Mr. Braithwaite must build his own house as a priority rather than destroy others

May 24, 2014 Letters

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DEAR EDITOR,
In the KN of 5-20-14, Mr. Barrington Braithwaite sanctimoniously reminds “The Indian High Commission must understand that India stands out as the host nation of the origins of the infamous Bramanic Aryan cult with its bizarre ideologies of racist oppression.”
What the conquering colonial British would not concede about Aryan origins – many scholars are still at it — Mr. Braithwaite has given birth by one letter in less than a day!  For Braithwaite to quickly devour a newborn by engulfing it as an “infamous Bramanic Aryan cult with its bizarre ideologies of racist oppression” is more bizarre in the 21st century by a man in a quest to become “cultured” among his many multi-cultural fellow Guyanese.
When the “enlightened” ancestral slave descendant from Africa, where man originated, boldly goes where he is most unfamiliar even as he seeks to reclaim his own origins it could be dismissed as the results of mental brutality yet visible in our midst.  Such intolerance and animosity which frames Mr. Barrington’s motives and opinions are most pitiful, as they are deplorable coming from a public “emancipated” source.
What so irks some of our misguided countrymen that they quickly condemn and vilify others for their cultural “progress” reaching back to Indian origins thousands of years ago? Many invaders have conquered and influenced the Indian trajectory each impacting its course and history.
When indentured Indians and their descendants arrived they were damaged goods, required to complete a job no other would do. Today’s India gives billions of foreign aid to African countries. Thousands of Negroid Africans (compared to other races) live and work in India. The Providence National Stadium located in Demerara is an Indian gift to Guyana.
Mr. Braithwaite can have no say on how India conducts its foreign policy if he would prefer India’s aid be specific to his needs alone.
He wrote in the KN “We have all browsed the media ads on academic opportunity … for higher Education… (which) … stipulated that the criteria for participation resides in the applicant’s ethnicity ….
This ad was placed by (sic) the local arm of the Indian Government in Guyana” writes a cunning Mr. Braithwaite.
Intent on sowing hate and resentment, he blurs the distinction between a foreign embassy accredited to Guyana and the native Indo-Guyanese population with whom he has a grudge. Such mischief is nothing new.
What some people, not all, like Mr. Braithwaite actually seek is total Indo Guyanese embrace “as is” in its entire entirety, from and within “the others’ pagan normalcy” including full validation of their similar existence and aspirations. Then what?
Bravery will be Barrington Braithwaite’s bold bequeathed boastful denial, being aware that belling the Indian pussycat is more all-consumingly important. However peaceful racial coexistence unfolds, it must begin with that prior confession and ethnic cleansing cessation which honourably requires it. But considering the entitlement mindset which exists, it is not reassuring. Look at the stink in Georgetown where the PNC dinosaurs reign.
Preoccupied with raising above our murky waters the reminder of the “others” visible rock above has motivated Mr. Braithwaite’s reducing destruction to that of his own uncomfortable level of existence by which he judges it.
The white man is long gone, the Portuguese have left in disgust, Indians are now the favoured targets and the Chinese will get their due share later. Why hasn’t the showcasing of drumming, dress and dance for African cultural enrichment impacted mental attitudes which rely exclusively on African magnificence?
Admittedly Mr. Braithwaite is no Hercules or scholar of accomplishments as he journeys discontented in search of his own cultural epiphany.  Afro Guyanese “normalcy” that may yet make him any better is yet to be self evidently manifested to be proudly listed by for all to benefit.  The evidence does not prove “the other’s normalcy” i.e. Indian existence required any external validation or acculturisation from anyone for what they are.
What they may become by constant attacks is becoming clearer. When Mr. Braithwaite pronounces the grapes sour it’s because they are not in reach. Even his evident glee is not masked when he lends his approval and encouragement where “in India, (such) serious domestic resistances to this (Indian) three thousand-year practice (that) are ongoing” is found “commendable”.
Such nobility for Indian emancipation by an Africanist can bring forth the dead. What is most contemptuous is that he finds Indian “vestiges remain rooted over there, and have troubled this country’s (he means Guyana’s) modern history significantly for too long —” like he is in complete ownership title of Guyana to resolve its destiny with his own final solutions.
What keeps him from separately proving his worth which is not fuelled by hate or resentment of “the other’s normalcy”? Shouldn’t Mr. Braithwaite be building his own home as a priority? For him to claim Indo Guyanese are oppressive is a distortion from reality.  It is by his choice and accommodation that he finds joy in embellishing destruction, racism and anarchy. What Mr. Braithwaite still relishes is the power to subjugate and instill fear in his countrymen. With no noticeable, desirable alternative what does he bring to the table which is not known?
Still traumatized from yesteryear’s slavery, two centuries ago, Mr. Braithwaite apparently is automated to consistently find a jumbie in every calabash swinging from a tree.  When he writes “This raises the question of the psychological perception of sovereign identity of the (student) recipients and more specifically the host country (i.e. India) …” he himself brings into ridicule, his own fragile psychological instability.
Many Guyanese of all racial backgrounds have studied in India. In a country of one billion three hundred million Indian citizens, no two or three are the same. They would each react on their own and not according to government policy. What is most deplorable is Mr. Braithwaite’s persistent barrages which target Indo Guyanese with relative ease like carrion in waiting.
Dr Martin Luther King Jr. was no fool for emulating Mahatma Gandhi’s Indian-originated non-violence for sure, despite our Braithwaites in the field. From the cow’s manure the best plants grow, but Mr. Braithwaite can put to good use all that methane stinks fomenting in Georgetown. Go ahead. Make my day.
Sultan Mohamed

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