While some Bahamians debated whether to call the holiday National Heroes Day, others thought that leaving things the way they have always been would be good enough. And even while these debating types thought that this is what they should do with their time, other Bahamians had infinitely more serious things on their minds.
Their thoughts were trained on what they knew would come with the holiday – namely sudden death for some of this nation’s youth. As yesterday’s day break news attests, they were not to be disappointed.
Apart from the rapes, robberies and other assaults that were not reported or covered in media, there were those that were. Take for example the crime that left a young man in a pool of blood on a dance-floor, with an ogling crowd of spectators as witness to the butchery that left his mortal remains where they were.
As per usual, there are suggestions about a woman, another man, jealousy, rage, alcohol, some other drugs and a culture of wanton violence that has turned killing into an awful sport.
In the meantime, the politicians and the church-men and any number of other so-called and self-styled ‘leaders’ continue with their own business-as-usual activities.
As the carnage continues, we are left with nothing but wonderment at the expressed attitude of those Bahamians who sit back, watch and act as if all the death and destruction in the news is some body else’s business.
We are sorely afraid that if this attitude continues, the public at large may be obliged to search for their own ‘home-made solutions’ to the problem of crime in The Bahamas.
Indeed, there is every indication that this is already happening in some of the ranks of this nation’s youth. We are hearing horrifying reports about young people who are routinely way laid and beset as they go out ‘to have fun’.
Regrettably, this so-called ‘fun’ is routinely suffused with sexualized vulgarity, drugs and the ever present alcohol.
We sometimes get to know some of the rest of the story, some of which has to do with prostitution and some of which has to do with matters that end in a pool of blood on some lonesome dance floor.
There is no fun in any of this madness. In the meantime, please remember that ‘fun’ does not come cheap in the Bahamas. Somebody sells the liquor our youth consumes. Somebody sells the cocaine and ‘weed’ that some of them use. And as we know, somebody owns the business establishments that harbor these feral youth.
But as we know all too well, when some one’s mortal remains are left in a pool of blood on some suddenly lonesome dance-floor, all that happens in the dreadful aftermath of horror is that the floors will be mopped. And a new dance will begin, perhaps to end as the one that ended this weekend with the remains of a young Bahamian on a bloodied dance-floor which doubled as a battle-field.
This is so very wrong.
If this kind of savagery was not enough in this so-called ‘paradise’, we reiterate the point that there are Bahamians are today teetering on the edge of shock as they awake to the reality that there are – this day – any number of Bahamians who must avail themselves to conditions of abject poverty.
This is a kind of violence. This time around the crime against the person is built into the system itself. To make matters worse, the victim is often blamed for the conditions that imprison him.
This might explain some of the savagery that we see played out in one social setting after the other. In this regard, we note that some of the crimes against the person are quite savage – suggesting that some of this nation’s criminals are becoming more and more feral.
Rape and murder are at the top of the list in this bestiary of horror.
In such circumstances, many Bahamians grow desperate. Some grow faint as a consequence of fair; while others decide that they will take the law into their own hands. In this regard there are any number of disturbing indicators of stress and distress in this country of ours.
Editorial from The Bahama Journal
