We today counsel and caution any and all Bahamians – inclusive of National Security Minister, the Hon. Bernard J. Nottage – who would seek to describe the fight against crime as if there is some kind of war going on.
Such is demonstrably not the case.
If the situation ever did so arise, there are Constitution-based remedies that could and should be evoked if there was real cause to declare such an emergency.
We suggest to all who would be minded to use the idea of war in a metaphorical kind of way should do so with the greatest possible care and restraint.
Once this war idea takes root – class-based conflicts loom and may therefore also bloom.
This is the road that leads to anarchy and thereafter chaos.
God forbid this slide and all its attendant consequences for the Bahamian people!
We now recall some of the Election- talk about crime, what is to be done about its incidence and of course, some more about which party was responsible for its efflorescence.
We hasten to add that we never did nor ever can buy into any simplistic nonsense that would suggest that either major party is to be held responsible for most of the wrong-doing and crime now being revealed.
This country’s entire social history reveals otherwise.
The election contests have ended and in their wisdom – the people have called for the Progressive Liberal Party to have a go at resolving some of this nation’s still-festering problems.
Time will tell as things either go from bad to worse; or as [hopefully] they improve in the days, weeks and months ahead.
As we revert to this question of crime and the struggle against it; we are constrained to make the point that when it comes to the use of deadly force in the settlement of this or that dispute – no weapon can match in lethality the use of a gun.
This is precisely why the utmost care must be given and taken when this instrument of the most deadly force is ever used.
Mistakes can be fatal.
War-talk can only work to make a bad situation even worse.
What we need to talk about has to do with putting real questions to this nation’s myriad of preachers, teachers, so-called educators all of them – and the relevant state authorities as to the nature of their expensive stewardship and as to why we now reap such a mighty harvest of shame.
In addition, we need answers concerning some of the real reasons behind family-break down and the combined failures on the part of so very men and women that – when taken together- underpin this nation’s crime-driven debauch.
We also need to have some answers concerning a land where the family –as a bedrock institution – is under such enormous pressure and where in far too many cases poorly educated and sometimes grossly maltreated women are obliged to take care of far too many children.
And saddest of all happens to be the fact that some of these women [in their guise as so-called ‘mothers’ routinely turn a blind eye to their children’s routine dalliance with sex for sale.
Indeed, this is one of the more prevalent ‘secrets’ that are making the rounds in schools, on the streets and wherever any number of people in the know congregate.
These sad facts are well-known to health care practitioners in both the private and public sectors. No one should allow themselves to be deceived by either perfect finish for the face or nail-polish and high heeled shoes as worn by any loutish sin-sickened girl or woman.
The truth in the matter is simple enough and the sequence behind it is as clear as day: the abused girl-child in time becomes the troubled mother. In time the troubled mother links up with the dysfunctional man. They mate, produce a clutch of children –male and female alike who – under either identical or similar conditions – create offspring in their image and after their likeness.
Making matters worse has to do with the fact that even when the so-called troubled family comes to the attention of the authorities- they must treat with a motley array of social workers and others who are almost exclusively women and who sometimes -as such- are themselves troubled to the core.
For better or worse – the real war that must be waged is that struggle to teach and show that honesty is the best policy and that trust is the bedrock for any country that would be civilized.