Written by VISHNU BISRAM
DISGRACED columnist Freddie Kissoon continues to ply his trademark writings bashing India and anything Indian without any justification. Freddie does not bash other ethnic groups or African countries. He targets India and Indians. He also attacked NACTA for conducting independent polls and criticises the PPP for having surveys done because they are carried out by Indians who don’t use Freddie as a consultant.Readers are reminded that Freddie even bashed the great Mahatma Gandhi – imagine that, the great, iconic, respected Mahatma, who the entire globe deifies, is the scorn of Freddie’s pen. Clearly, Freddie has a sick, incurable mind. In his latest tirade in the Kaieteur News (no other paper carries his trash), Freddie states India has no business probing Mars or conducting space research because of its poverty.
So, according to Freddie, a poor country must not pursue modern technology to alleviate poverty. It should remain poor and depend on the developed world for technology or satellite launching, the way Freddie bums other people for assistance. Let us examine some stats on poverty and space. Over 20% of Americans live below the poverty line, but it still carries space probes costing over $25 billion annually. Over 35% of Russians live below the poverty line, but it has a vibrant space research programme from which it earns billions. France and China also has large percentages of people (25%) well below the poverty line, but they continue to explore space with the European Space Agency earning a lot of money from its programme. Should they discontinue their space programmes because they have poverty?
Almost all space powers collaborate with India because of the advanced nature of India’s space programme. Exploring space and space-related technology can help to alleviate poverty, especially for a country like India which launches satellites at less than a fifth of the fee charged by the Americans , Europeans and Russians. Although India ’s space programme is not commercialised like NASA’s or Ariane’s (Fr. Guiana), India can and does collect substantial fees to launch satellites to subsidise its space programme and create jobs for its vast pool of unemployed engineers and scientists. India’s Mars probe is a tenth of the cost of America’s and will provide vital information beneficial to the globe.
Freddie is not well read and even when he reads academic literature he does not understand what he reads, as evidenced by his non-comprehension of Fareed Zakaria’s theory of “Il-liberalism” misapplying it to a democracy like Guyana. So readers have to excuse Freddie – he is not right up there as almost everyone in Guyana will tell you.
Freddie does not understand India’s space programme that is tied to its national defence and poverty alleviation goals, etc. – testing of ICBMs, studying weather patterns and forecasting climate to help farmers, etc.
I am an India specialist. I studied in India and was an occasional guest lecturer at several of its universities and institutes. Over the last decade, I have been reading several Indian newspapers daily in addition to Indian academic journals and magazines and I have been reading six Indian weeklies (since the 1970s) in New York. I used to write regularly for several N.Y Indian weeklies during the struggle against the PNC dictatorship (exposing human rights violations in Guyana) and still make contributions from time to time on the Indo-Caribbean diaspora. I have been travelling to India regularly since 1985, pressing the case for India’s support for our pro-democracy struggle against the PNC dictatorship. And I visit Indian diaspora countries regularly as part of my studies. So I am familiar with Indian affairs as well as issues pertaining to the Indian diaspora, having studied. I have penned a lot on and about India particularly about its space programme and efforts at poverty alleviation, not only in India but on its aid programme to poor countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean . Information and data from Indian satellites and space programme are passed on to poor African and Asian countries on climate enabling them to take measures against natural calamities. Also, Indian satellites help African countries with communication. India, with all of its poverty, has helped poor masses in Mexico and other parts of Latin America. Just last year, India committed 22,000 scholarships to students from Africa in addition to US $10B in foreign aid plus technology transfer. Mexican and other Latin students study for free in India. Freddie was not admitted to study in India because he could not make the cut.
In spite of all the help given by India to African countries, most of them were not supportive of India at international forums — the epitome of nimakharism, similar to Kissoonianism (never grateful for all done to him by India, Indians and the PPP government). When India sought their vote for a Security Council(SC) seat, most African countries voted in favour of Japan (although it was India’s turn to be the Asian rep on the SC). South Africa (with Mandela support) and Zimbabwe and a few others sided with India remembering India’s contribution in the struggle against racism in southern Africa and the liberation of African countries from imperialism.
Readers must not forget that Guyana is the largest recipient of aid from India. Thousands of Guyanese of all ethnicities (more non-Indians than Indians, especially during the PNC tenure when Indo-Guyanese were victims of ethnic persecution) received scholarships to study in India. The national stadium was built with India’s aid and Freddie was among the first to enjoy it – nimakharism. India is building a modern specialty hospital and Freddie and his family will be among the first to utilise its service. India provided over US$30M to the PNC that was never repaid to purchase Tata buses and tractors, etc. and few Indo-Guyanese were beneficiaries of India’s assistance. Many Indians complained being denied access to transport and employment on the India-donated buses during the apartheid-like era. Freddie should be grateful and thankful to what poor India has done for Guyana. By the way, Freddie, please tell us how many scholarships and much assistance Guyana has gotten from African countries – I am certain it is a lot more than from India.
If India had utilised the services of Freddie as a consultant, Freddie would be praising Gandhi, India, etc. Ditto NACTA! If Moses had not fired him for his incompetence, Freddie would be praising the PPP today. Sorry Fred, India, PPP and NACTA don’t utilise an unqualified consultant who does not employ rationality and logic in his writings.