Peaceful for Who?

Peaceful for Who?



It takes me awhile to get to this next blog as the senseless death of Oscar Bartholomew settles in my head along with the many perceptions, attitudes, opinions that gather in the streets like carnival out of sorts with its own costumes and masks.

Grenada made headline news internationally, nationally and regionally the last week of 2011 after a Grenadian, Toronto resident, Oscar Bartholomew was beaten to death while in custody at the St. David’s, Grenada police station. Five police officers were charged with manslaughter. This unfortunate and violent incident has led to a community and national outcry for justice. I watch my own opinions, reactions, and questions rest heavily in my head and then I open my heart to what is being said in the streets, on the block, on buses and in community. I take note and watch how this highly charged incident spins into many different directions.

The night after Oscar’s death one of Grenada’s Ministers told the people of Grenada not to get carried away as this, he said, “is an isolated incident”. The Prime Minister then appeared on the screen asking the people of St. David’s to stay calm and not to blow the unfortunate incident out of proportion!” I couldn’t help think “blow what out of proportion”! Finally I thought people are going to the streets and raising their fists in solidarity and saying ‘No’ to police brutality and ‘Yes’ to collective activism. As heard by many Grenadians on a community level, “Police brutality is not an isolated ting!” I begin to open my ears and hear what people have to say, “Police getting away with this sort of thing for years!” “Didn’t they beat A. the other day for having a splif in the house”; “Didn’t they beat F. in the middle of the day in front of everybody because they find a crack pipe on him and we say nothing because we too afraid of being charged and beat too!”; “Didn’t they shoot and kill a crazy man just the other day”; “Didn’t they….”; “Didn’t they…”

One of the young men in the village says to me “You know this man is like a sacrifice for peace and justice. If this man did not have Canadian citizenship, if this man was a man like me, who never leave the island, who making his living off the back of a garbage truck, you feel this would have happened? You feel they would have been charged? Its only because the outside world is watching that these men are being brought to justice!”

The next night another Minister is on the news to tell Grenadian people that Grenada is still one of the most peaceful places in the region, in the world and I can’t help think…. for who? I do agree with him that Grenada is a safe country for tourists and in particular those who have fair skin or those who speak the Queen’s English or those in high economic standing; safe for those of us from European descent who decide to make Grenada our home. Therefor it is a shame that this incident may affect the tourist industry due to media not presenting the whole story. However is Grenada safe for her own people? Is Grenada safe for those who make unhealthy choices due to hard economic times, or a life of strife with physical and emotional abuse; Is Grenada safe for young women who fall prey to older men? Is Grenada safe for kids in school who may have learning disabilities or emotional disabilities but are mistaken for bad behaviour? Is Grenada safe for young boys who have absentee fathers and cry out through violence for some sort of attention? Is Grenada safe for young girls being sexually assaulted by their daddies, their uncles, their cousins?

I could be speaking about any country when it comes to peace and safety and what this means in the context of some and not others. For example I have grown up my whole life being told Canada is one of the most peaceful countries in the world. However now i ask, peaceful for whom? Is Canada peaceful for First Nation people who have spent lifetimes fighting a system that discriminates and excludes, a system that denies and buries a brutal violent past that denied and denies First Nation people their human rights; is Canada peaceful for those who decide to speak out against globalization at G8 summits; is Canada peaceful for inner city or rural youths who are discriminated against because of the colour of their skin, their sexual orientation or the state of their economics? Is Canada peaceful for girls, women coming from different cultures, economics, countries who are abused daily behind closed doors?

When five policemen beat to death one of their own, what state of peace do these men hold within themselves? Where does peace begin? When will we begin to understand peace on an individual, family, community, and then national, global, level? How can we reclaim the word peace from its broad and generalized definitions? Just because Canada and Grenada are not war torn countries are we able to say with confidence that Canada and Grenada are peaceful countries and for who?

Thank you Oscar Bartholomew for enabling me to write this blog, enabling many of us to think more critically on what peace means and for whom it means. Thank you Oscar Bartholomew for sacrificing your life so that other Grenadians may not have to suffer what you suffered. Thank you Oscar Bartholomew for creating a more critical breeding ground for these questions to rise, simmer and hopefully be resolved. Thank you for giving birth to a new sense of power, ‘power with’, as people marched in the streets in unity and spoke against your death and finally thank you Oscar Bartholomew for being that spokesperson even without a voice!