Frankly Speaking...
A.A. Fenty
I apologise... To the regular readers of this feature - and to the occasional fan, even to those who pretend that they really don't bother - I apologise for not keeping last week's promise to deal with "the charlatans and Tiger Bay," "the terrorist squatters" "creating public opinion," etc, etc. I suspect, however, that I could be right to execute a brief but radical departure from the woes of this place. Just for today. You agree, right? One fan-friend persuaded me. The letters in this paper abound. On TV, radio; in bars, in markets and mini-buses. Mostly bad news. Inside and from outside. Squatting, murders, robberies here. Border disputes, discrimination, government ineptitude there. Rice not good. Suriname - Guyana ferry stalled. Bauxite and Timber Industries in trouble. Convicted murderers and street vendors triumph as city and society suffer. It tends to be all too much for the battered and beleaguered soul. But guess what? If you search - not even too hard - you'll find good things to appreciate. Still a few positive `plusses' to enjoy. Enjoy Find pleasure in quiet pride. Pride at being Guyanese. So you were born within the defined - even if contested - borders? O.K., you are a born Guyanese. You can't do much about that even if you're given to renouncing that birthright. Where ever you go and whatever you become, others will regard and describe you as "Guyanese". Forget that other Public Relations Man's negatives about being Guyanese. Enjoy the sun and the rain; the North-East Trades, the lack of earthquakes and twisters; appreciate moonlight nights, fresh fruit and fish, bush-cooks and creek-water; sing songs of love and country with tin-cup and wooden drums. Don't worry. Insist on being happy. Catch a parrot or macaw; rear a stray dog, mind a cow or sheep. (You won't have that privilege in London or Long Island!). Even when they seem too many, enjoy the numerous national holidays Mr Burnham granted us. Realise we still have less aids cases and protect yourself before the fun begins. Even as you appreciate our natural beauties still resident here. Go to the markets and be honest: Food is still plentiful and relatively affordable. In the midst of the economic crunch. Ask any honest Rasta! Yes, countrymen and women - no matter how too few you think they are, count your blessings in this beautiful blighted land. Don't only curse the darkness of blackout. Light a candle. Agree with the writer: "I care not though their wealth be great, their scenery be grand, for none so fair as can compare with my own native land." And "where I in childhood used to play, and where the old folks rest, must be to me, where ere I be, the dearest and the best." I really do mean all of the above. Now, you just try it. And buy your own little flag. The letter-writers Emerging from a personal part as a minor but knowledgeable player, I still marvel at the freedom of expression now manifested since 1993. A dozen talk-shows on a dozen so-called television stations; roadside rallies and numerous meetings and consultations by numerous new representative organisations - representing from Amerindian Guyanese through alcoholics to supermarket proprietors. Freedom of speech and assembly fuh so! But even before 1993, a standard-bearer for the right to be heard and read was this same Stabroek News. Where our letter columns led, others still follow. I've watched the standard of debate(s) rise. From abortion to the existence of the God or governance by the village councils, the Stabroek letter-writers, using their own names or not, have excelled in one way or the other. And no one can take this away from the Stabroek! How the regulars do it, I don't know. Some almost instantly! By computer and electronic mail. Sheer consistency! (Sometimes irritating frequency.) Gainda, Lancaster, R. Cummings, Alexander, Hackett, Dev, combinations: Lin-Jay Vogelson and the `departed' attorneys; Ganpat, Ellis, George, Khan, Bradshaw, Et Al. My own recent pleasure resided in the fact that four years ago one person took time to write me - after reading my Good Friday piece - from Dollis Hill, London. And it was only three days ago I realised that that person was/is "G.A. Dennison" - a female! Always decided you were male, madam. (Chauvinistic?) Now, I even know your full first name. Greetings! O.K, I can't resist... 1) Congrats Hammie Green. You were great in the Stabroek this past Monday. Explain to them again how parliament is constituted. 2) Tele-Talk! We actually hear others using my `phone to discuss overseas business. 3) What is former Finance Minister Asgar Ally's position on the Clarence Chue issue? 4) Still on: The Christmas Annual 1998 competitions, today's Guyana Cook-Up Show on Channel six and, hopefully, Candid Conversation chasing down the man behind the Sparrow - Guyanese Cyril Shaw! 5) An anti-PPP friend has asked me to ask Moses Nagamootoo just how he arranged to place second! 6) That same friend is writing a book - actually doing it - titled "The First American Woman President: Janet Jagan! 7) And when P.R. Man, Christopher `Kit' Nascimento, says "I am certain we are `the only country in the world that has a President that neither looks nor sounds like 99.99 per cent of the people she governs," he should take comfort in the fact that she `looks' like him! 
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