gooseberry.
I remembered the first time I visited Montserrat after the volcanic crisis; a friend took me to visit the danger zone. Plymouth (the capital) was uninhabitable and totally abandoned, boxes of shoes lay in shoe stores, curtains blew from opened windows, and the town was so empty that you could hear an echoing sound from the wind in every direction. I did not cry and my friend asked if I was that cold. In hindsight, I realized there are certain losses that are deeper than tears. I carried the loss within me then and still now; for me it was a mixture of emotions.
In my later teens and into my early adulthood I enjoyed my island as everyone should. For example there were many Fridays I packed my clothes into a nap sack and did not return to my home until Mondays as I traversed every mountain trail, drank from many ghauts and rivers and rested under many trees that provided shade from South to North of Montserrat. I did not have a sleeping bag or tent but sheets and slept in the open under the sky. The spirituality of every track, soil, bank, hill, mountain and river that once thrust inside me had once again bonded me to those moments as I gazed at my ravaged town. I am thankful that I experienced those sacred places and they took me in before they were filled with debris or were obliterated.
Another of my memories was going with my mother to her work place which stood on St. Georges Hill. That location provided one of the most picturesque views of Plymouth and surrounding villages. Later, I visited the location during another visit where the impact from the pyroclastic flow blew out the inside of the building and banked the cliff the building stood on just seconds short totally obliterating the entire place.
One of the most amazing things is that while I am writing this post, is that I did not verbalize what I am writing but my daughter just stood beside me saying that she was painting a volcano. That is the power of connection. So even though she is a descendant who has not traversed the ghauts, mountains, hills and gullies of Montserrat there is soulful connection. Isn’t life a mystery?
As the news media is bombarded with various natural disasters Iceland, Haiti, India, China, Montserrat and so many others, I empathize with the losses but there is one thing we all have that can never be taken from us. That is our memories; the stories, the experiences and the collective understanding as these calamities are all unique as they have affected what we call home.
For years as I ascend the Soufriere Mountains on various hiking trips I would always stop and watch the Pan American World Airways (Pan Am) plane wreckage on the south side of the 3002ft mountain. On Friday 17 September 1965 Flight 292 crashed into the Soufriere Mountains while flying from Martinique en-route to New York via San Juan, killing all on board. It was reported that the sky was slightly overcast at the time of the crash. Seeing the footage from the scenes of this weekend’s crash in Poland reminded me about Pan Am crash in Montserrat. We are informed that Poland’s President Lech, Kaczynski plane crashed into trees in foggy weather as it approached the Smolensk airport. I remember hearing stories told to me about the Montserrat crash and now thinking about the differences of this recent disaster I know the former calamity is dwarfed in comparison on many fronts but there is one similarity for me and it is the fog.
Do you know that there is no difference between the fog and clouds other than altitude? Fog is defined as visible moisture that begins at a height lower than 50 feet. If the visible moisture begins at or above 50 feet, it is called a cloud. I know from my own experience while hiking that sometimes one can barely see your arms while walking in clouds. There are also moments of disorientation based on the speed of the walk. Furthermore there are also times when you are tricked into thinking that you actually reached the summit. So the task that Captain Grzegorz Pietruczuk (the pilot) was entrusted undoubtedly not an easy one.
Let us pray for the souls of the faithful departed and the many who mourn the passing of their love ones in these and other plane crashes.
Today I came across the song sang by Young Artists for Haiti ‘Wavin’ Flag’ and I was moved. My three year old daughter said ‘mama that is a great song’ and she quickly learned the chorus. she sang the verse ‘When I get older I will be stronger “ with her hands outstretched to her side and eyes shut as she felt the very soul of the lyrics I wondered about the future of the Haitian children and pray that they will not be forgotten.
The composition is a fusion of singers from Canada including Jully Black, K’naan, Nelly Furtado, Avril Lavigne Justin Bieber, Nikki Yanofsky and Drake. I thought I will share; attached is a sample of the song.
Good Friday is fast approaching, growing up every Good Friday I looked forward in high spirits to putting egg white in and half of a glass of water. We would do this to watch an image form from the egg white at noon. It was said that the image in the glass gives a glimpse of your future. I was told by one of my elders who taught me this practice that Good Friday is the only day an image can form. As I got older I never tested this theory. Perhaps I should have.
It has been years since I tried this exercise. This may surprise you but I guess we all have stories that make us special.
Recently I have been thinking about the accumulation of wealth (possessions, experience, and relationships). These are the things that are very precious to people. We protect them, ponder them and hold them tightly in mind and the mere thought of it may give delight and pleasure. A few months ago I visited Cat Island for the third time but this time my experience was none like I have encountered before. I climbed the highest Point of Cat Island with six others. There were two choices a more gradual path and there was a steeper path. I took the steeper path and each step was an experience within itself. On the way upward were Stations of the Cross. As I passed the Stations of the Cross; I noticed that they were carved out of stone, all the way up to the summit. Just being up there for a while was an emotional recovery and an experience of solitude; in a dramatic way. The atmosphere was very tranquil and calm. There were others with me but at times it seemed that I was all alone.
This takes me back to Jerome Hawes, a British man who constructed the Stations of the Cross on the side of the hill. He died about 54 years ago but those structures still stand strong. It does strike me that he came from an affluent family and gave it all up to live in such simplicity. He purchased the highest hill in Cat Island which is also the highest point in the Bahamas where he built (due to his diminutive size) a model of a miniature abbey. He was ordained as an Anglican Priest but converted to Roman Catholicism and built a few churches in the process (from Long Island to Cat Island and beyond.)
He is entombed at the hermitage; which is a living testimony to the values which altered and governed in his life. He did not seek reputation or fame but he came to be recognized as a world renown architect, a philosopher, a poet, and sculptor. Father Jerome Hawes gave up all his treasures and came to Cat Island in The Bahamas to seek solitude and to live in poverty.
It is ironic that if it were not for his vast wealth he would be unable to buy the hill on which he built the monastery and he would not been able to build the churches that he built (using his own funds) and he more than likely would not be able to afford the education which gave him the architectural “know how.” Yet he chose to live in utter destitution while spending his money in doing “God’s work.” This tells me that having wealth is not bad in and of itself but we should be very prudent in how we choose to use what we are given.
When last have you sat down and recounted the days when you thought that your parents were highly unreasonable, judicious, controlling, and rigid? Have you ever as a child remembered those one or two times (maybe more) when you contemplated the possibility you may have been adopted. It could be that you even took it a step further and expressed your hostility in words like “I hate them/you/her/him.†Don’t say that it is only me that thought these things. Now that you are a parent guardian or simply an adult you have come to realize that they were not mercenaries. Their tactics, however misconstrued, were meant to protect, love and care. As a parent looking back I see things in a different way. I now realize that all the parenting I received, with the benefit of hindsight, now all makes sense!
Most of us, no doubt, have a list of at least two persons that we would like to meet; living or dead. A few months ago I had the great fortune of meeting such a person on my list. He appeared visibly frail, a bit foggy, suffering from a hearing impairment, which made him a bit irritable, impatient and ennui. He struggled with a cough as he read an excerpt from “The Schooner Flight.” He spoke with such candor; some may say he emerged as a man of ruthlessly honest disposition. But no one could have taken away the fact that he is a first-class writer/poet. His comportment in no way had diminished my experience and respect for him. For me it was reminder that we are all mortal and perseverance pays off, do what you love and you will reap the rewards! From the audience it was evident that his books have inspired a panoply of responses from the readers; professors, students and the public alike. In the question and answer sessions,the audience enjoyed quoting him; but their interpretations for the most part did not mirror his thoughts. To make the ‘long story short’ poetry is open to the reader’s interpretation.
For us Caribbean people Derek Walcott symbolizes the power of words as he was our first Caribbean Nobel Laureate. He just celebrated his 80th birthday in January. I am proud to stand on his shoulders.
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