The first level of response involves an honest and sober assessment of security matters in the state at present. Such an honest assessment is unlikely to bring comfort to any assessor. After the assessment bold initiatives should follow -- parallel and simultaneous initiatives on a number of fronts, political, religious and strategic. On the political front, thinking and action need to be innovative, ground-breaking: going beyond the traditional hardened and stubborn positions that may have been useful in another era of our history. The pain this nation feels demands nothing less of our political leaders than joint approaches and shared visions and responsibilities.

Continuation of the present trends in crime will see no winners on any side and the image of Guyana as a nasty, brutish place will be further consolidated in the minds of all -- both locally and overseas. The persistence of that image will pose huge challenges for any initiatives aimed at attracting foreign external investment or visitors. We in Guyana know that, media images apart, there is much more to life at home than murder and mayhem. We are aware of the thousand creative and constructive actions and initiatives occurring on a daily basis in our lives.

Unfortunately the dominant image abroad derives more from the mayhem than from any knowledge of those constructive deeds and for many in the Guyana Diaspora there is no other reality. In fact, one of the most moving and touching media cameos last week that reached far and wide was the image of a woman kneeling before the cenotaph, her hands raised to the heavens, beseeching an urgent divine intervention to bring an immediate end to the season of brutal killings.