THIS MAKES the third year for this column. Writing a column, I have found, is not easy – even a weekly one – and before I thank anyone else, I believe this paper’s Sunday editor should come in for some special praise, since it is due primarily to her patience that my often last-minute submissions make the print deadline. Of almost equal importance in my gratitude is, of course, the people who read what I write, particularly those who take the time out to share their comments and criticisms with me on occasion. What was particularly touching for me were the queries I received when this column was not published during a prolonged absence during August and September of last year, due to my being out of this country — there is no sense in vindication and contentment, and I am sure column-writers around the world share this view, when people express their appreciation of your published opinion.

While 2009 has been a particularly hectic year for me personally, this impacting upon my ability to produce as many columns as I would have liked, in reviewing the topics I dealt with over the year, I derive some satisfaction from the fact that I was able to touch upon those issues that I felt strongly about — from the passing of Michael Jackson to the progress Paul Kagame was making in Rwanda — ending off this year with last Sunday’s article on the CNN ‘Heroes’ programme.

Writing a column, from the perspective of the columnist, is more often than not a sporadic thing. Plan as you might to deal with Issue A or Issue B, something usually occurs to upset that plan. That said, what I’ve noticed in reviewing the topics I have touched on in 2009 was that issues fall into certain broad thematic areas. For example, several of my articles — despite the intended critical objectivity of this column– dealt with issues that were deeply personal to me. For example, when I wrote on the issue of the management of chronic pain around the middle of last year, it was from the perspective of someone who has had to deal with chronic pain over some time. Patient education is something I’ve written about before, from a personal perspective, something I intend to do again. Michael Jackson’s passing – which I wrote about in ‘Gone Too Soon’ — wasn’t just my throwing my opinion on the topic that everyone was talking about, but I wrote it as someone who was such a fan of the iconic musician, that I was a founding member of what was, as far as I knew, the first, probably only, Michael Jackson Fan Club in this country.

Development was one of the topics I returned to from time to time, particularly the lessons that we could learn from developing countries, Rwanda in particular. I wrote on issues of management and accountability, the very basis of this column as originally intended. Under this broad umbrella, I looked at several topics which I intend to give fuller treatment to in the future, including the mainstreaming of the Diaspora into the developmental agenda; the reorientation of public sector management towards a more results-focused approach; and the role of non-partisan advocacy in influencing or even creating a better service delivery policy within both the private and public sectors. What I’ve realised that I haven’t done, and this is something I intend to remedy, is address direct ways of alleviating poverty as an aspect of development.

While I have yet to touch specifically on the issue of ‘Leadership’ in any sustained sentence, this issue has been a thematic thread throughout the articles I wrote during 2009. The leaders that stood out for me during the past year were Rwanda’s Paul Kagame, who has brought his country from the brink of great desolation after the genocide to a model of growth and progress in Africa; Hugo Chavez, for his passion and defiance, albeit significantly toned down since George Bush Jr. left office; Barack Obama, of course, for anything from his personal style, to his power to galvanise not just Americans but people across the world; and, of course, Guyana’s own President, Bharrat Jagdeo, for what has been a stellar year of global initiative, putting Guyana on the map with his Low Carbon Development Strategy. In relation to the latter, it is rare that initiatives from small countries such as ours are even warranted a hearing on the global stage, much less acceptance, and I believe that the President should be duly applauded. In a future column, I will touch on the burdens of leadership, most likely using these very examples.

The issue of volunteerism is something that has resurfaced repeatedly in my column. I started off 2009 with a revisit of an article I had touched on in 2008, and last month I did a column, from a more personal perspective this time, on volunteerism. I’ve written before, and I will expand on this, that there can be some strategy that gives credit for volunteer work, whether within NGOs or a system similar to the Guyana National Service, towards tertiary education tuition. As a sort of corollary to the issue, this year I will be dealing with governance of the organizations that rely most heavily on volunteer input… non-governmental organizations. In fact, the next two articles in this column will be dealing with NGO governance, and this is an issue I possess strong critical views on.

One of my resolutions, the one that relates to this column, is not as easy as I
would like it to be: That is, to aim, as closely as possible, to make this a truly weekly vehicle for the expression of whatever thoughts or ideas come to mind during a given period. As I said earlier, weekly output, particularly for someone who is not in the business of journalism, is a hard task. That said, I would like to wish my readers all the best for 2010, and I look forward to your continued feedback throughout the year.