Drugs, alcohol abuse, dance hall music are contributing factors to crime

Dear Editor,

There are many sad stories daily in our country. A few days ago a young man who tried to rob a woman was shot dead by a security guard, and on Friday one of the prison escapees was shot dead. Both were former policemen. I also recalled the recent bank robbery executed by a young agronomist who was also shot and killed; the rest of his young educated colleagues are now in prison.

I wish to appeal to our young men and women to work hard to achieve their goals and not to follow a life of crime. Life is about choices and many of our young Guyanese young men are following a life of crime to get rich quick. They do not wish to work hard to earn a living; they blame government, they make bad choices to get easy money that brings them to their deaths. It’s very sad when these very young-educated and talented men are cut off very early in life because they made bad choices. Our bad economy and unemployment are significant factors in crimes and social problems.

The foundation of crime begins with bad parents and family background. There are too many ‘live home’ lifestyles and ‘child mother’ and ‘child father’ business but no marriage where mother and father will be responsible for bringing up their children.

In Guyana today most criminals never knew their parents; they grew up with grandparents, aunts, uncles and even in the streets and ghetto areas. Most of these youngsters lack parental guidance and love, thus they barely attend school or are completely illiterate. The educated criminals may come from good family backgrounds but made bad choices to get rich quick, and they learn about crime by associating with street criminals and live away from their families.

Drugs, alcohol abuse and dance hall music are also contributing factors to crime. I made a call on our government once to ban all dance hall immoral music; for example, Alkaline sings songs where he smokes dope and has lots of nude women dancing around him. Our young men want to emulate that same lifestyle and thus follow a path of easy money. I am calling again on our government and President to ban all Alkaline, Movado,Vibz Kartel, Konshens, Popcaan, Lady Saw, etc music. All these guys’ songs are loaded with cuss words and pornography that are destroying our young people here in Guyana.

A lot of young people are dying because of road accidents and it seems as if it doesn’t bother anyone in authority.  Suicide has now become a way of life for young people so this tells me that religious education should be taught in our schools and university.

We are a nation too young to die from lawlessness and immorality; we need to arrest it now.

Yours faithfully,

Rev Gideon Cecil