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EDITORIAL - 6-Step Recovery Programme For Gangs Of Gordon House
Published: Tuesday | April 26, 2011
Usually, healing from drug addiction or similar destructive behaviour requires, first, admission of the problem and then mapping a clear strategy to recovery. The 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous is an example of such a process.
However, admitting to a problem usually comes when the addict or the gang banger has reached rock bottom, or has an epiphany about the damaging effect of his behaviour on those around him.
Jamaica has been at, or has come very close to, rock bottom.
For quarter of a century or more, the country's economy has limped along with little to no growth.
Nearly a quarter of our students leave primary school functionally illiterate; one in 10 drops out of high school; only a fifth who complete secondary education do so with certification adequate to matriculate to tertiary education.
More than 380,000 young people between the ages of 15 and 29, or nearly 60 per cent of a cohort of two years ago, were either unemployed, or had left the labour force. A fifth of the population lives below the poverty line.
At more than 55 per 100,000, Jamaica has one of the world's highest homicide rates. In many communities, the State's enforcement of law and order is minimal.
Time for change
Despite the catalogue of misery, the gangs of Gordon House, the political parties that have held sway for 70 years and have alternated in government for the past half a century, remain in denial about their situation and the pain they wreak on the country. Maybe more to the point, while they concede to some problems and promise to modify behaviour, they reject the depth of the national crisis.
It is against this backdrop that:
1. Jamaicans must insist that the parties - the governing Jamaica Labour Party and the Opposition People's National Party - take a cold, hard look at themselves and admit to what they have been involved in. That is, gangs - closed groups serving, for the most part, narrow partisan interests.
2. We must insist, too, that they set clear steps to recovery, starting with a rigorous bout of house-cleaning.
3. They must throw out the criminals, and get rid of the marks, symbols, speech and behaviour that identify them as gangs.
4. They must operate with greater transparency and accountability to the people they claim to serve. This must include the way they structure themselves.
For instance, the parties must recognise that hurriedly assembled hordes of manipulated warm, beer-drinking and smoke-puffing 'delegates' do not provide the best forum for choosing leaders or decision-making. There has to be a better, more cerebral system.
5. While cleaning house and dispatching the errant members, the parties must set clear standards for integrity and behaviour and seek to recruit members capable not only of adhering to the new standards but who possess managerial skills. This may demand recruiting from the diaspora people untainted by the existing bad habits.
6. The parties must also begin to set long-term goals, not short-term gang interests, to lift Jamaica from its economic malaise, create jobs and improve the quality of life of the people.
If the gangs of Gordon House believe that they are incapable of this transformation, the best thing for them would probably be to disband themselves, thus providing space for clean leadership with fresh ideas
Published: Tuesday | April 26, 2011
Usually, healing from drug addiction or similar destructive behaviour requires, first, admission of the problem and then mapping a clear strategy to recovery. The 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous is an example of such a process.
However, admitting to a problem usually comes when the addict or the gang banger has reached rock bottom, or has an epiphany about the damaging effect of his behaviour on those around him.
Jamaica has been at, or has come very close to, rock bottom.
For quarter of a century or more, the country's economy has limped along with little to no growth.
Nearly a quarter of our students leave primary school functionally illiterate; one in 10 drops out of high school; only a fifth who complete secondary education do so with certification adequate to matriculate to tertiary education.
More than 380,000 young people between the ages of 15 and 29, or nearly 60 per cent of a cohort of two years ago, were either unemployed, or had left the labour force. A fifth of the population lives below the poverty line.
At more than 55 per 100,000, Jamaica has one of the world's highest homicide rates. In many communities, the State's enforcement of law and order is minimal.
Time for change
Despite the catalogue of misery, the gangs of Gordon House, the political parties that have held sway for 70 years and have alternated in government for the past half a century, remain in denial about their situation and the pain they wreak on the country. Maybe more to the point, while they concede to some problems and promise to modify behaviour, they reject the depth of the national crisis.
It is against this backdrop that:
1. Jamaicans must insist that the parties - the governing Jamaica Labour Party and the Opposition People's National Party - take a cold, hard look at themselves and admit to what they have been involved in. That is, gangs - closed groups serving, for the most part, narrow partisan interests.
2. We must insist, too, that they set clear steps to recovery, starting with a rigorous bout of house-cleaning.
3. They must throw out the criminals, and get rid of the marks, symbols, speech and behaviour that identify them as gangs.
4. They must operate with greater transparency and accountability to the people they claim to serve. This must include the way they structure themselves.
For instance, the parties must recognise that hurriedly assembled hordes of manipulated warm, beer-drinking and smoke-puffing 'delegates' do not provide the best forum for choosing leaders or decision-making. There has to be a better, more cerebral system.
5. While cleaning house and dispatching the errant members, the parties must set clear standards for integrity and behaviour and seek to recruit members capable not only of adhering to the new standards but who possess managerial skills. This may demand recruiting from the diaspora people untainted by the existing bad habits.
6. The parties must also begin to set long-term goals, not short-term gang interests, to lift Jamaica from its economic malaise, create jobs and improve the quality of life of the people.
If the gangs of Gordon House believe that they are incapable of this transformation, the best thing for them would probably be to disband themselves, thus providing space for clean leadership with fresh ideas
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