Dear Editor,
I was deeply shocked, and all Guyana should be, to read of the horrific, wicked and indecent attack on Mr Freddie Kissoon. What is happening in this country of ours? The recent attacks on those courageous enough to speak the truth are a grave indication of the downward moral trend in our country. In Guyana today violence and crime of every description are rife, whether it be against the aged, middle-aged, youth or children. Respect for our fellowman is a thing of the past. Imagine one fears to speak out against wrongdoing because of retribution, as is obvious in the recent events. Yet we subscribe to the Declaration of Human Rights which states in Article 19: “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”
The thrust today is to develop our nation’s economic resources. But while we develop economically we are suffering a moral and cultural decline. We can produce the highest tonnage of rice, sugar and bauxite, become the leading light in the Third World and other worlds, as well as Champion the Earth, but if we continue to hate and destroy our fellowman, the moral rot will undermine our society, as it is already doing. Gandhi saw that the only hope of survival on this earth was the doctrine of non-violence. One writer, Percival Spear, correctly observed: “If non-violence was the most spectacular side of Gandhi’s thought, at its centre was the concept of satya or truth.” May I conclude with the words of a renowned spiritual writer, Thomas Merton: “Where there is no love of man, no love of life, then make all the laws you want, all the edicts and treaties, issue all the anathemas… fill the air with spying satellites, and hang cameras on the moon. As long as you see your fellowman as a being essentially to be feared, mistrusted, hated and destroyed, there cannot be peace on earth” – or in Guyana at this most inglorious period in its history.
Yours faithfully,
Sister Mary Noel Menezes, RSM
