THE STRIKE ACTION compelled me to stay away from work on Monday. In fact, on Sunday night when I lit that match a little too near the flame, little did I know that I would lose an eyebrow and a few strands of hair. It was the genesis of a new understanding for me, since “the sweat of thy brow” has now taken on perfect comprehension. I have only one eyebrow and a lot of sweat.
“Arsonist!” That’s what Cheryl King has labelled both me and my actions (with a slight variation in spelling), since my luck struck out. The thing is, I love playing with fire, even though I always seem to get burnt. You see, I come from a long line of arsonists – although I shouldn’t admit that to you – but it’s the truth. Back in 1973, my grandmother helped Bob Marley name his fifth album. Catch A Fire ended up being one of the greatest-selling albums of all time. I get fired up just mentioning that story.
However, the same grandmother continually told me, “You can’t fight fire with fire, but you must always stand up for your rights.” So, I get it: A march in July. In this case, “standing up” means marching forward.
But let’s rewind to a time before some of you were born. There was also a march just before March of 1976 – when Eric Sealy burnt an effigy at a public meeting, although he was perhaps of the “fight-fire-with-fire” mentality. Are we about to come full circle? It is said that history repeats itself, but it’s my personal hope that such recurrence never occurs.
Some people mix up the concepts of firing, redundancy and early retirement. Listen to the call-in programmes on any given day and you’d hear some callers using the three interchangeably. While I am no unionist (although I’m a Mothers’ Union aspirant and I also have strong ties with a credit union) I do think that we should have some clarification and communication on those three concepts. Those differences would make the real difference before we hastily decide to browbeat anyone.
But back to the fire story and my brow-burning. Reader, I didn’t even realise I was brow-less until my neighbour mentioned it. I was in fact browsing through his old magazines as he was pelting them into an old barrel, with stuff already being burnt. The matches were there, beckoning me, as my eyes lit up with a smile. I walked closer to the box, magazine in hand. Coincidentally, it was a magazine called Contemporary Lampworking. (My neighbour likes to blow hot glass and other stuff).
Instead of simply throwing the magazine into the barrel, I set it aflame and walked towards the barrel. It was on fire. And so was my brow. I hear the W Salons in St James can fix me up. So maybe I’ll have the courage to leave home today. So, if you see me walking by, without a brow over one eye, look away, please baby, look away.
Veoma Ali is an author, broadcaster, advertising exec and most important, a karaoke lover.