Call in the Police! Seriously?

Jan 06, 2009 News

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Call in the Police! Seriously? Wasn’t it President Bharrat Jagdeo who, a year ago, told young Guyanese to use Facebook to promote Guyana, as he didn’t have the money to do it?
From Australia to Bosnia, to Herzegovina and the islands of the Caribbean, news agencies are picking up on the story of Government asking the police to find out who “impersonated” the President on the online social network Facebook.
But those familiar with Facebook and other social networks are having a kick out of it, and feel it really doesn’t call for all of that.
Writer and Facebook junkie Ruel Johnson feels the President should develop a sense of humour. But wait, did the President really give that order? Johnson feels it might have been a reactionary response from someone in Jagdeo’s public relations office.
For the Guyana Media Critic, who writes the blog livinguyana.blogspot.com, the Government is just being paranoid.
“It is not that these leaders sign up and prepare the page, but zealous supporters of theirs, or some member of the public usually posts the information.
“And anyone with half a brain would quickly realise that it could not have been President Jagdeo himself who manages the page.”
It was the Guyana Media Critic who commented on members of the local media listing themselves as supporters of the President.
Then an official statement came: “The Office of the President is concerned that someone has impersonated President Bharrat Jagdeo on the community-based website, Facebook.”
Respected British newspaper the Guardian, in its online edition, points out that “there are hundreds of George Bushes, scores of Fidel Castros, and dozens of Hugo Chávezes, all with prank profiles on the social networking website Facebook…”
The newspaper goes on to note that while some world leaders, including (France’s) Nicolas Sarkozy, have genuine Facebook profiles boasting thousands of supporters, Jagdeo’s fake profile attracted but less than 200 supporters, and he lodged a complaint and called in the police.
A blogger who writes under the name of Trinidad’s Prime Minister Patrick Manning was quick to pick up on the story here.
“Called Jagdeo this morning to offer my support in his quest to find the vile individual who’s impersonating him on Facebook.  Then Hazel (Manning’s wife) brings me this morning’s Express (newspaper) and I discover others are doing the same to me!!”
Blogger Rick Power suggests that the President concentrate on other stuff, like running the country!
“The real question the officials of Guyana should be asking themselves is… Why does the man running their country only have 170 supporters on his Facebook page?”
President Jagdeo’s Facebook profile no longer exists. It should, however, be pointed out that Jagdeo is not alone in his dislike of Facebook profiling.
It has been reported that Facebook last year removed two fake profiles of Bilawal Bhutto, the son of Benazir Bhutto, the former Pakistani President who was assassinated in December 2007.
In addition, a computer programmer in Morocco was jailed for three years for setting up a profile of the brother of Morocco’s king, Mohammed VI.
Interestingly enough, Jagdeo’s former information liaison officer and now Minister of Agriculture, Robert Persaud, is on Facebook. We are not sure if he set it up himself. If it was him, on Christmas Eve he took a break to report that he was “fighting the rains.” Sounds like the real Robert Persaud.
Others we picked up on Facebook are Speaker of the National Assembly Ralph Ramkarran and Chairman of the Private Sector Commission Gerry Gouveia.
On November 1, 2007, President Jagdeo urged young Guyanese to use online social networks, such as hi5 (on which there was also a profile of the President) and Facebook, to promote Guyana, since the Government lacked funds to market the country effectively.
He told them to aim to send one million positive messages about Guyana during that month, and to send a link of the Guyana Tourism Authority’s website (www.guyana-tourism.com) to their friends on Hi5, Facebook, YouTube and other such sites.
The Guyana Chronicle quoted him as saying that this was one of the “unorthodox” ways the country can make up for the limited resources it has available to spend to market Guyana as a tourist destination, and he was confident that the “positive vibes” of the youths could bring tourists here.
So, does the President browse Facebook or not?
And, while we can use Facebook to promote Guyana, we can’t…or are we now taking things out of context?
And by the way, the people over at the Guyana Tourism Authority didn’t even bother with the President, or obviously don’t think much of Hi5 and Facebook, since they haven’t set up a page on Guyana, even though others have.

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