Land of Hope-The Wilderness of Excuses

Basil Fletcher

Forward

This small booklet of comments is intended for both parents and college (university) students of the
Fletchers, Manakers and Morgans family. It is intended in the main to help our students, in the
main those who have left home and are living on campus or room sharing with other students
elsewhere.
It is hoped that by going through this small booklet, they and their parents will better able to
navigate college life, it is hoped that our students in going through it will be better able to make use
of the opportunities offered, make less errors and avoid unfortunate and potentially dangerous
situations.
This booklet Land of Hope-The Wilderness of Excuses is based upon my personal experiences both
as a student and as a lecturer in at least three different tertiary institutions, and is but a contribution
to the Fletcher-Manaker family training publications.
Basil Fletcher

Uncle Felix although you are gone, you are not forgotten. Rest In Peace

1. My daughter brought to my attention, the difference in the meaning- between when

one says that a meal is ok and when one says that a meal is good and when one
says that a given doctor is ok and that the other is good. Are we too often just
contented with just being ok at what we do? Would a Fletcher, Manaker or
Morgan prefer an ok mechanic to repair his or her car to a good mechanic?
Would a Fletcher, Manaker or Morgan parent not prefer a good teacher to an ok
teacher, teaching his or her children? If a Fletcher, Manaker or Morgan is ill, would
ho or she go to an ok doctor or to a good doctor? In the Widerness of Excuses
there is an abundance of those who are ok and very few of those who are good.
In truth there are several stands with banners painted ok, but by the coach on the
bench there is only a few seats for those who are good.
2.

The ants because they do not know the magnitude of work they have to do and
really do not care, they were made lords over all in the Wilderness of Excuses.

3. The Wilderness of Excuses is rich in low life:- ticks, centipetes, spiders and scorpions
all waiting for the arrival of the careless, the unaware and those lacking zeal and
energy.
4. A mother who claims to visit her sons high school very ofen, she does so twice per
year, she cannot deal with the hassle of making appointments to speak with
teachers or to deal with the traffic to get there.. This mother is crowned Queen of
The Wilderness of Excuses.
5. At the gate to the Wilderness of Excuses is a friendly bar, beers are long, cold and
flowing, whiskey on the rocks churns in the neon lighter pools-just take your pick.
Great numbers have sat on those stools in that friendly bar on their way to the
Wilderness of Excuses; very few have left there on their way out of that sad place.
6. There are students who enrol in Universities to please others and there are students
who enrol to find husbands or wives. Be wary of them, they are visitors in transiot to
other destinations.
7. From universities, many students will drop out, because of failing, unconcerned
parents, busy leading their own lives. Failing unconcerned parents make failing
students. It does not take parents with degrees to look at their childrens grades or
to seek consultation with a lecturer or dean. A student- young adult given complete
freedom of action and responsibility for him or herself- all in one- is a confused,
disorientated individual in need of measured parental support.
8. There are students who are very busy with many places to go except to their
lectures and tutorials, many of these busy individuals end up in the Wilderness of
Excuses.

9. Envy not the lives or the privileges of those students who are wealthy, nor look
down on the poor. Their presence adds value to your experience and deepens your
maturity.
10. Pay no attention to the student who will open up or blow trumpets for grades or
positions; hard work leads to the same destination with far less debt and with
greater mastery.
11. A university is a place of races. Race for money, race for power, race for popularity,
race to enjoy life, race for grades and honours. Some races lead to the Wilderness of
Excuses.
12. Dads little angels should realize that it takes but one act of sex to get a giant heifer
pregnant and if so , one act of unprotected sexual intercourse regardless of how
quick it comes to an end can get them pregnant. The Wilderness of Excuses is filled
with former prim and proper Dads little angels who fell victims to Dirty Little
Quickies.
13. Access to a lot of money and easily available sex are mortal enemies to many of the
best students.
14. The male student raised without a father and without sisters, without guidance will
write many theses and end up having little or no time for his own.
15. Easy walkover examinations are the most available and ready means to the
Wilderness of Excuses.
16. I had some lecturers who I challenged and a few who I did not like. We got on very
well, their examinations I sought to destroy and their knowledge I sought to test.
17. Countless are the degrees of young aspiring male students, which have been lost
between the legs of hot and ready female students who they have not touched.
18. Beware of senior citizens in search of young love. They are the holders of the keys to
the Wilderness of Excuses. Run!
19. Both the champion beer drinkers and the champion gallists in my time in college
were repentant residents of the Wilderness of Excuses!
20. The Lords of The Wilderness of Excuses have launched an investigation to verify the
veracity of the claims that male university students gossip more than prisoners
serving long sentences.
21. The number of female students screwed by means of verbal sex at the main libraries
of our universities has made the Wilderness of Excuses guilty of committing
genocide by means of uncontrolled verbal abortions.

The Prague School of

Economics where I studied.
22. There is a large tree by the School pf Building at the University of Technology,
Jamaica from which a road leads directly to the Wilderness of Excuses. The gossips
of these would be engineers put whores to shame.
23. I loved Czech beers, Latin Parties, Angolans and Congolese dances, Czech
greenhouse grown weed. I loved them all, I even got a first class ticket to the Land of
Excuses.
24. She is wicked! She left him high and dry. They went to high school together, now she
has graduated Doctor of Internal Medicine and he completing his second year in
West African Studies. Is she wicked? The answer is buried deep in the Wilderness of
Excuses.
25. He told the lecturers everything that she did not understand, from a to z, from
zero to a million. He forgets to ask about what he did not understand. She graduated
with honours, he dropped out.
26. The quantity of distractions facing a student in college is enough to capsize the
largest and strongest of crane. Fletchers, Morgans and Manakers students must
learn to mind their own business.
27. In any university there are students who cannot buy food, students with no proper
place to live, students in mourning, students with family members who are seriously
ill, students who are depressed and feel that the world is coming to an end. It is the
duty of the Fletcher, Manaker and Morgan student to help where it is possible even
while understanding that in giving, they should not give away their nose and breathe
through their mouths. There must be reasonable limits to all things.
28. There are students whose main task are that of saving the world and rescuing
mankind; enjoy their company, listen to their words and with all your strength and
energy, fight to save your grades.

29. Many students in gaining admission to college, think of the friends they will meet,
the places they will go, the fun things that they will do and of course, the girls they
will screw. Very few think of the kinds of degrees they want or of the work they will
have to do to earn those degrees.
30. In the Wilderness of Excuses there is a place where not even the hardiest of weeds
grow, this is the place where excuses come to die-The Wilderness of Regrets.
31. The nightly noise of the blasting sound system and the boys playing in the road,
caused him to fail his examinations. His sister did well in her examinations, she
booked out all term, a seat in the library down the road.
32. The parent who believes that his or her son or daughter studying in any university is
a Jewish or Christian Saint has won for him or herself a first class ticket to the
Wilderness of Excuses.
33. I gave room to a homeless student; he thanked me by stealing my passport. I learnt
great wisdom in the Wilderness of Regrets.
34. I threw out my best friend from my room, who wanted to set up a camp of self-pity,
depression, insecurity, self-hate and lack of self confidence in my room. He did badly
in his examinations and I was preparing to take mine. I did very well. There is a time
for everything!

If he Stephen Hawking did not give up, why

should you?

35. I have seen students who seek admission to colleges and universities to prove that
they are brighter and better than their competitors and peers. For them, a letter of
admission is a degree and orientation exercise their graduation ceremony. I have
seen students who sought admission to universities and colleges to outsmart the
police by changing their shirts. The Fletcher, Manaker or Morgan student who seek
to walk with any of these two will surely end up in the Wilderness of Regrets.
36. If one would take the time out to visit a sick relative in Alaska or a relative in State
Prison in Texas, why would one not visit ones children in university? Are they not
worth it?
37. Why did he drive there? What was he doing there? Could he not wait until
tomorrow to see her? With excavators and back hoes, they were mining for answers
in the Wilderness of Regrets. A gunshot wound to his head, his car burnt out, do you
care to know why? There is a place for you in the wilderness of Excuses!
38. Pin-ball and White Rum, white rum and pin-ball; Indian or half Indian, only God can
tell. Divorced, house sold, job gone. Can be seen in three piece suits, trying to look
big in the Wilderness of Excuses.
39. Rastafari! Jah! Rastafari! Jesus Saves! Jesus Saves! Allah Akbar! Allah Akbar! Who
will lead Abrahams bastard children from the Wilderness of Excuses? The great
words and profound wisdom and microscopic deeds continue to reign supreme in
the Wilderness of Excuses!
40. So intense, tight and sweet was his nesting place between her legs, he completely
forgot that he had examinations to do and a degree to earn. See him walking with
the palms of his hands on his hips. Yes! There! Next to the fence in the Wilderness of
Excuses.

41. She had great promise, a brilliant student she could have been, but no one
remembered to tell her that neither her father nor her mother would be in classes
with her. She sits today over there, dressed like an Eskimo fighting the boiling sun in
the Wilderness of Excuses.

42. She loved him too much to let him go. She loved him too deeply not to see him. Her
body was found, head bashed in, lung punctured and with a fractured right hand in
the Wilderness of Regrets.
43. The oil light on the dashboard blinked for days. The car and driver were found in the
Wilderness of Excuses.
44. I walked along the side walk next to that long fence, I walked along the sidewalk,
stepping over shit, trampling on used condoms, cigarette butts , spiff ends, needles,
discarded crack pipes, drained whiskey and rum bottles, as I reached the front gate
to the Wilderness of Excuses.
45. There is a tree lined road leading to the Wilderness of Excuses. In the shade of those
trees, the drunk, the stoned, the whored and fucked out, the bombed out, all sleep
in peaceful slumber, resting on the way to the Wilderness of Excuses.
46. If a person can be convinced to wear poverty as a badge of honour and accept an
environment of squalor as being acceptable, then that individual has been taken
even beyond the Wilderness of Excuses.
47. A person with a strong desire to please, can be led to become dependent on the
approval of others- The long curvey path to the Wilderness of Excuses then, there in
to the Wilderness of Regrets.
48. The failure to accept the natural principles of life and the natural order of things,
have led many to the Wilderness of Regrets. The Fletchers, Manakers and Morgans
all should realize that in their midst, there will be the weak and the strong, the brave
and the coward, the loyal and the disloyal and-they all contribute to making the
families strong.
49. Even the best trained and most disciplined of individuals will be distracted from time
to time and will face setbacks from time to time. Those who fail to accept their own
humanity have specially constructed rooms in the Wilderness of Excuses.
50. She was mine for taking, she was mine to have! With a bottle of wine and honest
talk, she found a friend and her guards went down. My blue eyed friend, I escorted
to her room, hugged her and wished her Good Night. The road to the wilderness of
Excuses is paved with uncontrolled human desires.
51. I remember walking her up and down, from door to door, preventing her from
sleeping, encouraging her to vomit and holding the wolves at bay. Daddys little lilly
White girl fell over a tank of beer. Drinking, partying her loneliness away. They keys
to the Wilderness of Regrets, that night fell under the bar table and was not found.
Would Mr. White Knight please do the same for any of my nieces who have lost their
way? Please!
52. All universities, through their various departments and their lecturers, create their
own systems of ears, eyes and control among the students through informal
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systems. Stay far from College Radicals and Saints, they are paid by the same
persons.
53. It is critically important for all Fletchers, Manakers and Morgans students to be
part of their respective identity based students organizations and retain close
relationships with their families and friends. Pity is not shown to the isolated
student, the student with no one to call his or her own.
54. I had a friend who believed that a university was a place of freedom of thought and
expression, until he became a lecturer in one. Should university systems of
information gathering and inter-department information gathering rivalry were to
be made known, the KGB, the CIA and Mossad would be given nipple bottles and
dribblers. Ignorance of the working environment has sent many to the Wilderness of
regrets.
55. The most powerful weapons known to man are human thoughts and imaginations.
From these two, all evil flows.
56. Each moment of life is of value for the experience it brings. Some moments and
related experiences open doors for the reappraisal of the past and for the teaching
of young family members. For each experience, it is good to ask:- Have I felt like this
before? Where and when have I felt like this? How can this or these experiences be
used to prepare young family members?

My daughters university

57. If an old house stands in the way of building a new more suitable house, it is the
duty of the engineers to bring it down. A young Fletcher, Manaker or Morgan,
should not allow the past to become an obstacle in the path to the future. Failure to
put aside the weights and burdens of the past will surely put young family members
in the Wilderness of Excuses.

58. The young family member who does not know when to sit back and relax and allow
the train of life to go as it will and when to race to finish ahead of the finishing line;
will indeed be sent to the Wilderness of Excuses.
59. A bright female student, caught in a photograph between poles. The Road to the
Wilderness of Regrets. Her professional future, over it she has lost all control.
60. A promising young man, possible Ph.D candidate. He visited a the rest room of a well
known shopping center. A hold down and take gay was sent for his rear, but
fortunately he was sitting on the toilet seat. Witness and rapist gay took there leave.
Place:- Kingston, Jamaica.
61. They had him pinned down, they knew his habits and knew where he lived. A young
lecturer, without a wife, living all alone. An underage girl was sent to change all that.
The head ruled the penis and not the penis ruled the head. The trap failed and a
journey to the Wilderness of Regrets avoided. Place:-Kingston, Jamaica.
62. I have known homosexual students, in the Land of Wood and Water, most were very
good individuals and students; then I also know homosexuals whose job it was to
entrap and blackmail, the adventurers and experimenters. Walk wisely and avoid
embarrassment and a place in the Wilderness of Regrets.
63. In nice well run democracies, universities are free from spying and nastiness! Lie! A
Jewish student was killed some years ago in a mountainous region of Iran. One of his
killers knew him from the library of the university he attended in the United States
and had even used his lap top to send emails. Even Jet Black Jamaicans are not
above spying on other Jet Black Jamaicans, if the price is right.
64. There are students whose job on campus seems to be that of partying and girl
hunting at all times, yet they have no problems with their examinations. Then there
are students who appear to be paid to study, they come for a while but raley up to
final years. Mind your own business and avoid those whose it is to lead you astray
and those whose job it is to try to tag you as a contact in later life.
End

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