Where we went wrong? – Nov 30 | ![]() |
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REGENERATING THE MORAL AND SPIRITUAL VALUES OF OUR SOCIETY By Vernon Khelawan “Where did we go wrong?” This is the question wherever people are gathered these days. It is in relation to the now parlous state of our society, where values have been so trampled upon and standards could hardly be lower. However, tHhe answer to that question is blowing in the wind. We followed everyone else and we lost our way. We imported other people’s cultures and habits and laid claim to them. Imagine we now celebrate Halloween! Our young men wear their pants below their butt and their caps with the peaks backward, all influenced by what they have seen through the media. Where we went wrong? We stopped guiding our children, teaching them values and the need to respect people and their property. We left those tasks to the teachers – for some of whom students have now become secondary. Archbishop Joseph Harris put it this way to Catholic teachers at their annual convention, “I do not want in Catholic schools a worker who teaches, I want a teacher who works.” It is as though the entire country is in ‘hustle’ mode, just looking for that dollar. From the professionals to the CEPEP worker, the thinking is the same. The young professionals, before they even begin their careers, have already chosen the high-end car they are going to buy, while the labourer aims to purchase a vehicle to ply PH. This dogged pursuit of money was demonstrated recently when taxi drivers plying the Mayaro-Manzanilla route increased their fares by almost 300 per cent (from $12 to $40), gouging the same people they know so well and whom they will need to use their taxis when things return to normalcy. A natural disaster cuts off the direct road between the two districts and rather than empathise with the commuters, the taxi drivers are ripping them off. But it’s not only the taxi drivers. The prices and fees of the market vendors, tradesman, store owners, private medical institutions, law chambers, accountants, etc. are not tempered with God’s love or empathy for another human being. It’s all about the money. Whether the Third Pastoral Priority – Regenerating the Moral and Spiritual Values of Our Society – is fulfilled is entirely up to us, the people of God, who must be sincerely determined to make a real difference and change the way we live. |