NO ONE CAUSED RICK EMBARRASSMENT; HE SIMPLY EMBARRASSED HIMSELF!

RICK WAYNE, OBE

How can a mature, world-renowned journalist, writer and publisher who was also Mr World, Mr Universe, Mr Europe and Mr America display so much venom and immaturity on a TV screen? Why should “he tell a lie, and tell that he didn't tell it”?

Naturally, I'm referring to Rick, St. Lucia's Merchant of Venice (turned Merchant of Anger) who is eager to have his pound of Kenny's flesh at all cost; and he won't stop no matter what until he gets it!

Like Tantalus, he keeps reaching out for it; but the more he does so, the more the pound of flesh eludes him!

With time, we expect his challenges to deepen in magnitude and complexity, resulting in the production of more venom; and as the venom takes another quantum leap into more negative territory, we also expect it to take an immeasurable and irreversible toll on his already battered credibility, thanks to his own indiscretions.

The "psychological" basis for the argument is simple: there is an inverse relationship between one’s “persona” and one’s “animus”. 

CARL JUNG

Carl Jung, the well-known Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist who established analytical psychology proposed that our personality comprises four systems: a “persona”, an “animus/anima”, a “self” and an “ego”. Jung (pronounced Young) however did not list the permutations which result when those systems react. But I want to suggest that it may be natural that as one’s persona decreases, the animus increases - proportionally.

The rise of the animus may well be a “compensatory mechanism” for the loss of the persona. Hence, “the subject” may feel that shouting out loud and spitting out venom will help regain his/her persona; but in reality, that evidently does not happen! The animus seemingly does more harm than good to the persona; and that seem to be the case with Rick!

The baffling question therefore is: Why do some young and even mature journalists look up to an angry elder in the profession as a role model, even to the point of idolising him?  Is anger then part of a “new paradigm” of journalism in St. Lucia? Suppose a teacher were to be so angry? Suppose public servants or even ministers were to be so angry against the public, then what would we say? What then prevents us from condemning Rick for his venom?

RICK IN HIS WORLD OF MUSCLE

Let's give Rick what rightfully belongs to him: He indeed derived a great measure of greatness from his mighty muscles; and perhaps if he had continued in the same vein that he served in the “world of muscle”, then the possibility of earning the islands highest honours (knight commander, the St. Lucia Cross and medal of honour) instead of a simple OBE (or just caviling over who might be eligible for them) could now have well been a fait accompli as opposed to being subject to “Zeus” perennial curse of anger.

SIR DEREK WALCOTT

But Rick’s venom and anger weighed, his mind is not what it ought to be! Just imagine the act of ridiculing the award of the Knight Commander to the Hon Derek Walcott. His greatness therefore derived from “Weider’s world” appears to be quickly eluding him as he attempts to adapt on a stage that calls not for muscle power but brain power. Undoubtedly, despite his gift of language, it appears that his brain has not been removed from its box. Hence, just as Daley died having “painter’s eyes” and “plumber’s hands”, it looks like Rick too will die having “a thinker’s eyes” but “a muscleman’s hands”.

DR ERNEST HILAIRE

Perhaps, this might well be the reason why his faculty to differentiate between “knowledge store” and “knowledge growth” merits microscopic attention. He naively prides himself on the former because he seems unfamiliar with the later. He may be proud that he has a universe of facts (store) in his arsenal but the observation that he remains largely unstructured lends support to the suggestion that he has not pursued knowledge growth in his vast "universe" of concentration. The multitudes that he “criticizes” (like Dr Ernest Hilaire and Sir Vaughn Lewis) have all left him behind. Perhaps he may just be old enough to be Kenny's Dad but yet he lags Kenny by light years. So, while he has spent all his life excoriating those men for their achievements, he has stagnated while those men have grown by leaps and bounds in their intellectual stature.

Rick’s idols and disciples may be following the trail he has blazed for them.

Finally, why would anyone want to call a man who presents himself as a man of integrity a liar? 

I had an opportunity to review the “raw” tapes vis-à-vis the Ad which has beenthe "epicentre" of the ongoing controversy and now I'm prepared to make a judgement.

HON GILBERT CHAGOURY

First of all, the Ad represented a beautiful and creative piece of video editing! The editor/producer was able to conflate different scenarios into one. On his show, Rick did say that all four passengers on Chagoury’s jet held St. Lucian passports; but when he called Claudius show, he said it was three. Wasn't that lying?

Rick perhaps thought there was a way out for him due to the seamless editing (which tiled the video clips in a manner that almost made the two appears as one). The video editor/author (I suspect) anticipated that Rick would have used the tiling to claim the video was false; s/he therefore superimposed the date for each clip on the matching video to eliminate that possibility.

For Choice to apologise to Rick, claiming that an SLP Ad may have caused him injury and embarrassment is a stark misrepresentation. No one has caused Rick any injury and embarrassment; Rick (himself) embarrassed himself.  The embarrassment continues with the airing of the Ad on the other major news networks.