Who needs one gigantic Christmas party?

Dec 14, 2008 Features / Columnists, My Column

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This is the one time of year when people seem to outdo themselves. They spend money to make their homes look good and they go that extra mile to ensure that at least they eat something special.

Those who seem not to have the wherewithal to eat well turn to the generosity of friends and more often than not, that generosity is extended.

I have seen my fair share of Christmases and regardless of the financial position in which I found myself, the season was always different from the rest of the year. As a boy there was not much in the home because my parents were among the poorest of the poor but somehow they always made us feel special.

Christmas lunch was somehow different. There was also rum, not much, but enough to make my stepfather’s friends happy when they visited. There were no Christmas parties or school parties back then.

The end of the term saw us scrubbing benches in school; the girls giving the floor a thorough going over; and the teachers sitting in their corner talking about what each would do.

As I became older there were the parties at which ice cream and cake were in magical quantities. My friends and I were decked out in our best and we simply ran riot tossing squibs (which have become a banned commodity) and ignoring personal safety; dancing only at the insistence of the House master. There were no girls back then because Queen’s College was an all boys’ institution and we loved it just so.

As an even older lad the Christmas parties became even more interesting. I danced (in every sense of the word) with my first girl on Christmas Eve and that was an experience I still cherish it to this day.

She was my elder cousin and when Helen Shapiro belted out Queen for Tonight, she could not restrain herself and I was perhaps the most available candidate so there it was.

And even if I say so myself, I could have tripped the light fancy because my mother was a good teacher. And in any case I had rhythm in my blood.

In the world of work there were the staff parties which we all looked forward to and invitation to others. There were the girls in the office who you could not catch at any other time and it was a joy to hold them in one’s arms, even if at the end of the party they had some man waiting for them at the gate.

I hasten to say that more than a few relationships got started at staff parties. I suppose all through the year people were eyeing each other and Christmas time presented the opportune moment. Oh for the days of my youth. I truly understand the saying ‘Youth is wasted on the young’.

Courtesy of President Bharrat Jagdeo and the Cabinet, there will be no staff parties because of financial constraints. Many of the staff parties were co-sponsored by private sector agencies. That was how the late Minister Sash Sawh was able to put on the seafood bash.

President Jagdeo has denied many young people an opportunity to really get to know each other during this season because the crowd would be too large and actually inconveniencing. The staff parties were cozy affairs and intruders could have been easily spotted.

Who is going to know whether there are intruders when this gigantic party takes place at a date and place still to be announced? How many boxes of food and bottles would disappear at the end of the party because the intruders are going to seek to have their own after-party?

Perhaps, there would be measures to ensure that all who leave would be subjected to body searches by the members of the Presidential Guard. In any case that would kill the Christmas spirit.

Kaieteur News is having its staff party tomorrow night and according to Glenn Lall, he doesn’t care who walks off the street to share in the joys of the season.

That is most magnanimous and it has nothing to do with penny-pinching. It is about sharing the spirit of the season, something that one expected that the government would have been prepared to do for the people who toiled all year long just for this month.

There is the view that when President Jagdeo told Cabinet that this year there would be one giant party he was in fact talking about the party for his senior executives who otherwise might have gone off on their own. Perhaps he wanted all of them, regardless of whether they were on speaking terms or not, to meet under one roof for the season and perhaps heal all wounds.

Henry Jeffrey would mend fences with Bharrat Jagdeo; Karan Singh would patch up with Justice Prem Persaud; Robeson Benn would settle differences with the air traffic control people and things like that.

But then again, Guyanese are a resourceful people and there is nothing stopping some of the staffers from actually hosting their own Christmas party and believe it or not, the private sector would be sympathetic. If you people do, kindly invite me.

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