?

Jackass sey de worl' no level. Jackass sey a de secon' time im a ear some big man roun' ya a talk bout 'don' panic' and trus' Jackass, it no mek no difference!

So on Saturday, one newspaper reported, the police told the nation 'don't panic', as hysteria spreads around the wave of abductions and killings of women especially.

Yearly murder tally

Jackass could not help but remember the last 'don't panic' that the nation as a whole got from a former (note: former) minister of security. Then, sometime in the late 1990s, the yearly murder tally had not yet gone past 1,000 but it was headed there.

And all the minister, could say to reassure was 'don't panic! Don't watch the figures!'

We were not, of course, reassured, and lo and behold (duh!) the figures crept up and the minister and co crept out of government.

This time around, though, the figures are on the police's side, as they point out that the abduction and rape figures for this year are actually down over last year's. In addition to that, quite a few rumours of abduction from high schools around the Corporate Area have proven to be just that - rumours.

Unlevelness

Still, there is some 'unlevelness' in this 'don't panic' business. Yeah man. The world is not level at all, because when officials tell you 'don't panic' about a crime situation, it means that in a way (even if they don't quite think of it that way) they are asking you to get used to a lower but still terrible level of crime and mayhem.

Abductions and rapes

Check it. The number of abductions and rapes since the start of the year (those reported to the police, that is) may be lower than last year's but the 56 up to Saturday's 'don't panic' story is far from acceptable.

Think about your primary, prep or high school class. Think how many people were in the class at any one time. Now imagine 56 women in the same space and picture every single one of them being raped. Not a pretty thought, is it?

But when the police tell us 'don't panic', it could be interpreted that what they are saying to us is that we must be comfortable with that number of rapes.

Level of mayhem

Don't get Jackass wrong; they don't mean it that way. But we have become comfortable with a certain level of mayhem in our society.

It's a strategy that the sale people use too. Y'know, set a very high price that they know nobody can pay an then allow you to bawl it down to a price that they are still making a huge profit on anyway.

The Government does the same thing with taxes. Announce something like a 70 per cent hike and when people holler and burn tyres, they cut it to 40 per cent. Which may be even more than they wanted in the first place.

Pity is, though, that the police can't get this abduction and rape business cut to way below what we all expect.

Jackass sey de worl' no level. Jackass sey im wish sey all a dem habducta han rapis dem get ketch ...