By Neals Chitan
As a social skill professional involved in strategic and sustainable crime and violence reduction, I have been keeping my finger on the pulse of criminal activity in the Caribbean.
In my mind, there is no doubt that the crimes that were once only spoken of by visiting or returning family members from the Caribbean Diaspora in North America and Europe, can now be considered residential issues to our beautiful Caribbean islands.
The tight grip of cyber connectivity has shrunken our planet of six thousand plus miles in diameter to the mere handful of a smart phone. Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Skype and other social media vehicles are driving our people one thousand miles per second to the horrific sites of ghastly criminal scenes across the globe, while creating a twisted desensitizing normalcy to pain, horror and death. And so, we have emerging an international culture driven by the interactive chemistry of cyber space as opposed to the individualistic proud Caribbean culture that uniquely described life on the individual islands.
By the way, the influence of the web is only one of the ten psycho-social roots identified by our “UPROOTING CRIME & VIOLENCE CONFERENCE” feeding the rise of crime and violence in the Caribbean, which without a countering sustainable, relevant and strategic approach, as my Grandma used to say, “God help us!”
The July 24th issue of “CARIBBEAN NEWS NOW” gave a glimpse of the soaring crime situation in St. Lucia. Prime Minister, Dr. Kenny Anthony is quoted as saying, “Many families continue to plunge into mourning as a result of crime and gang warfare, which has eroded the social fabric of the state.”
By the way, my intention in mentioning St. Lucia was not to drag its reputation through the mud, because like my Grenadian homeland, she too is a beautiful gem in the Caribbean sea, however, it was to help us all realize that if we do not stem the tide of criminal exposure and incidences now in the lower Caribbean, another quote from Grandma, “Dog eat we supper.”
Let me say here and now that I really do have an issue with individuals who unduly comment on and criticize trends and behaviours just for the sake of being heard, but who simply walk away from the issue without investing one minute of time to help make it better.
As the President and Frontline Speaker of Motiv-8 For Change International, I am proud to announce to the Caribbean that we have designed and copyrighted “UPROOTING CRIME & VIOLENCE” a powerful two-day Crime Reduction Conference which looks deep into ten psycho-social roots of crime and violence, while sustainably injecting social antidotes into the roots to ensure methodical healing.
On November, 01, 2012, we very successfully engaged this conference at the National Stadium in Grenada under the patronage of the Ministry of Social Development, bringing together; teachers, clergy, law enforcers, social workers, health professionals, psychologists and youth field workers.
Here is an excerpt from a letter of impact written by Mrs. Sandra Thomas the then Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Social Development who hosted this conference. ”
Based on the evaluations conducted at the end of the conference, a combined 94% of the participants believe that the material discussed and the experiences shared during the presentations can change the social landscape of Grenada. Participants recommended the replication of this conference in other Caribbean countries.”
Here is a potent recommendation by a professional who saw the impact of a well designed and strategic no-nonsense conference which is developed to grab crime and violence by the roots and pull them out!
And so, I say to governments and leaders of the Caribbean “Don’t hang your heads in despair!” “Don’t give up the fight on crime and violence!” Be careful, enforcement is good, but dealing with the root causes is a better and more sustainable way.
