The morning of Saturday, September 17th, 2016, was like any other at Mekdeci Mining Company Security Office at Happy Acres on the East Coast of Demerara in Guyana. Hubert Verwayne was his usual self, hurling “good-natured” insults at his co-worker, Kevin Stephens. According to reports, Verwayne often made disparaging comments to family, friends, and colleagues alike. They all knew he liked to ‘taanlize’. Stephens threatened to shoot; Verwayne taunted him to go ahead. Stephens did. Seconds later Verwayne lay dead, a gunshot wound to the neck. Verwayne’s alleged constant disparaging remarks about Stephens’ daughter had struck a nerve that enraged him sufficiently to commit murder. Why should Stephens have been so enraged? After all, “taanlizing” is part of the Guyanese culture, so much so that Ruth Anne Lynch, in the Explore Guyana Magazine of 2016, mentions it as part of the country’s cultural norms. It is no big deal, right?
On March 1st, 2015, a young woman by the name of Patrice van Buckley died. I did not know her prior to her passing but was struck by an article journalist, Mondale Smith, posted on Facebook. It reads in part, “Those … tasked with being their sister’s keeper were overflowing with envious, uncaring, compassion-less, ‘bullism’(sic). Their words sharper than a samurai’s sword … inside she was slowly dying… she was broken mentally. She stayed in bed crying her eyes out, questioning … why? This took a toll on her mental state … Her soul was shattered, her physical pinned (sic), dwindled until alas … she died … Murdered! Not by knives nor gunshots nor by accident but because of words laced with daggers from tongues that lashed out.”
Patrice Van Buckley (Facebook Photo)
By describing what happened to Van Buckley as bullying, Smith has correctly labeled the cowardly acts of harassment, maligning, name-calling and intimidation that have become so ingrained in our society that some shrug the behavior off as ‘taanlizing’, and other such euphemisms.
Another colleague wrote on Van Buckley’s Facebook page, “… may your soul find peace that so eluded you in life… pray … your family will find closure … from the torment you were put through.”
What kind of society, as a matter of course, inflicts verbal wounds that eventually become mortal wounds? What kind of society subjects someone who is already reeling under the burden of illness/stress to the additional strain of harassment, cruel barbs and insinuations?
I think part of the problem in Guyana is that many only recognize physical acts or aggressive behavior as bullyism. However, bullyism also encompasses acts of an even darker nature, acts which have implications for one’s mental health and well-being. Bullying is the repeated verbal, written or physical harassment or abuse of another, particularly if that person possesses a characteristic that renders him/her somehow weaker. Threats, name-calling, slander, and intimidation are all forms of bullying. Bullying is cruel and cowardly, and it can have devastating consequences.
There are countless cases of people who committed suicide as a result of having been bullied. Bullying is known to cause depression. Depression is the number one cause of suicide. Hence, there is a direct correlation between bullying and suicide. I believe that Guyana’s suicide epidemic is due, in part, to a pervasive unempathetic culture. Van Buckley’s case supports this position. Rather than empathizing, society sought instead to vilify and isolate. She did not commit the physical act of taking her own life, but she was sufficiently wounded to have lost the will to live.
A study conducted by professors Michael Kimmel and Matthew Mahler of SUNY’s Stony Brook University found that most boys who committed shootings in American schools were victims of merciless and routine bullying. They found that this violence was “retaliatory against threats to their (the boys) manhood.” Several other studies point to the interrelationship between bullying and homicide. Verwayne’s bullying of Stephens ultimately led to his murder, providing further evidence of this correlation.
I do not have statistics specific to Guyana. I have not researched this issue sufficiently to declare a definitive position, but the fact remains that if we are to reduce the high rates of suicide and homicide, we must examine every possible contributor/factor. Bullying is obviously a factor. We cannot then, as a society, continue to trivialize bullying.
Bullying is not trivial! It is more than “taanlizing” because it can have devastating and deadly consequences!
Note – This article was written early last year for publication via a different medium, but was withdrawn.
rootsandeduculture 