THE EDITOR, Sir:
THE MURDER of Dr. Bernard Benjamin has caused profound sadness, grief and anger among his colleagues and friends at the Medical Association of Jamaica (MAJ). This is the second physician lost to gun violence in fewer than six months since the start of the year. When one considers that there are just 3,000 practising physicians in this country, it needs no rocket science to be alerted to the statistical significance of these figures.
Alarmingly, this is happening in a country that is not at war with, or under attack by, an external enemy. It speaks, therefore, to a breakdown of our value system, to the pervasive decline in our respect for human life, and to the undermining of public order and safety.
Ironically, the doctors are in the frontline to the defence of the victims of this growing epidemic of crime and violence. The Ministry of Health launched their Alliance Against Violence as part of a worldwide network, and in which the MAJ has been a team player from its inception. Additionally, the MAJ held a major press conference in the course of last year to alert the public to the enormity of the problem from the medical perspective. We emphasised the dislocation of service, in many aspects of hospital functions, especially in our accident and emergency departments, and we delineated in money terms the savaging of the health budget by the epidemic of violent crime. The MAJ's concerns about
violent crime were again recently outlined at The Gleaner Forum at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel.
This epidemic of violent crime must be contained. The alternative is an ever-growing cesspit of degradation, environmental and human. For that to happen all that is necessary is for good men to remain silent.
The MAJ stands ready to be part of the solution to this national problem and takes this opportunity to extend its deepest sympathy to Dr Benjamin's family and all families already affected by this epidemic.
I am, etc.,
DR. JOHN A. S. HALL
President, MAJ
