SO WE HAVE SOME SERIOUS PROBLEMS developing in Barbados. We have problems dat we did not see coming but duh here anyway. Well, I know dat whenevah there are problems, ya have tuh find solutions.
So instead o’ running away from dem, sweeping dem under the carpet, hoping dat duh gine go away or dat somebody gine come out o’ the blue and fix dem, we gine have tuh deal wid dem urgently and find solutions.
So we have a serious drug problem developing in Barbados. What are we doing or gine do bout it? We have a serious problem wid young man involved in crime, especially wid guns. What are we doing or gine do ’bout it? We have a serious problem wid a host o’ young boys and girls coming out o’ school every year wid very little or any qualifications at all and sitting down day after day, wid nothing tuh do but get in tuh mischief. What are we doing or gine do ’bout it?
We have a serious problem wid young men especially, coming out o’ school evah single year and instead o’ trying tuh join the Fire Service, the Police Force, Coast Guard or the Defense Force, duh getting up evah single morning and joining the men and boys pon the block, some o’ dem who nevah drive a stroke fuh a boy, in duh lives.
We have a serious problem wid the young girls wid the same mentality, who ain’t gine and sit down pon the block all day but getting pregnant fuh these same block boys who dem know cahn help duhselves far less a woman and a child or women and children.
So we now seeing another big and serious problem surfacing. It is li’l children being abused, hurt and dying in the most painful ways and fuh all o’ these problems, all we doing is jumping up, keeping a lot a noise and letting off a lot o’ hot air. Bare talk, a whole lot o’ rhetoric and life goes on as usual. What are we doing or gine do ’bout it?
We the people of Barbados have tuh get sick and tired o’ all the lot o’ foolishness dat going on and then we gine get up off we comfortable tails and do something bout it. We government have tuh make deviant young people do the very thing duh hate.
Duh hate li’l hard wuk? Give dem community service instead o’ jail. Duh hate the police guts? Make dem work for and wid the very police, down tuh cleaning duh very boots. Duh like handling guns, seeing demselves as rebels, hunting down people and killing dem?
The Defence Force is there fuh dem. Send dem out pon some o’ the drills all up in the hills where the Defence Force men and women does train. Doan talk ’bout the Coast Guard at all. Send some o’ the ones who does play dat duh real tough.
Put dem on pon one o’ the vessels and carr’ dem out far, far at high speed and then do some drills at sea. When duh come back in, leh we see how tough duh gine be.
Another thing ya could do is arrange fuh some o’ dem tuh go back tuh duh old school. Make dem stand up pon the platform and talk tuh the students’ bout the life of crime they have chosen, what is has cost dem and where it has landed dem.
So ok, it might seem hard, right? And duh got a lot o’ sob sisters and brothers out there who would want tuh tell you dat it too severe, but ya know something? It would bring dem tuh duh senses; it would make dem begin tuh face reality.
It would make dem stop and look at demselves differently. It would wake dem up. It would make dem understand dat the world doan belong tuh dem nor the world doan owe dem nothing. Dem come and find it and duh gine guh long and left it. It is called “tough love”
Look, duh ain’t need the hangman, even though they might deserve it. Duh ain’t need the cat-o-nine tails when duh do suh much wrong things all the time. My solution tuh all o’ this is tuh let the punishment fit the crime and we gine see how fast crime gine stop.
• Mavis Beckles was born and raised in The Orleans. She has an opinion on everything.