A week ago, maintaining a now 93-year-old tradition, Time magazine named its 2020 Person of the Year. United States President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, whose names have been in the news nearly every day since November 3, were Time’s joint pick. This chalked up another first for Ms Harris, making her the only vice-president elect to be thus named to date.
The duo joins a list of infamous and famous people who have appeared under the title Person of the Year and variations of it (Man of the Year, Woman of the Year, Man and Wife of the Year) since 1927; the only deviations being in 1982 when the computer was named Machine of the Year and 1988 when the endangered earth was named Planet of the Year. Among the infamous were Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Richard Nixon, and Donald Trump, while the list of the famous has such names as Martin Luther King Jnr, Anwar Sadat, Barack Obama, and Greta Thunberg, last year’s Person of the Year.
Unlike Time, which says it names the person (or thing) who for better or worse had the greatest influence on the year’s events (news), there are several organisations which simply name and award someone who is deserving because of his or her service and/or actions during the year. It should be noted here that in this vein, Time has also named Frontline Health Workers and Racial-Justice Organizers as Guardians of the Year; basketball great LeBron James as Athlete of the Year; Zoom CEO Eric Yuan as Businessperson of the Year; and South Korean boy band BTS as Entertainer of the Year.
As expected, there is much controversy over Time’s choice of Person of the Year. However, the fact that Ms Harris was not on the shortlist is not what has many folks riled up. This year’s shortlist of four, along with Mr Biden, included the Movement for Racial Justice, Dr (Anthony) Fauci and Frontline Health Workers, and Mr Trump. Some believe that the Movement for Racial Justice was more deserving of the title, while others who were rooting for Dr Fauci and Frontline Health Workers expressed disgust as they felt they were overlooked in favour of politicians. The Donald Trump camp will no doubt have its own views.
And while the Guardians of the Year selections might very well go unchallenged, the Athlete of the Year, Businessperson of the Year and Entertainer of the Year picks are likely to be dissected and disputed by some, even though each choice is justifiably made. There will be claims of bias, made incongruously by people who are themselves prejudicial. But that’s life.
Disputes are prevalent here in Guyana when the annual sportsman and sportswoman awards are announced. Consensus is rare; there are always opinions about who was favoured and whose prowess was disregarded. However, there has never been any instance of this occurring in other disciplines, few as they are. The Guyana Police Force has a policeman of the year award and business have contributed to this as well as a teacher of the year award.
Privately, too, companies who highlight their employee of the month, might go on to award an employee of the year, but that is as far as it goes and with good reason. With unrelenting disagreement in almost every aspect of Guyanese life, naming a person of the year might be akin to waving a red flag before a bull, before now that is.
The tribulations visited on the country this year have served to reveal what we truly are. Adversity does indeed expose people’s mettle; they either run to ground or stand and fight. Several battles have been fought here over the last nine months, but the two most important were that to declare the winner of the general elections and the one still ongoing against the novel coronavirus. Everything points to the latter extending well into next year as both the confirmed cases and the number of deaths are still to peak because citizens continue to flout directives that would ensure a drop in transmission of the virus.
It is apropos then that our health workers are hailed as people of the year. And not just those on the frontline, but everyone involved in keeping the system operating. Those who have not shied away even in the face of chaos, ignorance, or lack of resources, but continue to give of their best. Dr Derron Moonsammy in Region One (Barima/Waini) along with his staff of doctors and nurses who all go well beyond the call of duty is among the standouts.
But let us not forget those who are sometimes invisible, like the attendants or the cleaners whose job descriptions suddenly quadrupled with the extra sanitation required since the onset of COVID-19, but whose pay did not. Pause for a moment and try to imagine our healthcare facilities without their daily hard work. Having done so it would be impossible to not salute their importance and worth.
