NASSAU, Bahamas, CMC – Prime Minister Phillip Davis is warning of a “crisis among males” in the country, saying he wants a Bahamas where “our sons walk beside our daughters as equals in education, in work and in leadership”.
Addressing the installation “Banquet of Pride of Grand Bahamas Lodge No 7” on Sunday night, Davis said the current situation has been “heavy on my heart”. He wanted to speak “plainly” to the audience.
He said as a fellow Bahamian man, a father and grandfather, and as someone who has seen what is happening to boys and young men up close, “there is a crisis among males in this country.
“I feel it in my spirit long before I read it in any report. I see it in the funerals I attend, where the casket is small, and the tears are loud, and a mother keeps saying, “He was just starting to change, Prime Minister. He was starting to turn his life around.”
“I see it when I visit the prison, and a young man, barely in his twenties, says to me, “Mr Davis, I never thought my life would come to this.” And when I look at him, I do not see a stranger. I see a boy who was once in a school uniform, who once had a laugh, who once had dreams,” Prime Minister Davis said.
He said that after the funerals and the private conversations, he sits with the statistics, and “they confirm what I already know in my heart”.
Prime Minister Davis said fewer than half of high school students leave school with a diploma; only about 46 per cent meet the minimum requirements, and the rest leave school without the qualifications that open doors.
“Our boys are heavily represented in that half that slips away. Girls are racing ahead in the classroom. They receive most of the top grades in the BGCSEs. At the University of The Bahamas, women fill about three-quarters of the seats.
“Our daughters are showing tremendous drive and discipline, and I am proud of them. At the same time, I cannot ignore what this means for our sons, who are drifting away from the very institutions that should be preparing them for adulthood.”
He said a look at the violence in the country shows that in recent years, almost every name on the murder list has belonged to a man, most of them between 18 and 35.
“It is as if we have a silent war taking place against our young men, and many of them are both the victims and the perpetrators. Behind prison walls, the picture is the same. Over 90 per cent of the inmates are male. Many are still in their youth. Many have not yet been convicted, but they are already cut off from family, from opportunity, from the ordinary rhythm of life.”
He said within the labour force, men struggle more to find steady work, and among young males, close to one in five is unemployed.
“That is a large number of young men waking up with no job to go to, no pay cheque coming, no clear path ahead,” he said, noting that the situation within the health sector is alarming.
“A baby boy born in The Bahamas today can expect to live several years less than a baby girl. A young Bahamian man is far more likely to die before he reaches 60 than a young Bahamian woman.
“And then there is the area that is often whispered about, but seldom addressed head-on. Suicide. Most of those deaths are males. Our men are leaving this world by their own hand far more often than our women. That tells me that many men are carrying pain, shame, and confusion in silence,” Prime Minister Davis said, adding, “This is what I mean when I speak of a male crisis.
“These are our sons, our grandsons, our nephews, our godsons. These are the boys who once ran up and down in the yard, who once fell asleep on someone’s shoulder after a long day at school or church. Somewhere along the way, they lost their footing, and too often, we were not there to catch them.”
He said he grew up in a country that offered him little in material terms, but that he had something that made a difference.
“I had men who believed in me, corrected me, and expected me to carry myself with respect. They did not always use fine words. Sometimes it was a look, sometimes a firm voice, sometimes a simple, “Boy, you can do better than this.”
“Those men gave me something that I still carry. They convinced me that my life had value, that my mind could be stretched, that my future could be different from my present.”
Prime Minister Davis acknowledged that the country has to be honest and that “homes have changed.
“Our communities have changed. Violence and drugs have filled spaces where mothers, fathers, and elders used to stand. Social media tells our boys to chase quick money and short-term recognition, instead of steady work and a good name. They are told that to be a man is never to show fear, never show sadness, never ask for help. Then we act surprised when they explode in anger, or collapse in silence.”
He said that while he is not standing in judgment, he also has a responsibility.
“I am their Prime Minister, yes. I am also a man who knows what it is to face hardship, to feel overlooked, to have to fight for every inch of progress. I look at these young men, and I see pieces of my own story, twisted by different times and harsher pressures.
“So when I speak about this issue, I am not speaking as a distant official reading out a list of figures. I am speaking as someone who has sat with the grieving, walked through the prison gates, and listened to the stories that never make the headlines.”
Prime Minister Davis said that as a government, his administration is trying to change the conditions that keep producing this crisis.
“We are making sure children have a proper breakfast in school, because no child can learn on an empty stomach. We are expanding technical and vocational paths so that boys whose gifts are practical and creative can find their way into trades and professions with dignity.
“We are investing in youth programmes that offer discipline, skills, and national service. We are working to improve mental health support, so that people have somewhere to turn before they reach breaking point,” he said, adding that while these steps matter, they are not enough on their own.
“The truth is this. No policy paper can love a boy. No budget line item can sit with a young man who is about to make the wrong choice and talk him out of it. That is the work of people, of families, of communities, of men who care,” he said, telling the audience, “this is where you come in.
“You are the Pride of Grand Bahama Lodge. You already understand brotherhood, accountability, and service. You know what it means to take a young man into your circle and help him grow.
“I want to ask you, from my heart, to look beyond these walls tonight and see the faces of the boys who need you. See the boy who is hanging around the corner every evening, because he does not want to go home to a house full of shouting.
“See the boy who has stopped coming to school regularly, because he has already decided that he is “a failure”, and no one has told him otherwise. See the boy who seems angry all the time, because anger is the only emotion he has ever been allowed to show. See the boy who is quiet and withdrawn, because he has already started to give up on himself.
“Then ask yourselves, as a lodge, what you can do together, in partnership with us in government, to reach them before the streets do, before the gangs do, before the prison does, before the grave does,” Prime Minister Davis added.
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