THE 13TH annual public lecture organised by the Management Institute for National Development, (MIND), last Thursday got under way with the theme, 'Violence prevention: a community response'.
In his presentation, Professor Barry Chevannes, research fellow at the Mona School of Business, said that widespread and consistent brutal violence is a spiritual matter, and that we should acknowledge it as such in order to deal with the current situation.
"Despite the death of don after don we find ourselves sinking deeper and deeper into a nightmare type existence where unspeakable horrors surface in our daily consciousness," he said.
He stated that our social conditions provide a state for evil deeds to exist. He listed them as 'generalised disorder,' which often becomes order, and 'a spirit of despair,' the opposite of hope. "To lose hope, is to live only for the present, or to put an end to life," he said.
LACK OF CONSCIENCE
The other two conditions he added is a 'lack of conscience,' having a conscience he said means being self motivated, but there is a lack of this and 'aggression' which he described as being chronic and deadly.
He noted that the Violence Prevention Alliance has identified six areas that communities should focus on to illuminate violence. These areas include: the absence of violence, the community must have a mechanism for the resolution of disputes, the community must be organised, the community must have educational activities, the relationship with the police must be positive and the community must promote community development.
In a heated discussion that followed his presentation, persons in the audience blamed the Government for the level of crime and violence in Jamaica, and proceeded to make suggestions regarding how to deal with the situation.
"There should be a disarm Jamaica campaign to cauterise the situation," one audience member shouted.
While admitting that the Government has played its part in the increase in violence, Professor Chevannes could offer no short term solution to the problem, but stressed that community efforts will go a long way to bring calm to the situation.
