The best French philosophers cannot deconstruct words used by Guyanese

Jan 22, 2018 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

What exactly are the meaning of words used by some Guyanese? One had to find the response of a Georgetown City Councilor from Team Benschop hilarious. There can be no other relevant adjective.
Mr. Jameel Rasul, according to Mark Benschop who spoke to me on Friday afternoon, is occupying a seat on the Georgetown City Council, representing Team Benchop when he was told to vacate the seat.
Team Benchop has a rotation principle whereby its councilors spend six months in the Council. Rasul’s tenure was up last year but he is still in the seat. When Benschop spoke to me he was livid at the action of Rasul voting for the reconstituted parking meter contract. So it appears that not only is Rasul resisting the rotation agreement but he votes on issues that Team Benschop does not support.
These issues in which Rasul is involved do not interest me. My only reason for citing him here is his response to the press when asked to comment on the controversies.
I found his response really amusing. Rasul said, “I am a peaceful person, and let me stay peaceful.” When I read those words my mind fell upon the many instances of words and language used by some Guyanese that even the greatest French philosophers would not be able to deconstruct.
I don’t know if Rasul would meet with me to discuss what he means by peaceful but I would like to. How can someone be peaceful in his outlook and is embroiled in a bitter controversy of being elected on his party platform, refuses to comply with the rotation method his party has laid down and votes against the positions of his party in one of the most powerful institutions in the country – the government that administers the affairs of the capital city?
The incident with Mr. Rasul is very mild compared to what has gone before and what still goes on in this country every day. Take the word racist. Who is a racist in Guyana? Well given the way Guyanese use words, it is impossible to define that term. I have met countless East Indians who told me that this or that African Guyanese politician from the PNC does not like Indians and is racist. But these very Indians support an Indian-oriented party and do not pronounce PPP leaders as racist. So isn’t this person him/herself racist? If you tell them that they would say no.
It is the same with African Guyanese. I cannot begin to count the number of Blacks in Guyana who classify certain Indian PPP leaders as racist. But these very persons do not support any other party than the PNC, which is African-oriented. So if you are not racist what are you doing being a supporter of an ethnically based organization? Should you tell them they are racist, because of that fact they would say no.
So we end up with persons calling others racist and reject the claim that they too are racist. What do these people mean by racist? I know a former leader of the PPP who I encountered while I was buying bread at Bakewell. This was years ago. He told me Andaiye, a Black woman (formerly of the WPA) was racist. But this woman was never ever a part of an African-oriented entity or any ethnically based group. He on the other hand, he was the leader of an overtly Indian outfit. So what did he mean by the word ‘racist?’
I remember a few years ago there was a columnist in the Stabroek News by the name of Shaun Samaroo. I never read Samaroo’s pieces until I was advised to because of his use of certain concepts. What Samaroo meant no one could understand until Stabroek News realized the farce and parted company. Samaroo would talk of the need for multi-racial politicians. He wrote that Guyana needed independent-minded activists etc.
Then in one of his articles, Samaroo wrote that Guyana’s existence is in the hands of two persons who are destined to give it a future – Dr. Frank Anthony and Priya Manichand, which at the time of writing were two PPP ministers. Samaroo’s use of concepts and language only he understood.
Stabroek News finally did comprehend and let him go. I get questions all the time from people asking me if I understand the meaning of words used by a frequent letter-writer, and by frequent, he writes more often than any other letter-writer. Apart from showing off with silly bravados to demonstrate that he could use prose, no one really knows who or what he refers to.

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The best French philosophers cannot deconstruct words used by Guyanese

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