Wisdom has fled

Nov 05, 2009 Editorial

Madness often knows no bounds. Sometimes people do things and when confronted with the consequences, would shake their heads with regret. A man kills his wife in a fit of anger and then he panics. He either rushes to take his own life or as is often the case, runs away.
But there are those who simply surrender to the law enforcement officers and lament their action over the ensuing weeks and sometimes years.
A man imbibes too much alcohol and does something stupid. He awakes and suddenly has vague recollections of the things that he did when he was under the influence. The embarrassment sets in and the remorse follows.
So it is with people who for one reason or the other attack structures or institutions, as was the case yesterday morning. Gunmen unleashed a level of violence that many people once considered a thing of the past and rekindled memories of the grim days of the early years of the decade.
They set about torching what has become a historical landmark in the country. It once went by the name, The Victoria Law Courts, because it stood behind a statue of Queen Victoria. Today it is called the High Court.
The attempt to destroy this building makes for chilling listening. Men entered the building and set fire to the northwestern portion. As fate would have it the fire was extinguished but the damage will cost a sizeable sum.
It is said that the very men attempted to set fire to an educational institution when they lobbed Molotov cocktails inside the Richard Ishmael Secondary School. That fire was also extinguished before it could have got out of hand.
Whatever the reason for the attacks and the gunfire, we cannot condone the destruction of public assets. In the first instance, the destruction of the courts would have led to so much inconvenience that the wheels of justice might have ground to a halt.
Prisoners, some waiting years to have their day in court, would have had to wait longer. As was the case in Essequibo, people might have been moved to challenge their further incarceration to no avail.
The destruction of the school would have been equally traumatic for so many others. The student population is closer to 800. All of them would have been denied an education as is the case now. The education system in Guyana is such that there are no extra buildings to accommodate an entire school.
After the fire that all but destroyed Queen’s College, the children suffered. They had to share a school in South Ruimveldt until their building was put back in some semblance of order. It was just luck that all deferred to the students of Queen’s College. The original students of the school suffered.
None of us, knowing that there are so many needed things in the country, should even concentrate of destroying assets because in the long run money that would have gone to some other thing, would have to go to the replacement of the assets.
There is another side to this madness that prevailed during the wee hours of yesterday morning. Nearly a decade ago, when gunmen roamed the streets with similarly deadly intent, businesses closed their doors early and today many of them simply faded away.
People’s earnings were slashed drastically. Bread dwindled from the tables of many. Migration soon became a national pastime and Guyana bled; it haemorrhaged its skilled people with the result that there is a decline in the number of people to impart knowledge, to provide goods of top standards; to reason effectively. It is this apparent inability to reason that may be the result of what we face daily.
Dialogue seems a thing of the past so there is the temptation to resort with force and violence to achieve solutions.
Man is said to be a social animal. Yesterday’s incidents were definitely anti-social. This country cannot bleed anymore.
Is there anything that we could do to make wiser counsel prevail?

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