I went to a meeting this morning – I am not in St Lucia, needless to say – it was nothing out of the ordinary, a meeting of stakeholders in a private road. There were about fifteen of us in all. There were thirteen items on the agenda. We started promptly at 10 in the morning and were out of there by 10.43, and I said to myself, “What have you been doing for the past quarter of a century in Saint Lucia?”
One of the Rolling Stones’ less well known songs has been running through my all day ever since. Time waits for no one appeared on their 1974 album It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll, one of their least appreciated albums, I believe. But then again, the voice I keep hearing in my head – yes, I ‘hear voices’ so my detractors are probably right about my sanity – does not sound like Mick Jagger’s.
Why? Because it’s not, it’s Freddie Mercury’s. Do you remember Freddie, fabulous talent, but as buggered up as any man can be? I met him a few times when he was in Sweden with his band Queen, to do recordings at my friend Alf’s studios just outside Lund.
Freddie recorded the song Time, which was released in 1986, just five years before he died at the age of 45 in 1991. It was part of a musical by the same name, and the video was shot at the theatre where the play was being staged. Since a matinée and evening performance were scheduled, the only time left for shooting was the early morning: so Freddie made the recording at 6am. Check the video out on Youtube; it’s amazing.
Freddie, who was born Farrokh Bulsara in Zanzibar, died of complications brought about by AIDS only one day after publicly acknowledging that he had the disease. To my mind, he was the greatest rock singer ever – and my wife loved his music too, so I really didn’t have any choice. By his own admission, Freddie loved sex, sex with men, women and anything in between – and in the end, his obsession was probably his downfall. Perhaps it is wrong to read too much into the words of a rock song, but for what they are worth, the lyrics of Time go something like this:
Time waits for nobody
We all must plan our hopes together
Or we’ll have no more future at all
Time waits for nobody
We might as well be deaf and dumb and blind
I know that sounds unkind
But it seems to me we’ve not listened to
Or spoken about it at all
The fact that time is running out
For us all
You don’t need me to tell you what’s gone wrong
You know what’s going on
But it seems to me we’ve not cared enough
Or confided in each other at all
It seems that we’ve all got our backs
Against the wall
Time waits for nobody
Let us free this world forever
And build a brand new future for us all
Time waits for nobody, nobody
For no one
Which brings me back to the meeting, its prompt start and its brevity. Saint Lucians are obviously capable of keeping time, but they simply lack the will to do so. Hours, days, weeks and months are wasted every year by thousands and thousands of Saint Lucians in missed appointments, delayed decisions, wasted trips and downright deceit and deception. If you are given time off work to attend a conference, then the least you can do is to turn up at that conference at the allotted time.
I have a message for the productivity council, or whatever it is called: Increasing productivity is simple: Get Lucians to respect Time, and our productivity will increase many times over – and this goes for every segment of our society – it’s as simple as that!
The measurement of Time is a human fabrication. Time, as such, does not exist, yet it is one of our most valuable assets. Time must be nurtured and used wisely; once gone, it cannot be retrieved or revived; it is gone forever.
Think about it!
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