JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Friday, July 25, 2025

TRI­NI TO D BONE

You burn to learn

by

20140608

My name is An­tho­ny John­son but I A-K-A as "Strongy". Un­for­tu­nate­ly, I am a de­por­tee. I came back from Brook­lyn, New York, 17 years ago.

Boy days in Laven­tille was fun, kick­ing ball, play­ing bas­ket­ball, fly­ing kite. But the most best part was when you put a glass [on the toe of your shoe and put it by a girl's shoes] and you sit down [and look at the re­flec­tion]. Kids will be kids. And all that is part of life.

I get my up­per body de­f­i­n­i­tion from hard work. Pure hard work. Plen­ty hard work. When you work hard, you see im­prove­ments. And it gets the body clean.

I have a col­lege ed­u­ca­tion, nuh. I went to school in New York, nuh. I took an as­so­ciate's de­gree in psy­chol­o­gy.

You know what is called, "a bro­ken home"? That's when you're raised by one par­ent, not both par­ents, nuh. And that is force them to be led astray by male fig­ures who are adults, who are old­er. I was mis­led in that way. But I burn to learn, you know?

I have plen­ty re­grets about leav­ing Brook­lyn. I left a wife, chil­dren, house, car, every­thing. I miss my chil­dren. My wife mar­ried again. It's all good.

I groom back in­to my coun­try now. I's a na­tive here. I wasn't brought here, I didn't come here, I was born here.

I come from a very big fam­i­ly. My moth­er had nine boys and three girls. My fa­ther had five boys and one girl. That is a big fam­i­ly. And I's the ba­by. I have three chil­dren in New York and one here.

Since I had a lit­tle ac­ci­dent here in Wood­brook with these gy­ro-men, I haven't been able to go and see my son. It scar me men­tal­ly and phys­i­cal­ly, men­tal­ly most of all. I don't know how to deal with my son, be­cause of the bruis­es I suf­fer from my head and the stitch­es and thing, nuh. And I felt I should have been com­pen­sat­ed for it. And I didn't get it.

I not racial, you un­der­stand, but these fel­las feel, be­cause they're white, and they come in a Third World coun­try that's run by blacks, they feel like we see­ing pover­ty. So they feel they could pay they way through. And put us against one an­oth­er, for them to see their way. They suc­ceed­ing in a lot of ways, as far as it goes with the au­thor­i­ties.

In some ways, I face hos­til­i­ty on the Av­enue. They try to make it seem like is a joke but is to­tal dis­re­spect. You don't pay peo­ple to put hu­man fae­ces on peo­ple' clothes. You don't pay peo­ple to de­stroy peo­ple's things. To dis­re­spect peo­ple and laugh! I live on al­most every street in Wood­brook and it was nev­er so. As these fel­las come, Wood­brook changed.

I earn most of my mon­ey in the week. Some days you make small mon­ey. Some days you make noth­ing.

Hear my way of re­lax­ation: I go in the mid­dle of the Sa­van­nah or in a ceme­tery and sit down. Or in the park where the moun­tains near­by. Where it qui­et, nuh. You hears noth­ing. I sit down and get a peace of mind.

I take in Car­ni­val from a dis­tance. Labour Day in Brook­lyn, my wife and chil­dren par­ty­ing, but I don't par­take. Is a pa­gan hol­i­day to me. Plen­ty blood does pass in those days, peo­ple get hurt.

I used to func­tion as a Mus­lim but it come like I back­slid­ing. Start back eat­ing pork and thing. But I try to keep that dis­ci­pline, nuh.

I charge $30 to wash out­side a car. I know peo­ple will do in­side and out for that mon­ey. But some­times men watch the job I do and give me more than $30. Some­times a man give you $100!

The best part of the job is when you get­ting pay! The bad part is when you not get­ting the work you want to get. Is very frus­trat­ing.

A Tri­ni is a na­tive. Be­ing a Tri­ni is be­ing Tri­ni to the bone, all the way in­side. In Brook­lyn, I was red, white and black in­side.

Trinidad & To­ba­go is a uni­ty to me. No one is bet­ter than one. We stand for the same God and un­der­stand­ing.


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored