Stella Says…Freddie has got a Groove Thing; Robert is the Mud King

by Stella Ramsaroop

(Originally published in the Kaieteur News on 10 Jan 2006)

Freddie sure is groovin this week! As I read Sweet and Sensitive Freddie Kissoon’s column from yesterday (Monday, January 9), I could never have been so proud of my fellow columnist. With all of the fire that can come from his pen, it is good to know he attempts balance by applying humility and self-examination.

It says so much about a public person when one can admit (publicly) that he/she is not perfect and own up to his/her mistakes. This is only possible for a person who is willing to take a good look inside and perform a self-evaluation. Coming face-to-face with our less than perfect side has never been a favourite pastime for humans.

Of course, this is a scary act for anyone since it could mean that we might see our own failures and nobody likes to fail. However, it is even scarier for someone who is in the public eye on a constant basis and knows that if he/she can see the failures then so does everyone else.

It takes a strong person with a good heart and a functioning conscience to admit to himself/herself that they are wrong. Even more so, it takes someone who is courageous and honest to tell the rest of the world when they are wrong.

The PPP could learn a few very important points from Freddie. What can the infallible, omnipotent and “anything that goes wrong, it is the PNC’s fault” party learn from the mild-mannered Freddie Kissoon? A whole heck of a lot.

The PPP runs as far from humility as possible. It never owns up to its mistakes and, clearly, it is not prone to self-examination for potential improvement. These are the qualities that Freddie displayed all in one article. The PPP could never let on to the world that they are not perfect like Freddie did either. Freddie sure can groove!

On the other hand, the PPP has wannabe groovers, like Smart and Sharp Robert Persaud, MBA, who put out another column last Sunday that was full of praise for the PPP when the party has so many failures for which it should be apologising. Mr. MBA even inserted various forms of the word “groove” throughout his column – as if he could actually pull that off!

I think my friend, Smart and Sharp, had a bit too much of his favourite wine before writing that column. Robert, darling, you have to know how to move if you ever want to groove. I’m just not too sure you have the groove vibe. After all, it does not seem that you can even wade through muddy water without the help of at least three others, so what makes you think you can get your groove on?

In Persaud’s column, he said, “Another important element of getting in groove is the safety and security of our people. It is expected that our security forces will continue to make diligent efforts to arrest the crime situation.” All I hear is blah, blah, blah. Dear Smart and Sharp, do you really think anyone listens to this stuff anymore – much less believes it? Not groovy. Not groovy at all.

I should also mention another portion of Mr. MBA’s column. After rambling on about maintaining a positive attitude, he said, “For example, the low-blows by the PNCR Leader in his New Year's message and his surrogate CN Sharma blaming the government for the flooding in certain communities is the type of attitude and sentiments we all must eschew to make 2006 victorious for Guyana.”

You are wrong, Robert. Acknowledging the full scope of the national problems and addressing these issues head-on is what will make Guyana victorious in 2006. The PPP has ignored these serious issues and pretended like everything was just fine, even while the streets were flooded and crime dug its talons even deeper into the country.

It is as if the whole party lives in a make-believe La-La Land, but governs the very real and suffering people of Guyana. There was nothing positive about the flooding situation at all. Instead of spinning this into another piece of propaganda, the PPP should have admitted that it failed again and will try to do better.

See the grooviest people are honest and forthcoming. They are humble and able to publicly acknowledge imperfection – like Freddie. The PPP displays the exact opposite of all these qualities. Oh dear! The PPP is the anti-groove! I wonder if that is contagious?

Come to think of it, the PNC could apply a little more humility and self-examination too. It is simply unrealistic for a “missing in action” opposition party to just pop up on the scene one day with some nicely composed strategies and start acting like it was there all along.

However, if the PNC publicly acknowledged their failures of the last few years, like Freddie just did for 2005, then perhaps more people could take them seriously now that they attempting to present themselves as a viable option for the elections.

In fact, I am hoping the recent letter from James Mc Allister will help our dear Freddie come to terms with the PNC’s role in the whole UG fiasco. Don’t worry folks; I’m not going to start fighting Freddie’s battles. I would just like to see something break soon in this whole debacle so Sweet and Sensitive Freddie can move on. Lately, it just seems all roads lead to the UG scandal for Freddie.

I don’t want it to seem as if the UG mess does not merit Freddie’s perpetual grumblings, but he seems like the anal-retentive type who is not going to give up on this until justice wins.

So Freddie gets a big shiny star on his column for being so groovy. You really are the grooviest, dear friend (when you’re not being the AFC’s mouthpiece). Don’t let all of this praise go to your head though; we really do not need another egomaniac in the country. Guyana has enough of those already.

Email: stellasays[at]gmail.com