In a public forum on Wednesday November 25th, The Belize Organization for Women and Development, acronym BOWAND, released a study based on domestic violence in Belize. The ten-week study was conducted by a Dr. Joseph Iyo of the U.C.B., who comes to us by way of Nigeria. Areas polled for the study, included north and southside Belize City, Ladyville, Maskall, Bermudian Landing, Crooked Tree and Gales Point. Of the total 184 people who took part in the survey, 80 admitted to having been personally involved in domestic violence. That of course is a whopping 44% and if that reflects the true picture throughout our society, then it is indeed alarming. To the surprise of absolutely no one of course, the study identified men as being the chief perpetrators and women as being the victims, hence my opening hypothesis.

According to not only this good doctor, but according to just about everyone else also who has ever surveyed this problem of domestic abuse, before the initial act of abuse, there is usually a factor known as the trigger effect which may itself be worth more study. This is to say that while there might indeed be a few crazy men who will beat up on their women for no particular reason, when we consider how widespread this dilemma is, it is hard to imagine that there are that many crazy men out there; or at least we would hope that there weren’t. The fact is that while women continue to form their little groups and conduct their surveys to point fingers at men, they themselves are not as faultless as they would have us believe. Many times, the altercation could be avoided altogether if the woman was just a little more discreet.

Now don’t get me wrong, I am not trying to justify the hitting of any woman by any man, for I believe that there is no justifiable reason for abuse. I believe that a man should never have to raise his hand to any woman and we must do all we can to instill this principle into the minds of our children. We must counsel and yes, even punish those men who take advantage of what this study calls, the historically unequal relations between men and women.

Women, however, must also shoulder some of the blame and will also have to do their share if we are to put an end to this quandary that is tearing apart our society. The fact is that we can counsel men all we want to and we might even lock up the entire 44% of the male population who are reportedly abusing their women, but until we examine and address this issue from both sides, we will be only wasting our time.

Interestingly enough, while the study practically exonerated women from all blame, a leading women?s rights activist still rose to voice her objections over the fact that it was a man who had conducted the survey. Her contention was that since it was a woman?s thing, that maybe the survey should have been conducted by a woman. It was pointed out by the doctor, that while he was in fact in charge, the actual data for the survey was collected by women. It just goes to show how really paranoid some women have become.

Domestic abuse is not a man thing or a woman thing; it is a societal thing and affects us all, especially our children. For their sake, it is imperative that we find a solution to this problem. As the survey itself concluded in a little well hidden paragraph, only when one comes to terms with the fact that domestic violence is the responsibility of both men and women, shall we be able to stop this horrible nightmare.