BLOOD ON ALL OUR HANDS

                                                                         The Caribbean Is One Nation.

                                       BLOOD ON ALL OUR HANDS

The Mahogany Coconut Group is saddened by the violence that continues against our women and children. We have been in the forefront, of calling for archaic laws and the inability of law enforcement agencies to act, as the main culprits, in combating the chilling reality of these atrocities.

 While we will not intentionally pour cold water on any effort to rid the Caribbean nation of the scourge of these horrific crimes , we sadly note that the ever present talk shops and grand standing by the collective political managerial class in the region , are bent on taking this issue into the realm of useless posturing.

 The first order of business is a rapid response by law enforcement agencies to remove the perpetrators from the residence where such women and children exist, at the very first hint of violence and abuse. There must be a strong zero tolerance policy. This could only be achieved by effective legislation and law enforcement acting as a well coordinated team.

We therefore are concerned that setting up task forces (Trinidad and Tobago) and promising effective legislation several months later (Barbados), represent nothing more than glib political public relations. Throughout the Caribbean, women and children, who are abused, are left unprotected. We strongly believe that if a child is abused in any manner, all the children in that particular house or abode should be immediately removed and the professional child protection agencies should take over from there. We do not support setting up fancy sounding committees and other such wasteful exercises. We are tired of party hacks being given tasks for which they are totally unsuitable.

In many cases women who are eventually brutally murdered, have been turned away by law enforcement agencies, after making complaints, because the agencies do not have the legal authority to act on the spot. This is a fancy way of saying they do not have state’s approval and or support to protect our women. We have intentionally left out the names of children recently murdered and abused in Trinidad and Tobago and we have intentionally refused to print the names of those women who have been recently murdered by abusive men in Barbados. As the ink dries on this article, we have reports of yet another woman murdered in Barbados.

Our reason for this current policy is to focus on ALL children and women and in some way to ease the pain of loved ones who are left to mourn lives cut brutally short. We believe as it stands now that ALL Caribbean nation women and children are in grave danger because of ineffective and really embarrassing inertia on the part of regional governments when it comes to dealing with the issue of violence against our women and children.

We all have blood on our hands.