Desrey Fox, some hypocrisy and deadly politics

Dec 27, 2009 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

I worked very closely with J.O.F. Haynes at the University of Guyana. When he died, I didn’t attend the funeral for one particular reason – when prominent citizens die some ego-trippers use the occasion to display their egos. People who didn’t care for the living when they were alive, make use of the WHO IS WHO occasion when they die to put their egos on show.
The entire country saw or read that the Guyanese icon, Yesu Persaud, was given an unjustified-tongue lashing at the launching of the Guyana Times.
Read all the newspapers and go back and look at all the television newscasts and count how many Guyanese publicly expressed their disgust at Mr. Persaud’s humiliation. Your count will be an extremely low one. Yesu Persaud is 81 years old. Let him celebrate his 82nd birthday next year and the ego-trippers will line up to read their encomiums. But there was nothing written when Persaud was at the receiving end of some harsh presidential observations.
It is the identical situation with the late junior Minister of Education, Dr. Desrey Fox
So many times I died (satirically speaking as you would know from reading some of my older columns) while reading about the hypocrisies of some people in the newspapers. The latest episode relates to Dr. Fox.
This is an unbelievable country. I picked up the newspapers and read a panegyric of Dr. Fox from someone who participated in her dismissal from the University of Guyana and when she appealed strongly, argued that the termination must be upheld. Dr. Fox copied her appeal to the students’ union and to the workers’ union.
Then student president, Jason Benjamin, and I fought vigorously for Dr. Fox’s reinstatement in the hearing into her appeal by the University’s Council. All those eulogizers at her funeral service didn’t raise a voice or a hand to prevent her from joining the breadline.
No one invited me or Benjamin to say a few words but I wouldn’t have gone. Had I, then I would have had to hear the ego-trippers waxing lyrical on the importance of Dr. Fox to Guyana and the Amerindian people, when they remained silent after her unjustified sacking from UG.
For those who are curious to know why she was removed, the explanation was that she returned after the school year had started and didn’t notify the administration that she would be late. The inquiry proved that she did make contact.
The person who dismissed Dr. Fox for such an inconsequential act remains a darling of this Government. Sadly, Dr. Fox has died and her name is in the news again. This time, President Jagdeo wants an inquiry into the circumstances that led to her death at the Georgetown Hospital. No one can quarrel with that. But did President Jagdeo and his Ministers and his PPP colleagues only discover unnecessary deaths at that hospital now? Would we have heard their voices if it wasn’t a prominent governmental actor who died (absolutely no offence meant to Dr. Fox)?
My Chinese neighbour on Hadfield Street had his restaurant robbed. He was shot. This was about 20.15 hours. While waiting on the emergency benches, he bled to death internally. Kaieteur News reporter Dale Andrews and I have seen some heart-breaking moments at that very emergency department. I wrote about my Chinese neighbour’s death. I wrote about what Dale and I saw many times. Mr. Jagdeo reads my columns. I never saw a reaction from him.
After writing about the death of the Chinese restaurant-owner, NCN and the Guyana Chronicle carried press releases ridiculing me. Will they do the same now that Mr. Jagdeo has got into the act?
There is death waiting at the junction of Saffon and Sussex Streets where La Penitence begins. You can swerve from an oncoming car and end up in the canal. There needs to be a rail there. Kaieteur News frontpaged that danger with a photograph. There will be no movement unless a “big one” loses his/her life (an apology if I sound too harsh).
There is death waiting at the junction of High and D’Urban Streets going south on High Street right outside the Carnegie School of Home Economics. There is a gutter there that joins the street. That corner is without working lamps.
If you swing out of D’Urban Street onto High Street, please be careful. Maybe the rail will go up once a “big one” drives into the gutter and kills him/herself (again I apologize for the harsh use of words).
And what about countless lamp poles that hang precariously? Not to worry. Robeson Benn will pull them down before the year ends.

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