??

Prime Minister David Thompson is pictured as he delivered the feature address at the Re-Launch of Operation??Marriage Restore and Excess Singles. It was held last Saturday, February 27, at the Frank Collymore Hall.??

There is a direct link between cultural penetration and the decline in societal values.

This point was articulated last Saturday by Prime Minister David Thompson, as he delivered the feature address at the re-launch of Operation Marriage Restore (OMR) and?? Excess Singles, at the Frank Collymore Hall.

Mr. Thompson said:"…during the past 40 years, children of the Caribbean have been bombarded via the mass media with new values and new ideas that are at odds with the established cultures in our region."

"As the influence of the family, the school, the community and the church has declined, information that was intended to be just entertainment became the primary source of knowledge and values for generations of young people."

He noted that as a result, during the last decades "a considerable amount of tension has been created in society, which has found expression in a number and a range of psychological, social and economic issues."

Mr. Thompson further revealed that cultural penetration had also led to moral decay in the society, where people no longer made a distinction between what was right and wrong and showed gross disrespect for law and order.

??"As early as 2002, the situation had reached the point at which it was thought necessary to set up a National Commission on law and order and this Commission’s report in June 2004 stated clearly that the decline in Law and Order results from a decline in values. And the Commission argued that the traditional agencies of socialisation, especially the family, the school, the church and the community, had failed to transmit to children, and young people, the core values of respect, good manners, honesty, integrity and discipline," he contended.

??The Prime Minister was of the view that the continued erosion of societal values in slave-based societies in the Caribbean had "systematically undermined the structure of the traditional family".?? He added that this often led to misunderstanding, disappointment and conflict between spouses and gross neglect of children and could also result in domestic violence.

OMR and?? Excess Singles was conceptualised in 2004 by pastors Bernhard and Destiny Cadogan of Love and Faith Ministries for persons aged 16-65, whether single, separated, widowed or divorced. It aims to promote a holistic family-life that will lead to a sustainable and productive state.??clashley@barbados.gov.bb

Pin It on Pinterest