Last week there was the tragedy of a mentally disturbed young man drowning himself in the presents of several onlookers and police officers. The blogmaster will theorise that based on what was recorded, the young man should be alive today. The blogmaster sees no useful purpose to post the video that was widely circulated.
The self-righteous indignation expressed by many Barbadians at the incident has predictably dissipated as the 7-day period approaches. A majority of Barbadians are indifferent to those struggling with mental health problems. the stigma associated with mental health in Barbados is real.
Some of us are aware that like a physical ailment so too is mental illness which requires similar care. We have too many suffering in silence by refusing to be diagnosed. Imagine if the authorities engaged in as aggressive an advertising campaign to match the Caribbean Music Festival 2025 featuring Vybz Kartel. Too much of the insensitivity directed at persons suffering from mental illness is due to ignorance.
The incident last week exposed our level unpreparedness. A look at the casual and unprofessional manner two policemen dressed in boots intending to save a man in calf deep water was embarrassing. The man was known in the area to be a ‘disturbed’ man and the blogmaster is concerned based on what is known that all was not done to marshal the required resources to give the best chance to save a ‘distressed soul’.
It is probably futile to ask the Barbados Police Service (BPS) high command to make the findings of an internal investigation available to the public to assuage concerns. The public was promised last Kadooment, 250 days ago, the findings of an investigation of a policemen recorded slapping a civilian. We are none the wiser with the next Kadooment just over 3-months away.
Only bout hey!
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