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Freddie’s” likes” soared on Sunday…we can find common ground despite the politics
DEAR EDITOR,
I like reading the papers online. It gives you a chance to see how an article resonates with the readers by checking the amount of “likes” an article receives.
As a writer I check the “likes” on my articles whenever they are published. I guess most writers do too. Very often after reading an article that impresses or resonates with me, I would scroll down to click on “like” to show appreciation to the writer.
As writers we need that kind of encouragement. Sometimes I would scroll down after reading some gross, senseless or biased articles, just to check the response from the online reading fraternity. For these, very often, the” likes” would be zero or one. When it is one, I have this tendency to suspect that the writer gave himself/herself that like.
As writers, we like ourselves too! Thanks to facebook for giving us the opportunity to reward ourselves online with a “like” for writing utter nonsense sometimes.
On Sunday night I read Freddie Kissoon, “Trevor Benn doesn’t impress me” in KN. The article was concise and informative, relating Freddie Kissoon (FK)’s encounters with GLSC commissioner, Trevor Benn, and two others that FK found necessary to convey his story. Given the voluminous and heated response from Benn over the allegations of the opposition leader’s revelation – that the Government through GLSC, headed by Benn, was giving out large swaths of lands to people with close connections to the Government – one could have easily been misled to believing that Benn is a paragon of virtue.
After speaking that all his decisions at GLSC are” above board” and that the opposition should shut up or show up at his press conference, Freddie’s article puts Benn’s credibility in a state of quandary. Freddie cited Benn for promising and not responding to a call to stop a rich man from bullying squatters off state lands and erecting a building which is there as evidence to this date.
When Freddie contacted Benn on this issue, Benn’s response was, in Freddie’s words – “ Benn told me there are wealthy people illegally occupying and building on government reserves, but they ignore the orders of his agency because these people use money to get their way.”
This statement goes overboard in the public perception.
Freddie reckoned with and mentioned the thousands of house lots applicants and a few named small entrepreneurs whom he had unsuccessfully tried to help to get small parcels of land. Freddie claims that these people are left in limbo while people with close government connection are getting lands. That has been the general perception of the public for both the PPP and the Coalition Government’s distribution of land to the poor by GLSC. It has always been a controversial issue.
After reading and scrolling down to give Freddie a “like”, I was shocked at what I saw. Freddie Kissoon, the crusading activist for bettering the life of the poor, hated by the diehard supporters of both the Coalition and opposition on account of what they have been taught by their leaders, had just chalked up 130 likes. I made it 131.
I have never seen Freddie muster more than 10 likes on an article. It goes to show that when the pressing need of the poor (land) comes into focus, we can find common ground and resonate with the truth.
Rudolph Singh
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