The Feral Blast – An arresting, malodorous metaphor worthy of the Bard!

Jul 20, 2014 News

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Countryman – Stories about life, in and out of Guyana, from a Guyanese perspective

By Dennis A. Nichols
This week I am deviating somewhat from my rambling reminiscences to ingest and digest a phrase that I suspect will, in the annals of our country’s diplomatic exchanges, be held up for posterity, as much for the context in which it was used as for its association with the personage who used it, the enigmatic, idiosyncratic and thoroughly Guyanese Dr. Roger Luncheon.

The phrase is of course ‘feral blast’ a magnificent metaphorical construction that could have been taken straight out of a Shakespearean tragicomedy.
I love words and imagery, and I can ferret out humour in the most sober of situations. So while many others were waxing apoplectic over Minister Priya Manickchand’s speech at U.S. Ambassador Brent Hardt’s recent function observing the occasion of America’s 238th Independence anniversary, I was being tickled red(der) by a mental picture conjured up by Dr. Luncheon’s succinct description of it.
The picture was that of a personable and articulate young woman being possessed by some demonic entity that transformed her, at least for the occasion, into a wild and intemperate creature from which emanated a particularly forceful eruption of foul air.
Was the Acting Foreign Affairs Minister aware of the apparent potency of the ‘dress down’ she directed at the top diplomat? Maybe, but who knows? And was the phrase describing that speech manufactured after it? During? Before? Again, who knows?
The coinage of the term (I presume it was coined because the internet could find no precedent for its usage) may have been by government or party consensus, but to me somehow it smacked of individual thought and plaintive reflection as befits someone with the severe and brooding mien of the Cabinet Secretary.
This inventive metaphor must have caused some listeners at the press briefing a few weeks ago to do a double take, if not a triple. It did for me when I first heard it. I subsequently began the enlightening task of tasting, then ingesting it, and was struck by what at first appeared to be the uncommon diction of these two words spoken consecutively, although the grammatical structure was of the basic adjective–qualifying-noun type. In no time at all, this pair had hooked my imagination. The picture in my mind’s eye was breath-holding.
Feral – resembling or characteristic of a wild animal; undomesticated; untrained; vicious; bloodthirsty. Blast – a destructive wave of highly compressed air; a violent verbal assault or outburst; shock wave. Put together, the two words portrayed to me the sound emitted by a creature deemed by many to be one of the wildest, noisiest and most vicious carnivores on earth – the Tasmanian Devil which, according to National Geographic, ‘flies into a maniacal rage when threatened, fighting for a mate or defending a meal.’

Now, Ms. Manickchand, as outspoken as she is, would in my opinion, be less than flattered by these two words used to describe the forthrightness and audacity of her presentation and her style. According to her supporters, this kind of ‘fighting spirit’ is what they find most attractive and endearing about her, and this pungent metaphor seems neither complimentary nor complementary to that reputation. On the other hand, from the reactions of those opposed to her blitz, the term used by Dr. Luncheon may be doing a disservice to the doughty little Devil.
We Guyanese have a long and distinguished tradition of literary composition, succinct expression, and occasional verbosity. Our colonial teachers, especially the headmasters, but also our lawyers and politicians, would have done the Queen’s English proud, even down (or up) to the quaint loquacity of the old Buxtonian school master ‘Prophet’ Wills, whose Victorian garb only accentuated his propensity for English over-usage, as in “Pursue that quadruped and retrieve from it my Prince of Palm” meaning in local lingo ‘Chase de dog an’ get back me coc’nut’.
As a Q.C. old boy, and someone whose stock in trade to a large extent is words, Dr. Luncheon is conversant with choice of expression and diction. If it was indeed he who came up with the term, he must have chosen it very deliberately, and weighed the gravity or levity with which it would be accepted by his country folk, the outgoing ambassador, and maybe by the U.S. State Department; heck, why not the U.S. president himself.
Words do carry weight. They carry denotative and connotative meaning, and these can be direct, ambiguous, nuanced, etc… A feral blast, such as was thrown at Mr. Hardt can therefore be taken lightly, or testily, by those who feel offended by its usage and implication.
I sometimes have a funny and unsettling thought that there are these little cliques or individuals in all of the great developed countries of the world, whose sole employ is to monitor every word and action expressed by those sometimes dismissively referred to as ‘third-world’ leaders. I envisage them with powerful, little interconnected computer minds and huge egos. And who knows what retributive schemes may be in the making for poor upstart Guyana. Did Mr. Obama or Mr. Kerry request a meeting with Mr. Hardt over a beer or two to consider. . . whatever? No, I’m not paranoid; my tongue is pressed firmly in my cheek!
But back to the Luncheon-Hardt-Manickchand exchange. Had the Ambassador been more careful, the Minister been more tactful, and the Cabinet Secretary mitigated his sentiments, maybe with some humour, acrimony may have been restrained and diplomacy maintained all round.
Humour and tact have that effect. Remember the exchange in New York in 1995 between the former Russian and U.S. presidents, Boris Yeltsin and Bill Clinton before the press? Although they were in disagreement over the Bosnian situation, when Yeltsin called the media ‘a disaster’ an outburst of undiplomatic laughter erupted from Clinton. Yeltsin could only join in and both leaders enjoyed a prolonged bout of mirth at the expense of the media.
Although journalists later referred to Yeltsin and Clinton as a drunk and a womanizer respectively, diplomacy was served. One went on to become one of the most popular U.S. presidents and the other played a key role in the dissolution of the Soviet Union, even as he sought forgiveness from the Russian people for several failures during his tenure. Even George W. Bush, one of the less-respected American presidents, had about him, a certain disarmingly comic style which helped soften his most inane diplomatic gaffes. Local leaders/politicians should know then, that they are as much diplomats as anything else.
Having said all of this, I must yet add that I am a patriot, and am not devoid of antagonistic feelings toward the over-involvement of foreigners in our internal affairs. It’s just that, well, human nature,  actions and words, often get so confused with each other in almost any kind of relationship, foreign, domestic or other, that we must be very careful of their interplay. But I love the ‘feral blast’ analogy, and despite the fury and the furor, I will cherish and even defend its application, (separate from the minister’s actual speech.) And I give big ‘props’ to the dour doctor for his arresting, malodorous and Bard-worthy metaphor.

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