THE TIME HAS COME for a genuine national debate on violence and crime in Barbados.
The events of the past week, when taken in conjunction with the concerns that have been raised since the start of the year, shout quite loudly that we all need to engage in meaningful discussion to stem this tide of violence that is sweeping across our fair land.
We accept that it can be argued quite reasonably that our murder rate is still quite low, especially when juxtaposed against those in some other Caribbean countries. But we would be making a grave error if we judged the level of violence in our society based purely on the number of people killed.
What’s most important, we believe, is that we all come to understand fully why so suddenly it appears that so many around us see resorting to violence as the first course of action when faced with any challenge, whether or not that challenge is legitimate.
While we cannot judge a whole nation on the folly or lack of respect for the sanctity of human life by an individual who would shoot another who simply asked that he not break bottles on his property; or on the actions of a teenager who would stab another multiple times arising from a dispute that undoubtedly would have had other avenues for resolution, we must all share in the collective blame for what our nation is becoming.
And while we dither and quarrel over whether we should be hanging people found guilty of murder, whether corporal punishment should be retained and if it has contributed to today’s violence, whether we should be locking up more people for longer periods, whether the drug lords are to blame and if there is validity to the arguments that they are literally getting away with murder, whether our schools and education system are failing our youth and creating criminals, or whether years of slothful activity by our judicial system is at the root, the problem grows worse.
Our problem is that we have been talking at each other for so long we have apparently forgotten that it is action that will bring about results. Every one of the factors cited above no doubt in some way contributed to the current problem we face, but repeating them ad infinitum as we have done for so long will not improve things.
By the same token neither will the construction of more state-of-the-art buildings. We have a multimillion-dollar state-of-the-art prison at Dodds, St Philip, a multimillion-dollar state-of-the-art judicial centre in Bridgetown, some of the best primary and secondary school campuses in the region and still so many within our population are becoming increasingly violent.
Perhaps it is now time for us to admit that the post-Independence emphasis on affluence and material gain at the expense of recognising the importance of moral and religious values has been a monumental error. Further, a national recognition of this may be the first step towards correcting our mistakes and finding a solution.
We are so quick to stab and shoot strangers, slap and kick “loved ones”, beat and curse our children into subjection because we no longer hold in high regard the “golden” rules that guided those who walked before us.
Until each of us is able to place optimum value on his or her own life and to treat everyone else’s with the same worth, drawing a gun and firing on someone who simply begs you not to desecrate his home, or who asks that you not harass someone innocently walking the street will continue to be as easy as consuming a slice of Bajan sweet bread.
The real solutions may not be nearly as costly as those we’ve been seeking.