IT IS ALWAYS amazing to read about or hear some of the public appeals by people in straitened circumstances.
The latest edition of the WEEKEND NATION has a classic story of a hardship appeal, which the newspaper’s readers would have become accustomed to over the years. It tells the plight of Sangene Broomes, who is a rather unusual woman in the Barbados of today.
She is not yet 40 and is the mother of 12 children. Her burden cannot be easy and the challenges her offspring must encounter are not the kind of things we would want children to have to face in 2016.
Hers may be different to other sob stories covered in the paper only because of the number of children she has. That may explain why an outpouring of public sympathy simply isn’t there for Sangene. Social media, which has allowed anyone and everyone to respond to a story, has showed that the public is neither sweet nor soft on her plight. One or two missteps are acceptable, five and six are intolerable, but 12?
The response to Sangene’s plight may also very well be a situation of fatigue with hard luck stories. Unfortunately, these types of articles are no longer heartbreaking situations which move people in large numbers to want to reach out and help their fellow man in distress. Rather, they largely highlight what the public may regard as self-inflicted hardships.
The NATION newspaper highlights these stories because they have considerable human interest with an emotional punch. Yes, people like reading about people and even though these stories are similar to others carried last week, last month and last year, they bring out the best and worst in us as a people.
Reporters such as Maria Bradshaw and Carlos Atwell do not set out to look for stories which will make people look stupid or to highlight them as bad individuals. They simply want to draw attention to issues and about situations which ought not to be part of modern-day Barbados. So when they see people living in wretched conditions they merely seek to draw attention with the hope of bringing about change for the better.
Unfortunately, many of those seeking help often exhibit an attitude which suggests that others in the society owe them something; their misfortunate must be corrected by the state. It is an approach and an attitude which is now pervasive in Barbados.
So many people absolutely refuse to insure the houses in which they live or the contents but expect the Government to find a house and some business to provide contents following a misfortune such as a fire.
There was the weird case recently with a woman whose son’s home went up in flames. Not long after she was on radio making her demands; she was waiting to see what the MP for the area was going to do about the situation.
The time has come for our politicians and their acolytes who promote much of this mendicant behavior, to speak out against this type of “you owe me” attitude. Politicians must stop making foolish promises, especially concerning things which do not belong to them. They must start being much more creative in how they will respond to and reach out to help constituents in need. Individuals must recognise that they cannot only go cap in hand while seeking to get back on their feet.
Given the calls and emails coming my way it is evident that you want to celebrate success and good news.
Yes, based on the analytics from the stories we report, readers prefer, by a long range, stories with blood, crime and death. So, we want to hear your suggestions and get your input about all the wonderful things happening in your communities and the outstanding achievements being recorded daily by friends, neighbours and relatives.
We also want to know of the good news as much as the bad. (ES)
