HARRY BISSOON

RICE FARMERS Harry Bissoon 2/27/2023 In a previous blog I talked about the Cane Cutter, imbued with inspiration from my mother's family. My father's family presents a different picture.  I was born in Whim Village on the Corentyne in Guyana. My grandfather from my father's family, Buck, came from North India and was of Mongolian stock. His sons were mostly rice farmers, including my father. When my father got married to an adventurous Sardar's daughter from the Skeldon Sugar Plantation, he moved to the sugar estate in Skeldon. I was just one year old! My parents took me to Whim on regular visits, and I got a close look at their industrious involvement in the rice industry. I made several trips to the rice fields with my uncles and cousins, and was actively involved in the cultivation, harvesting, and processing of rice!  My uncles and cousins were up early in the morning before the sun rose, gathering whatever was needed to spend the day in the backdam. My aunts were up...

MY FATHER'S DISCIPLINE WAS NEVER CONSIDERED AS ABUSE Harry Bissoon  See all my blogs at letstalkwithharrybissoon.blogspot.com  In my early teens, when the movie serial, THE DRUMS OF FU MANCHU, with Christopher Lee, was in vogue, my father, Bissoon Ramlackhan, aka Sardar, whipped me with his decorative acacia walking stick! I can't, quite frankly, and in all honesty, remember how many thumps he gave me on my buttocks, but it was enough to send my mother scurrying to my rescue, and to send my next door neighbor to beg him to stop the swift and thudding sound of acacia wood. I had gone to watch THE DRUMS OF FU MANCHU, showing at my neighborhood Cinema, Radio City, the premier movie theater in my village. It was the Saturday morning matinee show, for which he had given his explicit and conditional permission. I had gone to the movies that Saturday morning with my friend Tazi. We really enjoyed the non - stop action and suspense thriller.  After the show, as we exited the cine...

  STILL BOUND IN CHAINS Harry Bissoon  Are we a complacent species? Maybe not! Our historical development belies that thought. We have progressed to where we are today by being disruptive, violent and rebellious, forged in fire, as it were. Is it not? But we do get complacent when we reach certain benchmarks, and accept policies and norms that are cast in molds that we are accustomed to. Any change from 'normality' can be emotionally chaotic! The Roman conquests and its eventual defeat, the French revolution, the Prussian war, World Wars 1 and 2, the Mexican American War, the American Civil War, the disastrous Vietnamese imbroglio, and the Bolivarian struggles in South America, are just a sampling of the crucible of fire that has molded us into what we are today Notwithstanding, we still struggle to cling on to what we have. Our innate tendency to foment change.  is an attribute that we cannot seem to dislodge, and, therein lies our bondage. Nevertheless, we are still cau...