Letter to

De Young People

(Last Part)

copyright to the webmistress (yuh ole teef)

Yes is me again in de young people skin. Ah done talk doh. Allyer mus’ be sayin' ah song'in just like yuh miserable mudda, but no, is not dat. Hear nuh. I on your side. I for one wish some parents would remember how it was when dey was young. How dey did jes' want somebody sensible to talk wid. How tings used to be confusing. How when yuh hormones make yuh feel like yuh have St. Vitis Dance, yuh did only need to hear some advice not a set'a quarellin'.

Not because yuh young it mean yuh chupid. Some young people have dey head on dey shoulder more dan some’a de parents. Some young people on de right track buh some’a dem have some real dotishy dotishy parents. Doh tink ah doh know.

An’ what does get me even more vex is dem so-call community leaders who always crying sorrow on we head. Tellin’ we dat Caribbean chirren have disadvantages.

What blasted disadvantages dey talkin’ ‘bout?

You mean to tell me if we finish school good, keep weself clean and tidy, respeck weself and we parents, an’ work hard, we go still fail? Yuh mean tuh tell me dat all we chirren who doin' good in University go en' up totin' water up a hill? You mean to tell me dat all dem Caribbean doctors an’ lawyers an’ CEO (YES it have Caribbean CEOs) an’ performers an’ professors an’ authors is a mirage?

Look ah getting’ vex here jes’ writing dis ting oui. All dem community leaders who keep tellin’ we dat tings tough and we cah make, ah want tuh gi' dem dis message. Kiss my Royal Caribbean ARSE! Doh laugh nuh. Is troot. Why dey always makin’ tings look so gloomy fuh we?

Take my advice. When dey start tellin’ yuh yuh cah do dis and yuh cah do dat, leggo a long dry steupse an’ go an’ read how Condoleeza Rice succeed. When dem community leaders tell yuh shouldn' expect big tings from society, turn yuh back and go and read how Colin Powell succeed.

When dey tell yuh Caribbean chirren at a disadvantage, akse dem about Sidney Poitier (Bahamas) Claude McKay (Jamaica) Rose-Marie Toussaint (Haiti), Sir Garfield Sobers (Barbados). We have one set’a Nobel Prize winners from de Caribbean, we have Walcott an’ even Naipaul, even doh ah doh like he attichude.

So if we could have 10 winners, we cah have 20? Look doh raise mih blood pressure here today eh! Ah know dem leaders only tryin’ to help, but dey doing it backward. Doh tell we how it cah be done, tell we how it CAN be done!

By de time I get ole, is allyer young ones who go be in charge. I doh want my life an’ my healt’ in de hands of no chupidy. I know yuh have sense an’ yuh could understan’ what it is ah tellin’ yuh.

Respeck yuhself. Big up yuhself. Have ambition. All allyer wid de right attichude ah supportin' yuh two million tousand percent! Yuh go make it! If mammy workin’ tree jobs to keep yuh head cover and food on de table, help she out by studyin’ yer school work, nuh? Pay she back by leh’in she come to yuh graduation and see yer wearin’ on de square hat an’ de long gong wid dat roll up piece’a paper in yuh han’.

She proud’a yuh. Doh mine she quarrellin’. West Indian parents does sometimes fuhget to hug up and kiss up, buh she proud all de same. Take my word fuh it.

All allyer wid yer head paint forty diff’rent colour or de cap still wid de price tag on it, ah beggin’ yer do, stop an’ tink about when yer reach 30 or 40. It have a time in everybody life when dey stop lookin’ ahead and start lookin’ back. If you only limin’ and teefin’ and havin’ a set’a chirren fuh a set’a diff’rent men, what yuh goin’ tuh look back and see?

At your age de whole worl’ full up’a opportunity. Wid dat lil piece’a paper mark Diploma or Degree yuh could do plenty ting. I does pong Canada buh it have plenty ting yuh could do up here. An' when yuh get dat paper, yuh could even go back home an' make yuhself useful.

Doh leh nobody, includin' yuh parents, stop yuh from dreamin’ big and strivin’ fuh yuhself. When yuh do have chirren yuh go be able to show dem how you pull up yuhself an’ stay respecktable. Yuh doh need a million dollar to have self respeck.

Doh worry, nex’ week ah takin’ a tun in yuh parents' tail. I not goin’ to leh dem get away easy so. I know is not you alone gi’in’ trouble. Jes’ becaw dey name ‘parent’ doh mean dey always doin’ de right ting. I know some’a allyer tryin’ yer bes' in school buh mammy still have she mout push up. Ah know some’a allyer does try an’ help sweep out and cook and ting buh still she gettin’ on like a craze-aow. Ah know.

Dey ole. Dey head hard. Buh ah still goin’ and boof dem. I on your side an’ ah doh care if dey doh like all what I say. Is time somebody try and big up we chirren.

Ah lie?