LETTER OF THE DAY - Time to face the truth
Published:Friday | July 25, 2014 | 12:00 AM
THE EDITOR, Sir:
Every generation has a picture of success, and that picture causes us to behave in particular ways and do particular things. The generation born in the late 1960s and early 1970s did something wrong in providing for our children this picture of success. Therefore, we see our young people doing things which the nation finds so unacceptable.
One of the guests on TVJ's 'All Angles', aired on Wednesday, July 23, said that life was hard and he saw that girls got what they wanted. He was told he looked like a girl, so he began wearing a dress and he became his picture of success. Is it possible that those involved in scamming are victims of the same thinking? Is it possible that those who are involved in praedial larceny are victims of the same thinking?
I certainly do not want to trivialise the situation or make it seem that the solutions are easy. If only it were so, then we would have solved the problems already. The time and place we find ourselves in as a nation demand that we sit down and be very honest about the causes and then work towards a solution or solutions. Defining the cause will ensure that history is not repeated.
This truth of this country is hard to face, but we have come to a point where it must be faced. Once upon a time, standards and order were guiding principles. That has changed. At the beginning, it may have appeared to be the right thing and the generation of that period championed the possibilities. The challenge of reordering the foundation of a society is that the change almost never stops at its optimal level.
Jamaica has well passed the optimal level of change, and now it's time to stop. We are heading into decline and we see the backlash. The change requires more than a token demonstration, no matter how large that demonstration is.
Christopher Givans