Here are my best columns for 2020
Kaieteur News – 9 – “Hooked by my wife: Does music have ethnicity,” – Sunday, April 26. About how closer I came to my wife after 41 years of marriage, being imprisoned with her in our house 24 hours a day because of the pandemic and the restrictions, which brought it. In that column, I dedicated her to a composition of my favorite popular music writer, Burt Bacharach, “I’m a better man,” sung by a gentleman whose voice I loved, growing up as a teenager in Wortmanville, Engelbert Humperdinck. In that piece, I reflected on growing up in south Georgetown, loving all kinds of music including what my friends in Wortmanville referred to as “white people’s music.”
8 – “National Park bosses stopped me from feeding a stray cat,” – Sunday, February 9. It was clear to me, as my exposure to degradation and bankruptcy of APNU + AFC misstatements intensified; I would feel the heat of the little minds of those who hold authority on behalf of those fools. I cycled in the park for over 10 years where my bike was kept.
First, they stopped me from leaving the ring there. I complained to the chairman of the National Park, Dr. Raquel Thomas, but this woman was losing an elite power that she refused to talk to me when I went to her at the funeral of a mutual friend. One day, I’ll meet her and tell her about grandeur rides. After the cycling event, they stopped me from feeding a poor, stray cat. Some people may have small thoughts.
7- “A song for me and the heroes I see from my window,” – Sunday, May 24. This is when the recounted Caricom was underway and the containers containing the ballot boxes stored in the Arthur Chung Conference Center. My bedroom windows overlook the Center because my house is high. Many times, it would be raining and those young men and women would be there throughout the evenings and early mornings to secure those boxes.
I would look at them from afar, reflect on my youthful days when I fought for free and fair elections, and the painful consequences that came as a young man and as a married man. Many times, I wish I was there but I was much older to brave that kind of weather. As I looked at them, I knew that my days for radical activism were coming to an end. In that column, I dedicated a song that tells the story of my life. Singed by the band, The Alan Parson Project, it is entitled, “Limelight.”
6- “A helpless 16-year-old girl, her grandmother and three LGBT victims,” – Monday, September 21. This involved maritime gangs beating East Indians in Region Five after the murder of two youths in the village of Cottonfield. David Granger and Joe Harmon went there to encourage PNC fans. The result was widespread attacks on East Indians.
5- “Appeal to the protesters; don’t beat innocent people, ”- Sunday March 8. Mark Benschop asked me in a radio interview why I didn’t condemn the East Indies for beating the African people after the rigging by the PNC looked like it would have succeeded and to Indians take to the streets. I condemned the attack of an innocent African nurse in Region Three.
4- “Make a bust of the following persons,” – Wednesday, June 17. The persons named in that column are US Ambassador Sarah-Ann Lynch; EU Ambassador Fernando Ponz Canto; then UK High Commissioner Greg Quinn; then Canadian High Commissioner, Lilian Chaterjee; Former Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding and former Barbadian Prime Minister Owen Arthur (deceased). Guyana democracy was saved by these people. I believe then, as I am doing now, that we should have a collection of their busts in a popular spot in Guyana.
3 – “Electoral madness not seen in modern times,” – Sunday, May 3.
2 – “What happened should never happen again,” – Monday, August 3.
1- “We must never forget those five months in 2020,” – Sunday, August 30.
My top three pillars for 2020 are those on the March elections. I’m still recovering from what we as Guyanese have been through last year. It must be understood that at my age, I never thought we would see again, the PNC trying to secure lasting power through rigid elections. I watched this play for the entire duration of my youthful days and even when I was in my thirties. He brought us the Forbes Burnham demonic rule. From March 4, 2020, I saw this horror show playing out in front of me. This time I had a girl for whom I was ready to fight.
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of this newspaper.)