Stelliforous Stella’s stellification

Mar 17, 2011 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

My dear Stella, I could have substituted stellarine for King Kong. Actually I wanted to use the description of a stellarine to describe the use of power in Guyana but being a dedicated admirer of the style of my hero, Walter Rodney, I chose the symbol of King Kong that Walter so often used.
Had I used stellarine that would have upset Stella more. I think the King Kong caricature is more acceptable than the recourse to the description of stellarine.
In case readers are wondering what this is all about, my dear stelliforous friend, Stella Ramsaroop, in her column yesterday showed open annoyance at me. She didn’t like the term King Kong in my Tuesday column to assess the autocratic descent into the maddening use of power in Guyana.
Stella certainly stellified in that commentary yesterday. I take her points. I accept the criticism.
I guess the runner stumbles sometimes. On reflection I think Stella was right. Young people read what opinion-makers like us write and we should be modest, courteous and disciplined in how we put over conceptualisations and adumbrations.
I once referred to the term voodoo politics and Eusi Kwayana, writing from afar, chastised me for being insulting to Haitian culture. Voodoo is a religious form in Haiti. Although King Kong is not a religious animal, I do apologise for the comparison in my commentary on Tuesday.
Having said that, I think Stella should be more aware of the word that Christopher Ram told me I use very, very much, “context.” I guess everything in life has context. It is like action and motive.
According to Freud, action and motive have to be essentially linked. Once they come apart, serious psychological dilemmas emerge. Once must locate the context of life’s situations.
As a commentator I do viewpoints that fall into different genres. I will do my intellectual pieces. I do my usual political/social analyses. I look at episodes in international affairs. There are times when I exhort my fellow Guyanese to examine their souls. And there are the few moments of emotional reflections in which there is the distinct appeal to politics for the sake of politics.
My King Kong piece was in that context. I wanted Guyanese to see that authoritarian power has become not only diseased but there are extreme moments of hilarity. When Guyanese policy-makers descend to the level of appearing as comic strips then you have to see them for what they are – figures of derision.
These power-wielders make you laugh at them, Stella. You know the old saying; “Respect comes out of self respect.” I’ll give you an example. Last Sunday, Mark Benschop and I were the guests of Christopher Ram on Plain Talk. Benschop referred to the goat-ain’t-bite-me politician, Clement Rohee.
Mr. Ram intercepted Mark and reminded him that the man is a Minister. I interrupted and said; “Respect comes from self-respect.” I think Chris meant it seriously. But why should you show respect to people who behave so facetiously and downgrade their own standing in society?
Mr. Rohee was speaking to the media about what he feels is the apogee of his political career where he thinks that he should become president of the republic. His reason for testing the water according to him is because; “Goat ain’t bite me.”
This does not excuse my wrong use of the term King Kong. I am not sure I will discontinue the portrait that I refer to as “Mr. Bennettitaceous” because there are facts to support that aspect of the autocratic use of power. There has been no open analysis in political and academic circles in Guyana so far on the bennettitaceous dimensions in bad governance but I feel it explains many of the barefaced violations that Guyanese have come to find horrible and disgusting.
And some of the PPP leaders who want to become president have not done anything in the planning room of Freedom House to curtail the flow of bennettiticeous conspiracies in high places.
Stella, I hope you know that on the death anniversary of Dr. Jagan in Berbice last week, President Jagdeo called me a jackass. But I do accept that you are right that I should refrain from the employment of pejorative terminologies in my polemics. But don’t forget “context.” There are times when on this page I will engage in satire.
All print and electronic commentators do that. Let me know when you are in GT. See you later, alligator! PS – don’t listen to Harry Gill. I didn’t evade him. Will check him out later.

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Stelliforous Stella’s stellification

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