Blunt but inaccurate

Sep 25, 2022 Letters

Dear Editor,

From linguistics, we know that words have no necessary meaning. A word is an empty or floating signifier. Simply put, the meanings we attach to words are simply outcomes of consistent usage. Meanings are stabilized through repetition. The word “Blunt” as used in Kaieteur News full page agitprop comes to mind.

Blunt usually signifies direct, unedited, honest speech, that is, speech (including in written form) that gets to the core of a subject matter. To be blunt is often associated with strength, this being so because the speaker may knowingly hurt the feelings of the listener, the audience. Kaieteur News and some personalities associated with it have adopted the mantle of speaking for the ‘people’ in ways that are direct and perhaps even courageous.

Yet, the most cursory perusal of the Blunt page reveals that the only bluntness evident are direct misrepresentations and half-truths. The contents of KN’s September 23, 2022, Blunt agitprop demonstrates a wanton disregard for facts, substance, or even a modicum of accuracy.

Headlined “One Guyana sloganeering” the frame contains the following wild assertion – “For, as we see it, ‘One Guyana’ cannot deliberately include almost one group of people time and again, and just repeatedly (and clearly purposely (sic) exclude most of another set just as often”. If I may repeat KN’s own poor grammar, “clearly purposely”, the intent is to impugn President Ali’s signature commitment to a Guyana that is united. The president’s ‘One Guyana’ is remarkably similar in form to Article 13 of the constitution, in that it is aspirational, a point well made before by Attorney General, Anil Nandlall.

The propaganda frame, a.k.a. Blunt, betrays the most elementary aspect of bluntness, that is, the truth that is directly uttered. In fact, the reverse is true when the following is stated – “For all the noise around his sloganeering- President Ali’s One Guyana initiative is as dead as his administration’s economic policies.”

There is literally no truth to this vile little claim. The direct truth is that even though growth rates as expressed in the expansion of the GDP, or the rise in per capita income may carry some distortions, they do impart statistically reliable information about the condition and direction of an economy. Recent reports by reputable sources such as the IMF, World Bank, and the IDB, have all indicated that Guyana is enjoying among the highest growth rates in the world. If that kind of data does not suit you, allow me to quote from the most recent UNDP Human Development Report. The report stated, “Guyana’s HDI value for 2021 is 0.714— which put[s] the country in the High human development category.”

KN’s Blunt page is rather more akin to a blunt instrument that is used to hammer propaganda into the heads of the “people” on whose behalf it claims to speak. To its credit, the Blunt page is clever, just like the daily photos on the front page of the same newspaper. Repeat a lie often enough and it could become the truth. Perhaps. Yet, I can assure you the strategy won’t work in Guyana. Only recently, Vice President Jagdeo proved on Glenn Lall’s radio show how quickly months of propaganda can be destroyed. And let us recall, it was done in Real-Time.

Dr. Randy Persaud
Office of the President

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