Domestic violence is way too costly to the nation…It has to stop!

Apr 08, 2018 AFC Column, Features / Columnists

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Two high profile murders last week brought us back to re-visit one of our most debilitating societal scourges, that gut-wrenching issue of domestic violence. Today, with so many people and organizations invested, we may be closer, hopefully, to answering the universal question, “What new ways could we find to be rid of partner and general domestic violence?”
Both seminal cases last week came with a measure of shock. A GDF Captain allegedly used his service revolver to give vent to his passions. He reportedly shot and killed his wife, emptying his clip in the helpless woman in broad daylight. She died on the spot in Alexander Village, Georgetown, a stone’s throw from the Ruimveldt Police Station, where the alleged perpetrator went to turn himself in. The two had been living together with a blended family for a few years.
The second incident, occurring just days after that tragedy, involved a 32-year-old woman from West Bank Demerara, who had reportedly visited the home of her on again-off again boyfriend. One argument later she was dead. Speculation is rife about what exactly might have taken place, but that visit ended with another woman’s life being snuffed out in what appears to be another moment of intense anger.
There was at least one common element. Neither of these incidents came as a surprise to the people close to the couples. Their relationships were turbulent, had broken down badly and then ended tragically.
Social work experts who battle daily with the various shades of domestic violence often contend that it is much, much better to walk away from a bad union instead of enduring any type of abuse, be it verbal, economic, psychological or physical. They find that abuse escalates from mild to acute, crossing spectrums and in Guyana, leading inexorably to a prostrate body. The real tragic figures in these circumstances turn out to be the survivors, the children and other dependents left behind.
In direct contrast to the positions adopted by Red Thread and other rights-based NGOs, a few defence attorneys have asked the judges and juries to not see the perpetrators as cold-blooded murderers with intrinsic criminal propensities, but as men who simply “lost it” and lashed out in fits of rage, or in self defence, and their later remorse should be taken into consideration. What do you think??
Perhaps the time has now come for civil society activists to mount a strong lobby to the Ministry of Social Protection, Cabinet and Parliament for a substantially larger budgetary outlay (2019) to go towards sustained public awareness and education programmes, the operative word being ‘sustained’. These programmes should not end until the goal is achieved. They must frontally address domestic violence in all its permutations, and should be led by leaders of churches, youth and women’s groups, academics and the Ministry of Social Protection.
Now is also the time for Government and civil society to embark on mass training of both volunteer and professional counselors, to develop a larger cadre of resource persons aligned to every administrative region.
Guyana is clearly losing too many of its citizens to domestic violence – both men and women – but statistics do show that women are killed in far greater numbers than men every year. Have you ever listened to a spectator at a murder scene say, “She got what she deserved” because rumour had it that the victim had transgressed, had been unfaithful, or had squandered the money given by her hard working spouse, maybe on another man or her friends? Whatever the victim may have done, or caused to happen, there can be absolutely no justification for killing or maiming her or him.
“It is always better to walk away!” This point has to be rammed home constantly, unendingly to everyone, including children and young adults.
Police annual crime statistics have been showing a worrying trend. Spousal murders resulting from domestic violence are climbing. They sometimes account for the largest categories of homicides, or they come in second to ‘disorderly murders’ linked to the “gold bush”, or to alcohol- or drug-induced incidents.
A larger budget for the Social Protection programme would enable subventions for youth groups, churches and civil society groups that offer counselling services to couples in distress and to survivors of domestic violence.
As last week came to a close, an appeal was made to the high command of the Joint Services for them to pay closer attention to its ranks who are the ones to defend our country. (The GDF and Joint Services should already have in place internal programmes for treating those who show signs of personal distress).
The appeal came from Psychologist and UG Lecturer, Wil Campbell. “I am appealing for the Joint Services to … make it a matter of policy to provide strengthened systematic support for their personnel,” the psychologist said in a personality interview published in the Guyana Chronicle.
He explained that military personnel and people in power generally, including in the household, do not understand the purpose of power and they misuse it instead of channeling it into resolving issues.
Campbell said any programme for eradicating violence against women and children must start with people learning how to apply power effectively, and understanding that power only equips an individual to perform a function and not to control others.

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