Stella has definitely lost her groove, permanently. How sad!
Freddie Kissoon Column
Kaieteur News
April 11, 2007
Today is Wednesday, which means it took me two days before I replied to the worst column Stella Ramsaroop has written, maybe not only for this paper but maybe on her blog too. It was published last Sunday but I had to do my Easter Monday article on a relevant topic.
And yesterday, I had to look at Guyana after CWC which ended on Monday. Now I will devote some energy to what can easily be interpreted as an infantile attack on me by Stella in which her arguments lack familiarity with the concepts and the methodologies social scientists use when they critically analyse social phenomena.
After Stella stopped writing, I suspected that she lost her groove for the second time. She let Guyanese readers know that she needed a break (no doubt to recover her groove again) so she took a sabbatical (in the academic world that means long leave). On the resumption of her column, I could have sworn that Stella miraculously and phenomenally did what no other woman has done before – get back their lost grove for the second time. Her columns were logical and well structured. All centered on the problems of women.
Then came a revelation. During her sabbatical (or hibernation), it appeared that Stella was unable to recapture her groove. It doesn't appear that women who have lost their grove more than once can resuscitate it.
The first Stella (the one in the US that went down to Jamaica to get her grove back and whose character was made into a world famous movie that we all know about) has lost her grove again. The Jamaican lover she took back with her to the US turned out to be gay and he and Stella are in a nasty court battle at the moment.
In the meantime, Stella (the one the movie is based on) has failed to sustain her grove a second time. Our Kaieteur News Stella is in the same boat. Our Kaieteur News Stella also lives in the US . My suggestion to our Stella is that she emulates the original Stella and come down to the Caribbean . It is possible that she can regain her groove for the second time down in the sunny Caribbean .
Now let us show Kaieteur News readers how unbalanced Stella (our Stella) has become since she failed to reignite her groove after she took her sabbatical. I advise readers to read the quotes below a second time so that they can see how mentally incarcerated Stella has become.
In her infamous KN column last Sunday captioned, “Hey Freddie, I am an Anglo-Saxon western journalist too” Stella really made me sad at what she wrote because I saw a serious lack of familiarity with some important concepts. So what is Stella saying to me? To understand her flawed point (I hope after she is finished reading this essay of mine, she will acknowledge her mistake but since she hasn't got her groove, that may be a difficult task), I have to state what she said I wrote and what I did write indeed.
This is how I put it and it was reproduced by Stella in her Sunday column.
Now please remember, read all the quotes twice. I wrote the following; “Western journalists and travel writers display a deep Freudian superiority complex when describing the Third World .” Stella is mad about this. She replied thus; “I feel this is a bit unfair since I am in fact a western journalist and do not share these sentiments at all about any Third World country.”
Stella went on to criticise my evaluation of western journalists' condescending descriptions of Third World countries. She puts it this way: “This is stereotyping all western journalists (sic) as arrogant fiends, a fact that is not true. There are scores of western journalists who care about the lives of others outside of their western nations as much as I (that is, Stella) do.”
Stella then goes on to say that she believes most western journalists are like what I describe but not all. And because all of them are not like that she finds the way I put it as distasteful.
Look who is talking about distasteful description and assessment. Here are the quotes from some of Stella's previous KN columns. Please read carefully; (1) Feb 10 – “I would love to see women start taking their lives back (from men) in their own hands.” Now, Stella, who told you all women are like that? (2) Feb 10- “These days are long over and women have finally found their voice.”
Now Stella, all women have found their voices even in the Arab world? (3) Feb 10 –”It is so exciting to see women finally tell cheating men to go to hell.” Now Stella, are you writing for all women or some?
(4) March 11- “The women of Guyana have so much working against them.” Now, Stella, are you referring to all Guyanese women? (5) March 4 - “Surely, you do not think that men are going to lift a finger to help women. If that was to happen, it would have happened hundreds of years ago.” Now, Stella, please do not get me mad. You can't be referring to me. I am an uncompromising believer in women's rights. And so are many of my male friends.
(6) March 18 –”Both men and women often mistakenly believe that females are less valuable to society than men.” Now, Stella, don't get me mad again. I am not a man of that belief.
(7) March 25 - “We all know that young men and women will explore those feelings and urges (of sexual curiosity) at an alarming rate.” Now, Stella, are you saying ‘all young men and women'?
(8) March 25 –”Young men are seldom taught sexual restraint during their formative years, (sic) young women are taught to feel guilty for their sexual explorations.” Now, Stella, are you sure you can make such a general statement?
What have we got here? We have a woman named Stella who tells Freddie Kissoon that when he says that western journalists are biased against Third World cultures, he was wrong because not all western journalists are like that and that she, Stella is not like that. Stella is annoyed with me because I should have written that a majority is like that or most of them are like that. But this same Stella writes about teens, young people, men and women, and makes sweeping accusations against them but refuses to use the words ‘majority” or “most.”
Stella, you missed the point. When academics write, “American publishers do not know where Guyana is” or that “ Caribbean people love their cricket,” they are using the concept of symbolic representation. They don't have to use the words “majority” or “most.” The reader ought to know this and readers know this. Except you, Stella! And that is because you have completely and permanently lost your groove.
The textbook on social sciences methodologies says this of symbolic representativeness: “Although the term has no precise, scientific meaning, it carries a common sense meaning.” (Earl Babbie: “The Basics of Social Research, Wadsworth, Publishing Co, NY. 1999; p.179)
Anyway, I still love you Stella, even with all your faults.