So It Go

It is a part of human nature here and elsewhere that we sometimes deal with contentious issues by adopting a position of delusion, so as not to deal with the unpleasantly real factors involved. 

I’ve said it before.  Songwriters are people with a musical skill, but the genesis of what they do is observation.

Many of us grew up in a Caribbean where the frequent message, ranging from gently implied to pungently expressed, was that we were a second-rate people.

Sports on television and radio is part of modern life.  Almost any time a professional team plays, there are cameras and announcers and folks doing colour coverage, background interviews, post-game interviews – the list goes on; it is a virtual flood.

Nothing in history, not even the Industrial Revolution, has produced anything remotely like the staggering level of change that has descended on the world with the technological revolution now spinning faster and faster around mankind.

Newcomers to driving in Guyana, either born here or recently come here, are at some disadvantage with the material given to them by the Motor Vehicle Licence Office. 

I’m a bit of a romantic – some would even say quite a bit – so I’ve always been fascinated by the approaches men take as they set about, as we used to say in Guyana, to “trap a binny”.

This is my 50th year in the entertainment business, and along the way there’s been much to be grateful for.

We tend to read or listen to the writers or pundits with whom we agree. 

There are times in our lives when we’re concerned about some condition around us, but we get caught up with more pressing matters and the concern fades for a while.

This is a story with a number of levels.  One is simply musical, in that it involved a number of performers, all living in North America except me, in one concert called Caribbean North staged to help raise funds for the Burn Care Unit at our Georgetown Hospital.

Many of the persons with a creative bent I know have this inclination to notice things in their societies that seem to escape most people, and not only notice but become irritated at the negative ones and take delight over the positives.

It could be the country boy in me propelling it, but it takes me quite a while to latch onto new trends. 

It’s not obvious – in fact it’s often completely overlooked – but the truth is that in every high quality performance in the arts, including literature, the writing is the key. 

Folks who come back to Guyana, even for a visit, are hardly off the plane before they suddenly become experts on what’s wrong with the country. 

There are all sorts of strange tales about my song Not A Blade O’ Grass.

As much as we talk about “the region” in one context or another, as a kind of given, and as much as some of our political leaders – Forbes Burnham, Owen Arthur, Ralph Gonsalves, etc. –

One of the best examples of what can be described as “cliché thinking” is to be found in the frequent diatribes against well-known artistes, particularly popular singers, who are lambasted these days for leading the public, more especially youth, into various negative social actions. 

With the explosive running performances in its recent Track and Field Championships, Jamaica is again in the world press for the world-class calibre of its athletes.

I know I’m not breaking any new ground here in my assertion that while there are surely many men who are standout human beings, men, as social beings, are generally jackasses.