IT SEEMS THAT some Barbadians are hell bent on destroying their own country. Can you imagine the news all over the world today because of a few lawless persons?
The parallels with Jamaica’s decline into utter decadence is striking – irresponsible women and men who refuse to parent their children and object to teachers disciplining them, absentee fathers, grandparents who refuse to assist with the rearing of children because that would curtail their social activities, women who bring men into their homes to get financial support and end up prostituting their children, lack of any moral integrity, and poverty are some of the reasons for Barbados’ downward slide into what transpired on Kadooment Day.
What kind of animal shoots into a crowd? In the United States that behaviour is called terrorism.
Jamaica lost one of its major foreign exchange earners (Reggae Sunsplash) because of lawlessness on the part of hoodlums, and yet I have never heard of 21 people being shot at that festival. (I am not sure.) Later, Reggae Sumfest also suffered great injustice because of drugs and gun play.
Why should the criminal (some of whose mothers and girlfriends know they carry unlicensed weapons) be protected from the ultimate punishment when they commit murder?
Why punish society by having us fund their holiday in prison? Do you really think prison is punishment for all criminals?
The Attorney General often argues that capital punishment hadn’t improved the crime situation in Trinidad and Tobago after they applied it en masse to a group of murderers.
Maybe if they had kept doing it, some criminals would be more hesitant to use a gun to settle disputes. After all, the criminals shouldn’t have more rights than law-abiding citizens.
We need to realise that the homes, schools, churches and other civic groups must pay attention to our children as they develop, because we reap whatever we sow.
– VERNON BOWEN
