Dear Editor,
I do not know shooting victim Roopnarine Ramodit who was killed in Clifton Settlement on his first day visiting Guyana after some 18 years in the US. But I know the area where he was killed and things have changed a lot there over the years for the worse.
I visited the area almost annually over the last 20 years from the US and used to spend a lot of free time there during my childhood years (before emigrating to the US in 1977) visiting families and friends and ‘liming’ in the afternoons. It has some of the friendliest people found anywhere in the world.
Just a little background on Clifton. Elders tell me it was a swamp up until the early 1950s when it was drained and opened up for settlement for sugar estate workers who had overcrowded Bound Yard, Free Yard and Ankerville – sub areas of Port Mourant. The area was deep in water and was not suitable for agriculture because of the high level of salt on the land. Various attempts at growing rice were unsuccessful and even today there is virtually no farming at the back of Clifton. Port Mourant Estate (closed around 1954), under the management of Thomas Orville Tulley, ordered the entire area drained and he got the colonial government to provide resources for the settlement project. Canals were dug and a huge pump was set up at Tain and water was drained into the Atlantic drying up the land creating Tain 1 and Tain 2 settlements. Soon after, Clifton and Jones Settlements were opened for settlers. House lots were given to estate workers under the supervision of Cyril Ross who was the estate overseer and whose name still rings a bell among older estate workers for his fair and efficient management style. So like Haswell, Miss Phoebe, Tain and Ankerville, Clifton became a working-class settlement of the larger Port Mourant of former indentured servants and their sugar worker descendants. Clifton, like the rest of Port Mourant, has historically been one of the most violence free and peaceful areas in the country. It is a closely knit community of families and friends with everyone living like one huge fraternity. They knew each other and even those from Ankerville, Bound Yard, and Free Yard from where many of the Clifton settlers came. The residents warmly welcomed guests in their homes offering fruits and even meals and soft drinks. One never felt insecure visiting the area as everyone looked out for each other’s safety from outsiders, even when I visited from the US during the 1980s and 1990s. I remember falling from a bicyle and hurting my forearm and people nursing it. There were never any serious security issues as one could walk the area at any hour night or day and feel safe. Apart from the occasional petty theft and neighbourly squabble, there were no intrusions in homes or bodies in Clifton or all of Port Mourant. Strangers were never attacked and they always felt welcome. Neighbours looked out for each other. There were no ‘hands up’ or armed robberies and no drugs or verbal abuse of people. But over the last few years, in visiting the Clifton area and several other parts of Port Mourant, I noticed neighbourhoods have changed. People don’t seem to keenly look out for each other or protect their neighbour. People seem to be minding their own business. Altruistic behaviour among community elders is out the window. The area is unkempt with large swaths of the local roads in disrepair. I don’t recognize the dwellers as I used to during the 1980s. Children are disrespectful of adults. Petty theft and even more serious crimes like larceny are widespread. Gangs of young folks in the streets smoke ganja and use hard drugs like cocaine, especially in the area where Ramodit was fatally shot in the botched robbery. Foul language proliferates even among little kids. Alcoholism is rampant with parents sending little children to purchase booze for them. Even females have taken to hard liquor, something that was frowned upon during the 1970s when I emigrated. Law, order and morality seem to have broken down as people do whatever they want without respect for elders.
There is an almost complete disintegration of community life with very few role models. It is time for people in this and other villages to come together and retake their communities from bandits and drug traffickers. They need to reestablish order, morality and good values that can be emulated by the youths.
There must be an end to the senseless violence and savage robbery that hit Clifton last week. People must not tolerate this type of violence. People should use the death of Shri Ramodit to rally their communities against violence and robberies. They must look out for their neighbours and visitors and hound criminals out of their area.
Yours faithfully,
Vishnu Bisram
