Latest update April 6th, 2026 12:35 AM
Latest News
- Gov’t rejected three cheaper Chinese bids to finance, construct gas plant
- Corentyne mom kills 7-year-old daughter, injures infant son
- Trump threatens ‘hell’ for Iran over Hormuz Strait as deadline approaches
- US$214M still with Exxon – AFC warns of quiet deal as audit dispute drags on
- Govt. launches border patrol unit in Region Nine
The first step into slavery is silence
Oct 23, 2010 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon
In today’s global economy comparing Trinidad and Guyana is like matching up a village batsman in Bangladesh with Brian Lara or comparing the guys who play tennis early morning in the National Park with Roger Federer, or trying to find similarities in skills between a soccer club in Iceland and Manchester United.
The United Nations has removed Trinidad from its list of countries to receive official aid. The GNP of Trinidad in US dollars is US$13 billion. Guyana’s is US$0.76 billion. You can express it another way in terms of Gross National Income in PPP dollars (purchasing power parity). For Trinidad it is US$32 billion. Guyana’s is US$2.308 billion (source World Bank as of October 18, 2010)
Space would prevent comparisons along the lines of income and other categories. Suffice it to say what a clerk gets at the University of the West Indies in Trinidad or the University of Trinidad is what a UG lecturer earns. The average public servant in Trinidad has his/her own car. No need to tell you that the average civil servant rides in the minibus.
As I write this Saturday column, thousands of Trinidadian workers have flooded the streets of Port-of-Spain for wage and salary increases. Here is the part that will send volcanic spasms in Guyanese civil servants. T&T workers want nothing less than a US$1000 per month. In Guyana that would be $200,000.
In Guyana, for seven years now, six percent is contemptuously awarded and we take it. Next day we mourn and groan but we take it. Minus three citizens – Mark Benschop, Norris Witter and Lincoln Lewis – no one even steps onto the street much less hold a placard to protest this brutality.
So why should a government be afraid to take extreme latitude in the exercise of power when bestial policies are pursued and the population remain silent?
I have written over and over on this page that fascism was the likely outcome. We have reached the stage where we may not have general elections next year. I don’t believe these will be held but that is the subject of another column,
Things have reached an unbelievable point in this tragic land. Let’s briefly examine the media scenario. The attack first began on Stabroek News with the withdrawal of state advertisements. The next stage was a decrease of these advertisements for Kaieteur News. After being labeled the new opposition, the die was cast – all advertisements are now placed on a GINA web page. The intention is to miniaturize the two newspapers. The hope is that the financial attack will be so severe that they will either print irregularly or go out of existence.
Now what I find confusing is that these two newspapers continue to print photographs of the President, PPP leaders, and Ministers.
If the intention is to kill these two newspapers then these media houses should not publicize the perambulations of these dictators. I did a brief survey of the two independent dailies and discovered that news (with photographs) are being published of Government’s business as if there was no declaration of war by the Government on the private media.
The Stabroek News coverage of governmental activities far exceeds that of this newspaper. There have been reports on what Ministers Manickchand, Rohee, Robert Persaud and Shaik Baksh have done over the past week. These are accompanied by photographs.
PPP lords and Ministers of the Government crave publicity by these two newspapers. Ask any secretary or family members of the dictators which newspaper they read first and they won’t hesitate to tell you that it is the Kaieteur News and the Stabroek News. They do not look at the Guyana Times and the Chronicle.
Let the office workers tell you how intense they scrutinize the published news items on their activities in KN and SN. They are obsessed with seeing their photographs on the pages.
A secretary told me that for the entire day a Minister was bitching that one of the two independent dailies carried an ugly image of him. I then smilingly said to her, the shot resemblance matched the Berbice Bridge; that is why he was so upset?
Another Minister insisted that he be interviewed by this newspaper over an incident involving his son and the police even though the Chronicle frontpaged his account. All PPP leaders and all Ministers will be disappointed if the two independent dailies block them out. They love to see their photographs in the media.
It is time Kaieteur News and Stabroek News deny them their obsession.
Discover more from Kaieteur News
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.