When a country is assessed for how violent it is, invariably, the
statistic quoted is the murder rate and that is measured in killings per one
hundred thousand – meaning, how many citizens out of one hundred thousand
are murdered annually? In Belize – that rate was 34 in 2008 – meaning
for every one hundred thousand citizens, 34 were murdered. That’s legitimately
worrying, but it’s not nearly as high as Jamaica which hovers upwards
of 60, Trinidad and Tobago which is at 44 and El Salvador which is on pace for
a frightening 70.
But what is at the bottom of it In Belize? What triggers such murderous
tendencies in a country that is known – probably only to itself - as peace-loving
and neighborly? That’s what a study called the “Male Social Participation
and Violence Study in Belize” is trying to definitively discover. The
group is led by Jamaican Dr. Herbert Gale – the Caribbean’s only
social violence anthropologist. He’s supported by a local research team
which is working on a tight deadline to complete their research by June of 2010.
But, because it is such important work, which is already producing compelling
findings, they presented their preliminary report at a press conference today.
They explained why Belize is a dangerous place.
Jules Vasquez Reporting,
Gayle explained that Belize sits at the nexus of two of the most dangerous regions
in the world.
Dr. Herbert Gale, Social Violence Anthropologist
“What we have here now is Central America being the most violence
police zone in the world followed by Southern Africa, followed by the Caribbean
followed by South America. So there’s El Salvador with 60, Honduras with
58, Guatemala 48 of Central America and Jamaica 61, Trinidad 41, and Belize
34. Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, they are all heading straight up. If we
look at the Caribbean states, Belize is doing a nose turn but we require three
years for a trend so we can’t make any statements.”
Belize is on a slight downturn but going forward there are reasons for profound
concern–particularly among youth. So far the research with a sample group
of children and teenagers suggests that the problem begins with environment:
overcrowded homes with too many dependents.
Dr. Herbert Gale,
“The average household in urban Belize actually hits you with 7 persons,
pretty heavy. In other words once you begin to have a ratio of one person to
more than four dependents there is going to be some amount of occasional to
chronic hunger and conflict. And so it is not just human being but it is also
their relationship with the environment that determines conflict.”
And that conflict says Gayle is at the base of Belize’s social problems.
They sampled research date from 35 boys aged 6 to 12 – a quarter of whom
have to “hustle” their own living.
Dr. Herbert Gale,
“And hustling we have eight of 35 hustling and what are the popular
types of hustling; begging, stealing, selling. We have 24 of the 35 boys experiencing
relocation and pick up any study on conflict and the more you move a child it
is the more likely that child is going to feel insecure about life and the more
that child is going to get into conflicts.
And their fears? Gunmen. Look at the innocent ones. Ghost, that is what
children should be afraid of. You tell them a ghost story and they want to go
to bed quickly but the problems are gunman and we have children who are afraid
of knocking on the door because their entire family members were involved in
crime and that knock could be the police. So the children actually express fear 
of a knock on the door because who could it be knocking on the rastaman’s
door.”
The research has also has input from what are known as peer responders –
42 children who were trained to interview their peers about their exposure to
crime and illegal behavior. What they found was also disturbing,
Melvin Hewlett,
“Another trend that was identified, it shows that the north side youths
are targets for gang recruitment and this is mainly recruitment for them to
bring financial support to the gangs and also as a means of distributing, broadening
their market for drugs and drug sales and also as a sense of belonging. We found
that for a lot of the north side youths, these are some of the main reasons
for joining gangs.
On the south side, we found that primarily joining gang is primarily for
obtaining status and respect which also implies access to girls. You know, the
whole culture, it seems like good girls love bad guys.
Many youths use and sell drugs such as marijuana and crack and sometimes
as one of the main reasons they do this is to support their family, some of
them indicated they have sold drugs to maintain their family from they were
as old as 13.”
Dr. Herbert Gale,
“The kids are already saying that if I am crips it is very likely
I am PUP because the colour stains my heart. I am quoting words, one boy said
my father is a blood, it is in my blood, I am a blood. And whether you like
the portrait or no, this is the reality.
When you look into the section that says what do your peers do, economic
activities, it is fascinating. Some just say: kill people, gangstas.”
There was also a comprehensive trauma survey sampling 333 students from 18
secondary schools across the country.
Dr. Herbert Gale,
“89 of the 333 which comprise 26% have seen one or two persons shot
and note that one of ten, 9.9% have seen between 3 and 5 persons and there are
actually a handful of young people, almost all men who’ve seen more than
ten of their friends, relatives and neighbours shot. What we’re having 
here is high, it’s high. It is beginning to edge towards the dangerous
point called Jamaica and that is a frightening concern I have for this country.
It means if this is not addressed, in ten years it is just going to boom.”
So what’s to be done? First rule is – big problems have no simple
solutions.
Nelma Mortis, Research Coordinator
“The problem lies in the form of reality. We cannot secure our youths
with dreams and wishes or even splintered or project oriented policies. What
we need is a concerted effort.”
Dr. Herbert Gale,
“What we’re having is a massive social problem that needs to
begin to be addressed by social agencies. And clearly the direction to go is
to have the socialists, to have national security, people from Housing, Ministry
of Health, all the line Ministries that are involved, people working with families
and children, very well represented here, coming together to understand this
larger picture rather than what the Caribbean continue to do, requiring of the
police to have bigger guns.
One of the problems we have is that people come up with reactive ideas:
hanging, beautiful idea. At least it is to those of us who are connected will
never be hanged so it is a brilliant idea. Giving people jobs, Tony Blair himself
tried this. You’ve heard of the New Don and the Jamaican guys took the
first amount of the money and bought more gunshots. So this is what we are talking
about, the brilliance. It is well intended but it is brilliant, splintered,
gut feeling ideas, as to how to go rather than finding the core.”
And at the core is a stew of social problems.
Dr. Herbert Gale,
“You have to have four very horrible things happening all at once.
You have to have extreme poverty in the midst of wealth combined with social
isolation and all these things. You have to have weak central political authority
which is the combination of policing, judiciary, civil society and central government.
You also have to have a problem of social organization of violence such as crips
and bloods and you also have the matter of people mobilizing for the purpose
of politics and leadership. So any country you see with a homicide rate beyond
30, politicians are not innocent. That is just a general acceptance around the
world.”
And these researchers say those politicians need to make informed, research-based
decisions.
Nelma Mortis,
“We are hoping that the Belizean society will be sensitized to the
value of research. There is no way we can understand the social and political
action or we could make any kind of decision unless we rely on research and
we are hoping that after this it will be a part of us that we put away all those
gut feelings, all those good intentions, some of us become very specialist in
special areas and think we know but we need to rely more on scientific facts.”
Scientific facts and a few key intangibles.
Dr. Herbert Gale,
“Changing the situation is going to take bravery but it is also going
to take people who have a heart.”
Again, the research should be completed by June of 2010 – that
is, if they get the additional funding required to finish it – which is
fifty-five thousand dollars.
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