At the end of last week, two more women lay dead. Their lives brutally ended by the men they had shared intimate relationships with. Their deaths adding to the growing list of fatalities that started with physical spousal/partner abuse. It should have been obvious to all a long time ago that life has little value these days.  Perhaps because they can, people seem to be able to callously dispose of others practically on a whim or at the drop of a hat. Apart from the increase in the number of women being killed recently, murders have been more frequent over the past few years.

Many murderers walk free among us, as a significant number of cases remain unsolved either because there is no evidence or too little to base a charge on or because witnesses do not have the assurance of security and choose not to come forward. But even in cases where there is overwhelming evidence, the handling of it is so bungled, the legal system so complicated and bureaucratic, the process so lengthy that chances are the guilty persons could still walk free.

And it is likely this – the chance that one could kill and get away with it or plead guilty to manslaughter and claim provocation – that is moving to what appears to be the institutionalization of murder as a way of getting even. Five years or eight years in prison or walking free on a technicality after taking someone’s life probably does not seem like a bad deal to someone contemplating murder.

What are the chances that Eunice Charlie, Gertrude Edwards, Patricia Rose, Pamela Mangru, Savitri Arjune, Deborah Allen and Latoya Conway Woolford would have been alive today if the men who murdered them knew for sure that they would pay the ultimate price? Unfortunately, these seven women were not the only women killed so far this year; just the ones who were murdered allegedly by their husbands/partners or former husbands/partners. The murders of Nekecia Rouse and Alexia George on February 15 remain unsolved, while a labourer has been charged with the May 2, murder of Naiomi Singh.

Of the ten women listed above, four had their throats slashed, four were stabbed, one was chopped and one was battered. The youngest woman was 18 years old and the oldest was 55. With the exception of perhaps one, they were all mothers, which means that there is also a growing list of traumatized motherless children, some of whom have also been physically harmed in the encounters that took the lives of their mothers. Does one need to mention the burden this will place on the grieving surviving relatives and the country’s already overburdened social and welfare services?

Meanwhile, the question that must be asked is, is anyone paying attention to the pattern that seems to be developing? Will any steps be taken to curb this trend? Or will we continue to wave around our legislation and policies and white papers and smugly trot out statistics about how many seminars and education and awareness programmes we have conducted? How many more women must die before we all wake up and see that our approach is just not working and that something different and drastic needs to be done?