Latest update April 20th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jul 08, 2008 Letters
DEAR EDITOR
Sometimes, if you want a good laugh you can read the letters columns. Here you will find men (but strangely, never women) who use the space to accommodate their overblown egos.
Such men will often say really stupid things, then hustle to correct them, all the while pretending that they are offering a clarification, while accusing others of deliberately misrepresenting or twisting their words.
They finish with a prayer that the reader is picking up the newspaper for the first time and had not had the chance to read the nonsense written earlier. It’s all childishly amusing.
Pastor Daniel Singh recently wrote that it is no big deal if Barack Obama is “portrayed by his dominant ethnicity.”
Asked why the US presidential candidate should be depicted racially, Singh responded that he never tried distinguishing anyone by his race.
In Singh’s mind, portraying a man by his “dominant ethnicity” is not equal to distinguishing him racially. To complete his “clarification,” Singh then accused me of taking his words out of context, although I used a direct quote of his.
Pastor Singh says, “Mr. Obama’s race not only has made his run historic, but also epitomizes ‘change,’ which is his campaign’s slogan.” What an absurd idea! Pastor Singh is saying that Mr. Obama’s slogan has a racial inference.
In fact, the change in Mr. Obama’s slogan means a change from the regular non-effective politics of Washington to his brand of politics – there is no racial connotation to that slogan, it is totally political.
Seriously, it is outrageous for Pastor Singh to link racial change to Mr. Obama’s campaign slogan.
Mr. Obama will most likely choose a white Vice-Presidential candidate; pray tell, Pastor Singh, by your brilliant deduction, what will the racial “change” be then?
What will the campaign’s slogan “epitomize” then? Pastor Singh then seeks to educate me, saying that I am “confusing the difference between ‘race’ and ‘nationality.’ ”
In the civilized world, race is noted only as an aspect of physical identification, nothing more, nothing less. It is as relevant as the colour of your eyes, or your height.
Race epitomizes or categorises nothing of the human condition or spirit. But Pastor Singh informs us that “every aspect of life distinguishes race.” Really, Pastor? “Every” aspect?
“The government requires it,” Singh says, explaining that you might need to note your race on some official forms. He ended with what he must consider to be sage advice: “It should be taken with a grain of salt when one says race is not important.”
At least, let’s hope race is not significantly important in the areas where Pastor Singh identifies it as being a necessary requirement, such as on a “job application,” or to “buy a house, or to apply for a mere loan.”
One people, one nation, one destiny, huh? Guyanese have a lot to learn, and some people are just not helping.
Justin de Freitas
Where is the BETTER MANAGEMENT/RENEGOTIATION OF THE OIL CONTRACTS you promised Jagdeo?
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