Instill respect, discipline in our children
published: Tuesday | August 5, 2003

THE EDITOR, Sir:

I HAVE read the different views in The Gleaner (letters to the editor) regarding the cheerleading competition which Immaculate won.

Immaculate is obviously no longer immaculate at all, and is being congratulated for its bold and innovative turning away from its burden of immaculateness. After all, if it takes bad words, (whether the words are heard or turned up or down, they are still bad words) to win a competition or gain popularity (Sean Paul, etc.) in Jamaica, then so be it.

A Jamaican dictionary can now be written, in which the following words and their meanings can be forever omitted: compassion, decency, honesty, self-respect, respect, obedience, courtesy, sympathy, modesty, tolerance, patience, and of course, love, which covers all these, or should.

Our children are being congratulated and rewarded at the expense of their self-respect and to the detriment and death of Jamaica as a place where anyone can live and thrive apart from the criminals. And criminals do not pop up overnight - dem born an grow. An a fi wi pickney dem a come up so. An a we a dweet.

I am, etc.,

SADAN TAYAD

Kingston 10

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