Dear Editor,

The police now have more vehicles at its disposal but with these vehicles come greater expectation and responsibility. Most of the vehicles at any given police station are in a working state but very unsightly – missing lights and bent up bodies, among other things. These vehicles are not old, yet they are so terribly mashed up. If government is going to invest in the police, then there must be a high level of accountability when it comes to actual resources, especially where vehicles are concerned.

I am sure that some kind of feasibility study was done, regarding distance travelled and gas consumption. If not, these vehicles can be used for personal reasons and no one will know. Already, the complaints are many that suggest that there is great irresponsibility in terms of the police and how they respond when called to show up at a scene.

The response is typical: “The patrol is on the road and will be there.” Sometimes it is: “If you can send a taxi, we will come.” This must stop.

The suspicion is that many officers with access to the station vehicles are simply using the vehicles for their personal errands and visits to selected people. This kind of problem is almost unique to Guyana. For example, Canadian and U.S. police officers have their personal vehicles. So the state ones are used specifically for job-related purposes. In Guyana, many police officers do not have their own, so the ones at the various stations present opportunities for them to dabble. This must stop.

Since the government is striving at all times to find the resources to equip the police force and other law enforcement agencies with assets that make them mobile, there must be a concerted effort to turn the crime situation totally around. I say the same for the traffic department as well, when it comes to what is obtaining on the roads.

At nights and on weekends, I hardly notice the presence of police officers. I am scared many times to walk home after work when it is late. There are too many suspicious characters on the streets. There should be more raids on late night ‘limers’. This will be a good way to utilise these vehicles. Also, when police patrols are unpredictable, potential trouble makers get nervous and behave better. I have noticed a decline in street gambling when the gang members are always on the lookout for the police.

I close by asking for the reform, promised by the subject minister, to continue to take shape. At first it will take some doing and visible changes may not be evident. Eventually though, one would hope that there will be a turn around.

Yours respectfully,

Rohan Mahase

 Dear Editor,

There has been an increase in accidents from 2012 compared with 2013. To date, 41 accidents have occurred resulting in 44 deaths as compared with 31 accidents resulting in 33 deaths for last year. The traffic chief is making a claim that much more has to be done on the part of the Guyana Police Force (GPF) in limiting road accidents in the country. He stated also that people have a vital part to play in decreasing mishaps.

I fully agree and I see no kind of profundity here. What to me is essential is that the law be enforced indiscriminately. The traffic chief believes that the introduction of electronics where drivers’ licences are concerned will aid significantly in curbing traffic accidents. He is of the view that this will ensure legitimate licensed drivers are on the roadways.

But I want to know how. I think that we are missing a point about falsified documents. The documents are not falsified. They are bona fide ones. It is the way that they are being obtained that has been compromised. It is like buying a genuine academic certificate. The holder maybe a dunce, just like a licensed driver may be incompetent. The fact remains that both parties have legitimate documents. What do we say to this? Will this be precluded when the new system for obtaining a drivers’ permit takes effect? I doubt it.

This is so because corruption only comes to the fore when someone gets a bad deal. Otherwise the practice is mutually engaged in and for mutual benefits – the rich party gets his/her way and the colluding officer makes a raise. A few of the non-involved will complain, but this will never create a stir of any sort.

The next thing is if we are sure that these accidents are caused by drivers who got their licences via foul means. Is there a way to check this out? Remember the documents are authentic, and if honesty prevails, then corrupt holders of these licences will tell the truth, and then we can deduce some facts and make our analysis.

For now, I say that the driving laws must be pressed home, and forget about legitimacy of licences until the new measures kick in and honest people surface. When accidents are taking place, we should go with what there is to investigate, and then severely penalise people for whatever infraction they are involved in. I think that this will help.

Yours sincerely,

Gladstone Harewood

 Dear Editor,

Although the price remains the same on the Venezuelan market for rice and paddy, I am very optimistic that  farmers will not be paid the same prices by millers as the last crop for the paddy already purchased.

A transparent and efficient regulatory system is essential to ensuring that the rice farmers receive the same price of $4000. These farmers will need support from the Agriculture Ministry, the Guyana Rice Development Board ( GRDB) and the Guyana Rice Producer’s Association (RPA) at the outset, including representation to recover  this money.

Small-scale farmers rarely benefit when there is an increase in price for rice on the international market after their produce is sold. The arrangement does not allow paddy farmers to share the benefits equitably with millers in return for their contribution of high quality seeds and paddy.

The erratic system by the GRDB has failed to put in place an efficient regulatory scheme for millers who frequently exploited the farmers in the past by ensuring scarce supply and charging high prices for rice on the markets.

Government’s aim is to preserve the Venezuelan market and empower the farmers to contribute to poverty alleviation and food security through good relations among all stakeholders. The Agriculture Ministry and the GRDB must discourage the millers from using poor or outdated grading systems and quality control management which might contaminate our markets.

An annual event should be organised by the GRDB and the Agriculture Ministry, and they should invite all farmers and millers in each rice growing region. Ideas can then be shared – example, a seed fair, held before each planting season. The event should be to present new seeds from the research station and farmers’ own sources and to explain how to cultivate the crops.

Yours faithfully,

Mohamed Khan

Dear Editor,

Are we still making requests begging that roadside vending come to an end? I think the time has long gone for this pleading for people to abide with the laws of the land. Roadside vending is way off limits. It pains me that councillors of the Anna Regina Interim Management Committee (IMC) have declared that illegal vending on the roadside, leading to the Anna Regina Market, will not be tolerated.

This issue has been with us for too long. It is time to stop talking and start acting, that is, simply enforce the law. These stubborn vendors know the laws, and they have had ample warnings. So why the dilly-dallying from the authorities?

I think of the shoulders of the road and its purpose. This space is and never was intended for vendors to display their items and ply their trade. By engaging in vending on the shoulder, the aesthetics of the place is compromised, and more so, the safety of vehicular traffic is jeopardised.

Too many times, I was almost brushed by moving vehicles of all sorts. On one occasion, a fight almost broke out as a passer-by, seeking refuge from a moving van, stepped unto some items from a vendor. I remember, on another instance, I had to sit in a car and wait for the transaction of a sale to be completed before moving off.

Now the other side of the matter is equally important. It is that there must be provision for these legitimate vendors. Many of them are very hard-working, and they sometimes do most of their business in a day or two. It means that a proper place must be provided in terms of comfort, safety, and general well-being.

Guyana has changed and is changing. We cannot be stuck in our old ways. Businesses are getting bigger by the day, and vehicular traffic is already encroaching on us. We need law and order.

Yours truly,

Jasmine Gittens

Dear Editor,

We have to admit that we do have a problem as regards discipline in school. It is quite normal for us to read about students and their manifestations of all kinds of tantrums. Not too long ago, a teacher suffered a fractured skull at the hands of violent students. Out of this incident, our president opined that he is all for jail time for some of these characters.

Corporal punishment does not have to be injurious and abusive. In fact, when properly administered, it will redound into great benefits. The school is the training ground and disobedience and disrespect have consequences. Corporal punishment, properly used, can help the students realise that in the larger world their behaviour will have to comply with rules and regulations.

Then, there is a noticeable rise in children violence and this is parallel with the phasing out of corporal punishment. There may not be a correlation here, but I will play it safe. I will simply go back to the rod, even if sparingly, and see what unfolds.

Is corporal punishment, even if a bit overused, worse than mental abuse? This latter form of abuse is both overt and silent – negligence, comparison of students, making reference to their negative traits, and labelling them. These have far reaching and permanent negative unfoldings.

So let us be patient and think carefully. We do not want a society, in the next 20 years or so, that is filled with rebellious people who are difficult to control.

Respectfully,

Orrin Daley

Dear Editor,

When a crime occurs and bystanders are around, we all hope for intervention from the police. Yet, many are the times, when no one, actually witnesses, would have called the police or have offered to help. Bystanders do not report crimes they witness out of fear or other reasons, maybe selfish ones (as in ‘I do not want to be involved’). Well look how this kind of mentality actually back-fired in Trinidad and Tobago.

A handyman was shot dead, after witnessing the gang-rape of his neighbour in Diego Martin.  Details reveal that 52-year-old Robbie Portell was outside his home, when he saw three armed men enter his neighbour’s property. The three men repeatedly took turns raping their victim and then finally robbed her. Then before leaving, they stole the keys of her Nissan Almera, but while they were leaving, they saw Portell standing near a window of the woman’s house. The men attacked him, bundled him into the woman’s car and sped off. Later, the stolen car was found abandoned, with Portell’s body in the back seat. He had been shot several times in the head and upper body.  No one was arrested so far.

Look how this played out – this man could have called the cops – I did not expect him to intervene; then the criminals left the woman alive and killed only the witness (maybe it did not strike them that now they have been seen the victim as well as the witness must be killed). The fact though is that fighting crimes needs participation from citizens.

In 2009, in California, as many as 10 males raped and beat a 15-year-old girl outside a high school’s homecoming dance. Investigators believe the beating and rape lasted for more than two hours and as many as 20 people watched and did nothing. Reporters even say some witnesses took photos and laughed. Six males, ranging in age from 15-21 were charged, but the bigger issue from this incident was the conduct of the bystanders – none of them made any attempt to stop the crime or call the police. Only hours later, after overhearing some people talking about the event did a person call the police. The police found the girl unconscious under the bench where she’d been left.

Observers’ (of crimes) actions may be deemed immoral or uncaring and insensitive, but never illegal-they do not break the law as such. I cannot remember reading or hearing of charging someone for failing to act when these things are unfolding. Yet we complain and get upset when we are not supported when the misfortune falls on us.

We have to wake up. Even if friends and relatives collude with their silence, most times we know who the criminal elements are and we are also aware of what they did and are doing. Yet we take a passive and selfish attitude. In the city, all the pick-pocket criminals are known; we know who are in the stolen phone racket as well as who steal and sell car mirrors. We can start there and get the police to destroy these rings.

Yours respectfully

Suresh Narine

Dear Editor,

I am very pleased that road-blocking as a form of protest is coming under the radar. I still recall most bitterly what happened in Linden and Agricola. People of Guyana should know that in this current dispensation protests are allowed. The legal avenues are many – the press, picketing with placards and marches, among others. These are very decent ways of voicing opinions. They are legitimate in Guyana to the point that the government is willing to accommodate with the deployment of police patrol and traffic arrangements. No one can prove that the government of the day has ever disallowed the voice of protest in Guyana.

In recent happenings, all kinds of chaos took place – old, abandoned vehicles, pieces of wood and other debris, barrels and tyres were used for road-blocking. This really caused many innocent and non-involved citizens to be terribly inconvenienced. Put in everyday parlance, no one should impede anyone’s life, nor damage public property when protesting.

Yours truly,

David Ramnarine

Dear Editor,

Shivnarine Chanderpaul

The recent land mark of reaching 300 first class games in cricket is not the big deal about. A plethora of batsmen have gone way beyond the Guyanese icon in terms of number of matches played at the first class level. Chanderpaul’s real glory is that of the many who have reached 300 and beyond, he averages in the top seven – he is number seven.

So it is not about how many games he has played, but about his batting average, and this makes him special. Also, Chanderpaul has 66 centuries and, since he averages a century in every five games, he is really right up there.

Yours truly,

Kris Mahon

Dear Editor,

I refer to a letter written by one Neil Marks to Kaieteur News on May 22, 2013, which very distastefully referred to a racial slur to respond to Dr David Dabydeen.  I do not wish to get involved in the fight between the different parties, but this month we commemorate 175 years of East Indian Arrival and the pejoratives used to disrespect our ancestors are still being used in a demeaning way.

This term suggests that all East Indians who are not from Georgetown or one of the other towns are uncouth and uncivilised and is disrespectful in its intent. It is a mentality which prevailed during indentureship and viewed ‘Indianness’ via the prejudiced European prism. Would Kaieteur News publish such a term describing any other group? Would any other ethnic group in this country tolerate the publication of such a term?

There is a group of fairly young people, some of East Indian descent, who shall be described as the noveau éduqués.  They have flown far from the plantation (country) and now feel that those who came before, toiled with their blood, sweat and tears and built the foundation for their achievements are beneath them.

Despite being noveau éduqués they do not carry an iota of the dignity or honour which their forebears did. They do not have the necessary mental maturity to understand nor respect the travails of their ancestors.

That Marks did not know who Dr Dabydeen is, while not surprising, highlights the plight of these young people. It is their personal loss, yet it is a loss which greatly impacts our nation. Those who are knowledgeable ought not to sit quietly as these pejoratives, and there are a few of them, are used generously and with a specific intention.

Respectfully yours,

Kumar Bachoo

Dear Editor,

The National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) decider has come and gone. In fact, this was so since Easter. The students are now still in their same classroom, but I am puzzled as regards the curriculum. Are they preparing for high school? If so which ones – senior ranking or low tier ones? I notice an air of flippancy among them and in fact a lot of them have gone on their family vacation. I propose instantly a rethink on the timing of the NGSA. It will have a lot of positives – less pressure on the students, fewer hours at lessons and more mock examinations.

In Barbados, it is only in late May that close to 4000 students actually wrote the Barbados Secondary Schools Entrance Examination, also known as Common Entrance. Our students here could have had at least one more month of preparation. I see no rush for early results, as the August break is more than enough to prepare for a new school.

Also, we have the resources to mark all papers during this time, issue the results and then get the students ready for whatever school they have to attend. Currently we have a good system in place, but I see no reason to keep it that way, if it can be improved. Education is always a work in progress. I call on the Ministry of Education to review this current system.

Yours truly,

Gabrielle Jardin