Are young people safe in Guyana? Are they protected? Names like Neesa Gopaul, Isaiah and Joel Henry, Haresh Singh and Shonette Dover are only a few of those who were not safe. They were not saved by being protected from those who murdered them. But at least there is justice, right?
At least we do not gleefully mop the floors with their blood or mark our doors with it to hide from the fact that our silence can be seen as complicity, and our weaknesses support a system where a child’s parent could participate in their murder and have their sentence reduced. But it is the laws we created, right? At least we do not save the blood of those already lost, waiting to baptize the many other young people who are not protected from abuse and violence. Or do we?
At least we do not slaughter young men like they are on the butcher’s table, right? Where there is no evidence or the accused are not guilty or evidence is mysteriously lost, files disappear like the spaces that store them are open to the public. The accused we let them go for lack of evidence then re-arrest them in some cases to continue the charade while there are allegations that the guilty are being sheltered because here in Guyana, we know that all lives do not matter. At least we do not do that, right?
At least we do not hide alleged killers allegedly helping them to escape to another country while the body of their victim sits in a shallow grave, right? Sometimes we have to say alleged even when the bodies are found, and the fingers are pointed in the right direction, but the killer or killers cannot be found. We do not do that, right?
Except that we do. We have seen all these things. It is distressing. It is disturbing that we rub shoulders with the people who murder our young and think them worthy of being given second chances. Even though their brutality would have made their victims poster children for Guyana’s depletion of potential, the loss of promising futures buried with their disfigured bodies and roaming with the spirits of the dead who perhaps are not at rest because justice here is often not.
The blood spilled is too much here. The average man may not comprehend the laws that result in convicted killers having their sentences reduced or insisting that they are innocent when they have been proven guilty, but we know what depravity looks like. The average man also may not understand why killers walk free, but we feel the evil that drips like raindrops which we must constantly dodge so that we do not become soaked in blood as victim or perpetrator.
Neesa was sixteen years old when she was killed in 2010. Silenced by the coldness of a mother and the mother’s lover by their sadistic nature. But she was a child of Guyana and one who was loved even though in the end her mother’s love would not save her. What was disturbing about this case was not only that she was killed, but the way she was disposed. Placed into a suitcase, sunk to the bottom of a creek hoping that dumbbells would keep the body beneath the wet dark veil of the horror of a young lady whose face was partially gone when she was found. Like trash they discarded her. Sixteen years of nurturing her, holding her, and wiping her tears, mother?
But it is not only the young that are threatened and harmed. An older Guyanese can sometimes be beaten to death by a group out of which four would confess. A simple request such as asking men to excuse themselves from disturbing the peace while imbibing could result in a pandit’s death in Guyana. Alcohol abuse is too prevalent in Guyana, but liquor is legal and available for all to partake. Pandit Bharrat was murdered Saturday night in front his home. Sometimes even the respect of religiosity does not save the ones in the eyes of the depraved in Guyana. It was reported that his twelve-year-old son witnessed the attack and was hurt in the process. He is traumatized. Too often our children are not protected.
With good lawyers some of those who confess in Guyana are sometimes freed or given minimum sentences because here, the penalty for taking life is too often never paid.
Masked men could ambush men selling in a bus here in Guyana on the Essequibo Coast. A man fleeing for his life could crash his bus amid gunshots. Guyana’s lowlifes, children left behind, misguided, domestic terrorists, victims of the unjust system, outcasts, the criminals who do not value life could rob you of your day’s earnings and leave you lying unconscious only to be pronounced dead at the hospital. Dexter Prince’s life mattered too.
And where love should bind a man and woman sometimes ends in one hanging from the ceiling and the other bleeding on the bed. Telling men to stop killing women is not enough. Telling women to leave at the first sign of abuse or to report them to the police is not enough. When couples should hold each other and heal in love, they often hurt each other and end in death. The interventions for curbing violence should start with the young. Empowering women must start with girls. Empowering men should start with the boys. Both groups must be molded to be confident, to be respectful, to feel protected, to feel valued, to master their emotions and to know that resolving conflict does not have to end in violence and death.
In Parfait Harmonie a twelve-year-old boy discovered his mother Camille Robertson Rodrigues dead in a pool of blood. Her husband Rolin Rodrigues was hanging. Another murder and suicide. That is two twelve-year-old boys traumatized in a matter of days.
I do believe that many Guyanese need therapy. We see too many acts of violence. Almost daily there are reports about violence and death. We read headlines like about the young couple that was shot and killed in Sophia on their way home and we may flip the page, keep scrolling, shake our heads, and quickly dismiss it. Daniel Fraser and Shanicka Forde are two names added to the list of the young dead.
When violence and death are so prevalent in a society, we all are at risk. Many of us are conditioned to not speak about our feelings. How can any society be whole and safe when men and women are walking around repressing their emotions? Too many are hiding their pain and do not know how to cope with issues like anger and jealousy. Too often it results in destruction.
We must remember all their names. We cannot just wait on others to take the lead in healing this nation. We can start with ourselves and spread the light to our families. And from family to community and eventually all of society. There is still hope.
