“These crimes have brought down governments in Egypt, Libya and other countries. Guyana should be no different.”
If the APNU has the interest of the country at heart, they should accept thhe will of the electorate and as an opposition try until the next elections to perform in such a manner to gain the confidence of the electorate to the extent that they would be given the opportunity to form the government. surreptiously fomenting dissent to government decisions which can result in situations of which they now complain can only do the country more harm than good. until then, guyana was expperiencing an unprecedented form of stability not seen for a long time and is slowly but surely emerging from its mendicant state. the APNU needs to be careful how they play their cards and the Government too needs to display some commonsense in dealing with volatile situations.

Bear in mind the last general election cannot be said to have given the PPP an emphatic mandate.

@BALANCE
Maybe you should read the Kaiteur News and the concerns expressed daily by Glan Lall and Freddie Kissoon.The facts are there for all to see.The PPP is a racist cabal evidenced by the large number of indo guyanese ministers and the large number of indo guyanese ambassadors in foreign countries.Guyana is on the verge of another ’60’s revolution.

Perhaps others in the know can explain former President of the Caribbean Development Bank’s role as head of the University of Guyana. Especially as it relates to Freedie Kissoon and not renewing his contract.

@balance

You need to factor that the Opposition represented a mix of ethnic groups.

The Guyana situation is very difficult to assess or apportion blame. In countries which boast of stable governance tension exist; imagine Guyana with its turbulent history. It is good to see David Commissiong has joined the noise on the outside which serves to create needed tension in Caribbean media. Sometimes it seems that Brother Kisson and a few others have been left to do it alone.

@miller

A serious statement you have made!

It is necessary to note that dome groups use reproduction to gain an advantage in our flawed majoritarian democracy. That is why, despite its eugenic implications, by law any family with more than two children should not have access to public funds, from healthcare to education.
As I have said before, since the early 1970s, some of us have seen vast areas of Britain transformed unrecognisably on the mistaken notion of multi-culturalism. .
The misguided Caricom free movement of workers legislation which has fed in to this should be suspended until Caricom becomes a more effective organisation.
On the one hand, Guyana is exporting its racialised politics to the rest of the Caribbean and in Barbados, a country that has never had this experience of roti politics, is now in the front line.
On the other we have people using money to re-colonise the West Coast turning us in to strangers in our own land.
If we do not defend out integrity now, we would have betrayed future generations.
We need a national debate on nationality, citizenship, right of residence, property ownership and the concept of domicile for taxation purposes.
Should non-Barbadians have a right to the ownership of freehold property? Should it be a legal requirement for members of parliament to be born in Barbados? Should our prime ministers, chief justices, governor generals, and other senior public officers be Barbadian by birth? Or does it not matter?
Just keep an eye on the build up of membership of political parties at constituency level.
We have seen all this in Britain. Some groups play a long game. I always remember some years ago, at Christmas time, staying at a Guyanese owned guest house in Dayrells Road and hearing a group of Guyanese talking about Barbadians with total contempt.
For some reason, they obviously believed that because I live in Britain I was no longer a Barbadian and they were free to talk.
You have been warned.

millertheanunnaki “The DLP would be doing a major disservice to the black race if it was to continue with this unjustified rejection of black Guyanese from our shores while allowing those from Indian and Pakistan to come as they wish through marriages of convenience and bribery of immigration and political officials.”
Interesting.

David | August 11, 2012 at 11:46 AM |

@miller

A serious statement you have made!

The Barbados government allowing Indoguyanese into Barbados while black BAJAN/Guyanese are being treated like crap in Guyana?

Surprised?

David | August 11, 2012 at 11:46 AM |
@miller: A serious statement you have made!

Serious indeed! An examination of the immigration records would confirm that most immigrants from Pakistan are given permanent resident status based on marriage to a resident or citizen of the same ethnic and religious background. Not because they are bringing foreign investment capital or some much needed professional or technical skills. Women of the Islamic religion and whose ethnic origins are of the Indian sub-continent are forced through the threat of honour killing to marry a male from Pakistan or India or some other community in their diaspora. The local males are also expected to import wives from similar sources. This is a planned and indeed wise strategy to ensure that the culture is not adulterated or diluted, there is no local miscegenation to cause inter-racial marriages or interbreeding and the community expand in numbers since family planning according Western standards through use of contraceptives is not allowed.
Hal Austin can back this up as witnessed in cities and towns across the UK.

The local black hand-to-mouth bureaucrats and politicians are on the take and easily bribed to sort out the paper work. After all, they have a certain standard of material living to maintain and a SUV and big house in the heights and terraces with children to educate overseas can’t be achieved on a civil servant or politician official income according to Blackette’s payroll calculations and listing of representational costs and benefits.

“I always remember some years ago, at Christmas time, staying at a Guyanese owned guest house in Dayrells Road and hearing a group of Guyanese talking about Barbadians with total contempt”
Were these of whom you speak Afro-Guyanese or Indo-Guyanese? and for your informationthe entire Caribbean speak of Barbadians with contempt.

Mash up, including Kissoon if he is of Indian descent would only strengthen my view that the gains made by the opposition would have had to be as a result of support from Indo-Guyanese and what’s the beef about racial voting, it is nothing new. It would be interesting to hear how you would vote.. If you had a choice to vote for the best candidate or your black brother or the indo candidate, for whom would you vote? and by the way, it takes a liar to know a liar.

Two points to note, BLP politicians namely Mascoll has been agitating for a growth in population. Miller if the BLP regains office what do you think will be the policy as far as border patrol and managing population growth/mix?

The other point is that the ethnic groups in Barbados have historically located in the distributive trade, a forex drain.

David/BU

Did you read Kaeiteur Newspaper today and see that more citizens of Linden and Wismar got shot,although the police and government are saying the police used pellets.

It seems that provocateurs allegedly paid by the government are being sent into Linden to stir up trouble burning down schools and buildings.

Why is the Nation and Advocate giving full page columns to ronald saunders formerly ronald singh and son-in-law of shridath ramphal and Rickey singh to write crap and yet not be asked to speak on the atrocities going on in Guyana.

I am very worried for those poor afro guyanese people in Linden and even the whole of Guyana.

Even Freddie Kissoon is begging the people of Guyana to protest against the harrasment against him by the government.

@mashup

Have not had a chance to scan Guyana News yet. This is a bad story. Regional media will jump on board when the shit hit the fan.

Gabriel Tackle

Like you I choose not to read Saunders and Ricky Singh. They are always ready to criticise Barbados but wouldn’t leave Barbados and go back to Guyana.

I just love the sense of fairness that oozes out of Freddie Kissoon.He calls it as it is,and now the PPP government,first with Basdeo Jagdeo and now Donald Ramoutar are giving that poor man hell.Yet Ricky singh that yellow boxy brassbowl supporting that racist PPP government and writes every Sunday in the Government rag called the Guyana Chronicle in support of their action.

I regret the day Barrow felt sorry for him and let him back in after Tom Adams chased him away from here.

Big Steupes.

A lttle long but is worth recording:

Written by Denis Scott Chabrol
Thursday, 16 August 2012 00:46
AddThis Social Bookmark Button
freddie_kissoonPolitical activist, Freddie Kissoon was late Wednesday night assaulted by a man shortly before entering his vehicle outside Parliament Building.
Kissoon said he had just finished participating in a Red Thread-organised vigil against police shootings and killings in Linden and was about to leave the area.,
“This man just came up to me and started swinging. I got a few cuffs to my head and I fell. He was just there waiting on me. There was no attempt to rob me,” Kissoon told Demerara Waves Online News (www.demwaves.com).
The incident occurred just before midnight.
Kissoon said when he raised an alarm and fellow activists Fitz Ralph and Michael Carrington recognized and sought to pursue the man, he fled and entered a black SUV.
He was expected to file a complaint at the Brickdam Police Station.
Kissoon was attacked in May 2010 when an unidentified man dumped a bucket of faeces on him just outside Nigel’s Supermarket.
The newspaper columnist has been a consistent critic of the Peoples Progressive Party Civic (PPPC).
He earlier Wednesday night addressed a Working Peoples Alliance (WPA) public meeting in which he supported calls for Georgetown residents to block major thoroughfares in solidarity with Lindener
IN DEFENCE OF F. KISSOON

The open and daring attack on a peaceful opposition activist in Guyana – is outrageous and ALL descent Guyanese, in and out of Guyana, must openly condemn this sort of Individual terror-tactic of the PPP and elements of the PPP regime. It is clear to all that Mr. Freddie Kissoon has been a target of the PPP and its goon-squad for a long time.

The PPP leadership – Donald Ramotar, Clement Rohee, Gail Texiera and Jagdeo (in the shades) – should be ashamed of themselves for allowing a simple protest in Linden to escalate into a major tension – that will far-reaching effects. The entire country now understands that Guyana will not be the same again after the recent “SHOOT TO KILL” operations in Linden.

Dr. Jagan, one of the main founders of the PPP, with all his short-comings, would not have allowed any of this to happen. The tensions in Guyana will escalate into a major confrontation – at a national level, if the regime does not adhere to the DEMANDS of the people of Linden and resolve all the outstanding national issues.

Cheddie Jagan would not have tolerated any form of violence against unarmed citizens and the Linden crisis would not have occurred – causing the killing of 3 citizens and severely injuring more than 20 persons to date.

Gail Texiera – Chief “Spin Doctor” of the PPP and the PPP regime, is running out of lies and half truths. The nation is well-informed – since they do not listen to the State-mouth pieces – the Chronicle newspaper and the National Criminal Netwwork (NCN state TV), but have developed their own independent networks at the local and international levels.

The discredited PPP leadership is standing on one leg – and is desperately clinging on to power. We must do everything to resist the escalation of this STATE terror and bring and end to this type of rule in Guyana – once and for all.

JINNAH RAHMAN
GUYANESE AND UK JOURNALIST
COMMUNITY ACTIVIST
PHONE: (0044) 07415 906 886
I am pleading with my country to protect me
August 12, 2012 | By KNews | Filed Under Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon
In a conversation with Lincoln Lewis, Aubrey Norton, Dr. David Hinds and Sharma Solomon, I made the point that after Walter Rodney, I may be the second most molested victim of state oppression in post-independent Guyana. Of course, Mark Benschop went to prison for five years.
The targeting of me by state actors is relentless. I have requested that David Hinds arrange a meeting for me with the Opposition Leader. And I have asked Gerhard Ramsaroop to raise my situation with the AFC. I am hoping that other stakeholders like Red Thread, the Guyana Human Rights Association and the Private Sector Commission make a statement on what is happening to me and my family.
In 2010, I was attacked in the night and a bucket of miasmic substance thrown on me. No one can be so barefacedly foolish to think that state actors were not the prime conspirators. I could have been seriously harmed if that substance was tainted with violent viruses. I took an AIDS test the next month. In 2011 just before the national elections, my wife was hounded out of her job at GOINVEST, a state company.
She worked there for fourteen years. I wrote about this before and I accused then President, Mr, Jagdeo and Mr. Ramotar of involvement in what happened to her. I have the evidence. There was nothing secret about what they did to her. They didn’t hide their action. The Stabroek News has sought to interview me on exactly what transpired at GOINVEST. My response is that I will not do so until my wife gives me permission to go public. After all it is her story I will be talking about. I respect her views. She is a very private person that has no interest in politics.
My wife lost her pension because of the CLICO collapse. This was the deliberate targeting of my wife. A certain blog associated with the ruling party posted very scurrilous things about my daughter two years ago. This year, my contract at UG was terminated on January 18, two weeks before resumption of classes. My contract had five months more. I lost out on a salary that I used in paying my mortgage.
It is known all over Guyana because of the extensive coverage given by this newspaper that when the Ministry of Works cleared the long stretch of trench on the Railway Embankment, only the direct section outside my home was left with the bushes intact.
I live in a gated community next to CARICOM. All the residents there have voiced the opinion that the Government refuses to repair the horrible road because I will benefit. Peter Ramsaroop moved in a few houses from me and in a conversation told me that he understands that the road is left like that because of me.
Now, last Tuesday, I was informed by letter that I was cheating on my taxes because I have not declared what I get for my columns in the Kaieteur News. It must be remembered that I was ordered a year ago by the Guyana Revenue Authority to submit property taxes. The question that must be asked and needs to be asked is should I be afraid for my life. Is there another critic since Walter Rodney and the jailing of Mark Benschop that has been so singled out for political repression than me?
In the oppression of a human rights activist, the society must take into consideration the traumas it brings to one’s family. My daughter saw her father assaulted in 2004 and my car stolen and found just near to Kaieteur News. My daughter saw her father attacked with a stink substance in 2010. She saw mother chased out of her job. The next year she saw her father lose his job. Now we have this tax pursuit. My wife of course, like her daughter, has to endure all of this, and all because of me she became a victim. Where is this going to end?
How can this country stand by and allow this relentless persecution of me? Why is the state so obsessed with me? What am I doing that is more devastating to the state, the PPP and the Government than opposition politicians? Am I a superman that will single-handedly remove the PPP from power? And who says that I am engaged in activities to bring down the government. I am not. I am critic of the Government like so many others. I am a human rights activist like so many others.
I write an analytical commentary that the Government frowns upon. But there are pro-government commentators all over Guyana and I don’t see the opposition targeting them and harassing them. There is the Peeping Tom in this newspaper. He/she writes in favour of the state. My concern is for my life. Could one day this relentless pursuit of me, end in my murder?
It is something that logically I must reflect on. As the Sunday editorial of the Stabroek News asked; why couldn’t my contract be allowed to just run out its five months duration and then the Government was free not to renew it. Are we seeing an obsession with me? I will wait to see what the political parties and other stakeholders do over my cry here. In the meantime, I thank Aubrey Norton, Sharma Solomon, Dr. David Hinds and Lincoln Lewis for their promise of support. I end by asking my country to protect me.

The fearless warrior!

Global press org. condemns harassment of Guyanese columnist PDF | Print |
Written by Demerara Waves
Friday, 17 August 2012 11:35
AddThis Social Bookmark Button
freddie_kissoonVIENNA, Aug 17, 2012 – A well-known Guyanese newspaper columnist and human-rights activist was assaulted late Wednesday night after speaking at a public vigil near the country’s parliament building in Georgetown, the latest incident in what he believes to be a government-sponsored campaign to silence him.
Freddie Kissoon, who writes for the independent Kaieteur News, told the International Press Institute (IPI) that an unknown man “showered him with blows” as the journalist attempted to enter his vehicle. After fellow activists responded to Kissoon’s cries for help, the man fled in a black SUV that Kissoon said had been seen “circling” the vigil.
Wednesday’s event was held in support of residents protesting against an increase in electricity rates in Linden, Guyana’s second-largest city, where three civilians were killed last month by government security forces. Kissoon has written critically of the official response to the incident, authoring a recent piece in which he echoed suggestions that the ruling People’s Progressive Party (PPP) was conspiring to exacerbate the country’s racial divisions. (Race is a constant theme in Guyanese politics, brought sharply back into focus by tension between the Indo-Guyanese supported PPP and the largely Afro-Guyanese population of Linden.)
Kissoon, who abruptly lost his position as lecturer at the state-run University of Guyana earlier this year, told IPI he believed the mastermind of Wednesday’s attack was “someone high up in the government obsessed with his [Kissoon’s] politics”. In a column published just last Sunday, the journalist called himself “the second most molested victim of state oppression in post-independent Guyana” and wondered aloud whether an attempt on his life was imminent. He also wrote that his wife had recently been “hounded” out of her job at a government investment agency and that his daughter had been the victim of malicious blog postings.
Bert Wilkinson, executive member of the Association of Caribbean Media Workers (ACM) added that the threat of a government plot against Kissoon was “very real”. Wilkinson pointed to allegations that a disturbing 2010 incident in which a bucket of human waste was thrown in Kissoon’s face had been hatched inside the Guyanese president’s office.
The government fiercely denied involvement in that attack, noting in a statement that despite what it viewed as “serious misrepresentations” and “distortions” in Kissoon’s columns, it “respect[ed] the rights of journalists to freely express their views and [stood] firm in defence of that right”, according to Stabroek News.
Howver, Kissoon is also the defendant in an ongoing libel suit brought by former Guyanese President Bharrat Jagdeo, who claimed Kissoon had insinuated that he and the PPP government were racist in one of his columns. Wilkinson told IPI that evidence released during the trial has further vexed the PPP, which lost its working parliamentary majority in last November’s elections. The case will resume in court on September 7; Kissoon says he is confident in the strength of his evidence.
IPI Deputy Director Anthony Mills said: “We are very concerned about this week’s attack on Freddie Kissoon and we urge the Guyanese government to open an immediate investigation and to bring those responsible to justice. Furthermore, officials must ensure that what appears to be a campaign of harassment against Mr. Kissoon and his family is stopped. The right to engage in critical journalism is vital to any democracy and must be respected.”
Mills added that IPI was also urging the loosening of restrictions on private media in the country, calling the government’s radio and television monopoly in the Linden area “a significant obstacle to the free flow of information”.
For his part, Kissoon, who on Thursday was recovering from the attack, was determined to continue both his writing and his activism. While he contended that the government had overestimated the level of his influence, he nevertheless added pointedly: “I will continue to do what I’m doing … until I die.”