Even while London and several other cities in London were burning and looted following riots stemming from a peaceful protest, Chief Minister Reuben Meade pushed for a comment on the situation and asked for a message to Montserratians, said on Wednesday last week, that Montserrat nationals living in the United Kingdom need to still practice the family values they were raised with here.
Speaking to members of the media during a joint press conference with Governor Adrian Davis, the chief minister said, “Take charge of your children and teenagers and ensure that they stay indoors and away from those areas where there are such illicit activities. If we look at the way we bring up our children in Montserrat, going to the UK doesn’t mean that you allow your children to do as they please. Let us bring back some of those family values that we’ve grown up with in Montserrat and even in the UK we need to enforce them.”
At first, the CM who often calls out to the Diaspora to seek for ways they can help develop their homeland, said most of the Montserrat nationals now in the UK are citizens and he is assured that the British government will do what is in its power to do to secure the lives and future stability of the country.
“It is not okay to go and burn somebody’s shop because I am angry with you. It does not solve the problem…the community leaders must themselves seek to bring a lot of that Malay under control so that the society in which our people live can continue to be worthwhile societies.” he added.
Responding to the same issue, Governor Davis quoted from the UK Prime Minister David Cameron’s August 9 press statement on, which he made available to the press and which said: “For me, the root cause of this mindless selfishness is the same thing that I have spoken about for years. It is a complete lack of responsibility in parts of our society. People are allowed to feel that the world owes them something, that their rights outweigh their responsibilities and that their actions do not have consequences. Well, they do have consequences. We need to have a clearer code of values and standards that we expect people to live by and stronger penalties if they cross the line. Restoring a stronger sense of responsibility across our society, in every town, in every street, in every estate is something I’m determined to do.”
(See ‘Police arrests over 2000)
