The zeitgeist of an age long gone; How cruel is life

May 11, 2009 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Last year I read something that was depressing. But though it was so, it was revealing. And we all should learn from it because such are the lessons of life.

The Australian authorities were planning to set up a hidden music system to bombard thousands of unruly teenagers with the songs of Barry Manilow so they could stop congregating on a particular neighbourhood on Sunday evening disturbing the peace with their “wild and loud” teenage sounds.

Doesn’t this sound familiar? On the Sheriff Street seawall every Sunday night, we have that kind of bacchanalia, only that our revelers are not exclusively teenagers. What was sad for me about this episode is that one of life’s lovely music forms was the instrument contemplated in getting the kids to leave. The compositions of Barry Manilow dominated the seventies.

They made him a superstar. My wife and I truly love the music and voice of this great singer and will always do. His singing made for fantastic music. It will always be brilliant music to listen to. Barry Manilow was the zeitgeist of the seventies. Life moves on. Every form of life changes as succeeding epochs descend onto the pages of history.

When one thinks of the zeitgeist of the seventies in Guyana, we think of the politics of Forbes Burham. We think of the name Walter Rodney. We think of the pitched battles between Burnham and the WPA and a broad strand of coalition forces. I had direct involvement in those turbulent processes of the seventies. I have long memories of each episode.

We fought and weakened the PNC Government on policy outputs and political deformities that when you compare them with what the Jagdeo presidency is doing to Guyana today, Mr. Burnham would easily pass as just a petty and mischievous leader. Someone wrote a letter in the press the other day quoting an observation that the writer attributed to Dr. Rupert Roopnarine to the effect that Mr. Jagdeo makes Forbes Burnham look like a boy scout.

I don’t know if Dr. Roopnarine coined that phrase but I know that a hundred percent of the then leadership of the WPA, with absolutely no exception, believes that what is happening in Guyana today is worst than under the authoritarian governorship of Forbes Burnham. I hear this from decent, honest religious officials that participated in the struggle for free and fair elections.

I hear brave business people who were active against Burnham echo a sentiment similar to the boy scout opinion. I lived under Burnham’s imperial edicts. I know what it was like. But the PPP Government, I say unapologetically, has crossed that nationalist line and has become a more dangerous threat to the existence of Guyana’s social fabric. It is madness as to what is taking place inside the corridors of power.

The particular dimensions that differentiate the insensitivities of the Burnham regime and the present oligarchy are many but two stand out. First, it is morally repugnant to see very high officials partying late into the night with known drug pushers who have committed multiple homicides.

The young girls are the playthings of these politicians and drug traffickers as the rum gets going and the music entraps the mind of the debauchers. I am sure Roger Khan must have filmed these people and thus compromised them. What is shameless is that these profane escapades have taken place at hotels where the employees and other members of the public have seen these policy-makers. This columnist has.

My two nephews and brother-in-law were visiting from Canada. At around 1.A.M, I saw this powerful figure (not the lead guy) come in with another gentleman with four girls no older than fifteen at a resort that overlooks the Atlantic Ocean and a place I like to frequent.

I know of a rape case at a business place on the East Bank; the victim got refugee status in Canada. I know of this religious guy who permeates the Indian community who sexually manipulated his secretary, then, on transferring her, she committed suicide.

The other dimension is the virtual assignment of the country’s top state jobs to the offspring, relatives and families of the entire PPP leadership. Just do the research and the statistics are frightening and sickening. I am contending that in no other country, I repeat, no other country, does this pattern of job procurement exist.

It is truly infamous. What did we fight so hard for in the seventies and eighties? Think of what goes through the mind of those who sacrificed so much. The fight should continue.