ENGELBERT Humperdinck, from my teenage days, was a fantastic romantic balladeer. His song, “The Last of the Romantics,” came out when I was about to be married in 1978. And since I was a fan, I loved the song not only because of the singer but the lyrics symbolised the type of love I shared with my (then) future wife.

I think Humperdinck, Ben E. King, the Drifters, Sam Cook, Otis Redding, Burt Bacharach, Neil Diamond, etc…, made romantics of all of us in our teenage days, growing up in the West Indies. Whenever I listened to “The Last of the Romantics” I think of myself and I will always appreciate the meaning of that song.
As we grew out of teenage days in the West Indies, a different genre of music swept the British Caribbean. This was the unique shape that Bob Marley put to reggae. As he turned out one hit after another, it dawned on the people of the West Indies that this was a genius that would leave an indelible star that will forever shine down on the West Indies.

I was a UG student when Marley was dominating the world. And though I still loved listening to Humperdinck, Diamond, Bacharach, Kishore Kumar, Mukesh, Mohamed Rafi, Lata Mangeshkar, it was Marley that dominated UG campus and the electrifying presence of Walter Rodney at UG made the Marley/Rodney combination on campus a unique moment to experience.
Marley will forever remain special to me because I was born into the radicalism and liberation sermon he preached in his music. Someone like me could forever identify with Marley. And it is impossible not to mention him when Emancipation Day comes around because of a special set of lyrics from one of pop music’s greatest song, “Redemption Song,” by Marley. It goes like this
“Emancipate yourself from mental slavery
None but ourselves can free our minds.”

I thought of these lyrics when I read the editorial of Stabroek News yesterday (Wednesday) condemning Brian Lara for writing an autobiographical book with editorial support from two British sources. The newspaper noted: “… unfortunately, it continues the sad trend of Caribbean history being documented, influenced, or driven from a perspective, which is not necessarily our own, per se. It begs the question, whether, in this day and age, there aren’t any talented West Indian writers who could have filled the breach.”
These words are coming from a newspaper that has an editorial position against the fossil fuel industry in Guyana and has provided unlimited latitude to an expanding group of Guyanese in and out of the land that wants Guyana to stop oil production so as to save the planet.

What Brian Lara did is a drop in the ocean to what the anti-oil lobby is doing. The ideology of the anti-oil lobby is a shameless manifestation of a colonial-driven mind that is permanently imprisoned in a narrative written by our colonial masters to forever stop us from emancipating ourselves from mental slavery.
Marx referred to ideology as false consciousness and after 58 years Independence in this land, there is a newspaper and a school of misguided souls whose false consciousness prevent them escaping the psychological damage by the colonials when they subjugated and dominated the Third World.

Imagine the temerity of Stabroek News castigating Brian Lara for collaborating two British sources for his book, while that very newspaper and the anti-oil lobby it embraces have insanely parroted the sermon of the West that oil is dangerous for the climate and countries like Guyana should avoid the fossil fuel industry.

These false people with their false consciousness believe the deception and deceit of the West while the West at the moment has the wealth to put on the Summer Olympics. It will take less than one percent of the money that was used to stage the Olympics to repair the devastation caused by Hurricane Beryl to some CARICOM countries. In a panel discussion with former President, Donald Ramotar, and long-serving foreign affairs specialist, Neville Bissember, I told them that one of the pronouncements on unequal relations in the global economy, I will forever use in my work, comes from Guyanese, Sir Ron Sanders. I reproduce it, here for readers to ponder on:

In 2019, total US foreign assistance globally was US$47 billion, of which collectively, CARICOM countries received US$338 million or 0.7 percent. For emphasis, that is less than one percent of the global total. Haiti alone received US$268 million of that US$338 million intended for all 14 CARICOM states, leaving the other 13 to share US$70 million only. For nine of the 13 countries, the sum provided did not amount to US$1 million.”

DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Guyana National Newspapers Limited.