Child Abuse

Hello there! How was your past week? This week I’ll be discussing child abuse!Child abuse is a huge problem in our society and in the Caribbean as a whole because of our ideology. They are so many cases of child abuse in our Guyana alone. Child abuse comes in various forms – and whether physical, mental, verbal or emotional, this abuse causes a lot of harm to the individual.
Caribbean ideology makes child abuse an accepted part of society. I’m not one to condemn or criticise our Caribbean morals and ideology but this entire issue needs to be put down. We say things like “spare the rod and spoil the child” to justify our actions but there are other ways to “straighten out a child.” Do you honestly believe that every problem should be solved with “lashes” or “fowl language/insult”? In most cases a child lacks some sort of attention hence a certain reaction. Then instead of trying to help that child on the right path they get abused instead.
Child abuse destroys individuals, though people justify their acts of abuse by saying “it’s for the best” and “it’s fo they own good”- frankly speaking it’s not for anyone’s good because it just causes families to break apart and make children become rebellious.
I believe that it’s high time that we step up and stop this; disciplinary actions do not need to include any form of abuse and if “lashes” or “fowl language/insults” is necessary, it shouldn’t be overdone in should be done in a manner that definitely sends the message to the child but in a positive form that the child knows what he/she did was wrong and that they get a punishment for that but it shouldn’t be a “mark for life.”
Think about this: Everyone thinks of abuse as bad, when a man beats a woman he is condemned! So why when it happens to a child it’s different? I’m not saying that sometimes you can’t hit a child, but not all the time and certainly not for the wrong reason(s); ignorance is deadly.
An abused child doesn’t have enough courage to speak out and when he/she does speak out, they hardly get help! How many more extreme cases do we have to see before this whole issue is stopped?
Let’s try to stop this- the next major life ending abuse could be someone close to you!

Quote for the week: (by Unknown)
“Tougher the present; brighter the future.”
Enjoy again until next week right here in your best newspaper! Good –bye!

(By Vishani Ragobeer)