Hello, it's me
I was wondering if after all these years
You'd like to meet, to go over everything
They say that time's supposed to heal ya
But I ain't done much healing

Hello, can you hear me?
I'm in California dreaming about who we used to be
When we were younger and free
I've forgotten how it felt before the world fell at our feet

There's such a difference between us
And a million miles

Hello from the other side
I must've called a thousand times to tell you
I'm sorry, for everything that I've done
But when I call you never seem to be home

Hello from the outside
At least I can say that I've tried to tell you
I'm sorry, for breaking your heart
But it don't matter, it clearly doesn't tear you apart anymore

Hello, how are you?
It's so typical of me to talk about myself
I'm sorry, I hope that you're well
Did you ever make it out of that town
Where nothing ever happened?

It's no secret
That the both of us are running out of time

Hello from the other side
I must've called a thousand times to tell you
I'm sorry, for everything that I've done
But when I call you never seem to be home

Hello from the outside
At least I can say that I've tried to tell you
I'm sorry, for breaking your heart
But it don't matter, it clearly doesn't tear you apart anymore

Ooooohh, anymore
Ooooohh, anymore
Ooooohh, anymore
Anymore

Hello from the other side
I must've called a thousand times to tell you
I'm sorry, for everything that I've done
But when I call you never seem to be home

Hello from the outside
At least I can say that I've tried to tell you
I'm sorry, for breaking your heart
But it don't matter, it clearly doesn't tear you apart anymore

At a time when a sizable chunk of the American population is debating whether immigrants are lazy sponges or job-stealing sponges, it may be refreshing to learn that Trinidad has a national holiday celebrating the arrival of Indians to its land. It was 1845, and they were workers coming to quench the country’s withering labor shortage. Of course, that ‘‘labor shortage’’ was actually how plantation owners described a result of African slaves’ winning their freedom — a thought almost as depressing as the fact that the Indians were actually indentured servants brought in to take their place. But today, Trinis are chest-thumpingly proud of their blended heritage.

 Those Indians, their descendants and the waves of immigrants after them fundamentally reshaped Trini culture, music and food. So much so that, if you wandered into any random Trini restaurant, as I did at Singh’s Roti Shop in Trini-rich Richmond Hill, Queens, you could be forgiven for assuming you’d just arrived at an Indian buffet. (Well, if you somehow missed the Olympics-like procession of Caribbean flags, the accents and the D.J. who starts the party by bumping bouncy soca riddims at 9 a.m.) Everywhere you look, there are curries, rices and rotis.

 Nearby, Dolly Sirju teaches Trini cooking classes in her home, through a company called the League of Kitchens. When I attended one, she welcomed us warmly but spoke with nonsense-free authority, and she didn’t want to hear any noise about her curries seeming like Indian food. ‘‘My great-grandparents moved to Trinidad from India, and Indians ask me, ‘How come you guys make the same thing we make but cook it different?’ ’’ she said before letting out a salty harrumph. ‘‘For me, India is totally different from Trinidad. I’m not fascinated by it. What we do is take a little from each culture — Indian, African, Caribbean, Chinese — and that makes it Trini.’’

Four spoonfuls into her nutty, herbal, spicy chana and aloo, I started to understand. (Actually, I got it after one bite, but I had to take three more — for journalistic purposes.) An everyday staple, the dish shares a look and a name with a typical North Indian curry: Chana means ‘‘chickpeas’’ in Hindi; aloo means ‘‘potatoes’’; the ‘‘and,’’ I assume, is a musical flourish of Caribbean English. But while Indian cooks make a gingery tomato base and grind fresh spices for their dish, Sirju’s version announces its island origins. The flavor is built on a floral wave of shado beni, a cilantro-like herb that grows wild all over Trinidad, stirred in raw and pungent and cooked down to a mellow, sweet swell. (The herb is also called culantro; if you can’t find it, you can substitute a combination of cilantro and parsley.) The stew gets a slow, building heat from fruity Scotch bonnet peppers and aroma from preground Madras curry powder, which was popularized by colonial merchants to create a British market for their spices­. All these flavors drape over soft chickpeas and potatoes to make a dish that’s particular to its homeland. It’s a rare combination of intriguing and satisfying — the kind of thing that sparks some pride. ‘‘There are a lot of Guyanese in this neighborhood,’’ Sirju said. ‘‘But if the Guyanese are having a function, they’ll ask a Trini to come cook.’’

She showed us other Trini kitchen moves: rubbing raw goat with ground cloves, then rinsing it with lemon and water to wash off its gamy taste; puréeing shado beni, parsley and scallions with water to make ‘‘green seasoning,’’ a killer flavor base, even if it sounds like a juice-bar nightmare; griddling roti flatbreads and then whacking the bejesus out of them with paddles to break open their flakes for maximal curry absorption. (The roti is called ‘‘buss-up shut.’’ It means ‘‘busted-up shirt.’’ Everything about it is amazing.)

In the backyard behind the kitchen, Sirju’s sons, clad in white tank tops, were teaching themselves how to take apart a car and put it back together: classic Americana. They disappeared for a while. Then, after hours of cooking, tons of curries and shirts being busted up, the kids came home — with a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken. I wondered if Sirju would take this as an affront — cultural decline at the drive-through. But she pulled out a bottle of Kraft barbecue sauce. ‘‘I make American food,’’ she said. ‘‘My neighbors are American, and when we’re barbecuing, forget it. The whole neighborhood is in my backyard.’’ She handed me a spoonful of the sauce. She’d warmed it with spices, sharpened it with tamarind, then napalmed it with chiles. She took it and made it Trini, made it her own. And she was proud as hell of it.

Did You Know: Our Sugar Cane History
"Trinidad and Tobago, owes much of its culture, races and development to sugar cane plantation. Explore this section to learn a bit about the country’s sugar cane history including its impact on population and traditions as well as the rise and fall of the sugar industry.
The Beginning of our Sugar History
Trinidad began its road to development with the sugar industry which obtained its first boost with the arrival of Roume de St. Laurent and his French compatriots with their slaves in 1783. Though discovered in 1498 by Christopher Columbus who claimed the island for Spain, Trinidad was largely ignored until 1777 when Philippe Rose Roume de Saint-Laurent made his first visit to Trinidad.
Roume de Saint-Laurent was a French planter born in Grenada who saw Trinidad’s potential in many ways. He wrote an in-depth report on the development potential of the island and although he was not given credit at the time, his advice was taken into consideration by the Spanish King. This led to the historic issuance of the Cedula of Population on November 20th 1783, which was designed to attract immigrants to the island.
While some of the land gained was used to plant cane, Trinidad’s sugar industry was further amplified when the island was taken over by England. War in Europe bought a fleet of British ships into Trinidad waters in 1797 and without much of a fight Trinidad changed hands and became a British possession. For the next century Trinidad became a typical British sugar colony with its fortune following the price of sugar.
Sugar Cane Plantation & its Impact on Trinidad & Tobago’s Heritage
Trinidad and Tobago, two islands which comprise one country may be considered one of the most cosmopolitan societies in the Western World. This can be greatly attributed to sugar cane plantation in Trinidad, where the melting pot formation began with the importation of labor to work the cane fields. Europeans, Africans, Chinese and East Indians came to Trinidad bringing with them their cultural traditions which exist throughout the country today.
First from its beginnings in Northern Trinidad the sugar industry gradually moved to the Central and Southern areas as slavery continued to provide the necessary labour. After emancipation, the African slaves brought over by the English, settled into their home with free rights. Many left the fields while some remained as cartermen, boilers, carpenters, mechanics, cane weighers and policemen.
To help work the sugar plantations after the abolition of slavery, indentured labourers were brought over from China, India and the Portuguese island of Madeira beginning in 1845. The East Indians seemed to thrive on the sugar plantations and here the two major races, Africans and Indians, struggled to keep the economy on a sound footing. In the process they created a culture of sugar which still dominates the life of the former sugar lands. Taken together, all the people brought to Trinidad’s shores during the sugar cane era built the diverse culture and enriched heritage Trinidad and Tobago proudly boasts today.
The Development & Demise of Sugar Production
In 1937 there were two major developments which occurred on these sugar lands. One was the formation of the All Trinidad Sugar Estates Factory Workers Trade Union which for the first time gave representation to many thousands of sugar workers who had revolted in 1935, 1936 and 1937 against slave conditions on the sugar estates. Now, under the leadership of Adrian Cola Rienzi they transformed the nature of the industry.
At the same time, Caroni (1937) was created when Tate and Lyle, a British multi-national company bought our Caroni Sugar Estates (Trinidad) Ltd making a conglomerate which included Waterloo on the Western coast and Brechin Castle in Couva. By 1940 the landscape of its headquarters, Brechin Castle, was changed by the construction of the factory and the four cooling ponds at the back as well as major company offices, the dispensary, Sevilla School, Sevilla Club and residences for mainly expatriate senior staff.
In 1960 Caroni bought out Usine Ste. Madeleine factory which had grown considerably since its founding in 1870. In 1975 the State bought the conglomerate, calling it Caroni (1975) Ltd which continued producing sugar but also went into diversification, producing citrus, prawns, large and small ruminants and rice.
By the end of the 20th century as oil became increasingly significant, the sugar industry and agriculture generally sank into a low second place until the state closed down Caroni Ltd in 2003, retrenching 9,000 workers directly and a further 35,000 who were indirectly dependent on the industry. Just over 75,000.00 acres of land now became available for other uses."

From the very first time I rest my eyes on you, girl,
My heart says follow t'rough.
But I know, now, that I'm way down on your line,
But the waitin' feel is fine:

"The past tempts us, the present confuses us, and the future frightens us and our lives slip away, moment by moment. Lost in the vast terrible in between. But there is still time to seize that one last fragile moment."

A church was shot up by a lunatic. The US government never lets a tragedy or crisis pass without attempting to find a new way to restrict the American people. So, we can expect a renewed push for gun control. There is a lot of propaganda about gun control. So much so that the truth has been lost.
The National Rifle Association (NRA) would have you believe that guns stop murders. The gun control lobby would have you believe that gun control reduces murders. They are both wrong. Gun bans have always had the same effect once implemented: none. They do not create a (sustained) period of increased murders, nor do they reduce the rate of homicides. The gun control crowd is currently stomping their feet and screaming “No, it reduces violence! I’ve seen the statistics.” What you probably saw were studies that point to reduced instances of “gun murders,” not murder. The pro-gun crowd is screaming that gun bans cause crime. At least this is grounded in reality. Typically, there is a spike in murders immediately after a ban, but it is short lived.


Gun control is designed to stop people from killing each other, at least that’s what we are always told. Let’s take a look at the data:
United Kingdom: The UK enacted its handgun ban in 1996. From 1990 until the ban was enacted, the homicide rate fluctuated between 10.9 and 13 homicides per million. After the ban was enacted, homicides trended up until they reached a peak of 18.0 in 2003. Since 2003, which incidentally was about the time the British government flooded the country with 20,000 more cops, the homicide rate has fallen to 11.1 in 2010. In other words, the 15-year experiment in a handgun ban has achieved absolutely nothing.
Ireland: Ireland banned firearms in 1972. Ireland’s homicide rate was fairly static going all the way back to 1945. In that period, it fluctuated between 0.1 and 0.6 per 100,000 people. Immediately after the ban, the murder rate shot up to 1.6 per 100,000 people in 1975. It then dropped back down to 0.4. It has trended up, reaching 1.4 in 2007.
Australia: Australia enacted its gun ban in 1996. Murders have basically run flat, seeing only a small spike after the ban and then returning almost immediately to preban numbers. It is currently trending down, but is within the fluctuations exhibited in other nations.
Plain and simple. Gun control has no significant impact on murder rates. Removing firearms does not typically create massive lawlessness. It is a moot point. These figures aren’t a secret. Why would the governments of these nations want a disarmed populace? For the answer, it is best to look at a nation that has had long-time gun bans that is currently relaxing their laws. Russia recently relaxed its firearms laws. For the first time in recent memory, a Russian citizen can carry a firearm. The prohibited items speak volumes about what a government’s motive behind disarming the population is. Russia has allowed “smoothbore long barrelled guns, pistols, revolvers, and other firearms, as well as Tasers, and devices equipped with teargas.” That’s almost everything, what is still banned? Rifles. So the Russian government has made it clear that the real objective is to remove rifles from civilian hands. The reasoning is pretty clear: you need rifles to overthrow a government.


The Real Reason Gun Control Will Never Work:
Poverty has a greater correlation to violent crime than access to firearms. Education and poverty are directly linked. In short, we don’t have a gun problem in the United States, we have a cultural problem.Home Depot. Most people in the gun control lobby know nothing about firearms or their construction. Everything you need to manufacture firearms is available at Home Depot. The materials needed to manufacture a 12 gauge shotgun cost about $20. If someone wanted to build a fully automatic Mac-10 style submachine gun, it would probably cost about $60. Every electrician, plumber, and handyman in the country has the materials necessary to manufacture firearms in their shop. The items are completely unregulated. They aren’t like the chemicals necessary to manufacture methamphetamines. How is the battle against that black market working out?
We have a society that panders to the basest desires and instincts. One of those is violence. We live in a society where women are given dirty looks for breastfeeding in a restaurant, while over their heads on the wall-mounted television plays a movie that graphically depicts someone being tortured to death. We are desensitized to violence, and we have a generation of people that do not have the coping skills necessary to deal with reality.

Firearms are the Pandora’s Box of the United States. The box is open, it can’t be closed through legislation. If you want to change society, you have to actually change the whole of society. You can’t blame an inanimate object that’s availability has absolutely no correlation to murder and expect to end violence.

Nothing is forever.

Here is a list of 15 things which, if you give up on them, will make your life a lot easier and much, much happier. We hold on to so many things that cause us a great deal of pain, stress and suffering – and instead of letting them all go, instead of allowing ourselves to be stress free and happy – we cling on to them. Not anymore. Starting today we will give up on all those things that no longer serve us, and we will embrace change. Ready? Here we go:

1. Give up your need to always be right

There are so many of us who can’t stand the idea of being wrong – wanting to always be right – even at the risk of ending great relationships or causing a great deal of stress and pain, for us and for others. It’s just not worth it. Whenever you feel the ‘urgent’ need to jump into a fight over who is right and who is wrong, ask yourself this question:
“Would I rather be right, or would I rather be kind?”
Wayne Dyer 
What difference will that make? Is your ego really that big

2. Give up your need for control

Be willing to give up your need to always control everything that happens to you and around you – situations, events, people, etc. Whether they are loved ones, coworkers, or just strangers you meet on the street – just allow them to be. Allow everything and everyone to be just as they are and you will see how much better will that make you feel.

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“By letting it go it all gets done. The world is won by those who let it go. But when you try and try. The world is beyond winning.”
Lao Tzu

3. Give up on blame

Give up on your need to blame others for what you have or don’t have, for what you feel or don’t feel. Stop giving your powers away and start taking responsibility for your life.

4. Give up your self-defeating self-talk

Oh my. How many people are hurting themselves because of their negative, polluted and repetitive self-defeating mindset? Don’t believe everything that your mind is telling you – especially if it’s negative and self-defeating. You are better than that.
“The mind is a superb instrument if used rightly. Used wrongly, however, it becomes very destructive.”
Eckhart Tolle

5. Give up your limiting beliefs

about what you can or cannot do, about what is possible or impossible. From now on, you are no longer going to allow your limiting beliefs to keep you stuck in the wrong place. Spread your wings and fly!
“A belief is not an idea held by the mind, it is an idea that holds the mind.”
Elly Roselle

6. Give up complaining

Give up your constant need to complain about those many, many, maaany things – people, situations, events that make you unhappy, sad and depressed. Nobody can make you unhappy, no situation can make you sad or miserable unless you allow it to. It’s not the situation that triggers those feelings in you, but how you choose to look at it. Never underestimate the power of positive thinking.

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7. Give up the luxury of criticism

Give up your need to criticize things, events or people that are different than you. We are all different, yet we are all the same. We all want to be happy, we all want to love and be loved and we all want to be understood. We all want something, and something is wished by us all.

8. Give up your need to impress others

Stop trying so hard to be something that you’re not just to make others like you. It doesn’t work this way. The moment you stop trying so hard to be something that you’re not, the moment you take off all your masks, the moment you accept and embrace the real you, you will find people will be drawn to you, effortlessly.

9. Give up your resistance to change

Change is good. Change will help you move from A to B. Change will help you make improvements in your life and also the lives of those around you. Follow your bliss, embrace change – don’t resist it.
“Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors for you where there were only walls.”
Joseph Campbell

10. Give up labels

Stop labeling those things, people or events that you don’t understand as being weird or different and try opening your mind, little by little. Minds only work when open.
“The highest form of ignorance is when you reject something you don’t know anything about.”
Wayne Dyer

11. Give up on your fears

Fear is just an illusion, it doesn’t exist – you created it. It’s all in your mind. Correct the inside and the outside will fall into place.
“The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself.”
Franklin D. Roosevelt

12. Give up your excuses

Send them packing and tell them they’re fired. You no longer need them. A lot of times we limit ourselves because of the many excuses we use. Instead of growing and working on improving ourselves and our lives, we get stuck, lying to ourselves, using all kind of excuses – excuses that 99.9% of the time are not even real.

13. Give up the past

I know, I know. It’s hard. Especially when the past looks so much better than the present and the future looks so frightening, but you have to take into consideration the fact that the present moment is all you have and all you will ever have. The past you are now longing for – the past that you are now dreaming about – was ignored by you when it was present. Stop deluding yourself. Be present in everything you do and enjoy life. After all life is a journey not a destination. Have a clear vision for the future, prepare yourself, but always be present in the now.

14. Give up attachment

This is a concept that, for most of us is so hard to grasp and I have to tell you that it was for me too, (it still is) but it’s not something impossible. You get better and better at with time and practice. The moment you detach yourself from all things, (and that doesn’t mean you give up your love for them – because love and attachment have nothing to do with one another, attachment comes from a place of fear, while love… well, real love is pure, kind, and self less, where there is love there can’t be fear, and because of that, attachment and love cannot coexist) you become so peaceful, so tolerant, so kind, and so serene. You will get to a place where you will be able to understand all things without even trying. A state beyond words.

15. Give up living your life to other people’s expectations

Way too many people are living a life that is not theirs to live. They live their lives according to what others think is best for them, they live their lives according to what their parents think is best for them, to what their friends, their enemies and their teachers, their government and the media think is best for them. They ignore their inner voice, that inner calling. They are so busy with pleasing everybody, with living up to other people’s expectations, that they lose control over their lives. They forget what makes them happy, what they want, what they need….and eventually they forget about themselves. You have one life – this one right now – you must live it, own it, and especially don’t let other people’s opinions distract you from your path.

You have Stage 1 morality, which is described as preconventional morality. According to the studies done by Lawrence Kohlberg, anyone who is Stage 1 sees morality in an egocentric way. This means you make decisions on what's right and wrong based on how it effects you

Jonathan Trager, prominent television producer for ESPN, died last night from complications of losing his soul mate and his fiancee. He was 35 years old. Soft-spoken and obsessive, Trager never looked the part of a hopeless romantic. But, in the final days of his life, he revealed an unknown side of his psyche. This hidden quasi-Jungian persona surfaced during the Agatha Christie-like pursuit of his long reputed soul mate, a woman whom he only spent a few precious hours with. Sadly, the protracted search ended late Saturday night in complete and utter failure. Yet even in certain defeat, the courageous Trager secretly clung to the belief that life is not merely a series of meaningless accidents or coincidences. Uh-uh. But rather, its a tapestry of events that culminate in an exquisite, sublime plan. Asked about the loss of his dear friend, Dean Kansky, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author and executive editor of the New York Times, described Jonathan as a changed man in the last days of his life. "Things were clearer for him," Kansky noted. Ultimately Jonathan concluded that if we are to live life in harmony with the universe, we must all possess a powerful faith in what the ancients used to call "fatum", what we currently refer to as destiny.

why a nation of, by and for the people has become the savings-and-loan of a government system whose survival depends on an Orwellian state of constant war.