LILIENDAAL, Guyana — Naturally, whenever you go overseas, whether consciously or not, you inevitably compare the characteristics of the people, environment, lifestyle, and weather conditions.

From the moment I arrived in Guyana along with the Jamaican Under-20 football contingent I picked up on a few differences, but also many similarities between the two countries.

One strong link is the kind of music that people tend to listen to.

In Guyana it is not uncommon for little corner shops to play Reggae music. Popular Jamaican Dancehall music also seem to be a hit with young drivers as their car stereos blare hardly anything else when they zip by through traffic. I am left to conclude that our cultural influence is alive and well- at least this side of the Caribbean.

A less comforting similarity is the apparent widespread of crime and violence.

Though here for less than a week we have already heard and read about Jamaican-esque acts of violence. On the night (last Monday) we arrived, two men were gunned down in a reported drug-related conflict in an area known as Campbellville, just a few chains away from the Guyana Football Federation building and at the gated entrance of a local secondary school. That is less than 15 minutes away from the team’s hotel.

Spent cartridges found on the scene reportedly left investigators to believe that the weapon of choice was the AK-47 rifle

I was further disappointed when newspaper reports here stated that it was the third such killing in less than a month. I shook my head even more when it added that it took over two hours for the bodies to be removed after angry residents crowded the crime scene and challenged the authority of the security forces.

Checks with the locals revealed that most of the gun crimes committed in the country occur in Georgetown or its environs. That is not much of a surprise since more than half of Guyana’s estimated population of 770,000 reside in the capital.