Blame for Evils of Society Belongs to Us

‘Victims feel alone, left without help from the system, without support and feel that the law, policies and systems favour criminals and abusers’

THE numbers are startling.

Statistics, according to an Inter-American Development Bank study (2017) showed that one out of three women is a victim of intimate partner violence. Levels as high as 41 per cent have been recorded, with alcohol and drug abuse being cited as the leading causes.

These numbers may differ given the apparent rise in violence since the advent of the pandemic and the numbers that flow onto our media pages every day.

What about the numbers for children? So many innocents have been murdered and abused by family members and others in whose care they were placed. So many have drowned in the recent past and so many in various states of neglect.

In growing numbers, our young men have opted for the lure of gang membership, seeking fortune and affection, getting fooled into aggression. Their toys are guns, lending them courage and helping them lose their souls.

As for our dollars, their numbers are slimming at the expense of corruption at the highest levels.

Are we willing to do what it will take to change those numbers? Is it already too late?

Like water dropping on the same spot, slowly etching an indentation, our acceptance of compromised values and standards allowed crime and corruption to establish themselves firmly in our society.

The heated rhythm of our music and the deeply embedded violence in our actions and our DNA were born out of our history of slavery and indentureship. While providing great stress relief for many, our culture of partying – gay abandonment, revelry and debasement of fellow humans – is both a panacea and permission for violence.

A party should be a celebration. Instead, we party on during the pandemic, in the midst of violence and at the height of suffering, and after the party, we “Trinis to d bone” look to place blame and exact justice however we deem best.

Someone hits or attacks our children, we reciprocate or take matters into our own hands, further driving cycles of violence, injustice and hatred. We look to place blame squarely on someone else’s shoulders – the police, the government, the husband, the wife, the mother, the father, the neighbour…

Well-placed blame in each case. You see, the blame for the evils of society belongs to us. All of us have a mandate to be agents of positive change.

Our words and actions, or lack thereof, in the past reverberate today.

Up to January 11 2022, 17 murders were committed. On January 10, a masked man shot, at close range, a man seated in his car. That day a 15-year-old was among two others shot that day. Over the Easter weekend, 12 deaths were added to the murder toll, including a murder-suicide by a coast guard officer and the shooting of a soldier.

Acting Police Commissioner Mc Donald Jacob said we have a problem and we need to deal with it. He went on to say that something is inherently wrong in society and we have serious challenges in communities and within families.

Victims and average citizens throw the blame fully on authorities to change their attitudes. Victims feel alone, left without help from the system, without support and feel that the law, policies and systems favour criminals and abusers.

A victim of gun violence, I speak against violence, understanding both sides of the coin. When I hosted a conference on gun violence together with the Criminology Department of UTT, I received a phone call advising me to stay quiet.

Essentially, that advice came out of hopelessness – the hopelessness of fighting against the strongholds of the narcotrafficking trade, the small arms trade and the economics of the legal systems. Like boa constrictors, the more you fight these evils, the tighter they squeeze.

Real hope cannot come only from the government, the authorities or policies. Neither can it come from masked heroes and vigilante groups.

Change will be most effective when combined with teaching values, starting with but not limited to, our young people.

With the numbers showing no sign of decreasing, we cannot allow ourselves to throw our hands in despair, bawl or roll over and hope that they automatically reduce. Instead, we can take personal and collective responsibility by teaching and living out positive values to enhance and edify, not cause destruction.

For more information visit: https://www.facebook.com/ProjectRAREagainstgunviolence/?ref=page_internal

Caron Asgarali is an educator, author and survivor of gun violence who raises awareness on the ripple effect of violence and promotes peace.