Melville Cooke
THE MAY Pen business persons who closed their companies last week had all right to do so, but not in protest of the murder of Maurice Azan and Lloyd Phang.
If what THE STAR reported on Monday, May 16, is correct, they had all right to pull down shutters on their shame.
It was reported that Azan refused to pay extortionists, tossing a letter he received about paying to continue operating in the town into the garbage and dismissing further letters and threats.
He was, of course, not the only business person to receive the letters, THE STAR reported, but his Azan's One Stop was the only place to be visited by seven gunmen, with murderous results.
Azan was 70 years old. It took seven gunmen to kill two men who were not shooting back, who had a combined age of over 120 years. How brave of those 'shottas'. How courageous! How manly!
And how nauseating of the business persons who are paying extortion money to close their doors in protest of the killing of a colleague by the very people that they pay. For, if that report is true, that is the only conclusion I can come to, that those who have not been attacked have been paying up as required. And it took a 70-year-old man to say no, paying with his life for not folding with the majority.
EXTORTIONISTS
My conclusions could, of course, be wrong. It could be that the business persons have presented a united front against the extortionists and Azan was killed as an example, to scare the others into line, and they closed shop to not only protest Azan's murder, but also to further declare their united stance against extortionists.
But why do I seriously doubt it?
Of course, killing an Azan is definitely a step up in league. We are used to Henrys, Thomases, Browns and such the like making the police blotters, but an Azan now, that is jarring.
So jarring that a general lockdown was suggested by the PSOJ for yesterday. Because I cannot help but link the murder of Azan and Phang with the call for all shutters to be closed yesterday. After all, it was not called for after the six-year-old girl was lured away with the promise of a patty, raped and killed, or the bus-load of children shot up along Maxfield Avenue and those are very frightening incidents.
So it is with a healthy dose of cynicism that I view yesterday's shutdown, because as much as I believe that such a move is necessary, to emphasise that murder is not 'business as usual', what I perceive as the immediate cause is a continuation of the sickening class bias in this country.
I also notice that there was no let-up in the advertising in print or electronic media. So while you could not buy anything at some stores yesterday, you could listen to, see and read the ads to trot along and spend today.
However, a National Day of Reflection on the staggering number of people who have been murdered is very necessary. The causal manner in which we treat death is stupefying. On Saturday night, about 11:00. I was heading to work and saw the police yellow tape scenario at the intersection of Old Hope Road and Oxford Road. I stopped, saw a man lying dead at the entrance to Swallowfield, and walking back along the sidewalk I encountered a young lady hurrying to get in on the action.
Her eyes were dancing, her step lively and her hip swinging and she was stuffing fries and ketchup from a packet in her hand into her mouth. It was a stunning one-tenth of a second in my life, a moment I will never forget. So a basic respect for human life, which I hope is the objective of today's rallies across the island, is needed.
Melville Cooke is a freelance writer.
