Revisionist piffle

Warped measuring sticks
In “Through the looking glass”, Alice (of “Wonderland” fame) is having an argument with Humpty Dumpty.
“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less.”
“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”
“The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master – that’s all.”
And so we have one Lionel Lowe (from Brooklyn, he’d informed us earlier) defining for us, what is a ‘hero’ and then using his peculiar definition to beat Jagan and Burnham over the head. By his definition, the two early Guyanese leaders failed miserably at the ‘hero’ business. For real heroes we should look at: “Walter Rodney, Karen de Souza, Andaiye, Clive Thomas, Tacuma Ogunseye, Lincoln Lewis, David Hinds, Mark Benschop, Nigel Hughes, Moses Nagamootoo, Khemraj Ramjattan, Freddie Kissoon, Raphael Trotman, newspaper owners such as Glenn Lall and David de Caires.” We won’t break a lance over Rodney being included in a list of heroes by any measure – but can we take anyone who’d stack the persons who followed his name above Jagan and Burnham?
Lowe is no ‘master’. He rates his ‘heroes’ thusly: “What wrongs did they right? How many lives did they save? How many Guyanese regardless of race, religion, or creed looked forward to their appearances and speeches, hoping that they’d live forever? And what joys and glory did they bring to our nation? How much deprivation did they suffer?”
So we ask, “How many Guyanese regardless of race, religion, or creed, are looking forward to the appearances and speeches of Lowe’s motley crew? People are looking forward to hear Glenn Lall speak? Get serious. What’s a hero? The dictionary informs us: “a man of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his brave deeds and noble qualities.” Can one use the word “noble” and “Benschop” in the same sentence? (We left out Glenn Lall, because that would make the question beyond ludicrous!)
Let’s take Jagan by Lowe’s definition. Who was braver and more noble than this son of a cane-cutter from Port Mourant who refused the middle-class comforts of a dentist’s life in Guyana circa 1943, but chose to take on the might of an empire on whose dominions “the sun never set”? And yes he suffered deprivation: he spent his time, like all anti-colonial heroes, in a British jail.
Disaster plan
We’re informed by the headline in Monday’s newspaper that “Region 10 is drafting a disaster preparedness plan”. We’re very pleased that the people of Region 10 have come to their senses and realised that voting for APNU in the last elections has been nothing but an unmitigated disaster. We know a whole year has passed, but better late than never, we say.
It takes time for some peoples’ eyes to be opened. We’re sure that the protests that APNU and the AFC tricked them into participating in and which had such tragic consequences, made Lindeners realise that they have to have a ‘disaster preparedness plan’ so that more tragedies don’t get dumped on them.
What are some of the elements of such a plan? Well right up there, the plan should forbid Sharma Solomon from speaking. Any man who could say, “We don’t care if Bosai closes down” while crying at the same time that Linden suffers from “70 per cent unemployment”, should be gagged.  Such wild spouting just makes businesses skittish about plunking down money for investments – and jobs never get created.
Pathetic ‘cri de coeur’
Chris ‘Suspenders’ Ram just uttered another ‘cri de coeur’ (cry from the heart) for recognition from AG Nandalall. Can’t somebody give the man a plaque or something so that he doesn’t have to inflict his juvenile interpretations of the constitution on us? It could be for “oldest man accepted at the bar”.