Dear Editor,
It has taken four days for me to suppress a knee jerk response to the dastardly act of early Saturday morning that left eleven dead; their families bereaved; their community in shock and dismay; and the entire nation in the disbelief and anguish that fellow citizens can indulge in such inhumane, reprehensible, brutal and savage acts.
It is understandable that almost all sections of society have called for more effective security arrangements as a foil to the perpetration of such acts. I could hardly disagree with this call.
However security arrangements do not deal with the causal factors and the catalysts that are at the root of the existence of persons, in our society, such as those who are responsible for and committed the Lusignan atrocity and those who have been committing, or responsible for, atrocities, as individuals, gangs or agents of the state, for the last eight years, since the advent of the 21st century.
I am therefore saddened and disappointed that there has been no focus on the socio-economic policies and programmes that are intended to reduce and eliminate the environment that breeds the kind of person who can operate at the sub-human level to which our society has evidently degenerated.
As a country, we all need to accept that the perpetrators of such acts have been bred by our society thus imposing upon us all some responsibly for their existence. It is therefore folly to attempt to distance ourselves from our responsibility. While we need to rid the society of the extant criminal elements, we also need to rid the society of the circumstances that will continue to produce criminals. This is the challenge to which we should ultimately be responding.
My condolences go out to the families of all of those who have been victims of our degenerate society, specifically the families of the Lusignan eleven and the GDF one, who are the most recent and most gruesome cases.
Yours faithfully,
Vincent Alexander
