The story was told in this column in April of this year of a 40-something bejewelled well-dressed woman driving a new luxury SUV, who pulled into a clearly marked handicapped-reserved parking space at a popular grocery store in western New Providence. She perfumed the air with her sense of entitlement. After a few well-practised stilettoed steps into the entrance of the store she was intercepted by a male store employee who politely informed her that she could not park in the reserved space.

Seemingly afraid to challenge her, he told her that another female customer had complained. The driver of the SUV flew into a rage. She loudly demanded how anyone dare complain about where she parked. She threatened to tell the other woman about, euphemistically, her derriere. Given the level of outrage, it seemed that the parking spot was reserved exclusively for the SUV driver.

Several days ago this same lady pulled into an adjacent handicapped-reserved parking space at the very same store. As she alighted from her vehicle an attitude cum tune was in the air: “I’m more important than you, and this SUV tells me it’s true. When I drive along the avenue, I deserve more privilege than you.”

Not only had this lady not learned her lesson from a few months ago. She was broadcasting an object lesson about the country: Rules and laws are being abandoned at will because many of them are rarely enforced. Her actions and those of the other self-absorbed individuals who park in handicapped-reserved spaces are on the less egregious end of the continuum of incivility. Still, they speak to social decline and social chaos, as many do whatever they please in public, making our life in common more intolerable and less civilized. This same lady would likely chastise someone for throwing garbage on the street but cannot see how her own infraction of the law may burden a handicapped individual.

Civility

Not only have many of us lost the interior disposition to act civilly and to abide by positive social mores. Even worse, poor behavior is allowed and tolerated in public spaces.

A friend remarked about sitting next to a group of young people at a popular eating spot who were loudly using every curse word possible. They had no sense that their behavior was inappropriate, especially as such behavior is now often tolerated. The lady who parked in the handicapped-reserved parking space does so because there is rarely a penalty for her inconsiderate and obnoxious behavior. Slap a thousand dollar fine on her and one may bet that she will never park in a handicapped-reserved space again. She parks wherever she wants because she usually gets away with such behavior.

After he lost office, Sir Lynden Pindling expressed as one of his greatest regrets and failures that he did not introduce some form of national service to help in the development of young Bahamians, especially young men. A few years before his, Sir Lynden bemoaned that we were “raising a nation of brutes”.

The brutish behavior became virulent with the onset of the drug-plagued era of the late 1970s and the 1980s. Asked back then what they aspired to become, many young people replied, with no hesitance or sense of shame, “a drug dealer”. Dealers and their high-priced lawyers were celebrated and openly courted.

What makes a country civil and humane is the internalization and expression of certain core values, such as the rule of law. Contempt for the rule of law is now widespread, including by much of the political class who rightly bemoan street crime but who indulge in all manner of corrupt practices and wilfully ignore certain standards of parliamentary democracy.

A gentleman who runs a popular daiquiri stand in western New Providence was recently stunned when a group of young men pulled up to his stand in daylight, snatched his generator and sped off. The stand was packed with tourists who quickly left after the incident. What impression will they carry back home of The Bahamas? Most likely, that there is a sense of lawlessness on New Providence.

Crime advisories released last week by Canada and the United Kingdom highlight growing incidents of crime against tourists, including sexual assaults by a number of operators of jet skis.

Pervasive

Many young men have become animalistic in their attitude and behavior toward each other as well as toward the society in general and visitors to our shores. There is a pervasive crudeness and crass behavior with which residents of New Providence must daily contend, whether when driving or seeking service in a store. Our life in common has become meaner and harsher.

Brutism has exploded with fury. The early morning killing of a man at a breakfast stand some weeks ago by an assailant who did not even feel that he needed to wear a mask typifies the contempt for the rule of law and the general sense of disorder. It is not only the so-called thugs who often act in a brutish manner. Many at the highest level of society act with contempt and disregard for rules and traditions.

The incident of an air traffic controller, who left his post, forcing an airplane to divert from Freeport to New Providence, is yet another example of the sort of brutish behavior that not too long ago would have been unimagined. The worst assault on the traditions and conventions of parliamentary government since independence have occurred during Prime Minister Perry Christie’s current term in office. With over 40 years in public life and as dean of the House of Assembly, Christie has presided over an unrelenting assault on various conventions.

The deputy prime minister misled the House, with no repercussion. Minister V. Alfred Gray interfered in the course of justice, with no repercussion. Ministers, including most recently Tourism Minister Obie Wilchcombe, blatantly ignore the doctrine of collective responsibility, again, with no repercussion. These are but a few of the more blatant examples.

Just as with crime, enforcing certain rules and traditions are necessary in order to maintain a civilized and decent country. The assault on various standards of parliamentary government and standards of good governance, such as the tendering process, mirror the social chaos and general decline of the country.

We are a nation out of control. Likewise, Christie’s government careens and blunders from one disaster to the next, with ministers doing whatever they please while a helpless prime minister looks on drained of energy and enterprise and unwilling or unable to bring order and enforce discipline. From parking anywhere we please, to all manner of crime, to abusing our parliamentary system, we have become even more brutish, more lawless and less civilized. And things are likely going to get much worse.

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