Here is the evidence of what this country is like

OCTOBER 4, 2015 | BY KNEWS | FILED UNDER FEATURES / COLUMNISTS, FREDDIE KISSOON

I am not an arts critic. I know a little about music (forgive my chauvinism but I have one of the largest private music collection of countless genres). I have good scholarly grasp of literature to enable me to make plausible review of films, books and plays. One wonders what would have become of an arts critic in Guyana if we had a thriving music industry, a movie industry (like Jamaica) and a theatre that puts on monthly plays. If that reviewer wasn’t made of stern stuff and brimming with self-confidence then he/she could have easily succumbed to self-imposed exile Imagine the crucifixion if the reviewer accused the playwright of a poor script. Imagine the decapitation if the reviewer was harsh on the acting ability. Imagine the denunciation if the singer was advised on their pitch. Rolling Stone magazine classified Celine Dion as one of the poorest singers around. Imagine the pyrotechnics if the novel was dismissed as rambling aridness. Could a reviewer have survived the narrow-mindedness in this country if we had the industries in those art forms listed above? I wonder how I would have made out. I did a review of the Lion King at the Theatre Guild and was critical of the lack of voice modulation ability of one of the actors. A letter-writer replied and said the column should have been thrown in the waste-basket. There was no defence of the actor just an angry vilification of the reviewer. That is the way it goes in Guyana. And the evidence of this narrow-mindedness is ubiquitous. I picked up this paper to read a letter-writer’s vexations about my criticism of a magistrate. He said my rebuke goes back over a year. But there was not one line of where I went wrong about the magistrate. There wasn’t one area of my criticism of the magistrate that was cited so I could have agreed and offered an apology. The letter was all about Freddie Kissoon being a man with a troubled past. Freddie Kissoon is an attention –seeker. Freddie Kissoon hates people and it went on and on like that. I am still to find out which remark about the magistrate that was wrong so I could redeem myself I picked up the paper and read the caustic condemnation by the letter-writer, GHK Lall. I never met this gentleman. Never spoke to him. Had no grievance against him. He wrote; “I heard from reliable sources a few years back about the funding for Mr. Kissoon’s house…he should have known better…He not only compromised himself, he contaminated himself too…Yes he has deteriorated.” My wife was livid when she read that. Up to this day she shows exasperation when that issue comes up because she said we built our house with our savings The story of businessmen helping to build my home first appeared at the speeches of President Jagdeo and PPP General Secretary, Donald Ramotar at the observance of the death anniversary of Cheddi Jagan in 2007. Then Mr. Ramotar wrote a letter in Kaieteur News to that effect. No doubt Mr. GHK Lall heard about that thus his accusations against me. There were three factors to note in Mr. Lall’s letter – I compromised myself, I am a contaminated person. I have deteriorated in character. Despite several pleas in this newspapers (see my KN column of March 29, 2015) and the Stabroek News for Mr. Lall to cite just one, not several but just one example where I compromised myself, I am contaminated and I have deteriorated, Mr. Lall has refused to be open and frank with me. A commentator, social activist, educator and human rights activist is accused of serious character flaws for which society ought to comment on but my accuser wrote back to say just name the businessmen Mr. Ramon Gaskin then got into the act and wrote in this newspaper that in taking money from these businessmen it was a sad day for journalism because I lost my independence and became, “like the rest of them.” Up to this day I don’t know who the “rest of them” referred to. Then the editor-in-chief of the Stabroek News, Mr. Anand Persaud, got in the act. In a response to an online comment on the issue, he attached a note saying I must come clean. Up to this day I don’t know what I must come clean with. Messrs. Lall, Gaskin and Persaud have not given me the any information for which I could offer a defence. I cite this example of Lall, Gaskin and Persaud because it typifies the hazard of being a critic in the Guyanese society. Surely, a commentator must accept criticism but not the examples listed above.