Do the Soufriere drownings, the numerous road fatalities, say something about personal responsibility?

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he January 4 drowning of Leonard Hippolyte of Baron’s Drive, Soufriere was, to say the least, tragic.  Although the authorities have been reluctant to release details, on the grounds that the case is under investigation, that has in no way stopped self-styled detectives on the ground and on Facebook from arriving at their own conclusions. More than just a few have suggested, without the smallest evidence, that in the hours leading up to his death, Hippolyte was seen consuming large quantities of alcohol. The rumours were enough to bring out the presumed solvers of all our social problems. Before long they were advocating that government make alcohol consumption illegal, as if they had never heard about personal responsibility.

The topic was broached at a press conference this week. This was how police commissioner Severin Monchery reacted to a reporter who asked if there was anything the police could do prevent road accidents: “Drivers need to be more responsible behind the wheel. Regardless of the number of officers on the road, our drivers need to be more responsible in terms of how they drive.”

But keeping in mind the lives saved could be their own, why aren’t our drivers more careful about driving under the influence, whether of drugs or booze? Why do so many drive as if they were participants in the Grand Prix? Why should the government have to enact new laws against plain stupidity? In any event, reckless driving is already illegal. As is driving while drunk. Why aren’t such laws enough to deter the inebriated from getting behind a steering wheel? Often driver and passengers were at the same party and equally handicapped. Still it cannot be true that every driver involved in a vehicular accident was drunk.

Commissioner Monchery’s words, though aimed specifically at drivers, apply equally to non-drivers. Almost as if it were a Saint Lucian characteristic, we tend to blame others for our bad decisions: the police, weak laws, the bottle, our slave history. Oh, and the government that refuses to enact “new” laws that have been on our statute books from colonial times.

Speaking of which: could there be some truth to the notion that our poor sense of responsibility is directly connected with our past, when a meal awaited the slave at the end of a day’s work on the plantation; when there was always some kind of shelter provided, regardless of how inadequate? The slaves may have had their countless problems, but monthly rent was not among them. The same may apply to our young madmen, whom we are told consider prison a reasonable price for killing someone who “disrespected them” with a wrong look. Is a slave mentality at the root of our social problems? Is government the new massa that we expect to fulfil all our needs, including the need to take responsibility for our actions?

Education minister Gale Rigobert, while attending last Wednesday’s Start-up Huddle event, stated: “We can’t leave everything to government. We need a very healthy and active civil society to help with the governance and the overall development of our beautiful island.” How many before her had stated the obvious? There can, of course, be no proper national governance, without proper self-governance. If we demand accountability of ourselves, and take responsibility for our own actions, perhaps we can attain a government truly representative of our professed high ideals. In the meantime, it is fair to say government is a reflection of the people it governs.

In a phone conversation with my publisher last week, the topic of Saint Lucia’s societal ills came up. I was in the middle of identifying some of them when, not atypically, he interrupted me. No doubt he’d heard the litany countless times before. He had a question: “Dean, do you know who’s responsible for all the problems you just mentioned?” Before I could hazard a guess, he said: “You are, Dean! Unless of course you can tell me what you’ve done about trying to solve them.” I seem to remember someone else saying, “If you are not part of the solution, then you are part of the problem.”