Abuse, especially domestic abuse, is spiralling out of control, to the extent where there has been an inordinate loss of lives over the recent years because of domestic violence.The abuse of substances – societally acceptable such as alcohol, as well as illicit substances such as hard drugs – has risen in direct correlation with what now seems to have become epidemic, spousal murders.
There seems to be no end in sight and various interventions to address this social ill seem ineffective as the headlines continue to highlight the continuum of spousal murders.
One of the suggestions made is to make a report to the nearest police station, but the police seem to be untrained in addressing the social ills of the nation. Those who are supposed “To Protect and Serve” most often provide the catalyst for a tragedy to occur by their attitude, attention, or lack thereof, and plain ‘don’t-care-a-damn’ behaviour when a complainant drums up the requisite courage (most often with great difficulty) and lodges a complaint.
Many victims of continuous abuse are killed because of the complacency of the members of the Police Force who refuse to investigate complaints and lay charges, or take the actions necessary to protect the victim from further abuse.
Guyanese have stopped being their brother’s (and sister’s) keepers because, in many communities, neighbours witnessing a continuum of escalating instances of abuse refuse to become involved. They prefer to enjoy the unfolding tragedy, even adding to it with malicious rumour-mongering and strife-making, because the titillation of feuds and wars within families find a corresponding resonance in the dark nuances resident in every soul, and the average person refuses to rise above their more decadent equivalencies to achieve a higher plane of thoughts and actions, enough to maybe intercede – and probably save, a family from ultimate destruction.
And one wonders what part the church bodies and religious leaders play in melding communities into units cohesive enough to fashion strategies for interventions within families and the general society in efforts to divert energies into more productive and peaceful approaches to conflict resolution – even to the point of empowerment. The acceleration in violence-prone conflicts within families and societies is spiralling out of control, to the extent where many lives have been lost, with many more dislocated, and there seems to be no end in sight. Unless there is an holistic, proactive approach, where all stakeholders in the nation are made aware that this cause and this fight is a national one, for more often than not, it is our children – the future generations of our nation – who are the statistics of domestic violence, every effort made, valiant and committed as they may be, will prove woefully inadequate, because domestic violence is a national tradition entrenched in the Guyanese psyche.