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Time to reel in young hooligans
BARBARA GLOUDON
Friday, February 08, 2008
I NEVER THOUGHT it would come to this - that I'd be talking about "the good old days" and delivering homilies about how young people used to be "way back when". Well - here am I, about to launch into a tirade about the depravity of youth - not all, but a significant some. No apologies offered.
It is very hard to keep cool and urbane in the face of reports about the brutish acts of vandalism being carried out by some of the students who use the new Transport Centre at Half-Way- Tree. By all accounts, madness seems to have overtaken them - some of them - who go there after school to get transportation home. Instead, they hang around to wreak havoc.
In the so-called good old days, old timers would say no self-respecting secondary school students, would be so barefaced and outta order. Well Pops, the times they are a-changing. Even your favourite name-brand, tappanares school has students who are becoming dedicated vandals.
Not too long after the centre was opened, someone called to tell me that the destruction had started. He'd noticed a column with a light fixture embedded in it, which had been attacked with a sharp object - most likely a knife. To my caller, it appeared that someone was trying to get inside to see what was in there and how it worked. This seemed to suggest that it was the act of a young person, one still in the age of curiosity.
"No way," I said, desperately wanting to prove wrong those who had predicted cynically that it wouldn't be long before the centre was going to be brought to the least. The theory was that we Jamaicans don't know how to care anything. It is popularly held that we're all savages and leggo-beasts, devoid of sensitivity about something good.
I'm really tired of the put-down so I didn't hesitate to give the brush-off to the naysayers. Well - see me yah, shame so tell, at being proved wrong and even more so because there is more than enough evidence that it is "the hope of our tomorrow" - our youth who are leading the way in the ugliness. I'm aware that juvenile vandalism is not confined to us, but that is cold comfort. I happen to believe that our young people are brighter and smarter than many others. It is depressing therefore, to accept that they can't put their brains to better use than boogooyaggah and worthless behaviour.
ACCORDING TO REPORTS, the sanitary conveniences at the centre have been defaced with graffiti, replete with dutty words and bad spelling too. (Graffiti and literacy don't seem to like each other). Other areas of the centre have been defaced also, but that's not all. Inter personal violence is present. There's even been a stabbing or two. and this from young people who would be the first to tell you that they don't need to be treated like basic school pickney.
In a statement saturated with desperation, the minister of transport has suggested that security film which captured the students in mid-rampage should be viewed by school principals who could then identify their culprits and take suitable action. There's no word yet of the principals' response. In the "good old days", parents - and other adults - might have applauded such action, but today, were it to be put into action, don't be surprised if you didn't see the obligatory TV footage of parents protesting that the civil rights of their little innocents were being trampled on. Then, before you know it, we'd be on our way to the Privy Council.
YOU KNOW HOW BAD IT IS when other youths are declaring that things have gone too far. In a recent edition of the Observer's TEENage magazine, writers of the editorial distanced themselves from the mindless violence and destruction and called upon other well-thinking young people to do likewise.
From the TEEN writers, we learn that this is the season of escalating rivalry among supporters of the annual Champs - the inter-secondary schools athletic meet which conjures up more excitement (particularly at boys' schools), than academic achievement.
From another source, I've heard that big bucks are bet by adults on the outcome of the event each year. I have no evidence to support that but what is sure is that the testosterone level of school hooligans seems to rise in direct proportion to the nearness of Champs. This apparently accounts for the madness at the Transport Centre.
To be fair to the youths, there are adults who use the centre who are also contemptuous of law and order. They too must be made to recognise that they can't go round mashing up what they can't fix. The bill for the centre is a hefty one, but it is worth it if we can bring order to the transportation chaos. The police commissioner has served warning that the crackdown is coming for those who indulge in anti-social behaviour.
Well, sir, put this one high on your agenda. If it's one thing we'd like to see imported from Over So is the concept of public community service for some offenders. Time spent in cleaning up the mess they've made and doing it in full public gaze would do a world of good for our vandals of all ages.
BARBARA GLOUDON
Friday, February 08, 2008
I NEVER THOUGHT it would come to this - that I'd be talking about "the good old days" and delivering homilies about how young people used to be "way back when". Well - here am I, about to launch into a tirade about the depravity of youth - not all, but a significant some. No apologies offered.
It is very hard to keep cool and urbane in the face of reports about the brutish acts of vandalism being carried out by some of the students who use the new Transport Centre at Half-Way- Tree. By all accounts, madness seems to have overtaken them - some of them - who go there after school to get transportation home. Instead, they hang around to wreak havoc.
In the so-called good old days, old timers would say no self-respecting secondary school students, would be so barefaced and outta order. Well Pops, the times they are a-changing. Even your favourite name-brand, tappanares school has students who are becoming dedicated vandals.
Not too long after the centre was opened, someone called to tell me that the destruction had started. He'd noticed a column with a light fixture embedded in it, which had been attacked with a sharp object - most likely a knife. To my caller, it appeared that someone was trying to get inside to see what was in there and how it worked. This seemed to suggest that it was the act of a young person, one still in the age of curiosity.
"No way," I said, desperately wanting to prove wrong those who had predicted cynically that it wouldn't be long before the centre was going to be brought to the least. The theory was that we Jamaicans don't know how to care anything. It is popularly held that we're all savages and leggo-beasts, devoid of sensitivity about something good.
I'm really tired of the put-down so I didn't hesitate to give the brush-off to the naysayers. Well - see me yah, shame so tell, at being proved wrong and even more so because there is more than enough evidence that it is "the hope of our tomorrow" - our youth who are leading the way in the ugliness. I'm aware that juvenile vandalism is not confined to us, but that is cold comfort. I happen to believe that our young people are brighter and smarter than many others. It is depressing therefore, to accept that they can't put their brains to better use than boogooyaggah and worthless behaviour.
ACCORDING TO REPORTS, the sanitary conveniences at the centre have been defaced with graffiti, replete with dutty words and bad spelling too. (Graffiti and literacy don't seem to like each other). Other areas of the centre have been defaced also, but that's not all. Inter personal violence is present. There's even been a stabbing or two. and this from young people who would be the first to tell you that they don't need to be treated like basic school pickney.
In a statement saturated with desperation, the minister of transport has suggested that security film which captured the students in mid-rampage should be viewed by school principals who could then identify their culprits and take suitable action. There's no word yet of the principals' response. In the "good old days", parents - and other adults - might have applauded such action, but today, were it to be put into action, don't be surprised if you didn't see the obligatory TV footage of parents protesting that the civil rights of their little innocents were being trampled on. Then, before you know it, we'd be on our way to the Privy Council.
YOU KNOW HOW BAD IT IS when other youths are declaring that things have gone too far. In a recent edition of the Observer's TEENage magazine, writers of the editorial distanced themselves from the mindless violence and destruction and called upon other well-thinking young people to do likewise.
From the TEEN writers, we learn that this is the season of escalating rivalry among supporters of the annual Champs - the inter-secondary schools athletic meet which conjures up more excitement (particularly at boys' schools), than academic achievement.
From another source, I've heard that big bucks are bet by adults on the outcome of the event each year. I have no evidence to support that but what is sure is that the testosterone level of school hooligans seems to rise in direct proportion to the nearness of Champs. This apparently accounts for the madness at the Transport Centre.
To be fair to the youths, there are adults who use the centre who are also contemptuous of law and order. They too must be made to recognise that they can't go round mashing up what they can't fix. The bill for the centre is a hefty one, but it is worth it if we can bring order to the transportation chaos. The police commissioner has served warning that the crackdown is coming for those who indulge in anti-social behaviour.
Well, sir, put this one high on your agenda. If it's one thing we'd like to see imported from Over So is the concept of public community service for some offenders. Time spent in cleaning up the mess they've made and doing it in full public gaze would do a world of good for our vandals of all ages.
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