Recently, I had the privilege of addressing a group of boy students at a primary school in St James. It was Boys' Day, when only the male students attended school and were being exposed to a variety of activities designed to make them responsible men of the future. My involvement was to give a motivational talk to Grade Six students, aged between 10 and 12.

During my presentation, I asked each boy to get up and say what he wanted to be when he grew up. At first, I got the usual responses: "doctor", "lawyer", "teacher", "businessman", etc. Then there was this spindly tyke who raised his hand defiantly and declared proudly, "Sir, I want to be a gunman!" There was a deathly silence with the entire class as well as me staring at him in disbelief. Surely, he was just joking or trying to be mischievous, I thought. But then, another student rose and said, "Sir, is true. 'Im father is a gunman."

One of the tragedies of today's Jamaica is that so many youngsters are not being allowed to enjoy their childhood. They are being forced into adulthood mentally, physically, and even sexually. It is no secret that the absence of fathers in many of our homes has led to much deviance, truancy and juvenile delinquency. As a result, girls and boys have turned to prostitution in its many forms in order to eke out an existence. Many children are forced to watch their parents having sex and at times ruthless, uncaring stepfathers and boyfriends take advantage of hapless little girls while their mothers turn a blind eye or even encourage these dastardly acts of copulation.

Too many of our boys grow up without any fatherly love in their miserable lives. In a society which is extremely homophobic, our men are afraid to be their sons' best friends. To hug them and tell them that they love them will make them look "funny". As a result, our boys grow up without any fatherly love and this is why so many of them are so heartless and will "make a duppy" (kill someone), without batting an eyelid or having any sense of remorse. Indeed, many of them do not expect to live past 25 years old, so they live fast and die young. Immediate gratification is the order of the day. In essence, for many of our youngsters, it is death at an early age. And what is most frightening is that I am not just referring here to physical death, but death of the soul and the spirit!

It is against this background that I find it most ironic as thousands of students from basic school to secondary school level are at this time "graduating". These school-leaving or graduation exercises are executed with much fanfare and excitement. The most expensive garments are worn, and when one attends some of these functions it is safe to say they take on a carnival-type atmosphere with every presence of "bling bling".

A philosopher once referred to a dead atheist as he lay in his coffin as someone who was all dressed up with no place to go. As morbid as it may sound, this may well be an apt description for these young people, especially those at the secondary level. Too few of them will obtain gainful employment, while others will have tremendous difficulty finding the necessary funds to go on to further studies or training. One such graduate told me that he had already decided to either take up the gun or get into the sweepstake business (lotto scam). He has both CXC and Advanced Level subjects and hopes to be a lawyer one day, but will he make it? I am now busy trying to see if I can get some help for him before he falls through the cracks and becomes irredeemable. Yes, there are numerous such cases, and I am appealing to those who are in a position to help an unfortunate youngster to make the effort. If each of us can save even one such young Jamaican from descending into the abyss, we will have made a difference.

The sad truth is that our generation has failed this upcoming generation in more ways than one. Yet we condemn them as being a generation of vipers. Who is responsible? This Bruce Golding administration had promised that it would be placing much greater emphasis on youth empowerment and family life. I am yet to see any meaningful effort in this direction. Just talk, talk, talk. We have been subject to too many studies, task forces, papers and other exercises in futility which only consultants and party hacks benefit from while "Jah kingdom goes to waste".

And it is not only our politicians who are to be blamed for the many ills that plague this country. What of our dancehall artistes whose lifestyle, lyrics and utterances have a lasting effect on our young minds? I once asked a young man during a job interview if he read the newspapers, listened to the news on radio or watched it on television, and his crisp response was, "No sah, mi lissen to Bounty Killa and Beenie Man!" When are we going to rope in our performing artistes and impress on them the vitally important role they can play in making Jamaica a better place for us all? This is not about censorship. It is about using whatever God-given talents we have in a way that will leave this world better than how we found it.

The callous murder of JUTC chairman Douglas Chambers by hoodlums is a stark reminder of the direction in which this nation is going. It cannot be business as usual if we seriously hope to save this country from becoming a banana republic in which the rule of law becomes a sick joke and criminality takes over. Regrettably, we have been spending too much time on seeming trivialities and sideshows while the society is deteriorating into anarchy. In other words, we continue to fiddle while Rome burns.

lloydbsmith@hotmail.com

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