Old Kai: Chronicles of Guyana

We have so much to be thankful for as the New Year dawns over Guyana

– let us focus on shining the light for our kids in 2014

OLD Kai is a bit teary eye ushering in 2014. He has managed to see the unfolding of yet another year in his homeland. Waking up in the motherland every day is enough to be thankful for but to make it to another year is even more special, especially at my age. As I sit back in my old arm chair, I’m reflecting on our journey and it is nothing short of amazing where we are today as a nation. We have so much to be thankful for in this dear land of Guyana but sadly in today’s modern world, the negatives seem to take precedence over positive and it is not only isolated to our country, it is a worldwide phenomenon.
Just take a look at the media houses, most of them are racing among each other to see who can bring the most up-to-date doom and gloom news as all that negativity sells. Our people by their support of all that negativity support this mentality and, yet we wonder why our society and particularly our youths of today are so aggressive and violent.
Good parenting is all about protecting our children from the negative influences from outside as much as possible and today it seems to be overwhelming. But that is no excuse to give up on ones responsibilities. This is not to be confused with isolating a child from the realities of the world. It is your obligation to explain the realities of the world to your kids as they grow from stage to stage and with each passing experience. It is not easy and it calls for lots of patience but ultimately you get your desired result when your child grows up to be a well-rounded, responsible individual who makes a positive contribution to society. This is what it ultimately comes down to, our contribution to society as it is what determines the kind of society we live in.
As parents we have to ask ourselves what type of contributors are we raising our children to be and before you begin to start making excuses about the various challenges in life, let me remind you that some of our greatest leaders grew up in very humble homes. A fitting example is the man regarded as the father of this nation, Dr. Cheddi Jagan and our current leader, President Donald Ramotar who grew up in a small logging community in the Essequibo River. The difference between a negative or positive contributor to society is how they deal with the many obstacles in their lives. They, just like Old Kai obviously had days when there was hardly anything in the home for a meal or the debts were piling up or the rent was two or three months due. But it is the choices that were made, and how the situation was approached.
So as we enter this New Year, I ask you even if you are not a parent or your children are adults, please spare some time to look out for the kids around you, reach out to them, talk to them, and teach them.
You may be rebuked by some, you may be ignored or even worse but our success depends on our ability to come up with ingenious ways to relate to our children in society. Sometimes all it takes is the ability to find out what our children are really interested in, get familiar and then speak to them in their ‘language’. You may be surprised at the response. Even Old Kai had to get attuned to the ‘Gaza and Gully’ dynamics in his efforts to become a ‘teacha’ to youths in the neighbourhood.
Teach them that there is so much good around us, it’s right there staring us in the face but we have bred our children on identifying with the negatives that they have an inability to relate with doing something good. We constantly put down our kids, we have adult conversations and cuss up and cuss down one another in their presence, we dress in the most inappropriate manner, we go out and drink in the bars all day and come home and behave bad in the home, even beating up our females, we have expensive habits and find money to smoke each day but cannot find money to spend in the home, we rather hang out during the day and party at nights but cannot find time to spend with the kids or help them with their homework, we buy guns and fancy toy cars for Christmas but cannot buy something educational like a book or educational games and despite all of this we expect our children to grow up and become model citizens, who will excel at school and land an executive job with top pay and will take care of us in our old age.
We are setting up our children for failure in society and it is time we reverse this trend. It begins with you. Filter out the negatives, show them the positives, compliment them, let them know they are smart, tell them a bedtime story at least twice a week if not every night, it develops their imagination and creative ability, find time to answer most if not all their many questions, have a family meal at least once per day. In short, pay an active interest in the lives of your children. We tend to get caught up too much with what is going on in our lives and providing that we get distracted from also paying attention to the lives of our kids and getting to know them better.
So in 2014, we have a beautiful country to explore with our children. We have so many locations to visit which will create a positive influence for our kids, ensure they are involved in at least one field of sport, mix the toys with entertaining educational material, assign responsibilities, find ways to control what they watch on television and above all, laugh a little, lighten the mood even if you are not up for it, it may even have a positive effect on you. Rather than being quick to be judgmental in a negative way of persons and situations in your life while being around your kids, find something positive to say. It will teach them a most important attribute as in their life, when confronted with challenges and negatives, they will remember that there is always a positive outlook, there is always hope.
Happy New Year to all Guyanese.

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