Dear Editor,
A few days ago Indians in Guyana celebrated or commemorated yet another anniversary to mark the beginning of Indian indentureship that began 171 years ago. As we are often inclined to do during this event year after year we speak of our experiences, our struggles and triumphs.
But this commemoration poses a great danger. As we focus on our achievement and celebrate the shining examples of our successes, we are apt to forget and ignore our failures and shortcomings, our shame and degradation.
In every community one can find dozens of youths who are school drop-outs, unemployed, drug users and drug pushers, simply hanging around, waiting for the next person to give them a “raise.”
The number of rum shops, legal and illegal, now far outnumbers schools, temples, mosques, churches and community centres put together. Rum is cheap and easy to obtain.
Suicides continue with an unabated frequency, with one of the most recent incidents involving a 12-year-old girl. What is referred to as domestic violence, from all the anecdotal evidence, seems to be on the rise among Indians and more and more women are dying as a result. What is particularly horrifying about these killings is that many of the victims are young, single women whose bodies are usually found by the wayside, in drains and trenches, often raped and with their throats slit.
This last weekend as the drums of celebration were warming up, and as we were getting ready to mark our achievements, yet another young Indian woman was being tragically and fatally violated. Naiomi Singh is dead, her throat slit. Her mother and father who did everything in their power to make their daughter happy are now broken and devastated. Her relatives and friends who showed up by her graveside to pay their last respects were overwhelmed with grief, pain, and anger.
Naiomi was 19 coming on to 20 and was to be married in a few months time, in July. As with other young people like herself, she too had her hopes and dreams, she too must have looked forward to a happy and prosperous life. She hurt no one.
As a matter of fact, for those of us who knew her, she could not bring herself to hurt any one. She was as gentle as it is possible for any creature to be, and as charming as she was self-effacing. How could such a person come to such an end?
At the time of her senseless murder she was in the peace and comfort of her own home, and there was nothing at all that she could have done to bring on this violence, to provoke anyone.
Whatever is the outcome of the legal process though, Naiomi will continue to live on in our hearts and memories, we know she is gone forever.
But we are not helpless. There is something we can do as a society for the countless victims of such violence and for Naiomi.
Let all our organizations band our resources together and work to ensure the safety and welfare of all the other Naiomis of Guyana.
For, as long the lives of our young women are endangered, and as long as violence against women continues with the alarming regularity it does in our communities, so long the achievements we love to speak about will remain hollow and meaningless.
Yours faithfully,
Swami Aksharananda
