YOUR Editorial of September 22, 2014 titled ‘Wanted: A holistic approach to Domestic Violence’ concludes that unless such an approach is adopted, the efforts at stopping domestic violence would fail. I disagree. Domestic violence is growing world-wide because no-one is addressing its root cause.

For any problem to be addressed successfully, one must first understand what led to the problem in the first place. For example, in medical care, studies are performed to measure correlations between life-style behaviour and certain illnesses. So, from such studies, we know that reductions in the incidents of lung cancer require a decrease in the accumulation of nicotine in people lungs from smoking tobacco products. We know that the excessive use of common salt leads to high blood pressure and that the consumption of fatty animal products to poor heart health. Basically such studies help us understand the root causes of health issues and by addressing them, we are able to improve the health of the nation and world population. Unfortunately, domestic violence has become such an emotional issue that a rational approach is being overlooked. Instead we end up with newspaper banners exclaiming: ‘Stop Domestic Violence’, commercials by movie celebrities for us to “no longer” stay on the sidelines, and a frenzy of cases, such as the one involving Ray Rice of the Baltimore Ravens football team, for communal disciplinary action to what appears to be private matters, as in the Rice case, the now Ms. Rice didn’t see fit to exercise her option of filing a police complaint against her then fiancé. In this example, not only did Mr. Rice lose his very lucrative job, but the Commissioner of Football and the Ravens Owner are in danger of losing theirs for tardiness in taking “appropriate” action against him.
Despite the continuation of this frenzy, nothing will change. The pendulum seems to be swinging in the direction discouraging relationships, perhaps an unintended solution to domestic violence. “Feminists” are pushing for solutions to sexual assault on campuses by influencing States in the U.S. to pass laws redefining rape to include sex with a drunken female and requiring consensual sex to require an affirmation every step of an encounter known as “Yes Means Yes”. The backlash will come when mothers realise that their promising sons that they sacrifice so much to send to university are instead being incarcerated for copulating with females.
Let us be clear – domestic violence is basically directed against women. Although by no means scientific, a reading of the local newspapers would have us believe that much of this violence comes from male alcohol abuse, and female infidelity issues. If these are some of the root problems, then they have to be addressed to reduce, if not end domestic violence. Our Country’s Social Services in conjunction with the Social Department at the University of Guyana should embark on determining these root causes and addressing them if we are not to waste a lot of time and resources on treating symptoms and reactions.

LOUIS HOLDER