The Tribune

By DR IAN BETHEL BENNETT

VIOLENCE depends on so many things to thrive. Sadly, we seem to be doing well in all of the things on which it depends. We have a healthy system of inequality, we have a healthy anger level, we have a healthy frustration level, and we have an even healthier level of misogyny.

We believe that women are sent here to be punching bags for men. We believe that women do and should have fewer rights than men, based on the biblical laws that we examine in a half light.

The warning signs are obvious and they are increasing in volume and intensity. Are we listening?

The government promised as a part of their election platform to bring to the public a referendum that would address the gendered inequalities in the Constitution.

Their international obligations require that they do the same. They are meant to be removing all discrimination against women from the law and the constitution.

The Constitution Reform Committee has been working ‘furiously’ to get information to the public on what the referendum will really entail. Their feverish pace calmed according to the calming of political will, however. So now, after many delays, postponements and apparent false starts, we are no further ahead than we were in 2010. In fact, we seem to be falling further behind.

This government confirmed that they would not be addressing anything to do with marital rape. There is no rape within marriage because, as we see it, a woman becomes the property of a man once she is wedded to him.

Perhaps this is a part of the attitude that many high-powered officials in the country have, at least this is what they claim in public. The universality of the problem of gender-based violence and domestic violence cannot be missed though, especially given the Salvation Army’s international campaign to eliminate violence against women in their ‘Is this dress blue or black?’ ad.

Where is our willingness to move away from being a society that condones and in fact celebrates violence that is based on gender and inequality? Where is the political will?

Levels of violence are rising rapidly. We know that young males in our society see little to live for. Their anger and frustration are encouraged by dysfunctional systems that push them further into the margins, but also by the social inequalities that teach them that they are worth less than many people, but that women can be pushed around and are, in fact, worth less than these young men who see themselves as almost worthless, but have huge bravados to cover up their inferiority that is beaten into them.

There was a young, very muscular boy yesterday who was performing his masculinity for all with him and around the street to see. He made it abundantly clear that any woman who went by would be scrutinised and then receive his judgement.

He was young, loud and aggressive, but everyone thought this was normal. The young women actually seemed to enjoy his comments. He was willing to take on the world. His eagerness to put himself out there was due in no small measure to his obvious limited other means of presenting himself to the world.

This is particularly scary. We are creating young men who have nothing to lose by being violent. They, in fact, have everything to gain; performing violence as an integral part of their male identity is the only way society will take note of them. We have taught them that.

This means that many of the young women out there will only ever experience this kind of relationship. They will only ever see young men who have been formed through the violence of the streets and the media.

Is this why so many women must feel utterly unsafe in their homes? Is this cultural violence the reason why women are beaten when they try to assert their humanity? Where is the government’s promise to grapple with the serious constitutional inequalities that render women inferior to men in this country?

By remaining silent, although we think it will allow things to flow, allow government to consider the way forward, it does not. Silence actually allows government to think that not doing anything to address the inequalities is OK.

Of course, the problem is bigger than addressing the gender inequalities that undermine the cultural fabric of our society, but this is a start. It is an important start as the entire world is watching what this tiny country does with its international obligations.

When we sign on to something, it is not OK to simply turn our backs on the agreement and walk away as if it meant nothing. That kind of behaviour lands the country in massive international problems that may not seem to bring any chickens home to roost in the short term, but the long-term impact is going to be devastating.

Much as the government has boasted about its record on promoting the development of Bahamians, it has boasted about the popularity of its immigration policy.

Yet the country is receiving pressure from many quarters on the same issues they claim are so popular.

Immigration and gender inequality may seem very different and completely unrelated areas, but they are in fact one in the same. Such violence promoted through intolerance created in one area of life, exacerbates violence and intolerance in another.

When we look at the statistics, the violence and intolerance is clearly borne out by recent publication from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

We can certainly boast about these numbers (See Domestic homicide victims chart).

Since 2011, violence has actually risen. Violence against women and domestic violence are two forms of violence that have risen sharply. Government simply chooses to ignore these trends or to blame troublemakers for the social problems that are not only being ignored by their policies, but worsened by their lack of attention to their own behaviour.

Here’s where we are in general (See Assault Cases chart).

Violence against women is no different from violence. Violence against Haitians or children born to Haitian parents in the Bahamas is no less violent than violence against a tourist walking down the road. In fact, and this is where the Prime Minister needs to wake up. Those other forms of violence that seem so unimportant actually lead to that form of violence that he cares so much about that he is putting police on most ‘tourist-area corners’.

Where are the social policies that actually work to prevent the problems rather than beating them into submission after they have been created? Why do we create boys to be violent and insist that girls must be the objects of their violence? Why do we justify abusing, killing and destroying anyone’s property simply because of their ethnicity? When we contextualise this even further it seems clear that we breed our children in environments that are harsh and violence filled. (See Sexual Offenses Against Children Cases chart).

Can we step back and pause? Can we stop talking part politics and do some real soul searching? Can we address the real problems of violence in our society and the devastating impact it has on our people?

In 2015, we are building walls that do not keep people out, but rather keep us in. All that we are doing is only making the situation worse. The study carried out in some high schools to evaluate how students perceived inequalities and violence showed that most children saw the use of violence as normal.

It also showed that what these graphs are capturing will only get worse unless we step up to stop it. Gender-based violence is much greater than one man hitting one woman. Anti-Haitian violence promotes other forms of violence and usually when people who work around violence, like destroying homes and property of people who are—according to society—‘worth less than they are’, who when they go home tend to bring that violence with them and share it with their families.