Latest update April 19th, 2024 12:59 AM
Aug 18, 2008 Letters
Dear Editor,
Over the past month, Mr. Harry Hergash, a Guyanese living in Canada and belonging to an organisation named Canada-Guyana Forum, has written several letters (I think six in all) in the Kaieteur News, SN and Guyana Chronicle, critical of some of my opinions in the Freddie Kissoon Column. I have little time to devote to all his correspondence.
But he persists, and it has caused me to wonder what his motives are. I am not referring to his letters per se. I expect people to disagree with commentators.
There are countless letters critical of my writings. But the people who write on Frederick Kissoon often write on many other issues.
What intrigues me with Harry Hergash is that the only motive for his Canadian missives is Frederick Kissoon. Mr. Hergash writes on nothing else.
I recall the case of Mr. Anand Boodram, who is a teacher in New York. For years, nothing appeared in the letters section of our newspapers from this gentleman.
Then, out of the blue, earlier this year, he wrote to say that I have become pathological in my outlook. No specific viewpoint of mine was outlined.
You would want to think that a Guyanese educator in New York would pen a letter every day on Guyana’s falling educational infrastructure.
We have an unspeakable teacher shortage. We retire teachers at age 55, where in Mr. Boodram’s adopted country it is 65. Our schools are short of furniture. But these omissions do not depress Anand Boodram. Frederick Kissoon’s writings do.
So up comes Harry Hergash. He tells readers that my account and Janet Jagan’s of the 60s are biased.
Then he gives his side, and it coincides with Janet Jagan’s. Next, he reminds readers that if they look at my thinking on Buxton during the crime spree and my reflections now, I have a changing outlook.
As is his habit, he doesn’t state where the contradictions are. Then, last week, he proposes that I do not know what the standards of journalism are.
He is aggrieved because I assessed the voting of the 29th congress of the PPP as manipulated, including the ballots for Mr. Ralph Ramkarran. I later changed my view on the numbers for Mr. Ramkarran because sources that I trust told me there was an effective campaign against Mr. Ramkarran.
He sees this changed position on Mr. Ramkarran as a methodological fault of mine and a violation of journalistic standards.
So what is the point? In an economically poor, authoritarian country, sharply divided along racial and political lines as Guyana is, and with the corridors of power characterized by systematic breakdown in governance, Mr. Harry Hergash has nothing to write about that.
The only thing that galvanizes Mr. Hergash to pour out his frequent letters from his cold seat in Canada is Frederick Kissoon.
You meet all types in this world, but what can you say of a Canada-based Guyanese that has an ongoing interest in his country and that preoccupation centres on a mere commentator.
Isn’t Mr. Hergash interested in what high policy-makers do in this land?
Is Mr. Hergash aware that we have the highest traffic death per capita in the world? Does he know that eight diamond miners were brutally murdered and the suspect the police has in custody is a mystery?
Does he know that this latest act of bestiality followed two horrible massacres at Lusignan and Bartica, and only two persons have been charged?
Is Mr. Hergash conscious of Guyana’s high crime rate? I guess he knows about these tragedies, but, for some bizarre reason, only the name Frederick Kissoon gets him annoyed.
Am I to be concerned that Mr. Hergash may have a more than normal interest in me, and that I should be careful if and when he comes to Guyana? I doubt it.
I believe I provide some stimulus in the lives of exiles like Harry Hergash and Anand Boodram.
Living in cold climates and missing your home is something quite prevalent among Guyanese in the UK, Canada and the US.
So, I guess when Harry and Anand go home from an onerous day’s work, they feel psychologically comforted that they can read Frederick Kissoon and make a caustic comment on him. I do not read anonymous blogs.
Why would anyone be interested in what a man named Berbice Superman has to say on his/her blog? My friend William Cox told me there is a discussion forum originating from North America that has an obsession with me and that I should read it.
I have never done that, but I am glad that I provide these unhappy overseas-based Guyanese with a reason to keep in touch with their country.
As for my work here, I will keep on writing, because this country has known little freedom and little peace. I see my life’s task as one that attempts to help my country achieve some form of freedom.
Frederick Kissoon
Please share this to every Guyanese including your house cats.
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