Barbados is facing a worsening crisis of crime and economic stagnation fuelled by a growing culture of apathy towards work and personal responsibility, Senator Elizabeth Thompson warned, urging the nation to look beyond government action and address deep-rooted social failings.
During the Senate debate on a $370 million loan resolution, she said the government is being urged to “do something” about crime and the economy, but the wider society must also take responsibility.
“You have people who tell you openly they don’t want any hard work,” Senator Thompson said. “You have people who tell you they don’t, they have no skills, but they tell you that a job, a blue-collar job, does not pay them enough and they prefer to stay home.”
She declared this reluctance to work was helping to drive some individuals into crime: “When they stay home, how do you think they’re planning to get money?”
Senator Thompson said many employers across Barbados complain about poor attitudes and low productivity in the workplace. She described this as part of a larger problem that has developed over time and is now showing up in crime and social decline.
“We really have a problem that is wider,” she said. “It is manifesting itself partly in the crime situation, but it is much wider than that and it didn’t start in 2018.”
She pointed to deep failures in the school system, referring to findings recently released by Director of the Criminal Justice Research and Planning Unit, Cheryl Willoughby that 95 per cent of the people in prison charged with violent crimes read at the level of a three-year-old. This, she said, reflects missed chances to help young people early and stop them from falling through the cracks.
Senator Thompson also spoke about the loss of values and community support, blaming the breakdown of family structures and a move away from religious and moral guidance.
“We grew up with praying mothers . . . we were forced to go to Sunday School and church where we were taught certain values, including the value for our life, but now we don’t do that,” she said. “A lot of young people . . . say ‘I don’t care about nobody . . . I don’t care about life’. They don’t care about the value of anybody’s life and the reality is they don’t care about their own, b ecause they don’t expect to live long. So they want to live hard and fast.”
Senator Thompson said if Barbados is to successfully tackle crime and grow its economy, it cannot be left to the government alone. She called for honest discussion about the root causes of the island’s problems and urged families, communities and individuals to take action, too.
“Let us, when we talk about crime, have a conversation about the social structural problems that need to be addressed,” she urged. (LG)
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