IN AN ERA of unconscionable violence and terrorism in North America, Europe, the Middle East and elsewhere nothing seems out of bounds.
And Barbados and its Caribbean neighbours have every reason to be concerned about their security.
For instance, Brazil is reporting threats to the Olympics by extremists. The recent deadly shootings in Orlando, a Florida City which among other events hosts an exciting annual celebration that marks Barbados’ Independence, are a clear indication that no one is being spared.
Next was the terrorist attack in Nice, France, by a truck driver that left almost 90 victims dead.
How about an earlier assault on a Belgium airport that’s routinely used by government ministers, diplomats and others from around the world, Barbados and other Caribbean states included; the killings of three police officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana where a Barbadian university professor teaches scores of young students every semester plus the assassinations of five police officers in Dallas, Texas by a lone gunman?
Put them together and they explain why the blood pressure of people at all levels of America, from President Barack Obama down to the West Indian taxi driver in New York went sky-high.
It also explains why the safety of native-born, naturalised citizens, Green Card holders or undocumented immigrants on the streets, in airports, private homes, trains and buses is of concern.
And as the United States presidential campaign switches to high gear with the Republicans completing their nominating convention in Cleveland by crowning Donald Trump as their standard-bearer in the race for the White House and Hillary Clinton and the Democrats stepping onto the political centrestage in a few days’ time, the issue at hand is: who can make us feel secure?
Professor Ivelaw Griffith, one of the Caribbean’s leading security experts, who was born in Guyana but has Bajan roots, thinks it would be unwise for any leader and persons of all walks of life across the Caribbean to believe that violence and terrorist attacks which have taken place in North America and Europe “couldn’t happen” in the area.
“We must be on the look-out, for those who would end up harming us by attacking someone else,” said Griffith, the new Vice-Chancellor of the University of Guyana but who until recently was president of Fort Valley State University in Georgia.
By leaders, he wasn’t simply referring to heads of CARICOM governments and their ministers of national security, but chief executive officers in the private sector in Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Barbados and other member states.
“Caribbean societies may not be the intended targets but the terrorists aiming to get at say, the United States, aiming to get at the United Kingdom or France, keeping in mind that those countries have interests in the Caribbean, economic, political and otherwise” could direct their assaults on Caribbean countries, he said.
“So societies which may not have anything to do with the bad guys can become their targets.”
“I would not raise the level of panic in any way, but the situation suggests the need for the Caribbean leaders to be sensitive to the heightened vulnerability of the various countries.”
That vulnerability creates a greater sense of shared responsibility for the tasks at hand.
“The responsibility for protecting society isn’t simply the responsibility of governments,” Griffith argued. “The private sector is one of the stakeholders who must help protect the society. The reality is that in most Caribbean countries, I would argue, there are more private security entities than government security, the police force and army.
“That’s a reflection on the part of individuals and companies that they need to go out and do their own protecting of self and interests.”
Long gone are the days when private sector security relied on a cadre of untrained and ill-equipped night watchmen looking for petty crooks.
Security guards are now at the entrances of banks and insurance companies; well-armed drivers move around in armoured vehicles to pick up or drop off large amounts of cash from commercial firms; private firms do brisk business selling security systems; sophisticated devices are in private homes; and closed circuit television cameras record the movements of everyone.
“The private sector has interests, whether they are in agriculture, insurance, tourism or the petro-chemical industry. It has to be concerned about protecting those interests,” Griffith said.
“No one would necessarily target the private sector (in the Caribbean) but if terrorists see an opportunity, one that is associated with a country or a country that is related to another state” they would seize it.
Some cases in point. “You have private and public sector interests in the energy industry in Trinidad and Tobago or in the storage of petroleum in St. Lucia,” he said.
In essence, Caribbean nations may not be the tertiary targets but could suffer “collateral” damage because of their links with nations outside of the region which may be high on the terrorists’ lists.
