A hurricane is not exactly a cakewalk

Amid the rampage of Hurricane Milton, a group of children were spotted on a National Television report playing carelessly at the Havana Seafront, and no authority was there to prevent them from doing so.

It is still fresh in our memory all the process required to pass the Family Code, all the debates regarding childcare, children’s rights and duties, and also their parents’ or guardians’.

Now the question arises in the face of the photos and also the videos of quite a few children having fun as if they were playing in the best entertaining park among the furious waves that the Havana Seafront poured out as a result of the fearsome Hurricane Milton when it was heading towards Florida.

Who are to be blamed in the family for those children’s behavior? Who is in charge of preventing them from putting their lives at risk?

It is not necessary to dig deeper into the risks that a drain cover thrown off as a projectile due to the pressure of the water entails, nor on what it means to fall into a sewer and be sucked in by those same fearful waters.

However, it seems mandatory to remember what the Family Code says about parental responsibility as the set of powers, duties and rights that correspond to mothers and fathers for the fulfillment of their function of assistance, education and care of their minor daughters and sons.

When families do not exercise their responsibilities in a proper way, they are putting the well-being and development of their sons and daughters at risk. And this, according to the Communication Group of the Directorate of Attention to Minors, of the Ministry of the Interior, cited by Granma newspaper, is a form, although subtler, of child abuse, which does not correspond exclusively to extreme forms such as physical or sexual violence.

“A constant lack of response to basic needs, or the exercise of the parental role in a negligent manner can have harmful effects in the medium or long term,” states the entity.

In turn, Law 151/2022, Cuban Penal Code, establishes that anyone who does not attend to or neglects the health, education, maintenance or assistance of a person under 18 years of age who is subject to their parental responsibility can be punished with imprisonment from six months to one year or a fine of one hundred to 300 quotas, or both.

But it is always best to prevent and not punish, to love instead of neglect.

Translated by Sergio A. Paneque Díaz / CubaSí Translation Staff