Pension money, Stabroek News and sheep in Guyana  

Oct 29, 2022 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

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Kaieteur News – On Diwali night last Monday, Leonard Gildarie and I on our thrice weekly programme, the Gildarie-Freddie Kissoon Show, lamented the publication in the dailies of information informing senior citizens on what days they are to collect their pension vouchers based on geographical location.

The advertisement did not list the buildings to attend to receive the stuff. I was moved emotionally when on Diwali night, the 24th, I got a call from a gentleman living in Queenstown in Georgetown informing me that his day was the 25th, the next day and he did not know where to go.

I raised the absolute insane mediocrity of that incompetent advertising on the show and told Gildarie that Guyana simply does not get better. How can any human draft an advertisement informing senior citizens when their day of collection is but not identifying the place they have to go? Can that be forgiven?

The next day, commonsense prevailed and citizens were informed by the newspapers of the locations that will serve them. If Gildarie and I did not make a fuss, thousands of pensioners would have perambulated the 83,000 square miles of Guyana looking for the unlisted buildings.

Will the contretemps that accompanied that pension book story be repeated in other forms of life? If you live in Guyana and you believe you will not see hundreds more like that foul-up, then you need to wake up.

It will happen again and again because I think we are a jinxed nation and we should not blame the government, the business community, the public sector. The answer is that we are inscrutably jinxed.

But complaining helps. If you accept being a sheep (I think sheep are more willing to speak up than Guyanese) then your headaches and nightmares will continue and you will end up a nervous wreck.

The gentleman from Queenstown who called me did the decent and commonsensical thing. He said to himself that Kissoon has a show and I will ask him to put my complaint on his programme so I can he helped.

I was not able to help him, since Queenstown pensioners had October 25 as their day and the newspapers for the 25 would have been in print by the time I raised his concern on the evening of October 24. I do hope that man and his fellow Queenstown pensioners got their pension but I did my best.

But if we didn’t help him because of the time log, we did help others because the Ministry found commonsense and subsequently printed the names of the centres where pensioners can go to collect. That was done in the newspapers of Wednesday, October 26. It meant those whose days are after the 27 know where to go to now.

I keep urging Guyanese to make their feelings known. It could go a little way of getting redress.  In the October 27, 2022 issue of the Stabroek News, the paper published a letter by Dr. Randolph Persaud, professor of international relations at the American University, one of the top universities in the United States. He is an advisor to President Ali.

Dr. Persaud’s October 27 letter was critical of civil society groups. He even named Article 13, a newly formed anti-government entity. But two weeks ago, Dr. Persaud informed the nation that his letters were not being published and he sought an explanation from the editor-in-chief.

He explained that he was told that the missives were not carried and will not be carried if the contents feature criticism of civil society groupings including Article 13. Please see my three columns; Friday, October 7, 2022, “Open letter to Isabelle DeCaires and Ian McDonald, Friday, October 14, 2022, “ Robin Singh’s mentality will do the PPP no good,” and Saturday, October 15, 2022, “Robin Singh’s sins:  Ignorance that is limitless.”

As expected in Guyana, no one except literary icon, Ian McDonald offered their feeling on the Stabroek News’s authoritarian edict to Professor Persaud. Ms. DeCaires did not respond but she found time yesterday to pen a reply to Dr. Persaud’s October 27 letter. Article 13 stayed silent. This is the kind of hypocrisy that constantly shows its unwanted face.

Dr. Persaud complained and now his letters could be published. People can get redress if they publicize the wrong things done to them. No one, except this columnist, reacted to the declaration by the Ministry of Public Works that it will move encumbrances on public parapets including wash-bay operations.

It didn’t happen. It cannot happen. Because for every wash-bay soul that does his thing, 100 rich citizens have mountainous encumbrances on public parapets. They are the untouchables of Guyana. The wash-bay boys are the expendables.

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

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