Dear Editor,
There was the time when we noticed two and three boys late at night preparing themselves for sleep on the sidewalk or in the passage way of a store in downtown Georgetown. For a while, we were mildly curious, but it was not a problem, for it was only two or three boys, so we did nothing. Over time their numbers grew and soon we had a problem on our hands, so we decided to do something. We sought to house them, arrange for these street children to be fed and to attend schools, access health facilities etc. In fact government ministers proudly go on television and talk of such “initiatives.” They talk, with seeming satisfaction; of having removed x number of children from the streets, as if this action represents a solution to the bigger problem. Today, the street children phenomenon is with us again and their numbers are growing quickly. This has happened because we never showed a keen interest in addressing the root cause – dysfunctional families in our society.
Same is true with the involvement of young people in serious crimes. In the 1980s, we began to notice a few young boys being among adult criminals appearing at our courts. We theorized that these were merely a few unfortunate youths who were being taken advantage of by hardened criminals, who used them as look – outs and for gaining entry to buildings that offer access through small openings. So we jailed the adult and sent the boys/girls to the New Opportunity Corps, again for us problem solved. Today, a significant number of our major criminals are aged twenty and under. `Nasty man’ aged thirteen when apprehended, Germaine Charles better known as “Skinny,” Dwight Da Silva, Quincy Evans better known as Jimmy Dog, all considered dangerous, all under twenty years old in 2006. Apparently some of our children have concluded their period of apprenticeship and are running their own criminal enterprise. So, we find ourselves in a situation in which the Minister of Home Affairs tells us that at year ending 2007, the government spent hundreds of millions on the police force in the fight against crime. One can’t help but wonder if, when we first noticed youngsters involved in crime, we had spent some money helping families regain their functioning, enhancing parents’ competence at providing leadership and support that children need, what level of hurt this society might have been spared?
What really disappoints is that we are doing the same thing all over again. Today we are asked to believe that Mr Rawlins and his gang are responsible for all the gruesome killings in Guyana at this time. Some government officials give the impression that if and when we get Rawlins, ruthless killings will be a thing of the past or at least be reduced significantly. This I am sure is designed to give citizens a sense of safety, it offers us a rainbow to look for which will signal an end to our discomfort and fear. While the truth is that these criminal gangs represent a new problem which developed because we did not deal with the initial problem – dysfunctional families. I think that as a people we struggle to understand this. When we focus all our response on symptoms, the main problem, which is left unattended, gives rise to more symptoms. When this happens, that which started as a symptom grows to such magnitude that, in its own right, it becomes a problem. So we turn our attention to dealing with this “new problem,” while the initial problem that gave rise to this “new problem” remains unattended.
Here is another example. Consistent with our position that if we get rid of Mr Rawlins and his associates violent crime would be seriously reduced, this year’s budget seeks to give to the police millions to be added to the millions the force got last year. The argument here is not whether or not the police deserve this money, but merely to point out how misguided our approach to solving social problems is.
How much money has the Finance Minister earmarked for helping dysfunctional families regain their proper functioning? What has been set aside for helping in the creation of youth friendly communities? Who believes that after the police kill “Fineman” and his colleagues (if the police are true to form, there is no way “Fineman” will be brought in alive) the problem will end.
During 2006 and early 2007 I was fortunate to be involved in two bits of research. First in December 2006 I met with just over two hundred students from the Saint Ignatius Secondary in Region # 9. One of the questions I ask them was about their level of satisfaction with the leadership and support they get from their parents. The response was a unanimous “no”. This was no isolated response, I got the same response to this question from young people in Regions 1,2,7 and 8. Then in 2007, with the kind assistance of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports I met with the students at NOC; they numbered about on hundred and thirty. I asked how many of them came from homes in which both their mother and father are present. I misplaced some of the responses but held on to ninety two of them. Of this number only thirteen of them said they came from homes in which both parents were present. So at least from the students at NOC during July 2007 what the majority of these adolescents had in common was the absence of fathers from the homes, female-headed single parent homes.
My concern here is our seeming preference for doing nothing when a simple study of the symptom will indicate what the problem is. It is as if we hope responding to the symptoms will make the problem disappear.
Much of what I have said above gives us a good indication where the problem lies. We need to help parents (especially fathers) to better understand their function and determine to satisfy same, and help communities to become youth friendly.
I do not think that parents are deliberately neglecting to give their children the guidance they need. I do think it is more a question of parents not knowing what their role is and how to satisfy it. How does a parent offer leadership to children in a technological world which their children are far more competent to deal with than they are? What part can a parent play in helping his/her child decide what career he/she should pursue, when the child has access to professional career guidance officers?
What does a parent tell the children about social diseases when more knowledgeable persons visit the schools and give them up-to-fate information? With this reality, how do parents establish their leadership? Where in the villages are sessions regularly held to empower parents, so that they could at least, support what is being taught their children by other institutions and agencies?
Importantly, let us not overlook that the two studies I mentioned, do suggest that some attention needs to be paid to fathers. Mothers are not generally good at teaching boys how to be men, just as fathers are usually not the best persons for teaching girls to be women. Dr Dodson referring to a study done in the USA says “Sons of single mothers are at greatest risk for violence, apparently because they have spent less time with their fathers” Perhaps this father absence (for me, absence of a father should not only refer to homes in which that parent is physically absent, but also homes in which that parent is physically present, but for some reason fails to satisfy his fatherly functions) in part, explains why males make up such a significant percentage of those in our prisons. I did three months attachment at the Georgetown prison in the early 1980s, and was moved by how affectionately prisoners talked about their mothers and how sorry they were for letting them down. I can’t remember even one prisoner talking kindly of his father.
Is this working with parents and community leaders something that needs to be done with some urgency? Well, look at the rising number of parents who are children, the level of youth representation in our national statistics on HIV/AIDS, the amount of citizens under the age of thirty in our pr
isons and answer for yourself. In recent times, one of the most important professionals in the developed world is the social worker, in many poor countries like Guyana however, this is not so. The belief seems to be that what we need to do as a nation is spend our efforts on achieving economic wealth. With wealth to throw at social problems, we seem to think they will disappear. We take such a position because we fail to pay attention to lessons from the wealthy countries. In a book written in the early 1970s and entitled “The changing face of Crime,” the author uses statistics to show that in Western Europe crime increased as wealth increased, the USA has had the same experience. In Russia in recent times, we see the same tendency for crime to increase as the country grows in wealth. Even closer home, Trinidad is a good example of this tendency of crime growing as wealth increases. The presence of economic wealth is important, but it would be na
