Dear Editor,
THERE are many sad stories daily in our country. First, I start with the rise in crime on a daily basis. A few days ago, a young man who tried to rob a woman was shot dead by a security guard and yesterday one of the prison escapees was shot dead; both of whom were former policemen or attached to the police force. I also recalled the recent bank robbery executed by a young agronomist who was also shot and killed. The rest of his young, educated colleagues are now in prison.

I wish to appeal to our young men and women of this country to work hard to achieve their goals and don’t follow a life of crime; life is about choices and many of our young Guyanese men are following a life of crime to get rich quickly, they do not wish to work hard to earn a living; they blame government, they make bad choices to get easy money by robbing people that bring them to their deaths at very young ages by the police and security men. It’s very sad when these very young, educated and talented men are cut off very early in life because they made bad choices in life. Our bad economy and unemployment are other significant factors in crimes and social problems.
The foundation of crime begins with bad parents and family background. Too many “live home” lifestyles and “child mother” and “child father” business, but NO MARRIAGE, where mother and father will be responsible for bringing up their children in the fear of God. In Guyana today, most criminals never knew their parents, they grew up with grandparents, aunts, uncles and even in the streets and many ghetto areas most of these young candidates of heinous crimes lack parental guidance and love, thus they barely attend school or are completely illiterate. The educated criminals may come from good family backgrounds but made bad choices to get rich quickly and they learn about crime by associating with street criminals and lived away from their families. Drugs and alcohol abuse and dance hall music are also contributing factors to crime. I made a call on our Government once to ban all Dance Hall immoral music, for example, Alkaline sing songs in whch he smokes dope and has lots of nude women dancing around him; our young men want to emulate that same lifestyle from these evil,and wicked singers, thus following a path of easy money. I am calling again on our Government our President the Hon.David Granger to ban all Alkaline, Mavado, Vibez  Kartel, Konshens, Popcaan, Lady Saw etc. all these guys’ songs are loaded with cuss words and pornography that are destroying our young people here in Guyana.

Today I read of a young couple who slammed into a car with their motor bike and died, an 18-month-old girl was flung out of a window and then buried alive by her ex-convict uncle, who then covered the shallow grave with several pieces of wood to hide his tracks early yesterday. Then a few weeks ago a house fell on a 12-year- old girl and killed her; a few days later, a 15- year-old boy who was in love with her committed suicide. Next, a seven-year-old girl child went missing in the Atlantic Ocean while her dad was fishing and she is yet to be found. Many of our young people are dying and I call on all parents to be more careful with their children. These are very sad stories today in our country.
A lot of young people are dying in road accidents and it seems as if it doesn’t bother anyone in authority. Then we have the deaths of young pilots flying defective planes or they hardly can fly these planes that crashed killing them. I ask a question here, why these planes don’t have parachutes to save the lives of these pilots and passengers in a time of difficulty? I believe the pilots should be prepared at all times for these emergencies. Suicide has now become a way of life for young people, so this tells me that religious education should be taught in our schools and university to let young people know that God created them with a plan and purpose in this life; we must have dreams, goals and visions.
All of this evil comes from a great family breakdown in our nation. All this evil I see here is also a spiritual, moral, and demonic problem.  We need a spiritual revival in this nation, and our citizens will have the fear of God in their hearts and love for our fellow brothers and sisters. People can go party late at nights and go back home drunk that cost them their lives, but refused to attend a church service that will last for two hours. Human selfishness caused so many innocent young women to be killed the love of God died long ago from our hearts. Jesus said: ”And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. ’‘Matthew 24:12
This simply means because of our increased wickedness, the love of God in our hearts for each other will become cold. It’s time all our political leaders come together for a month of fasting and prayer and introduce religious studies into all our academic institutions. We are a Nation too young to die from lawlessness and immorality WE NEED TO ARREST IT NOW.
Regards,
Rev. Gideon Cecil