I AM terribly disappointed at the reaction of some Guyanese women protesting outside the American embassy in Georgetown.

What we need to do is to worry about our own problems right here, rather than jump the gun by trying to take on the world.

If it's our kids we are trying to protect why not protest outside the liquor restaurants that sell alcohol to our young women and men under the age of 21? Why not protest about the night clubs that allow teens in who are under age?

What about the hotels that rent rooms to teens and leave us with a lot of young unwed mothers and high school dropouts, or are we so caught up with what's going on with the world that we are not seeing what is right in front of us right here that is slowly killing our Guyanese children?

Children in Guyana suffer abuse of all sorts, and what are we doing to protect them?

Each day in the papers we can read of someone being charged or jailed with such crime. They serve their time then they are allowed to walk the streets free again.

Children commit suicide, some die in accidents caused by some careless driver who is under the influence of alcohol or mostly by mini-buses in which drivers mainly play music so loudly that they cannot think straight.

What do we as women in Guyana do about this?

We have more problems here that need to be taken care of.

In Afghanistan women are living in fear of men. They have to live a lifestyle that's thought to be submissive to men, who think that war and killing is the answer.

As that's what they were taught to be right. These people are not afraid to die, they welcome death.

My point is that America is trying to rid the world of terrorists and we are complaining.

As mothers we are the same women who want the best for our children, and sometimes we send our kids abroad to study, not only to America but to England and other places.

Either way, there has got to be a stop to all the madness.

It may never be stopped but it can be controlled so that the rest of the world, including us, do not have to live in fear.

So I do hope that the women and men who agree to this take a minute to stop and think what should really be done to protect the rights of women, men and children in this world that we live in.
SASHA SINGH