Sascha Wil­son

Se­nior Re­porter

sascha.wil­son@guardian.co.tt

In ob­ser­vance of In­ter­na­tion­al Men’s Day, the Trinidad and To­ba­go Ex-Ser­vice­men As­so­ci­a­tion yes­ter­day staged a march in San Fer­nan­do to cel­e­brate men’s con­tri­bu­tions.

Led by their pres­i­dent, Lester John­son, the group walked from Cof­fee Street to Har­ris Prom­e­nade. John­son, a re­tired War­rant Of­fi­cer Class One in the Trinidad and To­ba­go De­fence Force, said the as­so­ci­a­tion was formed in 2008 and com­pris­es 30 mem­bers, but they are aim­ing to in­crease their mem­ber­ship.

En­cour­ag­ing men to be pos­i­tive role mod­els, John­son said men­tor­ship plays an im­por­tant role in keep­ing young peo­ple on the right path. “I think we are look­ing at men­tor­ship as a se­ri­ous part of it. Pre­vi­ous­ly peo­ple used to say the com­mu­ni­ty is re­spon­si­ble for bring­ing up the child. We need to go back to those roots and have peo­ple in­volved in it and cre­ate prop­er men­tors for the per­sons com­ing up now.”

Not­ing that the theme of In­ter­na­tion­al Men’s Day is “Pos­i­tive Male Role Mod­els,” hon­orary mem­ber Clu­nic Wallen said the sub-theme would be look­ing out for your broth­er’s health. En­cour­ag­ing men to be­come more health con­scious, Wallen, a re­tired di­vi­sion­al fire of­fi­cer, said it was a fact that men don’t gen­er­al­ly look af­ter their health. He said men must un­der­stand that they can get sick, and he urged them to en­cour­age their broth­ers to get med­ical check-ups and vis­it the doc­tor if they are not well.

“Prostate can­cer is on the rise, and it’s so preva­lent now that men need to get checked ...”

Wallen al­so urged men to be gen­tle­men and not com­mit gen­der-based vi­o­lence. “Don’t be vi­o­lent. Don’t dis­re­spect your wives or your spouse. Treat your life part­ners with re­spect. You are the leader in the home; lead by ex­am­ple and love your spouse and girls and chil­dren. Don’t abuse women; it is not on the cards.”

In­ter­na­tion­al Men’s Day founder in T&T Jerome Teelucks­ingh sent his re­marks as he could not at­tend the event due to an­oth­er en­gage­ment. He re­called that he start­ed the ob­ser­vance in 1999 in Port-of-Spain, on his fa­ther’s birth­day (No­vem­ber 19), and on­ly eight peo­ple at­tend­ed, but to­day it’s cel­e­brat­ed in 96 coun­tries.

He said the main goals of this unique day were to fo­cus on is­sues af­fect­ing men, such as men­tal health, their well-be­ing, and the pos­i­tive con­tri­bu­tions they have made to so­ci­ety. He praised the as­so­ci­a­tion and every­one who at­tend­ed the march for pro­mot­ing peace and pos­i­tive mas­culin­i­ty. 

See pages 18, 25