Here of late, there seems to be some report or the other that reveals some startling statistic or the other about some of this nation’s multiplicity of failures. In recent times, the attentive public has been saturated with startling statistics that purport to show how mal-educated some of this nation’s youth happen to be.
Then we have those startling statistics that purport to show how so many of this nation’s parents are delinquent. After that, there would be extremely startling statistics to show that Bahamians who are physically or mentally challenged are routinely neglected and some times abused.
We can also add to this terrifying list instances where parents and other caregivers routinely abuse children.
These startling statistics are routinely followed with the proviso that they are incomplete. This then leads to the surmise that things are even worse than available statistics seem to show. That is precisely when the pundits weigh in with their ‘studied’ conjectures parading as conclusions that the statistics are only showing the ‘tip of the iceberg’.
In other words, things are said to be much worse than they appear.
When all of this is taken together, mixed and packaged as community based wisdom, the public is duly terrified. Once terrified sufficiently, that same public sets about trying to protect itself from threatened disaster.
Once this process gets going, self-fulfilling prophecies are some times unleashed.
We see this phenomenon at work with so very many of this nation’s youth.
Labelled as dangerous, labelled as dumb, identified as criminals in the making, many of these people are routinely treated as if they are such. Some of them are dumb enough and naïve enough to accept the label.
Thereafter it is but a short step towards disease and social distemper.
There is mounting evidence that suggests that The Bahamas is adrift and that many of its most vulnerable members are catching hell. We make this observation as we remark on some the news that speaks to how some of our youth are being turned on to drugs.
Then there are those truly sordid reports that suggest that many of this nation’s children are being sexually abused, some times by their parents. On other occasions, information available suggests that some perpetrators are community notables.
As if these horror stories were not enough, there are those other stories that speak nightmare about what is happening in some of this nation’s schools. Grades are plummeting, teachers are despondent, bureaucrats are busy passing the buck and other would be pundits are busy at the game of pontificating to their fans on the side lines.
What is interesting about this sad scene of social neglect in The Bahamas is the fact that this comes against the backdrop of an economy that is said to be on a roll.
While we have no reason to gainsay the statisticians with the numbers that paint the rosy pictures, we counsel and caution that few of these beloved numbers ever really catch what is essential in human society.
Take a close look at what is happening or not happening in schools and then take a look at the crime statistics. Were you to go in this direction, it would be seen -sooner rather than later- that as this nation’s schools fail generation after generation of students, the jails await.
Quite evidently, there is also a close connection between international drug cartels, Bahamian middle men and the alarming incidence of drug use and gun violence on our streets and in our homes.
This sad list could be extended to include other instances that show the extent to which the Bahamas is being depleted of some of its most vitally important resources, namely its youthful population.
It is today quite clear to us and other attentive observers that these real problems are not being faced. What is happening in case after sad case is that once a problem is identified some very clever people rush forward with plans to expand this or that bureaucracy.
We suspect that this process hinders rather than helps.
The time has come for this nation’s leaders to truly treat human beings as if it was true that they are created in the image of God and that as such they deserve excellent schools, fine health care, nutritious food, safety, protection and access to the other goods that make civilized social intercourse possible.
Put otherwise, we need to know that Bahamians are truly benefiting from an economy that is said to be on a roll and from a cadre of politicians on both sides of the aisle who say that they care.
When all is said and done, the health of the nation is the wealth of the nation.
Editorial from The Bahama Journal
