Latest update May 10th, 2024 12:59 AM
Nov 20, 2011 Letters
Dear Editor,
What has now become the all too familiar display of gross indisciplined behavior on the part of persons who are responsible for the fashioning of the minds of the future generation has once again prevailed, despite those in authority attempting to interject some normalcy and decency into the otherwise excellent display of great feats of physical prowess by our young school athletes.
As reported in Kaieteur News under the headline “South Georgetown protest stalls Schools Championships for hours” the casualty of this dastardly act on the part of adults who were charged with organizing the school championship, was the splendid display of courage, valiant conduct, endurance and the indomitable spirit of our young sports men and women of tomorrow.
Sport is a noble and disciplined undertaking and for those in charge of the arrangement of the competition to have conducted themselves in this manner must have caused the attendees to quite rightly wonder whether in fact they were at a circus.
It would appear that the degenerate behavior commenced with the action of a well-known gay activist, who led a group of children onto the field to protest the exclusion of a replacement for an injured athlete from his division.
Eventually, my son Fiyad, who subsequently became the object of the protest, among other issues, was unceremoniously removed from taking part in the competition without even an explanation being provided to me, the father.
Despite me, also speaking to the Editor of the Kaieteur Newspaper concerning the circumstances surrounding the controversy of my son’s participation in the Competition, nothing that I said to him was given any reference whatsoever.
I would therefore, Mr. Editor, kindly request that you carry my side of the story so that the public can judge for themselves and come to their own conclusion on the matter and not to be subject to the lopsided and wholly “justified behavior” being reported by the Kaieteur News.
Let me commence by stating that my son had qualified for participating in the National Competition, a fact that is not contested by Mr. Sean Bristol, the Committee Director and his Assistant Mr. Duke, both of whom I spoke to on the evening of the closure of the events. This is as a result of him participating in both the inter- house and the inter-school championships, the latter event at which he was a winner of the 1500 meter race.
What would appear to be a gross concoction and given credence by the Kaieteur News reporting on the matter, is that my son produced his birth certificate during the competition. Rather, weeks before the Championship was held and most certainly before being called to attend camp for a week at the North Georgetown Multilateral School, since Monday, November 14, the birth certificate of my son was submitted.
This fact can be attested to by the officials of the Ministry of Education and more particularly, by one. Mr. Nicholas Fraser, who made the necessary arrangements on behalf of Mr. Neil Kumar, National Sports Director, for the birth certificate to be submitted to the Organizing Committee, just a few days after one of their Officials visited the school my child attends to provide the participating athletes of that school with their letters of acceptance.
My son’s letter was subsequently provided to him and is attached as evidence. I specifically made reference of this fact to Mr. Adam Harris when I spoke with him so that I could have had this wholly discriminatory and, in my view, racist conduct of the committee’s eventual action exposed-the act of excluding my son from participating.
It is very mystifying to me that although my son was called to camp since the start of the events on Monday, the relevant officials did not realize that my son was not on the list of athletes from the very inception.
This was brought to the attention of a very senior Government Official, no other than the Honourable Minister of Education, as I had previously tried unsuccessfully to have the Head of the Teacher’s Union Mr. Colin Bynoe intervene to correct this anomaly. I was subsequently informed that a special meeting was requested to consider the omission and there, a decision was taken to correct it.
Incidentally, I later received word from a number of officials of the Organizing Committee, including its Director that the manner in which members of the Committee alleged they were instructed to include my son on the list angered them since, according to them, veiled threats were issued if they chose to do otherwise.
What therefore appeared to have transpired reveals quite a lot about the depths of insanity and depravity that persons are prepared to stoop to in order to carry out their acts of malice and revenge just to satisfy their own personal self-interest and to have disregarded the previous decision taken at the behest of the Minister. This pertinent fact was not brought to light by the Kaieteur News reporter.
This is not surprising, as once the real motive was revealed by the investigation conducted by the Newspaper it would have suffered the same fate that my son suffered at the hands of these depraved, sinister and puerile minds of the members of the committee who took the position that my son could not qualify to run in the event because his birth certificate was not provided at the time requested.
I ask those officials who had their way, or so it seems, of ruining the spirit of my son and i might venture so far to say, may have permanently created distrust in him for public officials who are charged with organizing such events, are they proud of themselves to have used their position to achieve their selfish narrow agenda?
At the end of the day, it was supposed to be the participants’ accomplishments in the various sporting events that should have been on display and permanently etched in the minds of those taking part, either as participants or spectators, not this rancorous, crass vulgarity of a few officials who eventually highjacked and caused their own narrow selfish agenda to prevail.
Sports throughout the history of our country has served as a uniting catalyst, bridging the divide of not only our cultures, but our races, and for our officials to have displayed such a high propensity to be divisive, and stir up racial sentiments, shows that they are totally unfit to be organizers of Sports.
Khurshid Sattaur
Commissioner-General
Guyana Revenue Authority
It is disgusting that our teachers have to protest in the streets for a…
May 10, 2024
– President Ali visits Guyana National Stadium By Rawle Toney Kaieteur Sports – Yesterday, the National Assembly successfully passed the ICC Cricket World Cup West Indies Bill, 2024,...Kaieteur News – This column does not respond to criticisms, except where there is misrepresentation of what was said... more
By Sir Ronald Sanders Waterfalls Magazine – On April 10, the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States... more
Freedom of speech is our core value at Kaieteur News. If the letter/e-mail you sent was not published, and you believe that its contents were not libellous, let us know, please contact us by phone or email.
Feel free to send us your comments and/or criticisms.
Contact: 624-6456; 225-8452; 225-8458; 225-8463; 225-8465; 225-8473 or 225-8491.
Or by Email: [email protected] / [email protected]