To those who are new to the Territory or are just getting involved in community affairs, the excitement may be high when there’s a big turn out and excerpts are featured in the media. Our own leaders who have been doing this for decades never seem to grow weary of the protocol and it is a bit sad that the wheel seems to be in need of invention over and over again. This does not mean that new efforts are not timely and appreciated.

Everyone knows that the social situation, rife with people problems, needs to be addressed. The meaning of ‘address’ in this context is ‘a formal speech or report’. It doesn’t mean that anything will go beyond the addressing. But the wave of juvenile offenders and sufferers, manifesting as victims and perpetrators of crimes is a legitimate reason for all to lend their voices to the issues. Government leaders, private citizens, church groups, and talk show personalities welcome any hot current topic when everyone seems willing to participate in the discussion. But we’ve seen and heard it all before: A big foray that lasts less than ten days, and then, THE END.

When Professor McWelling Todman of the Eugene Lang College, New School for Liberal Arts in New York gave a speech to the members of Rotary Club 25 years ago in Tortola, he explained that “on an island of 21 square miles, with little recreational outlets and a limited number of avenues of employment and educational enhancement, sooner or later there would be a cohort of relatively unskilled teenagers and young men who were unemployed or under-employed, who viewed their lives and their future as increasingly monotonous and bleak.” This, Dr. Todman argued, “would eventually lead to lives of crime and antisocial acts.” How much more scientific do we now need to get? Well, for starters, we can begin by assessing the extent of the problems to see how it figures in our strategic plans for social development.

What we are experiencing with our youths today, particularly the males, was predicted by our own experts many, many years ago, before the pervasive television pop culture that glorifies guns and gangs became a scapegoat. The population explosion fueled by immigrants looking for work was also an issue 25 years ago, when the unregulated development of the construction industry took off like a rocket to the moon.

I believe it is time to change tactics, turn the page and get beyond the address. Because too often we leave things at the ‘address’ stage. The keynote speaker at the Back to School Church Concert last Sunday, couldn’t have addressed our social issues any better. His sermon was great. But he called on all stakeholders to go the extra degree to make an improved difference in the circumstances we face as a nation. Churches were urged to have doors open seven days a week.

So, while it is fitting for leaders to sit down for a three-hour talk to “highlight problems and propose valuable interventions”, such forums need to be wrapped up with more than a pledge of willingness to participate in more talk. We need tangibles. We need to see a sustainable way forward. We need to engage the young people more; their voices need to be heard more often and more consistently in relation to the problems they face in society, whether at school or in the job market. If the vocational training of our young men in the construction trades was undertaken 25 years ago, we may not now have to import Indonesian tradesmen with the skill we so desperately need to build four-star hotels in the Territory, while BVI-Caribbean young men are locked down for lack of a better use of their time. If hindsight is 20/20 vision, that won’t keep our youths from perishing.

It’s easy to condemn certain behaviours but it’s much more challenging to assist people out of their socio-economic hell. Talk shops are relatively easy to set, and are done for the record: workshops, seminars, town hall meetings, etc. But to meet people on their own turf, and relating to them in order to reach them, requires specific, sustained focus of time and resources, and personnel with some training and experience in this field. I agree one hundred percent with the Minister of religion who gave the keynote address during Sunday’s celebration of education; our youths need LOVE: employment for those in need, information and direction in overcoming health challenges such as substance abuse, and taking charge of their own lives as productive members of society. We need to turn the page and go the extra mile on positive action towards fixing our society’s breakdown.

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