Hilary Robertson -Hickling
FROM ALL assessments many of our families are in deep trouble here at home and in the diaspora. One of the most tragic indicators of this is Lee Boyd Malvo now incarcerated in the United States of America. He, like many others has fallen off our radars as we contemplate the young men and women now falling at the hands of criminals and becoming criminals themselves. The last year in Jamaica was one of the most terrible in our history as we saw large numbers of young men taking up the gun and also being its victims. A very important question is, who are the parents of these youngsters and where are they? Some parents are now overseas, some illegally and others legally, and they send remittances to care for their children, but no one is managing the emotional, psychological and spiritual needs of these vulnerable young people.
It is amazing that there are often requests for help by mothers covered on the television news, but no fathers are visible. There are no virgin births in Jamaica so I think that the news media need to find the father to interview him about his contribution to his child's welfare. That must connect to the fact that far too many Jamaican children do not know their fathers, do not have his name and therefore are insecure about their origins.
A recent study by Professor Chevannes has pointed out that approximately one-third of the paternity cases before the Family Court are indeed 'jackets' according to DNA evidence. Why would a woman knowingly attribute a child to the wrong man? This gives a child a very bad start. There is so much experience and research about father hunger and the deleterious effects of fatherlessness, and yet we cannot develop the policies and practices which will ensure that every Jamaican child starts life with a name which indicates that he or she was the result of an act of love in his or her conception.
PREVENTION OF PREGNANCY
There has never been a time in history when information about the prevention of pregnancy has been more available, but so many Jamaican women choose a partner who is not available, already occupied with other families that he may or may not be supporting, or is not mature enough to take on the role of father. There is need for help for families in crisis and our teachers, guidance counsellors, preachers and health workers have to have the knowledge, skills and attitudes to identify, refer and help vulnerable families. Some of our homes are dangerous places in which adult men molest children at will, sometimes even with the tacit agreement of their mothers who gain financially from their reprehensible behaviour.
Many of the leading citizens in the country have been leading less than honourable lives with multiple families and demonstrating a careless disregard for their family relationships. One wonders how many generations have to suffer from the results of child shifting, fatherlessness and the other characteristics of those of our families which are falling apart. Even the strongest families are under tremendous pressure in the world which is besieged by permissiveness, challenge to authority at all levels and a level of materialism which requires everything immediately.
As we come face to face with the levels of prostitution which is being called by many other names, I am glad we are now beginning to discuss the issue of legalising it. We need to stop living a lie and there has got to be a revolution in the country, and it has to begin at home. This is my wish in Child Month, the month of Mother's Day. Maybe this should be Family Month.
Hilary Robertson-Hickling is a lecturer in the Department of Management Studies, University of the West Indies, Mona.
