Dear Editor,
It was most distressing reading the Wednesday Kaieteur News of September 24, which reported that my friend and colleague was attacked in Port Mourant whilst on her way home. She suffered from chops to her head and limbs which resulted in the loss of a thumb and she received fifty-two stitches overall.
Had she not escaped, not only could she have been another corpse but probably a victim as well of other inhumane treatment.
Like many of us here in Georgetown who work and study, we recognize the risks involved going home after late-night classes. It is regrettable that the once relatively safe Berbice County students now face the same dilemma as we in Georgetown and other places in Guyana.
For months now the crime rate in Berbice has been escalating; unemployment has increased to an extent where youths are forced to the streets in order to meet their many basic needs. Working conditions and the lack of respect for workers rights are appalling. The rights of human beings are neither valued nor assured, and the voices of many are muffled when they speak out against the denial of rights. The authorities have been suppressing some of these stories and not responding in a timely and adequate fashion to these situations that impact on the economic, social life and well-being of people in Berbice and in Guyana generally. Our leaders are failing us in the discharge of their mandate to protect us from the hands of criminals, and our future looks gloomy in Guyana; no wonder most Guyanese look forward to the day of leaving Guyana. Our young nurses in Linden, who spend most of their time administering treatment and preserving lives, now need treatment themselves after an inhumane and traumatizing attack.
It is with these thoughts that I publicly appeal to the relevant authorities and government officials to take drastic action now and not condemn us to becoming a mere statistic. Our people, especially the young people need your fullest protection more than ever.
Yours faithfully,
Tricia Teekah
University of Guyana Student
Assistant Rights and Equality
Officer (ag)
Welcome to the struggle.
As a young academic, here’s an assignment: try to figure out the difference between “leaders” and “criminals” in the Guyana context. It’s a start!
That attack does not seem like a case of robbery more likely a case of attempted rape, those youths were not on the streets because of poverty, when the JS started to round up some of them on the east bank all the anti govt ,anti JS and some media and the opposition people were crying human rights , you even hear how those kids were church going and were doing errands when the JS picked them up, so my advise to you Tricia is to write a letter directed to those people above so that they can support the govt and the JS in their effort to control crime Good luck
This advice is ridiculous. What it really says is that the Joint Services (JS) stopped enforcing the law including taking appropriate crime prevention measures because antigovt. and anti-JS people complained about certain JS’s actions. The govt. and its agencies including JS took an oath under the constitution to uphold the law to the best of their ability and judgment. So because some lunatic fringe protested the govt. decided to abdicate their duties.
Isn’t this a joke!.
Now this blogger is telling the letter writer Tricia to write to the lunatic fringe people – to get police protection all citizens are entitled to under the constitution.
The fact of the matter is law and order is broken down. The country is overridden with crime, drugs and guns – A lethal combination. The govt. doesn’t have a clue as to how to deal with the problem.
When Hugh Desmond Hoyte was the president of Guyana, the crime rate was significantly down. We need to install back the DEATH PENALTY. Citizens of Guyana are seeing the how the rich gets away with every and anything in Guyana. The President has a great task on his hands, however with death penalty in place, Guyanese or any other nationality will think twice about committing murder(s).
What Coolieman fail to see is the JS were picking up people who were going to their ligitimate work. People with carpentry tools and other tools and items that ware enough evidence to prove they were going to work, were picked up. I have no problem with the JS picking up the ones liming on the bridges and corners, twiddling their fingers and can’t give any propper reason for loitering.
I want the best for my country, I want peace along with economic and social stability. This can never be added if people feel they are being picked up by the JS and driven around town in open back vehicles and then dumped in Alouystown with no explanation, to wend their way to where they were going. This is not being professional. I am sure Mr. Coolieman, if these were your relatives (the ones going to work), thrown into pick-up trucks and paraded around town you would not have sat idlely by. What you would have done?. People are only going to gain confidence in and give support to the JS when they see them (JS) start being professional and evenhanded in what they do. Crimes are being committed in Berbice too and we all know that.
the government is incompetent my friend……they are more reactive than proactive…..they dont have vision or insight…..they are more quantity oriented than quality oriented…..
HAVE YOU EVER LEFT GUYANA TO FIGURE OUT THE REAL MEANING OF GOVT. INCOMPETENCE? COME OVERSEAS AND SEE REAL INCOMPETENCE,MY FRIEND….GUYANA IS A STRUGGLING NATION SINCE THE DISTRUCTION OF THE ECONOMY BY THE PNC. THE NOW PPP IS TRYING THEIR BEST…THE LEADERS ARE NOT FAILING US, WE ARE FAILING OURSELVES…HELP YOURSELF AND HELP WILL BE GIVEN TO YOU…….REMEMBER IT CAN TAKE DECADES TO REPAIR A DAMAGED COUNTRY,ECONOMICALLY, ESPECIALLY WHEN THE TWO LEADING PARTIES CAN AND WILL NEVER SEE EYE TO EYE..THE CITIZENS OF A COUNTRY PLAYS A VERY IMPORTANT ROLE IN ITS DEVELOPMENTS….A GOVT CANNOT DO IT ALONE….BHARAT IS THE RIGHT MAN TO GET THINGS STRAIGHT…AS I ALWAYS SAYS, TIME WILL TELL….ALL THE CRITICS WILL NEVER SHUN THE DUTIES OF THE PARTY IN CONTROL….THEY WILL CONTINUE TO RID THE COUNTRY OF ALL ITS NEGATIVE ATTITUDES….THINGS DONT HAPPEN OVERNIGHT…BE PATIENT OR END UP BEING A PATIENT……………………………………………..
Nicely stated Tricia, the only problem now is, if anybody in authority is listening or do they even care?….Your request here is about proaction and prevention, while they are waiting for something to happen real bad first before they react.
Tricia, you have the power in your hands to do something tangible….your vote…hope you don’t give it away.
Coolieman says Govt. and Police alone cannot control crime. Needs support of citizens and media. You are 100% right coolieman.
Scenario
The gang is going from room to room in Minister Sawh’s house systematically executing everyone – while unarmed security guards in houses nearby are watching helplessly. How can citizens help? Give them guns! Give them training!
Every responsible citizen in every village or town must be provided a gun by the govt. free of charge. Every responsible citizen must be required to attend workshops two weeks every year for weaponry training and protection of the villages against armed criminals. MY MODEL IS SWITZERLAND where every citizen is an armed soldier.
Guyana is overrun with guns and criminals. Does the govt. recognize this fact? And, if it did, has the govt. done anything about it?
FACT: States like Florida and Texas where gun owership is high (almost every household has a gun) crime rates are among the lowest in the nation.
THAT IS CORRECT, THE CITIZENS HAS TO HELP THE
GOVERMENT TO GET RID OF CRIME..
Fill the minds of the young people with Gangsta rap and Hip Hop sex and wah you get? Teen aged Gangsta would be rapists!
An’ fuh all them out there who can’t think past their myopic politico-racist blinders, this problem is not peculiar to Guyana. Why not blame all the governments in all the countries? This sort of crime cam be found globally. The area between Rose Hall and Port mourant is unlit and frequented by vagrants. Miss Tricia would be well advised to advise her friend to exercies wisdom in her nocturnal activities.
My dear Guyana has indeed spiraled into a perilous situation. we must understand that in as much as unemployment is a factor, its not the only factor. the moral decadence in society is another factor. i think its a very big factor. what we need is a moral revival… at all levels of society, all institutions and organizations. the Christian, Muslim and Hindu clerics need to begin a spirited revival in society. they need to go out there and rein in the lost sheep from their respective flocks. the security forces’ duty is to maintain law and order… how can they do that when there is no law and order… when we have t.v hosts preaching anarchy… when we so called intellectuals trying to create instability in the country??? we as citizens need to beware of all these elements and resists them. we may not agree with the gov’t on many things but we can find constructive ways and not destructive ways of dealing with that.
Improvement will come when people see each other as One People , One Nation , with One Destiny and God as the ruler of their lives , not ppp or pnc.
We the people are theones to make the change , don’t wait for the government or any other government to do it .
Govt and police alone cannot control crime , they need support from citizens and the media
coolieman:::well said and i might add…to curb criminal activities…the main opposition is needed too…they act as though they are not citizens too..the only dog the main opposition have in this fight to bamboozle the JN and Govt.
Gopie, PNC nor PPP flap up Guyana, the people of Guyana flap up Guyana. Guyana is a beautiful country, but the ones that are in power needs to understand how to run a country. Firstly, the majority of the government were educated ABROAD, BUT WHEN THEY COME BACK TO LEAD GUYANA, THEY STEAL AND ROB. Stop trying to live in the past and live now and for the future. Stop the nonsense that the PPP OR THE pnc ARE AT FAULT, THE COUNTRY MUST AND SHOULD MOVE ON.