Gordon Moreau reminded me during a brief and engaging encounter in Dominica last week of the depiction of Trinidad as being in a "state of in-betweenity", a quote he attributed to the late Eric Williams in the 1970's.

    After all the chuckling and laughter which usually accompany our encounters, after all the positive feeling that comes with the realization that there is indeed some therapy to be had from appreciating the humor and contradictions in Dominica's increasingly difficult circumstances, I left thinking that Eric Williams could well have been thinking of Dominica when he made this innovative description of his nation state.

    Dominicans do not agree on much. We never have and we probably never will. But if there is one thing that there appears to be unanimity on is that the country is stuck in neutral economically (some might even prefer to say it's in reverse) while crime has become a growth industry, prompting a level of alarm and despair I have not seen since visiting the country periodically for the past twenty three years. It's everywhere. You hear the same stories over and over again, of who was the latest victim of burglary, who got shot, who was held up at gun point, who had a knife held up to his throat in the early hours of dusk, which security guard returned to his work place, masked himself and tried to rob the very establishment entrusted to his safekeeping. "Who guards the guards" was one of the concerns of the early Romans and it is becoming equally relevant in our once peaceful isle.

    A paralysis of fear and despair seems to have settled over the country without any sense that there is a silver lining somewhere. I know. I was also a victim of these senseless burglaries. And the sad part is that there is a widespread perception that the Police are not paying the level of attention to this problem that it rightfully warrants. When the burglary occurred at my residential estate my caretaker instinctively noted that there was no sense in reporting the incident to the police because they would not show up, and even if they do show up, there would be no follow up and no arrest. (To their credit, I must note that they did show up. But the follow up and an arrest are yet to occur). That's a damning indictment of an institution which we should all hold in high esteem. When the public loses confidence in the police, we can safely say that a dark cloud hangs menacingly over the country.

    The matter of crime in Dominica was a subject of conversation at the Rosie Douglas Foundation dinner at Fort Young Hotel during the Independence celebrations. Seated next to me was a senior officer of the Police. He seemed very articulate, sported a well coiffed mustache and spoke with a level of poise and reserve that is not usually associated with men of military bearing. But he seemed nonetheless defensive when I noted the widespread perception of the police in Dominica, especially the part that they seem more focused on pursuing drug offenses at the expense of hunting down burglary suspects. I was quick to note that this may indeed be only a perception and if this had no place in reality, it was the duty of the police to change this perception, to engage the public in dialogue to reassure them that they, the police, have not given up on fighting other kinds of crime and that they become more visible in the community to help foster a feeling that the criminals have not taken over, that law and order must and will be maintained. And about this notion that we in Dominica are just too busy following the agenda of the United States in focusing almost all of our law enforcement resources on drug offenses, this may have to be raised and dealt with at the political level. Is it not the primary responsibility of government to look after the safety of its citizens and their property?

    The concept of "in-betweenity" that Eric Williams alluded to makes me want to believe that in a real sense, we are caught between a rock and a hard place, to quote a familiar Americanism. The rock of violent crimes, widespread burglaries and home invasions, coupled with hard economic conditions that help foster the former, are issues that ought to be front and center in the current debate on the economy. Indeed, all of the economic planning of the IMF and the work of the Integrated Development Plan will be largely futile if we fail to see a positive correlation between the level of crime and economic growth, or lack thereof.

    Let it suffice to say that it will be somewhat difficult to attract the Dominican Diaspora to settle back in Dominica if a consensus develops that the State is incapable of offering them a minimum level of safety from crime. Perhaps it is time to put all rhetoric aside and focus on the basic issue of making Dominica safe again.