The cultural contortion of Guyana was going on all the time

Apr 16, 2017 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

There has been a huge outcry over the rhetoric of a Christian pastor in one of the more well-known high schools in the country. He was invited by the Headmistress. The preacher is known for tempestuous denunciation of non-Christian religions and cultures. The angry reaction has led to a declaration by the Ministry of Education that such types of preachers would not be invited in the future.
One wonders why the outcry at this time. This country has been going through a moral, spiritual and cultural debasement, some manifestations of which are so sickening that they would not happen in any other country in the entire world. The simple fact is that there are sociological, social and cultural deformities that have overtaken this nation and have destroyed the psychic integrity of the Guyanese people.
I have done about six columns documenting the cultural insults to this society from advertisements, some of which are so demeaning that even banana republics (there may be only one banana republic left in the world, and that is Guyana) would display angry revulsion.
I saw a GBTI advertisement inviting tertiary education pursuers to apply for a special education loan, and it featured a number of students all of whom were Caucasian, with knapsacks on their backs and broad smiles on their faces. This was in a country were non-white citizens constitute about 95 percent of the population. Most definitely, no African country would have tolerated that advertisement. French people would have seen red if such an advertisement had appeared in the media and all the faces were Mexicans or Chinese.
I saw an advertisement from Toucan Industries featuring popsicles for children. All the children in the photo were Caucasian. Surely, Toucan wouldn’t make a profit on their popsicles if they waited on only White children to buy them in Guyana.
I was driving on Camp Road going north to the seawall when I noticed a huge billboard in the compound of the Everest Cricket Club. It was an insurance advertisement from Hand-In-Hand. It lauded the value of having an insurance policy and the man welcoming you on the billboard to take out an insurance policy was a hugely-built Caucasian fellow all dressed up in a three-piece suit. The next day, I went to Hand-In-Hand to see its boss, Keith Evelyn, to ask why that colour content. He refused to see me.
There is a private school named Global Technology that mostly uses White faces in their media placements. In one of the columns I did on this cultural debasement of Guyanese and Guyana, I made mention of this. I spoke to the general-manager about it and he agreed it was wrong. It has never changed up to this day. Pick up the newspapers and look at the Global Technology placements, you will see the perennial face of a White woman with a cute smile.
One of Guyana’s most competent sports writers told me a story about what happened at one of the motor racing events. I remember this conversation vividly. It took place while I was having a snack at JR Burgers one Sunday evening in 2013. He said there was a special VIP section in the pavilion. People were coming into and going from the pavilion quite freely without being stopped. When this dark-skinned African guy walked in, the guard asked him if he had permission. This is what Guyana has become and all of a sudden we discovered it after the incident at the school.
Let me say in all honesty, and I may be wrong but it is my opinion; I would not be surprised if motor racing sports naturally evolve into segregated audiences as I knew it growing up in Guyana. Please don’t get me wrong, I know that existed back then, but I never went to one of those races, and I doubt I ever will go. A man has got to know his limitations. I think with my skin colour I would be at home at a football game or cricket match.
So where was the outrage at all of these sociological aberrations and social insults that I have just described about? Let me end with an incident in a supermarket. I saw this with my own two eyes. I was in the cashier’s line and this Caucasian fellow produced a $5000 (in local lingo it is called a “Granger”). This was when the new bill had just come out. The cashier casually took the bill and handed the change. When the local guy gave her a “Granger,” she held it up against the light.

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