In recent weeks there has been an unprecedented number of killings. A woman kills a man in the city for joking with her in a manner that she did not approve; a sex worker kills a man in the hinterland for some reason. Initial reports stated that the man was inebriated, and the woman resented the approach. There was an exchange of words; the man left for his domicile. It is said that the woman followed. The next thing we hear is that the woman was seen fleeing from the man’s home. He was later found dead. There is an attempt to evict a man from his home. The initial attempt failed. Some gunmen pulled up and shooting starts. People are wounded and a man is shot dead. The man killed had nothing to do with the eviction.
These are just some of the recent killings. They leave one to wonder at the value of human life. Perhaps there is a mindset. An altercation erupts and tempers flare. Reasoning goes through the window so out come the knives or the gun.
Two brothers get into a fight because one is not happy at the quality of work the younger brother does. Tempers flare so the elder brother throws a punch at the other. That was the last punch he ever threw. Altercations are nothing new. They have been there from the time Cain killed Abel. But not all ended in death. Many have ended with the parties sporting bruises and abrasions.
As a schoolboy there were many altercations, some spurred on by older fellows who wanted to see a fight between smaller boys in the same way people want to see cockfights. The bouts would be arranged, most times at the end of the week when there will be a break from school. They almost always involved fists and ended when one of the combatants either surrendered or the older boys pulled them apart. Needless to say, the combatants were made to shake hands and to go along their merry way. Sometimes the vanquished would issue a challenge for a rematch.
These days such fisticuffs and scrambling mainly involve girls. Social media are full of such confrontations. And as violent as they seem, no one dies. If there is a roll into a trench or gutter parents may become involved when the news reaches home. In one case a parent went to Richard Ishmael Secondary School and died. Someone gave the schoolgirl a pair of scissors which the child used to a fatal effect. In this day and age, the education system needs guidance and counselling officers. These are people who could discuss situations with children and probably make a difference. They can get children to talk through situations.
However, sometimes, if not most times, the situation dates back to the home. Many years ago I was repairing a fence when I heard a father shouting to his son to chop he bad word. Of course such would only serve to escalate the situation but the parent simply didn’t know better. These days with all the pressures—the pressure to put food on the table, the pressure to find a job and the pressure to cope with the cost of living– there are so many more outbursts. There is a Ministry of Human Services but how functional is it? Are there visits to homes in the depressed areas? Do people walk off the streets to seek help?
Just this week I listened to two women talking about emotional training. I had never heard the phrase so I listened. In the end I realised that there was a lot of emotional training in the villages in which I grew up. There were always people advising errant young people. They were respected and feared in the society so young people had to listen to what they had to say. Parents were the back-up. Efficient parents talk to their children before resorting to the rod. Children would burst in tears as the parents lectured. Many preferred to be flogged and they said as much. ‘I rather she beat me than talk to me like that.”
The absence of such conversations in the home and in the communities is responsible for the high numbers of young people in the prisons. It is also responsible for many of them heading right back to prison as soon as they are released. This raises the question of rehabilitation in the prison. There is the view that most young people come out from prison worse than when they went in. But this is not unique to Guyana. It seems to be the case all over the world. It seems that people are more determined to do things against the law than before. Even in Singapore that kills you for drug possession, foreigners still travel to that country with drugs.
Young people, if left to their own devices, would continue to do crazy things that lead to death and dismemberment. Most of the road fatalities are young people. Over the last weekend, eight of them died in separate accidents.
The government is not helping the cause by starving the working population—public servants, part-time workers, and road cleaners—of a proper pay. If these people can’t feed their children, then more criminals are headed for the streets. The big question is why is the government reluctant to improve the pay for teachers, nurses, public servants and the like? One man said to me that he could understand why no pay for the teachers. He said that the children would end up being brighter than the man who leads the country, and somebody does not want that.
