Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders plan to convene for another crime session later this year to address the region’s persistent issues of crime and violence.
However, community activist Dr. Venus Cherry has voiced his strong skepticism about the impact of such events.
Cherry is also the Chairman of RISE Saint Lucia Inc., a not-for-profit, non-governmental organisation dedicated to the healthy development of people, especially youth.
He believes crime symposiums have become repetitive and ineffective.
Cherry told St. Lucia Times while the symposiums focus heavily on discussing crime, they fall short on implementing concrete measures.
“When it’s time for action, we hear the same thing—budgetary constraints. If crime is not important to us, if we feel like we put money into everything else but that, then we will continue to have the problem. This is them showing face,” the RISE Chairman said about the planned Barbados crime symposium.
He questioned the potential outcomes of the upcoming CARICOM meeting, raising concerns about what new technology or strategies the event would introduce.
“What new technology do they have? What new strategies? What happened to the last strategy? Cherry asked.
He declared that the constant symposiums will only yield fruit if they generate actions to prevent crime.
At the recent CARICOM Summit in Grenada, Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley agreed to host a follow-up regional meeting on crime before the end of this year.
In April last year, Trinidad and Tobago hosted a Regional Symposium addressing Crime and Violence as a Public Health Issue.
The theme was: ‘Violence as a Public Health Issue – The Crime Challenge’.
The Trinidad and Tobago symposium sought to promote dialogue and regional action aimed at violence reduction and crime prevention.Â
Did know he was a doctor, in what please and thanks.
Dr Cherry, I totally agree with you on this one. It’s often lots of talk and Inaction that is the problem. We are yet to see any implementation of any policy Caricom has proposed if they made any proposals while society continues to strain under the scourge of violent crime. You would think that if this is a public health issue ( just like covid was a public health issue and crime is indeed a public health threat) they would have gone into overdrive and bring in public health strategies immediately like they did for covid. But again that proves that those in authority have no clue, incompetent, leaderless, lack empathy for the citizenry, and clearly have no plans to move forward. These are the people we elect these days. This crime situation is a national emergency. It needed intervention 20 years ago but successive government have been pussy footing on crime and criminals leaving us with this mess we have today.
Paralysis through analysis. Amateurs trying to be professional security managers. What do you expect?