Latest update April 26th, 2024 12:59 AM
Oct 28, 2016 Letters
Dear Editor,
The daily news in Guyana has finally earned Number 1 position on my list of life-reducing agents. Nary has a day passed by that I am not horrified mystified and succinctly stupefied on reading the disquieting headlines involving the denizens of formerly beautiful El Dorado. With stunning frequency, reports appear about one of the most perplexing of all crimes – homicide committed by children.
This brings me to my topic in question, which addresses not only a recent killing, but also the age and comportment of the perpetrator. Children are not born to kill, so along the way what has happened? Many will want to avoid discussion of this painful topic, for no one wants to believe that their child or any child for that matter at such a young age is capable of killing. As we all have an idealized version of childhood, we find child murderers so disturbing because we cannot possibly believe that children are so desperate that they would kill.
I vicariously experienced the awe and frustration of the interviewing law agents as they tried to extract the truth from the 14 year old, accused of being the mastermind behind the murder of Mahaicony business woman, Bibi Shairoon Ali. According to detectives involving in the investigation, the 14 year old was behaving like a hard core criminal. To quote one cop, “
“I could have sworn that he would have been the one to first confess but this banna holding out”. The barely youth, – a teenager – was certainly playing hard ball, and playing it well too, further implicating a 25 year old as his accomplice. In fact on account of his hardened if not brazen display of denial, the ranks were forced to seek additional time to interrogate him.
While the obvious age disparity comes into immediate question, of equal and of more serious concern is an ascertainment of the level of mental functioning of a 25 year old who would not only develop a friendship with a fourteen year old, but in addition at the urgings of this minor allow himself to go on a “work” that allegedly resulted in the senseless loss of human life. According to him he was home when the “little boy” came and called him. Granted the boy may have been little in size or age but demonstrably large in influence.
One disturbing aspect of this alleged crime was that it was pre-planned. Surely, this criminal-type thinking and planning suits the profile of an adult, but hardly seems possible if not totally impossible to be executed by a 14 year old, assuming that he was involved. I will observe protocol and not comment on guilt since the case is yet to begin. Yet a murder took place. In April, 64 year old, Roger Manikam of Non Pareil was axed to death in a plot allegedly hatched by his 12 year old adopted daughter, his 18 year old biological daughter and carried out by her 18 year old boyfriend.
Is there a cause for such horrific happenings? Is Guyana breeding a new generation of adolescent killers behaving like skilled predators? Is there a rational answer for these irrational acts? Incidentally, there has been a blatant omission regarding the parent(s) of the teen. Was he living an independent life, fending for himself, receiving victuals for labour expended and extended? If this is the case then the finger of blame may need to have another digit added. All the talking, incentives, seminars, youth movements, programmes, etc. etc. have been relegated to mere rhetoric as the problem continues to plague our land.
Without the risk of evoking any form of ire, could the question be asked; “Who or what is to blame? One of the very rarely discussed or accepted reasons why there may be more homicidal behavior among such young children is the cutback in mental health facilities. As a result of such an occurrence there are more and more extremely disturbed people who are trying to raise children with very few supports.’’ Currently there appears to be an apparent deficit in moral teaching. No longer does the society believe in the existence of absolute right and wrong.
The line between right and wrong is nebulous. Politicians and those in office past and present have also created their own kind of moral relativism. Relativity should not be confused with relativism as is sometimes done mistakenly but perhaps inevitably. Plainly expressed relativism is the belief that there are no absolutes, in values, morality, government, law or justice. Even Albert Einstein, the scientist believed that there was a God who created absolute law and order.
In Shakespeare’s Hamlet Act 1 Scene 5, Hamlet sadly observes, “the time (state of affairs) is out of joint”. How applicable to present day Guyana. Education entails much more than reading, writing, arithmetic and science. It must also focus, to a significant extent on morals, virtues and values, and show adolescents how to live. The current behavior of our teens may be somewhat attributable to our failure to teach our young people right from wrong. In a ricochet- type response, the cold hard reality is that children are no longer being taught right from wrong because the adults no longer know or display what is right and wrong. Our moral compass has malfunctioned, and the society has become fragmented with no consensus on absolute moral values. Bitter pill to swallow, but the truth will set us all free.
Effective moral teaching and discipline begins at home. Child abuse is not being advocated, but parents must love and lovingly discipline their children. To properly raise a child requires great love and a lot of time. Sadly, today many are unwilling to put in the time necessary to raise a law-abiding citizen. Broken families are another contributing factor to the rise in youth crime. It has been statistically proven that the majority of teens implicated in criminal activities came from divorced or single- parent families.
Yvonne Sam.
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