Dear Editor,
I often wonder how Dr Roger Luncheon deals with his conscience when in his quiet moments he recalls all the untruths and half truths that he spews out in defence of a government whose only use for him is to put him out there in the line of fire to try to confuse citizens with empty words while ministers of the government and other government officials shelter in the safety of their offices.
I refer here specifically to his recent comments in both the Kaieteur News and the Stabroek News of September 13 in which in his usual circuitous manner he tried to justify the government’s stealing of other people’s intellectual property. In trying to convince the citizens of Guyana that it was alright for the government to reproduce a large number of school texts for distribution to primary and secondary schools, Dr Luncheon said that the laws of copyright would have to be ignored because Guyana could not afford to buy the original texts. This leaves me to wonder why Guyana is the only one among all of our Caricom sisters, many of whom are just tiny islands, that is so impoverished. Further, it worries me that our children are witnesses to this immoral behaviour at the very top, which makes Guyana a rogue state.
How would Dr Luncheon advise the proprietor of one of the stores that sell pirated books deal with a shoplifter whose excuse for stealing a pirated text is that she is a single mother with many children and cannot afford to buy all the books? My response to such an incident would be to say, “Tief from tief mek God laugh.”
The Doctor should think on these things, and encourage his colleagues to do the same.
And by the way, we at Austin’s did not “lose out” (to use his own words) because we were not invited to bid and would not have taken part in such a nefarious scheme.
Yours faithfully,
Leila Austin
Director
Austin’s Book Services
