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Efforts and obstacles
Michael BURKE
Thursday, April 30, 2015
SEAGA
PRIME Minister Portia Simpson Miller has implored parents to send their children to church. The cynics argue that it will not impact on crime and violence. But the converse can also be argued that, had it not been for some parents who send their children to church, things would have been far worse. The problem is to get our people to learn values and attitudes. And to get there we have to address the state of family life in Jamaica.
The reasons for things being the way they are go back to the days of slavery and the pirates, when slaves were not allowed to marry. But the will to do something about it in modern times is not very strong. If a majority of Jamaicans really wanted such changes the elected government would have to do something about it. For example, in 1999, there was a plan to build houses at Hope Gardens. Many objected, and the houses were not built there. We can do the same about values and attitudes if we have the collective will to do so.
To be fair, a lot of effort has been made over the last 105 years. Scouts and guides, which were established in England in 1903 by Lord and Lady Baden Powell, came to Jamaica in 1910. The 4-H clubs were introduced to Jamaica in 1940. These uniformed groups along with cadets, boys' and girls' brigades et cetera were established to instil not only discipline but values and attitudes.
In 1937, Jamaica Welfare [later Jamaica Social Welfare Commission, now Social Development Commission (SDC)] was founded by National Hero Norman Washington Manley. This was established to address the rural-urban drift in the 1930s when banana crops failed due to a plant disease. Anywhere in the world, a rural-urban drift is caused by people seeking employment. Lack of employment has traditionally been linked to crime and violence.
But Jamaica Welfare was also to stop the revolution that came to a head in 1938 with the coming of trade unions and political parties. Jamaica Welfare addressed rural housing, cottage industries, an adult literacy programme, and even a sports programme for youth.
In the 1940's Lady (Molly) Huggins, the wife of the English Governor Sir John Huggins (1944-51) established the Jamaica Federation of Women (JFW). Through the JFW, Lady Huggins organised mass weddings because she saw the importance of family life. True, it was very simplistic to believe that "marrying off" men and women in pairs would solve our problems. But Fidel Castro did the same in Cuba, just 90 miles away from our shores, at the start of the revolution there. If it worked in Cuba, why did it not work here?
For one thing, the mass-marriage implementation in Cuba was followed up by some serious self-discipline imposed by the State, perhaps far more severe than what obtained in Singapore under Lee Kwan Yew. For another, the mass migration to England during Empire Windrush between 1948 and 1961 saw hundreds of children being left behind in Jamaica. These youngsters turned into "problem children" and passed on the problem to their children born of "loose" relationships. So much for Lady Huggins' plan!
And the mass migration also caused an upsurge in violence and made these youngsters easy prey for unscrupulous politicians who used them to create garrison constituencies. This would even render as useless the states of emergencies over the years, the Gun Court that was established in 1974, and the subsequent Suppression of Criminal Organizations Act, where houses could be searched without a warrant.
In 1955, when the People's National Party first came to power, Norman Manley established the youth camps through what was later known as SDC. It was this that Edward Seaga, as prime minister, expanded into the HEART programme in the 1980s. But all of these programmes were supposed to be an assault on crime and violence.
In 1957, education was widened with the Common Entrance Examination, now Grade Six Achievement Test, soon to be Primary Exit Profile. By 1973, education in Jamaica became accessible to all. Apart from the dissemination of information, education was seen as a cure to our ills of crime and violence. There have been numerous social work organisations to accompany the places of safety and children's homes. Churches of various denominations have also done a lot. So why can't we knock this problem of crime and violence once and for all?
One reason is that we still have the Westminster system of government which encourages the creation of garrison constituencies. While we no longer have wars between supporters of the political parties, the taste for guns has been established and creative ways continue to be found to acquire guns illegally.
And there is another reason which is relatively new. Previously, slaves were not allowed to marry, but now men seem to be afraid to marry. Why? The new divorce laws that make it mandatory for women to get 50 per cent of the house, if not 50 per cent of the entire property, no matter who divorces whom, is keeping men from making the commitment. There are men who do not want to live with one woman for five years for this very reason.
How many cases have there been where women got married just to get half of their ex-husbands' belongings? Are such cases more than men who got married with similar intentions? Is the perception that family court judges tend to rule in favour of women a correct one? And this brings us right back to square one with the problem of not having families to teach values and attitudes to children and the consequent problems of crime and violence.
In such a scenario, how can leaders of any religion in Jamaica successfully implore men and women to get married? May I ask for sponsors to pay for the staging and advertising of a conference for divorced and separated men during the week leading up to Father's Day on the third Sunday in June? At such a conference, the invited men would be asked to state the obstacles, if any, to getting married and what, if any, are the solutions. If the obstacle is in the divorce laws, then they should be revisited.
Michael BURKE
Thursday, April 30, 2015
SEAGA
PRIME Minister Portia Simpson Miller has implored parents to send their children to church. The cynics argue that it will not impact on crime and violence. But the converse can also be argued that, had it not been for some parents who send their children to church, things would have been far worse. The problem is to get our people to learn values and attitudes. And to get there we have to address the state of family life in Jamaica.
The reasons for things being the way they are go back to the days of slavery and the pirates, when slaves were not allowed to marry. But the will to do something about it in modern times is not very strong. If a majority of Jamaicans really wanted such changes the elected government would have to do something about it. For example, in 1999, there was a plan to build houses at Hope Gardens. Many objected, and the houses were not built there. We can do the same about values and attitudes if we have the collective will to do so.
To be fair, a lot of effort has been made over the last 105 years. Scouts and guides, which were established in England in 1903 by Lord and Lady Baden Powell, came to Jamaica in 1910. The 4-H clubs were introduced to Jamaica in 1940. These uniformed groups along with cadets, boys' and girls' brigades et cetera were established to instil not only discipline but values and attitudes.
In 1937, Jamaica Welfare [later Jamaica Social Welfare Commission, now Social Development Commission (SDC)] was founded by National Hero Norman Washington Manley. This was established to address the rural-urban drift in the 1930s when banana crops failed due to a plant disease. Anywhere in the world, a rural-urban drift is caused by people seeking employment. Lack of employment has traditionally been linked to crime and violence.
But Jamaica Welfare was also to stop the revolution that came to a head in 1938 with the coming of trade unions and political parties. Jamaica Welfare addressed rural housing, cottage industries, an adult literacy programme, and even a sports programme for youth.
In the 1940's Lady (Molly) Huggins, the wife of the English Governor Sir John Huggins (1944-51) established the Jamaica Federation of Women (JFW). Through the JFW, Lady Huggins organised mass weddings because she saw the importance of family life. True, it was very simplistic to believe that "marrying off" men and women in pairs would solve our problems. But Fidel Castro did the same in Cuba, just 90 miles away from our shores, at the start of the revolution there. If it worked in Cuba, why did it not work here?
For one thing, the mass-marriage implementation in Cuba was followed up by some serious self-discipline imposed by the State, perhaps far more severe than what obtained in Singapore under Lee Kwan Yew. For another, the mass migration to England during Empire Windrush between 1948 and 1961 saw hundreds of children being left behind in Jamaica. These youngsters turned into "problem children" and passed on the problem to their children born of "loose" relationships. So much for Lady Huggins' plan!
And the mass migration also caused an upsurge in violence and made these youngsters easy prey for unscrupulous politicians who used them to create garrison constituencies. This would even render as useless the states of emergencies over the years, the Gun Court that was established in 1974, and the subsequent Suppression of Criminal Organizations Act, where houses could be searched without a warrant.
In 1955, when the People's National Party first came to power, Norman Manley established the youth camps through what was later known as SDC. It was this that Edward Seaga, as prime minister, expanded into the HEART programme in the 1980s. But all of these programmes were supposed to be an assault on crime and violence.
In 1957, education was widened with the Common Entrance Examination, now Grade Six Achievement Test, soon to be Primary Exit Profile. By 1973, education in Jamaica became accessible to all. Apart from the dissemination of information, education was seen as a cure to our ills of crime and violence. There have been numerous social work organisations to accompany the places of safety and children's homes. Churches of various denominations have also done a lot. So why can't we knock this problem of crime and violence once and for all?
One reason is that we still have the Westminster system of government which encourages the creation of garrison constituencies. While we no longer have wars between supporters of the political parties, the taste for guns has been established and creative ways continue to be found to acquire guns illegally.
And there is another reason which is relatively new. Previously, slaves were not allowed to marry, but now men seem to be afraid to marry. Why? The new divorce laws that make it mandatory for women to get 50 per cent of the house, if not 50 per cent of the entire property, no matter who divorces whom, is keeping men from making the commitment. There are men who do not want to live with one woman for five years for this very reason.
How many cases have there been where women got married just to get half of their ex-husbands' belongings? Are such cases more than men who got married with similar intentions? Is the perception that family court judges tend to rule in favour of women a correct one? And this brings us right back to square one with the problem of not having families to teach values and attitudes to children and the consequent problems of crime and violence.
In such a scenario, how can leaders of any religion in Jamaica successfully implore men and women to get married? May I ask for sponsors to pay for the staging and advertising of a conference for divorced and separated men during the week leading up to Father's Day on the third Sunday in June? At such a conference, the invited men would be asked to state the obstacles, if any, to getting married and what, if any, are the solutions. If the obstacle is in the divorce laws, then they should be revisited.
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