“If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got,” said, Henry Ford. In a much more forceful manner, Albert Einstein expressed similar sentiments, when he famously said: “If we keep doing the same thing repeatedly and hope for different results, we are indeed mad.”

History is replete with folks who are allergic to change. The Luddites, for example, have been described as people violently opposed to technological change. Many credible accounts say they organised numerous riots hoping to thwart the introduction of new machinery in the wool industry. The name Luddites subsequently has become a byword for individuals who are impervious to and/or opposed to change. I suspect that as long as this planet keeps rotating on its axis, there will be people who are opposed to change, oftentimes any change and every change.

In our western liberal democratic model there is an obligation to listen respectfully. Where positions are informed and practical these should be embraced. Where they are not, we should not allow a chokehold on change.

Most Murderous

At the 80th annual conference of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), held recently, Prime Minister Andrew Holness reminded Jamaicans that we are trapped in a vicious cycle of crime and violence. He said, among other things, “Jamaica is not a country at war, but our homicide rate, our deaths due to violence, equates countries that are at war. What it means is that Jamaica is in conflict. We are in conflict with ourselves, we are in conflict with our neighbour, our family, our intimate partner, our employer, workers, teachers, students, and we’re in conflict — citizen and State. We cannot continue to be a society in conflict with ourselves.

“If it is one thing, therefore, that this Administration must do, starting in this term, and for the next term is to put measures in place to deal with the unabated violence that is like a disease, like an epidemic, in our society. So we have commissioned a study on it, which we should get by the end of this year, and when that study comes in we’re going to reorganise the Government to create and bring all the agencies that deal with families, communities, social development, parenting, we’re going to bring all of them together under one ministry.

“Violence is at in intolerable level and it is changing the character and nature of the Jamaican people. It is reducing the quality of our lives and it is making us aggressive with each other.” Jamaica Observer, November 27, 2023.

What must be a heartbreaking reality for all well-thinking Jamaicans is that this is not a first-time admission from a prime minister. He is not singular in that respect. Indeed, previous prime ministers have reminded us on many occasions that Jamaica has a severely abnormal crime and violence problem.

Here are some hard, cold, and terrible facts which should wake those among us who live in physical and social cocoons.

In 2017 Jamaica’s homicide rate was 56 per 100,000. In 2018 the homicide rate dropped to 47 per 100,000; then it was three times higher than the average for Latin America and the Caribbean. In 2019 our murder rate was 47.4 per 100,000; and, in 2020, 46.5 per 100,000 — the region’s highest homicide rate. In 2021 there were approximately 49.4 murders per 100,000 inhabitants in this country. And in 2022, our rate was 52.9 homicides per 100,000. Jamaica has had one of the highest murder rates in the world for nearly 35 years. In 2005, our murder rate was 64 per 100,000 — the highest in the world.

At the time of writing, statistics from the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) showed that 1,282 Jamaicans have been murdered for the yeat 2023. It means 146 fewer Jamaicans compared to the corresponding period in 2022 have been murdered. Most other major crimes are down. In the rural parts folks often say, “Give thank for small mercies.” I agree.

I give credit to our security forces and the Administration for the 10.2 per cent reductions in murders so far. The reduced crime numbers are nothing to sing and dance about, however. Jamaica is still one of the most murderous countries worldwide. Going forward we have to do a number of new and radical things, simultaneously, in order to curb crime.

They don’t get it!

I am convinced, though, that some among us do not understand that the successful treating of our long-standing affliction with crime and violence will require paradigm shifts in legislation, crime-fighting strategies, and approaches and a whole re-culturing (my coinage) of this society. A seismic shift is needed if we are to succeed in creating, among other things, a new ambition for Jamaica. That new and improved ambition cannot be realised with our present abnormal levels of crime and violence.

There are rays of hope, though. For example, the “informer fi dead culture”, I believe, has lost much of its potency compared to decades ago. I say this based on reports in the public domain which note that the security forces are getting significantly more intelligence from individuals and communities who are now refusing to turn a blind eye to the evil deeds of criminals. This is the right direction.

I think the plan to set up a ministry devoted to the promotion of peace and human development is also a step in the right direction. It cannot hurt.

In a previous article I noted that several commendable steps were being implemented to transform the JCF. I think the work of the mentioned ministry, when it becomes reality — I am being optimistic — will complement the transformational advances being made in the security forces as a whole. The critical shifts in the administration and operations of the security forces are happening at the right time given the measures being implemented to transform our education system. Some among us just do not see the positive connections — or maybe they do not want to.

It did not escape my notice that right quick after the prime minister’s announcement regarding a consideration for the mentioned ministry, formulaic resistance was launched.

Consider this headline: ‘JFJ: Peace ministry not needed, focus on existing programmes’ (Nationwide News Network, November 28, 2023)

The news item said, among other things: “[Jamaicans for Justice] JFJ’s executive director, Mickel Jackson, says the Government must focus on strengthening the existing violence prevention programmes.” Following on the heels of JFJ’s scrooge-like dismissal, true to form, the Opposition People’s National Party (PNP) released its salvo. Headline: ‘Dedicated ministry targeting violence impractical — PNP.” (RJR News, November 28, 2023)

The news item delivered these and other details: “But Peter Bunting, spokesman on national security for the Opposition People’s National Party, speaking Monday on Radio Jamaica’s Beyond the Headlines, characterised the idea of one ministry to address violence as impractical.

“He said there already exists a blueprint at the Ministry of National Security, with initiatives such as Unite for Change and the Community Renewal Programme, which aim to address violence.”

The synchrony is conspicuous.

Many Jamaicans would have been left confused by this headline: ‘Golding not opposed to Holness’s ‘peace’ ministry, but…’

The news item noted these and related details: “While he has described Prime Minister Andrew Holness’s proposed ministry of peace and human development as overdue, Opposition Leader Mark Golding has cautioned that the move, by itself, will not be effective.

“It is just a reorganisation of existing departments and agencies of government and putting them under a single ministry. That alone is not going to make a difference, but I am not objecting to it,” stated Golding.” (Jamaica Observer, December 1, 2023)

This gives rise to these questions:. Just who is really the president of the PNP? Do they have a dual presidential system? Was Bunting on a frolic of his own? Whose position takes precedent? The conspicuous dissonance is loud. The PNP obviously has not coordinated a common position on whether there should be a strategic ministry devoted to the promotion of peace in our land. I do not hold out much hope that the PNP will coordinate effective policies and programmes to reduce crime and violence were they to form a Government in the future. The seeming confusion in the PNP and elsewhere should not stymie the crime fight.

It’s possible

Some have argued that Jamaica cannot and will never curb the monster of crime and violence. I don’t buy into the view that we are condemned to have abnormal levels of crime and violence forever.

My late grandfather used to often say, “What man has done, man can do.” In later years, I came to understand that he was actually quoting National Hero Marcus Garvey, who famously said: “Whatsoever things common to man, that man has done, man can do.” The reality is other countries which had worst levels of crime and violence have come back from the abyss. We can too.

Regular readers of my column know of my admiration for leaders like Franklin D Roosevelt, the 32nd president of the USA; Lee Kuan Yew, first prime minister of Singapore; Thomas Sankara, the assassinated president of Burkina Faso; Nelson Mandela, first black president of South Africa; and Paul Kagame, Rwanda’s president.

Kagame, nicknamed the Lee Kuan Yew of Africa, has transformed his country from the ashes of a genocide that ended with the slaughter of one in every 10 Rwandan in 1994. Today, Rwanda has one of the fastest-growing economies in Africa. Kigali, her capital, is one of the cleanest in the world. And Rwanda is rated as one of the safest countries in the world.

Now, hold your horses, I know the concerns about its model of governance. I am not suggesting that we ape them, but I think we could learn a lot from many of the transformational actions they employed to facilitate peace.

El Salvador is today one of the safest country in Latin America. Up to five years ago it was one of the most murderous in the world. Today, El Salvador has one of the lowest homicide rates in Latin America. Some credible reports say the country reached 225 days without a single murder this year.

Nayib Bukele was El Salvador’s president until a few days ago. He stepped down ahead of a re-election bid. He is credited with finding an effective antidote for abnormally high rates of crime and violence which plagued his country for many years.

Bukele has been severely criticised for violating laws on human rights in his attempts to crack down especially on gang activity. In fact, a recent United Nations human rights office report said the country had implemented “mass detentions” since 2022, in which many people have been mistreated or had died in custody.

Again, I am not saying that we should ape what the El Salvadorians are doing. But I think we can learn from them. Those who dismiss the strategy of being tough on crime as unworkable are living in la la land. Yes, we must simultaneously be tough on the causes of crime. I get that. I continue to hold the position that we should continue to work with what works best for Jamaica, but simultaneously we should not dismiss out of hand what others countries have done to tame the monster of monsters.

Crime and violence is destroying the very fabric of Jamaica. The Economist of March 20, 2008 stated that: “If Caribbean countries were able to reduce crime levels to those similar to Costa Rica (with a homicide rate of 8.1/100,000), their rates of economic growth would increase notably. In the cases of Jamaica and Haiti, gross domestic product growth would be boosted by a massive 5.4 per cent annually; growth in the Dominican Republic would be 1.8 percentage points higher; and Guyana’s economy would grow by an additional 1.7 points per year.”

A Gleaner story of October 13, 2017 said, among other things: “Crime does not pay, but it certainly is costing the Government of Jamaica a tidy sum; amounting to $68 billion per year — a dollar figure the National Security Minister Robert Montague says could fund the construction of 16 new schools.

“It cost the Government approximately $400,000 per day to keep a gunshot victim in intensive care. Jamaica sees, on average, approximately 2,000 gunshot victims per year, according to the minister.”

We pulled the economy from the brink. It is not beyond us to do the same with crime. Some among us need to understand that doing the same things we have been from ‘Whappy kill Fillup,’ will not tame the crime monster.