From the Diaspora…Manickchand disrespect and a disappearing Guyanese population

Jul 06, 2014 News

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By Ralph Seeram
My mother who is in her 90th year has always reminded me that there is “book sense” and “common sense”.  I tried to pass this on to my kids. Today, if I needed a perfect example to demonstrate to them, Priya Manickchand would be ideal; she has book sense but no common sense.
I read somewhere, this little story of how a cruise ship developed engine problems and the engineers with all their degrees and computers could not fix the problem. The owners decided to call an old retired ship mechanic to look the problem. He came with a hammer, looked around the engine and gave two taps with the hammer on a particular part of the engine, which immediately hummed to life.
Later, when he sent his bill of US$1000, for the two-minute work, the owners were outraged and asked for an explanation. His invoice said hammer US$2, knowing where to knock hammer US$998.
That’s the problem with Priya Manickchand; she doesn’t know where to knock. You don’t go into someone’s house as a guest and “knock” them down with insults; it is downright insulting to your host, demeaning, and lacks class. And to think that this woman is the Minister of Education.
In politics, it’s all about diplomacy, especially in foreign affairs; that’s why they are called diplomats. It’s for a reason, so if she was the Acting Foreign Minister, she certainly forgot her ‘diplomatic hat’.
Now if Manickchand gives a reception at her home, and Brent Hardt goes and suggests that she joins a gym and lose some weight, that would be downright undiplomatic and insulting, but if he notes that President Donald Ramotar lost some 40 pounds and maybe some of his Ministers should ask him his secret, that would be very diplomatic.
I wrote in these columns a long time ago that I think Brent Hardt meddles too much in the internal affairs of the country, but as old people say “there is a time and place for everything”.  The Ambassador’s house was not the place. I wonder if she understood why she was booed down.
As an added insult, she staged a walkout of the man’s home, demonstrating a disrespectful if not primitive behaviour. Manickchand is considered by some as one of the better Ministers. Trouble is, many feel the same way. Was she given this script to read by the PPP or was it her thoughts? Either way she made a fool of herself; the booing she got should make her realize that.
As a Guyanese I am embarrassed by her behaviour, and as a US Citizen I feel offended. One must remember that despite its earlier actions in the 60’s, the US cleared the way for the PPP to get in power.
I have a daughter that reminds me of my youthful and impetuous ways, telling “it as it is”, but I always cautioned her, “You can say it with lemon and vinegar, or you can say it with sugar and honey.”
If Priya Manickchand wants to be the PPP “pit bull”, that’s fine. Go take the pulpit at Freedom House or her office and shout as loud and as long as she wants.
It would appear that everytime a PPP official opens his or her mouth he creates a public relations nightmare. Whoever is in charge of the PPP public relations is a complete idiot.
Now let us talk about one of the subjects that caused Manickchand’s tirade – Local Government Elections. The PPP has been in power for 22 years and had four General Elections. You really want to convince people that you could not have held Local Government Elections over the last 18years or so, especially since you controlled parliament from 1992 to 2011?
Credit the Guyanese people with some intelligence. Who the PPP thinks it can blame? Don’t attack the US Ambassador, he is only speaking the truth. The fault lies with the Government in power.
Another issue that emerged this week was the omission of the ethnic makeup of Guyanese in the recent census. I can’t say if there is anything sinister behind this omission, but it should have been in the census. After all, that’s what a census is all about, getting as much information as possible about the population. I personally believe the ethnic makeup was done but is not being released.
While we are on the census, those that released the figures really take the Guyanese public for fools for their simplistic ways of saying Guyana’s population declined marginally by some 3,000 odd persons since 2002.
Are they saying that Guyanese men took a leave of absence from sex or got impotent in the last 12 years prior to the census? No babies were born, or were there more deaths than birth? Somebody is afraid to say that more Guyanese left the country than women can deliver babies, not to mention people who migrated to Guyana.
Since I was a “small boy’ in primary school I was told that Guyana’s population was about 750,000. That was more than 50 years ago my friends. My son asked me one time about the population of Guyana, I told him it’s the same as it was 50 years ago. He was puzzled as to why it is the same, so I explained that he should take our immediate and extended families and multiply that by at least a 100,000 families that left Guyana over the years.
I was happy after reading Christopher Ram’s explanation that Guyanese men are still great sperm donors and the women are great producers. According to Ram, there were some 124,000 births over deaths and in reality Guyana lost over 128,000 people during the period and not the simplistic 3,000 decline.
That Guyanese are leaving in droves is no secret, but that’s a subject for another day.
There is a certain satisfaction in writing these articles. Long lost friends scattered around the globe (that caused the population decline) have been able to reconnect with me. This week I got a surprise email from a person who comes to my mind often when I write these articles, my old English teacher, Nowrang Persaud.
I still practice a lot of what he taught me “back in the days” when English teachers were dedicated to their craft. Nowrang went on to excel in bigger things on the International scene, but the teacher in him brought him back to Guyana to pass on his knowledge to a new Guyanese generation.
Sad to say I contributed to the decline of the Guyanese population, and would gladly return, however I have to get my grand kids’ approval, and I doubt they will approve.
Ralph Seeram can be reached at email; [email protected]

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