Wealth gained, humanity lost

A single murder was sensational news. Villages and communities alike interacted. Now you don’t dare cross that invisible line.

So we gained some wealth and lost our humanity. I will always recall the advice of my father, Enzo Fortune: “We love things and use people, when we should love people and use things.” Today a man is measured by his material worth, regardless of how it is acquired. There has been a shift from when a man’s worth was his character and word. This development only indicated a loss of values.

Our personal values exist in relation to cultural values, either in agreement with or divergence from prevailing norms.

Social values form an important part of the culture of a society. Values account for the stability of social order. They provide the general guidelines for social conduct.

Any attempt at progress will be doomed if we do not address societal tendencies towards criminality and criminal clientelism as being the norm.

COLIN FORTUNE Arima