Dear Editor,
For me, the letter columns of two popular newspapers have become a double-glance-few-minutes activity. My first glance is at the caption; and the second, at the name of the author. These glances I have made my guideposts – to decide whether to read the letter or not – because of the difficultly I face in discerning how authentic and serious the letter writer is, versus the mischief-makers and the propagandists.
So when I did the first glance at the caption in the Sunday Stabroek September 30, 2007 and then the second glance, I recognised the author, Alissa Trotz, as someone whose writings interest me, I read. Ms. Trotz didn’t disappoint.
When I finished reading her letter I had some thoughts of my own. I wondered what the women (who attended Queen’s College) at the Prime Minister’s reception spoke about. I think I can stretch my imagination to guess what the men spoke about.
So, did the women hold the same interests of the conversing topics or did they have some of their own. I wondered if they spoke about the parent who wrote a letter because she was uncomfortable with her child assisting with the field preparation for sports. Or, were there some who wanted to discuss the high level of violence against women and children – the alleged defenceless?
I also had some questions for myself. I asked myself what is the purpose of scholarship? Who and what purpose is it intended to serve? Is it only for us to be aware of our competitiveness – as was written by someone in another daily? Or, is it expected to serve and to improve the lives of most of humanity especially the voiceless.
I studied at a university where the professors wrote our textbooks. More than a decade ago, I put this question to a very senior medical consultant at the Mona Campus – UWI: Why can’t all the brains in the West Indies sit down and write a medical textbook for the medical students of the Caribbean? His answer was that it was attempted but it was too costly. That person was Professor R. Richards – now deceased. How often do we hear that a group of black cardiologists in the USA has organized themselves so as to demand special studies amongst the black population of diseases that are mostly studied in white populations? And what the number of diseases which are fundamentally studied only in men – starting with why cardiovascular disease in women have now become the focus? Aren’t there variations in presentations of diseases in the West Indies which can be documented rather than someone telling us verbally – this disease is seen more in Jamaica; and this more in Guyana. Or, this disease doesn’t present like this in the female only in the male? I am not speaking about medical journals. I am speaking about a text to replace the western medical books and which I am sure can bring welcome finance to the region; I am speaking about something that scholarship can create.
Were there any alumni at the reception who were prepared to add their scholarship to the threat of global warming to Guyana but moreso the poor on our coastal strip? And if they did and made recommendations, did they demand that this issue be addressed as a use of scholarship and not for political mileage?
Did anyone speak about the generations-long issue of the race-conflict in Guyana – which many of us were born into – and visit the villages on the East Coast, in which this conflict seems concentrated, so as to lobby for resources to search for and to mend what threatens to consume us?
Did anybody mention the unfortunate deaths of Donna Herod (who allegedly lost her life in Buxton from a stray bullet) or Radika Singh (who allegedly was beaten to death in Bare Root because she was perceived to be an old Higue?). Was it important to know how and why these women lost their lives?
Perhaps at another reunion there can be an activity where the QC alumni can stand at the podium and discuss projects and ideas and research, which they have used their scholarship to discover and improve the socio- political and economic well-being of the voiceless in Guyana.
By the way, can someone tell me when will be the reception for old students who attended the Multilateral School at Ruimveldt? I would like to invite myself.
Yours faithfully,
Janice Imhoff
