IN TRYING to explain the presence of evil in the world, there is one mystery that theologians have never been able to solve satisfactorily - the death of an innocent child. The tragic death of three innocent children on their way to school, mowed down by a speeding route taxi, has prompted the agonising question, Why? So vehement was the outrage of residents in Prospect where the accident happened, the police had to use teargas to disperse the roadblocks they mounted.
In the aftermath of shock and sadness, is it possible to see the deaths of these children, so cruel in the existential order, as a kind of terrible symbol of the slower but no less fatal neglect of children generally in our society? Randomly seeded by irresponsible fathers, the children of wrecked homes litter our schools, become early prey for sexual predators or end up on street corners washing car windshields.
Two recent reports by international agencies which monitor the worldwide status of children have given Jamaica low marks in a number of areas. We take these reports, together with the Prospect tragedy, to be wake-up calls to the nation and the Government that immediate and urgent steps must be taken to improve the plight of our young. Coming shortly after the US State Department report listing Jamaica among nations engaged in human trafficking, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, noting the growing problem of street children, criticises Jamaica for taking too long to implement the Child Care and Protection Act which has been under discussion for eight years. The frequency with which children become victims of violence in the Jamaican culture is also deprecated in the report as also our high levels of adolescent pregnancy.
Equally disturbing is the almost nonchalant reaction of Government officials to these reports, one repeating that the Child Care and Protection Act will be passed but offering no convincing reasons for the long delay. Another official wants to see how we compare with other countries before commenting, as if we should take comfort in similar failures.
We need to hear from Ambassador Marjorie Taylor, Special Envoy for Children, on what will be done to improve street crossings for children going to school and the employment of more traffic wardens. She should be taking a special interest in these reports and be using them to awaken the conscience of the nation to the plight of our children and the way we are judged in our treatment of them.
THE OPINIONS ON THIS PAGE, EXCEPT FOR THE ABOVE, DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE GLEANER.
