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Oct 12, 2014 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon
On Thursday morning, my mother-in-law died in my wife’s arms in my car. When we arrived at the private hospital, people were very sympathetic.
As I watched her lifeless body on the hospital bed, there was the merger of anger and sadness. Memories of my mother flowed like a fountain whose water was out of control. My mom never got to see me work in Guyana to provide her with a few pennies. President Burnham banned me from state employment; no private business wanted to touch me. She died broken-hearted.
My mother-in-law saw 37 years of me (thirty-six of marriage to her daughter and one year of courtship) and in that period she witnessed what my mother often saw – the terrible moments of repression directed at me. I never spoke directly to her on the subject, but I think it would have brought some satisfaction to her in her golden years to see her son-in-law share in a new Guyana that he gave all his life to.
Since her death, I have received deeply felt sympathies. There was one particular moment that I would like to discuss. One of Guyana’s most likeable citizens, put his hand on my shoulder, expressed his condolence, and told me he knew my mother-in-law when she was a young woman running her supermarket in Wortmanville/Werk-en-Rust.
Then he said, “I really like you, but Freddie I am worried for you.” Without even a tiny expression of concern, I asked why. He said I have taken on too many people and caused too many enemies. He intoned, “Freddie leave them, do what you do best.” I had to go further with this because I needed specifics. He gave me specifics.
He wants to know why I criticized Dave Martins, Shaun Samaroo, Oscar Ramjeet, Rickey Singh, Giftland Office Max, Survival Supermarket, Banks DIH, Republic Bank, John Lewis Styles, among other names I can’t recall. He went on; “Freddie, don’t make so many enemies, man, you have always done good with your politics, just stay on that road.”
I told him I appreciated the kind words and I do have respect and admiration for him, but each of us in this world sees life from our own perspective. My point was that life is what you make it. Life is no bed of roses and life is not about pleasing people who don’t give a damn whether you live or die, or avoiding comments on people because you are afraid of their reaction or they are too big to be criticized.
I emphasized to this nice gentleman that there are people out there who have formed an impression of you and it will not change, no matter what you do. I have been socially and politically active my entire life, and there are people who have formed impressions of me as mad, crazy, stupid, publicity-seeker, poor writer, poor academic, vindictive columnist, chauvinist, etc.
They know nothing of my inner life, what I am made of, the essence of me. But that is their perception of me and no matter if I swing like Tarzan on a rope and save a baby from an ISIS bullet, I will always be that kind of person in their eyes. They don’t care to know about me. And that is their right.
Why should I care about how they feel, when as a columnist I write about their faults, exploitative behaviour, unbecoming conduct or unenlightened opinions on Guyana’s politics?
There are people in politics, business, the media, social gathering etc., who will always see me in a certain negative light. I will never be a likeable person in their scheme of things. This is life. I will not let that characteristic of reality deter me. I know to whom I must carry out my obligations.
We ended our small conversation with me telling him that all those persons and entities he named, I felt justified in my critical comments and I doubt those people ever think of Freddie Kissoon or he exists for them. Why should I bother with the way they feel about my comments on them, when those comments were devoid of malice and based on verifiable facts. I ended our conversation with a compelling example to him.
Miles Fitzpatrick never liked me the first moment he saw me. When Dr. Hughley Hanoman sued Stabroek News over a column I wrote, Fitzpatrick, the paper’s lawyer said, “I will defend the paper but not you, get yourself a lawyer.” Years later, Fitzpatrick defended one of the most tyrannical Guyanese rulers the Caribbean ever produced, with blood on his hands.
I never violently hurt another human or took their property or cheated them or exploited them. Nothing I did would have changed Fitzpatrick’s attitude to me. That is life. That will always be the way of the world.
Listen to the man that is throwing Guyanese bright future away
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