Rastafari: Except for my wife, my life is a failure

Nov 13, 2022 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Kaieteur News – Last Monday, Parliament met. I live one minute drive from the Conference Centre where the National Assembly is temporarily housed. I stopped and parked, and went over to ground with members of the Rastafari (not Rastafarian but Rastafari) community that was protesting the changes in relation to possession of marijuana.

Possession of one gram is still a criminal offence which the amendments did not remove. I cannot accept in a world (yes the world, not just some countries) that has quickly moved against decriminalization of ganja for possession of very small amounts, here in Guyana, you can still get arrested for a gram. That is surreal.

Many that supports the opposition have levelled all kinds of accusations against me that include I am being paid by the PPP and that I am a government supporter. Well here I am saying openly, I do not agree to the retention in the new law of possession of one gram being a criminal offence.

I spent about 15 minutes telling the Rastafari group of my denunciation in my columns the past ten years of the criminalization of small amounts. I was the only non-Rastarafi person in that group.

No one from civil society, the human rights community, the political parties, the youths of Guyana came to lend solidarity to the Rastafari. You would think this country that led the Caribbean in the finest moments of radical decolonization thoughts, anti-imperialism, and the proclamation of progressive political culture would support arrest for small amount of ganja. Where the Guyana I fought for went? How and why did it die?

The lonely Rastafari protest was a sad indictment of the complete degeneration of Guyana’s political culture. I am a product of the great seventies in Guyana that gave us the combination of the PPP, the WPA, civil society, Catholic Standard, great academics at UG, great left-wing lawyers, a Catholic Church steeped in liberation theology and a radical trade union movement.

That dream was not there at the Rastafari protest. That dream died a long time ago and Guyana has become a philosophical wasteland. As I drove away, I stopped and looked back in anger. Why did I spend a lifetime of energy and endured relentless persecution and prosecution fighting to change Guyana?

Nothing has changed. The failure haunts my psyche. At my age, 72, it will haunt me forever until I go to my final reward. Today I find comfort in one human that shields me from the angst that the failure of my life torments me with. That person is my wife. Without her, I will have no soul. I dedicate the two songs below to the person who rescued me from the fate of Prometheus.

Josh Groban – “You raise me up”

When I am down,

And oh my soul so weary,

When troubles come and my heart burden be,

Then I am still,

And with here in the silence,

Until You come and sit awhile with me.

You raise me up,

So I can stand on mountains,

You raise me up,

To walk on stormy seas,

I am strong when I am on your shoulders,

You raise me up,

To more than I can be.

There is no life,

No life without its hunger,

Each restless heart beats imperfectly,

But when you come and I am filled with wonder,

Sometimes I think I glimpse eternity.

You raise me up,

So I can stand on mountains,

You raise me up,

To walk on stormy seas,

I am strong when I am on Your shoulders,

You raise me up,

To more than I can be.

Kenny Rogers – “Lady”

Lady

I’m your knight in shining armor and I love you

You have made me what I am, and

I am yours

My love

There’s so many ways I want to say I love you

Let me hold you in my arms forever more

You have gone and made me such a fool

And I’m so lost in your love

And oh, we belong together

Won’t you believe in my song?

Lady

For so many years

I thought I’d never find you

You have come into my life and

Made me whole

Forever

Let me wake to see you each and every morning

Let me hear you whisper softly

In my ear

And in my eyes

I see no one else but you

There’s no other love like our love

And, oh, girl I’ll always want you near me

I’ve waited for you for so long

Lady

Your love’s the only love I need

Oh, and beside me is where

I want you to be

‘Cause, my love

There’s somethin’ I want you to know

You’re the love of my life

You’re my lady

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Rastafari: Except for my wife, my life is a failure

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