Materialistic values

THE EDITOR: Mr Russell Warner, the uncle of a recent murder victim has accurately summarised the cause of the homicidal frenzy that imperils our society — (Newsday, March 7, 2005). We do not need more armed police officers as much as we need a new direction, a new sense of values, a different outlook on the purpose of life. It is the same principle that a former president of our nation alluded to when he spoke of moral and spiritual values.

There is also a connection between the criminal murderous activity that plagues our society and the breakdown of family life. Our values are too materialistic. We believe that a successful society is one in which the money flows. We have a twisted interpretation of an equally cynical adage; “money answereth all things” Our modern culture equates value with dollars and cents. Consequently we notice in this society that with the economy thriving with gas/oil dollars we are beset with criminal elements who view human life as cheap. Truly our country is threatened by this attitude. The poet’s warning, “Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, where wealth accumulates and men decay” is relevant to our situation.

Mr Warner’s advice might be viewed by some bitter, pseudo-intellectuals as emotional religious drivel but surely we need to investigate our sense of values. We seem on the verge of losing our national soul as we suffocate in a flood of dollars. It is incomprehensible that our political pundits cannot unite in a war on crime and criminals regardless of their position in society. The constant prattle about constitutional reform does nothing to save one life. It is a public secret that the biggest beneficiaries of the illegal drug trade for example do not live in the ghettos of Beetham, Laventille, Morvant and Maloney. Everyone knows that there is a connection between the drug trade and the homicidal violence that is shaking our country. It is naive to believe that the “Godfathers” of our local mafia are the black youths who are shot down like dogs in the streets and alleys on the hill.

It might be that this dichotomy, in which the respectable mafia enjoy social prominence and widely acclaimed respectability while the foot soldiers of the crime bosses live in the so-called under privileged areas and are viewed as the sub-human specimens of the criminal underworld, reflects the shallowness or the hypocrisy of our ethical values. It seems that Mr Warner is suggesting that we might rediscover our humanity and self-worth in religion, which sees mankind as the children of God. Our values then would transcend the material and love, (a word often abused), would return to our hearts. Good advice Mr Warner.

E Fortun?
Arima