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Senior Pressman for the Ministry of Info (29 years old)
RON VAN DYKE Thursday 9/3/78
-he said that he had gotten the “20 Meter” article” from his Minister (Shirley [Field-Ridley]) with a note on it “Cde was this published in Guyana, Washington Embassy
-he said he had no argument with the content of this article (Because we started to make explanations because we thought he might object to Guyana portrayed as primitive
We talked about our article (Peter Fernanz) not being published and was there a problem with this? He said not that he knows of as long as the articles represent a true picture of a developing country and weren’t sensational/ we said that we certainly felt this one did
-he said ‘well the press tends to be rather cautious/ they are afraid of losing their jobs/ they are unnecessarily cautious. They know the govt rules the media but Ron can’t read all their material and he feels they can use their own judgement of how to interpret the regulations of the govt.
-he said there is no problem of shaving our material in the media
-we said that we had heard from 2 sources that there was govt. standoff on us and they were rather reliable sources/ he said he’d check with this/ he’d check with his Minister, and with [Desmond] Hoyte (who’s responsible for situations in his region), and with [Vibert] Mingo and he’d give us an answer
-he called right while we were there and talked to someone at the paper/ he said “Why didn’t you print this article on Peter Fernanz” (he sounded a little pissed at the writer), he said “well you should have talked it over with your editor”
-he said ‘how often do you receive material from PT”
-he said that we had the right to know why it was refused and they should have told us/ he said they do that e for the PM or anyone, they let them know why the material isn’t suitable
-he said it is general “fear” in themedia
re HOYTE
-we mentioned that we were surprised by the article as it appeared to be an official position coming from Hoyte
-Ron said he had wondered too about it / if it had been discussed in Cabinet or not / he thought it probably would be if Hoyte wrote the letter to the editor / he said Hoyte was “short-tempered” and probably doesn’t like introduction of a “different element” in the district
-he said that we shouldn’t pay any attention to Hoyte/ he takes a “special interest” in matters in his area (I haven’t hardly found one person who likes Hoyte except for McCoy who said he’s a good minister/ most people find him temperamental
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SOCIOLOGICAL PROBLEM
-he said that people in the Interior have alwyas been alienated to Georgetown it’s like a separate country, so far to get to/ have their own norms and standards
-we should be integrating / form a solid unit (the whole country one unit) (we explained that this is our goal, that we are integrating in a number of ways/ that our school has been praised by the Dept of Education for teaching socialist concepts and that we teach about the PNC and why it’s guiding the country better than PPP, about people coming in for medical care at all hours (staying for long periods of time in Jonestown and Georgetown), about clearing a Cassava field for our neighbor/ self-help projects, active involvement in PNC, sharing of movies with Kaituma/ exchange of info like herbs (the expertize from AmerIndians), help in general from ministers and govt. the exchange of skills etc. ) – he said that we could offer some help in helping people become better human beings (thru PNC), and suggested we help in that way / I told them we already had a person elected to the PNC to help in terms of productivity etc and he thought that was a good idea
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RON VAN DYKE CONT
-he said that he was in Poland (he travels a lot) and they had heard of our work in Poland/ they had asked if there were many Americans in Guyana and Van Dyke said not very many and the person in Poland said, “that’s not correct there is quite a number”
DEVALUATION OF MONEY
-he said that the money will not devaluate
Van Dyke said that when he was in the US when relations with the US and Guyana were bad, he was locked up and had to stay in jail 6 hours until it was worked out/ they locked him up because of Guyana being socialist and even when Van Dyke said he was on official business they wouldn’t let him go until it was officially cleared by the Guyanese govt.
Re Gorge Luna (Prinsa Latina, Correspondent for Cuba and Caribbean countries)
-he said Georege had lived in Cuba most of his life