It is not Lall alone that dwells in a cocoon of ignorance. There are so many of them. Before we discuss Lall which is the subject of this commentary, a few words about 42 persons and what they wrote to the President of Guyana about. I have covered these people’s insanity about six times before on this page and I will continue to do so for two reasons.
One is that it is incredible lunacy for any human, not Guyanese only, to write the President of Guyana and demand that Guyana stop oil production because the fossil fuel industry harms the climate. Space does not allow elaboration on this stupidity. The second reason is when you see who are included in the 42 then you understand why the government gets the support of the Guyanese people because anti-government critics are silly people that write nonsense yet want people to take them seriously.
Here is the list and it is important to note below where a majority of them live:
• Vanda Radzik
• Alissa Trotz
• Vidyaratha Kissoon
• Karen de Souza
• Pauline Melville
• Christine Samwaroo
• Danuta Radzik
• Maya Trotz
• Susan Collymore
• Joy Marcus
• Halima Khan
• Vanessa Ross
• Wintress White
• Gary Girdhari
• Nicole Cole
• Abbyssinian Carto
• Nigel Westmaas
• Joan McDonald
• Duane de Freitas
• Akola Thompson
• Joan Cambridge
• Immaculata Casimero
• Alma O’Connell
• Terry Roopnaraine
• Colin Klautky
• Earl John
• Janette Bulkan
• Sandy de Freitas
• Sherlina Nageer
• Jocelyn Dow
• Elizabeth Deane-Hughes
• Mosa Telford
• Suraiya Ismail
• Leila Jagdeo
• Gerald Perreira
• Romario Hastings
• Paulette Allicock
• Daniel Allicock
• Isabelle de Caires
• Luke Daniels
• Red Thread
• Amerindian Peoples Association
• South Rupununi District Council
• The Breadfruit Collective
• Makushi Research Unit
Of those names listed above, here is the foreign status of those who signed the letter:
1. Dr. Janet Bulkan serves the University of British Columbia.
2. Dr. Alissa Trotz serves the University of Toronto
3. Dr. Nigel Westmass serves at Hamilton College in New York
4. Dr. Maya Trots works at the University of South Florida
5. Isabelle DeCaires lives in her homeland of the UK where her son plays cricket in the country championship for Middlesex.
6. Abyssinian Carto is of Rastafari orientation that lives in New York.
7. Dr. Cary Gildarie lives in New York.
8. Terry Roopnaraine lives in his homeland of the UK.
9. Pauline Melville moved to the UK in the early 1950s.
10. Alma O’Connell lives in Canada
11. Christina Samaroo moved to New York in 2008
12. Luke Daniels lives in the UK
Before I move on to Glenn Lall, it needs to be mentioned that one of the signatures, Mr. Gerald Perreira, has withdrawn his name. Now, Mr. Lall has announced that he has doubled the purchasing price of Kaieteur News (KN). The daily moves from $100 to $200 and Sunday from $220 to $260. A person has to find $1460 per week to buy KN and that amounts to $5860 monthly. I am surely not spending that on KN.
This is the very Glenn Lall that on his “Tik Taak” show and in the KN tells the government how to run Guyana and he cannot run his own, small business. In an age where newspapers’ future is bleak and because of changing technology, a more popular paper than KN, Stabroek News, had to close, Mr. Lall is increasing his price by double. He cannot run his own business, but he advises the government how to administer Guyana.
It is vast ignorance on the part of Lall not to know that in this age of social media, people are not giving newspapers any priority. Secondly, Lall is barefaced and stupid to think that if KN wasn’t selling at $100 why would it sell at $200. Could there be a bigger example of ignorance.
Thirdly, corporate Guyana, the middle classes, the professional classes and government employees including the security forces read the newspapers online. As soon as they settle down in their office, they go online to read. These people do not buy newspapers.
Fourthly, the folks who buy the printed copy of newspaper are the class that cannot afford $5860 a month. Let me reemphasize my position – I am not spending $5860 a month to buy KN. Mr. Lall hasn’t a clue about the modern world of business in Guyana. Instead of reducing his price so his paper could sell more, he is increasing it so he could sell less. What foolishness!
This man’s ignorance has no limit. He is targeting the poorer folks in Guyana for more sales. This is one colossal example of how incredibly foolish the people that criticize the government are, like the 42 signatures above that want us to come out of oil production so school children that get free meals will have to eat grass.
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.