Cup Match time in Bermuda is meant to be a period for reflection, for celebration, for the playing of a two-day cricket match and for our families and our people to come together. But, the ebullient scenes from the recent General Election notwithstanding, the 2017 Annual Classic will instead be shrouded in murder and mayhem on our streets.

At a time when we should be looking forward to the four-day weekend — 4½ days if you factor in the concert tonight headlined by international reggae star Sean Paul — we tiptoe forward in trepidation as two sets of families mourn the loss of their murdered sons, while another pair come to terms with the devastation left behind in the wake of a horrific road crash that has altered the lives of two more young men.

Wayne Caines, the new Minister of National Security, knew that he would have his hands full attempting to get a handle on the gang and antisocial behavioural cultures that have entrapped so many of our young Bermudians — male and female. And he has barely got his seat warm before Bermuda’s evil underworld provided resounding proof that a change in government is of little concern to them, as long as they can continue to wreak havoc while relatively unchecked.

The deaths of Jahcari Francis and Jahkoby Smith bring to five the number of young black men murdered in 2017, while those involved in the early-morning crash in Paget this week were very fortunate not to be the tenth and eleventh road and marine traffic fatalities of the year.

Staggering numbers for 21 square miles and a population of 60,000.

The sequence is eerily familiar to what transpired in May 2016 when the murder of Patrick Dill, whose assailant is believed to be still at large, was followed minutes later by a three-vehicle road crash that claimed the life of Judah Burchall.

All scary evidence that the country is learning little from history, let alone very recent history.

How thick are we? “Thick as two planks,” some might say.

The police have intelligence on the supposed gangs that are responsible for the large percentage of murders that have been reported since 2008 — comfortably in excess of 30 — but having intel without possessing the wherewithal to bust up networks comprising no more than 100 young hoodlums is useless and leads to so much of the rinse-and-repeat tales of woe suffered around the island.

It is to be hoped here is where Caines can have the greatest impact in his role as successor to Jeff Baron, whose collaboration with the new man is as essential as it should be sought after.

It is palpably too late to reach those who are “in the game”. While their lives may not be over just yet, it is not until a period of incarceration and rehabilitation that they should be considered as potential contributors to a peaceful society.

The realistic mandate is to target the at-risk youngsters of middle-school age and younger who are being groomed for a life of crime.

Those most deserving of having “Asbo” attached to their records — an acronym for antisocial behaviour order — look upon any stranger as a potential enemy, someone to be shown no respect or mercy; a poor upbringing allied to association with the criminally minded providing a cocktail of dangerous consequences.

It takes a sick kind of Asbo to turn on one of their own at a wake to celebrate the life of a dearly departed, which was the case at West End Sailboat Club on Saturday evening. In plain sight, the enablers — friends, family and loved ones — reaped what they have sowed, as their young men displayed a form of behaviour that is normally restricted to the dark of night and away from those few whom they cherish most.

This was a most public airing of dirty laundry and an advertisement that babysitting your child to the age of puberty instead of parenting them rarely produces the desired results in the long run.

One young man died, while another suffered serious stab wounds to his lower extremities. It is time to remove some of the age-old “societal” excuses and call a spade a spade:

Our parenting has been significantly beneath Third World standards and, bar few exceptions, has shown little sign of getting better by way of embracing accountability.

In a world not far away, but that which leads to the same finality, our roads have long been overrun by a surfeit of Mad Max wannabes.

If we can agree that Bermuda is one of the most beautiful places on Earth, that message has not reached motorists who are hellbent on sustaining and “improving” on a freakishly careless average in excess of ten road deaths per year since 2006.

A casual journey last weekend to the West End for a Cup Match trial, and then to the East End for the same, bore witness to no fewer than ten instances where Bermudians on bikes and in cars showed scant regard for one another, with each perilous manoeuvre a first-responder incident waiting to happen. All in the space of four hours.

This we accept with the same blasé wilfulness as we have the news of another presumed gang member being shot or stabbed to death.

The lack of convention and absence of decorum call to mind a popular Jamaican saying: “Yu nuh easy.”

Too right, Bermuda.

Frustrations over the country’s collective indifference to life and death put into proper context the sporting realities of the 2017 Cup Match, starting tomorrow.

St George’s Cricket Club, allegedly desperate to win the cup back from Somerset Cricket Club, have selected the most inexperienced captain/vice-captain combination in the postwar history of the annual classic, with four matches between them, but we shall not rake them over the coals for that. Or for going into the match with only one recognised opening batsman. Or for somehow “misplacing” two of their three nominated reserves.

You just couldn’t make it up.

You know what, let’s just enjoy the game. For however long it lasts. And hope and pray that we emerge from the long weekend with as many citizens as we had going in.

No matter the result at Wellington Oval, that would be a win-win scenario.