KEEPING OUR HEADS ABOVE THE FILTH

Jun 04, 2010 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Why is it that whenever filth is thrown at someone it is usually in a liquid or semi-solid form? You hardly ever find filth being thrown in a solid form.
A solid pellet of feces is going to cause some form of physical injury. It will be solid and the impact of a solid object on another will cause some injury.
The person throwing the solid pellet is also likely to get his or her hands dirtied.
With liquid or semi-liquid feces however the risk of physical injury is far less but the effect still potent.
The intention of throwing liquid filth is however very rarely about causing injury. It is almost always about demeaning, disgracing and shaming the victim.
This was clearly the intention behind the fecal attack on Freddie Kissoon.
He was doused with a fetid substance, which would have soiled his clothing and left him humiliated and smelling stink. The attack was intended to degrade him.
This is what is so disgusting about the attack. It was not about hurting Freddie physically. It was about dehumanizing him in the eyes of others.
This column joins in condemning this attack. Even animals do not shower their enemies with excrement.
But those who wished to punish and embarrass the Kaieteur News columnist had little qualms about dabbling in dung.
This latest attack is all part of the volleys that have been hurled at Kaieteur News in an effort to “deal with this newspaper”.
Not content with the salvoes that had been launched against this newspaper, not satisfied with the public vilification of this publication, its publisher and editors, there is now a resort to a new low, to filth.
Kaieteur News must see this latest incident as part of a continuous campaign to bring it to its knees. It has rightly linked this attack as part of the overall conspiracy to silence the newspaper and therefore it must stand defiant in the face of the onslaughts while ensuring that its response does not do any justice to the vile attack. It must continue to fearlessly and independently report the news to the Guyanese people and expose the many scandals that are taking place within our society.
There is no doubt that once it continues to stick to its original principles that the Kaieteur News will survive all the feces thrown at it. None will stick.
Already there is evidence that this incident has backfired against those opposed to the newspaper. Following this distasteful incident, this newspaper was swamped with sympathy calls.
Hundreds of persons have called to express their concern as to what is taking place and to assure the publisher of their continued support.
The public see this attack on Freddie Kissoon as an attack on Kaieteur News and urge this newspaper to continue to resist being forced into silence and servitude.
Kaieteur News is no doubt conscious of the need to keep its head above the filth lest those who carried out the attack believe that they have achieved their objective of reducing this newspaper to the level of the gutter.
All right-thinking Guyanese should allow those who dabble in filth to wallow in their mess. Kaieteur News will deal with the truth.
In dissociating itself from those that deal in filth, Kaieteur News needs to continue to offer civil discourse, free of abusive and offensive content, free from the gutter instincts and debasement that characterizes the feces-hurlers and free of the need to settle scores. In so doing it will encourage free expression and will rise above the filth.