Dear Editor,
In a letter which appeared in the news media on July 21, Mr Eusi Kwayana, aka Sidney King, expressed wonder at the USA’s high activism in Guyana’s affairs in the face of a global coronavirus epidemic of the present scale. He felt it was of some relief to some sectors of the US Empire to find diversions in the affairs of a mini-state when faced at home with a unique uprising of a multi-racial nature in resentment to present-day lynching.
He further stated that the US State Department is not part of this uprising.
The unique uprising and mayhem presently ongoing in the USA are the result of policies and programmes being perpetrated particularly on Blacks and minorities to their detriment by the Trump Administration, of which the US State Department is a constituent part. Therefore, it is disingenuous for Mr Kwayana to state that the US State Department’s divisive policies are not contributing to the demonstrations and uprisings.
He was, however, cautious in his criticism of what appeared to him to be present-day lynching in the US, but was careful to note that the US State Department was not part of this terrible crime. After all, as a 96-year-old Guyanese living in California, and probably receiving one or all of these benefits – Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid and, depending on his yearly income, a free phone, food stamps, subsidised housing, etc. — he has to play it safe in what he does and says, so as not to jeopardise his US income. Therefore, it is reasonable to conclude that Mr Kwayana chose to live in California not because of the atmosphere created by the vigilante organisations in Guyana, which he claims he detests, but because of all the free goodies and wonderful climate he is getting there, and which he would have never received living in the backwater country he came from unless he was a ‘Hamilton Green’.
Finally, Mr Kwayana claims he is a Caribbean citizen of Guyanese origin living in the USA. In reality, there is no such title as a Caribbean citizen, since members of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) cannot work and live freely in any member state. Further, Caricom does not issue passports to its members. His Guyanese passport was issued by the competent authority in Guyana with the wording ‘Caribbean Community’ stamped on its top front cover for whatever benefit it stands for.
Mr Kwayana has every right to propagate the welfare of his community, and to ensure they receive their rightful slice of the economic cake they helped to bake. However, this should not be done with biased racial/political overtones to top the scale.
Yours truly,
Charles Sohan
