Jubilee!

 “Born in the land where men sought El Dorado, Land of the Diamond and bright shining gold,
We would build up by our faith, love and labour, God’s golden city which never grows old.”
– The Song of Guyana’s Children, W Hawley-Bryant

Because of my exams (conscientious me!), I only just saw some of the highlights of the Queen’s Jubilee celebrations. From what I saw, I was certainly impressed! It was a spectacular show with great performances by JLS, Stevie Wonder, Elton John, Sir Paul McCartney and so many, many other legends.
What was even more impressive was the commitment everyone had for the celebrations – I mean Gary Barlow was planning the celebrations for an entire year! And all the artistes really gave it their all.
It was rather poignant and touching to see how the ordinary people of England all rallied for the celebrations. People literally lined up and camped out in the rain so that they would’ve gotten the best view of the Diamond Jubilee River Pageant. Everyone seemed to be in full Jubilee mode – the crowds had on masks of the Royal family, had their nails done in red, white and blue –  it seemed like a really infectious weekend!
But I couldn’t help making comparisons with the recent celebrations we had here, right at home in Guyana for our Independence Day. Sad to say (but to no one’s surprise, I’m sure) our excitement for the day rather pales in comparison to the Brit’s jubilation over the Jubilee. I mean sure, Queen Elizabeth’s only the second queen of England to celebrate a Diamond Jubilee and it’s a pretty big deal and all, but hey! that was our INDEPENDENCE DAY we’re talking about!
A day where an entire nation – our nation to be precise – became independent! And shockingly, some people over here were a bit more excited over Elton John belting out ‘Your Song’ and miffed over the Duke of Edinburgh missing out – than over our Independence Day in May.
I’d thought Independence Day last year hit an all time low when CXC very respectfully scheduled our CSEC Geography Paper Two exam on Independence Day. Imagine that!!  So even if there had been people parading in the streets waving Guyana flags, the Class of 2011 would’ve had to regretfully bow out of those celebrations. So we didn’t miss much with our tepid ‘celebrations’.
But the thing is, it’s not that we should have people parading around in various states of undress as they do on Republic Day. After all, things might get out of hand like they do on Republic Day – oops I mean Mashramani. Because that’s apparently what Republic Day has become: Mashramani. Yup, on the 23rd of February, most people are like, “Oh, Happy Mashramani!” So we don’t want Independence Day turning out into a second Carnival-type event of the year, in fact, what we need is quite the opposite – we need to hype Independence Day up enough so it succeeds where Republic Day usually fails, so that it becomes a day where all Guyanese feel proud to rally on to celebrate their heritage, to celebrate being Guyanese.
I know we don’t really have the resources to pull off a Diamond Jubilee Celebration or that we don’t have a monarchy to bestow Knighthoods. But we do have national awards, no? What I’m hoping is that we have people in this country who are dedicated enough to go the extra mile to make Independence Day mean a bit more: to try to relight the spark of national pride that seems, at times to be reduced to glowing embers. Independence Day needs to mean more to our people than just a day off from school or from work.