Conger

Bishop mourns Jamaica’s ‘culture of death’: The Church of England Newspaper, July 29, 2011 July 29, 2011

Bishop Robert Thompson of Kingston

First published in The Church of England Newspaper.

The Bishop of Kingston has denounced the island’s “culture of death,” saying Jamaica was turning into a dystopia ruled by gang violence, corruption and greed.

Speaking at the funeral of 17-year old Khajeel Mais at Holy Trinity Cathedral in Kingston on July 16, Bishop Robert Thompson said the young man’s death was symbolic of the nation’s woes. “Morality is eroded,” he told the congregation, and Jamaica had become a place “where life is disposed of in favour of the symbols” of prosperity.

“We live in a society that embraces a culture of death from which we must repent. It makes us numb to justice,” said the bishop.

On July 1 Mais, a passenger in a taxi, was shot to death by a man driving a BMW X5 after the taxi scratched the side of the luxury car.   A student at Kingston College, Mais was on his way to a school fete when the shooting took place.  He died shortly after being admitted to hospital.

Speaking to a packed cathedral congregation that included students from the college, family and friends, Bishop Thompson said Mais’ death was not only an abomination, but was a tipping point in the collapse of the social order.

“The expression of outrage by the public is causing a shift in our society,” the bishop said.

He urged Jamaicans to stand up to those who sought power or wealth through the barrel of a gun.

“They can kill, but cannot kill the soul,” he said.

Bishop Thompson added that silence in face of evil, made one complicit with evil, warning those who were part of the “conspiracy of silence” that surrounded criminals were as “much to blame as those who pulled the trigger.”

The only way forward, the bishop said, was to turn towards God.  Taking as his text the 10^th chapter of Matthew, the bishop reminded the congregation that the one who stands firm in his faith to the end will be saved. “Let us face our fear of violence in our society with faith as Christians, when terror and death” surround us, Bishop Thompson said.

Jamaica close to despair, bishop warns: The Church of England Newspaper, June 3, 2011 p 8. June 3, 2011

Bishop Alfred Reid of Jamaica

First published in The Church of England Newspaper.

The Bishop of Jamaica has accused members of the island’s government of collusion with the criminal underworld.  Jamaica was close to despair, Dr. Alfred Reid said last week, with little to distinguish government from organized crime.

However, statistics released by the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) showed that violent crime declined over the last year, for the first time since 1999.

“What is the state of our Jamaican society at this time?” Dr. Reid asked delegates attending the 141^st diocesan synod in Falmouth.  The “lines” between the state and the “criminal underworld” had “blurred”, he said.

Jamaicans did not know “who to trust and who to fear, where an honest person must compete with extortionists of various types and where the underground economy is probably bigger than the official one.”

The unofficial economy was being “skillfully manipulated by a few” for their own benefit, “while another group called taxpayers are required to pay not only for all the social benefits they enjoy but also for the high cost of corruption,” the bishop said.

The climax of Jamaica’s crime wave appears to have crested last year, after the JCF supported by the army launched a military-style raid against criminal gangs in the Tivoli section of Kingston.  In a week’s fighting, 73 gunmen and police were killed, but the power of the gangs was broken in West Kingston.

A January press release from the JCF stated: “All major crimes (murders, shooting, rape, carnal abuse, robbery, break-ins, and larceny) declined in 2010, when compared to 2009, by an overall seven per cent. This is the first time since 1999 (eleven years) that the national crime statistics are showing a reduction in all major crimes.”

“Murder, which is considered to be the key crime indicator, decreased by 15 per cent in 2010 compared with 2009. There were 1428 reported murders in 2010 against 1682 in 2009, a decrease of 254 in 2010 compared with 2009,” the police reported, while murders in Tivoli fell by 42 per cent in the months after the police raid.

The police were too quick to congratulate themselves, Dr. Reid said.  Only one in five murders was solved in 2010, and although Jamaica was no longer the murder capital of the world, the 1428 murders reported in 2010 should be measured against the rate of 142 per year in 1971, when Jamaica’s crime rate was lower than that of the United States.

“Imagine congratulating ourselves on the dramatic reduction in crime while the incidence of vicious and violent crime is still way beyond the level any civilised country should tolerate,” Dr. Reid said.

“The dark demonic nature of these brutal and sub-human acts leave no one in the society free from deep anxiety and fear,” the bishop said.

Guyana massacre remembered: The Church of England Newspaper, Dec 17, 2010 p 8. December 17, 2010

The victims of the Bartica massacre. Photo from the LiveinGuyana blog

First published in The Church of England Newspaper.

An obelisk commemorating the victims of the Bartica massacre was dedicated this week by church and state leaders in Guyana.

The “Monument of Hope” dedicated by Prime Minister Samuel Hinds and the Rt. Rev. Cornell Moss, the Bishop of Guyana, commemorates the 12 people murdered by gunmen who attacked the mining community on the Essequibo River.

On the night of Feb 17, 2008, approximately 20 bandits landed by boat at the town wharf.  Five laborers loading a cargo ship were ordered to lie down, and then shot in the back of the head by the gang, which then moved on to the Bartica police station.  The three constables on duty were killed and the gang proceeded to empty the station armory.  A security guard and three other bystanders were also killed when the bandits shot up the town as they made their way back to the river.

The assault on Bartica prompted a nationwide outcry against the crime epidemic plaguing the South American nation, and has prompted government efforts to reform the police.  Prime Minister Samuel Hinds told the audience gathered for the ceremony the government was committed to “beefing-up support” for the police, and since the attack, “we, as a country, were severely tested, but have survived.”

The 13-foot black marble memorial was given to the town by the Canadian mining company, Guyana Goldfields Inc., on land donated by the diocese across from St. John the Baptist Church along the river’s edge.

In his address, Bishop Moss said he prayed that the monument would be a symbol of hope and promise for the community.   “Never again should what happened in Bartica occur anywhere again in Guyana, and it is our hope that this is true,” the bishop said.

Double murder shocks West Indian Anglicans: The Church of England Newspaper, Nov 5, 2010 p 7. November 13, 2010

Richard and Maria Stuart

First published in The Church of England Newspaper.

Crime and the moral decay of society in the Caribbean were among the topics of discussion last week at meetings of the diocesan synods of the Bahamas and Belize.

On Oct 14, a member of the Church of the Province of the West Indies Standing Committee and Registrar of the Diocese of Belize, Mr. Richard Stuart and his wife, Maria, were murdered.  The two had returned to their home in Belize City following a dinner of the Bar Association and were surprised by two intruders who were waiting for the couple on the first floor of their home.

Neighbors heard screams from the walled villa and alerted the police, who arrived shortly before midnight to find the couple dead, each with over 25 stab wounds.  Searching through the house, the police found a babysitter hiding in a closet with the couples’ 8-year old son on the second floor.  Their three other children, aged six months to six years, slept through the attack.

A Guatemalan man, who had once worked for Mr. Stuart as a servant, was stopped by police while driving the dead man’s car, late that night.  The servant had been dismissed by Mr. Stuart last month for stealing.  Police are seeking a second killer, who remains at large.

Bishop Phillip Wright of Belize told Channel 5 News that after he learned of the murder he immediately went to the house to offer his support.  The Stuart’s murder has “impacted us tremendously,” he said, and the deceased was a “friend” whom “I had grown to respect.

Mr. Stuart’s murder was all the more immediate, as it was his duty to sit next to Bishop Wright as registrar of the diocese during their annual synod meeting, which was scheduled to start on Oct 16.

Bishop Howard Gregory of Montego Bay, Jamaica stated he learned of the Stuart’s death when he arrived in Belize to attend the synod, and had been scheduled to stay at their home.  “This bright and promising young attorney who was involved in church, national life and politics, along with his wife, an accomplished forensic auditor, and who were in their early forties were brutally murdered in their home late at night as they arrived home from a function,” he said.

While Belize and the wider West Indian Anglican family were shocked by this murder, and were demanding that justice be done, hanging the killers was not the answer, the bishop said, in an editorial published in the Jamaica Observer.

“As tragic as this situation is, I still believe that all crimes are to be punished, but that capital punishment is not the answer. And in some ways, while satisfying the desire for revenge in many, will never constitute justice for others,” he said.

Bishop Gregory also noted there was also a growing culture of entitlement coupled with a moral decay that led to crimes like the Stuart murders.  “It is becoming clear that many of the crimes, apart from those that are obviously connected with the drug trade, are being carried out by persons who have access to people’s households and their employer’s sphere of work and living. They are persons who have enjoyed a certain level of trust, access and privileges which go with the same. There is clearly a breakdown of social relationships and values taking place in our society when the first thing that enters the minds of some employees is to find ways to steal from the till or remove property.”

He argued that such things “spring from materialism, which is overtaking our people and some of whom are now prepared to secure such benefits by any means available. It is also possible to argue that there is a serious deficit in the level of preparation of our young people for the world of work. In this regard, we may be focusing on the skills necessary for entry into the workplace but not the values and attitudes which should attend the same,” Bishop Gregory said.

Whatever the cause, the Stuart murders were “not a Belizean problem but a Caribbean one” the bishop said, and if “we do not move beyond debate, this social monster is only going to get worse.”

In his Oct 20 address to the 110^th session of the Bahamian Synod, Bishop Laish Boyd told his diocese that recapturing a responsible work ethic and thrift were imperatives for the Caribbean.

“There are many good workers in The Bahamas and The Turks and Caicos Islands, but there are too many slackers, who act as if they are doing their employer and their job a favor by turning up. There are too many workers who want something for nothing. There are too many workers who start off with a negative attitude towards their employer and their job, forgetting that it is a privilege to have a job even if it may not be paying what you want it to,” the bishop said.

Bishop Boyd also urged Anglicans to cut back on spending and save for the future.  While the world economy was now in recession, “a rainier day than this one just might be coming,” he said.