Aliases, Monikers, Handles and My Decision

I've been musing recently, on the mini-scandal generated by the accusations of one blogger, that a frequent letter writer to Guyanese newspapers is writing under a name that is different from their real name. I wondered myself for a moment if this person is really who he says he is, but then I decided that it didn't matter.

Most of us hide behind Aliases, Monikers and Handles of all sorts. We are cautious in that we don't want to be targeted for our political and social views. Hiding behind another name, be it a nick name or a false 'real name', we feel more free to spout freely without fear of social or real retribution. Does it matter whether or not Emile Mervin is really Emile or Patricka?

The fact is that most of us are already in hiding anyway.

I've decided that not only will a stick with my real name as my user name, but I have changed my blogger ID and e-mail address to my real name and personal e-mail address my real name. I've changed my blogger profile to include relevant information and also posted a picture on there so that I am not in-effect, hiding my race from people.

Is this a big deal? For me it is. I am going to say what I will say to the world at large without hiding behind anything but my computer screen. Though I stop short of giving out my address, I think that if we all did this, that we would have more serious discussions, fewer personal attacks and closer associations in this medium that will hopefully yield some of the future leaders or thinkers of the Golden Age of Guyana.

I challenge everyone in the online Guyanese community to come out of hiding. Great things may come of it.