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  • 1 year ago
The second day of the Inter-Island International Men's Day retreat saw men coming together to discuss men's issues and propose meaningful solutions. Rynessa Cutting has more.
Transcript
00:00With the Caribbean region having significant numbers of single-parent
00:04homes, most times headed by women, panelists at the Inter-Island
00:09International Men's Day Retreat conclude that much of the challenges faced by men
00:14emanate from within the home. In Sinkits and Nevis, tragically, we have the
00:19highest number, the highest percentage of single-parent households in the
00:24English-speaking Caribbean, right? So we are we are worse off than you, right? We
00:29take first place. It's been so since records have been kept in the 60s, right?
00:34And it continues to be so. Over 50% of our households are single-parent
00:40households. Understand the need for balance and they just can't get it
00:43because they are struggling with who they are themselves. They have nobody to
00:49tell them. They have nobody to show them. Maybe somebody to tell, but not to show.
00:53Another panelist expressed that males who are raised in fatherless homes are
00:58often brought up by resentful mothers. Dr. Robert Moultrie says the lack of
01:04love and empathy in the home is what fuels violence in societies. Well guess
01:10what? I don't care about you. I go down the street, I rob you. I don't know you, I
01:21shoot you, I kill you. Because you didn't care about me. But what can be done?
01:29Defense Force Chaplain Kwame Clark is calling for an all-hands-on-deck
01:34approach. If we understand the importance of tag team, because the tag team used to happen a long
01:39time. Because the police officer would have said, hey, where you at? What are you doing outside there?
01:44Go. All the linemen too late on the street. Jump in the next maxi and go. When they jump in the
01:50maxi, the maxi driver would look back and say, hey, hey, hey, hey. All the coolies in the back there.
01:55They jump out of the maxi and a stock keeper would see a kick in the butt like that and say, hey, pick it up.
01:59And so a tag team of the training environment within the community, within the home,
02:04has the ability to now cause reshaping and reshifting in the mind of our
02:11children growing up. However, syndicates and Nevis's gender officer reference
02:16taken by some countries on a governmental level to ensure that families stick together.
02:22Singapore had their own situation of fatherlessness or even fathers who were present being
02:29derailed by drugs and alcohol and so on. And there the state made an intervention to ensure
02:37that fathers, that young men grow up knowing how to be fathers. They teach it in schools.
02:42They teach relationship in schools so you know when you get married how to stay together.
02:48In fact, if you are below a certain age, you can't get married unless you go through state-provided
02:54and mandated counseling in Singapore. You would not be issued a marriage license.
03:00Further to that, if you're not married, you can't apply for housing in Singapore.
03:05Renassa Cutting, TV6 News.
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