By Raffique Shah
07 November 2022
It’s no wonder that the murder rate in this country, surpassing anything we’ve ever experienced, is seen as the number one issue affecting the population, the electorate, based in part on people’s very real fear of facing the violence of unimaginable, perhaps death, riding not on a pale horse, but actually in a stolen Nissan Sunny, its occupants armed with heavy firepower, ready to rob or kill any law-abiding citizen who has worked hard for the few dollars he or she has.
Hell, thugs by choice and murderers by accident, because it’s a lot easier to rob than to work.
This, and the fear of being impoverished by the sharp decline in living standards, the loss of jobs or the erosion of the value of their income that coincides with the increase in the prices of food, medicine, transportation and other necessities base, they are creating havoc with people’s lives.
And living with the fear of death that seems to haunt them day and night, this nation is a colossal nervous wreck when we wake up in the morning or at any time – and that’s for those who actually sleep, the sleep disorder that ranks highest among mental illness – give thanks to the not-so-friendly neighborhood criminals who let us sleep when they were tired of playing what they say is music, but what all sane people recognize as a cacophony of creepy noises, filled lyrics humbly, thank you Lords, for allowing us to live another day.
The first news you get in the morning is the “score” – and no, it’s not another dismal performance from the regional cricket team that we’ve grown to accept as the “new normal” – a euphemism that was coined to categorize our players of cricket, those who give trial performances when the US dollar compensation is right, when they have to fight for a place in the team.
When the status of the region is all that matters, players can ignore it, drag the name “West Indies” and its maroon color that once instilled pride in the hearts of the nationals it represented, on clays from Australia to England, with equal ease. perfect. that the region’s criminals celebrate another day of murder, gargling the best cognac blood money can buy.
But I digress: I was about to highlight the “result” of the morning – that is, the number of lives that were cut short while the citizens slept. I’ve been told by friends who live in communities where these dragons leap from as darkness falls, killers blasting their music on the morning radio news just to hear if their “ghost” made the headlines.
I am necessarily told that murderers thrive on being “mentioned in dispatches” by reputation, not necessarily names, though the latter gives them promotion, for fear that the mere mention of their names may cause in the hearts of lesser men. Further, I’m told, simply being arrested and being “inside” jail while awaiting parole earns the gunman a rank or two – rank, boy, rank.
Murderers love lawyers and politicians who, for moderate fees by their standards, enable them to secure guarantees to continue their careers in crime unhindered, so much so that they are hedging bets on their blocks that Party A, not Party X, will win the seats traditionally held by X, with a little persuasion from the gangsters, a pensioner shot here, a baby shot there – what does it matter?
It matters. The top people who feed the criminals, literally aiding and abetting them to, at the very least, keep the country unstable, or worse make it ungovernable, are the real traitors – practically, the temperature controllers of crime that seem to enjoy bleeding with pleasure. I wonder how many of you noticed that in last Friday’s gun murder-suicide, the perpetrator was reported as the legal owner of four handguns and a rifle. In several other recent crimes, either the perpetrators or the victims were also holders of multiple licenses. Now, I trained at Sandhurst, a military academy that prepares thousands of young men to fight wars. The weapons, ammunition and armaments we used numbered in the tens of thousands during the two years I spent.
Not once did I see a training officer or a cadet armed with more than two weapons: a pistol and a rifle or machine gun, and these were professional soldiers preparing for war. Now I want the Minister of National Security and/or one of the police commissioners to tell the country why civilians have been given more than one gun, all licensed and approved by people in authority. Why? What war were they preparing for?
Now, do we see a connection between criminals armed with machine guns, assault rifles and a plethora of pistols as weapons for the wars they engage in? Fighting fire with fire is their code. And as both “armies” leave, children, retirees and ordinary citizens become targets of opportunity.
