Insects whirled in the warm glow of the light outside the palapa or palm leaf hut set high on the steep banks of the gleaming white-water river.
As the moon rose over the rugged Maya Mountains and the chill sharpened under the stars, I sat still with my unusually quietened children in the late night, breathing deeply and listening to the soothing hum of the silhouetted pine forest reserve, above the gush of the famous five sister falls that gave the setting its name.
Out of the soft shadows and the dense rows of tropical planting, a solitary, silvery grey fox, the size of a small, sleek dog, slipped out silently and stood staring at us for some time, unafraid, its eyes bright and its bushy tail curving confidently above the wet grass.
The magic of that unexpected encounter, before the elegant creature turned and glided off into the gloom, on a misty massif marked by valleys, sinkholes and caves, many millions of years old, has stayed as a sublime memory to be summoned when needed. At the foothills, a great civilization would launch with a settlement 3200 years ago, then flourish and gradually decline, with the most magnificent regional centre of Caracol abandoned, to be covered by thick forests, its peoples forever leaving their name on the range, even as cheerful descendants now cut through the undergrowth and explore the underworld.
“Don’t Worry, Be Happy” summed up the lingering lesson of that serene night. The unlikely international hit song by musician Bobby McFerrin was inspired by the concise line from the Indian mystic and sage, the Irani Zoroastrian, Meher Baba who mysteriously embraced deliberate silence for over half of his life, bizarrely communicating by means of an alphabet board and unique hand gestures. McFerrin’s popular composition would become the first cappella to reach number one on the Billboard chart.
While my children understood the need for tranquility to appreciate the oft generous gifts of nature, the charming philosophy captured in the four simple words may appear unrealistic and unattainable in today’s frenetic world, divided as we seem cursed to forever be, by race, politics and circumstance. Beauty-laden Guyana, as an impoverished country, expecting vast oil riches should rightfully seek to be happy.
Yet, it is once again facing a frightfully fraught future and uncertain elections, following the inevitable constitutional fallout from the controversial passage of the December 21, 2018 Opposition-introduced no-confidence motion. The 32-33 close approval has led to ongoing court battles and now the resignation from the coalition Government of four Members of Parliament, who are dual citizens, three of whom are expected to renounce their foreign status.
Guyana like most West Indian countries is once again not named in the annual World Happiness Report, the annual publication of the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network, because of the surprising lack of available current data. Listing levels of national happiness based on respondent ratings of their own lives, the report correlates various life factors that support well-being like income, healthy life expectancy, social support, freedom, trust and generosity.
As of March 2019, Finland was ranked the happiest country in the world twice in a row for its high grades in these variables, followed by old hands Denmark, Norway, Iceland, and the Netherlands in that order. Focusing on the link between happiness and migration, the report ranks 156 countries by their happiness levels.
Cold Canada comes in at number seven, Costa Rica is 13, the United States and United Kingdom 18 and 19 respectively, Chile, 25, and Brazil, 28 followed by Argentina. Among Caribbean Community (CARICOM) member states, only three are identified. Trinidad and Tobago is at number 38, as against Belize and its’ magnificent Maya Mountains at 49, and Jamaica 56. Overall, afflicted Venezuela has recorded the greatest dip, slumping to 102 behind Nepal, while Togo is the biggest gainer, moving up 17 places in the overall rankings from 2015.
The data for listing countries in each review is drawn from the Gallup World Poll and other sources measuring factors ranging from economics/business, citizen engagement, health, diversity, education/families and work to religion/ethics, environment/energy, food/shelter, government and politics, and law and order
However, some argue that such group measuring of happiness is misleading because happiness is an individual matter.
So, it was for Lloyd Lovindeer, the leading Jamaican dancehall deejay, when Hurricane Gilbert slammed into the island in 1988. McFerrin’s “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” which the American musician recorded, ironically affecting a Jamaican accent, was being played over and over on the local radio in the midst of widespread damage, national trauma and heavy losses. Lovindeer quickly responded to the disaster with his most successful single, a wonderfully humorous number capturing the unbeatable spirit of a strong people, “Wild Gilbert” just a few days after the storm. It became the fastest selling reggae record in the esteemed history of Jamaican music.
My older brother would blast and belt out Lovindeer’s immortal retort recalling that the “Dish tek off like flying saucer, Mi roof migrate without a visa, Bedroom full up a water, Mi in a di dark nuh light nuh on yah, And through mi nuh have no generator, Mi seh, One cold beer cost ten dollar, Mi fish and mi meat spoil in di freezer, A pure bully beef full up mi structure…”
He recalled, “Water come inna mi room Jah know, Mi sweep out some with mi broom huh huh, Di likkle dog laugh to see such fun, And di dish run away with the spoon, When mi look up in di air mi see zinc like dirt, Wa wa wild Gilbert, Mi save mi brief but mi lose mi shirt, Wa wa wild Gilbert, Auntie Lye lose har blouse and skirt…”
A recent study by Ohio State University (OSU) found that humans have more universal ways of expressing happiness than any other emotion. While we can configure our distinct faces in thousands of ways to convey emotion, only a few expressions actually get the job done across cultures.
“This was delightful to discover,” said Aleix Martinez, cognitive scientist and study co-author, “because it speaks to the complex nature of happiness.” Three expressions convey fear, four, surprise, and five, sadness and anger. “Happiness acts as a social glue and needs the complexity of different facial expressions; disgust is just that: disgust,” Martinez said.
In their assessment, Martinez and his co-author mined the internet for images of people’s faces. Based on computer algorithms, they found that the human face is capable of configuring itself in 16,384 unique ways, combining different muscles.
They took the 7.2 million images their online searches yielded and sorted them into categories, looking for those that expressed emotion across cultures. Martinez figured they’d find at least a few hundred. They found a mere 35. “We were shocked,” Martinez admitted, “I thought there would be way, way more,” OSU reported.
Analysis revealed there are only eight expressions that are used in some, but not all cultures. The number of ways our faces can convey different emotions varies. Disgust needs just one facial expression to get its point across throughout the world, but happiness, on the other hand, has 17, testament to the varied forms of absolute joy whether from a fox, a frock or flying saucer.
ID laughs, hearing “Wild Gilbert” again and grins at the advice of beloved author and cartoonist, Dr. Theodor Seuss, “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.”
