Bassterre, Saint Kitts – Nevis
May 15, 2008 (CUOPM)
Compassion, self-respect, inner peace, religion and racial pride have been identified as the right ingredients for shaping a new Caribbean society.
St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas told some 250 persons attending the annual Mother’s Day Gala organised by Kittitians and Nevisians Association (KANA) in New York that children spend hours with electronic games and gadgets instead of interacting with mothers and grandmothers, fathers and grandfathers, neighbours and other children.
He said the five areas are needed to help Caribbean mothers raise the type of children needed to defend the interests of the people of the region in the years ahead.
“If we get these five areas right at the level of the family, then all will be well at the level of the community, the level of our proud nation and Caribbean,” said Prime Minister Douglas.
On the issue of compassion, Prime Minister Douglas noted that the lack of empathy is the truest evidence of evil.
“As people all over the world grapple with the issue of crime and violence, it is important for us all to remember that human beings are incapable of showing empathy to others if empathy has never ever been shown to them. As our lifestyles have become more “modern”, our children are spending less and less time interacting with other human beings. Electronic games and gadgets have filled the hours that were once spent interacting with mothers and grandmothers, fathers and grandfathers, neighbours ““ and other children. In addition, even though most of us have no choice, more and more children are being left in day care centers at earlier and earlier ages. At the end of each day, therefore, tired though we may be, it is becoming increasingly important that mothers, fathers, some relative or caring adult find the time, tired though we may be, give our children the physical closeness, the emotional support, that personal contact that is so essential to forming the psyches, and protecting the emotional health, of young children. It is in these moments of closeness and interaction that we pass on the most important gift that we can pass on ““ empathy and compassion,” he said.
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