I encounter slime eels daily; yes every day

Aug 02, 2017 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

In my Monday column, with the heading, “Slimy eels that crawled out of the gutter of dictatorship,” I applied the term slimy eels to those newly born columnists, commentators, newspaper letter-writers, political observers after describing what an offensive, dirty, slimy, slippery creature the slime eel is.
I got the term from the British news magazine, The Economist. The magazine says that biologically, the slime eel has no eyes, no back backbone, no central nervous system.
But what about memory? The Economist didn’t touch on that. I didn’t do the research but it has to be that the slime eel hasn’t got memory cells. How else do you explain its action and behaviour?
Each day I am out on the roadways. I shop; I stop at different places; people call out to me. I swear on my parents’ graves, parents that I worship and love, that months after the APNU+AFC came to power, I got reactions from people cursing, cussing down and abusing the present government. In all instances, these public encounters came from one section of our country.
Since those few months, into the new government, I get these reactions daily. From the time the PPP lost power right up to this day of publication, I received and get troubling vexations from that section of the community about complaints of bad governance, racist preferences, incestuous politics, corrupt ministers, falling economy, uncaring government, police misbehavior, GPL non-performance and an ocean of lamentations.
Without exception, they all want the government to go, and without exception, they utter not even half a word of condemnation of the PPP administration.
Here is an extract from my column of Tuesday, July 11, 2017 with the caption, “Surely, the mind cannot be so ugly and naked.”
This is what I wrote when I was in Wakenaam for my niece’s funeral; “This person is quite known to my wife. He sat next to me at the back when the Hindu ceremony was taking place. As usual, when I meet with someone I haven’t seen for a long time, political discussion is deterministically present. In talking about the economy, he said, “This government is worse than the previous one.”
He wasn’t prepared for my razor-sharp exclamation. I said; “Come on man, this government is not even two years old. How can you say that?” He smiled and said, “Yes yuh right”. Surely, a mind cannot be that ugly, creepy, barren, and so sick to say that just after twenty months or so, the Coalition Government is a worse administration than the reign of Jagdeo and Ramotar.
“ How could Guyanese have lived under these two deformed regimes and compare them to Mr. Granger’s administration?”
The thing about these daily encounters is that many of them are ordinary folks who are intellectually underdeveloped so they cannot apply concepts to the understanding of life and that is understandable. They react emotionally and sentimentally to political situations in their country.
It is the slimy eels that should know better. The slimy eels who have university education, business experience, travel experience, are parents who brought up children that they have educated, have mixed with rational humans and have seen life.
I was in some inelegant situations in which I forgave the person but can I forgive the university trained mind for having an ugly soul? I will briefly recap two of these situations. I was with my dog travelling from Mattai’s Supermarket. I turned into Avenue of the Republic by the NBS and as I swung east into Robb Street, I saw the Chinese variety store right at the junction, and remembered I had to get blue tablets for the toilet.
I made a quick stop, hoping not to be long because my dog was locked up in the car. At the check-out counter, this middle age woman asked to speak to me when we both leave. She said she wants to ask me why I used to criticize my own Indian people. Obviously, she meant the PPP.
The other one was at the gas station. I only fill up from one particular gas station because it is owned by a friend. I was next in line when I heard the attendant and the driver talking my name and bad-mouthing the Coalition regime.
After I was filled up, I asked him the amount. In a vexed tone, he said; “Yuh ain seeing it deh?”
He was showing me the reading on the pump. That was rude. I could have got him in trouble with a complaint but I didn’t. Trust me! Those are only two incidents out of countless others. The slimy eels are pouring out their slime.

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