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Counting those 100 days .
Jean Lowrie-Chin
Monday, October 22, 2007
THERE is increasing impatience as Jamaicans discuss crime, jobs, and all those promises in the pre-election manifestos. However, we should bear in mind that Rome was not built in a day, and they certainly did not have the firepower of our marauding gangs.
Jean Lowrie-Chin
First, we have to remember that despite PM Bruce Golding's 'nightmare' quip, the PNP government had also been grappling with the very same problems, and even after engaging reputable British police officers had the same horrible headlines.
Years ago I interviewed the first Lasco Top Cop, Steve McGregor, who was at the time stationed in the East Kingston area, and had made significant headway in reducing crime. McGregor said he had made it his duty to be virtually everywhere with the young people, attending their sporting activities and dances. He said he encouraged them to keep busy and after a while, "they would forget where they had buried their guns".
This approach takes hard work, but it should be the only approach. Too many police killings are taking place, and while some may well have been in bonafide shoot-outs, there are too many question signs and definitely too many tears over these lost young lives. We live in dangerous times, but this can be no excuse to violate the human rights of any individual. We cannot turn a blind eye to double standards if we want to be internationally respected as a well-run jurisdiction.
We must continue to uphold the example of those excellent police officers who are practically father and mother for our young Jamaican boys and girls. They have been recruiting them by the thousands into the Police Youth Club (McGregor said that's where his love for policing started), conducting summer programmes to keep them out of trouble and are constantly mediating, to keep them from death's door.
PM Bruce Golding... over 40 days and counting
Having taught at a high school for boys, I can attest to the fact that the biggest trouble makers were the loneliest, most abused children. One toughie wrote a poem called 'Lonely Boy' and when asked about the piece, this snarling, unyielding boy, sobbed like a baby. Thank goodness, he has turned his life around, his poems becoming a part of the healing process.
With over 40 days gone from his first 100, Bruce Golding should look to sports and the arts to reorient our lost young men. Let them become so entranced with bat and ball, with fast play around the goal, with music, dance and dub poetry, that they forget where they buried the guns. Those that are guilty of crimes must be found and face the courts. If they are locked up, they should be put into intensive rehabilitation so that they can eventually become assets, not liabilities to the society. Those young people that are flirting but have not yet yielded to the gangs, should be swiftly recruited into energetic, creative, focused programmes.
Sheila Graham's Area Youth is a fine example of young people from both sides of the political fence coming together to create marvellous, moving work. This is not easy - Sheila has related times when cast members cannot go home across certain borders and most tragically, some who do not return the next day, innocents caught in the crossfire. Area Youth was the brainchild of Nigerian Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka, whose play, The Beatification of Area Boy, deals with issues of youth violence.
Every single Jamaican who has this country's interest at heart should be finding a way to get involved in community outreach. Consider this: Suppose one of us had got to Lee Boyd Malvo before he landed into the evil clutches of John Muhammad? Suppose one of us had decided to become a mentor for young Lee Boyd, helped to pay for his education and equipped him for sports? There would have been no young sniper and none of those senseless deaths.
In PM Golding's 60 remaining days, no issue cries for our attention more than crime. No one political party should blame the other, as both have much to account for. All who are pretending their innocence should know that this is a very small country, under the microscope of investors-in-waiting.
We hear of the efforts being made in tourism, to market this veritable paradise. However, our competitors are certainly not napping.
A friend in the US says she is surprised at the growing popularity of the Dominican Republic. "Even Jamaicans are bypassing Jamaica to holiday there," she said with concern. We also have Canadian relatives who are opting for Hawaii and Cuba. However, Jamaica's popularity in sports and music remains strong and the Black-Green-Gold is magnetic when we are in any international setting.
For Bruce Golding to stand proud on the 100th day after taking office, he will have to get the entire House of Parliament to sign on to an intensive rehabilitation programme for our youth.
The big fish will have to be cornered and legitimate investors finally allowed to take our country where it deserves to go. Opposition Leader Portia Simpson Miller should establish her office, as proposed by the prime minister, and be a brave Jamaican leader, urging all PNP parliamentarians to show that this is one issue on which no one can afford to be ambiguous.
Last week as we celebrated with colleagues Hon Bishop Herro Blair and Hon Dorothy Pyne-McLarty, we were reminded that we have in our midst, great Jamaicans who are sacrificing much for their country. We believe that our parliamentarians have the best opportunity of all, to match our honourees with a similar show of greatness.
The 100th day will be too soon to see the radical changes, but not too soon to collaborate in charting a courageous path out of this most tragic phase of our country's history.
lowriechin@aim.com
Jean Lowrie-Chin
Monday, October 22, 2007
THERE is increasing impatience as Jamaicans discuss crime, jobs, and all those promises in the pre-election manifestos. However, we should bear in mind that Rome was not built in a day, and they certainly did not have the firepower of our marauding gangs.
Jean Lowrie-Chin
First, we have to remember that despite PM Bruce Golding's 'nightmare' quip, the PNP government had also been grappling with the very same problems, and even after engaging reputable British police officers had the same horrible headlines.
Years ago I interviewed the first Lasco Top Cop, Steve McGregor, who was at the time stationed in the East Kingston area, and had made significant headway in reducing crime. McGregor said he had made it his duty to be virtually everywhere with the young people, attending their sporting activities and dances. He said he encouraged them to keep busy and after a while, "they would forget where they had buried their guns".
This approach takes hard work, but it should be the only approach. Too many police killings are taking place, and while some may well have been in bonafide shoot-outs, there are too many question signs and definitely too many tears over these lost young lives. We live in dangerous times, but this can be no excuse to violate the human rights of any individual. We cannot turn a blind eye to double standards if we want to be internationally respected as a well-run jurisdiction.
We must continue to uphold the example of those excellent police officers who are practically father and mother for our young Jamaican boys and girls. They have been recruiting them by the thousands into the Police Youth Club (McGregor said that's where his love for policing started), conducting summer programmes to keep them out of trouble and are constantly mediating, to keep them from death's door.
PM Bruce Golding... over 40 days and counting
Having taught at a high school for boys, I can attest to the fact that the biggest trouble makers were the loneliest, most abused children. One toughie wrote a poem called 'Lonely Boy' and when asked about the piece, this snarling, unyielding boy, sobbed like a baby. Thank goodness, he has turned his life around, his poems becoming a part of the healing process.
With over 40 days gone from his first 100, Bruce Golding should look to sports and the arts to reorient our lost young men. Let them become so entranced with bat and ball, with fast play around the goal, with music, dance and dub poetry, that they forget where they buried the guns. Those that are guilty of crimes must be found and face the courts. If they are locked up, they should be put into intensive rehabilitation so that they can eventually become assets, not liabilities to the society. Those young people that are flirting but have not yet yielded to the gangs, should be swiftly recruited into energetic, creative, focused programmes.
Sheila Graham's Area Youth is a fine example of young people from both sides of the political fence coming together to create marvellous, moving work. This is not easy - Sheila has related times when cast members cannot go home across certain borders and most tragically, some who do not return the next day, innocents caught in the crossfire. Area Youth was the brainchild of Nigerian Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka, whose play, The Beatification of Area Boy, deals with issues of youth violence.
Every single Jamaican who has this country's interest at heart should be finding a way to get involved in community outreach. Consider this: Suppose one of us had got to Lee Boyd Malvo before he landed into the evil clutches of John Muhammad? Suppose one of us had decided to become a mentor for young Lee Boyd, helped to pay for his education and equipped him for sports? There would have been no young sniper and none of those senseless deaths.
In PM Golding's 60 remaining days, no issue cries for our attention more than crime. No one political party should blame the other, as both have much to account for. All who are pretending their innocence should know that this is a very small country, under the microscope of investors-in-waiting.
We hear of the efforts being made in tourism, to market this veritable paradise. However, our competitors are certainly not napping.
A friend in the US says she is surprised at the growing popularity of the Dominican Republic. "Even Jamaicans are bypassing Jamaica to holiday there," she said with concern. We also have Canadian relatives who are opting for Hawaii and Cuba. However, Jamaica's popularity in sports and music remains strong and the Black-Green-Gold is magnetic when we are in any international setting.
For Bruce Golding to stand proud on the 100th day after taking office, he will have to get the entire House of Parliament to sign on to an intensive rehabilitation programme for our youth.
The big fish will have to be cornered and legitimate investors finally allowed to take our country where it deserves to go. Opposition Leader Portia Simpson Miller should establish her office, as proposed by the prime minister, and be a brave Jamaican leader, urging all PNP parliamentarians to show that this is one issue on which no one can afford to be ambiguous.
Last week as we celebrated with colleagues Hon Bishop Herro Blair and Hon Dorothy Pyne-McLarty, we were reminded that we have in our midst, great Jamaicans who are sacrificing much for their country. We believe that our parliamentarians have the best opportunity of all, to match our honourees with a similar show of greatness.
The 100th day will be too soon to see the radical changes, but not too soon to collaborate in charting a courageous path out of this most tragic phase of our country's history.
lowriechin@aim.com
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