“Baas, a yer dehn wahn soon lay aaf some a wi. Baas, a reely need dis jab. Nobady else wahn haiya mi. A no wahn haf to go back go sell drugs. Dat da di only else ting out deh.”
Tues. Mar. 10, 2009
The crime crisis and the education crisis of young Belizeans probably go hand in hand. They also go hand in hand with the dramatic reduction of job opportunities for unskilled laborers, especially in the Belize District in the past couple years.
When we hear of unemployed young mothers pilfering items like Klim and Dutch Cheese from supermarkets, it brings to mind the fact that hundreds of young females with little educational requirement used to be gainfully employed at Williamson Industries (the “scissors ladies”) and Nova Processing Plant, both of which suddenly closed down a couple years ago, victims of globalization and no government intervention.
The same with the young men who are robbing and murdering, many of them teenagers. Hundreds of desperate, unskilled young men, some of them directed there by Youth For the Future, found not only a home for gainful employment at Nova Shrimp Farm in Ladyville, but they had a fruitful learning experience about the meaning of productive work and discipline, which gave them a sense of pride in themselves and some ambition to go on and make something of themselves in the field of honest work.
Each time I hear politicians talk about their lofty initiatives in education, the arts and crime prevention, it bothers me that no effort seems to be going into reviving some of these large employers which provided a needed safety net for the many hundreds of low skilled “drop out” youths who need a second chance at earning a living, while they learn new skills to make themselves successful in the work environment.
The only hope for these young people, who need money to eat and survive, is some form of employment that does not exclude them due to lack of education or special skills, or a “record”. Farm work is the ideal temporary safety net for these youths. But Williamson and Nova remain relics of the past. Reportedly, Ready Call has also been cutting down their work force. American visas are expensive and hard to come by.
What will become of the hundreds of teenage school dropouts in Belize City? All that is happening for them, it seems, is drugs, and guns, and jail or an early death. Is Belize “gaan”, as many are saying? Can we bring it back?
If it were within my power, I would see that every closed down farm or low skilled manufacturing or service industry was re-opened, and get all these young men working, even if the enterprise only broke even. Lynam, Nova, Williamson, and any other that can provide gainful employment, discipline and training for our young people. That is for the crisis. But the long term plan needs to provide skills training and further education to make these young people able to move on to take on more skilled positions in the job market.
And then we need to seriously address the crisis at the front end of our education system that keeps turning out so many new “dropouts”. To start with, hungry children can’t learn well; and when they get left behind from the basics in primary school, high school becomes a dead end for them, as they seem unable to catch up. They become frustrated, having missed some essential steps on the ladder of learning.
Kaydel Flowers tried to impress on government the importance of a school feeding program. But nobody listened. Many children are “brain damaged”, eating chips and ideals and sweets and biscuits to “nourish” their fast developing, or under-developing, brains. “A mind is a terrible thing to waste,” and Belize City is fast becoming a wasteland of unfulfilled potentials and shattered dreams.
We have a serious problem in Belize, because we keep singing the praises of the success stories, while ignoring half of our struggling children. It is a hearing problem. Those with ears to hear, don’t seem to want to hear the loud cries in the community that needs problems addressed urgently.
Look at what has been happening in sports. And that has a lot to do with youths. More deaf ears and wasted opportunities for gainful employment. Semipro basketball is dead, it seems; and the new sports complex, with a badly needed basketball auditorium, remains on the backburner. The same with a proper running track for our young athletes. The football fiasco goes on. Cricket is now joining the confusion. Who cares? Just another young man shot dead “in the ghetto”.
(FLASH: There is a new Sports Minister: will there be a new sports direction or a new budget? Our prayers are with Hon. Elvin Penner. “Anaasi dog name Wait And See.”)