324 emails: I still can’t believe I was so stupid

Jul 14, 2022 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Kaieteur News – I receive emails all the time based on things I write on this page. The largest amount of emails I got was 91. That was from a column in which I publicised a secret dossier from the AFC in which it intended to break with the PNC.

Then I got a similar amount from an article I had published in which David Hinds’ name was mentioned in a very negative way in one of the US Embassy cables during Walter Rodney’s confrontation with the Forbes Burnham Government.

In last Tuesday’s article, I notified readers that I was on social media on a programme named the Gildarie-Freddie Show hosted on the platform run by Mikhail Rodrigues AKA Guyanese Critic. The first presentation was on Monday, the second one was last evening. It is three nights a week – Monday, Wednesday, Friday – at 8-30 PM of one hour duration.

Since the item aired on Monday, Leonard Gildarie told me on YouTube, it was viewed by 41,000 persons and 14,000 on Facebook. But more personally, I have received 324 emails at the time of writing as a reaction to the show. Three things characterise those correspondences.

One was that each email, without exception was a positive reaction with very heart-warming words. When I read those outpourings, instantly I remember the words of O’Neil Greaves. I will always remember the words of O’Neil Greaves. When my UG contract was terminated two weeks after Donald Ramotar assumed the presidency in 2011, I was shocked because the contract only had five months more duration.

I went to the head of my Department – Government and International Relations. I asked him how that was possible because the contract had just five months more. I told O’Neil that it made no sense abruptly terminating it, why not wait until the five months are up and not renew it. I distinctly remember asking O’Neil if I am so feared by the government at UG that they couldn’t wait for a mere five months. O’Neil had an intestinal smile on his face and said: “We never know how people think of us.” Those words still ring in my ears.

I was morally elevated when I read the contents of those 324 emails. I was relieved that there are substantial numbers out there that support my work. The second characteristic was that people welcomed the clarifications given. For example, two Guyanese living abroad did not know who or what is Moray House.

The third factor was the pleas I got from people asking me to highlight their plights as the programme continued. I received some complaints about terrible things that I would not have known about if there wasn’t the Gildarie-Freddie Show. I will do just that on this page and on the show. One concerns the taxi service at Giftland. That mess will certainly be featured on this page.

Then I was told of a heart-break story from a woman with no family members in Guyana. Let me preface the description of that lamentation with a warning. A lawyer will be disbarred if he/she robs a client. That is serious trouble that lawyer is playing with.

This lady in advanced age told me she sold her property and the lawyer who handled the papers arranged the transaction in such a way that the buyer would pay him the cheque. This is one of the most prominent civil lawyers in Guyana and one that is financially endowed.

He charged her for his work but only gave her a part of the sum and she is still to receive the rest. She said he has agreed to give her the rest but because she lives abroad and has no one here, years have passed and she hasn’t heard from him. If this lady reads this column, please, please, please urgently get in touch with me at 614-5927 or email me at [email protected]. I don’t have a Facebook account.

So there it is. My stupidity about social media had endured for too long. I believe it has a purpose and I have seen that purpose from Monday. This is not to say that social media cannot be abused and serve vile purposes. But it can go in directions that can serve the cause of human rights. I have been at Kaieteur News since it started 28 years ago and unless I am stopped from writing, I consider Kaieteur News important to me.

But I have recently discovered that my work as a social activist, media operative and academic can be expanded through my presence in the social media sphere. There are so many wrongs in this land that need to be exposed.

(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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324 emails: I still can’t believe I was so stupid

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