Ohana means family.
Family means nobody
gets left behind...or
forgotten
Daily Mail, 12 Dec 2008, by Benda Almond
This week UNICEF warned of dangers to British children in driving mothers back to work.
Who will defend the family?
From almost the first recorded history, one set of relationships has been at the heart of the human
experience and the basis of civilisayitself, a mother and father who depend on each other, the children
who rely on both of them, a supportive network of grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.
Without the loyalties and obligations of the committed family, our ancestors would certainly have
struggled to survive in a dangerous and frightening world.
How else but with the help of kin could they have coped with the critical moments in life, birth
sickness, old age, the need to educate and train their young? Without such help from the very beginning,
it may be asked whether humankind would ever have developed the capacity to build and advanced
civilisation.
This week a report from UNICEF, the UN's child welfare agency, warned that working mothers take a massive
risk when they put their offspring into low quality childcare.
Experts at the world body said some toddlers could suffer psychological harm and fare poorly later
at school. Aggressive behaviour learned by children at some nurseries might contribute later to classroom
disruption.
The study for is the first major international report to warn of dangers of the drive,pushed again by the
government this week, to get mothers back to work early.
But the family has a significance that goes way beyond the practicalities of day to day existence.
From the very beginning, it has also given a special meaning to our human notions of past, present and
the future.
Human beings could have regarded themselves as isolated individuals whose meaningless lives were
snuffed out and forgotten after a brief span. Instead, a hugely important factor in driving social development
we always tended to see ourselves as part of a great chain of existence, binding us to our forebears and to
generations yet unborn.
"To forget your ancestors is to be a brook without a source, a tree without a root" says the old Chinese
proverb. That undoubtedly reflects one of our deepest human instincts.
Until very recently, in fact, the importance of the family was taken for granted, not only as the basis of
society, but as the foundation of our human identity.
Today? In western societies, and especially in the English speaking world, we think we know better. Forget
the wisdom of the ages. Forget our deep rooted instincts.
The import of the 'traditional' family is being challenged as never before.
The idea has taken root that human families can be constructed in any way people want. The message is
that biology counts for nothing.
Biological mothers don't matter to their children, biological fathers don't matter either.
All that matters is what adults want, and the children must adapt to,it, whether they like it or not.
The sheer speed of what is happening is quite astonishing, in less than 50 years, the old values have been
stood on their head.
GOD WITH US
The Family
2-8-5 6-1-4-9-3-7
45
9
http://www.973-eht-namuh-973.com/Alchem ... FAMILY.htm