Dear Editor,
I wish to refer to an article in Sunday Stabroek, May 18, 2008, written by one of our own intellectual geniuses, Dr Ian McDonald, with the caption ‘Uttering nonsense.’ Dr McDonald has always been an inspiriting personality in his Sunday column and over the years I have been able to send his writings to a number of progressive-minded people who will make a good analysis of this prolific and consistent teacher.
I am also concerned about this growing trend in our population where people are losing the art of reading and writing. Once I went on our local TV to advocate reading, where I said “Reading is like your private university,” and one of the simplest books I extolled was the Students Companion. As a voluntary social worker, I am always disturbed when I meet dozens of fourth form secondary students who can’t read or write even moderately well.
About eight years ago I established a library for selected readers; my only success is that one of the books I lent out was never returned. Most recently, a friend told me that out of four hundred registrants in an area, forty persons could not sign their names.
Unfortunately this trend of poor academic performance is exhibited at higher levels, where many teachers don’t know about the national awards, and ministers of government refer to Bartica as an island. Many permanent secretaries do not observe the Order of Precedence Act of 1985, and as such many ministers are not properly schooled in the protocol of how they should address a public forum. How can we learn when there is no leadership by example? Would anyone believe that a regional democratic councillor cannot read the oath of allegiance at the swearing-in ceremony, or a regional executive officer cannot read the traditional RDC prayers?
I will recall when the late Princess Diana had to meet new social demands, she said that she had to learn to swim, and swim quickly. Some of us are strangers in our office.
Recently, a friend from New York, USA, told me that he will keep my recent letter as a souvenir since he has not seen a handwritten letter for years. This made me remember the primitive days when a manual worker wanted to know how a chip could have spoken.
Traditional office etiquette is now a culture of the past, and even the dress code in churches has gone haywire. But in our quest for human advancement, we need to become ‘value-added’ as individuals, and this can only be achieved by our own attitude.
Finally I will recall when the tributes were given from the gallery of our Parliament at the time of the funeral ceremony of the late President Hugh Desmond Hoyte, when the three speakers who stuck to the order of precedence were Mr Edwin Carrington, the Cuban Ambassador and then Mr Robert Corbin.
Again I wish to congratulate Dr Ian McDonald for his patriotic analysis, directives and his vision for a society within the accepted limit of functional literacy.
Yours faithfully,
Isahak Basir CCH
