DON’T let the title fool you. I am not about to tell you that if the Europeans paid the descendants of African slaves reparation tomorrow it would prevent the creation of more criminals or change the ones we have.

I would not say this because so many descendants of enslaved Africans have risen out of the shadow of that holocaust and have achieved and flourished without reparation.

I also acknowledge that a per-person payment in the Pan American region, based on the percentage of African blood, is impossible.

I would, however, maintain that if a specific form of reparation were paid, things could change exponentially for the future. Let me explain.

The primary commonality of most criminals I interview, arrest, or release is not that they are evil — it’s that they are simple. This is as kindly as I can say it.

I could say that they are dunces, stupid, and downright bewildered, but that wouldn’t sound professional. Their state is a result of the fact that they come from households of persons with like limitations, and their schooling is not consistent enough to impact their progress in any great way.

Reparation could change that by way of a settlement that commits enough money to ensure that the education of the next generation is not dependent on parents. I call this system that I am suggesting the Gore Family Foundation model.

This organisation has, for years, been running a programme that teaches young adults from inner-city communities practical trades and workplace skills.

What makes their programme unique is that the students don’t have to provide any resources to make it happen. They are transported, fed, uniformed, supplied the necessary equipment and textbooks, and paid a stipend. Therefore, the programme cuts out the need for parental input in the equation. It also negates interference from the area don and the preying uncle. The student just has to turn up at the pickup point.

To understand why this model is the only one that will really change the culture of the subset of the poor who becomes the gangsters, you must understand why our education system has failed.

Our education system is too dependent on parents, many of whom are victims of generational poverty, inconsistent education, and an economic reality defined by want.

Educating a young mind requires nutrition, quality teachers and, most importantly, consistent attendance.

In Jamaica, the students who achieve are usually greatly assisted by motivated parents who sacrifice to support the effort.

Many students, however, don’t have this resource at their disposal so they attend sporadically, at best.

The “Gore model” I speak of reduces the dependence on the parent. We will literally have to move to a system where children are actually picked up in communities and transported to their schools. We will need to pay for their uniforms and books and provide their lunches. This is necessary, but also monstrously expensive.

Reparation could pay for this. Reparation should pay for this.

You see, the horror of the non-payment of any settlement is not that the victim goes without compensation, but rather that the offender acknowledges no guilt. It’s like saying, “My Government did nothing wrong.”

There is a disturbing psychological effect on any person who sees himself as unique and belittled because he alone was not compensated for a wrong done to him or his foreparents.

European Jews, Japanese Americans, and native Americans have all been compensated in significant ways for the horrors their predecessors suffered, as they should have been — they were greatly wronged.

The failure to pay any form of compensation to the descendants of African slaves is at best puzzling, and at worst terribly dishonest.

This is not limited to England, although they had the greatest contribution to the mess we are in. Belgium’s atrocities in the Congo are a horror story of epic proportion. France and its history in Haiti also needs to be included.

Haiti was paying France for freedom until 1947 —and Haiti’s slaves evicted them in 1803. This is half the reason for Haiti’s present situation.

The money needs to be returned. It is tantamount to ill-gotten gains.

Belgium needs to pay for its pillaging of The Congo and the human rights violations committed in that country.

England needs to acknowledge the impact that the transatlantic slave trade had on the wealth of their country, accept that it was wrong, and pay for it. This is reasonable. This is also doable in the British West Indies if done in the way I am suggesting.

This is a cause that the Caribbean Community (Caricom) should embrace. It is far more useful than banning the licensing of a type of gun that no civilian in the Caribbean currently is granted to use or will likely ever legally own. This is real.

It would be easiest to start with France. Why? Because they were collecting the Haitian extortion fees up to recent times, relatively speaking.

France is not likely to contest it either as it’s not a defendable cause. It’s not something that a modern democratic country wants to debate on a public platform. This could get the ball rolling.

It would be easier to win this if we could force Britain into a public defence of its decision not to pay also, but we would need the Haitian precedent to start with.

It’s important to start, though.

I’m honestly not sure if the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) could be involved as there are signatory and membership issues.

You may remember that I made reference to the failure of Jamaica’s educational system. This will be debated by many who will highlight scholarship winners and schools with entire graduating classes in possession of five passes or more in Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations. That is not statistical analysis, it is marketing.

If you look at how many of the 40,000 students who sit a high school entrance examination annually compare to the number who pass five CSEC subjects or more five years later, the results would horrify you.

Over 70 per cent of candidates pass entrance examinations, but less than 40 per cent achieve five CSEC passes or more as high scoolers.

What is not understood is that eight per cent of high school students don’t ever complete the five-year programme. Many also sit City and Guilds vocational examinations or the National Council on Technical and Vocational Education and Training (NCTVET) programme.

A primary indicator of how much trouble we are in is the way the call centre industry dried up all available labour force with even two CSEC subjects or more. Then when they dipped their standards further it caused a shortage: first of security guards and then of the fast food labour force, and then the labour intensive segment of the tourism industry.

So we have a shortage of labour whist still having an unemployment issue. Odd, isn’t it?

Well the reason is those currently unemployed are either unemployable or don’t know how to get a job.

By unemployable I mean they are illiterate or criminals, or likely unable to be supervised.

Not knowing how to get a job is real. I once interviewed 100 males between ages 18 and 35 who had stated they were unemployed. They all claimed they couldn’t find a job. However, not one of them had ever applied for one.

Then there is that set who are also just lazy and prefer to smoke marijuana all day than to work. The abuse of that narcotic also makes them unemployable.

If I’m not mistaken, the purpose of the educational system is to provide a workforce for the country’s industries.

Our educational system has clearly not done so if we cannot furnish the demand for labour wherein eligible candidates only need to complete secondary school with minimum qualification.

So in closing, we need a new approach that does not involve parental resources. Therefore, we need to find out ‘who owe we’.

Then we need to cast our eyes to the chain land … I mean the Motherland, and tell them to pay their debts.

Feedback: drjasonamckay@gmail.com