Dear Editor,
With reference to the Corentyne River mishap, what Guyanese call life jackets are really buoyancy aids packed with a lightweight water-proof material, most of which are designed to keep only children afloat.

Once when I crossed the Demerara on a speed boat the buoyancy aid I was given was one of the tiny ones, and I am not a lightweight! I put it on, prayed and reached across safely.

The weight that a life jacket can keep afloat is usually marked on it somewhere, and I bet you will not find one in Guyana’s private vessels that can keep an adult afloat. I think only the THD public ferries have adequate buoyancy aids, but someone will have to check. Real life jackets are those that inflate with CO2 upon contact with water and as far as I know no public or private Guyanese vessel is equipped with any.
Lack of adequate equipment and ignorance will continue to kill Guyanese. My sympathies to the bereaved families.
Yours faithfully,
M. Xiu Quan-Balgobind-Hackett
(Comment taken from SN website)