Dear Editor,

Apparently, in an effort to deal with the spiralling crime problem, the national security minister has thought it wise to attempt to keep the finances of the security ministry as secret as possible.  

One way he plans to do this, is to remove as much information about his ministry as possible from the Internet.  The thinking by the minister is that many criminals are using the ministry’s information on the web to commit crimes.  Somehow, I have a feeling that this attempt to get on top of our crime crisis won’t really achieve much.

Interestingly, among other people, this is the same minister who was saying that many, if not the more significant portion of murders that occur in this country, happen on account of very simple things.  Many times these murders are as a result of domestic disputes.  People are murdering each other for simple things like a box of matches, a cell phone, or even a goat.  

The minister may not know this, but somehow I get the distinct feeling that before someone kills another because he refused to give him a box of matches or because he thinks that his spouse is cheating, the last thing on that person’s mind is to check the security ministry’s website for budgetary allocations to the police force.

One of the main reasons the crime situation in the western parts of Jamaica is so bad, we are told, is because of scamming.  Our scammers are killing and are being killed, partly because of the supposed riches that they get when they trick foreigners into giving them money.  Whenever we see reports of scammers being arrested, one of the most notable accessories that they are arrested with is a long list of the names of victims and potential victims of their “trade”.

Now, unless, the ministry of national security website has a list of potential victims I seriously doubt that most scammers would give much of a second though about checking it.

There is another reason those responsible for the security ministry’s website may notice a high number of hits.  

Many times, as with most other sites, visitors with will go to the site by sheer accident.  Often times, web surfers will try to Google up something that has to do with either ‘security’, ‘police’ or even ‘Jamaica’ and end up on the security ministry’s website.  Plus, there are indexing robots on the web that index websites, so many times some of the hits are not even from human beings.

What I am saying here is that, in all likelihood, most of the visitors to the security ministry’s web site may be of no significance whatsoever.  So removing the financial information from the site in an effort to reduce crime is like scanning the skies for flying cows.

Also, those of us who know Jamaicans very well know that reading isn’t really one of our favourite pastimes.  So, in all likelihood, what is on the security ministry’s website will remain a secret to most of us anyway.

I think that the security minister, in his attempt to curtail the information on his ministry’s website in an effort to deal with the country’s crime crisis, is clearly telling us that he is at a loss as to how to come to grips with this crisis.  Many would say that he is at his wits end and he is just panicking.

Maybe he should listen to the police chief who cautioned us recently that our crime plague is a social problem that requires a social solution and start tackling the problem from that angle.

Michael A Dingwall