So It Go

In recent years, in an effort to diversify its economic base, Guyana has been putting increasing emphasis on improving and expanding its tourism industry, a push to which the private sector has responded and from which some results are already apparent – sport fishing in the Rupununi; various bird-watching tours around the country; foreign yachts in the Essequibo, etc.

Our Caribbean cricket woes continue to make headlines with a variety of explanations and theories ranging from lack of systems, insularity, inefficient West Indies Cricket Board, aborted tours, etc.

Among the many interesting aspects of my time in Tradewinds going back to 1968 was becoming familiar with some of the popular performers of the day, many from Trinidad.

Two people in a chance encounter recently asked me what were my favourite songs – whether something I wrote or from another song-writer – and I was in a hurry and promised to write them a reply, but I lost their email (I hate being late, and I was truly in a hurry), and in my embarrassment I’m hoping to redeem myself today by answering them now via this column My favourite from my own work is usually the song I’ve just finished writing.

From a boy of 10 or so, growing up on West Dem, it was there in front of me – the difference between Indians and Blacks, what we refer to today as the ethnic divide; I never heard the term back then.

A very wise woman, who also happened to be my mother, once told me: “If you know something good or hear something good about somebody, you should pass it on.”

Over time, numerous experts in a range of fields have come to Guyana and contributed expertise, training and sometimes equipment to various sectors of our economy.

At the outset, I’m not a big techno guy. As the new gadgets come out, I’m often one of the last ones to get on board.

Following recent musical explorations in the country, including Dr Vibert Cambridge’s excellent book, Musical Life in Guyana, the current depressed state of our music industry is once again a topic of discussion.

I have known Vibert Cambridge for more than 40 years, going back to 1970 in the We Place nightclub home of the Tradewinds in Toronto.

Following the election, the press has understandably seen numerous suggestions from citizens concerning things in the government that are in need of urgent attention.

Coincidences can be an intriguing part of life. For the past two weeks, for example, I had been in a back-and-forth with a publisher, Desmond Roberts, of the Guyana Diaspora Times magazine, produced electronically in New York.

I have come to the conclusion that it will never stop – persons telling you angrily that today’s music is “garbage”.

From I was a youth, as my Jamaican friends would phrase it, I have always been one of those “let me see for myself” guys.

We’re getting a good dose of negative Guyana news of late and justifiably so – whatever the process requires we have to work through these things; I will spare you the list.

It often happens when I get engaged with Tradewinds fans that I end up relating little episodes from my life with the band.

Among the many items on the varied ‘to do’ list for Guyana’s new government, the problem of falling standards in our society is being raised frequently by social commentators, and in the very early days following the election President Granger has raised this matter, both specifically and by alluding to it, in several of his speeches.

Here are two incidents with a common thread. The first came in a recent interview on the Charlie Rose television programme in the USA.

With the election dust almost settled, I have some suggestions for important items the new government needs to tackle as soon as it gets in harness, but I am sure there will be a flood of other voices raising suggestions – some have already begun – so I’ve decided to shelve my big items for now and focus on some of the minor irritations or inefficiencies that we have to wrestle with every day, in the hope that the folks coming into power may be listening.

Sometimes in life we are in the middle of a major social transition on a national scale, but the intensity of the movement and the frenzy of it can often reach such a pitch that we are not able to see past the furor and recognize, at a deeper level, the fundamental alteration that is taking place.