Dear Editor,
The Coordinating Council and member organisations of the International Decade for People of African Descent Assembly-Guyana (IDPADA-G) would like to register in the strongest terms our disgust and disappointment that a media house would sanction the publication of a cartoon depiction of poverty in Guyana’s future symbolised by a person of African descent in rags, armed, and driving fear into some hapless victim.
It is indeed true that the current administration’s policies are leading to the rapid rise of poverty in the African Guyanese community, however it is insulting and offensive to extrapolate that African Guyanese poverty is at the root of Guyana’s horrific crime rate. We are wary of daily publications burnishing the stereotype of the African Guyanese as a criminal with images of people of African descent in conflict with the law. Since Emancipation, African Guyanese have been dragged before the courts more often than other groups – it is a legacy of our enslavement and of the post-Emancipation system created to oppress freed Africans – and an example of the systemic legacies that the Decade is intended to dismantle.
Of greater importance, and completely overlooked in the one-sided depiction of poverty, is the rampant white-collar crime that is weakening the economy, depriving the nation of revenue and resources that could, if abated, address the growing poverty in our society. Instead of the crude assumptions made by Mr. Harris’ insulting cartoon, the media should join in the demand that government must collect and provide disaggregated data by ethnicity on the incidence of and perpetrators of white collar, blue collar and street crime and their economic impact on our society. That information will serve a more useful purpose – a step towards fighting the rampant crime now destroying our nation at all levels. If properly utilised, that data can also be used to reduce and ultimately end poverty. The fourth estate may wish to use its powerful position in our society to explore the wide range of crimes – – white collar, blue collar, and street crime, their causation and impact on development, particularly human development.
Sincerely,
Olive B. Sampson
Secretary
Coordinating Council, IDPADA-G
