The miracle of plants

My orchid is blooming. Remarkable! I have never had an orchid lose it's blooms, grow a new shoot and bloom again. It's a wonderful feeling. But, first I must say that my husband had a lot to do with this. I didn't realise he watered it until I saw the shoot coming up, then I got excited and started watching it like a hawk. Hopefully I don't love it to death. I don't think so, because now I'm careful with the water. I check on it every morning and every evening just to make sure. It feels good to grow something, or rather, have something grow in your presence.

As you can imagine by now, I'm no good with plants. Horrible as a matter of fact. Terrible even. Plants commit suicide rather than be tended by me - yes, it's that bad. I'm the woman who kills a cactus. Can you imagine that -- I kill a plant that requires no care!

I have a tender spot for orchids. They are beautiful, elegant flowers and I wish I could grow them for a living. But I don't think I have the patience to grow plants, soon I'll want them to water themselves and that won't happen. I'm easily distracted. I'll come home tired and forget about them and for weeks I don't see the back of the yard. Someone could move in and I would have no clue.

Today's the orchid show in Hope Pastures. I'll try and go if I finish cooking in time. It should be beautiful. At the orchid show I can dream of raising an orchid properly...one can only hope.

8.9 in Japan

Last Friday, the world watched with horror as an 8.9 earthquake rocked Japan and a tsunami produced a 23 feet wave that destroyed a large part of the north-east section of the island. I can't stop thinking about it. On the one hand it's rather incredible, especially the photo of the sea churning and looking rather beautiful. The photo of the wave showed nature at it's mightiest and literally stopped my breath as I thought of all those people. It is hard to fathom the last thoughts of the people caught in the wave or those who were unaware until the water slammed into them. My heart bleeds for them and I say a prayer for those thousands of persons who have died and the millions that must continue life without them. I pray particularly for the three Jamaicans who cannot be found and hope that it's simply a matter of communication.

Japan's 8.9 is the third major quake since the start of the year - and I suspect there were more that I can't remember. World disasters happen so rapidly now that I've begun a retreat from the media. I'm not as rabid as I was for some breaking news but check in when I wish. Sometimes it's every day, sometimes not. Locally, I try to read the newspaper daily - or rather glance through it and read what I want, usually something light mixed in with at least one important piece or commentary, depending on my mood. It's all too shocking and with the recession and the difficulties we're facing in Jamaica and in my job, my brain cannot absorb it all and I find it hard to think and focus.

My daughter says what happened in Japan is like the movie 2012 and she's partially correct. With the climbing number of disasters, I have to wonder if the world is truly not coming to an end, or if the planet is not at a point of repositioning itself for a new beginning, much like scientists thought happened when the dinosaurs became extinct. Everything is topsy turvey, from the weather to human behaviour. It all seems out of whack and I keep thinking, where has it all come from? But I think I know. In the last 15 years, technology has opened up a can of worms none of us thought possible. Two years ago we would not have gotten photos of the Japan earthquake within minutes of it happening and as it happened. Two years ago we would have heard the news hours later and would have to wait a day or two for photographs. Now, the news is instant and with that comes a level of anxiety that no one could predict. Maybe these things always happened and we were all wrapped up in our own little world that we didn't notice. Only the history books can tell. What I do know is that we're in a cauldron and someone's lit the fire.

The trouble with Gas - and unrelenting dictators

Gas price in Jamaica has passed the $100.00 mark. In US currency that is $1.176 per liter or about $4.71 per gallon. A lot of mullah for people who were suffering under a recession that shouldn't have hit our shores...so said one misguided politician, who thank God has since redeemed himself with his efforts in controlling the country's finances. But back to the gas...

I purchase by value rather than quantity. Where it takes is as far as I go and if I can purchase more I do. This week my sister and I decided to car pool. After all, we work and live in the same neighborhoods, or very near. The only difference is she works until late and I have to escape the office at 6 p.m. before the dogs are let out. But, in light of the cost of fuel, I'll sit in the car and read a book until she's ready. It's the new way of the world.

But seriously, when is this going to end? When are we going to get a transportation system that we're comfortable with in Jamaica, or at least one that I can be sure will arrive when it should. But then again, what do I know? I haven't taken the bus in ages, despite it running right past my gate. One look into that crowded abyss in the mornings convinced me that if I ever try that adventure, I will do it on Sunday morning, when the bus is practically empty. The crowds at the bus stop is also a turn-off as I think of the hours spent standing in the sun, peering far up in the never-ending metallica, hoping that yellow dot way back in the distance is your bus and knowing very well that peopling living further up the line have already rammed it tight. No wonder many still drive.

Last week, a friend told me that part of the reason governments are unable to properly convince their citizens to ride the public transport or car pool, is that people have become accustomed to the personal space and security a car provides. It's that three feet this and that way that keeps me protected from the other being without the need for unnecessary conversation or even politeness that has us struggling to afford pricey cars and ridiculous gas prices. He may very well be on to something.

They say this new rise in oil prices is due to the trouble in the Middle East. I don't know whether to thank the Tunisians for waking up the world and showing them the true deal behind the deals that have modern countries and so called leaders of the developed world, befriending these dictators and declaring them changed beings or to smack them over the head and ask, what the hell were you thinking? Well, one recent rant in the hallowed UN Council by the 'mad dog of the East' showed that up for the bag of hog wash it is. The plain and nasty truth is that not one of those countries would pay any of them the time of day if they weren't sitting on a sea of black gold, or if they weren't mad tyrants, threatening to kill us all. The latter, I do believe is closely tied to the first. What on earth is going on on earth? Where were we all when secret deals were being made with Ghadafi? How did we ever believe that this man or any of them really wanted to change and that the change would be sustainable? Why would they think that they can rule their people for ever, passing on leadership to their next of kin like it was a little plot of land in the desert. Did they not expect their people to be fed-up of being fed-up? I'm waiting to see how long it's going to take one of the G8 to go in guns blazing to save the people (wink, wink).

It's amazing when you think about the whole thing. If we have peace in the Middle East, then the rest of the world sighs and happily sucks up as much oil as they can produce; if they're angry, then we're in deep excrement. If there is a recession, then oil prices drop because, naturally, many will not be able to afford their existing cars much less drive new ones or consume anything that uses the precious liquid. When the world is in the black, then oil prices soar because we're happily consuming. So what's the solution? Be poor and lament the inability to afford a vehicle but rejoice at the low oil prices? Or be rich and don't care about the cost of oil because you can afford it and damned the gaps created beneath the earth because we're sucking it dry? Either way, something's not right and it seems like we'll ponder this til eternity.

By the way, what happens underground when the oil's taken out - is it a black empty mass of nothing? Now that's one for the naturalists.

P.S. The photo above was taken from the web and is courtesy PennsylvaniaForChange.Blogspot.com

Lent

Today is Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent. It's the time when many persons make announcements about what they will give up for the season. Few follow-through and it becomes like New Year's resolutions - we make them, knowing very well that not one item on the list will be fulfilled. My daughter announced that she will give up soda for the period and I said, very good, thinking that I've given up so much during the recession that I don't know there's much of worth left.

This year, I'm trying to take a new lease on life and am seriously thinking through business options. I'm not short on ideas but rather on follow-through and funding. The first is a big hurdle to overcome as I often get lost in the details. Courage fails me and my creativity fades as I think of putting myself out there and taking the challenge. But slowly but surely I'm getting there.

So for Lent, I will give up fear and make a plan to develop a business of my own...as a matter of fact, it is my New Year's resolution that this year, I get the courage to succeed.

Poppy Show

There is a matter that is taking up much of public time and money and which up to now, I've refrained from writing about. This is the Manatt/Dudus Enquiry (not the proper name). For those non-Jamaicans who may wander into this blog unknowingly, the short version is that the Enquiry is being held to determine if anyone is to be held liable for the fiasco that was the extradition of one of our most reputed and known area leaders, Christopher Coke, a.k.a, Dudus. Manatt is the legal firm that was to don invisible cloaks and slip into a confidential meeting with US State Department and the Jamaican Government representatives who were there to discuss the extradition request. When found out, everyone lied and appeared stupid and here we are at an Enquiry.

It is a serious matter...or so I thought. I will be the first to admit that I thought it a waste of time. I was afraid to say it out loud, but now, I'm more convinced. I honestly don't know what will come of it except fame and future job prospects for the attorneys who represent the politicians who are all fumbling to protect themselves. To quote a newspaper headline, 'Send in the clowns!' Oh wait, they're already there.

The cartoon in this blog was taken from the Jamaica Observer's website today and is a perfect representation of the Enquiry.

Jamaicans would say this is a real 'poppy show' and it is. The lawyers are strutting their stuff like proud peacocks while the politicians hurl insults and innuendos. I have to wonder if this is their last ditch attempt at public grand-standing before they slip back into their uninteresting world of banging wooden desks in parliament and flipping pages of three-inch thick documents that they will never read. Politicians and attorneys are the only set of people I know who can sit and answer questions for 4 hours and not reveal anything except the fact that they saw nothing, read nothing, heard nothing and knew no one. And so it continues.

Ah well, I'm sure when this is done, someone will hold an Enquiry to determine why this Enquiry didn't reveal all the truths it should and why in the end, all we have is a fat expensive talk-fest.