The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

I believe the case can be made that certain officials danced around the issue of law enforcement officers being assigned to the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) nearly a month ago. Maybe their seeming evasive posture was due to the Free National Movement’s apparent opposition to the move by this Progressive Liberal Party administration. I think it would’ve been better for the two PLP officials to simply give a straightforward answer to the cynical Bahamian public.

In late September, TCI Premier Charles Washington Missick, in an address to his nation, said that he had asked Prime Ministers Philip Brave Davis, Mia Mottley and Andrew Holness to send members of their respective police forces to TCI in order “to boost local manpower” in the fight against the unprecedented crime crisis. I think Bahamians would’ve accepted this explanation, had it been stated from the outset. The Missick administration, in addition to requesting assistance from the UK, has also asked the US Department of Homeland Security to deploy one of its surveillance aircrafts in order to patrol the waters between its country and Haiti.

According to TCI Governor Nigel John Dakin, the escalating violence is being precipitated by Jamaican and Haitian gangs.

Apparently Jamaican gangsters are attempting to remove their competition in order to corner the narcotics market in TCI.

Up until September 28, TCI had recorded 22 murders - with 11 being committed in September alone. Twenty-two murders by Bahamian standards is an infinitesimal number. However, what one must bear in mind is that TCI’s population is only about 38,000. The population of New Providence is nearly eight times the size of TCI. Based on this alone, had TCI had the same population size as New Providence, it would currently have 176 homicides for 2022.

The Missick administration has called October “Criminal Justice Reform in TCI” month. Missick aims on reforming existing crime legislations in order to break the proverbial back of crime. It is obvious that the ongoing gang war between Haitian and Jamaican gangs in TCI is being fueled by the drug trafficking industry. There is a spiritual dimension to this gang warfare that TCI, UK, Bahamian and Jamaican lawmakers might miss. Drug traffickers are nothing more than modern-day shamans.

According to the late Christian apologist Dave Hunt in his The Seduction of Christianity, “it is now recognised by most researchers who have studied the exploding revival of mysticism that the Western world has its own witch doctors”. Shamanism is a synonym for witchcraft and sorcery. Ancient sorcerers utilised illicit drugs in order to tap into the spiritual dimension. This is why the apostle Paul in Galatians 5:20 used the Greek word “pharmekia” for witchcraft.

In the English, the word is pharmacy. In Haiti, voodoo is practised by a significant portion of the population. The Jean-Bertrand Aristide government sanctioned voodoo as an officially recognised religion in 2003. Voodoo is just another variation of witchcraft and Obeah. It is not surprising to this writer that so many Haitians, who have been raised in a country where voodoo is an accepted form of spirituality, would venture into the drug trade, another form of witchcraft.

KEVIN EVANS

Freeport, Grand Bahama.

October 26, 2022.