Attorney: Dads, role models needed – don't leave it to gangs

ATTORNEY Kevin Ratiram is urging fathers to take charge of their offspring and become role models to their sons so as to stamp out gang leaders from usurping this role.

He said if fathers abandon their task of raising their sons into productive young men, gang leaders would be only too happy to transform misguided youths into their minions.

Addressing the Naparima District Scout Founders Day celebration at the Debe Secondary School on Sunday, Ratiram said while many of them had role models such as US President Barack Obama, singing sensation Rihanna, sports heroes Lionel Messi and Christiano Ronaldo, along with local cultural icons Machel Montano, Kees Dieffenthaller and President Paula-Mae Weekes, role models are needed in homes.

“I think what we really need today in T&T are role models on the ground, in our homes, our communities, our schools. More than anything else, we need role models for our young men. We need fathers to be role models to their sons.” He said fathers must set the example by getting up each morning to go to work and return in the evening to demonstrate to their sons that they should do an honest day’s work to earn an honest day’s pay.

He said fathers need to tell their sons, “Pick up your school bag and go to school. Don’t be liming on the block all day, smoking cigarettes or weed."

"We need our fathers to tell their sons, 'Speak to your mothers with respect,'"

Ratiram, who also heads the Rapidfire Kids Foundation, helping disadvantaged children, observed the skyrocketing murder rate and the fact that the majority of victims and perpetrators are male. “Not even two months have passed in the year, and we have over 80 murders, most of which have been by the gun.

“Today, sadly, many of our young men have no role models in their homes, so they look to others in their communities to provide this role. They look at the gang leaders, with their flashy cars and clothes. They look at the gangsters with their guns and drugs.”

He said these are the type of figures young men, without guidance, look up to and aspire to emulate. “And of course, these 'role models' like nothing better. They like nothing better than putting guns in the hands of these young men to rob and murder. They like nothing better than to give them weed and cocaine to sell on the block, all because our young men have no positive role models around.”

Hesaid another scourge of society is domestic violence, and fathers also need to step up and set examples for their sons.

“Fathers have a responsibility to set the right example for their sons in how they treat women. Where a child grows up in an environment where there’s violence, violence is what he’ll learn.” Similarly, he said, if a child sees his father engaging in domestic violence towards his mother, that is what would be inculcated in his psyche.

“Parents must be role models in their homes and live by example in how they treat each other. Where children see love, they’ll practise love. Where they see hatred, they’ll practise hatred," he said.