Voices from the Streets Part 8- Bring Back the Good Old Days

Quentin Glinton (right) shares a brotherhood moment with writer of Voices from the Streets columnist Nixon Dickenson

By Nixon Dickenson

In this week’s article in the series Voices from the Streets Part 8, I would like to share a conversation held with Quentin Glinton a young local entrepreneur. We chatted for several hours on the present state of affairs in our country in particular with our youths and he lamented the loss of the good old days. 

His lament is often heard in various circles of our community that the days of morals, values, and godly parenting are needed in this modern era of life in the Turks and Caicos Islands.  While we must embrace progress and positive change in areas of technological advancement there is a dire need to revisit the cultural and social norms that helped with the development of outstanding Turks and Caicos Islands men and women. 

As Quint shared his views, he strongly emphasized the need for parents to monitor their children’s time as well as spend time being supportive parents.  He shared that there are so many distractions that seem to be keeping the family from being able to spend meaningful time together.

Some of these distractions according to Quint were parents having to work at several jobs and for long hours, to be able to provide for their children, parents spending more time on Social media rather than having valuable conversations with their children about their education and life in general.  He also shared that there seemed to be a burning desire in our young people to react hastily and without thinking.

 This he believes stems from them not being taught self-control and good decision-making skills.  Quint shared that the country needed to return to the days when children were raised by the community and everyone looked out for each other. 

He spoke about bringing back community events that would encourage families to work together such as heritage festivals, sporting events, extravaganza and even religious events. 

He shared that even the music that is now played has taken on a moral decline as it glorifies violence and other negative acts that young people view as socially acceptable.

 He believes that a good place to begin addressing violence among youths is through music; that is, communities should identify ways of providing musical instruments to develop and nurture these skills in the youths which can help to serve as a positive distraction from them wanting to engage in negative activities.

Quentin shares this advice from his personal experience as he is a local singer and musician who is willing to dedicate his time to teaching this very valuable skill to any youth who is willing to learn.  Like Quint ,I too yearn for the good old days in communities throughout these islands.  I also hold onto hope that these days can come again, if we strive to work together to be the positive change that is needed in our country.

 I conclude with the words of the song by Sweet Emily “bring back the good old days hear the children laugh and play; teach then how to stay in school, live by the golden rule”.