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Professor
Outlines Cost of Violence in Jamaica - 4% of GDP
KINGSTON (JIS) January 28, 2008: The high level of
violence in Jamaica consumes an estimated four per cent of
Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which has resulted in much
loss to the country.
This is included in data produced by the University of the
West Indies, Mona, Professor Barry Chevannes, Chairman of
the Steering Committee for the Violence Prevention Alliance
(VPA), has said.
"That is a lot of money. That is, billions of dollars
[diverted to] security guards, in extra lighting, in the
loss of personnel and we are not even calculating the loss
of those who are bereaved and all of that," he said at the
weekly JIS Think Tank, held at the agency's headquarters on
Half-Way Tree Road on January 23.
Elaborating, he said that if the nation could liberate the
amount of money channeled into stemming the problem of
violence, it could be freed up to further improve other
sectors, such as education and health.
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Professor Chevannes also pointed to the fact that while the
number of deaths attributed to violent acts were of
importance, the high incidence of trauma and injury
associated with violent acts were equally significant in
terms of impacting on the GDP.
"Forty per cent of the hospital recurring budgets are
consumed with injuries. Most of the injuries come not from
motor vehicle accidents but from violent conflicts, so every
section of society stands to gain from peace," he argued.
"There is no life in gun culture and no society can be
indefinitely at war. It must end some time, as it is an
aberration which is abnormal. It is peace that is normal,
and so there has to be an effort to bring about normalcy
once more, that people can go about their lives freely and
without fear," Professor Chevannes stressed.
To this end, Peace Month, which is being organized by the
Violence Prevention Alliance, will be observed from February
6, Bob Marley's Birthday to March 4, when an official peace
march will be held on the streets of Kingston calling on the
nation to adopt the principles of peace and not violence.
