ONE DAY I was reading the court cases in the newspaper about yet another young man who was getting sent up tuh Dodds. The magistrate was warning him bout the precious life he was wasting and how he needed tuh think about his future and all dah sorta thing.
From reading the story, ya could tell dat it was not the first time this particular young boy was before this same magistrate and it wasn’t the first time dat he was going up tuh Dodds neither. Anyway, what really hit me was the fact dat he was still a teenager who obviously drop outta school and who really should still be in school.
Now we in Barbados know dat nowadays we have a big problem wid a lot o’ young people, especially the boys. We also know dat the girls now getting more and more involved in criminal activities dat duh nevah used tuh be involved in. So, by now I hope dat the people in authority come tuh realise dat we have a serious problem which needs tuh be fixed and urgently.
Look, I am a simple woman but I know from growing up in a big family and raising a family of my own dat when there is a problem or ya see problems mounting up, ya doan sweep dem under the carpet. Ya see, I have come tuh realise dat by sweeping things under the carpet all the time, it gine get suh big dat it gine eventually throw ya down real hard. That is why I know dat if we doan deal wid this locking up thing early and differently, we gine have hell later on.
This is wha’ I mean. We keep sending young people under the age o’ 20 tuh Dodds as punishment, in the hope dat this kinda incarceration would wake dem up and make dem realise dat duh wasting their precious lives and walk straight: but it aint happening. Wha’ happening is dat duh gine up there and mixing up wid other young people like duhselves, playing tough, serving duh time, coming out and doing the same thing all ovah again. Tuh me dah doan make one bit o’ sense, we aint doing one thing fuh these young people.
I think the solution is tuh send them back tuh school. Yes! Make dem finish school nuh matter how duncy duh is, dat is the punishment. The thing dat duh hate most; make dem do tuh get something in duh damn block heads once and fuh all.
I think dat the authorities should build or restore a building and turn it in tuh a school setting wid desks and black boards, pens, pencils, paper and evahthing dat ya would find in class rooms and evan single morning, every man and woman got tuh be in dem seats by a certain time, but still very much under guard. Duh still lock up, still in prison, still serving duh time but I know dat duh gine come outta dah prison wid something in duh big heads other than thinking bout tiefing, smoking herb, hanging out pon the block, brekking in people houses or businesses or doing any kinda crime.
The other thing is this. We aint getting nuh younger, and If not you, I looking forward tuh spending my old age, peacefully. I looking forward tuh getting up when the morning come and gine tuh the beach wid some o’ my old friends, coming back home, getting something tuh eat, gine tuh church and praising muh God, relaxing and doing the things dat I enjoy doing fuh the rest o’ the day.
But how in the name o’ God I could do all o’ these things when the people who are supposed tuh be the men and women of tomorrow, the people who now running the country, are all dummies, ex- cons, paros, crooks and dem kinda people so? Wha’ kinda old age we gine have? What is there in the future fuh me and and all the people my age and older? Wha’ duh aint nutten bout here tuh look forward tuh, other than misery.
So my solution is this. Lock dem tuh France up. Send all hands o’ dem, every last one o’dem hard-mout teenagers up tuh Dodds, but instead o’ Dodds being a prison, it is a boot camp school. A school dat will bring results and turn rebellious young girls and boys in tuh intelligent young men and women.
Mavis Beckles was born and raisedin The Orleans. She has an opinionon everything.
