Peeping Tom – Life’s greatest tribulation

May 12, 2008 Peeping Tom

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Money, they say, is the root of man’s greatest anxieties. Those without are in need of more, and those with a great deal never seem content with what they have. Money, therefore, brings its fair share of worry and stress.

However, for me, the two situations that I believe are the most stressful for any person are a broken heart and the death of a loved one.

A broken heart heals with time. The stormy emotions associated with losing out on love will, with time and sufficient patience, eventually blow away.

But the loss of a loved one — especially a child — is difficult to heal, and even with time it becomes like an oozing sore within you that corrodes at your inside.

Those who have experienced the loss of a loved one, especially a child, know what I am speaking about, for he who feels it knows it.

I felt deeply for that mother whose son was shot while coming to her rescue after robbers attacked her as she was leaving for work.

The son was only twenty years old, still very much a child in the eyes of his mother. His life had barely just begun. There was so much for him to live for, so much that will never happen in his life, all because of bandits who have absolutely no regard for human life.

I can empathize with what that mother has to endure for the rest of her life. The most difficult thing for any parent is to bury your own child. It is a parent’s worst nightmare. It is life’s greatest tribulation.
I recall people saying a lot of hurtful things when, despite losing his two daughters in a motor car accident the same day, Mr. Desmond Hoyte opted to go ahead and deliver a May Day address in Linden.
But I always empathized with Desmond on that one, because I think it was for him the most difficult situation he ever faced.

Perhaps, the only way for him to have dealt with it emotionally was to do what he did — keep going so as to have the strength to face the overwhelming task of burying his own children.

He has not been alone in that experience. For years now, many parents in Guyana have faced this emotionally draining and tormenting process of burying their children who died because of the actions of armed bandits. For years now, families have faced their greatest pain because of criminals who have no love in their hearts for their fellow man and woman.

I can never understand how a rational person can simply gun down another person who poses no threat. I simply cannot understand how anyone can, without cause, take the life of another.
There has been too much violence in this country, far too much.

Unfortunately, all this violence is taking its toll on our appreciation of the value of human life. We have become inured to all the deaths taking place around us.

I recall, many years ago, when a mentally ill man went amok in Buxton and, armed with a cutlass, went on a rampage, killing about seven persons.
This incident shocked the entire nation, and for weeks it was the topic of discussion in the streets, at homes, in the markets, and in workplaces.
Since then, of course, violence has become a daily aspect of human life in Guyana.
And while we do still talk about it, it is not like before, because we have grown so accustomed to this violence that it is now treated almost as an accepted feature of daily life. It should not, but this is how we have adapted to something that individually we cannot change.

This adaptation, however, is negative. When Farouk Kalamadeen was abducted, people were initially shocked and frightened that kidnappings had returned. But when one week went by and he was not found, instead of us being really worried and deeply concerned, all manner of ill-speculation and rumours took hold. It was as if we were comforting ourselves in the knowledge that he was a victim of his own activities.
This is a rather unfortunate development in our country, and one that has arisen because Guyanese have had to find a way to adapt to the maddening levels of violence in this society.

One of the ways, unfortunately, in which we adapt is to cast innuendos about the victims. So someone is killed, and the next thing we hear is that the person was dealing with drugs or was engaged in some other underhand dealings.

Even the authorities and the Police, at times, seem to have adopted this position.
The Police have often issued releases hinting that some incidents were drug related. I am even told that recently a girl was raped in Berbice and left to lie naked on the road. I am told that she was described as a ‘lady of the night’ in an official release. I cannot believe that.

I do not care whether the person is a lady of the night, the morning, midday or afternoon. A crime has been committed on Guyanese soil and that crime has to be solved.

Casting negative aspersions and engaging in innuendos about that person is not going to absolve the obligation of the Police from finding the killers.

I would therefore urge that all Guyanese resist this temptation, whenever someone is killed or attacked, to associate that person with illicit activities.

Let us first see that person as a human being. Let us respect life. And in respecting life, let us not become inured to the killings that are taking place; because if we do, every death simply becomes another statistic rather than the loss of someone really precious.

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