Dear Editor
This past week several of my fellow Buxtonions returned to the Ancestors. As the Annandale Brethren and Sisteren would say: “Congo Creole/See them ah go Way/One by One.” I remember all of them, but I want to say a word about the two public ones. Clyde Roopchand taught me in Common Entrance class at the then St Anthony’s Roman Catholic School, now Friendship Primary. We learned the force of discipline and the importance of education from him and most importantly he taught us to love and cherish community. Had he remained a teacher, he would have been an equally towering force. His abiding interest in uplifting the people of Buxton never waned.
Our paths didn’t cross much after I left primary school but whenever we met we remembered the common root—the teacher student relationship survived the passage of time. Our last meeting was last August when we bumped into each other in Minister Winston Jordan’s office. I was glad to see my old teacher again and he excitedly declared to the Minister that I was his student; that he helped to shape who I have become. I was humbled. He asked me to accompany him to his office where we talked for the next half hour about how to reignite educational excellence and skills acquisition in Buxton. Some of our shared ideas may have since been initiated in the village. Sirroop, as we schoolchildren nicknamed him, was one of our cherished gifts to Guyana.
When Vibert Cambridge texted me on Monday to ask if Haslyn Parris had died, I had not heard the news. I would later confirm the sad news after a few calls to Buxton. Even as a little child I had heard the name mentioned as a “bright boy.” I came to know Haslyn better when he returned to Buxton to live. Our conversations were short but always ended with a hard question from him that set my head spinning. Our last face to face meeting was also last August when he attended one of our Emancipation Forums in Buxton. We were elated that he was there, largely because he did not participate much in village politics. He spoke at the forum and challenged us to think about the problematics of ethnic and civic identities and the implications for Guyana. I told him that we would use his skills and experience more in the village and he said that his support was guaranteed.
I would encounter him for the last time a few weeks ago when I was invited to share my thoughts on constitutional reform with the task force of which he was a member. He had become one of our foremost constitutionalists, despite the fact that he was not a formally trained lawyer. He was to the very end one of our most brilliant minds.
Yours faithfully,
David Hinds
