“All de bess”, “Happy New Year”. The cliched greetings and wishes will be heard for at least another week. I suppose the sentiments are genuine and sincere. Hope, they say, springs eternal in the human breast.
Optimism and positive vibes are what keep us going on, chasing our dreams and ideals. The human spirit can be truly irrepressible. Alas! Life’s realities are starkly challenging. Even absolutely negative. At the risk of coming off as a prophet of doom, a naysayer let me develop this “Happy New Year” but, in the context of Guyana.
Take happiness and spirit. Happiness has connotations of luck, joy, being fortunate and enjoying some circumstance; most of all it is a state of being contented with one’s lot. Now tell me, which portion of the 750,000 Guyanese still living within the borders can plead a big “yes” to that state of being. Frankly Speaking, I discern that many Guyanese fake, pretend to be enjoying or to be “happy”.
Poverty and the low quality of their lives deny them true happiness and enjoyment. No need for me to itemize the daily, basic challenges and deficiencies in our sorry state of Guyana. Most Guyanese just can’t satisfy their basic needs. Forget their wants – or luxuries. In our case, “happiness” truly depends on “a state of mind”- or one’s spirit. We are great at achieving a mental state which ignores material woes and sends a charge to the spirit, the soul. I suppose the mind works wonders to suggest that we are indeed “Happy”. Even when contentment is miles away, beyond reasonable reach.
So don’t just merely wish me any “Happy New Year”. Rather, let us sit and “resolve to find ways and means to improve our lives beyond this week. My own preference would be to eliminate the government’s role in our lives as far as possible. Naturally, you can’t side-step government’s legal conditions and requirement. Officialdom’s arms are long, far-reaching, even intrusive. Everything, every enterprise, proposal or idea seems to have to contend with something governmental. What I mean, however, is that we minimize dependence on any governmental goodwill.
Resolve to generate your own (self) employment. For example, plant something you can eat – in a yard or in pots or bins. And what is to prevent any female Class One, Class Two clerk setting herself up as a dressmaker or hairstylist in her own home, in her own spare-time. Learn some other life-skill to supplement government’s meagre wages and salaries. One job simply can’t work in this republic. Ensure your own “happy” years. Be creative and do some other legal thing to survive, to live, then to prosper. Simply what I mean is to make happy meaningful. Agreed?
Jesus – again
The “formal” season of Christmas ends tomorrow. So I inject a few more thoughts on this Divine Individual whose designation is used by one of mankind’s popular and powerful faiths. From the Christ we get Christianity.
One Bible tells me that “the name Jesus means Saviour and is derived from the ancient Hebrew. The title “Christ” means anointed, consecrated, sacred and is used only for the Messiah who came in fulfillment of prophecy
