Canucks is life poem

Canucks is life!

Habeeb Alli

From Guyana

5 years since in Canada


They ask me why I came
From where do I originate?
Do I have any English Skills?
They want to know of my religious base too

I was blessed to be born in Guyana
Studied in India
And travelled the world over and over
Where pains and laughter mingle

Yet I chose cold Canada
Where my families and friends
Made babies and bought houses
To be my children’s residence forever

It’s the freedom to live
The fearlessness to party
The respect of my multiple origins
The sweetness of polite Canadians all about

This love found new
Gives education fragrance
Women color, dignity and saris
Besides constitutional protection from machetes

Opportunities and more chances
Canux is life
With a canoe or a cricket bat
Here is where my bones will dissolve.

another youth dead

It is with deepest sadness and sincere introspection that I seek to key these few lines concerning the recent tragedy on the East Bank road- snuffing the lives of three able young men of our dear soil. While the reports of the three dailies are yet to reconcile the real truth and the courts are still investigating the actual accident, I must say that such incidents have not been rare in Guyana when it comes to road tragedy.

I remember participating many years ago in the opening the the Mahaica-Georgetown highway and in leading the prayers mentioned 'safety from carnage'. Today I have to mourn the victims, the same being my cousins' son- Asheki. All these youths are the tomorrow of our coveted nation and more must be done to educate, protect and remind our road users that each life is as important as theirs and the taking of one life is as taking that of the entire human race.

Asheki, and like the others, are deeply mourned by their loved ones as well as terribly angered by the events. Of course the survivor is also a victim of this traumatic experience and will need therapy. Asheki was another future pilot of Guyana, another budding sports enthusiast and another blossoming citizen heading for a bright 'legit' future. Events like these should have the interfaith community praying and talking, the parliamentarians legislating and the media personnel debating including the rich making pledges for establishing foundations in the name of such educated youths who did not live to see their dreams come through.

I pray for our brothers' Heavenly residence and endurance on behalf of their grieving loved ones. Quran says in 2:156 Those who say, when afflicted with calamity: "To Allah/God We belong, and to Him is our return":- Yours sincerely,