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Chronicle Pepperpot February 5, 2017
Still going after ‘his’ prize By Alumnus Former Guyana Defence Force (GDF) Lieutenant Oliver Hinckson is thinking of resuming efforts to have restored to him the US $10,000 prize money and a prestigious award from the Cuban literary house, Casa de las Americas. In his early 30’s, Hinckson won the first prize for literature in the organisation’s international literary competition from a field of 760 entries from 23 countries in 1978 with an unpublished book, Enemy Within. Shortly after the results of the competition were announced the prize was withdrawn from Hinckson who was then on the run from the Guyana police. The Cubans said he had breached the rules of the competition by using a non-de-plume and by not disclosing that he was in trouble with the law. Hinckson acknowledged that he wrote under a pen name – that of his son Kacey Hinckson. But he claimed that the Cubans knew that he had used his son’s name on the manuscript and that they had told his relatives that they were not concerned with the troubles he had been having with the police. Hinckson could not pursue the matter for some time, because just around then he decided to give himself up after over two years on the run, and accompanied by his lawyer, he reported to the police in September 1978 to begin serving a sentence imposed two years before. He wrote Casa de Las Americas through the Cuban Embassy asking that the prize be reinstated. Hinckson said he quit the GDF having been a paratrooper and intelligence officer who was trained in Britain at the prestigious Mons Officer Cadet School. His troubles with the local police began in 1973 when, according to him, he was charged with being in possession of a house-breaking implement – a hammer. ◄◄◄ From page XVIII
Convention and Candidate is even clearer, with all credible opinion favouring Hillary Clinton. It’s going to be a battle royal for her. Even if she doesn’t win the White House, her candidacy will be historic: Never before has a woman been selected candidate for the presidency by one of the major US political parties. But there are a number of factors that strew her path with thorns… which high heels will not counteract. The dynasty is one of the principal ones. We have already had William Jefferson “Bill” Clinton’s two drama-filled terms in the White House. Why now must his wife be President? And given the extent to which “Bill” has had his own way in the White House previously, he might well seek to run the show from the shadows this time. Another salient feature – and historic – is the fact that should Hillary win, there would be two Presidents Clinton in the White House at the same time; because under the country’s strange practice both
After a court battle, he was sentence in 1976 to two years and nine months imprisonment, but made a daring escape from custody. It was during that period when he was in hiding, mostly in Guyana, that he wrote Enemy Within. It took him two months. He was faced with a series of other police charges, pleaded guilty, and had sentences of nine months imposed on him, to run concurrently with the one he had been serving. The manuscript blends fact and fiction. The plot centers on the fact that a flocculent formula was discovered locally for the Guyana bauxite industry. Hinckson wove around it a fictional plot in which foreign agents connected with bauxite multi-nationals attempting to steal the formula. The first-time author has had the book published in the USA and admits that it sold very well there and back home. “I have just one copy left and I have hidden it, even from myself.” The drafts of two other books – The Marionette and By Trial, By Terror –have been put aside for years as the double St. Stanislaus College scholarship winner moved on
to get his BSc in International Relations and Master's in Global Studies. The Doctorate in Foreign Policy still eludes him but he is determined to get it this year along with the coveted Cuban prize after 37 years. It must be the letter that Hinckson received from the famous Guyanese novelist
and poet Jan Carew in 1978 that fuels his determination. One paragraph says it all: “You showed a mastery of narrative form, of characterization and of pacing a fairly long work of this genre. You definitely should continue with your craft of writing, and you should do so with the knowledge that writing is a life-long vocation.”
husband and wife will have the title President Clinton. Imagine a situation where Kim Jun Un is perceived as ready to launch a missile towards the California coast and a call comes to the White House seeking approval for rapid preventive action, but the White House recipient wastes valuable time in seeking to clarify “which President Clinton do you wish to speak with ?” Yes… under its strange practice regarding the armed services and politics, America now has five living Presidents: Barack Obama, George Bush Jr., William Clinton, George Bush Sr., and Jimmy Carter… and third world countries are following the style, retaining their military rank into private lives while adding political titles to the lot. Was Bill not already styled “President”, the White House would have faced the dilemma of “what do we call him?” In all times past, the wife of the President has been styled “First Lady”. If Bill wasn’t already President, would he have been styled the first “First Husband”?
Returning to the prospect of a first woman president in American history, I am not so certain as the Democrats. It is rare in American political history that one of the leading parties has won the White House three times in succession. And whereas some analysts disregard the significance of mid-term elections as a barometer of national sentiment, it matters to me that the Republicans now control both the House of Representatives and the Senate – the latter seized last time from the Democrats. Another factor worthy of consideration is that America is still largely a chauvinist society, with women’s battle for significant roles outside the home still ongoing. The polls have really not yet come forward with numbers that I can crunch; but I would expect that some men will take a position against Hillary Clinton not merely because of gender, but moreso because she is visibly an elderly woman; and so will some women. There is only so much that the facial make-up experts can achieve. And those voters in the lower echelon,
socially and economically, for whom American politicians hardly speak, only Bernie Sanders seemed to voice their concern – like an echo in the wilderness. But Bernie, clever as he is, would know that socialism has few adherents in the modern world, and that in the not too distant future both the Castro brothers will be off the political scene in Cuba. In the ultimate, the campaign will come down to Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump… and as ridiculous as it seems, I think Trump will amaze the world by triumphing in November 2016… crawling muddied but fighting from any pitfalls his brashness has created. In 2007/2008 when I examined the candidacies of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton for the Democratic Party, I had written a slightly critical piece entitled “Hillary Clinton’s Slip is Showing.” In November 2016 if the winds of the Trump tornado blow her slip off screen, “The Donald” wouldn’t care less, as he seeks an historic victory.