A THREAT TO OUR FUTURE

Seven persons died in two incidents last weekend. This is way too high for a country such as Guyana which is struggling to reverse decades of depopulation.
The last census suggested that there was a slight curve in the graph upwards indicating marginal population growth. But with a population of under 750,000 and with high rates of migration, Guyana will continue to face serious developmental challenges as a result of its low population density.
The situation is not going to be helped by the unnatural deaths of those seven persons slaughtered over the past weekend. In the first incident a mother and her child were among five persons killed when the vehicle in which they are traveling came under fire from men using high-powered weapons.
This is again an ominous signal since it establishes that despite the dismantling of some of the armed gangs operating in the country, there are other heavily armed forces out there.
Based on the fact that it is suspected that the killing of the five in Cummings Lodge was linked to a drug deal gone sour, there is every reason to also suspect that those behind the killings are linked to the narco trade and, even more disconcerting, have at this disposal high powered weapons and hit men willing to execute order to kill regardless of the collateral damage involved.
As someone once observed in a taped telephone conversation, even the mafia does not harm children. Yet those that carried out last weekend’s attack on the five individuals were not at all concerned about the risk to the young child in the vehicle.
This child was an innocent. He did not harm anyone. Yet his life was cut short by the assassin’s bullets. It just goes to show the beastliness of those that carried out this assault.
Such animalistic tendencies were also evident in the killing of two gold dealers last weekend. The men were reportedly found with their throats slit and one of them is believed to have been tortured before being killed.
These killings have caused a spike in the murder rate in the country. But even without the murders of the last weekend, the murder rate for this year would have still been far higher than it was for the corresponding period last year.
Also increasing has been the number of murders associated with the mining sector and this will place greater demands on the already stretched Guyana Police Force.
Regardless of what led to the deaths of the seven persons over the past weekend, the Guyana Police Force is expected to solve these crimes and bring the guilty persons to justice. And they are also expected to be concerned about the fact that there is a heavily armed group of criminal marauders out there, waiting to pounce on citizens.
The police cannot do it all alone. Already their investigations are being stymied by the fear of witnesses to come forward. This fear is understandable; people are sacred of retribution and are not going to come forward unless there can be guarantees about their safety.
Ensuring that citizens have greater confidence in coming forward with information will take time, and the authorities need to therefore boost the crime fighting and crime interception actions of the Guyana Police Force.
Technology is going to help. High performance cameras placed in public places are now needed in the crime fight.
The money should not be a problem. Money has been found to build a US$15M road to Amaila Falls; money is going to be found to distribute laptops to 90,000 families; money is going to be found to pay for the fiber optic cable from Brazil. Each of these projects costs billions of dollars.
The money can therefore be found to place a few high sensitive and high resolution cameras at critical points in the country so as to allow the Guyana Police Force to enjoy some surveillance that can prove beneficial in fighting crime.
Too many of our citizens are dying senselessly at the hands of a small number of criminally motivated individuals. Almost every day we are reading about some unnatural death somewhere in Guyana. Guyana cannot continue this hemorrhaging of its able citizens. We need to stop and take stock of the sort of lifestyles that is promoting this culture of lawlessness and disregard for human life.
We need to decide whether we wish to continue in this vein or whether we wish to revert to the time when things were much simpler and less violent in the country.
Material progress has come at a high price and a small under populated country like Guyana cannot afford to pay the price that is presently being demanded in the same of material progress. This price involves violence and death in the name of a dollar.  A stop has to be put to the wanton murders of our citizens, all the more so since with the murders now of children, it threatens the future of Guyana.