Responsibility

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RESPONSIBILITY – COMMONWEALTH DAY 2009

Speech to the Albena Lake-Hodge Comprehensive School, Campus B Assembly,

9 March 2009 – By Don Mitchell CBE QC

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls,

First, let me say what an honour it is to be invited to address the future young leaders of Anguilla on Commonwealth Day, 2009.

As a British Overseas Territory, Anguilla is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. The Commonwealth is a voluntary grouping of nations with a common history of a relationship with the British people that goes back, for some of our countries, nearly 400 years.

England’s Parliament, however, is not the oldest one in the Commonwealth. England’s Parliament was interrupted when Oliver Cromwell abolished it in the year 1653. It was not to be restored for another seven years, in the year 1660. By comparison, Bermuda’s Legislative Assembly began its sitting in the year 1620. It has never been interrupted. That makes Bermuda the country in the Commonwealth with the longest continuously-sitting parliament, longer even that the Parliament of England. That is quite a Commonwealth landmark for a little West Indian country, a British Overseas Territory like us in Anguilla.

Today, my charge is to talk to you on the topic of “responsibility”.

For me, “responsibility” is more than just a philosophical concept. It is a vital attribute. We judge people and groups of people by how seriously they take their responsibilities.

Each one of us bears an individual responsibility for the consequences of our actions. As we grow older, we learn to value the virtue of responsibility in the people we relate to. We praise some people as being responsible, and criticise others as being irresponsible. We may even praise an institution as being responsible. We often call for “responsible government”.

As human beings we are responsible for our deeds. When we ask ourselves what we are responsible for, we are making an enquiry about our duties. So, a parent is responsible for caring for his child. An employee is responsible for doing her job. As citizens, we are responsible for obeying the laws of Anguilla.

Our responsibilities are divided and complex. If the doctor is responsible for prescribing the right drugs, we are responsible for taking them properly.

As thinking persons, we act most responsibly when we act on the basis of principle. When we fail to act rationally, we often act badly. We reason within a moral context. When we act immorally, we act irrationally. Even if sometimes we care nothing for the feelings of others, reason still tells us that we should. Reason can motivate us to take care of the feelings of others.

We have the power to feel and to desire. We feel sympathy for others who have been badly hurt. We feel shame and guilt when we make a mistake. It is this moral content of our power of reasoning that makes us support moral actions on the part of our leaders, and causes us to condemn unethical behaviour on their part.

As for ourselves, it is our power to respond to others that gives us a sense of responsibility for our actions. It is a sense of personal responsibility that allows us to work out why we feel the emotions of shame or guilt. We feel that the person who acts well towards others deserves to be happy. The person who acts badly, does not. She ought to feel remorse, and may even deserve to be punished. We feel that, if a person chooses to act selfishly, he deserves to be blamed. I choose to break the law, I deserve to be punished. When we see someone choosing immorality and irrationality, we feel he does not deserve to be happy.

Regardless of how we were brought up, we enjoy free will. We really are the authors of our own choices.

Responsibility involves the idea of duty. When we ask about a person’s responsibilities, we are asking what she ought to be doing, what her duties are. He is responsible for taking out the garbage. She is responsible for looking after her baby. The Planning Department is responsible for preventing private encroachments on the public beach.

We all tend to hold someone responsible when they fail to carry out their duties. The captain is responsible for the safety of his ship. He will be held responsible if there is a shipwreck. We feel that if he had taken his responsibilities more seriously, he might have avoided the shipwreck. We know that when we are given responsibility for something, we can expect to be held responsible if harm occurs.

Our actions impose risks on others. It is our duty to make amends when our actions cause harm to others. The person who caused the accident will have to bear the legal consequences of it.

So, how to end? Let’s try these.

When getting to school, don’t run carelessly across the street: Check for traffic. Show some self-control.

Remember, no i-pods or cellphones in class.

When your teacher gives you an assignment, take it seriously. Do it on time. Show how reliable you are.

When a $20 banknote drops from someone’s pocket, and temptation strikes, point it out to the person. Show your honesty.

Do your bit to make your school spick and span. When you see rubbish around, pick it up and bin it. Show a sense of pride in your surroundings.

All these things prove to your friends and teachers that you are dependable and trustworthy.

If you act responsibly like this, I promise to vote for you when you grow up and run in the elections for our House of Assembly.

Thank you.

Teachers Matter

I am humbled, if a bit mystified, that you have given me the honour of speaking to you on the theme for this year's World Teachers' Day.  I have been a teacher for barely one year.  Probably, every one of you in the room today is more qualified to speak on the subject than I am.  However, I am willing to accept the challenge, if you don't mind taking the risk of being bored.

First, I ask myself who is a teacher?  One answer that I like is that a teacher is a person whose profession it is to make a difference to children, to move student achievement forward, and to bring students to their highest potential.

If our teachers are to meet this definition, they have to be of the highest quality.  We must be both talented and motivated.  It would seem to me that quality is at risk when:

The profession is not competitive with other occupations in attracting such persons; or

There is a shortage of qualified teachers; or

The profession is not held in high regard by the society; or

There are fewer applicants than there are teaching vacancies.

The obvious solutions would appear to be to:

Improve teaching's general status; and to

Heighten teachers' competitive position in the job market; and to

Broaden the source of teacher supply to include well qualified people from other careers; and to

Provide special incentives for teachers whose skills are in short supply; and to

Give extra encouragement and support for teachers working in difficult locations

Teachers, like any other professional, need to have our knowledge and skills constantly developed.

Teacher education, induction, and professional development, are all essential techniques and tools.

Teachers require a lifelong learning framework.

As an aside, I do regret that I have never been offered any form of induction programme before I started teaching.  I have heard a rumour that such a programme exists.  Perhaps, someone thought I was too old to learn?

Teachers will matter when only the best candidates among us are selected for employment.  Teachers will not matter when there is no policy for recruiting, selecting and employing teachers.

There are questions that must be asked.

Is the tenured employment of a teacher in the public service, and the permanency this entails, conducive to encouraging professional development? 

Is there any incentive for continuously reviewing our skills and improving our practice? 

Are there in Anguilla any mechanisms for teacher evaluation and accountability?

Let it not be said of us, as George Bernard Shaw did, “He who can, does.  He who cannot, teaches”.

I want to tell you about Mr Rais.  He was my arithmetic teacher when I went to boarding school in Trinidad at 9 years of age.  This was a long time ago.  The main teaching tool then was the chalk board and a wood-backed duster to wipe it clean from time to time.  Mr Rais made me learn my tables.  He taught additions, subtractions and multiplications.  It must have been very boring for him.  He used to pace up and down the spaces between the desks as we did our class assignments.  He would peer over my shoulder at my exercise book. Every time he noticed an error, he would rap me on the top of my head with the wooden back of the duster.

As a result, to this day, I cannot multiply beyond 5.  The 10 times table was easy.  You just had to add a zero to the figure.  If I have to work out 8 times 8, I can only do it by adding 3 times 8 to 5 times 8.  Or, for variety, I might subtract 2 times 8 from 10 times 8.  I failed mathematics at O-Level twice.

I loved physics and chemistry from Form 1.  I asked for a chemistry set as a Christmas gift every year.  I did well in those subjects right up to Form 5.  Then, mathematics entered the picture.  I failed both physics and chemistry at O-Level.  When I think of that teacher, a special loathing rises in me.

Probably, if he were still living, and you asked him about those days, he would tell you that what he remembers is that, “For every person who wants to teach, there are 30 not wanting to learn.”

I am sure none of you makes a similar mistake with your students.  Unlike Mr Rais, you know that teachers matter.

A speech given, as a High School teacher myself, at a workshop organised by the Anguilla Teachers’ Union at the Rodney McArthur Rey Auditorium on Friday, 11 October 2008

Child Support

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THE PRESENT STATE OF CHILD SUPPORT LEGISLATION IN ANGUILLA, AND OECS MODEL PROPOSALS FOR REFORM -

Notes for a speech given at the Department of Social Development Staff Development Day Workshop, at the Soroptimists' Conference Room, The Valley, on 9 October 2008

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At present, child support orders are generally made under the Magistrates Code of Procedure Act[1].

The old nineteenth century Act provides two regimes of support. One is for the children of: (i) married women; and the other is for the children of (ii) unmarried women.

1. Married women:

The provisions for child support are found at sections 134-137. Note that the present law provides that:

(i) Legal custody of a child vests in the husband. The court can only give legal custody to the mother, if she is a wife, if she proves, eg,

(a) that the father has forced her into prostitution,

(b) or is a habitual drunkard,

(c) or has committed a “matrimonial offence” such as adultery or desertion,

(d) or has been convicted on indictment.

(ii) Only in one of those conditions can the wife obtain from the Magistrate's Court an order for child support.

(iii) She loses, generally, all rights if the court is satisfied that she has committed an act of adultery.

(iv) If she ever resumes cohabitation, the order is discharged, and she has to start all over again when he abandons her and the children a second time.

(v) She cannot enforce a child support order by applying for the imprisonment of the father if the amount she has allowed to fall into arrears is more than two months or $4,000.

2. Unmarried women

The present-day provisions are found at sections 138-146 of the Magistrates Code of Procedure Act. They provide:

(i) The mother must normally bring her complaint to the Magistrate for a child support order within 12 months after the birth of the child.

(ii) The evidence of the mother alone is not sufficient. It must be corroborated by some independent evidence, eg, by a witness who saw them together in "compromising circumstances" around the time she testified she had sexual relations with the man.

(iii) The court is limited to making orders for the expenses of birth (and prior death) and for weekly maintenance. The court cannot order the man to help her with other expenses surrounding the having and bringing up of a child.

(iv) Child support arrears cannot be collected unless the mother can prove that the father possessed sufficient means to pay. She cannot merely testify that he did not comply with the court order. She has to become a detective and find the evidence that can satisfy the court that the man has the income to meet the court order, and that he has been deliberately flouting the court order.

(v) The court can, normally, only make an order for the support to be paid to the mother of the child, and not to anyone else, unless the mother has died. The grandparents or whoever else is bringing up the child cannot enforce the order and ask the court to make the man meet the terms of the court order the mother obtained.

The Reforms

The major reforms proposed have come out of the OECS Family Law and Domestic Violence Project. This is part of the initiative of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court towards judicial and legal reform in the OECS region.

The Bills that have been circulated for discussion, and adoption by the Houses of Assembly of the various countries and territories of the OECS are:

1. The Child Justice Bill;
2. Children (Care and Adoption) Bill;
3. The Domestic Violence Bill;
4. The Family Law (Guardianship, Custody and Access to Children) Bill;
5. The Maintenance of Children Bill;
6. The Status of Children Bill.

The ones that we are to look at today are:

1. The Status of Children Bill

This Bill will completely reform the law relating to the status of children:

(i) It abolishes the distinction between children born in wedlock and out of wedlock.

(ii) It does away with any reference to whether or not the parents of a child are married to each other or not.

(iii) The right of the child to inherit its father's property no longer depends on whether or not its parents are maried to each other.

(iv) It vests in the father for the first time rights in relationship to the child.

(v) Paternity is now presumed where:

(a) he was married to the mother at the birth of the child;

(b) the child was born within 10 months of his death or divorce;

(c) the child was born within 10 months of his ceasing to cohabit with the mother;

(d) he was adjudged in his lifetime or after his death to be the father;

(e) the mother (during the father's lifetime) or the father signs a notarised document acknowledging him to be the father.

(vi) It creates the Family Court.

(vii) It sets out the procedure for the court to make a “declaration of parentage”.

(viii) It provides the medical procedures for “parentage” to be determined.

The Act is supported by the following Regulations:

The Status of Children (Parentage Testing Procedure) Regulations

This provides for parentage to be established by DNA testing. There are detailed procedures to be followed, and the forms that have to be completed in each case.

2. The Maintenance of Children Bill

Some of the major proposed reforms of this Bill are:

(i) The High Court may, eg, in bankruptcy proceedings, make an order restraining the depletion of a person's property which would impair or defeat the making of a maintenance order.

(ii) The Bill makes no distinction between married women and unmarried women and of children born in wedlock and children born out of wedlock. All the complicated provisions that previously distinguished each of these two from each other are swept away.

(iii) The concept of “putative father” goes. The concept of “child born out of wedlock” goes. Each “parent” of a “child” now has an obligation to provide for its support.

(iv) "Congujal relationship” is now recognised, and identical maintenance responsibilities follow regardless of whether one is the mother or the father, or whether or not they are married to each other.

(v) The court is permitted to make orders for “joint physical custody” and “joint legal custody”. So, for the first time, an unmarried father may obtain joint physical custody, or joint legal custody permitting him access to the child.

(vi) A parent who receives money for child support must use it for that purpose. If he or she misapplies that money, he or she now commits an offence

(vii) The Bill is supplemented by draft regulations. They are titled the Maintenance of Children Regulations. The most important changes for Anguilla are:

(a) Regulation 3 provides for the court to send a notice to the person who has been orderd to support a child.

(b) Regulation 4, and section 17 of the Bill, envisage the Magistrate's Court appointing a Collecting Officer from the staff of the court house. In Anguilla, that may well be more appropriately drafted by providing for an officer of the Department of Social Development to perform that duty, as it is not normal for the court house to collect, disburse and account for child support monies.

(c) The Schedule consists of all the various forms needed by the Bill.

The third new proposed piece of legislation that that we will look at and that will reform the child support regime in Anguilla is:

3. The Family Law (Guardianship, Custody and Access to Children) Bill

This Act makes provision for:

(i) The equality of parental rights in relationship to children, particularly as concerns the custody and upbringing of children;

(ii) Custody orders only to cease to have effect after six months of the mother and father resuming cohabitation. So that trickster fathers can no longer entice the mother of his child into a short lived and spurious reconciliation that will have the effect of making her start the proceedings for child support all over again.

(iii) The intervention of counsellors and mediators and other professionals to be ordered by the Court dealing with the matter.

(iv) Orders to be made prohibiting “harassment” or “interference with the child”

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[1] RSA c M5.