The shortage off foreign foods affected everyone

Oct 05, 2009 Letters

Dear Editor,
Having read Moses Nagamootoo’s letter in Sunday’s edition, October 4, 2009, titled “The nature of ‘Fear’ – then and now”, it is almost impossible not to be saddened this politician can be a stranger to basic truths and would do almost anything to be accepted. Freddie Kissoon’s “Is this evil? The revelations of Moses Nagamootoo” helped in understanding the psychology of this man. When a man cannot stand for something, he will fall for anything!
Nagamootoo’s apparent dislike for the PNC couldn’t make him, a former journalist turned lawyer, admit a glaring truth. The acrimonious political instinct had to influence and rule his writing. It is not true food was a political weapon used by Forbes Burnham to rule. It is true the PPP dishonestly used the shortage of some foreign food items as a propaganda weapon during its years in opposition.
Let’s give Jack his jacket. Of the 20 years (1965-1985) Burnham governed the great majority of the years Guyana was a heavy importer of foreign food. Later some staple items were restricted or banned. The restriction and ban affected every Guyanese. Flour was used by Indians and Africans to make roti, dhal puri, bake and bread for breakfast and dinner.
Indians and Africans made cakes and put foreign fruits in them. Split pea was used by Indians and Africans to make dhal and cook-up. Potato was used by Indians and Africans in curry and metagee. Indians and Africans drank milk. Cooking oil was used by Africans and Indians. Salt fish, salt pork and salt beef were also restricted or banned and were used mostly by Africans and some Indians. The shortage of foreign foods affected Indians and Africans equally. Nagamootoo knows this too.
Albert Thompson

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