by Leela Ramdeen, Chair, CCSJ and Director, CREDI
“Somebody got murdered on New Year’s Eve. Somebody said dignity was the first to leave.
I went into the city, went into the town; Went into the land of the midnight sun.
Searchin’ high, searchin’ low, Searchin’ everywhere I know
Askin’ the cops wherever I go, Have you seen dignity?” (Dignity by Bob Dylan, 1991)
I thought of this song as I watched a video from a CCTV camera shown on Crime Watch recently. I watched with deep sadness as two young men – one with a cutlass and the other with a sawn-off shotgun, “held up” the owner of a small parlour.The video showed a young girl of about 10, a boy of about 5, and a woman running out of the premises to escape from the bandits. The poor woman fell. The bandits jumped over her to chase the children along the road. The woman hid behind some bricks at the front of her parlour and must have been filled with terror as the two bandits returned wielding shotgun and cutlass – no doubt, looking for her. These young men were not concerned that the CCTV camera had captured their images.
Day after day the dignity of our people is being attacked with impunity. Most of the images shown on programmes such as Crime Watch are those of young men. During the Year of Faith, let us commit ourselves in our parishes to reach out to families; to help strengthen family life, so that our youths will grow to recognise their inherent, inalienable, inviolable dignity and that of others.
The first paragraph in Trinidad and Tobago’s Constitution states, inter alia, that as a people we “acknowledge the position of the family… the dignity of the human person and the equal and inalienable rights with which all members of the human family are endowed by their Creator.”
Those young bandits did not fall from a tree. They were brought up by some person(s) in a community. I do not think that they were born inherently wicked. Given the level of crime in T&T, let’s step up to the plate and offer possible solutions that may reduce crime.
The 1995 national survey in theUSAconducted by Peter Hart Research Associates shows that the Police Chiefs who were asked to express what they believe works in fighting crime stated that “strengthening families and neighbourhoods, punishing criminals swiftly and surely, controlling illegal drugs, and gun control are considered more important than the death penalty. The death penalty was rated as the least cost- effective method for controlling crime.”
I am of the firm belief that if those two bandits were brought up in a loving, caring home; with appropriate support from school and community to help form their consciences, it is hardly likely that they would be terrorising citizens. People are killing each other without a second thought. And those who are bringing in the drugs and guns seem to have no conscience. Don’t they care that they are tearing our society apart? The lack of effective social development systems that will create conditions to allow people to realise their potential is another threat to human dignity.
The Holy Father has asked us during the Year of Faith to study the Catechism of the Catholic Church. See what the following sections tell us about human dignity #1700, #356, #357, #362, and #1738. The principle of human dignity is the bedrock of all our justice and peace work.
“The dignity of the human person is rooted in his/her creation in the image and likeness of God. It is fulfilled in his/her vocation to divine beatitude. It is essential to a human being freely to direct him/herself to this fulfilment. By his/her deliberate actions, the human person does, or does not, conform to the good promised by God and attested by moral conscience. Human beings make their own contribution to their interior growth; they make their whole sentient and spiritual lives into means of this growth” (Catechism #1700).
Our dignity is linked to the dignity of others. We are connected. If the dignity of my neighbour is trampled upon, mine becomes tarnished. Although human dignity is a permanent part of our character, given by God, it is also a goal, an achievement. We must work at parish level to nurture and sustain human dignity and to teach people what human dignity means e.g. seeking truth, resisting sin, practising virtue and reconciling ourselves with God when we succumb to temptation and sin.
