THE landscape of Guyana is littered with human bodies from coast to coast and in the hinterland regions, through violent means. Apart from crimes of passion, most of these lives were snuffed out by murderous bandits who refuse to earn through hard work and sacrifice, preferring instead to wrest by force the wealth and properties accrued by others, even if they deprive the victims of their lives in the process.However, the devastation they leave in their wake can never be counted like cash.If the breadwinner is taken, as well as the family wealth, then mortgages cannot be paid and homes and shelters are lost, children being sent to private schools, with the best of care, suddenly lose all the privileges a loving father provided, as well as many basic necessities for their survival. Mothers have to become breadwinners, and if they have no skills, qualifications or experience, the best they could hope for is working long, backbreaking hours doing domestic chores for others, leaving their children virtual orphans, with no one being home when they return from school, leaving them open to the predators that predominate in society. Old parents are left hungry, with no one to pay their medical bills or provide for their needs; and the cycle of devastation of lives spirals downwards.
Today persons who never worked a day in their life, and their mothers, girlfriends, wives and other relatives live in the most prestigious residential neighbourhoods, in fabulously appointed houses, drive the latest luxury vehicles, their children attend the best schools, and their lavish lifestyles make many of those who work and sacrifice to accumulate their wealth look like paupers; and they have achieved all of this with a gun through their own peculiar methods of wealth acquisition – robbing and killing the hard-working citizens of the land.
Forty-one-year old Bridjlall Persaud was shot in his head in a hail of bullets and he seemed to have died instantly as a result of the massive injuries he sustained. The perpetrators absconded with a bag containing $1M. This was rush hour in Lombard Street, where traffic moves at a snail’s pace. He was murdered for his hard-earned money while he was at the wheel of his vehicle on his way to work. No one sought to pursue the murderous thieves, because heroes are scant in Guyana, and it was merely another episode of theft leading to cold-bloodedly murder after all. None of the usual suspects – the professional protesters came out in their numbers like they normally do to protest when a thief and murderer is killed while committing criminal acts; because for them only the lives of thieves and murderers seem to have any value. And the price of the lives of victims? Well, for Bridjlall Persaud, his wife, their four young children, and all his dependents, that price was $1M; less or more for others, depending on how much the thieves manage to get from their forays.