BB-2-pp
Sharon Amos
Pat Cameron (Radio Demarara) visit for dinner 25/7/78
(Hue [Fortson], Kay Nelson, Maria [Katsaris], Sharon A.)
-we talked a lot about food/ she’s very interested in food and cooking and I gave her our recipes
-finally I changed the subject of food
-dinner was late maybe that’s why because Paula [Adams] had forgotten she was coming at 5:30 and thought it was 7:30 and Paula was making the dinner over at Bunny Mann’s
-we got on the subject of conspiracy and Dennis Banks/ showed her the letter Dennis Banks wrote telling of how the agents approached him
-we talked in general about the Kennedy assassination and the problem black elected leaders were facing in the US
-she is not too politically aware / after awhile she looked as if it was getting a little heavy for her tho she wasn’t critical and she followed the conversation but I wasn’t sure it was exactly her cup of tea to have political conversations
-she had done the announcing for the cultural presentation for the Chinese and told about that
-when we ate I changed the subject and we talked again about food and then we got on the subject of social work/ I told of some of the cases I had in the US working with Indians etc.
-that kind of warmed her up/ she’s interested in human interest stories of individuals – and mentioned “A Man Called Peter” and a book called “Christie” of a woman who had worked in the Appalachians with poor people there and how she had come to love them
-we talked about people in PT and the changes that they had made in this kind of environment
-she wasn’t at all negative about the political/ read Dennis Banks letter very carefully, just looked very serious as if it was a heavy thing –
-she talked about her children and what they are doing /one son is in the GDF/ she has a daughter Diane and another daughter/ all are in Guyana
-Pat has been doing broadcasting for about 30 years/ she said that when her daughter Diane was about 10, Pat asked her if she felt neglected because Pat was working and Daine said “No you are a much more interesting person now that you are working”
-Pat said she’s like to visit next week –
-we talked a lot about the crops we are growing, legumes, our food preparation for 1200 people, how it’s getting more and more developed like donuts etc.
-told her about the press smear that black elected officials receive and some of what we went thru with Kathy Hunter, the rape by 2 black men, Kathy Hunter saying Guyana was on the road to Peking (she smiled at this)/ how we were smeared by racist papers – and how when they print the retractions it’s on the back page and people still remember the smear
-she by the way is a good friend of Wesley Kirton (he calls her “Aunt Pat”)
-told her about Donald Freed and how he wants to visit us and how he wrote Executive Aciton and Paralax View
-told about the video tapes (I think thats how I changed the subject to begin with – talking about video tapes and the kind of movies we have)
-talked about how we had studied movies such as Z for the historical perspective of what can happen when people lose democratic freedoms
-I think Pat likes to be very positive – and a little bit optimistic/ she likes the human interest story of a woman or man who is a crusader and does good and everybody loves them
-she is unfamiliar I think with considering of situations which overwhelm the individual like a conspiracy making the individual almost helpless or putting the individual in a position where he looks bad and can’t change that image/ she was familiar with the addatives that US puts in food/ hasn’t traveled in the US much -tho her daughter was educated there