THE CHRISTIAN PROTEST AGAINST CASINO GAMBLING PRESENTS NO THREAT TO NATIONAL SECURITY

Context:

In 2007 Guyana's Home Affairs Minister claimed that Christian protests over casino gambling represented a “threat to national security”. A letter captioned “The Christian protest against casino gambling presents no threat to national security” was later published by SN (see http://www.stabroeknews.com/index.pl/article?id=56511661).

The day after this story was published, Stabroek News lost its advertising from government. Since then, Stabroek News has changed its website, and eventually relocated and reassigned many documents (see the new version of the story above at http://www.stabroeknews.com/?p=552). They have also regained government advertising.What is interesting is what SN is now choosing to leave out in the reconstituted documents at the new website (see yellow highlights in story below published on January 14th 2007).

What, exactly, is the new focus of Stabroek News?


THE CHRISTIAN PROTEST AGAINST CASINO GAMBLING PRESENTS NO THREAT TO NATIONAL SECURITY
January 14, 2007

Dear Editor,

There were three major revelations this week as the casino gambling debacle unfolded.

The first was the obvious effort by Stabroek News to carry as balanced a report as possible on the issues unfolding inside and outside of Parliament, and their middle-page spreads on January 11 and 12 were as much a testimony of good reporting as it was of the surprising degree of latitude given by SN’s Editor to reporters Miranda LaRose, Keisha McCammon and Andre Haynes.

The second was the stark contrast provided by the statesmanship and awareness Sheila Holder against the noticeably vindictive opportunism of Ministers Clement Rohee and Desrey Fox. The former translated a statement at a press conference of January 10 that the Christian Community would do “anything within the bounds of Christian conduct” to mean that they had become “a threat to national security”. This would be laughable were it not, as Holder opined, “predictable”.

Mr. Rohee willfully mischaracterized the Christian position as carefully outlined in (i) press releases to seven media houses, (ii) a sixteen-page document on the Church’s rationale for its position, also delivered to seven media houses, and (iii) a six-page Private Petition to the entire House, with an odd mixture of utterances that demand further scrutiny. He seemed completely oblivious to the fact that he alone shared these opinions in parliamentary session, or that he saw “demons” where the media saw none. Christians focused on the evidence, while Mr. Rohee offered none. This is unacceptable and disingenuous.

Mr. Rohee is challenged to show a single word and sentence in these submissions that hinted at a “security threat”, or that represented an occasion where the Minister was justified in acting or speaking the way he did.

Mr. Rohee himself, like the Prime Minister, is challenged to show a single “theological” or “doctrinal” point in any of the submissions by the church to Guyana’s Parliamentarians. If they cannot, then they owe an apology to 57% of the population. Neither of them, quite frankly, appears capable of that simple task.

But perhaps the level of Mr. Rohee’s imagination can only be appreciated by his careful omission of the fact that the Christian community had circumspectly submitted to the Guyana Police Force several days in advance a request for permission to congregate in peaceful protest at Parliament Buildings, and that its Draft Position Paper was submitted to the Guyana Police for scrutiny after request. It apparently passed with flying colours, but Mr. Rohee envisaged barricades as the dramatically appropriate response. It was outlandish and inconsiderate, and spanks of an immaturity that ought not to reside in the office of Minister of Home Affairs.

The Final Position Paper is still available for the general public.

The final development was the fact that it was the Christian community alone, albeit with spirited verbal support from Muslims, which sought to develop a new standard of democratic interaction with Parliament by being brave enough to document, defend and circulate to all concerned the enormity of the social experiment that is being played out in Guyana through the potential of thirty (yes thirty) casinos, since the Bill accommodates up to three per administrative region … and more if the Minister’s unlimited power is used.

In an attempt at true consultation, and to bring realism to the consultative process, every stakeholder available benefited from the Church’s documentation and invitation, and in the process the Christian community accommodated “democracy” far more than Mr. Rohee’s scorn ever did. Surely an appeal to the Commomwealth Secretary-General will show that every action taken by the Christian community was well within the scope of the good parliamentary procedure that the "Needs Assessment of the Guyana National Assembly 2005” report by Sir Michael Davies accommodates.

Dr. Desrey Fox will soon have enough on her hands to explain her atrocious remarks in the Assembly to the Christian indigenous population, but should now concern herself, as Minister in the Ministry of Education, with explaining the following concerns the GOIP obviously had:

* In jurisdictions much more capable than ours numerous research studies and other statistical information have identified a strong link between the recent increase in legalized gambling and increased societal problems. These problems include increased bankruptcies, suicides, addictions, divorce, child abuse, domestic violence and the exploitation of the poor.

* According to University of California-San Diego sociologist Dr. David Phillips, Las Vegas “displays the highest levels of suicide in the nation, both for residents of Las Vegas and for visitors to that setting.” In Atlantic City, N.J., Phillips found that “abnormally high suicide levels for visitors and residents appeared only after gambling casinos were opened.”

* In Gulfport, Mississippi, suicides increased by 213% (from 24 to 75) in the first two years after casinos arrived. In neighboring Biloxi, suicide attempts jumped by 1,000% (from 6 to 66) in the first year alone.

* That according to the Bill, all a member of the vulnerable indigenous population has to do to gain entry into a casino in his or her locale is to rent a room first … thereby becoming a “paying patron”.

* That she has ignored every part of the Christian reference to INSCR 2006 in their Position Paper. This is unacceptable from a Minister of Education, and she does great disservice to the persons in her charge.

So, while Lumumba may have already counted the “one billion dollars” that he expects from casino gambling, we should ask him: “Now what do you see as the social cost?” … especially since suicides and the abandonment of the rule of law, are hot topics in Guyana.

The question is, can he, or Desrey Fox, see or count that far?

Yours faithfully
Roger Williams

14th January 2007

Banning Bounty Killer and Movado: Season of Madness in Guyana

Publish Date: May 8, 2008.

Original location: http://www.scribd.com/doc/2811353/Banning-Bounty-Killer-Movado-Season-of-madness-in-Guyana
The highlighted gold text shows the parts of the letter that were deleted by Stabroek News.

Dear Editor,

Guyana’s newest season of madness is at hand. How long will the brightest minds among us be silent? The noble aspirations of a maturing democracy are being sacrificed on the altar of less-than-subtle anti-Christian political positions and gay militancy!

Guyana’s Minister of Home Affairs, Clement Rohee, is unenvied in this mission. It must be no joy to find yourself catapulted to the dizzying heights of de-facto point-man for the effort.

In January 2007, Rohee accused Christians (yes, Christians en mass!) of being a “threat to national security” because of their open and clear opposition to casino gambling. The day after a local newspaper published a rebuttal and clarification to the effect that his claim was ridiculous, that newspaper had its quota of government advertisments withdrawn. Coincidence? The withdrawal has never been explained outside of peripheral references to “circulation” and no evidence in that regard was offered. The reinstatement appears to coincide with a new and very militant editorial policy at SN. In what direction? To what end?

Not to be outdone by his efforts of a few days earlier, Rohee thereafter joined his parliamentary colleague Desiree Fox in making the most atrocious statements against Christians on the casino gambling issue. A private Presidential “apology” and promise to the heads of the Christian Community that it would not happen again did not erase the refusal of both parliamentarians to apologize for their ridiculous statements. The comments still remain on the official record for parliament.

Gay militancy has in the past launched an unprecedented attack on Black artistes visiting Guyana, the clear message being that their opposition to homosexual criminality and deathstyle (see the law review “Child Molestation and the Homosexual Movement”) is to be silenced. This has usually meant that artistic licence has to be silenced, and Rohee has just accommodated that endeavour. The lesson of Stephanie Phillips’ article “How Britain is turning Christianity into a Crime” is ignored. And Ted Byfield’s account of Canadian Richard Kempling’s trial by terror in the name of human rights (“Only a few Defended the Teacher”) in of all places Canada falls on deaf ears. The story of Buju Banton (“Boom Bye Bye’s Inconvenient Truth Part 2”) is a local illustration of the technique. Jamaican reggae superstars seem to be the only ones who dare to confront gay militancy these days!

Minister of Human Services Priya Manickchand in her otherwise noble effort at the “Stamp It Out” campaign against domestic and sexual violence, refuses to acknowledge the role that homosexuality, prostitution and pornography play in the violence against women and children. The Ministry considers these fundamental issues “too complex”, and apparently ignores the evidence of the vulnerability of Guyanese children at two local schools in the online article “An Initial Assessment of the Stamp It out Consultation”.

Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) is forced off Guyanese television after six socially positive years of broadcasting to Guyanese, and its rival Daystar follows a similar fate a few months after. Paradoxically, the Inter Religious Organization makes no comment denouncing the move, apparently accommodates and approves the most riotous music in its stead being played at this hour on STVS 21/72, and a querulous IRO-Chairman at a meeting called at Red House claims “not to see the relevance of an IRO statement for the reinstatement of TBN”. In the meantime, the same person is appointed to the executive of an “Inter Religious TV Channel”, following a “Presidential” direction. This is folly and recklessness inhabiting the same space.

The air is thick with rumour that a very public Christian Good Friday event in the centre of Georgetown’s business district was paid for by cheques issued from the Office of the President. Who organized this event? Who spoke at that forum? Can someone clarify /verify this?

Now Movado is accused of being a “security threat” for absolutely no reason, much as the church was in 2006, and Bounty Killer is vilified in the by now very pro-gay inserts and letter-licences in, of all newspapers, the Stabroek News.

Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee on April 29 announces that “Bounty Killer is banned from the jurisdiction”. He offers no formal written statement for us to dissect, but leaves the justification for the obvious sabotage of Bounty Killer’s "Ignition Concert" is in no other place than the staff writers of Stabroek News, who unwittingly intertwine gay militant explanations to the unfortunate events of a night of sabotage amid lax security. They even manage to include the troubled black village of Buxton in the concoction, blaming it on Bounty Killer even after we know it was the local DJs that mouthed those unfortunate words.

Astonishingly, there is no public reprimand for the Police who fired shots into the air to make an already bad situation worse. No attempt was apparently made to arrest the bottle-throwers who were venting at the malfunctioning audio set.

The Stabroek News’ “The Scene” article of April 26 then relegates the press release by the promoters correcting the obvious inaccuracies in their previous report to pages 6C and 8C while its derogation of Bounty Killer gets Page 2C bold-face billing and cartoon. Is this the new direction of Stabroek News?

And 56% of the population still doesn’t get it! And the brightest and best in our country continue to say nothing!

And it’s all being done in the name of gay militancy! And Rohee offers himself up as chief facilitator to the feeding frenzy that will now follow. The Minister’s was an incredible (but by now familiar) over-reaction that pandered to the sentiments of the gay lobby. They will now claim to own his actions … and words. And you will find no local newspaper editorial, or “The Scene” article, advocating the online law review “Child Moleststion and the Homosexual Movement”, or advocating that it is child molestation, pedophilia and pornography that need to be banned in Guyana. The Home Affairs Minister does NOT list these as the crimes against that Guyanese people that he is working on. Now gay militancy leads worldwide efforts in this regard.

Bounty Killer and Movado were just easy targets for the Home Affairs Minister, much as the church was in 2007.

Yours faithfully

Roger Williams

May 5, 2008