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Sunday, September 20, 2026

Kevin Edwards making a presentation on sustainable wildlife management with others during a training programme

Making a mark in his community - Local tour guide shares extensive knowledge of wildlife management and tourism

CHRONICLE PEPPERPOT ― Sunday, September 20, 2026

Former Guyana Chronicle Chief Reporter exudes an air of confidence in bid for Councillor at upcoming Toronto Municipal Election

By Frederick Halley EXUDING an air of confidence, and with his immediate family and supporters in attendance at the Windies Restaurant & Sports Bar in Scarborough, Toronto, last Saturday night, former Chief Reporter at the Guyana Chronicle, Robert Bazil, told residents of Scarborough-Guildwood Ward 24 that they had the “willpower for a day to fire and to hire with the simple stroke of a pen…” The occasion was Bazil’s campaign launch and fundraiser as he seeks to emerge as the new councillor for the area in the Toronto municipal election on October 26. Reiterating that the upcoming election is about voting for change, an ebullient Bazil said it’s about voting him into office. “To the residents of Ward 24, Robert Bazil is the best, most suited and most qualified candidate to represent

you as your new councillor for Scarborough-Guildwood at City Hall when you cast your vote early between the 6th and the 11th of October

Part of the audience at last Saturday’s campaign launch and fundraiser

and on October 26,” Bazil asserted. He pointed out that “this election is probably the easiest because the objective is

to vote for change. We can’t continue to do the same thing every four years and expect different results. Well, this year, the residents are rising

Robert Bazil, second from right, poses with his wife and four children

up, they are fighting back, and they are bold. In fact, you can already feel it in the air that a wind of change is coming to Scarborough-Guildwood on October 26. “Residents and friends, that wind of change will manifest for sure because there is a set time and there is an appointed time which has already been ordained for change, when the tired, weary and frustrated residents, fuelled by the commitment of our loyal donors, some of whom are already charged up and excited tonight, will be part of that change by planting a seed in my campaign for councillor.” Bazil disclosed that he is confident that the residents of Ward 24 will overwhelmingly give him the mandate to be their new councillor at City Hall. “So listen carefully, listen well and listen attentively. Tell your voting relatives in your household and your friends and neighbours not to be confused by the rhetoric. Don’t be clouded by the promises and don’t be drowned by the noise. Assure them that their only job on election day is to vote for change. The only name that should be on their minds is Robert Bazil. Look for the name Robert Bazil on the ballot paper, put your mark next

to it, follow the instructions of the polling staff and go home and wait for breaking news.” Boasting that he will be the new councillor at City Hall come October 26, Bazil declared: “You, the residents of Ward 24, will benefit from my professional expertise because, as a licensed paralegal in the Province of Ontario, when fully practising, my scope of practice would have included administrative tribunals, which include agencies and boards such as the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB), Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB), Social Benefits Tribunal (SBT) and Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (HRTO). So Robert Bazil, your new councillor, standing in front of you, is not walking into office on day one as a Boy Scout. “On day one as your new councillor for Ward 24, I will hit the ground running to improve transit, push for enhanced customer service training for Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) operators, agitate for access to affordable housing, champion environmental and conservation issues, improve winter maintenance, tackle the plague of traffic congestion, strengthen infrastructure management and TURN TO PAGE VIII

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An Outstanding Writer Returns to Fiction

CHRONICLE PEPPERPOT ― Sunday, September 20, 2026

Renowned Guyanese playwright and author Harold Bascom to launch Love & New Road and Other Stories September 26 By Andrea Hendricks AFTER a career spanning illustration, theatre, painting and five Guyana Prize for Literature wins, Guyanese creative Harold A. Bascom returns with LOVE & NEW ROAD and OTHER STORIES, a collection that brings his many artistic titles back to the literary form. Born in Vergenoegen, East Bank Essequibo, Bascom spent his formative years moving among Best Village, New Road in Vreed-en-Hoop, Pouderoyen and Linden. Those communities gave him a broad view of Guyana’s social worlds, a perspective that continues to animate his fiction and drama. Now living in Georgia, USA, Bascom remains closely connected to Guyana. The country continues to shape

his stories and plays. Recently, Bascom discussed all things literature in an interview with the Guyana Chronicle Pepperpot Magazine, including details of LOVE & NEW ROAD and OTHER STORIES, scheduled to be launched on September 26. Pepperpot Magazine: For readers who may be discovering you for the first time, who is Harold Bascom, and how would you describe yourself as a writer and storyteller? Harold A. Bascom: I am a Guyanese creative. And yes, I am a writer-storyteller. Before I left Guyana in 1996, my first novel, APATA: The Story of a Reluctant Criminal, was published by Heinemann Educational Books of London, so I became a Heinemann Caribbean Writers Series novelist, which

was quite an achievement for me. Added to that, I became the second Guyanese writer to have a novel published in a foreign country without leaving the shores of Guyana. Berbician writer, the late Edgar Mittelholzer, was the first. Then I became a leading Guyanese playwright, producer, and director of popular plays which I staged at the

co-Tree: Ol’ Higue Story, and others. I am also a five-time winner of the Guyana Prize for Literature, as well as an artist-painter PM: What first drew you to writing, and what experiences have most influenced the writer you have become today? HAB: I was first drawn

Harold A. Bascom, renowned Guyanese novelist, playwright, illustrator, painter and stage director, and a five-time winner of the Guyana Prize for Literature All photo credits: Harold Bascom.

Photo cover for publication

Illustration by Harold A. Bascom for his story, Screaming Smooth’

National Cultural Centre. Plays like Tessa Real-Girl & the Old Fool, The Barrel, Cockle House, The Visa Wedding, and many more. Before that, I was a book illustrator employed by the Guyana Ministry of Education, and my work appeared in supplementary readers such as Our First Village, Balram’s New Home, Bound for Guyana, Cumfa Drums are Calling, The Moco-Mo-

to writing because I wanted to become a film director— and still do. This surprises many interviewers: I didn’t set out to be a writer, but a film director. I used writing as a means to become a film director. Then I became a playwright to become a film director. Now, I’m a full-time writer and playwright, but I still hope to become a filmmaker.

PM: Your stories draw from life and society. What usually sparks an idea for a story, and how do you transform those observations into fiction? HAB: My philosophy as a creative, whether I’m in artist mode, writer mode, or playwright mode, is to be an antenna for the society I live in. I feel my role is to reflect the way we live—the way we relate to one another, and especially our values. You asked what sparks an idea for a story, and I will give an example: As a Guyanese, I kept thinking about how many people buy their driver’s

licences, and the thought of the practice appalled me. So I decided to say something about it as a writer and wrote a story about a young woman who wants to be seen behind the wheel of an expensive car, even though she lacks the eye-and-hand coordination to steer a motor vehicle safely. So, she buys her licence, her “Sugar daddy” buys her a car, and she kills a child on the road. My stories come from being part of our society. PM: You are preparing to launch your collection of short stories on September 26. What inspired you to TURN TO PAGE VI

Making a mark in his community

CHRONICLE PEPPERPOT ― Sunday, September 20, 2026

- Local tour guide shares extensive knowledge of wildlife management and tourism

By Michel Outridge KEVIN Edwards is a prominent community conservation leader and the Fisheries Project Coordinator for the North Rupununi District Development Board (NRDDB) in Guyana. He coordinates community-led sustainable fisheries and management plans in the North Rupununi region to protect declining fish populations. Edwards works

closely with the Sustainable Wildlife Management (SWM) Programme Guyana on local wildlife monitoring, citizen science initiatives and educational outreach. He has helped to lead local conservation efforts, including river turtle and arapaima conservation, and has presented community-led conservation strategies at international forums. Edwards was born in Kwaimatta Village, North

Rupununi, where he currently resides. He previously lived with family in Brazil and in Georgetown during his school years. He works with the North Rupununi District Development Board (NRDDB) as Fisheries Coordinator. He has worked with the NRDDB and the Sustainable Wildlife Management (SWM) Programme for years and has gained extensive knowledge and experience. His favourite aspects of his

Kevin Edwards making a presentation on sustainable wildlife management with others during a training programme

project work are fish stock assessments, training youths in data collection and capacity-building, and practical fieldwork. Edwards is married with three children and loves adventurous activities, riding motorcycles, visiting friends,

Kevin Edwards

socialising and hiking. He has many favourite locations across the Rupununi, such as Saddle Mountain Ranch, the Iwokrama International Centre and the Atta Lodge canopy walkway, among many others. His hobbies are playing

volleyball and football. He loves to play music and has his own guitar. He also likes to compose traditional songs and play them during music sessions. Edwards hopes the leadership capacity of the youth TURN TO PAGE VI

Kevin Edwards during a typical day at work

“Teaching as a way of Life

CHRONICLE PEPPERPOT ― Sunday, September 20, 2026

- Educator reflects on his role in his community”

TEACHING is more than classroom work; it also includes quietly tutoring learners for free at home. For Dox John and his wife, Holly Ladona, both teachers, teaching is more than classroom effort. It is part of their daily lives, as they host free classes at home and give their time to promote learning even when no one is looking. John is a teacher at Annai Secondary School, while his wife teaches at Rupertee Primary School, also in Region Nine. John told the Pepperpot Magazine that he was born in Paramakatoi, Region Eight, the land of the Patamona people, and grew up there. He completed all his schooling in Paramakatoi. Both of his parents and his wife’s father were teachers, so teaching was part of their lives from the outset. His wife, Holly, is a beautiful teacher of Macushi descent from Aranaputa, Region Nine. She has spent most of her teaching career working with primary schoolchildren, particularly those in Grades Four and Five. She has taught at Annai Primary School and Kurupukari Primary School and currently teaches at Rupertee Primary School. John said he and his wife are most grateful to have passed all the subjects they wrote at the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) level, which was a challenge because, at the time, they did not have the resources available. However, after completing his secondary education, he taught at Paramakatoi Secondary School for about a year before eventually resigning. After that, he attended the Hauraruni International Training Centre, a full-time training centre for people who felt God’s call to enter ministry. There, he met his wife, who was a year ahead of him in training, and after he completed his training, they married in 2018. “I believe that our ex-

Dox John, his son and his wife, Holly

John and Holly’s wedding day

perience at that institution has continued to influence the way we see people. We learned to look at people as individuals with value and purpose. That has carried over into our classrooms. We try to remember that every child can learn and is worth teaching,” he said. John reported that, after their wedding, he moved to Region Nine to live with his wife, who was already teaching. He did small construction jobs, worked at GECOM, and worked in security while waiting to begin his teaching career. His wife encouraged him to apply to the Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE) in 2021. He took her advice and went to CPCE, where he completed his studies in 2023, majoring in secondary-level Mathematics. John said that during the COVID-19 school shutdown, their tiny house became a place of learning where both primary and secondary students visited for lessons.

He added that they were privileged to say that those students had uninterrupted schooling, although it was not as full-time as normal

school hours. “I don’t know how we managed all those levels and classes of students, but my wife found a way to make it work. Since then, we have given our service through lessons to students from communities such as Annai, Aranaputa, St Ignatius, Lethem, Yakarinta, Kokshebai and Paramakatoi,

among other villages,” he said. However, when Holly was transferred to Kurupukari Primary School, a small community in the Iwokrama rainforest, they came across secondary-level students who, because of the effects of COVID-19, had not been able to return to their respective secondary schools.

At the time, he was attending CPCE online and was not yet part of the formal teaching system, but Holly suggested that he teach them. They worked collectively with students from Grades Seven to 10 in Mathematics and English. John said they tried to help where they could, and TURN TO PAGE VII

Some of the learners they hosted for lessons at their home during the COVID-19 shutdown

CHRONICLE PEPPERPOT ― Sunday, September 20, 2026

Making a mark in his community

in and around his community will continue to develop. He aspires to start his own transportation service in his community, help and advise village councils on upcoming village affairs, and become involved in tourism in the coming years. Edwards believes the Rupununi is unique in its tourism opportunities and offers many exciting experiences to the world. He is well known among wildlife activists, conservationists, tourism bodies and eco-lodges for his talent and knowledge and has also worked behind the scenes to promote tourism, community-based development, and wildlife conservation. He formerly managed Iwokrama and Karanambu Lodge and now serves as Senior Councillor of Kwaimatta

Village. He has supported several programmes and is working with Karanambu Lodge to develop tourism opportunities for his community. As a second-time elected Senior Councillor, he plays an integral role in community-based development in his village and is said to be the voice of the people. Edwards said Kwaimatta Village is in North Rupununi and is a satellite village of Massara, which has three tracts. He is responsible for Tract C. Kwaimatta Village has a population of 198 and 40 households. The government’s housing drive in remote villages will construct an additional 12 houses for families. Edwards reported that the main economic ac-

tivity of Indigenous residents centres on cassava cultivation. The people of Kwaimatta Village are Macushi and are known for their quiet nature. Their remote community lies about eight kilometres from the main road to Lethem, in the open savannah near Karanambu Lodge. Edwards said the residents need proper housing and a substantial solar farm to provide reliable electricity to each household in the village. The village leader also said they urgently need to extend the village’s water supply. Edwards related that they have two wells. One is connected directly to houses to provide standpipe water, while the other is attached to the village trestle and supplies water to eight black

tanks. The community has an ICT hub used by youths and schoolchildren, but most young people use their personal mobile phones for gaming and other internet-related activities because they provide faster connectivity. Edwards told the Pepperpot Magazine that the village has partnered with Karanambu Lodge to boost tourism at Capybara Camp, located close to the airstrip, water dam and reservoir. He said the residents assist Karanambu Lodge by taking tourists on open-savannah tours using their personal motorcycles. The villager added that they have since proposed acquiring 10 additional motorcycles for the community’s economic development. They are also awaiting approval for

20 bicycles and 15 wooden canoes further to boost their tourism drive in support of Karanambu Lodge. Edwards noted that villagers will use the wooden canoes to take visitors out onto the waterways or river for sightseeing tours. Additionally, the village has requested two Grand Cabin minibuses from the administration to further boost the local tourism drive. Edwards said they have two buses, but these are inadequate for the volume of tourists they have to transport. He told the Pepperpot Magazine that he is a product of the Bina Hill Youth Learning Institute and that his focus was on cross-cultural leadership. He was attached to the University of Calgary, Canada.

The resident reported that he participated in practical training with Indigenous youths of mixed heritage to show them how they survive in the savannah. It was a funded exchange programme, but it ended, so there were no more visits between the two countries. He has also worked at Iwokrama for the past 10 years, doing considerable groundwork as President of the Wildlife Club, where he gained knowledge of birds and various animals and became well-versed as a tour guide. He was part of a committee responsible for drafting the inland fisheries regulations pilot programme and was involved in arapaima assessment, sport fishing and other wildlife programmes.

An Outstanding Writer Returns...

bring these particular stories together in one collection? HAB: The inspiration was in my belief that Guyanese people need to be cognizant of the many stories that can come out of the Guyanese everyday experience and our mythology and make books. The inspiration came, as well, from my determination to record our mindset and our memories, be they filled with traumas or pride. My inspiration came from my determination that the average Guyanese needs to accept the country’s past as a way to influence our way forward. The inspiration also came from the need for stories of how we fare in the Guyanese Diaspora. I was determined to put together a collection of Guyanese stories to show that stories about Guyanese are as good as stories about other countries. I needed to show our young writers that they need

not look outside of Guyana for inspiration. Bottom line: I was inspired to say, through LOVE & NEW ROAD and OTHER STORIES, that culturally, we are a unique people and that we need to stop imitating the Jamaicans, the Trinidadians, and the style of every other country, and shout our own stories from the rooftops.

PM: Is there a central theme, message or thread that connects the stories, and what do you hope readers will discover as they move from one story to another? HAB: I’d say the central message might well be: Your existence as a Guyanese is as meaningful and important as any other nationality! Celebrate it! PM: Was there a particular story in the collection that challenged you, surprised you, or holds a special personal meaning for you? What

makes it stand out? HAB: With the craft of writing, every piece in this collection was a challenge, in that the art of writing is rewriting. The Vat, the last story in the collection, took some more out of me, however, because it can be called a novella. As such, it took longer to write and had more moving parts to synchronise. The story Love & New Road holds something special for me, however, since in more ways than one, it is heavily autobiographical. PM: How has your writing evolved over the years, and in what ways does this new collection reflect the writer you are today? HAB: You get better by writing consistently over the years. A true writer never stops learning. I’m hoping that this collection shows that my range, in terms of

different subject matter that I tackle as a writer and artist—and I say this since there is an illustration for each story—reflects the man I am today, and since experience teaches wisdom, maybe this collection will say that I’m much more aware and much more conscious of life, as a Guyanese and as a citizen of the world.

PM: What does the September 26 launch mean to you personally—not simply as the release of a unique collection, but as a milestone in your journey as a writer? HAB: For me, I see it as the resurgence of myself as a fiction writer. For many years I’ve been regarded -remembered, as a playwright, even though I am a published novelist. So, this book launch says, as a fiction writer, “I’m back!” PM: What are you hoping readers will feel, question

or take away after reading the collection, especially Guyanese readers who may recognise aspects of their own lives and communities in your stories? HAB: I’m hoping the takeaway will be as it was when I staged my first Guyanese play, The Barrel, at the National Cultural Centre back in 1987: Guyanese were proud as hell to see their simple, yet significant lives reflected on a stage, after so many years of seeing foreign characters there. I’m hoping that it will be the same with this collection. I’m hoping most will be able to show their book and say, “Guyanese stories! In a Book! We rankin’!”

PM: As you celebrate this new chapter, what is next for Harold Bascom? HAB: I have myriad projects in the pipeline: On the heels of LOVE & NEW ROAD and OTHER STO-

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RIES, there will be another book, a play, entitled THE AFRO-GUYANESE ODYSSEY, from the failed GoFundMe project of the same name. That will hopefully be out by December this year. PM: Are there more stories, books or literary projects already taking shape? HAB: Yes. I’m currently working on a horror novel based on a Guyanese jumbie story, though set in the US. There’s also a collection of my Guyana Prize-winning plays, as well as an autobiography. I’m getting there. Aren’t I? Taken together, Bascom’s work makes a sustained case for Guyanese identity and for stories told in their own voices. He leaves younger writers with a clear direction: begin with Guyana, its people and its communities, and trust the material close to home.

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“Teaching as a... CHRONICLE PEPPERPOT ― Sunday, September 20, 2026

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it was rewarding to see the students keep learning. He related that, even before he became a teacher, he admired Holly’s commitment to her students. He would watch how she worked with a class and, by the time the students moved on, he could usually see some growth. He stated that Holly was never interested only in whether they were learning academically; character was always part of what she tried to build in them. John told the Pepperpot Magazine that one experience at Rupertee made him especially proud of her. When she was transferred there, she took a Grade Five class and continued with those students into Grade Six. He said he would assist from time to time, particularly with Mathematics, and the students performed well when they wrote the NGSA. He said the pass rate for all subjects was above 50 per cent, and three students earned scholarships to schools on the coast. John said their home has also become part of their teaching life. There have been many evenings when they made teaching aids and discussed student issues as they tried to find ways to assist their learners better. He reported that, in 2025, after his mother passed away, he requested and received a transfer to Paramakatoi Secondary School so that he could spend some time with his father. Holly took one year of no-pay leave and went with him. John said that when they arrived, she began connecting with the primary school and learning about the needs of the Grade Five and Grade Six pupils. Before long, they began providing lessons in Mathematics and English again, including for some upper-secondary students. He added that, during their teaching careers, they have crossed paths with exemplary teachers who helped them along the way and continue to do so to date. For his wife, these included teachers such as Sir Bryan Chintaman, who currently heads Annai

Primary School; Sir Quado Vancotten, the headmaster of Kurupukari Primary School; and Miss Pennelope O’Conel, the headmistress of Maruranau Secondary School. They have all been there for her from the beginning of her career, guiding her along the way. For him, his parents were role models, along with people such as Miss Rowena Peters of CPCE and, at the University of Guyana, Dr Troy Brown and the late Sir Nathram Ragubhansi. John noted that he and his wife have also had the privilege of working as part-time tutors for the Cyril Potter College of Education’s Annai Branch, tutoring Social Studies and Mathematics to teachers in the upgrading programme and Music to teachers in the ADE programme. “I recently completed my Bachelor of Education at the University of Guyana (UG), also majoring in Mathematics, and I currently teach Mathematics to Grades Seven and 10 at Annai Secondary School. My wife is in her final year at UG, pursuing her Bachelor of Education,” he said. John explained that, when school is on break, they share their time between their family and students during lessons. In his own free time, he enjoys writing and recording songs in his native Patamona language, which he shares on his Facebook page, Blesson’s Gospel Rhythms. He noted that being able to praise God and express his faith in his own language is very important to him. It is also a way for him to keep his language and cultural traditions alive and share them with others. John said that in the communities where they have taught, they hope the seeds they planted will, in turn, begin to bear fruit through investment in younger generations. He said one of his wife’s quotes is: “I try with students since they will create the society in which my children will grow up.” He believes that quote. As parents of a son who started school this term, that quote hits home. John told the Pepperpot Mag-

One of the years when they held lessons during the August holidays for learners from Grades

azine that, as teachers, they wield great influence over the next generation: to inspire or discourage, to give guidance or confuse minds. They have a mission to make a

difference, and what better way is there than by modelling good behaviour? He said they often pray with the learners, asking that they learn and

overcome challenges. “And when they succeed, we believe it is a result of their support system, as well as our teaching and prayers,” he said.

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CHRONICLE PEPPERPOT ― Sunday, September 20, 2026

To-Do Lists

EACH day comes with a unique set of hurdles and tasks to overcome. Every morning, as soon as we wake up, a force drives us and keeps us moving. There is always another place for us to be, someone to take care of or something to do. Sometimes this can become overwhelming, but it is a necessary force to keep us from becoming stagnant. The idea of us being constantly needed in a specific place or by specific people might be taxing, but it gives us a sense of purpose so that, even when

we are tired, we do not stop contributing towards making the world a better place. It is quite unfortunate, however, that as we progress through life, we might experience a strange shift in our perspective and our aims, where life is no longer about doing the things that we enjoy or finding new things to learn. Instead, it becomes a long, cumbersome to-do list that only seems to get longer every day. Life begins to feel like running on a treadmill, except the treadmill gets faster and your feet start to get tired.

Soon enough, you may fall and find it very difficult to get up again. Time is one of the most valuable currencies for younger generations. We are not used to boredom or monotony. This characteristic shows up in our need to be constantly entertained or occupied by something new, and in our tendency to jump from one task to another as quickly as we can, so we don’t have to feel the tedium of doing something for more than a few minutes. It also shows up in our drive to find a new form of success every day. Whether

it is the joy of learning a new language using an app on our phones or the excitement of winning a video game, life for us often seems to be about achieving goals. In adulthood, this becomes basing our sense of identity on how much we achieve each day or how many items on our list we can complete. If there happens to be any days when we do not complete the tasks that we intended to, or when, due to an unforeseen circumstance, we are unable to do anything at all, a small part of our self-worth crumbles, and we wonder whether we are capable of achieving our most important goals at all! We are caught between the exhaustion of complet-

ing tasks that don’t give us long-term satisfaction and the disappointment of failing to do what we intended within a given time frame. What we often forget is that life cannot be boiled down to a list on paper. The most beautiful poems are found in the spaces between the lines. The most wonderful music is heard in the waves or the wind, which will never move in the same way again. The most interesting stories come from strangers we never would have thought we would meet. Life is undefinable and unpredictable, and it certainly cannot be made into a list on a sheet of paper. If we try, we will lose what gives life its meaning and beauty.

So, as a generation, let us vow not to live by to-do lists. Let our dreams be guided by hope and not by check marks. Let our lives be infused with spontaneity, not with cumbersome lines drawn by people in the past who have already had their time and space in our world. Let us try new things and visit new places, not because they are tasks on a page, but because they genuinely excite us. When we encounter days when we do not have a chance to complete all the tasks that we wanted to, let us not treat them as a waste, but rather as a little surprise given to us by the universe to encounter an unexpectedly marvellous part of it.

Former Guyana Chronicle Chief Reporter exudes an air of...

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aggressively address homelessness, rising poverty levels, and mental health and addiction.” Bazil told the appreciative audience that “affordable living and housing options are very dear to me. We need smart growth that protects the unique character of our neighbourhoods while ensuring our children and seniors can actually afford to stay in the community they love. I will push for more investment in local community hubs, parks and recreational facilities. “Affordability is the main problem with housing in Scarborough-Guildwood Ward 24. Many low-income residents and people who are receiving financial support from the government are finding it difficult to find a place. Additionally, many tenants are being unscrupulously

displaced by evictions. I will work with both tenants and landlords to ensure that both parties come out as winners in any rental arrangement… and here is where City Hall comes in, with rebates on property taxes, etc. The vacancy rate in Toronto is really low, and many people are desperate just to find a place that they can afford.” Touching on gun violence, Bazil said: “Over the years, I have noted the rising levels of gun violence in Toronto and, when elected, I will work diligently to ‘Make Scarborough-Guildwood Safe Again’ through the introduction of innovative city-funded programmes for young residents at their most vulnerable ages, between 13 and 16, before they fall through the cracks. “I have walked the length and breadth of Scarbor-

ough-Guildwood, and I have spoken to residents. Their main concern is that, while municipal leaders are boasting about their initiatives, projects and achievements, this rhetoric has been overshadowed by fear, anxiety and apprehension in Ward 24. “This is one of the main reasons why the residents of Scarborough-Guildwood have risen up and are rallying for new, fresh and decisive representation at City Hall. “To the voters of Ward 24, City Hall needs a champion who understands that Scarborough-Guildwood’s potential is limitless…I want to encourage businesses to invest right here in this community so that young people can work where they live. “On election day, let’s choose a future of action, accountability and strong leadership for Scarborough-Guildwood.”

CHRONICLE PEPPERPOT ― Sunday, September 20, 2026

Restructuring an Organisation

THERE are many times in the life of an organisation when it will need restructuring. This could be due to declining sales or profits, changes in the business sector or technology, new regulations, new leadership, or a whole host of other scenarios. The key is knowing when an organisation needs restructuring and then finding the best way to proceed. Once an organisation is restructured, other components, such as its vision and mission statements, marketing strategies, brand and leadership, may need to be adapted. Section 1. Possible Reasons for Restructuring Organisations Many reasons can cause organisations to fail or need restructuring. The restructuring process is usually not intended to affect the company or its employees negatively. However, as strategies are developed and implemented, the need for fewer employees becomes imminent. In many instances, restructuring an organisation has created numerous growth opportunities for existing employees. Poor decisions made by leaders have caused some organisations to experience a decline in performance. Sales and profits are two key areas in any organisation which need to be monitored regularly if organisations are to be successful. The business environment can change quickly. These changes in the business environment will force some organisations to adapt quickly or experience a decline in performance. Information systems and technology change quite frequently, and

leaders who fail to upgrade their systems lose that competitive edge. External and internal politics often affect many organisations. When a new government takes office, it may impose specific restructuring measures on government agencies. Sometimes leaders in some organisations insist that things be done their way, even to the organisation’s detriment. When regulations, policies, and procedures change, they can affect organisations, and those unable to adapt quickly may fail or need restructuring. If owners and leaders change, restructuring may be needed. New owners and leaders will have their own vision for how they want the organisation to operate after the takeover. These owners and leaders may reduce the number of employees and increase the use of equipment, machines and information systems to make the organisation more productive. If these moves are made, it is important to consider the relevant labour laws beforehand to ensure ethical procedures are followed.

Section 2. New Direction Leaders and owners in restructured organisations must provide new direction. These organisations can no longer continue along the same trajectory. Once an organisation has failed, it is time to turn around to avoid the pitfalls it previously experienced. A new vision is often needed to set a new direction. The previous vision may have been one reason the organisation failed. New mission statements must be established to give clear di-

rections to all stakeholders. Some leaders will share the mission statements throughout the organisation, perhaps even placing them in locations where stakeholders will learn about the organisation’s new direction. Leaders must plan strategically to make restructured organisations successful. They must constantly evaluate their plans so the organisation remains competitive and becomes a leading organisation in the industry.

Leaders must analyse and develop both the product and the market. There may be a need for new products and new markets. Sometimes, existing products cannot penetrate the market, but new products can attract more customers and generate more revenue. Existing products may also need new markets, especially if the current market is saturated. Adjusting the price may be another effective way to attract more customers.

If stakeholders learn about restructured organisations, they may need to rebrand. With rebranding, some customers may enjoy the organisation’s new look and feel and want to buy its products. Before the restructuring, the organisation’s buildings, environment, or public image may not have been attractive to customers, but after restructuring, many customers may like what they see and be inclined to make purchases.

Having a new captain on board may be one way to help restructured organisations succeed, but these leaders must prove they are skilled enough to do so. Before these new captains are confirmed, they must prove their worth. Some new captains may be assertive in their leadership approach, which may prompt employees to deliver quality results. If leaders have the resources, they may restructure TURN TO PAGE XII

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NO ONE TELLS THE STORY OF PAINFUL ENTRAPMENTS AND DARING ADVENTURES UNLESS THEY HAVE ENDURED THEM This is one such story, of memories engraved…

UNLESS they have endured it through deeper darkness and survived to inhale the accustomed clean air once more, it is difficult to say, “I know.” One must experience it to understand. Here’s the true tale of a youth who sought sanctuary with welcoming close relatives. His name was Godfrey. His parents’ separation led to two things: welcoming kin and godparents. They were okay, the only other folk this child had known, and he never regretted it. Godfrey, like many, fell into unemployment when international woes cut funding to

the training programme he was in in 1974. So, he was invited into the home of this great-aunt until things corrected themselves. He avoided returning to his own broken home, knowing that he was a mere support item and hardly a soul. His first wake-up came one Friday afternoon when he came home, and his aunt requested his payslip. Of the $22 he had earned, he was commanded to surrender $15… With the rest, he had to pay for transportation and eat on the waterfront. It was a long week if he attempted to catch some overtime. When he needed to talk to someone,

he spoke to a slightly older cousin, the daughter of the same aunt, who was sympathetic and kind but helpless. She only came there to visit and then returned to where she and her husband lived. She pulled him into a corner and told him earnestly, “Cuz, yuh got fuh mek yuh heights. All Mammy is deh pon is the cheese…” Then she was gone. A friend told him about work on New Market Street. So, he tried to get a fixed job on the waterfront. Godfrey went there and was questioned foolishly. They asked him if he could push a truck, with reference to a hand truck. They asked

what religion he was. He lied and was told to go to the priest, who would give him a recommendation and the job. He departed, well aware that there was no priest to see; thus, there was no job. He felt his perspiration and tried to hold back his tears of hopelessness when a familiar voice cut in: “Wha happen, youth?” This was an area brethren, an old-time “bad man”. He couldn’t lie to the brother, who leaned on his P50, as he told his hopeless story… He was knowingly questioned: “Yuh try fuh get a job, and deh kind ah insult yuh?”

Godfrey shook his head in confirmation. “Come pun this bike at the back. Yuh balance?” “Yeah, bro.” “Now listen to meh carefully. Yuh gon get pay today.” And he followed. He stole and earned enough to pay down the rent and fuh buy one ah dem English stoves fuh cook a quick meal or hot up something fuh humble the worms. Godfrey never planned it, even as he was torn between regret and a feeling of satisfaction, between his conscience and a strange meaninglessness…

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Restructuring an Organisation

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the organisation immediately. Other leaders will restructure the organisation progressively to minimise the social impact on current and former employees. Section 3. Human Capital Management Most leaders need people to work for them in their restructured organisations. Therefore, leaders must treat people with great respect. When owners and leaders try to make an organisation successful, they may have to right-size their employee complement. These organisations might formerly have had many people working there. However, not all of these employees were productive. Unproductive employees may have to be terminated. New job structures and job descriptions must align with the organisation’s new direction. Sometimes, restructured organisations need a flatter organisational hierarchy. Some organisations failed because the chain of command was too long, re-

quiring leaders and management to perform similar functions. When job structures and descriptions change for existing employees, leaders have to consider adjustments to employees’ compensation. Sometimes, new leaders and owners may offer lower compensation to employees. However, if the number of employees is reduced and the same functions must be performed, existing employees may be offered higher compensation. If new employees are needed after restructuring, leaders must ensure the recruitment process helps them find the best possible candidates. Organisations must set aside some money for training and development. Some organisations hope employees will develop independently and that the organisation will benefit from their increased wisdom and knowledge. However, when employees develop independently, they may see themselves as less committed to the organ-

isation and leave of their own volition. If employees were wasting time during working hours, that bad culture has to change. If employees were looking out only for their own interests, that culture also has to change. Sometimes, one employee’s change in attitude can prompt others to change as well, shifting the culture itself. New leaders need to be careful when managing cultural change to avoid conflicts. When employees have to change the culture they were comfortable with, they may resist, but good leaders know how to help them transition smoothly. For more information about Geary Reid and his books, please use the following contact information: Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/author/gearyreid Website: www.reidnlearn. com Facebook: Reid n Learn Email: info@reidnlearn. com Mobile: 592-645-2240

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THERE WAS A ROOM I A story submitted to the Guyana Prize for Literature 2024

HE stood with his head bent, strands of dark hair falling over his face, his arms wrapped around a pillar of his house. It was early in the morning; the sun had not yet risen, and he spoke to the house, his voice trembling and tears rolling down his face. “I-I ha-ha-ha-have to go away for a while. It’s not s-s-safe for me here now.” He paused, sniffling, then continued, “But I will come back. You are all I have. Just wait for m-me.” He wiped his tears and walked to the little mound beside the house. It was where his beloved Bella lay in eternal sleep. He knelt by the grave and sobbed quietly. “I miss you s-s-so much, my sweet girl. I know you have crossed the rainbow bridge, but I still feel like you’re here with m-me.” He got up, wiped his tears and walked back to the front of the house. He picked up a haversack and walked slowly out of the yard. He stood there for a while, not wanting to leave, but he knew that if he didn’t and they came back, they would most likely kill him. He inhaled deeply as he walked out onto the road and turned to look back one last time at the house, fearing in his heart that the old house might start to collapse without him there. He whispered, “Wait for me.” The house had been his shelter since birth, his literal companion. As a person with a disability, he did not go out much, and it became his sanctuary when his mother and father passed away a little over a year apart. Now he was leaving, walking down the long road to the highway. He stood there, uncer-

me?” He had been born with a congenital disability due to his mother being an alcoholic, and, added to that misfortune, she did not take good care of him as a baby. The defect slowed his learning, thinking, and physical development. He also had a slight stutter, and, growing up as a child with disabilities, he was often mocked and bullied. What was worse, though, was that he thought his mother hated him, but late at night, he often heard her crying softly. As he grew up, he often wondered why she cried so much. His brain was slow to process things, but he felt she was battling some secret pain. His parents’ alcoholic lifestyle had caused life to be a struggle for him, so from the age of eleven, he had started doing odd jobs around the neighbourhood to

tainty weighing on his young heart as he waited for a minibus that would take him to the city and, from there, a connecting bus to Parika on the West Coast. He was going to Leguan, one of the islands in the Essequibo River, where his mother was born. He had never been there, and nervousness crept into his being, for he was going to a strange place to meet family members he did not know. He had called an aunt whose phone number his mother had written in a notepad for him in case he ever needed it. The aunt put him through to an uncle, who put

him on to another aunt and, finally, an uncle living at the family’s farmhouse. “Seems as though no one wants me,” Shaan had bemoaned. “I guess it’s because I’m not normal.” When the bus reached the Stabroek Market bus park, Shaan disembarked and followed passengers who were travelling to Parika. He boarded one of the buses and sat at the back, looking out of the window with grief in his heart. “Why?” he asked himself, as he had asked many times over the years. “Why are bad things happening to

survive, and that gave him an early sense of responsibility. On his sixteenth birthday, his mother bought him a birthday cake and cooked a special meal for the first time. “Today is a special day for you,” she said as she gave him a bicycle. For the first time in his life, he heard her laugh a little. It was the most beautiful sound he had ever heard. Later that night, she sat with him and told him, “I am happy to see how strong you have become despite all the challenges you have faced over the years. I know I have not been a good mother, but my pain is so deep that I feel like I’m bleeding every day.” She paused, took a deep breath, then continued, “After I’m gone from this world, there are two tasks I’ve detailed for you to do for me. Once that time comes, they will be given to you, and you

will know what to do.” He felt her pain then and promised, “I will do whatever you want me to do for you, Mom.” She smiled through tears and hugged him for a long moment. “Thank you, son.” Four months after his sixteenth birthday, late one night, he heard a low moan from his mother. Then he heard her calling his name softly. He sat by her bedside, watching as her breathing became slow, and asked as panic started to set in, “Should I call the neighbour to take you to the hospital?” His father was asleep, as usual, stone drunk. “No, son.” She reached out and touched his hand. “I want to go. I’ve suffered far too long.” “What h-happened to you, Mother?” She smiled sadly. “One day, hopefully, you will get TURN TO PAGE XIV

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THERE WAS A ROOM I

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to know.” He sat there watching her, touched by her pain and sadness and helpless to do anything. She opened her eyes and, looking at him, said, “I’m sorry, my son. There’s a room…” Her voice faded. She closed her eyes for the last time and took her final breath. He felt numb for days as people came and went: her friends and a few family members he didn’t know. On the day of the funeral, Shaan looked at his mother, grieving that life had done her some wrong. “I will miss you,” he said quietly. And he did, as he sat alone in the house, unsure of how to go on. His father had gone back to drinking, spending more time out than in. Shaan knew, though, that he had to go on, for he had made a promise to his moth-

er. He went back out to work, for the few family members who had come to ensure that his mother had a decent funeral had left just afterwards, without reaching out to him. “I guess I have to pay the price of ha-having a l-llow-life father,” he sighed unhappily. He managed to hold his own, but things got worse when, just two months after his seventeenth birthday, his father came home in a drunken state, fell and hit his head, cracking his skull. At seventeen, Shaan was now left alone, and the old house became his protector, his security, his everything. He couldn’t be sure what the future held for him now that both his parents were gone. Life, however, presented him with a surprise gift when, one late afternoon, he came home from work and found Bella. To be continued…

CHRONICLE PEPPERPOT ― Sunday, September 20, 2026

Jan Carew’s The Guyanese Wanderer

JAN Carew was born in British Guiana (now Guyana) in 1920 and died ninety-two years later in Louisville, Kentucky. He had been a professor emeritus at Northwestern University. Between those parentheses of birth and death, he lived a remarkably peripatetic life, residing in countries and regions across Europe, Africa, the Caribbean, and North America, including Ghana, the Netherlands, Jamaica, England, Trinidad, Mexico, France, and Canada, as well as various parts of the United States. His wanderings, migrations, and encounters with diverse cultures informed much of his literary imagination, and particularly his final collection of substantial fiction, The Guyanese Wanderer (Sarabande Books, 2007). The collection contains ten short stories and includes an introduction by the distinguished Barbadian writer, Austin Clarke, himself a master of the short-story form. Clarke’s collections, including When He Was

Free and Young and Used to Wear Silk, Nine Men Who Laughed, When Women Rule, and There Are No Elders, are among the notable exemplars of Caribbean short fiction. The Guyanese Wanderer appeared five years before Carew died in 2012. It was his last published collection of substantial fiction, bringing together work that reflects a seven-decade literary career. During much of that period, Carew was, as the phrase goes, “on the road,” moving between countries, cultures, and intellectual environments. His writing consequently possesses an unusually expansive geographical and cultural imagination. Carew’s writing in The Guyanese Wanderer departs, at times, from the strictly realist mode of his classic novels, including Black Midas, Wild Coast, and The Last Barbarian, moving instead toward the surreal and the magical realism associated with Latin American writers, particularly Gabriel García

Márquez. In his introduction, Clarke draws an important distinction concerning Carew’s use of these elements. He argues that Carew’s magical realism “presents a stronger narrative line as the literary conveyor belt” in his adoption of Latin American surrealism, rather than the more “single-minded mix of mystical and magical” that characterises some versions of the mode. Clarke’s point is significant. In Carew, magical realism is not merely an attribute of a particular character or an unusual event within the story. It becomes part of the very mechanism of storytelling, the “conveyor belt,” as Clarke puts it, that carries the narrative forward. The supernatural is therefore not simply an interruption of reality; it is woven into the narrative structure itself. This is an insightful distinction, and Carew’s stories in the collection bear it out. The strongest stories in The Guyanese Wanderer have a distinctly folkloric orientation. They mine the

mythology, oral traditions, and folklore of Guyana and the wider Caribbean for their sense of place and cultural recognition. In “Tilson Ezejie Alias Ti-Zek,” for example, Carew tells a story about coconut thieves whose triumph extends beyond ordinary life and into the realm of the afterlife. He deftly employs the figure of the Mantop, often called Moongazer, a terrifying creature of the night. In this story and others in the collection, Mantop is allegorised as death. Its presence lends the tale a supernatural dimension that deepens, rather than diminishes, its realistic foundation. Carew is also a beautiful lyrical writer, particularly when describing the natural world. Some of his landscapes are sumptuous without sacrificing precision. His descriptions of Guyana’s interior have an almost tactile quality, conveying the environment’s density, danger, beauty, and mystery. This ability to render landscape is one of the qualities that

connects the stories in The Guyanese Wanderer to the world of Black Midas. “Chantal” is one of the collection’s most powerful stories. It is a dramatically constructed and wonderfully written tale set in the interior of Guyana. Violent and intensely realistic, it chronicles the deterioration of a relationship between a man and his wife, showing how tensions that begin in private spaces, within the home and within the mind, eventually seep into the public world with devastating consequences. The story is informed by the cultural and social realities of Guyana’s interior, a setting Carew rendered with authority. Unlike many stories in the collection, “Chantal” does not depend on real maravilloso or supernatural intervention. In this respect, it resembles the opening story, “The Visit,” in which a mother under severe economic pressure takes her young son on a visit, intending to give him away to an older woman. It is a heartbreaking

story, restrained in its realism and emotionally devastating precisely because it does not require the intervention of the marvellous. Carew demonstrates exceptional skill in sketching his characters’ psychology and establishing the motives behind their actions. He is equally effective at depicting sudden, explosive violence. Again, violence seems to be the first resort for characters trying to resolve conflict. In “Chantal,” the husband assaults his wife and attacks her would-be lover; she, in turn, uses a knife against him, knocking him unconscious. In “Ti-Zek,” the humorous and philosophical Ram is shot in the head while stealing coconuts. He falls on the iron bar of his coconut peeler, which pierces his throat. Yet his recovery from this grotesque injury gives the story its distinctive charge of sweet surrealism. Violence, predation, and reversal are also central to “Hunter and Hunted.” Here the cutlass and the gun be TURN TO PAGE XVII

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What Time Teaches Us About Absence

TWO of my favourite writers are Kafka and Dostoevsky. Even though their views on almost every subject seem to belong to different sides of the equation, I find great value in examining each side. Kafka once wrote, “Time teaches us to live without them,” but then Dostoevsky came along and said something

that reached deeper into the wound: “You do not really move on from somebody you have loved. You learn how to carry their absence without letting anyone know how heavy it is.” Somewhere between those two thoughts sits the uncomfortable truth about grief. We have become very fond of telling people to

move on: give it time; you will get over it; you have to be strong; life goes on; etc., etc. All of these things contain some truth, but grief has a wicked little habit of refusing to behave according to our schedules. The human heart does not receive a calendar and politely agree that, by the sixth month, the third

anniversary or the next birthday, it will have completed its assignment. I have come to think that perhaps the problem lies in the phrase itself. Maybe we were never meant to “move on” from everyone we have loved. Maybe we are meant to move forward while carrying what they meant to us. There is a difference, you see.

Psychology has gradually moved away from the old idea that grief follows one neat sequence and ends with acceptance. The work of grief researchers Margaret Stroebe and Henk Schut, particularly their Dual Process Model, describes something much closer to the way ordinary people actually experience loss. We move between confronting

the loss and attending to the business of living. One day, we are deep inside the memory; the next day, we are paying bills, going to work, cooking dinner or laughing at something ridiculous. Then the grief returns. Then life pulls us forward again. This is not failure; this is grief. You can miss someone terribly in the morning and still make lunch at noon. You can cry in the bathroom and then walk into a meeting looking perfectly composed. You can have a wonderful day and suddenly feel guilty for laughing. You can also have a terrible day five years later. None of these things means you have gone backwards. It means the relationship mattered. And relationships are precisely what make absence so complicated. When a parent dies, you do not lose only a person. You lose the person who knew your first stories. When a spouse dies, you lose a companion, but you may also lose the rhythm of ordinary life: the morning conversation, the familiar footsteps and the person you automatically turn towards when something happens. When a child dies, the loss can reach into the future itself because so many imagined tomorrows disappear along with the person. When a friendship ends, whether through death, betrayal or distance, there may be no funeral at all. Yet something can still die. Divorce carries its own peculiar grief because the person may still be alive. The marriage ends, but the face remains, the voice remains, and sometimes the children remain as living reminders of a life that once TURN TO PAGE XIX

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Jan Carew’s The Guyanese...

come instruments through which human beings attempt to assert power over each other and animals. During a hunting expedition involving a father and his three sons, events go horribly wrong, and the boundaries between animal and human violence begin to collapse. There is bloodshed on every side: a young boy has his legs eaten by hogs, and a jaguar that attacks and kills some of the hogs is also killed by them. Carew seems to suggest that predators are often themselves prey, that power exists at shifting levels, and that each creature may occupy both positions in the hierarchy of survival. The prey in “Bra Nancy and Tiger” and “The Initiation of Belfon” are different. “Bra Nancy and Tiger” draws upon the Caribbean tradition of the trickster figure. Bra Nancy, the scamp and survivor who depends upon his intelligence and schemes, turns the tables on his wealthy landlord, Tiger, ensnaring him in a web of lies and half-truths from which there is no escape. Carew does not over-embellish the story. He tells it in a straightforward, matterof-fact style, as an elder in a Guyanese village might tell it at night to children gathered around. Its simplicity is part of its effectiveness. The story understands folktale conventions and lets

the trickster’s intelligence, rather than literary ornament, carry the narrative. “The Initiation of Belfon,” as its title suggests, is a story of initiation, but the initiation is sexual only on one level. More deeply, it is a meditation on contradiction, human complexity, desire, and the strange ways in which one generation passes its knowledge and ambitions to another. Young Belfon is sent from his interior village, Biara, to Georgetown, Guyana’s capital, on his way to university in Trinidad. An orphan raised by a priest and another influential figure in the interior, he must stay with Couvade before continuing his journey. Through Couvade and her recollections, Carew gradually reveals the histories of Father Marquez and Atlassa, two powerful figures from Belfon’s past. Her memories also open a window into the wider interior community, introducing us to memorable figures such as an Englishwoman with three husbands and a strange Carib shaman. Couvade initiates young Belfon into the art of lovemaking, but this is only one level of his initiation. Belfon is her sexual prey, but he is also, in a larger sense, a stand-in for Atlassa, who is living out his ambitions through the young man. The story is especially compel-

ling in its treatment of generational change: the young inherit not simply the old’s dreams but also their contradictions, desires, failures, and unfinished ambitions. “The Burial,” set in New Amsterdam, features one of the collection’s most engaging characters: the magnificent Belle. Like Ti-Zek, she is a survivor, a woman who depends entirely upon her intelligence, instincts, and common sense. She transforms her success as a prostitute into material independence and becomes a property owner. Although the local community does not respect her, she triumphs over those who judge her. Belle is a wonderful Carew creation: a morally complicated but deeply likeable character, much like Anancy and Father Marquez. These are people whose contradictions make them recognisable. They are neither simply good nor simply bad; their moral ambiguities are precisely what give them the texture of real human beings. “The Burial” is a coastal story, a countryside tale, and one of the few in the collection not primarily concerned with the interior. It carries the unmistakable imprint of a coastal Guyanese experience, vividly rendered and mordantly humorous. Like many of the stories in the collection, it is carefully observed and beautifully

written. Most of the stories in The Guyanese Wanderer are set in Guyana, while the final four can be read as immigrant stories, dealing with West Indians living in London and Paris. These stories are less successful than those rooted in Guyanese landscapes, folklore, and social experience. They sometimes feel more like sketches of postwar England and Europe, subjects that had already been explored with greater depth and force by writers such as Samuel Selvon in The Lonely Londoners and The Housing Lark. The two Caesar stories, “Walking with Caesar” and “Caesar in Paris,” follow the titular character through a variety of situations as he searches for a place to live, faces white prejudice, and struggles to survive London’s cold and darkness. Caesar is a convincing and engaging character, but the story lacks an incident substantial enough for a charac-

ter with his potential. He is an attractive figure with little to do; there are no great obstacles for him to overcome, no decisive chasm to cross. In “Caesar in Paris,” he appears as puzzled as the reader. He has been married and abandoned by his Polish wife on the same day, leaving him bewildered and emotionally adrift. He wanders from bar to bar, drinking with a friend, caught in despair and uncertainty. The story captures the dislocation of the immigrant experience, but it does not achieve the narrative force of the stronger Guyanese stories. Despite these reservations, The Guyanese Wanderer remains an important addition to Jan Carew’s body of work. Carew successfully wrote across genres: plays, short stories, poems, novels, essays, philosophical works, and nonfiction, and his literary achievement is considerable. He was one of Guyana’s important writers, and the breadth of his imag-

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ination is evident throughout his work. Carew’s particular value lies in his ability to move between realism and the marvellous, the psychological and the folkloric, and the interior of Guyana and the wider world. His characters are caught between opposing forces: predator and prey, tradition and modernity, home and exile, desire and duty, violence, and survival. His wandering life gave him an unusually broad perspective, but it was Guyana, particularly the cultural and natural worlds of its interior, which provided some of his richest literary material. In The Guyanese Wanderer, Carew returns repeatedly to that world: its folklore, its violence, its humour, its mysteries, and its unforgettable people. The result is a collection that, despite its unevenness, demonstrates the enduring power and versatility of one of Guyana’s most accomplished writers.

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existed. Recent psychological work on what are called continuing bonds has challenged the idea that healthy grieving requires us to sever our emotional connection with someone who has died. Researchers increasingly recognise that people often maintain an inner relationship with those they have lost. They remember them, speak about them, keep photographs, preserve possessions, repeat their sayings and carry aspects of their personality forward. I find something deeply comforting about that because maybe love does not disappear; maybe it just changes form. The person leaves the room, but the relationship does not necessarily leave the heart. A mother may still hear her son’s favourite song and smile. A widower may still reach for the other side of the bed before remembering. A daughter may still hear her father’s voice when she is about to make a difficult decision. A friend may still make us laugh years after the funeral because we remember exactly what they would have said. These are not signs that we are refusing to accept reality; they are signs that the person became part of our reality. There is also something practical we need to understand about grief: we have to learn how to live again while we are grieving. It sounds simple enough until you have actually lost somebody. When grief is fresh, ordinary things can feel insulting. Someone tells you to eat, and you think, “How can you possibly care about food right now?” Someone tells you to sleep, and your first thought is, “My entire world has changed, and you are telling me to sleep?” Yet the body still needs food and rest. The children still need breakfast, the mortgage still exists, the office still expects you on Monday, the dog still needs feeding, and the garden still needs watering. Life continues its irritating little insistence on being life and, strangely enough, those ordinary things can become part of healing. The American Psychological Association notes that most people gradually adapt to loss, particularly when they have social support and maintain healthy habits. So, grief will never ask you to stop living; it will ask you to

learn how to live differently. This may mean creating new routines, letting other people help, or talking about the person instead of pretending they never existed. It may mean keeping one photograph instead of packing away every photograph, or writing letters you will never send. No universal ceremony exists for the heart. What helps one person may irritate another. Some people need silence; others need conversation. Some need prayer; others need therapy. Some need to cry until they are exhausted; others need to work because routine gives them something solid to hold. The important thing is learning the difference between carrying grief and being consumed by it. The distinction matters because grief can become overwhelming and persistent enough to interfere with everyday functioning seriously. Mental-health professionals recognise prolonged grief disorder as a condition in which intense grief remains persistent and significantly disrupts a person’s ability to function. There is no shame in needing help. Sometimes a friend is enough, sometimes family is enough and sometimes a grief group becomes a lifeline. Professional help may also be necessary. Strength is not pretending that you are fine. Strength can be saying, “I am struggling, and I need somebody to sit here with me.” I also think we need to stop being frightened of remembering. There is a peculiar pressure in modern life to look healed. We post photographs of ourselves smiling, return to work, attend functions and make jokes. People see us functioning and assume the pain has disappeared, but grief can become private. You learn to carry it beneath your clothes. You learn which stories you tell and which ones you keep. You learn that somebody can be absent from your daily life and still appear inside your thoughts without warning. You hear a song, notice a smell, see a photograph or a familiar road, remember a birthday or a particular kind of rain and, suddenly, there they are. For one beautiful, brutal moment, the distance disappears; then reality returns. That, my friends, is the strange mathematics of love.

The person can be gone, but the love can remain. This is why I no longer believe that healing means forgetting. Healing, to me, means being able to remember without being destroyed by the remembering. It means I can say your name and breathe. I can look at the photograph and smile before the tears come. I can tell your story without feeling I betray you by continuing with mine. I can love the life I have now while still honouring the life I had with you. This is where the wisdom of Kafka and Dostoevsky meets psychology. Time teaches us to live without somebody’s physical presence, but love teaches us that absence is not erasure. The people we lose can become part of the architecture of who we are. They can influence how we love, how we parent, how we speak, how we forgive and how we appreciate an ordinary afternoon. Sometimes, losing someone teaches us the value of the people who are still sitting beside us. It teaches us to make the telephone call, stop postponing the visit, say “I love you” while the person can still hear it, forgive the small things and put down the foolish pride because, eventually, every human being becomes somebody else’s memory. The most practical lesson grief can give us is to love while people are here, grieve when they leave, remember without shame and ask for help when the weight becomes too much. And, when you are finally able, carry the love forward instead of trying to bury it. In closing, here is a poem to honour their absence. Enjoy. Weighting Their Absence I felt it when Kafka said, “Time teaches us to live without them.” Then Dostoevsky came along, And somehow made that feeling wrong. I thought time would set me free, Teach me to live without you in me, Instead, it taught your absence to breathe. I learned to wake without your name, To laugh and still remain the same. I learned to say, “I’m doing fine,” Then miss you when the stars

would shine. I learned to carry on each day, While keeping what we had away, In some small room where memories stay. Some mornings, I can hardly feel The old familiar ache and seal. Then comes a song, a scent, a street, And suddenly our worlds can meet. I hear your laughter in my mind, Reach for the hand I cannot find, Then watch the memory fall behind. I thought forgetting meant release, That time would finally bring

me peace. But love has roots beneath the ground, It grows where silence makes no sound. I buried pieces of you deep, In places only dreams can keep, Where waking hands can never reach. I carry you beneath my skin, In every place I have been. You live within the words I say, And find me in the oddest way. I carry less of yesterday, Yet still you wander through my day, Then disappear before I say. Perhaps I never learned goodbye, Perhaps some loves refuse to die.

They change their shape, they change their place, They leave a shadow, leave a trace. I hold your memory more light, Like a distant star at night, Still far away, yet burning bright. So yes, I learned to live without you, But that was never quite the truth. I learned to smile, to breathe, to stand, With your absence in my hand. I learned that love can still remain, After the tears, beyond the pain, And live inside me once again. Romella Dasratt

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CHRONICLE PEPPERPOT ― Sunday, September 20, 2026

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CHRONICLE PEPPERPOT ― Sunday, September 20, 2026

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CHRONICLE PEPPERPOT ― Sunday, September 20, 2026

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CHRONICLE PEPPERPOT ― Sunday, September 20, 2026

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CHRONICLE PEPPERPOT ― Sunday, September 20, 2026

September 20th, 2026 STUDY SUCCESS Welcome, dear friend. When revising compositions, think of writing as a process: not a single task, but an ongoing cycle of observing, evaluating, and reshaping your work. It involves careful, purposeful reading and deliberate revisions to improve content, organisation, structure, and word choice. These revisions may include adding, deleting, balancing ideas for the intended audience, and substituting words, phrases, sentences, or paragraphs. This process clarifies writing purpose, strengthens reader interest, and improves your work in other important ways. Be wise. Love you.

THE PASSAGE Reading comprehension Reminder: Active reading helps you understand, interpret, and make meaning from a text without overtaxing your mind. As you comprehend, ask thoughtful questions, adjust your pace with purpose, pause at strategic points, and summarise. Constant practice in reading comprehension should enable you to answer text questions successfully under examination conditions. Read each passage, then answer its related questions. Passage One The future development of any action depends on harnessing the creative and productive potential of its youth. This can only happen if we empower young people. Any

society with a high percentage of disillusioned youth is steering towards serious long-term social problems. It is therefore imperative that those who have the primary task of managing and governing our societies should not wait for a catastrophic collapse before embarking on any programme of policies that can impact young people positively. It is no longer front-page news that young people from socalled socially and economically challenged backgrounds are involved in criminal activities. The evidence is clear: the impact of crime on the development of Caribbean economies is significant. According to the Caribbean Human Development Report in 2012, crime has become

one of man’s challenges that threatens the economies and the quality of life in Caribbean countries. 1. Give the meaning of each word or phrase listed from the passage: harnessing, creative and productive potential, disillusioned youth, catastrophic collapse, one of the main challenges, quality of life. 2. Write what the first paragraph that ends at “criminal activities” is saying to you the reader. 3. Give a summary of the passage in not more than 32 words. Passage Two The room in which I found myself was very large and lofty. The windows were long, narrow, and pointed, and at so vast a distance from

I could not love thee (Dear) so much, Lov’d I not honour more. RICHARD LOVELACE (1618-1658) “To Lucasta, Going to the Wars” the black oaken floor as to be altogether inaccessible from within. Feeble gleams of encrimsoned light made their way through the trellised panes, and served to render sufficiently distinct the more prominent objects around; the eye, however, struggled in vain to reach the remoter angles of the chamber, or the recesses of the vaulted and fretted ceiling. Hard draperies hung upon the walls. The general furniture was profuse, comfortless, antique, and tattered. Many books and musical instruments lay scattered about, but failed to give any vitality to the scene. I felt that I breathed an atmosphere of sorrow. An air of stern, deep, and irredeemable gloom hung over and pervaded all. Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher”) 1. Give meaning to each of the following words and phrases as they appear in order in the paragraph: very large and lofty, black oaken floor, The windows were … altogether inaccessible from within, the eye, … struggled in vain, encrimsoned light recesses of the vaulted and fretted ceiling, failed to give any vitality to the scene, the general furniture was profuse. 2. Find the paragraph’s topic sentence. What does it say? What points of support does the writer use in his paragraph? GRAMMAR Sentence correction Note: Sentence correction is the process of finding and fixing errors in grammar, structure and syntax, punctuation and capitalisation, and word choice (diction), to make a sentence clear, accurate, and meaningful. This exercise, which tar-

gets several important areas of writing, is also called sentence improvement or phrase replacement. Test your competence in sentence correction. Write O.K. for any sentence that has no error. 1. Stephenson is clever, thoughtful, and works very effectively. 2. Simon likes using this new keyboard, but he prefers Hazel’s. 3. There is, as you already know, ten or twelve applicants interested in that job. 4. The secretary reported that neither the Water Street road-building contract nor the warranty is still in effect. 5. Yes, Kate likes to go to the craft school and studying. 6. Frankly, between you and I, I have little confidence in the committee’s ability to handle this month’s celebrations. 7. Are you sure that the young man whom you saw at the opening ceremony was Mr. Gordon? Yes, I am sure that man was he. 8. Twenty wild goose crossed the woods bordering the south pasture. 9. Can you understand Jacqueline failing in mathematics and science? 10. The baby, spending all day in a small buggy, lying on her back and staring into the sky. 11. No one, looking at that statue, and failing to be impressed. 12. Favoured with a steady wind, the yacht beating the storm into port. 13. Have you ever before seen these kind of sheep? 14. Each boy must be responsible for their own expenses. 15. Which of these two samples of ice cream do you like best? 16. I like whip cream.

CHRONICLE PEPPERPOT ― Sunday, September 20, 2026

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CHRONICLE PEPPERPOT ― Sunday, September 20, 2026