Most of the social problems in our large urban centers are directly linked to the deterioration of the family structure. The traditional family, also known as the nuclear family, has been shattered due to economic stress. In an effort to make ends meet, both parents have to work, leaving their children behind.
While their parents are absent, the children are taken care by close relatives—usually by their grandparents—, maids, baby-sitters or children day care centers. None of them can fully replace the father or the mother. This vacuum of love is creating a society with children desperately missing the affection and protection of their parents. Due to this uncertainty, they look elsewhere to find affection. Some find it in drugs or alcohol, others in gangs, in social clubs, playing video games all day long, or just watching the silly box—the ubiquitous television set.
Another factor which is adding to the social malaise, is the growing rate of divorces. In Panama, this is a growing trend. Mothers are now playing the double role of being a father and a mother at the same time. Men are not assuming their responsibility and fly from woman to woman sucking in the nectar and then flying to another flower leaving behind children in distress. The social institituion of marriage has deteriorated greatly by an economic situation that gets more and more precarious as a result of a global meltdown.
We try to assist our nephew Alcibiades, keep his family healthy. Earning a living driving a taxi in Panama is not a piece of cake, but that’s what he can do with his restricted education. So far they are doing well, and Abidel and Karol are growing under an umbrella of warmness and protection. That’s what it’s all about.
Below are several pictures of a bonded family. Here we go.
Photograph of Karol and Alcibiades, the stars of the show of our small family. Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.
Photograph of Karol, wearing a pollera, and her father, Alcibiades. Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.
Photograph of Alcibiades family. From left to right: Karla (mother), Karol (grandniece), Alcibiades (father), and Abdiel (grandnephew). This is it---the nuclear family. Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.
Photograph of the whole Achurra bunch including my wife. Karol always takes the opportunity to show off her model talents. Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.
Yep, the family is the social tissue that holds a nation together. The family is the basic social unit consisting of parents and their children, considered as a group, whether living together or not—the traditional or nuclear family.
In general terms, a family is any group of people who uphold a values and belief system agreed upon or inferred, supporting each other and respecting others individual spaces and acting as true and unconditional friends. Help us strengthen the family—we need it badly. Good Day.
Don Omar:
Cuánto me alegra que usted dedique tiempo a promover la familia tradicional, la familia nuclear. Cuánta dicha saber que mis padres, un hombre y una mujer, fueron escogidos por Dios para a ayudarLe a crear con amor mi propia vida! Sin lugar a dudas los tíos, tías, abuelos, primos jugamos un papel secundario pero muy importante ya que todos reforzamos ese círulo de amor donde cada uno debe crecer.
Saludos cordiales,
Hilda
Hola Hilda:
Gracias por sus comentarios. Usted también, como buena educadora, está haciendo su parte para preservar unos valores que se disipan como la neblina de la mañana.
Bendiciones,
Omar.-