Random acts of violence, whether of the domestic or other variety, have burgeoned into everyday occurrences over the last six to eight years. The numbers of people who have been executed, assassinated (killed by being shot) or just brutally murdered (killed by other means – stabbing, chopping), sometimes for no discernable reason have leap-frogged. Scores of women have been battered and injured or killed by their partners in many instances.
The increase in wanton killings, sometimes in the execution of robberies had its genesis in the 2002-03 crime spree. The so-called players of that era were taken out, but the killings did not stop. If anything they rose and grew even more senseless and macabre.
The January 2008 unsolved executions of 11 men, women and children at Lusignan, East Coast Demerara; the yet-to-be-explained cutting down of 12 men at Bartica the next month and the mysterious June 2008 slaughter of eight miners at Lindo Creek top the list in terms of magnitude and gruesomeness but take nothing away from the horrific nature of countless other murders between 2002 and 2009.
As it raced to become the drug capital of Caricom, Guyana’s transshipment status took on new meaning. Cocaine overtook marijuana as chief export in this sector, while other ‘high’ performers, for instance ecstasy, meth and heroin, appeared to have been selected for local consumption. And this was absolutely reflected by the huge amounts of these exports that were seized in foreign climes after leaving these shores. In this period also Shaheed ‘Roger’ Khan, rose to the pinnacle of his drug-trafficking career, becoming a local don, and in his own words, taking on the “criminals” on behalf of the Guyana government before getting his just deserts in the US.
The ‘passing of hands under the table’ assumed epic proportions making corruption, fraud and bribery the top games in town. And so adept did Guyanese become at playing them that the various chapters were named, viz, ‘the remigrant scam’ and ‘the Polar beer saga’ to cite a couple. While there has been a form of resolution in both of these cases, they have raised endless questions, some of which will perhaps forever remain unanswered.
Politically the shenanigans have been endless: the failed dialogue process; the government’s use of its majority to pass bills in the house; wobbliness in the palm tree structure; the third term campaign which revealed cracks in the Freedom House construction.
One can go on, but the level of lawlessness and crassness cries out for change and in response there has been a rising chorus. What is needed, apart from the obvious as stated above, is for everyone to take responsibility for the man in the mirror. It’s not just the littering, tax evading, lying, thieving, scamming, conniving, abusing, murdering and other evil that we do. Our attitudes are where the changes need to begin – we have to stop being passive and silent and treating the virus like it’s someone else’s problem. The tools to upgrade Guyana and the simple instructions exist in each of us. The will and verve to do it is what we lack.
