The ‘psychology of wrongness’ and the ‘psychology of entitlement’

Aug 23, 2010 Letters

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Dear Editor,
Within recent times I have passively watched the Alliance For Change (AFC) after vocally expressing my utter disgust with the incompetence of Raphael Trotman, Sheila Holder, Dennis Patterson and Cathy Hughes who as African Guyanese have done nothing to represent the interests of Africans who have overwhelmingly voted for the party. Lin-Jay Harry-Voglezon did try to impress upon me that this incompetence is due to the constrain of the “psychology of wrongness”
I did express admiration for Khemraj Ramjattan and Gerhard Ramsaroop who have been looking out for the Indian interests who is a minority in the party.
Having read Ramjattan’s response to Dr. David Hinds in Kaieteur News (14/8/2010) it dawned on me that the Indians in the AFC do not suffer from a “psychology of wrongness” but that of a “psychology of entitlement.” Can someone explain to this African who tell Khemraj Ramjattan, Gerhard Ramsaroop, Sasenarine Singh, Tarron Khemraj, Rishi Takur and Oma Sewhdat how in heavens name, they think they can speak for Africans and decide that they want nothing to do with the PNCR but prefer to take their chance alone and that they only need a few Indians to win. How is the AFC going to win since the bogus CADRES polls cannot deliver victory and emancipation for Africans from the PPP’s chains just like how the bogus Dick Morris poll did not deliver any?
It is downright wrong to always ask Africans to be the ones to bear their ‘chafe’ and bend over backwards to accommodate the Indians “psychology of entitlement” even when they are oppressing you. It is not good enough to say that an Indian must lead Blacks for Blacks to win. Now Ramjattan is telling Hinds that he is not prepared to give up his good Blacks for an alliance with the PNCR.
This is emancipation month but the trading of stocks still takes place in broad daylight in as much as the Emancipation Proclamation was signed more than 170 years ago.
A word of advice to Ramjattan and his crew – you are as tarnished as the pot telling the kettle he bottom black. Ramjattan wants to talk about how the PNCR treated Van West Charles, Murray and Alexander let him talk about how the AFC treated Gaumattie Singh and others. You used them then discarded them. This is a cowboy country that has a love affair with fantasy and lies or you guys would have been banished to the political wilderness long ago.
Ramjattan was with the PPP when the party incarcerated Mark Benschop for five years on trumped up treason charge and he has not apologised to Mark or asked the PPP to.  He was also in the PPP Central Executive during the time of the Gajraj and Khan phantom squads and has not apologised to the hundreds of families whose loved ones died.
There is none as tarnished as the PPP and if their supporters and Ramjattan want to maintain the lies then let me tell some truths. Every single year the Auditor General reports the thievery of taxpayers’ money to the tune of billions of dollars by the PPP, the international community cited this government for trafficking in persons, the international community calls for a commission of inquiry into the deaths of hundreds of young men by the state sponsored phantom squad, the drug lord Roger Khan boasted of his relationship with the government and a minister is alleged to have used the ministry’s letterhead to help him acquire a computer spy equipment. Indians cannot be proud of this unless they believe if they do it then it is good. Blacks have condemned the wrongs of the PNC so there is no psychology of pretense holding us back. Indians are still to condemn the PPP with the exception of a few who can be counted on one hand.
You think the PNC is responsible for Walter Rodney’s death and want an apology from them then you should have had the PPP stick to its promise and investigate Walter’s death. What have you done to see this? Ask the PPP why it refuses to investigate Walter’s death after it promised to. It won’t because it allows the entitled group to throw it in Black people’s face to keep us divided. Blacks don’t only want an investigation into Walter’s death we also want it for Ronald Waddell and the hundreds of others killed.
The poor and dispossessed will see through those inflicted with the “psychology of wrongness” and the “psychology of entitlement.” Like the human body society has a way of purging itself of waste matter and it will purge itself of the hypocritical African middle class who Frantz Fanon, the revolutionary philosopher and psychologist, calls the parasitical class. Sheila Holder, Cathy Hughes, Raphael Trotman and David Patterson will wake up one morning and find their own parasites have consumed them.
Osafo Modibo

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The campaign of rhetoric has begun

Dear Editor,
Guyana is a country with serious balance of payment problems and as a result depends on funds offered by or sourced through international funding agencies, many of whom are located in developed western capitalist states.
Recently Guyana was fortunate to gain a renewed commitment by one of those agencies, USAID. Through this financial support we will see over US$13 million being injected into the areas of health, economic growth and governing justly and democratically for another year.
USAID provided a breakdown of how the funds will be dispersed; stating that $8,319,281 will be allocated to area of health, $2,809,000 to economic growth and $2 million will go towards governing justly and democratically.
The commitment of USAID towards ensuring that the Guyanese people receive much needed help in the sectors earmarked for disbursement, highlights the fact that development is viewed by USAID as a holistic activity that must continue even within the constraints that exist in the current administration.
Reading Peeping Tom’s column in the Kaieteur News on Friday August 20 entitled: The joint opposition has lost a crucial stage of the struggle; one might be led to believe that the joint opposition movement has lost some trump card with the government receiving another year of assistance from USAID. The manner in which the Peeper decided to write off the joint opposition, and even stepping into the realm of infallibility, by proclaiming a victory for the PPP/C at the next election, based on this drop in the ocean commitment displayed by USAID, is nothing but a PR leg-break designed to bamboozle the less perceptive mind.
The Peeper went on to highlight the weakness of the opposition lobbying attempts to the US government by the use of a so-called poorly constructed dossier on human rights violations and went on to point out that it is clear that the US government is willing to work with the current Guyana government and is not interested in waiting to see the results of the next general elections.
That latter observation has some truth. The US has signaled that it is willing to work with the current government even with their current limitations. Development is a work in progress. There are no sanctions on Guyana. Therefore the work of providing help to Guyana by international funding agencies must continue even with the imperfect conditions that exist in our type of governance. I personally don’t see anything else within the gesture by USAID that signals something other than a commitment to the Guyanese people ensuring development continues. Actually if one assesses the way the funds will be disbursed it will be seen that the largest tranche will be injected into the health sector fighting HIV/AIDS. So if there is anything that can be interpreted by this US$13 million commitment just received by the government from USAID, it is that USAID has recommitted itself to the fight against HIV/AIDS in Guyana.
Any change in government would still see large injections of aid from international funding agencies; even those headquartered in the US, because Guyana’s problem will not disappear overnight.
I am pleased that Guyanese are a perceptive people and that the attempts by some commentators to craft false realities will not lure them into a false sense of despair. The struggle must go on. The joint opposition must know that this small gesture by USAID is by no means related to any greater ideology but that of Guyana’s sustainable development.
This election season is on and lots will be said and written with the aim of infiltrating the consciousness of individuals attempting to provide in some cases deceit to the simple mind luring it into believing that which is not necessarily true. The campaign of rhetoric has already begun.
Richard Francois

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