The oppositional nature of our inherited Western politics is at odds with a far older tradition that was once ours.
In villages in Africa, there were no 2 sides; there was a circle and a talking stick. We disagreed and disagreed and listened and listened respectfully until a consensus emerged. There was no simplistic debate. Instead, there was dialogue. There was a sincere search for what is best for the community. There was no game of winners and losers.
In our competitive politics, we have copied the worst model of exciting fear, feeding hate and fomenting anger. This toxic mixture is great for arousing people. It is also great for destroying societies. This is how we build tribes. Of course, we disguise them by calling them political parties.
The reaction of the Opposition to the Age of Civil Responsibility Bill is a shocking display of all these elements — disregard for facts, explosions of emotion, alarmist hysteria, appeals to nativism, casting the Government as duplicitous, arousing the citizenry, twisting unease into panic, and so nurturing hatred and anger.
The problem is, it works. It works because we are basically animals triggered by fear. We are still lizards. A little nutmeg-sized part of our brain, the amygdala, is wired to react to threats. It helps us to survive. We are animals of emotion and fear, far more than creatures of fact and reason.
The Age of Civil Responsibility Bill (ACR) seeks to address the problem of adolescent reproductive health. This is not an NNP or NDC issue. This is a serious problem across the Caribbean: our sexual health is in a state of crisis.
We should be working together, not bickering and seeking to win political advantage regardless of the consequences for young people’s welfare.
Sadly, this is the result of losing the moral compass that should guide our national discourse. That compass has been swallowed, digested and spat out by expediency.
We are ever so good at destroying ourselves and our community.
Sincerely,
Tonia Frame, President, Grenada Planned Parenthood Association (GPPA)
Fred Nunes, Consultant, Advocates for Safe Parenthood: Improving Reproductive Equity (ASPIRE)
