Sunday, December 16, 2019

[ OPINION & COMMENTARY ] THE GLEANER, MONDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2019 | www.jamaica-gleaner.com A4 Please send comments and suggestions to weather_data@yahoo.com Partly to mostly cloudy, 60% psbl. showers. 32ºC Partly to mostly cloudy, 50% psbl. showers. 32ºC Partly to mostly cloudy, 40% psbl. showers. 32ºC A trough is over the central Caribbean and will remain over the area for the next few days. A low level jet is expected tomove into the area today and will in uence windy conditions. Fair conditions across sections of the eastern Caribbean. Locally, morning showers may a ect eastern parishes. In the afternoon, scattered clouds and showers will a ect sections of most parishes, especially hilly inland areas. Winds will exceed 36 km/hr. Tonight will be partly cloudy. High temperature will be near 32°C with a low between 21°C and 25°C. Last Quarter Dec. 18 11:57 PM Locations Kingston Mandeville Mobay Negril Sunrise 6:31 AM 6:34 AM 6:36 AM 6:37 AM Sunset 5:35 PM 5:38 PM 5:40 PM 5:41 PM TODAY WEDNESDAY TUESDAY Wea. PC PC MC PC PC TS PC PC SU SH PC PC SN PC PC Low 16 C -01 C 26 C 26 C -06 C 24 C 20 C 18 C 12 C 06 C 08 C 24 C 02 C 24 C -03 C Hi 20 C 03 C 30 C 29 C 01 C 29 C 32 C 21 C 27 C 09 C 21 C 28 C 03 C 29 C 01 C Atlanta Boston Bridgetown Cayman Chicago Georgetown Havana Hong Kong Johannesburg London Los Angeles Miami New York Port of Spain Toronto Inshore - north coast: winds northeast 15 - 20 kts. , seas 1.5 - 2.0 m; Tonight: southeast 5 kts. wave 0.5 m. Inshore - south coast: winds southeast 15 - 20 kts., seas 1.5 - 2.0 m; Tonight: north 5 kts. seas 0.5 m. Weather: partly cloudy with isolated afternoon clouds/showers. Port Royal Tide: 5:23 AM hgt. -0.07 m. L.; 3:20 PM hgt. 0.19 m. H.; Negril Tides: 12:59 AM hgt. 0.44 m. H.; 10:50 AM hgt. -0.16 m. L.; 7:40 PM hgt. 0.45 m. H. December 16, 2019 12 16 L 20 S TICKS AND stones may indeed break our bones; they were our first weapons. They were some- times used to pummel people to death. Then they evolved into sharpened sticks and stones that were thrown or propelled from a sling. The ‘sticks’ morphed into sharpened metallic ob- jects (swords, spears and metal-tipped arrows) and the ‘stones’ morphed into missiles (metal bullets and heavy artillery). But our propensity for killing one another didn’t end there; we improved on our delivery systems. Our guns became more powerful and more efficient, and our quest for killing went on to invent bombs, deadly chemicals and deadly biological weapons. From poison gases in the trenches during the FirstWorldWar, simple rifles, machine guns and flame throwers, mortars, tanks, war planes, war ships and submarines, to thermonuclear devices designed to detonate in the air and wipe out hundreds of thousands, and even millions, in milliseconds. Their destruction is meant to be generational. Deadly weapons have become super-efficient, some even employ mod- ern technology to kill from miles away. Satellites can observe, locate and acquire targets from orbit and guide missiles into windows to kill at the press of a button or click of a mouse. The legal and illegal arms trade nets hundreds of billions of US dollars annually. However, in spite of our advancement in lethal weaponry, the world’s deadliest weapons are not knives, guns, chemicals, missiles or bombs of any kind; the world’s deadliest weapons are people…troubled children in particular. As utopic as it may appear, if children were nurtured prop- erly, only unforeseen psychotic issues would cause violence and killings. Researcher/neuroscientist Professor James Fallon discovered that he shared many personality traits with psychopaths and serial murderers. He credits his nor- mal and very productive life to the love and respect that he received during his childhood. We know that the aggression, self- ishness, corruption, indiscipline, vio- lence and murders in our country have roots within the troubled, abused and stressed-out minds of society’s youths; yet we are not doing enough to remedy the situation. Instead, we focus on law enforcement and penal penal- ties (with little or no success) to treat the manifestations of a societal disease while doing relatively little to prevent the dis- ease itself. That outburst by the Pembroke Hall High School teacher is only the tip of a very expansive and dangerous iceberg. I know teachers who have to deal with disrespectful children spewing foul lan- guage and vile insults at them, smoking weed openly in the classroom, disruptive behaviour, being hit by chalk and dusters, and frequent threats of violence. WE CREATE THEM We need a driver’s licence to operate (potentially deadly) motor vehicles and we need to make certain that they are fit for the road. Those interested in owning a (lethal) firearmhave to go through exten- sive investigations, interviews, constant re-certification and proficiency testing. Yet, although people are the world’s dead- liest weapons, parents produce children willy-nilly and are allowed to raise them without any structure or oversight. They often marinate them in a stew of indiffer- ence, aggression, hate, fear and abuse. It was an excellent innovation to issue Child Health and Development Passports, but we need to observe, monitor, doc- ument and (if necessary) improve the physical and social circumstances of our nation’s children. Every child should be visited unannounced and intermittently to observe how they are being raised. Children are being weaponised when subjected to a fragmented family struc- ture, rank poverty, a lack of proper social amenities, abuse, aggression, violence all around them, fear, explosive anger and endless hate. People often wonder how criminals commit horrific crimes/murders and if they get high on drugs to maim and kill mercilessly – we created these blood- thirsty murderers and they are high on hate. Hosea 8:7 – “For they sow the wind… and they reap the whirlwind”. - Garth A. Rattray is a medical doctor with a family practice. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and garthrattray@gmail.com R OAD FATALITIES in 2019 have ex- ceeded 400 and the year has the usually perilous holiday season still to endure. We don’t hear much about the thou- sands who are injured, maimed, all becoming a burden to the State and their families, all forfeiting some measure of productivity. Then there is the cost of repairing or replacing damaged infra- structure and causing insurance premi- ums to climb. So we wring our hands and, only sometimes, our hearts. There follows the accustomed bleating about the soon- come, never-come revised Road Traffic Act, which, when the regulations are com- pleted (whenever that will be), is sup- posed to be the most powerful measure to recreate order on the roads. After that comes talk about cameras, more traffic cops and well-intentioned but likely futile systems to prosecute holders of multiple tickets. All of the above are necessary but insuf- ficient. Tell the truth. There must be close to 800,000 motor vehicles on Jamaican roads. Under present policies, that num- ber will exceed a million in a few years. This year, the bill for imported petro- leum products will be higher than the value of our entire merchandise exports. This is absolute madness, no matter how many tourists and remittance dollars there are to plug the hard currency gap. It remains easier to ‘trus’ a criss car than it is to get credit to plant five acres of any export crop. The expensive and welcome new roads will be congested in short order, even as the Jamaica Urban Transit Company wallows in perpetual bankruptcy and the promised train revival remains Mike Henry’s retirement dream. Can somebody please tell us what proportion of our savings in the banks and credit unions are devoted to motor vehicle loans, all requiring foreign exchange for acquisition and mainte- nance? Is it any surprise that Andrew Holness got such a welcome in Tokyo last week since Jamaica contributes so consistently to help rid their economy of unwanted vehicles? We had better just face sordid reality for 2020 and beyond. The extent of the Government’s transport policy is the legit- imation of the free-for-all chaos that we now experience throughout the country. Controlling a ‘cyar’ is the recourse of every displaced worker, the hustle of lower-paid permanent employees with a Diaspora connection, and the aspira- tion of most underachieving high-school graduates. With a car, one can generate cash flow, get girls (“yu drive”? is the first question any hot girl will ask a guy looking some- thing), and have a sense of freedom, even as you ignore insurance coverage, dilly-dally through traffic and keep a ‘big change’ on you to lubricate outcomes if the authorities stop you. What the prime minister and the min- ister know but won’t acknowledge is that this public policy has infected the society with a now irreversible cancer of corrup- tion and disorder in public transportation. Even now, any number of drivers are anticipating the good money to come from the electoral machines for their ser- vices on and before election day and are ready to repay with their votes the ‘any- body-can-get-a-road-licence’regimen of the last three years. Brilliant! Thousands of operators have never undergone a thorough course of driver education. An uncounted number driving complex articulated vehicles, let alone the 650-plus-cc scud missiles called motorcycles, cannot read or write, have no insurance, but have a hearty sense of invincibility and impunity on the road. Notice, also, the growing practice of driving with one hand in heavy traffic at high speeds as well as the ubiquitous spliff that has become part of the style. What happened to the requirement for driver uniforms that lasted for no more than three weeks? Many drivers are not emotionally stable enough to hold a driv- er’s permit. ‘Faget’ the talk about rider helmets. For the unruly, this is a glimpse of ‘prassperty’. What else is there in this increasingly unequal society? This is upward mobility. Next stop, the visa line. DELUSIONARY Our history should have taught us that economic enablement without order is unsustainable and robs everybody of inclusive growth, despite the appearance of easy convenience. Hopes that the ‘new’ but already-out- dated Road Traffic Act or the presence of cameras at every intersection will solve the reality of self-induced road chaos are delusionary. The purpose of this article is to set before us the gravity of the situation that apparently eludes its chauffeur-driven authors with their outriders and sirens, even as it saps the pockets and produc- tivity of the rest of us. An immediate and significant way to begin remedying the chaos is the honest and more rigorous training of new driv- ers and riders, and the recertifying of all licence holders whenever convicted and, in any event, every 10 or 15 years. This must include not only evaluating technical expertise, but psychological and emotional capacities and should be led by the HEART Trust/NTA. Could there be an explanation why the Road Safety Council and the insur- ance companies have not adopted such a proposal?What are they really proposing that would be as effective? Ronald Thwaites is member of parliament for Kingston Central. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com Hopes that the ‘new’ but already outdated Road Traffic Act will solve the reality of self- induced road chaos are delusionary. FILE Jason Robinson/ Guest Columnist “One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programmes by their intentions rather than their results” – Milton Friedman M URDERS COMMITTED by organised crime groups continue to have a devas- tating impact on many Jamaicans as well as the economy. Police data show that approximately 1,117 persons were murdered in 2011; 1,085 in 2012; 1,190 in 2013; 1,005 in 2014; and 1,192 in 2015 – total- ing approximately 5,589 over a five-year period, most of which were categorized as gang-related or reprisal killings. The March 2016 victory of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) was a turning point in Jamaica as well as the delight to many, me included. Why? Prime Minster Andrew Holness had promised us that we would be able to sleep with our doors open, if the JLP was given the chance to govern. However, this was short-lived when approxi- mately 114murders were recorded in 20 days in the summer of 2017, and it became very clear that the country had a murder crisis. According to InSight Crime, the year 2017 ended with 45 multiple killings – 37 double murders, six triple murders, and two quadruple murders, resulting in a 20 per cent increase in murders overall. It was time for the prime minis- ter to act decisively if he wanted to keep his promise. In January 2018, the prime min- ister, with good intentions, acted on the advice of the head of the security forces and declared states of public emergency for certain sections of Jamaica – granting the military and the police enhanced powers to reduce murders and put a dent in organised crime. Many hoped that this enhanced security measure would have pro- vided the silver bullet. However, the complexity of Jamaica’s organ- ised crime problem has become even more complex because of the one-size-fits-all approach to crime over the last four decades ,and continues today. ORGANISED CRIME HAS NO BOUNDARY As of December 11, 2019, police data show that the country has recorded 1,264 murders, a figure which is projected to increase. The states of public emergency were declared with good inten- tions; however, had there been a better assessment of our complex crime problem, they could have been more effective. Each police division comes with its own set of challenges with organised crime, and com- bating this type of crime requires targeted planning, analytical eval- uation, knowledge about crimi- nology, and expertise to design and implement strategies that best meet these challenges. Resources should have been utilised to form sufficiently staffed and well-equipped gang-target- ing units in each police division, which would have been comple- mented by carefully vetted police, military, and civilian personnel, whose role it would be to target, document, monitor, disrupt, and convict members of organised crime groups and their associ- ates, while gathering valuable intelligence on them. The murder figures over the last nine years should serve as a reminder to citizens, political parties, national security prac- titioners, civil society, and pri- vate-sector stakeholders that organised crime has no bound- ary. Therefore, it is up to all of us to make Jamaica a safer place to live, work, raise families and do business. Jason Robinson is a former organised crime investigator and a graduate of he Caribbean Maritime University. He holds a master of science in security administration and management. Email feedback to jasona_robinson78@yahoo.com and columns@gleanerjm.com . Combating organised crime …The lessons to be learnt from the states of public emergency Many hoped that the enhanced security measure would have provided the silver bullet. FILE World’s deadliest weapons Self-induced chaos Ronald Thwaites Garth Rattray