Latest update June 16th, 2026 12:40 AM
Angels and demons and creatures and….
This column here is not a philosophical essay but it has implications for a philosophical understanding of people and life. I will ask young readers with an intent to enter journalism and politics and public life to examine it carefully, even to take time to re-read it.
In the yesterday’s edition of this newspaper, there was a letter captioned; “Sharief Khan’s credentials as a journalist are above biased criticism,” written by a Gordon Forte. The title is taken from a paragraph in the very letter.
Mr. Forte’s correspondence is in response to a column I did on Mr. Khan two weeks ago. First thing to note is that it is foolish on the part of any human being to say another person’s credentials are above criticism. Secondly, it is shameless arrogance for a human being to tell another that, “What I write is unbiased, what you write is biased.” Readers can see clearly this is what Forte is saying.
Here come the philosophical implications. For the sake of clarity and to avoid confusion, we will have to quote Mr. Forte. He observed; “I have been in fear of Kissoon’s poison pen ever since his treatment of me after a letter I wrote in the SN over twenty years ago…I was advised at that time not to reply since there was no scurrilous misrepresentation or invention he would not stoop to…” (end of quote.)
I was hardly a name in the media or in Guyana over twenty years ago. At that time I was beginning to establish myself as a columnist in the Catholic Standard and Stabroek News. So it appears just as I was starting out as a columnist someone told Forte that I would stoop to low levels in journalism. Apparently my two editors (Father Andrew Morrison and David de Caires) were not learned men to see this fault early in my career so they allowed me to establish myself at their newspapers.
Only a certain person(s) was/were brilliant and phenomenal enough to see the true me and they told Forte. Or it could be that Forte has his own biases (I hope readers would now understand the reason for the title of this essay)
Forte didn’t state what my reply was. I doubt very much that I wrote a letter in reply to Forte over 20 years ago. I don’t know who is Forte. If I met him, then I quickly forgot him and I think from reading what he wrote yesterday I can see why.
If I did respond to Forte I hope my commentary was indeed caustic when you think of what people like Forte are (just read his KN letter yesterday). In reference to my analysis on Sharief Khan, Forte wrote; “Whilst I found it even more bigoted and offensive than Mr. Kissoon’s usual fare, I hesitated to invite the inevitable ad hominem attack.”
Again I will ask readers to see why I titled my article the way it is above. In this life there are angels. And there are demons and creatures that must be attacked. In fact that was the central message of Dan Brown’s famous book, “Angels and Demons.” Here is poor, frightened Gordon Forte, afraid of the wrath of Kissoon’s pen for over twenty years. And poor Mr. Forte finally musters courage to confront me.
And dear readers the language is hardly that of a gentleman, hardly contains modest perceptions and is replete with arrogance.
I would stoop to scurrilous levels of misrepresentation and inventions and I have been doing so over twenty years now. Secondly, I have a poison pen which Mr. Forte detected long before the pen was established in Guyana.
Thirdly, there will be the normal ad hominem attacks. Fourthly, my fare in my column is to be bigoted and offensive. Fifthly, Mr. Forte observed that my intemperance in my columns is what makes KN sell (what arrogance to say this about the people who buy this paper).
Sixthly, there is also the element of entertainment in my commentaries.
Unlike what Mr. Forte thinks, there are hundreds of thousands of citizens in and out of this land who will spot Mr. Forte for what he is. His letter says it all. As for me, the Gordon Fortes of this world are part of the territory. But you must reply to them because when you do, people learn.
I am convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that my reply here has taught some readers of the kind of people we meet in this life. I end by unapologetically saying that I stick with every word I said about Sharief Khan.
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