Adam Harris and I: Money and age in Guyana

Sep 05, 2021 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Kaieteur News – I am going into 43 years of marriage and I have known Adam Harris long before I got married. We spent a very long time as two high profile employees of Kaieteur News. But our relation was characterised by deep Freudian underpinnings.
It was an enigmatic relation with Adam. I knew in his Freudian mind he didn’t like me but our time at Kaieteur News before his controversial divorce in April 2020 was good. Adam and I got along exceedingly well. I finally got to know how he felt about me when I was not among a long list of invitees to his 70th birthday party.
When I was told who some of the guests were, I laughed because I knew I had a friendlier relation with him than some of them. I am by nature a confrontationist person. So I reminded him that I knew people who got his fancy invitation and not me. But still our time after that at the newspaper was marked by a total absence of vexation on both our parts.
After the controversy at the newspaper in April last year, I never spoke with or saw Adam. On September 1, last Wednesday morning, I was in the garden with my wife when Adam called. “Freddie how you can say I accused you of taking money from the PPP? Benschop called me this morning.”
I replied, “Adam, you said that. I have the tape. You said a lot of things about me in that interview. Please ask Benschop for the tape.” He said, “I asked him, he said he doesn’t have it.” “Well Adam, he is lying. I have the tape. Three persons sent it to me. You said a lot of things about me for almost 10 minutes,” I added.
Then the conversation (which I recorded) took a different tone. Adam and I began to chat in a light manner. I accused him of receiving $50 million from the APNU government in March last year to support election rigging as editor of the Kaieteur News. “Never, never, never!” Adam shouted.
I was joking but I was baiting him to see how he would react. And that was how he reacted. So I asked him why then he thinks the PPP is paying me? He insisted, he never said that. He asked for the tape. I told him he must get it from Benschop. Adam knows full well Benschop has the interview on tape.
I did mention to Adam that at my age what will I do with all that money. I remember one of the world’s richest men, Warren Buffet, asking what people are going do so with the billions they keep getting. In 2020 when the election rigging was taking place, I had reached advanced age. With those years, what am I going to do with all that money I am accused of getting from the PPP? When you reach a certain age, money has no use. When it is plentiful and you are in advanced years, you have to give it away.
I live directly opposite former diplomat and economist, Cecil Rajana, who died at the JKF Airport from a heart attack last week. He was in his eighties. Rajana built the CARICOM Secretariat annex across the road from where I live and sold it for a few billion dollars. Then Rajana did something eerie.
Opposite the annex is a squatter settlement. Rajana took over a parcel of squatting land and built a home for himself. The squatter next to Rajana would meet me and tell me how Rajana was harassing him to move. Then one afternoon the squatter’s house was on fire and was burnt down. Weeks after, Rajana built another house on the land. A friend, Raymond Persaud, an engineer at the Ogle airport told me that Rajana was selling the second house for $28 million. I couldn’t see how that was possible when it was public land for which he would not have a transport.
Many times, while having breakfast and lunch and I would see Rajana coming out of his yard, I would wonder why with his wealth and age he was on squatting land. Now what happens to the two houses opposite where I live? What is the lesson to be learnt here? Why in advanced age, one wants to accumulate millions and millions. What are you going to do with it?
Why did I not accumulate money when I needed when I was young and was raising a family? UG was paying my daughter’s tuition because I was a staff member. When my contract was terminated, that was stopped. I had to find almost half a million dollars. Why did I not seek to take money back then? Why now Adam? Why now? I don’t need it now.
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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