Latest update April 19th, 2024 12:59 AM
Sep 13, 2022 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon
Kaieteur News – The University of Guyana has responded to my column yesterday and that reply (see the letters section) is indicative of the continuing decline of UG. I was informed by one of Guyana’s leading social scientists in the diaspora that Ms. Trotz is among the names being considered for the Walter Rodney Chair.
My column carried no definitive statement that UG has made the award to Ms. Trotz. There are two lines in the column that need repeating (1) – “against being awarded.” That was in the first paragraph. “Being awarded” and “was awarded” carry two different grammatical and legal connotations.
(2) – I know UG made no award in the Walter Rodney Chair issue that is why I wrote the following in the last paragraph in the second to last line; “if she is awarded the chair.” There are no definitive words of UG conferring any position on Ms. Trotz. I repeat the instructive line: “if she is awarded the chair.”
Anyone reading that line would know UG has made no decision. What then is UG complaining about? Now here is the thing; the entire column is not about UG. There is no discussion of UG at all in the column. No one at UG is mentioned. UG as an institution is not discussed at all in the column. There is no criticism at all of UG in the column. I repeat at all.
No one at UG is singled out for criticism in the column. There are absolutely no words on the nature of UG’s performance or administration. In fact, UG is only mentioned twice in the column and not in a negative way. Here is what was written in which UG was mentioned: “If UG cannot locate a well-established historian…” and “a Yesu Persaud Chair at UG.”
Apart from these two occasions, there is no use of the word UG in the entire article. What was mentioned three times in the column were the words: “Walter Rodney Chair at UG.” It is simply a manifestation of ugly incompetence for anyone at UG to suggest that my article yesterday was critical of UG. There was no discussion of UG and anyone at UG who cannot understand that is not fit to represent UG.
Now for some intellectual enlightenment for some people at UG. I disagreed with the chair being awarded to Dr. Alissa Trotz. I stated two reasons. First – she is not a historian. The chair has to be filled by a historian.
Secondly, I believe the chair symbolizes the meaning of the life of Rodney, not his academic work only. There is a chair in Rodney’s name because he was assassinated for his merger of scholarship and liberation politics.
I reject the award being given to Ms. Trotz if she wins the position because I do not think she emulates Rodney in merging scholarship with liberation politics. I believe that. I did not comment on the academic work of Ms. Trotz. My points are: she is not a historian and she was not involved in the politics of liberation after March 2020. I stand by my rejection of Ms. Trotz for the chair. I have no interest in opposing Ms. Trotz for any other position at UG but not the Rodney chair.
I have no clue what UG meant when in its reply to my column yesterday it wrote: “… it is the third such unfactual publication about the University by the same author in three months and seems to be following an intentionally malicious and defamatory pattern…”
I have no clue what UG is talking about. I have not written anything on UG for years except a few weeks ago when parents complained to me about incompetence at UG. They didn’t get admission letters at a time when government scholarship deadline had caught up with them.
The university’s registrar replied to me and in that column about the students’ complaints, I wrote positively and generously about the professionalism and character of the registrar. How could I be malicious about the institution when just weeks ago, I was in full praise of perhaps the second person in charge of the university?
Since Dr. Paloma Mohamed became the Vice Chancellor, I have not penned one public or private word about her – negative or positive or critical. How can I be malicious about the university when I am in full praise of the second in charge and never commented on the person at the helm?
UG should point to the other two commentaries within the last three months. I am absolutely sure, and I repeat the adverb, absolutely, they are about wrong and hurtful things taking place at a public institution funded by public money. I love UG and will use my pen to protest its ugly incompetence.
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)
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Apr 19, 2024
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