Those airport robberies

Dec 07, 2013 Editorial

A few days ago, we carried a story of some vacationing Guyanese being followed from the Cheddi Jagan International Airport. In the vicinity of Mahaicony the car in which these overseas-based Guyanese were traveling was stopped by the other car. The driver reported that along the way the other car pulled alongside then fell back.
At Mahaicony the car passed, then pulled in front of the other car forcing the driver to stop. The driver spoke of a gun-toting man coming out of the attack car, striking his car and eventually shooting at it but hurting no one—fortunately. This was because the driver was astute enough to reverse and spin his car. He avoided pursuit.
Two nights ago, another group of visiting Guyanese reported that it was followed from the international airport and robbed on East Coast Demerara. Indeed, such robberies have caused people to believe that there is a leak inside the Department of Customs and Immigration. In short, people believe that when they land at the airport and they indicate on the form their destination.
If the truth be told, the people at the Immigration counter would not know how much money is being brought into the country because theirs is not the task to ask someone about money. Sometimes when people arrive, they are greeted by talkative relatives.
In fact, many people regretted the day when they spoke with their Guyana-based relatives about their impending visit to Guyana. Many people would talk about what they plan to do when they visit. Some talk about repairing homes; about buying household articles and the like. Once the word gets around in the community there are the criminals who know what to expect.
The ubiquitous cell phone makes such things easy. Descriptions are passed; the number of the car and the colour are passed and the rest is history.
There are times when the robberies occur because of contact with people in the foreign base. If the party preparing to come home has a drink with friends and opts to boast, all it would take is a phone call to Guyana.
Sometimes the criminals pick visitors at random but we have never heard of people coming on business and staying at hotels being robbed along the way. So it must be that the rural people contribute to their own robberies. And having contributed they then wonder at the severity of the attack; some wonder how it is that the criminals knew that they had money and jewellery.
The police say that theirs is the job to protect the people but given their drastically reduced numbers they cannot be at too many places at the same time. There are not enough vehicles to patrol the thoroughfares and the secluded areas along the roads.
But once again we need to appreciate the wisdom of credit cards and manager’s cheques. These days money transfer services have negated the need for cash. Of course, it would appear that most Guyanese prefer to circulate paper money and the many business places love this because they can hide their transactions from the tax man. But then again they too are being penny wise and pound foolish; they now have the risk of getting the large bulk of cash to the commercial banks.
Some of the trucks have been robbed and collectors killed; the very people who have been entrusted with transporting the money have been known to steal it. Will there be a time when visitors coming home will not attract criminals? The answer is yes but there must be a drastic reduction in the movement of paper money.
But back to the robbery of people travelling from the Cheddi Jagan International Airport. The police have actually mounted investigations into the operations of the staff at the airport. They came up empty-handed. Now that this scourge is back people may wish to reconsider their relationship with cash.

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Those airport robberies

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