I am sure many of you saw the hair-raising, detailed 24ORA video Turista agresivo a bebe mucho hopi! A shrimp of a tourist, it took 5 super-sized policemen to finally stick him into the dog-catcher – what a terrible term, symptomatic of the lack of respect we feel towards people who experience a brush with the law. The tourist was wriggling and resisting.
What a scene. It took forever to remove him from the crowded sidewalk, it was humiliating and degrading and on frontal video, online forever, with other tourists expressing their outrage at the shameful handling of a light-weight by heavy-weight law enforcement.
I would have lost my mind, if it were my son, says one of my friends, tears in her eyes.
All you had to say is, please do not embarrass yourself, repeat it a few times, patience, until he gets it, pretend you are his mother, and if you have difficulties mastering the art of diffusing situations, some coaching by any good mother is widely available.
That scene outside of Gusto was hard to stomach.
It was terrible for the young man, but it was also terrible for our law enforcement officers, because they handle so much violence with violence, that they are burnt out, depressed, they hate their job, they can’t stand their ‘clients,’ their supervisors, and the type of men/women they have become, hardened and disillusioned. They generally experience great dissatisfaction with life, because they are immersed in a violent environment.
According to the latest research LACK OF EMPATHY is our biggest global problem, almost as big as climate change, and research shows that those who feel and express empathy, are better off than those who don’t.
Giving empathy feels as good as receiving empathy. And that’s a scientific fact.
The tourist video is just an example, of how we deal with behavioral challenges here, we resort to violence.
And the silly chase during TDQ, that ended with a Policeman ramming his car into a garden fence? Chasing at high velocity is a bad idea, and almost always results in violence.
Antilliaans Dagblad ran an article regarding our SOCIAL CRISIS a few days ago, it is very relevant to talk about the issue now, in view of THREE recent juvenile stabbings/shootings, one perhaps a blackout, one a crime of passion, the third, gang related? This is more or less what the article said:
The Social Crisis Plan Team says it is working in a structured manner on improvements, aiming at protecting children and young adults in Aruba.
The organization mainly focuses on developing frameworks, laws and regulations to tackle the many social problems.
The Social Crisis Plan, SCP, was established in 2018 after the death of two infants, who were found to have been killed by their stepfather. It was a problematic family, as there are so many in Aruba, and Minister Glenbert Croes of Social Affairs decided to intervene.
The action plan is based on a social analysis of the situation here. It was written by Unicef Netherlands in 2018. Unicef pointed out, among other things, the great demand for changes in the standards and values with which we raise our children.
As parents, we often choose to use violence to correct our children. The SCP is working with the Parenting Committee to introduce a program with six building blocks aimed at the non-violent education of children, the team explains.
Unicef also concluded that there is a shortage of concrete and reliable data in the social sector. SCP is currently in the final introduction phase of the central registration system that will serve as the central database in the relevant sectors.
We cannot do anything simple, it has to be complicated, and bureaucratic; it has taken 3 years to inventory our crisis.
SCP also uses the results of various studies by local academics in the social sector.
The results show that parents and families with problematic children often need guidance and help themselves. Duh. We know that.
In 2020, SCP opened the Center for Youth and Family, a multidisciplinary facility where parents, families, educators and young people dealing with a problem are guided. (I think it’s the one in Dakota)
Another problem was the lack of laws to report child abuse in order to stop it in time.
SCP has adapted and refined the childcare law.
Once completed, they will introduce protection law in four sectors: Social, Education, Legal, and Public Health.
This year, 2021, the Child and Youth Department will become a reality with the enforcement and management control of these laws by the Social Inspectorate.
Data from the analysis also points to the tremendous neglect experienced by the social sector in recent years, culminating in the tremendous amount of social problems in the Aruban community.
Obviously, all these social problems cannot be solved in two years. SCP started at the end of 2018 and has worked continuously with twenty partners on a total of 31 projects.
In the first year they worked on the improvements and implemented changes in framework, legislation, methods and management between partners in the Social Crisis Plan.
In the second year, despite the consequences of the pandemic, they continued to implement the projects and introduce the various management methods and crucial laws for the protection of children and young people.
In 2021, SCP will continue with the completion of the projects that are part of the program and with the planning of projects that will be structurally under the financial responsibility of Aruba from 2022 on with the main goal to protect the children and young adults, here.
Snail paced, and on a shoe string budget.
