Desiderata, barefacedness, and survival

Jan 28, 2010 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

This is what I wrote about the consistent accusations of Ravi Dev who contended that my columns are contributing to a state of incitement against the Government in what Dev says is a “combustible political atmosphere.”
In my column of Tuesday, January 12, “Who are the drummers of war?” I emphatically proclaimed that my article will be followed by another accusation by Dev but no answers to my questions.
I was right. There was a meticulous, careful avoidance by Dev in his piece the following Sunday of all the questions asked of him.
This is what I wrote in a letter in the Kaieteur News (Jan 17) about Dev’s frenetic refusal to answers questions put to him; ‘Dev’s Sunday column may be on me again and he will reply to this letter. I take the boldness in saying that none of the incitements mentioned here will be dealt with by Dev.”
So did I predict Dev correctly? Dev’s politics is so propagandistic that he is the easiest person to predict. Yes, I was right. I was a hundred percent right. Ravi Dev never replies and answers questions of racism and dictatorship by the PPP Government. Let me quote from his piece last Sunday. Sad to say it comes across pathetic and silly.
Here we go; “I attended my two children’s speech night at Queen’s College and listened to the Chief Education Officer, Mrs. Genevieve Whyte-Nedd poignantly invoked the “Desiderata.” I hearken to the line, “Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are a vexation to the spirit,” so leave Frederick Kissoon and Lincoln Lewis for another day”.
Funny this coming from a man who shamelessly and boldly wrote the following line about Guyana, “If the East Indians didn’t come to Guyana, it would have remained a mangrove.”
Now that statement is not only an ignorant one but I think most Guyanese will avoid the person who coined it, viewing him as loud and aggressive and a vexation to the soul. Not to mention that some forms of ignorance could be infectious because Dev’s very close friend whom he met in New York in the seventies, wrote that indentureship was as bad as slavery.
I am referring to Vishu Bisram. Like Dev’s racist and ignorant statement, this display of further ignorance was met with tempestuous rebuttals by many stakeholders in this country.
Before I go on to show readers the part of Desiderata that Dev barefacedly ignored when Ms. Whyte-Nedd was speaking, a word about me, Whyte-Nedd and Dev. This lady has been acting as Chief Education Officer for years now and stands to lose substantial benefits on retirement at age 55 which is nearing. The Government refuses to confirm her.
Remember what happened to Justice Jainarine Singh when he went to collect his pension? There wasn’t much to draw down because he acted all the time when he was on the Bench. I suspect Ms. Whyte-Nedd would more see me as a friend than Dev. After all, I devoted a column to her plight, analysing the consequences for race relations in Guyana.
Dev is yet to pen a few words of sympathy but delights in listening to the lady’s recitation of Desiderata.
Alright, here is the part of Desiderata that is applicable to Dev. He probably corked his ears when Whyte-Nedd reached that section of the poem.
“Take kindly, the council of the years
Gracefully surrendering the things of youth
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you
In sudden misfortune
But do not distress yourself with imaginings.”
Now let us look at the second line (quoted above from the poem) about being realistic about youth. Can Dev tell us what the commentary was by Donald Ramotar that caused him, Dev, to sue the PPP leader for libel?
Didn’t Christopher Ram in one of his recent columns in the Stabroek News allude to the second line when he wrote about Dev? Let’s move on from the second line to the fourth line about misfortune.
Haven’t Dev political fortunes collapsed and thus his gravitation to the PPP (after all, a man has got to survive)? But it is the last line of Desiderata quoted above that should interest readers.
Let us repeat it; “Do not distress yourself with imaginings.
Well, the adjective, “wild” is appropriate here. Dev’s imagination is overworking overtime. Where is the incitement in my columns and in the writings of Lincoln Lewis? This, Dev refuses to enumerate and will continue to do. So will Dev reply to this column? No, he won’t because the survival instinct drives us to all sorts of things even to deny reality and the truth about one’s self.

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Desiderata, barefacedness, and survival

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