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Our woes can be traced to illiteracy

Feb 10, 2011 Editorial

January has been an extremely hostile month for road users, the business community and those who found themselves at the receiving end of violence. Not to be spared have been those children who could barely give an account for themselves. It was as if the spawns of hell had crept up from the bowels of the earth to prey on Guyana already battling the various discomforts caused by a variety of factors, not least among them the political squabbles.
Indeed, the nation was fed a dose of what if and what should have been and what did not in the wake of Dr Ashni Singh’s budget presentation. To further deepen the political divide there were the accusations of corruption, the allegations of secrecy and the charges of wasted opportunities.
But while these were going on the criminals were targeting hapless businessmen and women. They were also targeting people who continued to move around with large sums of cash. We have in the past spoken about the need for such large cash transactions and of the need for the commercial banks to sanitise their surroundings.
Far too often people are robbed after leaving commercial banks. It is as if there are people inside the banks who witness these transactions and would then signal someone that a person would be emerging with cash. It is surprising that with all the security cameras at these banks the police have been unable to detect a pattern leading to the robbery of customers.
Then there have been the madness on the streets. For a long time there have not been so many road accidents leading to that number of fatalities. It has not escaped notice that cars are selling faster than they ever did in the history of the country. This could be because of the very favourable terms of lending offered by the very commercial banks.
With the ease of acquiring cars has come the ease of abuses of traffic rules. The result has been more road deaths than at any time in any January—seventeen. The police traffic department did note that some of these road deaths resulted from the fact that people wanted to kill themselves. At least the last three road fatalities this month were certainly people bent on self destruction.
The police had spoken of enhanced road patrols with the belief that when people see the police on the roads they would exercise caution, if only out of deference for the law officers. However, this is not the case because of the level of disrespect that has crept into the society. Many factors may be responsible for the disrespect, the most common being the ease with which people can bribe the police officers.
Unwittingly, then, the very police have contributed to the increase in road fatalities in January. It would be interesting to note the number of prosecutions in the traffic courts. We know that there are prosecutions when the accused kills someone on the roads, even if the outcome is far from satisfactory for the relatives of the victims.
A solution may rest in Parliamentary intervention. There is need for draconian traffic laws. It matters not that there will be those who argue that people’s pay is small and that they are hard pressed to make ends meet. The feat that a traffic offence could lead one to a state of mendicancy would force people to be more careful.
Then there have been the murders. Not many of these were conducted by criminals although the first one to die this year was shot minutes into the New Year. Most were what the police call disorderly murders. It suggests that people are increasingly taking the law into their own hands. This is often done when people feel that there is breakdown in law and order.
However, the social scientist would blame this spate of murders on the level of illiteracy in the society. And the level is frightening. Young people on a radio call-in programme could not spell Mashramani. Will illiteracy comes the inability to reason so people resort to base instincts—violence. The level of violence increases in direct proportion to the level of illiteracy.
It means that there is a serious problem in every section of the society. The leaders do have their work cut out for them.

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