We have fallen morally as a nation

Dear Editor,

A few days ago after a very long time I decided to visit the Stabroek Market to purchase a few items. I went to the Bazaar section that looks very beautiful, but in a very short period of time, the cuss words from the sellers and customers rang out like showers of rain and thunder bursting the dark rain clouds on high.

I was purchasing bora from a male vendor when suddenly a man came up and started to cuss and abuse the bora vendor. I looked him in his eyes and asked him why he was cussing the man, he said ‘that is how they does talk’. What surprised me is the other vendors were laughing and having fun out of the loud cussing and wanted more; many of them started to fight and cuss among themselves.

I wonder what kind of an example these people are setting for foreigners who were in the market standing right there.

I soon discovered that people in our country will enjoy vulgarity and immorality than something very decent and morally upright. From the highly educated to the illiterate use profane language or cuss words when they talk.

May I say, Mr Editor, that cuss words have taken over this nation, at the bus parks it’s worse than a zoo. As I walk around villages in Guyana, I can hear the verbal abuse of husbands and wives, children and parents, even at our work places and educational institutions cussing and quarrelling are daily occurrences.

What have we become as a people? Things like normal etiquette and ethics are no longer available in our country. We can clearly see that immorality rules the day and all of the subjects students pass today in school are of no use to our society, because the wrong type of education is in our school system. The end of education is good attitude and character.

I was able to visit a number of police stations some time ago. I went to a station to do a Police interview pertaining to my Justice of Peace and Commissioner of Oaths licence. The behaviour of lots of our Police Officers is terrible. I witnessed senior police ranks cursing junior ranks and their conversation is not very healthy. They set a very bad example for our citizens.

When I was a young man growing up, I was taught to respect the law and Police Officers. They had laws in those days for people who use ‘’indecent language ‘’, I believe that law is still in our law books, but those who make the laws break the same laws, so how can that law be enforced?

Too many people today in this nation believe they are above the law and the courts gave no justice to our citizens. Unless we enforce stricter laws here, more and more drug lords will rule the courts because they can afford some high-profile lawyers to defend them. We need a special court to deal with criminal elements here set up by the FBI and DEA from the USA and other countries to deal with drug dealers because we have become a drug-dealing nation. Too many ‘evil deeds’ are swept under the carpet.

We must enforce the death penalty; we are too much of a small country with less than a million people for so many murders. Our women are crying out for justice: they are killed, beaten, raped, and brutalised daily by evil men and our courts free these unscrupulous murderers; many times they are found ‘’not guilty’’.

Daily, people are getting robbed. Our President said most crimes come from ‘’narco trafficking’’; that can partially be true, but many people in this country want to live a life of crime, because these criminals have connections in the courts. They also can afford attorneys to represent them and set them free.

A survey in our prisons showed over 60 per cent of our prisoners are illiterate. To curb crime, these prisoners will need some schooling in prison so they can be better citizens when they leave.

I am not hearing the voice of our Security Minister and the voices of all our Vice Presidents about the crime wave, nor the Commissioner of Police’s. I heard the voice of the Assistant Commissioner David Ramnarine about the ‘’Operation Safe Way’’ because of the road carnage where lives are lost daily. But I am still waiting to hear of ‘’Operation Crime Way’’ to get rid of crime and criminal elements once and for all.

Morality and decency are things of the past. We have deteriorated seriously over the past generation since our laws are violated by citizens and those who make the laws.

We are a nation that has fallen from grace and we put our faith in political leaders, but we need our faith to be fixed on God and we must repent as a nation because we have become a cursed nation, where too many young lives are lost daily all because of SIN.

Yours truly,

Reverend

Gideon Cecil