DOMESTIC VIOLENCE IS NOT A PHENOMENON

– It’s a consequence of male economic emasculation and abuse

I READ that Guyana is going to get a Billion dollars from a UN-EU initiative to fight physical persecution against women and girls by males and in some cases females. Such an initiative will require to fulfil its mandate a quantum leap away from the crusader mythologies that revolve around domestic and underage abuse of females and must also include the silent -parallel realm of the same abuse against males, by both males and females, because deformities in the social , cultural and mental organised chaos, at times, if left unrecognised, or unattended, do tip the balance, and we have hardly ever seriously contemplated the consequences of any social or cultural deformity on the neural balance of our humanity.

The predicament of most males cannot be brushed under the guilty by gender carpet because of the challenge to explore the labyrinth of social, traditional and cultivated machismo that they are entangled in, and are unaware of the hostile currents that drag them to and fro. National culture has changed drastically. Once beyond Georgetown and in some wards of old Georgetown it was not uncommon for youngsters to walk barefoot, now habits and street culture vocabulary has extended, the countryside isn’t the countryside anymore, and this process had begun before social media entered the dynamics. The question is what are the economic implications? It was not invisible, it was unfolding right before us and no initiatives were taken until now.

The crisis of brutal domestic murders have always existed, but there seems to have been a direct escalation around the turn off the century, and it can be linked to the bloat of conspicuous consumption, coupled with possibly the most violent period which I have titled the Jagdeo/Roger Khan era, which carried statistics of an increase of youth murders and fatal domestic upheavals. Over 70 percent were based on demands based on the ‘Rush’ to get rich quick, with the option of drug trafficking that seemed to provide a phenomenal creation of the ‘Joneses’ without any obvious trail of sweat and ideas, though there was plenty of the ‘Blood’ with the backup option that if you had enough bribe money, one could literally get away with murder. This was obvious all around and preached like a mantra Guyana had retrogressed in that period as never before in our post abolition history. What was also obvious is that the hitmen could be contracted from the very Police of that day, not so long ago, or from the state and sections of the private sector managed ‘Phantom’ or any jobless underprivileged youth, broke and vulnerable. Economic and any kind of domestic ownership contentions that provided an escape from want led to murder because it was a trend ignored and scoffed at by those authorities. One young writer – Alissa Trotz, in Stabroek News Oct. 11. 2010 called it ‘An epidemic of Violence’. Stabroek News March 30, 2014, Audrey Benn, Lecturer in the women’s study unit stated: “Guyana has not developed a consolidated response to domestic violence- there are many problems that are contributing to the increase in domestic violence- while nothing gets done, women and children especially, continue to die.” This confirms the toll of the previous year, see-Kaieteur News, December 28, 2013 page 10- “ Twenty three women brutally killed by men during 2013.” Almost two domestic murders per month alone in a wider murder toll. Monsignor Terrence Montrose advised that “Men must be taught to speak about their pain lest they erupt in violence against their partners” 2012. in 2010 the GHRA had suggested “ Men can stop the violence but women must empower themselves” but there are more down to earth social, cultural and traditional problems that contribute to domestic upheavals than mentioned there, that are not taken into the reference pool in respect to this problem, which President Granger had referred to in opposition, the significant numbers of dropouts, which the then PPP government had denied.

As President David Granger has now deployed the Volunteer youth corps, and several Skill training programmes for teen pregnant dropouts, ongoing education, and the shift in the perception from job employment to self-employment, an uphill task that will require a national reorientation. The most recent is an article on the subject of domestic abuse in Guyana Chronicle May 19, 2019 “Socialise males better” that touches on several contributors to domestic abuse, but is yet incomplete towards narrowing down to salient realities, which despite visibility are so accepted that they are overlooked. Many men were taken out of school to become surrogate fathers, denying them important social evolution development and skills, even functional literacy. Guyana has lost some 60 percent of its semi-skill labour employment. Modernisation has created ‘less human spaces’.

Culturally we share two cultures that of Matriarchal and Patriarchal with differing innate views on relationship positions. I can speak from experience on the stress that invades when unable to fulfil family expectations. Men drift into loneliness, women too, I have had several friends who were found dead living alone, because they were unable to earn enough to sustain relationships, yet others prefer to take the chance alone rather than go through the stress of a nagging spouse in a relationship as is said ‘with issues’ women submit to Popes, Prophets and High Priestesses to alleviate loneliness, men don’t. Domestic violence has revealed a paradox opposing mere spite or explosion of rage, men are tipped into an abyss that compels them across cultural origins to commit suicide in the act of many domestic killings, I’m talking about young men, check the statistics.

Sunday, August 5, 2007, page 11, Kaieteur News carried an article “Battered men are coming out of the shadows” featuring the observations of Senior Public health officer at Help and Shelter Dennis Cuffy Jr. That noted from 1995 when they opened doors, 1,007 men had visited Help and Shelter. I have written numerous articles, to help avoid cosmetic responses to an obvious serious deficiency in the analysis of this social development, even recommending a men’s hostel, for men who earn low wages and have no options but to sleep on the sea wall and the pavilions of the Parade ground.

The courts are also in neglecting imbalances contribute to male deterioration, I used as a reference, a young man who was brought before Magistrate Ann Mc Lennon (Talking Culture Guyana Chronicle, June 22, 2018 pg. 23) for assaulting his mother over $500. The details of that incident in December 2014 raised questions about this young man’s options. He was a breadwinner at 10 years old and worked in the bush. Now his aunt had moved in, he took care of his mother and they all benefitted. If things change negatively, will he be condemned for not saving money? The magistrate did not even recognise that he may be illiterate, he was over his head. He was 17 years old at the time of this incident. This boy-man was seen as the catch-cow by his family, but no intervention came.

I have known men who put their money into buying houses and because of illiteracy and misplaced trust end up committing arson or murder, when realising they were swindled legally. Domestic contentions are a lethal problem. How they are managed will determine its containment or further escalation, as the world continues to change. Last but not least, with drug abuse pervading this society, another macabre dimension has attached itself.

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