FREDDIE Kissoon, in his April 6, 2011 column, “God is dead, Marx is dead, Gandhi is dead, Mandela is sick”, once again tried to glorify himself as Guyana’s hero, the champion of the people’s cause.

Despite the fact that this university lecturer arrogantly uses an academic’s work without acknowledging it, he continues his ‘opinion blog’, the Freddie Kissoon column, without any solid research.

After the Domestic Violence rally last November, Freddie, in his ‘opinion blog’, condemned the use of Rihanna’s battered photo being waved in the crowd to highlight domestic violence, claiming that the organizers did not receive Rihanna’s approval to use her photo at the rally.

Mr. Editor, why is it that Freddie Kissoon did not acknowledge Friedrich Nietzsche as the intellect who coined the phrase “God is dead”, from his work “The Gay Science”? Is this just another example of Freddie’s arrogance and yellow journalism at play, where he never makes the effort to employ research in his writings? Or, is it possible that this ‘academic’ is genuinely ignorant of this?

Also, in the same column, Freddie writes, “I have no foreign bank accounts. I bank my salary in Guyana. I only worked in the public sector serving UG for twenty-five years. I fought for democracy in my country. I was thrown off a moving bus as UG students got caught up in human rights protests and spent three months in hospital. I was jailed for 29 days at Camp Ayanganna for protesting compulsory national service.”

Mr. Editor, from his use of the word ‘I’ at the beginning of every sentence, we have a clear understanding of what Freddie Kissoon represents. In Freddie Kissoon’s mind, it is all about Freddie and what he deserves for what he has done. It is not at all about what he can do for his country, but rather, what this country owes him. Well all hail Freddie Kissoon, the best citizen of Guyana; the most loyal and patriotic son of Guyana’s soil. All hail Freddie Kissoon!

Surely, Freddie must know that he holds a Guyanese passport among other things mentioned in his column, simply because he chose that. The country for and in which Freddie works and saves his money, remains a choice that only he can make. The democratic nature of this country prohibits the government from making that choice for Freddie Kissoon or any other citizen.

This alone is testament to the fact that the true spirit of democracy lives and breeds in this land, and permeates even the Freddie Kissoon household.

Mr. Editor, Freddie Kissoon is evidence that Guyana is truly a democracy, where the people control their own day to day lives. Nonetheless, had he chosen to acquire a different nationality, perhaps that would have been his greatest service to this nation.