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In defense of Freddie Kissoon
Sep 28, 2015 Letters
Dear Editor,
I read an article, in KN of 25th September 2015, viciously attacking Freddie Kissoon. The intention it appears was not to merely rebuke him but, as it were, to give him a dose of his own medicine. Laughable, and is of no consequence.
Freddie, like the rest of us, is not perfect in his words and deeds, yet he fights for a perfect world. He is impatient to see such a world. Everything about this is noble and right. Those who hate him, therefore, would do so because they know that they represent what he attacks. Who the cap fits, let them wear it.
He attacks all the lowest common detonators of human behaviour that lead to human suffering and harm to many. They include various types of political shenanigans; the abuse of power and misuse of authority; unlawful acts and ineptitude; villainous conspiracies, malfeasance, bribery and other forms of corruption of people within the polity; graft, embezzlement and commonplace theft; violence; the darkness and ignorance of racism, its vicious exploitation and devilish political philosophies such as supremacy and domination that do nothing good to advance human civilization but instead maliciously harm people; and of course the yard fouls, hoodlums and the gangsters who put on a badge of public service or private enterprise for that matter, hypocritically and deceitfully claiming they are serving people.
He rails against these things and he must continue to do so. He is impatient that the world should be better, so that his own life, those of the members of his family and people in all of the communities in Guyana might be worth living in the place he calls home. He resents the yes men, the charlatan, the philistine, the deceitful Sanhedrin, and the hypocritical, and he should.
These do not represent any attributes that are useful to human society and human progress and the people he attacks are the ones who claim the public spaces as a right and entitlement but yet abdicate the duty they should perform, and instead have conducted themselves in ways that one finds difficult to describe using other words and phrases.
The injustices, which these poor attributes and behaviors lead to and the harm they do to people scrapes at Freddie’s soul like shredded coconut on a steel grater, and in his rush to attack and condemn them, anger gets the better of him.
But one understands, because it is difficult to remain cool in the face of behaviors and actions that flow from them, many so utterly crass, egregious and provocative that only Jesus could remain calm, and yet even he was rarely silent. Indeed he sometimes expressed his outrage.
Of course Freddie should pay heed to the criticisms of his style. Of course he must produce evidence and proof as far as practicable. Of course he must be as accurate as possible.
Of course he must take his time to construct his presentations. Of course he must take the time to find the most palatable expressions, and sometimes even the sensitive and politically correct. Of course he should stay away from the small things, because the cause he fights for is comprised of many large objects, such as against racism, domination, supremacy and the corrupt, that deserves the most ferocious attacks, and must be uprooted and utterly destroyed.
The truth is that he cannot attack inanimate objects. He can only attack people with names, functions, and roles in society and who are the subject of world views, philosophies, behaviors and actions that he finds reprehensible. Like all hypocrisies, the ones who attack him include some of the most abominable propagandists ever to live in Guyana.
In acknowledging legitimate criticisms of Freddie, we must be shrewd enough not to be distracted from and miss the big picture of his cause and message. The world Freddie fights for will not be better because some people can build nice buildings and get a lot of money.
These things are necessary for human comfort. In any case, the behaviors he attacks would deny these very comforts to the many. The world he fights for will be made better because we end domination of others, racism, victimization of the defenseless, corruption, abuse of power and so on, and because in our time on this earth each person finds the better in himself to be just, and do all he can to improve the welfare of others.
His attacks, even if sometimes awkward and gory, seeks to force those he attacks to find the better in themselves. Who can be against this? Who could be against what he fights for?
Ivor Carryl
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