I do not visit Guyana; I live in Guyana
Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon
Kaieteur News – I refer to a letter critical of me published by Dr. Asquith Rose in the yesterday’s edition of the Kaieteur News. What an ironic letter. He ends it with the words: “engage your brains before opening your mouth.”
Dr. Rose has a Freudian mind larger than the parts of Guyana that he visited when he came to Guyana, assuming that he was in Guyana. He brought out his Freudian mind when he used those words, maybe borrowed from someone where he lives in the US.
The identical quote can apply to him. It was buried in his mind when he applied it to me but he really meant it for himself. He should engage his brain and do research on my country before he opens his mouth on Globe-Span each week and interview people living in Guyana.
1 – Dr. Rose has not responded to the one and only point raised in my column. Maybe he did not understand it. I will repeat it for him. A person cannot live outside a country and interview citizens living in that country. That foreign interviewer before he opens his mouth to talk, he should do research on Guyana so he will know which relevant questions to ask his Guyanese guests.
2 – Dr. Rose is right. I write on many foreign countries. I do not support the Russian invasion of Ukraine and I wrote on that. For the education of Dr. Rose, that is called un-researched opinions that all humans have. Un-researched opinions transform themselves into verifiable facts when the opinion-holder goes to the country and do research. He/she then has the credibility to work as a columnist, journalist or war correspondent and write authoritatively on the country involved.
I have opinions on Ukraine, the US and other countries. I have more than opinions on Guyana. I have facts on Guyana because I live in Guyana and investigate Guyana. I know what the president is doing. I know what the opposition leader is doing. I have the authority to interview Guyanese on what is taking place in Guyana because I know what is taking place in Guyana.
3 – Dr. Rose mentioned that social media has brought all countries together. That is a stupid point in an argument about journalism. Social media cannot substitute for a word Dr. Rose loves to use – Research. You have to take your smart phone and your social media presence and go to the country, do the research, then you can interview people.
Just one commonsensical answer should educate Dr. Rose. You live in Afghanistan and with your smart phone, you see the batsman from Afghanistan moved down the wicket to the spinner of the opposing team, in a match played in Barbados. The batsman got bowled. So you saw live the action of being bowled.
If you were not in Barbados, you would never know why he reacted to the spinner like that. But the journalist in Barbados would know that because the batsman was asked why he did that and he explained that the coach instructed him to treat the spinner like that.
4 – We can write how much we want on foreign countries, but we must be in those countries to properly understand the nuances in the society. I was shocked when in his bid for a second term, Barack Obama, advocated same sex marriage. I thought it would hurt his re-election bid because his major constituencies – Afro-Americans – are not keen on gay marriage. But Obama knew what he was doing. He had a better sense of his country than I, who lived far away.
5 – Dr. Rose informed me on the places he visited while in Guyana, assuming that he did visit. I am under no obligation to believe him. Well he had to visit them. I don’t have to visit them. They belong to me and the 800,000 Guyanese who live here. They are available to us 24 hours a day. Dr. Rose will see them in the future if he chooses to visit. I can see them anytime.
In conclusion, I reiterate the essential point in my column that Dr. Rose took umbrage at. And I repeat my advocacy to Mr. Nohar Singh. I cannot disclose what the reaction was by Mr. Singh when I spoke to him. Globe-Span should not have a weekly programme in which the interviewer questions Guyanese living in Guyana but the interviewer does not live in Guyana. It is highly improper and makes a mockery of journalism.
Equally obnoxious is the foreign-based Guyanese interviewing another foreign-based Guyanese on life in Guyana. What do both of them know about Guyana? I end with throwing back at Dr. Rose what is essentially his problem – engage your brain, and do decent research before opening your mouth and talking to other people about their country.
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)
