I read Christopher Ram and Adam Harris but…

Apr 08, 2014 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

I read the columns of Christopher Ram when he wrote for the Stabroek News. I read Adam Harris’s weekly piece but that is it. I do not touch the others whether in this newspaper or the other independent daily, the Stabroek News. I am not a chauvinist and forgive me if I come across as one but there are reasons for my choice.
I read them not because of their experience or because I know them personally. But because they write on very crucial issues that have to do with the future existence of this country and they do so in very serious ways and with an independent mind. It may be insulting to read columnists writing on Guyana who do not live here.
How can you write about a country’s vibes, narratives, conversations, vagaries, vicissitudes, moods, anger, angst and you are nowhere near the land? It may not only be insulting but downright comical. Crucial nuances will be missed. I am not referring to Rickey Singh who openly gloated that the opposition did a poll only to shoot themselves with their own weapon because the survey showed Bharrat Jagdeo would win the elections in 2016 if he contested.
Singh is wicked. He knows that such a poll was not done. Take Abu Bakr who lives in France. Two weeks ago, he wrote that he didn’t know about the Cuffy 250 Committee. That organization has been in existence for more than two years and does consistent work in the area of African Guyanese consciousness. I was invited to be a speaker by that organization as part of a symposium on the African Guyanese community several months ago.
Mr. Bakr could be forgiven because he doesn’t live in Guyana. The same Bakr made a bad lapse two years ago when in another letter he referred to Vishnu Bisram as a respected pollster. If Abu lived in Guyana he would know that Bisram is not even a pollster, much less a respected one.
Many columnists write on issues that are very important but a reader has his/her interest. If poetry and literature are not a priority then you may miss several pieces by Ian McDonald. Other columnists write in a conversationalist style about light issues. My priorities are politics, the economy, social issues and related areas.
As the Manickchand controversy continues to anger people, this gentleman stopped me as I was about to walk into the Hot and Spicy Restaurant on Albert Street. He enquired about my views on what a columnist in the Stabroek News had written about Ministers Frank Anthony and Priya Manickchand. A nicely spoken person with a soft tone, he said, “Freddie, who is he? I would like to see you deal with it, can you?”
My first reaction was that I do not read that particular column because as a matter of policy I do not read foreign-based observers penning articles on what goes on in Guyana and secondly, those type of columns lie outside my interest even though I have absolutely nothing against the nature of such commentaries.
I promised that I would look at the piece and do a commentary if I find what was written was material that needed an analytical pen.
I did that and was alarmed, sickened to the core and utterly disgusted. But I assert the right of the commentator to publish his opinion. That right should be respected by the Stabroek News. The commentator wrote that in the absence of Burnham and Jagan, the responsibility of defining a vision for Guyana rests with Ministers Frank Anthony and Priya Manickchand and in the hands of these two Ministers rest the future of this nation.
What do you say to that nonsense? Surely that is opinion but an opinion can be nonsensical (like Rupert Murdock who tweeted that the missing Malaysian airliner may be in Pakistan; it is absurd because how can a plane cross into Pakistan airspace and India, the US and Pakistan not have data on it?) but may border on profound indecency in that the columnist may be a friend of the two Ministers and used his space to sell his friends though I believe he will not succeed.
Let me tell this fellow something. If the future of this nation rests on Frank Anthony and Priya Manickchand then I am leaving Guyana and I will ask my family to come with me; I leave the choice up to them. Funny how people are capable of saying the stupidest things. I guess the columnist can say I do the same. That’s life! Different strokes for different folks!

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