Let’s not get comfortable with chaos (Pt 1)

Dear Editor,
Many are lobbying for Guyana to welcome with open arms the impoverished, unfortunate Venezuelans running from lives of misery in their homeland, but our country has been unable to get its act together to improve the lives of its very own people.
I can point to our dire crime situation or our stores bending over backwards for foreign buyers. I can focus on our ramshackle markets, even our inability to provide potable water and reliable electricity for ourselves after 52 years of Independence.
But the unbridled wild beast that our public transportation has become might be the defining issue that crystallises all the trials and tribulations our people face.
The public transportation system is now in the clutches of minibus operators and it seems to be totally unregulated. It has become a sad reflection of our culture, which over the years became liberally veined with lawlessness, low levels of tolerance, uncouth behaviour, lack of empathy, fearfulness and an ‘anything-goes-just-make-money’ approach.
Of course, like anything else, not all minibus operators are like this; but it seems to me that the majority who are, taint the ones who aren’t.
On any given day, we can see a multitude of minibuses, some garishly coloured in avid and dangerous competition with each other, despite the obvious risks to the lives of travellers and pedestrians. I speculate that in many cases passengers do not protest because rides within Georgetown are usually just short ones.
On any given day, speeding overcrowded minibuses put the lives of people’s children, wives, husbands, brothers and sisters in grave danger. It’s all about the money. In the typical bus operator’s mind, passengers’ safety is a minor consideration, most likely such thoughts are a nuisance.
I remember witnessing two minibus drivers jostling to get a single passenger and grazing the sides of each other’s vehicles in their recklessness. And I don’t need to regurgitate the details of many serious accidents involving minibuses when torsos, arms, legs etc were violently separated from their counterparts on human bodies and bloodied remains were strewn everywhere.
On any given day, we can see ragamuffin-looking touts for minibuses grabbing and groping prospective passengers, trying to force them to board specific buses.
On any given day, we can see minibuses and other vehicles for that matter, racing to beat traffic lights, which, ironically, were erected to control traffic and prevent accidents. We can see them forming extra lanes on busy roadways to beat the lights and be a few seconds ahead of other buses in the jostle for passengers.
On any given day, we can encounter rude, aggressive hoodlum-type characters functioning as minibus conductors and drivers, some making passes at schoolgirls.
On any given day, we can honestly mistake some minibuses for moving dance halls blasting music with the filthiest lyrics that would make any conscious parent cringe while travelling with a child.
I have actually witnessed minibus drivers and conductors openly buying bottles of Guinness stout to drink while operating their vehicles with paying passengers on board.

Sincerely,
Concerned citizen