Dear Editor,
This is a follow-up letter to the one I wrote and was published last Saturday, August 9th under the heading, “Myself and other Guyanese artistes have not been invited to Carifesta.” I told myself that if I failed to pen this, I would not be able to call myself a man of integrity. This follow-up has been written to vindicate Ms Paloma Mohammed, specifically!

I was ‘not’ aware that Ms Paloma Mohammed held an office in the Carifesta X Secretariat, and the position of ‘Artistic Director of Carifesta X.’ What I can say for a fact is  that she has long been courting me for my involvement as a playwright/dramatist in the Carifesta X celebrations.

In the aftermath of my letter, she and I communicated. She explained to me that her former overtures to me over past months (which I did not follow-up on), were indeed preludes to me being sent an official invitation for my involvement as a playwright/dramatist at Carifesta X.

In other words: Had I known that my old friend Paloma ‘was’ a member of the Carifesta X Secretariat, I would not have penned that very ‘first paragraph’ of my letter of August 9th, 2008 in the Stabroek News. I continue to stand, however, by every other charge I have made in that letter.
Yours faithfully,
Harold A Bascom