“Most Societies, Barbados included, suffer some discomfort for the sake of political and religious correctness, not to mention change in the way we do and say things.”
– Saturday Sun Editorial, December 26, 2015.
This is aptly put in the context of the splash “No Strap!” on the back page of the said SATURDAY SUN, which comes to Barbados like a sermon preached to Nazareth from Capernaum. Jesus could do no miracle in Nazareth that He performed in Capernaum.
Corporal punishment appears to be a persistent bee in the nation’s bonnet disrespectful of the rights of the wearer’s claim to peaceful tolerance of the way that he does things. First no licks, now no strap . . . front and back.
Lawful corporal punishment that humanitarians elsewhere find offensive relates to the punishment of crimes with the likes of cat-o’-nine tails already banished – ruefully some thought – a while ago, not as a deterrent, but compensation. Anyone who wanted more could always claim it with the appropriate offence.
That kind of punishment does not apply to the chastisement of children by parents and guardians as schoolmaster in loco parentis.
It is always possible to distinguish the spoiled brat of overindulgent parents from the disciplined children in any crowd or class.
Whatever and wherever the sophistication of political and religious correctness being practised, the scars of repressed resentment by the adult of the exercise of hierarchical power differential linger longer than parental discipline administered as chastisement with the rod of correction . . . .
Some words spoken without love, the preachers know, are more harmful than a parental flogging, including the hypocrisy of political and religious correctness.
Moderation, not excess, is the measure of any action’s benefit. This applies as well to what sounds like liquor as to licks. Excess of the best of anything is its abuse. Discretion must be used in getting rid of abuse to avoid substantial loss.
– LEONARD ST HILL