FOR some reason I seem to be drawn to recollections of my childhood in these columns in recent weeks. I am not sure that I have a finger on what this is all about, although I would want to hazard a guess that, not only is this a time when we are focused on our children, their performances in examinations, and the re-opening of schools, but it seems to me that the events being played out in the national arena may be creating troubling thoughts for me as to what exactly are the lessons that our leaders and our generation of adults want to pass on to our children.

Increasingly, the society is handing over more and more of the responsibility for the education, socialisation, and development of our children to the formal school system. In this way, it is easy to talk about this process of nurture and formation of our children in almost euphemistic ways under the umbrella of education, even as we overlook the many ways in which home, community, and school fulfil this responsibility in intentional and unintentional ways. To this mix we may add the influence of the media.

Many of us seem unaware of the ways in which our children pick up issues of values, attitudes, and emotional dynamics when we seem oblivious to their presence or even their appreciation of these things. Accordingly, many parents assume that if they have their fights behind closed doors or while taking a drive away from home, the children will not be able to perceive in their interaction the emotional temperature of the spousal conflict.

Sadly, some children sometimes assume that the tension between their parents is because of something which they have done to displease their parents. At other times, children can play on this parental conflict to their advantage, as they are then able to work out which parent will allow what, and how to time certain requests when parents are most at odds with each other.

The perceptiveness of children concerning these seemingly subjective dimensions of interpersonal relationships came to the fore for me some time ago as I listened to a young man reflect on the life and contribution of his grandmother who had recently died.

I asked him how is it that he came to live with his grandmother and she became the central parental figure in his life. He said that at age nine he got up one day and just decided that he could not endure any longer the chaos, conflict, and disorder which existed in his parents’ home, and so he walked to his grandmother’s home and has never looked back.

She provided the discipline, the love, and the nurturing which he needed to make him the man he is today, with all of the academic, vocational, and interpersonal competence to show for it.

The national context today is not unlike the chaotic situation from which this nine-year-old child had to walk, knowing in his “innocence” that there had to be a better way than that to which he was being exposed daily. The only problem is that our nation’s children have no other home to which to turn for guidance and succour.

Our children and young adults have grown up in this country knowing nothing other than a life of high crime and violence and one of the highest murder rates in the world.

Many of us do not understand that when we talk about the days when we used to go to bed and leave our doors unlocked we are talking to people who are now old or growing old. Our children are growing up in a society in which they see more and more violent crimes and abuse being targeted at children, even as the State reneges on its responsibilities toward the children.

They see yet another massacre in Tredegar Park, this time involving a family of three generations, by criminals who have been able over the years to find shelter through their alliance with one of the two major political parties in this country. They are learning that violence is the way to deal with young persons, such as their older siblings who run foul of the law or demonstrate anti-social behaviour — “we are to identify them and treat them like the ferocious crocodiles and alligators, having them killed in the eggs before they are hatched”.

Those covered by the privileges of middle and upper class living have no difficulty with seeing these “eggs” from a different social class being killed by private citizens or agents of the State.

The scenarios being acted out at the level of leadership and governance are even more poignant. Within the last few days many of these things have come together in a most profound way that could overwhelm and immobilise adults, worse our children. The Trafigura Affair has resurfaced in a report from Contractor General Greg Christie, with a proposal that former general secretary of the People’s National Party, Colin Campbell, be indicted.

Member of parliament Everald Warmington launches an attack on the integrity of the contractor general after Mr Christie initiated an investigation into the awarding of contracts by the St Catherine Parish Council in violation of procurement policies and guidelines, thereby indicating evidence of corruption.

The contractor general releases the report of his investigation of the previous Government’s sale of its shares in the National Commercial Bank, and the finding that there were inappropriate dealings in that transaction, and the proposal for the pursuit of legal proceedings in this case. Into that mix comes the return to national focus of the Manatt, Phelps and Philips saga, with the exposé carried in the Sunday Gleaner which indicated the e-mail correspondence which went on between the major players at home and abroad in this affair.

These are all serious matters which raise questions about leadership and integrity among those involved in leadership and governance in this and the previous administration. I am certain that they are neither deaf nor blind to the issues but are intentional in their failure to address them, even as they take swipes at or attack those who raise them.

Errol Hewitt, a contributor to the Sunday Gleaner (August 29, 2010), sums up the situation well for those who are alert to what is going on:

There has been increasing dissatisfaction with the quality and commitment of our political leadership over the last 30 years to the point where some even question their ethics and integrity while expressing alarm at the spectre of possible partnerships with criminal elements.

…it would seem that the retention of political power is more important than the country’s interest or its belief in the integrity of government. Our reputation in the world is in the pits — not only in respect of our world-leading murder rate but the whole integrity of our system of governance.

Instead of acknowledging where there have been violations of the trust of government and basic principles of ethics and morality, what we are getting is a retreat to the usual style of leadership on both sides, which fails to discuss issues and principles in a context of accountability but a retreat to rabble-rousing as a re-enforcement of support and political strength. In this regard, I am grateful for the insights offered by Dr Deborah Duperly-Pinks in an article published in this newspaper a week ago and which characterised Caribbean political leadership as “populist, pseudo-heroic, patron-oriented and authoritarian”. To observe Prime Minister Bruce Golding and former Prime Minister and leader of the opposition addressing these issues is pathetic. When the prime minister could have been reported to say to a gathering of party supporters that he could have handled the Mannatt Affair “worse”, while they cheered on, is most disturbing and contemptuous of our people. Simply riling up the party base at the grassroots level where blind loyalty prevails and the “hero-provider” egoism receives its re-enforcement will not do.

What I find most distressing is the rather puerile political game of establishing a comparative scoring system for determining which political party has the most failures of morality and integrity. In this scenario, the appeal is for persons to line up behind their political party of preference without discussing the fact that serious failures of leadership and governance are taking place and the quality of leadership and the level of integrity of the leadership leave much to be desired. But then, have we even facilitated a national discussion that allows us to determine what that desired level of leadership should look like?

I recall as a boy getting into some verbal and physical exchanges with my brother. We had for years become a part of the household of my aunt who became a surrogate mother. Our fights would escalate to a point at which she would appear to put an end to things. This usually gentle soul would listen to us as we each sought to justify our involvement in the fight, showing that it was the other person who was the initiator and chief offender.

She would listen to all the rationalisation, probably utilising some psychology to allow us to ventilate some of the emotions, because — teacher that she was — she probably knew that learning does not take place when negative emotions are high and free-flowing.

Then came the time for the lesson. The strap was produced and each received an appropriate number of licks, each administered with the lesson, “you are brothers, you are to live loving”. Her gentle ways meant that the licks were not of the nature to inflict physical damage, but what was probably most painful was learning the lesson and to hear those often repeated words of sibling love which must take precedence over sibling rivalry and conflict.

There is a poem which was written by Dorothy Law Nolte entitled Children learn what they live, and which some of us know as Children live what they learn from versions which we have heard put to music. I believe that there is a basic truth to both expressions.

The point is that whatever is the nature of the environment, the way of life, and the values and attitudes to which our children are exposed, it is that which will govern who they become and how they behave in later life. This is more important than the things which we often articulate, especially if it is inconsistent with what they are observing all around them.

The question which we must ask ourselves as a nation, especially those of us who walk by blind allegiance to our political leaders is, what exactly are we teaching our children in the present national quagmire?

Whitney Houston has made popular the song The Greatest Love Of All, in which she sings about our children as our future. She expresses an optimistic view of children and the future in these words:

“I believe that children are our future, teach them well and let them lead the way….. Everybody’s searching for a hero, people need someone to look up to…”

The troubling question for me is whether we can say that as a society we share that optimism for our children and their future. If, as we have seen in discussions in recent weeks, the political leaders of our nation are ageing and are not prepared to step aside, and if, as is obvious, the politics is a constant repetition of the old style, which is currently manifesting itself as grossly deficient in the quality and style of leadership, and the questionable level of ethics and integrity, then what sort of future is in store for our nation and our children?

— Howard Gregory is the Suffragan Bishop of Montego Bay