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A collapsing society

May 29, 2010 Editorial

Criminal activities are a part of almost every society. There are always deviants and no matter how hard a country tries to create employment for all, there will be people who will fail to co-operate and will display anti social behaviour. This explains why policemen get into the league of criminals; why people who are expected to know and do better commit violent criminal acts.
Scientists say that it is something in the brain of people that makes them ‘abnormal’, that even if a society is capable of providing jobs for everyone there will be people who will refuse to work, choosing to beg instead. And in this category are not people who are physically challenged.
Normal people are afraid of things anti-social. According to their level of intelligence they behave in a certain manner but they are consistent in one area; they are conscious of what others have to say about them. They are afraid of sanctions. These are the people who know what is right from wrong and who would pursue the established means to seek justice.
People would argue that such attitudes are fashioned by the society and indeed, this may be the case. Children are told to lodge complaints with the parents of their attackers and only those whose parents instruct them to exact their own justice would take matters into their own hands. And this brings us to a trend that seems to becoming the norm. This trend is the hired gun, the cold-blooded individual who would do anything for a fee.
This week has seen some of the most atrocious incidents in the annals of Guyana. It is not that these things have never happened but the frequency with which they are happening is becoming alarming. Columnist Frederick Kissoon leaves his home for Kaieteur News. He stops to make a purchase at a city store. He parks his car some distance away for a want of parking near the store.
He gets a most filthy bath that provokes anger across the region; the event is being described as an attack against press freedom. In short, Mr Kissoon, for being a staunch critic of President Bharrat Jagdeo and his government, is physically attacked. His attacker flees in a car, not brave enough to face the man he appears to hate for his public expressions.
Twenty-four hours later, there is a repeat of the Kissoon incident. A man attacks another, this time with sulphuric acid. This horrendous attack is followed by the sound of running feet; the attacker, like the one in the Kissoon case, decides to run rather than face the consequences of his actions.
In the latter case, the victim is scarred for the rest of his life. He is of the view that he was so attacked because he held strong views about the administration of cricket in Guyana. This may not necessarily be the case but the fact that a man could feel that he is attacked for his views tells a most horrifying story.
What has been established is that the attackers both in the Kissoon incident and the Jaigobin incident (Jaigobin was the man who suffered the acid bath) were not known by the victims. It therefore suggests that people paid them to undertake their dirty work; that the attackers are mercenaries.
People on the street seem to have a good knowledge of the perpetrators but here again the society seems to have closed its ranks to protect the criminal. The police have no leads and no one is volunteering any information.
People are afraid to talk out of a need for self protection. Some fear being victims of similar attacks. During the crime wave the Guyanese gunmen who walked almost untouched, killed those who they said were snitches. We notice that the same thing happened in Tivoli Gardens, Jamaica—the gunmen although under siege, killed those who tended to speak out against criminal activity.
This is how the criminal enterprise survives. With the growing kevel of illiteracy, the breakdown in societal norms and above all, the growing disrespect for people, such trends would only continue.

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