It is with concern that I write, as a father, to raise the issue of the over-exposure of our children and the society at large, to the trappings of moral indifference and decay.

Recently, while driving along Red Hills Road, my pre-teen daughter pointed my attention to a poster at the intersection of the said main road and Karl Samuda Avenue. The poster with the words 'Daggerin' had a very graphic drawing of a man and a woman joined together in an explicitly sexual position. The poster, which may have been promoting an event, is just beside the street sign which bears the name of the Member of Parliament/government minister.

My daughter was concerned that the image was inappropriate for public viewing and I was happy that she could make this determination. Regrettably, some of our children are not able to make this distinction as they have become so accustomed to sensuous, lewd and violent material, so that it is difficult for them to determine right from wrong and to exercise sound moral judgments. Some parents struggle with this, as the lessons taught at home and church are heavily countered by the overexposure to violence and lewdness on the streets and among the children's peers, even in schools.

Questions

The matter, however, raises a number of questions for me that I would like to put in the public domain. Questions such as: Aren't these and other such images a source of desensitising our children from what is morally pure and right? Do such images and the associated music/dances contribute to the decline in the values we see in our children, and the consequent 'option' chosen by some of our girls to ply their wares on the 'back roads'? What has immobilised well thinking, morally alert persons in our communities to the extent that they do not insist that these images are removed? Do the parish councils (in this case the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation) or other public bodies have it as a part of their mandate to locate and rid our streets of inappropriate, violent, crude or sexually explicit images?

Inappropriate association

I would have thought that those associated with the minister would act quickly to remove the poster as it creates an inappropriate association with the Member of Parliament (MP). This matter is not just about this image or the MP, it's about what we Jamaicans allow to be seen and heard in our public spaces. These factors have the subtle effect of eating away at the values we want to instil in our children, and run counter to the country's Vision 2030 statement: "Jamaica, the place of choice to live, work, raise families and do business". I understand that a significant turning point in the crime/social problem of New York was the initiative to clean up the subways, including the removal of graffiti/inappropriate images. We have started the process with respect to our music; let us continue by cleaning up our public images/spaces of moral waste.

I am, etc.,

ALFRED MCDONALD

freddy-mack@cwjamaica.com

Spanish Town, St Catherine

These factors have the subtle effect of eating away at the values we want to instil in our children