Amina Blackwood Meeks
MISS LADY and Likkle Miss Jing Bang team up again. Dis time dem putting up resistance gains some outa season wedda dat giving de Disaster Planners a debil of a time.
First of all Likkle Miss Jing Bang doan really like city life aldoagh is into it she born an grow. So she quite happy fe have Miss Lady up into de piece of bush dere as a place of refuge to which she may retire from time to time. De fack dat de Light and Power people dem will not find de location before Miss Lady win de lottery and hand over de cheque before de tax man cometh only serve to make up into dem dere hills a tad more exotic. But hear de problem. It come in like since Dennis blow every time JB plan to take trip up dere Miss Lady tell har bout wedda, rain a fall.
De odda day de place nearly wash whey meantime town dry as chips. Bridge unda wata, road unda wata an some terrible long slides. Dat is ascardin to JB, for de distance of road slippage dat lodge up in de Junction need something more dan landslide to describe how far de mountainside travel to come lodge up into de road. JB sey when she study de situation it come in like a plot to achieve something evil. What is summuch rain doing on de northcoast? For dat is where Tourist come. Rain know dat. An dem come for sun bath even if dem teck it in de sea. Rain know dat too. Den how come it just choose to prips up itself between de people an de likkle chance of foreign exchange earnings? Ascarding to JB dat nuh siddung pretty.
NO LANDING STRIP
Den again, Miss Lady explain to har via cellie sey, plane will bring food for tourists. But hup into fe har districk dere is no landing strip, for landing strip doant build where people farm potatoes, corn, carrots and such. No, landing strip construck in de vicinity of odda vegetable matter. An de tings dat farm in her districk cannot survive de whole heap of water.
Miss Lady a jus chu age why she nuh cry. For is like every two days de farmer dem time de likkle space where de rain hole up an run go put some food inna de grung. An as dem done, here comes a deluge fe wash it whey. JB rain cudden do dat jus so. Dat soun to har like supernatural intervention. An she refer back to how Miss Lady did tell har sey one time dere was a terrible flood dat wash out Cuba and when it cudden wash out nuh more it come a Jamaica and do anadda set of washing out. It was a mystery to people. Till dem get fe find out sey some people develop a way to tings into de clouds fe fall rain where odda people prosperity bun dem. JB she tink is dat going on.
Somebody somewhere is using high science pan we tourist NortCoast an we farming communities one time. Deprive we of de overseas money. Den deprive we of we food and leff we widout de means fe procure food from farin. Dat is a triple whammy an tree is a duppy number, science an JB exhort dat we are to just teck it so. Something must be done. Science dem back. Afta all Miss Lady always tell har dat we is de people of high sciance. A outa fe we head book writer get tings fe write, but we did leave back some. So hear what she use fe har head to advise Miss Lady.
MAGIC POT
JB sey we mus develop a way to plant everyting we want to eat into some magic pot. Dat way anytime we want to hide we food from people who tink we must starve we jus carry de pot dem inside de house of put dem under de cellar. Similarly, when big breeze blow or adda adverse wedda threaten we just teck up everyting an secure it. For widout food security we cannot survive any disaster.
Well, Miss Lady meck JB to know dat such an idea is not exactly new paradigm. She sey when she was likkle an never have no big amount a land is so dem use to do it. Plant up ting into old car tyre. Meck big food cultivation into drum pan. Teck a drum and cut it in two longways for tings dat doan need no long root, like skellion and carrot and such. Or cut it crossways for tings dat need long root like yam. Miss Lady she remember a big breeze blow when she did likkle dat har parents just teck tarpaulin an cover over de cultivation in de drum an hungry was not dere problem. Ascardin to JB dat is high science. Yu see when Miss Lady tell har sey de Agricultural People dem did give it big name, call it containerized farming and start promote it, JB convince dat dat is de way to go. Science again. Rely pan what inna we head even if book nuh capture it yet. For if yu leff yu head careless book capture it an den book readers come laugh afta yu an tell yu what an what yu doan have de head for.
An dere is where she an Miss Lady decide to collaborate on food security science project. Miss Lady sey, she an all never know sey summuch drum pan did inna Jamaica jus fling dung roun carna while people a fight up wid how fe keep food inna grung. Big learning people did all have a ting name square foot garden an a get how much crop outa one square foot a land. Well she an JB combine up an meck some containerized square foot garden dat is fe dem secret magic pot. Anyting dem want to eat is going to come out of dere. An dem is going to teach everybody in Miss Lady districk how to do dat and dat will be fe dem contribution to disaster mitigation and risk hazard management in dis country.
For one ting dem know bout how it look like sey hurricane season nuh waan to have no en, yu haffe match science wid science. A de time fe it now.
