Ronald Thwaites | Snatching victory from defeat

Her family had broken up when she was just a few years old. The babyfather went his way, leaving her mother with a little washing job and five young mouths to feed. Two were sent to the country to an old aunt, the preteen boy took to the streets, and two girls were assigned to a place of safety and later to separate children’s homes.

One of those homes was run by a church and so received about half or less of the government subvention, compared to the other state-run institution. Why? Unequal. Unfair! Reality. So when a kinky guy from abroad comes with his dollars, his smile and Bible verses, it’s easy to predict what follows.

Sadly and culpably, after last week’s righteous indignation, it is unlikely that fundamental reform will come to our childcare system. We don’t value their lives enough. We are accustomed to spend most on those who need least, and devote the least to those who need it most.

When my girl turned 18 – two subjects, few social skills, plenty Christmas treats, nowhere to go to, hasn’t seen the social worker for months – what do you think happens next? A cotch with one of the domestic workers from the home; a foreign man with a wholesale downtown says she can come and tidy the place for $500 a day; the inevitable hook-up with a brown guy who drive a car, tells her she looks nice and buys her a slippers and a two-piece Kentucky a few Fridays. I saw her recently. It’s four months now since she ‘gone up’.

Intergenerational poverty, crime and national failure are built on the shifting sands of family weakness. As we deride the Christian ethic of equal opportunity, self-restraint and modesty: announce, with great justification, to the rest of the world that we are the victims of exploitation, while our priorities and behaviour brands us exploiters of ourselves.

In all our analysis of what slavery has done to our self-perception, our health and economy, I challenge a discussion on the proposition that the worst enduring shackle of that system was the destruction of traditional African family mores. Enforced cruelly then. Voluntarily continued now. To the point that we identify lack of commitment and infidelity as the apogee of freedom, rather than the poison of the social destruction which is staring us in the face.

CANCER OF THIEVERY

Last week, also, the cancer of thievery at Petrojam metastasises with every report of the Integrity Commission; the bond market is able to rake in unlimited billions of capital, car sales soon finish use up available bank credit; and $20-50 grand is ‘normal’ for entry to the dance, where we applaud the same foul-mouthed, disrespectful lyrics which we would never tolerate if directed at ourselves. More money for the outfit, the nails, hair and liquor. “Prassperty! Yu no see everybody have a good Christmas, Ranny? Yu no watch page 2 of our paper and the social page of yours? T’ings a gwaan! Yu too badmind and bias.”

This is the idiocy of Babylon, while the Government can’t pay teachers, nurses and police properly; a second supplementary Budget is necessary; and the children’s homes, places of safety, school feeding, PATH and other social programmes have no hope of keeping up with inflation.

The Government appears to be the only ‘bruk-pocket’ show in town. Check the true story of my girl as a prime example. Is it any wonder that many of the welfare agencies, schools and health facilities end up depending on foreign benefactors for much of what they need. And when one turns out to have a dark side, what a helluva casting of blame and temporary distress we show!

Here’s some hope.

On Friday night’s television news, Prime Minister Holness was shown repeating what he has said to me privately before, that if he had his way with Budget expenditure, there would be a two-year mandatory national service required for all unattached males. A time for re-socialisation, skills training and discipline – not drape up and detention. He gets it!

I congratulate him wholeheartedly for clear thinking. Of course, such a programme ought to be for unattached females, also. And yes, it would be expensive but far, far cheaper in human and financial terms than the consequences of leaving it undone.

DREAM

Let me dream. Andrew’s aspiration matches Mark’s insistence that this topic should be high on the Vale Royal agenda. So, could the saving of our youth from idleness and crime become a national rallying cause for this year, and beyond to 2030 since, demonstrably, neither political tendency can broker such a renaissance on its own?

Let every Jamaican of goodwill strengthen the PM’s hand to “have his way” in directing enough of our taxes towards this redemptive cause. Instead of apportioning blame for what does not happen in our yards, schools and streets, could we spend this year refining and extending the national service programme. Parliament should consider little else for the balance of this session, if they are serious. It is more important than sending home King Charles.

Strike a national task force, anchored by the HEART Trust, which already has enough budget and infrastructure, if repurposed, to make a good start. Jointly chaired by Andrew and Mark, and including, and engaging with specific tasks and timelines, the universities, the churches, the business sector and the security forces.

Since in the intensity of such effort, and given our proneness to finding a problem for every solution, disputes and differences are inevitable, ask Sir Patrick, as a classic denouement to the office he holds, and because he is by personality so well suited, to be mediator and reconciler of the process.

In subsequent writings, let us examine what it would take to mount a national service project, its difficulties and benefits, as well as the structural changes which, if confronted now, could render the programme less and less needed a generation in the future.

And then the girl from the children’s home, whose true story I began with, would have a better chance of a fruitful life. Worth it?

Rev Ronald G.Thwaites is an attorney-at-law. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.