Rowley: Anger in society being fuelled by entitlement

THE former prime minister believes the anger that is pervading the society is fuelled by a sense of entitlement.

Dr Rowley made the statement on June 14 while speaking at a Men In Leadership Forum at Bishop’s High School, Mt Marie, Scarborough, Tobago. The forum was one of the signature events commemorating the school’s 100th anniversary.

It included three other distinguished Bishop’s High School alumni: Chief Justice Ivor Archie; THA Chief Secretary Farley Augustine and Anglican Bishop Rev Claude Berkley. Journalist Ira Mathur, who also attended the school, moderated the event.

The theme of the centennial celebration is Honouring The Past, Celebrating The Present, Charting the Future by God’s Grace.

Referring to his years in public life, Rowley said, “Being exposed to where I have been for quite a long time, that anger that is mentioned, it has its roots in entitlement and the society has become more entitled. People have become more entitled and if that entitlement is offended, that generates the anger.”

He said he and many of his peers at Bishop’s High School didn’t feel so entitled.

“We knew we had to do certain things to be the beneficiary of certain things. The way you make your bed is how you will lie on it. You make your bed hard, you would lie on it hard. Those were things that meant a lot.”

Rowley said many people disregard that by saying, "That wouldn’t apply to me. I am entitled to a good life. I am entitled to be treated in a particular way.”

However, he argued that a child who was respectful to an adult earned the respect and caring of that adult.

“But if you expect to be cared for without being respectful to the person who you expect to care for you, then that conflict is engendered and exasperated, and then you have no solution.”

Rowley said Bishop’s was not about entitlement but opportunity.

“What you make of it, a lot of it had to do with how you make your bed, and the people who were teachers instilled in us that they want a good bed for you, but there are some things you have to do to get that good bed, and that is a school life and it is a very happy life.”

He said many of the students did not have money but were content and happy.

“I knew students who were here in the school, we used to share because sometimes I got 25 cents for my lunch and I used to share it with certain students and sometimes they shared with me. But we were always happy.”

Rowley continued, “So this anger that now permeates the whole society and you can lose your life because somebody thinks that you have been insensitive to what they think is important.

"The society has changed dramatically, and if we are to acknowledge that, there has to be personal responsibility.

"You have to respect other people and you have to sweat your own sweat to get the benefits of what other people get. You can’t just want to decide that I am entitled to this and if you don’t get it you get angry because you don’t have it.”

He said such behaviour had become “normalised” in the society.

“It is a whole long story, but when you look backwards at it as what happened in our time, some of the things we took for granted, we threw out, and the vacuum that was left has been filled by an entitlement and an anger.”