BB-1-u-1
Sharon Amos
Bunny Mann (visit to our house when he first came in to town) Debbie & Sharon
– he was cordial at the house, told me that IMF [International Monetary Fund] did go thru/I asked if the US had given Guyana IMF loan and he said that the US hadn’t had much to do with it, if the US had something to do with it, they might not have gotten it but he said that the US wasn’t always the deciding factor
– he said there is another fund/made up of wealthy nations that help Caribbean nations that would be helping Guyana
– he said no devaluation required for 1 or 2 years on IMF
– no initial strings on the other aid, at least not that were obvious tho he said there are always some strings on aid
– I encouraged him to visit the project, talked about Paula’s heart condition; he said that he didn’t know if he could arrange to come in
– told him we’d let him know when we got radio contact/he said anytime of the nite or day was OK
– he returned in the evening around 11 PM/wanted to talk to Paula/I told him that there was no radio contact and we’d call him in the afternoon when we had contact
– he told me he wanted to talk to me for awhile in the car/I said OK just a minute and then ran upstairs to get Debbie to go with me
– Debbie and I came down/he said he wanted us to go with him for a drink to his house
– we both went with him and had Pepsis/he was quite friendly and we chatted about PT
– he said our PR in SF was poor, that we were too much on the defensive and didn’t have enough offensive PR/that we should hire someone in a PR firm who knows how to get to the press and can present us in a positive light
– he said he talked to one of the reporters who printed about Kathy Hunter and the man admitted Kathy was an alcoholic but printed the story anyway and Bunny made it look like he defended us hotly
– he said he’s practically a member of PT and that some people won’t even criticize PT in front of him because of this
– he was very lonely/didn’t want Debbie and I to leave/said he felt comfortable talking to us/that he has a lot of acquaintances but not real friends and wanted us to stay overnight (almost got insistent about it)/finally I told him Debbie had her period and he took us home but he wasn’t mad
– he said even he would sleep on the couch and we could have the bed and he’d take us home in the morning
– anyway he took us home
– he’s reading Decent Interval by Frank Snepp
– he made a comment about Americans being so arrogant and that when he traveled to Europe he stayed clear of Americans
– about the US policy in Angola, he said the US has made a reversal and has backed off and is acting like a friend to Angola but that is just bidding [biding] time and not necessarily optimistic as US was getting too much resistance on Angola
– he said that people in Jonestown need to be able to come to Georgetown and have a change of pace/they need more freedom and Jonestown is too confining – being one place. He made a comment about our members not drinking (except for [Jim] MacElvane) – liked all the SF people he met. They fed him real good – gumbo and nice food at the Temple and he liked them. He took them out too.
– said our PR in town isn’t good in that we spend so much time in people’s offices (I told him that we had open houses, Debbie said it was because of his suggestion we did this, and we had people for dinner and went out to occasions also)
– tho I mentioned we still didn’t get invited much socially but we had people over here a lot and told him that our young people came in frequently for concerts going to clubs to play and getting around town
(OVER)
BB-1-u-2
– he said tho aside from him and Paula we didn’t date with Guyanese/we said that wasn’t true/ we have local dating with our members and in Georgetown also
– I kept encouraging him to go see Paula in Jonestown as he kept saying he was used to Paula and didn’t think he’d stay long in Georgetown without her being here. He said that the problem with his going to Jonestown would be that it would be embarrassing because everyone would know and since he just flew into Guyana that would look bad
– he said that’s one thing the PM doesn’t tolerate, that kind of embarrassment and everyone knows him, Bonny, the pilots, everyone/he said if he were around a few weeks and then flew in it wouldn’t be so bad but to just come in and then fly up there would be bad
– in regard to Mrs. [Clare] Bouquet that wrote him, he said he wrote her an answer that seemed to satisfy her as she didn’t hear from her again
– Bonny has a few friends like Neil Chung and someone in the States who he used to room with in some other country and they’d give parties/he looks up this man now and the man is very nice to him
– he said Bonny did [said] that the man at the newspaper that he talked to about Kathy Hunter “thought he was talking to some nigger”/but Bonny said that he, Bonny, was more than a match for the man but it still didn’t do any good
– he said he got the nickname Bonny because one he is like a bunny rabbit hopping from hole to hole and another because he’s bonnie
– he said he met this woman somewhere/they were listening to someone sitting at a club but she wanted him to take her home and it bothered him because she knew he was an Ambassador and was trying to get an invitation to a certain social milieu
– he said PT does good things but shouldn’t talk about JJ so much but should talk about the movement/said Paula and others talk about JJ like he’s a Saint/he said he talked to JJ and felt JJ seemed like a very reasonable person but he shouldn’t have been talked about like he was a saint
– he’s still upset about Maria Katsaris, said she acted like a fool and that was bad for the collective, bringing the lawyer etc. with her when she went to see her dad/said her dad has this image of being in psychology and if he had just been able to see her and find her in good shape, it would have been good but instead she made usch [such] a fuss and kept changing the time she’d seen her dad and all that/
– we told him about the sexual molestation and how Maria felt/he didn’t seem concerned at all/said he couldn’t molest her with Bonny present and that Bonny had promised he’d use any force necessary to see that she was protected (and thus it was a personal affront to him that Maria brought her own reinforcements)
– I said JJ doesn’t control people/Maria was autistic when she first came to PT, JJ can’t tell people what to do tho he encouraged Maria to see her dad.
– he said it was ridiculous how Maria acted and that she obviously didn’t think of the cause
– he said that (I may be repetitious here, I am not sure) that we shouldn’t talk about JJ so much but about the cause as we are a good cause and do good things
16/7/78
– he was very mad because Paula had left the house/she had an argument because he had stayed out all night and he was supposed to take her out and she thought she should act offended about this
– Paula invited us to come to lunch, Debbie and myself, and he was supposed to join us and he didn’t come by 1:30 and so we went in the car to visit Mrs. Bollers [Eileen Bollers, wife of Chief Justice Harold Bollers] (she wanted Martin to visit her son)
– Bunny came by the Bollers house and Paula told me to go out and talk to him/he was pissed because she had left and he wanted someone there to answer calls as his house is up for rent at $900 and he wanted to set up
BB-1-u-3
Bonnie Mann cont
appointments
– he said something about it at Mrs. Bollers house (I told him he could come up there as I thought he’d be mad if we didn’t invite him up, and I thought maybe it would be good for Mrs. Bollers to see him coming to meet us)
– anyway she was somewhat impressed by him and kind of waited on him to get him just the right drink and spoke to him about things related to the PM (like she heard the PM had a sauna bath)
– Bonny asked her why she didn’t swim in the PM’s pool as she was right across the street/she said she had to wait for an invitation etc.
– Bonny and she discussed such things as was he married, had he brought his wife/no, he said, he said Bollers had handled two of his divorces and might handle a third divorce/said he was bored with Guyanese women so wouldn’t marry a third (she’s Guyanese, Mrs. Bollers)
– he said he was going to take Paula to Barbados to recuperate
– when we left as Bonny was insistent we leave, she said something like “hang on to the girls” or “take good care of the girls” or some such thing and he said something like “I always take care of the girls” (I hope she wasn’t shocked [half line struck out])
– at the house/Bonny wanted Debbie and I to come by the house, they almost had a fight – I sort of got involved in it, making joking remarks and Bonnie mellowed out since we were there
– he kept talking about jealousy/said Paula used the Bollers as an excuse to get out/that he was like Jesus Christ betrayed by Judas and all sorts of semi-joking ridiculous nonsense so I made a big joke out of it
– he said Lucy [likely a code name, perhaps for Debbie Touchette] and I didn’t screw and then the next minute he’d ask if we were leaving to see some men
– he said I have a surplus of energy and it would be better if I had a man and could put it to the right use/I said that I always was energetic even when I was with a man
– he said that Paula used to be that way, pacing all around, but now (because of him) she was a sedate woman
– when he made jokes or remarks about us not dating, I made jokes back, like I’m interviewing right now and I have an ad in the paper (he seems to like that kind of banter)
– at Mrs. Bollers when he mentioned Barbados, he mentioned 3 days (Paula said he had told her a weekend, at the end of the week)/he’s planning to stay one more week
– Paula said she’d prefer not to go, especially alone with him, but would do so if it would help like pricing or whatever
– I guess Bonnie was a little embarrassed as he told Paula to get some money and treat Lucy and me to dinner (Sandy [Cobb Jones] and Liane [Harris] when it as we were out)/she told him she had taken $20 for herself to eat and he said to get some more and treat us
– Paula was to ask Bonnie what kind of speech Bonnie was working on for the PM/Paula had first mentioned that it was a speech when she found out it actually was something for the press or radio to explain that the referendum was over/that it was time to put all the differences aside and work together
– that apparently some of the opposition plans to travel overseas to make speeches [Guyana opposition leader Cheddi] Jagan and others but if they do they will have to pay the consequences
– that they propose a constituent assembly and if that works they will go on to a unity govt. (this it is to avoid a national front govt. right away) – they say it must be more than mingling together 2 principal parties as that wouldn’t produce national unity)
(over)
BB-1-u-4
– by the way he said it was ridiculous that we had bombarded him with literature like the support petition with all those names/he said that when Guyanese people are bombarded with things like [Tim] Stoen sends out they don’t pay too much attention to them but when we send all this stuff it makes us look as ridiculous as Stoen, and all those long letters we send out, he doesn’t think it’s a good idea