Desmond HenryTREASURE BEACH:
SUPPOSE THE police had reacted to the school children of the Denham Town primary school, the way they are trained to react to acts of mob-rioting and lawlessness directed at them? What do you suppose could have happened to those children? Just imagine a protective response including tear gas, batons and even bullets.
It could have been a disaster of catastrophic proportions. And not necessarily because the cops over-reacted, but because the kids were completely misdirected.
How on God's earth do 10-year-old children get it into their heads to storm a police station with stones and bottles? Who was responsible for putting these young, misguided imbeciles into harm's way? And where will they learn not to do it again? I am as flabbergasted as the rest of Jamaica, to have read such an idiotic act of potential suicide; but worse to see how we have just taken it all in stride. No outrage, no big thing. After all it was done before four years ago and official reaction was so irresolute and tepid, that it was alright to do it 'one more time.'
This is a classic playing-out of rote behaviour learnt from elsewhere. This did not originate in the minds of the kids. They were directed and manipulated by others in either their homes, communities and perhaps, even their school.
Given the sequence of the reports, however, I am less inclined to think the school was directly involved, though its absence of forthright condemnation after the first incident, could have indirectly contributed to an encore. In my days of growing up a strong tongue-lashing followed by a good 'backsiding' would have made sure that never again in their lifetime, would kids have attempted anything so foolish and dangerous. Which brings me to the next point.
If it is true that children practise what they see, learn or read, then it is pretty obvious that our kids are picking up some awful influences somewhere. No surprise here. It is possible for most children in Jamaica, for example, to know more about what goes on in some of the sleaziest Hollywood bedrooms, than what takes place in their own Houses of Parliament. Reason? Television.
I have been writing repeatedly on the poor levels of public communication and propaganda as put out by our government agencies, as one of the main reasons for the high levels of disconnect between the country and its citizens. A simple emotion like pride, for example, is born mainly out of an example of achievement. Thus when we win at football or athletics, a sense of pride swells our hearts. We feel proud because we have achieved. So it is in sports, so it is in everything else. We are far too secret in telling about the good things we do. The bad things speak loudly for themselves, the good things need to be told. This in itself is a complete reversal of everything we have ever been taught about good and bad news. Such is the nature of the changing times in which we live.
That is why I urge the Prime Minister, once again, to begin a process of live telecasting of the sessions of the House and Senate. But that's not all. Much more creative and imaginative communication deliverables need to be put in place. When, for example sometime ago I proposed the construction of a mobile stage exhibition called "A Bazaar of The Bizarre" to visit every parish capital, exploring some of the physical contents of our children's school bags and pockets, many readers thought I was being overly cynical. In light of what has happened in Denham Town, was I being cynic or a realist? Truth is, if more people had an idea of what our children do, other than what they were supposed to do, they would bring more discipline to bear on them all.
Endearing courtesies
A good sense of shock is part of what this country needs. Too many of our public activities are conducted behind closed doors, without knowledge or participation. Empires crumble when their leaders forfeit the esteem or pride of their citizens.
A thorough investigation into who and what were responsible for the Denham Town incident, should be carried out. Everyone parent, child, teacher who is culpable should be punished. Not just spoken to, punished. If ever there was need to bring back some of our retired teachers (and their endearing courtesies) back into our schools, that time is now.
In addition, our media must help us all to get to the origins of many of these aberrations. Treated to scandal after scandal, and to equally scandalous attempts to cover them up, many of our people are reluctant to accept anyone's word for anything, anymore. There is a destructive lack of respect permeating the society.
Where did it all begin? How did it spread so widely, so quickly? Where will it end? Pertinent questions indeed. If children don't respect their parents, students their teachers, or citizens the law; it will take us all into a bottom so deep, it will be nigh impossible to climb out. Three things are likely to happen: We will lose self-respect; we will lose a sense of shame; and we will lose self-control. With these will go, civil control. Chaos emerges. To hell with systems. Might is right.
But we cannot demand character for our leaders unless we demand it first, from ourselves. Each of us is a single thread in the fabric of mutual respect, of which our society is composed. As the comic Pogo once put it: "We have seen the enemy, and the enemy is us."
THE BOTTOM LINE:
In any well run society, discipline and indiscipline are not interchangeable; order and disorder cannot co-exist.
Desmond Henry is a marketing strategist based in Treasure Beach, St. Elizabeth.
