Put plainly and simply, it is not possible to maintain the socio-economic status quo and at the same time expect a reduction in violent crime. This is one reason why the Prime Minister’s announcement that there will be “talks” about crime is not impressive.
The announcement came during a strange end-of-year interview in which the prime minister described a record 600 murders in 2022 as simply “unwanted”. He scornfully protested that showing empathy “means not having someone pull you in a boat across the water to take a fake photo” – as he went back and forth to justify why he didn’t show up in a time of crisis floods.
At the time, several communities in the country were dealing with flooding.
(via Dr Keith Rowley’s Facebook page)
I also contend that the commonplace response from business and other communities that they “are ready” to participate in these talks is equally unimpressive.
These assertions are fueled by their failure to understand what this column has repeatedly described as: “the need to support parenting in disadvantaged communities with enlightened social development policies and the reform of an education system within which there are schools that are training grounds for destructive attitudes in children victimized by Secondary Income Assessment (SIA)”.
Many of those who “stand ready” to speak have a vested interest in the VSM system, which provides privileged entry for their children to so-called prestigious schools and other areas of indifference, such as the legislation of public procurement.
(via the Office of the President)
Our rulers and their satellites are happy to leave many things unreformed and unregulated, which make it easy for financiers and supporters to prosper at the expense of others. That’s the context in which one beleaguered homeowner complained in a letter to the editor last week: “With both major parties powerless and more aligned with the interests of fireworks importers and users,” fireworks horror nights are not they will end soon.
On New Year’s Day there was a striking contrast between what I read in this paper and that New York Times respectively for crime in 2022. Our situation was reported as “a bloody year of shame – 601 dead” while Times was commenting on a decline in homicides in 2022 in major US cities.
of Times The comment referred to the reopening of social services and programs “that help keep people safe” and, specifically, “in places like schools and addiction facilities that can help people — especially young people, the most common perpetrators and victims of violent crime, stay out of trouble.”
(Copyright Daniel Prentice/Arima Araucans Academy)
These programs were said to have been disrupted by Covid, but “as life slowly returns to normal, these programs have reopened and helped suppress murders and shootings.”
I would remind readers of the success of the Curing Violence programs I have written about recently.
Meanwhile, the Acting Commissioner of Police, Erla Christopher, with the other actor McDonald Jacob, continues with the pathetic lament that the citizens complain about the ineffectiveness of the police.
Like Jacob, she doesn’t deal with the hard fact that the detection rate for murder, even by the most favorable measure, is less than 20 percent.
(via TTPS)
Murder has been routinely carried out with impunity for two decades. One is therefore compelled to reiterate that the failure of the police to apprehend criminals is as monumental as the failure of successive governments to deal with the underlying socio-economic conditions that contribute to the development of criminal elements.
Our rulers and elites seem unable to put aside their indifference to the killings. Without realism, honesty and sensitivity about the fundamental issues of community recovery, “talks” will get us nowhere.
I had indeed intended to return to the great economic potential of the performing arts sector as I prepared to re-enter the garden world. Sadly, my enthusiasm has been dampened by the dangers of moving to a violent, crime-ridden country in the midst of a potential resurgence of Covid.
There are disturbing reports that variants of the Covid virus are sweeping China and causing waves of infections in other countries, including the US.
(via the Ministry of Health)
Our Covid hospital facilities may soon be full again. Will the much-hyped so-called “Mother of all Carnivals” leave us with a “Mother of all Covid-19 outbreaks”?
My Mardi Gras Tuesday sailor suit may have to hang up.
