The headlines screamed - Bloodbath in Diego Martin as boy 3, woman and two men murdered.
A few days prior, I was boasting to Olympic Movement colleagues how I always look forward - no matter the time away - to returning to T&T. That no matter how dire the headlines may be or the reality on the ground of the challenges, there is no place like home. I love T&T. I love the Caribbean.
I touched home soil on Sunday (October 23) from the ANOC (Association of National Olympic Committees) General Assembly in Seoul, South Korea. My phone, in airplane mode after clearing immigration and customs, I re-engaged data. My Samsung phone lit up with messages from the now ubiquitous influence of Whats App groups. The chats were all about the bloodbath in Diego Martin story.
Women and children are seemingly no longer off limits in Trinbago.
An avalanche of bad-man gang culture and indiscriminate gun violence and bloodshed. Elders suggest there use to be an honour code. No children and women to be targeted. Violation of that code would bring swift consequences from within the gangs.
Now it is brutality, wanton and murderous intent.
It led me to reflect on the "Replace Guns With Medals" initiative first raised during my address at the 2017 T&T Olympic Committee (TTOC) annual awards gala at the Hyatt Regency Hotel.
I recall saying: "Let's replace guns with medals!” in a challenge to the local sporting community for 2018, to use sports to bring about a much-needed change in society.
“It is about not just winning medals. It is not just about ensuring that our athletes have the support that they need, it is not just about asking for, but giving more. It is about replacing guns with medals. It is about replacing guns and crime and the growth of crime by productive progressive citizens through using the power of sport.”
In July, during a CNC3 TV Morning Brew programme, I shared with show host Jason Williams who at the time was doing a Caribbean Games Guadeloupe 2022 review- that CANOC should also look at a "Replace Guns With Medals" initiative given the reality of increasing gun violence in CANOC member countries.
The spectre of guns and gun violence in the Caribbean and Latin America is well documented and researched by various academics and organisations. Just Google the topic and a surfeit of literature will surface.
There is a multitude of theories, views, opinions, and ideas. But, yet, no dent. Why is it proving such an unsolvable problem?
Money is a big factor - the gun trade legal and illegal is lucrative.
Why are many young men in the Caribbean and Latin America drawn into the never-ending cycle and circle of guns and gun violence? Why is it easy to pull the trigger that shatters and ends dreams and lives? Coerced, led, influenced away from activities such as sport to a dead-end life of cold-blooded murder, incarceration and death?
Is it too late? Can the tide be turned?
Every death diminishes us.
According to UNICEF: Armed Violence is a complex multi-dimensional phenomenon linked to high levels of inequality and exclusion and institutional and structural constraints such as corruption, and high levels of impunity. The Caribbean and thus CANOC Member countries remain among the top list of countries "saturated" with gun-related crimes according to global statistics based on per every 100,000 people.
A holistic solution-oriented approach is best and sports can contribute. I emphasize, contribute and harbour no illusion that sport is a cure-all. Gun violence and its attendant devastating consequences call for an all-hands-on-board approach.
CANOC, PANAM Sports and CentroCaribe Sport can play an important role in Latin America, Central America and the Caribbean in addressing the root cause, not just the symptoms of gun violence and youth crime.
Editor's Note: The views expressed are not necessarily those of any organization that the writer may be associated with.
