ERC to be fully functional for 2015 elections

I can almost understand selling out on a certain human level....but for the ERC? Does the job even come with a secretary?

Was there no vacant Ambassadorships or some other more worthy sinecure available? What about the Rice Board job held by the Singh family about to be promoted to the Cabinet for a good job of rape and obstruction of justice?

Ravi Dev - public 'intellectual' and pioneering Guyana bigot now employed by the PPP machine, guiding its racist 3rd hand

i wonder what high "principles" this esteemed gentleman abandoned when he "[sold] out" and decided to get paid for doing what came naturally

his appointment to head the ERC would say oceans more about the sick mindset of the PPP than about Ravi Dev

Redux,

We should hesitate to use the word "bigot" because when applied wrongfully it only cheapens the word and lessens its sting when used in situations that warrant such usage.

It is my opinion based upon knowing the man some years ago and some of the people that surrounded him that I can say there was no bigotry or racism.

There was indeed a strong defense of Indian rights. ROAR was unambiguous about this. I see this just as just honesty in a society of race-based parties. All of Guyana's parties are race-based. ROAR just admitted the fact. From personal knowledge, I know that his principal interlocutor and collaborator was David Hinds and he got on extremely well with leading APNU MPs. David Hinds is not so stupid as to associate with some racist.

The principles that I contend he now seems to have abandoned by selling out to the PPP is that he always believed that the PPP was beyond redemption; that Guyana needed a system of inclusive government as a multiethnic society; and that real and perceived ethnic security issues for Blacks and Indians must be addressed. Blacks have real political and economic security issues. Indians have real (perhaps to a somewhat lessor extent now) security issue as they have a history of being targeted for racial violence. These are facts. Ravi articulated these issues from a realpolitik perspective and even went so far as to articulate affirmative action for Blacks to address Black economic marginalization. Those were some of his principles. He convinced me personally of the need for Black affirmative action. Something I believe Guyana still needs. It made and still makes perfect sense to address the specific needs, fears, and paranoia of Indians and Blacks so that we can move on as a country and live up to our potential. I don't want to discuss race as an issue forever. Do you? I'd like to not care about who gets elected and who doesn't.

As to your issue with his appointment to head the ERC, the old Ravi Dev is suited to the post. The Ravi Dev that believed in addressing the ethnic security dilemma of the major races. The PPP-approved Ravi Dev I fear is just another officeholder at best and at worst another PPP lapdog who sold his soul for a little job. I don't think the PPP would have appointed him if they thought he was gonna actually do the job. That's just not how the PPP works.

dude, much of the malignant, not-so-opaque shyte u post here is unfortunately informed by the 'nationalist' shittings of Ravi Dev . . . i picked that up a while back

of course you think "there is no bigotry or racism" in him

i do not have time to waste debating you on this wannabe's crude racist pedigree; the public record is a wonderful thing!

anyways, you seem to know little of (or care not) what this evil little punk is up to these days

carry on

I actually fail to see why you always insist on throwing around the race card at every opportunity.

Especially towards the segment of Indians who are natural allies to the legitimate grievances and aspirations of Guyanese Blacks against the PPP/C.

Are you praying for some kind of "pure" Indian who agrees with Redux 100% in all things?

Would you be surprised to know that it was many former ROAR members that hosted General Granger in Richmond Hill and are his strongest Indian supporters behind the scenes?

Is former ROAR member now APNU activist Lt. Malcolm Harripaul a racist too?

my response(s) [in bold] above

"Among those chosen by the Appointments Committee are: Pastor John Smith who represents the Christian community; Rajkumarie Singh, the Hindu community; and Shaykh Moeenul Hack from the Muslim community; Norris Witter, Labour; Ravindra Dev, Private Sector organisations; Gomattie Kalicharran, youth organisations; Ruth Howard, women’s organisations; Peter Persaud, Amerindian groups; Barrington Braithwaite, African groups; and Neaz Subhan, Indian group."

Five out of the 10 names are Indo-Guyanese. Peter Persaud is mixed and pro-PPP, as are most of the appointees.

Ravi Dev has an Indo bias.

This updated Ethnic Relations will be just another PPP tool serving PPP partisan interests.

"President Ramotar believes that the ERC would be vital in this respect and serve as a deterrent to those political interests and groups that may want to push the race card and make racially destructive statements during the election period."

The only party that's pushing the race card right now is the PPP.

PPPites on GNI are running non-stop with scare-mongering, warning Indos against possible Black violence and a return to Burnhamism.

Ravi Dev was often quoted as a Hero for the AFC cause.

What happened so suddenly ?

Respectable Guyanese do not wat to be identified with AFC losers. Gerhard is another example of a Guyanese who fled the AFC after revelations of massive fraud and corruption in the AFC.

Ravi Dev, is a class act, he's bright and more educated than all the fools put together on GNI. It is time for him to serve his country of which non you have done or is doing. Politics makes good bed fellows. Ravi left Guyana many years ago for USA to study and after which he returned home, he could have stayed in US and done much better, let us look in the MIRROR.

KP, is he now aligned with the PPP/C? There was never a word from him on the massive human rights violations the PPP had committed against the nation; he carped fanatically on the Indian security dilemma.

No one is questioning Ravi Dev's academic achievement.

He is a class act in that regard, but he is also Indo-centric and has found common ground with the Indo-dominated PPP.

Politics makes good bed fellows? I guess Ravi Dev is in bed with House of Israel thug Joe Hamilton, Good and Green reject Kwame McKoy, and ex-PNC thug Lumumba. Freedom House has strange bed fellows.

You're only saying this because Ravi has sold out his principles to the PPP.

KP is a डरपोक darpok. When confronted, he runs and hides.

Very cogently put my friend.....a smart summary of Ravi Dev indeed.

THE PPP LIKES TO KEEP their enemies close.

This merely confirms the extreme hatred that the PPP has for Afro Guyanese.  On a visit to Guyana I listened to Ravi Dev's radio program.  He was scoffing at the notion that Afro Guyanese had made any meaningful contribution to Guyana, and was portraying them as a violent group.

This acts as confirmation for what the Chronicle said about blacks. 

My opinions matter in so far as they are sincerely held by me, informed by facts, and can withstand the scrutiny of reason.

From the feedback I get from writing on GNI, some people do enjoy reading my opinions. You're obviously not one of them. I invite you to ignore them. I believe this site has some ignore feature. Ask Cobra.

I am heartily sorry that I belong to a different age. One where I demand a little more in way of rational argument than "apaan jhaat" even where it comes to the political actions of those personally known to me.

Lastly, you seem to not have a problem soliciting my sagacious opinions over the years no matter which state I happened to be in so it seems that even you are of the opinion that my "opinions matter."

Smartipants, please list the contributions made by blacks to Guyana.

I confess, I do not know what Ravi has been up to since like 2003-2004. Many in ROAR left because Ravi has a Napoleon complex. (Like a serious Napoleon complex). He knows everything. Everyone is else is there to obey and carry out the wishes of the Lord Maximum Leader.

If he said such things, Id' be disappointed. I don't know how anyone can begin to make the argument that blacks did not make any meaningful contribution to Guyana. Also, why would they want to.

Can you tell us who are these Indians who are natural allies to the legitimate grievances of Afro Guyanese?  Aside from Freddie Kissoon I haven't seen too many. 

I now see some who pretend to be as they seek to use blacks in their battle against the PPP.  Yes they define ethnic exclusion as purely the fault of the PPP, when it goes further than that.  The premise is that the end of the PPP and all is solved.

Ravi Dev is a tribalist, and there is no place for a tribalist at the head of an organization which is supposed to be advancing solutions to ensure that no one is excluded from opportunity for ethnic reasons alone.  I bet if David Hinds was put to head this you and others would be screaming. 

No one who thinks that he is a member of a separate "nation", which Ravi used to think he was, has the tools to lead a nation that is not only multi ethnic/cultural, but one where the fastest growing segment are people of mixed ancestry.

Is Ravi Dev going to deal with that corporate executive who refuses to hire and/or promote blacks?  I think not.  He thinks that giving APNU a few crumbs and the problem is solved.  Afro Guyanese don't need affirmative action.  They just don't want to be held hostage by certain people who think that only one group of people are fit for leadership in the public and PRIVATE sectors.

In fact even warning about playing the race card is in fact playing the race card when one considers that APNU never speaks to issues from a purely Afro Guyanese perspective.  Among the well known politicians that role is now held by Nigel Hughes, and David Hinds.  Neither have been known to make the type of negative comments about Indians that Ravi Dev was making about blacks in the 90s.

Banna, you get Ravi Dev pegged to a T.  I do not like hyprocrites, myself.

Ravi Dev made those racist comments and in fact did extensive research on the predisposition to violence embedded within Afro Guyanese culture. He ignores the very high levels of Indian on Indian violence which is a well known feature of rural Guyana.  Or the fact that most of the sexual exploitation of young Indian females comes at the hands of the same types of Indians who are now being jailed for corruption, but who in Guyana literally get away with rape.

'

No Ravi paints the only sinner as the Afro Guyanese.

Painting Indians as saints of course.  Those of us who were alive in 1964 would find extremely hilarious in how he paints Indians as meek lambs.  Indeed Eusi Kwayana wrote a whole response to Ravi Dev in his booklet "There is no Guilty Race". 

It is the likes of Ravi who peddle "black man bad, Indian good, so black man has to apologize".  A test that I have for Indians, who claim to sympathize with Afro Guyanese is the degree to which they debunk that nonsense.  In the 1961-64 BOTH races were violent and BOTH races suffered from this violence.

The fact of this PPP appointment, as it seeks to make life hell for blacks means that they are in full agreement with Ravi.

This I am sure is another of the dastardly acts which they are rushing through, having prorogued parliament.

Regardless as to your opinions of Ravi Dev to most Afro Guyanese the man is a racist, and clearly not one seen to be objective.

One of the functions of the ERC is to arbitrate if there is evidence of systematic discrimination.  Suppose some Afro Guyanese accuse a manager in some corporation of being racist, and they bring evidence of this, do you expect Ravi Dev to be objective? 

The mere fact that he is a bias for Indians suggests a bias AGAINST blacks.  I wouldn't have had a problem were he a board member, but to head ERC.   PURE NONSENSE and indicative of PPP hostility to the claims of Afro Guyanese.

I agree. The ERC Chair and the overwhelming majority of Commissioners must not only be free from party bias and race bias but also be perceived by all to be so as well. I'm not so sure these people exist in Guyana though.

Ravi does not command the confidence of blacks. And this appointment like so many others should be non-controversial. It isn't and it won't be. Also, the PPP would never have agreed to appoint Ravi without a promise to toe the official line in all matters.

Trotman can technically hold up the appointment as he has to formally summon the Commissioners to elect the Chair. I doubt he would do that as he is kind of a PPP poodle himself and also a friend of Ravi.

this is Ravi Dev stirring the pot [pre-election] in his KN column of May 15, 2011:

. . . in my estimation, Indians will remain in 2011 with the PPP. A bird in the hand and all that.
And the opposition will once again blame them for being racists; for which transgression, violence may be inflicted.

PPP chair of ERC in-waiting . . . lord help us!

Ravi in true form.  The first I heard him he was claiming that violence is embedded in the psyche of Afro Guyanese. 

A caller objected and told him of all the contributes which blacks had made to Guyana.  Ravi laughed and scoffed at the fact that it was the labor of blacks which was responsible for the drainage and sea defense systems attributed to the Dutch.  I guess a bunch of Dutch men left Amsterdam to actually do the work.

They might as well appoint David Duke of KKK infamy to head the ERC as far as most non Indians (and even some Indians) are concerned.

I don't think that quote is somehow "racist." It's pretty reasonable political analysis (albeit cynical) based upon past history. And by history I mean the past decade and the several decades prior to that one.

That aside, he is not suited to the post. However, neither was his predecessor, Edghill. The ERC is another well meaning toothless body that simply creates yet another call on the public purse.

It is said that Ravi is in charge of running Guyana Times. I have seen a very troubling and divisive trend in the focus of the Times in the past two years. Essentially the Times is promoting the the "don't split the votes" strategy by emphasizing that Indians are victims and blacks are bad. The regular brigade of letter writers are busy with the usual rape of Indian women in GNS, Burnham took away their white flour roti and aloo, and many other crass strategies. About a week ago one of the usual suspects - apparently a newly minted PhD - lamented how Burnham took away his aloo and roti. A respectable editor would have noted that Blacks ate as much white flour as Indians, possibly more. A respectable editor - worth his salt on the ERC - would have noted that Forbes was trying import substitution industrialization, if worked would have led to the formation of businesses that would have improved the entry country. If we are going to argue let's do so over the scientific and historic merit of the policy. A serious editor would have noted that women are sexually harassed across the ethnic divide and even in the US military. Or produce some data showing that Indian women were systematically raped in GNS.  In light of his appointment to the ERC, I believe he needs to clarify whether he is indeed behind the editorial contents of Guyana Times. We never get an acknowledgement that there were two PNCs. One from 1964 to 1985 and the other from 1985 to 1992.

I agree that the thesis of the ethnic security dilemmas is a valid tool for predicting how voters vote in Guyana. I have tried to clarify the thesis by showing it has economic roots. Only then it makes sense. I don't accept the notion Indians fear Africans because of the army when the same army has been most subservient to the PPP. It was Hoyte who made an explicit break with party paramountcy and he instructed the army they are to be removed from politics. It was PNC part 2 under Hoyte that jailed and hanged the hooligans from House of Israel, only to be subsequently freed by PPP. Hoyte also stopped the state funding of PNC groups. Which of the politicians today would do something like that to undermine his own political position, thinking he was doing the best for the nation? There is much more. 

"racist" [your term] is the least of the sins here in the lead up to elections

but u already knew that, rite?

The whole plot is the "Indian good, and black man bad so has to apologize" mantra that Ravi Dev and the PPP peddle.

Every honest Guyanese knows the truth of your first paragraph.

I think Ravi like many of his generation have an inner conflict (especially the educated). They have faculties of reason that must tell them that this doctrine of mutually assured destruction cannot and should not go on but I suspect there is still some vast reservoirs of deep seated anger over 1964 to 1992.

Look at Kneeru for instance complaining about his vivid memories of a long ago meal of curry breadfruit he attributes to Burnham, the PNC, and therefore Blacks.

It may seem funny to me, but it kind of indicates that these guys are still pretty friggin mad about it.

Breadfruit is extremely delicious boiled and fried. I don't see why someone needed curried breadfruit when boiled & fried + fish curry is great. BTW I had the latter at the Hyatt Regency in TT last Nov. They say that's probably a 5 star hotel. CaribJ will know whether it's indeed 5 star.

I must disagree with you. He is an acerbic racist. He states exactly what he intends. He said blacks should be in their corner and so should others and while conversation should be amicable we are incompatible because of culture.

When asked if he would have a black person in ROAR he said no. I also know some of his acolytes and helpers. Some of these men are caustically racist and having interacted with them left me convinced I met some vile racists.

The man is smart. He is also an opportunist. He dissimulates beautifully on why he thinks we are different and it is not in the traditional sense of phenotypic expression. He thinks our difference is cultural competition and culture is almost like DNA with minor errors in millions of copies giving it eons of life span and almost unbridgeable gap among various peoples. It also gives us smarts and Indian came amply provided with this special ingredient. Blacks not so much. He believes we can only speak for ourselves and not for others of a culture not  ours that would be like dolphin speak compared to human speak.

Whatever you know of him does not vibe with my understanding of him. I have a paper I wrote on his messaging techniques and who he is I wrote for VJ Puran a long time ago. I will try to find it. I was trying to convince him why I think the fellow is not someone I care to tie bundle with. Puran felt a 3 party was necessary and saw in Ravi a chance to split the vote and create a non zero sum game as the AFC has done. I wanted to tell why I thought that was needed but Ravi is not the Man I want in the middle.

I agree with you completely. Peter Persaud is to Amerindian what oil is to water. His position is clearly that of the administration.

The above as our ERC board is one of the reason why we will definitely cascade into a race war and it would not be black people compulsion for violence but the insidious racism of a few Indians in the PPP hierarchy poisoning our racial harmony. They intend to massage our difference for their own ends and care little of the hurt to the society as long as their gullets are primed full of foie gras at the state's expense. These are some of the greediest bastards ever.

The Indian population is down to 40% and as such there should be 4 out of 10.