Dear Editor,
I write to thank Mr Hemraj Muniram for his letter, `It is ironic that Frederick Kissoon should today present himself as a role model to young Guyanese,’ (SN 10-16-09) in which he gave a first hand descriptive account of an incident at the National Library in the early 1970’s when teenaged Frederick Kissoon allegedly tried to leave the library without checking out some books and that he was chased by the police. Mr Muniram further wrote, “The police charged Frederick Kissoon with stealing 88 books belonging to the National Library…the books in question were philosophy, sociology, international affairs, and other social science subjects.” He ended his letter, “It is ironic Frederick Kissoon should present himself as a role model to young Guyanese.”
As I read the letter I was instantly reminded of the movie Slumdog Millionaire in which a dirt poor boy from the slums made it to the “top” by winning a million dollars on a tv quiz show but not before he had been “educated” in the streets of Mumbai and had his fair share of police chases and torture. I can picture young Kissoon growing up in depressed South Georgetown, going hungry many days, semi naked most of the time, and receiving a harsh “street education.” How he must have yearned for a better life especially when he assisted his grounds man father at the elite Georgetown Cricket Club and saw the scorn and hauteur on the faces of the rich and famous.
Fortunately the young boy did not resort to gangs and crime as a way out of crushing poverty.
Young Freddie, guided by a loving mother and a big sister, embarked on a quest not for material riches but for intellectual wealth and so at a very tender age he developed a voracious appetite for reading philosophy. But alas his parents were too poor to buy him books and so he had to borrow from the Public Free Library. Now even grown adults with doctorates today would appreciate that reading philosophy is rather tedious and time consuming so it is little wonder that Freddie kept the books at home where he could read all the time. This obsession with reading probably kept him off the streets where he might otherwise have been misled into mastering the arts of pick pocket, choke and rob, and burglary.
Instead Freddie mastered philosophy, international affairs, and the social sciences and is today one of the world’s few daily columnists, if not the only one. He also finds time to teach full time at the university of Guyana. His spare time is well spent as a social activist championing the causes of the poor, powerless, and downtrodden. He never forgot where he came from and did not develop any hauteur as is so common with many “educated people.” So Mr Muniram what is so ironic if Freddie “presents himself as a role model to young Guyanese? I am sure that given the situation in Guyana, and indeed the world, as regards young people and their new forms of social behaviour, all parents would want their kids to emulate Freddie Kissoon’s obsession with reading, and his unmatched determination to achieve academic excellence.
Now here is an anecdote on Freddie. One time in the early 1990’s Freddie’s mother-in-law went off on a month’s vacation and left him to take care of her small grocery business. Upon her return she was stunned to find almost all her stocks gone but not enough cash in the box. She was even surprised to find a long line of kids when she opened up for business that day. The first child asked for a gallon of rice and Ms Mohamed asked for the price of $400. The child gave her $100. Ms Mohamed said that she needed $300 more, to which the child innocently replied, “but Mr Kissoon does give we fuh whatever price we parents can afford.”
That’s the slumdog intellectual for you. His childhood scars just cannot be removed. Freddie could not bear to turn away a child who did not have enough money to pay for foodstuff. I know. I was there. I saw the pain on his face, and the empathy in his eyes, when kids came with short money. It was as if he himself was at the counter with hungry eyes.
Yours faithfully,
Malcolm Harripaul
