Stop the dreadful bobolee tradition

THE EDITOR: I submit that from today no one observes the dreadful tradition of beating the bobolee. I am mindful that it represents retribution for Judas, but I think I have had about enough violence in TT to last a lifestyle.

And so, I really could do without the savage image of someone beating an effigy of a politician, a radio/TV talk show host or US President Donald Trump et al.

In addition, I think it is bad enough that adults engage in this sickening practice derived from the Christian celebration of Easter, but of late I have seen parents give children sticks, whips, and stones and encourage them to beat a bobolee.

This inculcates a violent upbring in children and so by the time they are in their teen years, they are fighting like hyenas or warring tribes from Wakananda.

Doesn’t anyone ever get the impression that the subliminal message of exacting physical violence is absolutely against any form or religion, unless you are a jihadist or an extremist or some freak in the US?

Further, I am noting that even the sacrosanct pulpit of the Catholic Church is not safe from the work of Satan, who seemed to have overwhelmed the young man to desecrate a holy idol. I am therefore adding this to the unspeakable violence against women which has overcome this society. We have to reverse this.

I therefore believe it’s time we started somewhere. Afternoon walks against crime, violence, discrimination and so on are a waste of time, a farce even. It’s time we make a start and I think it would be an enormous gesture for the RC archbishop to ask the society to desist from any kind of violence.

I also note that some members of the community seem to have a macabre preoccupation with effigies and bobolees as they make dolly houses with them, get them married and put them to lay with each other.

Some years ago, there was a rather displeasing display of effigies of Kamla Persad-Bissessar and Dr Keith Rowley wedded together in the back of a van. This was as vulgar as the dragging – by the leader of a Muslim group – of a mannequin of the former prime minister by her hair through the streets as well as OWTU’s perverse display with a doll of her. Is this how these men treat women? And we wonder where the violence against women comes from.

LYSTRA MARAJH, Glencoe