Have we nurtured the monsters that are now culling us?
Dear Editor,
Kaieteur News – Please let me, through your letters columns, get agitated over the daily and spiraling cases of Guyana’s saturated violent crime. Lawlessness is taking Guyana. And within its fold are many who enforce the law. I have been on record warning of how easily criminal weapons are easily accessible to criminal elements. A few months ago it was revealed that a large number of weapons had been ‘stolen’ from Police custody. Any wonder there are weapons out there for rent? That caches of weapons are “provided”?
A similar reality exists when it comes to narcotics. Is it far to speculate that criminals today have manipulators in high places? And that some of these handlers are now incapable of reintroducing their “soldiers” who have now become monsters, manifesting themselves in the daily assault on the citizen, and more against a particular ethnic group?
Unfortunately, the easiest way out for many is to place complete responsibility for what happens on the Ministry’s doorstep. Pontius Pilate is definitely alive! These dangerous and dangerous youths do not originate in space and neither do they disappear into space. They are not aliens. They live in our villages, in our neighborhoods. We know them. We know what they are doing. We helped lift them, and we excused the minor wrongs they were doing; we hid them when the law came for them; we parted in the loot from which they removed others; we tell them it’s okay to steal and steal because they’re poor.
The petty thief has leaped into a thief, a hijacker, a murderer. And we are now afraid to speak out against its atrocities. Why? Because he is one of our group? Where does any Ministry or Agency accept blame? Where is our own guilt as citizens?
Schools, Churches, Community Centers, etc., etc. are designed to serve a purpose, the primary aim being to develop and guide our young and impressionable adults into responsible and productive adults. Have we as teachers, Ministers (whatever) of religion, community leaders succeeded?
Schools today are locations for making extra gains through extra lessons; many Churches are commercial endeavors; many community centers and playgrounds are pastures for cattle. Did the Ministry do this? Are we Citizens just as culpable? Have we nurtured the monsters that are now culling us?
Most adults, whether in school, church or community, whether as parents or neighbor, we as a society have abandoned our young people; we have encouraged and expanded the disconnect that naturally occurs between generations because of our own insecurities as parents, as adults, as leaders. We seem to be afraid to confront, embrace, guide, correct and empower our young people. Instead, we risk our young people in a net that rewards them for creating chaos in society. We use them as tools in political conflict. We support their opposition to Law and Order. And the indictment goes on.
Today, the lawless net surrounds many who are, or were once, in the Disciplinary Services. My appeal is that our citizenship recognizes that if we allow it to do so, crime will prevail over us all. When the hyena can’t find food away from its lair, it turns on its own. Do we think we are far from that?
As older people we have to accept that the fight against crime must involve our own young people. Many of our young people also want a peaceful and crime-free society. This combination will work if we want it to work. Any other option is unthinkable.
Truly,
Taajnauth Jadunauth