An invisible youth policy

Published in the Jamaica Gleaner: Sunday | August 12, 2007

Orville W. Taylor

It is too close to call! Will there be a changing of course or will we not change course? Hopefully, we will not see a dead heat and, therefore, have an inter-course clash. It is like a pyramid where three 'polls' meet to the top. At least this is one place where there is consensus.

On Wednesday, the debates started and it was the clash of the doctors. Pundits and detractors alike have made their evaluation and most have given the edge to the People's National Party's (PNP) Peter Phillips, who, in filling the television screen with a 'well-rounded' presentation, proved a mismatch for Ken Baugh of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP).

Baugh won the first round in that he appeared initially more relaxed and even joked about not changing course. On the other hand, Phillips, generally not a very exciting speaker, stared at the screen and either spoke from his frontal lobe or read the TelePrompTer.

Baugh's constant glancing down at the paper and his less fluent and unauthoritative style quickly swung the pendulum in Phillip's direction.

I don't know if being an artist, I read too much into the colour of the gentlemen's garb, but Baugh wore a green tie over a pale blue shirt. Phillips' drab-coloured suit was contrasted with a solid red tie, a colour originally associated with the PNP until the communist threat of the 1970s. Interestingly, it was neither 1970s PNP orange nor Portia yellow.

It is not my intention to go into a point by point comparison, because the evaluation of Friday's face-off between 'Hardy Saw' and 'Tumpa' on finance has gone and it is for you to decide whether Portia has a hand or even a finger on her business. Similarly, you might have concluded whether Bruce has it in his hands and if he is a master debater.

Nonetheless, I was disappointed with the first round, dealing with social issues because both Phillips and Baugh dropped the balls. Somehow, none of them revealed an understanding of the major social problem and what are the root causes and therefore solutions. Crime is as big a problem as Phillips is fat and Baugh is bland. Yet, the responses were off the mark and seemed to miss the fundamental issue.

Youth homicide problem

Jamaica's biggest problem is a crime problem. More specifically, it is a youth homicide problem. Young men between the ages of 18 and 24 comprise around 70 per cent of murder victims and murderers. Furthermore, an even larger percentage of young men have various names which are always 'pronounced dead' after encounters with police.

As bright as Mr. Rock Solid is, his conclusions are just as flawed as a recent piece of controversial research coming out of his ministry.

While the crime rate might be affected by the drug trade, dons and deportees, the majority of perpetrators are local home grown. Like our domestic agricultural products that have to compete internationally, they are raised and nurtured in the same organic fertilisers that have been created by our political leaders, who lack a coherent youth policy and have little grasp on the core of the problem.

The only reason that the dons and drug dealers are successful in their operations is because they have a large army of disenfranchised and disillusioned youth that they can readily recruit from.

Underemployment

A recent Gleaner Editor's forum revealed that the youth feel alienated, disappointed and excluded from the debate. After all, young people comprise a sizeable chunk of the voting population. Yet, even the journalists missed it, because not one of them went directly to the issue of root cause and solution.

Ironically, the one youth journalist seemed to have asked the opening question from the top of his head because it was pointed in the wrong direction. In framing it in the form of a unitary solution of compulsory youth service, he allowed Phillips to merely speak specifically about that rather than tackling the real issue. On Friday, a colleague hinted at the lack of desire of young people to take on the challenges of employment, oftentimes because they believe that certain types of jobs are beneath their dignity and are impatient, not willing to work, and want everything now.

However, it must be noted that one of the gravest problems regarding labour in the last decade has been under-employment. Simply put, more jobs are available but the low-paying and part-time jobs have increased significantly. It is for that reason that we have the anomaly of violent crime increasing as unemployment decreases, when it should be the reverse.

We have collectively failed as a nation to create positive role models and opportunities for our youth, and politicians continue to pussyfoot, hold on to their ridiculous arguments and have the wrong type of intercourse regarding the subject.

Given that 70 per cent of the persons who are adjudged by the Government to be poor are considered to be employed, one reason that the youth are not taking up certain types of jobs is obvious. Let the political candidate stop deafening their eyes and blinding their ears while their eyes are wide shut, and recognise that 'nuttn naw gwaan fi yout.'

There are three important things that Jamaica's youth need now and not a minute later. J O and B.

Unless quality, protected and decent work is provided for the youth, no compulsory youth service or mass education will reduce the crime rate. The cybernetic link must be established between universal secondary education and jobs that allow youth to eat, save and take care of mamma or Youtheisha.

Debate till you 'clyde'! If we don't share this vision, there will be no Jamaica left to inherit. Stalemate!

Dr. Orville Taylor is senior lecturer in the Department of Sociology, Psychology and Social Work at University of the West Indies, Mona.