Guyana, the land of confusion

Apr 03, 2011 Features / Columnists, My Column

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By Adam Harris

Recently, the newspapers have been screaming about everything under the sun, from robberies and shootings to complaints about minibus fares and the sacking of a magistrate. I can understand the minibus operators taking a decision to hike their fares because they had grown accustomed to a certain income.
Way back in 1969 when the government introduced the National Insurance Scheme, people grumbled because their take home pay would be reduced. It was even worse for them when the very government introduced the National Development Surtax.
So it is with the minibus drivers. When the gasoline and dieseline prices jumped they had to pay more. Initially, some did not mind too much because they had some disposable income and all they had to do was to cut back on the odd beer or Guinness. But the fuel prices kept going up as did the cost of spares. It was left to the hapless people to fill that gap in the earnings of the minibus operators.
At this point, I decided to take a look at the members of the travelling public. I saw poor people who could barely afford that minibus fare but who insisted on travelling in these vehicles. I remember the days when people walked if the distance to their place of employment was a mile or two away. Schoolchildren walked, too.
These days walking seems to be taboo. One person said that it is cheaper to join the bus than to walk because shoes are costly. I did not say that in the big and rich countries I saw people walking a lot. They wore sneakers although they were dressed to the death. Their nice shoes were for the office.
Early Saturday morning I heard on the radio that the government was prepared to remove the excise tax on fuel once the gas prices kept rising. And there was an admission. There is nothing that the government can do to stop the minibus operators from raising their fares.
Then there was the news about a beaten woman objecting to the court granting bail to her abuser. I remember asking this woman about her reason for remaining in the relationship. She told me that this was the first time that the man had hit her.
Well for a first time it was brutal. She said that the man took a bottle containing beer to her head with such force that she would always have a scar. She also lost her right eye. As the interview continued she then admitted that on numerous occasions she had to stand between her relatives and this man. Obviously she was seeing the violence but she chose to remain with this man.
This time around her grouse was that the man had disappeared for five months before someone caught him. And she was not the only one. There was another woman who said that she sought a restraining order but was denied. I am no legal expert and I will not attempt to second guess the court.
But I do know that all is not well in the court. At the end of the January session of the Criminal Assizes I learnt that the two judges in Demerara completed a mere eleven cases. There were more than 100 cases on the roster.
At this rate some people will remain in jail for a long time and some will be released without a trial. The system simply seems not to be working. This, coupled with the number of new gunmen, does not hold out much hope for the justice system.
And there was the sacking of a magistrate. Many people have commented on this, especially since the woman magistrate spoke about having serious problems travelling by speedboat to Bartica. There is a shortage of magistrates and I am sure that there should have been some consideration for the welfare of the woman. She has gone to court and I can say nothing more.
The teaching profession also had its share of parting of ways. The Teaching Service Commission reported that it duly had to part ways with 288 teachers last year. The number seemed a lot to me at a time when the education system needed all the boosts it could get.
However, I consoled myself that those sacked were indispensable. They surely were making up numbers in the system. This forced me to recall the column I wrote last week when I spoke about discipline.
And so I come to the issue of the gunmen. People want to know if another reign of terror is in the making. Scarcely a day goes by without people reporting hearing gunshots in the night. There have not been a corresponding number of fatalities or gunshot victims.
On Friday night, there was the report of gunmen discharging rounds in D’Urban Street, Wortmanville. Then there were reports of the police retaliating but failing to catch the gunmen. The reports continued that both sides kept exchanging gunshots.
Was the car hit? I do not know. But shooting at such a large object, it is difficult for me to imagine that the police would miss. What I do know is that there will be more of this in the coming days. In the end the city would be shut down once again and people would be living in a state of siege.

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