By Vidyaratha Kissoon
(Vidyaratha Kissoon lives in Guyana. This is an edited version of a blog posted on https://churchroadman.blogspot.com/ )
Bus driver wearing mask on his chin. I next to him on the jump seat with cloth on my face. Woman next to me with mask on. Covid-19 regulations relaxed. I had opened conversation by saying that I forget my manners by not saying morning. Woman said ‘is okay’.
Midday news on radio. Story about the baby who died from Covid-19 at West Demerara Regional Hospital at the end of November 2020. The Chief Medical Officer had confirmed that the baby might have contracted Covid at the hospital
I mutter something about nothing ain’t gun happen. Baby dead in Guyana’s public hospital system. Woman is silent. Mask on. Looking out the window. Probably wishing I shut my mouth too to keep in the Covid.
Bus driver says.. ‘well leh we see what dey gun do about dat’ .
Nothing has happened we know about. Babies and other people might still contract Covid in the hospitals.
This story coming at the same time as the story of a baby girl, found floating in a trench at Crane. West Coast Demerara. Left hand missing. No name. No one has reported her missing since she was found on 5 December, 2020.
No organisations or activism or statements from anyone including me about getting the forensic experts to find out who killed and put the baby with the missing left hand in this trench. Oil rich Guyana. The dead baby. No name. No owner so no one to call for justice or interview or so.
Two babies dead at the start of Christmas 2020.
Two boys die from gunshot wounds from guns at home.
Isaiah Henry, Joel Henry, Haresh Singh. People killed them. People who might have voted in the democracy. People who have not been found. People who have friends and family and who must know what happened.
How many people who killed and hurt children in 2020 voted? Would it have made a difference if the people they voted for asked them not to kill or hurt the children? One politician did call out after citizens and possible voters killed Haresh Singh, “We’re not a people who kill our children,”.. but well..
Man kills the woman he was living with, and a 5 year old girl and a 3 year old girl. Burns them in the house. Another man who burned a child to death is appealing his conviction. He feels he does not deserve such a sentence.
Another man who killed his 10 year old, six year old and four year old thinks his life sentence is too severe. Not sure if he thinks he deserves punishment.
‘We’re not a people who kill children…’
Another man kills an 11 year old girl and her mother. Three other men have killed teenage girls they were supposed to love. One man tried to kill a child he lusted after before killing himself.
‘We’re not a people who kill children’…
Man tells me about a man who knows who minding a school girl and her parents and so. ‘They consent’ he says.
Eight year old boy found hanging in Linden, and 13 year old girl found hanging in Timehri in December 2020. Two children hanging in one month. The boy’s mother thinks it is murder.
Other children have attempted suicide.
I remember a child scratching the name of her political party on the desk in the school, and writing about the other political party just before Elections 2020 and Covid-19.
I had asked a class of children if they had people they could talk to about problems. Not many of them could give an answer.
The classrooms have pictures of the leaders. The children could talk about the politics.
Not sure how many children know where to go or who to call if they are thinking of killing themselves.
Thinking of the guns in the house. Two boys dead who had access to guns in the house. Thinking of the lack of conversation about guns in the houses and guns all over. And in the oil poor democracy Trinidad & Tobago, story in June 2020 of citizens shooting a two year old girl who was with her father.
A boy drowns in a trench while playing. A lot of stories of children drowning in backyard trenches and ponds and water ways while playing. A journalist had asked me a few years ago after he realised he told two stories one after another, if there was something to write about.
Not easy to prevent. Children will run out, play, fatigued parents can try their best… and the children will ‘get away.’ It is natural almost and tragic.
Another boy drowns while setting his fishing net. He had to work for his living. Not playing. Other children who work for their living might be at risk. We would not know until they are hurt. Or die.
The baby floating in the Crane trench with her left hand cut off and who has no one, including me, calling for justice for her – she did not get away and just drown.
Mother in Berbice beats the 6 year old child, thinks she has killed the child and throws the child in the swamp. ‘You beating fuh discipline, you ain’t beating fuh kill dem,’ the citizens who vote in the democracy say and who want teachers to keep beating children and so.
Many adults say they get beat with worse and so on and they turn out good citizens who love the parents and vote and stand for elections and pray and so.
And so citizens who vote (or don’t vote) have to decide to block their ears when they hear the screams and the abuses of parents and hoping that they are never asked to know when ‘enough is enough’.
I asked a journalist about a follow up story about child protection services in Berbice.
Which people could call when they think the beating is too much.
There was no story. Maybe there are no real services as such or they don’t want people to call because then it will overwhelm the phone lines and once the children not dedding or not going hospital then is okay.
Man from the area with the Mother and the neighbours who said she used to cuss them, said that is common thing.
Imagine if every political party flyer had something like the phone number to call to report when you think somebody might be killing their child. Or wanting to kill children. The children are dedding in all the political party constituencies.
I did not vote but felt the anxiety and tensions and so in counting votes, easy to forget and ignore the dead children.
Not much anxiety and tensions and so, no protests really about the count of dead children. In dealing with the counting of votes, it is easy to forget the counting of dead children who, God and so aside, did not really have to die.
We might have missed a few dead children who did not have to die in 2020. Like the girl baby with the missing left hand floating in the canal in Crane.
God and so aside.
Bus driver had said.. ‘well leh we see what dey gun do about dat’ .
I should have said “Not ‘What dey.. ‘
but “ what WE gun do about dat.. “
But I had reached my stop, the mostly silent woman opened the door and I had come off the bus.
The Childcare and Protection Agency in Guyana has a 24 hotline 227-0979
Persons in Guyana who are thinking of Suicide can call the Suicide Prevention Hotline 6007896 or 6234444, 2230818