When you confront ignorance, other people learn

Oct 25, 2022 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Kaieteur News – I have always argued on this page that when ignorant things, silly opinions, fictional derogations are written about established public figures then, they should reply because in that little effort that is made in responding, innocent minds that believed what was said about you are offered the facts and the truths.

I have been around as someone in the public sphere for so long with so many fictions heaped upon me that I do not know what more could be said. I would never be surprised if someone wrote that I stole money from other people or that I am a homosexual. Of course, I doubt those words would be believed but one feels a sense of obligation to clarify things for those who believe in you.

I remember last year, someone by the name of Charles Ceres wrote in this newspaper that I am a psychologically disgruntled human because I never realised my dream of going beyond my first degree obtained at UG.

I never met Charles Ceres and did not and do not care to meet or see him. But I felt an obligation to those who read me to decapitate the ignorance Ceres directed at me. So I informed readers that after UG, I went to two other great universities ending up with a doctoral scholarship at the University of Toronto.

I read a personalized attack on me in this newspaper titled, “The torpidity of Freddie Kissoon” (KN, October 14, 2022) by someone who signed his name as H. Singh. This was his second expression against me. Obviously, he chose to hide under his mother’s dress rather than come out in the open and say what he had to say. He was responding to my disappointment that the British and Canadian High Commissions do not offer visa service to Guyanese. He supported the position of those two embassies.

In defence of hiding under his mother’s dress, he justified his cowardice with these words; “There are many good reasons why artists use pseudonyms, including to create a brand, signal a change in style, avoid confusion with others of the same name, or even avoid controversy or prejudice. Some artists may want to keep their identities a secret. For example, Mary Ann Evans, known by her pen name, George Eliot, was an English novelist, poet, journalist, translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian Age.”

Guyanese are always funny people. This man who attacks and insults others and display immense ignorance on crucial issues in Guyana compares himself to an artist and famous novelists who do not use their real names.

The reason he does not use his real name is because he is spared the reactions from family, relatives and friends who read that he is in support of Guyanese students and business folks having to apply to a private company to secure a British visa.

I was subsequently sent information (and two photographs) as to who H. Singh is. Apparently, he wrote the same things under his real name in his Facebook postings. I hope the teenager next to him does not inherit his ignorance.

Next there was a letter by Robin Singh. Mr. Singh wrote in the Stabroek News (October 16, 2022) the following words: “I was sufficiently moved by Freddie Kissoon’s pleas to have letters written by him and cohorts published in Stabroek News, that I now ask, nay, humbly beg that you lower your standards to allow all and sundry space in your publication so that we may truly grasp the state of literacy in our nation. Who needs standards anyways?”

Now the clarifications. I have never written at any time since the birth of the Starboek News (SN) requesting that paper carry my letters to the editor. I write for a newspaper whose print and online versions are read by more people than those who read SN.

The Kaieteur News is free online. Diaspora folks have to subscribe to SN. Which paper then do folks in and out of Guyana go to read who wrote what letter on what issues? I can publish my views in my columns which are read by more people since the KN is free online. Why would I plead with SN to publish my letters?

Here is Singh’s ignorance. My contention was that SN was wrong to tell Professor Randolph Persaud, the constitutional affairs advisor to President Ali, that it cannot carry his letters if they are critical of civil society groups. Singh does not reflect on that action but instead referred to the professor “as all and sundry.” I could be harsh and ask Singh to list his qualifications. Maybe another time.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not this newspaper.)

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