My friend, do you value her life?

I have but two concerns and it is palpable that I am not the only one who has them. So I will speak about them separately. My first concern is the murder/suicide cases, ranging from last year into this year. I am no expert on relationships but I don’t need to have a degree in psychology to know that if a man has relationship problems with his partner, killing her and then killing himself will not make the situation better, as there are persons who are severely affected, especially children. The recent case in the farm community just outside Spanish Town left six children behind, though a few of them might be adults, there is no doubt that they are traumatised by the incident.

When I read the news article, it states that the couple was having problems prior to the incident, and there was time for them to seek counseling and additional help to mitigate the problem before it translates into a gruesome act. I am sure that there are quite a few professionals in Jamaica who are qualified enough to offer assistance. And those who may have known that they have relationship problem should intervene and recommend help and assistance. I am not saying that we ought to be up in people’s business, but if we have the slightest idea that a relationship is going bad, we can do something about it before it reaches a state beyond repair, where one thinks that the best solution is murder/suicide.

The next concern I have is the amount of young females that are being killed. Based on my readings, it seems these young ladies are getting mixed up with the wrong types of people. Parents need to be more involved in their children’s life. I will confess, I am not expert, but my experience has taught me enough to know that when a parent has no clue what is happening in their child’s or children’s lives, it opens door to all sorts of misery, causing children to make the wrong decisions and be involved with the wrong people. Parents, I appeal to you, yes, you might be busy trying to make ends meet, but designate a time and call it family time. This is the time when you and your child and children have a session where you are open with each other, where a child could say “mommy, daddy, a boy or girl at school likes me” and you ask questions, find out more, guide him at her. Don’t chastise them, it doesn’t help.

So the best solution I can offer is that we have a national campaign, where we focus on family values, family structure and the importance of parents’ involvement in their children’s lives. There should be designated week or month where the focus is strictly on family values. We should have what is called family day. We have child’s month, so we could have family month. MPs could have community meetings where family values are discussed. Similarly we institute the same thing for those who have relationship problems. Campaigns have work in other areas and I know it can work for this one. Let us start the campaigning because it works! 

Persecute parents now!!!

The New Year eve’s killing of retired nurse Hyacinth Hayden had indeed shocked the community of Green Park, Trelawny. When we examine the circumstances of which the crime was committed, it is shocking to realize that Mr. Hayden had just went to a shop in the community and came back to see the body of his wife on the floor with stab wounds. I cannot say that I understand his feelings, but I wish to encourage him and hope that he finds hope and comfort in God.

The thing that was revealing was that the crime was allegedly done by two 16-year-old boys, one of which the nurse had given a phone. I surmised that in her mind, she saw it has an opportunity to help a person who is less fortunate but had no idea that the same person who she had helped would have plot to rob her and eventually taken her life. Some would say it is a situation of “sorry fi mawga dawg, dem tun round bite yuh”. But I seriously believe that parents should be held more accountable for the devious acts of their children.

I would like to also make reference to two articles published in observer between yesterday and today. Firstly an article published yesterday titled “Police find teens committing robberies on orders from home” reveals that “The police say they have made a disturbing discovery in their investigation of an upsurge in robberies taking place on the streets of downtown Kingston. The crimes are being committed by teenagers under the command of their parents.” Secondly, an article published today titled “Boy, 12, stabbed to death in class” stated that “There was mourning yesterday at the Barrett Town All-Age School, as well as in the wider community, after a grade six student was fatally stabbed by his classmate shortly after break in the morning.” By examining these events one would be saddened, and further would not like to see a repeat of these incidents. And how long will this continue in Jamaica?

Crimes committed by juveniles are nothing new to us, and I am fully aware of the constraints which currently exists by which people will quickly refer to as contributing factors as to why teenagers engage in criminal activities. Some of these factors are but not limited to poverty, unemployment and socialization. But I concede that those factors are no excuse for indiscipline. One of the major factors is lack of parenting and breakdown in family structure, moral and values. When you see parents carrying machete to confront a teacher, how do we expect children to behave?

Therefore, I believe that parents should be persecuted for serious crimes of their children. Before you chastise me, hear what I have to say. I would propose a model, of which such persecution will occur. The purpose of this is because I want parents to be more responsible and if it takes force to do so then so be it. Some parents are too careless, and there needs to be some policy in place to address this. So what is my model? I would limit serious crimes to murders, assault, rape and attempted murders. Each crime will have diverse degrees of persecution. If a child is guilty of any of the aforementioned crimes, then parents should be required to pay up $200,000 or 3 years community service. No parents will be excluded. The years may increase due the degree of crime. During that time, the child will be taken away from the parent and be placed in a special facility, where he/she will be desensitized military style. During this rehabilitation period the child will be educated and required to learn a skill before being released to society.

In Oregon, California, parents are convicted for crimes committed by their children. Though from time to time parents have challenged these laws but remained unsuccessful because law makers have identified the need for these laws. In most jurisdictions with parental responsibility laws, a violation of the law is a misdemeanor and a person charged with the crime faces up to one year in prison, a fine in the range of $1,000, or both. In addition to a prison sentence and fine, many states also require convicted parents to enter educational programs. California and other states have included mandatory parenting skills training among the sanctions a court may impose on parents whose children have broken the law. State courts have upheld these laws. (Williams v. Garcetti, 853 P.2d 507 (1993).) In fact, some states have enacted parental responsibility laws as vehicles to order parents into skills training, rather than to jail them for their children’s conduct.

While there may be flaws with my model, I hope this will ignite serious discussions. As such, let the debate begin!

Paying politicians by performance?

J.S. Mill, a political theorist, says that democracy is the only form of governance that can maintain utilitarianism – a theory in normative ethics holding that the proper course of action is the one that maximizes utility, usually defined as maximizing total benefit and reducing suffering. In the study of governance and its various forms, one will come across what is called the social contract. The social contract in political philosophy is an actual or hypothetical compact, or agreement, between the ruled and their rulers, defining the rights and duties of each. This simply means that the state is responsible for protecting the rights of its citizens, ensuring that the economy is conducive for growth and development so that the standards of living for the citizens will be at an optimum level and in turn, the citizens must carry out their duties and responsibilities to ensure the smooth running of society.

Once the governed or the government breaks such contract then it can have deleterious effects on the people or the government. Without a doubt, it is palpable that the government continues to break the social contract, and thus the utilitarian principle is failing along the continuum. The national outcry for better governance and management of the affairs of the country has become such a cliché. The evidence is there. Most of the people think that politicians are corrupt, and that the country is not being managed effectively. The debate of old vs. young in the political arena is something we ought to examine carefully. The apologetic article “dinosaurs are people too”, seek to defend the notion that age should not be the major concern but the performance of a politician, of which I concur.

As I read that article, and thought about the word performance, it brought me back to the idea which cause debate among the populous – the concept of performance-pay vis-à-vis teachers. The concept stem from the fact that we have too much failing schools and failing teachers and if teachers are paid by performance then that would allow them to put out even more effort in their job. As a teacher in training, I always seek to defend teachers by showing the impracticality of such a concept. As I reflect on that ideology, something came to me, why not pay politicians by performance? It came from the same idea. We want higher the standard of education that students receive so, pay teachers by their performance. Then I thought to myself, we want better governance, better representation, and better management of the country’s affairs. We want to see the economic grow, the debt reduced, lower unemployment rates, more jobs available, lower crime rates so why not pay politicians by performance?

I am not oblivious that nowhere in the world politicians are being paid by performance. But maybe if that was the case we wouldn’t have so much failing economies. The people need hope; the man at street level is finding it difficult to make ends meet. I declare that if politicians were being paid by performance, Gordon House would be almost empty!