May I add my two cents to the demand for an end to, or at least a very significant decrease in the growing levels of lawlessness and general disorder on Guyana's roads.

I spent my vacation last July visiting Georgetown, the interior and a few rural areas. While I enjoyed my stay, I couldn't help wondering at times whether the good sense for which Guyanese were once famous had been completely abandoned.

The unbridled greed and blatant, reckless disregard by some mini-bus operators for passengers' comfort and safety, the consensual silence of the travelling public, the very noticeable lack of such traffic control devices as lights, signs and lane markings, the very questionable roadworthiness of modified minivans of dubious manufacturing quality are all contributing factors to the growing carnage on the country's roads.

While the colonial period of the country's history was known for certain forms of repression, there existed a remarkable overall sense of the rule of law and good order. I am certainly not harking back to or pining for the old colonial days but merely using that period as a yardstick for measuring the present levels and quality of societal discipline. I ask this; just because we as a nation endured and survived a prolonged period of economic and social regression with all the attendant hardships and suffering, do we now have an automatic licence to indulge in utter lawlessness, as on our roads? Do we have to helplessly follow the swing of the societal pendulum from one unacceptable extreme to the other? How can anyone in his right mind imagine that a country can even begin to develop without proper order and discipline?

I say to everyone, we are all responsible. Lawmakers and the Police, owners and operators, passengers, bystanders, owners of domestic and farm animals, DO YOUR JOBS!! Stop wasting valuable time and even more valuable human lives while pointing fingers of blame at each other. Stop the fruitless talk and get busy with the business of making Guyana's roads safe once more.
Joe Fraser