FEEL CEO: Children replacing pens with guns

Clive Pantin, Chief Executive Officer Foundation for the Enhancement and Enrichment of Life (FEEL) said yesterday that “children are substituting the gun for the pen” and have a false idea of what power is all about. Pantin made the remark while touring of the model house for street children at James Smart Village, Sangre Chiquito. The house will be managed by the Children Village Association of Trinidad and Tobago. Pantin emphasised that what is happening today in the country regarding crime should never be happening. 

“If children are not getting the examples of moral values from home then crapaud smoke yuh pipe,” he said. “Children are substituting the gun for the pen,” he said, noting that “ they do not understand what power is all about.” Pantin emphasised that the authorities are putting, “I first, me second and myself third, forgetting the poor. As a result young criminals are not happy and get themselves involved in criminal activity to get that happiness.” Children are reacting and becoming arrogant, only because they are not getting the special attention of love, care and attention by parents, he said.

Examples set by parents, he said, can either eliminate deliquent behaviour or reinforce it. He put some of the blame for the deliquent behaviour on the television stations as most of the shows children are exposed to  depict some form of anger and violence which, he added, the children will eventually put into practice. Even some of the songs dictate violence, he said, adding, that, “One can actually get the sense of hate, arrogance and violence by the words and rhythm of these songs.” Panting lamented that FEEL was doing the Government’s job by providing homes for the needy, and usually the organisation never got a cent for its efforts.