PP: Jordan, your opening thoughts.
JV: Well, I came to Guyana when I was nineteen, first to Jonestown – everyone that came in, first went to Jonestown and most stayed. I was fortunate to also come out and spend time in some of the outlying areas like Georgetown, Linden and New Amsterdam and get to know the people of Guyana well. For me, coming back here, I wanted to see Jonestown or the area that was once Jonestown for…perhaps…the last time. Something was left unfinished without having seen it again so I was able to do that and it was very healing in a way I probably wouldn’t know until I get back home. But the other reason is I also wanted to connect with the Guyanese people who had always been kind and opened up their hearts to us, every single Guyanese I have met was very friendly and welcoming. And as Laura said the Guyanese perspective hasn’t been taken into account and the damage that the incident had on Guyana was large and I wanted to acknowledge that. So our trip here has been better than I could have expected. People have been really receptive and the conversations have been rich – I feel like along with my healing we can all heal together because the Guyanese people are victimised as well and together we can go further than just leaving it as this thing that happened, what more can we do together to learn from it and be open to creativity in ways we haven’t thought of before.
PP: Two things: Laura you talked about the beauty of Guyana and its hold on you, and Jordan you too, and I am happy for that.
The other thing: in my line, I always question the text – there is not much coming from Guyana except for Eusi Kwayana….
LJH: He is a good friend of mine. His perspective helped me opened up looking for the Guyanese perspective.
He wrote his book A New Look at Jonestown: Dimensions from a Guyanese Perspective and he had asked me to write the foreword. I read the book and just loved it…you see when I was healing, I talked first about it was me then a little bit bigger and finally it was the bay area of San Francisco and California. I didn’t pursue it, I didn’t widen it enough. When Eusi wrote his book, he talked a lot about Guyana, he talked a lot about things bigger than Guyana – a global perspective of how a rich entity can come into a country and have no regulations, restrictions or overview because they seem so powerful, donating a lot of money and different efforts in a community. So what Eusi did, he expanded it as wide as it could be; it is not only a Guyana issue, it is not limited to the Western Hemisphere, it is really a global issue. So he included rich texts of historians and economists, people who had the perspective and data to prove his point which is saying that Guyana is not alone in having an outside force come in and really wreck havoc. That started me thinking that there must more Guyanese who have opinions but I don’t have much contact with them. So I wrote my book and started doing a blogs on my Facebook page targeting all the people living in Guyana. So I get this rich feedback – thousands of people would look at my blog and hundreds of people would respond: Oh, yes, I saw the Guyanese man shot at the airstrip; a bullet whiz by his leg and injured him or somebody saw a truck leave. There is so much we haven’t even explored on the surface not even the deeper issues. So we have to start with the surface but even while we were here we had a community meet at Port Kaituma, inviting everyone to ask any question and we tried to let them know anything was fine. They came – 35 or so people came – they had all the questions, they brought up the rumours; it was a very friendly, open and active and wonderful gathering that we could look each other in the eye and what about that and Jordan or I would try to explain or agree with them that it was ridiculous or whatever…because we have a lot in common – we all saw the madness from one point or the other….
PP: One point or the other. Any new information coming out of that meeting?
JV: There are a lot of rumours flying around after all these years – gold, money….
LJH: Supplies of cement going into Jonestown…. on the roads available at that time; it seems unlikely.
You know, in a period of three, we created a community of three huge dorms, a pavilion, a school, a library, 52 cottages, housing 1,000 people living in Jonestown.
The makeup of Jonestown was about one third children, about one third seniors. [The children] were pretty much in school, or doing gardening, or cleaning the greens we brought in or sowing. And then there was a workforce about one third kept busy feeding 1,000 people three meals a day!….
Cement? No time for cement – only rumours….
JV: This also shows you that without contact, all kinds of ideas come forth. Over this long period to time, people hadn’t the opportunity to speak to anybody.
LJK: The Jonestown Institute is the most profound source of information….
Responses to this author telephone (592) 226-0065 or email: oraltradition2002@yahoo.com (Guyana Times Sunday Magazine)
