IN the not so distant past, about three decades ago, Guyana could have boasted about the highest behavioural standards and social norms. Fast forward to current times, the driver of the bus belonging to a high-profile church body discards an empty water bottle on the parapet of the road; a grandmother and grandson abuse each other in the most profane language; a teacher allows a delinquent student to provoke him into violence, and in response the parents of the child retaliates by chopping two male teachers and punching a female teacher in the face inside the school building.

Students from high schools, tech voc schools, and even from private schools, which indicates some degree of solvency, are caught hijacking taxis, robbing persons while armed, ganging up to beat up on their peers, among other criminal activities.

One teenaged schoolboy visited the National Park with some other friends for some innocent fun, only to be confronted by some other teenagers who picked a fight with the schoolboy, who attempted to walk away from the bullies, but was chopped to the bone – for no reason that anyone can fathom except that this was one of the innumerable instances of bullyism often perpetrated on the more decent and peace-loving children in schools.

One woman allows her yard to be taken over by grass while she spends her days gossiping, then, when her industrious neighbour, a single mother who works long hours to earn her living, plants a kitchen garden, she sends her relatives to jump the woman’s fence and pick all her vegetables and fruits, and even steal her tools and anything else they can lay their hands on.
A tenant, while moving out of the home of a poor old woman, strips off all the electrical fittings and other moveable material, and then slinks off in the night without paying a large backlog of rent.
A widow’s grown children trick her into signing a Power-of-Attorney for her property and then they deposit her in an old folks’ home.
A newly-married young man gives up a job in an office to brave the dangers of the hinterland so that he can amass enough money in Guyana’s gold mines to build a home for the family he desires. At home his wife of months makes merry with his best friend in his absence, at times on the verandah in full view of the neighbours. 

He returns home, catches them red-handed, discovers that she has spent all his hard-earned savings while feting with his best friend; he beats them both with his fists, and is jailed for assault.

A young, impressionable teenage student is inveigled into a clandestine relationship with her married teacher. He either overtly or covertly videos their sexual encounters then posts them on the internet. Devastated by such betrayal and embarrassment, she tries to end her life – fortunately, unsuccessfully.

Burnt badly in an accident, young Salim was rendered unable to walk and remained bedridden in the hospital for several months. His pleas for assistance when the pain or his needs overwhelmed him angered the nurses, one of whom pelted him one night with an empty soda bottle when he continued asking for the help that was not forthcoming.

An employer pays a poor girl from a single parent home less than minimum wage for working in his store, but forces her to sign for a much larger amount under threat of losing her job and the pittance that is so badly needed at her home. He also exploits her sexually by taking her home under the guise of allowing her to earn extra income as a part-time maid.
Such stories as the foregoing can fill volumes. However, there are also the wonderful stories of humane actions emanating from the most unlikely sources. 

The high social standards, of yesteryear that were the norm seems to be in descent while in direct correlation bestial tendencies seem to be overwhelming the psyche of the nation.