Social development specialist: Education key to stopping violent behaviour

“One slap is an act of violence.” Ghanian-born T&T resident Nana Oye Hesse-Bayne, a gender/social development practitioner, made this pronouncement during a one day UWI/IGDS workshop at the Flamingo Room, Hilton Trinidad, St Ann’s, recently. She said: “One slap is enough to put somebody in jail. Are we setting a standard to say ‘You are not so violent with one slap.’ Once we set the standard, we would say any violent behaviour is not acceptable. “One slap. It is the first step to violent behaviour. Any form of violence is not acceptable. We do not have to get to the stage of murder.”

Hesse-Bayne felt education was the best step to eradicating the problem. She said: “We definitely cannot solve the whole problem. The best we can do is to educate someone. They can only change their behaviour when they are aware it is wrong. Education is the key. You win some and you lose some. The person has to be aware what they are doing is wrong. It is not enough to say this is wrong.”

Insufficient data on male violence
Another major issue was an insufficient amount of data with regard to violence against men. Consensus was men, like females, women, children and the elderly were emotionally, physically and psychologically abused. Hesse-Bayne felt there should be one “drop box.” for the information collected by the police, the hotline and the different agencies. She believed the problem is it is not co-ordinated into one drop box.

About the workshop
It was sponsored by Caribbean Communications Network, Guardian Media Ltd and Hilton Trinidad. Among those present were facilitators Dr Piya Pangsapa, Francesca Hawkins, Dr Charleston Thomas, Dr Tia Cooper, Dr Gabrielle Hosein, Dr Keith McNeal, Deborah McFee and Racquel Sukhu. They were joined by a battery of journalists including Judy Raymond, Suzanne Shepherd, Kerry Peters and Geisha Kowlessar. The topics explored were Introduction to Gender and Sexuality Issues and Definitions of Domestic Abuse and Issues Surrounding Abuse and Violence.