Inner-City Communities Not the Major Problem – Senator Falconer

Opposition Senator, Sandrea Falconer is contending that inner-city communities are not the major problem currently facing the country, but merely a symptom of what obtains.
She argues that if these communities have been characterised as dens of criminality, then there is need to look beyond the immediate evidence to examine the root cause of such activities.
Speaking in the 2008/09 State of the Nation Debate in the Senate on July 18, Senator Falconer said that the community malady could not be addressed without public honesty and leadership integrity, citing the need to apply and engage moral will and principles to do so.
“It is my contention that communities do not build themselves. We live in a culture of fractured family life. The primacy and integrity of family life are not valued in our society, even where it is given lip service,” she said.
Noting that the “orgy” of violence could be blamed on the disintegration of family life, she pointed out that, “many of our young people who find solace and security in gangs, do so because there is none at home. If you speak to the police, they will tell you that a large percentage of young offenders come from broken homes, (and) more often than not, there is no father figure at the home.”
Senator Falconer contended that the safest and most “liveable” communities are the result of moral structures generated by wholesome family life and disciplined domestic households, determined to preserve values and uphold standards.
“We cannot be targeting the proverbial inner-city communities alone. We must begin to see all communities as needing transformation, whether they are characterised as gated or garrison, inner-city or suburban, rural or subdivision, and ghetto or estates,” she said.
“If we are honest, and if we are truthful, we would have to admit that the quality and experience of family life and bonding, are not much better, if any at all, in the more privileged communities and the more ostentatious neighbourhoods of our cities and towns, than in the less regarded,” Senator Falconer said.
She suggested several recommendations to effectively address this problem. These include: facilitating national dialogue on issues of moral importance led by the church, state, and judiciary, among other interests; expanding initiatives such as conflict resolution programmes to assist the nation’s youth to deal with their frustrations; repudiating inequities and injustices; providing new opportunities and real options for change and upliftment; and encouraging and facilitating vigorous but objective arbitration between competing interest groups.