The indiscipline which has become endemic in our society is starting to manifest itself in all areas of how we life. A good place to look is how Barbadians drive on our roads and how we litter without a second thought. Gosh, we really need to do something. Of course we will be labelled by others as complainers, but we need to complain to provoke the attention needed to hopefully mobilize against this problem.

@zion1971

Some things it is better to benchmark against your own standards and not those of others.

@ David, Islandgirl. You guys are a bit unfair. Let us not forget everything in life is comparable to something else, because that is how we know if we are going up, down or stagnant. When we boast about our literacy, GDP, standard of living etc it is only possible because we compare it to other country in the region , USA, or OECD, etc. So let us not cherry pick the issue here. All I am saying is that while we should be concerned about the anti-social behaviour in our midst, however, when we compare our situation with others it is not all that bad. Let’s be real no country in the world will have zero crime. Even Singapore with their high fines, strict discpline and harsh capital punishment( drug pushers are electrocuted) has crime, but comparable to say USA Singapore crime rate is insignificant. Barbados is no exception.Remember everthing in life is relative.

Here we go again. It’s time for Africa to grow up.

While crime and violence in Barbados is increasing, I think that it is not out of control. I always said that Jamaica, T&T and then Barbados would see a drastic increase in crime and violence. However, St.Lucia, Dominica and St Kitts have outdone us here. We must also remember that within this country are citizens from all over the region and all of them are not decent citizens, therefore they too are joining in the increase in Barbados. Drugs is the biggest contributor to this increase in crime and violence. Note, I left out Guyana as they are in a catagory by themselves, their crime and violence is varied.

”Drugs is the biggest contributor to this increase in crime and violence”

This is a worldwide phenomena, drugs are the root of much evil, witness Mexico, no more violent a place, all rooted in poverty and drugs.

As someone rightly mentioned before drugs are the major cause of crime in barbados. The two major type of drug use and related crimes are…

Poor people that hit dope resort to stealing, mostly petty things like cellphones dvd their only aim is to get get the next high as soon as possible. Rich people that hit dope usealy don’t have these problems.

And weed, the weed problem is way bigger but it does not stem from drug use, as people that don’t use weed think. The weed problem is complex but the solution is simple…

Because weed is illegal it is expensive, weed cost very little to produce as it grows like a “weed” the plant is very, very easy to grow.

This is the problem,

The young men that work hard, went to school and learn,(read labor force) come home at night and socialize with their old school mates, the guys that give trouble and ent learn nutting (read drug pushers).

Thing is the drug pushers got 100 times more money than the hard workers, and ent got to work for it.

So the “hard workers” don’t see value in working because it does not provide benefits when compared to the drug dealers, that is where the reluctance to work comes from.

And here is the tricky part…..

People need money to live and the drug dealer has money and lots of young men that don’t want to work but need money at his disposal.

Remember these drug dealers never learn nutting in school and never had respect for authority, yet they are now leaders of a group of young men that want money without working. So they buy guns and the violence begins.

The solution is simple, take the profit out of drugs.
From the beginning we try to curb end use with jail time and fines, yet everyday we finding more people to lockup and fine.

The solution is simple: Take the profit out of drugs.

Correction

“We keep comparing ourselves with others, but remember they were once the same place we are today.”

@ David ,Even before any report came out of the biker doing wheelies, many had already come to the conclusion that he was doing so,as it is now another of those unchecked practices. My sympathy to the wall. Bicyclists are now following suit.
What has become of the issue concerning quads? Has it been swept under the carpet after the usual 7 day bru-hah-hah? They are now riding at nights with little blue lights to the front in place of headlamps. And added to our worries as motorists, the Sedgeways are now being ridden on the highways. I saw some four of five of them traversing Baxters Road. How is the rider going to signal his/her intention to turn?.
My point is if the authorities have not got the guts, the will, or the inclination to caution/report/penalise kids on bikes, and bigger kids on quads/scramblers and Sedgeways, how do they expect to tackle hardened criminals?

What can we expect in society, when large corporations and political leaders engage in obfuscation, questionable actions and generally unacceptable behaviour?

Here is a prime example from the AP.

Nigeria drops Halliburton bribery charges

AP

Thursday, 23 December 2010

Nigeria has has dropped charges against Dick Cheney, the former US vice-president, over bribery allegations involving the energy giant Halliburton after an out-of-court settlement was agreed.

Nigeria’s anti-corruption watchdog, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, said the charges were dropped on Friday after Halliburton agreed to pay fines up to $250m (£162m) over allegations it paid millions of dollars in bribe to Nigerian officials.

Halliburton, which has previously said the claims had no legal basis, confirmed that the charges had been dropped, but declined to further comment on the case.

The Nigerian commission said it received the settlement offer when it met with officials representing Mr Cheney and Halliburton in London last week after 16-count charges were filed at a federal high court in Abuja.

-Interesting, no?

In another article, the Nigeria Minister for Justice and Attorney General is quoted as saying ””As a result of government’s resolve to prosecute those indicted, Julius Berger, Siemens, Saipem, Technip, and Halliburton Inc. were charged to court. To avert prosecution, these companies approached us with various settlement options for consideration,” he said.”

– How can we expect developing countries to achieve, when alleged collusion between mulitnationals and political leaders strip these countries of their wealth, of their development?

While the companies are after one thing and one thing at the exclusion of all else i.e. profits, the nationals of these countries are ebtraying their nations by resorting to such practices in order to enrich themselves.

Maybe it is too Utopian an idea otherwise, but why must so many politicians be corrupt?

They can’t take the money with them to the grave, just like the business leaders who recieve those multimillion bonuses, for achieving ‘growth and profits’, which may or may not really exist.

In fact, chances are that growth and profits are not really sustainable, but enough to get each company by for a few years.

Unfortunately, the siutation now does not forgive too much manipulation, the economies are too weak.