Africa-Press – Mauritius. Even as news outside the country, especially in certain places, for instance in Israel and Gaza, is nothing but depressing, we also have our fair share of the bad news.
Yesterday brought us news about the several cases of bomb scare registered in several schools, both public and private. The authorities will surely do what is required to determine whether that is the doing of pranksters or whether it should become a matter of concern for the country.
What is a matter of continuing concern however is the occurrence of crimes – some petty, others serious – that are reported regularly. Every week is bringing its lot of unacceptable social behaviour unheard of a few decades back.
The cases of spouses, concubines or girlfriends stabbed or seriously injured by those usually close to them have become more frequent. Theft is also becoming more frequent.
In certain cases, not only is there larceny, but the victim of theft gets attacked, is often badly hurt, or even killed in the process. Even taxi drivers and bus conductors are aware of the new level of risks attendant to their occupations.
Cases of theft by motorbike riders, such as snatching of chains worn by women, which were heard of quite frequently a few years back, appear to have diminished, presumably due to greater police and community vigilance in certain areas.
Incidents of misbehaviour by schoolchildren towards each other or in some cases towards teachers also appear to be on the decline, but they do happen from time to time.
However, besides drugs related offences, there are more crimes being committed under the influence of synthetic drugs not only in the urban areas but also in our villages – something unheard of in the past.
Only this week, another piece of bad news relates to the availability of a new drug, apparently more potent that heroin and which would have caused several cases of overdose. This has become a matter of serious concern for NGOs engaged in the fight against drug abuse.
Multiple crimes may be linked to specific offenders, but it appears we have as yet not undertaken a thorough study of the profiles of those who commit the different types of crimes that are taking place in recent years.
One assumption is that many of the offenders come from families which have lost a sense of cohesion. But that is not always the case, and a proper study will inform us about the extent of the problem and how to address it.
We have four public universities and yet the authorities seem loathe to call any of them to conduct a thorough sociological investigation that may lay the basis for informed policy actions or for fine-tuning the actions of meritorious NGOs.
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