YOU WOULD THINK dat wid the access tuh everything through the lot o’ technology duh got today, people – especially young people – would find it hard tuh be bored and be distracted by foolishness, or even get led away by things or people who gine only cause dem grief later on; sometimes even robbing dem outta their youth; and fuh wha’?I does say all the time dat if I had half the things duh got nowadays available tuh me when I was in my teens, I would be a boss today; hear wha’ I tell you. Look, nuhbody couldn’t hold me, ya wouldn’t be able tuh keep me back. Ya see, the kind o’ person I was and still is, I know dat wid all these lot o’ things available tuh me and at my finger tips, I would be far enough in this world and holding a good piece o’ change today too.I aint know if ya’all understand where I coming from, but this is wha’ I talking bout. Evah single day ya does hear ’bout programmes getting set up, be it in the schools, after school, or encouraging and giving young people the necessary funds and training tuh set dem up in their own businesses as long as duh got a good idea. So tell me, wid so much going fuh me as a young person in this country – even though I woulda gone tuh school, waste all dah time doing bare dog; why would I go now and playing I joining a gang? What would make me want tuh do something suh stupid? Knowing tuh myself dat it gine lead tuh nowhere but trouble and eventual death and destruction? Ya mean I hate myself suh much? Ya mean my life is so bad dat I gine have tuh go and throw it away minding foolish people in gangs in the United States?You think when I was growing up anybody could encourage me tuh smoke? Drink alcohol or tief? Wha’ I igrant? I aint got a mind o’ my own? I aint got a head pon my shoulders like evahbody else tuh think?But not the young men in Barbados nowadays; dem watching the television and seeing all these young men in the American gangs looking real tough wid all duh bodies scawl up from head tuh toes in all kinds o’ techni-colours.Duh looking at how these gangsters got duh tongue pierced, all round duh ears, duh nose, all round duh lips and duh eye brows. And as if all o’ dat aint enough, duh now wearing duh pants just above the knees and walking wid their legs open wide, wide, wide tuh keep it from throwing dem down; and tuh top it off, the different colour scarfs and beads tuh identify who dem affiliated wid.Well I never! But I witnessed it wid my own two eyes the other day when I was up in the States. I could not believe what I was seeing, and could not imagine for the life of me why my people would want tuh copy something as igrant and disgusting looking as this.Ya would think dat girls would want tuh get as far away as possible from this kinda thug lifestyle; dat they wouldn’t want tuh be associated in anyway wid it; dat they wouldn’t want tuh be seen wid this kinda person, but ya so wrong.Look, the other day I was reading The NATION and come across a story bout the ZR van dat get stoned over there in Haynesville, leaving the conductor wid all kinds o’ injuries. Duh say it come outta two girls riding pon the same van and refusing tuh pay the conductor.I read another article in the papers too bout the different crimes and apart from the sexual ones, it said dat the young people doan realise dat gambling is a crime too.Look, duh got a group o’ dem out here by me (mind you, duh aint live bout here, but duh does come out here and congregate because the few who live round here does encourage dem) and if you see how intense dem does be gambling there long side the road. Huh!Now you would think dat it would only be the older ones but ya wrong, duh does got the lil boys as old as eight and nine, sometimes even one or two females would join in and be cussing and carrying on just like evabody else . . . . pelting the dice, snapping duh fingers and talking all kinds o’ junk. They have no regard whatsoever fuh who jogging pastDriving or walking by, the young fellas like they just decide dat as long as it bad and out there, dem doing it. • Mavis Beckles was born and raised in The Orleans and has an opinion on everything.
