Category Archives: Save Our Children

Corruption Corrodes Future of Guyana’s Youth

19 Sunday Aug 2012

Posted by in Guyana, Save Our Children, Social Injustice

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Garbage outside the Stabroek Market – Georgetown – Guyana

Source: Guyana Chronicle News, 3 January 2012 (www.guyanachronicle.com)

 

My love for my native land blossomed at an early age. It found expression in primary school through the patriotic songs I learned and sang with fervor. My favorite song was “My Native Land” by M.A. Cossou. The opening line still evokes that love: “Oh, I care not that others rave over fair lands afar…” At an early age, I believed that I would never leave my native land because there was “none so fair as can compare with my own native land.”(Lyrics available at silvertorch.com/guysongs.)

I delighted in the brilliant red-orange-yellow flowers of the flamboyant trees lining the main avenues of our capital city, Georgetown. Hibiscus hedges, bougainvillea bushes, and croton plants added their vibrant colors to make Georgetown the Garden City of the Caribbean Region.

At high school, I connected with the world through the study of geography. My geography teacher, of Portuguese descent, taught me the importance of using my talents to serve my country and to work towards building a better future for all of our six peoples.

With the end of British colonialism, I believed in our ability to create our own destiny. Our nation’s first Prime Minister, before power and money corrupted his vision, instilled national pride and unity in my impressionable young mind. I sang our National Anthem and looked to our flag with pride.

But the dream I shared with other young people of my generation was all a fairy tale. Corruption soon trickled down from the high ranks of our government and, like the salt air fanning our coastline, corroded our society and destroyed our dream, yet unfulfilled. Garbage dumps across Georgetown, due to lack of funds to pay the garbage collectors, are a visible sign of the prevailing corruptive forces.

In 2011, according to the Corruption Perception Index published by Transparency International (www.transparency.org), Guyana ranked 134 out of 182 nations with a score of 2.5 (on a scale of 0 to 10), putting our nation among the most corrupt in the world. The Index also reveals that we are the most corrupt among our Anglo-Caribbean sister states. The small island nation of Barbados puts us to shame. It ranks among the top twenty least corrupt countries with a score of 7.8.

Our young people, the future of our nation, cannot thrive in a corrupt environment. With the exception of the few who will choose to milk the corrupt system, our talented and skilled young professionals and entrepreneurs will seek “fair lands afar.” Guyana’s Junior Calypso Monarch 2010, Tennicia De Freitas, then 18 years, expressed well the plight of our less fortunate youth in her prize-winning song, “I don’t want to be born.”

When will Guyana’s leaders and adults find the courage and determination to end the endemic corruption corroding the future of its youth?

Save Our Children: Hunger in America

28 Sunday Aug 2011

Posted by in Brazil, Save Our Children, United States

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The healthy development of all children benefits all of society by providing a solid foundation for economic productivity, responsible citizenship, and strong communities. Jack P. Shonkoff, MD, Director, Center on the Developing Child, Harvard University.

After living for sixteen years in Fortaleza, the capital of the State of Ceará in Northeast Brazil, the plight of homeless and hungry street children continues to haunt me. One scene in particular. It unfolded during our first year in Fortaleza.

One evening around seven-thirty, my husband and two sons – then three and five years old – waited with me for a dental appointment. The dentist’s office was located at a busy intersection in Centro, downtown Fortaleza, where buses and other vehicles rumbled by.

At the entrance of the office, I watched with a mother’s concern at two boys – about two and six years old – standing on the narrow concrete divider in the middle of the two-way, four-lane Avenida. Each time the traffic light turned red, the older boy moved from vehicle to vehicle asking for money.

Those boys were just two of an estimated (2010) five thousand children and adolescents living on the streets of Brazil.

The plight of homeless and hungry American children and adolescents is not as visible to me as they were in Brazil. No child has approached me at an open-air restaurant or on the beach to ask me for something to eat. No child has snatched a bag of French fries from my hand as I wait for a bus. Yet, one out of every fifty – or approximately 1.5 million – American children go to sleep without a home of their own each year (Campaign to End Child Homelessness, http://www.homelesschildrenamerica.org).

As millions of parents have lost their homes and jobs due to our political-economic crisis, the number of children facing hunger has grown: 14.7 million, according to Feeding America, a hunger-relief organization (http://feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america/hunger-facts/child-hunger-facts.aspx).

In their battle to control growing deficits, states and the federal government are slashing the safety nets of the unemployed with budget cuts. With reduced donations, national food banks cannot cope with the increased demand for food assistance.

We need to inform ourselves about what is happening under our own roof. If you are ready to learn about our shameful state and if you would like to help American children and families facing hunger, watch the video, Hunger in America: How to Help, ABC World News with Diane Sawyer, 23 August 2011: http://abcnews.go.com/US/hunger-america/story?id=14342629.