By GHK Lall- It pleased to see that Pres Ali took my little words of advice on Venezuela in the Kiskadee Watch, the Village Voice, and Kaieteur News. It required that much effort, for as many Guyanese as possible, including Guyana’s headman, to get the message. Reach out to Venezuela in its time of trial and trauma.
Share the sympathy and fraternity of the Guyanese people to the Venezuelan people. The president did and I commend him for momentary statesmanship. Those shouldn’t be a rarity. Statesmanship should be so frequent in Excellency Ali’s repertoire that it becomes ordinary. There’s major work to be done. In his sharing with La Presidente Delcy Rodriguez a few cracks appeared in the seams of his message. Prompting this kind counsel to Pres Ali.
In trying to register as being on top of things, a man for all eventualities, Pres Ali often tries too hard, says too much. Overtrying leads him to landing overboard. Embarrassing himself. It pains. Must be much more painful for Guyanese to watch and hear their president deliver yet another malapropism. A booboo that encourages the boo birds to flock and feast, have loads of fun. I have heard of reciprocity. Never have I heard of retroprocity.
Now thanks to Pres Ali, I am fully acquainted with ‘retroprocity’ which came to life relative to the Venezuelan earthquakes. I tell my fellow Guyanese two things: daily I learn something new from the PPP. It doesn’t matter that most of it is what I am better off not hearing, reading, or seeing. What matters are these encounters. I make the best use of them, for better or worse. Time for a few examples.
First, the PPP Govt and its various spokespeople celebrated by condemning how I wrote too ‘fancy’. So ‘up there’ that I left regular Guyanese out there -in the wilderness. I listened, learned. Developed comfort employing the language of the lunch bucket man, the layman, and the man who reads less and understands less. Thus, a surprising number in the PPP traditional base-diehards to disappointed-have come forward to say: banna, sumbadee gah fuh taak, an yuh is de maan fuh doo dah.
I give credit where it is due, which belongs solely to the PPP of Drs. Ali and Jagdeo. Has pluses and minuses, with both taken in stride. Now that the entire PPP punditocracy starts their day with an obsession to read what I share, rage erupts, daggers raise. Their people are being exposed to real truths, the full truths, and hard truths. No good deed goes unpunished. I mosey along.
Second, just when I left behind words like reciprocity, there came the wakeup call with a bucket of ice water: “retroprocity.’ A fine beginning to one’s day, compliments of Guyana’s wordsmith, Dr. Irfaan Ali. Pres Ali always impresses as wanting to be seen as a hipster, a jazzy hep cat. So, he went retro. Thus, when retroprocity first reached me, the interpretation was going backward to go forward.
Or, as that Shakespearean American, General O.P. Smith, famously insisted in the Korean War, during the hasty withdrawal to the safety of Seoul: “Retreat, hell! We are just attacking in a different direction.” Enlightening words, for sure; better ones, still unencountered. From retreat to reciprocity to retroprocity. Keep mind open. Learn daily. I have plans for that word coming up. Must recognize Dr. Jagdeo, keep in consideration.
For third, Bossman Jagdeo insisted that the way of the world is digital. Hence, when Stabroek News went down, it dawned that digital just had to be. Now, there’s Kiskadee Watch. Profuse thanks to the PPP Govt’s chief decisionmaker, Dr. Jagdeo. He pointed me and other Guyanese in the right direction. Digital he said. Digital, it is. With Kiskadee Watch, now Guyana’s latest digital media presence.
Last, as a tribute to Pres Ali, Guyana’s Linguistic Master and Wordfinder, I will include retroprocity in my next book. The title is revealing: GHK Lall’s New 22nd Century English Dictionary.
