Distraction danger - Custos of Manchester urges Scouts movement to rethink youth engagement

WESTERN BUREAU:

With social media, artificial intelligence and other powerful distractions increasingly competing for the minds of Jamaica’s children, Manchester Custos Garfield Green is urging the Scout Association of Jamaica to reinvent how it engages young people. The alternative, he said, is to risk becoming irrelevant to a generation desperately in need of moral guidance and positive leadership.

Green warned that traditional approaches to youth development can no longer be taken for granted, challenging scout leaders to find creative ways to reclaim the attention of young Jamaicans while strengthening the movement’s longstanding commitment to discipline, character development and responsible citizenship.

“We need to be more creative in finding more effective ways to engage young people, respond to the realities of the challenges facing them, and very importantly, prepare our youth to lead with integrity, courage, and compassion,” he said.

Green’s remarks were contained in a message delivered on his behalf at the 2026 National Scout Leaders Conference, held at the Life in Abundance Training Centre in Mandeville, Manchester, last Saturday.

The conference was held under the theme ‘A New Dawn in Scouting: Transforming Youths, Empowering Jamaica’.

Green, who also serves as president of the Manchester Scout Local Association, was represented by Keitho Nembhard, a senior justice of the peace and general manager of Golf View Hotel.

The Scout movement must remain a beacon of positive values and purposeful engagement, “especially given that our young people are faced with many competing influences for their attention,” Green said.

He also reminded scout leaders that Jamaica’s future depended heavily on the values instilled in young people.

“In large measure, Jamaica’s future will be determined by the quality of leadership we provide and the values we instilled in our young people,” he said.

For his part, Nembhard expressed concern about the powerful distractions confronting Jamaican children, arguing that traditional institutions were increasingly struggling to compete for their attention.

“The level of distraction that we have, not just in the schools, in the homes, in the churches, but our society is inundated with all the distractions that our young people don’t know themselves, they are being pulled, they are being tossed, and they are being persuaded that whatever is out there is what you should be doing,” he said.

Nembhard also questioned whether those developing artificial intelligence possessed the moral foundation necessary to guide its responsible use.

“Who are the people programming these tools? Are they scouts? Do they have a Scout background? Do they have the moral principles and compass to guide them? We don’t know,” he said.

albert.ferguson@gleanerjm.com