EDITOR, The Tribune.
THE governments proposed “Older Persons Rights, Protection, Care and Support Bill” is supposed to place a general duty on the next of kin to ensure that older persons can sustain an appropriate standard of living. While this seeks to address the obvious problem of the neglect and abandonment of the elderly at government healthcare institutions etc, it fails to address the core issue of the rapidly deterioration of the social and moral fabric of this country.
I have long believed that just because people can have children doesn’t mean that they should, because of the many emotional, physical and financial demands that are placed on prospective parents. We expect a period of training for many tasks that are undertaken in daily life, but any one of reproductive age can and do have children with reckless abandon. We see it all around us, people who have nothing to offer having children to whom they can give nothing; not emotionally, materially, educationally or spiritually. The frustrations of childrearing often cause the emotionally immature to lash out at their children. We have seen young women (men too) yanking the arm of a lagging child, shouting abuses at them or hitting them in public. I have often wondered what these same people would do to these children in private if they are so unrestrained in the public eye.
Abuse hinders the proper formation of relationships between parents and children. If children do not get to experience love, be nurtured or morally trained by those closest to them, now can one expect a relationship to exist between those parents and the child. Parents forget that their children will not remain babies forever. As you get older, so are they and when there is no cord of love between parent and child because of the parents; abuse or neglect, how can that parent expect that child to look out for or care about them when they become more vulnerable. How does anyone ask a person to undertake responsibilities for a next of kin with whom there is no familial connection, simply because they are kin? Isn’t it obvious that those who have relatives to whom they share some closeness will take steps to look out for and care for them to the best of their ability?
That is what real relationship does; it creates a ‘glue’ that holds people and families together in a way that mere association doesn’t. Many grow up under a roof with parents or siblings with whom they have no connection beyond shared genes and that is a major problem.
People seem to forget that children have a natural inclination to their parents and no matter what a parent does or says to a child, they will still come back to the parent and put an arm around them, until they have had enough. Then they retreat into themselves or look for that sense of ‘family’ in others. This is where many parents lose their children to various groups or gangs.
Our nation is failing at the one thing that should be its priority -- producing quality citizens! That does not happen by accident. There has to be a deliberate plan to raise people who are educated (not indoctrinated), self-aware, motivated, disciplined, courteous and responsible. But that is far too lofty a goal for our governments to undertake. There are elections to win, large loans to be made and the proverbial ball to kick just a little further down the road. Until then, a virtually unenforceable bill will have to suffice for the hard work of actually committing to building a nation!
JB
Nassau,
October 10, 2026.