ON Wednesday, a man in Linden fatally stabbed a four-year old boy and a fifth form studen t of Patentia Secondary School stabbed a first former in his head with a pair of scissors. The child is now fighting for his life in hospital. A few days before, another student was stabbed to death by his colleague at Lethem.
This is most horrendous and unbelievable. It makes one wonder if this is reality or we are witnessing a violent movie. This is not the Guyana we know and love and certainly begs the question: has our society gone mad?
How could a man look at a four-year old and plunge a knife into him/her? That person surely has to be insane or beyond human reasoning. It is simply inexplicable what would push a human being to commit such a brutal and heartless act.
With respect to the other incidents involving students, it is a frightening societal trend when children can become so violent to the point of becoming killers.
Only a few days ago this column spoke to the issue of increasing violence in our society and the need for it to be addressed with urgency, because no matter how much socio-economic advancement we make we will still not move forward as a nation if morality, decency, discipline and respect do not simultaneously  advance to higher levels.
Adults must first set the example for our children to follow. If our adults are prone to violence, then it is more than likely that our children would become violent which they would take into their adulthood, creating a perpetual cycle of violence which obviously would threaten the stability and well- being of any society.
The world is rife with examples of societies that have been ravaged and devastated as a result of perpetual violence.
The time has come for us to take a hard look at this frightening trend and come up with solutions and this has to be done quickly, or else we risk having a society marred by violence.
However, in order to find solutions to this violent trend we need to unearth its underlying causes and at the same time create an environment which develops and nurtures healthy minds. One of the ways by which this can be achieved is to emphasise moral education in our school system and promote love for the arts. The latter provides nutrients for the mind which helps to steer it away from violence.
We also need to introduce in the school system the teachings of great apostles of non-violence such as Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Leo Tolstoi etc.
On a wider plane, we need to ensure that we have stable family units. In our country today we have far too many broken homes which are fertile breeding grounds for violent tendencies.
Steve Doughty in his article: “Broken homes children are five times more likely to suffer mental troubles,” notes :
“Children from broken families are nearly five times more likely to suffer damaging mental troubles than those whose parents stay together, government (U.S.) research has found.
It also showed that two parents are much better than one if children are to avoid slipping into emotional distress and anti-social behaviour.
“The findings say that children’s family backgrounds are as important-if not moreso-than whether their homes are poor, workless, has bad health, or has no one with any educational qualifications.”
The research adds to a wealth of data that shows children suffer badly from divorce or parental break-up, and that those brought up by a single parent are more likely to do badly at school, suffer poor health, and fall into crime, addiction and poverty as adults.
“The report, funded by the Department of Health and published by the Office for National Statistics, investigated emotional disorders – ranked as those which cause considerable distress and interference with the way in which children perform at school and during play.
It also looked at conduct disorders which result in aggressive, violent or anti-social behaviour.”
It is therefore imperative that we make every effort to promote healthy family units and a happy family life in our efforts to reverse this dangerous, violent trend.