Headlines:
| Senate tackles values and attitudes crusade |
|
|
| Friday, 21 November 2008 | |
 Amid passionate calls for a national crusade to reinforce
values and attitudes, Government and Opposition Senators Friday exchanged
robust views on the enforcement of the rule of law and the need for urgent
community development.Senator Norman Grant sparked a debate on a resolution asking the Upper House to among other things recommend a new national effort to halt indiscipline and violence. For several hours, legislators in the upper chambers offered varied reasons to support the motion moved by Senator Grant. He had raised it against the back-drop of an increase in violent crimes, especially brutal attacks on children. Government Senator Tom Tavares Finson was particularly strident in his argument that persons who break the law should feel the consequences. This he said not withstanding the need for an effective values and attitudes agenda. To buttress his remarks, the attorney referred to an incident that took place at the North East, St. Ann office of the Electoral Office of Jamaica earlier this week in which a female employee was viciously assaulted. His Senate colleague, KD Knight centred his presentation around the desperate need for community development, noting that he was regretful that much more was not done during his tenure in the 1990's.  The former National Security Minister said the essence of the desired values and attitudes agenda would be lost if undesirable social conditions are not corrected. "When individual human beings live in the kind of squalor that they live in some communities in the corporate area and some outside of the corporate area don't go talking to them about values and attitudes, it cant work!" he said. The resolution was later amended. |