Cassandra's Candid Corner
Stabroek News
August 26, 2001

Let me begin today's column with kudos to the poor person who had to decipher my "crabfoot" which represented last week's CCC. The text was handwritten on a flight that landed just before the ultimate deadline for submission. My apologies.

There were two typographical errors (both due to my cacography). I need to re-emphasize the points I was making, ergo these corrections on the issue of fanatics. Firstly, "... we sane people are dominated (and can be destroyed) by the fanatic whose worst vice is his sincerity," and secondly, "... in the final analysis fanatics are nothing but deeply disturbed thugs and terrorists."

Then I omitted the final sentence relative to my thoughts on the anti-BASS protestors. The text should read: Protestors have got to play by the rules. If not, then they are just a lynch mob and must be dealt with accordingly. Sorry, that's just my conviction. Civilisation is based on rules and laws.

And what's all this nonsense of transforming Azad Bacchus into a cult and folk hero? This man was no paragon of virtue. The SN referred to him as a "known high seas pirate" and a "notorious criminal." I had heard of him long before I knew of "Blackie." His storming of the hospital with his band of brigands to release his son from police custody is the substance of gangster and mafia movies. Never in the history of Guyana have we ever experienced such shocking activity. Berbice has truly lost its innocence. The developments that followed were unfortunate; but at which step of those reactions can we point blame at the law enforcers? Even the unfortunate deaths and injuries of those persons during the ambulance accident were due to the recklessness and madness which engulfed the actors and bystanders in the drama. We have all seen the TV footage of the ambulance crazily speeding through the villages just prior to the mishap. Friends, let us not lose our direction and focus. The principle behind the formation of the anti-smuggling squad represents goodness. The pirates and community terrorisers are the bad guys.

As an afterthought, I should mention that in the US of A, if a policeman is killed, every other activity is pushed on to the back-burner, and an intense focus is placed on the apprehension of the murderer. So serious do they consider attacks on those whose job it is to maintain law and order in society.

Of course, we can carry this thought a step further and say that our society is going inexorably in the direction of total lawlessness. We are seeing this exemplified when we litter, in our vendor and mini-bus culture, by our road hoggishness, at the immigration lines at the airport, at our beauty pageants, at our work places, and even in our sports.

On this latter issue, you will recall the hullabaloo that this column raised when, more than a year ago, we dared to state that Jimmy Adams broke the law (as in "cheated") in order for the West Indies to win an important match. Now this lawlessness in West Indian sport seems to be gaining epidemic proportions. The other day, no less a person than the great Tony Cozier lamented that Ridley Jacobs "suffered a bizarre suspension," when in fact the latter was justly penalised (the law) for cheating. Jacobs had "stumped" India's Virender Sewag "whilst the ball was in Jacobs' left hand and nowhere near the broken wicket." The bowler was his captain, Hooper. Jacobs had more than ample opportunity to recall the batsman who had been given out by the square-leg umpire, Kevin Barbour. To his credit, Jacobs had made no appeal, but he knew damned well (just as Jimmy had known that he had edged the ball) that he had not legally stumped Sewag. And you, dear readers, will recall the time-wasting tactics of Ramnarine and Dillon in the final overs of the Kensington Oval Test against South Africa in April.

And, horror of horrors, the Indian government has issued an edict preventing their cricketers from playing against Pakistan in the Asia Test Championship. This is administrative abuse at the political level, and another form of lawlessness. There was a time in mankind's history when wars were stopped so that sporting events could be held. Now it's the opposite. Games are obstructed so that wars can continue.

All these examples are tiles in the total mosaic of a national, pan-Caribbean and international picture of unchecked lawlessness at all levels. If we do not immediately put the brakes on even the smallest of tendencies to break the law, the repercussions and later developments will return to haunt us. If we are dissatisfied with the laws then we must seek to change them without murder and mayhem. Was Martin Luther King not greatly more successful than the Black Panthers?

Friends, on the sports field, as in our day-to-day lives, fair play and law-abidingness must be our perpetual beacon. Plato says that mankind must have laws and conform to them or our life would be as bad as that of the most savage beast.

The use of force to destroy a law and to achieve some perceived justice will have no end. Our euphoria at winning one battle will dictate our desire to continue using this methodology for all objectives, and to solve all problems. Worse, the use of force - introduced even for laudable purposes - will surely end up in the hands of people who will use it to promote their own self centered interests. Who will then protect us?

PS (You know, it only recently occurred to me that only English, of all the major European languages, has a word for "fair play." If there is no word, can there be a concept or a genuine practice thereof?)