No plasters for this festering sore

THE EDITOR: The current tendency toward criminal activity in this country won’t get better, only worse, degenerating into a final chaos.

I say this because one of the pillars of the judicial system, namely detection leading to deterrence, is now in abeyance, seemingly rotting from within, and its very heart, the prosecutorial arm, is now under siege, of which a likely manifestation are the two recent double murders.

And there are other symptoms of this degeneracy, like the home invasions which have now become commonplace.

It is an infection so deep that it can be only gotten rid of by allowing it to decay and die naturally. And this only with time.

But even as this festering sore rots itself out of existence, we must find a new prosthetic to replace it for the oncoming generation, and the cast for this can only be set by our traditional institutions, building on it as time goes by.

First the family. No more mothers to father children and poverty no longer the excuse to make the “white powder” the goal as replacement for the report card.

Mothers and fathers must be parents in the true sense, leading by example, and armed with the simple and unsophisticated moral compass of right and wrong at the core of our common humanity, insisting that the children must “take learnin',” do the chores, take care of the siblings, and to expect a "cut tail" for wrongdoing.

And from such like, the seed will begin to grow and bear fruit, and instead of the false bravado of locking the teacher’s neck as at Moruga, the dream will be for the glory of a scholarship as at Naparima.

Hold a little with the modern psychology of loving them to delinquency with too much understanding. True love is firmness, discipline, leading to worthwhile production.

And then the school. Here the seed sown in the family setting must take root and grow and for this we must thank the church schools for here they still pray and have a homeroom where children can meet away from the classroom and talk and exchange ideas, setting the stage for their positive socialisation when they leave. And not be distracted by the drugs and the porn and the allure of gangsterism, as is evident in some other places of learning.

As for the child, your goal must be to secure the subject grouping that leads to the career choice consistent with with your proven aptitude and the eventual dream must be to walk up the podium to receive your prize or your certificate or your degree, of which your parents will be justly proud.

It is the only path to becoming a model citizen with the mindset of giving back to the country that nurtured you.

And I can speak of the role of the other institutions like the church, the judicial system and the politics, but that would make my call too academic, making it a mere intellectual treatise that would only gather dust on the shelves rather than be a mandate for positive action.

Even so, such institutions in their current modus operandi are all part of the current fabric and not the instruments of meaningful change so desperately needed.

The church, for example, is hardly functioning in the role of the Sunday School of old as our surrogate parent and school shaping our values of right and wrong, but instead seeming more elitist and and more for the “saved” rather than the sinner on the street.

As to the judicial system, it is evidently losing sight of its true role and function considering how criminal behaviour has become “high culture.”

And as for our brand of politics, it is all manipulation and deceit with leaders exploiting our tribal loyalties and not having to account.

It seems, then, that the down-to-earth reality of creating a new generation with positive values about life and the future to take this nation forward can only come from the age-old relationship between home and school working in partnership.

This for me is key, for no amount of empty rhetoric or intellectualising, no number of plasters can fix this festering sore which now overwhelms us.

Dr ERROL NARINE BENJAMIN

via e-mail