Slipping Towards the Abyss - Addressing the Three Categories of Social Breakdown

by Larry Smith

The nation slipped a little further towards the abyss recently as young people began rioting in the streets for no particular reason, leading to the knifing of one boy on Paradise Island and the shooting of another on a public holiday.

Gangs of Junior high schoolers also engaged in a rock-throwing, after-school melee on a busy Palmdale street, attacking police who tried to stop them. And this follows fights, riots and murders in the schools themselves.

One thing is clear - this is not crime. It is impending social breakdown. And you don't have to be a social scientist to figure out what will happen when these youngsters get a bit older.

"It's a terrible feeling," one of Tough Call's correspondents cried. "But for the first time I believe that if we have not gone beyond the point of no return, we are very close. It seems that everyone is despairing."

Meanwhile, the response from the political class has been to exchange veiled threats about exposing each other's sexual peccadillos (don't look it up - just consider the way it sounds). Or, as another correspondent indelicately put it:

"Parliament is going to waste time talking about some kid that got a blow job in school (like we all tried to do) and who is being boungied by who, and who is sweethearting who, while accused killers and armed robbers walk the streets committing more crimes."

The threatened debates have so far failed to materialise, but we have no doubt that each party is trying to put the frighteners on the other. And both parties continue to pretend that we are still in the talking stage on crime - trying to figure out what to do.

Despite all the work that has been done on this subject over the past 20 years, they have agreed on two new commissions - one in Parliament (which will spend another five months figuring things out), and another led by Rev Simeon Hall (which is an open-ended figure-it-out shop).

But who needs further figuring? The contributing factors have all been identified. They are divided into three categories - socialisation, enforcement and justice. There is no mystery - and it is certainly not rocket science.

Socialisation covers all the things that produce new entrants to our society - the family, home life, schooling, moral codes and work. Enforcement is the way in which society's rules are applied or not applied. And justice refers to the way we process those who break the rules.

One suggestion for crime reduction in the enforcement category comes from John Issa – the Jamaican hotelier who operates Breezes on Cable Beach. His recommendation is for a national identity card to catalogue people, but this is likely to lead only to more government bureaucracy and less freedom for law-abiding citizens.

The authorities are sitting on 60,000 outstanding warrant files, including 11,000 criminal matters, so we already have a catalogue of criminals lying dormant. Curbing our constitutional freedoms is not the answer - we all know that the first victims of a police state are ordinary citizens, who are much easier to control and harass than criminals.

And we don't need new laws either. As former Grand Bahama Chamber of Commerce chief Chris Lowe says: "Our laws have worked well in the past, but seem not to work today. The laws have not changed, nor have the rules governing the police and courts. So what has changed? Something must have changed."

His answer? Today there is rule by political and personal favour rather than by law: "And it follows that, if we see our leaders ignoring the law, why then should we ordinary citizens observe the law? And if we no longer possess any standards, anarchy follows - not in one fell swoop, but in an ever accelerating progression right before our very eyes."

What must we do in terms of enforcement? Well, our leaders need to set examples and make examples of those who breach the rules of behaviour. We need foreign police officers to bring some level of impartiality and motivation to our law enforcement agencies. For example, British experts are training police in Trinidad to counter criminal gangs that are terrorising local communities.

British officials have also introduced measures like police stop-and-search and metal detectors at schools, pubs and clubs, in an attempt to curb the use of knives and other weapons by young people. So far this year, 28 teenagers have been knifed to death in Britain.

But most of all we need a zero tolerance policy for public nuisance crimes such as illegal street vending, dumping and littering, sign-posting, loitering, drinking and swearing. not to mention drug peddling. We need to enforce traffic rules and clamp down hard on street violence and vandalism.

If we can't curb these lower level abuses that cause so much distress to most of us on a daily basis, how can we hope to deal with more serious crimes? To put it another way, if slackers and thugs see that they can get away with spitting in everyone's face, it sends a clear message that they can get away with murder.

And just where do our 2800 cops hang out these days? Other than racing recklessly through the streets carrying prisoners from Fox Hill to downtown courts for the further adjournment of their cases, a patrolman or traffic cop on duty is a rare sight indeed.

But improving enforcement is no solution by itself. It will only lead to gridlock unless the justice system is fixed. And that is probably the easiest of the three categories to deal with, because the solutions are clear and finite in scope - requiring only money to make them a reality. A single budget exercise could resolve most of the bottlenecks in our courts and prison within a year.

We know the prison is overcrowded, so if we want to keep criminals locked up and deal with all the backlogged cases we obviously need a bigger prison - or new jails for various types of offenders - and more prison officers. Once we have places to put offenders we can set about processing them - and that simply requires more judges (preferably foreign), more courtrooms, more prosecutors and more support facilities.

To those who would say we can't afford all that, here are two suggestions: create a special crime tax that would be earmarked specifically (and transparently) to pay for prosecutors, courts, judges and a judicial secretariat. Or, for those who don't want to encourage more taxation, sell Bahamasair with the expressed object of devoting the proceeds to improving our justice system. The liquidation of a non-performing state asset is a small price to pay for better security and a more just society.

The third category - socialisation - is more difficult to address because it requires long-term investments in education, family counselling and social health programmes. But over the years experts have produced some agreed guidelines.

A 2005 report sponsored by the Inter-American Development Bank took a close look at the 17 per cent of our population who are between the ages of 15 and 24. The report collated information from a variety of studies and surveys undertaken by government agencies over the past decade, as well as international initiatives.

Not surprisingly, education and employment were confirmed as the two most important factors in youth development. And the fact is that 40 per cent of boys and 23 per cent of girls fail to achieve passing grades in Bahamian high schools, and about a third of young people out of school are unemployed.

Education, joblessness, anti-social activities and poverty are all closely linked, the report said, and international experience shows that at-risk youth benefit much more from improving basic literacy and numeracy than they do from vocational training. This is something that the private sector Coalition for Education Reform has been seeking to convey to government officials for years.

One thing is clear about young people in the Bahamas today - they are growing up in a culture of violence that did not exist in our day. According to the IADB report, 35 per cent of boys and 13 per cent of girls carried a weapon, and a majority said they often felt like hurting or killing someone.

So - to a large degree - we already know the answers to our problems. And we certainly know what the consequences are if we don't address these issues. All that is needed is the leadership to move the nation in the right direction and implement the required solutions.

Comments

[Kif]

PBS aired a great program in Harlem, NY recently. It is called "IMPACT" and was started by one man after the murder of a teen in his neighborhood. It begins with a 'boot camp' and commitment to the ideals of the group. Education is at the forefront. Former gang members are now getting 90s in school.

[Bill]

The free market and its nasty side effects- joblessness, wage inequality and the social break down and crime afterwards.

Education, the great stop gap, has been broken. Thank's to the unions on the last great effort. Thank's now to lack of cooperation between the teachers and the Ministry. Before that we had conservative thinking, which held out and took to scorn new age perceptions and concepts out intelectual outreach of our kids- before we assess the grading system!

We are losing our battle.....more needs to be done!

Bill

[Bob Knaus]

Larry, as a foreigner I'm curious -- why the emphasis on foreign police officers and foreign judges? Is there something wrong with Bahamians that they are incapable of impartial enforcement and justice?

Mind you, I'm all in favor of taking advice from foreigners. I've blathered on at length regarding many subjects, myself. But it seems to me that Bahamians ought to be the ones doing the work.

[larry smith]

Our society is too small and interconnected for police and judges to be free of conflicts. And in the case of judges, there are not enough qualified Bahamian lawyers who are prepared to give up huge incomes in order to serve.

[C.Lowe]

If one examines our colonial past, the colonizers, the British, used people from other "colonies" to enforce law and order.
I.E. Bajan and Jamaican prison and police officers, permanent secretaries, civil sevants in general, along with some career Brits.
Upon Maj. Rule, these were removed over a few years, and replaced by Bahamians, so while there were always some Bahamians in place in the Civil service, they now were dominant.
Given that Majority rule was empowering, the rules and procedures kinda slid out the window. A rejection of the colonial and his rules. The result? today's decay.
I do not believe this can be disputed, but we do not yet rationalize or acknowledge these realities.
I will say though, that I do not believe that this would have been unique to Bahamians, as any peoples turned loose like that would have issues.
Britain was not exactly fighting to keep us as a colony, so transitional preparation was minimal.
This is unlikely to be a popular view but

[Bob Knaus]

Interesting reply, Larry.

Iceland has about the same population as the Bahamas. It is even more interconnected, not having the advantage of Haiti, Cuba, and the USA nearby to increase the pool of relatives. Yet, Iceland has no trouble supplying its own policemen and judges.

What's different with the Bahamas?

[larry smith]

Good question.

[Bill]

Hi Bob,

The difference with Iceland and the Bahamas is that 1. Iceland is in a culturally cohesive region, where support and cross national support is available and support that is not far from their national interest- even from a hegemonic standpoint.

2. Iceland had supported a social model, which went against any semblance of free-market liberalism and did not pervade such depridation of their human resources, with ill regard for collective reprecussion. Simply put, the all for me baby thinking of the west, is not the foundation of which iceland started- they seek to take care of the collective first, and leave individualism as a priority, but, as a priority only seen through the collective benefit.

3. Iceland has, like most European countries, heavy tax systems and has money to throw at the issues, like heavier police states.

To top all of that off, Iceland, has allot of other political infastructure, which supports it in regards to the paradoxical liberal theories of 1. social liberty and 2. high welfare protectionist states.

The Bahamas had no such basis, and, if we adopted one, it would go against the popular thought, which dominates western hemispheric popular thought on what liberal ideology is and how that is supposed to function.

Best,

Bill

[larry smith]

Perhaps more importantly - Iceland is a developed nation with a first world mentality.

[anthony kelly]

I enjoy reading your column each week, but thought this one was excellent and so accurate in pin-pointing our current social problems.

Keep up the good work.

[Bob Knaus]

Bill - the Bahamas is not socially cohesive? These islands are a prime example of groupthink. They have not tried collectivist models? Review the history of the Pindling years. I will grant you, the tax burden here has never been heavy under any regime.

Larry - the Bahamas is 1st world! It would be a better candidate for admission as the 51st US state than Puerto Rico.

Does anyone seriously think that foreign policemen and judges are part of the solution to Bahamian cultural decline? Bahamians that I know are intensely proud of their country... to the point of being prickly and sensitive about it. Bringing in foreigners to perform such essential social functions would rub most Bahamaians the wrong way, and rightly so.

[larry smith]

The absence of large numbers of people living in abject poverty does not make us a first world nation.

Bahamians are prickly and sensitive about everything. So what?

Fact is, we can't find enough lawyers to fill judicial positions - maybe that's why we have to recruit compromised lawyers.

[Bill]

Hi Bob,

In the past few years, the idea's of us moving past a socially cohesive bond, into a more individualistic style mentality, is what we have engendered on purpose; for many different reasons. But, the chief reason is this western liberal perception of individuality, which dominates popular thought world wide.

There is no such thing as 'group think' anymore in the Bahamas. In fact, what we have is tribalism at its core. But, that is not 'group think' for net social gain. That's 'follow the leader'. And this, is built on the premise that 'follow the leader', means that you as an individual will eat tomorrow- net individual gain.

That being said, we can't forget which back-yard we are in. The conflicting perceptions of western patterns and influences and developing country underpinnings and needs, is where our chief conflict arises. This is top down dictation, to the root level of our society. Ultimately, the buck starts and stops, literally, with that- as with any organization, you influence who allocates and how they should allocate, you simply just as much allocated what you needed into a society.

Larry:
Iceland- while it may sound nice to compare- has an older more developed society, which never had major conflict as permeating as a war, or, social, like plantation style confusions as well as them being 'multi-ethnic/racial'.

We, on the other hand, at least state wise, are 30+ years young. We have three major conflicting patterns of thought on our sociology- British, US and plantation confusions.

On top of all of that, we are made up of 1. Not only different races; white, black, Chinese. , but, different Caribbean identities as Jamaican, Haitian, African American and West Indian as well as the differences in social living within those sub-groups- tribes from Nigeria to Uganda.

All of these things, as you would know, would make finding true consensus on true socially accepted norms, problematic- early US social consensus, and up until now as noted by groups like the CFR and PNAC, have identified that this continuation of multi-ethnic voices into the democratic process, would further weaken the possibility of finding true consensus and that would be problematic to decision making. This has crucial and particular value- both critically and analytically.

The confusions of African American thought, is a great parallel to understanding the factors of Bahamian social development. The one big thing, and you can take it as you like, for us in regards to maintaining order, is for the fact that we are a tourist destination and that feeds and binds us and with that acknowledgement, we are under hegemonic rule from the US- which dictates what we do, no matter how we feel about it.

That being said, this is no plug for anything, let alone US imperial power. However, would it, or, would it not be worse, if we did not solve some of our root problems, is debatable on many levels if we want to talk about best results.

Bill

[Bill]

Ultimately I would like to add; you can't expect persons who act for net social benefit, when you engender individuality through free-market liberalism.

You can't expect people to work for little, or, for free, socially, when you have not engendered the type of social safety nets, which accompanies this or encouraged higher payments.

Can't have it both ways, no matter how much you cry about it. Pay people, or, make them secure in their philanthropy as many social welfare, or, developed market economies do....

Best,

Bill

[Bob Knaus]

"Bahamians are prickly and sensitive about everything. So what?"

ROFL -- good one, Larry -- you win :D

Maybe one of these days we will meet in person.

[Bill]

Is there any country in the world, classifed as 1st world, that is NOT Euro-influenced??...Aside from Japan?

And even that's debatable on the merit of them being a US proctectorate for over 50+ years!

You blame the Bahamas and castigate "Bahamians", for things that really aren't our fault and beyond our control, Larry- un-derservedly so, considering who and what we have to deal with!

JMO!

Bill

[larry smith]

This article merely points out that we already know, with a large degree of confidence, what the problems are and what needs to be done.

There was no 'castigation' that I am aware of.

And if we Bahamians aren't to blame for our own problems who is? Adam?

[Bill]

Larry,

I guess your caterwalling of everything bad that is Bahamian, which happens to be everything, is not "castigation?....I see.

Carry on!

Bill

[larry smith]

Well, I guess you want me to talk the usual Bahamian tripe. That ain't ga happen.

[Bill]

Larry,

What do you refer to as "tripe"??

You are one of the foremost writers in the Bahamas, so anything reflected in this country, you would have a lens that would showcase that. Anything in regards to tripe, you certainly report on it- true!

As for solutions, I think you are far behind in that regard. Moaning and griping, without putting forward a good note every now and then, is rather pointless and a waste of good energy- unless that floats your boat.

For example, and I am no FNM by any means, the budget prepared just recently, showcased at least a starting point for a few good things to happen in regards to welfare and investment stimulation. A little thin on education (policy wise), but we have to wait until the communication of the education Minister- who has a penchant for financial advisory- to see what the vision is. Hopes up, and fingers crossed.

Now, welfare is a crucial point, in regards to even your topic, when we speak to addressing social break down...more needs to be done from that end. But, that is a start.

I think I put forward a good analysis in regards to the comparison of Iceland and social economies that work for net social benefit in regards to us finding- or having the inability to find criminal justice administrators.

I would suggest, if you want to write without push back from serious intelectuals and academic critique, is that you look a little deeper into the issues, instead of pointing to random facts and emotive catch pharses, which speaks to very little- to be totally honest with you. "Iceland is a 1st world country, with a 1st world mentality", is not productive dialouge. Its moaning!

That being said, I normally like your views as weak on analytical grounding as they are at some points, and, for that matter, whether or not they line up to what you started off with (The Mugabe and PLP thread, was a little "off")--- the point is, sometimes allot of things need to be said. And I can appreciate this. However, I want to encourage you to speak to the issues, without all of the catterwalling and emotive dialouge, which to be quite frank, borders on misanthropy and reeks of blind discrimination- I know it can't be the latter, more over it is a matter of true information on the people to whom you speak!

JMO!

Bill

[Rick]

What are the solutions Bill?
List some solutions for us please.

[Bill]

Rick,

You and Larry, appear to know it all. Nothing more I can add aside from my observations.

However, the civic,church and state leadership, have solutions on tap- perhaps you should ask them?

I learned a little while ago, and perhaps a bit too late, is that Bahamians don't like a know it all or solutions- their request for solutions, are rhetorical.

Best,

Bill

[larry smith]

You are a comedian Bill. Where do you think I got the solutions outlined in my article?

My point? They are not being implemented.

And if an intellectual and academic such as yourself doesn't know what first world and first world mentality mean, I can direct you to some internet resources.

[Bill]

Larry,

I love the "snark"...sorry I missed the "solutions" in your initial thread. Perhaps I should review it!?!?!

But, seriously now, I never said that I was an intelectual and academic, but thank you for the compliment. I just suggested that if you don't want a critique from one, or push back on what you propose, then don't post such sweeping indictments on Bahamian attitudes and mentalities- if you took that as being me, then it is what you want it to be- typical or not.

Now, I had issues with what you meant by "tripe"; still do, for that matter. Also, I don't think you need to go as far as direct me to literature on first world mentality- I would look up on it, just for you, on another spare moment.

Best,

Bill

[FactBringer]

If you think recent events signify "the point of no return" then the truth is we passed that point TEN YEARS AGO.

10 years ago I had to walk and ride jitneys home from highschool. I saw all the same stuff back then including witnessing many "near-death" events. They of course didn't get nearly as much coverage as recent events since they were only "near" death.

28 teenagers knifed to death in all of Britain sounds like a positive thing considering that London alone has over 7 million 5-hundred-thousand people.