Orville Taylor | New Year reality check

As they waited for the New Year, some said TGIF. For me it was ‘So Happy it’s Today’ because it was more of the same stuff from the year before. Barely dampened by the COVID-19 pandemic, Jamaicans had killed 1,323 in 2020, marginally down from the 1,339 in 2019. By November 2021, we had long gone past the number, with some very gross examples of human cruelty. Graphic videos circulated of bodies being mutilated, elderly women being knifed to death, children being deliberately shot, and the assailants seeming to become more and more barefaced and coldhearted.

We can start the word with any letter we want, but given the target we set for ourselves as a nation, the crockery rattling and the criminals’ mockery of the security efforts, an ‘F’ is the only appropriate grade. Mark you, we social scientists and especially those in the department in which I work, know that it is not a quick fix. This was a slow process that took decades of poor governance to create. Therefore, we know that there was no short-term pill to take to suddenly have us make a successful stand against our security dysfunction.

Indeed, as with the medical analogy, the impotence of the security forces in stemming the level of violence is not the disease itself; it is the symptom of a greater pathology. Doubtless, a swallowing of the quick-fix pill often enough produces a temporary relief and a manly show of strength. However, not only does it not last, but more problematically, it ultimately creates problems in the other parts of the system, and in a heartbeat, (or lack thereof), one is gone. Other times, it is a stroke of bad luck, which ends the delusion.

WAKE UP

This is The Matrix, but the stars are not Keanu Reeves and Laurence Fishburne. We had better swallow the red pill and wake up to the unpleasant reality that there is much that we have to address in truly achieving our social, political, and economic destiny as a nation. Prosperity is a nice catchword. But catches, like balls, can be dropped, and it is about time that we realise that the match is in danger of being lost, especially when the umpire changes his signalling finger to the middle one. None of us in the behavioural sciences made any promises about being able to feel safe and sleep with our doors open as we used to in the good old days.

Politicians say those things on campaign trails; we know better than to do such things. It is for these reasons that there is a large trust deficit among this category, while academics enjoy higher credibility, although admittedly, there are a few prominent PhDs among us whose relationship with the truth is as estranged as that between canines and felines.

High levels of homicide are not the problem. They are the result, and no doubt, COVID-19 has exacerbated it. In previous columns I have raised the point that homicide is an epidemic and must be treated with the same methodological approach of any other public-health challenge. Using the same imagery from the COVID-19 pandemic, the process must begin with early detection of the virus or its symptoms. True, as with the coronavirus, there is a major place for strong policing and lockdown measures. Therefore, there is really no issue with having a stout vanguard that knows where to go and how to respond very quickly to the threats.

This, however, requires a cadre of professional workers who are highly motivated and protected.

TAKE ADVANTAGE

Government must take advantage of the expertise in labour market planning and forecasting and pinpoint critical areas of training. Never mind the grand narratives, there is no major training shortfall in the curriculum of the constabulary. What is needed is accreditation of the period of instruction so that like nurses and other professions, they can say they have according to my favourite caller, a ‘serfiticket’ and not just a service ticket. Ask retired deputy commissioner Delworth Heath, lots of progress in this direction during the period when homicides were 1,005.

If you want professionals then they must be given professional recognition, which remains with them. This is not dissimilar to electricians, pharmacists, and nurses. Of course, this is more medium than short term, but it is sine qua non. One’s certification as a teacher follows her to her grave and even beyond.

As with the myriad thermometers and alcohol sanitisers, as well as an integrated database of COVID-19 patients, technology is the way forward. Believe me, during my stint in Geneva, Switzerland, 31 years ago, I saw equipment and software that still make Jamaican 21st-century policing look Jurassic.

Finally, we must stop pussyfooting around and get to the root. Early childhood and social-work investments are not ‘after the fact’ welfare items. They are the beginning of the process. Ask social workers Claudette Crawford Brown and Aldene Shillingford and sociologist Aldrie Henry Lee how critical front-loading spending on children is.

If we get it right here, we save billions later.

- Dr Orville Taylor is head of the Department of Sociology at The University of the West Indies, a radio talk-show host, and author of Broken Promises, Hearts and Pockets. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and tayloronblackline@hotmail.com.