Sound values, not money will get you anywhere

Berkeley was speaking Wednesday at the launch of ScoutsTT Investment in Character Campaign at the TT Scouts Headquarters, St Ann’s.

He said it did not matter how much infrastructure was put in place, if citizens were not grounded in the right values and characteristics, the country would go nowhere.

Berkely said the investment in the campaign was rallying TT in going beyond material things, beyond investing in jobs and buildings, but in creating the right kind of citizen the country needs now, and in the future.

“What we are doing is saying to the public and corporate TT that it is time for us to actually start investing in our young people, and developing the right kinds of character tools and trades that we want in our society.

“We are asking people to join with us, invest in our programmes, invest time, money, energy, resources, in building TT. We have what we consider a proven alternative to all of the negative alternatives that afflict our society today,” Berkeley said.

“We can create a better infrastructure, but if we do not have citizens who are grounded in values, proper work ethics and those kinds of things that we consider to be the characteristics of scouting, then we are not going to get anywhere.

“The late Dr Eric Williams (TT’s first prime minister) said ‘the future of the country was in our children’s school bags’, but it was also in what our children did. Dr Williams also said that money is not the problem, it is a problem.

“What he meant was that the issues that affect us as a society in terms of nature building are not related to money, but to the values that we have and how we go about building the society. Our level of patriotism and understanding as citizens, as individuals in humanity and mankind, we have a responsibility to leave this world better than we met it,” Berkeley said.

He said it was not just what we got out of life, community or the government, it was also what we gave back to society.

“This is asking all those who have benefitted from youth activities and co-curricular activities in school to start giving back. Let us not say we do not have time to do things, let us make the time to invest in creating a better world and a better TT,” he said.

Berkely said the crime situation in TT was a result of individuals and a level of lack of hope, and felt scouting was a way forward.

He said currently there were 6,400 scouts in TT with hopes of bringing that figure to 10,000 in the next three years.

The World Organisation of the Scout Movement (WOSM) is 40 million with the vision to increase that figure to 100 million by 2023.

“It is about getting young people involved, about getting them to make the right decisions and choices and that is what scouting is all about.

“When people think about scouts they think about camping and hiking and tying knots. That is really the method.

The objective of the programme is really character development and instilling in young people the values that allow them to make the right choices, the good choices in life, and to contribute to their society,” Berkeley said.

He added that over the past five years, over $12 billion was spent on trying to find the cure for crime in the country. He said if we invested more of that money in programmes that focussed on prevention, it would be money better spent.