Dear Editor,
I looked at the contents of this Atlantic Reader on the Ministry’s online site. The images in the book are a poor example of the demographics of Guyana, they are regurgitated images from Western books. The “Guyanese” images are mostly of one ethnic background, a trend common in Guyana for decades, from the era of “Mr. Joe builds a house”, and the times when we had to learn “O Melda,” and “Everytime I pass you look at me.” Never any song in any of the First People’s languages, much less a “Nana Nani” song. There is one picture to depict Diwali, and even that they got it grossly wrong as it showed more candles than diyas! In case the people involved do not know, candles/moombatti are detrimental to puja and offers very negative energies, while the ghee wick diya is a bastion of positive energies and Shubh Labh/auspiciousness which is the essence of Diwali. And every single item, ingredient (samagri) used in a puja has profound significance to bring the greatest spiritual benefit to all involved.
“We eat the vegetable salad. We eat chicken and chips.”…Really? Is this what the majority of children eat in Guyana? No roti and curry? Or metemjee nor cook up? What about pepperpot? And there are photos of apples, grapes and Bartlett pear? No sapodilla, star-apple, pineapple or psydyams and Owara much less Fat pork and Kokrite? Broccoli and sweet peppers are shown in many of the food photos yet how many Guyanese households can afford either of these much less eat them? What is wrong with showing Bhaji or Katahar? Or Karaila and Ochro. What about the famous Guyanese Wiri-wiri pepper, even yet we see they have some Mexican hot pepper instead in a photo for our school children to study. “Jelebi” is “a cooled sweetmeat” according to the writers of this Atlantic Reader. “Vermicelli” is ‘‘a sweetmeat boiled with sugar and milk”, ‘’mauby” is ‘’a drink made from a mauby tree.” Really?
‘’Phagwah signifies good over evil” yet in the paragraph describing Phagwah, they describe it correctly as “Phagwah is the Hindu festival of colours.” That is what Phagwah is basically, the festival of Spring and the colours that we throw on each other represent the colours of Spring and Mother Nature. It is as simple as this. The picture of the African lady nursing her baby is offensive. There are laws against public show of nudity and here we have an African lady baring her breast in a children’s book. Do women go around baring their breasts while feeding their babies? In Indian culture, we do not, apart from modesty, it can attract “bad eyes!’’
The lady selling in the market has no teeth. What is wrong with the writers of this school book? What really is the agenda of the creators of said schoolbook? In their haste to create their own publication for Guyanese children, what they have done is to foist onto young minds, another version of racism of the past. Nothing different at all. Harry Gill has done a poor job in his presentation. The Ministry of Education needs to revise and rethink this entire mishmash presentation. Get feedback from others, if you do not know.
Sincerely,
N. Sahadeo