Dear Editor,
When is it going to stop? When are we, the citizens who care about the future of this country and the safety of our loved ones, going to see a change? Why are drivers and conductors of mini buses allowed to do as they please? Treating passengers as lifeless goods. From speeding, overloading, drinking while driving, mandating extra fares, installing loudspeakers, and playing loud and obscene music without care for child, woman, or man. Music that degrades women in society, of an extremely sexual nature, glorifying crime and deviant behaviour. Smoking and encouraging fellow passengers to smoke while traveling, decorating their buses internally with almost nude pictures of women, cussing out passengers when they don’t get their extra fare, and when someone complains about being choked up, or about the noise. Encouraging sexual relationships among school children, being in sexual relationships with school girls, and encouraging bus riding to be very specific.
I have taken it upon myself to make this matter public to make it clear to Guyana, our entire democratic body, that this is unacceptable and must be addressed. There must be adequate enforcement of the provisions in place by law and the creation of new ones where a solution is absent. Sovereignty belongs to the people and our representatives must address this issue, in light of matters like this, they are to remember the purpose of their election. Mini buses are privately owned property serving the public, Guyanese. For this reason, there is a Motor Vehicle and Road Traffic Act CAP 51:02 which is reinforced by the Police of the Traffic Department for order on the roadway and the safety of Drivers, Pedestrians, and Passengers. There is one issue that arises despite the presence of sufficient legislation, and this is enforcement. I watched a policeman stand on the road as many conductors were pulling me to their buses. This is assault. When I removed the hands of one of them, he proceeded to use indecent language on me. According to the Guyana National Road Safety Council, this is prohibited.
Need I mention the many deaths caused by dangerous driving because of intoxicated drivers, drivers who are so eager to make a specified number of trips per day so they’d have a big payday, drivers who race with other drivers, and not forgetting those who get an adrenaline rush from the sound of a race car or bike and endeavour to keep up the pace. Might I mention a personal experience of mine where a driver followed a Police truck after it cleared traffic with pace and power, passengers were flying in the air like they were in a 0-gravity room. On the matter of speed alone I find myself saying “Love, if you don’t sit properly, you’ll succumb to many injuries if the bus crashes”. The back seat makes it even worse for tall folks since it’s usually higher and cramped for space in comparison with other seats. On countless occasions my head hit the ceiling because a driver wanted to produce a live-action of R-Kelly’s infamous, “I Believe I Can Fly,” ignoring speed bumps and indentations. At times it feels like I volunteered to be in a GTA driver’s backseat.
It is not new news that music has an effect on one’s actions, which adds more worries to speeding. Every Guyanese is not a ghetto youth, a rat-bat, a dunce thug, an unruly gang and the list goes on. To even find these to be acceptable words to abide by instead of striving for betterment is intriguing, to say the least. I’m not proposing that one’s fundamental rights of liberty are restricted, but surely just like the revocation of Christian prayers in schools, bearing in mind that the whole of Guyana is not Christian, drivers should not force this on the general public, and more over on max volume. Might I step it up a notch, like my fellow South and East Coast drivers do to customize their buses with loudspeakers playing, “aye mumma get mad fi mi nuh, head top fi mi nuh, bruk yuh back, siddung pon it and rock fi mi now, kotch yuh foot ina di air, drop flat fi mi now, arch yuh back and mek it clap fi di crowd, get mad fi mi nuh”. Imagine going to work or sending your darling child to school just to be subjected to this and music of that nature for more than an hour all in the act of commuting. There’s a place for this and it’s called a dance or club. If someone wants to be a party to such they can voluntarily go there.
Many drivers will say “if une want don’t travel with me….., or meen want she here….” Surely, it’s not mandatory to pick up passengers, however, in the act of providing services to the public; one cannot discriminate against a granny, uncle, or young respectable young lady because “they always moving slow when other passengers gotta come out de bus, they always got a problem with mi speed or music” These are legitimate claims that the public has and instead of change happening they are being discriminated against. No passenger should have to go to the bus park and have to look at bus colours and names of buses to decipher which would be the safest and most peaceful means to undergo the journey. Do drivers even know what is defensive driving? Because the only defensive thing I’ve seen is the driver and conductor jumping out of the bus to beat up a car driver when they were the ones speeding and the man who seemed ill, failed to drive to their liking, which to them could have caused an accident.
So many times, a passenger would call for their stop and the conductor would open the door while the bus is moving with great speed. Currently on the East Coast Park, buses are mandating passengers pay 200 for short drops. Why are drivers and conductors allowed to exploit their customers? The 2023 magazine Vol 3; Safety is the Road Ahead, clearly outlines the fares but there is always some driver refusing to give me my change and getting vexed with me for my hard-earned money, or always calling for more than they should.
I can’t quite grasp how we are telling school children to abstain from sexual intercourse, to focus on their education, to create a better and sustainable future for themselves, and right in our faces we have buses internally plastered with nude and seductive photos of women, which to my knowledge is a sexual offense to minors. Moreover, the music portrays women to be nothing more than ‘hoes’ and that men can just switch them out like underwear. What message is this sending to our young men, future fathers, and leaders? The sons of mothers, especially in light of International Women’s Day? How many times has it been known in villages, that the police found a schoolgirl in uniform after school hours with a bus driver/conductor who is not her relative? Might I add a last year special which I heard on loud in a Route 40 bus “Yo when I grow I want be a mini bus conductor” and at the end of the song, the singer added that he wanted to be that so that school girls can pull down his “bucta”. Why is criminal behaviour going unaddressed while being displayed publicly?
One might say make a report and take a picture of the license plate, but this is going on in most buses. If the conductor is rushing to get me out of the bus and the bus moves off pretty fast, is that possible? Bear in mind, a tiny woman rolling up to the police station whereas the police themselves may be living that lifestyle though in uniform. You’d be disregarded. Sometimes you won’t even make it that far before getting blacklisted and receiving a public ‘’buseing’. Can we change as a society and think about ourselves holistically, where are we heading if mainstream music is promoting vanity, ignorance, and disregard for the family and home? Where is respect for the public? There is an issue at hand, the solution begins with the revocation of some licenses, where the owners breach the previously mentioned legislation, removal of some music equipment, training on how to address customers with respect, and the enforcement of the already existing laws by the Police. It does not benefit us if we progress infrastructural-wise, but our human resources waste away, being void of compassion and care for each other.
Sincerely,
(Name and Address Provided)
