leeanna.mahara@guardian.co.tt
Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Moonilal has blamed the economic collapse in Trinidad and Tobago on the prevalence of young men leading lives of crime.
Speaking at the National Union for Government and Federated Workers’ (NUGFW) Men’s Mentorship Forum yesterday, he said unemployment and financial instability destroy men.
“Employment is the highest form of empowerment, because when you don’t have a job, what are you?
Moonilal said at the event, which was held in commemoration of International Men’s Day.
“When a man works all day, he sweats, he’s tired. Where does he go in the night? To rob somebody? To murder someone? No. He’s tired and the next morning at seven o’clock, he has to show up at the workplace.
“The ordinary person, unless he is driven by evil, is not going to be a bandit, once they are employed.”
Moonilal noted that it was important that young men get good mentorship.
“People think that children don’t have mentors, but everybody will have mentors, and some will have the gang leader.
“The gang leader will have income to provide worth and identity. The child without the father figure, without the mother at home, easily goes on the street, where he meets the gangster and he probably has the expensive shoes, the trendy clothes, and a little money in his pocket,”
He said over the past few decades, society’s focus has been on women who were on the receiving end of gender inequality, and men were not mentally prepared to accept this power shift.
“In the last 75 years, women have had this explosion of liberation and emancipation at the workplace and society, but while we were emancipating women, we forgot men. We forgot to tell our brother that power relations are changing and we have to adapt to that,” he said.
“When you go to graduations now, 30 graduates, 20 women, and ten men, that is what happens, and that has consequences. So, one of the problems that we have with this decline of men is really a change in power relations, in the family, the home, and in the community. But we accept that change, we believed it was a good change because we needed to lift the women from where they were, but we didn’t take care of educating, sensitising, in our own way, the men, and how to handle that challenge, that this is not your property, this is an equal partner,”
He posited that men did not properly adapt to this mindset, which has now resulted in the abuse and mistreatment of women by their male partners.
Also speaking at the seminar was NUGFW president general James Lambert, who said it was time for men to reinsert themselves into the community.
“Men, the time has come, whilst we need the women, I am saying to you that the women are making inroads as it relates to organisation, not only in Trinidad and Tobago but throughout the Caribbean.”
He also reminded men to treat women with care, especially if they seek the same in return.
Also addressing the event, Penal-Debe Commerce president Motilal Ramsingh, a featured speaker, said role models are always present, whether good or bad.
As such, he said, men need to be good examples for younger men.
