It happens sometimes that a singular occurrence, or a passage in something one reads, can open your mind to something that passed unnoticed before and you suddenly recognize multiple examples replicating that first light coming on. This week I ran across a comment from Borapork, a frequently interesting local blogger, in which he was lamenting the “topless nakedness” display of the West Indies cricket team after their recent stunning T20 victory over England. Bora ended his criticism with the plea, “Return decorum to the sport.” The relative merits of Bora’s position aside, his emphasis on “decorum” caused an instant recognition in me of how much that quality is valued in the Guyanese culture, and it led me to then further reflect on the different shades or influences of England that still remain with us half a century after the English departed.
I know from my youth in British Guiana that “decorum” was high on the behaviour list then, and here we have a blogger in 2016, stressing its importance. Indeed in the same week, another blogger came across as “veddy English actually” in responding to a picture of officials in the press showing one official without a tie. He wrote: “I think the shirt jack does look respectable in the presence of guys in suits, but to be slumping around in a jacket without a tie, that’s unacceptable. Let’s have some decorum around here.” Just picture that assessment being delivered by a guy in a bowler hat standing in front of 10 Downing Street, and you’ll see the connection. I don’t know that the word “decorum” was applied, but I know I grew up in Guyana where “proper behaviour” was the order of the day, whether at home at Vreed-en-Hoop, or travelling to town on the ferryboat, or playing sports at Thomas Lands in the afternoons, and it’s clear to me that aspects of decorum, although slightly less rigid, are still part of us today.
Another example of the English influence is the practice of saying “good morning” and “good afternoon” to strangers in public that we grew up with. It is a common behaviour here that is generally missing in North America, and
