|
 |
Volume No. 1 Issue No. 74 - Monday December 12, 2005 |
AN UNTIMELY AND UNFORTUNATE DEATH OF A YOUNG MAN
 by Dr Emanuel Finn
In the fall of 1999, Mr. Gibbs Burney, a Prison officer at Stock Farm committed suicide in a Roseau High Court bathroom by drinking poison just before his arraignment.
This young man who was born and raised in the foothills of the La Plaine Mountains less than a quarter of a mile from the dirt track that sharply dips down into a valley to the Sari-Sari Falls, was a proud civil servant.
His ultimate fate was decided as a result of poor judgment and probably due to a lack of emotional support on his job and in his personal life.
I caught up with Gibbs in June of 1999 while vacationing at home during a Saturday night dance at the Dominica Club in Roseau. I hadn�t seen him for more than a decade.
I recognized him instantly because of his excited manner of talking, boisterous laughter and dancing styles that has not changed since those Sunday afternoon matinee dances in La Plaine more than twenty years ago.
We were very happy to see each other again and we quickly started a nostalgic conversation of events and personalities which revolved around La Plaine.
Some of these very simple as playing cricket in the middle of the road with bats made from coconut tree leaves and using limes and/or small oranges as balls.
Or spending a lazy August day at the mouth of the Sari-Sari river (�La Chille�) roasting breadfruits while swimming all afternoon.
In between a few drinks our conversation got more serious. He revealed that he was facing some legal troubles which were causing a great deal of stress and discomfort to him.
He was very measured and deliberately evasive about the nature and dept of the charges. He said that he had retained an attorney and was confident that he would be exonerated.
Respecting his desire to talk about other things and not wanting to invade his privacy and disturb his dignity, I did more listening than talking.
I asked him about his mother (who we regarded as an aunt) who had migrated to Oxford, England in 1969.
He said that she was well and that he was aware that I had spent a week with her, her husband (his step dad) and his brothers and sisters who were born in Oxford in the summer of 1995.
My visit to Oxford was also to chronicle the lives of La Plaine folks who had migrated to Oxford beginning in the mid- 50s and ending in the late 60s to work as labourers in autombile factories of British automakers.
These factories attracted many unskilled assembly line workers from the former British colonies in the West Indies.
We also talked about his father who lives on the island of Montserrat who left La Plaine to join that island�s police force in 1971 with one of my cousins �Babe� Allan.
After chatting for about an hour, he resumed his dancing and I continued talking to other folks.
The suicide death of Gibbs Bruney and other recent suicides in Dominica pose many troubling questions and issues about how to achieve ethical life and deal with life unpleasant experiences.
Government and health care professionals, the clergy and well meaning and informed Dominicans must attempt to address this disturbing trend on the island.
Suicide is a significant cause of deaths in many countries, in some cases exceeding deaths by motor vehicle accidents.
Many countries spent vast amounts of money on safer roads but very little on suicide prevention, awareness and mental treatment.
In a society such as ours where such stigma and ignorance regarding mental illness and depression, a person who feels suicidal may fear that people will think that they are crazy� if they tell them how they feel.
Consequently, they will almost certain be reluctant to reach out for help during a crisis.
Describing or making someone feel that that they are crazy has strong negative connotations.
It cannot be helpful and is more likely to dissuade one from seeking help which maybe very beneficial whether they may have a diagnosed mental illness or not.
The recent suicides by ordinary� Dominicans during the part few years should be a cause of concern for mental health professionals, police, community and courts.
In fact, it has become a public health issue which can become a crisis before too long.
Law enforcement methods alone are usually inadequate and ineffective and do not result in a high degree of satisfactory and favorable outcomes.
It must also be mentioned that it is very difficult or impossible to stop a person from committing suicide if that�s what they want to do.
An individual may have the right do as they wish with their life, including ending it if they so desire.
However, every person exists as part of a larger network of relationships which set the content and context in which an individual�s rights and responsibilities exists.
In spite of that reality, we must try to discourage suicide whenever and wherever possible.
In a civilized society, the life of anyone individual is just as important as the life of anyone else regardless of socioeconomic standing and place in society.
People who feel lonely, isolated, shamed, distressed, depressed and hopeless can find it extremely diiffcult to recognize supportive relationships which may exist around them.
This often causes them to grossly underestimate both the degree of support that could be gained from those around them and the impact and devastation that their suicide would have on family, friends, colleagues and community should they decide to go through with it.
Gibbs tragic death reminds me of my favorite and most popular works of William Shakespeare, �The Tragedy of Hamlet, and Prince of Denmark�.
Today, in an age often impatient with the past, this powerful mystery speaks volumes to the real human condition of suicide that is witnessed in Dominica.
In Act 3, Scene 1, Enter Hamlet�. �To be or not to be- that is the question: Whether tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take up arms against a sea of troubles and, by opposing, end them�To die, to sleep, no more- and by sleep-to say we end the heartache and a thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to-tis a consummation.
The pangs of despised love, the law�s delay. The insolence of office and the spurns that patient merit of th� unworthy takes, when he himself might quietus make bare with bare bodkin (a dagger) �.
Hamlet�s work is bleak and cold because no one can be trusted. But his world and hamlet himself continue to draw us to his own yearnings.
This play seem particularly pertinent today just is it seemed particularly pertinent to any number of generations before us.
Hamlet questions why men are so coward, suffering such indignities and misfortunes when it is much easier to end it by taking their own lives.
I respectfully disagree with Mr. Shakespeare the famous English playwright, on this issue.
In my opinion, the correct answers lies in the hearts, souls and minds minds of great leaders such as former President of South Africa, the Great One, Mr. Nelson Mandela.
President Mandela was a tribal prince, lawyer and proud leader of his people when he was captured, humiliated, and hauled off to jail for 27 years by the illegal and ruthless apartheid regime in his homeland.
After he was released, he became the first black president of this powerful country and possibly averted a bloody and costly civil war.
In Dominica, there is the case of Mr. Patrick John the former Prime Minister who paid dearly for his mistakes including spending time in jail.
Today Mr. John has reemerged as a leader in sports helping to mold young minds and contributing to the betterment of civil society.
Mr. Mandela�s and Mr. John�s strengths, fortitude and patient must be recognized and applauded. The serious lessons of life and humanity that were learned as a result of these life-changing experiences should never be overlooked.
On the day Gibbs was buried in November 1999, I said a prayer for him. I was deeply saddened when my sister called and said that she was on her way to his funeral as the church bells of that small Catholic Church in La Plaine rang a few times announcing the funeral.
That church where Gibbs and I sat in First Communion and Confirmation catechism classes and were taught the virtues of good and bad, patience and courage.
I am sure Gibbs will find forgiveness, redemption and peace in another world and place far beyond and the man made halls of justice by a supreme and most high authority. I respect and have lived with Gibbs� decision, but wished I was there to help him make a more �rational� one to remain alive.
�I would still embrace you and remain your friend. I would never forsake you because I knew and remember how good you are all too well in a simpler place and time back in La Plaine. Goodbye my friend and may your soul continue to Rest In Peace�.
|
|
|
