writing letters to the editor..
The first letter to the editor I wrote was to the editor of National Geographic way back in 1982 or sometime like that. The letter was not published. A lot of my letters to the editors have not been published.
Writing a letter to the editor is a nerve wracking thing. You never know if it will be accepted, and you wonder if it will generate any negative consequences if it is published. Sometimes I have written things in anger, which, when I see published, I cringe and think I could have written differently, while others say that those letters tend to be much better and clearer than the ones I would agonise over which in the end apparently are not clear.
I am glad to see letters which are from people who were nervous about expressing themselves, especially young people, and I have encouraged a few people to write their letters and send them in.
Stabroek News has been the leader in encouraging the letters columns. A few people tell me that is the first place they look in the papers, while others do not bother with the letters. I am grateful for the letters columns, well to the editors who have accepted the letters. I have no idea how the work against domestic violence would have gone, or how the views against beating children could have been made without the ability to express opinions in the media.
Guyana's gay rights movement was also formed in the letter's columns of the papers. Those letters started in 2001, and continue. It is always interesting to see what views are out there and how things are progressing in terms of the views about whether Guyanese who are not heterosexual have rights to live here.
My anti-alcohol sentiments have sometimes been published, I have wondered whether the editors are scared to publish them, because of advertising revenue. I am shocked when I see them printed. This most recent one was difficult to compose. The intellectual elite blogger told me it was well written and suggested I put it on this blog.
It was published in Stabroek News and Kaieteur News. The comments on the Stabroek News blog are always fascinating. The feedback on the letter has been interesting though, one lady emailing to say well done, while one or two other people said they saw it, one friend said he actually read it. Guyana Times had two letters around the same time which congratulated DDL and Mr Yesu Persaud for their continued entrepreneurship.
I used to think that nobody bothered with what I was writing, especially if there were no replies, either of endorsement or in opposition. But then I meet people who said they have read. One lady called to say that she and her daughter had agreed with a letter I wrote about an HIV advertisement.
I have written letters outside of Guyana and some of them have been published - Barbados, Jamaica, St Lucia, Trinidad, St Maarten. Many have not been published either!
Writing a letter to the editor is a nerve wracking thing. You never know if it will be accepted, and you wonder if it will generate any negative consequences if it is published. Sometimes I have written things in anger, which, when I see published, I cringe and think I could have written differently, while others say that those letters tend to be much better and clearer than the ones I would agonise over which in the end apparently are not clear.
I am glad to see letters which are from people who were nervous about expressing themselves, especially young people, and I have encouraged a few people to write their letters and send them in.
Stabroek News has been the leader in encouraging the letters columns. A few people tell me that is the first place they look in the papers, while others do not bother with the letters. I am grateful for the letters columns, well to the editors who have accepted the letters. I have no idea how the work against domestic violence would have gone, or how the views against beating children could have been made without the ability to express opinions in the media.
Guyana's gay rights movement was also formed in the letter's columns of the papers. Those letters started in 2001, and continue. It is always interesting to see what views are out there and how things are progressing in terms of the views about whether Guyanese who are not heterosexual have rights to live here.
My anti-alcohol sentiments have sometimes been published, I have wondered whether the editors are scared to publish them, because of advertising revenue. I am shocked when I see them printed. This most recent one was difficult to compose. The intellectual elite blogger told me it was well written and suggested I put it on this blog.
Dear Editor,
The newspapers on Thursday all reported on the opening of the new bottling plant at DDL. This expansion seems to be a Guyana success story that all Guyanese should be proud about, according to the speakers at the plant opening.
Capitalism is like that. Regardless of whether the bottles are going to be full of water or rum, the statements about competitiveness, market access for products, innovation, financing, etc etc did not really say much about the products.
But rum is not a product like any other. Rum has taken its toll on Guyanese lives and lives abroad.
The EU Ambassador spoke to ‘lovers of rum’. The Ambassador must know of the havoc wreaked in Guyana by lovers of rum, some not far from the new DDL bottling plant.
Two million euros of EU money would go a long way towards supporting the NGOs and Government agencies who have to struggle with the problems caused by alcohol consumption in Guyana. The EU countries themselves are battling with some of those problems (http://ec.europa.eu/health-eu/my_lifestyle/alcohol/index_en.htm).
A community activist in Sophia has been trying to get some of those posters from the campaign to stop underage drinking and was told that the campaign has finished. I wonder if the EU would help those community people to easily access funds to print some more of the posters to put up on the legal and illegal rum shops in Guyana which vend the produce of the new efficient bottling plant.
The report in the Chronicle talks about ‘increased local demand’. That is frightening, that there is going to be increased consumption when the Minister of Health has already expressed concerns about the levels of alcohol consumption in Guyana.
Another headline in Stabroek News “‘Alcohol in me head had me real bad’ tells the other side of the grim story of the successes of the alcohol industry. There are other stories in the newspapers and not in the newspapers.
Kaieteur News reports that President Jagdeo asked for a large photograph of a rum bottle to be removed from the podium. There are no explanations given. I would like to fantasize that soon after coming from Divali celebrations where he spoke out against alcohol abuse, he might have recognised the dilemma of promoting a product which has damaged the lives of many of his constituents and that this was the only statement he could make about alcohol consumption.
He might have had in his head the concerns of the Minister of Health, the Minister of Human Services, the Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport and even recently the Minister of Agriculture who at the Guysuco Awards ceremony in Blairmont talked about the problems of alcohol consumption in the sugar industry.
This Guyanese is not proud of the DDL technological innovation. DDL would do better for their shareholders, Guyana and the world if they could use that money and apply those successful business principles which were lauded to diversify from a product which has destroyed so many lives. The alcohol industry in Guyana operates in a bubble that other people are responsible for the controls on alcohol, and that they have to do what they have to do in the interest of maximizing profits. We know that our humanity cannot be sustained if some of us profit while others suffer.
Yours faithfully,
Vidyaratha Kissoon
The newspapers on Thursday all reported on the opening of the new bottling plant at DDL. This expansion seems to be a Guyana success story that all Guyanese should be proud about, according to the speakers at the plant opening.
Capitalism is like that. Regardless of whether the bottles are going to be full of water or rum, the statements about competitiveness, market access for products, innovation, financing, etc etc did not really say much about the products.
But rum is not a product like any other. Rum has taken its toll on Guyanese lives and lives abroad.
The EU Ambassador spoke to ‘lovers of rum’. The Ambassador must know of the havoc wreaked in Guyana by lovers of rum, some not far from the new DDL bottling plant.
Two million euros of EU money would go a long way towards supporting the NGOs and Government agencies who have to struggle with the problems caused by alcohol consumption in Guyana. The EU countries themselves are battling with some of those problems (http://ec.europa.eu/health-eu/my_lifestyle/alcohol/index_en.htm).
A community activist in Sophia has been trying to get some of those posters from the campaign to stop underage drinking and was told that the campaign has finished. I wonder if the EU would help those community people to easily access funds to print some more of the posters to put up on the legal and illegal rum shops in Guyana which vend the produce of the new efficient bottling plant.
The report in the Chronicle talks about ‘increased local demand’. That is frightening, that there is going to be increased consumption when the Minister of Health has already expressed concerns about the levels of alcohol consumption in Guyana.
Another headline in Stabroek News “‘Alcohol in me head had me real bad’ tells the other side of the grim story of the successes of the alcohol industry. There are other stories in the newspapers and not in the newspapers.
Kaieteur News reports that President Jagdeo asked for a large photograph of a rum bottle to be removed from the podium. There are no explanations given. I would like to fantasize that soon after coming from Divali celebrations where he spoke out against alcohol abuse, he might have recognised the dilemma of promoting a product which has damaged the lives of many of his constituents and that this was the only statement he could make about alcohol consumption.
He might have had in his head the concerns of the Minister of Health, the Minister of Human Services, the Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport and even recently the Minister of Agriculture who at the Guysuco Awards ceremony in Blairmont talked about the problems of alcohol consumption in the sugar industry.
This Guyanese is not proud of the DDL technological innovation. DDL would do better for their shareholders, Guyana and the world if they could use that money and apply those successful business principles which were lauded to diversify from a product which has destroyed so many lives. The alcohol industry in Guyana operates in a bubble that other people are responsible for the controls on alcohol, and that they have to do what they have to do in the interest of maximizing profits. We know that our humanity cannot be sustained if some of us profit while others suffer.
Yours faithfully,
Vidyaratha Kissoon
It was published in Stabroek News and Kaieteur News. The comments on the Stabroek News blog are always fascinating. The feedback on the letter has been interesting though, one lady emailing to say well done, while one or two other people said they saw it, one friend said he actually read it. Guyana Times had two letters around the same time which congratulated DDL and Mr Yesu Persaud for their continued entrepreneurship.
I used to think that nobody bothered with what I was writing, especially if there were no replies, either of endorsement or in opposition. But then I meet people who said they have read. One lady called to say that she and her daughter had agreed with a letter I wrote about an HIV advertisement.
I have written letters outside of Guyana and some of them have been published - Barbados, Jamaica, St Lucia, Trinidad, St Maarten. Many have not been published either!
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