'Let’s realign our values' - Terrelonge bats for education, end to child abuse

The launch of Kevin Downswell's Realignment Tour at the JN Financial Centre on Belmont Road in New Kingston on May 29 provided the context for some political and corporate leaders to call for a realignment of values and attitudes in Jamaica.

The guest speaker for the launch, Minister of State in the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport Alando Terrelonge, used the opportunity to underscore the need for a realignment of those negative cultural beliefs, which place males and children at a disadvantage.

Terrelonge said there needs to be a rethink of how machismo is perceived in Jamaica, noting that the discussion over the years has shifted away from the mores and principles that define men.

"You have been sold this lie about your masculinity. Your masculinity is [about] making a life for yourself, having an education ... ," Terrelonge said.

Recounting experiences of young men who have come to him in search of employment, the first-time member of parliament noted that when asked about their academic qualifications, the response is often a nonchalant attitude towards education.

"Them thing there is girl thing, you know. Man fi have them first yute by them a 18 and 17... ," he said, verbalising some of the responses he has received.

"No! It is not true!" Terrelonge told his audience of stakeholders in the gospel music industry.

"Your education is the best gift you can give yourself. It is Kevin's (Downswell) education that is the gift he gave himself which has now propelled him into stardom," he continued.

The state minister also noted that Jamaicans needed to realign their attitudes towards children and their treatment of them.

"We need to realign our values so that we understand that children also have rights. They may be small, but it doesn't mean that they should be abused. It doesn't mean that they should be taken for granted," he said, indicating that children are sometimes not treated as people.

"When you are at work and you have a problem with your boss, you're not going to scream at your boss. You're not going to slap your boss or a fellow co-worker," he said. "But, somehow, we feel that we have this right because we are big and they are small."

...Unleash Ja's potential

Calling for a reaffirmation of values and principles, Dr Dana Morris-Dixon, chief marketing and business development officer for The Jamaica National (JN) Group, recently highlighted the relationship between violence and a decay in values and attitudes.

Dr Morris-Dixon, in an address at the launch of Kevin Downswell's Realignment Tour last Tuesday, underlined the importance of the tour in creating awareness and engaging people on these issues in its journey across Jamaica.

"That mission is fully aligned with the JN Group's mission and vision for a Jamaica, in which potential is not suppressed, but unleashed - a Jamaica where people are confident, empowered and certain about who they are, what they can accomplish, and are bold in their pursuance of what they can become," Morris-Dixon said.

Highlighting the merging of the JN and Kevin Downswell brands after the gospel artiste was unveiled as JN's corporate ambassador last year, Morris-Dixon said the tour should assist Jamaicans to reconnect with core moralities that define the Jamaican spirit.

She concluded: "It is our hope that at the end of this Realignment Tour, more Jamaicans across all 14 parishes will reaffirm the 'promise to stand up for justice, brotherhood and peace, to work diligently and creatively, to think generously and honestly, so that Jamaica may, under God, increase in beauty, fellowship and prosperity and play her part in advancing the welfare of the whole human race'."