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Guyana can lick its demons

Mar 31, 2015 Editorial

Guyana may not be unique but given its population it surely takes pride of place as a country with a high percentage of  victims of domestic abuse, a large number of suicides that place the country as the suicide capital of the world and the spate of road accidents.
These things are not measurements of which any country should be proud. The incidence of domestic violence reduces the country to barbarism. People in a decent society do not abuse their spouses. Any study would reveal that the politics of the country and the state of the economy are exacerbating conditions.
Many a man meets a woman who happens to be earning more than him and suddenly he feels as though he has been emasculated. It is not that the woman is complaining or even made mention of this fact during the conversations in the home. This threatened man then opts to assert himself as only a fool would; he makes rules and regulations to keep the woman in her place.
She is not allowed to make her own decisions about even the most mundane things, she is not allowed any freedom and any mistake is greeted with a string of abuse. More problems develop when the woman decides that she has had enough and wants out of the relationship. Such a decision has cost many a woman her life.
There are organisations that came into existence to limit the extent of violence meted out by men against women. But these are organisations on paper. There is no studied programme of intervention because the organisations do not actually reach out to abusive men. There is no programme of the courts compelling these abusive men to seek the services offered by the groups.
The men are jailed as a matter of course then released into the society once more. Many a man so released has killed the spouse. There are those who do not exert physical violence on their spouse because have other means of reacting. These are the people who believe in causing emotional pain. These are the people who commit suicide.
A survey found that suicide was highest in the agricultural belt. The conclusion was that this may be so because of the ready availability of herbicides and pesticides.  Yet the mere presence of these drugs does not promote suicide; there are other underlying causes, one of which is alcoholism. The alcoholic can be a tormentor especially when he feels that even his household is against him.
Until recently, religious factors spurred suicides especially if the victim had contracted a life-threatening ailment.  The fear of shame pushed the victim to the extremes.  Fortunately, there are now widespread counseling bodies that are almost ubiquitous. And the result is obvious; there is now a marked reduction in the number of suicides.
But there is the scourge that no one seems able to get a lid on and that is the spate of road accidents, most of them fatal. Over the weekend four people died on the roads and every death resulted from careless road use. In one case there was this speeding driver who crashed. Three died.
The police, at every opportunity talk about moving to control this scourge. By now, they should have been aware of the locations where accidents happen at the drop of a hat. All that would be needed would be a patrol either parked or in the vicinity in full public view.  Why this is not done is anybody’s guess.
The fine these days is nothing more than a slap on the wrist so there are repeat offenders. The absence of computerization does not help the situation since more often than not there would be no record of any indiscretion by the errant driver.
But fine apart, people do not haul the surviving driver before the courts for serious compensation. Had that been the case one can bet that the incidence of road accidents due to irresponsible road use would have been drastically reduced. Increase the fines.
And make insurance punitive based.

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