Right thinking parents, move out of Laventille

THE EDITOR: I read the paper and listen to the news and asked myself who is responsible for the bloodletting that has begun in Laventille and threatens to engulf the entire country. I am pained to hear these parents of criminal sons tearfully confessing on television that “The boy was such a good boy.” What absolute rubbish! What rot! When your children create havoc in schools and remain unresponsive to the discipline that education should promote, who is responsible? Yes, parent. It is you! I was a teacher and I know. You did not teach discipline at home. When they complete the entire five years at school and emerge without a full certificate because they refused to focus, who is responsible? Yes, parent. It is you! When they roam the neighbourhood, looking for the lime and the fete and end up pregnant by the seventeen year old gangster from the alley, who is responsible? Yes parent. It is you.

You are to blame because you refuse to act as the teacher in your home, failing to discipline, to outline boundaries, to define and outline acceptable standards for your children. You refuse to teach them to have ambitions and to dream. You created a home without rules where anything goes. You created the home where children could say what they wish, do as they wish, be friends with whom they wish. They do not know how to plan, because they have never seen you plan. They do not know how to save, because you do not save. You live from day to day. They do not understand responsibility, because you do not demonstrate responsibility and commitment to your own work and family. It is about time that a politician spoke the truth. In spite of all the political representation Laventille has had, it took Keith Rowley to call it as it is. The parents are to blame. If your son is a gangster, it is your fault. Face it! Yours and yours alone. This is decision time for right thinking families. I call on the families who want to do better for themselves, who want order and stability and children who can make progress in school and not be drawn into another generation of poverty and degradation to move out of the area, and make a life for your children elsewhere in Trinidad. Move out of Laventille. Laventille may have produced wonderful artists in the past, but alongside that it has certainly spawned the worst criminals and the greatest bedlam and chaos this nation has the misfortune to witness. By the way, I am Afro Trinidadian and I deeply detest the image of Africans portrayed by the Laventille community. I do not identify with it. The vast majority of Africans want more than this desolation that Laventille wants to visit on us.

MICHELLE HARDING
Princes Town