As nations around the world celebrate the Yuletide season, which is a Christian holiday to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, it is a timely reminder that it is also an occasion to reflect on the set of ideals and principles which came with Jesus’s birth. These were meant to dictate the behaviour and actions of those who live on planet earth.
While it is the traditional practice to engage in festive activities during this Christian festival, it is important that the people of the nation take time out to reflect on the fact that Christ’s birth was intended to bring life, hope and peace to mankind. It is important that the morale of the nativity story is not lost, as it weaves together lessons of kindness, humility and inclusivity. These values are treasures that will shape our children’s character and interactions with the world around them.
At a time in the history of Barbados where there seems to be a crisis amongst our youth and youth people in particular, which is characterized by indiscipline, a lack of respect, disregard for law and order, deviant behaviour and crime and violence, there is an urgent need for a return to first principles. It is essential that the societal decay which is being experienced, is arrested, and that the morals, values and mores which once formed the bedrock of the Barbadian society, are restored.
While there is merit for the championing of the rights of people and specifically those of children, right thinking Barbadians would accept that there is a limit to the level of empowerment which is to be given. There ought to be an awareness that there is an ultimate price to be paid when extensive liberties are granted in any societies. Barbados can ill afford to adopt all of the practices which are promoted and embraced in western cultures and the British Commonwealth, simply for the reasons of wanting to show compliance, when these practices are detrimental to the local traditions and culture that are to be preserved and respected. Barbadians should be prepared to promote the position that ‘where it is not broken, don’t attempt to fit it.’
Barbadians ought to send a clear signal that while there is support for ensuring and safe guarding the rights of adult persons, school age children and young persons, there must be reasonableness applied in the extension of liberties given to all human beings.
How can this society account for the deviant and violent behaviour exhibited by school age children, the youth and young people of this country that has become a daily diet on social media platforms, where there is video evidence of unsavory happenings at schools and on the streets of Barbados?
How do we account for the crime wave and in particular, that of gun crimes which are said to being committed by young persons between the ages of 17-35?
How do we account for the highlighting of young persons in the daily newspapers, accused of committed some form of crime and the expressions they communicate of being a champion, without seemingly a care or worry? It is that they have the satisfaction of being protected by universal rights?
How do we account for the various senseless and lawless acts which include the challenging and obstruction of the police in the execution of their duties by young persons?
Those who wish to challenge the fact that our society is in a state of crisis where school age children and young people feature prominently, may want to consider why the Government of Barbados and the Ministry of Education, Technological and Vocational Training is placing so much attention on Reform Schools for deviant children, such as the Edna Nicholls School and the recently opened New Horizon Residential School. To add to this, there is the planned reopening of the Alma Parris Secondary School.
There is also the need to understand the thinking which informed the decision taken by the Ministry of Education, Technological and Vocational Training to have a significant uptake in the number of Guidance Counsellors and Psychologists in the school system. This action suggests that there is a recognition of the severity of the problem, which must be tackled at the root level.
This Christmas, the Congress of Trade Unions and Staff Associations of Barbados, endorses and voices Christ’s message of love, hope and peace. Additionally, it calls on parents and guardians of this nation’s children to participate in the programmes offered by organisation, Parent Education for Development in Barbados (PAREDOES).
As we celebrate this Christmas, CTUSAB as a responsible organization, calls on all families of the nation to be guided by the words of Proverbs 22: verse 6, “Train up the child in the way in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”
CTUSAB extends seasons greetings and best wishes to all Barbadians at home and abroad, residents and visitors alike.
Dennis de Peiza
General Secretary, Congress of Trade Unions and Staff Associations
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