I CAN recall our youthful days when we imitated grown youth, but looked over our shoulders to see who was coming as we copied the foul language to express our make-believe grown-up jargon, which, if taken too far out, would have real-real consequences, not no play-play reaction… then a neighbour could have dropped two slaps, as we called it then, to put things in order, and we best not make that a complaint. Things do change, and rum shop parents could not have made the same fatherly or motherly claim of force over offspring without being accused by neighbours, who would very well call the police, whether in the village or on the street in Georgetown. The business of children was viewed with seriousness, and that’s where the problem starts today.

There were always delinquent parents. I used to sip a beer at KID’s Beer Garden on Evans Street when two of my buddies drew attention to a situation. It involved a female child, whom an elderly adult male imposed upon as an unofficial nursemaid. The child’s mother had, by then, made contact and was benefitting from the elder’s overseas children. We observed some commotion but ignored it. When it was translated to us, it was a shock we couldn’t believe: it seems that the old fire stick was blaming the old man for touching her child….. We doubted it and saw it as the old scamp’s wicked hustle. We took it seriously when we saw the police vehicle enter the street, and later learnt that she had threatened the old guy’s folks overseas, forcing them to send her bribe money, threatening that she would put the old guy in jail. None of us, including our female friends on the street, ever questioned the child, even as she grew older, to verify whether anything actually happened.

But later, we learnt that ‘mom’, who was known to us for her tricks, boasted about the rewards of her scheme, which covered her expenses. We debated it and concluded that poverty is a fierce tormentor, more so for an old scamp. But it was indeed deadly as we watched that child grow, and other things occurred.

My conclusion was that childhood is a frail and sacred period of life, more so into the teens, that requires attention and teaching—helping them, “children”, to grow to learn about the haunted forests of life, using modern terms of drama that will institute a wider understanding of self-awareness and consciousness of self-protection, against actions that could inflict mental damage beyond repair in our country, and muchness in our grassroots society, that at this point does not have the tools and time to explore the modern techniques to nurture the necessary insights to find safe passage through certain stages of life’s shaded forests and devastating whispering temptations. Judgement must never be quick; we must balance every responsibility to truly stand before the truth that distinguishes itself as guilty.