Dresden and Charles Aznavour on Independence Day 2022

May 26, 2022 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Kaieteur News – It is Independence anniversary once more. In my 34 years in column-writing, I have examined Guyana’s journey many, many times on this day (can’t remember if I did one each year). Each analysis has not been positive. I have lamented our social and developmental journey on every occasion that I have written about this day.
I would be dishonest in saying that since the first analysis (whenever that was so many decades ago), Guyana has not seen progress. It has. I don’t line up any longer on Middle Street with hundreds of persons to pay electricity bill. But the incremental progress can be a mirage. In October 2019, I imported a car from Japan and on the wharf to clear it, I saw the impossibility of life in Guyana. I will never forget that moment. Please see my column of Sunday, October 27, 2019, titled, “Always follow your instincts or you will lose your life.”
One of the flaws of post-colonial theory, still perpetuated by radical, anti-western scholars is that the state of underdevelopment in former colonies is directly caused by colonial subjugation and such oppression has left permanent psychological scars.
I don’t accept the continuing state of political economy in the Third World (TW) is due to colonialism. That was so for a long period of time but it does not explain the current situation in the TW. Singapore, Malaysia, Mauritius, India, China contradict that theory.
The absolute devastation of Western Europe after WW2 left many European countries in a far more terrible economic mess than European colonies at the time. Dresden in Germany is an example, which I continue to point to when analysing Guyana on Independence Day. The city was completely demolished by WW2 bombing. Today, it is one of the world’s most post-modern cities.
Where Guyana goes into the future is anyone’s guess. But on this day, I would advise the countless number of young people not to waste their lives over Guyana as I did. I get innumerable emails from these young people on my work and I will advise them not to follow in my footstep. My regrets are tsunamic. I have wasted my entire life on this country. TV host Naim Chan asked if I have any requests. I told him millions.
I leave these young people with the words of a song that they should embrace. I didn’t know who Charles Aznavour was until I holidayed with my wife in 1981 in Quebec, Canada. Quebec loved Aznavour. And it was there, I got to know about his songs. On my return to Toronto, I went to Sam’s, the Record Man looking for Aznavour.
My eyes lighted on an album with his visage, his shirt unbuttoned a long way down and a rose alongside with raindrops on the petals. I bought the album (titled, We Were Happy Then) and discovered an engrossing philosophical song, “The Happy Days” that I will always listen because as the French President, Emmanuel Macron said, Anzavour sings about our secret fragilities.
Two more of his philosophical songs are about our secret fragilities – “Yesterday When I was Young” and “I didn’t see the time go by.” If you go to YouTube to listen to The Happy Days, press on the image of the album, “We were happy then.” That version of the song is the original one with smoothing orchestration. Once more, I suggest to the young people of Guyana, listen to The Happy Days and forget about the nature of Guyana.

The Happy Days
As the world is ever spinning
Time and troubles have no end, no beginning
Happy days sing of a sadness
Dreams we build our lives upon, soon are gone
Everyone can taste the soul
So we run into the past, or tomorrow
Never knowing that the answer to this futile game we play
Is today

The happy days are here and now
Now is the time to laugh and live, drink all the wine
Sing all the songs that live can give
Our yesterdays are dead and gone
Tomorrow is so far away
So be alive and think of now as the happy days

Have you seen the children playing?
Have you taken time to hear, what they’re saying?
Do you know the names of flowers?
Do you know what love can bring? Do you sing?

Every day is what you make it
Either you have love for life, or you fake it
Make the most of every minute
Take each moment in your hand, while you can

The happy days are here and now
Now is the time to love and live
Drink all the wine, sing all the songs that life can give
Our yesterdays are dead and gone
Tomorrow is so far away
So be alive and think of now as the happy days
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)