Sascha Wil­son

Se­nior Re­porter

sascha.wil­son@guardian.co.tt

Jus­tice Frank Seep­er­sad says the time may have come to im­pose tar­iffs on cer­tain im­port­ed goods and to re­strict chil­dren’s ac­cess to so­cial me­dia to curb in­dis­ci­pline.

De­liv­er­ing the ser­mon at the an­nu­al har­vest ser­vice at Mara­bel­la Pres­by­ter­ian Church, un­der the theme “What you sow, you reap,” Seep­er­sad said so­ci­ety must take stock and act dif­fer­ent­ly if cit­i­zens are dis­sat­is­fied with cur­rent trends.

Not­ing that the na­tion re­cent­ly cel­e­brat­ed its 63rd In­de­pen­dence and will soon mark 49 years as a Re­pub­lic, he said the re­al ques­tion is what has been sown since in­de­pen­dence.

“Our na­tion is in­un­dat­ed with crime, and our fi­nances ap­pear to be taxed to the max,” he said. “We must ask our­selves whether we are reap­ing what we have sown. To ef­fect change, we must do things dif­fer­ent­ly.”

Seep­er­sad not­ed the re­cent for­eign ex­change cri­sis and called on cit­i­zens to re­con­sid­er con­sump­tion habits. He point­ed out that the bulk of for­eign ex­change goes to­wards food, phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals, and toi­letries.

“How many dif­fer­ent brands of ce­re­als do we need? Do we re­al­ly need blue­ber­ries and straw­ber­ries when we have man­goes, plums, and red cher­ries? It may be time to im­pose tar­iffs on for­eign food items we don’t tru­ly need as we move from be­ing im­porters to in­no­va­tors.”

On school in­dis­ci­pline, which has prompt­ed po­lice pres­ence in high-risk schools, Seep­er­sad said the na­tion is reap­ing the ef­fects of poor par­ent­ing.

“At this time, we need to save our chil­dren. Every par­ent, grand­par­ent, neigh­bour, un­cle, and aunt must in­ter­vene to guide our youth. We must ad­dress tru­an­cy and mold our chil­dren with dis­ci­pline, love, and em­pa­thy.”

He cit­ed Aus­tralia’s re­cent laws ban­ning so­cial me­dia ac­cess for chil­dren un­der 16 and sug­gest­ed sim­i­lar mea­sures could be con­sid­ered lo­cal­ly.

“Too many young peo­ple are be­ing in­flu­enced by un­lim­it­ed neg­a­tive con­tent. Tik­Tok ought not to par­ent our youth,” he said.

Seep­er­sad em­pha­sised that it is not too late to plant seeds of in­tegri­ty and hon­esty.

“We can re­ject im­moral­i­ty, dis­hon­esty, and cor­rup­tion, and in­stead sow hon­esty, uni­ty, peace, and pro­duc­tiv­i­ty. Let us act de­ci­sive­ly to en­sure a boun­ti­ful har­vest.”

He con­clud­ed by urg­ing every­one to do good, love their neigh­bours, seize op­por­tu­ni­ties for kind­ness, and take ac­tions that pos­i­tive­ly im­pact their lives and the coun­try.