THE POPULARITY of President Bharrat Jagdeo, across the divide in Guyana, is unquestionable, and this was once more demonstrated as he rubbed shoulders with Guyanese of various walks of life at several locations during the customary Old Year’s Night celebrations. Fittingly, and as per tradition, Guyana’s Chief-of-Staff ushered in the New Year with the troops on whom Guyana’s external (and at times internal) security depends.

President Bharrat Jagdeo and Chief-of-Staff of the Guyana Defence Force, Commodore Gary Best make their entrance at the New Year’s Eve festivities at Camp Ayanganna.

The countdown to the New Year began with the Chief appropriately on the floor with a partner of the moment.

PM Sam Hinds, moving with more stately grace than that of many officers, was also enjoying himself on the dance floor with Mrs. Yvonne Hinds.

After the excitement engendered by the onset of the New Year subsided, the President and Prime Minister, along with Mrs. Hinds, joined revellers from the officers’ ball outside to enjoy the scintillating traditional fireworks display.

But as the thick pall of smoke trailing in the wake of each explosion wafted in the breeze of the beautiful balmy Guyanese night, defiling the purity of the atmosphere, I couldn’t help wondering if the President was indeed enjoying the unquestionably beautiful display of a kaleidoscopic shower of brilliantly-lit flowerlike fragments in an incandescence of multi-coloured patterns raining down from the bowl of a starlit Guyanese night-sky, or whether, in the quietude of his personal thoughts, he was not regretting the ensuing carbon emissions and the impact, infinitesimal as this particular instance may be, this would have on his Low Carbon Development Strategy.

The President, Commodore Gary Best and Presidential Advisor, Odinga Lumumba and his wife Nicolette share a light moment at the New Year’s Eve do at Camp Ayanganna.

One cannot help but reflect on the larger picture, that choices and options are sometimes difficult for an individual to make, much less the Head of a State, because each day he is constrained to make impacting decisions, sometimes at a moment’s notice, which may benefit one section of the society, to the detriment of another section (and here I am not alluding to the race quotient), and the choices presented have to be balanced on infinitesimal equations, such as releasing waters that may flood the farmlands of a few in order to save the homes of many.
Or, fancifully, that he should be forced into making a principled decision, taking into consideration the cumulative effect of carbon emissions over a sustained period, or the choice of maintaining a much-anticipated tradition, such as fireworks displays on a New Year’s morn and the concern that a continuum of such displays over a period of centuries could contribute significantly to Guyana’s carbon emissions.

However, on the star-studded New Year’s morn of last Friday, the President bonded wonderfully with others attending the Officers’ Ball, looking on with appreciative admiration as Guyana’s starlit night-skies were transformed into a multiplicity of constellations of colourful stars of the man-made variety before making his way to the Mess Hall to share in the celebrations with the junior ranks.
And this is where the charisma of the President of Guyana shone like a beacon.

The President, Prime Minister Samuel Hinds and his wife, Mrs Yvonne Hinds and other revellers assemble on the grounds of Camp Ayanganna to enjoy the fireworks display which signaled the beginning of 2010.

Among the many traits that Bharrat Jagdeo shares with Dr. Cheddi Jagan is the rare ability to empathise and bond with the masses, and the warmth engendered within that Mess Hall between the Commander-in-Chief and the lower ranks of his troops was a pleasure to see, because it was spontaneous, genuine, and without duplicity of any kind.
There was no pretence to the shared pleasure in the hugs, kisses, handclasps and the general interaction between President Jagdeo and the members of the junior ranks of the GDF and their partners.

Over at the Police Ball, where President Jagdeo shared a meal with Prime Minister Sam Hinds, Mrs. Yvonne Hinds, and Commissioner of Police Henry Greene, the atmosphere was more sombre, with melodious music by a steel orchestra going to waste with no-one on the dance-floor.

Finally, the President went to the Georgetown Club, where he was lionized by the elitists of the Guyanese entrepreneurial and cultural society, along with their friends, partners, and other family members.

After greeting Opposition Leader Robert Corb
in, who was ‘shaking a leg’ in fine style to ‘Radhika’, Bharrat Jagdeo’s popularity was unequivocally underlined as Guyana’s elite in the society thronged to get a hug, a handshake, or a photo-opportunity with the President.

The women gravitated to Guyana’s most eligible bachelor and, despite his unavoidable and customary grave demeanour, which is primarily an occupational hazard, the President let down his hair (figuratively, of course) and grooved to the medley of music, executing some fluid and intricate dance manoeuvres to the rhythmic and resonating beat of the live band on stage.

The Chronicle left Guyana’s President, for a moment of time oblivious to the cares of the affairs of State, while he enjoyed himself as the relatively young man that he is, a part of his persona that is normally subsumed by national considerations.

But as he joined with his fellow Guyanese to usher in the year 2010 in an ambience of camaraderie and good wishes, one could only wish that this ethos prevails and extends into the overarching dynamics influencing and formulating the parameters and the principles of the paradigm of Guyana’s national development.