Latest update April 19th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jul 21, 2017 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon
The vice chancellor of UG had this to say to the Chronicle when asked to respond to my condemnation (yes, my position was condemnatory) of money to be spent on his inauguration ceremony, which the university never had before for the previous nine predecessors; ‘it is a normal practice in all universities.” When I read that statement, immediately I thought about prison uniforms.
The vice chancellor says it is a normal practice in all universities for vice chancellors to be officially inaugurated. Since the university was founded in 1963, it has gone through nine vice chancellors (the first being a Briton named Lancelot Hogben and the second a Canadian, Alan Earp, 1965-68) – with a vice chancellor or two being appointed during the presidency of Burnham (Professors Dennis Irvine and Dr. George Walcott), Hoyte (Professor Dennis Craig), Cheddi Jagan (Professor Harold Lutchman), Janet Jagan (Dr. James Rose), Jagdeo (Professor Lawrence Carrington), Ramotar (Professor Jacob Opadeyi).
Now under Granger, what we never had since 1963 we will now have in 2017. But there are a lot of things that are normal practice elsewhere that we don’t have.
Isn’t it normal practice in all prisons in all countries for inmates to have uniforms? I knew when I was growing up, that prisoners wore a type of navy blue uniform. As a little boy in Wortmanville, I would see them weeding by what is now Homestretch Avenue. A place in Wortmanville (when I was growing up there) that I often saw uniformed prisoners weeding, was the playfield next to the Ministry of Health – directly at the corner of Hadfield Street and Vlissengen Road. That playfield still stands today in Wortmanville.
I can recall my brother, “Lightweight” Kissoon had a contract with the Camp Street prison to make caps for the inmates.
So if the UG Vice Chancellor can say the inauguration ceremony for the vice chancellor is normal, routine stuff, the same can be said for prison uniforms. The recent burning down of the central prison revealed that the population in that institution donned their own civilian clothes; they were not fitted out in prison garb. Letter-writers have commented on this crass anomaly. Some even stated that because they wore civilian clothes, many escapees mingled with the onlookers during the mayhem.
As we are on the topic of what is normal in other countries, let me quote from my column of Sunday, May 8, 2016, captioned; “Granger misses some essential points about copying.” As readers would know, this was about the time that the president was about to celebrate one year in office. I wrote; “President Granger asserted that there is no priority on the Government’s agenda for changing the laws relating to marijuana. In justifying his position he is quoted as saying that we should be careful what we copy from the developed world. I would like to know what the things are that we should be careful not to copy and what are the things we should copy.”
Unfortunately, no journalist since May 2016, when the president uttered that opinion, has chosen to ask Mr. Granger at his weekly thing called “The Public Interest,” what we should avoid copying and what makes for positive emulation from the developed world? So far we only know about one – changing the laws relating to marijuana. Since we never had an inauguration ceremony for the incoming vice chancellor in the 54 years existence of the university, should we copy that practice?
What about prison uniforms? I haven’t done the research, but I would like to think that prisoners, nurses, soldiers, policemen, prison wardens, forestry rangers, worldwide don identifiable uniforms. Why is Guyana the exception? What else should Guyana not copy from other countries? I haven’t done the research, but I think in other lands it would not be acceptable to kill animals that come from one part of the country to another part within the same nation.
We do that here in Guyana. Would they order a puppy put to death if its owner from California brought it into New York and cannot prove it came from California? Would the Italian authorities put a puppy to death if its owner brought it from Venice to Milan?
The Chronicle, the government’s paper, carried actual photographs of puppies that were put to death at the Ogle airport because the owners couldn’t prove the puppies were born here. This paper featured a story of a gold miner and his three employees who came into Kaieteur News to explain the near miss his puppies had at Ogle airport, because the authorities told him they weren’t born in Guyana. The puppies missed death by minutes after he supplied the proof of place of birth.
Shouldn’t we copy the formula of saving puppies from other countries, Mr. President?
Please share this to every Guyanese including your house cats.
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