EDITOR, The Tribune.
REF: Recent Statement by MP Richard Lightbourn regarding single mothers giving birth to more than two children.
I would be much obliged if you would kindly publish the below in one of your daily editions of your news media.
Firstly, I was appalled to see how certain members of the public came against Mr Lightbourn’s statement with such a biased approach.
It appears that their sole purpose was to sanction the behaviour of unwed mothers.
Whilst I do not wish to condemn anyone for their behaviour, I do have firsthand experience from what I thought the Honourable Member of Parliament was attempting to say.
One of my sisters, unwedded, now deceased, had nine children for four different men. I saw her anguish, disappointment and pain in attempting to provide for her children. Of course, most of the men never assisted her in providing for them.
At that time, I had a very young family, but seeing her distress I tried to assist where possible. The end result of it was that closest to fifty years of age, she suffered a massive heart attack and died. The children suffered greatly after her demise, however, through the help of Almighty God some of them did very well for themselves. As a mentor to young ladies, this is just one of my many experiences.
My recommendation is that rather than demonize Mr Lightbourn for his statement, it would be good if those concerned review the pros and cons to determine if something good can come out of it for the betterment of all.
Thank you.
CONSCIENCE
Nassau,
August 4, 2016
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Comments
Well_mudda_take_sic 8 years, 1 month ago
Our problem with mothers having too many children is directly tied to the many problems we have as a result of our serious Haitian illegal immigrant problem. Lightbourn should have pointed out that the Haitian Ambassador to the Bahamas should be encouraging his own government back in Haiti to assist with the repatriation of all Haitians illegally residing in the Bahamas. If the Haitian Ambassador and his Haitian government want their people looked after and treated humanely, then they themselves should arrange for this to be done at their own cost. The Bahamian people have done more than enough over the past 40 or so years and it has cost us dearly. It is time for Haiti to step up to the plate and bear the cost of looking after its own people, including the costs of their repatriation. It is an absurdity for this Haitian Ambassador to suggest in any way that we are inhumane when it is the inhumane Haitian government that fails to look after its own people, and constantly seeks handouts from others, like Bahamians, that could never be enough in the eyes of the Haitian government. These illegal immigrants should be seen for who and what they are......a problem caused by Haiti, the costs of which should be borne by Haiti and not the Bahamas! The Haitian government or international human rights groups should be bearing the costs of making life less miserable for these illegal immigrants; it is not in our interest to do so from the stand point of deterrence. To make life easy for them at our cost only means many more will come to our shores illegally, and likely with the Haitian government encouraging them to do so. We need to be very mindful of the fact that our sovereignty and culture as Bahamians is a very fragile one, and our economy is equally fragile and under great stress as it is. We are also now experiencing the effects of over-population given our very limited land area. We must resist caving to accusations from the Haitian government and human rights groups that Bahamians are an inhumane people when such persons, especially the human rights activists, are not willing themselves to bear the true costs of this vexing problem. We Bahamians have done all that can be reasonably expected of us over the last 40 plus years and are our economy is now financially crippled. It high time others started doing their part....starting with the Haitian government and the international human rights groups which have for years unfairly and unjustifiably blamed Bahamians for the plight of the Haitians illegally residing in our country!
jackbnimble 8 years, 1 month ago
Well written and clearly from first-hand experience. It's good to see that persons in the public arena can appreciate the true meaning behind Mr. Lightbourn's comments and understand that they actually came from a place of wanting to help and not the so-called "racism" the politicians and pundits and trying to make it out to be.
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