I COULD rattle off my head literally thousands of things people have done in this country that were completely unacceptable. And guess what? Those people dwell among us and they are accepted among us. Who cares about the things they have done? Not a soul

People are barefaced in this country. They say and do the most appalling things and they just don’t care. And people don’t care about what they did and are happy to continue to relate to them. As I said, the examples are in the thousands. If I was to write my experience in journalism, I would make sure I describe the huge confrontation I had with Adam Harris who was my editor at Kaieteur News.

The story is about Muneshwer’s hardware store on Water Street. I read in the Stabroek News a letter by employees who alleged that they have to take their own toilet paper and hand sanitiser. That was column material for me. I mean that family is extremely rich, why would it want to do something like that. So I did a column.

It appears that a member of the family had some discussion with Adam. So one evening, I was leaving the office and Adam asked me to stay back to discuss what the Muneshwer family member said to him. I told him I was not interested in what any Muneshwer family members had to say about my columns.

Adam who was agitated and furious, flew into my face. I did not back down. Deputy Head of the State Assets Recovery Agency, Aubrey Retemyer and well known academic, Dr. Asquith Rose tried to quiet me down. I was livid because why would Adam want to defend Muneshwer when the family did not reply to the Stabroek News letter?

So I shouted down Adam asking why he thinks Muneshwer cared what was written about them so why is he defending them. Do you think anyone ever cared about that policy of Muneshwer and chose to boycott their store? That was my first fiery confrontation with Adam Harris.

A member of a family firm broke down a gate at the Ogle airport. I don’t think society ostracized him. Do you think society wants to distance itself from him? That same family was accused of not compensating a baggage handler’s wife. They refused to acknowledge the lady. That family firm suffered no loss of status in Guyana.

I could go on to give hundreds more examples of incidents like these even involving prominent people who were exposed for attempted murder. There were publications of these sad tales but these people suffered no loss of status. Remember the “granny” murder on Robb Street?

The trial of the hitmen revealed the man who gave the order but he was never charged. He continues with his business that is now a trillion-dollar company. A former Commissioner of Police liked me very much and confided in me the killer’s name in the murder of Monica Reece. In elite circles in Georgetown and in the cocktail circuit, the name is known.

I pen this column based on questions I have received as to why I did not respond to two letters Nazima Raghubir wrote about me in the Stabroek News (SN). I replied in my own columns in the Guyana Chronicle but not in the SN. Here is why. SN would have carried my responses but guess what? When they had finished butchering my points and clarifications, what was left of my adumbration would have looked silly.

And guess what? If I had complained then SN would have said that it reserves the right to edit correspondences. They would have barefacedly cannibalised my responses removing my devastation of Raghubir’s fictional dramatisations and such journalistic repugnancy would have evoked not one response. SN, the next day, would have attracted the same readership.

This very newspaper refused to carry the letters of a presidential adviser in Guyana, Professor Randolph Persaud, on the basis that it cannot accept his criticism of civil society groups. Has the newspaper suffered a boycott of what it did to Dr. Persaud? Do you think the paper cared about what it did?

To those who wanted to know why nothing appeared in the SN as a response to Raghubir, this then is my answer. This is not a society where people shun those who have committed unpardonable things. On the contrary, those people are welcomed in the circles they move in. As for me, I don’t care if SN boycotts Frederick Kissoon. It does not make my work less effective.

DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Guyana National Newspapers Limited.