News Magazine

Simple Report 1 2 Alvaranga Place Kingston 10 December 1, 2011. Dr.Thomas Rehabilitation Centre, 23 Groove Hill Road, Kingston 10. Dear Sir: The mental illness that caused an up roar. This report is to inform you of a situation of a man known as Man-Man who was recently involved in an incident. He is medium height and of thin built. He has no occupation, no children and no wife. He is from a place called Miguel Street. This whole incident began when he had informed persons that he had seen God after a bath. Man-Man began to preach every Saturday night at the corner of Miguel Street under the awning of Marys shop. He grew his beard and dressed in a white long robe of an acetylene lamp and preached. He had announced that he was a new Messiah and that he was going to visit a place called Blue Basin to crucify his self and allow people to stone him to death. Their were many persons who assembled to witness Man-Mans forth coming crucifixion on Friday, November 29 at approximately 6pm. The men were dressed in black and the women in white. There were many police officers present at the scene. A strange van arrived with a wooden cross. Man-Man had insisted to carry the cross from the road, up the rocky path, then down to the

basin when he arrived at his destination. But he allowed the men to nail up the cross and help him up on it to tie him to it. He told the persons that were present at the scene to stone him. But because of sympathy they flung bits of sand at his feet. He screamed and told them to stone him with larger stones. Each time he told them to stone him, he would ask for forgiveness for the people and larger stones started to be thrown at his face and chest. After a large stone struck him on his chest, he became angry and shouted at persons saying words like Let me down from the cross so I could settle with the son of a bitch who pelt the stone at me. He continued to shout things like Cut this stupidness out. Cut it out, I tell you. I finish with this arseness you hear. He was taken away by the Miguel street police officers for observations. People have reported that he has mental issues. Persons were even confused because they thought he became sane after he started preaching. Sincerely, Roshane Lawrence.

Mystery of Bogart Done by:Roxton Quallo On December 1,1956.Bogart was just another person living in Miguel street.Two years later when the Casablanca was made Bogart's fame spread like fire through Port-of-Spain and hundreds of young men began adopting the hardboiled Borgartian attitude.The Borgartian attitude is to look so bored and superior. In Bogart's room you found Bogart sitting on his bed with the cards in seven lines on a small table in front of him.This is the mysterious aspect of Bogart because that Bogart 'never liked cards'.Bogart became so famous that in

pretence he would make a living by tailoring and paid someone to make a sign for him that says 'TAILOR AND CUTTER' 'Suits made to Order Popular and Competitive Prices'. On January 5,1960.Bogart simply got up and left his house on Miguel Street and was gone for two months.No knew he had gone.Until March 10,1960.When he returned,it eventually came out that he had gotten a job on a ship and had gone to British Guiana where he had become a cowboy,smuggled things and had run a brothel until he had been arrested and escaped.People on Miguel Street wanted to know story from Bogart.People such as Hat,Eddoes and Boyee.Bogart told them that he had gotten a job on the ship and had gone to British Guiana. There he had deserted, and gone into the interior.He became a cowboy on the Rupununi,smuggled things (he didn't say what) into Brazil, and had gathered some girls from Brazil and taken them Georgetown.He was running the best brothel in the town when the police treacherously took his bribes and arrested him.Bogart said "It was a high-class place," "no bums.Judges and doctors and big shot civil servants." During the story Eddoes asked what happen and asked if it was jail.Hat shouted at him and called him stupid because if Bogart was in jail he wouldn't be there with them.Bogart was offended,and refused to speak another word. The relationship between Hat and Bogart changed.The morning exchange became unfriendly.Bogart became the most feared man in the street.Even Big Foot was said to be afraid of him.Bogart drank and swore and gambled with the best.He shouted rude remarks at girls walking by themselves in the street.He bought a hat,and pulled down the brim over his eyes. He became a regular sight,standing against the high concrete fence of his yard, hands in his pockets,one foot jammed against the wall,and an eternal cigarette in his mouth.

Bogart had disappeared again.He was playing cards with the gangs in his rooms, and he got up and said he is going to the latrine and they didn't see him for four months.When he returned he had grown a little fatter but he had become little more aggressive.His accent was now pure American.To complete the imitation,he began being expansive towards children.He called out to them in the streets,and gave them money to buy gum and chocolate.He loved stroking their heads,and giving good advice. The third time he went away and came back he gave a great party in his room for all the children or kids,as he called them.He bought cases of Solo and Coca -Cola and Pepsi-Cola and about bushel of cakes. On June 15,1960.Sergeant Charles, the policeman who live up Miguel Street at number forty-five,came and arrested Bogart.Sergeant Charles arrested Bogart because he was charge for bigamy.Hat had to find out the inside details that the newspapers never mention.Hat said that "Bogart left his first wife in Tunapuna and come to Port-of-Spain.They couldn't have children.He remain here feeling sad and small.He go away,find a girl in Caroni and he gave she a baby.In Caroni they don't make joke about that sort of thing and Bogart had to get married to the girl" "But why he would leave his first wife?" Eddoes asked. "To be a man,among we men." replied Hat. In conclusion the only mysterious aspect of Bogart is that he left his first wife because they couldn't have baby and he left her and impregnate a girl from Caroni and he had to marry her because people from Caroni don't joke around with that sort of thing.There was little stir in the papers and Bogart had been found out that he married two wives and he arrested and charged for bigamy.

Simple Report 2

10 North Street, Kingston, Kingston 10,

Mr. Dodger, The Editor, The Gleaner Newspaper,

44 Elm Street, Kingston 14, May 10 2011. Dear Sir: The Many Disappearance of Bogart This letter is about why Bogart got up and left Miguel Street without nobody knowing.We are going to discuss what he did when he left Miguel Street and what happen when he return. Bogart simply got up and left his house on Miguel Street and was gone for two months.Bogart left Miguel Street and went to British Guiana because he got a job on a ship.When he arrived at British Guiana he was deserted and he had to go to the interior.To make a living he became a cowboy,smuggled things to Brazil and also gathered some girls from Brazil and taken them to Georgetown.Bogart was running the best brothel in the town when the police treacherously took his bribes and arrested him.Bogart escaped jail and return to Miguel Street. Upon return in Miguel Street people wanted to know why Bogart left.People who wanted know were Hat,Eddoes and Boyee.Bogart was telling them the story until Hat shouted at Eddoes for asking Bogart if he went to jail.Bogart was offended by Hat actions and stopped telling them the story.After that moment the relationship between Hat and Bogart changed.The morning exchange became unfriendly. The second time Bogart had disappeared again.He was playing cards with the gangs in his rooms,and he got up and said he is going to the latrine and they didn't see him for four months.When he returned he had grown a little fatter but he had become little more

aggressive.His accent was now pure American.To complete the imitation,he began being expansive towards children.He called out to them in the streets,and gave them money to buy gum and chocolate.He loved stroking their heads,and giving good advice. The last time Bogart went away and came back he kept a great party in his room for all the children or kids,as he called them.He bought cases of Solo and Coca -Cola and Pepsi-Cola and about bushel of cakes.Sergeant Charles, the policeman who live up Miguel Street at number forty-five,came and arrested Bogart.Sergeant Charles arrested Bogart because he was charge for bigamy. In conclusion Bogart got up and left Miguel Street without nobody knowing because he got a job on a ship and Bogart had left Miguel Street three times. Your Sincerely, Roxton Quallo.

News Report 2

Man-Man a mad man? Roshane Lawrence Contributor A man known as Man-Man from the streets of Miguel Street was seized authority on Friday, November 29 after an incident took place at Blue Basin, where he was supposedly to be crucified. Reports have shown that he was considered a mad man. It is reported that Man-Man had informed persons that he had seen God after a bath. He had also announced that he was a new messiah. According to one of our reliable sources, Man-Man began preaching at the corner of Miguel Street under the awning of by

Marys Shop every Saturday night in a white long robe, with his beard grown and his bible in hand. Persons have informed us that he preaches about what he and God had been talking about. Shop keepers and customers reported that hand written notices began appearing in the shops, cafs and on the gate of some houses announcing Man-Mans forthcoming crucifixion. Persons reported that on the day of the crucifixion, a large crowd was present and so was police. Witnesses of the incident reported that a van arrived at the scene with a wooden cross in it which Man-Man carried up the road, up the rocky path and then down to the Blue Basin. The men that were present put up the cross and tied Man-Man to it. After he was placed on the cross he screamed at persons telling them to through stones at him. A woman that was present at the scene reported that persons were hesitant in throwing stones at him but the more he screamed telling them to throw stones were the bigger the stones started to be thrown and the more stones were thrown. One stone struck him on his chest and a surprised look appeared on his face as if he didnt know what was going on. A police officer reported that he was cursing at the persons who were throwing the stones and telling them to stop the stupidness and that they were to get him down from the cross so he could settle with the person that had pelt a stone at him. At this time the authorities began taking him down and took him away for observations. We spoke with Dr.Thomas at the rehabilitation centre and he said Man-Man has psychosis and that he was psychotic.

Editorial
Representations of Masculinity and Femininity in Miguel Street It has been said about V.S. Naipaul's novel Miguel Street that "One of the recurrent themes... is the ideal of manliness" (Kelly 19). To help put into focus what manliness is, it is important to establish a definition for masculinity as well as its opposite, femininity. Masculinity is defined as "Having qualities regarded as characteristic of men and boys, as strength, vigor, boldness, etc" while femininity is defined as "Having qualities regarded as characteristic of women and girls, as gentleness, weakness, delicacy, modesty, etc" (Webster). The charcters in Miguel Street have been ingrained with the pre- conceived notions of the roles that Trinidadian society dictates for men and women. Naipaul not only uses these notions to show the differences of the sexes, but takes another step in telling anecdotes of characters showing their anti- masculine and anti- feminine features. This will lead to the discovery that our definitions of masculinity and femininity prove that those characteristics apply to the opposite sex in which the women often act like men, and the men often act like women. All of this will be discussed through looking at both male and female characters in the book as well as the boy narrator of the book. Finding examples of manliness are found with great ease considering that 12 of the 17 stories in some way deal with the theme of manliness (Thieme 24). It doesnt take long before the first example, a carpenter named Popo, is introduced. In the chapter titled "The Thing Without A Name" we are told that "Popo never made any money. His wife used to go out and work and this was easy , because they had no children. Popo said ' Women and them like work. Man not made for work" ( Naipaul 17).

This attitude immediately makes Popo stand out from the rest of the men of Miguel Street. Hat (a character that will be discussed later) deems Popo as a "man- woman. Not a proper man" (Naipaul 17) because Popo's wife makes all the money. From this brief description of Popo, the reader quickly learns as to what makes a man manly on Miguel Street. Popo has no children which questions his virility. It is also important to notice that Popo's wife has no identity except that of being Popo's wife. We only first learn of her name, Emelda, through a calypso. An illusion is created that Popo's wife is just another one of Popo's possesions. "Popo's Wife" sounds no different than Popo's tools or Popo's car. Popo's wife leaves him, and this change affects him as well as how the other men look at him. Now "He smelled of rum, and he used to cry and then grow angry and want to beat up everybody. That made him an accepted member of the gang" (Naipaul 18). This even forces Hat to admit that Popo "is a man, like any of we" (Naipaul 18). This change makes him closer to the others, merely because he drinks and desires to beat up people. Later in the chapter he is sent to jail for stealing furniture, which upon his return, "He came back a hero. He was one of the boys" (Naipaul 21). Jail is yet another form of what makes a man more popular and more manly. Morgan, the pyrotechist, differs from Popo in that he has 10 children. Morgan also beats his children regularly. But yet he is not well liked on Miguel Street. He is a tiny man, who tries very hard to be funny, but is only laughed at not laughed with. He is married to a Mrs. Morgan, a big spanish woman, who like Popo's wife is only identified as being someone's wife. One night, Morgan is caught by his wife sleeping with another woman. The fighting is heard by most on Miguel Street and they can see that Mrs. Morgan is doing the beating this time. She is heard saying, "Leave the light on. Come, let we show the big hero to the people in the street.

Come, let we show them what man really make like. You is not a antiman , you is real man. You ain't only make ten children with me, you going to make more with somebody else" (Naipaul 70). As the narrator says , "For the first time since he came to Miguel Street, Morgan was really being laughed at by the people" (Naipaul 71). The sarcasm in Mrs. Morgan's 'real man' statement, shows an example of how Morgan is seen by even his own wife as an example of anti- masculinity in his weakness, while Mrs. Morgan shows her anti- feminism in her strength. The chapter about Hat, is the second last one in the book, which makes this character unique. He is the only one to who we have already gained a character sketch of. Just like the narrator, Hat has been involved in most of the chapters. Hat's character provides us with a kind of spokesperson for all the people on Miguel Street. It's his comments that stay ingrained in the reader's mind when thinking of other characters. Such an example of this is the already discussed character, Popo, being called by Hat a "man woman". To the narrator, whom is fatherless, Hat is "very much a surrogate father figure" (Thieme 28). It would appear that Hat is the ideal man. He is not married, does not condone hitting, and appears to be self sufficient. As the narrator says, "He was self sufficient, and didn't believe he even needed women. I knew of course that he visited certain places in the city from time to time, but I thought he did this more for the vicious thrill than for the women" (Naipaul 160). He is also a smart man. When he takes 12 of the kids from Miguel Street to a cricket match, he made people believe that they were all his. Becuase of this he recieves admiration of the people around him, as well as gets a discount on beverages because he orders so many. But just like the other characters his 'ideal man' status is somewhat of a illusion. From one of his trips away from Miguel Street, he brings back a woman named Dolly. Dolly

has her own identity because she is nobody's wife. Perhaps that means she has yet to become someone's possession. Dolly eventually leaves Hat for another man, upon which Hat finds her and beats her so bad he ends up in jail. While going to jail and beating should be still considered manly things, the narrator loses a little respect for Hat. As one critic has said, " Thus Eve and the serpent enter the narrator's Garden of Eden revealing Hat to be a mere corruptible mortal, dependant upon women, and not the manly, handsome, and cool British Hollywod hero after all" (Kelly 20). In the final chapter the narrator who is now 18 has gone thorugh his own transformation. Losing Hat as a father figure could be attributed to this. The narrator is "drinking like a fish, and doing a lot besides" (Naipaul 166). His defence to his mother is, "Is not my fault really. Is just Trinidad. What can anyone else do here except drink? " (Naipaul 167). His mother is encouraging him to leave Miguel Street so that he doesnt get stuck here. As one critic has pointed out, "...virtually all the characters of Miguel Street seem paralysed by their environment" (Thieme 21). It's important to see the the narrator is quickly becoming like all the other men on Miguel Street. All the drinking and womanising is something that can only be avoided by leaving. The narrator's mother sees this and singlehandedly saves him from becoming like Hat, George (another drinker and abuser) or any of the other permanent residents of Miguel Street. Although the mother taking charge of the narrator's future takes place at the end of the book, it is a good starting point to discuss the feminism and anti feminism on Miguel Street. The mother is the one who beats the narrator, and takes charge on her son's future. She gets him out of there on a scholarship to study drugs. Obviously all turned out well, as the book is written in perfect english. The narrator appears to be the only character who has fully comprehended the english

language in spelling and grammar, because the only mistakes are when quoting other characters in the text. It can be said that since the narrator had no father, his mom was forced to be a mom and dad to the narrator, but the same cant be said for Laura. In the chapter titled 'The Maternal Instinct", we are introduced to Laura a woman who has had eight babies with seven different men. She is the ideal anti feminine character in the book yet she also seen as "the representative of all the island women, doomed to their broken dreams, frustration and hopelessness. Their poverty and dependency have the appalling quality of deadly genes passed down through the generations" (Kelly 21). Her ability to raise these children on her own, has garnered the respect of others on Miguel Street. She has kicked the men out, not the more typical problem of the men walking out. It's important to notice that even Hat says respectful words of her, "Man, she like Shakespeare when it come to using words" (Naipaul 85). When the latest man, Nathaniel stays around to be the father of two of her children, he tries to be macho with the other men on the street. He would say to others, " Women are just like cows. Cow and they is the same thing" (Naipaul 86) and "Women and them are like a good dose of blows, you know. You know the calypso: Every now and then just knock them down. Every now and then just throw them down. Black up their eye and bruise up their knee and then they love you eternally" (Naipaul 87). Not surprising, Nathaniel macho appearance is an illusion to the others. As Naipaul later says, " Nathaniel was lying of course. It wasnt he who was giving the blows, it was Laura. That came out the day when Nathaniel tried to wear a hat to cover up a beaten eye" (Naipaul 87). Naturally this discovery made Nathaniel fall out of favor with the others. Another moment where Laura conveys some of her anti feminism is how she deals with being a grandmother. One of her

children, Lorna is pregnant, but eventually commits suicide. Laura expresses little emotion to this tragedy, saying "It good. It good. It better that way" (Naipaul 90). She may be correct, but her stolid view on her own daughter is something one would expect from the sex with more "strength". One critic when talking about Miguel Street and its men and women relations said "Relations between men and women serve as the barometer with which the community measures the maintenance of its codes, but its fluctuations also reflect the intervention of class, and to a degree, race , in their modulations, which ultimately remain consistent with the colonial paradigm of social relations" (Mustafa 42). I think a lot can be looked into that matter. We expect how men and women should act, but yet in Miguel Street it ends up being all about illusion. This doesnt apply to the secondary characters of the novel, as they serve their purposes of being the stereotypical men and women of Trinidad and in this case, Miguel Street. But the main characters never turn out to be who you initially think they are. Laura, Emelda, Mrs. Morgan and the narrator's mother are examples of women who take charge in their homes. They work, they beat and raise their children, and take on the roles of being the masters of their homes. Hat, Popo, Morgan, Man man (who only acts like he's crazy), and Big Foot (who as big as he is, is really a wimp inside) are examples of the illusion that men are the superior ones of Miguel Street. Only a shallow read could see that otherwise. When all is said and done it is the women who carry the qualities of "strength, vigor and boldness" while the men have the qualities of "gentleness, weakness, delicacy" although definitly not "modesty". On Miguel Street, the only male quality the men have is the lack of modesty, the rest is all illusion.

Miguel Street Poem

George was a man, who always beat his and kids, Until his wife died and he felt how cold life is, George had a big belly, And his cows pens made the gutter smelly, He lived in a pink house with a very rusty roof, The walls were black and grey, He let his wife do the house work every single day, When George beat his daughter, She only got fatter, When George beat his son, It almost didn't matter,

When George's wife died he became very sad, He bought a lot of liquor with the money that he had, George wanted his daughter married, So wedding proceeded, And the reception was at the pink house, He women coming to his house, But that soon creased, Then he was back to the pavement of Miguel Street, He died soon after, So that was George's end, He was buried at Lapeyrouse Cemetery and his son attended his funeral.

Book and Chapter reports and summary

V. S. Naipaul is an Indian writer from Trinidad who has written many novels that are set in the developing world. He is focused on writing about the history of areas and peoples that are usually forgotten. Naipaul also won the Nobel Prize for literature and a number of other honors. Miguel Street is his semi-autobiographical work which occurs during World War II in Port of Spain, Tobago and Trinidad. The book is set in a particular time but is not confined to strict chronological order. Instead, the book is divided into seventeen chapters which are a series of episodes in Naipaul's life, though Naipaul himself remains unnamed throughout the entire work. Miguel Street is the location of all the main characters of each episode, a street

in the western part of Port of Spain. Naipaul writes from the firstperson and describes his own experiences within each episode save. The book mostly gives vivid images in each short story focusing on each inhabitants ways to escape from their problem/secrets or their overall way of life. A major recurrent event is the physical abuse of women and children. Miguel Street where every character had unique characteristics trying new things to forget the past, but at the end the ugly past came back to them and left them in disillusionment. Communities are places where many things occur. All sort of things are observed that is good and bad. Miguel Street is a book that is a perfect example where characters are involved in these things and they give a lot of meaning to the book. Miguel Street is an amazing book that shows us how our uneducated societies behave in the everyday living where love is confused for other treatments and where a person would do things for that love, where people will discriminate because of they cannot be like others that have it good. I do not understand why there are so many women that let themselves into relationship that an I love you is not a way of showing love, instead the physical abuses. In Miguel Street there was not one woman that was treated the way it was supposed to be, the men had machismo in them. They were sort of authoritarian toward women. Mrs. Hereira said, Its a stupid thing to say to you or anybody else, but I like Toni. I love him. My mother said, Is a damn funny sort of love (104). Mr. Hereira loved Toni even though he abused her physically; she took everything he did just because she loved him. The crazy things people do just because they are in love. A world of racism is in what we live in today. Racism is brought out in a vivid manner in Miguel Street, where the white Americans

are better than blacks Trinidadians. Miguel Street illustrates the reality of how we are living today in almost everywhere. When you have all sort of ignorant people messing around with an engine the white people build with their own hands, what the hell else you expect? (122) White people is God you hear! (158) these We can statements clearly emphasis on how racist these people were.

see that the white were seen as the perfection, as the best, as the ones that know everything. Racist environments are everywhere and not only in Miguel Street a worldwide disease. Every time there is a person prospering or just improving there are always people in the jealous side that hate because of that. Not everyone in the world is big times but for the ones that reach up to there that is a good thing. In Miguel Street mostly everyone was happy for the narrator to become a person in the street but there was Elias that was envying him of what he had accomplished. Elias tried so hard and tried many times to get what he wanted but he did not have it, but at the first time the narrator gave it try he succeeded and got a good position. Eddoes said, he just sad and jealous (31), The news got to Elias and he took it badly. He came to the gate one evening and shouted, Bribe, bribe. Is all you could do. Bribe (173) these are good examples of the envy that Miguel Street demonstrated between its members. Envy will always exist every where once there are people succeeding.

Chapter 1, Bogart: The author introduces a man named Bogart, who rarely talked and made his money by tailoring. He had a number of friends, including Hat, with whom he often spent his time. They all talked and made merry but Bogart rarely laughed, told stories or

anything of the kind. Instead, he was the most boring person the author had ever known. One day Bogart simply up and left his house on Miguel Street and was gone for two months. No one knew where he had gone. When he returned, it eventually came out that he had gotten a job on a ship and had gone to British Guiana where he had become a cowboy, smuggled things and had run a brothel until he had been arrested and escaped. When he returned, people no longer called him "Bogart" to mock him for being so unlike the Humphrey Bogart of Chapters 7-11, The Coward, The Pyrotechnicist, Titus Hoyt, I.A., The Maternal Instinct, The Blue Cart Summary Chapter 7 concerns Big Foot, a large, dark, scary man who lived on Miguel Street. Big Foot frightened the author immensely. He had been in jail and seemed always prepared for a fight. He also enjoyed bullying other people on the street. It turns out that his father (a priest) and his mother had beaten him regularly as a child, which hardened him. Big Foot worked a number of odd jobs and growing up on Miguel Street, the author never liked him. They connected briefly one day when they were alone on a beach and Big Foot cut his foot on a piece of glass and started crying. The author knew his secret penchant for tears. When Big Foot started boxing, he quickly grew in prominence and respect, but when he lost his first big match and cried after losing on points, everyone lost respect for him. He disappeared soon Chapter 12 concerns a couple with severe relationship problems, Mr. and Mrs. Hereira. Toni Hereira, the husband, was an ugly man and a terrible drunk, while Mrs. Hereira or Angela, was a beautiful, refined woman. It was a mystery to those on Miguel Street why they were together. Toni frequently beat Angela and Angela started to come to the author's home regularly as a refuge. She eventually became good friends with the author's mother. She frequently worried about Toni and whether he would kill her but she kept going back to him. Eventually she decided to leave him. It turned out that she had a husband, a doctor named Henry Christiani, who

was very rich but had publicly repudiated her. He took her back. When Toni discovered that Angela had left him, he became extremely drunk and deteriorated quickly and ultimately disappeared from Miguel Street.