If only businessmen could give back

Sep 29, 2013 Features / Columnists, My Column

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Of late all we seem to be talking about is the spate of criminal activity. And indeed there is a lot of criminal activity conducted by very young men. Some time back I did speak about these young men leaving school ill-equipped to perform meaningfully in the society. At school, many of them from dysfunctional homes, the young men could only speak about the things they would like to have.
They spent their school hours thinking about the physical possessions they wanted and refused to learn. Sadly, they do not weigh the disadvantages of a criminal life; they do not think about the attention they would attract and the consequences of being at the wrong end of the law.
This past week I saw an interesting sentence imposed on a young man who attracted the attention of the country and, quite obviously, the law. Tyrone Rowe was merely seventeen when he became a household name, probably as popular as Usain Bolt.
People said that at that early age, and with an inability to properly reason, he killed people. I had a neighbour who was a minibus driver and who happened to be driving along Laing Avenue with a group of people destined for Suriname. It was very early in the morning – at a time when most people are in bed except for those who must travel to work some distance away.
My neighbour managed to drive to Cemetery Road before he crashed into a trench. He had been fatally shot. The police never found the shooter, but people in the underworld always know who does what. The word came that Tyrone Rowe called Cobra, wanted to rob the bus and the driver dared to drive away, so he had to be shot.
Of course, by then, Cobra was on the run; a teenager who could not afford the luxury of sleeping in a home. There were reports that he slept in the cemetery, but he had to eat, so he applied what he knew to get a meal; he robbed people. He shot them too, because he did not set store by reasoning. He could not come to the realization that killing could lead to the gallows while robbery could only lead to a jail term.
As fate would have it, Cobra faced the hottest young judge on the circuit. This young judge has already developed a reputation for getting through the most cases in a criminal session and for handing down the stiffest of penalties.
Cobra was fingered in a robbery/murder at Plaisance. At the time he was merely 18. He has been confined to 78 years in jail which translates into the harsh fact that he will not be on the road in my lifetime.
I am not sure whether Cobra will serve as an example for other young men. It does not seem that way, because I see them parading the streets each day looking for prey.
A businessman recently asked me whether there is a solution, and I drew his attention to the time when there was the Guyana National Service.  Some people did not understand, so they claimed that national service was something Burnham had devised to produce ‘douglah’ children. They did not think about the saying that the devil finds work for idle hands.
National Service afforded those who did not do well in school a chance to learn a skill while acquiring discipline. Many of these young people who would have fallen through the crack turned out to be leaders in the society. One name that comes readily to mind is Assistant Commissioner of Police Paul Slowe.
I see these things and I wonder at what more could be done to save the young people of Guyana. We have some fantastically rich people who do nothing but think about themselves. In recent times there have been protests over the conditions at some schools.  These rich businessmen cannot take the time to help with furniture, they do not attend parent-teacher meetings and for sure they do not seem to care what happens to the school.
In one school the contention was about the seating arrangement. In my day at primary school the benches were not designed for comfort. However, the focus was on learning, so the discomfort of the seats paled into insignificance.
Perhaps there may have been some children in my time who could have done better had the seats been more comfortable, but who knows? What we do know is that times have changed over the past fifty years and seating should not be a problem.
I said to the businessman that if he could give something back to the society then he may not have to worry about criminal attacks. I suggested that he form some sports club. It has been proven that when young people are occupied they do not have time for anti-social behaviour.
It would be interesting to see a plethora of sports clubs springing up in Guyana. People like Cobra might suddenly find an interest in either cricket or football or hockey or even track and field. None of the young athletes have time to run around with guns.

 

 

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