The Tribune

THERE has been an outcry following the death of Heavenly Terveus.

Voices from the church, voices from Parliament, voices on social media, even the voice of the wife of the Prime Minister.

Heavenly was found shot dead in her home, with her one-month-old son beside her. The man suspected of shooting her before trying to kill himself is her boyfriend.

It is a shocking incident – but perhaps it should not be a surprising one.

Domestic violence has been a problem that The Bahamas has shown little in trying to resolve.

So the voices we hear today are welcome – but we need more than voices.

When the Christian Council says the laws need to be amended and penalties need to be stiffened, that voice is welcome, but what is the council going to do to push for that?

When Lisa Rahming MP, the Social Services and Urban Development Minister, says her department is committed to composing legislation to protect all people against violence, in particular women and young girls, when can we expect to see that legislation brought forward?

When Ann Marie Davis, the wife of the Prime Minister, says the killing puts the issue of domestic abuse and gender-based violence back into the spotlight, what is she doing to encourage her husband to have the national conversation on marital rape he promised in November after initially shrugging the issue off saying he had too many other things on his agenda to be thinking about.

The words offering support and sympathy are welcome, particularly to the family of Heavenly Terveus as they grieve for their loved one. But we need more than words.

And for every person above we would ask what will they do beyond words, we also need to ask ourselves what will we do beyond words.

Heavenly was said to have lived in fear. In the last days before her death, she asked for help. Her family said police did not take the situation seriously, and that she spent the last few weeks locked in her house, and wouldn’t come out because she was afraid.

She is sadly far from the only woman to live in such fear. There may well be people in our own lives who are still in such situations, who need people they can talk to, who need to know there is a way out. That is down to us all, to be ready to listen, and to be ready to help.

What we must not do is tut and frown and say how terribly sad it is, and then do nothing.

Heavenly deserved better than to live in terror – and those still living in terror deserve better than for us to let this conversation stop now.

FTX welcome

We would say a word of praise for a business that for many may be new on the scene but with a growing presence.

FTX Digital Markets yesterday donated more than $500,000 to local charities, with its vice president, Valdez K Russell, pledging: “We are just getting started.”

The company, a digital asset exchange, has plans for a $60m campus, which will employ about 1,000 people.

We look forward to following their progress – and we hope they might have plans for Grand Bahama too. Grand Bahama’s assets are too often overlooked, but there is excellent infrastructure in place and both a need for investment and a desire to make that investment work. We hope FTX might find ways to satisfy their company’s goals by including Grand Bahama too.

Whatever their future brings, we are glad to see such a commitment to being a good corporate partner to The Bahamas, and helping those in the greatest need.