Fight netative trends ‘with positives’

Using God-given instructions from The Bible, a Government minister, a magistrate, child care officials, teachers and parents concluded that the nurturing of strong individuals and the modelling of correct behaviour were key ways to deal with the negative culture that has affected young people in Barbados.Child Care Board official Delvina Waithe evoked loud applause when she passionately declared that there were too many fragmented parents raising fragmented children, and in their brokeness they did not understand God’s plan for the family.  “We must give our children value and self-worth as children of the King,” Waithe said to a tumultuous response during discussion on how the church could help transform youth in Barbados. The panel discussion, last  Thursday night at the New Dimensions Ministries, attracted a large audience and an experienced panel including former Minister of Youth and Family and current Minister of Labour Dr Esther Byer-Suckoo, Magistrate Barbara Cooke-Alleyne, veteran teachers Jean Prescod-Bullen  Carlos Mellows, Pastor Sandra Holford, Waithe and Sandra Best of the Child Care Board.Both Cooke-Alleyne and Byer-Suckoo stressed that the [various sections] of media were over-highlighting the actions of a small group of deviant youth while ignoring the positive work of the greater number.  Suckoo put most of the blame of deviancy among the youth at the feet of the adults and the church, which she described as engaging in behaviours that caused them to lose the moral authority to correct and guide people.The stage was set early in the night when Prescod-Bullen treated the audience to some of the more conservative musical lyrics with which her pre-secondary school charges were familiar, while Mellows said the sub-culture was now the dominant culture in Barbados.Mellows explained that everyone was saying what needed to be done but, like the adage of “belling the cat”, no-one was acting. He added that it was frightening that the youth were committing irrational acts in a natural manner, but empathised with the youngsters’ frustrations as the failure of relevant agencies to act on legitimate concerns was equally frustratingfor adults.With almost all members of the audience agreeing that the church had to become more aggressive in saving the youth from “the enemy”, one woman said: “The church needs to rise up and indoctrinate our children with Jesus!”Such sentiments were echoed throughout the hall, with many quoting passages of Scripture which spoke to the value of the “rod of correction”.The meeting concluded with the call for Christians to “stand up” as the deviant sub-cultures were more public in what they stood for than the church.