Dear Editor,
There are some events which will always be larger than the agenda of any of the parts making up the whole to which that larger event relates. Even though the United Nations has declared the year 2011 the International Year for People of African Descent, their theme is universal in content where it speaks of “Recognition, Justice and Development.” The UN is providing an opportunity for Afrikan people to show how they have been denied these three things by structural racist acts:
“The Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent at its ix session, 12-16 April 2010 in its Conclusions and Recommen-dations… strongly recommended that the international community declare an international decade for people of African descent to make the challenges they face more visible, to identify solutions, and to engage in a sustained campaign to eradicate structural discrimination against people of African descent and called for a UN interagency global study to collect data on people of African descent in their respective areas of work and to develop concrete recommendations that address the structural racism against people of African descent.”
Additionally, Resolution 64/169 informs us that the year has been so declared: “… for the benefit of people of African descent in relation to their full enjoyment of economic, cultural, social, civil and political rights, their participation and integration in all political, economic, social and cultural aspects of society…”
Yes, the state has a role to play and it is not facilitating the purposes of the UN programmes for the benefit of all Afrikans during this year. It is not intended to be an occasion for the PPP and its Afrikan associates.
The PPP/C has an opportunity to promote these actions for all Afrikans in Guyana. Just think about the political incorrectness and insensitivity to Afrikans when it does not invite the Leader of the Opposition who happens to be an Afrikan to ‘its’ opening ceremony for the Year of People of African Descent. Is this not in itself to deny Mr Robert Corbin, an Afrikan, and the vast number of Afrikans who support the PNCR an opportunity for “… their participation and integration in all political … social and cultural aspects of society”?
Yours faithfully,
Jonathan Adams
