Reaping the Bitter Harvest
British TV Programme on Guyana may lead to a row
by John Mair in London
Stabroek News
April 28, 2004
It was transmitted at a time when few were watching, half a million if the programme makers struck the jackpot, early evening on a Spring Saturday night. Yet Bitter Harvest which aired on Channel Four in the UK last Saturday is already leading to some deep soul searching at the Guyana High Commission (GHC) in London. The Bitter Harvest of Saturday is yet to be reaped; already the GHC is hard into the preparation of a statement in response. On the record to 'The Stabroek News', High Commissioner Laleshwar Singh would say nothing but 'Call me again in a few days when we will have a comprehensive statement for the programme makers [ please note: link provided by LOSP web site ] .' The fury is there. It has yet to find form.
This was the last programme of the Channel Four series Unreported World. It may turn out to be the most controversial. "Bitter Harvest 'painted a grim picture of Guyana today, one of a country riven with racial conflict, heavy unemployment, turning in on itself and ripe for an implosion. Their language was graphic 'Racial violence is staining Guyana's landscape' 'Bloodshed is commonplace' as examples." It was made by Mentorn, one of the leading factual independent producers in the United Kingdom. They are well- respected. The story they told their audience was very simple.
Perhaps too simple. The programme makers on the ground, reporter Zaiba Malik and cameraman/producer Paul Kitel, were in the country for just two weeks pre- Christmas 2003 and chose a narrative soft option, comparing the Indian-Guyanese community of Annandale on the East Coast Demerara with the neighbouring African- Guyanese village of Buxton. It was an easy filmic contrast to make, maybe too easy. The community paranoia of the Indians compared to the community inferiority complex and feeling of 'disempowerment' of Buxton. Extremes chosen as representative. The very stuff of journalism, printed or electronic. On screen, dramatic. Off screen, real human lives lost.
Thus, the barricade on the inter-village bridge they said "Symbolised the racial division of the country." It does but in addition to that black and white there are several shades in between. The film gave the firm impression of two communities at war with each other on a micro and a macro level. Only Annandalers and Buxtonians know whether that picture is accurate.
When the film did move outside Buxton/Annandale it did so for even more bad news.
The Wales sugar estate on West Bank Demerara featured to show the country's staple industry still harvesting but likely to soon be in a state of crisis throwing thousands of Indo-Guyanese on to the unemployment register. No similar sequence was shown for Linden, bauxite and the Afro-Guyanese. Prime Minister Sam Hinds was interviewed on the hoof in Coldingen (the programme makers called it 'Colingen') and really did not add much to sum total of understanding. He promised the community there he would work "every hour of the day" to get them running water and phones. One hopeful sign there though, in terms of balance at least the citizens bearding Hinds there were both black and brown.
It's all too easy as a programme maker to highlight the follies of others in the craft but two big lacunae in Bitter Harvest; the continual use of reggae on the sound-track throughout (not a native music form to Guyanese, black or brown) and the statement that "three years ago an Indian government came into power" is simply not true. The Government is not all of one racial hue and has been in office (if maybe not in power) for fourteen years since 1992. That mistake could easily have been checked and easily avoided.
Overall, Bitter Harvest was a programme which painted in primary colours: black v brown, stasis v implosion, life v death. Disaster and failure inevitably ahead. Some of that prognosis may be right and some of their evidence on camera beyond reproach but this observer for one found it all just a trifle too simpliste.
What the great non watching British public on a spring Saturday made of it all remains to be seen.
Feathers may have been ruffled in Palace Court, London and New Garden Street, Georgetown but the fruits of this `Harvest' are yet to be reaped. Stabroek News will follow those from all sides as the inevitable row develops. Watch this space.