Antigua and Barbuda in Hostage-Mourning Over the Gruesome Murder of 10 year Old Girl
Taking Sides
TakingSides feels the shock, horror and viciousness that this unprecedented crime has brought upon the nation. To the parents and other family members, our prayers and love are with you in this most unspeakable moment of sadness, deep hurt and indescribable pain.
We shall always remember her as a symbol of the what happens when the nation's leadership fails miserably to protect the young amongst us.
In broad day light this young lady was on her way to school when her life, in mobster-like-brutality, was suddenly taken away from her in the City of St. Johns. This is a cowardly, wicked, brutal, horrific and barbaric crime, with all of the callousness, inhumanity and heartlessness that the evils of Sodom and Gomorrah represented in Bible times.
Jemuel's death has caused our nation to weep and cry over the loss of our little sister.
Even more devastating is what her death means in terms of national security.
Following the rape of the Senate President some months ago, after PM Spencer had expressed concerns over the Trinidad and Tobago rising crime rate, the criminal elements under his watch, became nationally emboldened and stepped up their wanton disregard for law and order.
Because the Senate President violators were left to operate right under PM Spencer's nose, in his constituency; the criminal elements now feel that they can increase their horror and this time they went to the very core of evil. They slashed a 10year girl's throat without regard for the sacredness of her life.
PM Spencer is the person in charge of National Security. Now women and girls are the most vulnerable in Antigua and Barbuda under the UPP administration.
After more than two years in office this incompetent government have been renegotiating with the Police Force over and over again, over dollars, transportation, computers and better working conditions without a modicum of success.
Refusal to supply the Police with the equipments and resources needed to prevent and solve crime is irresponsible.
No investment is safe, and every person is in danger when a government rather than accepting full and maximum responsibility for its incompetence and inept leadership, still blames the former ALP government for their mishaps two and half years after they have been in power. How pathetic, unpatriotic and unreliable.
PM Spencer should remove himself from National Security.
Under PM Spencer, Antigua and Barbuda has seen an escalation in criminal activities with increased boldness and brutality.
No Senate President in the OECS has been raped except in Antigua and no child in the entire OECS has been innocently crucified at 10 except in Antigua.
PM Spencer was happy to remove the Hon. Harold Lovell for what he claimed was incompetence in mismanaging the Airport Project and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In the same spirit of disproportional disillusionment and colossal incompetence, PM Spencer needs to resign from mismanaging National Security.
How many people must perish, how many lives must be taken, how many families must suffer irredeemable loss, for the Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda to do his job or to allow someone else who is competent to move the nation from a state of national insecurity to national security.
Let not Jemuel's blood go to waste, let not her precious life be gone without immediate and swift justice, let not this nation be seen as a callous and cold country where its women and girls cannot be protected by the leaders it elected
The community should be raising our children. This national tragedy is not just a wake up call it is a call to action and reaction. The criminals must be brought to justice and the government of Baldwin Spencer must pay the price for its inability to secure the lives of its young female citizens.
Blaming the ALP is no substitute for the UPP's failure. When is this government going to get down to the business of running the country?
Our children need protection, our women need protection, our community need protection, and the nation needs to protect itself against the ineptitude of an outlawed society. What should be the government's role in all of this?
Whosoever committed this crime must be completely eliminated and the government that did not prevent it and the PM whose ministry failed the country must be booted from office.
Jemuel's coffin should not be put to rest, until and unless this nation resolves never to let the UPP get away with such irresponsibility and disregard for the security of the nation.
Antigua and Barbuda is being held captive under a wave of home grown terrorism driven by emboldened criminals. If nothing is done, as nothing was done when the Senate President got raped, these criminals will strike again and this time it might be your wife, your daughter, your neighbor, a minister of government, a minister of religion, a nurse, a fire man, a teacher, a doctor, a civil servant, an old lady, a retired man, a bus driver..........
Our prayers and sympathies go out to Jemuel's family and everyone in our beloved state whose cries the Lord shall hear and whose prayers for political relief and justice will not go unnoticed!
TakingSides
George Daniel
We all mourn the senseless loss of a young bright human life.
Why this scavenging for a piece of political flesh?
------- End of Original Message -------
Joy-Ann Harrigan
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2006 06:25:31 -0400
From: taking...@gmail.com
To: takin...@googlegroups.com
P. Sylvester
The family is being held in our prayers.
Pauline Williams-Sylvester (an Antiguan living in Belize, Central America)
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Carol Scholar
efficiently governed or not crime still exists and gruesome things happen. I
think turning such a tragedy into a political circus is just ludicrous. May
God rest her soul and have mercy on her family. As to this write up... this
is just plain ole sad.
C. A. Scholar
>From: "Taking Sides" <taking...@gmail.com>
>Reply-To: Takin...@googlegroups.com
>To: takin...@googlegroups.com
>Subject: Antigua and Barbuda in Hostage-Mourning Over the Gruesome Murder
>of 10 year Old Girl
>Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2006 06:25:31 -0400
>
>*TakingSides*
>
>
>
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Gatesworth M James
K&N Archibald
one who wrote such political statements sounds and maybe contemplated as a
social pervert or murderer too...for lest we forget
1) the pregnant mother that was brutally locked up in her house with her
children and burned to death.
2) the jabborwock incident during the christmas season
3) the beheading of king Obstinate's sister
4)tim hectors wife's murder
5)the pointless murder the customs officer "dollyhouse" Samuel
3)the murder of 3 young ladies in the jennings/bolans area
4)the torture and murder of young lady touissant
Just to name a few..but still under a another administration.
So please ladies and gentlemen and the political individuals who grieve
power and its evil, please, government comes and government falls under the
hands of the almighty.
We are the ones that make the society what it is.
We are the ones that let the group of adolescents beat and rob the passerbys
and yet we lift no hands to stop them, but only say it has nothing to do
with me only that the day will come when they the adolescents turn to rob
and beat us.
It is a shame and disappointment that an innocent life had to be taken for
us to open our eyes again BUT how long are they gonna stay open? And its a
shame that "TakingSides" used this innocent's death as a political ploy and
not stand together as a society to stamp out the evils that plagued us long
before a different administration.
Knowing that elements of taking sides should be men that know their bibles
and should be christians and much more of a certain religion that is of
"GODS REMNANT CHURCH". its a great shame in antigua to hear and see this
coming from men that should know better.
Try to have a good day, for as the remainder of the nation and the family of
Jemuel, i too have had a devasting, sad and disappointing day/week.
May the almighty cast his rains upon us, lest we know and forget.
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Milton Benjamin
It seems to me that not even the tragedy of the apparent murder of a 10-year old child and the apparent trauma that the victim’s parents and relatives, as well as the community in general itself are undergoing, can make Taking Sides desist from or suspend from your callous politicking. It seems to me that if you want to be taken more seriously than an anti-UPP Administration/Baldwin Spencer rave you must do better than you are at the present time, otherwise you are merely a vehicle for titillation.
From: Takin...@googlegroups.com [mailto:Takin...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Joy-Ann Harrigan
Sent: Thursday, June 29, 2006 6:38
AM
To: Takin...@googlegroups.com
Isaac Newton
Dear Dr. Daniel (Former Chairman of the UPP),
I received an email earlier today earmarked, “Very Urgent.” Upon opening it, I found the following comment from a friend whose wisdom I deeply respect.
He wrote, “Doc, I see your friend, Dr. Daniel is lighting up the blog with sophisticated political weaponry.”
Without reading your comment, I replied, “I have known Dr. Daniel for many years, and admire him extraordinarily, for his critical intellectual and profound Christian devotion to a faith that we both share. I believe his comment is sincere.”
I later read your note with many others and felt the provocative texture of your telling perspective.
I agree with you that as a nation we ought to MOURN. I prefer Faith-mourning to Hostage-mourning. Faith mourning constitutes at least two elements. a). A daunting hope, with a resolve to do better as a people, and expect more from our leaders and, b) An openness to accept the naked truth even if it is self condemnatory.
At the deepest level, collective faith-mourning brings closure to this senseless crime and simultaneously demands disclosure of the possibility, that we might be guilty of dereliction of our duties. The confession, “I have sinned,” is as much an expression of genuine faith, as the command to “love your enemies.”
The first confronts the self, the second, acknowledges the other. Faith-mourning is never blinded by the politics of defense or muted to the politics of figure pointing. It stays awake to the source of the problem, and remains alert to the resource of the solution.
Beyond the necessary desire to Mourn, we must also MOUNT-a national campaign against this rising culture of hideous criminal thinking and behavior. If we are going to mount such a campaign, we cannot preclude the government from fulfilling one of its basic functions, the obligation to protect its citizens.
Although the rise in criminal activity is not exclusively government based, since human nature makes it impossible to prevent crime, we cannot erase the government’s role and function in guaranteeing its citizens, some measure of protection and safekeeping.
There is no moral equivalent, if we expect the government to punish the perpetrators after a horrific crime has occurred, (like sister Jemuel’s death) but obviate the government from establishing effective crime reducing strategies, and making adequate investments in the nation’s security structures, before a crime is committed. We should expect governmental accountability and responsibility on both sides of the equation.
Crime is a longstanding social ill but great care should be exercised in organizing the state security structures to combat it, and consequently, protect the core of all human life.
In my working and traveling episodes around the world, I have seen the results of failed states in Latin America and Africa, even in the Caribbean, because some fractions of the leadership missed the point that good politics inevitably and legitimately pervades all aspects of life: healthcare, education, and drug trafficking, environmental abuses, human and national security.
The security of individuals is no more or less important than the security of states. Both are intertwined.
Simply put, without strengthening the power and resources of the state, the government will not be able to protect its citizens from violence, and if allowed, a complete breakdown of law and order dramatically results in a failed state situation.
In fact, the new challenges to international and national security suggest that old crime fighting rules will not solve new threats.
To me, the issue is not evaporating politics from a brutal crime scene, but evoking healthy political and societal operations to account properly for our collective decisions and/or indecisions.
The notion of de-politicizing societal issues that deeply affect how we operate in the public square is evidently way off course. The state must exercise its intervening authority to combat diseases, poverty, gender inequity, bad drinking water, energy crisis and a rise in criminality.
Politics matters in every facet of our collective living. If not, bad politics will replace good politics under our noses. As a progressive nation, we cannot afford to let this happen.
There is a distinct difference between exploiting a non-political issue and re-focusing a very sensitive political matter!
Will Jemuel’s death prompt us to nurture habits and practices of working together to prevent the reoccurrence of this horrific crime? If we succeed in this regard, our collective efforts should be considered, good politics.
In prayerful Reflection,
Dr. Newton
Corena James
That's the best thiong that we all can do.
Let' keep on praying.
>From: "P. Sylvester" <pw...@hotmail.com>
>Reply-To: Takin...@googlegroups.com
>To: Takin...@googlegroups.com
>Subject: RE: Antigua and Barbuda in Hostage-Mourning Over the Gruesome
>Murder of 10 year Old Girl