Latest update March 29th, 2024 12:59 AM
Aug 03, 2014 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon
My wife is the opposite of me (they say opposites attract). I am crazy. She is perfectly sane. I am boisterous. She is too quiet; you can hardly hear her when she speaks. I am eager to argue. She doesn’t like to argue at all.
I will not let you put your viewpoint to me without me tabling my opinion too. She would just let it slide and she would say it was to let the atmosphere stay calm.
I would demand to be heard even if it means war will break out. She just won’t bother with such a situation and would say that she wants peace to reign. She has large touches of introversion. I am a total extrovert.
I would refuse to shake the hand of an enemy I consider a violator of freedom. She would do so because she thinks it is basic courtesy (I refused to shake the hand of Donald Ramotar and David Dabydeen). She does not involve herself in political issues and political situations at all. I get angry countless times. She doesn’t show anger. However, there was an occasion where she became unlike herself. I saw her angry and I couldn’t believe it.
The place was a restaurant in downtown Toronto in 1980. We were entertaining some friends and the waiter brought Coke. I objected strongly and asked him to take it back. The union at the Coke plant in Guatemala had asked the peoples of the world to boycott Coke because the company was employing underage kids to save on labour cost.
Everyone around the table thought that I should let it slide and let’s drink the Coke. But I continued with my objection and ruined the evening. My wife was livid. Her position was just for one night I should have forgotten my politics. I didn’t agree. It was not only the children of Guatemala to which I had an obligation, but to me too. This was my philosophical belief to which I must be true. One must be faithful to the values one embraces.
So last Wednesday, I received a call from the host of a radio talk show named Hard Talk. I was driving, so he had to call back.
He called again and again. I was driving. This time I pulled over on the parapet outside of the Government Technical Institute.
The host of Hard Talk and I had an intriguing conversation. I informed him that I would publish the content, to which he had no objection. He wanted me to be the guest on Hard Talk. My first reaction was to ask him if he knew who the owner of the radio station was. He said no. And I was shocked. I told him I would publish his answer, because it was untenable.
He said all he knows was that a lady named Radha Motilall suggested that he host the show. I intoned that it was astounding that he could be associated with a radio station and not know the name of the owner. I identified for him the owner, Minister Robert Persaud. I declined his offer and submitted my reason. I simply outlined a situation where I cannot morally be associated with such a radio station.
First, it came into being as an act of dictatorship by Bharrat Jagdeo. Secondly, I have a moral objection to being on Robert Persaud’s station given the politics of destruction in this country.
He fought back. He opined that the radio station ownership is not relevant; it is the content of Hard Talk.
He said all over Guyana people hear the different views on Hard Talk, and that is what matters. I struck back offering two arguments.
I questioned whether he expects a Black South African to go on a radio station owned a pro-apartheid group to explain why apartheid was evil. Why use that station to get your views across?
I asked him if he expects a Black American to go on a radio station owned by the Ku Klux Klan to denounce white racism in the South of the USA. Why that radio station? I went further to explain that he cannot confuse a listener with a participant on the radio station. Finally, I told him I have no objection to those who want their views published and would accept an invitation from Hard Talk.
I didn’t need Hard Talk for the transmission of my views. With that our telephonic chat came to an end with a promise by me to be his guest on a more acceptable forum.
P.S. My daughter asked me if I was going to join the March for Gaza last Thursday. I said no, because I wouldn’t march with the sponsor, CIOG. It is called moral obligation to one’s self.
THIS IDIOT TELLING GUYANA WE HAVE NO SAY IN THE 50% PROFIT SHARING AGREEMENT WE HAVE WITH EXXON.
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