Dear Editor,

Recent events in the USA have brought to our attention world-wide the direction in which we as a species are heading. Man's inhumanity to man in the name of religion, ethnicity and political persuasion.

With the many letters in the Guyana media in recent times regarding the above topics, is it not time that we take a step back and consider what is really going on in the world around us?

My sympathy goes out to the family and friends of those who have lost their lives for some unfathomable reason.

On the other hand, anyone can look around the globe and find examples of human indifference to suffering, of human exploitation whether economic, political, religious or racial. The advent of mass communications has made many immune to these topics except in cases where they crop up in the most unthought of places.

The world is daily becoming a smaller place and if we are to survive as a species we need to go back to basics, to instil in the coming generation (and in some cases the present generation), the need for morality, respect, compassion and tolerance. Failing which we are headed in the same direction as the perpetrators and victims of September 11.

Guyana, despite its many problems can indeed be the 'Elysium of the Tropics - The West Indian happy valley of Rasselas - The one and actual Utopia of the Caribbean Sea - the transatlantic Eden' (Anthony Trollope), should its inhabitants strive towards this goal.