THE EDITOR, Sir:
THE AIRWAVES of Jamaica and the United States of America are bombarded with concerns about violence in schools. While there is reason for this concern, I do not believe the nature of the problem is identical in both countries except to the degree that the problem is misunderstood.
In the USA this problem permeates all sectors of the society. Although it manifests itself differently, violence is equally a urban and suburban phenomenon. It is not confined merely to the poor ghettos anymore. Violence in the schools is evidence of the pervasive expansion of social isolation in both urban and suburban communities. Neither is violence merely geographic.
If we consider the nature of violence by age groups, the USA is experiencing a high rate among adults, teens and children. Evidence of suicides, rapes, physical beatings, kidnapping of children and adults and abuse of children continue to decorate the daily newspapers in the United States.
The nature of Jamaica's violence is different or so it seems to me. Incidents of rape are not as prolific. Kidnapping and violent abuse of children do not seem as popular. If we examine the violence by age groupings, it appears that Jamaica's violence is confined to youth primarily between ages 15-25. This group seems socially and economically the most victimized. They are the Living Lost in the social and economic fibre of Jamaica.
This age group represents young people who are alive but have never lived. They constitute the Living Lost. They are alive without hope for better days. They do not believe in the postponement of gratification, because their parents are not better off for this postponement. They want immediate gratification. Cars, RV's, luxury vacations, and such they want now. The country has lost its culture in preparing the young for a 'hopeful future'. These youngsters realise that not all of them, as in any country of the world, will graduate from high school and college so they see nothing to hope for. They are the Living Lost.
There is no infrastructure development in Jamaica today that provides any promise to the future of the Living Lost. The group constitutes physically and sometimes mentally strong young people who have lost hope in the prospects for their future. The civic organisations like the Kiwanis, Rotary and Lions Clubs have to redefine their purposes in nation building. Erecting a bus stop, putting on Christmas parties for youth, good as these gestures are, they will not prevent the ill-wind that is developing in the nation.
Jamaicans are not a violent people. The fact that the violence is definable and confined to an identifiable age group is significant. I see hundreds of boys and girls walking to school across this nation without any of the common molestations of more economically advanced societies. That leaves me to conclude that we are not by nature a violent people. I read with pleasure the disgust of strangers when a strong young man hit an old person and I conclude that we are not by nature a violent people.
I said before in the Jamaican newspapers and in public addresses that we have to decide the real economic value of education. There are some tough and unpopular questions to be asked and answered and most of us are afraid to address them. Here are a few:
1) When is a university degree useless in the Caribbean region?
2) How will hungry bellies interpret national sacrifice?
3) Is national sacrifice only directed at the "'have-nots'?
4) How does college education and entrepreneurship intersect?
5) If we do not raise these questions now, what will we see in the next generation of the Living Lost?
I am etc.,
TREVOR G. GARDNER
Vice President, Academic
Administration
Northern Caribbean
University
