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There is no escaping the fact that we live in extremely violent times and, while no one raindrop can or should be blamed for causing the flood, it is extremely irresponsible of the local franchise holders of KFC to attempt to justify adding even the remotest hint of support for violence whether it be tongue in cheek or otherwise when we should all be working together as a nation to promote non-violence as a means to stemming the tide.
Invited to enunciate a response to “Storm in a sandwich: KFC love triangle gets a licking from anti-bullying lobby” by the author with whose position I disagreed, I wanted to stay as true to my initial response as possible.
It is my view that the author missed the point of the position taken by the Anti Bullying Association of Trinidad & Tobago (ABATT), as, simply put, the suggestion that physical violence could be considered acceptable as courtship is deliberately leading impressionable minds astray.
The argument that parents and not television are supposed to raise children is the ideal, but sadly the reality does not bear out the ideal and has not for quite some time. Most organizations that deal with this fall out lament the lack of parental supervision in the home which has been dwindling for some time but has fallen off drastically in the last twenty years.
The impact of this – the absentee parent from single parent homes or situations where both parents are working leaves many children to have their values set by mass media, and it is in this knowledge we must all be guided. None of us will be safe from the after effects of our actions and ‘for profit’ corporations more than most have a vested interest in the same society’s long term survival.
While he may have been correct that many of us of earlier generations were in fact exposed to violence in media and have come to no harm, it was not as common as it is today and, further, at that time there was at least one parent around to mould our impressionable minds and tell us the difference between play acting and real life.
In this instance KFC ought to have known better, should know better now that it is pointed out and ought do the right thing for everyone concerned. I am sure that this issue is not over and I await the input of the actual brand owner on this. I think the local franchise holders may well be surprised.
With regard to the ex-Minister and the Soca Star who have both evaded legitimate punishment for their crimes, what can i say?
We lobby for change everyday (and the author of the piece is counted as part of the ‘we’) and perhaps one day our collective efforts will bear the right fruit.
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Phillip Alexander is a blogger as well as a social and political activist.
