Friday Musings
By Sharief Khan
I WAS surprised when I spotted a fellow Tom Cat this week in a most unusual place and I just had to scamper over to meow with him a bit.

There was this Tom Cat sitting and looking real comfortable in the packed auditorium of the International Conference Centre at Liliendaal, East Coast Demerara for the formal launching by President Bharrat Jagdeo of Guyana’s draft Low Carbon Development Strategy.

A Tom Cat at the launch of such a strategy?
The centre was jam-packed and extra chairs had to be quickly placed to accommodate stakeholders and invitees.

And as I tried to see just who and who were there, I had to check myself from getting into some serious cat calls when I discerned this Tom Cat looking as pleased as the cat that had just got the milk.

What was he doing here?
President Jagdeo, in an historic and ambitious move, unveiled the strategy in his detailed presentation and talked about Guyana’s offer to preserve almost all of its 15 million hectares of pristine forests to advance avoiding deforestation and forest degradation to help avert global catastrophe caused by the impact of climate change.

As he went through his speech, I saw my Tom Cat friend nodding appreciatively and he looked like he was having a good time.

Now, I know some people think I will rank among the lower class tom cats that jump around the place getting into all kinds of feline antics.

But I swear I am not. I prefer to stay in my corner, keeping quiet and minding my own business.

I can get frisky at times and can be as playful as a kitten. (I can see some of you smirking and wondering about kittens and I!)

So to set the record straight, I am just an Honorary Tom Cat in the band from which that fellow Tom Cat I am talking about sprang.

My Tom Cat buddy is no other than Paul Stephenson (Paul Cat), Chief Executive Officer of Cara Hotels which has holdings here and in the Caribbean.

Paul Cat was at one time top cat at the Pegasus Hotel with his cat partner and fellow Irish-born Sean McGrath.

They are now into Cara Hotels and Paul confided with pride in me after we caught up on Monday that he this week also uplifted his new Guyanese machine readable passport.

He is still Paul Cat but also a proud Guyanese who felt he had to be part of history in the making at the Monday launch of the Guyana path towards low carbon development.

“I was very impressed by the initiative as presented by the President. I feel it will have very positive effects on Guyana’s tourism industry, hotels and eco-tourism activities. This will place Guyana on a new level of international acceptance in the green policies and any discerning eco-tourist will derive great comfort from such strong governmental policies”, said he, stressing that he means every word.

Listening to him and reading his emails since then I am no longer surprised at Paul Cat and his wanderings.

He and his band have always had a love for Guyana, especially for the pristine beauty and wonder of its forests and hinterland.

When he was with the Pegasus, he and a group called the Tom Cats mounted a safari to the hinterland and I reported on the experiences for the Stabroek News with which I was employed at the time.

I was among those invited to the post-safari celebrations and what an event it was – they made me an Honorary Tom Cat, recognizing that I had done enough to earn my stripes without undergoing the travails of the trek.

I felt good then and I feel good now knowing that with backers like the Tom Cats, Guyana’s low carbon development trajectory can get additional thrust in some key circles.
Good to see you again, Paul Cat.
Meow!