Garth Rattray | Painkillers cannot treat boils

The main treatment of large, bulging, painful boils (abscess) is not painkillers. In order to manage that potentially serious, sometimes deadly problem, they must be opened and the ‘root’ dealt with properly.

In order to manage abscesses properly, we are reminded that they must be treated with ‘drain-a-mycin’; they need to be opened and drained. Abscesses close to the surface tend to rupture spontaneously, spew pus everywhere, and stink up the place. Some abscesses may cause deep tissue and blood infections that lead to septicaemia, which is very serious, and can lead to severe organ damage, organ failure, and perhaps death.

I see a parallel between the heavy dependence on localised emergency powers used by the security forces to assuage crime and how abscesses are managed. Sure, the ‘pain killers’ (states of public emergency and zones of special operations) will provide some limited and temporary relief from the suffering caused by crime; but the root cause, the infected tissue and pus must be attended to…or else.

The festering socio-economic situations within underprivileged communities are screaming out for attention and resolution. The cows have come home by stampeding all across our nation. Yet, despite the stink of oozing pus, the suffering and deaths, we continue to either ignore or pay little regard to the need to ‘lance’ (expose) the metaphoric boil (social ills) and get rid of the root cause of the infection (crime).

WATCH THE POST

I recall an incident when a family friend was reversing his car with the guidance of his little daughter. His daughter shouted out to him, “Watch the post, daddy!” He responded, “I see it!” As he reversed some more, she again shouted out to him,, but louder, “Watch the post daddy!!” He responded, “I see it! I see it!” He continued reversing and she shouted louder still, “WATCH THE POST, DADDY!!!” Confidently, he responded, “I SEE IT! I SEE IT!!” Just then, BAMM, he hit the post. He stopped and sheepishly remarked to his daughter, “Oh…that one!”

No doubt, we are watching and attending to an important ‘post’ (a situation that must be avoided), but we are focussing on the one post and not on the other very important ‘post’ (the social situation of many disenfranchised citizens, which is the real danger to us all). We have continued doing that, although some citizens are calling out for us to ‘watch the post’ because they can see the real danger to society.

How bad must things get before we attend to the real causes of societal indiscipline, lawlessness, and crime? I happened to come across a WhatsApp video with a young lady who was fortunate enough to [literally] escape her ghetto community and the jungle justice system. Nothing she said was new to me, but she reiterated how gunmen/badmen rule many poor and underprivileged communities.

They lay claim to any young girl (often barely pubescent), terrorise citizens into remaining silent about the crime and murders that they commit with impunity, and force constituents into voting. The young lady spoke of her horrible experience (statutory rape) as a female, but we also know that many young men are coerced into gang activity and into becoming ‘solders’ for one gang or another.

Whenever the narrative speaks to the causes of criminal activities among our young males, an indeterminate number of critics claim that the crime producers are lazy, good- for-nothing men who don’t want to find honest work, and are ruthless killers. Only a minority of citizens manage to restrain their ire and chagrin long enough to wonder what led those young men to become duppy-making monsters.

MORE COMMON

Violent crime is immeasurably more common in young men from broken homes within poor, disenfranchised communities that lack proper amenities. It is extremely rare in young men from stable households in peaceful middle- and upper-class communities, where the powers that be make sure that those citizens are better cared for and enjoy good amenities.

Some years ago, a lady was assisted into my office because she had passed out. As I attended to her, she eventually came back to her senses, and I inquired what caused her to faint. She told me that her son had just been accepted into a certain [undesirable] high school, and that she fainted at the news. She knew that his chances for a bright future would be severely dimmed if he went to that (inner-city) educational institution. She vowed to sell everything and pay for him to be transferred to a better school.

Aside from dealing with the social environment in which many of our future generation must live, learn, and grow, we need to provide equal educational and employment opportunities. The poor must not be subjected to poor learning conditions because of the environment of their educational institution. All schoolchildren deserve a safe learning environment, proper equipment, and access to extra lessons (if needed). The difference between our top-tier high schools and our struggling high schools is like day to night…yet we expect to produce educated, decent, skilled, and good citizens from all our schools.

The usual cry is a lack of funding. However, I am yet to understand why the National Housing Trust is repeatedly raided of billions of dollars that could provide proper amenities, housing and schools for our underprivileged communities. That is how we begin treating the ‘boils’ of our society.

Garth A. Rattray is a medical doctor with a family practice. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and garthrattray@gmail.com.