Dear Editor,
The news of teenagers’ involvement in crime is a microcosm of a bigger problem. The problem is much wider and deeper than we care to admit. In a political society it is the government’s responsibility to create and/or sustain an environment where equity, justice, and fair play are principles of governance and prosperity. Sadly, the government is not living up to this mandate. Many young people are idle, homeless, beggars, unskilled, without a high school education, and unemployed.
Years ago efforts were made to positively channel the energies of the young human capital through universal government policies that brought to the fore productive results and minimized the lure to criminal activities. The universal policies were discarded and replaced with a policy which concentrates on providing opportunities to party constituents and its productive sectors.
There is no Guyana National Service, SIMAP, or similar mass-based institution, to harness youthful energies in a law-abiding environment that produced pride, discipline and skills.
The Critchlow Labour College provides a second chance for high school education but the government is threatening the opportunities of the nation’s children by refusing to give the college its yearly subvention.
Those young Buxtoninas who chose farming as a vocation and relied on farm produce for employment are hindered because the government bulldozed the Buxton farmlands and created no alternative system for new training and/or employment.
The apprenticeship scheme in the bauxite communities (Linden, Berbice and Kwakwani) which once offered young people opportunities for technical training and employment is now closed.
The scenarios cited above have left tens of thousands of young people without opportunities and directionless. The consequences of the government’s discriminatory actions suggest that the real child killers are those adults who continue to enforce policies that are destroying the hopes and aspirations of the young generation.
Discrimination, diminishing legitimate opportunities and lauded slackness in the society has made crime the alternative and glamorous ‘profession.’ Criminals are the new role models, and crime a youth’s ‘vocation.’ The young are ‘recruited,’ receive ‘skills’ training and then go to ‘work.’ They are role modelling the hired guns, drug lords, corrupt government officials, the tax evaders, new breed of ‘businessmen’ and phantom squads who all seem to be living a rewardingly good life. And this ‘good’ life is reinforced by a compromised judicial system and corrupt individuals (private and officials) who parade the corridors of power.
Crime does not have to be a teenager’s choice ‘vocation’ but this can only be achieved when adults lead by example, starting with the government, which has to act and implement polices to reverse their mistakes. Acting is not cowardly; it is a wise approach to a better society.
Yours faithfully,
M A Bacchus.
