MP blames uncaring dads
for crime problem

“TO A large extent, the crime situation in this country today is the result of fathers who merely see themselves as sperm distributors.” Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of National Security Anthony Roberts made this categorical declaration in an address recently in San Juan.

The St Ann’s East MP was at the time delivering an address at The Nazarene Worship Centre, on Santa Cruz Old Road. The occasion was the launching of the church steelband orchestra’s fourth CD.

In addressing the members of the mostly teenaged steel orchestra and the rest of the congregation, Roberts stressed that the young Christian musicians were “making shining examples of themselves to other youth not only in Trinidad and Tobago, but on indeed foreign shores as well.”

In their seven-year existence, The Nazarene Worship Centre Steel Orchestra has toured Toronto, Santo Domingo, Indiana, Chicago, Ohio, and North and South Carolina in the US, and in the region, St. Vincent and The Grenadines, Barbados and St. Lucia.

Making reference to the country’s penal system which falls under his portfolio in the Ministry of National Security, Roberts told the gathering, the prisons’ structure was shameful and in shambles.  Roberts said the country’s  alarming crime rate was a direct consequence of repeat offenders who were primarily the youths of the nation.

A great amount of the repeat criminals are fatherless youths with extremely low self-esteem. Fathers, he noted, “need to make worthwhile and continuous contributions to the nurturing of their offspring.”

“Once this is achieved,” he went on, “the benefits will include a better society, less plagued with crime.”

Roberts vowed to use every muscle in his being “to ensure that effective prison-reform makes provisions, to address the plaque of uncaring fathers.” He urged the young Christian pannists to continue the work they were doing spreading the gospel while using the medium of the national instrument as a unique backdrop.

Church pastor and musical director of the steelband Rev. Lealand Henry thanked Roberts for his presence and for what he presented in his address. Henry told the gathering Roberts was instrumental in the church’s acquisition of the initial set of steelpans from the area’s top steelband — the Pamberi Steel Orchestra — with which the Nazarenes started their band in ‘95.

Sheldon Blackman gave a special performance to an audience that included prolific composer David Boothman, CD producer Everard Seaton and Dr. Manswell, District Superintendent of the Nazarene Church.