The plight of an unwanted child

May 21, 2014 Letters

Dear Editor,
Once again there have been an outrage, and rightly so by some concern voices over the manner in which the 14-year-old boy, Andy, met his death. It is alleged that the boy had his head crushed by a truck while sleeping under it.
It was further established that under the truck was one of his customary sleeping places, since from a very early age the child was virtually on his own—homeless, never attended school, was exploited in every-which way; in the words of Martin Carter “one of the uncountable miseries owning the land”.
The frequency of such dreadful happenings is no longer attracting too much public outrage; people are getting accustomed to them. People’s sensitivities to things uncivilized and inhuman are almost numb; wrongs have become the norm, except when the victim is closely related.
But we didn’t get so over-night, no sir! But overtime this is how we have become.
Like animals of the wild the people are loose and scattered helter skelter, uncaring, to each his own their motto, a nation of individuals where the law of the jungle “every man for himself and the devil takes the hind most” operates.
This very behaviour accounts for the way they treat the common folks whose affairs they are entrusted with and who must go to their offices. The contempt, arrogance, disdain and often even scrap-meat treatment. That the ordinary man has to endure this from them is so stressfully weary and degrading.
The story of young Andy is not a lone isolated one. It can be multiplied by any number, and it is not divorced from the reason why we have a police force that is corrupt; public hospitals that no longer take good care of patients; why contractors would extract millions from the state and do “cock wuk”; why at any time of the day and anywhere a person could be shot/stabbed in full view of the public either because of a sour-deal, plain robbery, domestic affairs or someone in a fit of passion.
The setting in Guyana today has much in common with what happened to that 14-year-old boy – Andy. As we have been told, many knew this lost child Andy who was just a statistic to them. Many were fully aware of th3e boy’s circumstances and seemed to welcome it – exploited it fully – child labour. Why? Because many of us have long lost being our brothers’ keepers. Many of us have grown up to become full-fledged unconscionable souls.
Frank Fyffe

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