Dear Editor,
On behalf of my organization, I write to vociferously protest the characterization of Diwali as an “irrelevant matter” by Mr WP George (SN, Dec 6). Normally, I don’t respond to silly comments like this one. But it is a prejudicial frontal attack on Diwali and festivals that Guyanese celebrate. I am also using this opportunity to applaud Mr Vishnu Bisram for his yeoman service on behalf of the diaspora and specifically to Guyanese in NY. The NY-based Guyanese deeply appreciate the enormous contributions Mr Bisram has been making to the community and to the Guyanese diaspora through his letters to the media in Guyana as well as for his advocacy of Guyanese and Caribbean causes in NY. I also wish to add my voice to Mr. Bisram’s accurate narration of events relating to the strikes on the Corentyne in October 1976 and Jan/Feb 1977 as I was a student at the time.
It is outright shameful for a person like Mr George to say the festivals Bisram pens about are an “irrelevant matter.” Diwali is very relevant to the Guyanese diaspora. Celebrating Diwali is an event of great and increasing interest to virtually every Guyanese and increasingly to other nationalities including Americans reaching all the way to White House and the City Council of NY as well as the state legislatures of Ohio, Illinois and New Jersey. Festivals and events and other interesting developments abroad impact on the Caribbean, including Guyana. And they should be covered by the media because of their reading interest, particularly for Guyanese. And we should be grateful to Mr Bisram for highlighting them in the Guyana media. SN should compensate Bisram financially for his work which is deeply appreciated by all excluding Mr George, who is advised not to read them since he finds them offensive.
Mr Bisram has been bringing to the attention of the overseas diaspora as well as Guyanese at home the many developments abroad that are of considerable interest to them. This is a valuable function especially in the context of the Guyana press that does not have the scale of operations to afford foreign correspondents where Guyanese are settled like NY, Toronto, London, and Miami.
I don’t know if the Guyana media pays him but I know as a fact he is not compensated for his service in NY and has been doing this community work consistently for over 30 years – something no one else has ever done. In addition, Mr Bisram is a one of the bravest political activists doing battles for the diaspora and for Guyana on the streets of America ever since he came to this country. Many of us remember his activism (as well as that of Vassan Ramracha, Baytoram Ramharack) during the darkest days of the Guyanese dictatorship organizing protests and rallies, writing and publishing newsletters and distributing same at community events and at Union Square (14th Street) where Guyanese shopped on weekends.
Without Bisram’s prolific reporting, we would not be informed of so many events surrounding the lives of Guyanese in the diaspora. No one else takes the time to promote the community with such dedication and commitment providing information of so many events around the community. He writes for two weeklies in NY and is a prolific letter-writer in all the papers in Guyana. In addition, his articles have appeared over the last three decades in several Asian Indian weeklies whose readers, unlike Mr George, value them.
We appreciate Mr Bisram’s writings and wish that he would continue to serve us with his rare distinction of community work. People in Guyana want to keep abreast with happenings in NY and Mr Bisram fulfils that goal. Likewise, NY Guyanese wants to keep in touch with their homeland.
Yours faithfully,
Balram Rambrich
PRO
United Arya Samaj
New York