Crime 2

The Impact of Crime. We are looking at a recently published World Bank report on the impact of crime in the West Indies. It is titled “Crime, Violence and Development: Trends, Costs and Policy Options in the Caribbean”. It was published on-line on 3 March. It can be read or downloaded by clicking here.

This report is very important for us in Anguilla. It provides guidance for those who care and have control. The Governor should not just be reading it. He should be taking it to bed with him in the evenings. He should be giving the Commissioner of Police tests on its contents at every meeting. He should be demanding of Ministers to know what their response is to its recommendations. The report is deadly accurate where Anguilla is concerned.

The report reminds us that our West Indian countries are transit points for cocaine. No doubt, there needs to be strategies outside the region. Demand for addictive drugs in consumer countries has to be reduced if we are to get any relief. There also has to be improved interdiction in our islands. Take the case of Anguilla. Our economy is fueled by cocaine. We have a cocaine-based economy. The first thing that up to fifty percent of all tourists do when they finish checking in is to go to the head barman or concierge and enquire where they can get cocaine. You don’t believe me? Ask any hotel barman for yourself. Where the demand is so high, the supply will inevitably follow. Any person in the industry who tells you otherwise is either a user or a supplier, or just naive.

Gun ownership is an outgrowth of the drug trade. We need a better registration system, as well as better interdiction in ports.

More importantly, the report recommends that policies should focus on providing meaningful alternatives for youth. That does not mean building expensive community centers. It means parents spending more quality time with their children. It means our society contributing more resources for youth organisations and activities. It means government providing better education on social issues for our children. No measure to eradicate political corruption would be more useful and less expensive than putting resources into developing ethics and good governance courses in our schools for the very young. That means in primary schools as well as in secondary ones.

Does no one in Anguilla care?