by Leela Ramdeen, Chair, CCSJ and Director, CREDI
On Wednesday May 15, CCSJ will mark the UN International Day of Families by hosting a seminar at Santa Rosa Parish Hall, Arima from 6.00 p.m. to 8.00 p.m. on the theme: “Justice for The Family, the basic cell of Society.”
This theme will incorporate the UN theme for 2013: “Advancing Social Integration and Intergenerational Solidarity“. Msgr Allan Ventour, parish priest, will open the session and Rebekah Ali-Gouveia, regional coordinator of the World Congress of Families, and I will be the speakers. Do join us.
Blessed John Paul II referred to The Family as “the basic cell of society…a society in its own original right.” He said: “The future of humanity passes by way of the family” and that marriage and family life find themselves “at the centre of the great struggle between good and evil, between life and death, between love and all that is opposed to love.”
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI warned on March 9, 2012 about “the powerful political and cultural currents seeking to alter the legal definition of marriage… marriage and the family are institutions that must be promoted and defended from every possible misrepresentation of their true nature. The contemporary crisis of marriage and the family, has led to grave societal problems bearing an immense human and economic cost.”
If we are to promote justice for The Family, we must create conditions within our communities/country that will allow The Family to flourish; we must promote integral human development for each family member. Too many of our families/individuals within families live on the margins – in this land of plenty. Too many continue to underachieve because they are part of a society which is itself underachieving.
I urge you to read Dr Terrence Farrell’s book: The Underachieving Society: Development Strategy and Policy in T&T (1958-2008). Inter alia, Dr Farrell is chair of CREDI, an economist, and former deputy governor of Central Bank. I attended his book launch and I must say that the presentations by economists: Dr Norman Girvan, Gregory McGuire and Shelton Nicholls, and the author, Dr Farrell himself, were instructive.
Dr Girvan highlighted a culture of “non-policy” in TT: “There is so much waste and so many cost overruns, with so few consequences. The penalties of wastage are non-existent.” He referred to Vision 20/20 as: “the greatest single missed opportunity since independence.”
It is noteworthy that just after the preface, Dr Farrell quotes Dr Eric Williams: “…The whole country is operating way below maximum capacity.” (The Chaguaramas Declaration, November 1970). Forty-three years later, we are still underachieving. As our former TT President, Prof George Maxwell Richards, on May 31, 2012: “We are not all that we can be. Indeed, it seems that we are some considerable distance from that state.”
I congratulate Dr Farrell for this timely publication. He asks, and seeks to answer the question: “Why, despite its obvious resource advantages, TT has underperformed in delivering development to its citizens?”
During a recent workshop which I ran I asked participants to list some of the key social ills and challenges that families in our communities and in the world face today. Interestingly, every group was able to do so effectively. So many of us on the “ground” seem to know what needs to be addressed and those who feel the pain know what should be done to alleviate their pain. It is time those in authority LISTEN to stakeholders and use the nation’s resources to promote the common good.
Our Catechism tells us that: “The family must be helped and defended by appropriate social measures. Where families cannot fulfill their responsibilities, other social bodies have the duty of helping them and of supporting the institution of the family…
“The importance of the family for the life and well-being of society entails a particular responsibility for society to support and strengthen marriage and the family. Civil authority should consider it a grave duty ‘to acknowledge the true nature of marriage and the family, to protect and foster them, to safeguard public morality, and promote domestic prosperity.’ The political community has a duty to honour the family, to assist it…”(2209, 2210, 2211).
While the State has a duty to ensure that sustainable development in TT is people-centred, each of us has a duty to pray for and to reach out to families; help them to flourish – starting with our own. God has made us all “family”. The challenge for us is to move from a vertical relationship with God to a horizontal relationship with Him as we see Him in our family members and in the community at large.
It’s time to stand up for The Family!
