Daily Black Immigrant News
If you missed the recent commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the inaugural Caribbean Arts Festival (Carifesta, held in Guyana between August 25 and September 15, 1972), then you really missed out on this “fast-winding virtual world the human species”. “Virtual world?” you mumble, imagining your kids hooked on the games on the laptops and smartphones they’re forever attached to.
Well…yes and no. THAT virtual world has sent its living tentacles beyond Gen Z, and even roped in scumbags like your Eyewitness. Now, seniors – anyone over 35!! – may not fall into the Metaverse VIRTUAL REALITY trap that prompted Facebook to change its name to “Meta,” but they’ve been tempted to dip their toes into the ether through Zoom and all those platforms that let you talk to each other from all over the world!! These platforms give a whole new meaning to the term “talking heads”!! Anyway, these very smart people kept the commemoration on Zoom and wrote about it in their very smart local daily. One thing that immediately stood out to your eyewitness (maybe because it was at the top of the article??!!) was a world map showing – through dots of various sizes – where viewers and participants originated from.
It verified the local anecdotal claim that Guyanese are everywhere”!! Well, almost!! Although there was one point each in Japan and Alaska, there was not a single one in the entire continent of Africa – where most of our Caribbean people originated from!! What gives?? Your eyewitness knows that there are many Guyanese in that particular “motherland”. So au gives amnesia about their ole mud land?? Say it ain’t so!!
But back to the commemoration. There was a spot for Guyana, but NOT as big as the big blob that threatened to cover the entire East Coast of the United States!! Even the drop in French Guiana was bigger than the one in Guyana?? So your Eyewitness was wondering why there is a distinct (studied?) lack of interest in the land where the subject was held – Carifesta 1 –?? Was it because the memory of the man whose baby it was – Burnham – was too painful for most locals?? After all, WE have to live with his (smothered) legacy!!
For your witness, he always wondered how Carifesta enthusiasts – such as Kamau Braithwaite of Barbados – could live with themselves after validating Burnham for his “vision”! Would they have met Martin Carter, who had ousted Burnham and the PNC government in 1970 – after attending the meeting of Caribbean intellectuals to plan the festival earlier that year? But the great man wrote bitterly: “The mouth is the mouth of the hand that feeds it”!!
… agitation
But virtual platforms do not only seek to INFORM. No Siree, Bob!! They are being taught MISINFORMATION, more than anything else!! Just last week, the NY Times published an article titled “A Journey into Social Media Misinformation,” which explained with dismay that its reporters concluded, “Disinformation and misinformation on social media have only gotten worse since the 2016 election “!! Sadly, in Guyana, most of the misinformation is from political partisans.
Another study shows that social platforms have been “used to promote instability, spread political conflict and call for violence. There is some good advice one commenter gave your eyewitness about information on social media: “Who’s posting it? What information are they sharing? What is their purpose? In terms of who’s posting it, you want to look at the qualifications and the potential for bias.” In Guyana, we should not be surprised that partisans are distorting their “facts” to support their party. “Fact checking” by going to other sources, who does that?? There is “confirmation bias” that we all suffer from. What is the role of government??
…politicians
The time is coming when we will never see these politicians in the flesh asking for our votes. Their holographic images would hang in our living rooms telling us where to put that “X”!!Scary huh??
NewsAmericasNow.com
