Friday Musings
LIFE is too short for us to dwell on its bitterness; we should instead drink deep of its sweetness and savour the blessings of each new day.
That’s why I like that song where the guy proclaims `I am blessed…every day of my life, I am blessed’.
Some of us, who have been to hell and back, know only too well what he means.
A colleague at work who heard me humming, `I am blessed’ the other day, told me of someone who had altered the lyrics of the song to `I love breasts…’ and I don’t have a quarrel with that.
Who can pick a row with a man who extols the virtues of loving breasts? Not me, people. `I am blessed; I love breasts…’ Sounds good, huh?
I count myself blessed when a beautiful woman directs a smile at me; I am blessed when I am in company and laughter and bonhomie are plentiful.
I feel good whenever I move around this country and people recognise me and hail out in genuine greeting. And with some, I can sit and recount and reflect on the good times and the bad times and the in-between times.
The good times make you better; the bad times make you tougher; the in-between times temper the steel to make you mellow.
I am blessed that I can get genuine gilbakka fish and not cuirass disguised as gilbakka; and pepperpot with genuine Guyana cassareep is a gift from God.
I am blessed that I can walk around a country and breathe deep of fresh air (although I wouldn’t risk that near the Mandela Avenue dump or some canals in Georgetown).
Above all, I count myself blessed that I live in a free country; and what’s even more blessed is that while some of these blessings are taken for granted today, it was not so long ago that it was not so.
One freedom I wish could be swiftly and condignly dealt with is the abandon with which some Guyanese feel they can pee wherever and whenever they please.
I saw two motorcyclists peeing one afternoon at the busy traffic lights junction at Sheriff Street and the Railway Embankment in Georgetown. They simply got off their bikes and stood there chatting and doing their thing.
A few mornings after, during rush hour traffic on the embankment road, a driver simply pulled over to the side of the road and urinated in full view of children going to school and commuters and others passing by.
It’s becoming almost a national pastime and it’s the kind of freedom we can do without.
Kissing and even couples holding hands in public are forbidden in some countries, and thank God Guyana is nowhere near that. It should, however, draw the line on peeing in public.
The freedoms to be treasured include freedom of the press, the unfettered ability to hold and express differing opinions and to be openly critical even of the government of the day.
It was not so long ago that even holding opposing views was a dangerous option in Guyana and only one daily newspaper (the Guyana Chronicle) was available and there was only the state-owned TV station.
State control of information was tight and being an independent journalist in those days was a dangerous occupation.
Now there are four daily newspapers; I don’t know how many TV stations; a large band of so-called talk-show `hosts’; newspaper and TV `commentators’ and `analysts’. It’s been open season here for several years now and it will be `dog season’ as general elections draw nearer.
It’s not such a free-for-all in some countries.
Venezuela President Hugo Chavez is even advocating regulation of the Internet.
“The Internet cannot be something open where anything is said and done. Every country has to apply its own rules and norms,” Chavez said last week after a website falsely reported the murder of one of his ministers.
I am glad that we have unfettered access to the Internet and can be on Facebook, Twitter and other such sites.
These may be small matters but they take on crucial importance given what once was and what obtains in some other countries.
We shouldn’t take them for granted but should watch and zealously guard them because they were not easily won.
I am blessed because I survived and can count my blessings.
I’ll be even more blessed when urinating on the road, drunk driving and animals let loose on the highways are as rare as some freedoms once were in Guyana.