He is gone. But he isn't going to forget how we fought back
Freddie Kissoon column
Kaieteur News
April 13, 2007

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Trust me when I say that, as a matter of principle, I do not visit the blogs on the internet. It is one of the most sickening and degrading processes a person can subject him/herself to. Many of my friends tell me that I should visit this or that blog and read about the praises people heap on me or read how they are cussing me out like mad.

I read the news on the internet and that is it. You visit these blogs and you see the mud and miasma of which the human character is made.

You have these chat rooms on Guyana and its people and without exception, all the chatters have comical pseudonyms. The mind can be a weird thing. No one, I repeat no one, who chats on these blogs has the courage to discuss Guyana, its sociology, political economy and its public figures using a real name.

Visit these blogs and you read the criticisms of President Jagdeo, Robert Corbin, and other important citizens of Guyana and check who is making these remarks – Superman's Moustache, Fathead Skirtchaser, James Bond Bazooka, Atlantis Discoverer, and the absurd list goes on.

It is not these biological aberrations of nature that live among us that we should be annoyed with. We should be mad with those that actually visit these blogs and read what these remnants of nature write. How can a sane person go on a computer and analyse Guyana , chatting with someone about the life and future of this country, and exchange ideas with someone who signs up as New Yorker Biggie or Las Vegas Superhero? Isn't it de-humanizing to voluntarily enter such a situation?

I read two of Martin Gough's (one of the BBC sports reporters that covered CWC in Guyana ) presentations on his blog. I had to because I wanted to see how he reacted to the vexation Guyanese showed in relation to his first blog. Gough of course posted the remarks he received about the controversy.

Not one transmitter had the decency to say that I am John Jones from London , and I support your opinion of Guyana . All of them used comical false names. What purpose then does a blog or a chat room serve?

Before I go on, let me say that I disagreed with Stabroek News' columnist, Patrick van Beek's defence of Martin Gough but I respect him for his courage to write that under his own name. I hope he did not take offence at my article in this column last week that responded to him.

Once again, Mr. van Beek, thank you for being decent.

I read Martin Gough's last blog before he left Guyana two days ago. It showed the nature of the man. Guyanese should read it because we run ourselves down; we think we are narrow-minded people; we think the white man has more depth to his character than us (as V.S. Naipaul believes that is why he has a false Oxford accent).

Gough started out in his last blog by reference to the front page comment on him by this newspaper and my article the next day. Then, in reference to me, he says that he would not name the Kaieteur News columnist because he (Gough) doesn't want to give him (me, that is) more fame.

So what was wrong if Gough had stated in his final blog on Guyana that he was attacked by the Kaieteur News and its writer, Frederick Kissoon? Would Gough have taken the same position if the columnist was a well known British writer? Is this the way commentators and journalists behave when they disagree with each other? Choosing not to name their detractors?

Really, where did the BBC get this guy from? But who told Gough that I want fame. If I did, then Gough would have seen me at all the cocktail happenings to which he was invited to by the western diplomatic missions here in Georgetown . He would have seen me at the Oasis Café, trying to ingratiate myself with the foreigners that inhabit that place.

He would have seen me at Buddy's International Hotel, like John Mair (aka Bill Cotton) trying to dine with the cream of the Guyanese society. The only cream I have ever known in my life is the one I use in my tea (I always drink my coffee black). If I wanted fame, I would have put my tail between my legs, and endured my second-class status at the Stabroek News.

If I wanted fame, I would make myself visible in this country. I am only visible at UG and Kaieteur News. I am happy with that.

Martin Gough didn't want to mention my name in his parting blog because he doesn't want people to read me. Of course, Kaieteur News and I gave Gough some fame by printing his name. In fact, quite a large number of persons disagreed with us for making a fuss about his blog and allowing Guyanese to know about him.

But a principle was involved and I didn't see any point in being narrow-minded and hiding his name. Gough is no fool. Gough didn't publish my name in his farewell blog on Guyana because he would have alerted his British chatters that there are people in Guyana that can confront the Freudian negativities of British tabloid journalism.

Gough is gone and two crucial points need to be made about him. First, I would not have objected to his blog if he had described Guyana as a poor country that is being kept back by political instability. That is the truth and we in Guyana say that all the time.

I would not have penned a single line against Gough if he had described Guyana as a land whose infrastructure is poor and needs to be modernised. That is the truth. We don't have traffic lights. The Guyana Police Force does not have DNA testing so rapists and murderers go free.

But Gough typified the mental state of Europeans and white Americans when they come to the Third World .

Gough complained about the rain, the prospects of his friend being kidnapped, the poor houses. Poor houses? There are poor, very poor houses in Marseille , France , that make those houses that Gough saw on the East Bank of Demerara look like palaces. I hope readers heard what Colin Croft did to Bryan Waddle during the radio broadcast on the Sri Lanka-New Zealand match yesterday.

Waddell said that the fans that are now in Grenada did well to miss going to Guyana . Croft asked him what was wrong about Guyana . He fumbled. He stumbled. He stuttered. He couldn't answer. He said his luggage did not arrive with him.

Croft asked him if that was the reason he didn't like Guyana .

Waddle was just exhibiting his Freudian mind. I ask readers to peruse the last blog of Gough on Guyana . He was certainly a changed man. He isn't going to write his usual nonsense about another Third World country. Guyana fought back, and Gough learnt something about life.