Latest update April 17th, 2024 12:59 AM
May 05, 2013 Features / Columnists, My Column
Guyana has over the years not been known to pursue anything to finality. This attitude caused even the local politicians to describe the country as a seven-day wonder at worse and a three-day wonder at best. And indeed, people simply grow tired of happenings in very short order.
Examples are many. Recently there was the bombing in Boston. People died and the hunt began for the perpetrators. From the way people behaved in front of their television, one would have believed that the bombing occurred in Guyana. People stayed glued to the television when the bombing occurred and they talked well into the night.
By the second day the interest started to wane. Yes, there were those who stayed interested but the vast majority did not display the same interest they did when the bombing occurred. Their interest peaked when they heard that one of the suspects was killed and that there was the hunt for the second. Interest peaked when the second person was located and when he was taken into custody.
Three days later no one seemed to care. Not even when the second suspect was being charged did the interest switch back to that event. Today, if someone were to ask Guyanese about the name of the suspects it is hardly likely that more than a handful would be able to do so.
It was the same thing when the plane crashed in Plaisance. The attention of the nation was focused on the village for all of two days. Today, some two weeks after that plane crash, the first in a village in Guyana, many people simply could not be bothered. The villagers would still pass by the site but even the reporters seem to have lost interest.
One enterprising reporter visited the woman who lost her home to fire from the crash and did a story, but such is the interest in that incident.
There are many more such cases of shortened interest. People are hardly interested in May Day parades. The crowds that line the route have dwindled. Even the workers taking in the parade hardly seem to bother. They use the holiday to do their own business.
The late Dr Cheddi Jagan knew Guyanese and their interest in events and made bold to say that Guyana is a three-day wonder. This may be the reason why many crimes remain unsolved. There was a murder in Beterverwagting in 1989. There was a dance and a young man was stabbed to death.
The killer fled to Suriname and remained there for a few years before returning to the village. He is still there, some say mad as a hatter, but walking around without fear of arrest. I am left to wonder whether, apart from the people closely associated with the victim, anyone is worried. For sure the police have not made any attempt to resurrect interest in this crime.
A man killed his wife and took their son to the border with Suriname before sending him back to his grandmother. That man remains at large and there seems to be no effort to have him sent back, although Guyana has an extradition treaty with the neighbouring republic.
That is why when President Bharrat Jagdeo freed up the radio frequencies and there was talk, the noise subsided almost as soon as it began. The issue was almost dead until a Member of Parliament, Cathy Hughes, decided to ask about the issue of these licences. She had applied for a radio frequency and she had been ignored.
The information provided by Prime Minister Sam Hinds was a shocker, but even then the noise lasted for no more than two days, until the publisher of Kaieteur News took the bit between his teeth and mounted a serious protest. He organized protests outside his office, outside State House, outside Office of the President and even outside one of the private media houses.
But while this was happening he found out that no other media house had the urge to protest. At HBTV which broadcasts on Channel Nine, not one staff member came out. The owners certainly did not. Perhaps the authorities, safe in the knowledge that Guyana is a seven-day wonder at worst, did nothing. But Glenn Lall was not to be denied.
Today his objection to the allocation of the frequencies has led to a series of international condemnations of the action by President Jagdeo. United States Ambassador to Guyana, Brent Hardt, made a most interesting statement.
“Last year, I welcomed the decision by the Government to free the radio airwaves and end the model of limited, state-influenced radio. Radio is such an integral part of the public square throughout the Caribbean, and opening up that square in Guyana as it is in other Caribbean countries will do much to generate a more inclusive, participatory public dialogue on issues of the day for the people of Guyana. “While new radio broadcasting licences are welcome, the process by which such licences are issued must be fair and transparent. Guyana created a reasonable foundation for such a process through its 2011 Broadcasting Legislation, which paved the way for the creation of a National Broadcast Authority. It is now time for the Authority to do its work — to promptly review and approve qualified applicants, including many long established media houses whose applications in various forms have been pending since the late 1990’s.”
The independent, Vienna-based International Press Institute (IPI), in its assessment, noted, “While IPI was previously aware of allegations that broadcast licences have been unfairly distributed in Guyana, our visit revealed the full depth and gravity of this issue.”
Mission Director Allison Bethel-McKenzie added: ”It is unthinkable that the licence applications of certain media have been delayed or ignored for nearly two decades. This practice clearly clashes with international standards on broadcast rights. We call upon the newly constituted Broadcast Authority to immediately undertake a speedy, fair, and independent review of any outstanding licence applications.”
The radio licence issue has not gone away after seven days.
JAGDEO ADDING MORE DANGER TO GUYANA AND THE REGION
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