CITIZENS UNDER SIEGE

THE EDITOR: The British poet John Keats once remarked, “Is there another life? Shall I awake and find all this a dream? There must be, we cannot be created for all sort of this suffering.” Unfortunately, the murder and kidnapping spree that is engulfing this beautiful nation is not a dream. The year 2005 would be remembered as the bloodiest, 382 murders and still counting with a few days to go. Statistics show that the police detection rate for murders this year has sunk to 22 percent. The ratio of the number of victims to the population has hit record heights — 29 people to every 100,000  In particular, two recent murders really rocked my consciousness, the senseless killings of medical student Mark Rattan and Arouca resident Antonio Jonas Rodriguez who was reportedly gunned down for “answering back” four men.

While it is fair to say that over 80 percent of these murders are gang related, the gun trade continues to flourish unabatedly. People don’t kill people — guns do. The scourge of kidnapping (some bogus) has traumatised many victims and families. The Nath brothers from Sangre Grande have reportedly migrated, 19-year-old Williamsville resident Rajiv Changoor who was recently freed after his nine-day ordeal and a former Business student of mine at ASJA Boys’ College, wants to pack up and leave. About ten victims are still missing — some feared dead. Who is next on the murder and kidnapping lists? Our sporting successes in the last year, namely the Soca Warriors qualification for the Germany 2006 World Cup, has been drowned by the wave of criminal activities.

The world is looking at us from two different angles. Can we as a nation stop this crime wave? Or, using the words of the British dramatist Kerrole, are the State and Security services acting “like a pin, without its head and its point?” Who or what is breeding these young criminals? In conclusion, I ask them to heed the words of God’s Glorious Quran, “I am He that forgives again and again to those who repent, declare their faith with firm conviction, do righteous deeds; then they are the ones who are ready to be rightly guided.” May God bless and protect our nation.

Reza Abasali
Barataria