THERE ARE SOME LOCATIONS where you can always find an Argument. Taxi stands are guaranteed to facilitate political discourse. Rum bars have long pedigrees as centres of chat. Beauty salons and barber shops will always provide a good suss. The market is a given. Topics of the day are open to one and all. The more controversial the better.

BARBARA GLOUDON

So, what was the hot topic this week? In the market all the talk was about the mission of top-ranking members of our new administration to Cuba. Some were highly suspicious of the government's motives in the light of history which associated Cuba-Jamaica relations of contemporary times almost exclusively with Michael Manley, whose name still evokes passionate responses.

"Member how dem nearly kill him before him time, causen him and Fidel was friend?" said one Argumenter. Then followed comments about "Estrada", the former Cuban ambassador who after the tumultuous times of the 1970s, was declared persona non grata by the JLP government of the 1980s. "Look wha mi live fe see - dem same one a hug up Cuba now!"

A good deal of the Argument ensued about who and who never like Cuba and if is because Fidel retire that "feelings change". Finally, someone asked: "So what wrong if Mr Golding decide sey him and Cuba a frien'?" The Argument escalated even further "Den if him was going to frien' up Cuba, why him never tell wi so when him was campaigning? How him just spring it pon we so?"

More Argument, more heated and more passionate. The Argument boiled up until it reached the point where an elder made the observation: "Nutten nuh wrong if Mr Golding talk to Cuba. It would suit him and we. Cuba know some tings we nuh know and we can show dem tings too." "Him could at least mek wi know sey him a tek over from Michael. Him coulda did tell we," was the response. "Eeh-heh. Everybody know dat Michael was the first one who had the courage fe defend Cuba." The tone of the Argument ratcheted up another decibel.

The question of whether Mr Golding is appropriating Michael Manley's legacy features in many Arguments these days. The current revival of 1970s' slogans like: "Idle lands and idle hands" and "Grow what you eat, eat what you grow" are all so 70s. The government's declaration that Labour Day (May 23), is to be dedicated to the establishment of backyard gardens, has some carriers of Argument convinced that it is an attempt by the government to diminish the significance of Michael Manley.

There were recollections of the times when "self-reliance" was the order of the day, a flame still kept alive by those who identify with the "good old days". Are Michael's concepts returning, even if spoken by new voices, triggering much Argument? "What never happen in a year happen in a day."

ARGUMENT always has time for two sides of a story. In defence of the PM, other voices point out that more than once, they heard him say that he was prepared to establish his own links with Cuba (or words to that effect). "So, what's the excitement about? He's said it several times. Because you didn't hear it, you shouldn't complain now", said one Arguer.

Cuba, too, seems to want continuity with the Jamaican government. The foreign minister attended Mr Golding's swearing-in. We now know that Cuba has pledged to help us with technical co-operation in agriculture, etc, so the beat goes on... Washington notwithstanding. From media quotes, Mr Golding is looking forward to the lifting of the US-Cuba embargo. Since a brighter future for Cuba is expected to follow, it is evident that our PM wants us to be in on the ground floor when the right time come. The world is changing - and no Argument bout dat.

VERANDAH CHAT of the week was all about Beverley Manley's Memoirs, arguably the most controversial literary offering on the scene in a good while. Books in the tell-all genre are commonplace elsewhere, but while we love to chat people business, it is not often that we find one of our own "letting it all hang out" with intimate, personal and family secrets in print. Gasps of outrage emanate from some corners. "TMI - too much information," some say. It might be cathartic to the author, but not everyone is ready for it.
But in the words of another Argument: "This is a new age of freedom. Get used to it. Is the times."

RICE STORY:
I'd lose my standing with certain readers if I didn't continue, as promised, with the saga of rice-growing in JA. This one is from LORNA CLARKE, who now resides in Houston, Texas.
"I GREW UP in Paul Island, Westmoreland, (about three miles from Grange Hill). When I was a child, my parents, as did most people of East Indian descent, cultivated rice at Springfield and Ketto in Westmoreland, a few miles from Negril. The rice was planted in the swamp, always by a spring or small stream.

"Planting rice those days was hard work. You were always barefoot standing in the mud, sometimes water up to six inches deep. The rice was sown and then transplanted. When planting the seedlings, you would push a stick in the ground, get two or three stalks of rice and bend down, and with the stick as the guide, put your hand in the mud to plant the rice in the hole made by the stick and then use your toes to make sure the stalks were firmly in the ground. It was back-breaking work.

"Reaping time was also very labour-intensive. You would use a "grass knife" to cut the rice, bundle it up and carry it from the swamp. The rice then had to be beaten off the stalk, spread out to dry and then bagged. Throughout the year, every two weeks we would spread rice out to dry in the sun on burlap bags. (Those days we called them crocus bags.) After about four hours in the sun, we would bag the rice and take it to the mill which was next door. The rice was milled and the husk was given back to us to feed the pigs. The mill owner would take a pint or a quart of rice (depending on the amount milled) as his fee.

"A full bag of unmilled rice weighed about 100 pounds. It would be taken home and stored in a storeroom which the East Indians called a "backar". (It's an Indian word. I'm not sure of the spelling.) Rice was stolen frequently. Some East Indians built a room on to their storeroom for someone to stay and protect their rice.

"I remember one year someone broke our storeroom and stole the rice and our mule and cart to carry away the loot. In time, the mule came home and the cart was found abandoned on a side road in the cane field. In the 70s, most growers gave up planting rice because it was just too costly. You could not find workers willing to work in the swamp and by then, imported rice was cheaper."

MORE NEXT WEEK.

gloudonb@yahoo.com

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