I stand firmly by my comments about Brentnol Evans

Jul 15, 2012 Letters

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Dear Editor,
In a letter published in the Kaieteur newspaper on 7/13/2012, Tangerine Clarke posited a desperate, pedestrian attempt to defend her personal friend, Guyana’s Consul General to New York, Brentnol Evans. I have called for Mr. Evans who has been CG for 19 years, to be recalled. At best, his representation of Guyana is mediocre, unabashedly partisan and constitutes an embarrassment to Guyanese at home and in New York. I stand firmly by my comments.
Tangerine Clarke knows nothing of which she speaks. I’m amused by her claim that my denunciation of the stunningly poor performance of the CG is to “seek attention.”
I would not dignify her gutter attack. Suffice it to say as an apologist for Mr. Evans, she offered no explanation for his absenteeism or why very few Guyanese know or have seen him in our community. But Ms. Clarke does have comedic skills. She believes I’m seeking attention for myself exposing the incompetence of someone who no one knows? Hilarious!
Instead of launching an odious personal attack at me for criticizing her personal friend, Tangerine Clarke talk ordinary Guyanese and ask them who is their Consul General and if they has ever seen at their church, organization or anywhere in our community.
I’m an active member of the Guyanese community. The CG himself will attest that the last time I saw him was three years ago.
Ms. Clark can only speak intelligently to what she knows –  ingratiating herself with corrupt PPP officials in a weird, elusive pursuit of self-importance and aggrandizement. She fancies herself as some sort of reporter of note who has covered this Consul General.
I empathize with her. Everyone knows her to be a close, personal friend of Brentnol Evans. She is not an objective contributor. She is smarting from my criticism of her good friend. She excitingly disclosed that “as a reporter” she travels around with or encounters Mr. Evans during his travels. Good for her.
Her encounters notwithstanding, how does that make the CG competent? Moreover, ingratiating encounters don’t empower this woman with a totality of knowledge about the CG’s competence or lack thereof.
The truth is that this woman is a nonentity, who is a friend of Mr. Evans, who has been advancing silly defenses on Mr. Evans’ behalf.
But she shall not diminish my resolve to ensure Guyana is respected in the diplomatic community intelligently, effectively and with due efficacy.
I have never seen the writer report on the ethnocratic policies of the PPP regime and the racism it has institutionalized in Guyana. Instead, I have seen her diving heels over head to ingratiate herself with the likes of Bharrat Jagdeo and other PPP officials, and seeming very proud to support this former president whose tenure threatened the survival of blacks in Guyana and introduced a new hallmark in national graft and corruption.
I have been fighting PPP corruption, extrajudicial killings and to protect the human and constitutional rights of Guyanese. I have worked for the development of Guyana ever since my teenage years.
And I have worked at the highest levels of government in Guyana and the US and participated in numerous civil society organizations in furtherance of the goal of equal rights and justice.
Tangerine Clarke certainly does not have the standing to question my motives in demanding a competent Guyana representative in New York. Furthermore, any attention that I may seek is focus on the plight of those for whom I fight every day.
I can forgive this junior reporter on the social beat for not understanding the dynamics of governance through effective diplomacy. These are complicated political matters that are beyond her ability to grasp. That’s why she should confine herself to simple things like snapping pictures and reporting on social matters.
She may be comfortable with our absentee Consul General neglecting our community to rush off to the airport to clear the luggage of this or that PPP official. Or, maybe to officiate at the kind of functions where she “encounters” him and his PPP colleagues.
After all, it is on such occasions this social reporter gets to taking pictures with and attempting to curry favor with PPP officials – the same ones who run a most oppressive regime that has a repressive noose around the necks of African-Guyanese.
While Clarke runs around snapping pictures with her CG pal at selected functions, I will continue to fight the PPP regime to assure equal rights and social justice for all, and for Guyana to be adequately represented in New York.
Mr. Evans has been in his post as CG for 19 years. He is at best mediocre and inept. He must go! Guyana can do better. We need new representation.
I hereby so state unapologetically.
 Rickford Burke

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