A song for me and the heroes I see from my window

May 24, 2020 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

My bedroom window faces the Arthur Chung Conference Centre. Since the recount began, I often look through the window at the people who brave the elements to fight for rights that humans are entitled to have and to right the wrongs done to humans.
One rainy morning, I looked out to see if those guardians of freedom would come. And there they were, running out of their cars with their umbrellas to resume the duty of guarding the ballot boxes so election riggers cannot get into them, and defying the coronavirus to see the recount is transparently done.
That morning I was deeply moved. I called my wife to the window and said to her- “look the unsung heroes of Guyana.” These are young men and women at the tender age of 20, 22, 25. They remind me of me, 50 years ago. I saw so many wrongs in my young life growing up in poverty in Wortmanville that I wanted to right the wrongs of the world.
I dreamt of a stage where I could speak to people about what I see and what was wrong about my country. My desire for the stage was motivated by what I saw happened to my father. Dark-skinned, poor and hardly educated, he worked as the groundsman for two White/Portuguese dominated clubs – Saint Stanislaus and the GCC. My father spoke out for his rights and was fired. Our poverty increased because he had no alternative income. Where, with his low education and age, would he find a job?
I wanted to speak out like my father. I wanted the stage, but I wanted to own the stage and not borrow it from someone who wouldn’t lend me the next day if he didn’t like what I said. The key to ownership was education. I acquired that and my dream of having the stage came alive. Since then I have spoken my mind and I don’t care what people think of me.
I hope in my heart those young dreamers I see daily at the Conference Centre will keep the dream in their heart of going into the limelight to speak their minds and right the wrongs of this world.
I came back to Guyana in 1984 after service in the Grenada Revolution. The next year, I heard a song, produced in that very year, that tells the story of my dream to get a pulpit to denounce wrongdoings. It is named “Limelight” done by The Alan Parson Project with vocals by Gary Brooker who in 1967 sang one of the greatest evergreen love songs that is now rated as one of the five best songs ever sung -“A Whiter Shade of Pale” by Procul Harum.
In those days, they didn’t have CD player. I would go on the seawall often and listen to “Limelight” on my walkman. Last Friday, strangely after not playing it for years, my wife and I set off to go shopping and I pushed in the Alan Parson Project CD in the car player. It was while driving, I got the idea to dedicate this song to me as I am getting older and fading from the stage and to the heroes who I see at the Conference Centre every day. Go to Youtube and listen to “Limelight.” The meaning is hard to grasp. Hope you discover it after listening.

LIMELIGHT
“I can see the glow of a distant sun
I can feel it inside
Maybe this day could be the one
I can hear the roar of a distant crowd
They are waiting for me
Calling my name
Shouting out loud

Holding on isn’t always easy
I ain’t gonna change my mind
Limelight you were all I ever wanted
Since it all began
Limelight shining on me
Telling the world who I am
Limelight don’t let me slip right through your fingers
There’s a long way to fall
After all the years of waiting
I’m gonna show them all

I can see the world in a different light
Now it’s easy to say
Where I went wrong
What I did right
I can hear the beat
Of a different drum
Take it all in my stride
Hold my head high
Second to none

Holding on wasn’t always easy
Nothing can change my mind
Limelight you were all I ever wanted since it all began
Limelight shining on me
Telling the world who I am
Limelight don’t let it slip right through your fingers
There’s a long way to fall

After all the years of waiting,
I’m gonna show them all
Maybe the role’s not easy
Maybe the prize is small
After all the years of waiting,
I’m gonna show them all”

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)