A country I will never understand

Nov 27, 2016 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

It has been an eventful week for me as a columnist. I’ve been at this job since 1988 and each day this country recedes from my attempts at comprehending its ontology. I came from an era that is long gone and I am fooling myself to think I will live long enough to see its return. For me, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s phenomenal song, ‘Memory’, taken from the musical, CATS, captures the way I feel about my country. Here are the lyrics. I dedicate this song to me and my country.

“Midnight
Not a sound from the pavement
Has the moon lost her memory?
She is smiling alone
In the lamplight
The withered leaves collect at my feet
And the wind begins to moan

Memory,
All alone in the moonlight
I can smile at the old days
It was beautiful then I remember
The time I knew what happiness was
Let the memory live again
Every street lamp
Seems to beat a fatalistic warning
Someone mutters at the street lamp gutters
And soon it will be morning

Daylight
I must wait for the sunrise
I must think of a new life
And I mustn’t give in
When the dawn comes
Tonight will be a memory too
And a new day will begin
Burnt out ends of smoky days
The stale cold smell of morning
A street lamp dies, another night is over
Another day is dawning

Touch me,
It’s so easy to leave me
All alone with my memory
Of my days in the sun
If you touch me
You’ll understand what happiness is
Look a new day has begun.”

I have told only one person, Rawle Welch, a friend of mine at Kaieteur News, about a strange encounter I had last week. It was with a former Minister of the PPP Government. I came out the supermarket, heading toward my car and he was going to his. The conversation was brief. He told me that if ever there was a column of mine that he appreciated, was the one in which I asserted that the wealthy class in Guyana does not support local products. He said that as a minister he saw that with all the rich folks whose houses he had the opportunity to be in. He called some names that cannot ever be published.
As he was leaving, he said to me it will always be that way with these people. The depressing part was when he said even if they produce local “stuff” (his word) that makes them rich, they will not patronize their own manufactured goods; they will buy foreign “stuff” (his word again).
As he opened his car door, I said I will write about this. Then came these words; “You can write all you want, but don’t you dare mention my name; you better don’t.”
Up to now I don’t know if that was a threat. I will not mention his name and only Rawle Welch I told about this encounter. But I still think that was a threat. I wasn’t going to mention his name anyway.
When you reflect on what he said, you will have to wonder if this country will ever have a future. A former powerful minister says that the rich folks of Guyana will never patronize Guyanese products.
As I said it was an eventful week. I wrote a column questioning the competence of many (I never wrote the word “all”) Cuban-trained doctors, and the reaction was intriguing and disturbing. The Medical Council and the Ministry of Public Health denounced me. Interesting to note, not one non-medical organization or non-medical professional voiced any criticism of me.
After that column, my editor, Adam Harris wrote a superb piece about aspects of medical malpractice and medical incompetence, although he was not specific and did not point fingers at Cuban-trained Guyanese doctors. I got a plethora of support via telephone calls and e-mails. The list even included doctors. But these persons did not want to come forward.
There was just one exception; the brother of President Granger, Frederick. He related to me his experience of how he almost died, and said he would not object to being named.
I just cannot and perhaps will never come to terms with how a country’s population could just remain happy in its cowardly reticence. This is not the era that gave birth to me, when courage and the spirit of freedom roamed this land.
I began with a song that explains my life in Guyana and I will end with one. It is Joni Mitchell’s fantastic tune, “Both Sides Now.” Just substitute Guyana for the word “life.”

“I’ve looked at life from both sides now
From win and lose and still somehow
It’s life’s illusions I recall
I really don’t know life at all.”

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