Dear Editor,
Unlike my friend Earl John I do not remember Rafiq Khan as a voice on radio in Guyana. I met him when I joined the CBU in 1993. At that time he was the CBU’s advisor on broadcasting; they did nothing without consulting him, and he always gave outstanding and wise advice.
When I became a director of the CBU and attended the monthly meetings, he and I always found a little time to spend together since we were both Guyanese and he was always willing to seek information on broadcasting matters here, which sadly he considered as rather chaotic. He had grandchildren living in Guyana and spoke often and enthusiastically about them, since he apparently experienced much joy visiting them from time to time.
As others have said his simple, humble and courteous manner will always be remembered and concealed a very insightful and wise mind.
Whatever I know about the philosophy of broadcasting came from three great teachers I was privileged to work with in my years as a Guyanese TV broadcaster: Rafiq Khan, Hugh Cholmondeley and Kit Nascimento.
I will miss Rafiq. The last time we spoke was at St George’s Cathedral at the funeral of Hugh Cholmondeley but could not get together for a more informal meeting since he was only here for a short time and had to return to Jamaica.
Not to overdo it I am also taking this opportunity to say farewell publicly to my dear friend Jimmy Singh who passed away recently. He taught me everything I know about drainage, and worked in the GuySuCo head office’s field operations department as a hydraulics engineer. He can be counted as one of our best engineers in his field in the recent history of Guyana.
These two men were outstanding professional Guyanese in their selected fields, and we would be remiss if we did not honour them.
Yours faithfully,
Tony Vieira
