Acknowledging this, in 1996 the 49th World Health Assembly adopted a resolution (WHA49.25) declaring violence a major and growing public health problem across the world.
The resolution ended by calling for a plan of action for progress towards a science based public health approach to preventing violence.
The World Health Organization defines violence as the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or a group or community, that either results in, or has a high likelihood of resulting in, injury, death, psychological harm, mal-development, or deprivation.
Thus we arrive to a place that is today’s Bahamas where some criminals who are seemingly oblivious to the cries and pleas of so very many Bahamians for an end to the carnage and mayhem on our nation’s streets and in its homes, continue on their murderous course.
Here of late, things have gotten so bad that maiming, murder, sudden death and in some instances suicide seems to be rampant.
The bloody deeds are effectuated with whatever means come to hand.
On occasion, the criminal would use a rope.
On another, the gun would be the preferred tool.
There is always some machete or the other in arm’s reach. While this is important enough, the fact remains that, all available indicators suggest that, crime – as this nation’s premier public health issue – is here to stay.
There is also some indication that things as they are now are set to make the bloody transition from bad to worse.
While we hope for the best, today we fear that even more disaster is in the offing for the Bahamian people.
Indeed as we have already proclaimed from roof top, "Crime is one of this nation’s premier public health issues."
We have also argued that, "As a public health issue, the search for solution requires much more than policing."
What is required is a concerted search for those ingredients that when taken together conduce towards making society a healthier and therefore wealthier place for our people.
Today we note – albeit with some residual fear – that the search is on for solutions. But even as this search is engaged, there remains a sense that Bahamians are not listening to each other.
In other words, speech is degenerating into a babble of ignorance.
And as the sound and fury intensify, criminals in our midst run riot and rough shod over all who would dare stand in their way.
And the bloody beat continues.
We are absolutely convinced that there must be a radical approach to the issue at hand that happens to be crime run amok in today’s Bahamas.
The roots of this phenomenon run deep.
It therefore follows that while this or that immediate event might have its immediate precursors, the fact remains that those matters that matter now have roots that run deep.
As in matters botanical, some roots are clearly more important than others – thus the vital importance of the tap root.
Evidence for this is to be found in practically all those instances where violence flows and where some are left maimed, and others [regrettably] are sometimes killed outright.
While the murder count hovers around the forty mark for this year, around a thousand or more can be totted up for the past decade.
To date, the violence continues.
Evidently, things are slated to get worse before they even look like they could get better.
But ever the optimists, we are confident that things need not remain this way.
Herein we find the rub. There are today seemingly as many prescriptions for dealing with the nation’s crime scourge as there are pundits, prognosticators and other enlightened ones who say they have the answer as to what is to be done in these trying times.
One very interesting perspective that today lends itself for attention comes packaged in the form of a Chinese Proverb. The word here indicates that, "If there is light in the soul, there will be beauty in the person. If there is beauty in the person, there will be harmony in the house. If there is harmony in the house, there will be order in the nation. If there is order in the nation, there will be peace in the world…"
From one perspective, these inter-related propositions are true, by definition.
From another perspective, these ideas are axiomatic.
Yet again, it can be said that these are wonderful guides to action.
Regrettably, while each proposition can be accepted as guides to policy, little of any value follows if action is not taken.
Indeed, as another Chinese Proverb confirms, a journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.
In the ultimate analysis, then, there is work to be done by each and every Bahamian who would like to live in a more peaceful Bahamas.
