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Life is a lottery

Mar 19, 2019 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Life has become a lottery in Guyana. You wake up one day and there is no guarantee that you will live to see the end of that day.
One bread vendor was on Sunday killed, allegedly by bandits who invaded his home and beat him and wife and ended his life. People are no longer safe in their homes and in their communities. They are not safe even in the police stations. A few weeks ago, there was a report about thieves carting off equipment from a police station in Berbice.
The new Commissioner and his team have had little or no impact on crime. The 5% reduction in serious crime is really negligible when one considers the scale of criminal activity.
All Guyanese have become sitting ducks. You are not sure if you are going to be the next one. There is nowhere to run and hide within Guyana. The bandits seem to be striking everywhere.
Home invasions have become frightening. People are afraid to relax in their yards out of fear that the bandits are going to attack them. They are afraid of walking the streets out of fear of being robbed. They are scared of being followed from the banks and relieved of their two pennies.
Business persons are being robbed of huge sums. Many of them owe the banks and the loss of so much money sets their business back. In many cases, the victims really cannot recover from those losses.
People are losing their money and their jewellery. They are losing their earnings, and when they lose it, they take years to recover. No wonder so many of them are leaving the country. They prefer to make a start elsewhere where the probability of them being caught is far less than in Guyana.
Those who cannot leave or who opt to stay have to live like they are in prison. They have to barricade their doors and windows with steel bars. They have to run razor wire along their fences to prevent unauthorized entry. They have to employ security guards at a high cost.
A few years ago, a prominent cultural personality, Laxmi Kallicharran, was burnt to death in her heavily-grilled home. She could not get out in time to escape the flames because of the barricades on her doors and windows.
About two weeks ago, another woman was unable to escape the inferno in her home. It may again have been another case of too many security features preventing her from escaping the blaze.
Schoolchildren walking home or to the bus park after school are being accosted and relieved of their small pocket change and cellular phones.
A video was circulating recently on social media, which showed a young man being robbed while on his way to work. This happened in the centre of the city. No place is safe anymore.
This is the hellhole in which Guyanese have to live. You do not know when you will be the next victim.
The bandits are becoming more brazen. People are blaming the President. They say that the bandits are taking advantage of the situation because of a statement, which the President had made a while back, concerning the use of lethal force by the police.
The public, whether rightly or wrongly, feel that the bandits believe that in any confrontation with the police, the lawmen will be restrained in the use of force. At best, therefore, the bandits calculate that the worst that can happen to them is jail, and they are prepared to take that chance to rob people.
The police are ineffective in making a serious dent in crime. The new team, which was put in place, and which involved politically-directed supersessions, has not been able to put a handle on crime.
The bandits have the upper hand. The prisoners demonstrated that they have the upper hand by the burning down of the Camp Street Prisons and the disturbances, which have been created at the Lusignan Prison.
Guyana is not safe. Life has become a game of chance. Today it is me; tomorrow it may be you who will be robbed.

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