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Ask the DJ to play Sarah Brightman tonight

Dec 31, 2008 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

My article for December 31, 2005 was titled, “Dance to Sarah Brightman’s ‘The Perfect Year’ tonight.” Brightman is definitely one of today’s female singers with the greatest reach. She came out of the Andrew Lloyd Webber tradition (she was once married to him).
She is my favourite female artiste and her song, “Winter in July”, a surreal attempt at fusing pop and classical genres, resulted in a unique song that remains, for me, one of the best messages in song on the nature of the human condition. “The Perfect Year” is taken from Webber’s Sunset Boulevard”, and is a haunting, beautiful melody about the rapture and privacy of love on Old Year’s Night.
“The Perfect Year” is also within the tradition of Brightman’s penchant for philosophizing in her music. Here is a verse that has relevance to the people of this country;
It’s New Year’s Eve and hopes are high
Dance one year in, kiss one goodbye
Another chance, another start
So many dreams to tease the heart
No matter what category of music you like, when the DJ switches to the waltz period of the party tonight, ask him to play “The Perfect Year”, and as you inebriate and luxuriate yourself in the intimacy of your partner’s presence , listen to these lines;
Ring out the old, bring in the new
A midnight wish to share with you
Your lips are warm, my head is light
Were we in love before tonight?
No need to hear the music play
Your eyes say all there is to say
The clock has struck
The die is cast
Let’s take a chance
Forget the past
What became of our yearnings three years ago when I first wrote of Sarah Brightman’s terrific melody? The past three years have gone and our dreams remain the same. We want a country that is modern and free from poverty. These elusive dreams keep tantalising us.
Too many aspects of life in this land are symbols of a backward country. I remember when the BCC sports journalist covering World Cup 2007 derogated Guyana after he arrived from sunny St. Lucia and wrote angry remarks in his blog (which I respect him for putting his real name on) after what he saw in Guyana. I penned a furious reply.
He was unreasonable in his notes but the harsh truth is that so many visitors and so many Guyanese view this territory of 83,000 square miles as unmodern.
We are behind some of the smaller islands. There were new stadiums built all over the cricket playing nations of the West Indies for World Cup 2007. It is no exaggeration to say that ours is the least impressive. The Government’s response will automatically be an insane one – we should be thankful we got a stadium that is better than the GCC format. That is a point but it is a blunted one. Why couldn’t we have outshone St. Lucia, Grenada and Antigua?
The stupid PPP supporters urge us to be grateful for the Berbice Bridge. Point taken! But it is a pointless statement. Why couldn’t we build an impressive structure like what Surinam has?
What is wrong with our country that our dreams cannot come through? Hogg Island is bigger than Barbados. Yet little Barbados has a golf course that is of international standard. European athletes are flocking to Jamaica to train at the place Usain Bolt used – UWI track facilities.
Compare what UWI has to UG and you are juxtaposing a fowl pen with a skyscraper. We are larger than the entire CARICOM territories put together. We built a Caricom Secretariat Head Office on land that is sprawling. Yet just after its completion we had to construct an annex. Why could we have put up a fantastic Caricom building that looks like an ultra modern European structure? Why can’t we reach for the stars in Guyana?  All nations think like that. Why can’t we have a Guyanese infrastructure that resembles what modern countries have?
The troubling aspect of life in Guyana is that we have a ruling party that loves mediocrity and defends it with fanatical rage. I know this. I see it at UG. Whenever you tell these people that comparatively we are a primitive territory, they get on the defensive and endorse the ancient things we see around us.
We aren’t going to move into the future with such a nasty attitude. Enjoy the music of Sarah Brightman tonight. And keep on dreaming!

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