BB-32-j
[Editor’ s notes: The numerous typographical errors in these meeting notes have been corrected.
[This memo is in the section on Deborah Touchette, but the language and tone suggest it was more likely written by Sharon Amos]
4 May, 1978
(this is the man that came over and wanted to talk to us/I don’t have his first name)
Fabian F.
(Debbie T. [Touchette], Debbie B. [Blakey], Sharon [Amos], Terri [either Jones or Buford], Jimmy J. [Jones)]
– he is very pro-American/would go there in a minute if he was assigned to work there/likes the girls there
– is very concerned about meeting young girls/is 25 years old/wants to marry by age 27
– is not “Guyanese” oriented in his personality/a real go-getter, says he tends to be prompt – talks with great animation
– very egotistical/if he came to investigate us, his approach is interesting as he talked about himself the whole time until the very end when we spoke to him about J’s character, his family, the adoption of his children etc.
– he works for Radio Antilles/gives the “hard” news about Guyana, gives reading of things from the Mirror as well as the government papers and then his own view, takes a government line
– is PR for Peoples Militia and for GDF [Guyana Defense Force]/had to ask Col. Martindale if he could come because you generally have to get permission from the military before going anywhere though being in PR, he has more leeway generally
– he is also with the Ministry of Information, also in advisory capacity or PR
– he is very direct about his contacts, such as saying his best friend is the second secretary Ken Barnett of the American Embassy and he is a friend of Dick McCoy, in fact he said he met Dick before John Blacken and he saw him recently but didn’t talk about us, he said. He said that Dick and he have a drinking engagement next week. [Handwritten addition]: “Is going to US for [illegible name] daughter’s wedding in July.”]
– He knows [Feodor] Timofeyev and said Timofeyev has invited him to come to Russia but he wouldn’t go because he doesn’t like Russia, the lack of freedom and only if they paid this way would he go
– he said he saw Timofeyev’s son playing freely and he said to him “in Bulgaria your son wouldn’t be able to do so” and Timofeyev agreed, he said (he doesn’t even though we know Timofeyev, at least we didn’t say so)
– I thought the best thing with him is not to give any opinions about anything but just draw him out/asked him what he thought of various countries
– he said US has a lot of freedom and great girls
– he likes Cuba though he said there are guards that watch you like you if you are with a Cuban girl, security will watch you and he doesn’t like that/he said the Cuban girls are very “approachable”, in fact they approach you which he likes
– he said the Cuban people seem quite sincere and he likes that and he likes Havana, said it’s beautiful and he was well treated there, in the best hotels though he said there are paupers there and he was taken on “guided” tours
– he used to work as a GBS [Guyana Broadcasting System] producer (not a broadcaster) – had a show which involved telling about various groups and what they were doing
– he said there aren’t many journalists in Guyana, he said that Hotten Archer. Cde. Forsythe, Josiah someone, were some that were real journalists
– he said that [Mohammed] Hamalidan is not that good, is overrated, he is a hypocrite in that if people criticize his work, he blames it on the editors but he said the editors don’t touch Hamalidan’s work
– he says Yugoslavia has a planned economy, and is the only socialist country that has a planned economy and it doesn’t give enough flexibility
– he said the nonaligned movement is a farce, that every country is aligned
– he doesn’t like China and North Korea as the people are brainwashed. [Handwritten addition: “Is going to Sweden because he likes the girls”]
– he plans on being a diplomat eventually / would like to be FM [Foreign Minister]
– reads a lot about international relations and philosophy/doesn’t like history that much [handwritten addition: “Wants to go back to US to get his masters in International Relations”]
– plans on coming to visit Jonestown, not next Sunday, but the Sunday after, says he has friends who are pilots who can take him there
– is not a PNC member Debbie mentioned that we are, said the meetings are too boring
– is Roman Catholic but doesn’t go to church because his priest is a hypocrite/says he saw his priest in a discotheque with a girl and he told him he was a hypocrite but believes in God and when one man said in a discussion that man came from the apes, Fabian said “I don’t understand this, I thought God created Adam and Eve” and that stopped the discussion. The man was also discussing “society” and Fabian said “what do you mean by society” and the man couldn’t really define it and Fabian gets an enjoyment out of exposing people like that when they can’t respond to his words
– he said that you can find few young people that can carry a discussion and he was interested in talking to us/said when he goes out socially with his friends he has experimented and if he shuts up for a couple of minutes, all discussion stops/when I asked him why that was, he said “environment” he guessed
– I complimented him on being so analytical and intelligent and ambitious/he doesn’t answer to compliments but seemed to really enjoy them
– he likes to drink/would have had several beers of the Pegasus but the place was on strike
– says people tend to treat him like a son/like when he first got out of school, he worked for Carl Blackmon who treated him like a son (confided in him) but he said “I don’t act like a son though”
– he goes to a lot of social events he said, but doesn’t like them because there are mostly bigwigs there and not enough “young girls”/he’ll make an appearance and then disappear before anyone knows he’s gone
– once he was saying goodbye to the PM who was going to Kimbia and then he arrived in Kimbia before the PM in time to greet the PM and the PMA made
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BB-32-j-1
a comment on Fabian really getting around
– he said one commentator on GBS, Carlton someone is really fine/he was trained in sociology but he is a great commentator and really “does his homework” – he does 12:00 news
– I asked him about Carl Grenwich/he says Carl is a good friend of his but said Carl isn’t that great as a commentator and then said he wouldn’t say more as Carl was his friend
– he said that he himself really has to do research when he is doing a subject and once he didn’t do his research when he was talking about someone who was in town and he put a bunch of words together and turned them around and they didn’t say much but he really got criticized for it
– he knows promptness because when you do broadcasts if a commercial is a second or so off, the business won’t pay for it
– he asked if we knew Diane Morresy (her husband works for the American Embassy and she works for GBS) – she’s the blonde woman, white that Terry B. noticed when we were doing a broadcast for GBS/and he asked if we knew Flossy someone at USAID or US IS (I said no to both of them though I said I had seen Diane at GBS)
– when he makes broadcasts for Radio Antilles, he does them at GBS and then sends them/said the government doesn’t mind his reading the clips from the Mirror
– said he talked to the British High Commissioner recently and commended him on his English, said he usually can understand Americans though better than British people. Or even Russians who he thinks speak better English than the British
– said the British High Commissioner was 10 minutes late for their appointment/said he told the man he was becoming Guyanese and adapting himself to “Guyanese time”. The man laughed and agreed
– we told him of the adoption of J’s children, how each was a child that wouldn’t have survived, or would like Jimmy have been retarded because of lack of care, or like Agnes would have been untrained and have no caring for by her prostitute mother and what JJ and Marcie [Marceline Jones] did for her so she is a nurse etc., in the adoption of Lew, Suzanne and Stephanie
– and Marcie’s work in California, investigator of all nursing facilities and how they put in all they had, JJ working as a teacher even the sons working, and some of us living cooperatively and saving money which now goes for equipment etc. – how JJ spares nothing to get medical care for people, the adoption of J. Warren [Parks] and Kim Yoon Ai because of his example in the many surgeries paid for J. Warren and how he now has 80% of its hearing
– told him about relatives visiting now, the Moores [John and Barbara], [Vivian] Davis
– the reaction of John Blacken and [Frank] Tuminia to the care of the seniors when they visited
– we gave him a booklet (Model Community)
– she listened intently to J’s adoption of children and how JJ and Marcie believed and were an example in their family of all races living in harmony/of people of all backgrounds being able to get along
– I told him about J’s character, how he was a millionaire and put it all into the PT, how he was offered several million by the church because they weren’t living up to his example in his work for civil rights had involved some trials/and now he refused to take the people’s money
– then his ride came and he left/said he wanted to visit
– wonder if we were married/we said some were and some weren’t but didn’t specify who was or wasn’t/he said he had his own views on marriage and then said he was looking for a girl and wanted to marry at 27
– he knew Carl Blackmon’s daughter was marrying Kirton’s son and said he would be going to the wedding too/we told him our band was going to play and we had been invited to play with headliner bands and also at the cultural center/he looked impressed
– he was surprised we hadn’t played at the Pegasus/said he was there but was just involved dancing so didn’t notice the band
– said he wanted to visit some African countries soon, wants to visit Edie [Idi] Amin’s country [Uganda] though doesn’t want to be killed
– doesn’t know much about Tanzania
– doesn’t like England that much/was there for his education
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BB-32-j-2
Roosevelt Daniel, 4 May 1978 (he gave us a ride today, Debbie, Terrie, Debbie, Sharon)
– he teaches at University of Guyana, is from Sri [Lanka], India (formerly Ceylon) – is Anglican/his family has the Christian for 4 generations
– we invited him home for a beer so we got a ride all the way here from where we went to see [Deputy Police Commissioner] Skip Roberts
– he is kind of shy, friendly but not pushy/said he’d like to come visit/takes his class on field trips/he teaches geography but it is mostly land geography so they study soil conditions etc. and they recently spent 2 weeks in Ripayuni and slept in sleeping bags in the school there/flew in
– he says Indira Gandhi in most of the Indian leaders try to help the poor people in India/said that a more conservative leader is now ruling who is not as close to the Soviet Union as Indira was
– signed a 3 year contract at University of Guyana and has been here 2 years/after 3 years he doesn’t know where he’ll go or what
– his wife was a teacher in India/prepared students for University/as 2 children 2 and 8? or 2 and 10
– we told him we were a religious group/believed in serving God by serving mankind (highest worship etc.)
– he had heard the mention of us but not too much/we showed him pictures of the project
– he didn’t know the Da Costas
– generally was nice, he doesn’t tend to be very political he says
– kind of easy-going