Dear Editor,
I am flabbergasted by the comments of many Guy-anese, who responded to the article in the SN captioned, ‘Cocaine coming mainly via Venezuela.’ I am prompted to raise my voice loudly and say that persons who support and engage in drug-pushing as a means of revenue are downright unpatriotic and extremely selfish. The argument that the problem is for the US and Canada to fix because of the unquenchable thirst for the white stuff by their citizens, is a deliberate attempt of the unscrupulous to get away with their nefarious deeds.
Anyone who is thinking positively about the development of Guyana cannot be supporting drug-pushing.
Because this is an illegal business there is no recourse to the courts for the handling of disputes. This leads to the creation of a separate underground army of judges, juries and executioners to represent the business and product. But we all know that. It becomes unpatriotic because as time goes by the underground army has the potential of toppling legal law enforcement institutions and governments, creating havoc for decent law-abiding citizens.
Take special note of what is happening in Mexico at the US border. The Mexican authorities have now lost control to drug cartels. Border towns have become war zones where the police and army are suffering the major casualties with close to five hundred law-enforcement officials executed in 2008. Cartels are regaining their lost income by kidnapping innocent families for huge ransoms. This is the result for not nipping the problem in the bud.
This is where Guyana is heading if we do not stop the drug trade now. Guyana does not need the drug trade. Guyana’s natural resources give the country the potential to generate an extremely high GDP the legitimate way.
Although the spin-off from the drug business can be seen temporarily as a face-saver for mediocre government development initiatives, with manifestations in a few massive under-utilized structures, Hollywood-type homes and an over-the-top enviable lifestyle, this business does not lead to massive job creation and the growth of the country’s coffers through taxation and royalties. On the contrary, it leads to severe poverty and escalating crime woes.
The drug business becomes an extremely selfish activity because it also strips the country of legitimate business opportunities and enterprises by destroying the country’s persona as a credible exporter of products. Many persons with legitimate investment intentions are prohibited from earning and creating jobs in their own country of birth. They are unwilling to get into business in Guyana because of the volatile crime spin-off and the extreme scrutiny and costs accrued on their products at ports of entry around the world.
How can persons support a system whereby a few become rich fugitives of the law while the masses are deprived of the opportunity of living an honest Guyanese dream? It beats me. We cannot glorify drug-pushers. We must spit at and scorn their perceived achievements. We must not support their money-laundering front businesses. We must not allow them to see themselves for more than what they are − parasites of the worst kind.
Yours faithfully,
F Skinner
I do agree with your observation but the problem in Guyana today is these people are well connected and protected ,how do you fix that when some of the people who are in charge of fixing the drug problem are protecting the big players in Guyana.
Bad News, I think you giving me good news here :) I thought I wasn’t going to get my free Coke anymore with my Goat Curry and Rice and Hot Guyanese Pepper Sauce :)
Fun and jokes aside, I think Mr. Skinner has explained in clear terms what will happen to Guyana should the authorities turn a blind eye to this drug problem. Very intelligent and thought out letter with good examples regarding Mexico. Authorities have to step in and curb this activity to maintain a viable Guyanese business industry free from doubt, but then again they cause it upon themselves by hiding these drugs in their products. The onus is not only upon those in authority in Guyana, but the business people also.
Mr. F. Skinner has presented a clear warning to all concerned.
Your letter, Skinner is very much a breath of fresh air. Thank you!
You say that the Guyanese will drown under a drugs infrastructure if Government does not act soon and you are ABSOLUTELY RIGHT.
Although the drugs coming into Guyana are meant for onward export, small amounts will ‘trickle-down into local distribution’ and will destroy the essential life-blood of that severely under populated country as sure as day follows night.
I am aghast that seemingly sane people would advocate drugs-pushing as a legitimate means of revenue!
It is clear that most people just want to incarcerate convicted large-scale traffickers AT TAX-PAYERS EXPENSE.
A PRISON SENTENCE IS NOT A DETERRANT. Prison sentences do not cause offenders to stop pushing drugs when they are released.
In fact, from their prison cell, pushers can use mobile phones and carry on business with ease!
I say large-scale drugs traffickers are parasites of the worst kind and fall into the same category of those psychopaths who committed last year’s slaughters of innocents.
An example of how corrosive the drugs industry can be was the recent case where a father refused to give his son 200 GUYANA dollars to buy drugs whereupon the son stabbed and killed his father.
The death penalty for large-scale drugs traffickers is obvious to me and in a sense, I would have liked for you to have made comment on this aspect in your letter.
Thanks for your positive comments. In relation to your question about punishment. The law does not have drug-pushing as a crime punishable by death. If the government and politicians are serious they would start by changing the laws accordingly. But don’t forget that bank robberies is also not punishable by death, yet the Berbice bank robbers were meticulously pursued and executed. The police would fire their weapons at person running away with a stolen gold chain but the ones who are the most dangerous to the country’s prosperity are handled with kid gloves.
The authorities are sending confusing signals about which is the most serious crime.
What we are seeing in Guyana is the continuation of an old belief system, which glorified/glorifies corruption and law breaking, but with a new paradigm shift. There were the days that person who can steal the most from public institutions and government coffers were treated as heroes and rewarded with a slap on the wrist, now it is about who can push the most drugs. It wasn’t good for us then and it won’t be good for us now.
Satish…AIDS did not devastate the Guyanese population, because the majority are decent law abiding citizens…in the same light….and I will quote what you said…
“Although the drugs coming into Guyana are meant for onward export, small amounts will ‘trickle-down into local distribution’ and will destroy the essential life-blood of that severely under populated country as sure as day follows night.”
Stop fear mongering…..why? Because the majority of Guyanese are decent law abiding citizens.
Again in the same light…..the police are paid out of the coffers of tax payers…therefore, TAX PAYERS will indirectly pay for the drug traffickers to be stop via the police force inter alia.
And lastly….your example (!)the son did not stab his father…rather he chopped off the head of his father for $200 to buy marijuana. (Don’t quote me on that one, that’s what KN said)
Use your head and research before you blog or you will show your lack thereof.
The mischief-maker in me is tempted to note that after over half a century of drugs being illegal, the trade is still flourishing all over the world, bringing in revenue beyond the dreams of avarice…untaxed, untraceable, corrupting all it touches. It would seem no-one learned anything from Prohibition. When is someone going to seriously consider legalizing this, taxing the hell out of it like cigarettes, using the money to set up education and treatment centers just like for alcohol, and restricting access to purchase?
To put things into perspective: we have been hearing about a war on drugs for almost all our lives. How can a war that costs this much, has so little to show for it, is so patently a failure, creates such political chaos in smaller and more vulnerable states, has such a price in blood, be allowed to continue?
My sixteen year-old old daughter told me with frightening certitude that she can get coke, weed or heroin within spitting distance of her school, more easily than she could get alcohol anywhere in the city. That says a lot about the effectiveness of regulation of alcohol and the powerlessness of governments to do anything about drugs.
I expect a lot of flak for this post, but really: the current system doesn’t work, so perhaps it’s time to try something new. Blaming the pushers for servicing a demand is patently unworkable on the evidence…maybe attacking the demand at source can be given a better shot.
Pantha you are so right if they legalize it and tax it no one makes money off of it and there won’t be no competetion, back in the days with alcohol we had the same problem with likes of al capone and others, when alcohol became legalize all the crime and bloodletting came to an end.
Mr. SKinner I jsut wish that there can be a 1,000 more like you at home and abroad who are not scared to speak up and out and take a stand against our continuing descent into moral decay.
According to the letter writer: “Anyone who is thinking positively about the development of Guyana cannot be supporting drug-pushing.”
Well, tell that to the government and police, who are yet to make major drug busts in Guyana akin to what we are seeing and reading of overseas involving Guyanese using Guyana as a transhipment point.
It’s funny how some people can join with the government and rejoice when armed criminals are gunned down, but go dead silent when it comes to drug smuggling, gun running and money laundering – all of which are being used to help make Guyana look like developmet is taking place.
Mr. Pantha – you are correct in your assertion on the subject at hand and there should be no repercusion for honest views.
My take on this matter is – this is an on-going drug epedimic which is being fuelled by the same “top guns” who are so-call trying to stop/fight the drug crimes. This is the reason the business is boomimg, escalating, in an relenting escapade. It will go on and on and on because many of our “elite” are the benefactors. They are just straddling the fence.
It is a dog eat dog world and corruption at it’s worst. And the ones at the bottome of the food chain are the cayotes left to fight like scavenger over the meager “droppings” devouring any thing or any one in it’s path as evident by the blood shed and ruthless behaviour.
It is sad to realise that the citizens have all been attacked by “the stockholm syndrom” and are identifying with the drug lords (back lash of blood money) and what they perceive as the “greener grass” on the other side as evident by the big businesses, cars and the likes.
The drug business will not end because there are many who support and are are in too deep. Just like marijuana and when Peter Tosh said to Legalize it, he got a back lash. Now look at Massachusette in the U.S.A; it is now legal to have an once of the stuff without going to jail with only $100.00 fine.
You just cannot stop it once it get it roots in your back yard. Sad to say.
dove……what? The coyote is at the bottom of the food chain? Now I cannot watch another ‘Road Runner” cartoon the same again….I always thought it was the hyena.
Poor Wile Coyote…..sigh.
alright – you get the picture anyway! it is not about the cayote or the hyena.
A very good article F. Skinner.
….. Mr.Skinner ,, Sir,,, first let me tell u as advice,,, watch yuh back ,, whey suheva yuh deh ! and just to add a lil bit mo to wah yuh seh ,, i feel that…
they would have been tolerated -as parasites- by the larger spectrum ,, of the G’nese society ,, if ,, it was just them doing their illegal “runnings” -until dem get ketch- without them dragging all and sundry along with them in to the pit of moral decadence !relative to MURDER !
I wish that someone in the government, would read this letter. And act on it,before it is too late.
,,,,Yo SOESY ! … like u en floowin de signals ,, it dun too late arreddi ! to put back the minds of those who moulded us ,,
many have left for the beyond an pushin up grass an daisy ,, an yes there is those in the office of the President who read all of this each day ,, so too are many others ,, who ,, make notes on who seh wah !!!!!!!!!!!but r they doin anything abt it ,, hmmmm…..
Mr Skinner, you are absolutely right about the apparent involvement
with higher ups…this is sad and we all can see what will become of
Guyana. There is nothing like BRIBERY to a crook off the HOOK.