Is there a curse on this land?

Thousands of years ago, the Prophet Malachi wrote these words:

“Know that I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before my day comes, that great and terrible day. He shall turn the hearts of fathers toward their children and the hearts of children toward their fathers lest I come and strike this land with a curse.”

Way back in 1970, when two men walked up the hill of Laventille to initiate an effort which subsequently evolved into an organisation called  SERVOL, the following report was produced after three months of attentive listening to the people of the area: “The main problems are those common to all depressed areas: poverty, lack of housing, massive unemployment, lack of facilities of practically every kind. The major problem, however, stems from a lack of a stable family life. A significant number of children born in the area have no experience of what it is like to have a father living in the same house with a mother on a stable basis.  The males in the area tend to have several children by different mothers and make little attempt to support or take an interest in them. A new trend is gathering momentum: young mothers are leaving their homes to seek employment in the USA leaving their children to be brought up by grandparents or by the eldest daughter in the family.  This situation is filled with dire consequences and unless something is done it can escalate into a serious social problem. 

Added to this, the educational system is an academic one modelled on the grammar school type and is totally irrelevant to the needs of the children who demand a caring environment with training in a broad system of skills.” (Servol report 1970) It is now 34 years later and the chickens have come home to roost and the authorities in question are running around in circles in their efforts to cope with the significant escalation of crime and violence as well as the increasing carnage of road deaths mainly due to the disregard of law and order on the streets of the nation. Which brings me to the prophet Malachi.  Two months ago, when I was teaching a class on self-awareness at the SERVOL Beetham Life Centre, I was explaining to a class of forty adolescents around the age of seventeen, the different kinds of love, using the Greek terms to distinguish them: STORGE (family love), PHILIA (friendship love), AGAPE (love of God and one’s neighbour) and EROS (sexual love). I spent some time emphasising how important it is for all children and especially for male children, to have an experience of the warrior love that only a father can communicate to his children. As I paused for comments, one six-foot tall eighteen year old stood up and said words to this effect: “My father has had twenty- three children by eleven different women.

All my life, I have longed and longed to hear him tell me just once, that he loves me, but I have waited in vain.” And he began to weep uncontrollably. It was as if he triggered off something in the young males, for one by one they stood up in turn to relate a similar experience they had in their lives. The young women remained silent realising that this was something shared by the males, to which they had never been privy. It was with great difficulty that I controlled my emotions and congratulated the speakers on their courage and eloquence and urged them to participate in the parenting programme which was part of their curriculum. The second incident was related to me by the Principal of the SERVOL school for special children on Calvary Hill. There was a young man whom we shall call James who had attended the school for three years as a slow learner and would often drop by to “checkup” on  “Miss” with whom he had developed a strong relationship. When she asked him how he was getting on he replied that he was doing very well and had secured a permanent job.  When she asked him what kind of job, he replied that he was getting good money to “watch Big Red’s back”,  Big Red being the head of a gang on the hill. To prove his point, he lifted up his shirt to disclose a revolver stuck into his belt and said “look Miss, I ain’t fooling you, I packing. (a gun).

When she remonstrated with him as to the dangers of that kind of life and urged him to look for something else, he just looked at her and simply said: “Miss, this is the only life I know.” When she told me this, I felt my heart would break at the simple honesty of the young man, “this is the only life I know” and I wept for James and the hundreds of other beautiful young people who had never experienced a father’s love and had perforce to attach themselves to gangsters as their father figures. I have argued for thirty years that unless there is a radical change in our educational system in which  the male and female teachers become role models for the young people of our country, we are spinning top in mud. I cannot tell you how many young men I have met who attribute their success in life to having met a mentor in the shape of a social worker, a sympathetic police officer or a dedicated teacher. This article is a clarion call to all the men of Trinidad and Tobago particularly those who have attained success in life and brought up their own family , to find time to be mentors of those young people who have never had the experience of the tough love which only a male can give to another male.

It is also a call to all those men (especially of the upper and middle classes) who neglect their children, refuse them love, discipline and guidance and replace these with gifts of money and fast cars. If we fail our children, then, I am fearful that the words of the prophet Malachi will be fulfilled and if we do not succeed in turning the hearts of fathers towards their children and the hearts of children towards their fathers this land will be stricken with a curse.