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Freddie Kissoon apologies to Donald Ramotar

Oct 16, 2015 Letters

Dear Editor,
In the Thursday, October 15, 2015 edition of Kaieteur News, Lomarsh Roopnarine, in trying to correct me on the meaning and use of the verb “transport” wrote the following shocking grammatical mistake; “The word transport or transportation means to move people and things. Certainly, he is speaking of intangible things, like thoughts and actions”
What is totally unacceptable yet sad in this county is that not one person in this entire land will reply to these exchanges and be kind enough to tell Roopnarine that you can use the word, “transport” in reference to a race, religion, myth, idea, doctrine, form of worship, cultural adoptions, etc. No one will be kind enough to tell Roopnarine that words have never been confined to their original derivatives. It is very commonplace to speak of a recalcitrant transporting his/her bad behaviour to whichever country they go. In this context, “transport” is synonymous with “take”. So you take or you transport your bad habits to other countries. I hope Roonarine isn’t saying that “take” only refers to taking something bulky.
If Roopnarine is to pick up any book or Google any reading material he may find millions of examples, literally millions of examples where “transport” is used in the context of racist dogmas, cultural practices etc. For a man who claims he is researching Indian culture in Guyana, particularly in Berbice, he must have come across hundreds of statements that go like this, “You cannot transport a cultural practice from one country to the other.”
My problem with this grammar issue is not Roopnarine, but Guyanese who would refuse to enlighten Roopnarine. Some of would say they don’t have time for such trivialities, but what about the need to at least show Roopnarine the contextual use of words? Are we going to leave it as a short exchange between Freddie Kissoon and Ropnarine and Roopnarine will never know that you can use “transport” without its usage being referenced in relation to bulky things and cars and vehicles transporting people, animals and goods?
Finally, Roopnarine was moved to write to “correct” me on the use of “transport” because he felt it was unnecessary for me to have chastised former President, Donald Ramotar for confusing “intention” and “intuition.”  I apologize to Donald Ramotar. Looking back at it, I think I was out of line. Such a mistake should not have been written about. I should have let it pass. An apology once more to Mr. Ramotar.
But there is a big but. But I am certainly not alone in doing what I did. I would like to think in most counties when a man or woman reached the zenith of a career in becoming the Prime Minister or President of their country, they will be criticism from the totality of the media community and political society if such a brazen grammatical slip-up was made as what Ramotar did. It will happen tomorrow in the US if Sarah Palin did what Ramotar did. In Canada right now, if Harper did what Ramotar did, especially when there is an election campaign in Canada, he would have seen media comments on it.  Anyway, in Guyana, I am sure Roopnarine is not alone in thinking that I should not have commented on the Ramotarian slip. Others may have felt it was too petty of me. I agree. A third apology to our former President, Donald Ramotar. We all make mistakes.
Frederick Kissoon

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