By John Denny Observer Reporter
(Charlestown, Nevis) ” In an effort to address and correct the social ills facing Nevis, the Ministry of Social Development launched a new program last week, called the Community Cohesion Directorate. At the helm of this new program is Nevisian-born Abdul-Karim Ahmed. “We want to promote a healthy safe, peaceful and prosperous Nevis,” said Mr. Ahmed. “The only way this can happen, is by forging partnerships throughout the community with teachers, parents, churches and government.” At the press conference that opened this new program, Mr. Ahmed addressed the various media house and members of the public about the issues the Directorate will be focusing on. Wednesday Online Code for Issue # 727 is LDS “My greatest fear and I believe it is the greatest fear of most parents, is to bury a child. Nothing can prepare you for that. And no amount of sympathy can heal the wound. For what can be worse, than to have the hopes, dreams and aspirations that we hold for our children, untimely ripped from the bosom of our hearts, from the bosom of out community and from the bosom of our society,” he said. “Today I ask for your indulgence, as I talk about the struggle for the souls of our children. I want to talk about the good fight that must be fought ” for the souls of our young men and women.” “For some time, the media has portrayed young black men globally as: coming from broken homes, from broken families, underachieving at school, they don’t go to college or universities and they fill up the prisons. The media now carry a different image: the image of our young men lying dead in the streets.” Mr. Ahmed wants to change this image from the bottom up. By bringing communities together through a grass roots approach and through more intensive parenting, he hopes Nevisians themselves can do what the police seem powerless over: violence and lawlessness. “Leisure pursuits such as cable and satellite TV, cell phones, violent computer games, the Internet, et cetra, have slipped out of the shadows, bristling with modern weaponry, which are now in the hands of our children. Fellow Nevisians, you and I, sit in the middle of a war, a war that is a continual and intense struggle for the hearts and minds of our children.” “Our individual and collective action will determine defeat or victory. If we don’t stomp down on this problem, if we don’t once again become the masters in our homes, our children will continue to act like “others” and our society will fade from history as though it never existed. Our traditions, our cultural heritage will vanish before our eyes as smoke in the wind,” he said. “Having said all that, don’t despair, there is good news. Hope springs eternal. We are not alone. We have each other. We must watch out for each other and each others children. When fear and desperation knock on our door, we must reach for each other because the time to stand up, for what is right, is upon us.” Mr. Ahmed believes the victory from Nevisian social problems will depend upon four things: “First we have to win the fight against the mass media, for the hearts and minds of our children. We must monitor what they watch and who they are exposed to. “Second, the Nevis Island Administration, must continue to ensure that opportunities exists, for young people to express and pursue their talents, and reduce the risks from limitations and idleness, so that fewer young people feel excluded from the economic, social and political development of Nevis. “Third, communities themselves must make some internal changes, so that progress becomes possible, in relation to safety, peaceful co-existence and prosperity for all. “And finally, all of us, need to develop and maintain, a truly loving consciousness, about our duty to each other, and what our relationships ought are to be about. I wish to remind myself and you my fellow Nevisians, that God should be the beginning and end in all we do, and in all we say to each other and to our children. “Our children should be as educated as possible, and live to be 90-plus years old, but not behind barbed wire and prison walls. It’s wonderful that we have all the benefits of the modern world. But we should not feel like prisoners to wealth creation. We should see our children as our true “life treasures”. “When we walk down the street, I don’t want us to look at each other or look at the police and see a potential enemy. No.” Instead, I want us to see a fellow Nevisian, someone with similar hopes, dreams, and aspirations. “Poverty, not having as much as the next person, is a fact of life, not a cause of death. We can make Nevis, the world of our dreams, for our children. But since it’s a world without walls, it will have to be, a home that is guarded from greed, violence and exploitation. Our children, all of our children deserve the best that Nevis has to offer,” he said.
