Children cry for love
Published:Thursday | February 1, 2024 | 12:09 AM
THE EDITOR, Madam:
Every day, stories are like writings on the wall, communicating wisdom lessons for our nation. The heart-rending story of 12-year-old Karif Mitchenere, which appeared in the January 25 edition of The Jamaica Gleaner, is one of those stories. Karif reportedly went swimming and drowned at the Kingston waterfront. Before extrapolating insights from this story, I express empathy and condolences, especially to his grandmother, Maswin Millwood.
First, Millwood is reported to have said, “... him say him lack of love ... what I said to his mother is to show him some love ... hug him up ... Play with him ... kiss him and say yuh love him ...”. From the genesis of Homo sapiens, we know instinctively that loving relationships and the environment are fundamental ingredients for building healthy human beings and a stable society.
Second, Karif had an innate desire for a suitable social and emotional environment to experience love. Hence, Millwood is quoted as saying Karif did not want her to “send him to live with anyone else ...”. He deeply sensed stability in his relationship with his grandmother.
Third, from experience and not empirical data, Millwood knew about literacy and numeracy deficiency among our children, as mentioned in the Patterson Report. She says, “Mitchenere had literacy challenges,” and he “took time overcoming” it with her partner’s help.
Fourth, the article reported a comment made by a passer-by that many children had drowned at the waterfront. I ask the question: If children have suitable and adequate social amenities within their communities, would they take the health risk of swimming at the waterfront?
Fifth, Millwood’s remark: “I was trying to reach everybody fi play a role and show him some love” reflects an ongoing national cry to resurrect the social value of the village caring for our nation’s children.
Are we listening to the loud and resounding ‘bawling’ of Jamaican children who instinctively know that their environment is emotionally and socially toxic, traumatic and dysfunctional? We have had many prophetic voices crying out on behalf of our children, but their cries are brushed aside.
Unless we adopt a preferential option for the nation’s children, our national journey to establish Jamaica as “the place of choice to live, work, raise families, and do business” will elude us. Ponder on the wisdom of Derek Walcott, “But the islands can only exist if we have loved in them.”
FR DONALD CHAMBERS, JP