Dear Editor
I think more than enough time has passed for us to discuss national issues based on appreciating the facts, rather than just promoting divisiveness and ignorance.
Over and over again I am seeing references to the Drugs Sou Sou and a sou sou itself, tied to the concept of a pyramid scheme.
Sou sous have existed in this country for decades, and in everything I have read, the clamp down on criminals are based on their involvements in pyramid schemes.
At no point do I recall the Police or the Government attempting to put pressure on persons running and participating in sou sous; the focus has been pyramid schemes and there is a big difference.
A sou sou is generally run among persons known to each other and is not now, or has ever been a profit making arrangement. It simply provides an avenue for persons to pool their money in a sort of savings, and what they receive is the sum total of what they contributed.
Not Rowley, not Griffith, not oversight organisations…no one has condemned this kind of arrangement.
That means this issue of “the small man” being taken advantage of is an argument built on a total misunderstanding.
Unless of course, people would rather go all in for some shady promise of put $10 and get back $1,000, without any protection and an enforcement of the law.
This is effectively what a pyramid scheme is; it relies on continuous recruitment and contributions, and promises returns that will not be found in legitimate financial and lending institutions.
What I’m beginning to think exists is a deliberate attempt to misinform by somehow relaying to the population that the police crackdown on pyramid schemes is a crackdown on the ordinary, village based sou sou.
In a time such as the present, where our every waking moment presents new, unthinkable challenges that are taxing us to the hilt, we really do not need to add more burden on our own shoulders by creating issues out of absolutely nothing.
The Police, the State, the Public Service, everyone has more than their fair share to do so let’s just focus on getting on with it and stop this incessant nonsense and misinformation!
And in this regard, the Police deserves commendation for the swift manner in which they are cracking down on the real perpetrators trying to punish “the small man” – the criminals!
Kience Joseph
