Acts of Desperation

Last Thursday, E's tonsils flared up again so we found ourselves back in the doctor's waiting room. I had just been there two weeks earlier when D had the flu, so I was very surprised to see the clinic locked up tighter than a drum. The reception counter was now screened and in his consulting room, Dr H had moved his desk around so that he wasn't sitting right in front of the door.

It turns out that three or four days earlier, just before they were due to close at 10pm, three parang-wielding Indian men stormed into the clinic. They leapt over the counter and entered the doctor's room. They confronted Dr H, grabbed his stethescope and hit him over the head with it, opening a gash that needed five stitches to close. They relieved his young patient's mother of her handbag and then locked both mother and son in the washroom. Then they cleaned out the clinic of cash and other valuables and left.

Dr H said that in the 15 months that he has been in business, he's made four police reports. Before this, he'd never ever had to see the inside of a police station, now he considers himself something of a veteran.

Over the last few months, the news has been overwhelmed by reports of increasingly violent crime – whether they are robbers or rapists, they have no qualms about harming or even killing their victims. It's very disturbing to know that these crimes are happening right at one's doorstep; Dr H's clinic is just a five-minute drive away. A couple of months ago, a young woman who lives a couple of roads away was abducted. Fortunately, her abductors only wanted money, so she maxed out her ATM cards and they let her go.

The authorities are quick to blame drug addicts for virtually every the violent crime that is committed. But drug addiction is not the sole cause of desperation. What about poverty and disenfranchisement? There is great unease about the state of the economy and the perceived weaknesses of the government. I fear that we will see many more violent acts of desperation in the days to come.