Guyana Observer News

By Freddie Kissoon

I was a tiny bit annoyed but not to the point where I wished it didn’t happen. On Saturday morning, I got a call from an elderly gentleman at around 6.20 hours. I was just rising. He said he was overcome with emotions and couldn’t control himself about the urge to make contact out of fear that he may not catch me later in the day. He explained that he is up early. He reads all the newspapers online then takes his customary matutinal walk. After what he saw in the Chronicle, he became so curious that he had to call me. He wanted me to read the Chronicle’s editorial for that day. He pleaded with me to reply as a special favour to him in my column for Sunday. At the time of speaking to him, my Sunday KN column was already penned and ready to be-mailed later the morning. I did promise that if the editorial is worth reading I will compose an essay on it. These encounters you experience all the time as a human rights activist so you take them in your stride. I left the Chronicle for later reading.

- reportedly assaulted a female at his home

Popular events promoter Colin Mack has found himself in hot water once more, this time he was arrested at around 08:00 hrs yesterday at his South Ruimveldt residence after assaulting a woman. Reports reaching Kaieteur News stated that the police swooped down at the man’s residence after receiving a call from neighbours about a disturbance at his residence. According to sources, the police had to break down the man’s front door to gain access into the house. The source further told this publication that once the police were inside, the officers quickly observed a female who was covered in blood.

The police are investigating the murder of one of their former colleagues whose brutally mutilated body was found on a dam, close to a roadside shop in Kildonan village, early yesterday morning.  Sheldon Matheson, 32, called “Mosey” of lot 40 Alness Village, Corentyne, Berbice, a former policeman turned taxi driver, was found by passersby early on Sunday morning about a mile and half away from home with what appeared to be multiple chop wounds about his body. His throat was slashed and he had wounds across his belly, his back and across his arm. When he was found he was in a crouching position. According to information received, Matheson had left the force some time back, after which he worked for a while in the interior, before returning to his home village some time last year and was working as a taxi driver.

Bisham Emandin, the man who threw the book “the Deceit of Lucifer” at Magistrate Geeta Chandan Persid Edmond on July 2nd 2009 while she was presiding at the New Amsterdam Remand Centre was on Friday fined $25,000 or an alternative of three months in prison. The sentence was handed down by Magistrate Adela Nagamootoo when Emandin appeared before her at the New Amsterdam Magistrate’s Court. Emandin of Better Hope Street, Cumberland Village, East Canje Berbice is before the court on a number of charges including rape, robbery under arms and unlawful possession of ammunition.

 By Freddie Kissoon

I was having lunch a year ago with Mark Benschop, who rushed from his seat, ran onto the road and yelled out, “come, come” to a passing driver. The female driver pulled up, came into the small cook-shop, and Benschop began to chat with her. Benschop then said to the petite, bespectacled lady; “You know Freddie Kissoon, my friend,” to which she replied, “unfortunately.” I could have fired back to former Magistrate Juliet Holder-Allen but I have mellowed over the years. After she left, Benschop said to me, “Man, don’t worry with her.” On Thursday afternoon, Benschop asked me if I know a good mechanic because his brakes failed him. I took him to my guy and the car had to be left. While driving in my vehicle, I slowed down at Public Road, Kitty and Vlissengen Road because repairs were being done right at that junction to accommodate the celebration of the death anniversary of President Burnham. A mountain of sand was blocking the free flow of traffic. There were a number of PNC leaders on the parapet. Benschop engaged Volda Lawrence who seemed reluctant to respond. The human rights activist then told Lawrence, “You don’t want speak to me?’ Lawrence responded; “Not particularly.”

- Husband charged

A Guyanese woman was murdered by her husband last Wednesday night at her Newark home in New Jersey. Dead is Yvette Pieters, 59, formerly of Victoria, East Coast Demerara, who was stabbed by her husband Fredrick Pieters in her New Jersey home. According to reports emanating from New Jersey, Yvette Pieters wanted her husband out of their Newark home late Wednesday night, but Frederick Pieters wouldn’t leave, authorities said. An argument grew heated and someone in the house, possibly one of the children dialed 911. Another call to police was made, and when police officers arrived minutes later, Yvette Pieters had been stabbed, a New Jersey County Prosecutor’s Office said.

By Stella Ramsaroop

Whatever the cultural and social influences that create a racist, I seemed to have been immune to them during my developmental years. It was not as if I did not interact with racists. I grew up in Middle America where racial ignorance abounds. Yet, somehow race hate never took hold in me. A few years ago, I read something about race that has long stuck with me. It was a passage from “When God Was A Woman” by Merlin Stone. The book is not about race, of course, but this one sentence caught me and I’ve always remembered it. Speaking of the aggressive northern Aryan invaders, who felt themselves superior to the more civil and developed Near East inhabitants, the author said, “But historical, mythological and archaeological evidence suggest that it was these northern people who brought with them the concepts of light as good and dark as evil (very possibly the symbolism of their racial attitudes toward the darker people of the southern areas) and of a supreme male deity.” When I read that passage, I stopped reading and chewed over the notion that perhaps it was at that point in history when racism started and continued spreading to the extent that in much of the world, a person’s skin colour became a determining factor in how much respect and freedom that person should be afforded.