Three-year-old died: Cause of death; old age

Sep 27, 2015 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

There is a real, authentic death certificate in the Polish archives where a three-year-old boy died in the Nazi concentration camp and the cause of death was registered as old age. On reading this, anyone would find it funny but Guyana produces far more facetious horror stories.
A mother of two small children was brutally raped (not the finger pushing definition of rape as enunciated in the Sexual Offences Act) in Diamond in front of her children by two intruders. What follows after the violent attack reminds us of the cause of death of the boy in the death camp. The Nazi doctors registered the cause of death so they could have a laugh. The relevant authorities that the woman complained to made sure they had their laugh too.
Here are some of the mother’s grievances as reported in the press: “The young woman said her landlord attempted to chase the predators with his car, but the men vanished. The police were contacted, and officers from the Criminal Investigation Department who were on patrol responded quickly. The young woman said she asked the officers to accompany her to the doctor, but was told that they were tired because they had worked all night. The police left without taking a statement, or even inviting her to the station to make a formal report.
Her landlord eventually drove her to the Brickdam Police Station in Georgetown, and requested the rape kit. When one of the policewomen responded that they all were tired, she was taken to a police doctor stationed in an office within the very compound. The young woman said the male doctor, to whom she was taken by one of the policewomen, handled her in a rough manner, even pulling her hair during a physical examination. “He was swabbing me, and when I cried because I was feeling pain, he said in a rough manner: “Is not a penis I swabbing you with!” The young woman said she felt embarrassed because the two female officers never objected to his remark, and they were also called to view the bruises she had sustained while being raped.
“I asked him (the police doctor) for an injection to protect me from STDs (sexually transmitted diseases), and he turned and said, “That is white-people stupidness”, the distraught woman complained. A drive back to the Golden Grove Police Station ran her into verbal abuse by an officer there, whose name was given to her. After relating to the officer what had happened back home earlier, the young woman said, “He asked me how I open my foot, and I told him the man opened it, and he telling me that I had enough strength to close my foot.” (end of quote)
Sounds very much like a tale from a tenth rate banana republic. But this is what Guyana has become. This lady’s trauma occurred eight months before we celebrate 50 years of Independence. What is there to celebrate? Maybe, the greatness of Burnham and Jagan, the two biggest destructors of Guyana. There will be no discipline of the police officials who behaved atrociously toward this helpless mother. The mediocre doctor will probably get a promotion. But let’s do some class analysis of Guyana’s society. Why did the police and doctor behave this way (assuming that they did)?
Would they have been so flippant if she was of European descent? Would they have been so insulting if the incident had occurred in the upper class suburbs of Kingston, Lamaha Gardens, Happy Acres, Houston Gardens, University Gardens, etc? Would they have been so dismissive if she was a middle class woman from the medical or legal or business profession or from the judicial system? She came from the working class section of the sprawling housing estate of Diamond/Grove up the East Bank. The burglars got into her house by removing louver panes. She had no costly grills in her home. There was no alarm system. There was no guard on duty.
This woman was officially mistreated by officialdom because of her class position of the lower rung of society. And the worse is yet to come. Our middle class women groups probably don’t care to read about her plight. After all she has no membership in the Lions or Jaycees or Inner Wheel Club or hangs out at Moray House or Oasis Café. I was asked by the new government to serve in an important capacity. I philosophically declined, meaning I gave philosophical reasons for saying no thank you. Will tell you more later. I end with a confession you may find unacceptable. I have three pets – two cats and a dog. I really love them perhaps more than…. Well should I say it?

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Three-year-old died: Cause of death; old age

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