Latest update April 19th, 2024 12:59 AM
Oct 22, 2011 Letters
DEAR EDITOR,
President Jagdeo recently described the local independent media as “vultures and carrion crows.” Every child in Guyana knows that vultures (called ‘carrion crows,’ or the words are often used interchangeably) feed on dead animals, discarded offal, rotting flesh and sometimes garbage. In tougher times they alight close to the sick and dying animals awaiting their chance to feed. They are drawn by the smell or stench of ‘decay and/or death.’
These birds play an essential role in maintaining the good health of our ecosystems. It is obvious that the proclaimed ‘Champion of the Earth’ is unaware of this fact. We do not understand why the President and his admirers should malign the birds which maintain a clean and healthy environment. If vultures and carrion crows are denigrated, then who will be spared?
As children, whenever we saw these birds (vultures called ‘carrion crows’) circling over the bushes we would go to investigate – looking for dead snakes, caimans, sheep, cows etc. This was how we found lost and dead domesticated animals. Police officers likewise when searching for any person declared missing or possibly killed in the bushes look for where ‘carrion crows’ are circling and then move into the area. This was our version of bio-aerial reconnaissance or satellite technology. We were using futuristic aerial navigational tools a long time ago!
Vultures do not circle or bother healthy animals. When disturbed or chased away from their roost (or night time perches) or decaying potential food they simply circle overhead and return again and again – often from different angles.
Who knows maybe the vultures, like the local media, are also drawn to rotten and earthy language spewed in numerous public ‘cuss downs.’
However, the President has a point. Unwittingly or subconsciously he has revealed a profound truth. He (like others) realizes that his Govt. is indeed rotting with:
• corruption,
• greed,
• perversity,
• intimidation etc.
Staffers at the Office of the President and government officials may bury their misdeeds, but the stench still percolates through to attract media and public attention.
President Jagdeo and his ruling elite should know that the role of a free press in a democratic society includes ‘sniffing out’ misdeeds and bringing it to the public’s attention.
The independent media like the ‘vultures and carrion crows’, are doing what is essential for a healthy democratic society. These men and women employed in the media are essential to our own health and welfare.
According to this President’s skewed definition, the late Mahatma, Mohandas K. Gandhi, Dr. Martin Luther King, and Nobel Laureates Mr. Nelson Mandela and Mr. Desmond Tutu are all ‘vultures and carrion crows.’
I can name many others who will meet the disapproval of President Jagdeo, such as 2011’s Nobel Peace Prize Laureates Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkul Karman, 2010’s Liu Xiaobo and 1991’s Aung San Suu Kyi.
During a previous dictatorship in Guyana, high-profile persons such as:
• Dr. Joshua Ramsammy and Dr. Omawale (Ratoon),
• Dr. Walter Rodney and Mr. Eusi Kwayana (Dayclean),
• Father Morrison and Fr. Darke (Catholic Standard),
• Dr. Roy Nehaul (Caribbean Contact) and
• Dr. Cheddi Jagan and Ms. Janet Jagan (the President’s mentors),
all spoke out against and challenged the excesses of the late President Mr. L.F.S. Burnham’s regime in their various respective publications. Were all these principled persons and their associates who wrote in their respective publications ‘vultures and carrion crows?’ Who would not want to associate with such outstanding people?
The late former President Mrs. Janet Jagan was a most prolific writer about President Burnham’s tyrannies in the Mirror newspaper. Were she and others of the PPP also ‘vultures and carrion crows?’
I think most of us would prefer the company and presence of such ‘vultures and carrion crows,’ than what we see now parading in the disguise of an honourable government.
Where are the voices of staunch PPP members who once stood for something, such as Mr. Moses Nagamootoo?
Where is my friend Mr. Navin Chandarpal, often putting himself at great personal risks, who spoke out against the President Burnham’s regime on UG’s campus?
Are such dedicated persons to the causes of the underdogs now also designated to the category of ‘vultures and carrion crows?’
Or, are these PPP activists and other activists who comforted the afflicted and afflicted the comfortable Burnhamites now discarded offal and relegated with the dead?
The President of this narco-state must know that his Government is like the sick and dying. Drugs weaken, destroy and eventually kill.
What our President envisages circling ahead are likely the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) officials moving in towards those who facilitated narcotics being shipped to their country and thereby became responsible for the destruction of many Americans.
He should really enjoy the view of the ‘vultures and carrion crows.’ They are a thing of beauty to watch in flight and their sense of detection of minute amount of gaseous compounds from high above is truly marvelous. They never give up their perch and/or food easily.
Situations whereby others are singled out for derision, ridicule or punishment are not new in human history. During the Nazi occupation of Norway, all Jews were ordered to wear a yellow star. King Gustav of Sweden and other Swedes all wore a yellow star in solidarity with the Jews.
We (UG students, youths and all concerned Guyanese) should each wear a T-shirt with a picture of our local vulture (carrion crow) on the front which says: ‘We too are Vultures and Carrion Crows,” or something similar. Or, we can simply wear a black shirt like a vulture. We declare Friday October 28th 2011 ‘National Vulture and Carrion Crow Day.’
In this way we show our solidarity with the media personnel of Kaieteur News, Stabroek News, Demerara Waves.com., CNS TV6, and especially UG’s faculty member, Mr. Freddie Kissoon for boldly speaking and reporting the truth.
Seelochan Beharry Ph.D.
Please share this to every Guyanese including your house cats.
Apr 19, 2024
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