Dear Editor,
Please permit me to make brief comments on a few sundries. Firstly kudos to Dianne Madray whose zeal and never-say-die attitude enabled the realization of the rally against domestic violence, of course in collaboration with Stella Ramsaroop, Sukree Boodram, Aba Luke, Help and Shelter, Red Thread, Kids First and others. I have known Dianne for a short time only but I admire her humanity and her caring concern for the voiceless and the downtrodden. I know that she plans follow ups and I urge all who have collaborated in this historic rally to join hands in a collaborative long-term campaign to move the anti-domestic violence agenda forward, for one concerted effort would achieve much more than many individual efforts.
Secondly I applaud the stand of the headmaster from Christianburg who refused to give in to social promotion. Here in the US that practice has been eminently responsible for a watering down of education that it is being vigorously tackled in New York and elsewhere. Without taking away from the tremendous efforts of teachers and others who man the education system in Guyana, I’d like to say that there are many seasoned and credentialed Guyanese teachers in the Diaspora who would jump at an opportunity to assist in helping to tackle problematics that contribute to low achievement by providing training is areas such as classroom management (without corporal punishment), differentiated instructions, school/community collaboration, holistic approaches to reading and writing, a programmatic approach to dealing with the learning disabled and a host of other impacting variables. Some years ago politics derailed a training programme planned in collaboration with VSO. It is my hope that the authorities would understand that education professionals have but one agenda and that is the interest of our children.
Thirdly I join with all Guyanese in mourning the death of Winston Murray. No one can doubt that this son of the soil was spearheading true political reform and might have been the architect of a new kind of politics that would have jettisoned ethnic and other divisiveness in favour of collaboration and nationalism. Perhaps he has stirred enough hearts to keep working for a Guyana bereft of ethnic politics.
Yours faithfully,
Annan Boodram
The Caribbean Voice
