Garth A. Rattray | Nobody has to die that way

My piece in The Gleaner last week Monday ‘Who will be first In 2020?’ caused quite a stir on social media. Some thought that I was morbidly ‘pronouncing’ death on fellow citizens. Some even went as far as believing that I was encouraging betting on deaths in early 2020.

It’s tragic that we believe that well over 2,000 fellow Jamaicans will inevitably be killed by criminals and/or by road crashes. In fact, absolutely nobody has to die that way.

Thank God, many people saw the article for what it was, an attempt to highlight the fact that deaths due to murder and motor vehicle crashes are unnecessary and therefore totally preventable.

By early in January 2, I found out who was first to die in 2020. My sources informed me that a 53-year-old ex-police, who was visiting from Canada, was shot and killed by an unknown assailant less than six hours into 2020.

And the first reported traffic fatality was a 34-year-old fireman who was involved in a four-car collision. This occurred less than 24 hours into 2020. Of note is that there were also five other people who were shot, and two other murders within the first 24 hours of 2020. The first shooting was recorded at 12:15 a.m. in Plantation Heights.

Many people assume that, aside from fatalities during armed robberies, those killed are often ‘mixed up’ in something, witnessed something, or are gang members and therefore sealed their own fate. However, my life was threatened simply because I opined publicly that we should try to fully understand homosexuals rather than damn them to Hell. And, a house painter, whose apprentice complained that he refused to cover our cars before painting and therefore speckled them with paint, threatened my life simply because I explained that I needed to employ someone to remove the paint off the vehicles before paying him.

SCANT REGARD FOR LIFE

The point is this, there’s rampant scant regard for the sanctity of life. It doesn’t take much for someone to want to murder you or to pay to have you murdered. Life is cheap around here. People will kill you just because they feel disrespected. Some are just in a bad mood and have a weapon on hand.

I know of a group of workers who had just completed a job on Spanish Town Road late one night. They drove past a group of young teenagers (at the corner of Maxfield Avenue and Spanish Town Road). They were shocked to see each of the little boys armed with assault rifles and petrified when one of them casually announced, “Come mek we tess out wi rifle pon dem”. They ducked and floored the pickup to the receding report of rifle fire and hot, high-velocity warheads whizzing overhead.

I admit that, given what I see on the roads, I am surprised that our traffic injuries and deaths are not significantly higher. It’s only by the grace of God that many of us make it home in one piece. The route taxis have influenced and precipitated total madness on our roads. The list of flagrant lawbreaking is way too long for this article. Suffice it to say, any and everything goes … hence so many traffic fatalities.

People are not fated to die needlessly. We can and must all play our part to assist in improving the lives of the less fortunate among us. We must encourage peace, discourage violence, and report or stop criminal activities.

We must discipline ourselves on the roads and obey our laws. Most collisions are not ‘accidents’, they are crashes. These unnecessary injuries and deaths are severely draining our resources, creating fear, stifling businesses and growth. The waste of precious lives is not inevitable.

Garth A. Rattray is a medical doctor with a family practice. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and garthrattray@gmail.com.