I may never see Patrizio Buanne sing, “IL Mondo.”

Jun 22, 2014 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

There are things you miss when you lived in a developed country and you settle down living in a poor, Third World country. Both worlds have their advantages and disadvantages.
The contrasts are stark and your psyche is the final arbiter. For me the Caribbean was home. I felt it in my heart and in my soul.
I couldn’t leave Guyana for Canada or the US or Europe. They say home is where the heart is.
As soon as I completed all my course work for the doctorate at the University of Toronto and was left only with the thesis completion, I returned to the Caribbean, worked in Grenada (lovely island with wonderful people) and eventually to the country that gave me birth. I have been in Guyana since.
As I grow older in Guyana, the dreams are still there, but Guyana as it grows older with me is haunting those dreams that I have cherished since the sun sat on my head on the seawall as I watched my dad toil in the midday heat at St. Stanislaus cricket ground eons ago.
Of course I don’t want to leave and have not entertained that thought since my return in 1984. But I will confess I miss some intimate moments in the evolution of my emotional self when I lived in a rich land.
I love what Guyana has that Canada hasn’t, but I miss what Canada has that Guyana hasn’t. I missed the theatre, art museums, the live show. I was at MacMaster University in Ontario, Canada, when Engelbert Humperdinck rode into town.
Humperdinck has special memories for me as a teenager growing up on D’Urban Street, Wortmanville.
My sisters were crazy about him and though I was happily saturated with soul, ska and reggae, Humperdinck was enjoyable. My friends accused me of liking “white people music” but I just loved the voice, range and pitch of Humperdinck. Strange that though he wasn’t a soul singer, Humperdinck had soul in his delivery (incidentally Humperdinck is non-white).
I went to Hamilton Place to see him sing. I remember the night so well. It was a cold, dreary evening and the snow would not let up. Humperdinck chased the uninviting night away.
If someone should say to me, here is a ticket to a live show; what would you like to see, I would not hesitate. I would want to see the Italian baritone, Patrizio Buanne, with his orchestral accompaniment, perform the Humperdinck classic, “IL MONDO.”
Buanne has a phenomenally attractive voice and when that voice is added to that incredible love song in a live performance, then you come face to face with the magic of music, the irresistibility of art and the lure of talent.
Never mind how much you love Guyana and you accept that you won’t see lovely parks, a Broadway musical (I would definitely love to see “Jelly’s Last Jam” about the man who gave jazz to the world) or walk through the hallway of a modern university with breath-taking architecture, Guyana is an immensely disappointing Third World country that constantly reminds you that despite the humongous problems inherent in large industrial countries, they are more civilized and modern.
It simply breaks your heart living in Guyana knowing the standards are not millions but billions of miles behind what obtains in even the lesser developed lands in Europe.
It is not attitudes and values but just plain primitive conditions that keep getting worse every day.
Make no mistake, the anti-homosexual denunciations of Minister Juan Edghill can be found in very rich countries like the US.
Educated people in Europe and the US publicly say morally reprehensible things. Look at what comes out of the mouths of Republican politicians in the US. Look at Toronto mayor, Rob Ford. In Guyana, it is the sheer level of infrastructural, scientific, technical, technological and engineering backwardness that is simply unimaginable.
Friday morning at Regent and Cummings Streets, one of the busiest junctions in the entire country, there was a sad incident. A young woman who was recently certified as a driver literally froze in the middle of the junction. In the absence of the traffic signals, she became confused. We had to come out and tend to her. She told me she just froze when she saw all the cars coming at her from different directions.
How can a nation accept in the 21st century, its government cannot implement working traffic signals? How can any country in the 21st century have such a rundown university? How can sewage flow in the courtyard of a country’s High Court non-stop for forty-five years right up to 2014? I could go on but wouldn’t.
Give me a ticket to see Buanne sing IL MONDO so I can sooth my Third World existence and burdened soul.

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