A little learning is a valuable thing

Dec 11, 2012 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

I am constantly reminded that when I write to bear in mind that Guyana has a young population (almost seventy five percent under the age of 35). It means that when I use famous quotes that are hundreds of years old or refer to Guyanese or international figures that are long gone, our younger folks would need some elaboration.
The title of this article here is a variation of a highly popular saying that has been made fashionable more than a hundred years. It was the English poet, Alexander Pope (1688-1744) who wrote;
“A little learning is a dangerous thing
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian Spring
There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain
And drinking largely sobers us again.”
Since Pope wrote his observation, it has become part of human discourse. Its usage is always and inevitably cynical. One person, quite offended by another who has no proper education likes to pretend that he or she is an expert, would retort in an insulting way by telling the person, “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.” It is also used lightly among friends. I have varied Pope’s wise quote using a context that will be explained below.
In this poisonously divided country, you find political activists, politicians themselves, commentators (like the two who will be mentioned below), and even intellectual defenders of their respective organizations sprout the most sickening fictions and pass them off as facts. Some of these distortions have become hackneyed.
The list includes the greatness of Forbes Burnham, the greatness of Cheddi Jagan, the wonderful achievements of the PNC Government, the superb accomplishments of the PPP regime, the good nature of PPP leaders, the bad nature of PNC leaders and the list goes on.
These people have an agenda. Their propaganda has a purpose. But it is their right to make lofty claims about people and places that the historical record does not support and are at variance with graphic sociological facts. It is no one’s business to deny them these acclamations of fiction.
People have a right to embellish their opinions. People have the privilege to call their opinions the truth.
What we do in a civilized society is not to banish them or hurt them. We reply to them so that the innocent can know the truth. We intellectually confront them so knowledge can be acquired by the innocent mind. That little knowledge becomes valuable because it guides people into making their choice on how to vote and which party to support apart from opening their eyes to reality.
Two Sundays ago in KN, this is what Ravi Dev wrote; “The figures show that there is no correlation between ethnicity and economic standing.” If the world at this very moment should become shrouded in total darkness and you can’t even see your fingers if you put them in front of your eyes, one thing you can see for sure is the ethnic imbalance in the ownership of resources and assets in this country.
There is an ethnic imbalance in the army, the police, the lower echelons of the public service, land ownership, property ownership, possession of wealth, the export trade, the retail trade. We can analyze their evolutionary basis and we can discuss palatable solutions but to deny these facts is equivalent to extreme moral lawlessness.
Then there is Rickey Singh. In a column captioned, “Guyana’s season of fun politics: Speaker among lead actors,” Singh accuses the opposition AFC and PNC of misusing their majority of one (a recitation he borrowed from the PPP), and made the point that a democratically elected government headed by a president that is “part of the parliamentary process of governance” is not going to allow for a continuation of parliamentary manoeuvres by opposition parliamentarians.
As in the Dev piece, this is where a little knowledge becomes precious. Rickey dismisses the majority of one as if it is not a majority but in the same breath tells his readers that the government of Guyana was democratically elected.
Now this is a subtle juxtaposition but I doubt that Singh is intellectually equipped to get away with it or fool anyone. In castigating the opposition behaviour in Parliament and at the same time reminding readers that the Guyana Government is elected then the intention is to subliminally paint the opposition as unelected.
Why we need to reply to people like Dev and Singh is to create knowledge for those who don’t know and need to know about what is taking place in their country. Singh carefully avoided telling us that the President didn’t win a majority in the general elections.

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