What’s your “planet”? January Girls
Welcome to this first brief offering for a still new year within this month that will mark thirty (30) years of this man-in-the-street column.
But you know, I just have to admire those blokes who write columns every darn day! Some Fridays I “strain” to be fresh or interesting. How do those comrades do it?
Anyhow, as Tuesday’s edition of our newspaper welcomed 2023 with news of dances, balls and happiness, I noticed the ages of so many involved in violence, murder and fatal road accidents and drownings. Even a six-month old baby/angel perished in an accident over the past weekend!
I invite you-all – especially those forty years of age and over – to contemplate just what Guyana’s society has for its current generation from one year old to, say, thirty-five (35). There was once a popular saying which went something like: “Every society gets the generation it deserves”.
Do we all “deserve” our current teenage-to-forty year generation? Did Guyana just inherit or fashion our young? Just pause now to consider…
How many between 15 and 35 are literate and/or sensitive enough to be tolerant, helpful and willing towards those outside of their own groups and comfort zone?
Did their family, “religion and education” prepare them for personal maturity, development, community and national participation? How were they fashioned by their socio-economic circumstance – and politics?
As you consider youths in humble homes with absent fathers, consider what “government” programmes could really influence and impact under-privileged youth’s behaviours to function as decent civic citizens in our diverse land.
Some of the more articulate, tertiary-trained under-35 members do express their perspectives. Too many, to me, frankly speaking, are trained with shades of politics and race. I won’t offer the usual remedies for the latter. But I ask you – dear reader – to offer your suggestions whereby the positions and perspectives of today’s Guyanese generation will be wholesome, productive and unifying. (What? Too much politics? Save the children!) By the way, do our politicians influence our youth more than pastors and preachers do? Discuss…
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I dare still, to hope, to expect
As I observe the managerial behaviours of our under-sixty generation X, Y, Z, I wonder why we over sixty, seventy, and eighty would dare to hope for or expect better in terms of national cohesion and development. How are our teachings, our legacies being utilised?
Though I know about “live in hope, die in despair”, I’ll employ “hope springs eternal in the human breast”. Above waning expectations, I expect the following.
Increased salaries and wages for public and private sector workers; government vouchers to be spent by qualified citizens in stores, pharmacies and markets; resources to be granted to all 10 regions to manage their communities, with some expert oversight by central authorities; seniors to be offered continuous, sustained, subsidised transportation and medical treatment; specialised state-controlled training for drop-out and under-privileged youth; continuation of government’s laudable housing programme with infrastructural amenities in place.
Now that is my partial listing of hopes and expectations. See how simplified and non-academic my “proposal”? What’s yours?
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Wha’s you “planet”? January Girls
As our first week ends in this portion of our planet, I seek my editor’s permission to be light-hearted among current negativity.
Thanks sir.
Older folks believed avidly in the influence, the alleged powerful force of the month or “planetary period” in which one was born. “Virgo people behave so; Aquarians are loving; don’t trust Leo’s” and such like. I myself am still studying all that way into my seventies.
Trinidad’s late great calypsonian Lord Kitchener discussed all this in his classic “January Girls. An excerpt:
“August, September and October
It will be Virgo, Scorpio and Libra
Well de girls dat were born under dese three signs
Dey like de English weather for changing dey minds
Especially those who born under Scorpio
Dey just tell you yes, den dey turn to no
And dat is why I would rather be
In love with a girl born January
January rule by Aquarius
They are usually modest and generous
De appropriate partner to have in life
Dey guarantee to make you a splendid wife
Well November, December doan trust dey sight
Dey like angels in de day and devils at night
And dat is why I would rather be
In love wid a born January.”
You all decide!
Now carefully, please ponder…
1) A few months ago Trinidad’s PM spent four days with us. Now so did the “regular” Vincy’s Ralph Gonsalves. Welcome to oil rich Guyana.
2) Is it not the height of local political humour to hear of the “dead-meat” AFC “divorcing” the still-kicking PNC?
3) Not at all intended! But could the fellow who caused the death of the six month old angel sleep peacefully?
4) Opposition Leader Norton’s New Year’s aspirations cannot be faulted. But what is the most effective strategy to hold the government accountable with transparency? Starting with minute details of major contracts?
5) Two “P’s” must now rest in perpetual peace – Pele and a pope.
Til next week!
