Nothing new under the sun

Ecclesiastes tells us that there is nothing new under the sun and the recently unveiled research on youth violence in Belize reinforces this wisdom.  Many people were disappointed that Dr. Gayle’s research did not appear to unearth some great new insight that would miraculously enable us to reverse the criminal violence that is engulfing our society.  The result of his thousands of interviews and months of painstaking work seem merely to confirm what we already knew; the Police Department is a part of the problem instead of a part of the solution and our education system is largely failing in its mission; we need more meaningful jobs for more people and alternatives to broken family structures. 
     
The value of research is not always to discover something new but rather to confirm a hypothesis and hence concentrate our minds on solutions.  It is now increasingly obvious that the Police Department requires a major restructuring.  Indeed, Prime Minister Barrow signaled this when he recently made new appointments including a Minister of Police and an Attorney General each with a well-defined focus of activity. Some difficult decisions will need to be made, and well documented research can help us to take those controversial choices that are required.  We can also learn from the experience of our neighbours in the Caribbean which face very similar problems.  Indeed, countries in the English speaking Caribbean now dominate world league tables for violence with Jamaica recording the second highest murder rate in the world and St. Kitts following it at third. 

Although these figures are fueled by historical structural forces within our societies, a major factor in our problems has to be geography.  We are reminded of the words of Porfirio Diaz, a President of Mexico, who famously lamented that Mexico was so far from God and yet so close to the United States.  In the Caribbean, we are so far from the lifestyle and living standards of our rich neighbour and yet so close to the underside of that society.  It is our geography that makes the Caribbean an ideal corridor for the shipment of illegal drugs to feed the voracious appetite of our northern giant and it is also our geography that makes our small states so vulnerable to corruption at all levels, including the police and judiciary. 

However, since we cannot change our geography, we must concentrate on strengthening our institutions.  Importing foreign managers is a reasonable response but it is not a panacea and we can certainly learn from the mistakes of our sister Caribbean states that have already taken steps in this direction.  It is especially important to thoroughly investigate the credentials of foreign experts.  The infamous Mr. Crooks who recently produced a masterful report on the Belize Police Department but was later charged with sexual offences against a minor is an example close to home.  Many expatriates will also run the risk of being accused of racism when they try to weed out criminal and incompetent elements from within the Police Department.  However, it may still be a route worth taking if we understand that it can only be an interim solution.
    
 Education is the next big area of concern.  The current Minister of Education has made giant steps in dealing with many of the issues that impede the quality of our education in the face of obstruction from vested interests within the system.  The recent fuss about prohibiting corporal punishment in the schools gave an indication of the ability of the Teachers’ Union to resist changes that might reduce their authority even though they would benefit students and education in general.  However, the elephant in the room has to be the Church/State system that played an important role in the development of education in Belize but is now in serious need of an overhaul. 

This is a discussion that must be based on results and not on emotion.  The issue is not whether the Churches have a role to play in society but whether they are the best institutions through which to deliver education for the State.  It is about economics and competence, control and accountability.  Many smaller school managements are run by persons with very little experience in educational management.  Additionally, we cannot afford to squander scarce resources to support two or three small schools run by different denominations in a village, nor under the present system can we deny a particular denomination the right to run a school just because another denomination got there first. 
     
Difficult decisions indeed and that is why research can be so valuable to inform our choices.  Dr. Gayle’s input is but part of the many pieces of information to deal with our problems so that we can go back to a better time under our Caribbean sun.