Risking our lives so we can live

Jun 06, 2016 Letters

Dear Editor;
Shaggy’s song, “It’s a mad, mad world that we living in,” keeps replaying in my head. I could not agree with him more. Kaieteur News is going through a tough time. We have lost a dear colleague—Dale Andrews. He was a close friend to many he worked with, including Fredrick Kissoon and Michael Baptise. Dale’s death came as a surprise to me and made me somewhat emotional so I can only imagine how those two and Dale’s family are coping.
Even though his death came as such a surprise, it cannot match the way I felt when I realized that someone threw a grenade at the wheel of Glenn Lall’s vehicle. My life has just begun and it could have been ended by someone who obviously has no regard for life, whether mine or any of the other individuals present at the time the grenade was thrown.
To make matters worse, in the aftermath of the event, I was having a conversation with someone I thought was my friend. That person’s words to me were, “That is indeed sad, maybe their aim was for Glenn and Kaieteur Staff, but you guys had a wake and INNOCENT PEOPLE (WHO DO NOT WORK AT KN) COULD HAVE DIED.” I became dumbfounded. How can someone who claims to know me and what I stand for say something like this?
What gives him the moral high ground or any other authority to declare Kaieteur News staffers guilty? What are we guilty of? Exposing the truth? Of earning an honest living? Which of the aforementioned makes us guilty? I became too upset to respond to that person. I only responded this way, “I do not know what exactly you mean by innocent people, but we the staff of Kaieteur are basically risking our lives just so we can live.” I then walked away. I am not sure if the man understood what I meant.
But let me say it clearly; all of us in the editorial department and the press department work some strange hours. We sacrifice family time; we give up Sundays at the creeks and the afternoon walks on the seawalls. We give up our day offs and even forgo meals just to get an assignment done. Why do we do this? Is it only to put food on the table? For most of us the answer is no. Many of us are building a career. Many of us want to be a role model for the younger ones in the family. We fight for what we believe in. We want to leave a valuable mark in society and for some; this is how they show patriotism. Can you blame us? We are built with a desire to achieve greatness.
Kaieteur News will be fine. It is made up of some strong individuals and of those who are willing to die doing what they love. There are those who have worked here through various attacks. When five press men were killed; when the office came under attack from armed robbers and when one politician threatened our lives. Those who cannot handle the pressure will simply move on with their lives, they have that choice; but the newspaper will live on. Trust me when I say my worry is not only about Kaieteur News, it’s about Guyana.
Would this nation be given a chance to recover? Our last bomb blast killing was in 1980. One of Guyana’s most highly regarded intellectuals—Dr. Walter Rodney—was killed by a bomb. That was 36 years ago. A little after a COI into his death has been made final, and a report handed over, comes an event of this sort. It seems like blast killing is the preferred way when trying to get rid of independent minds.
Kaieteur News has been so fearless over the years that it is hard to say exactly who would have endeavored to perpetuate such a hate crime. But many have strong suspicions. Whoever it was must be a weak, angry, empty and sad individual. What human would stoop to such levels? The weakness and anger is evident in the fact that that person set this up or was perhaps, the puppet of the sick and cruel intellectual authors of our time. But he or she must be sad because the plan failed, the grenade did not go off. An act of God? Who am I to say?
Kaieteur News Reporter

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