Dear Editor,

I took notice of Mr. Clarence Ellis' letter captioned "Dr. Nehusi's note was illuminating"(9.4.2002) and would like to take this opportunity to thank this man who shaped the destiny of many a student when he taught Scholarship class at Bartica Anglican.

I am one, and from his letter I note that Mr. Ellis uses the term 'black' for himself and others who accept the misuse and abuse of relegating some people to skin color while giving everyone else national heritage. I was Head Boy and Prefect in the school system and the legal terminology for the "six peoples" that make up our nation was: Amerindians, Africans, East Indians, Chinese, Europeans and Mixed, something all teachers knew and taught. It might well be that this made Guyana the happiest place for people to live before and up to the PPP/PNC political era.

During the fifties and sixties those of us working along with the British Army reminded the trouble makers that we were all descendants of people from Europe, Africa, India, and China living happily with the native population and fully Guyanese. Unless there has been migration from Africa and India in recent times, everyone here is a Guyanese!

Mr. Ellis, working with Headmaster Joseph J. Adams the "Father" of education in Bartica, did a fantastic job for his students! I hope that he remembers most, if not all. I haven't seen him since he left Bartica but the memory of all the people who touched my life, from one end of the nation to the other, remains foremost in my sight.