JUST in case you did not know, in my 35 years of media presence doing journalistic investigation and writing columns, and over 55 years of activism, there is an aspect of my life I have never reported on. I don’t hold back anything from my wife, but even she does not know about these incidents.

In those long years, you would not believe how many times there have been threats on my life from emails, telephonic intimidation, and words from actual people. I am wondering if I would have become famous if I had reported these encounters.

I guess I cannot secure that fame in 2023 or in 2024, because I cannot see the Stabroek News (SN) and Kaieteur News (KN) featuring me on their front pages as they did for Red Thread and Travis Chase. But nothing ventured, nothing gained, so let me see if I can get front-page coverage from SN and KN after what I will now reveal. I will ask the newspaper I write for not to bother to report it, since I already get coverage by doing a daily column for that newspaper.

Last night, as I was driving home from the seawall, a monster truck, the type that has achieved ubiquity on the roadways, stopped in front of my car; two gunmen came out, shot up my car, and the bullets barely missed me and my dog. The truck pushed my car over the seawall at Eve Leary, and Lady Luck was on my side. Right there and then, a ‘Bobcat’ was on the scene and hauled my car back onto the roadway.

Out of nowhere, a large school of reporters, who were at the Marriott having dinner at the expense of the anti-oil lobbyists, came upon the scene and asked me what I thought of the assassination attempt. Right there and then, I remembered Travis Chase’s response when he claimed that his red car was shot up during an attempt on his life two days ago.

I emulated Chase by telling the reporters the exact thing he said: “My style of reporting.” So, I’m expecting a call from KN and SN. My cell is 614-5927, and my email is fredkissoon@yahoo.com. Do you believe the incident I described above? If your answer is no, then by reason of logic, you cannot believe similar accounts of threats by Red Thread and Travis Chase. Let’s do a logical deduction. Red Thread got front-page coverage for the following reason.

It was supposedly informed that a man in a white Toyota car was on his way to attack Red Thread leaders. He was paid G$10M by a very prominent businessman to harm the organisation and attack the US Embassy. Red Thread stated in its press release that it was informed of this by the social media personality, “Guyanese Critic”.

Guyanese Critic replied to say he never sent such a message to Red Thread, and has sued them. The consensus of opinion among people was that it was a silly prank, and Red Thread was just interested in the publicity. Red Thread admitted it does not know the businessman, and has never even mentioned his name. Why, then, would the businessmen attack a group that does not even know of his existence?

The comedic circumstance with Travis Chase is identical. The anti-government ranting of the editor of SN, the owner of KN, Sherod Duncan, David Hinds, Tacuma Ogunseye, the personalities in the oil lobby, social media personality Kian Jabour, Mr. Chistopher Ram, Mr. GHK Lall, my friend Peeping Tom, and dozens of others are trillions, not billions, of miles ahead of Chase in terms of relentlessness.

Why then would any State organ single out a low-rated journalist with a history of non-journalistic controversies, and leave the names cited above? Does that make sense to you? In an age of social media, people look less at television. That is a worldwide trend. For every person who looks at Chase on television, a hundred people look at anti-government critics on social media. Why, then, would any State official want to harm Chase for his reporting?

Readers should know what KN wrote about Chase when reporting on the incident. I quote, “‘I’m fine; not injured,’ Chase calmly asserted during an on-site interview, his composure a stark contrast to the chaos that had ensued only moments before.”

I wonder how the FBI psychologist would react to that calmness after an assassination attempt. This columnist was told last night that a close friend of Chase’s has revealed that it was he who’d fired some rubber bullets at Chase’s red car. He said it was just for fun. I guess they are both funny people.